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Deuteronomy 19

Cities of Refuge.

1^a When the LORD, your God, cuts down the nations whose land the LORD, your God, is giving you, and you have dispossessed them and settled in their cities and houses,^b

2you shall set apart three cities^* in the land the LORD, your God, is giving you to possess.

3You shall measure the distances and divide into three regions the land of which the LORD, your God, is giving you possession, so that every homicide will be able to find a refuge.

4This is the case of a homicide who may take refuge there and live: when someone strikes down a neighbor unintentionally and not out of previous hatred.

5For example, if someone goes with a neighbor to a forest to cut wood, wielding an ax to cut down a tree, and its head flies off the handle and hits the neighbor a mortal blow, such a person may take refuge in one of these cities and live.

6Should the distance be too great, the avenger of blood^* might in hot anger pursue, overtake, and strike the killer dead, even though that one does not deserve the death penalty since there had been no previous hatred;

7for this reason I command you: Set apart three cities.

8^c But if the LORD, your God, enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors, and gives you all the land he promised your ancestors he would give,

9because you carefully observe this whole commandment which I give you today, loving the LORD, your God, and ever walking in his ways, then add three more cities to these three.

10Thus, in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you as a heritage, innocent blood will not be shed and you will not become guilty of bloodshed.^d

11However, if someone, hating a neighbor, lies in wait, attacks, and strikes the neighbor dead, and then flees to one of these cities,

12the elders of the killer’s own city shall send and have the killer taken from there, to be handed over to the avenger of blood and slain.

13Do not show pity, but purge from Israel the innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.^e

Removal of Landmarks.

14You shall not move your neighbor’s boundary markers^* erected by your forebears in the heritage that will be allotted to you in the land the LORD, your God, is giving you to possess.^f

False Witnesses.

15^g One witness alone shall not stand against someone in regard to any crime or any offense that may have been committed; a charge shall stand only on the testimony of two or three witnesses.^h

16If a hostile witness rises against someone to accuse that person of wrongdoing,

17the two parties in the dispute shall appear in the presence of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and judges in office at that time,ⁱ

18^j and the judges must investigate it thoroughly. If the witness is a false witness and has falsely accused the other,^k

19you shall do to the false witness just as that false witness planned to do to the other. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.

20The rest shall hear and be afraid, and never again do such an evil thing as this in your midst.^l

21Do not show pity. Life for life,^* eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot!^m

Deuteronomy 20

Courage in War.

1When you go out to war against your enemies and you see horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the LORD, your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, will be with you.

2When you are drawing near to battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the army,

3and say to them, “Hear, O Israel! Today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies. Do not be weakhearted or afraid, alarmed or frightened by them.

4For it is the LORD, your God, who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies and give you victory.”^a

5Then the officials shall speak to the army:^b “Is there anyone who has built a new house and not yet dedicated it? Let him return home, lest he die in battle and another dedicate it.

6Is there anyone who has planted a vineyard and not yet plucked its fruit? Let him return home, lest he die in battle and another pluck its fruit.

7Is there anyone who has betrothed a woman and not yet married her? Let him return home, lest he die in battle and another marry her.”^c

8The officials shall continue to speak to the army: “Is there anyone who is afraid and weakhearted?^d Let him return home, or else he might make the hearts of his fellows melt as his does.”

9When the officials have finished speaking to the army, military commanders shall be appointed over them.

Cities of the Enemy.

10^e When you draw near a city to attack it, offer it terms of peace.

11If it agrees to your terms of peace and lets you in, all the people to be found in it shall serve you in forced labor.

12^f But if it refuses to make peace with you and instead joins battle with you, lay siege to it,

13and when the LORD, your God, delivers it into your power, put every male in it to the sword;

14but the women and children and livestock and anything else in the city—all its spoil—you may take as plunder for yourselves, and you may enjoy this spoil of your enemies, which the LORD, your God, has given you.

15^* That is how you shall deal with any city at a considerable distance from you, which does not belong to these nations here.

16^g But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD, your God, is giving you as a heritage, you shall not leave a single soul alive.

17You must put them all under the ban—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—just as the LORD, your God, has commanded you,

18so that they do not teach you to do all the abominations that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against the LORD, your God.

Trees of a Besieged City.

19^h When you are at war with a city and have to lay siege to it for a long time before you capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human beings, that they should be included in your siege?

20However, those trees which you know are not fruit trees you may destroy. You may cut them down to build siegeworks against the city that is waging war with you, until it falls.

