Have you ever been so hungry that you will eat whatever happens to be on hand? More than that, whatever you try to eat tastes delicious, at least for those first few bites? That’s the way I am handling Hebrews. Something good, anything good, is going to feel like a feast to me.

And Lord knows I need a feast right now…

Chapter 9

We get a quick rundown of how tabernacles are constructed, including the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. There is a lot of detail given, of which I will pass on none.

In the tabernacle, the high priest uses blood sacrifices to be cleansed of their transgressions. However, this did not make the conscience of the worshiper completely clean, since the offerings were only of food and drink. But by giving his own blood, Christ made everyone who believes in him blameless, forgiving all of their sins.

Chapter 10

The first half of the chapter is a repeat of the last two. The author is really trying to drive home the point that Jesus is the high priest who sacrificed himself, cleansing the sins of everyone who believed in him. As such, believers can enter into the sanctuary.

Interesting note here: A person who keeps sinning after they have had their sins washed clean is screwed. “For if we choose to go on sinning after we have received the full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but only a terrifying prospect of judgment and a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” I definitely don’t remember that from Sunday school. Nor do I remember that from any of the New Testament. That doesn’t even ring true with Chapter 8, where God said that he would show mercy for those who sin.

Of course, I am being silly by figuring there will be some type of internal consistency in the New Testament.

Chapter 11

I love this chapter. There is a conceit that is established in verse four and runs throughout the rest of the chapter. Each verse starts out with “By faith…” and details a prophet and their struggle or accomplishment. Verse 4: “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did…” By faith, Enoch did not experience death. By faith, Noah saved his family. By faith, Abraham went into the wilderness. By faith, Sarah conceived a child. I think you get the idea.

This conceit runs through verse 31, and is exceedingly well done. If you’ve been reading these updates for a while, you know that I can be sarcastic and cynical. However, I am being honest here. This was a remarkable chapter.

The chapter turns a little gruesome towards the end, as it describes some of the punishments and tortures that people of faith endured (including being stoned and sawed in half!!!). It also marks the rewards that were reaped, including conquering kingdoms and winning battles. It is a person’s faith that allows them to attain paradise or endure hell.

Up next: Damn, what’d Esau do to you?

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Monday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series is accessible via http://biffster.org/ntir. If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page. You can also follow me (@biffster) on Twitter to be alerted to new posts.

The Hebrews need to be convinced that Jesus is their high priest and should be followed because he is of the covenant and is appointed by god and blah blah blah blah. My dear lord, this book is going to crush my soul!

Chapter 6

The unknown author won’t leave the babies unfed, though. He lists the truths that will be revealed, including baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, etc. Resurrection is, of course, a touchy subject. There are two camps among the early churches: those that believe people’s bodies will be resurrected from the dead, like Jesus and Lazarus. Others see this as a spiritual resurrection, with the body left behind as dust and ashes. The author of this letter apparently believes that resurrection of the body should be a major tenet of the new church. I can foresee problems…

I brought that up because the end of the chapter is heavy on Jewish teachings. In the first, the author mentions God’s promise to bless Abraham with a multitude of descendants. God fulfilled this promise, but in his time frame, not in Abraham’s. Abraham was patient, however, knowing that God’s oath was unbreakable.

Chapter 7

Whoever wrote this letter knew scripture and how to use it to influence believers. The author presents an argument for why Jesus should be considered the everlasting high priest, appointed by God. As is his wont, the author again brings up Melchizedek, a former high priest who lived at the time of Abraham. Melchizedek was also appointed by God, and was also an outsider. Abraham agreed to pay a tithe to Melchizedek, which the author of this letter says proves that Abraham accepted Melchizedek.

Jesus is the next Melchizedek. An outsider (wait… Jesus was Jewish, a member of the house of David….) appointed by God. Jesus should be elevated above Melchizedek, however, since Jesus is eternal. Jesus lives forever, so his priesthood is eternal.

I dunno. Are there any Jewish readers who can provide more context? Does this seem like an argument that might conceivably change someone’s mind?

Oh, this chapter also contains a line that made me giggle: Hebrews 7:23 “There have been many priests, since they have been prevented by death from continuing in office.” Very droll, but a very funny one-liner. 🙂

Chapter 8

Ummm…. Okay. Something about a covenant. Best not to dwell…

Oh, wait, I just switched to a different translation of the New Testament, and it suddenly makes a lot more sense. That’s what I get for trying out the WEB translation. Back to the International Standard Version (ISV) for me! But that is pretty meta, and I digress.

