Hebrews and general epistles Midterm ORU 2024 Dr. Foster

Hebrews, James, 1-2 Peter, Jude and 1-3 John were called the ______ epistles, indicating the belief that they were addressed to the whole church.

Catholic

The New Testament refers to events that took place in which century?

1st Century AD

When we read the gospels, we are concerned with what two time periods?
(select all that apply)

The events of Jesus's lifetime
The events taking place in the churches when the gospels were written

According to Letters to the Church, the final time period in which New Testament books were written is called the Period of Doctrinal and Ecclesial Unification, and spans which years?

AD 60 - 100

How is the ancient practice of pseudonymity different from a modern example like Samuel Clemens writing under the name of Mark Twain?

Ancient authors used the name of a well-respected figure from the past as their pseudonym.

What doctrine is called into question if someone wrote the New Testament epistles other than the person named in the opening verses?

Doctrine of Scripture with respect to inerrancy

How did the church in the 2nd century respond, when an extant letter was believed to be pseudepigraphal?

The church rejected known pseudepigraphal letters.

What does it mean that the New Testament epistles are "occasional writings?"

They were written in response to a specific situation.

Both a list of authoritative books and the authoritative texts themselves can be called _____.

Canon

The second-century text that interweaves all four gospels into a continuous narrative is known as:

Tatian's Diatesseron

Hebrews never explicitly mentions what?

jerusalem temple

what language was the book of hebrews written in

greek

was the old testament translated to greek before christ?

The Old Testament Scriptures were translated into Greek several centuries before Christ. 

According to _____________________, humans are inferior to angels in power, position, and access to God’s presence. 

Both Gnosticism and Neoplatonism  

What did “Son of God” mean in ancient times outside the New Testament? 

A ruler given authority by a god 

No New Testament books were written during the lifetime of Jesus.

True

Heresy became a problem for the early church as soon as many Gentiles came to faith in Jesus.

True

No extant manuscripts of Hebrews or the General Epistles survive from the 1st century.

True

What was the fundamental challenge or danger for the readers of this epistle?

Turning Back to the Old Covenant

Hebrews draws Old Testament quotations from the Greek translation of the Old Testament. What is this translation usually called?

Septuagint

Where is the earliest quotation from Hebrews found outside the New Testament?

1 Clement

According to the Letters to the Church, since the readers of Hebrews have not yet resisted "to the point of shedding blood," Hebrews may have been written as early as during the reign of which Roman emperor?

Claudius

Which of the following is a distinctive theological emphasis in Hebrews not found in the Pauline epistles?

Jesus as high priest

Which of the following best describes the genre of Hebrews?

An sermon of exhortation or oration sent as a letter

Which word best fits this definition: "An ancient philosophical concept that divides all reality into the material world and the world of ideals"?

Platonic Dualism

When the author of Hebrews interprets Old Testament people or events as pointing in some way to Christ or the church, he is engaging in . . .

Typology

In Hebrews 1:1-2, God spoke long ago through the prophets, but now he has spoken to us

by the son

Hebrews 3 says that Jesus is the faithful Son over God's house. Which Old Testament prophet is called a faithful servant in God's house?

Moses

Jobes 1-4 vocab concepts emphases  

Main points from lecture content  

Who's the audience of Hebrews 

Believing Jews in Rome

Who's the author

• Barnabas and timothy  is agreed by most shoclars

• Early historians recognized Paul as the writer of hebrews, not anymore

• apollos and why, state various options 

Date – and why  

Purpose 

• The main purpose of Hebrews was to prevent Jewish Christians from returning to Judaism

• The theme of Hebrews is the superiority of the Christian faith of Judiasm

Which claim in the first verses of Hebrews has been challenged since the enlightenment in western culture?

God speaks

From which feature of the letter can we infer that Hebrews considered the Old Testament to be God's speech to us?

Quotations from the OT are attributed either to God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit.

For Hebrews, what about the Old Testament has changed with the coming of the New Testament?

Its purpose as God's revelation has changed

Which Old Testament book does the author of Hebrews quote more than any other?

Psalms

The New Covenant mentioned in Hebrews comes from which Old Testament prophet?

