Hebrews

Here's a letter of sorts, sent to some Christians who were converted Jews. It has no claim of authorship, but many believers seem to think it is another letter from Paul. In any event, it's pretty durn weird!

Heb 2:2-4 - For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will.
Here's another attempt to validate the Christian religion by presenting the "evidence" of miracles. The author had very little grounding in logic, for miracles are quite a weak evidence to present. First, there's the fact that no miracle is well-enough documented to accept as real evidence. The second major problem is that all religions claim their own miracles. Any acceptance of one religion's miracles cannot logically exclude those of other, mutually exclusive religions' miracle claims.

Heb 2:6-9 - But someone has testified somewhere, "What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet." Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Here's some fun logic! The writer claims that nothing is excluded from being under the control of humanity. He is then forced to admit that there are a few things that humans can't control - but Jesus will make that right, some day! Really!

Heb 2:10 - It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
I can only assume the writer is referring here to Jesus. I can also only assume that the writer was not a Trinitarian, because he implies that this "pioneer" had to suffer in order to become perfect. If Jesus was a human God, how could he have ever been less than perfect?

Heb 3:3,4 - Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)
Ah, yes! The ancient and venerable "first cause" argument! The writer states that God had to create everything to start the universe off. However, he fails to realize that God should also have a creator, as part of an infinite regression. The work being done today in cosmogony (theories of the origin of the universe) is quickly taking the idea of an outside creative force out of the picture. Too bad, huh?

Heb 5:5,6 - So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"; as he says also in another place, "You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek."
Here, the writer refers to an obscure story in Genesis. The story is about Melchizedek, the priest/king of Salem when Abraham was returning from a rather unlikely military conquest performed by himself and 300 or so household servants. Mel said he was a priest of the Creator God, but gave no name. Our author reaches into this story to find a way for Jesus to be a priest without being a descendant of Levi (the claim being that he descended from David of Judah, instead). The second quote is from a Psalm that has no appearance of being any sort of prophetic utterance. However, that doesn't even slow down our fearless writer!

Heb 5:11-13 - About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness.
Of course, if the message is hard to explain, the fault must be with the audience! My question is: Is the difficulty caused by a lack of intelligence, or by a lack of willingness to accept what is handed them without question?

Heb 6:4-6 - For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt.
Well, I suppose there's no hope for me any more! There's no need for anyone to preach to me, as it's impossible, according to this writer, to convince me to change my mind! Oddly enough, letters from Peter state the opposite, setting up another contradiction. I expect that I'll end up getting preached at anyway - oh well!

Heb 6:16 - Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all dispute.
How simplistic can a person get!? How often does it happen that one person swears on a Bible, tells her side of the issue, and is immediately followed by someone else who also swears and tells the opposite of what the first person swore? I don't think that helps put any sort of end to a dispute!

Heb 6:17,18 - In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us.
There are problems with this, concerning the difference between fiction and the real world, and the difference between logic and wishful thinking. First, the fiction. The Bible tries to present itself as a document of supernatural origin, coming from an omniscient creator, and having the ability (being also omnipotent) to ensure that every word in it is exactly as he wanted it. The fact is that in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, we see listed among the animals to be avoided as food, rock badgers and hares for the reason that they chew their cud. You may scan the other pages of this work for numerous other errors of the same sort. Next, we go to logic. The author here claims that it is impossible for God to prove false, making God less than omnipotent, unable even to tell a lie. The falseness of this statement comes from reading 2 Thessalonians 2, where Paul claims that God intentionally helps in the deception of people, creating a whole maze of logical problems for believers to deal with.

Heb 7:1-3 - This "King Melchizedek of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him"; and to him Abraham apportioned "one-tenth of everything." His name, in the first place, means "king of righteousness"; next he is also king of Salem, that is, "king of peace." Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.
The writer here is pretty much trying to claim that the Melchizedek character is none other than Jesus himself who arrived just in time to relieve Abraham of a tenth of his goods on his way back from his victory. The problem here is that the writer goes pretty far overboard in his description of Mel. After all, he's only mentioned in 3 verses of Genesis chapter 14, and it makes no mention of anything said in that last sentence. Talk about conflation of the original text!