Deuteronomy 21

Absolution of Untraced Murder.^*

1If the corpse of someone who has been slain is found lying in the open, in the land the LORD, your God, is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed the person,

2your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distances to the cities that are in the neighborhood of the corpse.

3^a When it is established which city is nearest the corpse, the elders of that city shall take a heifer that has never been put to work or worn a yoke;

4the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a wadi with an everflowing stream at a place that has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the wadi.

5The priests, the descendants of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD, your God, has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the LORD, and every case of dispute or assault shall be for them to decide.

6Then all the elders of that city nearest the corpse shall wash their hands^* over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi,

7and shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood,^* and our eyes did not see the deed.

8Absolve, O LORD, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not let the guilt of shedding innocent blood remain in the midst of your people Israel.” Thus they shall be absolved from the guilt of bloodshed,

9and you shall purge the innocent blood from your midst, and do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.^b

Marriage with a Female Captive.

10^c When you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD, your God, delivers them into your power, so that you take captives,

11if you see a beautiful woman among the captives and become so enamored of her that you wish to have her as a wife,

12and so you take her home to your house, she must shave her head,^* cut her nails,

13lay aside her captive’s garb, and stay in your house, mourning her father and mother for a full month. After that, you may come to her, and you shall be her husband and she shall be your wife.

14If later on you lose your liking for her, you shall give her her freedom, if she wishes it; you must not sell her for money. Do not enslave her, since you have violated her.^d

Rights of the Firstborn.

15^e If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and if both the loved and the unloved bear him sons, but the firstborn is the son of the unloved wife:

16when he comes to bequeath his property to his sons he may not consider as his firstborn the son of the wife he loves, in preference to the son of the wife he does not love, the firstborn.

17On the contrary, he shall recognize as his firstborn the son of the unloved wife, giving him a double share of whatever he happens to own, since he is the first fruits of his manhood, and to him belong the rights of the firstborn.^f

The Stubborn and Rebellious Son.

18^g If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not listen to his father or mother, and will not listen to them even though they discipline him,^h

19his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders at the gate^* of his home city,

20where they shall say to the elders of the city, “This son of ours is a stubborn and rebellious fellow who will not listen to us; he is a glutton and a drunkard.”ⁱ

21Then all his fellow citizens shall stone him to death. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.^j

Corpse of a Criminal.

22^k If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and you hang him on a tree,^*

23his corpse shall not remain on the tree overnight.^l You must bury it the same day; anyone who is hanged is a curse of God.^* You shall not defile the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you as a heritage.

Deuteronomy 22

Concern for the Neighbor.

1^a You shall not see your neighbor’s ox or sheep going astray and ignore it; you must bring it back.

2If this neighbor does not live near you, or you do not know who the owner may be, take it to your own house and keep it with you until your neighbor claims it; then return it.

3You shall do the same with a donkey; you shall do the same with a garment; and you shall do the same with anything else which your neighbor loses and you happen to find. You may not ignore them.

4You shall not see your neighbor’s donkey or ox fallen on the road and ignore it; you must help in lifting it up.

Various Precepts.

5A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for anyone who does such things is an abomination to the LORD, your God.^b

6^c If, while walking along, you come across a bird’s nest with young birds or eggs in it, in any tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting on them, you shall not take away the mother bird along with her brood.

7You must let the mother go, taking only her brood, in order that you shall prosper and have a long life.

8When you build a new house, put a parapet around the roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt upon your house if someone falls off.^d

9^{* e} You shall not sow your vineyard with two different kinds of seed, or else its produce shall become forfeit, both the crop you have sown and the yield of the vineyard.

10You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together.

11You shall not wear cloth made from wool and linen woven together.

12You shall put tassels on the four corners of the cloak that you wrap around yourself.^f

Marriage Legislation.

13If a man, after marrying a woman and having relations with her, comes to dislike her,^g

14and accuses her of misconduct and slanders her by saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her I did not find evidence of her virginity,”

15the father and mother of the young woman shall take the evidence of her virginity^* and bring it to the elders at the city gate.

16There the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man in marriage, but he has come to dislike her,

17and now accuses her of misconduct, saying: ‘I did not find evidence of your daughter’s virginity.’ But here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity!” And they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the city.

18Then these city elders shall take the man and discipline him,^*

19and fine him one hundred silver shekels, which they shall give to the young woman’s father, because the man slandered a virgin in Israel. She shall remain his wife, and he may not divorce her as long as he lives.

