Appropriating Hebrews's Scriptural Hermeneutic for the Twenty-First Century

Twenty-first-century readers cannot interpret Israel’s Scriptures identically to how the author of Hebrews did. The contours of twenty-first century worldviews are too different. That said, Hebrews invites those who “read after” it (in time) also to “reading after” it (in approach). For those who accept this invitation, this volume’s essays surface four clusters in the overall mosaic of Hebrews’s approach to Israel’s Scriptures. First, Hebrews explicitly, if briefly and partially, states its hermeneutic orientation to Israel’s Scriptures. Second, Hebrews understands history through the proclamation that the author accepts and commends about Jesus. Third, this proclamation creates numerous other implications that Hebrews may or may not explicitly state but that nonetheless shape how the author interprets his Scriptures. And fourth, Hebrews’s exhortation fosters faithfulness in its audience through both encouragements and warnings drawn from Israel’s Scriptures. Attention to Israel’s Scriptures in light of these clusters helps readers to understand these Scriptures not identically to Hebrews’s author but in the same way as that author—namely, in the way marked out by Jesus for those who would “come after” him.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: “The Hermeneutic of Hebrews in the Twenty-First Century”, Dana M. Harris and J. David Stark Chapter One: “‘As It Was in the Beginning’: Deontic Origins and Creational Hermeneutics in Hebrews”, Nick Brennan Chapter Two: “Productive Prejudgments in Hebrews’s Hermeneutic: A Method and Test Case”, J. David Stark Chapter Three: “History, Canon, and Community: Reading Hebrews after Gerhard von Rad and Paul Ricoeur”, Rodrigo de Sousa Chapter Four: “Hebrews and the Spirit of Hermeneutics”, William Olhausen Chapter Five: “The Significance of the OT’s Silence in the Case of Melchizedek’s Ancestry and Progeny in Genesis 14”, Ardel B. Caneday Chapter Six: “Sinai in Hebrews”, Gareth Lee Cockerill Chapter Seven: “Reenacting History: How Hebrews Situates Its Audience within the Story of Israel”, Bryan R. Dyer Chapter Eight: “Hebrews’s Kaleidoscopic Reading of the Old Testament: Reflecting on Jesus in Light of the Absence and Anticipated Return of the High Priest, Moses, and Joshua”, David M. Moffitt Chapter Nine:“The Use of OT Narratives in Fear Appeals in Hebrews: Hermeneutical Assumptions and Implications”, Alexander E. Stewart Chapter Ten: “Hebrews as a Hermeneutical Lens for Israel’s Scripture”, Dana M. Harris About the Contributors

About the Author :
Dana M. Harris is Professor of New Testament and Department Chair at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Bannockburn, Illinois. J. David Stark is Professor of Biblical Studies and the Winnie and Cecil May Jr. Biblical Research Fellow at Faulkner University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge.

Review :
The recent decades of biblical and theological scholarship on the book of Hebrews have unearthed Christological treasures for God’s people that will pay great dividends for decades to come. It is a delight to see several of those great treasure-hunters among the authors of this outstanding volume in addition to new ones! Dana M. Harris and J. David Stark have curated chapters that carefully attend to important biblical, theological, and practical themes further illuminating the richness of the text. I am excited to see this volume in the T&T Clark catalogue and am honored to recommend it to all students of the great sermon of Hebrews. Appropriating Hebrews's Scriptural Hermeneutic offers a variegated probing of how Hebrews, as Scripture, reads Scripture, seeking to ascertain the implications for patterns of interpretation in the twenty-first century church. This group of scholars attacks the topic from such varied vantage points, often offering suggestive conclusions, that the book will prove a valuable resource for both academy and church.