iii.
The Old Sacrifices and the New: the abiding efficacy of Christ's one Sacrifice
(Heb. 10:1-18). A summary of reassurance.
V. THE APPROPRIATION AND VITAL APPLICATION OF THE TRUTHS LAID DOWN: 10:19-12:29.
i.
The privileges, perils, encouragements of the Hebrews
(10:19-39).
ii.
The past triumphs of Faith
(ch. 11).
iii.
The general application of the lessons of the past to the present season of trial
(ch. 12). A PERSONAL EPILOGUE: ch. 13. Detailed and specific instructions. Close.
One feature in this plan will strike the student. The central portion of each of the first three divisions is mainly occupied with solemn warnings; while the last division is a most grave and earnest exposition of the duties which follow from the confession of Christ's Priestly work. The writer is unwilling, even in the development of the Truth, to allow the loftiest conception of the Gospel to appear to be a theory only. It is for him intensely practical; and the note of entire and reverential awe closes his description of the privileges of Christians (12:28 f.).
X. CHARACTERISTICS
The Epistle to the Hebrews is one of three Books in the N. T. specially addressed to those who were Jews by descent, the other two being the Gospel according to St Matthew and the Epistle of St James (James 1:1 tai'" dwvdeka fulai'" ). To these however 1 Peter, probably addressed to those who had passed through Judaism to Christianity, may be added (1 Pet. 1:1 ejklektoi'" parepidhvmoi" diaspora'" Povntou ...).
Each of these books is marked by a characteristic view of the Faith. St Matthew, according to general consent, gives the lineaments of the Davidic King. In St James we have the power of a perfect law (James 1:25; 2:8): in St Peter the accomplishment of prophecy (1 Peter 1:10-12): in the Epistle to the Hebrews the efficacy of an eternal priesthood (Heb. 7:23 ff.).
This general connexion indicates the true position of the Epistle, which is that of a final development of the teaching of the three, and not of a special application of the teaching of St Paul. It is, so to speak, most truly intelligible as the last voice of the apostles of the circumcision and not as a peculiar utterance of the apostle of the Gentiles (Gal. 2:9 f.). The apostles of the circumcision regarded Judaism naturally with sympathy and even with affection, for it was that through which they had been led little by little to see the meaning of the Gospel. The Apostle of the Gentiles, with all his love for his countrymen and all his reverence for the work wrought through the old Covenant, no less naturally regarded Judaism, as it was, as a system which had made him a persecutor of the Faith. For St Paul the Law is a code of moral ordinances: for the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews it is a scheme of typical provisions for atonement. For the one it is a crushing burden: for the other it is a welcome if imperfect source of consolation. And it is in virtue of this general interpretation of the spirit of the Levitical system that the unknown apostle to whom we owe the Epistle to the Hebrews was fitted to fulfil for the Church the part which was providentially committed to him.