HEBREWS CHAPTER 1 - 6

THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS

The argument among men is the writer
Of the epistle to the Hebrew fighter.
I do not care myself if he's a blighter
Or St. Paul in his own handwriting spriter.
The question above all is whether death
Of Jesus is atonement for sin's breath,
Or whether the atonement finds its place
In intercession by Your divine face.
I much prefer the latter, since the crew
Of pagans often take disarming view
That human sacrifice avails in all
Occasions where the needy hit the wall.
But if redemption at the cross is small,
A death of innocent is great in call.

HEBREWS 1

1 In many ways and means of old
God to the ancestors once told
Things through the prophets to be bold.
2 In these last days He spoke to us
In the Son whom He made with fuss
The heir of everything, through whom
He made the ages in their room,
3 Who being the great splendour of
His glory and true image of
His essence, and upholding all
Things by the word of his strength’s thrall,
Having made purification
Of our sins through himself to run,
He sat down on the right hand’s fly
Of the great Majesty on high,
4 Having become much better than
The angels, inherited span
Of a name grander than they can.
5 For to which angel did He say
“You are My very Son, today
I have begotten You”? Again,
“I will be his Father, and then
He’ll be a son to Me and stay.”
6 And once more when He brought the first
Born in to the world as though cursed,
He said “And let all angels great
Fall prostrating themselves in state.”

The reason, My beloved, the exegete
Can find no place in Tanach for retreat
Where You told angels fall down at his feet
Is simply because the source is not there.
It’s quoted in the Qur’an for a share,
But if the reader does not read that book
And find Your words therein, he’s stumped to look.
And that’s the very reason why all faiths
Are merely illusions’ uncanny wraiths.
There’s hardly any man will that the whole
Of sacred books as true, though on the dole.
I take the Torah, Zabur and Injil
As well as the Qur’an, and so I kneel
Before the Truth that partial books conceal.

7 And as to the angels, He said
“Who makes His angels spirits led,
And His servants of flame of fire,”
8 But to the Son, O Ælohim,
Your throne’s for ever and on beam
A sceptre of uprightness dire,
The sceptre of your kingdom’s ire.”
9 You love righteousness and you hate
Lawlessness, because of this state
Ælohim your God has set you
Anointed with the oil in view
Of gladness by your fellows too.”
10 And “You, Lord, at the start have set
The earth, and the heavens too are met
The works of your hands without debt.
11 “They will vanish, but you will stay,
They’ll become old like garments fray,
12 “And you’ll fold them up like a veil,
And they shall be changed and be stale.
But you remain the same and your
Years shall not fail always to pour.”
13 But to which angel did He say
“Sit at My right hand till My way
Is to place your foes at your feet?”
14 Are they not all servants and meet
To serve and sent out to help those
Inheriting salvation’s rows?

If You, Beloved, set up the Christ to be
Both this and that, it does appear to me
That he must be a separate one from You,
A bodied image to reveal the true.
The writer writing to the old Hebrew
Flies in the face of Trinity when he
Divides the divine substance into three.
I err. In two. It’s so confusing me.
Beloved, I rejoice in all things You do,
Anointing heirs and making sons anew,
Raising above the very angels too.
I prostrate myself at the grand command
To angels to render to him a hand,
What’s angeled can also indeed be manned.

HEBREWS 2

1 Therefore we ought to give the more
Earnest heed to the things before
That we have heard, lest at some time
We should let them slip out of rhyme.
2 For if the word that angels spoke
Was steadfast, and commandments broke
Received a just recompense filled,
3 How shall we escape, if we’ve billed
Neglect to so great a salvation,
Which at the first began in ration
Of the Lord’s speech, and was confirmed
To us by those who heard unsquirmed,
4 God also bears them witness and
With signs and wonders in command
Of many miracles in hand
And gifts of Holy Spirit planned
According to his own will’s stand?

The argument is that since angels and
The prophets spoke the truth at Your command,
And heeding that is necessary stand,
If follows it is necessary now
To listen to Christ Jesus with a bow.
Jesus is proven by two things in tow:
Your witness of his baptism not slow,
And all the miracles he came to show.
The miracles do not move me at all,
Since I see Chinese tricksters on the ball.
But any time You speak, I trust I'll take
The word as seriously as I can make.
It comes down to the trust I have or not
In witnesses at Jordan that were caught.

