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Deuteronomy 4

Advantages of Fidelity.

1Now therefore, Israel, hear the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to observe, that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.^a

2In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God,^b which I am commanding you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.

3You have seen with your own eyes what the LORD did at Baal-peor:^c the LORD, your God, destroyed from your midst everyone who followed the Baal of Peor;

4but you, who held fast to the LORD, your God, are all alive today.

5See, I am teaching you the statutes and ordinances as the LORD, my God, has commanded me, that you may observe them in the land you are entering to possess.

6Observe them carefully, for this is your wisdom and discernment in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “This great nation is truly a wise and discerning people.”^d

7^e For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him?

8Or what great nation has statutes and ordinances that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?^f

Revelation at Horeb.

9However, be on your guard and be very careful not to forget the things your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your heart as long as you live, but make them known to your children^g and to your children’s children,

10that day you stood before the LORD, your God, at Horeb, when the LORD said to me: Assemble the people for me, that I may let them hear my words, that they may learn to fear^* me as long as they live in the land and may so teach their children.

11^h You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain blazed to the heart of the heavens with fire and was enveloped in a dense black cloud.

12Then the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire.ⁱ You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.

13He proclaimed to you his covenant, which he commanded you to keep: the ten words,^* which he wrote on two stone tablets.^j

14At that time the LORD charged me to teach you the statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land you are about to cross into and possess.

Danger of Idolatry.

15Because you saw no form at all on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, be strictly on your guard

16not to act corruptly by fashioning an idol for yourselves to represent any figure, whether it be the form of a man or of a woman,^k

17the form of any animal on the earth, the form of any bird that flies in the sky,

18the form of anything that crawls on the ground, or the form of any fish in the waters under the earth.

19And when you look up to the heavens and behold the sun or the moon or the stars, the whole heavenly host, do not be led astray into bowing down to them and serving them.^l These the LORD, your God, has apportioned to all the other nations under the heavens;

20but you the LORD has taken and led out of that iron foundry, Egypt, that you might be his people, his heritage, as you are today.^m

21But the LORD was angry with me on your accountⁿ and swore that I should not cross the Jordan nor enter the good land which the LORD, your God, is giving you as a heritage.

22I myself shall die in this country; I shall not cross the Jordan; but you are going to cross over and take possession of that good land.^o

23Be careful, therefore, lest you forget the covenant which the LORD, your God, has made with you, and fashion for yourselves against his command an idol in any form whatsoever.^p

24For the LORD, your God, is a consuming fire, a jealous God.^{* q}

God’s Fidelity and Love.

25^r When you have children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, should you then act corruptly by fashioning an idol in the form of anything, and by this evil done in his sight provoke the LORD, your God,

26I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you, that you shall all quickly perish from the land which you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You shall not live in it for any length of time but shall be utterly wiped out.^s

27The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and there shall remain but a handful of you among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.

28There you shall serve gods that are works of human hands, of wood and stone, gods which can neither see nor hear, neither eat nor smell.^t

29Yet when you seek the LORD, your God, from there, you shall indeed find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.^u

30In your distress, when all these things shall have come upon you, you shall finally return to the LORD, your God, and listen to his voice.

31Since the LORD, your God, is a merciful God, he will not abandon or destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.^v

32Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created humankind upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of?

33Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?^w

34Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders,^x by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the LORD, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

35All this you were allowed to see that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other.^y

36Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you; on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard him speaking out of the fire.

37For love of your ancestors he chose their descendants after them and by his presence and great power led you out of Egypt,

38dispossessing before you nations greater and mightier than you, so as to bring you in and to give their land to you as a heritage, as it is today.

39This is why you must now acknowledge, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.^z

40And you must keep his statutes and commandments which I command you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever.^a

Cities of Refuge.

41^b Then Moses set apart three cities in the region east of the Jordan,

42to which a homicide might flee who killed a neighbor unintentionally, where there had been no hatred previously, so that the killer might flee to one of these cities and live:

43Bezer in the wilderness, in the region of the plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

II. SECOND ADDRESS

Introduction.

44This is the law^* which Moses set before the Israelites.^c

45These are the decrees, and the statutes and ordinances^* which Moses proclaimed to the Israelites after they came out of Egypt,^d

46^e beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated after they came out of Egypt.^f

47They took possession of his land and the land of Og, king of Bashan, as well—the land of these two kings of the Amorites in the region beyond the Jordan to the east:

48from Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon to Mount Sion^* (that is, Hermon)

49and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan to the east, as far as the Arabah Sea^* under the slopes of Pisgah.

Deuteronomy 5

The Covenant at Horeb.

1Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances which I proclaim in your hearing this day, that you may learn them and take care to observe them.^a

2The LORD, our God, made a covenant with us at Horeb;

3not with our ancestors^* did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, all of us who are alive here this day.

4^b Face to face, the LORD spoke with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire,^c

5while I was standing between the LORD and you at that time, to announce to you these words of the LORD, since you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain:

The Decalogue.

6^d I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,^e out of the house of slavery.

7^f You shall not have other gods beside me.

8You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;

9^* you shall not bow down before them or serve them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous^* God, bringing punishment for their parents’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation,

10but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

11You shall not invoke the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.^g For the LORD will not leave unpunished anyone who invokes his name in vain.

12^h Observe the sabbath day—keep it holy, as the LORD, your God, commanded you.

13Six days you may labor and do all your work,

14but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God. You shall not do any work, either you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or donkey or any work animal, or the resident alien within your gates, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do.

15Remember that you too were once slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD, your God, brought you out from there with a strong hand and outstretched arm. That is why the LORD, your God, has commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

16ⁱ Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD, your God, has commanded you, that you may have a long life and that you may prosper in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

17^j You shall not kill.^*

18^k You shall not commit adultery.

19^l You shall not steal.

20^m You shall not bear dishonest witness against your neighbor.

21ⁿ You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.

You shall not desire your neighbor’s house or field, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Moses as Mediator.

22These words the LORD spoke with a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire and the dense black cloud, and added no more. He inscribed them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.^o

23But when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, you came near to me, all your tribal heads and elders,

24and said, “The LORD, our God, has indeed let us see his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire.^p Today we have found out that God may speak to a mortal and that person may still live.

25Now, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the LORD, our God, any more, we shall die.^q

26For what mortal has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of fire, as we have, and lived?

27You go closer and listen to all that the LORD, our God, will say, and then tell us what the LORD, our God, tells you; we will listen and obey.”^r

28The LORD heard your words as you were speaking to me and said to me, I have heard the words these people have spoken to you, which are all well said.^s

29Would that they might always be of such a mind, to fear me and to keep all my commandments! Then they and their descendants would prosper forever.

30Go, tell them: Return to your tents.

31Then you stand here near me and I will give you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances; you must teach them, that they may observe them in the land I am giving them to possess.^t

32Be careful, therefore, to do as the LORD, your God, has commanded you, not turning aside to the right or to the left,

33but following exactly the way that the LORD, your God, commanded you that you may live and prosper, and may have long life in the land which you are to possess.^u

Hebrews 9:11 -28

Sacrifice of Jesus.

11^* But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be,^* passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation,^h

12he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.ⁱ

13For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes^* can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed,^j

14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit^* offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.^k

15^* For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.^l

16^* Now where there is a will, the death of the testator must be established.

17For a will takes effect only at death; it has no force while the testator is alive.

18Thus not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

19^* When every commandment had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves [and goats], together with water and crimson wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,^m

20saying, “This is ‘the blood of the covenant which God has enjoined upon you.’”ⁿ

21In the same way, he sprinkled also the tabernacle^* and all the vessels of worship with blood.^o

22^* According to the law almost everything is purified by blood,^p and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

23^* Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified by these rites, but the heavenly things themselves by better sacrifices than these.^q

24For Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our behalf.^r

25Not that he might offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters each year into the sanctuary with blood that is not his own;

26if that were so, he would have had to suffer repeatedly from the foundation of the world. But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages^* to take away sin by his sacrifice.^s

27Just as it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment,^t

28so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many,^* will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.^u

Hebrews 10:18

One Sacrifice instead of Many.

1^* Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come,^* and not the very image of them, it can never make perfect those who come to worship by the same sacrifices that they offer continually each year.^a

2Otherwise, would not the sacrifices have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would no longer have had any consciousness of sins?

3But in those sacrifices there is only a yearly remembrance of sins,^b

4for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins.^c

5For this reason, when he came into the world, he said:^*

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,^d

but a body you prepared for me;

6holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in.

7Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll,

Behold, I come to do your will, O God.’”

8First he says, “Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings,^* you neither desired nor delighted in.” These are offered according to the law.^e

9Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.” He takes away the first to establish the second.^f

10By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.^g

11^* Every priest stands daily at his ministry, offering frequently those same sacrifices that can never take away sins.^h

12But this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God;ⁱ

13^* now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool.

14For by one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated.^j

15^* The holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying:

16“This is the covenant I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord:

‘I will put my laws in their hearts,

and I will write them upon their minds,’”^k

17he also says:^*

“Their sins and their evildoing

I will remember no more.”^l

18Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.

