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Hebrews

About this book
Chapter 3

1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly calling, take note of Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess, 2 who is faithful to the one who appointed him, as Moses was also in God’s house. 3 For he has come to deserve greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house deserves greater honor than the house itself! 4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant,⁠ to testify to the things that would be spoken. 6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. We are of his house, if in fact we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope we take pride in. 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness. 9 There your fathers tested me and tried me, and they saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, ‘Their hearts are always wandering, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’” 12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes the living God. 13 But exhort one another each day, as long as it is called “Today,” that none of you may become hardened by sin’s deception. 14 For we have become partners with Christ, if in fact we hold our initial confidence firm until the end. 15 As it says, “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For which ones heard and rebelled? Was it not all who came out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership? 17 And against whom was God provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness?⁠ 18 And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief.

Texts in conversation

Compare Hebrews 3:5 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 43:1

New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

In 1 Clement, the author calls Moses a faithful servant in all the house of God, the description from Numbers 12 that Hebrews also applies to him, but where Hebrews uses it to rank Moses below Jesus, Clement makes Moses the model the apostles followed.

Passages

Hebrews 3:5

New Testament
1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly calling, take note of Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess, 2 who is faithful to the one who appointed him, as Moses was also in God’s house. 3 For he has come to deserve greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house deserves greater honor than the house itself! 4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken. 6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. We are of his house, if in fact we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope we take pride in.
80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Hebrews

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 43:1

Early Christian · First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
1 And is it any wonder that those who were entrusted in Christ with such a work by God appointed the persons already mentioned? For even the blessed Moses who was a faithful servant in all His house recorded as a sign in the sacred books everything that was commanded him. And the rest of the prophets followed him, bearing witness with him to the laws he had laid down. 2 For when jealousy arose over the priesthood, and the tribes were disputing which of them was adorned with the glorious name, he commanded the twelve chiefs of the tribes to bring him rods inscribed with the name of each tribe. And he took them and tied them and sealed them with the signet rings of the chiefs of the tribes, and put them away in the tabernacle of the testimony on the table of God.
90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Clement of Rome, 1 Clement

References

“... The most important similarities are as follows: Jesus is one “who, being the reflection of [God’s] majesty is greater than angels to the extent that he has inherited a more excellent name” (1 Clem. 36:2 / Heb 1:2–4). [...] Both authors list examples of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Rahab, and those who went about “in the skins of sheep and goats” (1 Clem. 9:3–10:1; 12:1–3; 17:1 / Heb 11). Both exhort listeners to hasten toward their goal with eyes fixed upon God (1 Clem. 19:2 / Heb 12:1), caution that God searches people (1 Clem. 21:9 / Heb 4:12), say that it is impossible for God to lie (1 Clem. 27:2 / Heb 6:18), recall that Moses was faithful in God’s house (1 Clem. 43:1 / Heb 3:5), quote Prov 3:12 (1 Clem. 56:4 / Heb 12:6), and identify God as the master or father of spirits (1 Clem. 64:1 / Heb 12:9). ...”
Craig R. Koester, Hebrews: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 22.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Hebrews 3:5 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 43:1

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