5 For unto angels he has not
Put in subjection the world’s plot
To come, of which we speak in lot.
6 But one in a certain place said,
“What is man that You mind his bed,
Or son of man, to take his note?
7 “You made him just a little groat
Below the angels, and you crowned
Him with glory and honour found,
Set him over works of Your hands,
8 “You’ve put all things under the bands
Of his feet.” For in that He put
All things subject to him in foot,
He left nothing not at his root.
9 But we see Jesus, who was made
A little lower in parade
Than angels, so he might be placed
To suffer death and be effaced,
Then crowned with glory and in fine
With honour, that he by God’s gift
Should taste of death and so should lift
Up every man. 10 For it was meet
For him, for whom all things and by
Whom are all things, in bringing nigh
So many sons to glory’s treat,
To make the captain of salvation
One perfect through his sufferings’ ration.

The Word of God that You sent to the world
In flesh took flesh and blood and so unfurled
A day of suffering, came specifically
To suffer and to die most humanly.
The lust to taste of death began indeed
As soon as Eve and Adam with their seed
Desired the fruit of death and ate with speed.
The act of Jesus was the same I trow,
But this time with Your permission in scow.
It's You who learned, not humankind a bit.
You learned that men will die if they are fit,
And so You might better give in and say
To them to die and die in sheeply way.
Beloved, can any rise to life for pay?

11 For both the one that sanctifies
And those he puts in holy guise,
Are all of one, for which cause he
Is not ashamed in slight degree
To call them brothers, 12 saying, I
Shall declare your name to the sky
To my brothers, and in the court
Of the called out I shall resort
To sing my praises unto you.
13 Again, I’ll put my trust in view
Of him. And once again, behold
I and the children God was bold
To give to me. 14 Since children are
Partakers of flesh and blood’s bar,
He also likewise took part of
That same relationship in love,
That through death he might destroy him
Who had the power of death and grim,
That is, the devil, 15 and saved those
Who through fear of death in their rows
Were all their lives in chains and throes.
16 For truly he did not take on
The nature of angels in spawn,
But he took on him Abram’s seed.

Ah my Beloved! I’m grateful that the one
You sent to me from heaven was not begun
In such angelic matter that my greed
Could grasp no human sort of passion’s seed.
Not of the fire of heavenly temple nor
The sound of bloodless angels singing more,
Nor Adam’s perfect flesh without the gore,
But of the bone of Abraham that sought
The cool shade of the tent from heavenly lot
Is the foundation of the Christ I’ve sought.
Beloved, kiss me again, and with that life
Set me unmoved within the brazen strife,
And so I may or may not enter in
The chambered fortresses outside the din.

17 That’s why in all things it was meet
For him to be made head to feet
Like brothers, so he might become
A merciful high priest in sum
And faithful in things of God and
Make reconciliation’s stand
For the sins of the folk in band.
18 Because he himself felt the pain
Of being tempted to be vain,
He’s able to give helping hand
To those who’re tempted in the land.

If Your Christ was made in all things the same
As human brothers without claim or name
Of gross divinity, then Jesus came
A man and no more than a man in flame.
If Jesus is a man among all men
Who clamour at Your gates to find again
The heavenly manna shed abroad, I find
That he's come a blind man to lead the blind.
But no, Beloved, Your Word when sent abroad
Shall not return upon the empty sod,
But find the purpose of eternal will,
The grace unmerited to fit the bill.
And so I meet the man of long ago
And find him waiting still for today's show.

HEBREWS 3

1 So holy brothers and partakers
Of the celestial calling’s makers,
Consider the Apostle and
High Priest of our profession’s stand,
Christ Jesus, 2 who was faithful to
Him who created him to do,
As was Moses one faithful too
In all his house, in all his crew.
3 For this one is considered more
Worthy of glory in the store
Than Moses, since who built the house
Has more honour than just the house.
4 For every house has been built by
Someone, but the one from the sky
Who's built all things is God to spy.
5 Moses truly was faithful in
All his house, as servant to win
A witness of those things that came
After to be spoken for fame.
6 But Christ is son in his own house,
Whose house we are, both man and spouse,
If we hold fast the confidence
And the rejoicing in defence
Of hope until the end and fence.

The writer to the Hebrews clearly makes
Distinction between son and servant's sakes.
If Moses is a servant and the Christ
Is Son of God, that belies the bespiced
Disarming conclusion that the Acts make
That Jesus is the grand fulfilling stake
Of the great promise made that there should be
A prophet rising to sit in the see
Of Moses and one like him as a pea.
Myself, I think the verses came to say
That Joshua would come to save the day.
But then the name's the same for both of them,
Despite the centuries that part the stem.
Beloved, a son or servant, here I stay.

