Rob Bell says, "Whoever wrote this letter to the Hebrews, she is brilliant." Of the 66 books in the Bible, Hebrews is the only anonymous one, so I too suspect that it was written by a woman.
Not much in the first chapter grabbed me, but something my little girl said last night did. We were reading the storybook Bible I use for children's sermons, the one we'll be giving out to our brand new Sunday School students like David (who will be 3 in just a few days!). Adi said, "How does God talk to you?" I responded, "You listen for God's voice in your heart." Then I picked up the book and said, "We read God's word and it's like he's talking to us."
Last night's reading was about a wedding banquet that everyone gets invited too. There's a big party in the kingdom.
The intro to Hebrews in The Message does give some insight:
Too much religion is a bad thing. We can't get too much of God, can't get too much faith and obedience, can't get too much love and worship. But religion--the well-intentioned efforts we make to "get it all together" for God--can very well get in the way of what God is doing for us. Our main and central task is to live in responsive obedience to God's action revealed in Jesus.
God is the actor, we are the responders. That's why the sacraments, offering, prayers, and passing the peace are so important. It's the time in worship when we respond to what God is doing in our midst.
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What an awesome theory that the author is a woman. I looked a little more and found this website where the idea is that Priscilla was the author:
ReplyDeletehttp://polumeros.blogspot.com/2009/01/is-priscilla-author-of-hebrews.html