Professor Bruce, who occupies the Recent Literature R ylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of on the Epistle Manchester, is himself the author of a recent full-scale commentary on Hebrews in the New London to the Hebrews series. by F. F. Bruce

This survey confines itself to work Lycus valley, to deal with an earlier published within the past twenty stage of the Colossian heresy than years, and almost entirely to work that dealt with by Paul in Colossians. published in the English language. In Hebrews 5-10 it is shown that the whole Jewish ritual system is super­ The great problem of the Epistle to seded by the high-priestly work of the Hebrews is not the identity of its Christ; in Heb. 1-4 the uniqueness author but the life-setting of its and supremacy of Christ are es­ readers - not so much their geo­ tablished as against all other inter­ graphical location as the crisis of mediaries; thus the first ten chapters faith and action in which they found of our Epistle present 'a complete themselves at the time when the refutation of the Colossian heresy as unnamed author judged it expedient that heresy is described by Light­ to send them his 'word of exhorta­ foot', while Heb. 13:9 may contain tion'. Since the Epistle must be dated a reference to the same dietary dis­ in the same period as most of the cipline as Paul condemns in Col. 2: 16. other New Testament Epistles (its If, 'when the news about the Co­ use by Clement of Rome establishes lossian heresy was later conveyed to its first-century date, apart from Paul at Rome, a copy of Hebrews considerations of internal evidence) was sent along with the news,' then, it is natural to look in those other in T. W. Manson's opinion, several Epistles, alongside the Acts of the facts in the early history of the Epistle Apostles, for clues which might help could be explained. us to solve the problem of Hebrews. Another destination for the Epistle More recently the discovery and study in the province of Asia was suggested of the Qumran texts has seemed to soon afterwards by W. F. Howard, some students to shed further light 'The Epistle to the Hebrews', Inter­ on this problem. pretatiott v, 195 I, pp. 80 ff. Howard thought of the addressees as a group I. Hebrews in relation to apostolic his­ of wealthy and cultured Jews at tory Cltld literature Ephesus. They had become Chris­ T. W. Manson, 'The Problem of the tians during Paul's Ephesian ministry, Epistle to the Hebrews', BJRL xxxii, but their faith waned after Paul's 1949-50, pp. I ff., put forward the imprisonment and execution in Rome. suggestion that the Epistle was writ­ They looked down on their Gentile ten by Apollos to the churches of the fellow-Christians as low-born and

31 uneducated, still too much influenced people to leave the fancied security Cyprus, for whom Barnabas had about fornication (Heb. 13 :4), but by the moral laxity of their former of their religio licita and commit direct pastoral responsibility; in that some of them used his letter to paganism. Timothy (Heb. 13 :23) themselves unreservedly to the ad­ case a setting for the Epistle might be justify the formation of an ApoHos had obeyed Paul's summons to venturous path along which Christ found in the wave of patriotic ex­ party over against those whose Rome (2 Tim. 4:9 if.) and been him­ was leading His people. The influence citement which the war in Judaea of watchword was 'I am of Paul'. Very self imprisoned because his associa­ of William Manson's work may be AD. 66-70 must have caused in the soon after the reception of Apollos's tion with Paul laid him open to traced in a number of studies which Jewish communities of Cyprus as letter at Corinth, Paul had to send the suspicion; but now that he was have appeared since 195 I, such as of other places. same church I Corinthians, in which released he would be a very useful William Neil's commentary in the But the latest major work on the Canon Montefiore thinks allusions helper of the author in the attempt 'Torch' series (London: SCM, 1955) Epistle presents one of the most to Hebrews can be detected. to restore the Christian loyalty of the and the present writer's contributions fascinating and carefully argued cases wavering addressees in a place where to Peake's COJJlIJJentary Otl the Bible, ed. for a setting closely interwoven with 2. Hebrews in relation to the Qutllral1 he was already well known. M. Black and H. H. Rowley (London: the Pauline mission field that has cOlJIlJlunity More important than either of these Nelson, 1962), and to the 'New ever been put forward. H. W. Mon­ contributions is William Manson's International Commentary on the tefiore's COlJltlJentary on the Epistle to When the newly discovered texts The Epistle to the HebrelJJs (London: New Testament' (Grand Rapids: the HebrelJJs (London: A & c. Black, from Qumran began to be studied, Hodder, 1951), based on the Baird Eerdmans, 1964). 