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Letter To The Hebrews In Social Perspective

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The passage Hebrews 10:32-34 exemplifies the troubling reality of the Christian audience of Hebrews who live in a world that does not “. . . yet see everything in subjection to Christ” (Hebrews 2:8b), or find Christ in control of everything as they believed (Hebrews 2:8). Instead, they live in a world that rejects them, mistreats them, and ridicules them. They are “people of faith who were not vindicated in this life and for whom faith did not mean they escaped suffering and death” (Longman and Garland 51). Does this mean that faith in Christ sometimes fails those in the midst of suffering? Or did Christ fail the audience of Hebrews because they did not see a reality of him completely in control as the author of Hebrews claimed in Hebrews 1? By no means! Faith, as shown in The Letter to the Hebrews, provides those suffering, the endurance to continue “. . . looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. . . “(Hebrews 12:2a), that they may reach the perfection that Jesus …show more content…

deSilva, in his book, The Letter to the Hebrews in Social-Scientific Perspective, offers detailed insight into the social pressures surrounding the audience of Hebrews upon their conversion. deSilva claims the audience lived in a society driven by honor and shame where ones value derived from their acceptance and place in the society; furthermore, “these believers became the target of society’s deviancy-control techniques, most notably shaming, which aimed at coercing the believers to return to a lifestyle that demonstrated their allegiance to the society’s values and commitments” (p.46). An example is noted in Hebrews 10:33-34 when the author asks the audience to recall when they experienced “. . . being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction . . . joyfully accepting the plundering of [their] property.” Therefore, the Christian community the author addresses consists of a community that has been pushed into the margins of society, disgraced, and stripped of their

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