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The complete Book of Deuteronomy

THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY

The title of Deuteronomy in Hebrew is Debarim, “words,” from its opening phrase. The English title comes from the Septuagint of 17:18, deuteronomion, “copy of the law”; this title is appropriate because the book replicates much of the legal content of the previous books, serving as a “second law.” It brings to a close the five books of the Torah or Pentateuch with a retrospective account of Israel’s past—the exodus, the Sinai covenant, and the wilderness wanderings—and a look into Israel’s future as they stand poised to enter the land of Canaan and begin their life as a people there.

The book consists of three long addresses by Moses. Each of these contains narrative, law, and exhortation, in varying proportions. In an expansion of the first commandment of the decalogue (Ex 20:5–6; Dt 5:9–10), Moses tells the Israelites how to make a success of their life as a people once they are settled in the land. The choice presented to Israel is to love the Lord and keep his commandments, or to serve “other gods.” That choice will determine what kind of life they will make for themselves in the land. Whichever choice they make as a people carries consequences, which Deuteronomy terms “blessing” and “curse.” Thus the book can be seen as a kind of survival manual for Israel in their life as a people: how to live and what to avoid. This gives the book its hortatory style and tone of life-or-death urgency.

One defining concern of the book is centralization of worship. As Israel’s God is one (6:4–5), so its worship must be focused in one place, which the Lord “will choose from among your tribes”; there the Lord will “make his name dwell” (see note on 12:5). Thus the privileged status of the Jerusalem Temple is asserted; all other places and all other modes of worship of the God of Israel (the local shrines, the “high places,” “under every green tree”) are proscribed.

The book was probably composed over the course of three centuries, from the eighth century to the exile and beyond. It bears some relation to “the Book of the Law” discovered in the Jerusalem Temple around 622 B.C. during the reign of King Josiah (2 Kgs 22:8–13). It gives evidence of later editing: cf. the references to exile in 4:1–40; 28:63–68; 29:21–28; 30:1–10.

Over the book looms the disaster of 722/721, the fall of the Northern Kingdom, Israel. The detailed description of siege (28:49–57) especially echoes the fate the North suffered at the hands of the Assyrian invader. The book draws the minds of its intended readers back to a time before disastrous mistakes were made and their disastrous effects felt, and serves to explain the political and theological dynamics that led to the destruction of the North as well as to warn the surviving Southern Kingdom, Judah, to reform by keeping faith with Israel’s covenant Lord.

The characteristic and highly recognizable language and theology of Deuteronomy are seen in editorial comments structuring the works that follow it in the Hebrew canon, the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Together with Deuteronomy, these present a history of Israel from Moses to the time of the Babylonian exile. Conventionally this great multivolume work is termed the Deuteronomistic History. The Book of Deuteronomy itself was also incorporated into the Torah as its fifth volume.

The book presents three discourses by Moses, as follows:

1. First Address (1:1–4:43)
2. Second Address (4:44–28:69)
   1. The Lord’s Covenant with Israel (4:44–11:32)
   2. The Deuteronomic Code (12:1–28:69)
3. Third Address (29:1–33:29)
4. The Death of Moses (34:1–12)

I. FIRST ADDRESS

The book of Hebrews

THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS

As early as the second century, this treatise, which is of great rhetorical power and force in its admonition to faithful pilgrimage under Christ’s leadership, bore the title “To the Hebrews.” It was assumed to be directed to Jewish Christians. Usually Hebrews was attached in Greek manuscripts to the collection of letters by Paul. Although no author is mentioned (for there is no address), a reference to Timothy (Heb 13:23) suggested connections to the circle of Paul and his assistants. Yet the exact audience, the author, and even whether Hebrews is a letter have long been disputed.

The author saw the addressees in danger of apostasy from their Christian faith. This danger was due not to any persecution from outsiders but to a weariness with the demands of Christian life and a growing indifference to their calling (Heb 2:1; 4:14; 6:1–12; 10:23–32). The author’s main theme, the priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus (Heb 3–10), is not developed for its own sake but as a means of restoring their lost fervor and strengthening them in their faith. Another important theme of the letter is that of the pilgrimage of the people of God to the heavenly Jerusalem (11:10; 12:1–3, 18–29; 13:14). This theme is intimately connected with that of Jesus’ ministry in the heavenly sanctuary (Heb 9:11–10:22).

