The Gospel commentary can be found here. The NT reading is
Chrysostom tells us that wonderful indeed were the things in the Temple, the Holy of Holies. while those things which occurred at Mt Sinai were terrible – ‘a blazing fire, and darkess, and gloom, and a tempest (Deut 33:2). But the New Covenant was given in quite another way – through Jesus Christ, where there is nothing frightening, and where God reveals himself to us more fully than ever before, and through whom alone can we be saved. Where in the OT men feared that to hear the word of God was to die, (Ex 20:19) we know that the Word of God is life, and through Him we shall inherit life eternal.
Instead of Moses, we get Jesus, and instead of the people ‘innumerable angels’. When he speaks of the ‘first born’ he means the faithful – those who are saved in Christ. From the first, therefore, the Israelites were themselves the cause of God’s being manifested in the flesh, and we know, as they did not, that there is no need to fear God speaking to us – provided we follow His precepts through the revelation of Christ. We hear the voice not through the storm or the dark or the fire, but through Jesus Christ.
St Ambrose reminds us that we must always be anxious to hear the Word of God and to obey it. We must be on the watch always – the soul knows no peace until it finds it in Christ. Just as Christ raised Adam and Eve, so too did he raise Abel, for his offerings were pleasing to God. Jesus offered himself as the one perfect sacrifice acceptable to God. We are purified by that precious blood. What was prefigured in the Old testament is revealed more full in the New, and we are to attend on Christ and the revelation and the Good News he brings. There, alone, can salvation be found.
All Along the Watchtower 
The Epistle to the Hebrews is a marvellous letter, very deep, very rich, and very challenging. Like you, I feel it calls us to “see beyond”. As St. Paul says, “what is seen is temporary; what is unseen is eternal.” By human standards the glory of the Temple is more impressive, but we are called to see as God does, as it says in 1 Samuel: “man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.” It is in interesting thought that all the OT theophanies were glorious (Ezek. 1; Is. 6); but the ultimate theophany is the Incarnation. Of Him, Isaiah says that “He had no comeliness such that we should pay attention to Him.” I have taken this as an important lesson for life: Jesus is about character.
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Good points Nicholas, and I agree entirely.
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Do you ever wonder what it must have been like for the priests and Levites who had become Christians to hear that letter read in their congregations? I often wish I could interview people from the Second Temple period to see if their worldview is like we imagine it to be.
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The closest we can come to that is, I think, in some of NT Wright’s work. It is fascinating to wonder how they would have responded to what is in Romans and Hebrews. It would be fascinating to know who wrote Hebrews.
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Unlike the rest of my liberal views, I actually do believe Paul wrote it. It shows the deep knowledge of the Tanakh and analogical thinking that he was best positioned to demonstrate. With all respect to the other Apostles, Paul was really the leader in exposition of this kind at the time (although I wonder if Apollos was of the same standard).
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Tertullian thought it was written by Barnabas, whilst Origen, who had his doubts, accepted the explanation of Clement of Alexandria that it had been written by Paul in Hebrew and translated into Latin by St Luke. There’s no reason to suppose that very ancient tradition was not correct.
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Origen’s comments seem to me apt:
‘But as for myself, if I were to state my own opinion, I should say that the thoughts are those of the apostle [Paul], but that the diction and phraseology are those of someone who wrote down at his leisure what had been said by his teacher. Therefore, if any church holds that this epistle is by Paul, let it be commended for this. For not without reason have the ancients handed it down as Paul’s. But who wrote the epistle, in truth, God knows.’
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