the-bible-and-the-dead-sea-scrolls

204 THE SCROLLS’ IMPACT ON SCHOLARSHIP ON HEBREWS
and positive exhortations5 to endure and witness with fidelity. A vision
of the “last days” (1:12), bounded on the one side by the death and exaltation
of Jesus (2:9) and on the other by an imminent day of reckoning
(10:25), frames the paraenetic program. Within that frame stand the
addressees, an unknown community of believers (3:1; 4:14; 6:4; 10:32)
perhaps located in Rome, less likely in Jerusalem or a city of the Greek
east. 6 The homilist’s vision describes the reality of their situation, a reality
that sustains and gives substance to their faith-filled hope (11:1).
The homilist builds his literary mosaic with stones taken from the
Scriptures, clearly in their Greek form. 7 He knits them together with
devices familiar from the rhetorical tradition, 8 both on the surface, where
Text (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993); Thomas G. Long, Hebrews (Interpretation;
Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1997); David A. DeSilva, Perseverance in Gratitude:
A Socio-rhetorical Commentary on the Epistle “to the Hebrews” (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
2000); Craig R. Koester, Hebrews: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB
36; New York: Doubleday, 2001).
Important recent studies on Hebrews include Nello Casalini, Dal simbolo alla realtà:
L’espianzione dall’Antica alla Nuova Alleanza secondo Ebr 9,1—14; Una proposta esegetica
(Analecta, Studium Biblicum Franciscanum 26; Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1989);
Carlos Zesati Estrada, Hebreos 5,7–8: Estudio histórico-exegético (AnBib 113; Rome:
Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1990); Barnabas Lindars, The Theology of the Letter to the
Hebrews (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991); John M. Scholar, Proleptic
Priests: Priesthood in the Epistle to the Hebrews (JSNTSup 49; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991);
Marie E. Isaacs, Sacred Space: An Approach to the Theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews
(JSNT 73; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992); George H. Guthrie, The Structure of Hebrews:
A Text-linguistic Analysis (NovTSup 73; Leiden: Brill, 1994); David A. DeSilva, Despising
Shame: Honor Discourse and Community Maintenance in the Epistle to the Hebrews (SBLDS
152; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995); Richard W. Johnson, Going Outside the Camp: The
Sociological Function of the Levitical Critique in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Sheffield: Sheffield
Academic Press, 2001).
4. Heb 2:1–4; 4:1–2; 6:4–8; 10:26–31; 12:12–17; 12:25–29.
5. Heb 4:11, 14–16; 6:9–12; 10:19–25; 11:1–12:11.
6. For discussion of the options, see Attridge, Hebrews, 9–13. Lane (Hebrews, li–lxvi)
argues for a Roman destination.
7. The general reliance on a Greek form of the text is clear. For instance at 1:7,
Hebrews cites Ps 104:4 in a form different from that found at Qumran. See Frank F.
Bruce, “‘To the Hebrews’ or “To the Essenes’?” NTS 9 (1962–63): 217–32, esp. 219;
Lincoln D. Hurst, The Epistle to the Hebrews: Its Background of Thought (SNTSMS 65;
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 45. That Greek is the language of
composition is obvious from Heb 4:3–5, where an exegetical argument, like the rabbinic
qal wahomer, depends on the similarity between th_n kata&pausi&n mou, “my rest,”
in Ps 95:11 and kai\ kate&pausen o( qeo_j, “and God rested,” in Gen 2:2. The association
is impossible in Hebrew, where the terms are ytxwnm for “my rest” and tb#yw
for “and he rested.”
8. The rhetorical sophistication of Hebrews is widely recognized. For a comprehensive
treatment, along with a novel analysis of the sources of Hebrews, see Paolo
Garuti, O.P., Alle origini dell’omiletica cristiana: La lettera agli Ebrei; Note di analysi retorica
(Analecta: Studium Biblicum Franciscanum 38; Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1995).