Priesthood and boldness

Hebrews 4 ends on a strong note, with the injunction to be bold, which can mean "not hesitating or fearful in the face of actual or possible danger or rebuff" (dictionary.com).

5 introduces us to Melchizedek, previously mentioned in Genesis 14 as "king of Salem" and "priest of the most high God".

The role of the Hebrew priest was to mediate between God and the people.

Julie Swannell

Work and Rest; Morning and Evening

Hebrews Chapter 4 begins on the topic of rest, which is a bit of a surprise.  So I looked up what Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (SH) by Mary Baker Eddy has to say, but in the meantime I remembers that it says, “The highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint, is in holy work” (p. 519:28).

I have always loved the SH definitions of day, evening, morning, and night.  So “evening” is precious with its, “Evening. Mistiness of mortal thought; weariness of mortal mind; obscured views; peace and rest” (p. 586:1). Having worked through that in our experience, we can then enjoy the “Light. symbol of Truth; revelation and progress” of Morning.

Having dealt with the topic of rest, our author joyously tells us about the word of God, which is “…quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (4:12). This surely is the truth we are to know to gain that seventh day rest, and “find grace to help in time of need” (4:16).

And to top off the idea of rest SH gives us a definition: “…at last we shall rest, sit down with him, in a full understanding of the divine Principle which triumphs over death” (p. 31:20-22).  The sentence begins, “Obeying his (Jesus’) precious precepts, - following his demonstration so far as we apprehend it, - we drink of his cup, partake of his bread, are baptized with his purity..."

Joyce Voysey

Rich harmonies

I have begun reading Hebrews over the last few days. I am reading from a King James Version which includes a comprehensive concordance in a column down the middle of each page. This gives me a lot of extra reading, looking up all the cross references. But it demonstrates how well versed the author was in the Scriptures. To read a book of the Bible in this way is like beginning with a simple melody and then hearing rich harmonies which accompany it. 

I like reading Hebrews from the viewpoint that it could have been written by Priscilla, whose Christly commitment, inspired faith, and generous heart must have been so pivotal to the health and growth of the early Christian communities. We know that she and her husband were prepared to move their household to wherever they could be of most effective service. She was indeed a church elder, and had been closely instructed by Paul over a period of years. 

Whoever  the author, it is immediately apparent that he / she was deeply devoted to preserving the purity and simplicity of spiritual worship, warning their readers against falling into ritualism, refreshing their understanding of the distinction between Angels and Christ Jesus, alerting them to the need for childlike obedience, defining true priesthood. 

Marie Fox

Work and rest

A recent testimony meeting included Hebrews 4: 12 which assures us of the powerful and incisive power of spiritual truth to cut to the heart of a matter. I love that the previous verses spoke to us of "rest", which might make us think about peace, relaxation, cessation of worry or complaint, or perhaps serenity and quiet. Sounds like bliss doesn't it? Well we are advised to "labour ...to enter into that rest" (verse 11). Does that remind us of the commandment that assures us that while six-sevenths of our effort goes into labour, we must remember to rest at the end, to take time to pause, remembering that God's work is already complete and perfect.

Julie Swannell

Encouragement and team work

The King James Version of Hebrews is tricky so I’ve been looking at it alongside Eugene Peterson’s The Message (using the wonderful facility on www.biblegateway.com) and searching for key directional words as guideposts. For instance I found the word BUT was a key word in Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2: 8 (KJV) pronounces: “Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet….But now we see not yet all things put under him.” This is puzzling at first glance, however if we consider the use of “absolute” and “relative” statements, it becomes a little clearer. Thus it could be paraphrased: “The fact is that everything is under God’s control (absolute statement)…But it doesn’t always appear that way (conditional statement).”

The writer then responds with what we DO see – and here is the main thrust of his/her message: Hebrew 2: 9 (KJV) “But we see Jesus…” (emphasis added).

The author is building a case for the role of Jesus as: “a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people” (verse 17).

Chapter Three uses an analogy of a house and the house builder. Verse 4: “For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.” Furthermore, the Son is in charge, and WE are the house. We’d better believe it! Keep listening up here for more good news.

I like the sense of teamwork in verse 13: ^“But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” which is rendered “For as long as it’s still God’s Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn’t slow down your reflexes” in The Message.  We can help each other.

Julie Swannnell

Discouragement in the Hebrew camp

Hey! This is exciting!  I have reverted to my old friend’s A Commentary on The Holy Bible by various writers edited by Rev. J.R. Dummelow and generally referred to as “Dummelow.”  And I have found another reference to Priscilla.  In speaking of possible authors of the book, it states, “The latest proposal is the brilliant suggestion of Harnack that the author was Priscilla.  If it were written by a woman it might have been thought in that unenlightened age not wise to give her name.  Priscilla was the chief teacher of Apollos, an Alexandrian, and there is evidence of Alexandrian influences in the contents of the Epistle.  But the question cannot be definitely determined.”  

The next paragraph goes on about the Alexandrian Influences and concludes that, “The whole spirit and atmosphere of Hebrews is Alexandrian rather than Palestinian.”

I am beginning to see a little how Mary Baker Eddy valued this book of Hebrews.  It seems to me it is pointing out the difference between Christianity and Judaism, and her teachings show the sort of up-grading of Christianity presented by Christian Science.

I do like Dummelow!  Here he has summed it all up for me.  “The Christians addressed are evidently in danger of falling away from their faith and apostatising altogether.  So desperate does their condition appear to the author, that he feels it necessary to expostulate in the gravest terms.  It is no fascination of the world luring them away from their original consecration that occasions this danger.  The Hebrews are discouraged to almost the extent of despair, because they do not see how the gospel can offer them anything like compensation for what they have lost in being cast out of the synagogue on account of their confession of the Nazarene.”

