Hebrews
Author: Don’t know. Apollos, Barnabas, and Priscilla are the names mentioned.
Audience: Expected to have a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures and stories. Jewish Christians. This community was facing persecution because of their belief in Jesus.
Message: To early Church members who faced persecution, the author of Hebrews gave two important messages that can help us when we are afraid: stay confident, and remember past miracles.
Jesus is superior to all—to ancient prophets, to angels, to Moses, and to Aaron and the priestly succession descendants from Aaron. Jesus is sufficient for all.
Not written as a letter but more like a sermon or essay.
Written 62-70 AD
John Hilton: The author of the Book of Hebrews wrote to a group of Christians who had endured extreme persecution because of their belief in Christ. For example, an ancient Roman historian recorded that in 64 AD, “[The Emperor] Nero . . . inflicted the most exquisite tortures on . . . Christians. . . . Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt.” https://johnhiltoniii.com/teaching-helps-for-come-follow-me-hebrews-7-13/
David Holland: “What Jesus said to those disciples is you have to be spiritually prepared to be a leader and a source of divine power in the lives of the people that you serve. Well, the whole message of the restoration, that is this dispensation, is that this is applicable to all of us. One of the most beautiful symbols in this regard is the symbolism of the endowment. There was once an era for much of God’s work in the world where there was one High Priest on the face of the earth. One High Priest designated by certain vestments and certain clothing items, and we live in a dispensation when every woman and man who passes through the temple wears the robes of the High Priesthood and is ordained to be a priestess or a priest. So you take this sort of ancient world in which these gifts were reserved to a very small number, and the restoration just blows that up. And we wrestle as a people, and we wrestle for good reason; we have our own painful history with how expansive we have been with those offerings of authority and leadership. And we are still in the middle of that; we are still in that process. But at the core of it, something remarkable has happened with the restoration where that singular High Priest is now represented by women and men across the kingdom.” 44:14 - 45:57
David F. Holland, BYU Maxwell Institute Podcast - November 17, 2020 (related to Holland’s work on Moroni). https://mi.byu.edu/mip-bti-holland/
Hebrews 10:17-25, 32, 35-36, 38-39
The first message was to stay confident. We read, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. . . . Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. . . . Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. . . . We are not of them who draw back.
Multiple times the author of Hebrews says, “Don’t let your fear cause you to give up. Yes, things are hard; yes, it looks bad now; but don’t quit. Things will work out.”
“Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions” Hebrews 10:32
Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. . . .
. . . If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. . . .
. . . We are not of them who draw back unto perdition. [Hebrews 10:35–36, 38–39
The One High Priest
The office was usually a lifetime calling and, when rightly appointed, was by revelation from God, “as was Aaron.”
The office was filled by 28 different men between 37 B.C. and A.D. 68. Since the latter year the office has ceased to exist among the Jews, but they were in apostasy long before that time.
The epistle to the Hebrews discusses at some length the manner in which Jesus Christ is the great High Priest, of whom all the others were pre-figures.
Bible Dictionary
Priest's Vestments: The priest’s vestments consisted of four parts — headpiece, sash, tunic, and linen breeches. The high priest’s vestments consisted of eight pieces — the four belonging to the priest plus an ephod (or “special apron”), a robe of the ephod, a breastplate, and a golden plate of the headpiece (see Exodus 29:5–6). The Exodus text does not mention footwear. The texts may suggest a possible order of putting on clothing for the priests (see Leviticus 8:13) and the high priests (see Leviticus 8:7–10).
The scriptures disclose several symbols that are attached to the sacred vestments worn by priests and high priests in the ancient temple. Each piece of clothing used a variety of symbols to point individuals toward divine actions and attributes. When the symbols of the sacred vestments are considered as pieces of a whole, it becomes clear that they serve as a path of increased spirituality, ultimately pointing individuals toward a greater understanding of and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Your garment is symbolic of the veil [of the temple]; the veil is symbolic of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when you put on your garment, you may feel that you are truly putting upon yourself the very sacred symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ—His life, His ministry, and His mission, which was to atone for every daughter and son of God.”
President Russell M. Nelson
Allen D. Haynie
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/allen-d-haynie/meeting-jesus-in-the-house-of-the-lord/
“When we see the temple garment, we can see a piece of clothing that we commonly wear. Or we can see a coat of skins, representing Christ’s Atonement. Or we can see the veil of the temple, a symbol of the sacrificed body of Jesus Christ. When we see the Savior in our temple garments, it can change the way that we view and treat them. It can also increase the power we feel from the Lord in our daily lives.”
John Hilton
https://johnhiltoniii.com/teaching-helps-for-come-follow-me-hebrews-7-13/
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