The Teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Containing Geerhardus Vos’ essential teachings on the Epistle to the Hebrews from his classroom lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary, this volume provides an excellent commentary for a Reformed understanding of the Book of Hebrews.
Interested in more? Be sure to check out the Select Works of Geerhardus Vos (14 vols.)
- Presents essential classroom teachings on the Epistle to the Hebrews
- Discusses the book of Hebrews from a Reformed perspective
- The Distinctive Character of the Epistle to the Hebrews
- The Epistle’s Conception of the Diatheke
- The Epistle’s Philosophy of Revelation and Redemption
- The Priesthood of Christ in the Epistle to the Hebrews
- The Better Sacrifice: The Sacrifice of the New Covenant
Top Highlights
“What is the essence of the office of priest? A priest is one who brings near to God. His function differs from that of a prophet in that the prophet moves from God toward man, whereas the priest moves from man toward God.” (Page 94)
“When the Epistle speaks of shadowing this means shadowing down (from heaven to earth), not shadowing forward (from Old Testament to New Testament). According to this philosophical interpretation, the New Testament is not merely a reproduction of the Heavenly Reality, but its actual substance, the Reality itself come down from heaven, the aute eikoon or very image. The word eikoon, besides meaning image, also had the meaning of archetype, and this is the meaning which precisely suits our purpose here.” (Page 58)
“There are two spheres in which such a conception is possible, namely the sphere of art and the sphere of philosophy. In art, the artist first makes a sketch, the skia (shadow), then he makes the picture, the eikoon (image). Similarly, the Old Testament might be said to possess only the preliminary outline or sketch, while the New Testament possesses the real picture. Considered in this way, both the sketch and the real picture are only representations of some real thing which lies beyond both of them. This real thing then would be the heavenly reality.” (Page 55)
“Note here the emphasis on the two natures of Christ. As revealer, Christ’s divine nature is emphasized, 1:3. But in the priesthood, the emphasis is on His human nature.” (Page 95)
“Therefore the two senses are connected; because Christ is a Son ontologically, He is qualified to inherit the functional title of Son in the Messianic sense.” (Page 75)
Geerhardus J. Vos was a Dutch-American theologian. He was the first alumnus of Calvin College (then Theological School) to earn a doctoral degree. Vos studied Old Testament at Princeton Seminary and graduated with honors and accepted an invitation to hold Princeton’s new chair of biblical theology in 1892. He held the chair until his retirement in 1932. During his time at Princeton, he taught some of the great Reformed minds of the twentieth century, including John Gresham Machen and Ned Bernard Stonehouse. Vos was also an essential catalyst in the establishment of Biblical Theology as a discipline and represented the early theological thought as one of the premier Reformed thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, his Reformed Dogmatics is an important piece of Reformed theology. He passed away in 1949. Vos’ thinking and scholarship in theology has influenced Cornelius Van Til, John Murray, Richard B. Gaffin Jr., and Herman Ridderbos.
