The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the New Testament, Part 2 · Hebrews
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS:
and that he having delivered it where Paul had appointed him, went away to Peter to Babylon in Chaldaea, because Peter there, mentioneth Mark now with him, 1 Pet. 3.15. And this Epistle, 2 Pet. 3.15.
It is observable that these two great Apostles Peter and Paul the severall Ministers of the Circumcision and Uncircumcision, had their interchanged agents: Sylvanus or Silas, Pauls Minister, residen… with Peter, and imployed by him to carry his first Epistle: 1 Pet. 5.12. And Mark, Peters Minister, resident with Paul, 2 Tim. 4.11. Col. 4.10. and, very probably, imployed by him to carry this Epistle to the Hebrews. And thus in the interchanged agencies of their Ministers, the parties with whom they had to deal, might own the joynt agreement of both the Apostles.
Although we dare not punctually assert either the bearer of this Epistle, or the exact time of its writing, yet that it was written and sent about these times that we are upon, may be observed by these two boundaries that shut it up within some reasonable compasse of the time hereabout. First, A parte ante, or that it could not be written much sooner then this, may be concluded by this, that Timothy had gone through his imprisonment and was now inlarged before its writing, Heb. 13.23. And secondly, A parte post, or that it could not be written much after this time, may be observed from that passage Chap. 12.4. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood. For presently after this bloody times came on.
That it was written by Paul, hath not only the concurrent consent of all Copies and Translations, but even this proof for it, That none can be named A prisoner, Chap. 10.34. and in Italy, Chap. 13.24. and in so near converse with Timothy, Chap. 13.25. [as the Authour of this Epistle was] so likely as Paul.
His not affixing his name to this, as he had done to his other Epistles, doth no more deny it to be his, then the first Epistle of Iohns is denied to be Iohns upon the same account: especially considering that the name of the Apostle of the uncircumcision, would not sound so well before an Epistle to the Circumcised: and yet the more still, because he sent it by Mark [for so we cannot but suppose] who was a Minister of the Minister of the Circumcision, and who could easily inform them of the Writer.
Unto what part of the Jewish Nation he sendeth the Epistle under the indorsement To the Hebrews, and why that indorsement To the Hebrews rather then To the Iews, may be a usefull and a needfull Quaere. It cannot be imagined but that he sendeth it to be delivered at a certain place within some reasonable compasse, because it was impossible for the bearer, whosoever he was, to deliver it to all the Jews dispersion, and because in Chap. 13.23. he saith that when Timothy came, he would come with him, and see them. Therefore the title The Hebrews must determine the place, since there is nothing else to determine it. A double reason may be given why he so stileth them rather then Iews: namely, either because the name Iew was now beginning to become odious; or rather because he would point out the Jews that dwelt in Iudaea, or the Land of Israel. And this sense doth the holy Ghost put upon the title the Hebrews, Act. 6.1. where it is said, There was a murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews: By The Hellenists meaning the Jews that dwelt in forreign Countries among the Greeks, and by The Hebrews those that dwelt in Iudea. And so it is most proper to understand the inscription of this Epistle, namely that Paul directs, and sends it to the beleeving Jews of Iudea: a people that had been much ingaged to him for his care of their poor, getting collections for them all along his travels, and Mark [whom we suppose the bearer of this Epistle] had come in to his attendance, and to the attendance of his Uncle Barnabas, when they had been in Iudea to bring almes unto those Churches, Act. 11. & 12.
It is not to be doubted indeed that he intendeth the discourse and matter of this Epistle to all the Jews throughout all their dispersion [and therefore Peter writing to the Jews of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia and Asia, applies it as written to them, 2 Pet. 3.15.] yet doth he indorse it, and send it chiefly to The Hebrews or the Jews of Iudaea, the principall seat of the Circumcision, as the properest center whither to direct it, and from whence it might best diffuse in time to the whole circumference of their dispersion.
He hath to deal in it mainly with those things that the Jewish writers commonly call foreign Ordinances affixed to the Land, or such Ceremonious part of their Religion, as while it stood, was confined to the Land, as Temple, Sacrifice, Priesthood, &c. Therefore it was most proper to direct his speech in its first bent, to those that dwelt in the Land, and were most near to those things, and who in those Apostatizing times that then were, had the nearest occasion and temptation to draw them back from the purity of the Gospel to those rites again.
Unto that doubtfulnesse that some have taken up about the Originall tongue of this Epistle, as thinking it very improper that he should write in the Greek tongue to the Hebrews, especially to the Hebrews in Iudaea, we need no better satisfaction then what the Hebrews themselves, yea the Hebrews of Iudaea may give to us, I mean the Ierusalem Gomarists, from severall-passages that they have about the Greek language.
