Jesus's Story in Hebrews
(avg. read time: 17–35 mins.)
While I was in the process of putting together my book on The Lord of the Rings, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had been invited to contribute to a forthcoming volume on eschatology in the NT. Specifically, I have been asked to contribute a chapter on Hebrews. Because of the nature of the project, I doubt I will be able to provide a preview to all of you like I have with most of my other publications, although some of it will certainly be familiar if you have been reading what I have written on Hebrews.
Besides that announcement, all of this is to say I find myself drawn to write about Hebrews again. This time, I want to focus on something I have written on in scattered fashion elsewhere, with the most concentrated set of references in my most recent publication (now available in JETS 67). That is, I want to focus on how Jesus’s story is implicitly and explicitly referenced in Hebrews. And while in my article I provided a broad survey with focus drawn to particular texts in chs. 2–5, and while I have looked at references to the events of the gospel narrative elsewhere, here I want to go through the references one-by-one.
Hebrews 1
The prologue of Hebrews is one of the densest theological statements in the NT, and the story of Jesus is certainly crucial to it. It prepares for the rest of the argument by implicit reference to Jesus’s incarnation as one who is the radiance of God’s glory and the imprint of his being. And this Incarnate One is also presented in eschatological framing as the climactic speech-act of God for whom the prophets prepared, so that the story of his incarnate ministry casts the shadow in which the author and the audience live (the author even hints as much in the fact that the first use of the verb for “speaking” is in the participial/dependent form, while the second reference to God “speaking” through Jesus is the main verb). This is signified by reference to “these last days” (cf. Acts 2:17; 1 Cor 10:11; Eph 3:9–12; 2 Tim 3:1; Titus 1:2–3; Jas 5:3; 1 Pet 1:20; 2 Pet 3:3; 1 John 2:18; Jude 18) and to the reference to God speaking by a Son. This logic is similar to the parable of the wicked tenants (Matt 21:33–46 // Mark 12:1–12 // Luke 20:9–19); John 1:14–18; 5:39–47; Gal 4:1–7; 2 Pet 1:16–21; and other passages in which Jesus is portrayed as the climax of prophetic or salvation history, without necessarily being referred to as the Son. In all cases, the Son is the climactic messenger and enactor of the message, the executor of God’s will. For these reasons and others, the aim of the Christology in Hebrews is ultimately to point back to God through the mediator and executor who is Christ. Christ’s actions are ultimately God’s actions with and through him. God has thus appointed Christ as heir of all things, which is another resonance with the parable of the wicked tenants (Matt 21:38 // Mark 12:7 // Luke 20:14). It also resonates with several other texts wherein the message is that the world was made for Christ and believers are given the blessing of becoming co-heirs with Christ of the world that is coming (Rom 8:17; Gal 3:29; 4:7; Titus 3:7; Jas 2:5).
It is also signified, as I have argued more extensively elsewhere in published work, by the description of Jesus as the one through whom God made the ages. Of course, this is in reference to time before the Incarnation, but the fruition of its significance is only possible to see after the Incarnation, for this the one towards whom God has constructed the ages. We can also see how 1:3c is properly parallel with 1:2c. Both clauses feature the verb ποιέω, but the parallel runs deeper than that. This parallel also indicates the accomplishment of God’s purpose in making the ages, so that the Son should make purification for sins by his self-sacrifice and be raised from the dead in order to be exalted and sit at the right hand of the Majesty on high. That this is the purpose for which God made the ages through the Son is indicated at several points throughout Hebrews. The rest of the first chapter links Jesus’s exaltation with several texts, so that this story has already been told in anticipation of its enactment in history (1:5–6, 8–13). Jesus’s death, implied resurrection, and exaltation are linked with the fulfillment of God’s purpose for humanity as outlined in Ps 8 (2:5–18). Jesus fulfilled his purpose as royal priest, according to Scripture’s anticipatory telling, by his death, resurrection to everlasting life (i.e., his salvation from death and “completion”), and everlasting session (5:5–10; 7). Jesus’s entrance into heaven as an everlasting high priest fulfills God’s promise to Abraham, the foundational covenant (6:13–20). Jesus’s sacrifice and priesthood fulfills the promise for God’s new covenant (8). Jesus’s sacrifice typologically fulfilled the institution of sacrifice in the old covenant at the denouement of the ages (9:11–10:18). The better resurrection and the final attainment of God’s promise for all of the faithful throughout history cannot happen apart from Jesus (11:35, 39–40), the one who is both the pioneer and completer of faith through his death on the cross and his attainment of the joy set as a goal before him (12:2). All of this fits with proclamations of the gospel story elsewhere in the NT that link the gospel to the fulfillment of Scripture and otherwise contextualize it by reference to Scripture.
