It's springtime, which means that Princeton University Press is having its annual 50% off spring sale. From May 4th through June 9th, you can get 50% off nearly every single print, e-book, and audio book from Princeton University Press. Just go to press.prinston.edu to get 50% off incredible books like Disneyland and the Rise of Automation. And beyond belief, evidence shows what really works.
There are so many fantastic books you can get an incredible deal on. Go to press.prinston.edu and use the code spring50. That's sp-r-i-n-g-50 at press.prinston.edu. This sale only lasts for a month, so go and get some books.
Welcome to the new books network. In her book, Deciphering the Worlds of Hebrews, Gabriela Galardini reads Hebrews within its context of second-templed Judaism, writing about the structure and intertext of Hebrews, sin and faith, atonement, and cult, as well as space and resistance. Join us as we speak with Gabriela Galardini about the book of Hebrews. You're listening to new books and biblical studies, a channel of a new books network, and I'm your host, Michael Morales.
Gabriela Galardini is Professor of Christian Religion, worldview, and ethics at Nord University in Norway. Gabriela, welcome to new books and biblical studies. Thank you so much, Michael, for having me. Gabriela, would you tell us about yourself and what drew you to study the epistle to the Hebrews so deeply?
I'm gladly. I am a Swiss New Testament scholar. I was born in Switzerland and raised and mostly educated, but also a little bit in the United States. And what got me to study the epistle to the Hebrews deeply was mainly structure.
And when I studied, it was the time of the so-called linguistic turn. And in Hebrew scholarship, there was one scholar that stood out for all, and his name was Albert Van Wain. He was a Catholic French priest who was in addition, linguistically trained. So he came a little bit away from the paradigm that was historical critical at that time and started to analyze the text in a synchronic way.
And that was revolutionary, and not only that, also the result with which he came up with because he discovered symmetries in the text and ended up proposing that the epistle to the Hebrews is a heistic centric text. And he located the center in chapter nine where it's the talk is about Jesus as the high priest. I later thought that's probably not coincidental him being a priest. But during my studies then, when the time came to decide what kind of masterwork thesis I should write, that was prime for me.
So I engaged deeply for almost an entire year. And the result was received favorably, and I was invited or encouraged to do a dissertation out of it. So that's basically my journey that led me to Hebrews. My proposal as far as structure was a little bit different.
I also continued, like many others also, in searching symmetries on the macro, but also micro level. But I proposed a center in chapter eight where it's talking about the covenant renewal. And also what I came up with was a so-called Anati plosis eetarata, which is a particular rhetorical figure that has to shape over their case that goes up to a center and then goes down on the other side. So that's basically the reason why I'm gut stuck.
We're spotlighting your collection of essays, deciphering the worlds of Hebrews. Would you orient our audience to this collection? It's structure and content? Gladly.
This book was published in 2021 in Brill. And it contains 15 articles of mine that were written in more or less the time period of 14 or 15 years, one of which is new in it. And it traces somewhat my journey in interpreting the epistle to the Hebrews. And it's organized in three sections.
One section I named the Hebrew text and the second, the world of the Hebrew text, the first and the second, the world behind the text and the third, the world in front of the text. And each section contains five articles. And in the first, I highlight things like structure, symmetries, rhetorical aspects. In the second section, I highlight theological aspects, such as in faith, called atonement.
And in the last one, things like more up-to-date actual methodological approaches, such as critical spatiality, but also resistance. To give us a taste of your work, would you offer a brief synopsis of your third essay on Hebrews' use of Psalm 95 and Jeremiah 31? Bladley. So this article reflects my work that I have done in my dissertation, unfortunately, only published in German, also with Breil Fehert, or Härtzen, Hehebria, Aynesina Gögen, Hömelitz, Sütischabheinav.
And the reason why I engage in that are two. One, of course, is the obvious that Hebrews has a lot of quotations from the Hebrew Bible, the third most in the New Testament after Paul and Matthew. And it contains the longest citation out of Jeremiah 31, 31, 34. And the other is that I was, of course, influenced by the German scholarship, which prior to the Second World War was the more dominant than it was afterwards.
And for almost 100 years, the scholar have emphasized that the epistle to the Hebrew seems to be a synagogue homily. But I had the opportunity to join an archaeological course of the archaeological institute in Jerusalem and Amman for two months. And we traveled through the Near East, which was mainly Jordan and Israel, and visited about 200 archaeological sites, out of which, you know, massive many and all of the oldest synagogue remains, we got to see. And that was absolutely exciting.
I would say transformative. It was one of the most exciting learning experience in my life. And when I would have the chance to see the synagogue remains, I realized there is a synagogue research out there. Why has no one introduced that to Hebrews?
