Saturday, November 8, 2025
Encountering Jesus in the Book of Hebrews
In a world that often feels inhospitable to life, the original recipients of Hebrews found themselves struggling to maintain their faith against the pressures of doubt and despair. Likewise, modern believers face similar trials as they seek to live out their faith in a broken world.
Life in a Lifeless World is a deep exploration of the book of Hebrews, perfect for pastors, teachers, scholars, and lay readers seeking a deeper understanding of this complex epistle. Many Christians feel overwhelmed by Hebrews' intricate allusions to the Old Testament and its cryptic imagery, unsure of how to extract practical applications from its teachings. In Life in a Lifeless World, biblical scholar Michael Kibbe guides readers through these challenges with clarity and insight, bridging theological depth with meaningful, practical application.
Life in a Lifeless World demystifies Hebrews with accessible language and reflection questions ideal for sermon preparation or small group discussions. Discover how Hebrews invites us not only to survive but how to become conduits of Christ's life to those around us. This thought-provoking book promises to deepen your understanding of Hebrews and inspire you to live faithfully in today's challenging world.
What You'll Find
- Clear explanations of Hebrews’ complex themes and imagery
- Reflection questions ideal for personal study or group discussions
- Guidance for persevering in faith amid life's challenges
- Tools for applying Hebrews in sermons, small group discussions, or academic settings
Whether you're preparing a sermon, leading a class, or seeking personal spiritual growth, Life in a Lifeless World illuminates Hebrews with fresh clarity. Discover how Michael Kibbe reveals the book of Hebrews' message of perseverance and hope, and delve into this compelling epistle to explore both its meaning and powerful inspiration for living fully in a world that often feels lifeless. Begin your deep and rewarding exploration of Hebrews today!"
HT: Michael Kibbe
Saturday, October 4, 2025
Review of Gelardini, Deciphering the Words of Hebrews
"In the collection entitled Deciphering the Worlds of Hebrews Gabriella Gelardini gathers fifteen essays written in the last fifteen years, twelve of which are in English and three in German. Arranged in three parts (the world of, behind, and in front of Hebrews’s text), her articles deal with such topics as structure and intertext, sin and faith, atonement and cult, as well as space and resistance.
She reads Hebrews no longer as the enigmatic and homeless outsider within the New Testament corpus, as the “Melchizedekian being without genealogy”; rather, she reads Hebrews as one whose origin has finally been rediscovered, namely in Second Temple Judaism."
A Hypertextual Commentary on Hebrews and Revelation
Summary:
"This monograph demonstrates that the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Book of Revelation are results of highly creative, hypertextual reworking of the Acts of the Apostles. In both cases, this detailed reworking consists of around 700 strictly sequentially organized conceptual and often also linguistic correspondences to Acts. The strictly sequential, hypertextual dependence on Acts explains numerous surprising features of both Hebrews and Revelation. Critical explanations of such features, which are offered in this monograph, ensure the reliability of the new solution to the problem of the identities of Hebrews and Revelation, as well as their relationships to the Lucan, post-Pauline school of literary-theological production."
The Pauline History of Hebrews
Undeterred by these gaps, critical scholars have been transfixed by the anonymity of this text for more than just a few centuries, posing solutions with no foreseeable consensus. This historical-critical tradition has produced a litany of candidates for the author of this "letter" who now live on as customarily recycled ideas in obligatory "Introductory" genres for work on Hebrews.
Rather than see anonymity as an unresolved problem, as a lack in the text that needs to be resolved, Warren Campbell embraces anonymity as a vantage point from which to observe the Pauline history of the Hebrews in a new way -- that is, how Hebrews was made to be Pauline. It moreover discusses how later readers variously configured Paul's Jewishness in light of having this epistle in their collection of Pauline letters. It also takes up a crucial point in the critical study of Hebrews by exploring how prefacing Hebrews in the manuscript tradition functions as a reading guide that predetermines the purpose and function of Hebrews. In this groundbreaking and thoroughly researched book, Campbell brings to bear new material on the memory of Paul's Jewishness, helping to start to lay the groundwork for a more nuanced and perceptive understanding of the Letter to the Hebrews."