In these ways, we also find hints of the message that Jesus is the perfect embodiment of both God’s faithfulness and human faithfulness. He effected salvation, which makes him the embodiment of God’s faithfulness. In doing so as a priest, he is the embodiment of human faithfulness, fulfilling the function for which God created humans to bear the divine image. As God, he occupies the rightful place as king over the world and is faithful to that position as he works for redemptive and creative purposes to reconcile and build up creation. As the true human, he also occupies the royal throne intended for humans. In both ways, he is able to show humans how to be obedient/faithful to God’s will because he himself was the true human and did not sin when faced with temptation. These points work into the author’s exhortation to persevere and remain faithful in the face of opposition as Jesus did (as well as how their predecessors in the faith did). Because he is the incorporation of a human into God in his person, he can incorporate other humans into the divine family. As Athanasius and other patristic authors said, God became what we are so that we may become what God is. The extent to which such a doctrine is reflected in the Bible is a discussion for another time, but here and elsewhere (most clearly in 2 Pet 1:4), one of the purposes of salvation is to make humans participants in God through radiating the divine glory and image. This is why part of the preface to the author’s overall argument (the proem, the preliminary statement of facts, the anticipation of arguments, the interpretive key), specifically the part in 1:3, is the statement that Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation/imprint of God’s nature/being. This statement is both an emphasis of his nature as the unique revelation of God and an emphasis that he is the perfect embodiment of true humanity made to bear the image and the likeness of God. Thus, it makes sense why it is essential to recognize that he is both the embodiment of divine faithfulness and human faithfulness. He unites them in his incarnation, which comes to fruition in his birth and to consummation in his death, resurrection, and exaltation. In between, his life was a faithful demonstration of the will of God and of human purpose as they are similarly to be united in the consummation of the kingdom as the fulfillment of the purpose of creation to be God’s dwelling place with his creatures and of humans to be God’s image- and likeness-bearers.
And the focal point that brings all of these theological emphases together is the three-stage narrative of the major gospel events, although not all three are explicitly articulated (which is not unusual, as I have surveyed here). The author tells us that the Son had provided purification for sins, after which he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. The term for “purification” (καθαρισμός) is used in the Gospels to refer to ritual purification, but here and in 2 Pet 1:9, the term refers to a deeper cleansing of sin. For the author of Hebrews, this usage is perhaps the first signal in his text of the theme that Jesus fulfills the cultic features of the old covenant, providing the true, deep, lasting cleansing that the Jewish rituals, by their very nature, could not provide. He did this by offering himself as a sacrifice in his crucifixion and then transferring that sacrifice to the heavenly sanctuary, which he will go on to talk about in chs. 7–10.
