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Situating the 'Letter to the Hebrewsm in Early Christian History

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Situating the 'Letter to the Hebrewsm in Early Christian History Situating the 'Letter to the Hebrewsm in early Christian history Jonathan M. Isaak Faculty of Religious Studies McGill University Montreal, Canada. August 1999 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy @ Jonathan M. Isaak 1999 National Library Bibiiièque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques The author has granteci a non- L'auteur a accordé une ticence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Li- of Canada to Bibliothèque nationaie du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sel reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electroaic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qPi protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otheMrise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people provided the encouragement and the help that I needed to write this thesis. 1 would like to acknowledge a few. First, there is my wife, Mary Anne, who is my constant support and constructive critic. Then too, Our parents, hers and mine, deserve mention especially for taking Our children this sumer for a month so that 1 could make the submission deadline. Pierre Gilbert kindly corrected my anglicisrns in the French abstract. Along with some of the recent publications by the Society of Biblical Literature, 1 have chosen to use the 'author- date1 parenthetical documentation style. My aim is to provide an efficient referencing system that also keeps relevant material within the main text. Finally, 1 want to acknowledge my deep gratitude to my thesis advisor, Dr. Frederik Wisse. During the last four years he has given valuable supervision at each stage of my program. My file of correspondence shows that 345 ernails and dozens of hard copy texts have gone back and forth between us. Proposais, course assignments, grant applications, =d chapter draftç have al1 benefited from his careful attention to detail and his probing questions. This is t~lyremarkable. My educational experience and formation at McGill has been very constructive due to this kind of mentoring. While 1 take responsibility for the argument that follows, Dr. Wisse's helpful feedback and insightful suggestions, have al1 helped to clarify my thinking and ta sharpen my writing. ABSTRACT Situating the 'Letter to the Hebrews' in early Christian history The early Christian text known as the 'Letter to the Hebrewsl has presented a riddle to scholarship. Its anonymity and anomalous form are puzzling. Scholars like Norman Perrin and Barnabas Lindars also find Hebrews enigmatic because it does not appear to represent the views of any early Christian community. This thesis contends that the riddle of Hebrewsl lack of community-fit is due to a conceptual flaw. Beginning with Franz Overbeck (1882), there has been a tendency to assess early Christian texts as nonliterary. unlike later Patristic texts. Deemed nonliterary, they are thereby thought to document the situation within which they were written. For Hebrews, this has resulted in numerous reconstructions of its historical setting. None, however, has proven satisfactory. This lack of consensus casts doubt on the appropriateness of ruling out Hebrewsl essential literary character. Moreover, the explanations used to justify the unique nonliterary character of early Christian literature are not compelling. Thus, the probability of Hebrewst literary character increases. The literary texts written by Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian, are more likely comparable to Hebrews. These Patristic texts were produced in the late second century before the shape of orthodoxy became fixed. A survey of representative scholarly literature shows a low expectation of retrieving from these early Patristic texts an unambiguous profile of the author's ideological community, of the textls occasion, or of its audience. Thus, it would be unwarranted to expect Hebrews to be more representative of its situation. Given the probability of Hebrews' literary character, the thesis demonstrates that it is inappropriate to assume that Hebrews represents ideas that extend beyond those of the author to a specific community or to a particular situation. The burden of proof is reversed. Without evidence to the contrary, Hebrews is best explained as a persuasive literary effort by an idiosyncratic author directed to a general Christian audience. Thus, the riddle of Hebrewsl lack of community-fit dissolves. Furthemore, questions