Hebrews 13

How can we worship God without the sacrifices? The epistle of the Hebrews points us to the text of Hosea 14:2 to answer this question, employing the same proof text and arriving at nearly the same conclusion that the sages of Yavneh offered after the destruction of the Temple. That prescient message anticipated the coming exile and offered Israel a survival guide for the long years ahead without sacrifice, without priest, and without temple.

Who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews and who were those Hebrews to whom the epistle was sent? Why did the early church nearly exclude Hebrews from the canon. This teaching provides a quick introduction to the book of Hebrews addressing the questions of what, who, to whom, when, where, and why. We look for clues in introduction and subscription of the epistle and we speculate about the possible authorship of the epistle, the intended audience, the occasion that might have inspired its the composition, and the overall genre of the piece.

Our religion involves a lot of ritual foods, including the ceremony that the Church refers to as the Eucharist, but the writer of the book of Hebrews warns his readers to steer away from sacramental interpretations of ceremonial foods. This discussion of Hebrews 13:9-14 brings the central conflict behind the epistle into sharp focus.

Where did the first Christians go to church? Our third teaching on the book of Hebrews takes a look at the Jewish believers and their relationship to the Temple and Levitical worship system in the first century and looks for the possible occasion that inspired the writing of the epistle. Learn about the sacred place of assembly where the Jerusalem community of disciples used to gather daily for prayer.

And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. (Act 5:12)