The Truthfulness And Perennial Relevance Of God’s Word In The Letter To The Hebrews

By Gareth Lee Cockerill

[Gareth Lee Cockerill is Academic Dean and Professor of Biblical Interpretation and Theology at Wesley Biblical Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi.]

Abstract

Two distinguishing characteristics of Hebrews combine to convey the author’s confidence in the truthfulness and perennial relevance of Scripture. Hebrews affirms that God speaks today through the Old Testament Scriptures, and that the exalted Son at God’s right hand is the all-sufficient Savior who is now available for the people of God. God’s speaking through the Old Testament is accurate and continues to be relevant because it is fulfilled in the always-contemporary reality of the exalted Son. This insight gives confidence for proclamation, it clarifies the relationship between Scripture’s truthfulness and effectiveness, and it hinders diluting the Scripture’s message through cultural reductionism.

Introduction

Τhere can be no doubt that the author of Hebrews believed in the truthfulness of the Old Testament. More than any other New Testament book, Hebrews is sustained interpretation of quoted Scripture, supported by a host of scriptural allusions. This dedication to exposition of the Old Testament is a feature that has led some to call Hebrews a sermon.[1] Its author makes no direct claim to apostolic authority, nor does he allege that he has special illumination from the Spirit that enables him to give Scripture a new meaning.[2] He argues his case on the basis of the Old Testament Scripture and a gospel that asserts that all previous revelation has been fulfilled in Christ (Heb. 1:1-2).[3] He pays attention to the details of the Old Testament texts he uses and, when helpful to his argument, refers to their Old Testament context. In short, if the Old Testament text were not true, his entire argument would become invalid. Susan Docherty thinks that this reverence for the Old Testament is shown by the author’s reluctance to alter the LXX text that he uses.[4] Some paraphrase, however, is no indication of doubt concerning truthfulness, for such paraphrase was common in contemporary sources that held Scripture in the highest regard.[5] The writer of Hebrews would have no difficulty affirming biblical inerrancy.

While the author of Hebrews believed that Scripture was inerrant, he did not believe that it was “inert”; he declared that it was “living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword” (4:12). Scripture had this power because of the reality that it described and mediated to the hearers. While the writer of Hebrews may have used methods similar to the rabbis, his attention to the details of the text often differed from theirs. He did not examine the text as a linguistic “artifact” that could be interpreted apart from that to which it referred. There was no esoteric meaning in such things as the order or number of letters.[6] The text of the Old Testament was important because of the reality that it described.[7] If the Old Testament was to convey the voice of the living God and truthfully attest to the actions by which he accomplished the salvation of his people and the judgment of those who rejected his grace, then it had to be accurate. The reality behind the Old Testament was both the foundation of its accuracy and the source of its power and perennial/contemporary relevance.

This study examines two distinguishing characteristics of Hebrews that clarify the way in which the author of Hebrews understood the biblical text as the true and effective gateway to the divine reality described by and revealed in the text. It concludes by suggesting several ways in which this ancient author can help modern interpreters understand both the inerrancy and contemporary relevance of Scripture.

Two Distinguishing Characteristics Of Hebrews

Mention of God’s voice suggests one of the characteristics that distinguish Hebrews. Hebrews consistently describes God (Christ or the Holy Spirit) as “speaking” today the word that has been recorded in the Old Testament text. A second distinguishing characteristic of Hebrews is the way in which the author focuses attention on the exalted Son at God’s right hand. The mighty acts of God find their fulfillment in the Son. Attention to these two emphases will help clarify the understanding in Hebrews of both the inerrancy and relevance of Scripture.

Characteristic One: Hebrews Affirms That God Still Speaks What He Has Spoken

One arresting feature of Hebrews is the way in which it introduces Old Testament quotations with present-tense verbs of “saying”—usually with God, the Holy Spirit, or Christ as the speaker.[8] This introductory formula has three important implications for understanding the letter’s use of the Old Testament. First, God is affirmed as the one who speaks Scripture, even when the quotation is not directly attributed to him in the Old Testament. Second, God “speaks” Scripture—it is not merely written. He “says” Scripture to his people, he uses Scripture to address them in their situation. Finally, he continually—even perpetually—“speaks” this word to his people in their present. Though it was written long ago, God “speaks” it even in the now of “today.”