20But if this charge is true, and evidence of the young woman’s virginity is not found,

21they shall bring the young woman to the entrance of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death, because she committed a shameful crime in Israel by prostituting herself in her father’s house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.^h

22If a man is discovered lying with a woman who is married to another, they both shall die, the man who was lying with the woman as well as the woman.ⁱ Thus shall you purge the evil from Israel.

23If there is a young woman, a virgin who is betrothed,^* and a man comes upon her in the city and lies with her,

24you shall bring them both out to the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the young woman because she did not cry out though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.

25But if it is in the open fields that a man comes upon the betrothed young woman, seizes her and lies with her, only the man who lay with her shall die.

26You shall do nothing to the young woman, since the young woman is not guilty of a capital offense. As when a man rises up against his neighbor and murders him, so in this case:^{* j}

27it was in the open fields that he came upon her, and though the betrothed young woman may have cried out, there was no one to save her.

28^k If a man comes upon a young woman, a virgin who is not betrothed, seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered,

29the man who lay with her shall give the young woman’s father fifty silver shekels and she will be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her as long as he lives.

Deuteronomy 23

A man shall not marry his father’s wife,^* nor shall he dishonor his father’s bed.^a

Membership in the Assembly.

2^* No one whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may come into the assembly of the LORD.^b

3No one born of an illicit union may come into the assembly of the LORD, nor any descendant of such even to the tenth generation may come into the assembly of the LORD.^c

4^d No Ammonite or Moabite may ever come into the assembly of the LORD, nor may any of their descendants even to the tenth generation come into the assembly of the LORD,

5because they would not come to meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because they hired Balaam, son of Beor, from Pethor in Aram Naharaim, to curse you.

6The LORD, your God, would not listen to Balaam but turned his curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD, your God, loves you.

7Never seek their welfare or prosperity as long as you live.^e

8^f Do not abhor the Edomite: he is your brother. Do not abhor the Egyptian: you were a resident alien in his country.

9Children born to them may come into the assembly of the LORD in the third generation.

Cleanliness in Camp.

10When in camp during an expedition against your enemies, you shall keep yourselves from anything bad.

11^g If one of you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he shall go outside the camp; he shall not come back into the camp.

12Toward evening, he shall bathe in water; then, when the sun has set, he may come back into the camp.

13Outside the camp you shall have a place set aside where you shall go.

14You shall keep a trowel in your equipment and, when you go outside to relieve yourself, you shall dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement.

15Since the LORD, your God, journeys along in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to give your enemies over to you, your camp must be holy, so that he does not see anything indecent in your midst and turn away from you.^h

Various Precepts.

16ⁱ You shall not hand over to their master any slaves who have taken refuge with you from their master.

17Let them live among you in any place they choose, in any one of your communities^* that seems good to them. Do not oppress them.

18There shall be no temple prostitute^* among the Israelite women, nor a temple prostitute among the Israelite men.^j

19You shall not offer a prostitute’s fee or a dog’s pay^* as any kind of votive offering in the house of the LORD, your God; both these things are an abomination to the LORD, your God.^k

20^l You shall not demand interest from your kindred on a loan of money or of food or of anything else which is loaned.

21From a foreigner you may demand interest, but you may not demand interest from your kindred, so that the LORD, your God, may bless you in all your undertakings on the land you are to enter and possess.

22^m When you make a vow to the LORD, your God, you shall not delay in fulfilling it; for the LORD, your God, will surely require it of you and you will be held guilty.

23Should you refrain from making a vow, you will not be held guilty.

24But whatever your tongue utters you must be careful to do, just as you freely vowed to the LORD, your God, with your own mouth.

25When you go through your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you wish, until you are satisfied, but do not put them in your basket.

26When you go through your neighbor’s grainfield, you may pluck some of the ears with your hand, but do not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.

1 Peter 1:1-12

Greeting.^*

1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen sojourners of the dispersion^* in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,^a

2in the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification by the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ: may grace and peace be yours in abundance.^b

II. The Gift and Call of God in Baptism

Blessing.

3^* Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,^c

4to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you^d

5who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.

6^* In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials,^e

7so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.^f

8Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,^g

9as you attain the goal of [your] faith, the salvation of your souls.

10^* Concerning this salvation, prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and investigated it,

11investigating the time and circumstances that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the glories to follow them.^h

12It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you with regard to the things that have now been announced to you by those who preached the good news to you [through] the holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels longed to look.

