From: LISATIA@aol.com
Date: Wed Feb 07 1996 - 01:45:16 EST
dear Ken,
I have found Hebrews to be the most difficult book in the NT. For
example, the passage 8.1-6 posits a present tense "liturgy" for the risen
Jesus - NUNI DE DIAPHORWTERAS TETUCHEN LEITOURGIAS hOSWi KAI
KREITTONOS ESTIN DIATHHKHS MESITHS hHTIS EPI KREITTOSIN EPAGGELIAIS
NENOMOTHETHTAI. "and now he has achieved a more excellent 'liturgy' in
so far as he is mediator of a better covenant, one founded on better
promises."
To understand Hebrews one needs help to see how it is that a heavenly
liturgy can be a model for the realm below.
The elaborate metaphors of Philo and WS are a window to that world of
metaphors that the author of Hebrews lives in. One can then read Hebrews in
the "realist" mode, e.g., the heavenly liturgy is the new covenant, and
because it is heavenly and divinely "real", it is better than any old
covenant.
My advice: put off reading through your own eyes; try reading it
rhrough the eyes of WS (or Philo) to see if it works. I would say that the
book of Hebrews cannot be understood in terms of modern theology but can be
understood through its own predecessors. It is not enough to say that the
Son is better than Sophia; it is more important to see that both were
understood within the same metaphors.
best wishes, richard arthur, Merrimack NH, LISATIA@aol.com
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