Brotherly Love and the High Priest Christology of Hebrews‪.‬

The dominant christological motif by which the author of the Letter to the Hebrews explicates the superiority of the new covenant over the old is that of the high priest. (1) This image of Christ--unique in the NT--is first introduced in 2:17. Coinciding with the image of Jesus as priest in this verse is the image of Jesus as brother of the faithful. More precisely, fraternal empathy is said to be a prerequisite for the office of high priest: "He therefore had to ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) become like his brothers in every respect so that ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in God's service." To grasp the full significance of Christ's priesthood and the way in which it addresses the readers' fear of death (2:15), it is necessary to understand the sibling relationship the author envisions, especially since the concept of priesthood "according to the order of Melchizedek" (5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:1-28) is such a peculiar one, about which so little is known in spite of the mention of this figure in the OT and elsewhere. (2) It is not as though its qualifications are familiar or self-evident, even to the original audience, since no one else is known to have held any such office. (3) Hebrews offers Jesus' priesthood as a superior alternative to Israel's Levitical priesthood because it provides the help needed to obviate the readers' fears. Any clues the author gives to the nature of the priesthood exercised by Jesus alone therefore demand close attention. The modest aim of this essay is to catalogue more fully than have previous interpreters the clues provided by the author's emphasis on Jesus in his role as a brother. The juxtaposition of the images of brother and high priest is most conspicuous in Heb 2:10-18, but the linkage is implicit in several other passages throughout the letter. Many of the qualities central to this christological presentation in which the roles of priest and brother merge in the person of Jesus may be found in ideal depictions of sibling relationships in Hellenistic literature. Among extant writings, the most systematic of these depictions is that of Plutarch in his essay "On Brotherly Love" (De fraterno amore 478A-492D). (4) Writing sometime around the turn of the first century, Plutarch roots the virtue of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in nature and proceeds to describe its manifestation under a wide range of circumstances. Of special concern to Plutarch is the close connection between fraternal and filial devotion, but most of the essay is taken up with description of the various impediments to the actualization of brotherly love and the ways in which they may be overcome. Hebrews' familiarity with this topic of general interest is suggested by the admonition in 13:1 to "let [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] continue." This nominal form is relatively rare in extant Greek literature. (5)