Hebrews 3:7-17 biblical passage analysis

Bible

Hebrews 3:7-17 is a passage in the bible that talks of a comparison between Jesus Christ and Moses. Essentially it lays out an argument to the reader of why Jesus is better and more important than Moses. The foundation of the argument is that Jesus is the son of God, whereas Moses was only a great servant of God. To make a comparison, the passage compares Moses to the a house but Jesus the builder of that house.

Although there are numerous interpretations for this passage, what it means and what purpose it serves, at its core it is an attempt to demonstrate why followers should view Jesus Christ as the leader of the church and not Moses. In traditional Jewish religion, Moses was viewed as a Christ figure or the establisher of the Jewish religion. This passage demonstrates how Christianity evolved as a Jewish sect, with this issue (Jesus vs. Moses) playing a central role in the splitting of the groups. It is interesting to note that this book is typically accredited to the Apostle Paul, the founder of Christianity.

It is generally agreed that the purpose of the passage, part of a larger letter written to a specific audience, was written to prevent the abandonment of the newly developed belief in Christianity. One argument is that the letter was to prevent the Jewish-Christians from leaving the Christian faith in order to return to the synagogue and the Jewish faith. (Hughes, 1977).

To do this, the author draws comparisons between Moses and Jesus, making the argument that Jesus' teachings essentially replace those of Moses and thus Jewish-Christians should move towards the new faith of Christianity instead of the out dated religion of Judaism. (Hughes, 1977).

One point of reference often used to support this argument is the passage of Jesus sermon from the mount. It is argued that this passage shows Jesus acting as the mediator to the New Covenant, as described in Hebrews, specifically in Hebrews 8:6. This new covenant is argued to be in replacement of the Old Covenant mediated by Moses from Mount Sinai in the form of Ten Commandments. (Ellingworth, 1993).

In the story of Jesus, he gives his sermon from Mount Zion, which is symbolic of his covenant meaning to replace that of Moses' Old Covenant. This act, it is argued, is the essential difference between Christians and Jews. Namely, Christians believe that Jesus was sent from God to update, in a sense, the message spoken through Moses. The point of Hebrew 3:7-17 is to focus on conveying this argument to the particular audience at hand. (Ellingworth, 1993).

This argument is made through the New Covenant, as told in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Here it is affirmed that God, through his son Jesus, made the worlds," thus relating the New Covenant back to the Old Covenant. The sermon goes on to state that "God...hat in these last days spoken unto us by his Son...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 he creates a salvation-based religion that is tied to the Hebrew tradition. 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).