I think one of the most important things to remember about the book of Hebrews is that its author is unkown. In fact, nobody is really sure of which group of Jews this person was writing to, all that is known is that the Jews are falling under heavy persecution. Many people are inclined to think that the writer is Luke because of the style of writing but other options include Paul, Priscilla, Barnabas, Phillip and many others. It is likely that the book is written before the destruction of the temple because religious sacrifices and whatnot are reffered to rather than what to do post temple destruction. One of the earliest comments on Hebrews dating to about 100 AD, reflects that the writer was most likely Luke and that the people were most likely under persecution from the Roman government.
So the thing with chapter one, is after reading it for a while, I have decided that I would really like to focus on all of chapter one and chapter two through verse 9. There are many questions produced by reading chapter one that I believe are answered in chapter two. So, Focusing on chapter one for a minute, there are two major points to chapter one that the author seems to be trying to make.
1. Jesus Christ is God's son
2. Jesus Christ is greater than the angels
These points may seem pretty obvious when you are reading the chapter. And indeed they are obvious. So my main questions are
1. Why did the author feel it necessary to prove that Jesus was Gods son?
2. What was the whole deal with the angels thing? I mean, obviously Jesus is greater than the angels, thats not really the point, so what is the point that the author is trying to make here besides the attempt to validate Jesus's position and his place of authority besided God?
Tackling the first set of observation/question, the first part of Chapter one verses 1-3 are a clarification of how Jesus came to be and his relationship to God. Through these verses it is explained that Jesus is the exact reflection of God and that his place is at the right hand of God. It is inferred that he is the last person that God is going to speak directly to mankind through, not calling him a prophet (as muslims do) but calling him the Son and saying that long ago the Jews were spoken to through prophets but now in the final days (which I see as an inference that post Jesus we have reached the last leg of the journey of mankind) we have Jesus who is then proved in the following verses to be clearly superior to a prophet. THats why it is important to keep in mind who is being written to here. It is clearly less than 100 years since Jesus's death so the Christians are fairly new and still mostly claim to be Jewish. They are undergoing heavy persecution and are probably looking for a way out. Possibly a prophet or someone of note to guide them. The writer here is assuring these people that having Jesus as their most recent and final connection to God is a gooood thing, that he is powerful, more powerful even than angels which brings me to statement/question 2.
So the rest of Chapter one is basically just the author sitting there giving examples of why Jesus kicks ass and why hes way better than the angels. I think the most important points to ut take from this are the actual question "ok, why is this so important? Are these people thinking of worshipping angels or something?" and also the reasons he gives for Jesus being greater than the angels. Every reason he gives is a verse from the Old testament that quotes God. There are not many references in the old testament to Jesus's future coming but there are a few. Verse 5b is an example of this but The intersting thing here is that the author chooses to underline Jesus's role in the creation of mankind in verse 10 which supports verse 3. He also makes it clear taht when David is worshipping God in the Psalms he is also worshipping Jesus as the two are inseperable as father/son. So coming to the end of Chapter one we see this, "But the angelse are only servents. They are spirits sent from God to care for those who will recieve salvation." Thats not much of an end to a chapter. I mean, he spends the whole time, very painstakingly finding examples from the old testament to prove the awesome worthiness of God and then hes like oh yea so ummmm angels justare not nearly as cool....?!?!?!?! No. THeres got to be some reason for his comparisons. Thus bringing us to chapter two. You can tell by the very first word in chapter two that its meant to be related to chapter one. So........... Anytime I see a "so" or a "therefore" or a "however" I kind of shake my head and wonder why the bible making elves decided to put a chapter there. I am sure they ahve excellent reasons, however......
Yea so, the very next sentance the author decides to get to his point. He says "So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard or we may drift away from it." This still doesnt explain the angels part but he is clearly worried about the truth of the message of Jesus being forgotten. He then goes on to explain why he went to all this trouble to talk about angels in verses 2-4. He is arguing that angels messages always proved true to their word and that every violation of the law was punishable. How much more important is the message of salvation through Jesus? Apparently very important. The fact that it was
a. passed on through Jesus (God) himself and not a prophet
b. That it is the message of salvation and not just a prophecy
c. That it was verifyed by signs and wonders etc.
These three facts would have specific relevance to the Jewish people who were looking for an earthly savior to rescue them from persecution. I think that if I had been looking for some earthly king and I got Jesus instead, when I was facing persecution I would be a little prone to wander from the faith. It would seem like such a distant salvation and I might be prone to question its validity. Where is my rescuer and how can he prove himself to me? I would be inclined to remember the great prophecies of Isaiah and the miracles that were taught in the Torah about Moses leading the people out of egypt. I would want shining angels and smoke and mirrors and all the fancy shit that comes with old testament faith. I think that together the first and second chapter (which I will go a little further into in the next hebrews post) are a defense of the miracle and salvation of Jesus coming to die for us. They are meant to remind the people that this is the greatest message ever told and that all the other messages of the scripture are meant to POINT to this message, that this message is not meant to be overshadowed.
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