My Hebrews book is out

My book on Hebrews finally arrived today. Yeah!

It is a much revised version of my dissertation. I've published a number of scholarly articles and several master's level books, but this is the first one I would consider to be a doctoral level publication.

At over $76, it's library and PhD students' fare. Cosmology and Eschatology in Hebrews: The Settings of the Sacrifice, dedicated to Jimmy Dunn, Loren Stuckenbruck, and Hermann Lichtenberger (picture to the right).

You'll all be happy to know I won't be reviewing it :-)

Summary:
Debates over the background of Hebrews have floundered because they largely go from background to text rather than text to background. So I embark on a text-centered approach to Hebrews' thought world, in particular the "settings" of the story of salvation from which this sermon argues. Battles over Hebrews' background have largely taken place here, around its settings in time and space.

Conclusion:

1. That Hebrews is, more than anything else, a document of early Christianity,

2. ... that any dualism in the book accordingly is subordinate to its eschatology,

3. ... but that Hebrews does presume a metaphysical dualism sharper than that of Paul,

4. ... that this dualism does bear some resemblance to the Middle Platonism of Philo,

5. ... although the specific similarities are much stronger in relation to Hebrews' exegetical method,

6. ... and the tabernacle is, more than anything else, a metaphor for heaven itself,

7. ... although the author uses tabernacle imagery in more than one way.