The anchor of the soul that enters within the veil

567 Pages·2016·1.58 MB·English

by  Felix H. Cortez

Andrews University
Digital Commons @ Andrews University
Faculty Publications New Testament
January 2008
"The anchor of the soul that enters within the veil":
the ascension of the "son" in the letter to the
Hebrews
Felix H. Cortez
Andrews University, [email protected]
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Recommended Citation
Cortez, Felix H., ""The anchor of the soul that enters within the veil": the ascension of the "son" in the letter to the Hebrews" (2008).
Faculty Publications.Paper 15.
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Andrews University
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
“THE ANCHOR OF THE SOUL THAT ENTERS WITHIN THE VEIL”:
THE ASCENSION OF THE “SON” IN THE
LETTER TO THE HEBREWS
A Dissertation
Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
by
Felix H. Cortez
July 2008
© Copyright by Felix H. Cortez 2008
All Rights Reserved
“THE ANCHOR OF THE SOUL THAT ENTERS WITHIN THE VEIL”:
THE ASCENSION OF THE “SON” IN THE
LETTER TO THE HEBREWS
A dissertation
presented in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy
by
Felix H. Cortez
APPROVAL BY THE COMMITTEE
________________________________ _____________________________
Faculty Adviser, Director of the Ph.D./Th.D. Program
Jon Paulien Roy E. Gane
Dean, School of Religion
Loma Linda University
________________________________ _____________________________
Roy E. Gane Dean, SDA Theological Seminary
Professor of Hebrew Bible and Denis Fortin
Ancient Near Eastern Languages
________________________________
Richard M. Davidson
J. N. Andrews Professor of
Old Testament Interpretation
________________________________
John K. McVay
Professor of New Testament
President Walla Walla College
________________________________ _____________________________
Harold W. Attridge Date approved
Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament
Dean, Yale Divinity School
To Alma
In the hope that
I mightnot forget
How much I owe her
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Statement of the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
State of Affairs: The Day of Atonement Ritual Provides the
Analogy to Jesus’ Ascension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Critique of the State of Affairs: A More Limited Role
for the Day of Atonement Imagery? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
There Is Absence of “Affliction of the Soul” in
Relation to Jesus’ Entrance into the
Heavenly Sanctuary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The Azazel Ritual Is Omitted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
The Sprinkling of Jesus’ Blood in Heaven Does Not
Refer to the Day of Atonement Ritual . . . . . . . . . . 25
The Day of Atonement Provides Only a Secondary
Imagery to Jesus’ Sacrifice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Alternative Suggestion: Moses’ Inauguration of the Sanctuary
Provides the Analogy to Jesus’ Ascension . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Critique of the Analogy to Moses’ Inauguration
of the Sanctuary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
A Third Way: The Enthronement of the Ideal Davidic King
Provides the Analogy to Jesus’ Ascension . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Delimitations and Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
II. THE DAVIDIC COVENANT AND THE EXPECTATION OF
AN IDEAL KING IN THE HEBREW BIBLE AND
EARLY JUDAISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
The Institution of the Davidic Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Is the Davidic Covenant Unconditional? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
What Is the Relationship between the Davidic and the
Mosaic Covenants? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
The Davidic King as Covenant Mediator: He Renews
the Mosaic Covenant under “Better Promises” . . . . . 63
iv
The Davidic King as Reformer of the Cult: He Reorganizes
the Priesthood and the Service of the Temple . . . . . . 68
The Davidic King Is Confirmed in God’s House and
Kingdom: The Davidic Covenant in 1 Chronicles 17. . 72
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Righteous Kings and the Davidic Covenant in Monarchic
Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Solomon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Asa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Joash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Hezekiah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Covenant Renewal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Re-Consecration of the Priests and Temple . . . . . . . . 92
Re-Inauguration of the Service of the Temple . . . . . . . 95
Re-Consecration of the Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Celebration of Passover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Rest from Their Enemies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Josiah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Cleansing of the Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Repair of the Temple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
The Book of the Law Is Found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Renewal of the Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Reorganization of the Cult . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
The Davidic Covenant in the Rest of the Hebrew Bible . . . . . . 109
The Psalms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Psalm 89 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Psalm 132 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Other Psalms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
The Pre-exilic Prophets and the Davidic Covenant . . . . . . . 113
Amos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Hosea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Micah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Isaiah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Exilic Interpretation of the Davidic Covenant . . . . . . . . . . 131
Jeremiah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Ezekiel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
The Post-Exilic Prophets and the Davidic Covenant . . . . . . 149
Haggai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Zechariah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
The Davidic Covenant in Early Judaism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Wisdom of Ben Sira . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
