First let's get something clear about erroneous notions of Paul and his founding a new religion, which he didn't. True, the halakhah of his Judaism switched from the Pharisaic oral law to the Ruach Hakodesh, but his religion was still one of the Judaisms of the time, not a new non-Judaism Gentile religion.

MOSHIACH'S LETTER TO THE MA'AMINIM HAMESHICHIYIM FROM AMONG THE YEHUDIM

The author cannot be Shliach Sha'ul because of 2:3-4. However,

the letter probably has Rav Sha'ul's personal endorsement, and

that's why, since Shliach Sha'ul was martyred 65-68 C.E., the

best date for its composition is around 52-54 C.E. in Ephesus,

when Apollos may have written it to the Brit Chadasha kehillah

there and then sent a copy to Corinth (see Hugh Montefiore, The

Epistle to the Hebrews, Harper and Row, 1964).

Although assumptions are always risky, there are a number of

reasons for assuming that Apollos is the author of this

sermon-letter. Hebrews is a sermon, probably preached in Ephesus

initially to an Ephesian congregation, and then sent (with a

postscript sort of letter added as an appendix) probably to

Corinth (Heb. 13:19; cf. I Cor. 16:12) with greetings from Aquila

and Priscilla (Acts 18:2; Heb. 13:24; I Cor. 16:19). Compare Heb.

5:12 to I Cor. 3:2. Alexander the coppersmith was a Jewish man

who persecuted Shliach Sha'ul and caused him a great deal of

trouble in Ephesus (II Tim. 4:14-15), possibly causing Rav

Sha'ul's imprisonment there, referred to metaphorically in I Cor.

15:32 and also in II Cor. 1:8-10. It is possible that this same

Alexander is referred to in Acts 19:33f and that he is later (58

C.E.) also one of the "Jews from Asia" in Acts 21:27, in which

case he may have been one of the riotous ringleaders whose

trouble-making helped to convince the Ephesian idol-making

Gentiles and later the Jerusalem Jews that Jewish followers of

this "Moshiach" were no longer Jews and not to be afforded the

Roman protection of religious freedom (religiolicita--see notes

on the book of Acts) reserved for Jews since the time of Julius

Caesar (c. 100-44 B.C.E.).

If all this was fermenting in Ephesus in the early C.E. 50's,

many of the Jews in the Ephesian congregation would be afraid of

both Alexander the Jew and the Ephesian lynch mob that had a

vested interest in the idol-making business (see Acts 19:23-41).

These Messianic Jews would need for Apollos to preach a message

to them like the one we find in Hebrews. If Apollos didn't write

Hebrews, it is hard to understand why he is given so much

attention in I Corinthians and especially in the book of Acts.

Luke deals mainly with major figures. Mark would certainly not

have been a major figure if he had not written one of the

versions of the Besuras Hageulah, nor does it seem that Apollos

would have been so important to mention in Acts if he hadn't

written Hebrews, especially since he does not figure that closely

as an of Rav Sha'ul in the Acts narrative. The fact that the

strong influence of Shliach Sha'ul is evident on Luke's writing

of the book of Acts makes Apollos' mention in the Acts narrative

an endorsement of him by Shluchim. See also I Cor.16:12,19; 1:12;

3:5,21-23 and remember that I Cor. is written from Ephesus where

Apollos is ministering with Shliach Sha'ul in the home of

Priscilla and Aquila (I Cor. 16:12,19). Keep in mind that at this

point Rav Sha'ul's past writings include only I and II

Thessalonians and possibly Galatians, so the author of the book

of Hebrews would certainly be exalted if his writing were

compared with Rav Sha'ul's, and that seems to be what is

happening with Apollos, who is put on the same level with Shliach

Kefa in the Corinthian congregation (I Cor. 1:12). All this makes

for weighty, even if circumstantial, evidence for the authorship

of Apollos.

