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"What, in reality, do we find? Just this--two epistles or writings, in close succession,
in a professedly Pauline section of the New Testament, are merely separated or divided
off, the one from the other, by the words pros Hebraious--`to Hebrews'."
The writer proceeds to give evidence to prove that the epistle to the Galatians is the
"covering letter", and the epistle to the Hebrews is an "enclosure" written especially for
the Hebrews in the churches of Galatia. The reader is referred to these articles for the
details and evidence brought forward. Parallels between the two epistles are suggested;
the quotation of Hab. 2: 4 in Gal. 3: 11, and Heb. 10: 38; the covenant teaching of
Gal. 3: 15-17, 4: 24; Heb. 8: 6-11, 9: 15-20, 10: 16.
Both epistles deal with
mediatorship (Gal. 3: 19, 20; Heb. 8: 6, 9: 15, 12: 24). Galatians 4: 26 speaks of
the Jerusalem that is above, Heb. 12: 22 of the heavenly Jerusalem.
Leaving much that is of interest and help unquoted, we ask the reader's attention to
another parallel which immediately comes to our mind. In Gal. 3: 3 the apostle asks:--
"Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are ye now PERFECTED in the flesh?
Have ye suffered so many things in vain? If it be indeed in vain."
This is practically the question dealt with in Hebrews. The Galatians were in danger
of being led back into bondage; to avoid persecution the Judaisers constrained them to be
circumcised, and to such the apostle's words are very severe; however, there were some
whose attitude toward the flesh enabled them to be designated as the "Israel of God", the
name given to Jacob when the hollow of his thigh was withered, and who after that
mighty change limped, in evidence that his spiritual gain meant "no confidence in the
flesh".
The great theme of the epistle is summarized in one passage:--
"Therefore, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us go on unto
PERFECTION" (Heb. 6: 1).
With this passage may be considered the apostle's words in Phil. 3: 13, 14:--
"Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which
are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus."
While it will be of great value to study the epistle to the Hebrews for its own sake, we
very much desire the interested reader to keep in mind the fact that Phil. 3: will be the
richer and the fuller to him if in this study he will remember that Hebrews deals fully and
in detail with that principle which is unexplained in Phil. 3:, and to which allusion is
somewhat brief. There are many who stumble in their endeavours to interpret the book of
the Revelation partly because they have not grasped the teaching of such books as Daniel,
Zechariah, Isaiah and Jeremiah. So with Phil. 3:, we shall understand it the better when
we read it in the light of the Scripture Commentary of the epistle to the Hebrews.