The New Testament and the People of God by N. T. Wright

Author:N. T. Wright
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Biblical Studies, Christianity, New Testament, Religion
ISBN: 9780281045938
Publisher: Fortress Press
Published: 1992-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

7. The Narrative World of the Letter to the Hebrews

Entering the world of the letter to the Hebrews after a close study of Paul is a bit like listening to Monteverdi after listening to Bach. We are clearly in the same world, but the texture is different, the allusions are different, the whole flavour is changed. There is neither space nor need to enter at this point into a full discussion of Hebrews;126 I simply want at this point to draw out one aspect of its narrative world that is not often noted, namely, the parallel between the climax of the letter and the equally climactic final main section of Ben-Sirach.

We glanced earlier at the narrative function of Sirach 44:1–50:21.127 There we saw that the list of heroes brings the history of the world, and of Israel, to a climax with the worship of YHWH in the Jerusalem Temple, especially the spectacular ministry of the high priest, Simon ben Onias:

How glorious he was, surrounded by the people,

as he came out of the house of the curtain.

Like the morning star among the clouds,

like the full moon at the festal season;

Like the sun shining on the temple of the Most High,

like the rainbow gleaming in splendid clouds; …

When he put on his glorious robe

and clothed himself in perfect splendor,

When he went up to the holy altar,

he made the court of the sanctuary glorious.128

This is where Israel’s history has been leading: a great high priest, magnificently robed, splendid in his liturgical operations, coming out of the sanctuary after the worship to bless the people. It is clear that this provides a close echo of a theme that characterizes Hebrews all through: Jesus is the ‘great high priest who has passed through the heavens’, who is ‘holy, blameless, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens’, who is ‘seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens’, and who, having finished his own performance of ritual duties (offering his own blood in the heavenly sanctuary) ‘will appear a second time … to save those who are eagerly waiting for him’.129 What is not so often seen is that the list of ‘heroes of faith’ in Hebrews 11 is designed to make the same point, by means of its clear subversion of the story in Ben-Sirach 44–50. Instead of the present high priest in the Temple being the point towards which all Israel’s history was tending, it is Jesus, the true High Priest: Hebrews 12:1–3 stands to 11:4–40 as Sirach 50:1–21 does to 44:1–49:16.130 Though speaking at the surface level of Jesus as the supreme example of enduring faith, at the strongly implicit level 12:1–3 powerfully reinforces the point made in 8:1–10:28. Once again the distinction between poetic sequence and referential sequence, coupled with a careful listening for intertextual echoes, draws out of the text a rich vein of meaning.

Underneath the poetic sequence of Hebrews, then, lies a clear implicit narrative sequence. The story of the world, and of Israel, has led up to a point, namely, the establishment of the true worship of the true god.

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