target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_2ad7a934-1827-5090-82b5-a2412d8fa3f7">34. See especially the strong statement for Apollos as writer that Ceslas Spicq has supplied, L’ Epitre aux Hebreux, vol. 1 (Paris: J. Gabalda et Cie, 1952), pp. 197–219.
35. On the major members of the Pauline circle, see F. F. Bruce, The Pauline Circle (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmaus Publishiug Co., 1985). For Silas, see pp. 23–28; for Apollos, see pp. 51–57.
Acts 18:24–28 reports the background of Apollos. The aner logios in verses 24 is usually translated “an eloquent man,” but it should be understood to include the sense of “cultured, learned.” On Silas as a Hellenist, see E. G. Selwyn, The First Epistle of Peter: The Greek Text with Introduction: Notes and Essays (London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1947, 2nd ed.), pp. 9–17.
36. On this, see E. G. Selwyn, The First Epistle of Peter: The Greek Text with Introduction: Notes and Essays (London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1947, 2nd ed.), p. 11.
37. On midrash as a genre commonly used in the early Christian preaching, see Bo Reicke, “A Synopsis of Early Christian Preaching,” in The Root and the Vine: Essays in Biblical Theology, written by Anton Fridrichsen and others (London: A. & C. Black, Ltd., 1953), p. 133. See also George Wesley Buchanan, To the Hebrews: Translation, Comment and Conclusions (The Anchor Bible) (Garden City, NJ: Doubleday & Co., 1976, 2nd ed.), pp. 246ff. 36.)
38. The debate continues over the extent to which the writer of Hebrews knew or was influenced by Alexandrian thought as represented in the works of Philo Judaens. The issue has been explored by many, but the following works are recommended: Sidney G. Sowers, The Hermeneutics of Philo and Hebrews (Zurich, Switzerland: Evz-Verlag, and Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1965); Ronald Williamson, Philo and the Epistle to the Hebrews (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1970); Charles Carlston, “The Vocabulary of Perfection in Philo and Hebrews,” in Unity and Diversity in New Testament Theology: Essays in Honor of George E. Ladd, edited by Robert A. Guelich (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1978), pp. 133–60.
39. If the author of Hebrews wrote after the destruction of the temple, mentioning that destruction would have strengthened his argument as found in chapters 7–10. See the treatment of this and other factors in John A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976), especially pp. 200–220.
40. First Clement, 47:4. See The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, trans. by Kirsopp Lake (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1912), p. 91.
41 Suetonius, in his Life of Claudius, xxv.4, reported that “since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome.” It is believed that the “disturbances” had to do with party struggles between Hebrew Christians who were zealous for Jesus as the Christ and those who resisted such teachings as anti-Judaic and heretical.
42. See, among many others, Ernest Findlay Scott, “The Epistle to the Hebrews and Roman Christianity,” Harvard Theological Review, vol. 13 (1930), pp. 205–19; Gerhard Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Epistle of James (Columbus, OH: Wartburg Press, 1946), p. 22; William Manson, The Epistle to the Hebrews: An Historical and Theological Reconsideration (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1951), pp. 171–72; See also Raymond E. Brown and John P. Meier, Antioch and Rome: New Testament Cradles of Catholic Christianity (New York: Paulist Press, 1983), especially pp. 142–51. See also Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Doubleday, 1997), pp. 693–701.
43. Raymond E. Brown has commented, “That the work was addressed to an Italian city other than Rome is implausible: It has to be a city with considerable Jewish Christian heritage and tendency, where Timothy is known, where the gospel was preached by eyewitnesses (2:3), and where the leaders died for the faith (13:7)—no other city in Italy would have matched all or most of those descriptions” (Raymond E. Brown and John P. Meier, Antioch and Rome: New Testament Cradles of Catholic Christianity [New York: Paulist Press, 1983], p. 146n313).
44. On the dating of Hebrews, see John A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament (Philadelphia: Westmiinster Press, 1976), pp. 200–220; F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990, rev. ed.), especially pp. 20–22, 99n57; William L. Lane, Hebrews 1–8 (Word Biblical Commentary) (Dallas: Word Books, 1991), pp. lxiii–lxvi.
45. Seneca, Moral Essays, vol. 2, trans. by John W. Basore (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1951 reprint = 1935), p. 431.
46. Ibid.
47. See E. Mary Smallwood, The Jews Under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1976), especially pp. 210–16. See also A. H. M. Jones, The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1971); Wolfgang Wiefel, “The Jewish Community in Ancient Rome and the Origins of Roman Christianity,” in The Romans Debate, edited by Karl Paul Donfried (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing house, 1977), pp. 100–119.
48. See Emil Schurer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ: 175 B.C.–A.D. 135), vol. 3, revised and edited by Geza Vermes, Fergus Millar, and Martin Goodman, (Edinburgh, Scotland T. & T. Clark Ltd., 1973), especially pp. 73–81, 95–100.
49. See Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars: Claudius 25:4 (Loeb Classical Library) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1929), vol. 2, trans. by J. C. Rolfe.
50. E. Mary Smallwood, The Jews Under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1976), p. 217.
51. “A factor which remained almost completely constant was the political tolerance of the Jewish religion, and above all that freedom of movement without which the Jewish communities could not have developed a life of their own” (Emil Schurer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ: 175 B.C.–A.D. 135, vol. 3, revised and edited by Geza Vermes, Fergus Millar, and Martin Goodman [Edinburgh, Scotland T. & T. Clark Ltd., 1973], p. 114.
52. Concerning the “attestations” enumerated in 2:3–4 see Charles Kingsley Barrett, The Signs of an Apostle (London: Epworth Press, 1970).
2. Unit Reflections
Introduction: A Doctrinal Manifesto about Jesus (1:1–4)
1:1–4. The Letter to the Hebrews begins on a high note, with a doctrinal manifesto about Jesus as God’s Son and supreme
