Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 63:1 (NA 2012)
Article: Early Christian Eschatological Experience In The Warnings And Exhortations Of The Epistle To The Hebrews
Author: Scott D. Mackie

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Early Christian Eschatological Experience In The Warnings And Exhortations Of The Epistle To The Hebrews

Scott D. Mackie

Summary

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.

1. Introduction

Critical appreciation for early Christian eschatological experience has come a long way since Rudolf Bultmann dismissively reduced Hebrews 6:4-5 (which describes the addressed community as ‘those who have been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, shared in the Holy Spirit, and tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come’) to: ‘Does all this solemn description really mean

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anything more than that they have been baptized?’1 Despite the many advances that have been made in recent years, there is still much to be done, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, which was generally neglected for so long, is particularly well suited to repay attention to its eschatological experiential content.

In fact, Hebrews is one of the most eschatologically oriented books in the New Testament. Like most early Christians, the author of Hebrews was convinced the Christ event had inaugurated the eschaton, thus signalling the imminent end of both the earthly realm and the present age, and the present accessibility by faith of the heavenly realm and future age (1:2; 9:26; cf. 1 Pet. 1:19-21; Gal. 4:4-5; 1 Cor. 10:11). The presence of miraculous occurrences and profound spiritual experiences in early Christian communities were also seen as eschatological consequences of the Christ event. The autho...