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October 30th, 2021

10/30/2021

This Sunday is the first of two ‘breaks’ from the Epistle to the Hebrews. We are taking a brief look at the Revelation of John on this Reformation Sunday [Revelation 14:6-7].

To take a BRIEF look at that book of the Bible is almost an impossibility. It is quite a complex book. It is literally filled with references to other parts of scripture, but that is ultimately a good way to understand the text before you.

You can probably imagine the number of books that have been written about this book. Look in almost any library, and the number of books on that topic, compared to other books of the Bible, will be surprising. And many of those books will probably be called ‘commentaries’.

In our advanced culture, it seems like we are expecting a lot more from the commentaries, that they at least should be able to mention ALL of the important things that have been said about the text throughout the centuries. But if THAT is the expectation, perhaps we should change the word describing those books (from ‘commentaries’) to something like ‘explanatories’ or ‘gigantic perspectival studies’. Commentators make comments; commentaries contain only SOME of all those comments. And as the commentators change over the years, the commentaries will no doubt change as well.

The following is a good example of how commentaries change. The most recent Concordia Commentary on the Book of Revelation certainly has a lot of good things to say about the angel within the text of Revelation 14:6-7. But it nowhere makes a connection between this angel and Doctor Martin Luther.

Another commentary, called Popular Commentary, DOES make that connection. Admittedly this commentary was written about eighty years earlier. And the writer not only wrote about this fascinating book of the Bible, but in that four-volume Popular Commentary he wrote about EVERY OTHER book of the Bible as well—certainly a massive undertaking. The following gives the source details and the writer’s comments about that angel mentioned in Revelation 14:6-7 (at the start of this quote, the two verses to be studied are given). And it may be helpful to remember that Doctor Luther would probably NOT want us to remember him.

Popular Commentary of the Bible: The New Testament, Volume 2 (The Epistles of the Apostle Paul, the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Catholic Epistles, the Book of Revelation), by Paul E. Kretzmann (St. Louis, Missouri, USA: Concordia Publishing House, 1923):

Here is a scene full of majesty and power: And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those that live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people, saying with a powerful voice, Fear God and give Him glory; for the hour of His Judgment has come; and worship Him that made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water. This passage has been understood by Lutheran commentators, and undoubtedly correctly, to apply to Doctor Martin Luther and the Reformation. For he, as the angel of the Lord, different from the other angels spoken of in the previous chapters, brought back and preached the eternal Gospel of the justification of a poor sinner through the merits of Jesus Christ alone, by faith. In the very midst of the kingdom of Antichrist he preached this Gospel, and with such divine zeal and power that many thousands of captives were filled with joy over the deliverance here proclaimed. To fear God alone, that was the message which Luther brought back once more, and not to quail before the power of him that usurped the throne of God; to give honor to the Lord only, and not to him that has taken His place with idolatrous ambition. To worship God in Christ alone, that was the content of the proclamation of Luther, to address Him in spirit and in truth, through the merits of Jesus Christ. For, truly, the time was come when the Lord’s hour of Judgment upon the world had appeared, when He wanted to make a selection and distinction between those that belonged to Antichrist and those whom He wanted for Himself. And therefore the true believers should adore, give divine honor, only to the almighty Creator of the world and of all it contains. The very words of the seer contain one of the mottoes of the Reformation: To God alone all glory! Thus Luther, called by God through His Word in a most singular manner, preached publicly, cheerfully, and loudly, in the midst of the dark kingdom of Antichrist, the pure, unadulterated Gospel of the Lord. With great power he testified that the faith of the Christians could and should rest, not on the word of the Pope or of any man, not on the resolutions of church assemblies and councils, but solely and alone on the Word of Christ as it is written in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. With great power he testified that a man is justified and saved in no way and in no part by his own work and merit, but wholly and only through the work of Christ, which is imputed to the believer by faith. And with great power he testified that the works of the Christians that please the Lord are not such as they choose for themselves, but such as are performed by justified children of God, by faith, through the Holy Ghost, for love of God and their neighbor, and to the honor of the Lord. This Gospel, as preached by Luther, was propagated as though the angels themselves were carrying it forth from the little town of Wittenberg to all tongues and peoples; and the Church of the Reformation is still continuing its victorious course through the countries.

