5. The Law in the Epistle to the Hebrews. — Paulinism was fully vindicated by the historical development that took place on the soil of Judaism. Not only did the Jews of the Diaspora harden their hearts more and more against the Pauline Christian mission, but those resident in Palestine, notwithstanding the conservative attitude of the mother Church towards the Law, became ever the more hostile to Christianity. In the sixth decade of the 1st cent, the antagonism developed into open persecution, and James the Just fell a victim to it. The Christians in Jerusalem, and in Palestine generally, were thus brought to a point where they had to choose between their affection for their fathers' religion and their confession of Jesus ; in particular, their connexion with the fellowship of the synagogue and their participation in the Temple service were involved, and these at last could be retained only at the price of their cursing the name of Jesus. Such is obviously the situa- tion presupposed in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In the opinion of the present writer, this Epistle can have been addressed only to Jewish Christians in Palestine who were tempted by their passionate attachment to their old religion to apostatize from Christ. The author of the Epistle will therefore exhibit the pre-eminence of the NT revelation and the NT priesthood. The essential core of the Epistle is its portrayal of Jesus as the Melchizedek high priest. Inasmuch as such a high priest has been installed, the old legal priesthood — the Aaronic — is eo ipso brought to an end. But, if the priesthood is changed, the change must neces- sarily also att'ect the Law (He 7^^). The ancient commandment is annulled because of its weak and unprofitable character — 'for the law made nothing perfect ' (ov5h irekdwaev, v.^"). Hebrews no doubt looks at the Mosaic Law mainly under the aspect of the priestly and sacrificial legislation, but its view comes to embrace the Old Covenant as a whole (8), in the place of which, as foretold by Jeremiah, God has instituted a New Covenant, writing His law upon the minds and hearts of men, entering into immediate fellowship with them, and forgiving their sins (8'"^^ 10^*). The weakness of the Old Covenant really lay in the external nature of its institutions. Its oblations were carnal, and could not purge the conscience, and thus required to be continually repeated, just as, again, the priests themselves were mortal, and in turn gave place to others. Likewise the sanctuary was merely of this world, merely a copy of the true sanctuary in heaven, just as the benefits of the Old Covenant were of an earthly natui'e — a shadow of heavenly benefits to come (8-10). The leading idea of Hebrews, accordingly, is not so
much that the Law is a tutor until Christ comes (see above, 4 {b)) as that it is an imperfect and now obsolete institution whinh Christians may there- fore tranquilly leave behind.
Compared with St. Paul's doctrine of the Law, that of Hebrews is more restrained in so far as it attaches greater importance to the connexion between the Old Covenant and the New, i.e. that it more strongly emphasizes the typological char- acter of the Law, and that it regards the OT faith as being more akin to that of the NT ; or, to put it otherwise, it insists more upon the aspect of hope even in the NT faith (lP-12^). Again, how- ever, the view of Hebrews is more radical than that of St. Paul in so far as it is of a more spiritual stamp (cf., e.g., the expression in 9'": 'only , . . carnal ordinances,' fwvov diKaiw/xara crapKos) — a feature connected with the fact that the author has in view mainly the ritual law. As a whole, the Epistle stands upon a basis of Paulinism, but it also bears the impress of the Alexandrian spiritualistic philosophy. The attitude of the author to the Jewish Christian problem in the narrower sense — as, e.g., the retention of circum- cision and the Sabbath — cannot be directly inferred from the Epistle, but, if we may argue from his general standpoint, he must have regarded all such matters simply as adiaphora. The Epistle as a whole may be described as an appeal to the Jewish Christians to abandon Judaism without misgiving, since Christians have here no abiding city (Jeru- salem), but seek the city which is to come (13^^). The subsequent destruction of the Temple was the best illustration of that appeal.
6. The Law in the Johannine writings. — Echoes of the controversy about the Law may no doubt still be heard in the Johannine writings, but the question is no longer a living one. Paulinism had by this time fought to an end the decisive battle with Judaism, and the great catastrophe of A.D. 70 had exercised a liberating influence on Jewish Christianity. It is true that, of the Johannine writings, Kevelation may have been written in the decade preceding the Fall of Jerusalem, but, though in the Epistles to the Seven Churches (2. 3) the influence of the Apostolic Decree is probably still traceable (cf. 2-»ff- with 2*- 1* and Ac 15-8), y^t the idea of the LaAV plays no part in the book. The Apocalypse no doubt attaches special importance to the ' commandments of God,' repeatedly enjoin- ing their observance (12^'' 141'^ 22'*), and, similarly, great stress is laid upon the works of believers, since in the Judgment men are to be recompensed according to their works (2=* 20i2'- 22'* ; cf. 14'3), while in five (RV ; AV all) of the seven letters the direct address opens with the words, ' I know thy works ' (2-- 1» 3'- »• '«). The works referred to, how- ever, are in no sense the 'works of the Law,' but rather ordinary Christian actions, or Christian virtues ; cf. the details of the letters and the lists of vices in 21*-^ 22''. Nor, again, are the ' commandments of God ' to be identified with the commandments of Moses. On the contrary, the peculiar way in which they are linked with the 'testimony,' or the 'faith of Jesus,' seems to in- dicate that the expression does not differ essenti- ally in meaning from the phrase ' the word of God ' occurring in a like connexion, and that it finds its explanation in 1 John, in which faith in the name of Jesus and brotherly love are represented as the two chief commandments of God (cf. Kev 1" 12" 142 with 1 Jn 323 4i"- 5'-»).