Hebrews: An Introduction and Study Guide

by Amy Peeler, Patrick Gray, Benny Liew (Series Editor)

This volume offers a compact introduction to one of the most daunting texts in the New Testament. The Letter to the Hebrews has inspired many readers with its encomium to faith, troubled others with its hard sayings on the impossibility of a second repentance, and perplexed still others with its exegetical assumptions and operations drawn from a cultural matrix that is largely alien to modern sensibilities. Long thought to be Paul, the anonymous author of Hebrews exhibits points of continuity with the apostle and other New Testament writers in the letter's (or sermon's) vision of life in the light of the crucified Messiah, but one also finds distinctive perspectives in such areas as Christology, eschatology, and atonement.

Gray and Peeler survey the salient historical, social, and rhetorical factors to be considered in the interpretation of this document, as well as its theological, liturgical, and cultural legacy. They invite readers to enter the world of one of the boldest Christian thinkers of the first century.

Genres: Christian

112 pages, Paperback

Published January 9, 2020

About the author

Rev. Amy Peeler, Ph.D. is the Kenneth T. Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies and Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, IL and an Associate Priest at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Geneva, IL. Peeler researches, writes, and speak on the relationship between women and men in the Christian faith, particularly through the lens of the incarnation. She received her BA in Biblical Languages from Oklahoma Baptist University, M. Div. and Ph. D. in New Testament from Princeton Theological Seminary, and served as a Senior Research Fellow with the Logos Institute at the University of St. Andrews. She is an active member of the Society of Biblical Literature, Institute for Biblical Research, and a Fellow with the Center for Pastor Theologians.

Reviews

[Amy Lindberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was deceived both by the thinness of this book and by its title. This is not a study guide of the sense that it will walk you through the book of Hebrews - it is intended to help you study Hebrews in the sense that it summarizes a wealth of existing scholarship on the book of Hebrews and synthesizes it in a broadly-organized way.

The first question in the "For Further Study" section, as an example, is:
"For which side(s) in the Trinitarian debates of the fourth century and later does the opening chapter furnish support?"

If that's the type of study guide you were expecting, then this book is for you. If that seems a bit over your head for a response to chapter 1 of Hebrews, then you should skip this book.

I knew I was in deeper than I had anticipated when on page 3 of the Introduction, the authors explain that in Hebrews "righteousness" is an ethical term in contrast with Paul's use of "righteousness" in "the forensic sense." I knew then I'd need to slow down a great deal.

I am convinced that this book COULD be revised to be accessible to the average layperson. In its current form, it simply is not. The tone is dreadfully academic and sometimes the phrasings and word choices are unnecessarily complicated. The authors assume you already know a great deal about early church writings and debates. They also assume you are reading slowly enough to absorb layers of implications in their phrasing choices.

Many of the conclusions and insights are deeply helpful and a few include delightful quirks that you'll likely find nowhere else, like in the final chapter, "The Reception History of Hebrews":

"Finally, Jonathan Edwards and D. H. Lawrence have little in common besides the fact that both use Heb. 10:31 - the former adapting it for the title of his famous 1741 sermon 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' and the latter quoting it in the first line of his posthumously published poem 'The Hands of God,' only to capture its ambivalence in the second line: 'But it is a much more fearful thing to fall out of them.'"

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for the average person

It’s far from any study guide. It makes assumptions the reader has read all the sited sources with vague contexts. I’ve read the Bible several times and the Septuagint. I’m was never quite sure whether sources cited added any value and add some of citations were incorrect. I spent numerous hours researching the context to only the conclusion provided in some flimsy at best.

[Van Robarts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good work. Helpful due to describing the big sections. Chapter on reception history is very interesting.