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F.F. Bruce, "Recent Literature on the Epistle to the Hebrews,"

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F.F. Bruce, 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.
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