“Confession of the Son of God in Hebrews,” New Testament Studies 53.1 (2007): 114–129

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Abstract
Hebrews is addressed to a community whose waning commitment may lead to a complete abandonment of their Christian identity. In response, the author crafts an imaginative and powerful exhortation that centers on Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. The author first dramatizes the Son’s exaltation, emphasizing the Father’s declaration of Jesus’ sonship, the Son’s reciprocal confession of the Fatherhood of God, and the Son’s conferral of family membership upon the recipients. The recipients are then called upon to participate in this pattern of mutual familial confession in two strategic hortatory passages: 4.14-16 and 10.19-25. These two exhortations to confess Jesus as the Son of God are intended to bring a halt to their wavering commitment and solidify their identity as siblings of the Son.

“Confession of the Son of God in the Exordium of Hebrews,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 30.4 (2008): 437–453

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Abstract

At the heart of Hebrews’ exordium (1.3ab), Jesus is said to be ‘the radiance of God’s glory, the express image of his being, and upholding all things by his powerful word’. These three predications have not as yet been meaningfully connected to the rest of the epistle. This article emphasizes the nuanced shifts from passive to active imagery in 1.3ab and argues that they forecast the reciprocal pronouncements of family relatedness that the Father and the Son exchange in the author’s dramatization of Jesus’ exaltation (1.5; 2.12-13). Furthermore, they locate within the very being of the Son an orientation towards family identification that will be paradigmatic for the author’s hortatory agenda, as the recipients are called to respond to the Son’s conferral of family membership (2.12-13) with reciprocative confessions of Jesus’ sonship (4.14-16; 10.19-23). 

“Early Christian Eschatological Experience in the Warnings and Exhortations of the Epistle to the Hebrews,” Tyndale Bulletin 63.1 (2012): 93–114

This article argues that mystical experiences are integral to the early Church’s existence

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Abstract

This essay examines the characteristics and rhetorical function of the many eschatological experiences found in Hebrews’ warnings against apostasy and exhortations to persevere. In these two contexts we see the vital connection of the author’s hortatory effort to the community’s eschatological experiences. Warnings of the dire consequences of forsaking the community are often substantiated by appeals to the community’s eschatological experiences, both past and present. Similarly, exhortations to persevere are frequently supported by reminders of past and present supernatural experiences. The primary experiential motif found in these exhortations pertains to the community’s identity as the family of God. This essay concludes with the novel claim that the author’s Christological doctrine, hortatory effort, and the community’s eschatological experiences are mutually interdependent.

Tyndale House, Cambridge University