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The Letter to the Hebrews (see Online Text) is a New Testament document.

Overview

Some notes

• (1) The nature of the Son

“Jesus… though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on hearth and under the earth…” (Phil 1:6-10).

“The Son… is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being… When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs” (Hebrews 1:1-4).

• (2) The Son of Man is superior to the Angels

“What is Adam [=the ancestor of humanity] that you are mindful of him,

or the son of man (ben Adam) [=humanity] that you care for him?

You have made him only a little lower that the angels:

You have crowned him with glory and honor,

Subjecting all things under his feet”

(Ps 8:4-5; quoted in Hebrews 2:6-8)

But for Christians Jesus is the Son of Man (ben Adam). Therefore for the author of the Letter the Psalm is not about Adam or humanity but about Jesus…

“Jesus… for a little while was made lower than the angels; now he is crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death” (Hebrews 2:9)

• (3) Jesus is the Melchizedek who had to come.

2 Enoch: The Miraculous Birth of Melchisedek through the Holy Spirit

Matthew-Luke: Jesus is the foretold Son of David born miraculously through the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews: Jesus is the foretold High Priest according to the Order of Melchisedek

• (4) The “old” and the “new” priesthood

“When there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well… There is, on the one hand, the abrogation of an earlier commandment because it was weak and ineffectual… there is, on the other hand, the introduction of a better hope” (7:12,18-19). “If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one” (8:7). “In speaking of a new covenant he has made the first one obsolete” (8:13).

The point is that the “old” Jewish priesthood (from Levi and Aaron) has ended and has been replaced by the “new” eschatological priesthood of Melchisedek-Jesus. [We are AFTER the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem]

References

• Hebrews, Epistle to the / Eric F. Mason / In: The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism (2010 Collins / Harlow), dictionary, 716-718

• / [[]] / In: The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992 Freedman), dictionary,

External links

• Wikipedia
• Early Christian Writings