Twentieth Century New Testament - 40 - Hebrews, Introduction and Chapters 1-4

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
The Letter to the Hebrews from the twentieth century New Testament.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by J. A. Carter www
dot authentic light dot org. The twentieth Century New Testament

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by a company of about twenty scholars. The Letter to
the Hebrews Introduction and Chapters one through four Introduction a
letter to Jewish Christians. Date in place of writing uncertain.
The traditions concerning the authorship of this letter are unreliable.
From the letter itself, it may be safely inferred that

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the writer was a man of intellectual power, that he
was familiar with the modes of thought prevalent in Alexandria,
that his home and work lay among Jewish Christians, and
that he was in some way connected with those teachers
who looked to Saint Paul as their leader. It is
certain that the Apostle Paul was not the author. The
letter has been attributed, with some show of probability, to
several writers, in particular to Barnabas Acts Chapter eleven, Verses

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twenty two through twenty four and Chapter thirteen, verses one
through five, and to Apollos Acts eighteen, verses twenty four
through twenty eight. The Jewish Christians to whom the letter
is addressed were a community living, possibly in Palestine, but
more probably in Alexandria or in Rome, and the primary
object of the letter was to explain to those who

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were well acquainted with the ritual of the Old Covenant
the fulfillment of its types in the heavenly realities of
the Christian faith. From certain passages in the letter, it
has been inferred that at the time when it was written,
the worship of the Temple had not been entirely swept away,
as it was by the fall of Jerusalem in seventy
a d. Chapter one. God, who of old at many

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times and in many ways spoke to our ancestors by
the prophets, has in these latters days spoken to us
by the Sun, whom he appointed the heir of all things,
and through whom he made the universe. For he is
the radiance of the glory of God and the very
expression of his being, upholding all creation by the power
of his word. And when he had made an expiation

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for the sins of men. He took his seat at
the right hand of God's majesty on high, having shown
himself as much greater than the angels, as the name
that he has inherited surpasses theirs. For to which of
the angels did God ever say, thou art my son.
This day I have become thy father. Or again I
will be to him a father, and he shall be

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to me a son. And again, when God brought the
first born into the world, he said, let all the
angels of God bow down before him. Speaking of the angels,
he said, he makes the winds his angels, and the
fiery flames his servants. While of the son, he said,
God is thy throne forever and ever. The scepter of
his kingdom is the scepter of justice. Thou lovest righteousness

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and hatest iniquity. Therefore, God, thy God, has anointed thee
with the festal oil more abundantly than thy peers. Again,
Thou Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of
the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
They shall perish, but Thou remainest as a garment. They

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shall all grow old as a mantle. Thou wilt fold
them up, and as a garment they shall be changed.
But thou art the same, and thy years shall know
no end to which of the angels has God ever said,
sit thou at my right hand until I put thy
enemies as a stool for thy feet. Are not all
the angel spirits in the service of God set out

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to minister for the sake of those who are destined
to obtain salvation? Chapter two. Therefore we must give still
more heed to what we were taught, for fear we
should drift away. For if the message which was delivered
by angels had its authority confirmed, so that every offense
against it or neglect of it met with a fitting requital,
how can we, of all people expect to escape if

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we disregard so great a salvation. It was the Master
who at the outset spoke of this salvation, and its
authority was confirmed for us by those who heard him,
while God himself added his testimony to it by signs
and marvels and many different miracles, as well as the
imparting of the Holy Spirit as he saw fit. God

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has not given to angels the control of that future
world of which we are speaking. No a writer has
declared somewhere, what is man that thou shouldst remember him,
or a son of man that thou shouldst regard him.
Thou hast made him, for a while lower than angels,
with glory and honor. Thou hast crowned him, Thou hast
set him over all Thy hands have made, thou hast

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placed all things beneath his feet. This placing of everything
under man means that there was nothing which was not
placed under him. However, we do not see everything placed
under man. What our eyes do see is Jesus, who
was made for a little while lower than angels, now
because of his sufferings and death, crowned with glory and honor,

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so that his tasting the bitterness of death, should, in
God's loving kindness, be on behalf of all mankind. It
was indeed fitting that God, for whom and through whom
all things exist, should, when leading many sons to glory,
make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. For
he who purifies and those whom he purifies, all spring

