I am studying the book of Hebrews and this morning I was struck by a single thought which disturbed me.  Hebrews is a singular general letter which God only knows who wrote it.  It has made it through 950 years of telling, retelling, study, exhortation, training, and even speculation.  My experience in the business world would classify Hebrews as written to a niche market; a very small group of people with very specific needs.

It was written for an audience that was a piece of a piece of a piece of a piece.  First, it was written to the Christians of the time during the Jewish revolt from Rome.  Perilous times.  Most Christians had left the bosom of Jerusalem 5 years earlier. So, compared to the entire population of Rome, Christians were a small piece of the grand whole.  It has been estimated the total Christian population 40 years later at the end of the First century the total count was 500,000.

Secondly it was written to a piece of those persecuted dispersed Christians that were ethnically Hebrew.  This piece was the major part of Christian world at the time.  Christianity came from and was seen at the time as primarily a Jewish thing.  Even though Peter and Paul had extended invitations to the Gentiles, these converts sometimes were required to worship as a Jew first.

Of these Ethnic Jews, who were Christians, who were persecuted, also most had never seen Jesus.  It was all second and third hand knowledge.  They had access to many of the letters from Paul and Peter and even James, but never-the-less their experiences, their understanding was from those who had seen and which they had not.  They had not seen the miracles.  They had not seen the fire in he eyes of John the Baptist.  They had not been there for the resurrection. They had not been there at the assention. The piece, the audience was becoming very small.

And the smallest piece of the piece of the piece of the piece, was being tempted by all the things going out to forsake the faith to go back to pure Judaism.  Back to their friends, and neighbors, and family.  To through off all the ideas of grace and go back to a life of keeping the law.

The only conclusion is that there must be a plausible connection between the very small group that was written to and today’s Christians.  Otherwise we might not need it in the bible unless we are preaching or teaching to saved persecuted ethnic Jewish Christians which are wanting to go back to their Jewish roots. In today’s world it may well be an even smaller piece than it was in 69 AD. Could it well be for any saved, having a hard time, gentiles, who are just wanting to go back to there old ways?  To chuck it all and live a life that world would have them live? 

That is my conclusion.  What do you think?