The Relationship of Jewish and Gentile Believers to the Law Between A.D. 30 and 70 in the Scripture

41 superior to the Aaronic priesthood (Gen 14), the Aaronic priesthood has been replaced . And since the Old Covenant was based upon the priesthood it too has been replaced . Thus , the new covenant has replaced the old covenant (chapter 8) along with its Tabernacle/Temple regulations (chapter 9), the most prominent of which is the sacrificial system (chapter 10). The book was probably written between A.D. 65 and 70 . This would effectively make it one of the last books of the New Testament to have been written, except of course , for the Johannine writings. This book, therefore, effectively closes the door on the Old Covenant. The author's argumentation is unique in the New Testament and is persuasive because it argues principally from texts firmly rooted in the Old Testament (Gen 14; Psa 110). If the Law is a unit , and we would affirm it to be, it is completely abrogated by this book. No part of the Law continues to be valid for the Jewish Christian today . The message of Hebrews, clear and final though it is , should not however be read anachronistically into the earlier New Testament era . As Hurst so aptly warn : "The tendency to homogenize the thinking of the New Te tament writer and to read later theological concerns into their statements has been with u alway . It i , howe er, a temptation which the New Testament theologian must resi t if the purity of the discipline is to be preserved . " 62 " l