Excursus: Jesus as “Word” (Hebrews
4:12-13)
Almost all contemporary exegetes and
most exegetes of the recent part hold the word λογος in Heb 4:12 means the voice of God or his revelation or his
message or his teaching, not Jesus as the Word analogous to the Johannine sense.
But the latter meaning seems more plausible when one pays closer attention the
contrast which is being made between the λογος of v. 12 and Joshua (v. 8: ‘Ιησους). Joshua was unsuccessful in his attempt to introduce the
people into God’s Rest, but the λογος
of God is effective because it is sharper than any two-edged knife. The point is
the comparison is the contrast between the ineffectual circumcision carried out
by Joshua and the effective circumcision achieved by Jesus: v. 12 is a
description of a circumcision of the heart which truly ushers the people into God’s
Rest, i.e., eternal life.
This interpretation is more consistent
with the use of ζων elsewhere the epistle, (Elsewhere in the epistle ζων is used for God himself [3:12, 9:14,
10:31, 12:22] for Christ [7:25, 10:20], and for human life [2:15, 7:8, 9:17,
10:38, 12:9] but never for non-personal life) and explains how the power of the
λογος of words can be
extolled in the context of an exhortation of the recipients to hear the word
represented by Ps 95.
The λογος of v. 13 can be understood in the
same sense as in v. 12, but in v. 13, Jesus is regarded as the λογος who in his risen
state abides with God. The use of προς
parallels its use in Jn 1:1 and 1 Jn 1:2. This interpretation explains why the
author can continue in vv. 14-16 with a discussion of Jesus in heaven who is priest
and dispenser of mercy.
This use of the imagery of a “two-edged
knife” to illustrate the power of a word is found in the “Words of Ahiqar”, a
collection of sayings originating in Mesopotamia from before the fifth century
B.C. and enjoying widespread use in the whole Middle East up into Christian
times. The resemblance with Heb 4:12 is so striking that there is probably a
dependence on the part of Hebrews is not on the “Words of Ahiqar”, then on a
common tradition. (James Swetnam, Jesus and Isaac: A Study of the Epistle to
the Hebrews in the Light of the Aqedah [Analecta Biblica 94; Rome: Biblical
Institute Press, 1981], 151-52)
