A Better Rest: An Eternal Inheritance
Introduction
One of most unsettled and ongoing debated themes in the epistle to Hebrews is the concept of Rest. It was an important theme in Jewish and Christian circles during first two centuries and also one of the significant themes in the writings of Augustine. However, it has been overlooked by biblical scholars until the last few decades. One notable exception is Gerhard Von Rad, who in 1933, rightly perceived that “among the many benefits of redemption offered to man by Holy Scripture, that of ‘rest’ has been almost overlooked in biblical theology….” Although, some attention and conflicting opinions noted in commentaries on Hebrews in recent decades, and only a handful of articles appeared in
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The author uses οἶκος, house as means to demonstrate his argument that Jesus is greater than Moses and Jesus’ glory more than Moses. Although they were both “faithful” in their roles as a Son and a Servant respectively. The comparison between the roles of Christ and Moses over the “house” serves rhetorical framework for the exodus motif. The term οἶκος, house refers in the biblical writings for “temple” and also various communal groups or household, including the whole people of God, the Davidic dynasty, and various Jewish and Christian communities. It also refers to God’s heavenly household but in this immediate context it refers the people of God. If Moses as a servant over the people of old covenant, Christ is the builder of the people of both old and new covenants. In this regard, Lane’s words aptly fits, “the writer contrasts the Mosaic era, the Mosaic covenant, and the Mosaic cult with the new situation introduced by God through Christ.” Thus, by this creative reference to Moses and the exodus community, the author presents Christ as the mediator of new covenant and clarifies the dynamic character of Christian experience (3:1, …show more content…
Intertextuality, or the New Testament’s use of the Old Testament, plays an important role in Hebrews, specifically in Hebrews 3:1-4:16. In this text there occurs the concept of rest with multiple aspects and also another’s unique term to the whole Bible, “Sabbath rest” (4:9). While this rest seems to point to some sort of eschatological reality, but there are numerous factors which play a role in determining what this rest and particularly “Sabbath rest” actually is. In order to come to a precise understanding of the meaning and significance of rest and Sabbath rest, an analysis of the author’s use of intertextuality must be understood. In nutshell, the study will be exegetical and thematic study by applying intertextual
It is the reader and his or her interpretive community who attempts to impose a unified reading on a given text. Such readers may, and probably will, claim that the unity they find is in the text, but this claim is only a mask for the creative process actually going on. Even the most carefully designed text can not be unified; only the reader's attempted taming of it. Therefore, an attempt to use seams and shifts in the biblical text to discover its textual precursors is based on a fundamentally faulty assumption that one might recover a stage of the text that lacked such fractures (Carr 23-4).
Toronto: Bucknell University Press, 1990. p. 102-115. New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Nashville: National Publishing, Inc. Company, c. 1968. -
The Bible: The Old Testament. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed. Sarah Lawall et al. Vol 1. 7th ed. New York: Norton, 1999. 47-97.
Moses is characterized as a hard-working man who is very kind and intimate with nature. He is the last worker out in the fields on many days and he is extremely comfortable outside in nature. In Edward P. Jones’ excerpt from The Known World, the character of Moses is developed through the imagery that is used, the third person point of view, and the details that Jones chooses to use.
...sterton, G. K.. "Introduction to The Book of Job." The Hebrew Bible In Literary Criticism. Ed. and Comp. Alex Preminger and Edward L. Greenstein. New York: Ungar, 1986. 449-50.
^ a b c d e f g h i John Arthur Thomas Robinson (1919-1983). "Redating the New Testament". Westminster Press, 1976. 369 halaman. ISBN 10: 1-57910-527-0; ISBN 13: 978-1-57910-527-3
Gentry, Peter J., and Stephen J. Wellum. Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical Theological Understanding of the Covenants. Crossway, 2012. Google Scholar: Subject relevance
1. Carter’s book focuses on the diverse ways the Early Christians dealt with their world, where imperial politics, economics, culture, and religion were mixed together (x). Furthermore, the author organized his book around important imperial realities that New Testament writings negotiate (x). The audience for Carter’s book includes high school or college students, Bible study groups, Sunday school students, clergy, and scholars interested in insights about passages in the New Testament to study.
Christianity and Judaism are major world religions which, though they worship the same God, have marked differences which have caused two thousand years of strife and animosity between the two religions. In his book We Jews and Jesus, Samuel Sandmel likens the link between Judaism and Christianity to a type of parent-child relationship, saying, “Early Christianity was a Judaism; within a century after the death of Jesus it was a separate religion. It was critical of its parent, and hostile to it, and elicited from its parent reciprocal criticism and hostility.”1 Opposing views of Jesus Christ caused the initial rift between Judaism and Christianity and is the primary source of the tension between the two religions which has continued for the last two millennia. Therefore, in order to understand how Judaism and Christianity relate to one another, it is essential to understand the way Jesus is perceived in each religion. The way that Christians view Jesus is quite well known, but Judaism’s view of him is much lesser known, so it is important to explore Judaism’s perceptions of Jesus, beginning with New Testament times, and to examine the ways in which these feelings and opinions have changed over time.
Robinson, B. A. (2008, March 30). Books of the Hebrew Scripture . Retrieved May 7, 2011, from Religious Tolerance: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_otb3.htm
This is also an important Abrahamic covenant moment, as we see that not just Israelites are children of God, but now all people, through belief in Jesus, have the power to become children of God. Through Matthew, we were able to gain an understanding of Jesus’s role as teacher to the people, bringing blessings to all of the nations through his miracles, and interactions with people. Through John, we will be able to explore the importance of what belief in God and his son can do, and how they impact the blessing of all nations, leading to the global restoration plan God had in mind and promised through the Abrahamic and Davidic covenant.
Surveying the Old Testament reveals the theme of God’s faithfulness to his people. In light of this understanding, the restoration of the Israelites prophesized in the Old Testament is essentially the fulfillment of every covenant with God. This perspective relates to the work of Christ and encourages any follower of God to trust in his faithfulness.
Houdmann, Michael. "What is the Mosaic Covenant?." GotQuestions.org. Got Questions Ministries, n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
... people. It also shows the dependence of people on God. Moses was a man of courage who sought to see the face of the God. He received the laws of the lord and made sacrifices for them when they sinned. Moses acted as a mediator between Yahweh and his people (Woolfe).
Answering these questions is the purpose of this essay. I begin by arguing that the Bible cannot be adequately understood independent of its historical context. I concede later that historical context alone however is insufficient, for the Bible is a living-breathing document as relevant to us today as it was the day it was scribed. I conclude we need both testimonies of God at work to fully appreciate how the Bible speaks to us.