Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 22, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 16.

"IF YE WILL INQUIRE, INQUIRE YE."

This Inquirers’ Department is conducted for the purpose of helping those who are studying the Bible. The answers are oftentimes only suggestive. They are never to be considered infallible, only as they agree with the infallible Word. The writer who may answer them does not consider that his opinion is infallible. He will simply give the best that he has, and plead with the inquirer to search the Word. Such questions only will be answered as, to the editors, seem to minister to the good of the readers and to the mission of the paper. We can not answer repeatedly to the same volume questions upon the same scripture. The name and address must accompany question, not for publication, but as an evidence of good faith, and that answer may be made by letter if deemed advisable. No letters are answered which do not contain the name of the writer. It is well always to enclose stamp for reply.

4349 — Authorship of the Book of Hebrews

I would like definite information regarding the author of the book of Hebrews. I believe that Paul wrote this epistle, but would like historical proof.

A. F. M.

There is no historical proof regarding the authorship of the book of Hebrews. All that we have is conjecture. What seems to make it quite clear that Paul did not write it is the following: (1) It does not begin as do the epistles of Paul. He invariably opens as other apostles, by a salutation which informs us whom the epistle is from. See Romans, Corinthians, etc., etc. The first word in every one of his other epistles is “Paul,” designating himself as an apostle, a servant, as a prisoner. Not so does the book of Hebrews begin. The title note at the close of the epistle, “Written to the Hebrews from Italy by Timothy,” is not inspired; and even though it were, it might have been given to Timothy from others as well as from Paul. (2) About the only reason that is alleged for the Pauline-epistle authorship is that it must have been written by some one who understood well the Jewish types and ceremonies, who was also a clear reasoner, etc., but this certainly was true of others besides Paul. (3) Paul tells us in Gal. 1:11, 12: “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” This is also stated elsewhere. But the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews, in speaking of the revelation of the gospel, says, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him?” This might have been true of Barnabas and of Apollos, but not of Paul. (4) Some of those who have given study to the question believe that Apollos wrote the epistle. Some believe that it was written by Barnabas, while still others hold that it was probably written by Priscilla, the wife of Aquila. On the face of it, it seems quite certain that it was not written by Paul; but by whom it was written we do not know. It certainly bears every evidence that it was given by the inspiration of the Spirit.

4050 — The New and the Old Covenant

Does the new covenant require that the Ten Commandments must be obeyed? And does the new covenant command to keep the Sabbath? Was the new covenant the same for the old true believer as after the death of Christ? And was Christ the minister of the Holy Spirit to man’s heart in the time of the old covenant during the earthly ministration?

O. C. H.

The new covenant is called new simply and solely because it was the last ratified. It is, however, the covenant of all ages into which the saved soul enters. It is therefore called “the everlasting covenant,” and the blood of Jesus “the blood of the everlasting covenant.” Heb. 13:20. He was the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” It was the covenant which God made with man when man fell, which He confirmed to Abraham with an oath, and which Jesus ratified by His death upon the cross. It is the covenant the surety of which rests upon God’s power to save. The old covenant made with Israel, as recorded in Exodus 19 and Exodus 24, had the same basic principles as the new covenant, the law of God. In fact, the whole object of the great plan of salvation is to bring men back into harmony with God’s government, against which man has rebelled. But to be in harmony with God’s government is to keep the law of that government willingly, gladly. In the new covenant, as more fully expressed in Jeremiah 31 and Heb. 8:10-12, God covenants to write that law in the heart and in the mind. So it was with Jesus. “I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Ps. 40:8. Those who say that they are the servants of Christ by calling Him Lord, deny that very thing by not obeying His law. “Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” The covenant made at Sinai, however, with Israel, is no stronger than the promises which Israel themselves made,—“All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient;” and yet those same Israelites prayed, when God spoke His law, that the Lord would not speak to them any more. They did not have the law of God in their hearts. That old covenant stands for these two things,—first, that man has no power in and of himself to do God’s will; and secondly, that no national covenant will save individuals. And yet there were those who lived in that time that were saved. Moses was saved, and the glory of God was within and without. He was willing that God should speak, and willing that the glory of justification should shine away the glory of condemnation; and it did, so that his very face shone. Ex. 34:29-35. But the children of Israel who asked that God should not speak to them any more (Ex. 20:19; Deut. 5:25), saw only the glory of the condemnation, and their hearts remained hardened, and they were not willing that God should write His law there.

