3. The Occasion, Purpose, and Motive for Writing the Epistle

The occasion for this epistle was furnished by the apostasy of believing Hebrews back into Judaism and their withdrawal from communion with Christians in their prayer gatherings (Heb 10:25). Fearing a repetition of such instances and a widening of the circle of those falling away, the holy Paul writes to the Hebrews, urging them to remain faithful to the one saving faith. The fear of apostasies was not unfounded. The Jews had their own apostles from the ranks of the zealots, whom they sent out everywhere expressly for the purpose of drawing Gentile proselytes into Judaism and ensuring observance of the law by Jews. When Christian preaching began, they could not view it with indifference or fail to oppose it, especially seeing how readily their proselytes went over to Christianity. The agitation against the holy Paul in Thessalonica and Beroea was their doing. Likewise their doing were the disturbances in Rome, on account of which all Jews were expelled from Rome under Claudius.

But what occurred in these places was of course repeated in others as well, and never ceased to be repeated. Such agitations were undoubtedly accompanied not only by the persecution of firm believers, but also by the apostasy of the weak from the faith. And it was impossible not to take care to hold them within the fold of the faith.

Moreover, the Judaizing Christians did not remain at rest either. They had begun to separate themselves from true Christians in the wake of the Apostolic Council — at first, perhaps, without opposing them, but afterward coming to oppose them as well. The Galatians were corrupted in the faith, one must suppose, by them. The same could of course be repeated in other places. Judaizing of a reasonable sort — without regarding Judaism as an indispensable condition of salvation — was tolerated as a transitional state. But Judaizing as a condition of salvation was a pernicious heresy, and inclination toward it is genuine apostasy from the Christian faith. The apostasy of believing Hebrews who were weak in faith into such Judaizing-with-faith may be supposed to have occurred in greater numbers than outright apostasy into full Judaism. Could the holy Paul have failed to concern himself with such people?

The apprehension may have been heightened by the multiplication of apostasies and the intensification of persecution and oppression. At the outset, Christians from among the Jews were subjected to persecution only by their former co-religionists. And at that time, not only outside Jerusalem but in Jerusalem itself, they enjoyed the protection and defense of the Roman authorities, who, not regarding Christianity as hostile to their paganism but merely as a particular religious sect among the Jews, did not permit one group on such grounds to oppress another. But by the time of the composition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, these authorities had begun to distinguish Christianity from Judaism and to regard it as unfavorable to paganism, and therefore began to oppose it on their own part as well. Weak Christians from among the Hebrews, thus pressed both by their own kinsmen and by the pagans, and seeing no way out of their difficult position, lost heart and fell away to their old faith — more readily and more swiftly than before. It was necessary to support such people as well, and at the same time to inspire them to patience.

For all these reasons the holy Paul writes the Epistle to the Hebrews, depicting the superiority of Christianity over Judaism from every angle in which Judaism had hitherto, and not unjustly, been regarded as the one God-pleasing faith.

In his other epistles as well — in almost all of them — the holy Apostle Paul addresses the Hebrews with a word of instruction. But there, for the most part, his discourse was directed toward persuading them not to consider themselves alone as children of God and heirs of the promises given to their fathers, and by such exhortations to establish peace among believers who, in all the places of his preaching, were composed of Jews and Gentiles. Therefore his discourse there to the Jews was conducted in connection with his discourse to the Gentiles. Here, however, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Apostle addresses himself exclusively to the Jews alone, unfolding to them the truth that the former dispensation has passed away and must yield place to the new and more perfect, as had been foretold throughout the whole extent of Scripture. From this, the purposes which the holy Paul had in view in writing his Epistle to the Hebrews become self-evidently clear.

The first was to prevent the increase of apostasies from the faith. This is evident from the repeated exhortations of the holy Apostle not to fall away and not to depart. Thus, having declared that the New Testament dispensation of salvation was accomplished by the Son of God, “upholding all things by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3), he adds: “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Heb 2:1). This exhortation is repeated more than once, amid various arguments. In one place he says: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Heb 3:12); in another: “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh” (Heb 12:25); and to all in general he calls out: “Let us hold fast the confession” (Heb 4:14). This is also evident from the repeated reminders of the ruinous consequences of apostasy. Thus, at the beginning of the epistle he says: “the word spoken by angels,” whenever it was transgressed, subjected the transgressors to righteous punishment. How then shall we escape heavenly retribution, if we neglect the word which, “having at the first been spoken by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard him,” being attended by testimony from on high “in signs, and wonders, and divers gifts of the Holy Ghost” (Heb 2:2–4)? Further on, in another place, he depicts with great vividness how those who, having been united with Christ the Lord by faith and having tasted His ineffable blessings, fall away — crucify the Lord afresh, and for that reason, like land which has drunk in the rain that falls repeatedly upon it but brings forth thorns and thistles, are subject to curse and to burning (Heb 6:4–8). He returns to a similar warning afterward as well, saying that he who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy: of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who rejects the Son of God? — Such a one tramples underfoot the blood of the covenant, and insults the Holy Spirit — and God himself stirs up to take vengeance upon him, saying: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay” (Rom 12:19). “But it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” For such a one this awaits: “a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Heb 10:27–31). This is evident also from the entire content of the epistle, in which the superiority of the New Testament dispensation over the Old is vividly portrayed. One who has received all this wholeheartedly could not but feel that in abandoning Christianity and falling back into Judaism, he is not turning to something better, but to something worse — to that which no longer has any value — and consequently could not but arrest his backward movement toward Judaism. To produce such an impression and to obtain from it such a result was, of course, what the holy Paul had in view in writing this epistle.

