Perseverance in Gratitude: 

A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary 

on the Epistle to the Hebrews 

by David A. deSilva

Eerdmans Publishing Company:  2000. 560 + vii-xix pages.

Reviewed by Norman H. Young

Because English readers are already well served with volumes on the Epistle to the Hebrews, one may wonder what need there is for a further commentary on this epistle. One would suppose that commentaries such as those by H. W. Attridge (1989), F. F. Bruce (Rev. ed., 1990), W. L. Lane (1991), P. Ellingworth (1993) had wrung the last drop of exegetical meaning from the Epistle to the Hebrews. The need is even more remote if one has German at one's disposal and can read such magisterial works as those by H.-F. Weiss (1991). But deSilva confounds expectations and has provided the reader of Hebrews with a fresh and exciting approach to this epistle.

For his interpretation of specific texts in the epistle, deSilva is quite dependent on Attridge, Lane, and to a lesser degree, Ellingworth (as the author acknowledges on page xv). Nevertheless, deSilva's consistent socio-rhetorical approach in interpreting Hebrews gives his work a remarkable freshness. By taking a socio-rhetorical approach, deSilva is even more obliged than usual to make decisions about the original addressees and their situation. He makes a plausible case (though I have some reservations as I note below) in reconstructing the social environment of the addressees and this provides the key to his understanding of the argument of the epistle.

DeSilva sees Hebrews as addressing Diasporic [scattered] Christians who were both Jewish and Gentile in origin. In this way he does not reject the Jewish background of some of the recipients of the epistle, but denies that the Christian assembly originally addressed was exclusively Jewish in origin. Such a view gives added warrant for deSilva's appeal to such writers as Seneca, Dio Chrysostom, and Epictetus as sources for the rhetorical aspects of Hebrews that he emphasizes. Their past experience, according to deSilva, "was one of humiliation, rejection, and marginalization" (p. 16). Furthermore, the surrounding society had tried to pressure these early Christians to conform to the prevailing cultural values. In the past they had resisted this pressure, but at the time of writing, some are in danger of surrendering to the forces of social conformity. What crisis caused this change in attitude?

In deSilva's opinion their faltering in the faith was not the result of impending persecution, nor heretical deviation, but rather simply the difficulties associated with being a despised minority over a long period of time. The crisis of faith was due to the loss of status and "esteem in their neighbors' eyes." The immediate shame of being a despised group was not offset by the distant hope of reward. They had in the past experienced loss of property and even prison for Christ's sake, but now, weary of this lot, many are hankering after their former acceptance and status in society. Hence deSilva concludes that no "threat of violent persecution nor a new attraction to Judaism motivates this apostasy, but rather the more pedestrian inability to live within the lower status that Christian associations had forced upon them" (p. 19).

I think that deSilva has dismissed too readily Judaism as the fundamental attraction for the readers. If the group is a mixed community of former Jews and Gentiles, as deSilva asserts, then we can understand both groups finding Judaism appealing, but it's unlikely that pagan society would appeal to first-century Christian Jews. Since former Jews were quite accustomed to being marginalized by pagan society, it's not likely that as Christians they would find integration into pagan society a tempting status attraction. 

On the other hand, we know from many sources that Gentiles were often attracted to Judaism. For Christian Jews to maintain their links with Judaism is historically plausible, and for Christian Gentiles to be comfortable with such a compromise is also likely; but for Christian Jews to move out of the Christian sect into pagan society is highly unlikely. That is to say, Judaism would be an attractive social group for both Christian Gentiles and Christian Jews, whereas pagan society would appeal only to Christian Gentiles--and not all that powerfully for them either as they had been "socialized into a sect" [i.e. Christianity] that affirmed the OT (page 5).

I think deSilva is correct to come down on balance for a pre-70 C.E. date for the letter (p. 21). I also think it likely that the author is one of the helpers from the Pauline circle (p. 26). I am less enthusiastic about deSilva's playing down of the threat of persecution. The expected persecution may not have eventuated, but that the author expected his community to suffer physical abuse seems hard to deny (e.g. Heb 11:32-38; 12:3-11; 13:13). DeSilva accepts that such verses as the latter "have strong connections with the addressees' own past and ongoing experience" (p. 421), but he seems to limit this to shame, marginalization and loss of social status. The author of Hebrews intimates that the cost of following Jesus may well be higher than a simple verbal abuse, thus his appropriate quoting of Ps 118.6 not to fear what men could do to them (Heb 13:6).

In analysing Hebrews as "deliberative rhetoric" that extensively uses "epideictic topics" (pp. 48, 56), deSilva notes a wide range of rhetorical techniques employed by the author. He appeals to writers like Aristotle and Ps-Cicero as well as other Hellenistic writers for examples of and parallels to the rhetorical devices used in Hebrews. The suggestion that Aristotle and such rhetoricians have nothing in common with the NT is soundly refuted by deSilva (pp.35-39). DeSilva's point is not that the author of Hebrews had formal training in rhetoric (though he does not rule out this possibility), but that he clearly used identifiable rhetorical techniques. In the light of the evidence assembled by deSilva, one would have to agree.

