Description

Timothy had been released from prison (13:23) but temple worship was still going on (see 5:1-4) so it was before 70 A.D. when the temple was destroyed by Titus Vespesian.

Focus group:

Hebrews! Jews.

3 distinct groups of Jews are going to be addressed in this book.

1) Those who had believed in Jesus as Lord and Savior- Saved Jews.

2) Those who had acknowledged the Gospel intellectually, but not embraced the doctrine of Salvation by Grace through faith in Jesus Christ. They knew with the head, but had not made the commitment to Him in faith. (returned to the old ways of The Law)

3) Those who had heard about the Gospel, were interested, but had made no commitment yet.

Understanding Hebrews requires a working understanding of the Levitical Priesthood. We'll be doing some OT research into this along the way.

Much time is spent in this Epistle comparing the Old Covenant with the New, and there are some dramatic differences!

Temporary vs Eternal

Limited vs Unlimited

Conditional vs Unconditional

Temporal i/e. stand-in priest vs Eternal Priest

We'll also see a great deal of discussion about angels.