If the Beis Hamikdash had already been destroyed by the Romans,

Hebrews 10:18 would have been the perfect place to infer it. The

present tense force of the verbs in 8:4 and 10:11 (the verb in

10:11 is in the perfect tense but has a present meaning) strongly

indicate that we are in a time period before 70 C.E. and the Beis

Hamikdash sacrifices are still in progress. The author seems to

use the verb tense to make a contemporary reference to Herod's

Beis Hamikdash, though his idealistic and Mosaic reference is to

the Tabernacle of the wilderness.

Timothy has been in prison (13:23), and since Timothy is

associated with the Brit Chadasha kehillah at Ephesus, and since

the Beis Hamikdash seems to be still standing in Jerusalem (8:4),

the date could be in the C.E. 50's, when Shliach Sha'ul and

Timothy were apparently both in and out of prison in Ephesus

(II Cor. 1:1-9) and certainly before 70 C.E., when the Beis

Hamikdash was destroyed in Jerusalem. Because Acts could have

been written as early as 63 C.E., and because Apollos gets such

attention in Acts (more than most of the Shluchim), it is

probable that Hebrews was written before that time and amounts to

his "claim to fame" if we can use that expression in an

impersonal sense, for Hebrews is anonymous and the humble author

draws absolutely no attention to himself. Also, the fact that

even Shliach Sha'ul gives Apollos almost a shliach's dignity of

reference when he mentions his name in I Corinthians, written

about C.E. 55, may be an indication of the early date of this

letter.

Hebrews is a book that G-d seems to have made sure was included

in the Brit Chadasha for the sake of all those who have already

been in one faith, though they have been exposed to the true

Messianic Jewish faith in Yehoshua, are nevertheless tempted,

because of persecution or other pressure, to devalue and give up

their Messianic faith and go back to the easier and older

religious beliefs they once held. Don't do it! Don't do it! This

is the message of Hebrews.

The Ephesian hearers of Hebrews, if they are the sermon's initial

audience (before the sermon is sent as a letter to Corinth), are

in danger of "drifting away" (2:1). They are becoming

encumbered with a too high view of Moses and angels and the Kohen

Gadol in Jerusalem and the Beis Hamikdash levitical kohanim and

the blood of bulls and goats. The levitical kehunah was not

perfect (5:11)! The law made nothing perfect (7:19; 10:1)! Its

sacrifices could not perfect the conscience of the worshiper

(9:9)! The law is only a shadow of the good things to come and

not the true form of these realities (10:1; 11:39-40). But these

messianic Jews Apollos is preaching to are becoming entangled in

a too high view of the covenant made with Moses, forgetting that

a better covenant and a better kohen were promised, and that

"when the kohenhood is changed, of necessity there takes place a

change of law also" (7:13), meaning that the covenant with Moses

(together with its kohenhood and sacrifices) is obsolete as far

as Messianic personal salvation is concerned (8:13).

The people being exhorted have taken their eyes off of the

Moshiach cohen Yehoshua (12:2), and they have forgotten about

"the true tabernacle which the L-rd pitched in the heavens"

(8:1-2), where Yehoshua's kohenhood is greater than Aaron's

(7:1-28). They have grown sluggish, and their lack of diligence

in the things of G-d has hurt their assurance (6:11-12) and has

tempted them to throw away their confidence (10:35). They are

backslidden and "wavering in faith" (10:23) and have become

"dull of hearing" (4:11) and are unable to absorb the meat of the

Word and need to go back to the ABC's of the Besuras Hageulah and

relearn the fundamentals. One old lesson they need to relearn is

that looking with dead Jewish works of Torah toward a merely

earthly sanctuary will not make one alive in the living

G-d--6:1; 9:14. Their eyes are tempted to look to the earthly

Kohen Gadol as their authority and the earthly Jerusalem as their

lasting city (13:14). They are neglecting things like attendance

at the Messianic assemblies (10:25), giving (13:16), and

submission to their elders, whom their conduct is grieving

(13:17). They are standing between perfection (6:1) and apostasy

("falling away"--6:6) and are drifting back (2:1) toward the

brink of destruction. The author exhorts them, "let us go on

toward perfection" and points them toward the heavenly sanctuary

(9:11) and toward the Messiah Kohen Yehoshua, made perfect by

what he suffered in perfect obedience, made perfect as a kohen by

an indestructible life, and having made perfect by a single

sacrifice and for all time those who are sanctified. Only through

Him can we go with full assurance before the throne of grace

(4:16).

