Hi James and Ellen,
Hebrews is a Christological apologetic. The anonymous Hebrews letter’s author penned his thirteen chapter missive before Titus using three Roman legions looted and ravaged the city of Jerusalem – which was in 70 A.D. Many Biblical historians speculate that it was Paul who saw to the publication of the Hebrews letter while other Biblical historians conjecture that the Hebrews letter was possibly penned by Apollos or Barnabas or by someone else. Your grandpaa wonders about the possibility that Timothy – or maybe Titus, may have been who penned this letter to the Hebrews. Hebrews were guys and gals who were Jews. If Paul is who penned the Hebrews letter, this letter – which was specifically directed to Hebrews, had to have been in circulation before 67 A.D. – as 67 A.D. was the year when Paul is said to have been martyred by Nero. Christ-followers whose ancestry was being a Jew, who could understand Greek and who lived in the city of Rome were the first recipients of the Hebrews letter. The author of the Hebrews letter’s frank statement in his letter that his Jew readers were still ‘milk drinking’ spiritual babes because of their not being spiritually mature enough to ‘eat the solid food’ from their new belief paradigm and then just a short time later in his letter making a benevolent remark to his readers for their faithful ministry to each other implies that the guy who penned or saw to the drafting of this ‘theology of Christ’ textbook for Christ-followers who were Jews who lived in the city of Rome quite probably knew his readers well. The Hebrews letter’s author also had to have been a scholar of the Septuagint because of how he contrasted the doing requirements that are mandated in the Levitical or Mosaic Law against faith which is the only requirement for personally accepting the sacrificial act of Jesus Christ dying while being hung on and nailed to a cross and because of the way that he was able to compare the Levite priests and the old covenant with the new covenant that is Jesus Christ centric. The Hebrews letter’s author’s knowledge of Melchizedek infers that the guy had to have been well schooled in the Torah and the Talmud papyri.
The Hebrews letter’s author introduces his Christocentric apologetic thesis by underpinning and establishing the preeminence or supremacy of Christ. Because many of the Christ-follower guys and gals who were living in the city of Rome revered angels, the Hebrews letter’s author explains to them who Christ is to angels – that God created angels to be His ministry spirits while God had Christ radiate His glory, represent His Being and has Him sit at His right hand in heaven. An apparent priority to the Hebrew letter’s author was to get his readers to first internalize Christ’s superiority over angels before broaching the topic of why Christ was incarnated as Jesus. Being a man though per the Hebrews letter’s author, Christ – as Jesus, was for a time compliant to angels and vulnerable to the devil’s temptations. Who Christ was – as Jesus, on planet Earth – per the Hebrews letter’s author, was superior to who Moses was, to what the Aaronic priests did and to the sweet smell of the sacrifices that the high priests made. Your grandpaa thinks that the Hebrews letter was penned to reaffirm the faith of Christ-follower guys and gals who lived in the city of Rome – as most of the city of Rome was burned in 64 A.D. by Nero – who had become insane.
The guy who penned the Hebrews letter cements a mindset that Christ is fully God and that Christ was fully man, that Christ was actively involved in the creation, that Christ – as typed as priest, is a guide and leader and that Christ revealed God on planet Earth through how He lived His life, what He taught and what He did. All guys and gals who are Christ-followers – per the guy who penned Hebrews, are to acquiesce to an understanding that it was their unbelief in God that had been giving sin victory and that it is their belief in God now that is giving them hope. Accepting this as a truth axiom, a Christ-follower guy or gal should have very little trouble differentiating between reality and what Satan wants a guy, gal or kid to believe. To Christ-follower guys and gals, heaven is a real place, planet Earth is a temporary place and Christ once and for all bridged the gap between a momentary planet Earth assignment and heaven’s eternal home. God to a Christ-follower guy and gal is real – that He is constantly unfolding preplanned life lessons to open eyes to teach and train and that He is unconditionally leading each guy and gal on his or her narrow life track towards to eternal life. Your grandpaa is becoming more and more convinced that what is being deceitfully parsed today by the elected President of his country – which is the United States of America, in his perceived attempts to gain despotic leverage over his ideological adversaries is really God using this narcissistic, demented oaf to set in motion events that will open up the gates of the ‘pit’ for every guy, gal and kid who is living in the United States. Even though there is obvious collusion, cronyism and corruption happening more and more in United States’ capital city, leading your grandpaa to blame the United States government top players as much as anyone in recent years, your grandpaa now senses that what is now taking place is the direct result first of all of God allowing Christ-follower fellowships of guys and gals to go putrid and secondly, that God is doing it again as He has done before with countries/people groups, using ego and materialistic gods that are being adulated to have masses of guys and gals experience despair spiraling that leads to His hope spirit having an opening to embed faith in Him.
Hebrews