An Overview of Hebrews

Hebrews
Written By David Gooding

by David Gooding

The biblical authors used the literary conventions of their day to convey their message. These included structures and patterns less obvious to us in our modern age. David Gooding brought his expertise in ancient literature to the biblical text, and these study notes represent his thinking about the structure, patterns and thought-flow of Hebrews.

When speaking to groups of Bible students, he often said, ‘When it comes to Bible study, there is structure, pattern and thought-flow, and the greatest of these is thought-flow. Here are the thoughts of God expressed. Our job is to follow the thought-flow’. He taught that the most important thing to grasp in biblical interpretation is the way the author develops his message, and that discerning structure and patterns within the text should always be directed towards that end.

David Gooding developed these study notes over many years and distributed them at public and private talks. The study notes are not meant to be the last word on the book, and may not cover it entirely. The Myrtlefield Trust offers them to Bible students, preachers and teachers in order to stimulate further thinking about the book, so that its message may be better understood.

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Study Notes

An Outline of Hebrews

  1. The Deity of Christ Asserted (Heb 1:1–4).
  2. The Deity of Christ Proved (Heb 1:5–14).
  3. The Humanity and Sufferings of Christ (Heb 2).
  4. Entering God's Rest (Heb 3–4).
  5. Our High Priest and the Cost of Obedience (Heb 5:1–6:3).
  6. On to Perfection (Heb 6:4–20).
  7. The Superior Priesthood (Heb 7).
  8. The Superior Covenant (Heb 8).
  9. The Superior Sanctuary (Heb 9).
  10. The Superior Sacrifice (Heb 10).
  11. Faith's Doctrines and Pilgrimage (Heb 11:1–16).
  12. Faith's Testing and Warfare (Heb 11:17–12:2).
  13. The Long Race (Heb 12:3–13:25).

A Survey of Hebrews

The Importance of Always Remembering

That this Epistle was Written to Hebrews

Consider, for example, the exhortation at Heb 6:1 'let us press on unto perfection' (RV), 'let us go on to maturity' (NIV). It is not talking about 'sinless perfection'; it is not even talking about two stages in Christian experience, one less, and the other more, mature; it is talking about leaving Israel's symbols, rituals and religious institutions and moving forward into the full-blown reality of which they were only prototypes, i.e. into Christianity. See the contrast between:

  • Aaron's priesthood and Christ's (Heb 7:11, 8:19, 28).
  • the Mosaic tabernacle and the true, heavenly tabernacle (Heb 8:2; 9:11).
  • Israel's sacrifices and Christ's (Heb 10:1; 10:14).

The Time at Which the Letter and its Exhortation Were Written

Before the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem (Heb 8:13); probably around AD 64 after Paul's arrest and exclusion from the temple (Acts 21:30). The significance of the dating of this call to the Hebrew Christians to abandon the temple.

The Readers' Spiritual Condition

  1. Their initial enthusiasm and confidence (Heb 6:10; 10:32–35)
  2. Their suffering and the apparent delay in the Second Coming (Heb 10:32–34, 37).
  3. Their present wavering and stagnation (Heb 5:11–14; 6:11–12; 10:23).
  4. The danger in their present position: they might apostatize (Heb 3:12; 10:38), return to Judaism, deny the deity of the Lord Jesus and his sacrifice (Heb 10:26–29) and thus reveal that they had never really believed the gospel (Heb 3:13; 4:2).

The Writer's Way of Helping his Readers

  1. By expounding the great and glorious doctrines of the gospel: the deity, manhood, priesthood, sacrifice and second coming of Christ; the true rest of God, the true tabernacle, and the heavenly Jerusalem; and by proving these doctrines from the Old Testament.
  2. By warning his readers of the solemn implications of returning to Judaism.

The Relevance for Us

  1. In the early centuries Christendom in many respects reverted to Judaism. We need to make sure that we are in the good of all the glorious provision of the full-blown Christian gospel, and are not ourselves compromising with a Judaistic form of Christianity.
  2. We too are required to demonstrate the reality of our faith by our works (Heb 6:9–20; 11).
  3. We can learn from this epistle how to witness to our Jewish friends.

Priesthood (Hebrews 5, 6 and 9)

  1. The necessity of our having a high priest to maintain our faith (cf. Peter in Luke 22:31–32) and to sustain us in our obedience and in the justifying of our faith by our works (cf. Abraham in Heb 6:9–18).
  2. The majesty of our Lord's office as high priest seen in the majesty of his enthronement (Heb 5:5–6).
  3. The qualifications of Christ to be our high priest (Heb 5:7–9).
  4. Our high priest's entry into heaven as our precursor, the announcement and the guarantee of our eventual arrival there (Heb 6:18–20; 7:20; 8:1; 9:12, 24).
  5. The three 'appearances' of Israel's high priest on the Day of Atonement a prototype of Christ's three appearances:
    • In the past: on earth to put away sin (Heb 9:26).
    • In the present: in the presence of God for us (Heb 9:24).
    • In the future: a second time unto salvation (Heb 9:28).