Since all everyone is talking about Hebrews being a synagogue, I made this my task in my dissertation. And then realized that in ancient synagogue, literally, there are readings. And we see that also in the New Testament in Luke and in Acts, that on the one side, Jesus, and then Paul going to the synagogue and be asked to do readings. So I researched into that, into these readings, because this Jeremiah stands out in its length and its in centrality.
And realized, yes, there were readings and there were pairs of readings in ancient time. First of all, there was a Torah reading. And there had to be a matching reading from the prophets. And why that from the prophets?
Because that's what synagogue research claims. He probably stood up in the time of Antiochus IV, who suppressed religious expressions of Jews in that time. And so it was forbidden to read publicly the Torah. So they came up with a very smart alternative that they read out of the prophets and texts that were similar.
So the function of the reading is mainly then became, firstly, and the thought or the belief is that the reading from the Torah is older. Probably dates into the first century BC and has a function of both the entire Torah, the five Book of Moses. Today, they usually do it in one year. That's the so-called Babylonian cycle.
Back then, they usually almost likely did it in three years, in the Palestinian cycle or three and a half years. And the way this works is that the sermon had to interpret the readings, but in a way that from the child to the scholar would be able to take something away. And the task was in the introduction not to state the Torah, because that was read. So kind of hint to the Torah.
And at the end of the introduction, the Torah reading would come. So if one analyzes Psalm 95, you realize that the content of Psalm 95 is related to the Exodus generation. Mainly that what is written in Exodus 32-34, but also a little bit in Numeri, where they failed. And then given reason why they failed and what the consequences was.
So we don't see the Torah in Hebrews. I also found out that if we assume that Exodus 32-33, as I proposed, was the Torah reading that is not supposed to show, then I have suggested that in chapter Hebrew 4, there are hints to the Torah reading in Exodus 32-33, but I will not go more in detail in order to not give away too much. And so there we have the story about covenant breaking. And what matches that is, of course, covenant renewal, as we have it in Jeremiah 31, the second prophetic quotation, which is in the center of the text.
And that's what I have learned from the scholarship is very often in the so-called petija type, there are various synagogue sermon types that the prophet reading has to be fully included into the sermon and in the center. So one can say in Hebrews, but also that's also true for other Hebrew synagogue homilies, that in the beginning, the problem is stated. You can say Hebrews 1-6 in the center, the solution, 7-10, and at the end, 10-13, the application to the listeners. You also have an intriguing suggestion that Hebrews may have served as an ancient synagogue homily, Pertishebeov.
Tell us about that. Yes, we have hints in the text at that point to Yom Kippur. And many have mentioned that in their exegesis, and no one so far Tishabeov. Why did I come up with that?
The reason is mainly two things. The one is, I was very fascinated. And in order to learn or understand more how a synagogue year, liturgical year happens, I requested at the synagogue community in Basel where I was living and studying whether I could be or follow them through an entire liturgical year, and they were generous enough to allow me to do that. That was very interesting and I learned a lot to that.
And the second was, or not they had, but they know someone that in Basel would give the rabbinical teachings out of the Hebrew Bible, but also rabbinical texts, Rabbi from France, who was generous enough to allow also non-Jews to participate. And I just simply learned so much in that time. And one thing was also that these readings that we looked before, Jeremiah and Exodus 32, 33, are based on synagogue readings. And we know from ancient time, not that as old as the New Testament, but perhaps more towards the end of antiquity, the third, fourth century from the Cairo Geniza, that they have uncovered ancient synagogue liturgy cycles.
And there I found that Exodus 32, 33, and Jeremiah 31, is usually linked to Tisha Be'av. And what is Tisha Be'av? Tisha Be'av is the ninth of the fifth month, with the name of. And Tisha Be'av is the lowest and saddest day.
So usually the synagogue has no embellishment or you have your head is covered and you mourn sins on that day. Perhaps I could Friday for us Christians. And I also learned that Tisha Be'av has a twin. And the twin is Yom Kippur.
Yom Kippur is the highest feast in Jewish liturgy, but has also a lot of aspects of sin and covenant renewal. And why are they twins? Because they're exactly 80 days apart. So exactly 80 days after Tisha Be'av comes Yom Kippur in the month Tisha.
And why is that? The Rabbi explained to me that that goes back to the narrative, the biblical narrative. And I learned in that synagogue year that the Jewish feasts are very closely related to the biblical narrative, also in its chronology. And the moment when the Israelites had this idol of the golden calf, and Moses descended from Sinai and destroyed the tablets for Jews, that is related to Tisha Be'av.