The general format of the book has led to unnecessary repetition. Following the 80-page introduction, the commentary part is divided into four sections: An overview, the commentary, a summary, and an application to today called "Bridging the Horizons." The commentary proper is discursive on passages rather than the usual commentary style of dealing with fragments of each verse in sequence. This certainly makes the book very readable, but the style of tell 'em what I'm going to say, tell 'em, and then tell 'em what I told 'em requires about 150 pages more than is necessary.

In his commentary section, deSilva employs his hermeneutical method to illuminate the text within the context of the readers' drifting back into social acceptability. God is seen in terms of a first-century "Patron" who grants benefactions. Jesus' mediation functions as a "broker" of the divine favours (p. 137). The readers' succumbing to the enticement of social respectability is then seen as a breach of the expected behaviour of recipients of patronage (on patronage see pp. 240-44).

His comment on Heb 4:3 is fresh. He takes the present tense seriously and says it means that the addressees are in the process of entering God's rest--"at the threshold of entering their great reward" (p. 156). The rest they are about to enter is not the land of Canaan or an intermediate earthly kingdom, but the realm beyond this creation, the glory, the better heavenly homeland, the abiding city, the unshakable kingdom, "the inner sanctum" on the "inner side of the curtain" (p. 163). All these are images for the same entity, "the divine realm." Striving to enter this "rest" means accepting their minority culture even in a hostile environment (p. 169). The reference to the Sabbath-rest in Heb 4.9 is limited to a reference to God's rest¸ the divine realm (p. 167). The "anyone who enters God's rest" is taken not as a general truth but as a specific reference to Jesus, which is an interesting but plausible interpretation.

DeSilva understands the tabernacle language of Heb 9-10 in Platonic terms: "the outer tent is a symbol of the present age when the visible creation itself still hides the entry into the heavenly, permanent, unseen realm" (p. 302). Yet despite this he uses crassly literal language well beyond the reserved diction of Hebrews ("by his blood" 9:12) when he says "Jesus takes blood into the heavenly sanctum" (p. 305). Furthermore, he correctly observes that Heb 9:7-10-18 draws on the rituals of the Day of Atonement and covenant inauguration to express the superiority of Christ's sacrifice, but he then applies the imagery somewhat woodenly to the heavenly realm. Jesus' sacrificial death and ascension cleanse, he says, the heavenly sanctum in that Jesus "removes the memory of sin from God's presence" (p. 313). His language becomes overly graphic when he speaks of "Christ's entry into the heavenly sanctum to `cleanse' the genuine mercy seat of the defilement of human sin." (p.325). This fulfills God's promise to remember their sins no more, according to deSilva, and this is fair enough, but his exposition of this does a disservice in places to the sophisticated language of this epistle.

In commenting on Heb 11-12 deSilva draws on his earlier monograph, Despising Shame: Honour Discourse and Community Maintenance in the Epistle to the Hebrews (1995), and here he is at his best. With their eye fixed on God's invisible future and the accompanying benefits, the readers are urged to endure their present humiliation, and to trust God in the manner of the heroes of the past. Element after element of Hebrews' use of the people of faith is fruitfully applied by deSilva to the readers' situation. DeSilva puts Heb 11-12 very much into a pastoral context. His appeal to the Maccabean texts is also illuminating (he has previously published a guide to 4 Maccabees, 1998).

Finally I'd like to refer to deSilva's treatment of Heb 13:9-13 as I see this passage as a sort of litmus test of the authenticity of any commentary on Hebrews. DeSilva himself rightly notes "the thematic connections between chapter 13 and the rest of the sermon" (p. 483). Again deSilva is sensitive to the pastoral need of the addressees. Each exhortation in chapter 13 gives "the hearers specific directions concerning how they are to persevere in the face of a hostile society and arrive safely and unwearied at the goal of the `lasting' city that is to come" (p. 484). DeSilva relates the "foods" of v. 9 to Jewish rituals. The "altar" that Christians have is an allusion to Christ's sacrifice, the place where divine and human meet, but it also has an undertone of the Eucharist. The call to go outside the camp bearing the reproach of Christ (v. 13) refers to leaving behind the safe haven of social respectability available within the world of unbelievers. The no-abiding city here (v. 14) is also a general reference to "the decaying, disintegrating city of the world" (p. 517).

The problem with such exegesis is its lack of specificity. Within biblical literature "the abiding city" is Jerusalem and the allusion to Jesus' death outside the gate reinforces that meaning for verse 14. To say Christians have no abiding city here is to reject Judaism specifically, for the city of the Great King was central to the Jewish religious ethos. The appeal to abandon ceremonial foods, and the exclusion of those who serve the old order from eating from the new "altar" is hardly language directed against society in general. That status, acceptance, and even safety were the attractions is probably true, but whether it was pagan society rather than Jewish that provided that environment remains a moot point for me.

This is a fertile and imaginative exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It gives many helpful insights into the rhetorical forms used by the writer, and into his and his readers' social context. The pastoral intent of the author is also correctly emphasized. I think the book is longer than it need be, but having said that, the prose nature even of the commentary section, makes this a very readable book

      No one interested in this epistle dare ignore deSilva's study.