“Why?”

AS WE LEARN MORE EACH WEEK about the historical and theological facts surrounding the purpose for the writing of the book of Hebrews, one question certainly stands above the rest: WHY? Without a specific predicate this ambiguous and far-reaching question only can lead to speculation. For the serious Bible student beginning an in-depth study of an individual book of Scripture, the first attempt at narrowing the question to an intellectual level that can be productively answered centers around the book itself. Prominent among the introductory questions of What? Who? When? How? and Where? is Why? Why, as accurately as can be determined, was the book of Hebrews written? Letters, as most scholars believe Hebrews is, or sermons, as I humbly believe better describes the book, are written for a reason. Foremost on the list of basic facts to learn about Hebrews is its purpose.

The Bible student (I believe every Christian is a Bible student, including professors and pastors) quickly learns that while the question may be easy to formulate and begin to pursue, the answer is a different matter entirely. It is helpful in every respect for the student to get at least a rudimentary idea of the reason the book he is studying was written as soon as possible, but such study takes time before results are realized that produce real confidence. The answer is more a process than a discovery. Prayer and meditation are as much of the process as study.

TWO BOOKS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT STATE CLEARLY THEIR INDIVIDUAL PURPOSES:

^NAS John 20:30-31 Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

^NAS 1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.

Note the words “that”; they are (subordinate) conjunctions indicating purpose. When you learn the intrinsic importance of purpose statements in Scripture and begin to look for grammatical indicators, such as the conjunctions highlighted here in John and 1 John, you will undoubtedly notice the level of your biblical comprehension increase. It’s not that hard to do, and it’s so helpful.

In the gospel of John, John is saying, “these things have been written so that you may believe so that you may know you believe.” Similarly, in 1 John the same writer uses the same conjunctions to introduce purpose clauses underscoring his reason for writing. He has written the things he has written in his letter “in order that” or “for the purpose that” you may have the assurance you have eternal life. Can you see how important knowing this fundamental information is to your understanding of the entire work? Knowing why the person is writing tends to clarify everything in the writing.

But it’s normally not that easy. It is unusual for the biblical writers to succinctly state their reasons for writing. Usually, you have to carefully read the writing and thoughtfully, meditatively Most books of the Bible I have learned are multipurposed figure it out.

Then, there is the further complication of the fact that most books of the Bible seem to have more than one purpose. Often it is difficult to discern a single purpose. Nevertheless, I encourage my students to try. While there indeed may be multiple reasons for a writing, there is usually one reason that stands above the others.

IN HIS COMMENTARY ON HEBREWS, JOHN MACARTHUR GIVES HIS STUDIED OPINION OF THE WRITER TO THE HEBREWS’S PURPOSE STATEMENT (a biblical commentary is an explanation, usually in book form written by scholars).  I believe MacArthur’s words will not only give you a good illustration of a purpose statement but will at the same time sharpen your perspective of the books we are beginning to study:

“THE BOOK OF HEBREWS WAS WRITTEN TO GIVE CONFIDENCE TO THESE FLOUNDERING BELIEVERS. THE LORD WAS SPEAKING TO CHRISTIANS AND TELLING THEM TO HOLD TO THE BETTER COVENANT AND THE BETTER PRIESTHOOD, AND NOT GO BACK INTO THE PATTERNS OF JUDAISM, EITHER TO THAT PRIESTHOOD OR TO THAT ASSEMBLAGE. THEY MUST STEADFASTLY AND EXCLUSIVELY LIVE IN, AND LIVE OUT THEIR NEW RELATIONSHIP IN CHRIST.”

THAT, I BELIEVE, IS A GOOD ANSWER TO “WHY?”

(Remember, please, I intend to place in boldface type certain paragraphs that directly pertain to Jeremiah’s New Covenant, which I believe is not only central to understanding the book of Hebrews but which also positively brings the traditional view of the Covenant into question.)

WHEN I TAUGHT THROUGH THE BOOK OF HEBREWS in my Intermediate Greek class at Southern California Seminary in 2005-2006 (the school year at SCS is 28 weeks of three-hour classes), this was my personal purpose statement for the book of Hebrews: 

THE WRITER WROTE TO MOSTLY HEBREW CHRISTIANS MAINLY TO EXHORT THEM TO MATURITY IN FAITH IN CHRIST WITH THE MESSAGE, “JUDAISM, AS A VIABLE BIBLICAL RELIGIOUS SYSTEM, IS INFERIOR AND IS NOW OBSOLETE; CHRIST IS SUPERIOR IN EVERY WAY; THEREFORE, DON’T GO BACK; GO ON!”

FROM CHAPTER 1 THROUGH CHAPTER 13 THE BOOK OF HEBREWS IS FILLED WITH INDIRECT AND DIRECT EXHORTATIONS AND WARNINGS NOT TO GO BACK BUT TO GO ON. This clear and persistent message, I believe, at the beginning of this exegetical study, tells us plainly why Hebrews was written. I reserved the student’s rightful right to change my mind at anytime I am convinced by new information or persuasive revisiting of familiar information causes me to do so.