First Maccabees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Psalms of Solomon 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Dead Sea Scrolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
v
Words of the Luminaries (4Q504) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Commentary on Genesis A (4Q252) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Florilegium (4Q174) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Commentary on Isaiah (4Q161) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Sefer Hamilh(cid:769)(cid:68)(cid:80)(cid:68) (4Q285) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Apocryphon of Daniel or “Son of God”
Document (4Q246) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
4 Ezra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Josephus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
III. ASCENSION AND INAUGURATION OF THE RULE OF
THE “SON” IN THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS . . . . . . . . . 212
“When He Brings the Firstborn into the World” (Hebrews 1:6):
Ascension and the Enthronement of the Son . . . . . . . . . . 213
Does This Passage Refer to the Ascension of Jesus? . . . . . . 214
The Case for the Incarnation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
The Case for the Parousia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
The Case for the Exaltation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
The Enthronement of the Firstborn over the World to Come . . 224
The Catena Describes the Enthronement
Ceremony of the Son . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
The Enthronement of the Son Culminates His
Victory over Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Enthronement as the Basis for Exhortation: The Son’s
Exaltation Prefigures and Makes Possible the Glorification
of the Sons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Jesus as “Son” in Hebrews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
“Son” as a royal title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
“Son” as a filial title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
The Son and the Sons in the Argument of Hebrews . . . . 267
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
“A Great High Priest Who Has Passed through the Heavens”
(Hebrews 4:14-16): Ascension and Entrance into God’s Rest . 274
High Priesthood and Ascension “through the Heavens”. . . . . 275
Jesus Leads Believers into the Rest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Hebrews 4:14-16 in the Argument of the Letter . . . . . . . 284
Hebrews 4:14-16 introduces the exposition
of Hebrews 5-10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Hebrews 4:14-16 concludes the exhortation
of Hebrews 3-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
The Exalted High Priest Helps the People
to Enter into the Rest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
vi
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
“AHope That Enters the Inner Shrine behind the Curtain”
(Hebrews 6:19-20): Ascension and the Appointment of a
Faithful Priest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Ascension as Entering behind the Curtain . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
The Ascension Shows the Unchangeable Character of
God’s Promises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
The Role of the Ascension in Hebrews 6:19-20 . . . . . . . 306
Jesus Is the Hope Who Enters “within the Veil”. . . . . . . 311
Jesus Embodies God’s Oath Which Confirms His
Promises to the Believers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
When Did Jesus Become a High Priest? . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
“When Christ Came as a High Priest of the Things That Have
Come” (Hebrews 9:11-14, 24; 10:19-25): Ascension and the
Inauguration of the New Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
The Ascension Inaugurates the New Covenant (Hebrews
9:11-14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Hebrews 9:11-14 Describes Jesus’ Entrance into the
(Heavenly) Sanctuary of the New Covenant . . . . . . . 326
The Day of Atonement in Hebrews9:1-10 illustrates
the transition between covenants . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Ta. a[gia denotes the Sanctuary of the new covenant . 341
“The greater and perfect tent” denotes the sanctuary
of the new covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
The sacrifice of “goats and calves” does not refer
particularly to the sacrifices of the Day of
Atonement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Hebrews 9:11-14 Understands the Ascension as the
Inauguration of the Ministry of the New Covenant . . . 359
Hebrews 9:15-23 describes Jesus’ sacrifice and
ascension as the inauguration of a
new covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
The inauguration of the new covenant includes the
consecration of the heavenly sanctuary . . . . . . . 373
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
The Ascension Inaugurates the Fulfillment of the
New Covenant Promises (Hebrews 9:24-28) . . . . . . . . 386
The Ascension as an Act of Appearance before God
on Our Behalf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
The Ascension Has the Purpose of Removing Sin
and Executing Judgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Jesus’ ascension and the Day of Atonement . . . . . . 398
The Day of Atonement and the inauguration of the
first covenant in the argument of Hebrews . . . . . 406
vii
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Ascension as the Basis for Exhortation (Hebrews 10:19-25) . . 413
The Ascension Is Described as Providing Full Access
to the Presence of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
The Ascension Is the Basis for the Exhortation
to Approach God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
“You Have Come to Mount Zion” (Hebrews 12:18-25): The
Ascension of the Believers to the Heavenly Jerusalem . . . . . 426
The Believers Have Ascended to the Heavenly Jerusalem
in the World of the Scriptures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Hebrews’ Use of the Old Testament Creates a World in
Which the Readers Stand in the Presence of God . . . . 435
God Performs the Events at Mount Zion through
His Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
The Audience’s Participation at Mount Zion Is What
Provides Compelling Force to the Exhortation
of Hebrews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
IV. CONCLUSION: JESUS’ ASCENSION INAUGURATES HIS RULE
AS THE ESCHATOLOGICAL “SON” OF GOD FULFILLING THE
EXPECTATIONS OF A DAVIDIC RIGHTEOUS RULER
IN THE OT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
viii