Andrew Fountain - Hebrews Part 2 - The Back-Story
- Artist: Andrew Fountain
- Title: Hebrews Part 2 - The Back-Story
- Album: Newlife Church, Toronto
- Track: 2
- Genre: Hebrews
- Year: 2017-01-22
- Length: 41:25 minutes (16.62 MB)
- Format: MP3 Stereo 44kHz 56Kbps (VBR)
Link to Video:
Hebrews Part 2 - The Back-Story - See the whole Hebrews Series
Sermon notes - Hebrews Part 2 - The Back-Story
- My theory (this is just an example of what might have happened!)
- The church in Corinth wanted to run a conference, so they contacted Apollos, who was in Rome at the time.
- They had been really blessed by his understanding of how the O.T. related to us today.
- They asked him to give three messages on this theme at the conference.
- It was a great success and lots of people wanted a copy of it (no audio or video)
- So they asked Apollos if he would write the messages out for them.
- He agreed on condition it was anonymous, because of all the trouble with factions at Corinth.
- When he did so, he did quite a bit of work polishing it and organizing the content.
- He then sent them a copy with a note attached to the end ([13:22–24]).
- The church in Corinth wanted to run a conference, so they contacted Apollos, who was in Rome at the time.
- So what do we know about the author?
- Amazingly talented writer (written at the level of the most polished Greek literature)
- Hangs out with Paul’s group (Timothy: [Heb 13:22,23])
- Some ideas are very similar to Paul’s but there are some new insights
- Knows the O.T. Scriptures very well
When? Where? Who?
- “Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews” <- wrong!
- Must be Greek-speaking because of the complexity of the language (High-Greek)
- The term “Hebrews” was reserved for Jews still living in Palestine, who wouldn’t have Greek as a first language
- Some suggest it could be Jewish converts who were tempted to return to Judaism
- But there is actually no reason to restrict it to Jews
- So it could have been to any church in Greek speaking world (most of the Roman Empire)
- The Gentiles were just as likely to be interested in the Scriptures
- They were even more likely to want to know how the O.T. related to themselves
- This is one of the main purposes of the book
- Form
- Not an Epistle (letter)
- Most people suggest it was a sermon that was later written down
- No opening section (from / to / grace / prayer of thanksgiving)
- 3 verses on the end show that it was written to be sent
- Paul’s epistles are full of “I write to you...”
- Whereas this is full of expressions such as [11:32 “what more shall I say? For time will fail me...”]
- Frequent references to running out of time
- [5:11 “say... hearing”]
- Most people suggest it was a sermon that was later written down
- two problems
- very long for a sermon
- very complex
- many of the intricate literary features would be lost in a sermon
- Some Christians react to the idea that something can be Scripture and art at the same time
- Some of the Psalms are intricate Hebrew poetry
- Other books as well, such as Song of Solomon
- This book is Art.
- My Greek tutor once made me translate some of it... (after working through Paul)
- unfortunately I can’t show you the beauty of the Greek, since you would have to be fairly advanced Greek students to really appreciate it.
- A good reason for it to be anonymous
- Can you imagine a songwriter “this song is so good, I’m going to make it anonymous”
Structure
- History of attempts to find a structure
- Historically there were several ideas,but it is generally recognized that this fits very badly
- A second view is the “Patchwork”
- In effect gives up on any structure
- In the last 100 years, there has been a lot of success in identifying literary features in the book which help us determine the structure.
- In 1963 a French scholar, Albert Vanhoye, made a breakthrough
- Others have done work since then
- Here is my proposal…
Background
- Perseverance in Gratitude by David A. DeSilva
- p.12–16 ➜ excellent presentation of pressure to give up
- Every part of Roman society was connected with religious worship in some way (e.g. butcher’s shop)
- Christians could therefore seem antisocial, or even subversive to the stability of the nation
- Disloyalty to the gods was evidence of a generally disloyal person
- This would result in “discipline” by their neighbours
- Public shaming
- We can catch a glimpse of this in Hebrews 10
- This would result in “discipline” by their neighbours
- We don’t know how long previously to the book this was
- the most common “deviancy control” was “shaming”
- this could be re-inforced by physical violence or inprisonment
- a process of degrading a person
- Prisoners were not fed, but depended on food and clothing being brought to them
- Those bringing them risked being shamed in the same way
- Your house was fair game for being plundered (e.g. big house next to school, empty for 30 years)
- e.g. Asia Bibi, a Christian women who was imprisoned and sentenced to death for blasphemy
- Salman Taseer was the Governor of the Punjab who was killed after supporting her
- Shahbaz Bhatti the last Christian member of Parliament, was fighting to change Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy law by travelling around the world to speak to leaders
- He visited Canada and said in and interview “When I get killed make sure you carry on the work that I am doing.”
- Shahbaz Bhatti was killed a few days ago.
- So this is an example of Christians who take a risk when they support other Christians,
- We would not expect this kind of thing to happen in Canada
- But what kind of lower-level opposition might we face?
- The Story so far...
- Especially given the supernatural evidence
- 1:13 those who will inherit
- 2:5 subjected the world to come (cf v.16)
- 2:10 bring to glory
Remember:
- The story of mythicists —angry young men (and women) from fundamentalist churches
- Friend of mine in his 80’s diagnosed with cancer
- Are you following Jesus?
Updated on 2017-01-25 by Andrew Fountain
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