The Same Yesterday and Today and Forever? A Hermeneutical Study of the Use of the Old Testament in the Epistle to the Hebrews and its Implications for Scriptural Authority and Biblical Preaching in a Secularized Western Setting

Abstract

AbstractSecularization and pluralism have created a crisis of biblical authority within contemporary Western Christianity. Responding to this, Christine McSpadden has produced a manifesto for preachers which approaches the Bible not as just one ‘sacred text’ amongst others but as a unique means of life-changing encounter with the living and active Word of God. Though she makes no reference to it, McSpadden’s understanding of Scripture closely echoes that of one of the earliest Christian texts, the Epistle to the Hebrews. The purpose of this paper is to examine Hebrews’ use of the Old Testament and what its interpretive method reveals about the author’s understanding of the nature of Scripture; to identify the extent to which McSpadden’s approach follows this understanding and method; and to determine what further implications this shared tradition may have for the doctrine of scriptural authority and the practice of biblical preaching in a contemporary Western setting. It concludes that McSpadden’s approach stands firmly in the tradition first articulated in Hebrews and that together they reflect the most ancient Christian understanding of scriptural authority, which protects the Bible texts from historical irrelevance on one hand and from unduly speculative and subjective interpretations on the other.