The two continuities that undergird God’s speaking. Hebrews 1:1-4 affirms two continuities that underlie the immediacy of God’s Old Testament word—the continuity of the one who speaks this word and the continuity of those who hear. The God who “spoke” “in the prophets” of old has now spoken in “one who is Son” (author’s translation). The use of “prophets” for the entire Old Testament revelation underscores its anticipation of the fulfillment yet to come in God’s Son. God’s Son-mediated revelation maintains continuity with his previous revelation by fulfilling it.

Second, these verses also assume the continuity of those who receive God’s word. The people who heard God’s word in the prophets were the “fathers” of “us” who now hear God’s word in one who is Son. This continuity is created by the word of God and the response of faith.[9] There is one “household of God” throughout the ages. Moses serves as steward in this “household,” over which Christ reigns as Son (3:1-6). Those who respond with persevering faith and obedience are part of that “household.”[10]

The two conversations that constitute God’s speaking.[11] This continuity of speaker and recipient underlines the two “conversations” found in the book of Hebrews. God carries on one conversation with his people and another with his Son. The conversation with God’s people dominates the pastor’s exhortation; the conversation with the Son provides the foundation for descriptions of the person and work of Christ.

God’s conversation with his people is easier to comprehend. God continues to address his people with the exhortation/warning that he spoke to his people of old. Psalm 95:7-11 in Hebrews 3:7-4:11 (“Today, if you hear his voice”) and Proverbs 3:11-12 (“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord”) in Hebrews 12:4-11 are two prominent examples. Psalm 95:7-11 warns against apostasy; Proverbs 3:11-12 warns against failure to persevere amid suffering. Deuteronomy 32:35-36 in Hebrews 10:30; Habakkuk 2:3-4 in Hebrews 10:36-38; and Haggai 2:6 in Hebrews 12:26 are also examples of continuing divine exhortation. Finally, in Hebrews 13:5 God promises his people today what he promised Moses (and Joshua) long ago: “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (cf. Deut. 31:6). His people are invited to respond with the affirmation of Psalm 118:6-7: “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?” (Heb. 13:6).

These perpetual divine exhortations are reinforced by Old Testament examples of both faithfulness and disobedience.[12] Readers must shun the apostasy of the wilderness generation (3:7-4:11) and the godlessness of Esau (12:14-17); but they are invited to embrace the “great cloud of witnesses” (11:1-40) and to have a place in the history of the faithful. Both exhortation and example assume the continuity of the divine speaker and the human respondents.

God’s conversation with his Son provides the context for his ongoing conversation with his people. The Old Testament words that God spoke to the Messiah long ago he now speaks to the Son. Moreover, the Son answers with the voice of faithful people from the Old Testament. The Father’s speech installs the eternal Son as the all-sufficient Savior at his right hand. The Son’s answers affirm the incarnate obedience by which he has obtained this exalted place of ultimate authority. The divine word was the source of creation; it is also the source of salvation. When listening to this conversation, readers “overhear” God’s revealing himself in “the one who is Son” (1:2).

The first part of this Father/Son dialogue is found in Hebrews 1:5-14 and 2:11-13; the second part in Hebrews 5:5-6, 7:1-10:18. These two parts constitute two acts in the drama of redemption. The first act establishes the exaltation/session of the incarnate Son as the all-sufficient Savior. The second act confirms the priestly nature of his session and the atoning sufficiency of his incarnate obedience.

