Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent (Hebrews 12:18-21)

¹⁸ For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm, ¹⁹ the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them, ²⁰ for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned”. ²¹ So fearful was the appearance that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”

Commentary

Wonderful indeed were the things in the temple, the Holy of Holies; awful were those things also that occurred Mount Sinai, “a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest.” For, it says,  "God appeared in Sinai,” and long ago were these things celebrated. The new covenant, however, was not given with any of these things, but has been given in simple discourse by God.

See then how [the author] makes the comparison in these points, putting them afterward with good reason.  For when he had persuaded them by innumerable arguments, when he had also shown the difference between each covenant, then afterwards, the one having been already condemned, he easily enters on these points.

Fearful were those things, but these are far more admirable and glorious.  For here there is not “darkness,” or “gloom,” or “tempest.” It seems to me that by these words he hints at the obscurity of the Old Testament, and the overshadowed and veiled character of the Law. And besides the giver of the law appears in fire terrible, and apt to punish those who transgress…. Then even Moses feared, but now no one…. There was a wilderness, here a city. (John Chrysostom)

While affirming salvation through an explicit or even implicit faith in Christ, the Church does not question the continued love of God for the chosen people of Israel. A replacement or supersession theology which sets against one another two separate entities, a Church of the Gentiles and the rejected Synagogue whose place it takes, is deprived of its foundations. From an originally close relationship between Judaism and Christianity a long-term state of tension had developed, which has been gradually transformed after the Second Vatican Council into a constructive dialogue relationship.

There have often been attempts to identify this replacement theory in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This Epistle, however, is not directed to the Jews but rather to the Christians of Jewish background who have become weary and uncertain. Its purpose is to strengthen their faith and to encourage them to persevere, by pointing to Christ Jesus as the true and ultimate high priest, the mediator of the new covenant. This context is necessary to understand the Epistle’s contrast between the first purely earthly covenant and a second better (cf. Heb 8:7) and new covenant (cf. 9:15, 12:24). The first covenant is defined as outdated, in decline and doomed to obsolescence (cf. 8:13), while the second covenant is defined as everlasting (cf. 13:20). To establish the foundations of this contrast the Epistle refers to the promise of a new covenant in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 31:31-34 (cf. Heb 8:8-12). This demonstrates that the Epistle to the Hebrews has no intention of proving the promises of the Old Covenant to be false, but on the contrary treats them as valid. The reference to the Old Testament promises is intended to help Christians to be sure of their salvation in Christ. At issue in the Epistle to the Hebrews is not the contrast of the Old and New Covenants as we understand them today, nor a contrast between the church and Judaism. Rather, the contrast is between the eternal heavenly priesthood of Christ and the transitory earthly priesthood. The fundamental issue in the Epistle to the Hebrews in the new situation is a Christological interpretation of the New Covenant.

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