Exercitation 3

The Time of the Writing of this Epistle to the Hebrews. The use of the right stating thereof. After his release out of Prison. Before the Death of James. Before the Second of Peter. The Time of Paul's coming to Rome. The Condition of the affairs of the Jews at that time. The Martyrdom of James. State of the Churches of the Hebrews. Constant in the Observation of Mosaical Institutions. Warned to leave Jerusalem. That Warning what, and how given. Causes of their unwillingness so to do. The Occasion and Success of this Epistle.

§ 1 That was not amiss observed of old by Chrysostome (Praesat. in Com. ad Epist. ad Rom.) that a due observation of the time and season wherein the Epistles of Paul were written, does give great light to the understanding of many passages in them. This Baronius (ad A.C. 55. N. 42.) well confirms by an instance of their mistake, who suppose the shipwreck of Paul at Mileta (Acts 27) to have been that mentioned by him (2 Corinthians 11) when he was a night and a day in the deep; that Epistle being written some years before his sailing towards Rome. And we may well apply this observation to this Epistle to the Hebrews. A discovery of the time and season wherein it was written, will both free us from sundry mistakes, and also give us some light into the occasion and design of it. This therefore we shall now inquire into.

§ 2 Some general intimations we have in the Epistle itself leading us towards this discovery, and somewhat may be gathered from some other places of Scripture: for Antiquity will afford us little or no help herein. After Paul's being brought a prisoner to Rome (Acts 28), two full years he continued in that condition (v. 30); at least so long he continued under restraint, though in his own hired house. This time was expired before the writing of this Epistle. For he was not only absent from Rome in some other part of Italy when he wrote it (Chap. 13:24), but also so far at liberty and sui juris, as that he had entertained a resolution of going into the East so soon as Timothy should come to him (Chap. 13:23). And it seems likewise to be written before the Martyrdom of James at Jerusalem, in that he affirms that the Church of the Hebrews had not yet resisted to blood (Chap. 12:4), it being very probable, that together with him many others were slain. Many great difficulties they had been exercised withal, but as yet the matter was not come to blood, which shortly after it arrived to. That is certain also, that it was not only written, but communicated to, and well known by all the believing Jews, before the writing of the Second Epistle of Peter, who therein makes mention of it, as we have declared. Much light I confess to the precise time of its writing, is not hence to be obtained, because of the uncertainty of the time wherein Peter wrote that Epistle. Only it appears from what he affirms concerning the approaching of the time of his suffering (Chap. 1:13), that it was not long before his death. This as is generally agreed, happened in the thirteenth year of Nero, when a great progress was made in that war, which ended in the fatal and final destruction of the City and Temple.

§ 3 From these observations it appears, that the best guide we have to find out the certain time of the writing of this Epistle, is Paul's being sent prisoner to Rome. Now this was in the first year of the government of Festus, after he had been two years detained in prison at Caesarea by Felix (Acts 24:27; Chap. 25. v. 26, 27). This Felix was the brother of Pallas who ruled all things under Claudius, and fell into some disgrace in the very first year of Nero, as Tacitus informs us. But yet by the countenance of Agrippina the mother of Nero, he continued in some regard, until the fifth or sixth year of his reign, when together with his mother he destroyed many of her friends and favorites. During this time of Pallas his declension in power, it is most probable that his brother Felix was displaced from the rule of his province, and Festus sent in his room. That it was before his utter ruin in the sixth year of Nero is evident from hence, because he made means to keep his brother from punishment, when he was accused for extortion and oppression by the Jews. Most probably then Paul was sent to Rome, about the fourth or fifth year of Nero, which was the fifty-ninth year from the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ. There he abode as we showed at the least two years in custody, where the story of the Acts of the Apostles ends, in the seventh year of Nero, and sixty-first of our Lord, or the beginning of the year following. That year it is presumed, he obtained his liberty. And this was about thirteen years after the determination of the controversy about Mosaical Institutions, as to their obligation on the Gentiles, made by the Synod at Jerusalem (Acts 13). Presently upon his liberty, while he abode in some part of Italy, expecting the coming of Timothy, before he entered upon the journey he had promised to the Philippians (Chap. 2. v. 24), he wrote this Epistle. Here then we must stay a little, to consider what was the general state and condition of the Hebrews in those days, which might give occasion to the writing thereof.

