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Begin Typing VigilThe writer opens, in a stately paragraph, by describing the superiority of Jesus Christ, as God’s Son, to the angels (1:1-2:18); lordship over the world to come is the prerogative of Jesus alone. He is superior also, as God’s Son, to Moses (3:1-4:13), and assures his people of a perfect Rest in the world to come. Finally, as God’s Son, he is superior to Aaron and the Levitical priesthood (4:14f), as the high priest of the good things to come (9:11), after the order of Melchizedek.
Here the writer grapples with the matter which is really at issue between himself and his friends. Reproaching them for their immaturity and backwardness in the theology of their faith (5:11-6:20), he proceeds to instruct them in the higher doctrine of Christ’s heavenly priesthood. This, with all its far-reaching consequences for religion, is the heart and height of the author’s message. Since he conceives religion under the aspect of a covenant or διαθήκη, which must be determined by a priesthood of some sort, the introduction of the final and perfect covenant implies the revelation of a corresponding priesthood in the person of Jesus Christ the Son of God, which is held to be only the fulfilment of the Melchizedek sacerdotal order; and, as the latter was prior to the Levitical, the supersession of the Levitical order by the eternal, heavenly priesthood of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is quite natural, even apart from the fact that a change of priesthood involved a change of the law or the religious economy (7). The climax or crown of the argument is now reached (8:1). Whereas the divine revelation in Judaism had been given through angels (2:2), established by Moses (3:3f) and perpetuated by the Aaronic priesthood (5:1f), Jesus is superior to all, especially to the third as the embodiment of the two former.
The superiority of Christ’s priestly ministry over that of the Levitical order, as a means of access to, and fellowship with, God, is the fulfilment of Jeremiah’s famous oracle (8:6f) which promised such a valid and absolute covenant as Christ has inaugurated at his ascension; and (9:1-14) it is a superiority (a διαφορωτέρα λειτουργία) which is exemplified in the sanctuary, the offering, and the consequent fellowship of the Son’s ministry for men. His sacrifice of himself for them, being spiritual, is final (9:15—10:18); it attains the end vainly sought by previous sacrifices, and therefore supersedes the latter.
Having elucidated this central truth, the writer advances to make it the basis of an earnest appeal for religious confidence and steadfastness (10:19f), With a brief warning against the danger of carelessness and apostasy (10:26-31), he rallies his suffering readers by inciting them to be worthy of their past faith (10:32f). This leads him to kindle their imagination and conscience by a magnificent roll-call of the sorely tried heroes and heroines of Israel who had believed and pleased God (11), closing with the example of Christ as the leader and perfecter of faith in this world (12:1-3). The example of the Son’s suffering and loyalty proves that trouble is a mark of the Father’s education of men, and therefore that it should be borne patiently, for the sake of its uses (12:4f), all the more so that the privileges thus opened to the faith of the new covenant involve a fearful penalty for those who reject them.
A choice must be made between the two dispensations, and the author rounds off his exhortation with a moving antithesis between the terrors and punishment of the one and the eternal hope and reverent confidence of the other (12:18-29). The thought of the break with the old order that is needful for any adhesion to true Christianity follows the writer even into his postscript, where, after a short table of ethical duties (13:1-7), the mention of the former teachers, from whom his readers had received their faith, prompts him (in a digression) to emphasise the need of loyalty to such principles (13:8-16) and to their present faithful leaders (13:17). A request for prayer (13:18) and a word of prayer (13:19-21), followed by some personal greetings, end the epistle (13:22-25).
Included here are the Catholic Epistles, Hebrews, and the formerly canonical works of the Second Testament.