An investigation for possible parallels of the Roman imperial cult (Caesar-Nero) in the New Testament book of Hebrews

This thesis is an investigation of possible significant parallels of the Roman imperial cult (Caesar-Nero) in the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews was no doubt greatly impacted by Jewish influence, context, and background. Yet there may be other significant influences that have formed the New Testament book of Hebrews. One such possible influence to the book of Hebrews is the Roman Empire, and more specifically, the Roman imperial cult, the worship of living Roman emperors in god-like terms and the deification of dead emperors. The writer of Hebrews may have used language, forms, and images of the Roman ruler cult to contrast, compare, or clarify their theology and interpretation of Jesus and God. There is the possibility of correspondences between worship of the Roman emperors and the book of Hebrews. Are there significant parallels of the worship of the Caesars to God in the book of Hebrews? Did the writer of Hebrews use illusions, motifs, and images of the Roman emperor cult in parallel to Jesus Christ? Is the Roman imperial cult influence portrayed in the book of Hebrews? If yes, how and to what degree are they portrayed? If no, what are some of the divergences? This thesis attempts to answer these questions in an investigation for possible parallels of the Roman imperial cult (Caesar-Nero) in the New Testament book of Hebrews. I hypothesize there are significant parallels of the Roman imperial cult (Caesar-Nero) in the book of Hebrews. Through my findings I conclude that parallels with words and images on a broad level do exist, but discovery of significant parallels of direct influence were lacking. The parallels between Hebrews and the Roman imperial cult were more likely due to common sources, cultural settings, or universal ideas. The three strongest parallels of the emperor cult (Caesar-Nero) in the book of Hebrews were: divine sonship, enthronement after death, and benefaction. These parallels in combination with the weaker ones do not constitute significant parallelism. The Roman emperor cult does not appear to be a major influence which produced significant parallel for material contained in the book of Hebrews.Dissertation (MTh (New Testament Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007.New Testament StudiesMThunrestricte

God’s Faithfulness to Promise: The Hortatory Use of Commissive Language in Hebrews

David Worley\u27s 1981 Yale University dissertation--revised with foreword by James Thompson and bibliographical addendum by Lee Zachary Maxey--explores the use commissive language, promises, and hortatory literature in the book of Hebrews. The author concludes that the use of commissive language in the book of Hebrews was not prompted by criticisms within the church over a delay in God’s promise keeping; rather that our author seized upon God’s commissive activity and the behavior of promisees of scripture as a way of emboldening a people tempted to withdraw from one another and from God to endure social and financial difficulties and to remain confident in the face of threats to the promise.https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/acu_library_books/1000/thumbnail.jp

A New Proposal of Hebrews’ Outline

Identifying and understanding the outline of a book in the Scripture is important to understand a text. One book in the Scripture that receives attention from scholars in terms of inquiring about the outline or the structure of its book is the Book of Hebrews. This is due to the awareness among scholars in regard to the complexity of this book’s outline or its structure. Because of its complexity, scholars have proposed various outlines of this book. In fact, by careful study, a new approach of even the idea of the outline of Hebrews could be brought to the surface. Therefore, using some aspects of the literary devices proposed by Alberth Vanhoye, this paper task was to analyze the way how the author composes the book of Hebrews and provide a new outline of this book. In turn, this new outline provided help for interpreters to exegete this book.Keywords: Hebrews, outline, complexity, new approach, literary devices

The Obedience of Sonship: Adamic Obedience as the Grounds for Heavenly Ascension in the Book of Hebrews

This thesis makes a unique contribution in the field of New Testament studies with specific attention to New Testament theology and the Christology of Hebrews. It explores the relationship between Sonship and the ascension in the book of Hebrews. It argues that the ascension of Jesus reveals the nature of his Sonship. First, chapters two and three of this study examine the Sonship of Jesus in Hebrews 1. It portrays Jesus as both the Messianic and the divine eternal Son. While recent scholarship has questioned whether the Son in Hebrews is a divine Sonship, this thesis demonstrates that Hebrews portrays Jesus as divine. Second, this study argues that Heb. 2 contains a “Second Adam Christology.” The Son shares in true humanity and is appointed to fulfill the destiny of humanity. In this humanity, he is crowned with glory and honor in fulfillment of Ps. 8. The Son stands in solidaric representation of the people of God. This second Adam function is both kingly and priestly as representative who leads God’s people to this glory. Third, as this eschatological man who is crowned as king and priest the Son ascends into heaven. This is set against the background of apocalyptic literature where heaven is a temple and the dwelling place of God. The Son is portrayed in Hebrews as ascending into a true tabernacle that is heaven itself. He enters heaven as both king and priest of the age to come because he himself has first come to participate in the age to come. Finally, the study demonstrates that the obedience of the Son qualifies him for his ascension and eschatological ‘perfection.’ We argue that the theme of obedient trust and crying out to God is an Adamic-Davidic role with a Psalmic background. We conclude, in the book of Hebrews, Christ is the eternal Son who also functions in the Adam-David role of sonship. His actions as the true human exercising trust and obedience qualify him to ascend up into heaven crowned with humanity’s eschatological glory

The Gospel According to Hebrews 9

Rudolf Bultmann in his magnum opus, Theology of the New Testament, tends to dismiss the Epistle to the Hebrews as ‘allegorical’,1 ‘legalistic’,2 exemplaristic\u27,3 and ‘sacramentalistic’.4 This is overly negative. The Book of Hebrews may be a unique contribution to New Testament thought, and may possess its own peculiar logic and expression; nevertheless, it is a decidedly Christian document.

Exodus, Psalms and Hebrews: A God abounding in steadfast love (Ex 34:6)

The author of Hebrews heavily depends on the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch, for the most part, offers him material for reflection on redemptive history, and the Psalms provide his Christological material. The great debt the book of Hebrews owes to the Old Testament, however, is not simply a matter of general background and copious quotation, but also extends to fundamental Old Testament ways of thinking which are constantly presupposed and which underlie all passages in the book. The concept of hesed (“faithfulness, kindness, grace, steadfast love, solidarity” etc) is one of those. According to the Hebrew Scriptures, God revealed God self to God's people at Sinai. This article will deal specifically with the reference to the Sinai revelation as it appears in three Psalms. This discussion will be followed by a short overview of this specific text in the Pentateuch. This article will be concludes by briefly indicating a possible influence these Old Testament texts on the book of Hebrews. HTS Theological Studies/Teologiese Studies Vol. 64 (3) 2008: pp. 1365-137

COLLECTION 0207: Papers of Arvid F Carlson, 1939-2006

The Papers of Arvid F Carlson, 1939-2006 contains the autobiography, photographic reprints, and select sermons notes written by Carlson. The collection primarily includes typewritten sermon notes with annotations. Each sermon has notes indicating the various dates and locations where the sermon was delivered. Subjects include the Book of Hebrews, the Crisis of the Crucifixion, the Face of Christ, Prophecy, and Baptism

The Concept of Chastisement in the Book of Hebrews

As a result of personal contact with several cases in which the purpose and nature of Christian suffering was misinterpreted by the individual, one is led to study the Bible very carefully in order to offer all of the hope and comfort which God has placed into this Holy Book for His faithful followers. The present study is so constructed as to lead a person to discover the many ways in which he might offer consolation and encouragement to a person who is suffering some form of chastisement from God, specifically employing the Epistle to the Hebrews to the given situation