All this drifting back has made the back-sliders discouraged

(3:13). They are starting to lose confidence and assurance (3:14)

and hope (3:6) and are in danger of succumbing to an evil,

unbelieving, disobedient heart which would lead them to fall away

(3:12; 4:11) not only from the true Messianic movement but from

the living G-d who is a consuming fire (12:29; 10:31; 3:12). They

are in danger of "shrinking back" from the suffering of loss,

from the suffering of persecution, and from the suffering of

bearing the reproach of their confession of faith. They have

forgotten the lessons of perfecting that come as we learn

obedience not in the Torah's school of dead works (6:2; 7:19;

9:9; 10:1) but in the Moshiach's better tabernacle (9:11) and his

discipleship school of hard knocks (2:10; 5:8-9; 12:4-14). On

"dead works" in Heb. 6:l, see Mat. 15:3, 9 and Mat. 6:22-23. Even

G-d rested from His labors (4:10), the author is saying;

therefore, why don't these people "rest" from depending on "dead

works" and resolutely turn away from the old "works-righteous

Judaism" that had been their old faith and stay with Brit

Chadasha Messianic Judaism, which is the true faith. (Messianic

Faith is a post-Biblical term for transcultural Judaism.)

These people are not crying out to G-d in prayer (5:7) in the

midst of their testing nor are they reverently submissive (5:7).

They don't seem to understand that the Kohen Gadol "in charge"

(5:1) is not the current holder of Kohen Gadol Caiaphas' office

but Moshiach Yehoshua. And these people are on the verge of

rebelling against Moshiach Yehoshua just as Korah rebelled

against Aaron and Moses (see Num. 16). There is something truly

perilous about their spiritual condition: they have "become dull

in understanding" (5:11) and spiritually "sluggish" (6:12).

Notice how Deut. 4:9,25 is very much in view, where the people

are in danger of becoming complacent and letting the Word slip

from their mind. They are immature babes who are unskilled in the

word (5:12-14) and unskilled in distinquishing good from evil.

They have been in the teaching long enough to be teachers but

they are drifting toward evil, toward an obsolete covenant

(8:13). The author feels he must rehearse for them the lessons

found in Numbers and Deuteronomy, lest they also "not continue in

my covenant" (Jer. 8:9). Not only do they need to know about true

perfection (2:10; 5:9; 6:1; 7:11,19; 9:9,11; 10:1,14; 11:40;

12:23; 13:21) but they need to understand the nature of their

covenant faith lest they too perish in a wilderness of rebellion

(3:15), unbelief (3:19; 4:3), and disobedience (4:6,11). To

preach to them, the author sweeps through the entire Law and the

prophets, summarizing covenant faith and the terms of salvation,

lest anyone fail to attain it. His key Tanakh texts are passages

such as Ps. 110, Ps. 95:7-11; Jer. 31:31-34; Ex. 25:40; and

Messianic prophecies like Ps. 2. His primary thesis is that these

people are in danger of neglecting the great salvation they have

been offered (2:3) by giving up what is superior for what is

inferior (1:4; 3:3) and by evoking G-d's covenant anger and

curse. They need to wake up to the "wilderness test" they are

currently undergoing, and (to use an idea found in the book of

Numbers) they need to "step away from Korah" and make that

commitment without which there is no salvation, only the "fury of

fire that will consume the adversaries" (10:27).