As such, we have an implicit reference to resurrection followed by a traditional expression of his exaltation (Ps 110 is even cited directly in 1:13), which is presented as the outcome or goal of the aforementioned actions and qualities of Jesus mentioned heretofore in 1:3. And so it is presented as the goal for the fulfillment of Scripture in 1:13. As a result of who Jesus is and what he has done, he sits on the seat of power, an image which itself implies the larger expectation of the present and coming kingdom (note the reference to “these last days” in 1:2). One reason why the “kingdom of God” per se is not as prominent in the terminology of the Church after Jesus is because it appears implicitly every time the early Christians proclaim Jesus as Lord (i.e., King). Jesus is King and his kingdom is God’s kingdom. If he is King, people must get with the program. One of the primary functions of the epistles is to unpack the meaning of Jesus’s Lordship in these situations. Therefore, they are about life under the Lordship of Jesus, otherwise known as the kingdom/reign/dominion of God. It was the resurrection, the eschatological event of vindication and bestowal of immortality, which connected Jesus’s kingdom proclamation, his death, and his exaltation as King over the Creator’s kingdom. The resurrection was an eschatological reality which would be a feature of the kingdom of the Creator. When Jesus resurrected, he brought this eschatological reality into the present and brought also the kingdom (or rather, made clear that he had been doing so all along, climaxing in this supreme affirmation of God’s kingdom agenda). The kingdom as a present reality is not experienced fully, but the dynamic power of God through the Holy Spirit and the transformative way of life are present now, having irrupted into the corrupted world through Jesus, revealing anew God’s creative intention. As the Gospel of John and various works of Paul clarify, it is the work of the Spirit—the same Spirit who was at work in Jesus, the same Spirit expected as an identifying mark of the kingdom—that provides the preview of the kingdom now. It is the community in whom the Spirit dwells which will constitute the people of the kingdom when Jesus consummates it. Furthermore, the work of the Spirit is in accordance with the image of Jesus, who is the perfect image of God, meaning that the Spirit forms Christians according to the template of Jesus. This formation is another key element of the connection between resurrection and kingdom: kingdom life will be in accordance with the life of Jesus, which includes the resurrection to everlasting life and leads to exaltation.
Hebrews 2:8–10, 14–15, 17–18
The author implies the narrative of major gospel events, albeit with a different order of reference, in 2:5–18. He begins with the note that although we do not yet see the Scripture of Ps 8 fulfilled for humans, we do presently see Jesus exalted in fulfillment of that text, being crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death. Once again, resurrection is implied here, particularly by the reference to him destroying the power of the one who holds the power of death and freeing those he enslaved by it (2:14–15). He thus becomes the way of salvation and everyone who follows him participates in this way by participating in the story of his life, death, resurrection, and consequent exaltation. In order to open this way of salvation, by the grace of God he tasted death for all. If he tasted death for the sake of everyone, then he was resurrected and, by implication of 2:5–9, he was exalted for their sake as well. Such is indeed the implication of the key descriptor of Jesus as ἀρχηγός in 2:10 (sometimes translated as “author”), which properly has the sense of the one who is the pioneer, the trailblazer, the way-maker. By his complete obedience through suffering unto death, he completely fulfilled the will of God for himself and for humanity as a whole, making the way for others to follow, so that they too may be made holy through him by union and participation in his obedient life, death, resurrection, and exaltation.
Additionally, as we saw in ch. 1, it should be observed that this text refers to the Incarnation as a key event as well, such as in his “partaking of” blood and flesh and “being made like” other humans (esp. 2:14–15 and 2:17). The event itself has salvific purpose, and it is what makes the other salvific events possible. The text also follows the rubric of ch. 1 in linking the gospel story with Scripture and the fulfillment of the same. As such, the story is again present within an eschatological framework (especially given the reference to the future world in 2:5).
Of course, what holds these various events together is Jesus’s earthly life. It is a life described in terms of obedience to God’s will and suffering for that devotion. His life built towards his purpose to be a merciful and faithful high priest, and this included his suffering in his death and the suffering that led up to it (2:17). After all, his suffering is connected with his temptation in his earthly life, but it is also connected with his ability to help those who are tempted. In these ways, this text anticipates what the author will teach more explicitly about Jesus’s sinless life in ch. 4 and his overcoming temptation and suffering both there and in ch. 5. There is much more I could say about this text and its connections to the gospel story, but that is what the article was for.
