James, the bishop of Jerusalem, had just left his place vacant by a martyr's death. Neither to Cephas at Babylon, nor to John at Ephesus, the third pillar of the Apostolic Church, was it given to understand all the greatness of this want, and to speak the word in sea- son. But there came from Rome the voice of one who had been the foremost in sounding the depth and breadth of that love of Christ which was all but in- comprehensible to the Jew — one who, feeling more than any other apostle the weight of the care of all the churches, yet clung to his own people with a love ever ready to break out in impassioned words, and unsought and ill-requited deeds of kindness. He whom Jerusa- lem had sent away in chains to Pome again lifted up his voice in the hallowed city among his countrjonen; but with words and arguments suited to their capacity, with a strange, borrowed accent, and a tone in which reigned no apostolic authority, and a face veiled in very love from wayward children who might refuse to hear divine and saving truth when it fell from the lips of Paul.
He meets the Hebrew Christians on their own ground. His answer is, " Your new faith gives you Christ, and in Christ all you seek, all your fathers sought. In Christ, the Son of God, you have an all-sufficient Medi- ator, nearer than angels to the Father, eminent above Bloses as a benefactor, more sympathizing and more prevailing than the high-priest as an intercessor: his Sabbath awaits you in heaven ; to his covenant the old was intended to be subservient; his atonement is the eternal reality of which sacrifices are but the passmg shadow ; his city heavenly, not made with hands. Hav- ing him, believe in him with all your heart — with a faith in the unseen future strong as that of the saints of old, patient under present and prepared for coming woe, fidl of energy, and hope, and holiness, and love."
Such was the t.eaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews, We do not possess the means of tracing out step by step its eifect upon them, but we know that the residt at which it aimed was achieved. The Church at Jerusa- lem did not apostatize. It migrated to Pella (Eusebius, //. Ecd. iii, 5) ; and there, no longer dwarfed under the cold shadow of overhanging Judaism, it followed the Hebrew Christians of the Dispersion in gradually enter- ing on the possession of the full liberty which the law of Christ allows to all.
The primary design of this epistle, therefore, was to dissuade those to whom it is -written from relapsing into Judaism, and to exhort them to hold fast the truths of Christianity which they had received. For this pur- pose the apostle shows the superiority of the latter dis- pensation over the former, in that it was introduced by one far greater than angels, or than Moses, from whom the Jews received their economy (i-iii), and in that it affords a more secure and complete salvation to the sin- ner than the former (iv-ix). In demonstrating the lat- ter position, the apostle shows that in point of dignity, perpetuit}', sufficiencj^, and suitableness, the Jewish priesthood and sacrifices were far inferior to those of Christ, who was the substance and reality, while these were but the type and shadow. He shows, also, that by the appearance of the antitj'pe the type is necessarily .■ibolislied ; and adduces the important truth that now, through Christ, the privilege of personal access to God is free to all. On all this he founds an exhortation to a life of faith and obedience, and shows that it has ever been only by a sjnritual recognition and worship of God that good men have participated in his favor (xi). The epistle concludes, as is usual with Paul, with a series of practical exhortations and pious wishes (xii-xiii).
But this great epistle remains to after times a key- stone' bmding together that succession of inspired men which spans over the ages between Closes and John. It teaches the Christian student the substantial identity of the revelation of God, whether given through the prophets or through the Son; for it shows that God's purposes are unchangeable, however diversely in differ- ent ages they have been "reflected m broken and fitful rays, glancmg back from the troubled waters of the hu- man soul." It is a source of inexhaustible comfort to every Christian sufferer in inward perplexity, or amid " reproaches and afflictions." It is a pattern to everj^ Christian teacher of the method in which larger views should be imparted, gently, reverently, and seasonably, to feeble spirits prone to cling to ancient forms, and to rest in accustomed feelings. — Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. v.
VIII. Literature. — 1. Of general introductory treatises, besides the formal Introductions of Michaelis, Eichhorn, De Wette, Davidson, Bleek, Home, etc., and the prole- gomena in the regular commentaries of Stuart, Alford, etc., the following express treatises in volume form may be especially named: Ziegler, Einleit. (Gott. 1791, 8 vo) ; Bratt, De arfjum. et auct. etc. (Gryph. 1806, 4to) ; Sey- farth, De Indole, etc. (Lips. 1821, 8vo) ; Winzer, De Sw cerdotis officio, etc. (Lips. 1825, 4to) ; De Groot, Compa- ratio, etc. (Tr. ad Rh. 1826, 8vo) ; Bleek, Einleit. (Berl. 1828, 8vo) ; Baumgarten-Crusius, Conjecturce, etc. (Jenue, 1829, 4to) ; Gelpe, Vindicice, etc. (L. B. 1832, 8vo) ; Gross- mann, De philos. Jud. etc. (Lips. 1834, 4to) ; Stenglin, Zeiifjnisse, etc. (Bamb. 1835, 8vo); Yorsi^r, AjJostolical A uthority, etc. (Lond. 1838, 8vo) ; Thiersch, De Ep. ad IJehr. (Marburg, 1848, 8vo) ; Mole, De Christologia, etc. (Halle, 1854) ; Wieseler, Untersiichung, etc. (Kiel, 1861, 8vo) ; Eiehm, Lehrher/r. etc. (1867, 8vo).