HEBREWS

Introduction to the Epistle To The Hebrews

We don’t know who wrote Hebrews, but with mounting archaeological data we can now say why it was written with more certainty than has ever been known. What you learn from this study of the Epistle To The Hebrews may startle you. It may challenge some previously held concepts you have had concerning this epistle. It is perhaps one of the most important documents we have regarding the pressure which First Century Jewish Christians found themselves under.

Too few scholars have grasped the intense pressure which First Century Christians faced to return to Judaism. They were harassed, jibed, persecuted, martyred, and ostracised for abandoning Judaism and following Jesus of Nazareth. Many Jewish Christians succumbed to this increasing pressure and simply found it easier to return to Judaism with its physical Temple, sacrifices, priesthood and holy city, which were all tangible evidences of God’s supposedly eternal covenant with Israel. After all, if God had really done away with the Old Covenant, then why was He still working through the Temple, the sacrifices, the Levitical priesthood, and the holy city of Jerusalem? These essential elements of Judaism and the Old Covenant still remained after Christ, so obviously He was not the Messiah, and therefore Christianity was not the true way to God, argued the First Century Jewish authorities.

But the writer to the Hebrews argues the case for Christ and Christianity in the face of this attack. He shows that Christ is superior to the Old Covenant. He is greater than mere angels; greater than Moses; greater than the High Priest; greater than sacrifices; greater than the temple; greater than the Old Covenant itself; and deserves our utmost devotion!

Hebrews 1 – 4 Jesus is superior

Hebrews 1 Superior to angels

Hebrews 2 Superior to any man

Hebrews 3 Superior to Moses

Hebrews 4 Superior to Joshua

Hebrews 5 – 8 Jesus Is Our High Priest

Hebrews 6 Be fruitful in your devotion to Christ as our eternal High Priest

Hebrews 7 Christ is a Priest after the order of Melchizedek

Hebrews 8 Christ, a minister of a superior covenant

Hebrews 9 – 10 Jesus is Our Sacrifice For Sins

Hebrews 9 Christ offered himself in the perfect Temple/Tabernacle (Heaven)

Hebrews 10 Christ was the Anti-type of the entire Old Covenant