Hebrews — Chapters:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13
PAUL was call by Jesus Christ to be an Apostle unto the Gentiles.
And Paul taught the Gentiles the gospel of Jesus Christ as is evident in his
various epistles to his Gentile congregations and individuals that he wrote to.
But no where does Paul put forth as concise a statement of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, its message to the world, than that which is written in Paul's epistle of
address to the Hebrews of Israel considered in Paul's day to be to the Jewish
Christian congregations being centered in Jerusalem. It was Jerusalem which
for a time seemed to be the center of the Church as perhaps the fact that the
temple of the Lord was located there. But by about 70 A.D. And that concept would
fit for most put Paul's death about 65 A.D. Jerusalem and that
center was destroyed and where it may have been thus spread forth is truly
unknown.
Thus Pauls espitle to the Hebrews was written before the 70 A.D. date, and it may
have been to the Hebrew saints at Jerusalem. Or Paul's Gospel statement may have
been to all of Israel, the Hebrews, as to what the Gospel was. And it was the same
gospel of Jesus Christ as Paul would have taught to his congregations and saints
of the Gentiles as well. Thus as a study of just what the Gospel of Jesus Christ
entails, Hebrews is perhaps the place to go to in order to experience the fulness
of the Gospel message according to Paul.
Now in the Christian as well as secular world scholars put forth the
question as to who the author of
the book of Hebrews is. This is not the case in the LDS Church as we know
that it was Paul. But because of this question, the 'epistle' of Hebrews is
not ordered as to its size as are all the other epistles so 'writen' by Paul.
But in truth, where the other epistles were atributed to Paul, he in fact had
them written by his scribe in Greek, the language of the Roman Empire, as they
were epistles to the 'Gentiles' or the 'Gentile Churches'. But the epistle of
Hebrews was not written to the 'Gentiles'. It was written in Hebrew by Paul
according to Eusebius of Caesarea as taught by Clement of Alexandria, to the
Hebrews, the 'Jews' of the Church, and it is perhaps the only epistle of Paul
that was not dictated by way of a scribe from Paul, but actually written by
the hand of Paul in the manner and language of the Jews, as Paul was or had
been one among the Pharisees of the Jews. And Hebrews is written after the
manner of the Jews to the Jews in Hebrew by the hand of Paul. This is what
makes the difference in the 'style' or 'manner' of the language and order of
those things spoken of in the Epistle of Hebrews from Paul to the Jews. Further,
Paul from the 'Jewish perspective' was most scholarly trained being a pupil
of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). And while this would not be so impressive to a
Gentile audience so steeped in philosophy, it would be exactly such Jewish
scholarship which would have allowed Paul to excel in his epistle to the
Jews, the Hebrews according to the doctrines of the Jews in testament of
Jesus Christ. One might will consider that Greek was not Paul's native language,
though Paul was a Roman citizen. And this could have been Paul's weakness in
speech to the Gentiles, his thorn in his side that he was not as well trained
in the language of manner of the Gentil as he was in the manner, doctrine
and language of the Jews, which his masterful epistle to the Hebrews so
presents him to be. Even the authors of the Book of Mormon did complain that
their record would have been better if it had been written in the Hebrew
lamguage rather that its reformed Egyptian (Mormon 9:33).
Now as to there being no salutation, many circumstances may have occastioned
this, including that it may have been lost or disgarded. And as to the fact
that the book of Hebrews quotes extensively from the Old Testament, this would
be part and partcile of Paul writing after the manner of the Jews to the
Jews who were so totally and traditionally founded and so based in and
influenced by the Old Testament, Moses and the God thereof. As to Paul having
been taught by 'an apostle', Paul himself was not likely an apostle himself
until his third mission to the Gentiles, and thus he would have so developed
and been subject to the instructions of the apostles of the church as any
would have been who did recognize that line of authority, despite his visionary
conversion of the Lord. Peter himself does confirm that Pual did so write
an epistle to the Hebrews/Jews (2 Peter 3:15).
Many do consider that Hebrews is actually Paul at his best, at least at his
best in terms of traditional Hebrew doctrinal application, which would have
been entirely Paul's direct intentent in so addressing the Jews. That is
conviencing them of Christ by the use of the Hebrew Old Testament records of
Moses and the prophets similar to that intent of Matthew's gospel which was
also addressed particularly to the Jews.
Index of all New Testament Books