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October 24th, 2021

10/24/2021

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This Sunday is our fourth week in the Epistle to the Hebrews [7:23-28], and we will be taking a two-week break after this to look at the last book of the Bible, Revelation. The so-called ‘First Readings’ for the next two Sundays, Reformation Sunday and All Saints’ Day (observed), are from the Book of Revelation, somewhat literally known as the ‘Apocalypse of John’.

In our look at the Epistle of James, a distinction was made between the third-person command—a less stringent command—and the second-person command—a more direct thing. And it may be helpful to keep in mind that distinction here as well. And I hope I do not complicate matters even further for you by pointing out that there is also what could be called a ‘first-person command’. This one is usually called the ‘hortatory’, and it is basically translated as ‘let us….’

When any points are made, the conclusion of that important point (important enough to say the words out loud or, even worse, to take the time to write them down) is made with the word ‘therefore’. Since points are made frequently, and there are certainly different levels of importance regarding various points, we will be looking at the Greek word ‘OUN’ and the various verbs that are connected with that word. That Greek word means ‘therefore’. (In a way, this fits with the ‘command’ that you may have heard, that when there is a ‘therefore’ in the text, you should always ask what it is there for.)

The special verse that was the focus of last week’s study was Hebrews 4:4, and this is a somewhat-literal translation of that verse:

For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh thus: And God rested in the day, the seventh, from all the works of him.

Here are the possible locations of all the times the important word ‘therefore’ is within the rest of the book, and the verbs near them are also given (and, again, the following are somewhat-literal translations):

4:6a     Therefore, since it remains to enter into [rest]….

4:11a   Therefore, let us be eager to enter into that rest….

4:14     Therefore, having a great high priest, having gone through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold the confession.

4:16a   Therefore, let us come toward with confidence to the throne of the grace….

7:11a   Therefore, if perfection was through the Levitical priestly office….

8:4a     Therefore, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest….

9:1       Therefore, the first [covenant] had both the ordinances of service and the worldly holy place.

9:23     Therefore, [there was] necessity, on the one hand, the examples of the things in the heavens by these to be cleansed, themselves, on the other hand, the heavenly things by better sacrifices than these.

10:19ff Therefore, brothers, having confidence into the entering of the holies by the blood of Jesus, which he dedicated for us a way, fresh and living through the veil, this is the flesh of him, and a great priest over the household of God, let us come toward with a true heart … let us hold fast … let us consider….

10:35   Therefore, do not throw away the confidence of you….

13:15   Therefore, through him let us offer up a sacrifice of praise through all to God….
You may wish to look at these various verses in more detail and in other translations. You may also wish to look at the word ‘therefore’ in the first chapters of this work. It may be there, up to three times, at 2:14, 4:1, and 4:3.

It should be noted that the last appearance of these three, at 4:3, is only in some manuscripts. It would be difficult to lay out the details of this situation with only a few words, but the structure—with or without a ‘therefore’—leads the reader and listener to look for the next conclusion. And this, in a way, comes at the interesting verse of 4:4. And it is also interesting that with the very last occurrence of the entire list above, at 13:15, the word ‘therefore’ is in only a few manuscripts here as well. It seems that the important things, the definite conclusions, are near the middle of the work.

Possibly starting at 4:3, there is an emphasis on a conclusive entering, a movement. It progresses toward a Jesus who, ‘having gone through the heavens’, enables us to, at 4:16, ‘come toward with confidence’ to the throne of grace. This idea of confidence gets picked up in 10:19 and also 10:35. And the idea of entering is brought up again in 10:19. And here again, our entering is connected to Jesus.

