CURRENT EVENT – MAY 26, 2013

Last month, a Kansas City middle-school principal donated a kidney to give her father a few more years of life.

A WORD FROM THE EDITOR – MAY 26, 2013

Hebrews 8:1 identifies Jesus as the exalted high priest who fulfills in the heavenly realm what the Old Testament sacrifices could only symbolize.

REFERENCE SHELF – MAY 26, 2013

Christ is described as “high priest of the good things that have come.” This description ties the section to the earlier contrast between the “present time” (v. 9) and the “time…to set things right” (v. 10).

RESOURCES – MAY 26, 2013

The institution of sacrifice played a central role in Israelite worship, though the historical traditions reflect a variety of motives and practices, as well as some overlapping vocabulary and regulations, even in the codification of Lev 1–7.

CURRENT EVENT – MAY 19, 2013

For many years, Japanese professional baseball has allowed interpreters for their non-Japanese-speaking pitchers. Recently, a rules-change has made the same option available in Major League Baseball in the United States.

A WORD FROM THE EDITOR – MAY 19, 2013

In my faith tradition, we rarely talk about priests unless it’s in the context of the doctrine of the priesthood of believers. It may be hard for Christians like me to understand the role of a single, visible priestly figure in helping the faithful make their approach to God. Yet that is precisely what the ancient Hebrews had in their Levitical priests.

REFERENCE SHELF – MAY 19, 2013

Three basic statements are made about the high priest. These attributes are made with the agenda of describing Christ from a high-priestly perspective.

RESOURCES – MAY 19, 2013

Hebrews is a sermon, but it is a particular type of sermon, one which is based on OT Scripture interpreted in a fashion reminiscent of the Alexandrian Judaism represented by Philo.