548 Read the Bible for Yourself 15: How to Read the General Epistles Restitutio

This is part 15 of the Read the Bible For Yourself.
In previous episodes, we've looked at Paul's church epistles and pastoral epistles. Today we move into the third section of epistles in the New Testament--the general epistles. Instead of surveying each of the eight general epistles, we'll just focus on two: Hebrews and 1 John. We'll ask about author, audience, occasion, purpose, and mode for each. Going through these two will hopefully provide you with helpful examples to enable you to read these epistles more fruitfully on your own.
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—— Notes ——
The General Epistles

Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude
Some consider Hebrews to be Pauline, but even if Paul wrote it, it’s not to a church or a pastor, so it still fits as a general epistle
2 John and 3 John are technical to specific individuals and thus not general epistles

Hebrews

Authorship

Evidence for Paul

Associated with Timothy and Rome (Heb 13:23-24)
Pauline themes


Evidence against Paul

Non-Pauline themes
Ancient uncertainty (Origen, Eusebius, etc.)
Non-standard opening
Not an eyewitness (Heb 2:3)


Daniel Wallace suggested Barnabas with help from Apollos.


Audience

As title indicates, the audience was Jewish.
Persecuted (Heb 10:32-36)


Occasion

Became aware of some falling away from faith (Heb 3:6; 4:14; 6:4-6; 10:23, 26-27)
Concern that they will return to Judaism


Purpose

Convince Jewish Christians to endure in the faith instead of falling away (presumably back into Judaism)


Mode

Show that Jesus is better
Ch 1: Jesus as God’s promised Messiah is better than the angels who gave the Law.
Ch 2:  Jesus’ salvation is better b/c he is human.
Ch 3:  Jesus is better than Moses.
Ch 7: Jesus’ priesthood is better than Aaron’s.
Ch 8:  Jesus’ covenant is better than the old covenant b/c it has better promises.
Ch 9:  Jesus’ heavenly priestly service is better than the priests serving at the temple on earth.
Ch 10:  Jesus’ sacrifice is better than animal sacrifices.
Ch 11: The unshakable Mt. Zion covenant is better than the covenant at Mt. Sinai.
Overall rhetorical effect to ask, “Why in the world would Christ-followers want to downgrade to Judaism after they’ve tasted something so much better?”



1 John

Authorship

No author in the document itself (1 John 1:1)
Early Christians refer to this letter as written by John

Irenaeus (a.d. 180) attributed the Gospel of John and 1 John to “John, the disciple of the Lord”[1]
Later Christians agreed, including Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and the Muratorian Canon
Eusebius says, “But of John’s writings, in addition to the Gospel, the first of the letters is unambiguously accepted [as genuine] both by people today and by the ancients” (H.E. 3.24.17)[2]


Definitely the same John who wrote the Gospel of John (John the Apostle)

Same vocabulary and writing style


Audience

Christians that John is worried about


Occasion: concern over rogue Christians

“They went out from us, but they did not belong to us” (1 John 2:19).
They are trying to deceive the regular Christians (2:26; 3:7).
Many false prophets have gone out (4:1).
They are denying that Jesus is the Christ (2:22).
They may