All the commandment keepers of the past dispensation, all those who obeyed God from the heart, obeyed Him by faith in the Christ who was to come, in the sacrifice which God Himself made; and all the offerings which they presented at His altar were by faith, showing that they had belief in His plan and power and love. All those who simply kept the old covenant, endeavored to follow the righteousness of the law in their own strength, and they perished by the way. This is just as true in this dispensation,—those who endeavor to keep God’s law in their own strength, or fix up some way of their own, will be left to themselves, and will perish; but those who by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ receive of His righteousness and the gift of life, will also receive forgiveness of sins, and God will write the law in their hearts, so that they will say, “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3. Christ died “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” See Rom. 8:1-4. The law is the law of God; Jesus Christ is the Son of God; the Spirit is the Spirit of God. How utterly unreasonable and absurd it is to say that God’s Spirit teaches that we need not keep His law, or by its influence steels our hearts against it! It is true that we do not keep God’s law in order to be saved, but it is also true that the saved man will obey God in every known duty.

4051 — The Catacombs

When, and by whom, and for what purpose, were the catacombs built?

X. X. X.

The term “catacombs” is the name of certain subterranean galleries and halls in which the ancient church buried their dead. This was continued up to the fifth century. They seem to have been constructed for that very purpose. The pagans called these burial places “dormitoria,” “sleeping places.” The Christians adopted this name, and of course it meant much more to them than it did to the pagans, because they looked forward to the morning when the Master should come and awaken the sleepers. These catacombs are found in Syria, Alexandria, Melos, Malta, Sicily, Spain, and various parts of Italy, especially in Naples and Rome. The most important are under the hills just outside the gates of Rome,—fifty-four in number, with many corridors and galleries. If stretched out in one continuous line, the “Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia” tells us, they would reach from one end of the Italian peninsula to the other. They are computed to house about six millions of dead. Twenty-four of these are found around Rome, and thirty in other parts of Italy.

It is sometimes said that these were only quarries that were abandoned, but it has later been ascertained beyond doubt that such was the case only with a few of them. First they were not built secretly, nor fitted up in a poor and dismal style. The entrances to these places were at first open and public; but later, when persecution came, the original entrances were covered up, and new entrances were made in some forgotten corner, where they were not easily detected.

It was not until after persecutions began, in the second and third centuries, that the catacombs were used for religious services, more frequently during the third and fourth centuries. During some of these times, under the fierce persecutions, some Christians were imprisoned in these catacombs, and buried alive. It is said that between the years 338 and 364, two thirds of the Christians who died in Rome were buried in the catacombs; but between 373 and 400, not more than one third; after 410 only a few; and none after 454. But in Sicily the interment in catacombs continued as late as the ninth and tenth centuries. After 410 the catacombs began to fall into decay.

4052 — The Way of the Red Sea, Num. 21:4

How could they go by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom?

X. X. X.

If our inquirer will turn to a map of the peninsula of Sinai, she will find Mount Hor just north of a branch of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Akaba; but this Gulf of Akaba was evidently counted as the Red Sea, because it was really an arm, a tributary, of the Red Sea, just as the Gulf of Suez might be counted a part of the Red Sea. The children of Israel, instead of crossing eastward over that mountain chain, came away down nearly to the head of the Gulf of Akaba, and went northward around the land of Edom. The lower part of the peninsula of Sinai was compassed on both sides by arms of the Red Sea.

4053 — Hardening the Heart

What is meant by, “But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart”?

G. D.

If our inquirer will read chapters 5-11 of the book of Exodus, he will have the whole story of the Lord’s dealings with Pharaoh. God wanted to save Pharaoh, and wanted to save Egypt. He therefore sent Moses and Aaron to appeal to Pharaoh in the kindest and most reasonable way. He said, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” Surely the request was reasonable. It showed this,—that the way Pharaoh was treating them, they could not properly serve God there, and it was necessary for them to go away that they might do that. That serving was first presented as a feast in the wilderness. If Pharaoh had yielded to that, he would have found real blessing in it, and would have been willing to yield to other things, until his heart had been opened to receive the truth of God, as it was with Nebuchadnezzar. But Pharaoh hardened his own heart. His heart was “made strong,” or made stubborn, we are told in the Revised Version, until at last God withdrew His Spirit from the king entirely; and that is spoken of as the Lord hardening his heart. That is the only way God hardens hearts, is to withdraw His Spirit from those who will not receive the admonitions and softening influence of the Spirit. The heart that is open toward God, the heart which confesses its sin, and separates from it, will never find hardness coming over it. “Whom God will, He hardeneth,” but He hardens those only who reject His will, who will not have the Lord to reign over them.