The author calls this work a “message of encouragement” (Heb 13:22), a designation that is given to a synagogue sermon in Acts 13:15. Hebrews is probably therefore a written homily, to which the author gave an epistolary ending (Heb 13:22–25). The author begins with a reminder of the preexistence, incarnation, and exaltation of Jesus (Heb 1:3) that proclaimed him the climax of God’s word to humanity (Heb 1:1–3). He dwells upon the dignity of the person of Christ, superior to the angels (Heb 1:4–2:2). Christ is God’s final word of salvation communicated (in association with accredited witnesses to his teaching: cf. Heb 2:3–4) not merely by word but through his suffering in the humanity common to him and to all others (Heb 2:5–16). This enactment of salvation went beyond the pattern known to Moses, faithful prophet of God’s word though he was, for Jesus as high priest expiated sin and was faithful to God with the faithfulness of God’s own Son (Heb 2:17–3:6).

Just as the infidelity of the people thwarted Moses’ efforts to save them, so the infidelity of any Christian may thwart God’s plan in Christ (3:6–4:13). Christians are to reflect that it is their humanity that Jesus took upon himself, with all its defects save sinfulness, and that he bore the burden of it until death out of obedience to God. God declared this work of his Son to be the cause of salvation for all (Heb 4:14–5:10). Although Christians recognize this fundamental teaching, they may grow weary of it and of its implications, and therefore require other reflections to stimulate their faith (5:11–6:20).

Therefore, the author presents to the readers for their reflection the everlasting priesthood of Christ (Heb 7:1–28), a priesthood that fulfills the promise of the Old Testament (Heb 8:1–13). It also provides the meaning God ultimately intended in the sacrifices of the Old Testament (Heb 9:1–28): these pointed to the unique sacrifice of Christ, which alone obtains forgiveness of sins (Heb 10:1–18). The trial of faith experienced by the readers should resolve itself through their consideration of Christ’s ministry in the heavenly sanctuary and his perpetual intercession there on their behalf (Heb 7:25; 8:1–13). They should also be strengthened by the assurance of his foreordained parousia, and by the fruits of faith that they have already enjoyed (Heb 10:19–39).

It is in the nature of faith to recognize the reality of what is not yet seen and is the object of hope, and the saints of the Old Testament give striking example of that faith (Heb 11:1–40). The perseverance to which the author exhorts the readers is shown forth in the earthly life of Jesus. Despite the afflictions of his ministry and the supreme trial of his suffering and death, he remained confident of the triumph that God would bring him (Heb 12:1–3). The difficulties of human life have meaning when they are accepted as God’s discipline (Heb 12:4–13), and if Christians persevere in fidelity to the word in which they have believed, they are assured of possessing forever the unshakable kingdom of God (Heb 12:14–29).

The letter concludes with specific moral commandments (Heb 13:1–17), in the course of which the author recalls again his central theme of the sacrifice of Jesus and the courage needed to associate oneself with it in faith (Heb 13:9–16).

As early as the end of the second century, the church of Alexandria in Egypt accepted Hebrews as a letter of Paul, and that became the view commonly held in the East. Pauline authorship was contested in the West into the fourth century, but then accepted. In the sixteenth century, doubts about that position were again raised, and the modern consensus is that the letter was not written by Paul. There is, however, no widespread agreement on any of the other suggested authors, e.g., Barnabas, Apollos, or Prisc(ill)a and Aquila. The document itself has no statement about its author.

Among the reasons why Pauline authorship has been abandoned are the great difference of vocabulary and style between Hebrews and Paul’s letters, the alternation of doctrinal teaching with moral exhortation, the different manner of citing the Old Testament, and the resemblance between the thought of Hebrews and that of Alexandrian Judaism. The Greek of the letter is in many ways the best in the New Testament.

Since the letter of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, written about A.D. 96, most probably cites Hebrews, the upper limit for the date of composition is reasonably certain. While the letter’s references in the present tense to the Old Testament sacrificial worship do not necessarily show that temple worship was still going on, many older commentators and a growing number of recent ones favor the view that it was and that the author wrote before the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. In that case, the argument of the letter is more easily explained as directed toward Jewish Christians rather than those of Gentile origin, and the persecutions they have suffered in the past (cf. Heb 10:32–34) may have been connected with the disturbances that preceded the expulsion of the Jews from Rome in A.D. 49 under the emperor Claudius. These were probably caused by disputes between Jews who accepted Jesus as the Messiah and those who did not.

The principal divisions of the Letter to the Hebrews are the following:

1. Introduction (1:1–4)
2. The Son Higher than the Angels (1:5–2:18)
3. Jesus, Faithful and Compassionate High Priest (3:1–5:10)
4. Jesus’ Eternal Priesthood and Eternal Sacrifice (5:11–10:39)
5. Examples, Discipline, Disobedience (11:1–12:29)
6. Final Exhortation, Blessing, Greetings (13:1–25)