1964) suggests that it was written by attempts were almost inevitably made Lecture for 1949, It considerably The year after William Manson's Apollos to the CQrinthian church, to find some link between the doc­ weakened the hold which had for book was published, C. Spicq's great between AD. 52 and 54. He finds a trines of the Qumran community and quite a long time been maintained on French commentary in two volumes clue to the life-setting in I Cor. 16 :12, those presupposed in the Epistle to scholars in the English-speaking appeared in the 'Etudes Bibliques' where Paul tells the Corinthians that the Hebrews. In an article in JBL world by the view (propounded series: L'Epttre aux Hebreux (Paris: although he had urged Apollos lxxiv, 1955, pp. 213 if., on 'The especially by James Moifatt and Gabalda, 1952)' Spicq deals with strongly to pay them a visit, it was Significance of the Qumran Texts for E. F. Scott) that the religious every aspect of the study of the out of the question for Apollos to go Research into the Beginnings of situation of the addressees had Epistle; so far as the life-setting is to Corinth just then. Since Apollos Christianity', Oscar Cullmann saw a nothing to do with any attraction concerned, he revives with modif­ could not visit Corinth, Canon connexion between the Qumran com­ exercised by Judaism but 'was de­ ications a theory previously presented Montefiore suggests, he wrote a munity and the New Testament termined by some form of secular by K. Bornhiiuser in ElJlpfanger Ufld letter to the church there instead, and 'Hellenists', not least the priests of drift to irreligion or to paganism'. Verfasser des Brie/es an die Hebraer this letter is our Epistle to the Acts 6 :7. In the same year F. M. William Manson accepts a Roman (Giitersloh, 1932), in which the Hebrews, the title of which may point Braun, writing in Revue Biblique destination for the Epistle, as many addressees are identified with the to the 'Hebrews' of 2 Cor. I I :22 as lxii, 1955, pp. 5 if. on'L'arriere-fond (pre-eminently Harnack) had done 'priests' of Acts 6:7. He thinks of the people against whom the Epistle judai:que du quatrieme Evangile et earlier, but makes a contribution Caesarea or Syrian Antioch as the was especially aimed. A Corinthian la Communaute de l'Alliance', ex­ of his own to this thesis. The Roman place where the recipients were destination had been suggested by pressed the view that 'of all the New church, which had a Jewish-Christian living at the time when the Epistle other scholars, but Canon Monte­ Testament writings, the Epistle to base (Rom. I I: I 8), was committed was written, with a preference for fiore builds up a more detailed case in the Hebrews is the one which gives as a whole to the implications of the Antioch: the allusions to the Mac­ its favour than his predecessors had the fullest answer to the basic ten­ Gentile world-mission, but it includ­ cabaean martyrdoms in Heb. II:3 5 if. done. 'Those from Italy' whose dencies of the (Qumran) sect'. In 1957 ed a small and conservative enclave are matched by 'a Syrian notice of greetings are conveyed by the writer Jean Danielou, in Les manuscrits de la of Jewish Christians who clung to the cult which is markedly Antiochian in Heb. 13 :24 are his friends Priscilla Mer Morte et les origines du Chris­ the more exclusive traditions of in detail'. and Aquila, the only people in the tianisfJJe, translated as The Dead Sea their ancestral religion and found Antony Snell, in NelJJ and Living W tV' whole New Testament who are Scrolls and Primitive Christianity (New themselves increasingly out of sym­ (London: Faith Press, 1959)' re­ expressly named as having come York: Mentor Omega Books, 1962), pathy with the forward movement of vives the identification of the author 'from Italy' (Acts 18 :2). Apollos's suggested that it was 'quite reason­ Gentile Christianity. The Epistle with Barnabas, and thinks of the letter failed of its purpose; not only able to view those to whom the was written to encourage these recipients as Jewish converts in did the readers ignore his warning Epistle was addressed as a group of 32 33 Essenian priests'. The account of the priestly Messiah and the prophet of the Hellenist, had preached. But (so G. A. Simcox, 'Heb, xiii; 2. Tim. life-setting of the Epistle given by the end-time. since Philip's missionary activity in iv', Exp. Timesx, 1898-99,PP.43off.) C. Spicq in his commentary was A major contribution to