The time fixed on, was about the death of Festus, who dyed in the Province, and the beginning of the Government of Albinus who was sent to succeed him. What was the state of the people at that time, Josephus declares at large in his Second Book of their Wars. In brief, the Governours themselves being great Oppressors, and rather mighty Robbers among them, than Rulers, the whole Nation was filled with Spoil and Violence. What through the fury and outrage of the Souldiers in the pursuit of their insatiable Avarice; what through the Incursions of Thieves and Robbers in Troops and Companies, wherewith the whole Land abounded, and what through the tumults of Seditious persons daily incited and provoked by the cruelty of the Romans, there was no peace or safety for any sober honest men, either in the City of Jerusalem, or any where else throughout the whole Province. That the Church had a great share of suffering, in the outrage and misery of those dayes, (as in such dissolutions of Government, and Licence for all wickedness, it commonly falls out) no man can question. And this is that which the Apostle mentions (Hebrews 10:31–34): You endured a great sight of afflictions, partly while you were made a gazing-stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while you became companions of them that were so used, and took joyfully the spoyling of your goods. This was the lot and portion of all honest and sober minded men in those dayes, as their Historian at large declares. For as no doubt the Christians had a principal share in all those sufferings, so some others of the Jews also, were their Companions in them; it being not a special persecution, but a general calamity that the Apostle speaks of.

One Joseph the Son of Caehias was in the beginning of those dayes High-Priest, put into that Office by Agrippa, who not long before had put him out. On the death of Festus he thrust him out again, and placed Ananus his Son in his stead. This man, a young rash Fellow, by Sect and Opinion a Sadduce, (who of all others were the most violent in their hatred of the Christians, being especially ingaged therein by the peculiar Opinion of their Sect and Party, which was the denyal of the Resurrection) first began a direct Persecution of the Church. Before his advancement to the Priesthood, their Afflictions and Calamities were for the most part common to them, with other peaceable men. Only the rude and impious multitude, with other seditious persons, seem to have offered especial violences to their Assemblies and Meetings, which some of the more unsteadfast and weak, began to omit on that account (Hebrews 10:25). Judicial proceeding against them as to their lives, when this Epistle was written, there does not appear to have been any; for the Apostle tells them, as we before observed, that as yet they had not resisted to blood (Hebrews 12:4). But this Ananus the Sadduce presently after being placed in power by Agrippa, taking advantage at the death of Festus, and the time that passed before Albinus his Successor was setled in the Province, convents James before himself and his Associates. There to make short work he is condemned, and immediately stoned. And it is not unlikely but that other private Persons suffered together with him.

The Story (by the way) of the Martyrdome of this James is at large reported by Eusebius out of Hegesippus, Histor. Eccles. l. 2. cap. 23. in the Relation whereof he is followed by Hierom, and sundry others. I shall say no more of the whole Story, but that the Consideration of it, is very sufficient to perswade any man to use the liberty of his own Reason and Judgement in the perusal of the Writings of the Antients. For of the Circumstances therein reported, about this James and his death, many of them (as his being of the Line of the Priests, his entring at his pleasure into the Sanctum Sanctorum, his being carried up and set by a great multitude of people on a pinacle of the Temple) are so palpably false, that no color of probability can be given to them, and most of the rest seem altogether incredible. That in general this Holy Apostle of Jesus Christ, his kinsman according to the flesh, was stoned by Ananus, during the Anarchie between the Governments of Festus and Albinus, Josephus who then lived testifies, and all Ecclesiastical Historians agree.

The Churches at this time in Jerusalem and Judaea were very numerous. The Oppressors, Robbers, and Seditious of all sorts, being wholly intent upon the pursuit of their own ends, filling the Government of the Nation with tumults and disorders, the Disciples of Christ, who knew that the time of their preaching the Gospel to their Countreymen was but short, and even now expiring, followed their work with diligence and success, being not greatly regarded in the dust of that confusion which was raised by the Nation's rushing in to its fatal ruine.

All these Churches, and the multitudes that belonged to them, were altogether with the Profession of the Gospel, addicted zealously to the Observation of the Law of Moses. The Synod indeed at Jerusalem had determined that the yoke of the Law, should not be put upon the necks of the Gentile Converts (Acts 15). But eight or nine years after that, when Paul came up to Jerusalem again (Acts 21:20–22), James informs him, that the many thousands of the Jews who believed, did all zealously observe the Law of Moses; and moreover judged that all those who were Jews by birth, ought to do so also, and on that account were like enough to assemble in a disorderly multitude, to enquire into the practice of Paul himself, who had been ill reported of among them. On this account they kept their Assemblies distinct from those of the Gentiles all the world over; as among others Hierom informs us in his Notes on the first Chapter of the Galatians. All those Hebrews then to whom Paul wrote this Epistle, continued in the use and practice of Mosaical Worship, as celebrated in the Temple, and their Synagogues, with all other Legal Institutions whatever. Whether they did this out of an unacquaintedness with their liberty in Christ, or out of a pertinacious adherence to their own prejudicate Opinions, I shall not determine.