are raised regarding the contemporary scholarly expectation that other early Christian writings (Matthew, James, etc.) were shaped by and for ideologically distinct communities. SOMMAIRE Situer la «Lettre aux Hébreux,, dans l'histoire du paléochristianisrne Le texte paléochrétien connu sous le nom de #Lettre aux Hébreux)) représente une énigme pour les biblistes . Son caractère anonyme et sa forme inhabituelle sont problématiques. Des exégètes comme Norman Perrin et Barnabas Lindars estiment de plus que l'absence d'une correspondance idéologique entre le texte et une communauté paféochrétienne précise contribue au caractère énigmatique du texte. La présente thèse soutient que la problématique créée par l'absence apparente d'une idéologie reflètant une communauté identifiable n'est que le résultat, en fait, d'un cadre théorique inadéquat. Depuis l'étude de Franz Overbeck (1882), plusieurs chercheurs ont eu la tendance de qualifier les textes paléochrétiens de non littéraires, en contraste aux textes patristiques qui datent d'une époque plus tardive. Puisquton qualifie les textes paléochrétiens de non littéraires, on estime qu'ils ont principalement comme fonction de documenter la période durant laquelle ils sont écrits. Dans le cas de la Lettre aux Hébreux, cette approche a donné lieu à un grand nombre dthypothèses relativement à son arrière-plan historique. Cependant, aucune d'entre elles ne s'est avérée vraiment satisfaisante jusqutà maintenant. Cette absence de consensus jette un doute sérieux sur la pertinence d'un refus du caractère essentiellement littéraire du texte. Il faut de plus souligner que les raisons invoquées pour justifier le caractère non littéraire des textes paléochrétiens ne sont pas convaincants. Ces observations rendent encore plus probable l'hypothèse du caractère littéraire de la Lettre aux Hébreux. Les textes littéraires d'Irénée, Clément d'Alexandrie et Tertullien se comparent favorablement à la Lettre aux Hébreux. Ces textes patristiques ont été rédigés durant la dernière partie du deuxième siècle, avant même que la doctrine orthodoxe ne trouve sa formulation définitive- Un survol reprdsentatif de la recherche démontre que les spécialistes en patristique ont généralement peu d'attentes quant a la possibilité de reconstituer un portrait clair de la communauté idéologique de l'auteur, des raisons motivant la production du texte et dela composition de l'auditoire. Si c'est le cas, il n'y aucune raison de croire qu'il puisse en être autrement pour la Lettre aux Hébreux. Étant donné la possibilité de pouvoir attribuer à la Lettre aux Hébreux un caractère littéraire, cette thèse cherche à démontrer qu'il est faux de présumer que ce texte représente une idéologie qui dépasse celle de l'auteur pour rejoindre l'idéologie d'une communauté précise ou une situation particulière. Le fardeau de la preuve s'en trouve donc renversé. Ainsi, étant donné l'absence de preuves à l'effet du contraire, il est préférable de considérer la Lettre aux Hébreux comme une oeuvre littéraire produite par un auteur précis et adressé à un auditoire général, et dont l'intention est fondamentalement rhétorique. Dans une telle optique, la problématique de l'absence de correspondance entre la Lettre aux Hébreux et une communauté precise disparaît. Cette thèse soulève en plus certaines questions en ce qui concerne l'hypothèse que d'autres écrits chrétiens (Matthieu, Jacques, etc,) aient été façonngs par des communautés idéologiques distinctes. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .................. The Riddle of Hebrews ............ Riddle #1: Anonymity; ancient letters are usually not anonymous ....... Riddle #2: Anomalous form; it neither conforms to the normal fom of a letter nor to that of a hornily/treatise .......... Riddle #3: Lack of community-fit; it does not represent any known group ... Thesis Problem ................ Operative Assumptions ............ Assumption #1: Riddles are due to unmet expectations ............ Assumption #2: Expectations for situating a text are based on patterns set by the genre to which the text is thought to belong ......... Assumption #3: Expectations for situating a text depend on certain assumptions as to the representative or referential nature of the text ... Objective .................. Thesis .................... Line of Argument ............... Contribution ................. CHAPTER ONE SURVEYING THE HISTORY OF =BREWS1 GENRE ASSESSMENT . 28 The Text of Hebrews and its Reception . 28 Canonization history ........... 31 Summary ............... 36 Pre-Nineteenth-Century NT Scholarship . 37 John Chrysostom
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