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The Christology of Hebrews in relation to Jewish literature

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HendersonJC_1995redux.pdf (36.61Mb)
Date
1995
Author
Henderson, John Casey
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Abstract
 
 
The central issue of the thesis concerns the basic christological problem in the Epistle to the Hebrews, namely, the relation between the pre-existent language and the appointment language as they are applied to the Son. The Epistle is distinctive because it contains one of the highest (if not the highest) and one of the lowest (if not the lowest) christologies in the NT. On the one hand, the author speaks of the Son's humanity in some of the most graphic terms in the NT, while on the other hand, he also speaks implicitly and explicitly of the Son as being equal with God, thus reflecting, at least, a binitarian view of the Godhead. The Son is pictured as being not only appointed Son, but also as the pre-existent Son. The questions I address are: (a) Was the Son always Son or did he become Son? (b) If he was always Son, how could he be appointed Son?
 
I review critically the various solutions offered to explain this apparent dichotomy, such as the adoptionist, kenotic, contradictionist, Arian and orthodox solutions. The orthodox solution seems to stand closest to the christology of Hebrews. The purpose is to present that solution in a revised, clearer and a more convincing manner
 
A secondary objective is to affirm the Jewishness of this Epistle to the Hebrews, its author and its addressees. This is achieved, on the one hand, by demonstrating that the letter is much more a pastoral and theological letter than a polemical treatise against Judaism, and on the other hand, by highlighting how Jewish the methodology, the phraseolgy, the titles, the ideas and concepts are which the author employs. The Jewishness of the Epistle makes the central issue of this thesis, namely, the divinity of the Son, more difficult for modern scholarship. If it was a Hellenistic piece of literature, then there would be no problem with it calling a second person 'God' because of Greek polytheism. But that a Jewish literary work should do so is seen as contradicting Jewish monotheism. It is my purpose to show that first century Judaism, despite its later 'two powers in heaven' heresy polemic, had the foundations for a binitarian view of God.
 
 
 
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http://hdl.handle.net/1842/30266
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