The predominant use of the word ‘therefore’ is connected to the less important commands, ‘let us….’ It is also interesting that there is only one prohibition mentioned above, one time that there is a prohibition connected to the ‘therefore’, at 10:35. That makes this verse somewhat significant.

Our final time in this interesting epistle will be after a two-week break, and that week will have the Epistle Reading of Hebrews 10:11-25, and that will be the closest that we get in the three-year series to this unique verse of Hebrews 10:35. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence.

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October 16th, 2021

10/16/2021

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This Sunday is our third week in the Epistle to the Hebrews [4:1-13 (14-16)]. This section contains the well-known quotation which the writer describes as ‘somewhere’ in the Old Testament (see verse 4), but it is a VERY well-known passage from the second chapter of Genesis and describes God’s resting on the seventh day. The writer is not claiming to be ignorant—or even too busy to check his Bible.

In a way, by doing this the writer claims to be the unimportant part of the equation. Just as the high priest wore the linen garments and looked like an angel, a messenger, the details of who he was were not important. This is especially true when he was going into the Most Holy Place and sprinkling the blood in various places, here and there. He was told to do certain things; but the blood was the important thing; the man was just the messenger; he was delivering what he was told to deliver.

What also draws our attention to this verse is the combination of ‘he has said’ and ‘thus’. For these two things to come together is an unusual combination. This verb tense emphasizes a ramification into the present, and so it is not just translated as ‘he said’, but ‘he HAS said….’ And the word ‘thus’ before a verb can mean ‘so intensely’ [See A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition, Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 2000; page 742].

This epistle is called a ‘word of exhortation’ near the very end of the work, at Hebrews 13:22. Here is a somewhat-literal translation:

And I exhort you, brothers, endure the word of exhortation. For, indeed, through a few [words] I wrote to you. Know the brother of us, Timothy, having been released, with whom, if soon, I come, I will see you.

This sounds like the apostle, Paul, but the literary style of this entire epistle is significantly different from his writings. Could it still be him? Of course! But that is certainly not the important thing.

The apostle Paul happens to give the only other word of exhortation that is in the New Testament. In Acts 13[:14-15], here is the introduction to that section (again, in a somewhat-literal translation):

And setting sail from the Paphos, the ones around Paul come into Perga of Pamphylia; and John departing from them, returned into Jerusalem. And they going through from the Perga, arrived into Antioch, the Pisidian, and going into the synagogue in the day of the sabbaths, they sat. And after the reading of the law and of the prophets, the synagogue rulers sent to them, saying, ‘Men, brothers, if there is in you any word of exhortation to the people, speak.’

It seems that the word of exhortation comes near the end of the service at a synagogue. This may be why the Epistle to the Hebrews is near the end of the New Testament—because it is a word of exhortation and comes near the end. By being at the end, it may point to important ramifications. And it may be written by Paul, but that is not the important thing.

It is a similar thing that the two volumes of Luke are never together in a New Testament manuscript. If you wrote two volumes, you would, in all likelihood, want them to be put together. But the structure of a fourfold gospel of Jesus is more important than the two volumes of one of Jesus’ many followers.

The blood is the important thing; it was sprinkled here and there; the man was just the messenger.

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October 9th, 2021

10/9/2021

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This Sunday is the second week in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and this week’s text is already at the end of the third chapter [3:12-19]. Last week’s blog looked at the first four verses of this epistle and saw what was essentially a two-part focus for the rest of this literary masterpiece, first a look at Jesus, and second, a look at the cleansing of sins that was accomplished by him.

A connection to the Day of Atonement, a special day in the Hebrew calendar, was made. This day was special because the high priest was able to enter into the so-called ‘Holy of Holies’, the Most Holy Place. A special person was needed to enter a special place. And the high priest was the right person for that job.

The book of Leviticus goes into some detail to describe what the high priest had to do before entering that special place. The high priest was to enter with some animals for offerings, and he was also to wear linen (see Leviticus 16:3ff). What does this mean? Linen is basically the color white, and the high priest usually wore other colors. But having linen as something for him to wear on this special day made him look very much like an angel, since that is the color of the clothing that angels often have.

