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from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage . . . . . but Jerusalem which is above is
free . . . . ." (Gal. 4: 22-31).
"But now He hath obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the
mediator of a better covenant . . . . . for if that first covenant had been faultless . . . . ."
(Heb. 8: 6-13).
"For this cause He is the mediator of the new testament (covenant) . . . . ."
(Heb. 9: 15-20; 12: 24).
"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord . . ."
(Heb. 10: 16).
In both Galatians and Hebrews a mediator is stressed (Gal. 3: 19, 20; Heb. 8: 6;
9: 15; 12: 24) and such argument is not found elsewhere. In both, the New Jerusalem
figures prominently (Gal. 4: 26; Heb. 11: 10; 12: 22) and apart from the vision of it
that John describes in Rev. 21:, this city is not mentioned anywhere else in the N.T.
In both the characteristic Pauline doctrine of perfecting or going on to maturity is
stressed, "Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect (epiteleo) by the flesh?"
(Gal. 3: 3). "Let us go on to perfection" (Heb. 6: 1). Teleioo and its cognates occur no
less than 24 times in this epistle. In fact these give its very doctrine, and without this, any
exposition goes astray and misses the point. Reaching maturity or the goal, through trial
and discipline, or missing it, is the essence of this letter. For the Israel redeemed from
Egypt, the goal was Canaan; for the Hebrew believer to whom the Hebrew epistle was
addressed, it was the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 11: 10, 14-16; 12: 22), which finally
finds its location on the new earth (Rev. 21:). Telos occurs five times (Heb. 3: 6, 14;
6: 8, 11; 7: 3); teleios twice (Heb. 5: 14; 9: 11); teleioo 9 times (Heb. 2: 10; 5: 9;
7: 19, 28; 9: 9; 10: 1, 14; 11: 40; 12: 23); teleiosis once (Heb. 7: 11); teleiotes once
(Heb. 6: 1) and teleiotes once (Heb. 12: 2); sunteleo once (Heb. 8: 8); sunteleia once
(Heb. 9: 26); epiteleo twice (Heb. 8: 5; 9: 6); and teleutao once (Heb. 11: 22). The
whole discourse revolves around the things which can or cannot perfect or led to
maturity.
Developing from this is the antithesis between babyhood and adulthood, which is
likewise peculiarly Pauline and is found elsewhere only in Hebrews.
"And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even
as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat . . ." (I Cor. 3: 1, 2).
"For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again
which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of
milk, and not of strong meat . . . . . for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them
that are of full age (teleios) . . . . ." (Heb. 5: 12-14).
Compare also Eph. 4: 13, 14, ". . . . . till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of
the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect (full grown) man, unto the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children (babes)",
also I Cor. 14: 20, "Brethren, be not children in understanding: . . . . . but in
understanding be men" (margin perfect or of full age).
Added to this we must keep in mind that the goal of the race or contest is this
perfecting or maturity, whether in Hebrews or Paul's writings. "Let us go on to full
growth (perfection)" (Heb. 6: 1). "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,