Hebrews and Unbelieving Jews

Dr. Couch, I have been following your arguments for sometime that Hebrews was not written to believing Jews who were giving up their faith in Christ. You have convinced me! I now see that the heart of the book was written to unbelieving Jews who came up to the edge of faith in Christ but then backed off and did not trust Him as Savior. Thank you for that insight! ANSWER:  You and I are in good company. The great Kenneth Wuest, Greek scholar, and I hold to the position that the book was mainly written to unbelieving Jews but then turned over to the Christian community as a witnessing tool. Those who hold that it was written to believing Jews who were about to apostatize cannot point to one verse in Hebrews to support their view!    I just discovered several weeks ago that the best lexicographers, Balz & Schnieder, hold to what I teach. They are now considered the best Greek grammarians around. They write that the word "apeitheo" which is translated in Hebrews as disobedient should, and could, be translated as "disbelief." They write that the word has to do with the rejection of Christian faith in Hebrews. "This equation of disobedience has to do with the lack of belief." "These Jews were unbelievers, Jews who had not become Christians." "The author of Hebrews is speaking of unbelievers." "They had a resistance against the revelation of God's salvation in the gospel." And "when it is said that the Jews have now been disobedient, nothing is being said other than that the Jews had not accepted the Christian faith."  End of discussion.    One Jewish Christian writer says that Hebrews 10:26 is about loss of the physical life not the spiritual life. The passage reads: "For is we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins."    The Jewish Christian author writes: The Jewish Christians "were subject to the penalty of physical death. It will not be spiritual death but physical death."    But he forgot to quote the verses that followed: "There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins (v. 26) but a certain terrifying expectation of a judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries" (v. 27). (The adversaries are those who deny the gospel.)    Verse 27 is about physical death?    The "sinning willfully" is the rejection of Christ after these Jews had heard the gospel. They remained in their sins.    The author of Hebrews shows how bad it was to reject the testimony of the Law (v. 28), but "How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant (the New covenant) by which he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of grace" (v. 29).    Thus, the Jews who rejected Christ face the vengeance of God. See the next verse: "For we know Him, who said 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.' And again, 'the Lord will judge His people'" (v. 30). Verse 30 is not about physical judgment but spiritual judgment of the Jews who reject the New covenant of salvation in Christ!    A lot of Bible teachers just quote others without critical and exegetical thinking first. It's okay to quote others but you must make sure your own hermeneutical principles are sound first!    Thanks for writing.    Dr. Mal Couch (8/10)