Hebrews 3:1
This is one of the shortest references to the story of Jesus that implicitly relies on what the text has said about the Incarnation. Others have been referred to as “apostles,” as Jesus is here, but in the context of the larger text of Hebrews, to refer to Jesus as such is indicative of his Incarnation, as he was sent in this distinct fashion from God. Although this is the only NT text in which an author refers to Jesus as an apostle (ἀπόστολος), the basic notion behind the concept is expressed often, especially in the Gospels, through the use of the related verb ἀποστέλλω (Matt 10:40; 15:24; 21:37 // Mark 12:6; Mark 9:37; Luke 9:48; 10:16; John 3:17, 34; 5:36, 38; 6:29, 57; 7:29; 8:42; 10:36; 11:42; 17:3, 8, 18, 21, 23, 25; 20:21; Acts 3:20, 26; 1 John 4:9–10, 14) and less often (outside of John, that is) through the similar verb πέμπω (Luke 20:13; John 4:34; 5:23–24, 30, 37; 6:38–39, 44; 7:16, 18, 28, 33; 8:16, 18, 26, 29; 9:4; 12:44–45, 49; 14:24, 26; 15:21; Rom 8:3). This is another way to convey Jesus’s role as the executor of God’s will, since he is the one sent by the Father to perform the work the Father appointed for him (which the author of Hebrews will go on to describe primarily in terms of high priestly work).
Hebrews 4:14–16
In speaking of Jesus’s story, I have been focusing on his earthly life climaxing in the major gospel events. Of course, that story is ongoing, as he was resurrected and exalted. While he certainly is reigning, the primary way in which the author of Hebrews describes Jesus’s ongoing story at the present time is in terms of his work as the heavenly high priest. This is an extension of work he had been doing in his life on earth. In fact, the author of Hebrews links Jesus’s help for believers in the present time with his own experience of temptation during his life (4:15–16).
Moreover, this same text describes him as the one who was tempted and yet remained without sin. This description of sinlessness obviously summarizes his life of obedience prior to and climaxing in the major gospel events (cf. 7:26–27; 9:14; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 1:19; 2:22; 3:18; 1 John 3:5). Because of his sinlessness prior to and during the major gospel events, he was qualified for serving in heaven and is presently in heaven serving as high priest. It is in that capacity and because of his ongoing union with believers, by virtue of him still living by the indestructible life he has (7:16), that he is able to help his people when they are facing temptation/trials/pressure now. Thus, the story is invoked here not simply to present analogy, similarity, or relatability, but to remind the audience that there is an ongoing connection with Jesus in this regard, for the same one who faced all temptations and overcame them all is right now ministering for them in the heavens and can help them in the present.
Hebrews 5:5–10
This text and the previous one are ones that I have examined more extensively in my article, but I will say a few things here. As we have seen elsewhere, the author again links the gospel story with the fulfillment of Scripture, this time by appeal to Ps 2:7 and another verse of Ps 110, namely 110:4 (whereas he had cited v. 1 previously in 1:13). One must remember that the latter text concerns one who is a priestly king and not only a king, while the former text serves here as part of the author’s argument that it was the Father himself who exalted Jesus, as is fitting for a priest and king. We are told that when Jesus offered up prayers and petitions to be saved “out of” death (a better translation of the preposition than “from,” which is ambiguous enough to imply that he would be prevented from dying, which the author obviously does not think he was), he was heard because of his reverent submission.
I have argued in my article, while pointing to other sources (especially the pertinent part of Karl Olav Sandnes’s book Early Christian Discourses on Jesus’ Prayer at Gethsemane), that the reference to how “in the day of his flesh offered up prayers as well as supplications to the one who is able to save him out of death with loud cries and tears and being listened to because of his fear of God” (5:7), that this most directly links with Jesus’s prayers in Gethsemane, although there is no reason to think it could not include other events. I do not think this is supposed to bring Golgotha to mind. I also do not think that the prayer should be understood as preventing Jesus from going through death. It makes no sense from the Synoptics that the cup Jesus asked to pass from him (Matt 26:39 // Mark 14:36 // Luke 22:42) is the crucifixion itself. It would also not make sense for the author of Hebrews to think in this way. After all, Jesus voluntarily submitted to this fate, his doing so is presented as proper and instructive for the faithful, and the author—like all NT writers who reference his death—focuses on the positive results of his death (2:9, 13–18; 5:7–9; 9:15, 24–28; 10:7–10; 12:2).