These backsliders, who are flirting with going back into

Caiaphas' Second Beis Hamikdash Judaism under the authority of

the current ruling High Kohen in Jerusalem (Ananias son of

Nebedeus C.E. 48-58), need to be reminded that if they keep

backsliding in that direction, they may reach a point of no

return (6:6) like the unbelieving apostates who hardened their

hearts against Moses and died in the wilderness (3:5-19) or like

immoral, G-dless Esau who forfeited salvation's privileges

(12:16-17). The author of Hebrews uses Exodus 25:40 and Ps. 110

and Jer. 31:31-34 to point to a "heavenly Jerusalem" (12:22) and

to a heavenly sanctuary and heavenly sprinkled blood "which

speaks better than the blood of Abel" (12:24). If these

backsliders revile and apostatize and spit the Lord's Supper out

of their mouthes and go back into Caiaphas' Second Beis Hamikdash

Judiasm via their local Besuras Hageulah-rejecting synagogues

(that hold Yehoshua up to contempt--6:6), they will find there

that they have not joined the exclusive community of G-d but are

in fact excluded from such, forfeiting all rights and privileges

apperteining to salvation (13:10). Because they too have become

ashamed of Moshiach Yehoshua, He will become ashamed of them.

Caiaphas, of course, has been out of office since A.D. 36/37, but

his successors did not change his policies toward Messianic

believers, policies which rejected Yehoshua as Moshiach and as

the true way of Judaism's salvation.

These backsliders don't really know who Yehoshua is. He is far

superior to any angel or to Moses or anything or anyone in the

world. In fact, he is the Wisdom of G-d. Yehoshua is actually the

Wisdom G-d used when He created the world. Scientists who believe

in the Big Bang Theory of the origin at the universe believe that

the universe is expanding. Some believe the universe could

eventually stop expanding, turn on itself and collapse. Heb. 1:3

says that the Word of G-d (the Moshiach our Lord) is what is

preventing precisely that from happening for he upholds or

sustains (feron) the universe from collapsing.

Here the author seems to be combining Prov. 30:4 and Prov. 8:30

which together assert that the Wisdom of G-d is G-d's Son, and to

these (Heb. 1:2) the author quotes in Heb. 1:5 that the Moshiach

is the Son of G-d, using Ps. 2:7 as a prooftext. Therefore the

Moshiach is the creative Wisdom of the Father, the builder of

the house (Heb. 3:3). The substance is in Him, everything else is

a foreshadow, and nothing can compare with the Eternal One, the

Moshiach (Heb. 1:12). Moshiach Yehoshua is the Word G-d has

spoken to us, the last Word, the creative Word of G-d, who is His

light and His exact representation. His perfect copy and the one

who holds the universe together (1:1-3). He is the Word who is

G-d (1:1,2,5-14) not a mere angel or a merely human creature.

If the law brought swift punishment when it was rejected, do you

think it a light thing for you if you backsliding drifters reject

obedience to the Besuras Hageulah? (2:2-3). You had better stay

in fellowship (10:25) under constant exhortation and preaching

(3:13 says daily!) and not harden your heart in evil unbelief but

rather build up your faith in the Word and in fellowship, because

you will not be saved unless you keep your grasp on saving faith

right to the end (3:14).

No secret sin is possible with the Word whose burning eyes see

everywhere, that is, the eyes of the One with whom we have to do.

Read 4:12-13.

What is better in this world than fellowship with Moshiach

Yehoshua in the Lord's body of believers? He experienced

everything that we have, yet without sin (4:15). So He is both

compassionate and able to make

intercession for you based on His better sacrifice and life

(7:24-25). Don't you understand that what you have in Him is

better than anything else that any man or woman can offer you?

Who else is the enfleshed sinless Word and eternal priet?

What other man did David ever call L-rd? See Psalm 110 and

Hebrews 5:1-10 and Genesis 14:17-20. The Moshiach's eternal

mediatorial role was known to Abraham and to King David-- why

don't you know it?

In

ch. 6 the author explains his purpose. Those who apostatize after

knowing the truth cannot be renewed a second time. See also

Hebrews 10:26-31 and 3:12. It seems the would-be apostates who

are tempted to join Alexander the coppersmith (II Tim. 4:14; Acts

19:33-34) are being warned. It seems that those who are tempted

to drift back with the persecutors of the Ephesian congregation,

that is, the persecutors from the local Gentile idol-making

industry as well as some from the local synagogue (see Acts 19:9,

23-41)--it seems the book of Hebrews is a solemn warning to these

drifters: do so and burn in hell forever with them!

