..by whom also he made the worlds," thus arguing that Jesus' message is an expansion of the Old Covenant. (Ellingworth, 1993).
The Catholic interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews is that it is a firm announcement of the superiority of the New Testament revelations made by Jesus over the Old Testament revelations made by the lesser prophets. Further, the Epistle to the Hebrews successfully proves this point by comparing Jesus to the angels as mediators of the Old Covenant, Moses and Josue as founders of the Old Covenant, and by opposing the high priesthood of Christ. (Lane, 1985).
At its core, this passage is an extension of Pauline Christianity, or the version of Christianity advocated by the Apostle Paul and which survived as the dominant version of Christianity. First and foremost, as a part of the Pauline Christianity, this passage is political in that it is used essentially as political propaganda for taming a dangerous sect of radical Jews and thus making the new religion more likely to pass muster with the Roman authorities. For instance, this passage argues against the using high priest to govern the religion. Instead it proposes a more administrative organization scheme that works towards achieving hegemony through having a bishop govern in each town. This mirrored the Roman way of government and thus was looked on with more favor. (Lane, 1985).
More so, this passage advances the cause of Paul to establish a new religion. Essentially...
To do this he takes Jesus, who is the Jewish Messiah, and transforms him into the Messiah. However, he is able to do this within the confines of the Hebrew tradition by pointing to Hebrew scriptures and interpreting them as forecasting Jesus' life and death. The result was that Pauline Christianity gained a great amount of respect and authority and thus was able to recruit Jewish-Christians. (Lane, 1985).
Specifically, the passage at hand plays a small role in the aforementioned overall scheme. In Hebrew 3:7-17, the author is tying the life of Jesus into the Hebrew tradition, specifically that of Moses. The argument shows that Moses was, in a sense, a precursor to Jesus, one who made it possible for the eventual coming of the Messiah.
Thus, as can be seen, there are numerous interpretations of Hebrew 3:7-17, although all center on the same general agreed upon premise. This agreed upon premise is that this passage is written to a specific audience with the specific intent of showing them why the teachings of Jesus are both an advancement and replace the teachings of the Old Testament.
Bibliography
Ellingworth, Paul. "Commentary on Hebrews." NIGTC. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.
Hughes, P.E. A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977.
Lane, William L. Hebrews: Call to Commitment. Hendrickson, 1985.