Rather, it is salvation from utter destruction that he prays for (Pss 11:6; 60:3–12; 75:8; Isa 51:17, 22–23; Jer 25:15–29; Obad 15–16; Hab 2:16; Zech 12:2). And description of what God is able to do and what he did for Jesus in listening to his prayers and supplications is reminiscent of other uses of the phrase ἐκ θανάτου in the use of resurrection imagery (John 5:24; 1 John 3:14). It also resembles the more frequent description of Jesus’s resurrection as “out of the dead” (ἐκ νεκρῶν) to signify that Jesus’s resurrection separated him from the rest of the dead by raising him out of their midst (13:20; Matt 17:9; Mark 9:9–10; Luke 24:46; John 2:22; 20:9; 21:14; Acts 3:15; 4:10; 10:41; 13:30, 34; 17:3, 31; Rom 4:24; 6:4, 9; 7:4; 8:11; 10:7, 9; 1 Cor 15:12, 20; Gal 1:1; Eph 1:20; Col 2:12; 1 Thess 1:10; 2 Tim 2:8; 1 Pet 1:21).
As with previous references to his suffering, the reference to him experientially learning obedience through suffering implies reference to his life prior to the major gospel events, especially considering that his life prior is elsewhere described as sinless. Additionally, the reference to Jesus being made complete is linked, as in other texts in Hebrews (2:9–10; 7:25, 28; 11:40; 12:2, 23), with the attainment of the eschatological life, particularly by resurrection to everlasting life. Indeed, this is the goal to which his obedient life and obedient death had been building and it was brought to the completion of that goal by God’s work of raising him to everlasting life and thereafter exalting him, whereby he established the way of salvation for those he would be in living union with.
Hebrews 6:6
The next reference to one of the major gospel events comes in 6:6. Here, the author is showing why it is impossible for someone who has tasted the eschatological blessings and then apostatized to be restored to repentance. The reason why the author of Hebrews claims that this is impossible is because apostates take the position of those who were rebellious in the wilderness between the exodus and the entrance to the promised land (as set up in ch. 4). The Church is now in a similar state between the new exodus and new covenant brought about by Christ on the one hand, and the new creation that presents a cosmic-scale version of the promised land on the other hand. Thus, apostates would truly be the equivalent of the rebellious ones who were not allowed into the promised land. But the author also further specifies that it is impossible for apostates to be renewed because they would essentially need to crucify the Son of God all over again, exposing him again to contempt. And if there is one thing—though there are really multiple things—that the author of Hebrews insists upon, it is the finality of the Christ event climaxing in the crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation.
In light of other references to the gospel story (as well as the point about the resurrection of the dead being a matter of basic teaching in 6:2), I am inclined to think that the reference to crucifixion also functions as a link pulling with it the chain of other events. One reason why it is specifically invoked here is the absurdity and shame brought by the idea of crucifying the Son of God again. The key verb, ἀνασταυρόω, does not in itself mean to “crucify again,” although it can have that sense with the added prefix. After all, in most contexts of its use outside of the NT (it is only used here within it), the notion of crucifying someone again would be nonsensical. But it makes sense in this context for this less typical form to be used to parallel the notion of restoring someone again to repentance, since that would imply Christ being crucified again. These same points are made with reference to the blood of Christ in 10:29.
