This commentary by Gareth Lee Cockerill offers fresh insight into the Epistle to the Hebrews, a well-constructed sermon that encourages its hearers to persevere despite persecution and hardships in light of Christ's unique sufficiency as Savior. Cockerill analyzes the book's rhetorical, chiastic shape and interprets each passage in light of this overarching structure. He also offers a new analysis of the epistle's use of the Old Testament -- continuity and
fulfillment rather than continuity and discontinuity -- and shows how this consistent usage is relevant for contemporary biblical interpretation. Written in a clear, engaging, and accessible style, this commentary will benefit pastors, laypeople, students, and scholars alike.
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1. Richard B. Hays, First Corinthians, Interpretation (Louisville: John Knox, 1997), 173: “One of our fundamental pastoral tasks is to teach our congregations to find themselves in the stories of Israel and the early church.… Our pedagogy has failed miserably to teach this skill because we have usually tried too hard to make the text ‘relevant.’ Rather than seeking to make the text relevant, Paul seeks to draw his readers into the text in such a way that its world reshapes the norms and decisions of the community in the present. That is the task of biblical preaching.”
1. The masculine pronoun will be used throughout for the author of Hebrews, not merely for convenience but because of the masculine participle διηγούμενον (“tell”) with which he describes himself in 11:32. Ruth Hoppin, Priscilla’s Letter: Finding the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Fort Bragg, CA: Lost Coast Press, 1997), has tried unsuccessfully to revive Harnack’s proposal of Priscilla as author (Adolf von Harnack, “Probabilia über die Adresse und den Verfasser des Hebräerbriefes,” ZNW [1900]: 16–41). See Mitchell, 5.
2. On the “confession” (3:1; 4:14; 10:23) of those receiving Hebrews see Scott D. Mackie, Eschatology and Exhortation in the Epistle to the Hebrews (WUNT 223; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007), 226–29, and those cited on 227, n. 54; similarly Scott D. Mackie, “Confession of the Son of God in Hebrews,” NTS 53 (2007): 125–28, esp. 126, n. 44.
3. Ellingworth, 3, lists a total of thirteen proposed authors.
4. This title may have been given to Hebrews by analogy with the titles of the Pauline letters (Bruce, 3). The letter conclusion in Heb 13:22–25 may have suggested association with Paul. Clement of Alexandria also seems to have known Hebrews by this title (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.14.3–4).
5. Also in manuscripts C, H, I, K, and P. In some manuscripts Hebrews also occurs between 2 Corinthians and Galatians. See Weiss, 117–18, esp. nn. 13, 14.
6.
46, Vaticanus, Sinaiticus, and Alexandrinus come from the East; Claromontanus, from the West.
7. For a helpful survey of the interpretation of Hebrews up to 1750 see Koester, 19–40.
8. See “When Did the Pastor Write This Sermon?” pp. 34–41 below.
9. In Phil. 12:2 Polycarp calls Christ “the eternal high priest” (cf. Heb 6:20; 7:3). For Irenaeus and Gaius of Rome’s use of Hebrews see Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.26.3; 6.20.3. For Tertullian see Pud. 20. Cf. S. J. Kistemaker, “The Authorship of Hebrews,” Faith & Mission 18/2 (2001): 58.
10. Kistemaker, “The Authorship of Hebrews,” 58. See Hippolytus, Haer. 6.30.9.
11. In Pud. 20, Tertullian describes Barnabas as one who “learned his doctrine from apostles and taught with apostles” (Kistemaker, “The Authorship of Hebrews,” 59). One does not hear of Barnabas’s authorship again until Jerome, Epist. 129, Vir. ill. 5.59, mentions him as a suggestion made by some. For older commentaries who support Barnabas’s authorship see Spicq, 1:199–200, n. 8.
12. David Alan Black, “Who Wrote Hebrews? The Internal and External Evidence Reexamined,” Faith & Mission 18/2 (2001): 19; Andrew T. Lincoln, Hebrews: A Guide (London/New York: T&T Clark, 2006), 3.