So, it would follow that there are seven Old Testament quotations in Hebrews which start by comparing Jesus to the angels. Seven is an important number, and Jesus is an important person. Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ‘having become by so much better than the angels, as he has inherited than them a more excellent name (1:4).’ Here they are [in somewhat-literal translations, shortened to be brief, but also supplying the Old Testament references]:

1:5a     For to which of the angels he said, ‘You are my son… (Psalm 2:7)’.
1:5b     And again, ‘I will be to him for a father… (2 Samuel 7:14)’.
1:6       And when he again brings the first-born into the inhabited earth, he says… (Deuteronomy 32:43 in the Septuagint).’
1:7       And toward the angels he says… (Psalm 104:4).’
1:8f      But toward the Son, ‘Your throne, God… (Psalm 45:6,7).’
1:10ff   And, ‘You, at the beginning, Lord… (Psalm 102:25-27).’
1:13     But to which of the angels has he ever said… (Psalm 110:1).’
There is another set of seven in the next chapters. That this is again seven DOES seem to be deliberate, since the writer breaks up the passage from Isaiah 8:18 from its previous verse with the phrase ‘And again.’ He did not need to do that, but that action does add one to the ‘official’ number of quotations found in this part of the writing.
2:6ff     But one solemnly witnessed somewhere, saying, ‘What is man… (Psalm 8:4-6).’
2:11f    For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, ‘I will proclaim… (Psalm 22:22).’
2:13a   And again, ‘I will put my trust in him (Isaiah 8:17).’
2:13b   And again… (Isaiah 8:18).’
3:7ff     Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says… (Psalm 95:7-11).’
3:14f    For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said… (Psalm 95:7, 8).’
4:3       For we who have believed enter that rest, just as he has said… (Psalm 95:11).’

The next set of seven quotations has that interesting beginning, similar to the first quotation of the last set, that this Old Testament passage is ‘somewhere’. The only problem is that this passage is extremely well known!

What may be the case here is that, describing this verse as ‘somewhere’, this is somewhere different from the previous verses. And in much the same way the high priest would sprinkle blood seven times in one place, and then, when he would sprinkle that special blood in another place, and that place would be ‘somewhere’ new. And these various Old Testament passages are sprinkled within this epistle.

4:4       For he has said somewhere concerning the seventh thus: ‘And God rested… (Genesis 2:2).’
4:5       And again in this… (Psalm 95:11).’
4:7       Again he defines a certain day, ‘Today’, saying in David after such a time, as he has previously said… (Psalm 95:7).’
5:5       Thus also the Christ did not glorify himself to become a high priest, but the One speaking to him, ‘You are my son… (Psalm 2:7).’
5:6       As he says also in another… (Psalm 110:4).’
6:13f    For God, making a promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you… (Genesis 22:17).’
7:17     For it is witnessed, ‘You are a priest unto the age… (Psalm 110:4).’

Even without a pattern of sevens, these multiple connections to the Old Testament are still very much appreciated, even to this very day.

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October 2nd, 2021

10/2/2021

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This Sunday is our first week in what is sometimes called ‘The Epistle to the Hebrews’ [2:1-13(14-18)]. We are moving on from the Epistle of James. The two are in the opposite order in the New Testament—because Hebrews is longer. But whichever writing is studied first, they are similar to each other, and there is a benefit in studying them together, or one right after the other.

Two of the big differences between the two works are that the Epistle to the Hebrews is MUCH longer, and the writer of this work is unknown; the title of this work is NOT ‘The Epistle OF the Hebrews’. It is simply, ‘to (or ‘toward’) the Hebrews’. We know the people who are receiving this work, but we do not know the one who is sending it. This may be one of those situations where it is not important who the writer is. That fact may be distracting from the interesting content of this epistle.