this particu­ that region, 'the centre of Christian or that it is a fragment of a Pauline elaborated by him in an article lar aspect of our subject was Hans evangelistic effort had passed from letter (e.g. of the 'severe letter' to 'L'Epitre aux H6breux: Apollos, Kosmala's Hebriier-Essener -Christen Jerusalem to Syrian Antioch, by­ Corinth) mistakenly tacked on to Jean-Baptiste, les He1l6nistes et Qum­ (Leiden: Brill, 1959). At the outset of passing Samaria and its Hellenistic­ a work with which it had nothing ran' in Revue de Qumrlin i, 1958-59, this work Dr. Kosmala claims that Jewish community on the way.' to do (so E. D. Jones, 'The Author­ pp. 365 ff., where he argued that the it was from him that Dr. Yadin first All such views receive a sober and ship of Hebrews xiii', Exp. Tillles converted priests to whom the got the idea of a connexion between critical examination from J oseph xlvi, 1934-35, pp. 562. ff.) has been Epistle was addressed were 'Esseno­ Qumran and Hebrews, but that Dr. Coppens in Les a.ffinites qumrlinien!les brought to mind afresh by A. Q. Christians', including former mem­ Yadin published it first. However, de I'Epttre aux Hebreux (Bruges­ Morton's conclusion, based on liter­ bers of the Qumran sect, whose the connexion as elaborated by Dr. Paris: Descl6e De Brouwer, 1962.). ary statistics, that 'the last chapter of 'doctrinal and biblical formation, Kosmala differs somewhat from Dr. He points out that the contacts with Hebrews is Pauline' (British Weekfy intellectual preoccupations and reli­ Yadin's thesis. Dr. Kosmala's view Qumran, even the best substantiated March 18, 1965). gious presuppositions' were well is that the addressees were not Jewish ones, are much less prominent than The structure of the Epistle has been known to the writer of the Epistle. Christians who were inclined to those with Philonic Judaism. To investigated by A. Vanhoye, S. J., Scripta Hierosofymitana iv, 1958, revert to Judaism, but Jews who had his critique this may be added. The in La structure litteraire de l'Epttre aux which was devoted to 'Aspects of come a good distance on the road to recipients of the Epistle were pro­ Hebreux (Paris-Bruges: Descl6e De the Dead Sea Scrolls', contained two Christianity, but still stopped short of bably Jewish Christians whose back­ Brouwer, 1963) and Epttre aux He­ articles relevant to our present sub­ the goal - Jews, indeed, whose out­ ground was not so much the nor­ breux: Texte Grec Structtlre (Fano: ject. David Flusser's article on 'The look was very similar to that of the mative Judaism represented in rab­ Typis Paulinis, 1966); he argues that Dead Sea Sect and Pre-Pauline Qumran community and other Es­ binical tradition as the non conformist the Epistle is a carefully constructed Christianity' (pp. 2. 15 ff.) argues that senes. He illustrates his thesis not J udaism of which the Qumran and and balanced work. since New Testament affinities with only from the Qumran texts but also other Essene communities are repre­ A number of students have dealt Qumran teaching occur in Pauline from some funerary imscriptions in sentatives, but by no means the with the Old Testament exegesis of and non-Pauline documents alike the Beth-shearim area which he only representatives. Traces of this the Epistle. R. Rendall ('The Method they probably go back to pre-Pauline regards as Essene in character. Much nonconformist Judaism survive in of the Writer to the Hebrews in Christianity; among those affinities of the most fruitful early Christian Roman Christianity as late as the using Old Testament Quotations', are some, like purifying washing, the evangelization, Dr. Kosmala believes, beginning of the 3rd century A.D. Evang. Quarterfy xxvii, 1955, pp. 2.14 new covenant, and the concept of was carried out among Essene groups. (e.g. in the Apostolic Tradition of ff.) and S. Kistemaker (The Psalm the spiritual temple, for which spe­ Hippolytus); this was probably the Citations in the Epistle to the Hebrews, cially valuable evidence is found in In the volume on Hebrews, Jall/es, I form of Judaism to which the Roman Amsterdam: Van Soest, 1961) have Hebrews. Yigael Yadin' s article 'The and If Peter in 'Layman's Bible recipients of the Epistle had formerly drawn attention to the crucial part Dead Sea Scrolls and the Epistle to Commentaries' (London: SCM, 1962.), adhered, and to which they were in played by selected psalms in the the Hebrews' (pp. 36 ff.) identifies J. W. Bowman regards the recipients danger of slipping back. But to say authot's exposition of his theme - the addressees of the Epistle with of Hebrews as members of the this is quite a different matter from especially Psalms 8, 40, 