CLOSELY RELATED TO THE BOOK’S PURPOSE IS ITS THEME. Purpose and theme are closely related but they are not the same. Purpose deals with intent, theme with subject matter. Purpose is the reason for doing something; theme is the unifying idea of that thing. I would venture to say there could be times that the theme of a composition could be selected and presented in such a way as to serve the purpose of that composition. The difference between the two concepts do not have to be pronounced to be importantly distinct. I would argue that the reader, when studying Hebrews, should always try to maintain that distinction. I think it is real, and therefore valuable. It is clarifying. I would gently and most respectfully say that Steadman is an example of being guilty of unintentionally blurring the edges of purpose and theme. On the first page of his excellent commentary, under a boldface paragraph title of “The Author’s Purpose,” he states actually the author’s theme. What he writes is very good. I agree and appreciate what he writes, but it is not the writer’s purpose; it is the book’s theme. From this excerpt, see if you agree:

“The author intends (intends is a purpose word, not a theme word – TAR) to present a series of arguments for the superiority of Jesus over all rival claims to allegiance which his readers were feeling and hearing. In chapters 1-7, he examines these rival authorities and reveals their inadequacies. None was, in itself, a false or fraudulent voice. Each was ordained by God and proper in its intended place. Each had served the people of God in the past, and no teaching or expectation was wrong at the time it was given. But now the final word, the ultimate revelation from God toward which all the other voices had pointed, had come. To this supreme voice the author directs his readers’ attention, and ours, by contrasting this final word with the past utterances.

“First, there were the prophets, God’s ancient spokesmen (1:1-3); then the angels, Israel’s guardians (1:4 – 2:18); then Israel’s great leader, Moses (3:1 – 4:7); Israel’s godly general. Joshua 4:8-13); and finally the founder of Israel’s priesthood, Aaron (4:14 – 7:28). EACH WAS A VOICE FROM ISRAEL’S PAST THAT NEEDED TO BE HEARD BUT WAS WOEFULLY INADEQUATE IF FOLLOWED ALONE. IT WAS CLEARLY A CASE OF THE GOOD BEING THE ENEMY OF THE BEST, ECLIPSING ALL OF THESE, AS THE RISING SUN ECLIPSES THE LIGHT OF THE STARS, IS THE FIGURE OF JESUS, GOD’S SON, CREATOR AND HEIR OF ALL THINGS.” – Steadman

COULD STEADMAN’S BOLD OBSERVATION EVEN INCLUDE JEREMIAH 31? WHEN I FIRST READ THAT PARAGRAPH, I GOT EXCITED. I SAW STEDMAN’S WORDS AS REVOLUTIONARY, GOING SO FAR AS TO ACTUALLY BE THE LONG-SOUGHT  AFTER ANSWER TO THE ARGUMENT THAT HAS EXISTED FOR DECADES  BETWEEN THEOLOGIANS OVER THE NEW COVENANT AND THE SEEMINGLY UNANSWERABLE QUESTIONS IT ENGENDERS, MAINLY AS THEY CONCERN ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH.

HAVING STUDIED HEBREWS THE YEARS I HAVE, I BELIEVE I KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT THE ARGUMENT AND HAVE BEEN DEALING WITH THE ENSUING COMPLICATIONS LONG ENOUGH TO MISTRUST SUCH EMOTIONAL EXTRAVAGANCE. I’M VERY SKEPTICAL ABOUT EVEN MENTIONING I’M CONSIDERING THE LEGITIMACY OF THE POSSIBILITY OF STEADMAN’S VIEW – AS I UNDERSTAND IT – POSSIBILITY OF BEING THE BEST WAY TO AN EVENTUAL SOLUTION. BUT RIGHT NOW, I’M EXCITED ABOUT CONSIDERING IT. IT MAY BE A NON-PRODUCTIVE DETOUR. THERE MAY BE MORE DETOURS IN THE COURSE OF OUR STUDY.

CONTINUING STEADMAN’S “PURPOSE” STATEMENT FOR HEBREWS, which I believe is more an overview of the writer to the Hebrews’ opinion of the book’s theme:

“THE PRIMACY OF JESUS – JESUS’ SUPERIORITY TO THE PROPHETS IS MARKED IN SIX WAYS (HEB 1:1-2). FIRST, HE US THE SON, AND AS SUCH SPEAKS WITH GREATER AUTHORITY AND COMPLETENESS THAN THE PROPHETS. THROUGH THEM GOD SPOKE ‘AT MANY TIMES AND IN VARIOUS WAYS,’ BUT NOT ALWAYS WHEN MEN DESIRED, NOR AS CLEARLY AS THEY MIGHT HAVE WISHED. THE WORD SPOKEN THROUGH THE PROPHETS AND THAT SPOKEN BY THE SON IS MARKED BY THREE PARTICULARS: A CONTRAST OF METHOD (‘VARIOUS WAYS’), OF TIME (‘VARIOUS TIMES’), AND OF AGENCY (‘IN SON’), ALL MARKING THE PROPHETIC REVELATION AS INFERIOR TO THAT WHICH COMES THROUGH THE SON.”