The Father opens the conversation in Hebrews 1:5-14 by addressing Psalm 2:7; 2 Samuel 7:14; Psalm 45:6-7; Psalm 102:25-27; and Psalm 110:1 to the Son at the time of his session.[13] God first calls him “my Son” (Ps. 2:7; 2 Sam. 7:14); then, “God” (Ps. 45:6-7); and, finally, “Lord” (102:25-27). The Father affirms the Son’s sovereign rule (45:6-7) and addresses him as the creator and judge of the universe (102:25-27). The Father’s speech climaxes with the invitation found in Psalm 110:1 for this Son to sit at the Father’s right hand. In this first act God addresses the Son in terms that confirm his eternal deity, exaltation, and session.[14]

The Son answers the Father in Hebrews 2:11-13 by addressing him in the words of Psalm 22:22; Isaiah 8:17-18; and 2 Samuel 22:3.[15] By using these verses of Scripture he humbly affirms his identity with the human people of God. When he speaks Psalm 22:22 he praises God before his “brothers and sisters” (NIV) on the occasion of his exaltation. He then affirms his incarnate dependence by quoting Isaiah 8:17/2 Samuel 22:3—“I will put my trust in him.” He quotes Isaiah 8:18 in order to affirm his full identity with “the children” God has given him. The Father invites him to take his seat at his right hand. The Son affirms the humiliation that he suffered so that he could accept his Father’s invitation.[16]

It is possible to pair the Son’s confessions with the Father’s declarations:[17] First, God announces the Son’s fulfillment of this sonship at the exaltation—“You are My Son, today I have begotten You,” “I will be a Father to Him and He shall be a Son to Me” (Heb. 1:5, quoting Ps. 2:7 and 2 Sam. 7:14). The Son answers this proclamation of his sonship by announcing, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters” (Heb. 2:12, NIV; Ps. 22:22). God then proclaims the Son’s deity (Heb. 1:8-19; Ps. 45:6-7) and sovereign rulership (Heb. 1:10-12; Ps. 102:25-27)—he is not only “Son,” he is “God.”[18] The Son responds by affirming his incarnate trust in the Father, “I will put My trust in Him” (Heb. 2:13; Isa. 8:17). Finally, God issues the invitation that is at the heart of Hebrews, “Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet” (Heb. 1:13; Ps. 110:1). His Son responds, “Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me” (Heb. 2:13; Isa. 8:18). The Son accepts the Father’s invitation, not only for himself, but also for “the children whom God has given” to him.

Hebrews 1:1-2:18 presents act 1 of this Father/Son dialog. The curtain raises on act 2 in Hebrews 7:1-10:18, the theological core of this sermon. The Father’s address to the Son in act 1 concluded with the invitation of Psalm 110:1 (Heb. 1:13) to sit at his right hand. Act 2 opens with the Father’s confirming the ultimate priesthood of the one seated at his right hand by addressing him with Psalm 110:4: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:1-28). The Son has taken his seat at God’s right hand as all-sufficient priest. His session is the session of one who is competent to cleanse God’s people from sin so that they can come into God’s presence. The Son answers the Father’s announcement of his sufficient priesthood with a declaration of his incarnate obedience: “A body You have prepared for Me . . . I have come . . . to do Your will, O God” (Heb. 10:5-7; Ps. 40:6-8).[19] It is through his incarnate obedience that he has entered into that fully effective priesthood at the Father’s right hand.

In summary, then:

• The Father’s proclamations to the Son concern the completion of his saving work at the exaltation when he enters his vocation as the fully sufficient and effective Savior.
• The Son’s answers show that his incarnate obedience was the way that he became this Savior.

Furthermore, according to Hebrews, the descriptions of the Old Testament sacrificial system in the books of Moses support this conversation in which the Son is installed as all-sufficient Priest by disclosing the inadequacy and thus the typological nature of the priesthood instituted by Moses (see Heb. 9:1-22).[20]

This Father/Son conversation establishes the context for the on-going conversation between God and his people. The fulfillment announced by the Father/Son conversation makes the obedience of the human partners in the conversation between God and his people all the more urgent. God’s contemporary people must give heed to his word more diligently than did his ancient people because they live in the “Today” of fulfillment (2:1-4).

