548 Read the Bible for Yourself 15: How to Read the General Epistles

This is part 15 of the Read the Bible For Yourself.

In previous episodes, we've looked at Paul's church epistles and pastoral epistles. Today we move into the third section of epistles in the New Testament--the general epistles. Instead of surveying each of the eight general epistles, we'll just focus on two: Hebrews and 1 John. We'll ask about author, audience, occasion, purpose, and mode for each. Going through these two will hopefully provide you with helpful examples to enable you to read these epistles more fruitfully on your own.

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—— Notes ——

The General Epistles

• Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude
• Some consider Hebrews to be Pauline, but even if Paul wrote it, it’s not to a church or a pastor, so it still fits as a general epistle
• 2 John and 3 John are technical to specific individuals and thus not general epistles

Hebrews

• Authorship
  • Evidence for Paul
    • Associated with Timothy and Rome (Heb 13:23-24)
    • Pauline themes
  • Evidence against Paul
    • Non-Pauline themes
    • Ancient uncertainty (Origen, Eusebius, etc.)
    • Non-standard opening
    • Not an eyewitness (Heb 2:3)
  • Daniel Wallace suggested Barnabas with help from Apollos.
• Audience
  • As title indicates, the audience was Jewish.
  • Persecuted (Heb 10:32-36)
• Occasion
  • Became aware of some falling away from faith (Heb 3:6; 4:14; 6:4-6; 10:23, 26-27)
  • Concern that they will return to Judaism
• Purpose
  • Convince Jewish Christians to endure in the faith instead of falling away (presumably back into Judaism)
• Mode
  • Show that Jesus is better
  • Ch 1: Jesus as God’s promised Messiah is better than the angels who gave the Law.
  • Ch 2:  Jesus’ salvation is better b/c he is human.
  • Ch 3:  Jesus is better than Moses.
  • Ch 7: Jesus’ priesthood is better than Aaron’s.
  • Ch 8:  Jesus’ covenant is better than the old covenant b/c it has bett