Heb 7:9,10 - One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.
Yes, one might say all sorts of crazy, mixed up stuff like this. One would be blowing out hot air, stretching beyond all hope of retaining the slightest shred of one's credibility. But one could say this. Reading this, I find it more and more understandable why the writer preferred to remain anonymous!

Heb 7:14-16 - For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. It is even more obvious when another priest arises, resembling Melchizedek, one who has become a priest, not through a legal requirement concerning physical descent, but through the power of an indestructible life.
The writer has made his case, but only through adding in extra material to the few verses concerning Mel, which any sane person would have to admit is nothing short of lying. The only way to accept this as true is to wish for it to be true in spite of the many problems here.

Heb 8:7-9 - For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one. God finds fault with them when he says: "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord."
Once again, we need to ask where the problem might lay? If a product is faulty and needs replacing, do you think the problem lies with the maker of the faulty product? I would not hesitate to say "yes" in this case, because the maker made claims of personal perfection and omniscience. You expect a superior product from perfect beings.

Heb 9:11,12 - But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
I'd have thought that if blood was all that God wanted, there were far less messy ways for Jesus to get it for him! One problem with this whole thing about blood is that it wasn't necessary, at least according to the Jewish scriptures in the Old Testament!

Heb 9:22 - Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Obviously, the writer was not looking at that same Jewish laws that I have read. He also did not read Isaiah, apparently, or hear about Abraham being counted as righteous just because of his faith!

Heb 10:5-7 - Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, 'See, God, I have come to do your will, O God' (in the scroll of the book it is written of me)."
Here is a twisting of quotes from the book of Psalms. The quotes about God not desiring sacrifices and offerings is in there, as well as lack of pleasure over burnt offerings. But the middle part, about God preparing a body for Jesus to sacrifice - that's completely NOT anywhere else in the Bible. I also found it interesting that my "Red Letter Edition" of the Bible failed to put this supposed quote from Jesus in red letters. I wonder why?

Heb 10:29-31 - How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Well, at least we've left behind the idea of a universally loving God, and gone back to the more sensible and compatible (with the Old Testament, that is) God of vengeance and anger and wild violence.

Heb 11:1,2 - Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.
Here's one of the most favorite quotes in all of Christendom, followed by one that logically should trouble Christendom. If the ancient Hebrews received approval from God because of faith, what exactly did the death of Jesus accomplish? Faith was the basis of salvation both before and after! Of course, the whole objection that reasonable people have to faith is the very nature of it, as a belief for which there is no evidence. Instead, it means believing in something for the sole reason that you wish it were true!

Heb 11:32-34 - And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets- who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
The reader should really take some time to look up the stories in the Old Testament concerning these "admirable" people - like Gideon, who attacked and destroyed the shrines of other people, and had his father defending him by saying that a "real god" would be able to defend its own altars. Samson - the guy who tried to cheat his own wedding guests out of some fine clothes, then robbed and killed total strangers to pay when he lost the wager. Jephthah, who made his only daughter into a burnt sacrifice to God after he won a battle. David, who hamstrung hundreds of horses, had a rival murdered to get a new wife, and bought another wife with 200 foreskins obtained in battle. And let's not forget Samuel, who chopped a captive king to bits with a sword. Yep - all good men of faith!

Heb 11:39,40 - Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.
The writer tells us that after all, these faithful people didn't get what was promised to them by God? How shocking!

Heb 13:2 - Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Time for "Touched by an Angel"! I think it's pretty sad that the writer here thinks that the only reason people should consider being nice to strangers is because there's a chance that said strangers might be angels bumming around on earth, checking to see how nice believers are!

Heb 13:4 - Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.
Once more, with judgment! Though it doesn't expressly state it anywhere that I've seen, these letters that make up the bulk of the New Testament are pretty stiff with statements like this - that God will send to hell anyone who steps out of line sexually, regardless of what they believe or any other aspect of their lives. It's a very incoherent message!

Heb 13:11,12 - For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.
Now, this is an interesting little statement! I seem to recall that in the gospel of John, Jesus said that it was impossible for him to die outside of Jerusalem! Now, here we have this writer saying that Jesus must have died outside Jerusalem! I wonder where the breakdown in communication took place here?

Heb 13:17 - Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls and will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with sighing-for that would be harmful to you.
Not a word about checking on the leaders, to make sure they are ordering you to do what is right. Like Eichmann, believers are supposed to simply obey orders and don't bother themselves about legalities!