The second purpose was to inspire endurance in sorrows and privations suffered for the faith. It was tribulations and persecutions that were weakening faith and smoothing the path to apostasy. Had the holy Paul left those who were being persecuted without encouragement to bear their lot with courage, he would have undermined the force of all his preceding exhortations and himself cut off the beneficial effect of his epistle. Wherefore, setting before them examples of faith and of the courage that accompanied it in bearing afflictions for faith’s sake throughout the whole course of Old Testament history, he concluded: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses… let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” — and so forth (Heb 12:1–2 and following). Chapters 11 and 12 are devoted to this inspiration.

That the holy Paul had in view the correction of any particular moral deficiencies among the believing Hebrews is not apparent. Moral instructions are very few; contained in brief sayings, they are placed in chapters 12 and 13 among other subjects, and are all of a general character. But one cannot deny that he had in view not only the retention in the faith of those who already believed, but also the drawing to the faith of Hebrews who had not yet believed, as was already mentioned above. This thought arises of itself upon reading the epistle. Let but an unbelieving Jew take it up to read, and he cannot but feel a certain not inconsiderable drawing away from Judaism. Even the general portrayal alone of the superiority of the dispensation of salvation in the Lord Jesus over Judaism — with such weighty proofs from Scripture and such triumphant testimonies from above, as signs and wonders and the distribution of the Holy Spirit, performed before the eyes of all — could not but draw one to faith with great power. But in the course of the epistle there are not a few passages that speak directly to one who has not yet believed and say to him: see, do not pass over without attention what is being said to you. For example: “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” as your fathers did in the wilderness — for which the Lord decreed concerning them: “They shall not enter into my rest” (Heb 3:7–11). And they did not enter, because of their unbelief (Heb 3:19). And behold, to us also the word of glad tidings has been addressed, as it was to them. But it did not profit them, because it was not received with faith; and the same will happen to us now, if we do not believe. Let us therefore fear to be deprived of the good which is offered to us. “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Heb 4:1–2, 11). Of the same character are the words about the setting aside of the former commandment on account of its weakness (Heb 7:18), about the establishment of a new covenant — not like the covenant of the fathers — whereby the former is shown to be obsolete and unprofitable (Heb 8:8–9, 13), and about the fact that while the first tabernacle stood, “the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest” (Heb 9:8); for it could not be opened except through the Lord Jesus, who entered with his own blood into the sanctuary not made with hands (Heb 9:11–12). These passages and others like them involuntarily suggest the inference that the holy Paul had in mind as well the unbelieving Jews, in his desire for their conversion. And what thoughtful Jew, reading such admonitions, could fail to reflect and desire to leave behind the worse and take hold of the better?

What moved the holy Paul to write the Epistle to the Hebrews, given that he was appointed to be the Apostle of the Gentiles, not of the Hebrews? — In general terms: his boundless love for the Lord, in accordance with which he says of himself that it is no longer he who lives, but Christ who lives in him (Gal 2:20). The extension of His glory through faith was the perpetual object of the striving and efforts of the holy Paul. But no less than this, he was moved thereto by his ardent love for his own people. Loving his kindred, he sincerely desired that all among them might be saved. And in desiring this, he could not restrain himself from pointing out to some — hold firmly to this path you have received — and to others — make haste to enter upon it. He knew that, by the divine decree, “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). How pitiful, then, if certain of the Jews themselves should fail to attain salvation? Thoughts of this kind always deeply moved the holy Paul, and he entreated the Lord to blot even himself out of the book of life, if only all Israel might be saved. Could he, after this, have refrained from writing to the Hebrews a general exhortation to receive and keep the one saving faith? St. John Chrysostom asks: “The blessed Paul says of himself that he is ‘the apostle of the Gentiles’ (Rom 11:13). What then has he to do with the Hebrews? And how does he write to them?” And he answers: “And how would he not write to those for whose sake he desired to be accursed from Christ (Rom 9:3)?”