Author Description

Have you ever wondered what it might have been like to sit in a home in ancient Ephesus (or Thessalonica or Corinth) and listen to an apostle open up the Old Testament and preach a Christ-centered sermon? What would it have been like for a Jew who recently came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah to hear a passage, such as Psalm 110, explained by one of the men who walked with Jesus during his short ministry on earth? What would it have been like for a gentile, who recently left the pagan temples, to hear a Galilean fisherman or a former Pharisee speak of angels, priests, covenants, and faith—words that were just beginning to make sense to him as he learned the vocabulary of his new religion? Many scholars believe we can capture a little bit of that experience by reading the Letter to the Hebrews. That enigmatic, anonymous, and soaring review of the Old Testament is an example of early, perhaps even apostolic, Christian preaching. It is one of the best examples we have of what it was like for the early church to hear the Scriptures (before there was a New Testament) expounded with Christ at the center. In this collection of essays, we invite you to sit at the feet of the apostles and hear Christ preached from the Old Testament. These essays are a perfect complement to the February 2022 White Horse Inn series on the book of Hebrews, featuring New Testament scholar Nick Brennan. They also stand on their own as a useful resource for study and devotion.