The writer usually gives his name at the beginning of the work, and with a knowledge of the writer comes the knowledge of his style of writing, and this helps in understanding the writing itself. In other words, the beginning of a work is important. And that is true for this epistle as well. Unfortunately, the beginning of this epistle is the reading for Christmas Day. If you can think of today as Christmas Day, we can look at the first few words of this epistle.

I hope I am not scaring you away by saying that the first four verses of this epistle are complicated. The nice (and not-so-nice) thing about those complications is that they usually disappear when they are translated into English. This one, long, run-on sentence (in the original language) is called a ‘period’.

I also hope you do not find the following quote unimportant. What follows is a somewhat-long but helpful quote regarding Hebrews 1:1-4 from F. Blass and A. Debrunner’s, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature: A Translation and Revision of the ninth-tenth German Edition Incorporating Supplementary Notes of A. Debrunner by Robert W. Funk (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1961; page 242):

The period, i.e., the organization of a considerable number of clauses and phrases into a well-rounded unity, is rare in the NT. Since the period belongs to a more elegant style, it is most frequently met in Hebrews, which certainly is to be regarded as artistic prose by reason of the composition of its words and sentences. Paul … does not generally make the effort required by so careful a style; artistic periods, therefore, in spite of all his eloquence, are not to be found in his writings, while harsh parentheses and anacolutha abound. The prologue to the Gospel of Luke is a beautiful period; Lk elsewhere forsakes this device, it is true, and the introduction to Acts is not a period but a series of clauses strung together; only the introduction of the apostolic decree in A 15:24-6 forms a genuine period.

Hopefully, after such a long quote, you see the importance (and rarity) of the structure of these first four verses of this letter. And here is a somewhat-literal translation of it (and although this translation may be helpful, what also may be even more helpful is to look at what other translators have given us):

In many portions and in many ways God, having spoken to the fathers in the prophets, in the last days of these he spoke to us in a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the ages; who being radiance of the glory and character of the hypostasis of him, and bearing all things by the word of the power of him, having made a cleansing of the sins, he sat in the right of the greatness in high places, by so much better becoming [than] the angels as a more excellent than them he has inherited a name.

What is to be made of this? What may be helpful is to see this within the context of the entire New Testament. From the four gospel accounts (better yet, the fourfold gospel) we know that Jesus (the Son) is important, and we know that his death on the cross is important. And the meaning of that death on the cross is more obvious within many of the epistles of the New Testament, but in that death of God’s son, there is the forgiveness of sins or a cleansing.

There may be something even more interesting here. That phrase (cleansing of the sins) happens to be three words in the original language of the New Testament (Greek). And both the word ‘Son’ and the words ‘of the’ (which is only one word in the Greek)—from the middle of the phrase ‘cleansing of the sins’—are twenty-one words from the beginning and ending of this section. In other words, the word ‘Son’ has been put in an important position, and the action of his ‘cleansing of sins’ is also in an important position (and the number twenty-one is made up of three, multiplied by seven, and both of those numbers are also important in the scriptures).

This ‘cleansing’ is a very visual term, and this word is connected to God in different ways; but it is God who ultimately is able to make something truly clean. Whether God wished to do that in the Old Testament by the sacrifices in the tabernacle or temple, or in the New Testament, by the blood of Jesus, he is ultimately still the One doing it. The LORD is the ONLY One who can TRULY cleanse and clean.

The two things that are needed, when it comes to the tabernacle or temple, are a person and the action that is done at that special place, and these two things are given in the two important places highlighted above. It will become more obvious as we progress through this epistle, but there are some connections with this epistle to the great Day of Atonement, an important day in the calendar of Israel. And the structure of this epistle will, in some ways, imitate the layout of the tabernacle or temple. This is a very ‘visual’ way to structure a literary work, and this method has been used for centuries.

In this work we will continue to see comparisons to the Old Testament sacrificial system and the layout of either the tabernacle or the temple. But the most important thing to remember regarding this is that Jesus is literally at the center of it all.

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A Sabbath Day's Journey

October 30th, 2021

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