Early on, Christianity in the Roman world was considered superstitious and dangerous. In a Roman culture that prized honor above all else, followers of Jesus were shamed. There was nothing quite like the humiliation of being separated from your family, of having social ties severed, and becoming an outcast because you were engaged in some superstitious religion, part of a diseased faith.

What we do know, according to Hebrews 12:4, is that none of them, as of yet, had suffered to the point of death. The author is communicating with a second-generation community of born-again, spirit-filled believers who are suffering social ostracism, even persecution, imprisonment, the seizure of their properties, their homes and possessions, and general abuse.

They are experiencing cognitive dissonance, which occurs when what you believe does not conform to what you see. They declare, “Jesus is Lord,” yet when they look around them, they realize clearly that the world is not yet subject to him. They have their Christian claims, but their experienced reality conflicts with that.

“God has subjected all things to Jesus as King,” says the speaker, but that is not the hearers’ experience.

They were expecting the imminent return of the Son of Man, but he had not come. Rather than being victorious in Messiah, they find themselves the victims of a faith considered perverse by their community at large. This is the context of the audience, whoever they were and wherever they were.

Here are some helpful guidelines for reading and hearing Hebrews. Keep these things in mind as you study the text in depth, seeking to listen to these words in your place and time.

Guideline One: Remember the sermonic nature of this letter.

It was initially an oral presentation given in a pastoral manner. Though he did not plant this congregation, he ministered among them as a deeply concerned shepherd, not a detached theologian. He presented it with exceptional rhetorical skills and urgent pastoral concerns.

Guideline Two: Remember the author has two primary and interconnected aims or purposes.

(1) The author’s primary purpose is to demonstrate how great our salvation in Jesus is. It far surpasses anything that has gone before. Indeed, it is the culmination of everything that has preceded it. The Messiah’s role as high priest in the eternal sanctuary and his sacrifice as the Passover lamb is far superior to all the sacrifices of the Levitical priests under the Mosaic Covenant.

(2) The author’s second primary purpose is to sternly warn how significant the loss will be if you forsake, drift away from, or neglect this salvation. In light of this, he wants to encourage believers to look to Jesus and imitate his persistent, faithful endurance—especially amid his sufferings. He is our role model.

Guideline Three: Remember it is, from beginning to end, a sustained argument for the surpassing greatness of Jesus, God’s Son and our High Priest.

The author’s approach is kol v’chomer, a Jewish interpretive principle that argues from the minor to the major. If the minor was important, how much more significant is the major? He draws a series of comparisons: Jesus vis-a-vis the angels, Jesus vis-a-vis Moses, and the new covenant vis-a-vis the previous covenants. As both the High Priest and atoning sacrifice, Jesus surpasses the Levitical system. And the new covenant established by his shed blood is the successor to the Mosaic covenant.

Guideline Four: Beware of reading this letter in an abstract sense, forgetting the original context.

Do not read this letter anachronistically. An anachronism is something projected back into time. It means that contextually, we bring with us from our present time that which wasn’t there for the original audience. It is difficult for us today, 2000 years removed from the time of this letter and the Jewish worldview it reflects, not to be influenced by the insidious triumphalism and supersessionism that mars Christian history.

In other words, we are trained to think that what is superior (the New Covenant) means the former covenants were inferior. More to the point, that which came before Christ is bad (the law), and that which came after is good (grace). As if the two are mutually exclusive. That is a way of thinking the author and audience know nothing about.

When we read the author of Hebrews proclaiming replacement theology, we are engaged in an anachronistic reading. We are taking an idea that doesn’t even appear in the history of the church until the fourth century and putting it into the mindset of a first-century author. This kind of unbiblical thinking should be another type of cognitive dissonance for us.

It is a crucial point because it relates to the very character of the Holy God who chose Abraham. Let me say it this way: in Hebrews, there is no Judaism vis-a-vis Christianity. For them, everything is in the context of Israel’s prophetic history, the Jewish view of the Tanakh (the Old Testament), and the revelation of Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah and incarnate Son of God.

The Jewish scriptures are the Bible for the first centuries of the church. There is no church versus synagogue or Christianity versus Judaism. Instead, the author is speaking as a Jew from within the Jewish worldview, which means a high esteem for the Jewish scriptures and what has gone before, including Moses, the Torah, the Temple, and the Levitical priesthood.

When we understand their context, it actually accentuates the argument for the excellence of Jesus while illustrating what he accomplished and is still doing among his people!

Hebrews views the New Covenant in continuity with the saving work of God that preceded it. When Jesus came, he ushered in the fullness of what God had promised from the beginning and had always been working for. In the words of St. Paul, For in it [the Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

To help you avoid the pitfalls highlighted in this discussion, I will be deliberate in my word choice and avoid using language like superior or superseded on our journey through Hebrews. I will use synonyms like greater than, successor to, and surpasses because they aren’t weighted with negative connotations and better capture the author’s intent.

I pray this intentional approach will help correct historical errors and emphasize biblical truth. I commend this approach for your personal edification and your ministry of sharing God’s glorious gospel with others.

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:28-29).