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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 1 Peter

THE FIRST LETTER OF PETER

This letter begins with an address by Peter to Christian communities located in five provinces of Asia Minor (1 Pt 1:1), including areas evangelized by Paul (Acts 16:6–7; 18:23). Christians there are encouraged to remain faithful to their standards of belief and conduct in spite of threats of persecution. Numerous allusions in the letter suggest that the churches addressed were largely of Gentile composition (1 Pt 1:14, 18; 2:9–10; 4:3–4), though considerable use is made of the Old Testament (1 Pt 1:24; 2:6–7, 9–10, 22; 3:10–12).

The contents following the address both inspire and admonish these “chosen sojourners” (1 Pt 1:1) who, in seeking to live as God’s people, feel an alienation from their previous religious roots and the society around them. Appeal is made to Christ’s resurrection and the future hope it provides (1 Pt 1:3–5) and to the experience of baptism as new birth (1 Pt 1:3, 23–25; 3:21). The suffering and death of Christ serve as both source of salvation and example (1 Pt 1:19; 2:21–25; 3:18). What Christians are in Christ, as a people who have received mercy and are to proclaim and live according to God’s call (1 Pt 2:9–10), is repeatedly spelled out for all sorts of situations in society (1 Pt 2:11–17), work (even as slaves, 1 Pt 2:18–20), the home (1 Pt 3:1–7), and general conduct (1 Pt 3:8–12; 4:1–11). But over all hangs the possibility of suffering as a Christian (1 Pt 3:13–17). In 1 Pt 4:12–19 persecution is described as already occurring, so that some have supposed the letter was addressed both to places where such a “trial by fire” was already present and to places where it might break out.

The letter constantly mingles moral exhortation (paraklēsis) with its catechetical summaries of mercies in Christ. Encouragement to fidelity in spite of suffering is based upon a vision of the meaning of Christian existence. The emphasis on baptism and allusions to various features of the baptismal liturgy suggest that the author has incorporated into his exposition numerous homiletic, credal, hymnic, and sacramental elements of the baptismal rite that had become traditional at an early date.

From Irenaeus in the late second century until modern times, Christian tradition regarded Peter the apostle as author of this document. Since he was martyred at Rome during the persecution of Nero between A.D. 64 and 67, it was supposed that the letter was written from Rome shortly before his death. This is supported by its reference to “Babylon” (1 Pt 5:13), a code name for Rome in the early church.

Some modern scholars, however, on the basis of a number of features that they consider incompatible with Petrine authenticity, regard the letter as the work of a later Christian writer. Such features include the cultivated Greek in which it is written, difficult to attribute to a Galilean fisherman, together with its use of the Greek Septuagint translation when citing the Old Testament; the similarity in both thought and expression to the Pauline literature; and the allusions to widespread persecution of Christians, which did not occur until at least the reign of Domitian (A.D. 81–96). In this view the letter would date from the end of the first century or even the beginning of the second, when there is evidence for persecution of Christians in Asia Minor (the letter of Pliny the Younger to Trajan, A.D. 111–12).

Other scholars believe, however, that these objections can be met by appeal to use of a secretary, Silvanus, mentioned in 1 Pt 5:12. Such secretaries often gave literary expression to the author’s thoughts in their own style and language. The persecutions may refer to local harassment rather than to systematic repression by the state. Hence there is nothing in the document incompatible with Petrine authorship in the 60s.

Still other scholars take a middle position. The many literary contacts with the Pauline literature, James, and 1 John suggest a common fund of traditional formulations rather than direct dependence upon Paul. Such liturgical and catechetical traditions must have been very ancient and in some cases of Palestinian origin.

Yet it is unlikely that Peter addressed a letter to the Gentile churches of Asia Minor while Paul was still alive. This suggests a period after the death of the two apostles, perhaps A.D. 70–90. The author would be a disciple of Peter in Rome, representing a Petrine group that served as a bridge between the Palestinian origins of Christianity and its flowering in the Gentile world. The problem addressed would not be official persecution but the difficulty of living the Christian life in a hostile, secular environment that espoused different values and subjected the Christian minority to ridicule and oppression.

The principal divisions of the First Letter of Peter are the following:

1. Address (1:1–2)
2. The Gift and Call of God in Baptism (1:3–2:10)
3. The Christian in a Hostile World (2:11–4:11)
4. Advice to the Persecuted (4:12–5:11)
5. Conclusion (5:12–14)

I. Address

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)