Hebrews 7:23–8:1
As 7:23–28 makes clearer, being made complete is linked with Jesus having indestructible life (7:16). This reference to an indestructible life—unique in the NT—is possibly multivalent in reference to Jesus’s divine life as well as to the fact of his resurrection to that life, a life that God has promised to share with his followers. I find it likely that there is an implicit reference to resurrection here because Jesus’s everlasting priesthood is attributed as an enactment of God’s faithfulness, meaning that there was some fashion in which God gave Jesus this indestructible life and the resurrection best fits this bill in the context of the larger argument of how Jesus has performed as a priest through his life, death, implied resurrection, and exaltation. By means of this indestructible life, God fulfills the great promise made in Ps 110:4 and the whole of Ps 110. The priests of the Levitical order were great in number out of necessity because of the reality of death, but because Jesus lives and remains forever, he holds his priesthood unchangeably. Furthermore, this indestructible life guarantees that he can save completely all who approach God through him. After all, he always lives in order to intercede on their behalf, guaranteeing their salvation. The author also attributes several other qualities to Jesus as appropriate complements to this indestructible life, such as how he is holy, innocent, and undefiled. He is holy both in the sense of being whole forever (v. 28)—wholly pure, wholly devoted to the purpose of God, wholly human in a way that no one ever has been—and, as is said here, in the sense of being set apart from sinners, who rebel against God. And he is the perfect priestly king because—as the author has argued in the first chapter—he is exalted above the heavens and all that is in them, sharing as he does in the throne of God. Being the sinless high priest that he is, he does not have the daily need to offer up sacrifices for his own sins prior to offering them for the sins of his people. Being sinless, eternal, and God enfleshed, he was able to offer up himself as a sacrifice once, and that is effective once and for all. The law may have appointed humans who had weakness to carry out the cultic duties, but the aforementioned oath of Ps 110 appointed the Son of God, who has been made complete forever (v. 28). He has been made complete forever because of his resurrection to the eternal, divine life (as such, this reference brings together strands of “completion” throughout Hebrews that refer to sanctification and/or resurrection; cf. 2:10; 6:11; 7:19, 25; 9:9, 11; 10:14; 11:40; 12:2, 23; 13:21).
8:1 then follows up by invoking the story by primary reference to Jesus’s exaltation. Specifically, the author refers to Jesus as the high priest who has sat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, which draws imagery from Ps 110:1, like many other references to the exaltation. But given the course of the argument to this point, the other two events are clearly assumed.
Hebrews 9:14, 26–28
9:14 also references the gospel story primarily through the crucifixion by speaking of the blood of Christ. 9:26–28 refers to Jesus’s sacrifice, which means his death while also implying his resurrection and ascension to apply that sacrifice in the heavenly sanctuary. 9:28 also implicitly refers to the story after his crucifixion because he is able to return.
As I have noted previously, 9:14 demonstrates a crucial aspect of the Trinitarian dynamics in Jesus’s death and the larger gospel story as a whole. Here the author speaks about the blood of Christ, who offers himself without blemish through the Holy Spirit to God the Father. We see here one of the roots of the later doctrine of perichoresis and unity of action in the Trinity. While the roles the persons of the Trinity play in any given action may be differentiated to some extent, the fact remains that there is no action of God in which all three members of the Trinity are not acting in unity; they are all involved in every aspect of every action, albeit in extents and roles that are not always strictly the same. The same is true here in the work that brings reconciliation through purification and forgiveness of sins. In this one action, Christ effects reconciliation by offering himself to God through the Holy Spirit on behalf of others who were created to bear the image of God but cannot do so as a vocation because of their sinfulness. The Holy Spirit—the same Spirit who unites Christ with Christians and makes the latter like the former—effects reconciliation in linking the work of the Son and the Father, which he does by being united with Jesus in his sacrifice and being the one through whom this sacrifice is presented to God. God the Father effects reconciliation from beginning to end by dictating this work as the way of salvation to set the world aright, sending Jesus and the Holy Spirit to make it happen, and receiving the sacrifice of Jesus as that which satisfies his will and propitiates his wrath toward sin by purifying his image-bearers.