A New and Living Way: Christ in Hebrews
Drawing on contemporary biblical scholarship and ancient literary context, McCruden illuminates Hebrews' dynamic balance between Christ's divinity and humanity. He shows how the letter's priestly Christology was shaped to encourage a marginalized community struggling to remain faithful, and how its message continues to speak powerfully to the needs of Christian readers today.
This volume bridges academic rigor with pastoral sensitivity. It is ideal for students, ministers, and all who seek a deeper understanding of the theological beauty and enduring relevance of Hebrews."
Heavenly Space in Hebrews
"Stephen Wunrow addresses the pressing question of what the author of Hebrews meant by his descriptions of heaven, arguing that the author intended his references to heavenly space to be interpreted as realistic descriptions of a real place. Wunrow posits that language about heaven is neither metaphor nor a description of a “place” outside the creation, by examining other early Jewish and Christian texts that narrate or describe humans ascending into heaven. Given the nature and the function of heavenly space as described in these texts, Wunrow suggests it is most probable that the authors of the texts intended their descriptions of heavenly space to be understood as realistic.
Wunrow thus explores 1 and 2 Enoch, 4 Ezra, 2 and 3 Baruch, the Apocalypse of Abraham, the Testament of Levi, the Testament of Abraham, the Ascension of Isaiah, and Revelation; investigating how other roughly contemporary authors described heavenly space, and considering that the rhetorical aims of most of these authors fail unless their readers understand their descriptions of heavenly space in realistic ways. Turning then to examine Hebrews, Wunrow suggests that while the letter does contain unique features and rhetorical aims, it also fits comfortably with other early Jewish and Christian texts that describe humans ascending into heaven in a realistic manner. He concludes with reflections on how this conclusion helps to clarify other topics in Hebrews, including atonement and eschatology."
A Social Identity Commentary on Hebrews
"In this volume, Matthew J. Marohl introduces a culturally sensitive reading of Hebrews employing a social identity approach. This allows readers to encounter a unique and powerful depiction of the faithful Jesus and a dynamic group of Christ-followers called upon to maintain their faithfulness. In the end, this social identity approach reveals a work with two strands thoroughly intertwined.
Through the lens of conceptual blending theory, Marohl examines the way in which the author combines the multiple identities of the addressees, shedding light on the community dynamics of early Christ followers. Marohl explores how the author describes ingroup boundaries, how faithfulness is held up as the ultimate ingroup norm, and how the promised rest is grounded in the language of the anticipated future. Ultimately, Marohl argues that Hebrews is a prime example of literature created out of crisis."
Monday, September 15, 2025
Hebrews within Judaism
The Enoch Seminar is doing a three-day virtual conference on "Reading the New Testament within Judaism?" The "conference will discuss the following questions: Why do you think that text x should or should not be within Judaism? What are the criteria for determining that a text is or is not within Judaism? What changes when a text is read within Judaism?"
For our purposes the Hebrews session is on:
Tuesday September 16, 2025
11:30 am – 1:45 pm EST
Presenters:
Madison Pierce | University of St. Andrews, Scotland
Amy Peeler | Wheaton College, USA
Eric Noffke | Facoltà Valdese, Italy
Jean-Claude Verrecchia | Newbold College, UK
John Goodrich | Compass Bible Institute, USA
Simon J. Joseph | UCLA, USA
Discussants:
Gabriella Gelardini | Nord University, Norway
Eric F. Mason | Saint Xavier University, Chicago, USA
David deSilva | Ashland Theological Seminary, USA
Thursday, July 24, 2025
New Article on the Tabernacle in Hebrews
Greene, Judson D. “Reading the Tabernacle in Hebrews 9:6–10.” Novum Testamentum 67 (2025): 58–78.
