The Letter to the Hebrews - Jon C. Laansma

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to approach through Christ in the understanding of God’s history—is the real epicenter of their problems. Whether or not this is how the readers would have described their situation, this will have been the preacher’s diagnosis.

      Questions of canonicity are by their nature never questions of historical judgments only but nor can our historical judgments about this text go unaffected by our conclusions on canonicity; this holds as much for those who reject Hebrews’ place in the canon or reject the very category of canonicity, as it does for those who affirm these. We therefore pause to enter its consideration here in the midst of our introductory historical and literary comments.

      There was no immediate and direct line to acceptance for Hebrews as there was for other parts of the NT. The Western and Eastern branches of the church in the first three centuries handled it differently. In the West, Pauline authorship was doubted or rejected and the letter’s strong wording of 6:4–6, among other things, sat awkwardly with that tradition’s more hopeful views of the restoration of lapsed Christians to fellowship. Hebrews’ authority was accordingly placed in doubt, though it was read and respected. In the East, Pauline authorship was more widely accepted and the letter’s theology resonated with the philosophical and mystical bent of their thought and practices.

      Eventually Hebrews found a constructive place in the church’s christological controversies and its teaching on repentance came to be interpreted in ways less problematic for the practices of church discipline. When Jerome (d. ad 420) and Augustine (d. ad 430) leaned toward Pauline authorship—more out of respect for the Eastern church’s tradition than the evidence of the text itself—the recognition of Hebrews proceeded on a steadier track toward broad acceptance. The canonical lists of the fourth and fifth centuries affirmed it as such, though it eventually settled into place at the very end of the Pauline collection, on its margins, as it were. Questions of authorship were renewed at the time of the Reformation, with more or less affect on the question of authority. In the modern period Pauline authorship has been widely (not universally) rejected, including among many who fully affirm its canonical character.

      One could say in retrospect that Hebrews declared its own authority and its place in the Christian canon, possessing the (finally) irrepressible voice of apostolicity. Direct apostolic authorship has never been a requirement for inclusion (cf. Luke–Acts), and it is to be expected that authentic witnesses will jar us with their unique perspectives as much as they will affirm one another in the unity of their convictions. The church stands under the Scriptures, not over them—though the Scriptures indubitably came through the church by way of authorship and recognition. By analogy, the Lord himself came through human parentage and is acclaimed (or not) as Lord in the world though he is its Lord. On such scores as apply, Hebrews has passed the test and must therefore be read for what it is, inspired, canonical divine speech.

      Looking Through the Text: The Preacher’s Strategy

      As already indicated the preacher’s strategy is to translate the readers’ lives into the heavenly drama of the Son’s salvation. This is the real context by which to make sense of their social-psychological-physical lives, to be sure without any reduction to the reality and importance of the latter.

      The sermon is a soundly-reasoned argument with themes that give it a distinct profile. Its coherence, however, finally consists not in syllogistic argumentation nor in abstract (e.g., the superiority of Christ) or specific themes (priesthood, covenant, divine speech, perseverance, etc.) but in the history of God’s covenantal speech which attained its goal and revealed its center in the Son. The Son is the one in and as whom God speaks his world-creating, -governing, and -cleansing word, within which world we are created participants. As the Father of the Son who is Jesus his newly spoken word is one with all his words. Or rather, all his words are now found to have been oriented on the Son, to whom they witnessed; they were expressive of the Son. The flip side of that claim is that the Son is known in those earlier words, and thus as priest and offering according to the shadows and copies of Moses. This is not merely a convenient set of categories for a Jewish readership but the divinely created light in which the Son’s person and work are known.

      That history not only enables us to see the Son but with him ourselves and his salvation in our own time. This is the time in which the Son’s salvation is given in the word of promise—gospel—while the already-enthroned Son waits for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet. That image of the enthroned-but-waiting Son accounts for the ongoing resistance to his rule (persecution, temptation), the provision for the present, and the certainty of hope. The proclaimed word of forgiveness, as a word of promise, must be received in faith, which means a faith that falls into step with this history and that perseveres in this to the end. That way of faith is none other than the way of the Son’s learning of obedience through his suffering, again illuminated from the history of Israel’s pilgrimage as God’s covenantal children. In all of this, Hebrews is a retelling of the entire history of creation and its salvation, prepared and anticipated in the old covenant history, accomplished in the now-inaugurated new covenant, verging on its great dénouement.

      The thread that unites this story is the one already supplied by the Scriptures, namely, the promise of God to Abraham that he would inherit the world (Rom 4:13) and that all nations would be blessed through him. Hebrews affirms nothing of the cosmos or its history that is not known from and by this history; it pretends to no metaphysical commitments that do not emerge from this history. It is interested in the literal fulfillment of that historical promise. The promise, it is understood, concerns the entrance into the inheritance, which is the world fully consumed by the holiness of God, God’s own resting place. This is the original intention for the world; the association of that resting place with the creation sabbath has this intention. That promise was elaborated in the covenant established with Abraham’s seed through Moses, a covenant that dramatically enacted the (at that point still-blocked) entrance into the holy space of God’s presence. The challenge posed to the promise was the unfittingness of the seed to make that entrance, defiled as it was by sin and under the sentence of death. The covenant, as the bond of willing parties, was accordingly a failure because of Israel but, because God is faithful, it will not fail. The history of failure was enacted in the shadows and copies of Israel’s history. The act of salvation was not an act of mere power imposed on creation, but the free choice of the Son to receive the body prepared for him—created existence is not foisted on humankind, but freely chosen by our first member—sharing fully in the blood and flesh seed of Abraham and as a man doing God’s will to the uttermost. Abraham’s seed kept covenant. By his self-offering his brothers and sisters are cleansed of their defilement. Because of his suffering he is crowned with glory and honor. As the God-man fitted for this exaltation he has entered the Most Holy Place of God’s presence and is seated on the divine throne where he waits for all things to be placed under his feet and where he always lives to intercede for those who draw near to God through him. Thus the promise of Psalm 8 concerning the created status of humanity is fulfilled. What remains is the doing away with all that is not of the holiness of God, the great “shaking” of which Haggai spoke (12:25–29).

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