Verse 26 features a vivid contrast between suffering many times—as would have been necessary if Jesus had to make many sacrifices like the high priests of the old covenant—and his one appearance that was necessary given the magnitude of his sacrifice. Likewise, while sacrifices had to be done on a regular basis for the removal of sins in the old covenant, Jesus’s sacrifice was done once because it was effective once and for all for the removal of sins. Verse 27 then establishes an analogy between the fate of humans and the purpose of Jesus. Humans die once and afterwards will face the final judgment. Jesus shares in this fate, but in a way appropriate for the one who is the embodiment of the union of God and human. He has died once to bear the sins of the many and now he will appear a second time at the eschaton for the salvation of those who eagerly wait for him. That is, he will consummate the conquest of sin by consummating the conquest of death for others that he accomplished in his first coming. Furthermore, the term referring to his appearance (ὀφθήσεται) may well be a simple reference to Jesus’s appearance, but it was also a term used for Jesus’s post-resurrection appearances, in which the double sense of the passive (as well as middle) form of this verb came to the fore (i.e., Jesus appeared to the disciples and was seen by them; cf. Matt 28:7, 10; Mark 16:7; Luke 24:34; Acts 9:17; 13:31; 26:16; 1 Cor 15:5–8).
Hebrews 10:5–7, 12–13
The first pertinent text from ch. 10 references Jesus’s Incarnation and links it with Ps 40:6–8 (LXX 39:7–9). The author attributes this text as direct discourse to Jesus in his Incarnation (“when he entered the world”). While the historical author of this psalm of thanksgiving and petition has been traditionally identified as David, the author sees David here as operating in a prophetic capacity, speaking in the persona of Christ himself concerning his incarnation. In other words, the words here go beyond indicating the importance of something deeper than the mere rituals of the old covenant to foreshadowing the realities of the new covenant in which sacrifices and offerings are no longer necessary. The LXX version also was especially conducive to a prosopological reading because of the second clause in v. 6, which refers to a body prepared for the speaker by God, which obviously resonates with the Son of God taking on a body prepared for him by the Father (the MT version could also work in light of chs. 4 and 5, but not in connection with the Incarnation specifically). Furthermore, the last verse—in both the MT and LXX—resonates with Jesus in ways that this author in particular has emphasized. As the speaker, Jesus has come to do the will of God, and this is in accordance with the volume or the scroll of the book of which it is written about him. The first part of the statement fits with the faithfulness of Jesus to do the will of God while the second part of the statement fits with the testimony of Scripture concerning Christ and the notion that he is the climax of the story of Scripture.
The second text of 10:12–13 refers to Jesus’s sacrifice because of sins, which again applies to his death and entails his resurrection, as we have noted previously. It also refers to his exaltation by reference to his session at God’s right hand. The description also draws on Ps 110:1, not only by the imagery of God’s right hand, but also by the expectation of his enemies being placed under his feet. Until then, his reign is expressed by the fact that his single offering brings completion (in terms of both sanctification and eschatological life) for all time to the ones who are sanctified.
Hebrews 12:2
The reference to Jesus as pioneer and completer of faith in 12:2 describes him as enduring the cross, scorning its shame, for the sake of the joy set before him (resurrection life and exaltation), after which he sat down at the right hand of God. This is set up as the climax of ch. 11, and the argument that has he began building since 10:32, as the author notes at the end of ch. 11 that all of their faithful predecessors, despite the glorious testimony left by their faith, still did not receive the promise. That is, they did not live to see what all of God’s promises were building towards or the consummation of those promises. But God has made provision by his plan throughout history as the unifier of salvation history. And God determined that the faithful of old who never saw Christ except from a great distance, as it were, would not be made complete except by means of sharing in that completion with those who live on the other side of Christ. Here is another subtle reference to resurrection, for by no other means can the faithful who are long past share in the consummation of God’s promises together with the faithful who are alive at the time of Christ’s Second Coming. Indeed, this notion was one of the primary foundations for resurrection belief in the first place, since the resurrection is the means by which the departed saints experience the fulfillment of promises of God’s kingdom (see my posts on resurrection, particularly my dissertation). As such, God acknowledges that the great promises were for all the saints, not simply the ones who would be alive at the time of fulfillment. All shall experience that fulfillment by commonly sharing in the reality of Jesus’s resurrection by the God who raises the dead, who will be all in all in the new creation (cf. 1 Cor 15:20–28, 42–58).
