The Book of Acts

I. Introduction

The great liability of the Epistle to the Hebrews to the vintage Testament is not easily a issue of general background and copious quotation. It expands to basic vintage Testament ways of conceiving which are certainly presupposed and which underlie routes else rather diverse. This item will contend that the notion of solidarity is one of these.

Solidarity may be characterised as 'an whole union of interests and responsibilities in a group', engaging communal 'interests, objectives or measures'. The term 'solidarity' is not much in latest trend, but because it has a well-defined significance and because any options are verbose, I propose to use it here. In particular, solidarity highlights the way in which God has given humanity in general and his people in particular a common life with common concerns and responsibilities, so that the actions of one may deeply affect others for good or ill. The Epistle to the Hebrews is not exclusive in its liability to this vintage Testament notion, but is a particularly hitting demonstration of its submission, especially in the way that it depicts Christ's solidarity with humanity.

II. The notion of Solidarity in the vintage Testament

Thirty years before, previous work finished by scholars likeH. Wheeler Robinson, S.H. Hooke and S. Mowinckel, which viewed Israelite religion as dominated by a mystical primitivism in which the group was everything and the individual almost nothing, was still influential. Changes in the communal sciences, however, have undermined this. 'Mystical primitivism' has been considered to be an unsuitable term to recount Israelite belief, with more recognition being granted to one-by-one freedom. Nevertheless, J.W. Rogerson, one of the concept's head critics, admits the following:

It continues expected that Israelites glimpsed society as an aggregate of assemblies rather than as a assemblage of persons, that in adoration the monarch could embody the aspirations of the entire community, and those individuals in adoration or plea could feel that their knowledge were those of the entire group.

In what follows, some aspects of this inter-relatedness will be analyzed.

1. Solidarity at the Human Level

Social phenomena, like kinship, wedding ceremony, widespread residence, widespread occupation or covenant, engaged solidarity. Solidarity is particularly apparent in Levirate wedding ceremony, in which a close relative stood in for the deceased. But it is furthermore a characteristic of family life in general; even a inhabitant alien was often associated with a specific family and, if circumcised, could eat the Passover (Ex. 12:43-49; Dt. 10:18-19). In the broader family, the periods 'father' and 'son' may mention to any in the line of direct fall (Nu. 1:10; Jos. 21:4, 5, 10). 'kernel' can refer not only to progeny but to kinsmen usually, encompassing collateral attachments (Est. 10:3). A'brother' was any male relation (Gn. 16:12; Nu. 25:6), a constituent of the equal tribe (Nu. 8:23-26; Judg. 18:2, 8) or nation (2 Sa. 2:27; Je. 34:9ff), even easily another one-by-one (Gn. 9:5). The periods 'household', 'fathers' house', 'clan' and 'tribe' are sometimes utilised to recognise groups much bigger than they would ...