We did a review of the Pauline epistles, and produced a chart of one-liner summaries.  This chart is in the "One-Liners" category.

We read chapters 9 and 10 of Hebrews, leaving 11-13 to the following week.

The writer continues his dense comparison of the duties of a high priest in the Temple with the role of Jesus as Redeemer.

The writer describes the contents of the Ark of The Covenant in the Holy of Holies; references in the Old Testament differ as to what these contents were, butit is possible that they changed over time.  The Ark is shown being carried away by Roman soldiers on the celebratory Arch of Titus in Rome; it current whereabouts are unknown, though one church in Ethiopia claimsto hold it.  It has been the subject of much revisionist history, from "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" to "Raiders of the Lost Ark".

Statements which are ascribed to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit are quotations from the Septuagint.  This supports that the idea that New Testament writers used a "bookof sayings" that did not always give the provenance of the quotations.

Chapters 5 thru 8 of Hebrews do a complicated piece of bible study based on Exodus 28 and Psalm 50. The writer theorises that Jesus followed the pattern of the mysterious figure Melchizedek. Without beginning or end, Jesus takes the place of the high priest who officiated in the Jerusalem Temple in a new temple in the heavens. The theology is complicated and somewhat non-Pauline. Would Paul have talked of Jesus "learning obedience" or entering the Holy of Holies?

Hebrews 1-4. The "Epistle to the Hebrews" prsents a puzzle, because no early manuscript contains the name of the author, or of the adressee. An early Bishop of Rome, Clement, thought that Paul must have written it in Hebrew, and got Luke to translate it into Greek. Tertullian, writing atthe very beginning of the Third Century, thought that it was written by Barnabas. Martin Luther put forward the idea that it was written by Apollos. The English scholar and archeologist, Dr. Ramsey, prosed that it was written by Philip The German theologian Hernack, made the startling suggestion that it was written by Priscilla, which might make it easier to explain why the author's name was removed from early documents. This argument is developed in the Wikipedia reference. Some have suggested, on the basis of its elegant, well-thought out Greek,, that it is not a letter at all, but a transcript of an early sermon, which would make it the only complete sermon to have survived from the early church. The record of Stephen's partial sermon in Acts is rather similar. When was it written The author spends much time arguing that temple ritual had been superseded. However, the destruction of the temple is not mentioned, suggesting that the letter was written before 70 AD. Clement quotes from it in around 90 AD To whom was it written? The only direct hint is the mention of "those who are from Italy" at the end of the letter, perhaps indicating that the letter was written to Rome. The heavy emphasis on arguments that Jesus outranks all other authorities, inlcuding angels, reminds many of the arguments against Gnostics (or proto-Gnostics) in Colossians, suggesting that it was written for a similar purpose. its focus on Jews suggests that it was written to a Jewish community. One suggestion has been that it is addressed to a community of Jewish ex-priests, (mentioned in Acts 6) under pressure to return to the temple. Other suggestions have been Jewish Christians, disappointed by the non-arrival of the Second Coming, tempted to return to orthodox Judaism. Other Jewish Christians may need instruction on the universalist aspect of Christianity, as against the nationalistic Judaism of c. 60 AD.   more »

The Epistle to Titus is a short letter, and reads to at least one commentator to describe it as "a Reader's Digest version of I Timothy", to which it is indeed very similar in content. The epistle describes the qualifications for bishop, deacon, and elder, though one wonders whether some of the qualifications do not apply to the laity as well ("The bishop should not be a drunkard"). The emphasis on church discipline reflects the transition to an institutional church, such as we find in the Second Century. The stress on the subordinate role of women comes strangely to current ears, and seems to conflict with Paul's reliance on such women as Priscilla and Phoebe.

It is difficult to place the letter in the context of Acts -- Paul is at liberty and planning to winter in Nicopolis, on the Western coast of Greece, very close to the battle site of Actium. This cannot be fitted into the Acts chronology, and some have suggested that the letter belongs to a missionary period after Paul was (presumably) released after his first trial in Rome. However, Eusebius suggests that Paul went West -- "to the Pillars of Hercules" (Gibraltar).