The Bible In A Year 
Matthew/Hebrews – Week 2 of 2
January 14-19. 2019
Readings for the Week
Theme of the week: This week we finish the book of Matthew and examine the letter to the Hebrews
- Monday -Leviticus chapter 19, Matthew chapters 21, 22 & 23, Deuteronomy chapter 26
- Tuesday-Matthew chapters 24, 25 & 26
- Wednesday-Matthew chapters 27 & 28,Psalm 138
- Thursday -Hebrews chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5,Leviticus chapter 16
- Friday-Hebrews chapters 6, 7, 8 & 9,Leviticus chapters 4 & 5
- Saturday -Leviticus chapters 6 & 7, Hebrews chapters 10, 11, 12 & 13
The Bible In A Year
Matthew/Hebrews – Week 2 of 2
A Framework for Understanding
Hebrews
The author of Hebrews is not known, though ancient title headings attribute it to the Apostle Paul. Even in antiquity doubts were raised about Paul’s alleged authorship. Nevertheless, in the fourth century, the church largely agreed to include Hebrews as the fourteenth letter of Paul and did so until the Reformation. In general, the evidence against Pauline authorship is considered too solid for scholarly dispute with most modern writers finding it more difficult in imagining how this Epistle was ever attributed to Paul in the first place.
Hebrews was written to a specific audience facing very specific circumstances. We can discern various facts about the recipients of Hebrews through a careful mirror reading of the letter:
• The original readers of the letter were conversant in the Septuagint (Greek) translation of the Old Testament, as the author’s usage shows.
• The contrast in 13:14 and the types of sins listed in Chapter 13 suggest they lived in a city.
• They had once faced persecution (10:32–34), but not to the point of shedding blood (12:4). It is possible that they were soon to face renewed opposition (12:1-3 and 13:12-13), though it is not clear whether from the Roman authorities or Jewish authorities..
• Some had stopped assembling together, and this was possibly due to persecution (10:25).
• There were both Jews and Gentiles in the community receiving the letter, as the discussion in Chapter 10 explores the theological understanding of “good works” for both groups “wavering”(10:23), and thus do not need to convert to Judaism.
Hebrews’ central theme is faith, affirming it as the bedrock of all human existence and the basis of all theological and moral thought.