Characteristic Two: Hebrews Always Directs Attention To The Exalted Son Seated At God’s Right Hand

As a first distinguishing characteristic, the conversation between Father and Son concerns and finds fulfillment in the Son’s exaltation/session. The second distinguishing characteristic of Hebrews is its fixation not on the preexistent or the incarnate Son, but on the exalted Son, who is seated at the Father’s right hand (Heb. 1:13-14; 4:14-16; 8:1-2; 10:19-25; 12:1-3; etc.).

The exalted Son is the focus of Hebrews from beginning to end. Description of the Son in Hebrews begins with affirming that God “has made him the Heir of all things” (1:2, author’s translation).[21]

The opening verses of Hebrews conclude by affirming that the Son “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (1:3). Chapter 1 climaxes in Psalm 110:1: “Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” The author directs attention to Christ’s session at the beginning (Heb. 4:14), middle (8:1-2), and conclusion (10:12) of the central section of the book, in which he describes Christ’s high priesthood (4:14-10:18): “We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens” (4:14); “Now this is the main point of what we are saying, we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (8:1-2, author’s translation); “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (10:12, ESV). Hebrews 10:1-12:29 contains the grand history of the people of God from creation to Christ and finally to the consummation.[22] At the center and turning point of this history the author of Hebrews urges his hearers to give their attention “to Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of the way of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (12:2, author’s translation).

The exalted Son cannot be separated from the eternal or incarnate Son. The author of Hebrews firmly establishes the eternal existence and exaltation of the Son in 1:1-14 before turning in 2:5-18 to the incarnation through which he obtained exaltation. The Son’s incarnate obedience and self-offering were the road he had to walk in order to accept the Father’s invitation and take his seat at God’s right hand, where he now sits as all-sufficient Savior. When Hebrews refers to the Son seated at God’s right hand it is referring to all that the eternal Son is and has become through his incarnate, obedient self-offering. That is why all titles and descriptions can be applied to the exalted Son—he, and he alone, is “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession” (3:1); “a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God” (4:14); “a great priest over the house of God” (10:21); “the Pioneer and Perfecter of the way of faith, Jesus” (12:2, author’s translation).[23]

The exalted Son fulfills the vocation of the eternal Son. All titles apply to the exalted Son because the Son enters into the fullness of his vocation as all-sufficient Savior and as the ultimate revelation of God only when he has taken his seat at God’s right hand on God’s throne. Hebrews is not merely concerned with the exaltation and session in themselves. Rather, the writer directs attention to the exalted Son of God now seated at God’s right hand (8:1-2) and does not separate the “great salvation” that the Son provides, according to 2:3, from the accomplishment of the one who has become “the source of eternal salvation” (5:9). He had to be “made perfect” through his incarnation, self-offering, exaltation, and session, in order that he might become this “source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him” (5:9). His people participate in this salvation by “drawing near” (7:25) to God through him and thus finding the grace to persevere as members of the “household” of God over which he rules as Son (3:1-6). Their salvation is not based merely on the past action of the Son but also on who he has now become as Savior. There is no salvation outside union with the one who is its “Source.”

The Interrelationship Of These Two Distinguishing Characteristics

This study has identified two important characteristics of Hebrews. Hebrews describes God as continually “speaking” what was written in the Old Testament text. Hebrews focuses on the exalted Son seated at God’s right hand as the all-sufficient Savior and complete revelation of God. These two characteristics depend on each other in this way: God continues to speak what is recorded in the Old Testament because it finds its fulfillment in the contemporary reality of the exalted, all-sufficient Son seated at the Father’s right hand. The Father/Son scriptural conversation discussed above finds its fulfillment in him. God’s Old Testament exhortations to his people take on a new, contemporary urgency because of him. Since the one seated at God’s right hand brings all the types and anticipations of the old covenant order to fulfillment, the texts that describe that order continue to address the people of God through him. Thus for Hebrews, Scripture is both fully reliable and perennially relevant because it finds fulfillment in the ever-contemporary reality of the exalted Son of God.