7 That's why as says the Holy Ghost,
Today, if you will hear his boast,
8 Don't harden your hearts, as in crime
Of provocation, in the time
Of desert tempting, 9 when ancestors
Of yours were tempting Me like questers,
And tried Me and saw all My acts
For forty years and knew the facts.
10 So I was grieved with that band and
Its generation in the land,
And said “They always make mistakes
In their hearts, and as it betakes
Have not known the ways from My hand.
11 “So I swore in My wrath to stand,
They'll not enter into My rest.
12 “Beware then, brothers, now and lest
There be in any of you an
Evil heart of unbelief's span,
Departing from living God's scan.
13 “But exhort each other each day,
While it is called today, and say
Lest any of you become hard
In sin's deceitfulness unstarred.

Ha! If I dared exhort any man here
That weighs upon the earth and without fear,
I'd hear my honour dragged up in the dust,
And feel the blow of steel upon the crust
Of cranium before I spoke my lust.
If I dared on a day and any day
To speak a word for against any fray,
There would be many waiting there to say
I'd better shut my mouth or learn to pray.
Beloved, sin is deceitful in its course,
But it's as good a bet as any horse
For those who lay their money on the bourse.
And every day is called today except
In Scotland where the article's more ept.

14 For we're made partakers of Christ,
If we hold the start of the heist
Of confidence steadfast to end,
15 While it's said “Today if you'll hear
His voice, don't harden hearts from cheer
As in the provocation's year.”
16 For some, when they had heard, provoked,
Yet not all that came out unyoked
From Egypt by Moses with fear.
17 With whom was He grieved forty year?
Not with them who'd sinned, and whose bones
Fell among the desert and stones?
18 And to whom did He swear they'd not
Enter into His rest as sought,
But to those that denied His plot?
19 So we see they could not go in
Because of unbelief as sin.

HEBREWS 4

1 So let us fear, lest promise left
To go to his rest leave bereft
Any of you come short of it.
2 For us the gospel was a hit
When preached to us as well as them,
But the word preached did not profit
Them, since they had no faith in hem.
3 That's why we have believed to go
Into rest as he said with glow
Of wrath when sworn, ”If they shall go
Into My rest, and so although
The works were done from the word go.”
4 For he spoke in a certain place
Of the seventh day in this trace,
”And God did rest the seventh day
From all His works then on display.”
5 And in this text again, ”If they
Shall go into My rest one day.”
6 So since there's still remaining some
Must enter in, and every bum
To whom it first was preached in sum
Did not go in for unbelief,
7 Again, he set a certain day
Saying by David without grief,
”Today after so long a time,
As it is said, today in chime
If you will hear His voice in rhyme,
Don't harden then your hearts with grime.”
8 For if good Joshua had come
To give them rest, then would the chum
Not afterwards speak of a day,
Another day and one to come.
9 So there remains and is to stay
A rest to God's folk anyway.

If after going to the Promised Land
The promised rest was still uncut, unmanned,
Then there's a rest remaining in the stand.
The rest in You, Beloved, is what is meant,
No doubt, but if Israel had failed to scent
The Sabbath day, still it remains rest lent.
The Sabbath commandment is full of greed
On part of every father in his need,
And each employer who comes round on steed.
The day of rest for donkey and the slave
Remains despite the cross of pure and brave.
Beloved, I grasp the democratic view
Of temple caught in time to come to You
And bathe in Sabbath rest here in my pew.

10 Because the one who's come to rest,
He's also stopped his own works' test,
As God did from His own behest.
11 So let us strive to enter in
That rest, lest any man for sin
Fall after the same pattern kin
To unbelief in what he's messed.
12 For God's word's quick and powerful,
And sharper than any sword full
For two blades to pierce and divide
The soul and spirit, and beside
The joints and marrow, and sees through
The thoughts and heart intents in view.
13 There is no creature that is not
Fully revealed in His sight's plot,
But all things are naked when sought,
And opened to the eyes of Him
With whom we have to do in trim.

The rest from sin's one thing, and yet I see
The rest from righteous works done righteously
As well to find the haven from the spree.
No creature in six days can raise a plea
Of deference from You, Beloved, to see.
After the toil, the human hand must stop
To find that You're not only on the top,
But that all is by grace alone in crop.
I do not make the marble floor with mop.
That was before my time, prepared and done
By master builder working under sun.
Beloved, I rest in You alone and find
That in Your light my heart and hand are blind,
But guided by Your will, I am resigned.

14 Then seeing we've a great high priest,
Who's passed into the heavens increased,
Jesus, God's son, let us hold fast
Our faith's profession in the blast.
15 For we've no high priest who cannot
Be touched with the feeling that's wrought
By our infirmities, but he
In all points was tempted like we,
And yet without sin in degree.
16 Let us therefore come boldly to
The throne of grace, and in that view
Obtain such mercy and find grace
To help in time of need and place.

