Jobes Reason For Transitioning The Catholic Epistles

In the introduction, Jobes gives a brief description of the reason for transitioning the “catholic epistles” to the more commonly known “general epistles”. She also explains that unlike the Gospels and other New Testament books, the epistles delve into real issues and circumstances that the church faced at that time helping scholars better understand the time and place in which they were written. Jobes then brings up the matter of whether the epistles could be pseudepigraphal or not. Lastly, Jobes conveys the need for biblical studies of the New Testament for the fact that reading from a spiritual or devotional standpoint one cannot fully grasp what the author truly intended. One must study the circumstances and cultures in which the text was
Jobes explains that if the audience where predominately Jewish that scholars have presented three potential locations that the book was intended for. She goes on to explain with examples from other scholars why each location is contemplated but ends the section like the previous, with no real answers, only speculation. The next topic Jobes delves into is when the book was written. Without a concrete audience and location in which the book was sent, it has been difficult to date the book as well. Jobes presents the known facts that scholars have used to date the book, such as references from other texts, and a look within the text itself compared to things that were happening in the general areas that the text may be intended for, to gather a suggested date in which the text was
It is also questioned because Hebrews contains many conventional forms of rhetoric, suggestion that it may have been intended as a sermon rather than a letter. As well as being written like a sermon, Hebrews contains rich theological concepts like Christology, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, the new covenant, dualism. and Angelolgy which display who Jesus is and how he fulfilled the old covenant in order to bring the new covenant. Lastly, Jobes deals with the canonicity of Hebrews, explaining that Hebrews has been well preserved through manuscripts. Showing that the earliest manuscripts circulated in a corpus with Paul’s writings, which Jobes suggests that may be why it was presumed to have Pauline authorship. If Rome was the intended audience for this book, they resisted canonizing the book, as it never made the Muratorian Canon. However, the Western fathers as well as the eastern Mediterranean churches accepted the text as canonical quite early. While the authorship still remains a mystery, the church still values the book for its important