A Jewish Reading of Hebrews 1 and Philippians 2

PART 1 – PREFACE

Israel and Her Scriptures

The Scriptures are not just a wandering collection of ancient religious ideas. They are the literary inheritance of a particular people—Israel, the covenant family chosen to bear the Name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. From the first words of Genesis to the final visions of Revelation, the Bible is Israel’s book: given to Israel, through Israel, for Israel, by Israel and about Israel.

This is not a matter of ethnic pride but covenantal reality. The God of Israel did not reveal His Word in abstraction. He entrusted it to a people, a land, a language, and a story. The Torah, the Prophets, the Writings, and the apostolic testimony all arise from Israel’s soil and speak Israel’s theological grammar. To read these Scriptures apart from Israel is to uproot a tree from its native ground and then wonder why its fruit tastes strange.

The Bible is Jewish literature in every meaningful sense. Its language is Hebrew and Aramaic and also Greek; its worldview is covenantal and temple‑centered; its categories—Torah, righteousness, Messiah, sacrifice, glory, the Name—are Israel’s categories. Even the New Testament, often miscast as a departure from Judaism, is written entirely by Jews, about the God of Israel, fulfilling the Scriptures of Israel, and addressed first to Israel before the nations.

Israel’s election, however, is not for privilege alone. It is for mission. Israel is called to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6), a people through whom the nations learn the ways of the God of Jacob. The prophets envision a world in which the nations stream to Zion, saying, “Teach us, for God is with you” (Zech 8:23). The Torah goes forth from Zion not because Israel hoards revelation, but because Israel mediates it.

This means the nations are invited—indeed summoned—hear, listen and read the Scriptures. But they must hear, listen and read them with Israel, not apart from her. When the nations attempt to interpret Israel’s Scriptures without Israel’s voice, Israel’s memory, and Israel’s covenantal categories, the result is predictable: distortions, misreadings, and doctrines foreign to the text itself. The long history of Gentile interpretation bears witness to this danger.

Act 15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

Philippians 2:6–11 is a case in point. Torn from its Jewish world, the passage is often read through Greek metaphysics—essence, ontology, substance. But Paul is not a Greek metaphysician. He is a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee steeped in the Scriptures of Israel, writing in the patterns of Israel’s story. The so‑called “Christ hymn” only becomes clear when read through the lenses of Genesis 3, Exodus 23, Isaiah 52–53, Daniel 7, Psalm 110, and the wider world of Second Temple Jewish agency theology.

Paul is not inventing a new religion. He is interpreting Jesus within Israel’s covenantal narrative, using Israel’s Scriptures, for Israel’s understanding—and for the nations who will learn from Israel. Only when the nations receive this hymn from Israel’s hands, rather than imposing foreign categories upon it, does its meaning emerge with clarity and power.

This preface is therefore a reminder and a summons: the Scriptures belong to Israel, and the nations must learn them as Israel’s Scriptures. To read the Bible rightly is to read it with Israel, through Israel, and within Israel’s story. Only then can the nations behold the exalted Messiah of Philippians 2 as Paul intended: the obedient Servant whom the God of Israel has raised above every name, to the glory of the Father.

Next – Part 2 – Hebrews 1:6 From The Perspective Of Israel And Her Scriptures