Abilene Christian University Digital Commons @ ACU ACU Brown Library Monograph Series Volume 1 2019 God’s Faithfulness to Promise: The orH tatory Use of Commissive Language in Hebrews David Ripley Worley Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/acu_library_books Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Worley, David Ripley, "God’s Faithfulness to Promise: The orH tatory Use of Commissive Language in Hebrews" (2019). ACU Brown Library Monograph Series. Vol.1. https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/acu_library_books/1 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ ACU. It has been accepted for inclusion in ACU Brown Library Monograph Series by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ ACU. God’s Faithfulness to Promise The Hortatory Use of Commissive Language in Hebrews David Worley With a Bibliographical Addendum by Lee Zachary Maxey GOD’S FAITHFULNESS TO PROMISE The Hortatory Use of Commissive Language in Hebrews Yale University Ph.D. 1981 GOD’S FAITHFULNESS TO PROMISE The Hortatory Use of Commissive Language in Hebrews A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Yale University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By David Ripley Worley, Jr., May 1981 With a Bibliographical Addendum by Lee Zachary Maxey Copyright © 2019 Abilene Christian University All rights reserved. ISBN 978-0-359-30502-5 The open access (OA) ebook edition of this book is licensed under the following Creative Commons license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode ACU Brown Library Monograph Series titles are published by the Scholars Lab at the Abilene Christian University Library Open Access ebook editions of titles in this series are available for free at https://digitalcommons.acu. edu/acu_library_books/ Cover design by Shaun Allshouse Interior text design by Rachel Paul To Melinda Ann Worley never flagging in zeal aglow with the Spirit loving as Christ loved faithful woman loving companion patient mother CONTENTS Foreword ix Abstract xii Acknowledgments xiv Abbreviations xv Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Promises and Exhortation 7 Features of Promising 7 Promise, Pledge, Vow 9 Components of Promising 14 Felicities of Promising 17 Characteristic Uses of Promising 21 Self Resolution 23 Exhortation 23 Deception 26 Philophronesis 27 Encouragement 27 Characteristic Uses of Past “Promises” 28 Complaints, Reminders 29 Exemplary Illustrations 30 Thanksgiving, Appeal, Criticism 31 Exhortation 32 Abraham as Promisee 33 Hebrews as Exhortation 37 Intention and Occasion 38 Structure 42 Hortatory Traits 44 Syncrisis and Exhortation 47 Summary 49 vii viii Contents Chapter 2 Faithful Promisees 51 Expecting the Promised City 52 Destination without Guide 52 Desiring a Homeland 55 Dying without the Promise 57 Confidence in the Promiser 59 Even Sarah Herself 60 Testing the Promisee 62 Illustrating Faithful Promisees 63 Guarantee of a Better Possession 64 Presbyters as Promisees 69 Exemplary Promisees Who Endure 71 Favored Promisees 73 Confidence in Threatened Promises 75 Summary 77 Chapter 3 God’s Promissory Oaths 79 Using Human and Divine Oaths 79 Exhortation in Hebrews 80 4:14-7:28 80 4:14-5:10 81 5:11-6:8 85 6:9-7:28 86 Forensic Use of Oath 89 Forensic features 90 Oath and the Rhetor 92 Summary 93 Philo and the Forensic Oath 94 Philo and Hebrews 94 Philo, Rhetoric and Oath 96 Exhortation and God’s Oath by Himself 99 “He could swear by no one greater”: God’s Oath and Patient Abraham (6:11-16) 100 God’s Assuring Oath 100 By a Greater 103 “He cannot lie”: God as Oath-Taker and Witness (6:16-20) 106 God as Surety 107 Lying and Repenting 109 Safe Inheritance 111 “Priest Forever”: The Heir’s Hope 113 Contents ix Oath in Syncrisis 113 Priesthood and Hope 115 Summary 117 Chapter 4 Jesus and God’s Faithfulness to Promise 118 Joy, Suffering and Death: Jesus as Exemplary Promisee 119 Promised Joy: Hebrews 11:39-12:3 121 Death and the Eternality of Priesthood: Hebrews 5:5-10 124 Summary 128 Promises and Priestly Service: Jesus as Surety and Mediator of Covenant 128 Permanent Surety for Us 130 Better Covenant, Better Promises 133 Cleansed conscience 136 Forgiveness of Transgressions 139 Summary 141 Priesthood and Homologia: Faithful Promisor and Promisees 142 Jesus and Covenant Access 143 Homologia of Hope 146 Faithful Promisees 148 Rest and Occupied Realm: Jesus as Leader into the Promise 150 Jesus/Joshua 150 Numbers 13 152 Heir of Promise 154 Summary 156 Conclusions 157 Bibliography 162 A Bibliographical Addendum, By Lee Zachary Maxey 174 FOREWORD James W. Thompson An irony in the history of research in the Epistle to the Hebrews is that the major thread running through this homily has received little scholarly atten- tion. While Hebrews appears to be a series of midrashim on different texts and