Concluding Thoughts

In several ways the conclusions of this study enrich and clarify both the inerrancy and relevance of Scripture. First, the conviction that Scripture is the medium through which God speaks because it bears witness to the contemporary reality of His exalted Son bridges the gap between Scripture as proposition and Scripture as agent of transformation. Evangelicals have often been accused, sometimes rightly, of reducing Scripture to a set of propositions. Such a “propositional” approach to Scripture has been contrasted with Scripture as “address” or with Scripture as agent of transformation. There have been many variations on this theme, some more destructive than others. Some have argued that Christians should be less concerned about the accuracy of Scripture and more concerned about Scripture as a means of transforming grace.[24] In fact, William Abraham’s book, Canon and Criterion, which attracted considerable attention among Evangelicals several years ago, argued that Scripture was not a norm for truth but solely a means of transforming grace.[25] To express this idea in its most general form—it is not Scripture’s truthfulness but its transforming effectiveness that is important.

Hebrews shows the fallacy of this dichotomy between truthfulness and effectiveness. Both of these approaches—which one might call the propositional and the utilitarian—focus on the text as text—its truthfulness or its effectiveness—rather than on the reality behind the text. The primary purpose of Scripture is neither information nor transformation but revelation of the God who addresses humanity through the contemporary reality of his exalted Son. Such revelation must be accomplished through accurate information if it is to produce appropriate transformation. Speech-act theory has shown the fallacy of isolating the content of interpersonal communication from the intended effect of the speaker and the response of the hearer.[26]

Second, the focus of Hebrews on the exalted Son as the reality behind the text helps prevent cultural reductionism. Explaining away the biblical text as the result of cultural conditioning has the potential to empty the doctrine of inerrancy of meaning. Anyone who begins with God and the reality of his word fulfilled in Christ, however, cannot simply disregard as irrelevant or inadequate the only categories through which he has revealed himself. Study of ancient culture may help readers understand, but it does not authorize them to dismiss God’s self-revelation in Scripture.[27]

One recent variation of cultural reductionism is based on the observation that the “science” of the biblical writers differs from modern science. God spoke to them in terms of what they knew and understood about the natural world. This insight is at least as old as John of Damascus in the seventh century. He distinguished the Hellenistic view of the physical world from the Old Testament view.[28] The problem comes when interpreters remove all that they identify as primitive science before they allow the Bible to speak.[29] One must begin by listening to what the Bible says about the eternal and thus contemporary reality to which it refers. It is quite possible that the Bible’s teaching about God and humanity might contradict what what passes for “scientific” at any given time.

Finally, is it not a gain simply to approach the Bible first of all as the word of God about the eternal, ever-contemporary reality of the all-sufficient Savior seated at God’s right hand instead of as an ancient book that contemporary interpreters must make relevant? Granted, interpreters must study the ancient cultural context in order to understand what the Bible says about this reality, but the difference in approach is significant. Those who hold this conviction can live and minister with confidence in the Bible’s contemporary relevance for “today”—“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).