95 and IIO. Jews originally belonging to the Hellenistic Jewish-Christian church attempting to establish for them Markus Barth ('The Old Testament Qumran sect, who were converted in Palestine who had come under anything like a direct contact with in Hebrews', in the Otto Piper to Christianity but carried with them Qumran influence, and whose under­ one of the Essene communities of Festschrift, Current Issues in NeJv Test­ into Christianity some of their former standing of the Gospel was so defec­ Palestine. ament Interpretation, ed. W. Klassen beliefs and practices, with which the tive that an exposition along the lines andG. F. Snyder, New York: Harper, 1962., pp. 53 ff.) finds that for the writer of the Epistle takes issue. of the Epistle was urgently required. ;. Other questions Among these survivals of their The particular group of Hellenistic author's exegesis is the endeavour to former association Dr. Yadin makes Christians addressed is located at The view that Hebrews 13 was writ­ help people in need by telling them special reference to the eschatological Sychar, where in earlier days John the ten by Paul as a 'letter of commend­ what the Bible says of their shepherd role of angels and to the figures of a Baptist and Jesus, and later Philip ation' to validate the author's thesis Jesus Christ'. F. C. Synge (Hebrews

34 35 and the Scripttlres, London: S.P.C.K., early Christian eschatology; Christ 1959) maintains that the Epistle is has been manifested 'at the con­ based on a collection of testimonia summation of the ages' (Heb. 9:26) relating to a 'heavenly companion' while His appearance is still to be with whom God is represented as witnessed by those who look for conversing - a companion whom the Him (Heb. 9:28). But the Platonic author identifies with Jesus. S. G. schema which the author introduces Sowers (The HertJleltetltics of Philo and to serve the interests of the gospel HebrelJJs, Zurich: EVZ Verlag, 1965) means that the work of Christ is shows that, while the author of viewed as being accomplished not Hebrews had received some training only on the frontier of this age and in the allegorical exegesis character­ the age to come but also on the front­ istic ofPhilo, he abandons it in favour ier of the visible world and the in­ of a typological exegesis because his visible. The tension between 'already' mind had come to be controlled by and 'not yet' is maintained; the the common thought and faith of the saints' everlasting rest is already church and he had learned to under­ their heritage but it remains to be stand the history of salvation in possessed. C. F. D. Moule ('Sanct­ terms of the two covenants. uary and Sacrifice in the Churcli of The author's affinities with Philo and the New Testament', ITS N.S. i, his radical divergences from Philo 1950, pp. 29 if.) deals with the central have been treated judiciously by theme of the Epistle; one important Pere Spicq in Chapter 3 ('Le philo­ passage in the article interprets Heb. nisme de l'Epitre aux Hebreux') of 13 :10 ('we have an altar ...') as part the introductory volume of his com­ of a Christian apologetic answering mentary: 'the language and the the charge that Christians had neither arrangement of thought are Philonic, priesthood not altar, neither sanc­ ... the doctrine is apostolic' (p. 91). tuary nor sacrifice. R. V. G. Tasker (The Gospel in the Most recently William Barclay (The Epistle to the Hebrews, London: Epistle to the Hebrews, London: Tyndale Press, 1950) shows how the Lutterworth, 1965) sums up the Epistle, for all its distinctive features, seven dangers against which the is true to the primitive preaching, recipients are warned as drift instead especially as it presents the Old of decision, weariness instead of Testament preparation, the fulfilment endurance, stagnation instead of pro­ thereof in the coming of Christ, the gress, comfort instead of discipline. consequences in the inauguration of isolation instead of fellowship, apos­ the new age, and the appeal to tasy Instead of loyalty, and looking repentance and faith. C. K. Barrett backward instead of forward and ('The Eschatology of the Epistle to upward; and states the two great the Hebrews' in the C. H. Dodd positive emphases of the Epistle in Festschrift, The Backgrotltld of the New these terms: 'Religion is basically man TestallJ8nt and its Eschatology, Cam­ entering into friendship with God on bridge: University Press, 1956, pp. the initiative of God, and that friend­ 363 if.) shows how the eschatology ship is only possible through the work of the Epistle retains the two foci of and person of Jesus Christ' (p. 95).

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