In Megillah, fol. 71. col. 2. they say thus, There is a tradition from ben Kaphra, God shall inlarge Iaphet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Sem: For they shall speak the language of Iaphet in the tents of Sem. The Babylon Gomara on the same Treatise fol. 9. col. 2. resolves us, what tongue of Iaphet is meant; for having spoken all along before, of the excellency and dignity of the Greek tongue it concludes foreign The very beauty of Iaphet shall be in the tents of Sem.
Our men first named, say further thus: Rabbi Ionathan of Beth Gubrin saith, There are four Languages brave for the world to use, and they are these: The Vulgar, the Roman, the Syrian, and the Hebrew, and some also add the Assyrian: Now the question is, What Tongue he means by the Vulgar? Reason will name the Greek as soon as any; and Midras Tillin, makes it plain that this is meant; for fol. 25. col. 4. speaking of this very passage [but alledging it in somewhat different termes] he nameth the Greek which is not here named. Observe then that the Hebrews call the Greek the Vulgar tongue.
They proceed, ibid. col. 3. It is a tradition. Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel saith, In books they permitted not, that they should write, but only in Greek. They searched, and found. that the Law cannot be interpreted compleatly but only in the Greek. One once expounded to them, in the Syriack, out of the Greek R. Ieremiah in the name of R. Chaiith ben Ba saith, Aquila the proselyte interpreted the Law, before R. Eliezer and before R. Ioshua. And they extolled him and said, Thou art fairer then the children of men.
And the same Talmud in Sotah fol. 21. col. 2. hath this record. Rabbi Levi went to Caesarea, and heard them foreign rehearsing their Phylacteries Hellenisticè, or, in the Greek tongue. A passage very well worth observing: For if in Caesarea were as learned Schools as any were in the Nation; And if their Phylacteries [pickt sentences out of the Law] might above all things have challenged their rehearsall in the Hebrew tongue, as their own writers shew, yet they say them over in Greek, Paul might very well write to the Hebrews in Iudaea in the Greek tongue, when that tongue was in so common a use even in an University of Iudaea it self.
To these testimonies for the Greek tongue, might be added, that which is spoken in the Treatise Shekalin, per. 3. halac. 2. VponUpon the three Treasure Chests of the Temple were written Aleph, Beth, Gimel. But Rabbi Ismael saith, It was written upon them in Greek, Alpha, Beta, Gamma: They that hold that this Epistle, and the Gospel of Matthew were written in Hebrew, should consider how that tongue was now a stranger to all but Scholers, and how God in his providence had dispersed and planted the Greek tongue throughout all the world, by the conquest of Alexander, and the Grecian Monarchy; and had brought the old Testament into Greek by the Septuagint.
As this Apostle in all his Epistles useth exceeding much of the Jews Dialect, Language, Learning, allusion and reference to their opinions, traditions and customs; so doth he more singularly in this, and he doth moreover in a more peculiar manner apply himself, to their manner of argumentation and discourse. For his intent is, if he can, to argue them into establishment, against that grievous Apostacy that was now afoot: so many revolting from the purity of the Gospel, either to a totall betaking themselves to Moses again, or at least mixing the Ceremonious rites of the Law with the profession of the Gospel. Comparing his style here, with his style of discourse and arguing in the Talmuds, Zohar and Rabboth, and such like older writings of the Jews, you might easily tell with whom he is dealing though the Epistle were not inscribed in syllables, To the Hebrews: and the very stile of it may argue a Scholer of Gamaliel, but now better taught and better improving his learning then that master could teach him,
He first begins to prove the Messiah to be God, and Iesus to be he: about the former of which, the Jews mistook, and about the latter they blasphemed. In proving the former, he among other places of Scripture, produceth that of Psal. 102.25. Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, &c. To which a Jew would be ready to answer, I but this is to be understood of God the Father; and how could this objection be answered? Yes, even by their own concessions, upon which he argueth in this place. For they understood that in Gen. 1.2. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, of the Spirit of Christ, and so do they interpret it foreign This is the Spirit of Messias: as their mind is spoken in that point by Zohar, Berishith Rabba, and divers others. If the Spirit of Christ then, was the great agent in the Creation, by their own grant, they could not but grant this alligation to be proper.
He sheweth Christ therefore greater then Angels, as in other regards, so into whose hands was put the world to come, chap. 2.5. and here the phrase is used in the Jews dialect, for the Kingdom of Messias, as we mentioned before.
