Hebrews: introduction and 1:1-4

I begin a study of the book of Hebrews with our home Bible study group.  Sorry about the bad camera placement.  We'll do better next time.

This study discusses author, theme, setting, and literary introduction to the book as well as an exposition of verses 1-4.  The text focuses on the greatness of Jesus as creator, sustainer, and redeemer as well as his high position vis-a-vis the angels.

My notes are below.

Hebrews Intro; 1:1-4

• Intro
• Author: nobody knows
• Knew Timothy (13:23)
• Was in prison with him (13:18-19)
• Was not an eyewitness of Jesus (2:1)
• Male pronouns
• From Italy (13:24)
• Written with Jewish assumptions to a Jewish audience. 
• Never wrestles with the gentile question
• Did not plant the church to which he is writing. 
• Clement or Apollos
• Clement quotes it extensively in his epistle to Corinth
• Similar literary themes as Clement’s epistle 
• Higher greek than Paul or Luke, some think Apollos, since his background was rhetoric and language. 
• Timing
• Written before AD 70, since the temple services are still happening. 
• Late enough that a (presumably Pauline) church has gone sideways and needs to be corrected.  
• AD 60-70?
• Literary Genre: Sermon with a small letter appended at the end. 
• Themes: 
• Jesus is greater, bigger, better, and more than anything!
• Than angels: 1:4-2:18
• Than moses: 3:1-6
• Than the Aaronic priesthood: 4:14-
• Than the Mosaic covenant: 8:1
• Than the temple 9:1-10
• Than the temple sacrifice: 9:11-10:18
• The “times” are changing. 
• Jewish, three dispensations
• Days of the Fathers 
• These days
• The Last days
• In Christ, the last days have begun.  
• Judgment is coming!  
• The levitical system and the cannon are closed. 
• It is needful to persevere in the last days and not lose faith (Ch 10:19-12:29)
• Hebrews 1:1-4
• Very high prose. Alliteration and rhyme throughout
• First three words: Polumeros kai polutropos palou. In diverse times and diverse ways long ago. 
• All one sentence
• Reminiscent of Biblical, extra-biblical, and apocryphal textual descriptions of “Wisdom” personified. (Wisdom of Solomon 7:22-30; Proverbs 8).  
• Wisdom, Sophia, is personified in the feminine. 
• Not the same as Jesus, not a real person. 
• Taken by Gnostics as an actual deity. Danger! 
• All themes present in this paragraph: 
• Jesus is greater (vs 4)
• The times are changing (vs 1)
• Persevere, as Christ did (vs 3)
• Four contrasts in this paragraph “times changing”
• “Long Ago” Vs “These Last Days”
• Many Times & Many Ways Vs By His Son- one way, one time
• By prophets  Vs By His Son
• To our Fathers Vs To us
• With the revelation of Jesus, the cannon is complete
• “Since God has spoken finally and fully in the Son, and since the NT fully reports and interprets this supreme revelation once the NT is written, the canon of Scripture is complete. No new books are needed to explain what God has done through his Son.” --ESV study notes  
• Deut 4:2; Deut 13:1-10
• Proverbs 30:5-6
• Matthew 24:24
• Rev 22:18-19
• 1 Cor 13:8-13?
• Jesus is the Heir of all things and the agent by which they were created. 
• He will inherit that which He made, that which was taken from him through our disobedience, that which he ransomed from the god of this world through His victory on the cross, that that which He is in the process of restoring through the church age, and which He will, at the end of all things, present to His father redeemed, restored, and once again “very good.” 
• By whom the worlds were created. Preposition Dia implies secondary causation. The Father created through the Son. 
• Created the “worlds,” aion, aeon. 
• Always has to do with time. 
• Not eternity. Plural
• “The ages,” the 3 Hebrew dispensations
• All the ages which make up the sum total of history→ reality→ The worlds. 
• Ἀιών, transliterated aeon, is a period of time of longer or shorter duration, having a beginning and an end, and complete in itself. Aristotle (περὶ οὐρανοῦ, 1:9, 12) says: “The period which includes the whole time of each one’s life is called the aeon of each one.” Hence it often means the life of a man, as in Homer, where one’s life (αἰών) is said to leave him or to consume away (Il. v. 685; Od. v. 160). It is not, however, limited to human life; it signifies any period in the course of events, as the period or age before Christ; the period of the millennium; the mythological period before the beginnings of history. The word has not “a stationary and mechanical value” (De Quincey). It does not mean a period of a fixed length for all cases. There are as many aeons as entities, the respective durations of which are fixed by the normal conditions of the several entities. There is one aeon of a human life, another of the life of a nation, another of a crow’s life, another of an oak’s life. The length of the aeon depends on the subject to which it is attached.
• It is sometimes translated world; world representing a period or a series of periods of time. See Matt. 12:32; 13:40, 49; L. 1:70; 1 Cor. 1:20; 2:6; Eph. 1:21. Similarly οἱ αἰῶνες the worlds, the universe, the aggregate of the ages or periods, and their contents which are included in the duration of the world. 1 Cor. 2:7; 10:11; Heb. 1:2; 9:26; 11:3.
• The point is that not only is Jesus responsible for the physical universe (implied in the next verse) but also for the overarching progression of history according to His will and plan. 
• He continues to uphold everything by the word of his power.
• “Bears up under. “Atlas”
• John 1:3, 10
• Col 1:16 
• He continues the existence of the physical universe moment-to-moment. Crucifiction. Wow. 
• Jesus’ unity of substance with the Father is on display, as it is in the other reference to his creative power. 
• John 1:1, Col 1:15
• The exact imprint, Xarakter. Similar to ikon in Col 1, but this term focuses on the internal aspect of one’s personhood, while ikon focuses on appearance. 
• Jesus’ act of redemption is seen as something through which he persevered as an exercise of His glory and greatness.  
• Surrounded by statements of glory and power, 
• No statement of shame or humiliation, as in Pauline letters. 
• Glory→ Victory→ Exaltedness 
• Seated at the right hand of God and greater than the angels
• cf: 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; Mark 14:62; Acts 2:33; Rom 8:34; Eph 1:20; 1 Pet 3:22
• Seated, complete work. The levitical period and work of redemption are over. 
• ongoing verb. Is still seated. Not wrestling over this anymore. 
• Majesty on High, Mega- powerful exaltedness
• The name he once-and-for-all inherited, Son, is far superior to anything that the angels are ever called. Evidence to follow. 
• Much fascination with Angels among the Jews, and some worship of them going on. 
• One of the aspects of Gnosticism
• Exodus 20:4-5
• Col 2:18
• Gal 1:8-9
• Rev 19:10
• Rev 22:8-9