Hold Firm (Hebrews 1:1-3)

It is easy to misread the book of Hebrews. If you have a study bible it will probably tell you that the book of Hebrews is concerned about Jewish Christians leaving the faith and going back to Judaism. The problem with this point of view is that the text never says anything like that. Never does the writer of Hebrews give any indication that they think the Law of Moses with its sacrifices and rituals was better than following Jesus. In fact, when we look at first century Christianity we do not see a clean break in the minds of Jewish Christians. Jewish Christians did not see themselves leaving Judaism but saw Christianity as the fulfillment of Judaism, and rightly so. Christianity is not a new religion as if the Jews left one for another. Rather, Jesus is the fulfillment of everything the scriptures were pointing toward and Jewish Christians understood that.

So where did this idea come from that Jewish Christians are leaving Christ and going back to Judaism? The problem is called mirror reading. What this means is that because the author speaks to an issue we mirror that issue as a problem with the audience. But we should recognize that this is a failed way to read scriptures…

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