Sacrifice and Death

The Meaning of 'To Make Perfect' (Heb 9:9; 10:1, 14)

  1. Israelites were forgiven when they offered their sacrifices (Lev 4:20).
  2. But not once-for-all. In their sacrifices there was an annual 'remembrance of sins' (Heb 10:3).
  3. What 'remembrance of sins' means. God's promise, 'Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more', does not mean that God will forget our sins (Heb 10:17).
  4. What the law's sacrifices could not do, Christ has done: 'he has perfected for ever' (Heb 10:14).

The Writer's Quotation of Psalm 40:6–8

  1. The inability of animal sacrifices to put away sin (Heb 10:4).
  2. The contrast between animal sacrifices and the Messiah lies in 'doing the will of God' (see the thought-flow of Ps 40:6–8 and Heb 10:7–10).
  3. The nature of the difference between the Hebrew: 'Mine ears hast thou opened' and the Greek translation: 'A body thou hast prepared for me' (Heb 10:5).

The Writer's Exposition of Psalm 110:1

The significance of our Lord's 'sitting down' until the second coming.

The Writer's Deduction from the Terms of the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:33–34

Our forgiveness is so complete that there is no further need of any offering to obtain forgiveness (Heb 10:18). The term 'offering' here refers not to the thing offered but to the process of offering.

Our Boldness to Enter

  1. The place into which we enter: the 'holy place' in Hebrews 10:19 is 'the most holy place' (cf. Lev 16:2).
  2. The significance of the veil in Hebrews 10:20:
    • Not 'the veil which hides the unseen world of heaven from us' as in Hebrews 6:19.
    • The veil in the tabernacle was a merciful provision that both hid and revealed God's glory, and allowed Israel's priests to draw as near to God as was possible before the Incarnation.
    • The body of the Lord Jesus performed a similar function when he was here on earth (see John 1:14).
    • But since Calvary and the ascension we can come nearer still into God's very presence.
  3. The threefold preparation: the High Priest, the sprinkling by blood, and the bathing in water (Heb 10:21–22).
  4. The threefold exhortation; let us draw near: let us hold fast: let us consider (Heb 10:22–24).

Warning Passages (Hebrews 3, 4, 6 and 10)

The Cause of Israel's Refusal to Enter The Promised Land

  1. Unbelief in the gospel (Heb 3:19; 4:2). The nature of the gospel preached to the Israelites by Moses: 'to deliver and to bring them to Canaan' (Exod 3:8).
  2. Disobedience: the meaning of the Greek words apeitheia, apeitheō and apeithēs. These words occur 29 times in the NT. Never once are they used of the disobedience of true believers. They are always used to describe those who reject the gospel. Some typical examples: Hebrews 11:31; Acts 16:1–2; Romans 10:21; John 3:36; Titus 1:15–16.
  3. God's verdict in Numbers 14:11, 22 and in Psalm 106.

The Nature of the Wilful Sin of Hebrews 10:26

  1. See the meaning of 'sin' in John 16:8–9.
  2. The meaning of 'after we have received the knowledge of the truth' (contrast 1 Tim 1:13).
  3. The sin involves:
    • Deliberate repudiation of the deity of Christ.
    • Regarding his blood as common blood (i.e. that of an ordinary man).
    • Insulting the Spirit of grace.
  4. A person who is guilty of this sin is obviously not a believer!
  5. Israel was 'sanctified by the blood of the covenant' at Sinai (Exod 24:3–11); but they were not believers (Heb 3:16–19).
  6. The result of the wilful sin: if we reject the sacrifice of Christ, there is no other sacrifice (Heb 10:26).

The Impossibility of Renewing Certain People Again to Repentance (Heb 6:4–8)

  1. The meaning of this: it is impossible to get them to change their minds.
  2. Why this is so:
    • They have had the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit (the rain of Heb 6:7–8) and they have rejected both him and his witness to Jesus: and by going back to Judaism they take on themselves personally the responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus.
    • God has no greater power than the Holy Spirit. Since they have knowingly rejected the Holy Spirit, God has no power left with which to make them change their minds.
  3. The terms of Hebrews 6:4–5 do not demand that these people were ever true believers. The people of Acts 5:15–16 and Acts 19:11–12 were not necessarily converted, even though their healing was the work of the Holy Spirit.
  4. The implication of Hebrews 6:9.

The Challenge For Us

  1. To hold fast our confession and to seek mercy and grace (Heb 4:14–16).
  2. To provide God with the evidence that we are true believers (Heb 6:10–15).
  3. Not to cast away our boldness: to persevere: not to shrink back (Heb 10:35–39).
 
David Gooding
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