Hebrews’ High Priestly Christology: Models, Method and Aim

This article suggests a systematic analysis of the ways the author of the Letter to the Hebrews links Christ and the sacrificial system, exploring the author’s method of using the sacrificial system in his Christology. It points to the issues in which Hebrews embraces traditional Jewish cultic ideas and—building on these basics—those in which Hebrews greatly diverges and modifies high priestly features. The manner in which the author bases his Christology on the sacrificial cult shows that he acknowledges the efficacy of the high priest and sacrifices for contending with sin. Even when modifying the priestly cult to show that Christ’s atonement is superior to, and takes the place of, the Temple cult, he bases himself on the fundamentals of the high priest entering the Holy of Holies with blood. He uses the sacrificial cult as a model for Christology, like a map for navigating Christ’s doctrine of salvation. It is suggested that Hebrews’ aim is to make sense of Jesus’ death and atonement, perhaps even to shed light on Pauline Christological and cultic metaphors.

Judaism’s Paradigmatic Third-Party Peacemaker

This chapter explores the various legends of Aaron, the High Priest and older brother of Moses in the Bible, as the paradigmatic pursuer of peace in classical rabbinic literature. The chapter traces and defines Aaron’s identity and methods as a third-party peacemaker through exploring the foundational early-rabbinic texts that describe him as such, together with centuries of rabbinic commentaries on them which are often of equal significance in establishing normative precedent for Jews today. The first part of the chapter focuses on Aaron’s identity as the ideal peacemaker in Judaism, and the second part examines legends that tell of his peacemaking methods.

The seventy-two elders of the Letter of Aristeas: An ancient midrash on Numbers 11?

According to the Letter of Aristeas, the ancient treatise on the creation of the Greek translation of the Pentateuch, the high priest Eleazar chose seventy-two elders and dispatched them to Egypt where they translated the Torah into Greek. Scholars discerned the meaning of this number, indicating the affinity to the seventy elders who joined Moses and Aaron in the Sinai covenant (Exod. 24) and the fact that this number represents all the tribes of Israel equally, thus sanctifying the Greek translation in a similar way to the Torah. Particular attention was paid to Epiphanius, the fourth century church father, who explicitly states that the seventy-two elders provide equal representation to all the constituent tribes of Israel. Rabbinic literature, however, has been entirely absent from this discourse. In this article I point to Sifre on Numbers, a second century midrash, that notes that seventy-two elders experienced the Divine revelation (Numbers 11): seventy in the Tabernacle and Eldad and Medad in the camp. I suggest that based on a similar ancient interpretation of Numbers 11, the Letter of Aristeas chose the number seventy-two in order to bestow the aura, authority and sanctity of the seventy-two elders of Number 11 on the Greek translation. This example also highlights Rabbinic literature as an integral element of the cultural context of Jewish-Hellenistic literature.

Surrealism and the Reliefs of the Sasanian High Priest Kartir

Kartir was the most important religious leader in early Iran at the time of the Sasanian empire. The rock reliefs and inscriptions left by him contain some important features that occur for the first time in Iranian art history. Specifically, Kartir’s rock reliefs reveal that someone who was not a king could still be influential enough to commission a monument in which he was the central figure. Kartir’s inscriptions appear next to the reliefs of the previous king, or were even inserted into the same panel. In this way, the traditional construction of these reliefs was altered, as were their respective meanings. Furthermore, Kartir describes an imaginary journey to another world in his inscriptions. The article considers the role of dreams in Kartir's art and what influence this had on this new style of composition, comparing it with what we now call ‘surrealism’.

Holy Garments for Glory and for Beauty (Exod 28:2)

In this chapter, I explore the function of dress in its wider social context, informed by anthropological and sociological approaches to the body. I consider the role of clothing as a disguise in the stories of Pughat, from the Ugaritic epic of Aqhat, and Tamar, from the book of Genesis. These stories reveal the gendered dimensions of clothing. At the same time, as something which can be changed at will, clothing allows these female characters to adopt and discard various personas, and in so doing to affect a change in their social status and positioning. Moving from female bodies to male bodies, I then consider the dress of the High Priest prescribed by the book of Exodus. The elaborate and ornate clothing worn by the High Priest manifests his liturgical power. But beyond this, these garments are what mark individuals as priests, granting them privileged access to the divine. We will see that clothing is central to the construction of identity—and the articulation of power.

Cristo Sumo Sacerdote dos Bem Vindouros: A identidade messiânico-sacerdotal de Jesus

The present work aims to contribute to the reflection on the identity, life and mission of Jesus. This reflection considers the theological concepts of priest and messiah and their development throughout the Old Testament until it ends in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This course will have as its end the analysis of the messianic-priestly identity of Christ in the mentioned New Testament writing. Thus, this research will provide the formulation of the substratum on which the priestly interpretation of the life and work of Jesus developed. To get the final result, the search method used is Critical History. The text is structured in three parts: in the first analysis it is in the religious institution of Israel; in the second the development of messianism in Israel and in the third as the confluence between the concepts of high priest and messiah in the Epistle to the Hebrews.