Hebrews
About the letter to the Hebrews
The Book of Hebrews is a letter to a group of Christians. ‘Hebrews’ is another name for Jewish people. So probably the letter was written to Jewish believers.
We do not know who wrote the Book of Hebrews. Some people think that Paul wrote it. He wrote many of the other letters in the New Testament. Some people think that Luke wrote it. He wrote the books called Luke and Acts. Most people agree that the writer wrote this letter about AD 60-70. That was about 30-40 years after Jesus died.
The letter says a lot about God's promises to the Jewish people. It talks about the tabernacle and how the Jews worshipped God there. They killed animals so that God would forgive them for the wrong things that they had done. God's old agreement with his people showed them how they should live. God's Law had many rules for them to obey.
The writer of this letter shows that Jesus has given us a new way to come to God. He wants to help the Jewish believers to trust Jesus and his death on the cross.
We know that other people were causing a lot of trouble for these Christians. So the writer is trying to help them to live well as Christians. He says to them: Do not stop trusting Christ.
He explains clearly that Jesus is God's great and powerful Son. He is much greater than the angels. He is much greater than Moses and Joshua, who were great leaders of Israel's people many years ago. He is a much greater priest than Israel's priests. Those priests often did wrong things, but Jesus never did anything wrong.
Jesus became a man, just like we are. Because of that, he understands us completely. When he died on the cross, he offered himself to God as a sacrifice on our behalf. He is the only sacrifice that can make us good and clean. He has opened the way for us to come to God. We can know God because of Jesus.
Jesus has gone in front of us, as our leader, and we must follow him. Jesus had great trouble on our behalf. He helps us when we have trouble. His Spirit will help us to please God as we live here on the earth. After that, we will live with him for ever and we will have no more troubles.
Chapter 11 tells us about other people who have trusted God. Even before Jesus came to the earth, many people had great pain and trouble, but they still trusted God. Their faith should help us to trust God too.