Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

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APPENDIX. 623
well enough acquainted at least with him, so that at his suggestion,
and through him, Paul might address a writing to them. The
notice, too, respecting the former zeal of these readers (Heb. vi. 10
X. 32, seq.) thus obtains a sufficient explanation.
Finally, this hypothesis throws light on the passages which refer
to an impending persecution, as well as the reference to the martyrdom
of the -qyov^evot (xiii. 7). The Epistle to the Philippians had
been written in the year 62, and the Epistle to the Hebrews sent
soon afterwards to the East. Just at that time the apostle James,
son of Alpheus, had been stoned ; the news of his death would just
have reached Italy when Luke was writing the epistle. Shortly
afterwards, Luke, as well as Timothy, set out on a journey eastward,
first to Asia Minor, but Luke (Heb. xiii. 23), certainly, also
to Palestine. Luke returned back to Paul earlier than Timothy
(2 Tim. iv. 11), standing faithfully by his spiritual father even to
his death. Timothy also received a pressing charge to return (2 Tim.
iv. 21), and would doubtless comply with it. Paul suffered martyrdom
in the beginning of 64. Among the revelations of the Holy
Spirit, whose instrument he was, and which he had left behind him
as an everlasting legacy, the Epistle to the Hebrews occupies a very
important place. It is the knife which completely severed and delivered
the new-born church of the New Testament Israel from the
maternal womb of the Old Testament theocracy. And therefore, it
not merely had a significance for the Christian Church at the time
when the Lord visited with judgment the unbelieving seed of Abraham,
but it has a permanent significance, as a writing which wiU be
lighted up anew in flaming characters every time the attempt is
made again to drive back the Church, which has been perfected forever
by one sacrifice, within the limits of a Levitical sacrificial service
and a slavish hierarchy, and again to hide behind a veil the
access to the sacrifice of Christ, which stands freely and directly
open to every individual.
LITERATURE.
In the Patristic period we find, in Origen, only fragmentary explanations.
The commentary of Theodoret is well known, and
m many respects justly celebrated ; but Chrysostom, in his 34
homilies, penetrates still deeper into the spirit of the Epistle to the
Hebrews.
In the Reformation period Erasmus has furnished, in his Annotations
(1516) and his Paraphrasis (1522), an excellent preparatory
work for the grammatical interpretation of the epistle ;
Zuingle,
Calvin, Beza, Piscator, have, each in his own way handled the Epistle
to the Hebrews along with the rest of the New Testament