Apparently the Hebrews of this period needed some convincing to accept Jesus. The author tries to win these arguments, declaring that Jesus is a high priest, but a heavenly high priest, not an earthly high priest. Just like a tabernacle is a shadow of the true tabernacle in heaven, so a high priest is a shadow of Jesus.

It is also apparent that many of the Hebrews didn’t believe that any change needed to be made, since they were covered by the first covenant. The author reminds everyone that their ancestors abandoned the original covenant and turned from God. As a punishment, God abandoned and forget about them. God then swore he would create a new covenant, one in which everyone would know God’s laws both in their minds and in their hearts. Sins will be forgiven, mercy will be shown.

Up next: By faith, this book was saved

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Monday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series is accessible via http://biffster.org/ntir. If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page. You can also follow me (@biffster) on Twitter to be alerted to new posts.

I just this very minute realized that the Hebrews this letter is written to are Jewish. Hence all of the messages tailored for Jewish people. Allow me to take a picture in my dunce cap, and then remove it. Time to move on now.

Chapter 3

I joked about this earlier, but now I must ask: do Unitarians hate this letter? Or do they pick and choose a verse here and there to try and hold on to? Because Hebrews distinguishes God from Jesus Christ fairly strictly. Chapter 3 throws another wrinkle into the Unitarian theory: the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit seems awfully similar to God, though; I can see both being different names for the same entity.

The author chronicles the Holy Spirit speaking to Jews. It states that their ancestors “provoked” “tested” and angered God. They did this even though they had seen God’s wonders for 40 years in the wilderness. God turned away from them, and swore that they would never enter God’s rest. Unbelief was their downfall, it was the cause of their ruin.

Chapter 4

I have a feeling that Hebrews is going to be one of those books that pisses me off with horribly structured sentences. Like, say, 4:10-11: “the one who enters God’s rest has himself rested from his own works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest….”

Ugh.

The word of god will separate soul from spirit, joints from marrow. Everyone is naked before him, no creature can hide from him. Kinda boilerplate stuff.

Chapter 5

This is kind of a bipolar chapter. It starts out continuing to paint Christ as a mortal man who was called to divinity. Hebrews is littered with references to Christ as the High Priest who was called by God, almost as many times as Christ is referred to as the son of God. I could be 100% wrong on this, but it feels like the author of Hebrews was trying to paint things from a Jewish perspective. And that meant not harping on Jesus being the promised one or the messiah.

Back to the chapter: the author decides it is time to insult everyone reading the letter. He says that the people of the Hebrew church have “become too lazy to understand.” They are like babies, who need milk instead of solid food. They have to mature and understand the message of righteousness.

HARSH!

Up next: Boring, boring, boring…

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Monday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series is accessible via http://biffster.org/ntir. If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page. You can also follow me (@biffster) on Twitter to be alerted to new posts.

I immediately noticed something different about Hebrews. It is glaringly obvious after reading the first four verses. There is no attribution for the author. I did a quick scan through the epistle to see who the author was, but there simply isn’t an attribution. Who wrote this letter? After reading the first chapter a couple of times, I have to think it isn’t Paul. It’s tone and rhythm don’t feel like any of Paul’s letters I’ve read up to this point. And the author isn’t talking about his importance in the church, which Paul did frequently.

This was a puzzle that I had to have the answer for, of course. After all, if I am going to trudge through 13 chapters in a letter, I’d better damned well know who wrote the thing. It’d be silly of me to read and write about an anonymous letter. Who’d be that foolish?

Whenever I need a fast answer or some basic research, I turn to Wikipedia. There is, of course,an article about the Epistle to the Hebrews. And for authorship of Hebrews, Wikipedia helpfully informed me that the authorship of the epistle is not known. It is an anonymous letter which, for some reason, was added as biblical canon. Apparently pretty much anyone could write a letter and get it into the bible back then.

Sorta sounds like Wikipedia, now that I think about it.

Irony!

The Epistle To the Hebrews

Chapter 1

Well, we don’t have Paul here to tell us how great he is, and how much he rejoices for having the receiver be faithful. Instead, the anonymous author decides to annoy Unitarians by making a distinct difference between God and Jesus. The author states that Jesus was the most important of all things in the universe, loved by God as His son. Sitting at god’s right hand. God did not bestow such honors on any angels or anything else he created.

From the narrative told throughout, from the Gospels through this point, I’ve gotta say that Jesus and God are separate entities. Sorry, Unitarians!