13. Kistemaker, “The Authorship of Hebrews,” 58.
14. As quoted in D. L. Allen, “The Authorship of Hebrews: The Lukan Proposal,” Faith & Mission 18/2 (2001): 27.
15. See Athanasius, Four Discourses against the Arians 1.4.12; 1.36; 2.48; Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio in laudem Basilii 38.1; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 12.17; Heen and Krey, 232–34; O’Brien, 3; Johnson, 6.
16.De Trinitate 4.11. See Kistemaker, “The Authorship of Hebrews,” 58.
17. See Augustine, Christian Instruction 2.8.12–13; Civ. 10.5; 16.22; Jerome, Vir. ill. 5; Epist. 53.8; 129.3, 7.
18. Black, “Who Wrote Hebrews?” 19.
19. Kistemaker, “The Authorship of Hebrews,” 59. In Vir. ill. 5.59, Jerome repeats the suggestion first made by Clement of Alexandria that Paul wrote Hebrews originally in Hebrew (Mitchell, 3). Aquinas also accepted Luke as the translator of an original Pauline Hebrew letter (Allen, “The Authorship of Hebrews,” 28).
20. O’Brien, 6.
21.Pace Black, “Who Wrote Hebrews?” 4; Rom 6:12–14 and Gal 4:12–20 afford no real parallel with the way this blending of exposition and exhortation forms the very body of Hebrews.
22.Pace Black, “Who Wrote Hebrews?” 4, who cites Rom 5:12–21 as parallel to Hebrews.
23. On the difference between the terminology of Hebrews and Paul see Ellingworth, 7–12; Attridge, 2–3.
24. Clare K. Rothschild, Hebrews as Pseudepigraphon: The History and Significance of the Pauline Attribution of Hebrews (WUNT 12/235; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), has claimed, on the basis of the letter ending and other similarities with the Pauline writings, that the late first-century author of Hebrews was presenting himself as Paul. However, the way in which the author refers to himself in 2:1–4 and his failure to claim or even allude to apostolic authority make Rothschild’s contention untenable. For further criticism see Douglas Moo, Review of Hebrews as Pseudepigraphon: The History and Significance of the Pauline Attribution of Hebrews, BBR 20 (2010): 295–96.
25. Attridge, 2–3; Ellingworth, 7–12.
26. In order to mollify the many significant acknowledged differences between Paul and Hebrews, Black attempts to show similarities. Many of these similarities, however, are superficial or very general. There is, for instance, little commonality between “sword” as the word of God in Eph 6:17 and its use in Heb 4:12–13. In the former it is part of the armor that the believer should put on and use. In the latter it refers to God’s probing the depths of the human psyche (pace Black, “Who Wrote Hebrews?” 7). Nor is there much significance in the fact that both Paul and Hebrews use alpha-privative words and genitive absolutes (pace Black, “Who Wrote Hebrews?” 4–16).
27. Black, “Who Wrote Hebrews?” 20, cf. 18, translates the substantive participle ὁ γράψας not as “who wrote” but as “who wrote down.”
28.Pace Black, “Who Wrote Hebrews?” 20, the use of γράφω for Paul’s secretary Tertius in Rom 16:22 proves nothing except that this word could be used for a penman as well as for an author. In this regard it has the same range of meaning as the English word “write.” It is important also to note that Origen’s statement is found in Eusebius, who often prefers a compound form of γράφω when referring to a penman (see Mitchell, 2–4, for examples).
29. As Kistemaker (“The Authorship of Hebrews,” 61) has observed, Paul often breaks off in the middle of a sentence or follows a diversion. The pastor, however, has composed Hebrews so that “[e]very sentence … is complete and contributes to the flow of his argument.”
30. For a different attempt to revive Pauline authorship see E. Linnemann, “A Call for a Retrial in the Case of the Epistle to the Hebrews,” Faith & Mission 19/2 (2002): 19–59.
31. Clement uses the Aaronic priesthood as a model for a Christian priestly hierarchy (see 1 Clem. 40:5; cf. Ellingworth, 13).
