New Exodus in Hebrews

For many readers the Epistle to the Hebrews is among the most difficult books of the New Testament. Korean scholar Bong-chur Shin’s work provides a welcome insight into interpretive issues for biblical scholars and serious students. The book provides an exegetical framework which helps readers navigate the meaning of the text, by examining the epistle in the light of the New Testament’s ‘New Exodus’ imagery.

By discussing the underlying themes of corporate deliverance, Christ as a royal priest who (by means of his redeeming sacrifice) leads his people out of exile and provides for them during their pilgrimage journey, the author provides an interpretative key which helps unlock a fuller understanding of the epistle in its original context. 

Dr. Shin's exploration of the new exodus motif in Hebrews adds to works that have taken place in other portions of the New Testament, namely sections of the Gospels, Acts, the Pauline corpus, and Petrine and Johannine literature. Broadly the work is useful in considering the conceptualization of the new exodus in New Testament, and specifically in understanding how aspects of the new exodus are realized in Hebrews, including corporate deliverance through a wilderness journey, Melchizedekian and Davidic imagery applied to Christ the royal priest who leads out of exile, Paschal substitution and redemption, and pneumatic sustenance during the pilgrimage journey-all parallel to the embryonic nation's experience out of Egypt and later as a remnant in Babylonia-Persia. I recommend this work for serious students of biblical theology and others who seek to understand the paradigmatic underpinnings of the epistle. Readers can benefit from the volume's contextualization of difficult sections by providing interpretive backgrounds that better explain otherwise baffling passages. - Dr. Richard M. Cozart, Professor of Biblical Studies, CBS, Houston, TX.

Rev. Dr. Bong Shin Chur has been diligent in pursuing in depth the Old Testament roots and theology within the Letter to the Hebrews.  He makes good use of the Hebrew and Greek languages to establish that the New Testament writers had a dominant Hebraic lens in their interpretation of the Old Testament, and that the exodus remained a prominent theme for them. The author interacts extensively with contemporary scholarship yet dares to probe, question assumptions and to argue his position persuasively.  For example, he establishes that the new exodus expectations highlighted by the Old Testament prophets in the second Temple of Judaism can be clearly identified in the text of the Hebrews epistle.  Further, the theme of deliverance proclaimed by these Old Testament prophets is confirmed as the framework around which the new exodus Old Testament expectations are unified and expounded in the New Testament. If read carefully, this book will yield rich results for scholars, preachers and serious students of the Word. There is much more treasure within the text of this Letter to the Hebrews than many imagine and this book will assist you in mining that treasure and sharing it with others. - Rev. Dr .  D. Eryl  Davies, MA, BD, PhD, Principal Emeritus (1985–2006) , 2006–present. Bangor University, Wales, UK.

Bong-chur Shin has provided an invaluable study of the New Exodus motif which controls the theology of the entire letter to the Hebrews. It is an essential read for any who teach or preach from this important letter because it guides the reader to see things that are otherwise missed. - Dr Tom Holland, Senior Research Fellow, Union School of Theology, Oxford.