Notes

1. Gareth Lee Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 11-16.
2. For a different view see M. Emmrich, “Pneuma in Hebrews: Prophet and Interpreter,” Westminster Theological Journal 63 (2002): 55-71. See also Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews, on Hebrews 3:7-11; 9:6-10; and 10:15-18.
3. “The author reports the words of Scripture as the evidence supporting his contention that Christ is far greater than the angels. The style of the argument is not revelatory, but argumentative, appealing to evidence and reason” (Stephen Motyer, “The Psalm Quotations of Hebrews 1: A Hermeneutic-Free Zone?” Tyndale Bulletin 50 [1999]: 5).
4. Susan E. Docherty, The Use of the Old Testament in Hebrews: A Case Study in Early Jewish Bible Interpretation (Tübingen: Siebeck, 2009), 140-41, 177 (i), 180, 194 (i), 196-97.
5. Herbert W. Bateman IV, Early Jewish Hermeneutics and Hebrews 1:5-13 (New York: Peter Lang, 1997), 121-48.
6. Docherty, The Use of the Old Testament in Hebrews, 180, 192, 197.
7. This distinction between focus on the text as text and focus on the reality behind the text is parallel to the way in which David Lyle Jeffrey describes the difference between the Jewish and Christian literary traditions (People of the Book: Christian Identity and Literary Culture [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996], 15-16).
8. Note “he says” (1:6); “he says” (1:7); “he says” (1:8); “to call them brothers and sisters, saying” (2:11-12); “and again” (2:13a); “and again” (2:13b); “as in another place he says” (5:6); “therefore coming into the world he says” (10:5). By contrast aorist (1:5) and perfect (1:14) are used for what God “has never said” to the angels.
9. “The community does not precede the divine speech . . . . God’s speech is that which calls and constitutes the community” (John Webster, “One Who Is Son: Theological Reflections on the Exordium to the Epistle to the Hebrews,” in The Epistle to the Hebrews and Christian Theology, ed. Richard Bauckham et al. [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009], 77-78).
10. Eisenbaum’s study of the hero-list in 11:1-40 confirms the nonethnic character of this continuity. See Pamela Eisenbaum, The Jewish Heroes of Christian History: Hebrews 11 in Literary Context (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997), 3, 142, passim.
11. On these two conversations, see Harold W. Attridge, “God in Hebrews,” in The Epistle to the Hebrews and Christian Theology, ed. Richard Bauckham et al. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 95-110, and “The Psalms in Hebrews,” in The Psalms in the New Testament, ed. Steve Moyise and Maarten J. J. Menken (London: T&T Clark, 2004), 197-212.
12. Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 49.
13. For substantiation that the exaltation/session is when God addresses the Son with these quotations, see Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 100-116.
14. See Harold W. Attridge, “God in Hebrews,” 104-6; Harold Attridge, “The Psalms in Hebrews,” 197-212; and Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 45-46, and on the passages given above.
15. This immediacy is reinforced by the contrasting use of an impersonal reference and the aorist tense to introduce the quotation from Psalm 8:4-6 in Hebrews 2:6—“for one has testified somewhere, saying.” The author, of course, believes this psalm to be inspired. Nevertheless, he intentionally introduces it as attested by “one . . . somewhere.” He does not want it to be confused with the words of God to the Son in Hebrews 1:5-14, nor with the responses of the Son in 2:11-13. This passage is the necessary transition from God’s affirmations of the exaltation in chapter 1 to the Son’s affirmations of his incarnation in 2:11-13. The author of Hebrews uses Psalm 8 to join the incarnation (“You made him a little lower than the angels,” NKJV, Ps. 8:5; Heb. 2:7), which will be the theme of the following verses, with the exaltation and second coming affirmed by Psalm 110:1, as quoted in Hebrews 1:14. Hebrews, then, introduces this quotation in an impersonal way with a past tense verb because this quotation clarifies Psalm 110:1. It does not address the hearers in the same way that the Father/Son dialog addresses them, though it facilitates that dialog.
16. The author of Hebrews has probably joined resurrection/exaltation in order to show the parallel between Christ and the Aaronic high priest. Just as the old high priest offered sacrifice before entering the Most Holy Place, so the Son has offered himself before entering the true, heavenly Most Holy Place at his exaltation. Hebrews 13:20-21 shows that the author of this book believed in the resurrection. On this see Gareth L. Cockerill, “The Better Resurrection (Heb. 11:35): A Key to the Structure and Rhetorical Purpose of Hebrews 11, ” Tyndale Bulletin 51 (2000): 214-34.
17. Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 44-45, 116, 136, 142-46.
18. The quotation of Psalm 45:7 assumes the obedient life of the Son’s incarnation when it says, “You have loved righteousness but hated lawlessness” (Heb. 1:9). However, it would have been premature and would have distracted from the author’s initial emphasis on the exaltation to have developed this theme here before the introduction of Psalm 8 in chapter 2.
19. See comments on Hebrews 10:5-10 in Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews.
20. Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 47-49.
21. Bruce L. McCormack, “The Identity of the Son: Karl Barth’s Exegesis of Hebrews 1.1-4 (and Similar Passages),” in Christology, Hermeneutics, and Hebrews: Profiles from the History of Interpretation, ed. Jon C. Laansma and Daniel J. Treier (London, New York: T&T Clark, 2012), 159-60; Ken Schenck, “Keeping His Appointment: Creation and Enthronement in Hebrews,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 66 (1997): 102; Webster, “One Who Is Son,” 82; and Richard Bauckham, “The Divinity of Jesus Christ in the Epistle to the Hebrews,” in The Epistle to the Hebrews and Christian Theology, ed. Richard Bauckham et al. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 20-21, assume that “made Heir of all things” is a reference to a protological or pre-temporal appointment of the Son as Heir. The context in Hebrews, however, requires taking Hebrews 1:2b as a reference to the accomplished fact of exaltation rather than to a pre-temporal appointment to exaltation. The verb ἔθηκεν (aorist of τίθημι), which some would translate “appoint,” is better rendered “made” in the sense of “to cause to undergo a change in experience/condition”—not “whom he appointed Heir of all things,” but “whom he made Heir of all things.” Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., rev. and ed. Frederick W. Danker (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1004, 5aα, list Hebrews 1:2 under this meaning, rather than under “appoint” (ibid., 1004, 3). Even the translation “appoint,” however, does not in itself separate the time of appointment from the time of reality. When the chair “appoints” someone to a committee, that person is a member of it. God’s having established him as Heir is as much an accomplished fact as God’s having “spoken” through him (1:2a) and as God’s having made “the worlds” by him (1:2c). God has made the Son Heir at his session! Both Daniel J. Ebert IV, “The Chiastic Structure of the Prologue of Hebrews,” Trinity Journal 13 n.s. (Fall 1992): 163-79; and John P. Meier, “Structure and Theology in Heb 1, 1-14, ” Biblica 66 (1985): 158-89, have shown that “whom he made Heir of all things” is to be identified with “he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (1:3d).
22. Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 67-70.
23. Commentators are virtually unanimous, however, in affirming that Hebrews uses the designation “Jesus” to emphasize the humanity the Son assumed in the incarnation. Thus, while “Jesus” can be used to describe the exalted Son who is still human, “Jesus” is not applied to the preexistent Son. See Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews on 2:2:8-10 and on the other references to “Jesus” in Hebrews.
24. See Gareth Cockerill, “After Inerrancy—What? The Wesleyan Theological Journal, 1978-2005,” a paper given in the Wesleyan Studies Group, Evangelical Theological Society, November, 2008. An article by Paul Bassett entitled “The Fundamentalist Leavening of the Holiness Movement, 1914-1940. The Church of the Nazarene: A Case Study,” Wesleyan Theological Journal 13 (1978): 65-91, was influential in setting this trajectory in Wesleyan circles.
25. William J. Abraham, Canon and Criterion in Christian Theology: From the Fathers to Feminism (Oxford University Press, 2002).
26. Kevin J. Vanhooser, Is There Meaning in This Text? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998).
27. See Andrew T. Lincoln, “Hebrews and Biblical Theology,” in Out of Egypt: Biblical Theology and Biblical Interpretation, ed. Craig Bartholomew et al. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 313-38, and the critique of Lincoln’s discussion in Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 59 note 250.
28. On the Orthodox Faith2:6.
29. See, for instance, Denis O. Lamoureux, “No Historical Adam: Evolutionary Creation View,” in Four Views on the Historical Adam, ed. Matthew Barrett and Ardel B. Caneday (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013), 37-65.