Hebrews

Hebrews is the fifty-eighth book of the Bible. It is unique among the New Testament letters in that it has no named author and no opening greeting; it reads more like a written sermon than a letter. Tradition has variously attributed it to Paul, to Apollos, to Barnabas, and to others; the actual author is unknown. The book is generally dated to before AD 70, since it discusses the temple's sacrificial system as still operating.

The letter is written to Jewish Christians who appear to be under pressure to abandon faith in Jesus and return to Judaism. The author's argument throughout is that Jesus is greater than the alternatives: greater than the angels, greater than Moses, greater than the high priests of the temple, greater than the sacrificial system itself.

The opening chapters establish Jesus as the Son through whom God has spoken in these last days, superior to the prophets, the angels, and Moses. The middle chapters argue that Jesus is a high priest of a different order, the order of Melchizedek, an obscure Old Testament figure, and that his single sacrifice has accomplished what the repeated animal sacrifices never could.

Chapter 11 is the famous "hall of faith," a long list of Old Testament figures who lived by faith without seeing what was promised. The closing chapters call the readers to endure under hardship, looking to Jesus as the pioneer of their faith, and to live out their faith in concrete love and service.