Questions to the text

Here is an example of questions addressed to a text.

(From the Harvard course : http://icommons.harvard.edu/~hds-1529/) If you have time look at the other assignments on this course - we may derive some questions we can handle from these.

Moving from the text to the social setting is a complicated business. Heb 6:1–3 may contain indications of what the community to which Hebrews was addressed was doing. What can you say about the community on the basis of these verses, reading them, of course, within the whole context of Hebrews? You may want to address such questions as the following:

1. What did this community do when they came together? Try to be as specific as possible.

2. What was the process of entering this community?

3. What knowledge is presupposed by Hebrews? What experiences?

4. What were the ritual actions of this community? How did they compare with the actions of other early Christian communities?

The parenetic material in Heb 10:19–39 provides us the opportunity to consider the social and historical setting of Hebrews in more depth. In particular, we should think about how we move from the text to what was actually happening in the situation in which the audience lived. As you analyze this passage and formulate an argument about the social and historical situation of the audience, the following questions may be useful.

1. What indications of social setting does this passage provide? Is the parenesis general and traditional or quite specific to the audience's situation? How would we tell?

2. What is the relation of the quotations from scripture in these verses to the parenesis? Why are these quotations used? How do they help us to locate the social setting of the audience?

3. Does this passage suggest a specific occasion for the composition of Hebrews?