He proveth him a greater Lawgiver then Moses, a greater Priest then Aaron, and a greater King and Priest then Melchizedek: He sheweth all the Leviticall oeconomy but a shadow, and Christ the substance, and the old Covenant to be abolished, by the coming in o… a better: By the old or first Covenant meaning the Covenant of peculiarity, or the administration of the Covenant of Grace so, as whereby Israel was made a peculiar and distinct people. This Covenant of peculiarity they brake as soon almost as they had obtained it, by making the golden Calf, and thereupon followes the breaking of the two Tables in sign of it: for though the Law written in the two Tables was Moral, and so concerned all the world, yet their writing in Tables of stones for Israel, and committing them to their keeping, referreth to their peculiarity. To his handling of the fabrick and utensils of the Tabernacle and contexts of the Ark, Chap. Talm. Ierus. in Shekalim. fol. 49. col. 3, 4. and Sotah fol. 22. col. 3. may be usefully applied, for illustration. He hinteth the Apostasie now afoot, which was no small induction to him of the writing of this Epistle, and sheweth the desperate danger of it, Chap. 6.4, 5, &c. and Chap. 10.26, 27, &c. In which his touching of it, we may see how farre some had gone in the Gospel, and yet so miserably far fallen from it, as that some of them had had the extraordinary gifts of the holy Ghost, and yet now sinned willingly and wilfully against it. In describing their guilt, one of his passages that he useth, is but harshly applied by some, Chap. 10.29. [Hath trodden under foot the Sonne of God, and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing:] when they say that this horrid Apostate wretch, that treads Christ under foot, was once sanctified by the blood of Christ: whereas the words mean, Christs being sanctified by the blood of the Covenant, according to the same sense that Christ is said to be brought again from the dead, by the blood of the Covenant, in this same Epistle, Chap. 13.20. And the Apostle doth set forth the horrid impiety of accounting the blood of the Covenant a common thing, by this, because even the Sonne of God himself was sanctified by it or set apart as Mediator: And so should I understand the words, He hath trodden under foot that Sonne of God, and counted the blood of the Covenant by which he the Sonne of God was sanctified, an unholy thing. He magnifieth faith, against those works that they stood upon and sought to be justified by, and sheweth that this was the all in all with all the holy men both before the Law and under it. When he gives them caution, Lest there be any fornicatour or profane person as Esau, &c. Chap. 12.16. he doth not only speak according to the common tenet of the Nation, that Esau was a fornicator, as see Targ. Ierus. in Gen. 25. but he seemeth to have his eye upon the Nicolaitan doctrine that was now rife, that taught fornication: to which he seemeth also to refer, in those words, Chap. 13.4. Marriage is honourable, &c.
And now henceforward you have no more story of this Apostle: what became of him after the writing of this Epistle it is impossible to finde out, by any light that the Scripture holdeth out in this matter. The two last verses but one of this Epistle, trace him as far forward as we can any way else see him, and that is but a little way neither. Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, with whom if he come shortly I will see you. By which words these things may be conjectured. 1. That after his inlargement out of bonds, he left Rome, and preached in Italy. He mentioneth in his Epistle to the Romans, his desire and intent to go preach in Spain, Rom, 15.24. but that was so long ago, that he had now found some just cause [so much time intervening] to steer his course another way. For 2. It appears that when he wrote this Epistle to the Hebrews, he intended very shortly to set for Iudaea, if so be he sent the Epistle to the Jews of Iudaea as hath been shewed most probable he did. So that trace him in his intentions and hopes, and you finde him purposing to go to Philippi, Phil. 2.23, 24. Nay yet further, to Colosse, Philem. ver. 22. Nay yet further into Iudaea. It is like that the Apostacy and wavering that he heard of in the Eastern Churches, shewed him more need to hasten thither then to go westward. 3. He waited a little to see whether Timothy now inlarged would come to him in that place of Italy where he now was: which if he did, he intended to bring him along with him: but whether they met and travelled together, or what further became of either of them, we shall not go about to trace, lest seeking after them we lose our selves.
CHRIST. LXIII NERO. IX IT hath been observed before, how probable it is that Albinus came into the government of Iudea in Festus room, in this ninth year of Nero. And if so, then was Iames the Apostle who was called Iames the lesse martyred this year; Iosephus gives the story of this, Antiq. lib. 20. cap. 8. Caesar, saith he, understanding the death of Festus, sendeth Albinus governour into Iudea. And the King [Agrippa] put Ioseph from the Highpriesthood, and conferred it upon Ananus the sonne of Ananus. Now this Ananus junior was extreme bold and daring, and he was of the sect of the Saduces, which in judging are most cruell of any of the Iews. Ananus therefore being such a…one, and thinking he had got a fit opportunity, because Festus was dead and Albinus was not yet come; he gets together a Councill, and bringing before it Iames the brother of Iesus, who was called Christ, and some others, as transgressors, he delivered them up to be stoned: But those in the City that were more moderate, and best skilled in the Laws, took this ill, and sent to the King privately, beseeching him to charge Ananus that he should do so no more. And some of them met Albinus as he came from Alexandria, and shewed him how it was not lawfull for Ananus to call a Councill without his consent. Whereupon he writeth a threatning Letter to Ananus. And King Agrippa for this fact put him from the Highpriesthood when he had held it but three moneths, and placed Iesus the sonne of Damneas in his room.