Abstract:
"While some argue the tabernacle in Hebrews 9:6–10 represents limited access to God, this article argues the tabernacle represents both the old covenant’s limitations and the new covenant’s privileges. The holy place and tamid represent the old covenant era and its sacrifices, while the holy of holies and Yom Kippur represent the new covenant and Jesus’ sacrifice. Further, Hebrews 9:8 alludes to Leviticus 16:17, which stipulates that the priests cannot perform tamid while the high priest performs Yom Kippur. Analogously, while Jesus ministers as the new covenant high priest, the old covenant sacrifices cannot be performed. In this way, the biblical author can illustrate the superiority of Jesus’s sacrifice and the end of the old covenant’s sacrifices by capitalizing on the logic of the old covenant’s sacrificial system."
Saturday, July 19, 2025
Eschatology and the Use of Psalms in Hebrews
Seth Whitaker. Eschatology and the Use of Psalms in Hebrews: Songs for the Last Days . Bloomsbury T&T Clark.
Description
Seth Whitaker argues that
the Psalm texts function as the structural and theological backbone of
Hebrews from start to finish, and that few scholars have examined the
use of Psalms outside of quotations or connected the author of Hebrews'
use of Psalms with his broader eschatological outlook. Whitaker
suggests that the author's eschatology is his dominating exegetical
assumption, allowing numerous psalms to be read with multiple meanings.
Whitaker
further suggests that Psalms, for the author of Hebrews, not only
provide messianic material for his exegetical commentary, but also speak
to a deeper interpretive tradition that is detectable through
scriptural allusions, shared motifs, and narrative structures. Whitaker
examines three passages of Hebrews, 1:5–13, 12:18–28 and 13:15, which
correspond to three perceived gaps in scholarship: the relationship
between quoted texts, the author's cultural encyclopedia, and the
function of scriptural allusions. By focusing on Psalms and the
eschatological nature of the author of Hebrews' exegesis, Whitaker
concludes that readers will be better suited to situate Hebrews in
relation to other Second Temple and early Jewish interpretive
traditions.
A New Dissertation on the Warning Passage in Hebrews 5:11–6:8
A new dissertation:
Carruthers, Ross J. “The Warning Passage in Hebrews 5:11–6:8: A Paradigm Shift in Interpretation and Its Ramifications.” PhD diss., Australian University of Theology, 2025.
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
New Articles and Dissertation Added
Thanks to the bibliography provided by Abeneazer Urga, I am able to add several new articles and a dissertation to my pages:
Coetsee, Albert J. “Deuteronomy’s Concept of Life in Hebrews.” HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 75.3 (September 19, 2019): art. #5374.
Coetsee, Albert J. “A More Comprehensive Comprehension and Appropriate Application: An Answer to Dwindling Faith Commitment from the Book of Hebrews.” In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi 55.2 (2021) art. #2704.
Coetsee, Albert. “The Unfolding of God’s Revelation in Hebrews 1:1-2a.” HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 72.3 (July 2016): art. #3221.
Myers, Travis L. “Jésus prōtotokos dans l’Épître aux Hébreux et le phénomène africain du grand-frère: analyse d’une illustration potentielle.” Journal du Christianisme Mondial 5.1 (2019): 50–63.
Myers, Travis L. “Jesus as Prototokos in Hebrews and the African Phenomenon of Eldest Brother: An Analysis of a Potential Illustration.” Journal of Global Christianity 5.1 (2019): 50–63.
Nyende, Peter. “Law and Gospel in Hebrews: SomeParadigms for Christianity in Africa.” AICMAR Bulletin 3 (2004): 28–39.
Nyende, Peter Thomas Naliaka. “Jesus, the Greatest Ancestor: A Typology-Based Theological Interpretation of Hebrews’ Christology in Africa.” PhD diss., University of Edinburgh, 2006.
Steyn, Gert J. “The Importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for the Study of the Explicit Quotations in Ad Hebraeos.” HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 72.4 (November 18, 2016): art. #3410.