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from one, and therefore he is not ashamed to call
them brothers. He says, I will tell of thy name
to my brothers in the midst of the congregation, I
will sing Thy praise, and again, as for me, I
will put my trust in God. And yet again see
here am I and the children whom God gave me. Therefore,

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since human nature is the common heritage of the children,
Jesus also shared it in order that by death he
might render powerless him whose power lies in death, that
is the devil, and so might deliver all those who,
from fear of death, had all their lives been living
in slavery. It was not surely to the help of
the angels that Jesus came, but to the help of

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the descendants of Abraham. And consequently it was necessary that
he should in all points be made like his brothers,
in order that he might prove a merciful as well
as a faithful high priest in man's relations with God,
for the purpose of expiating the sins of his people.
The fact that he himself suffered under temptation enables him

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to help those who are tempted. Chapter three. Therefore, Christian brothers,
you who all alike have received the call from Heaven,
fix your attention on Jesus, the Apostle and high priest
of our religion. See how faithful he was to the
God who appointed him, as Moses was in the whole
House of God. He has been deemed worthy of far

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higher honor than Moses, just as the founder of the
house is held in greater regard than the house itself,
For every house has its founder, and the founder of
the universe is God. While the faithful service of Moses
in the whole House of God was that of a
servant whose duty was to bear testimony to a message
still to come, the faithfulness of Christ was that of

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a son set over the House of God. And we
are his house, if only we retain unshaken to the end,
the courage and confidence inspired by our hope. Therefore, as
the Holy Spirit says, if to day you hear God's voice,
harden not your hearts, as when Israel provoked me on

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the day when they tried my patience in the desert,
where your ancestors tried my forbearance and saw my mighty
deeds for forty years. Therefore I was sorely vexed with
that generation that I said, their hearts are always straying,
they have never learnt my ways, while in my wrath
I swore they shall never enter upon my rest. Be careful, brothers,

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that there is never found in any one of you
a wicked and faithless heart, shown by his separating himself
from the Living God. Rather, encourage one another daily while
there is a to day to prevent any one among
you from being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For
we now all share in the Christ. If indeed we
retain unshaken to the end the confidence that we had

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at the first to use the words of scripture. If
to day you hear God's voice, harden not your hearts,
as when Israel provoked me? Who were they who heard
God speak and yet provoked him? Were not they all
those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? And
with whom was it that God was sorely vexed for

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forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned
and who fell dead in the desert? And who were
they to whom God swore that they should not enter
upon his rest? If not those who had proved faithless,
we see then that they failed to enter upon it
because of their want of faith. Four. We must therefore
be very careful, though there is a promise still standing

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that we shall enter upon God's rest that none of
you even appear to have missed it. For we have
had the good news told us, just as they had.
But the message which they heard did them no good,
since they did not share the faith of those who
were attentive to it. Upon that rest, we who have believed,
are now entering. As God has said in my wrath,

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I swore, they shall never enter upon my rest, although
God's work was finished at the creation of the world.
For in a passage referring to the seventh day you
will find these words. God rested upon the seventh day
after all his work. On the other hand, we read
in that passage they shall never enter upon my rest,
Since then there is still a promise that some shall

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enter upon his rest, and since those who were first
told the good news did not enter upon it because
of their disbelief. Again, God fixed a day to day,
he said, speaking after a long interval through the mouth
of David in the passage already quoted. If today you
hear God's voice, harden not your hearts. Now. If Joshua

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had given rest to the people, God would not have
spoken of another and later day there is then a
sabbath rest still awaiting God's people for he who enters
upon God's rest does himself rest after his work, just
as God did. Let us therefore make every effort to
enter upon that rest, so that none of us fall

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through such disbelief as that which we have had an example.
God's message is a living and active power, sharper than
any two edged sword, piercing its way till it penetrates
soul and spirit, not the joints only, but the very marrow,
and detecting the inmost thoughts and purposes of the mind.
There is no created thing that can hide itself from

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the sight of God. Everything is exposed and laid bare
before the eyes of Him, to whom we have to
give account. We have, then, in Jesus, the Son of God,
a great high priest, who has passed into the highest Heaven.
Let us therefore hold fast to the faith which we
have professed. Our high priest is not one unable to
sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has in every

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way been tempted exactly as we have been, but without sinning. Therefore,
let us draw near boldly to the Throne of Love
to find pity and love for the hour of need.
End of introduction and chapters one through four,