And then as we know, he went back to the mountain all in all twice. So that for 40 days and 49. So that sums up in 80. This is Bet MDM Casino, and check out the newest exclusive, The Price is Right Fortune Pick.
Bet MDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus the wager. Ontario only, please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor. Real charge.
Bet MDM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. So that's why they are 80 days apart. And one could argue that the sins of Tisha Be'av are rectified at Yom Kippur. And interestingly enough, in the course of time in Judaism, Tisha Be'av has attracted a lot of calamities.
Various ones, the most important are the destruction of the First Temple. But also the second happened apparently on that day, Tisha Be'av, as to see for sin forms us. So we see that to the theological concept of sin and covenant is also a historical component. The destruction of the temple means God retreats because of sin and leaves his people as prey to the enemy.
So the temple is destroyed. That means he's no longer there. He's gone. And so one could argue or I have argued that could be a hint that the author of Hebrews is occupied with giving answers to the fact that what do we do now that we don't have atoning sacrifices any longer?
How can sacrifice happen and how can covenant renewal happen? If there is no covenant renewal, there is no future for us without God going ahead of us. So he comes with this wonderful theological counseling answer way of arguing to an answer to that. So that's basically why I have connected it to Tisha Be'av.
Hebrews is famous where it's called to join Jesus, quote, outside the camp, end quote, in chapter 13. You connect that language to Exodus 32 and 33. Would you expand on this idea for us? Yes, glad he.
So if we go back to the narrative, the listeners or you certainly might recall that the camp was considered contaminated. So sin causes contamination. And that's why Moses decided to move with his tent outside of the contaminated camp. And the situation was that that everything was prepared to erect a tabernacle.
And then that sin happened, which violated the first commandment. It was a severe sin and broke the first covenant that was just forged. So it was very, very severe. And Moses out there was occupied with trying to convince God to not leave his people, to come back, to forgive and to walk ahead of them to the promised land and not have the angels there.
That's why we probably have the angels in chapter one and two in Hebrews. That they are the sign of God replacing himself because he doesn't want to be there. So what he did there was intercession. And Philo has a wonderful take of that.
He compares him there as a high priest, Avon La Lettre. And that his tent is the tabernacle, Avon La Lettre, before the actual first was erected. And that his intercession, Philo interprets us, sacrifice his tears and prayers and cries in a type where sacrifice didn't exist. And the people that were involved into that sin were encouraged to go outside.
So sin has multiple aspects. It's not just done with forgiving. There needs to be a sacrifice. There needs to be a godly forgiveness.
There needs to be an inner, you know, turning around and repent. These are all aspects of sinning and atoning. So they were invited to go outside to Moses and rectify their fault. Those that had survived, couple were killed in that instance by sword and some by disease as a direct consequence.
So going out here has a deep function. It serves or it's the pretext in order to renew the covenant. And Moses finally succeeded and then comes that wonderful passage in 34 where God allows to see his back on Mount Sinai and his face is glowing. And God forgives them and promises to return and go ahead and the covenant is renewed.
The Sinai covenant is renewed. So now that's the time of Sinai. What about the time of the abbresies? The majority of the exegetes claim it's happened in Rome after the destruction of the temple.
So after the first Jewish Roman war and what could outside mean to that type of generation in a totally different time? Well, Rome as the capital of idolatry. One could argue, right? We have idol meat sold and eaten there.
And archeologically we have no signs of synagogues in the city whatsoever. But signs outside, a couple of signs, this can have multiple reasons but the contamination could be one. So I have argued with soldier and critical spatiality that going out has also the aspect of resistance because the Jews in Rome, many of them were enslaved Jews that were deported from the Near East to Rome. Going out means not to participate in idolatry.
Going out means not to believe that we have lost forever. Going out means to see the promised land and to have the hope that the covenant will be reerected. And since the author is scolding or working the soul of the listeners and the audience, saying you are in a similar situation like the fathers in the, so that could again point to covenant breaking to the destruction of the temple, it is very important that you go out there because that's the way to the covenant renewal. And one last interesting aspect is that Hebrews doesn't talk of the physical land but of the heavenly land.
There are multiple ways how one can interpret. But I imagine that in the time of the loss of the land and the temple and everything, that that could mean, you know, if there will be covenant renewal and the physical land, that will not happen very soon, most likely. But we still have the heavenly land that is promised to us. This has been a rich and fascinating discussion about the book of Hebrews.
Gabriela, thank you so much for joining us on the New Books Network. You're welcome. Thank you for having me again. All the best to you.
Friends, thank you for listening to New Books in Biblical Studies, a channel of the New Books Network. Until next time, goodbye.