topics, the unifying thread of the homily is the divine promise. Forms of ἐπαγ- appear throughout the homily, more frequently than in any book of the NT.1 Synonyms for ἐπαγ-, which are also prominent in the homily, include ἐλπίς (3:6; 6:11, 18; 7:19; 10:23; cf. ἐλπιζoμέvωv in 11:1), God’s oath (cf. forms of ὀμvύειv in 3:11, 18; 6:13; 7:20-21), the inheritance (κληρovoμία, 9:15; 11:8) of salvation (1:14; 6:12), the abiding possession (10:34), the reward (μισθαπoδoσία, 10:35; cf. 11:6), and the city that is to come (cf. 11:8-16; 13:14). According to David Worley’s dissertation, these references reflect the accumulation of commissive language in Hebrews. Prior to David Worley’s analysis, Ernst Käsemann’s classic Das wan- dernde Gottesvolk demonstrated an awareness of the importance of the promise in Hebrews.2 F. J. Schierse’s Verheissung und Heilsvollendung: Zur theologische Grundfrage des Hebräerbriefs was one of the few thorough studies of the motif of the promise in this homily.3 After Worley completed the dissertation in 1981, others recognized the importance of the promise in Hebrews. Indeed, C. Rose argued that the promise is the central theme of 1 Cf. ἐπαγγελία in 4:1; 6:12, 15, 17; 7:6; 8:6; 9:15; 10:36; 11:9, 13, 17, 33, 39; ἐπαγγέλλεσθαι in 6:13; 10:23; 12:26. Elsewhere in the NT it appears prominently in Acts (8 times), Romans (7 times), and Galatians (9 times). It appears 18 times in Hebrews as compared to 22 times in the Pauline corpus, and only 17 times in the entire LXX. See A. Sand, ἐπαγγελία, EDNT 2.14. 2 Ernst Käsemann, Das wandernde Gottesvolk. FRLANT 55. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1938). 3 F. J. Schierse, Verheissung und Heilsvollendung: Zur theologische Grundfrage des Hebräerbriefs, MTS 9 (Munich: Zink, 1955). xii Foreword Hebrews.4 The major focus of the research on the promise in Hebrews was the author’s concept of the content of the promise. Scholars have examined the background of the concept, comparing the concept of the promise with canon- ical and noncanonical writers with an attempt to discover the world behind the text. They also have examined the promise in analyses of the eschatology of Hebrews. Worley’s dissertation, unlike the other studies, is an examination of the world within the text. With its use of linguistic analysis, it offers a unique analysis of how promises function in human discourse. Background stud- ies offer a critical analysis of the role of commissive language in antiquity, demonstrating the various functions of promises. Worley’s study of ancient literature offers valuable insights into the role of the promise in both religion and politics. Much of this literature has not been played a role in subsequent studies of the promise in Hebrews. The focus of this dissertation is not, how- ever, on the background of the concept in Hebrews, but on the function of promissory language within the text. With its focus on what language does, it anticipates the emergence of rhetorical criticism, which has flourished since this dissertation was completed. Indeed, current rhetorical critics will ben- efit from Worley’s careful treatment of the functions of promissory language throughout this homily. In a linguistic analysis of the functions of commissive language in chapter one, Worley demonstrates that, of the numerous functions of promises, one is to exhort the listener(s). The demonstration from ancient sources, including the speeches of the generals to their troops, offers a helpful parallel to the function of the promise in Hebrews. Such promises embolden the listeners to endure and bear the necessary burdens that lead to the promise. The function of the promise is inseparable from the situation of the lis- tener, as Worley demonstrates. Against a long tradition of Hebrews scholar- ship, he rightly determines that Hebrews is not a polemical work, but a “word of exhortation” (13:22) to a community that suffers from social alienation, loss of property, and discouragement. Readers who are abandoning their assemblies (Heb 10:25) because of their “drooping hands and weak knees” (12:12) need to find a reason to endure to the end (3:6, 14). Worley’s examina- tion of the speeches of the commissive language of ancient generals provides helpful insights in determining that the function of the promise is to instill the confidence in the readers that will lead to their endurance. 4 C. Rose, “Verheißung und Erfüllung: Zum Verständnis von ἐπαγγελία im Hebräerbrief,” BZ 33 (1989): 191. Foreword xiii Worley correctly demonstrates the hortatory function of the promise throughout Hebrews in providing the readers’ confidence and perseverance. In a careful analysis, he correctly maintains that the central section of Hebrews (4:14-10:18) is not only a soteriological statement, but is a promise intended to embolden the community.