This leads us to the climactic and prototypical figure in this history of faith who makes this whole story a participatory paradigm. The author employs an athletic image of running a race with perseverance together with a heavenly image of a cloud of witnesses. Much like how a crowd of supporters can uplift an athlete beyond expectations with their support, the cloud of witnesses consisting of the faithful departed who have preceded them in the earthly sojourn surround the faithful who live now to finish what they have faithfully done so far. The faithful living must only cast off every impediment and the sin that so easily distracts and focus by fixing their eyes on the one who stands at the finish line. The race of faith that the audience of Hebrews and their predecessors run is the same one that Jesus ran as the pioneer and perfecter/completer of faith. He is the consummate faithful one, the one who is the proper heir of all of God’s promises. It is only by his allowance that the faithful share in that inheritance and share in the common faith and the common waiting for the common goal. This passage, more extensively than any other, shows the long tradition of waiting that characterizes salvation history. But ultimately it shows the end of that waiting in the context of Christian discipleship, in which “the Lord” has been reconceived in light of the coming of Jesus. And for that reason, as the author looks upon the one who scorned the shame of the cross to receive the joy of exaltation to the right hand of God’s throne, and all that is thereby entailed, he sees a reason not to shrink back or to lose heart. He sees the ultimate demonstration of God’s faithfulness and why waiting upon the Lord is always worth it in the end. And since Jesus is the executor of God’s will, the author also sees in Jesus the one through whom God will yet bring more of the great promises to pass, making him the completer of God’s people and of God’s plan, even if the former is emphasized here. It is not stated explicitly, but based on foregoing points we have observed, this completion will consist in sharing in Jesus’s resurrection and exaltation if one shares in the path of faithful obedience overcoming temptation unto death (i.e., Jesus’s path to the cross). Jesus’s heavenly ministry and heavenly session provide the guarantee that this completion will be accomplished, that the reality that faith now attests to will come to be. Until such time as the people are completed, they draw strength from him by their present union with him, since he endured to the end God purposed for him, in order that they should not grow weary by losing heart.
Hebrews 13:12–13
Here, the author refers to the major gospel events, especially Jesus’s death, by again using Day of Atonement imagery (Lev 16:27) to describe the new covenant reality, as he has done elsewhere. For this sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, the animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priests for sins are burned outside the camp. As the fulfillment of this ritual and of this type, Jesus also sanctified the people with his blood by suffering outside the city gate (namely, on Golgotha, in line with the practice of execution outside the inhabited area in Lev 24:14, 23; Num 15:35–36; Deut 17:15; 1 Kgs 21:13; Luke 4:29; Acts 7:58; Josephus, Ant. 4.264; J.W. 4.360). Those who follow him must participate in his story by following him outside the camp, so to speak, and bearing his reproach as their own in order that they may receive what he has received. This comports with Jesus’s own teaching on discipleship subsequent to his first prediction of his execution and resurrection, wherein he informs his disciples that being his disciple requires taking up the cross, as he has (Matt 16:24–25 // Mark 8:34–35 // Luke 9:23–24; cf. Matt 10:38 // Luke 14:27). But of course, given how Jesus has already connected his crucifixion with his resurrection, he implies here, as the author of Hebrews does (as he makes more explicit elsewhere in his argument), that those who follow in the way of Jesus to the cross will also follow him out of the tomb in resurrection.
Hebrews 13:20
Finally, part of the closing text of Hebrews refers to God resurrecting Jesus and the blood of the everlasting covenant. This is the only explicit reference to Jesus’s resurrection, but I would obviously argue that it is implicit or stated in peculiar language elsewhere. In this case, there is the description of God bringing him back up “out of the dead.” The emphasized prepositional phrase is one we have seen previously as emphasizing his separation from the rest of the dead. The verb, while not one of the usual suspects for describing resurrection, is one Paul uses in Rom 10:7. Moreover, the simple form was used in 2:10 in describing God bringing many children to glory through Christ. Since this description from 13:20 is laconic, it is likely that the author is referring in summary fashion to what he or someone else had already taught the audience about Jesus’s resurrection, particularly since he has established that teaching about the resurrection was a fundamental teaching for them (6:2). The great Shepherd of the sheep will himself make others like him in his resurrection and his glory by his salvific union with them.