Chapter 2

You know, I am always amused when something in the bible contradicts with something else. Normally, those contradictions are done within different books, which one can understand. It’s not abnormal for two people to see things slightly differently. Or to have a different point of view months or years down the road than you have now. It’s not often when there are contradictions within the same book, though. Even rare than that: contradictions within a chapter of each other. Yet that is exactly what we see here. Compare and contrast;

Hebrews 1:5 “[He] became as much superior to the angels…”
Hebrews 2:9 “we do see someone who was made a little lower than the angels. He is Jesus…”

I am sure that someone somewhere will explain to me exactly why these two contradictory statements actually aren’t contradicting themselves at all. Until then, though, it seems contradictory to me.

Oh, the rest of the chapter can be summed up fairly quickly: Jesus is salvation, god has put everything under Jesus’s feet. God’s children will have to suffer, but this will help perfect their salvation, since Jesus also suffered. And Jesus did not come to save the angels, but “Abraham’s descendants.” ‘cuz apparently this unknown author is biased against Gentiles.

Up next: Hebrews are Jews? I knew that! Seriously….

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Tuesday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series is accessible via http://biffster.org/ntir. If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page. You can also follow me (@biffster) on Twitter to be alerted to new posts.

A one chapter book? The hell you say! There have been a couple of books in the New Testament that seemed out of place. But none so far afield as Philemon. Why in the world is there a one-chapter letter in the New Testament? Especially since the crux of the letter is one of Paul’s best friends? I seriously cannot see anything in this letter that ties into Christianity at all. Nor anything in this letter that could inspire Christians. Nor instruct Christians about how Paul believes they should lead their lives.

It seems that there’s a very good reason I can’t recall hearing or reading anything about this letter before this project. I see absolutely no reason at all to waste your time reading this. It is a short letter, though, so if you have 30 seconds and the desire to be bored (and possibly confused), give it a read.

Epistle to Philemon

Chapter 1

Even weirder, there is one topic to the letter: Onesimus. Paul considers Onesimus a son, and asks Philemon to take Onesimus in. Paul states that this isn’t a command, but it sure reads like one to me. Paul does go the dickish route (“I will not mention to you that you owe me your very life.”) and the pleading route (“I prefer to make my appeal on the basis of love…”) There’s no doubt, though, that Paul isn’t asking.

Conclusion

Ayup, that was very, very weird

Up next: Hebrews, giving someone besides Paul a chance

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Tuesday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series is accessible via http://biffster.org/ntir. If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page. You can also follow me (@biffster) on Twitter to be alerted to new posts.

I am on to Paul’s tricks. Before the letters to Timothy, I would’ve expected this letter to be written by Titus. But Timothy taught me that these letters are still from Paul, and the book names are who Paul was writing to. I probably should’ve known better, since, for example, Romans was a letter from Paul to the Romans. There’s a difference, though, in a book named for a church compared to a book named for an individual person.

Or at least that’s the excuse I’ll hide behind

2 Timothy ended with Paul describing the end-times and his sense of impending doom. Paul was expecting both the end of the world, and his own death. In that order. Will Titus continue on this theme?

Epistle of Paul to Titus

Chapter 1

Paul apparently abandoned Titus in Crete, leaving Titus to stay with the church in Crete so Paul could go forth and appoint elders in every city. Paul lays the same qualifications that an elder needs to meet, and they match exactly what Paul listed to Timothy. They are also just as boring. [yawn]

Paul warns Titus of people who will try and corrupt believers. Oddly enough, Paul explicitly lists Jewish converts among those who must be watched. These converts can apparently ruin whole families, all for the love of money. And we have been told by Christ himself that the love of money is the root of all evil. Apparently that holds true even in the early Christians. And really, why would they be exempt?

Oh, Paul gives a little more detail for the myths he warned about in 2 Timothy. Apparently these are Jewish myths, and they can indeed lead people away from the gospel. These people deny god by their actions, even though they say that they believe.

Chapter 2

This is Paul’s standard exhortation for how Christians should live. Men should be patient and reverent, women should be submissive, slaves should obey their masters. We’ve heard all of this multiple times already. Moving on…

Chapter 3

Paul gives another list – this book could be titled Lists! – this time about how Christians should behave. Lord I wish that today’s Christians actually lived by these traits. Christians are not supposed to insult anyone. They are not to be argumentative. They should be gentle and be courteous to all. Amen to that!

Conclusion

Wow, this book is already over. Hooray for brevity!

Up next: The most forgettable book in the New Testament

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Tuesday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series is accessible via http://biffster.org/ntir. If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page. You can also follow me (@biffster) on Twitter to be alerted to new posts.