Then in Hebrews 10:32 the author reminds them of what it has cost

them already to believe. Will they throw all that away and betray

themselves now? Apollos has been in touch with believers both in

Corinth and Ephesus for some time. Those in Ephesus have seen

Shliach Sha'ul and even Timothy (II Cor. 1:11-10) go to priaon.

(Heb. 13:23 oould refer to this).

In ch. 11 the author is saying with illustrations that build one

on top of the other: "You people flirting with apostasy and with

going back to old religious beliefs, have faith (which is the

assurance of not something yet seen but something hoped for) 'Get

tough and don't draw back--be like the real heroes unequivocally

referred to in the Bible and not like the heroes of men and mere

human tradition! Without the faith of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham,

Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Yosef, Moses, and Rahab it is impossible to

please G-d.

In ch. 12 he says, in effect: "Count the cost!" Suffering is part

of your training! Share the rejection and degradation of Moshiach

Yehoshua (13:13)!

In ch. 13 he says, in effect: "Don't let yourself be led astray

with all kinds of doctrines about food laws, etc." We have a

better way to salvation that none of those people trusting in an

obsolete covenant and rejecting Moshiach Yehoshua have a right to

share in."

Don't you understand that Yehoshua is the perfect mediatorial

Word who is at the same time the perfect sacrifice offering?

Don't you realize that no other man or mediator has an

indestructible life able to destroy death and bring immortality

to light? Can you not see the higher life of Yehoshua that

Melchizedek's life was a type of? Read ch. 7. Yehoshua is the

perfect Word who was made perfect through suffering, even as, in

fellowship with his sufferings, we are made perfect in him.

Don't you understand that there is no other assurance of

salvation, no better covenant assurance anywhere than in

Yehoshua? He mediates a greater covenant to us then any other

covenant before him. Any worship, any pilgrimage to a house of

G-d or a sanctuary, any covenant outside of him or any other

revelation mediated except through him is passing away. Only what

is true to him will last, for he is G-d's Word. Only he destroyed

the death that tried to annihilate him, the death that does in

fact destroy everything outside of him.

Look at ch. 6:1; 9:14. This verse shows that mere religion and

ritual and legalistic good works are dead in themselves and

cannot bring spiritually dead religionists to life. Such mere

memorized prayers and washings and bowings cannot purify the

defiled soul that is religious but still without life in the

Spirit of G-d, without regeneration in the living knowledge of

G-d.

In chapter 9, the author seems to be saying, "Don't you realize

what the death of the Word of G-d means? Everyone knows that a

will cannot go into effect without the death of the one who made

it. Therefore the Word had to die to put His promises into effect

for us who inherit them." (See 1:14; 6:12,17; 9:15; 11:8-9;

12:16-17.) The people can remain faithful and keep moving toward

their heavenly inheritance like Abraham or they can fall back and

lose their inheritance like that apostate Esau; it is their

choice.

Through Moses and the prophets, the Word of G-d pointed out man's

separation from the life of G-d and man's sin not just in what

man does but in what he is, a rebellious G-d-alienated and

Satanically blinded being headed for death (2:14). But, then,

this same Word of G-d, who left His imprint on the Scriptures,

appeared once for all in a real body like ours to offer a perfect

sacrifice to take man out of the bondage of human alienation and

death. How did the Word of G-d accomplish this? By paying an

infinite price with his infinite life poured out for our guilty

offenses against G-d and by rising from death to live in our

hearts and make us alive by faith. Any Word that lacks testimony

to his blood is no true gospel. Read ch. 10.

A disciple is a learner with a teacher. He should be a member of

a congregation faithful in G-d's house and Biblically submitted

to G-d by means of tevilah and accountability to the body and its

elders (13:17). Whoever is not faithfully planted in a kehillah

where G-d has placed him is backslidden, and some in this

condition may even be apostate or lost (10:25-29).