Jeremiah

Perfection – how is this word and concept used in hebrews  

• Perfect – bringing into maturity, fullness, or goal for which something is designed (Greek) 

• Jesus was not abstractly perfect, Jesus died so that we could be made perfect/brought to our fullness in design 

• Pioneer – Jesus has to go to where he hasn’t been before (he hadn't been born and conceived) 

• Jesus has to complete his course of what it is to be a human being in a fallen world which is death. To be completely identified with us he has to go through everything we suffer with which includes death 

Superiority of Jesus to the angels  

1. • The son  

     • God is his father  

     • Object of Angel's worship  

     • God's eternal king  

     • Co-occupies God's throne  

   • The angels  

     • God is their creator  

     • Worship the son  

     • Servants of God  

     • Serve humans who inherit salvation  

How jesus is high priest and the manner he carries out priestly work  

• Jesus, fully human, entered, exalted, seated. Jesus identification, participation – without sin (Jesus hears, believes, and obeys) 

• We had to have someone from among the people to be chosen as the high priest because the high priest was always chosen of a human 

  • Jesus had full participation with man without sin (deliberate disobedience to God or his commands)  

  • We can approach the throne with boldness because the one who sits there is Jesus who now understands us. We can now find mercy and grace in our time of need. Before there was fear and trembling  

Qualities of a High Priest

• Chosen from among men (human) 

• Able to deal gentle (because he can understand us through his human experiences) 

• God chooses the priest

Contrast of two priesthoods – Melchizedek  

• You are my son; today I have become your father (Psalm 2:7)  

• You are a priest forever in the priesthood of Melchizedek(Psalm 110:4) 

• A priest of a different kind – one that is chosen forever  

• Abraham tithes to Melchizedek, it shows Melchizedek's greater than Abraham  

  • Aaron and Levi tithe to Moses  

• melchizedek in gen 14:17-20  

  • He is from the town of peace and is the king of peace and his name means righteousness  

  • Jesus is the prince of peace – the rightoeus one – jesus brought up bread and wine – he was the priest of God most high – he prophecies – he bless  

• 7:1-10 superiority of Melchizedek  

  • The author views the Septuagint as authoritative even thought there are other texts that talk of Melchizedek (psalm and genesis)  

  • Process: examins melchizedek in Gen 14:17-20 

superioty of Jesus who is in the order of Melchizedke 

Melchizedek is a priest before the levitical priesthood + no record of his geneology or death = a fitting analogy for christs priesthood  

• The historical event happended but the author of hebrews is using him as an analogy to jesus so the jews can understand

  Hebrews author is aruging that jesus doesn’t have to be a levite because melchizedek was a high priest before/not Levites  

  • Levitical  

    • Based on geneaology 

    • Temproary and weak – they were not oerfected, their judgment was oushed back another year  

    • Human priests in succssion  

    • For one nation  

    • Priest also sins  

    • Did not clear the consicnece  

    • Never perfected anyone  

  • Jesus christ  

    • Based on God's prmose – moses didn’t say christ had to be a levite 

    • Eternal and efficacious (make one perfect – only need one sacrifice)  

    • One eternal priest  

    • For all nations  

    • Chrsir has no sin  

    • Cleanses the conscience (salvation for all time)  

    • Ongoing intercession  

 

In which Old Testament books is the mysterious priest-king of Hebrews 7 mentioned?

genesis, psalms

Which event in the history of Jesus Christ brings together his roles as Son of God and as High Priest?

Ascension

According to Hebrews 7:2, what does the name Melchizedek mean?

King of Righteousness

What are the two foci of Christology in Hebrews? Which two titles for Jesus are most important in Hebrews?

Son of God, High Priest of God

What did "Son of God" mean in ancient times outside the New Testament?

A ruler given authority by a god

How new covenant is superior to the old covenant – Jeremiah, Hebrews 8  

• Purpose: establish the New Covenant is superior to the old  

• Process: quotes Jerimiah 31:31-34; 38 LXX New covenant—seizes on the word "new" in verse 13  

• Verse 8 variant what or who are at fault? The covenant or the people 

  • They did not continue in the covenant  

  • The first covenant was temporary  

• By calling this covenant "new" it makes the old obsolete (out of use/out of date) 

  • The covenant had an inadequacy built into it   

• Hebrews 8:10-12 - Nature of the new covenant  

  • Hebrews 8:10 - Laws on mind and heart (internalized) vs. On the stone tablets 

Hows christ offering is superior to the leviticl system chapter 9  

• Place: greater, perfect, heavenly tabernacle (bot made with human hands) cf. 4:14-16 

• Blood: Christ's own blood, not goats and calves (Lev 16), ashes of red heifer (Num 19)  

• Frequency: Jesus' offering is once and for all  

What is Christology?

