This treatise was written by an Alexandrian rabbi thoroughly acquainted with Second Temple literature, and perhaps that of the Qumran Community. We are assuming he wrote to Hebrew Christians in Rome who were suffering under persecution and tempted to slip back into Judaism to escape the pressure. Judaism remained legal, but for a time, Christian faith was not. This letter is a definitive statement that the Covenant of Moses died on the Cross, and that going back there is deserting God.
God revealed Himself in highly varied ways and fragments in ancient times, and then more definitively in the prophets and literature of Israel, but the final revelation was Jesus Christ. It was a Hebrew doctrine that referred to God’s will as a Person, and that was Jesus, the agent of Creation. He was as much God as any human can possibly know, and He trumps every other revelation — past, present or future. Now that He has offered the final sacrifice for sins for all time, He sits on the throne as God’s Heir and ruler of all things. He outranks the Divine Council and certainly all the angels.
Quoting liberally from the Old Testament (Septuagint version), the writer refers back to God’s declarations that He adopted both David and Solomon as His sons. He elevated these two men above the rest of humanity. When their descendant and heir comes along as the Messiah, this latter Son of God was far more than just an honored man, for God commanded the angels to worship this One. So, while the angels are very powerful servants of His throne, this Son is the Heir of Heaven.
The author continues quoting various Psalms that identify Jesus the Messiah with descriptions and titles that can only mean this is God, and yet an extension of God. The Hebrew doctrine of Two Powers in Heaven is quite obviously where this points — God and His Word. Thus, this Son was there at Creation and preexists all other beings. These are things God never said of anyone else, much less angels nor even the Divine Council.
Jesus Christ is the long-awaited promise that God would finally send a definitive representation of Himself to His people. He came, He taught, He paid the final price for our redemption. He is the New Covenant in Himself. The Old Covenant is closed; there’s nothing to go back to.
I listen to a certain Messianic Rabbi whose teachings are so profound in many areas, but he seems completely unable to factor the author of Hebrew’s teaching that when there is a change in priesthood, there is a change in the Law, into his perspective and is therefore always trying to pull us back into the Law. Sabbath observance being his pet topic.
I wonder what you think of the Masoretic text, as the Rabbinical tradition clearly altered several Scriptures simply to escape the apologetic arguments of early Christians, along with abandoning the Two Powers in the Heavens theology for the same reason.
I know you are not a fan of the Septuagint, which can really only be an interpretation of the Hebrew into Greek, but the authors of the NT seemingly did not think that enough of a problem not to utilize it. This makes me suspect that the Bible is not as important in letter than we seem to believe today, but that line of thinking could be a slippery slope were it not for my conviction that the Holy Spirit itself is enough and trumps the written word because we really have very little understanding of it in its original context (Pageau’s Language of Creation being just one example).
We only need to know what the Lord intends us to know in the moment, and I do not believe he intended our relationship with him to be mediated by a text we arguably cannot understand anymore. The Bible has become another Law, and Hebrews later chastises its audience as being immature for not being able to discern the typology of Melchizedek. What else is there that we are missing?
Actually, I don’t mind the LXX that much. I keep a copy in the Bible app on my computer (Bibletime). It’s the MT that I’m not so much a fan of, but we take what we can get, same as the writers of the NT.