I THINK THAT IS A MONUMENTAL POINT OF THE HIGHEST SIGNIFICANCE, BOTH FOR OUR STUDY OF THE BOOK OF HEBREWS AND OUR ALL-ENCOMPASSING DISCUSSION OF THE NEW COVENANT. JESUS’ WORD ON THE NEW COVENANT – AND ALL THINGS – IS THE FINAL WORD FROM GOD. THERE WILL BE NO FURTHER OR HIGHER WORD FROM GOD ON THE SUBJECT.

“GOD’S WORD THROUGH THE SON IS FINAL AND COMPLETE. THE APOSTLES ARE BUT ADDITIONAL SPOKESMEN FOR CHRIST, FOR IN THEIR LETTERS THEY ONLY EXPAND HIS SUBJECT MATTER AND DO NOT ADD ANY NEW TEACHINGS OR INSIGHTS. IT IS NOT THAT THE PROPHETS WERE WRONG ON THEIR PROPHECIES AND NEEDED TO BE CORRECTED BY THE SON, RATHER, THEIR WORDS WERE SUBJECT TO IMPERMANENCE AND INCOMPLETENESS.

^NAS Matthew 13:16-17 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. ¹⁷ “For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

“SECOND, the Son’s superior greatness to the prophet’s springs from His position as both Creator and heir of all things. Here (in chapter one of Hebrews – TAR) Paul’s argument in Colossians 1:15-17 is perhaps reflected:

^NAS Colossians 1:15-17 And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. ¹⁶ For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created by Him and for Him. ¹⁷ And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

“Creation’s beginning and end form the boundaries of time. Jesus stands both at the end of the future and at the beginning of the past.

“THIRD, the Son shares fully in the divine nature. Though our author will argue later that Jesus is also fully man, as other men are, here he unmistakably asserts His deity.

^NAS Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high;

(What an astonishing verse! One cannot help but think of Paul’s words also in Colossians 2:9 – TAR)

^NAS Colossians 2:9 For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form,

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory. Radiance is light that streams forth from a source of light. As no one can separate the sun’s light from the sun itself, so also no one can separate the nature of Christ from that of His Father. In Jesus we see the essence of God. Thus

Jesus could say to Philip:

^NAS John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

“FOURTH. The fourth aspect of the Son’s work as the master of the universe: sustaining all things by His powerful word.

This statement of Hebrews is a direct challenge to modern scientific humanism as well as to the older Deism. F. W. Grant states, ‘There is thus no thought in Scripture of a creation which shall be sufficient for itself, a perfect machine made to run eternally without the Hand that made it.’ The thought includes more than mere sustaining but expresses movement and progress toward an appointed end. It results in what scientists call ‘law of predictability,’ and so technology becomes a source of evidence for a God-ordered world.

“FIFTH, in sharp contrast to this image of universal power is the sentence: After He had provided purification for sins. This evokes all the agony and blood of the cross. In doing so, the Savior accomplishes something which no prophet or sage of the past nor philosopher or scientist or scientist of the present could ever do. Mere power, even vast, creative power, cannot help here. ‘The glory of God is not the glory of shattering love’ (Barclay). Creation rests upon power, bur redemption upon the sacrifice of One who was crucified in weakness. He rose and now is seated at the right hand of our majestic God in heaven.

“SIXTH, Jesus sat down to give expression to His cry from the cross, ‘It is finished!’ The phrase sat down at the right hand is meant symbolically not literally, for God has no right hand. It denotes the supreme honor accorded to the triumphant Lord, who is risen from the dead. Surely it is a reference (the first of five in Hebrews, see Hebrews 1:13) to Psalm 110:

^NAS Psalm 110:1 A Psalm of David . The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand, Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.”

“OF THIS BRUCE SAYS, ‘PSALM 110 IS THE KEY TEXT OF THIS EPISTLE.” – Steadman

AS I BELIEVE IT HAS BEEN CONVINCINGLY SHOWN, THE PURPOSE OF THE BOOK OF HEBREWS IS TO WARN FIRST CENTURY CHRISTIANS – MOSTLY HEBREWS – NOT TO RETURN TO THE OLD TESTIMENT’S OLD COVENANT BUT TO EXHORT THEM TO GO ON IN THE NEW COVENANT INAUGURATED BY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST ON THE CROSS.

THE THEME OF HEBREWS – CLOSELY RELATED BUT DISTINCT FROM THE BOOK’S PURPOSE – CLEARLY HAS BEEN SHOWN TO BE THE PREEMINENCE OR SUPERIORITY OF CHRIST OVER THE PROPHETS AND ANGELS AND EVERYTHING.

 

– Professor Thomas A. Rohm