Theological study of the person and work of Jesus Christ

Christioly, jesus has what roles – high priest and son  

• Quoting psalm 40:6-8, Jerimiah 31:33  

• Hebrews 10:6 says sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me  

  • v. 5 - The writer of Hebrews is pulling for the Septuagint which it is psalm 39 and the author interprets the psalm Christologically 

  • He is talking of the incarnation of Christ 

  • He comes to do the will of God and offer himself as a sacrifice    

Warnings? What does one wo with these? Is apostasy possible? 

• Which is worse, Moses' consequences or Jesus' 

• If you keep sinning, you are an enemy of God – you should fear your judgment  

Which of the following is the best definition of apostasy?

renouncing one's allegiance to Christ

Whom does Hebrews use as an example of someone who rejected a blessing (Heb. 12:17) and could not gain it back?

Esau

The biblical concept of salvation refers to
(Select all that apply)

Past Conversion
Present Perseverance
Future Deliverance from God's Judgement

In Psalm 95 (and Hebrews 4), what does God call the promised land?

my rest

Purpose of the hall of faith (ch 11)

Purpose: to Challege the hearers to action, to respond by faith in the face of difficulty  

Proces: use of examples – retorical tool of exhortation  

• By faith  

• Name of the person who by faith bore the faith of another  

  • By faith, noah, by faith issac... 

• Faith is not abscent of action – faith moves someone to take action  

• 11:4 Abel – Heart Attitude (faith)  

  • Still speaks – his blood – call for justice  

• 11:5-6 Enoch 

  • Echoes 10:37-38 

  • Pleasure in the one who has faith  

  • If you want to have faith, please God  

  • Must believe God exists  

• 11:7 Noah  

• 11:8-12 Abraham  

  • He obeyedd God to go to a place he did not know of  

What is the “great cloud of witnesses” in Hebrews 11? 

The example left by Old Testament believers showing that believers are able to persevere to the end 

Disiplines purpose (ch 12)  

• V 5-6 positive value for the experience of discipline – parental discipline (l0ve) 

Hebrews 12:7-17 

• V 7 son in the Greco-Roman world – parental authority (love and nurture) 

  • Discipline part of being a legitimate child  

  • As children, we respected earthly fathers for discipling us (lesser to greater) 

• Two thoughts  

  • Produces holiness (transformation of life) 

  • Not fun to go through (perspective shifts to see its long term value) 

  • Isaiah 35:3-8 

what is Hebrews understands Jesus’ ascension

it is his coronation as Messiah and his ratification of the new covenant. 

In the Old Testament, the expression “Son of God” was mainly associated with 

Both the coming Messiah and the Davidic king  

what is roman law for the heir

The father does nto have to die for ther inheritrance to be inherited

Jesus’ suffering made him perfect (Heb. 2:10) in what sense ?

that suffering brought his role as Messiah to completion or fulfillment. 

According to the book of Hebrews, salvation is what?

a future event

the law of moses used what as a sign of the covenant relationship

circumcision

What priesthood required animal sacrifices

the aaronic priesthood

What two things in the greco-roman philosophy distorted who Jesus was

Neopatonism and Gnosticism

What is the Johannine epistle

it taks on the task of correcting heresy in. theearly church

psuedonymous

when the author is deliberately identified by an other name than his own

pseudonymity

Pseudepigrapha

Amanuensis

a scribe who wrote on behalf of another

Dialectical Hegelian Philosophy

Rylands Fragment

Apocalyptic

Muratorian Canon

Occasional Writings

NT letters, hebrews and general epistles

tatians diatesseron

Atoning

Gentile

Septuagint

Koine Greek

Diaspora

Midrash

tabernacle

sorteriology

dualism

neoplantonism

literary genre

exhortation

atonment

neoplatonist

platonic dualism

typology

codex

Catholic Epistles