§ 9 From this time forward the body of the people of the Jews saw not a day of peace or quietness: tumults, seditions, outrages, robberies, murders, increased all the nation over. And these things by various degrees made way for that fatal war, which beginning about six or seven years after the death of James, ended in the utter desolation of the people, city, temple, and worship, foretold so long before by Daniel the Prophet, and intimated by our Savior to lye at the door. This was that day of the Lord, whose sudden approach the Apostle declares to them, Chap. 10:36, 37. For you have need of patience that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise; for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. [illegible] A very little while, less than you think of, or imagine; the manner whereof he declares Chap. 12:26, 27, 28. And by this means he effectually diverted them from a pertinacious adherence to those things whose dissolution from God himself, was so nigh at hand; which argument was also afterwards pressed by Peter (2 Peter, Chap. 3).

§ 10 Our blessed Savior had long before warned his disciples of all these things; particularly of the desolation that was to come upon the whole people of the Jews, with the tumults, distresses, persecutions and wars which should precede it, directing them to the exercise of patience in the discharge of their duty, until the approach of the final calamity, out of which he advised them to free themselves by flight, or a timely departure out of Jerusalem and all Judaea (Matthew, Chap. 24, v. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21). This, and no other was the oracle mentioned by Eusebius, whereby the Christians were warned to depart out of Jerusalem. It was given as he says, [illegible], to approved men among them. For although the prophecy itself was written by the Evangelists, yet the especial meaning of it, was not known and divulged among all. The leaders of them kept this secret for a season, lest an exasperation of the people being occasioned thereby, they should have been obstructed in the work which they had to do before its accomplishment. And this was the way of the Apostles also as to other future events, which being foretold by them, might provoke either Jews or Gentiles, if publicly divulged (2 Thessalonians 2:5, 6). But now when the work of the Church among the Jews for that season was come to its close, the elect being gathered out of them, and the final desolation of the city and people appearing to be at hand, by a concurrence of all the signs foretold by our Savior, those entrusted with the sense of that oracle warned their brethren to provide for that flight whereunto they were directed. That this flight and departure, probably with the loss of all their possessions was grievous to them may easily be conceived.

But that which seems most especially to have perplexed them, was their relinquishment of that worship of God whereunto they had been so zealously addicted. That this would prove grievous to them our Savior had before intimated (Matthew 24, v. 20). Hence were they so slow in their obedience to that heavenly oracle, although excited with the remembrance of what befell Lot's wife in the like tergiversation. No, as it is likely from this Epistle, many of them who had made profession of the Gospel, rather than they would now utterly forego their old way of worship, deserted the faith, and cleaving to their unbelieving countrymen, perished in their apostasy, whom our Apostle in an especial manner, forewarns of their inevitable and sore destruction, by that fire of God's indignation, which was shortly to devour the adversaries, to whom they associated themselves (Chap. 10, v. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31).

This was the time wherein this Epistle was written; this the condition of the Hebrews § 11 to whom it was wrote, both in respect of their political, and ecclesiastical estate. Paul, who had an inexpressible zeal, and overflowing affection for his countrymen, being now in Italy, considering the present condition of their affairs, how pertinaciously they adhered to Mosaical institutions, how near the approach of their utter abolition was, how backward during that frame of spirit they would be to save themselves by flying from the midst of that perishing generation, what danger they were in to forego the profession of the Gospel, when it could not be retained without a relinquishment of their former divine service and ceremonies, writes this Epistle to them, wherein he strikes at the very root of all their dangers and distresses. For whereas all the danger of their abode in Jerusalem and Judaea, and so of falling in the destruction of the city and people, all the fears the Apostle had of their apostasy into Judaism; all their own disconsolations in reference to their flight and departure, arose from their adherence to, and zeal for the Law of Moses, by declaring to them the nature, use, end and expiration of his ordinances and institutions, he utterly removes and takes away the ground and occasion of all the evils mentioned. This was the season wherein this Epistle was written; and these some of the principal occasions (though it had other reasons also, as we shall see afterwards) of its writing. And I no way doubt, (though particular events of those days are buried in oblivion) but that through his grace who moved and directed the Apostle to, and in the writing of it, it was made signally effectual towards the professing Hebrews, both to free them from that yoke of bondage wherein they had been detained, and to prepare them with cheerfulness to the observation of evangelical worship, leaving their countrymen to perish in their sin and unbelief.