Now it is up to me to find this for myself in the text.

Joyce Voysey

Angels

Angels play quite a prominent part in Chapters 1 and 2. There seems to be some confusion on just what an angel is. How thankful we are that Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures gives us satisfactory definitions, such as on p. 581 line 4 –

ANGELS. God’s thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality.  S&H 581:4.

The passage on angels in the chapter Science of Being (p. 298:25-17) deserves to be quoted in full:

Angels are not etherealised human beings, evolving animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial visitants, flying on spiritual, not material pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from God, winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their individualism may be. Human  conjecture confers upon angels its own forms of thought, marked with superstitious outlines, making them human creatures with suggestive feathers; but this is only fancy. It has behind it no more reality than has the sculptor’s thought when he carves his “Statue of Liberty,” which embodies his conception of an unseen quality or condition, but which has no physical antecedent reality save in the artist’s own observation and “chambers of imagery.”

My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried its fondest earthly hopes. With white fingers they point upward to a new and glorified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels are God’s representatives. These upward-soaring beings never lead to self, sin, or materiality, but guide to the divine Principle of all good, whither every real individuality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us, and we entertain “angels unawares.”

How good it is to be reminded of those truths! And to know that in the words from hymn number nine from the Christian Science Hymnal,

O longing hearts that wait on God

Through all the world so wide;

He knows the angels that you need,

And sends them to your side,

To comfort, guard and guide.

Yes. God knows the angels which each one of His children needs and does provide them with grace and glory in the oneness of His being.

Joyce Voysey

Studying Hebrews

Hello!  Hello!  Harper Collins New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible states that early Christian leaders such as Barnabas, Apollos, and Priscilla have been mentioned as possible authors of Hebrews.  Here is that woman I had heard about - maybe!  Regarding the ‘letter’ matter, the NRSV states that the book does end with a letter and that the final paragraphs give the possibility of it having been sent to far off recipients.  The last paragraph does seem to indicate that Paul had something to do with this communication – the mention of Timothy and Italy… I wonder if some day the author will be revealed?

NRSV suggests that the Greek in which this book was written is among the most sophisticated in the New Testament.

Eugene Petersen offers a different angle on the book in his introduction in The Message.  Here he says that it tells us we can get too religious!  And when that happens it is time to re-read and study afresh this precious book.

Joyce Voysey

July.  Book:  Hebrews

I began by reading what my Harper Collins Bible Dictionary has to say about the book, then The New, New Testament.

I had been aware that Paul is not considered to be the author of the book, and that no other author has been named.  I read somewhere that the idea that it was written by a woman, and therefore it was not to be acknowledged as such, was put forward.  I rather like that idea, though Madelon Maupin seemed to disregard it when I mentioned it.

The Bible dictionary says the work reads like a homily rather than a letter, and The New New Testament suggests a teaching or a sermon.  It speaks of some of the text as introducing Greek philosophy.

So, I wondered what that wonderful and inspired student of the Bible, Mary Baker Eddy has to say about Hebrews.  From memory I gather that she was very impressed by some of it.  For instance, quotes appear in her work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures in the chapter Recapitulation, in response to the question "What is substance?" Here she quotes from the remarkable chapter 11 (on faith): “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  See S&H p. 468 and Hebrews ch. 11, particularly verse 1.

Again, in Science and Health, on page 112: 19-20, we find reference to Hebrews 13: 8 “[Jesus Christ] the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”  The marginal heading here is Unchanging Principle, and refers to the divine Principle of healing in Christian Science, and the Christ-idea.

Further on, on page 313, in reference to Jesus the Christ, we find Hebrews 1:9 quoted as poetry:

                        Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee

                        With the oil of gladness above they fellows.

Biblical phrases resonated with Mrs. Eddy, so that they were part of her language.  She borrows once more from Hebrews (11:10) on p. 575: 12-13) as follows: “a city that hath foundations,” when speaking about the New Jerusalem. 

Joyce Voysey

God's Son

Our July book is Hebrews, from the New Testament. I have opened a couple of different translations and read the first couple of verses from Chapter One where the author (scholars have ruled out Paul for this book) immediately takes us to God. How has God communicated thus far? Through the prophets. But now we have God's Son. 

The Living Bible tells us "God's Son shines out with God's glory" (verse 3) while the New Revised Standard Version translates the original Greek as "He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being" and Eugene Petersen offers "This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God's nature" (The Message). 

I love the shiny nature, even luminosity, of these descriptions.

Julie Swannell

What joy

Possibly one of the most noteworthy aspects of the building of the Extension of The Mother Church is the fact that it was completed in 2 years from the laying of the corner stone.  (See page 67 of As Chronicled by the Newspapers.)  Having just read about the building of the Cologne Cathedral, which went on for many, many centuries (about 6) and was finished in 1880, and knowing that the building of the Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane was executed between the years 1906 and 2009, I can appreciate the magnitude of the task.  Though, of course, the Christian Science church is a simple building in comparison.

 

When I think of the interior of the two types of buildings, a circle and a straight line come to mind, the circle having an embracing feel to it.  Page 71 gives us a nice piece on the Unique Interior.

Fancy there being space for 5,000 people to move freely in the foyer!

And, the demonstrations that must have been made to accomplish the perfection recorded in the newspapers of the time!

Then there were testimony meetings – I count 9 places where they were held!  What a privilege to be present at one of those!  What joy! 

Joyce Voysey