Appropriating Hebrews's Scriptural Hermeneutic for the Twenty-First Century

Dana M. Harris, J. David Stark

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9798216251484
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Twenty-first-century readers cannot interpret Israel's Scriptures identically to how the author of Hebrews did. The contours of twenty-first century worldviews are too different. That said, Hebrews invites those who "read after" it (in time) also to "reading after" it (in approach). For those who accept this invitation, this volume's essays surface four clusters in the overall mosaic of Hebrews's approach to Israel's Scriptures. First, Hebrews explicitly, if briefly and partially, states its hermeneutic orientation to Israel's Scriptures. Second, Hebrews understands history through the proclamation that the author accepts and commends about Jesus. Third, this proclamation creates numerous other implications that Hebrews may or may not explicitly state but that nonetheless shape how the author interprets his Scriptures. And fourth, Hebrews's exhortation fosters faithfulness in its audience through both encouragements and warnings drawn from Israel's Scriptures. Attention to Israel's Scriptures in light of these clusters helps readers to understand these Scriptures not identically to Hebrews's author but in the same way as that author-namely, in the way marked out by Jesus for those who would "come after" him.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Introduction: The Hermeneutic of Hebrews in the Twenty-First Century
• Chapter 1: “As It Was in the Beginning”: Deontic Origins and Creational Hermeneutics in Hebrews
• Chapter 2: Productive Prejudgments in Hebrews’s Hermeneutic: A Method and Test Case
• Chapter 3: History, Canon, and Community: Reading Hebrews after Gerhard von Rad and Paul Ricoeur
• Chapter 4: Hebrews and the Spirit of Hermeneutics
• Chapter 5: The Significance of the OT’s Silence in the Case of Melchizedek’s Ancestry and Progeny in Genesis 14
• Chapter 6: Sinai in Hebrews
• Chapter 7: Reenacting History: How Hebrews Situates Its Audience within the Story of Israel
• Chapter 8: Hebrews’s Kaleidoscopic Reading of the OT: Reflecting on Jesus in Light of the Absence and Anticipated Return of the High Priest, Moses, and Joshua
• Chapter 9: The Use of OT Narratives in Fear Appeals in Hebrews: Hermeneutical Assumptions and Implications
• Chapter 10: Hebrews as a Hermeneutical Lens for Israel’s Scripture
• Author Index
• Scripture Index
• About the Contributors