Despite the cleverness of pope and priest,
Despite the bishop's wealth and health increased,
Despite the Baptist pastor's fine degree,
There is no other priest set out for me
But one You sent abroad and then reclaimed
Arisen into heaven and unblamed.
That's why, Beloved, I come so boldly here
With all my plaints and mockeries at ear,
With all my words in sonnetry and gear
Without a grain of salt, without a fear.
Beloved, my boldness to join You in church
Comes from the fact I'm always left in lurch
By every human stand upon the perch.
And so before Your throne I still appear.

HEBREWS 5

1 For every high priest taken from
Among men is ordained and won
For men in things doing with God,
That he may offer on the sod
Both gifts and sacrifice for sin,
2 Who can have compassion to win
Upon the ignorant, and on
Them who are out of the way drawn,
For he himself too is surrounded
With such infirmity and grounded.
3 That's why he should, for folk and self,
Sacrifice for sins on the shelf.
4 And no one takes himself this due,
But one appointed to the true
By God, as was Aaron and crew.

No one takes on appointment of High Priest
Of his own power among the great and least
Perhaps but those deprived of health and sense,
Or those who do so for the pounds and pence.
But every first-born son a mother here
Must so redeem the child set up in fear
To solemn priesthood and give from her gear
The shekel to the tribe of Aaron so
They can perform in the sacred fire's glow.
Not being of the Jewish race and face,
I've never been redeemed with silver's trace,
And so I'm still responsible in place
To serve as priest to family for grace.
Beloved, lift up on me the iron mace.

5 So Christ did not honour self either
To be made a high priest to tithe her,
But He who said to him, “You are
My son, today I've sired your star,”
6 As he says too in some such place,
“You are a priest for all time's grace
After the order and the race
Of Melchisedec's glaive and mace,”
7 Who in the days of his flesh, when
He'd offered up prayers and again
Strong supplications with the voice
Of weeping and with tears suffice
To Him who could save him from death,
And was here in his fearing's breath,
8 Though he were a son, still he learned
Obedience by the things unspurned
By which he suffered, 9 to be made
Perfect, he became author stayed
Of everlasting saving made
To all of them who obey him,
10 Called by God a high priest and trim
After Melchisedec's way grim.
11 Of whom we've many things to say,
And hard to be uttered in play,
Since you're hard of hearing and limb.

The reader cannot help but think the feat
Just an excuse to avoid the retreat
Before the onslaught of those who repeat
That Christ is not a priest because he's not
From Aaron's tribe and family and lot.
Preventing that cry Hebrews comes to show
A better, a more ancient, on the go,
A priesthood without start or finished row.
Beloved, keep me from any such in rhyme,
Petition of the principle in crime,
Illogic or the circular in time.
The everlasting priesthood is a thing
I'm ready and I'm willing now to sing
As long as heaven is a real sling.

12 For when for the time you should be
Teachers, you have need in degree
That some one teach you once again
The first principles of the things
That God's revealed in talking springs,
And you've become like those who need
Milk and not strong meat in their greed.
13 For every one that uses milk
Is not skilful despite his silk
In the word of such righteousness,
For he's a baby to confess.
14 But strong meat belongs to those who
Are come of age, who by their true
Practice of sense discern both good
And evil in the way they should.

These ancient texts are out of date, passé,
When they speak of both meat and milk today.
The vegan diet's all the rage to hear,
And hopes to show the better way to steer.
So neither meat not milk is good to eat,
And neither milk not meat can be a treat.
I know Your author means the basics first
Need to be learned and then the folk uncursed
Should move into the stronger stuff that takes
Them into holiness in wisdom's wakes.
But everywhere I go the basics get
More erudite and stranger than I've met,
Until I think the ten commandment law
Remains both then and now the better paw.

HEBREWS 6

1 So leaving the first things about
The doctrine of Christ, let's go out
Into perfection, and not lay
Again the foundation in sway
Of our repentance from dead works,
And faith toward God that's without quirks,
2 Of doctrine of baptisms and
Of holy laying on of hand,
And resurrection of the dead,
And the eternal judgement dread,
3 And this we'll do, if God permit,
4 For it's not possible the fit
Who were enlightened once to taste
The heavenly gift, and once were placed
Partakers of the Holy Ghost,
5 And have tasted God's good word's roast,
And the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away in sum,
To bring them back repenting, since
They crucify without a wince
To themselves God's son and afresh,
And put him to open shame's mesh.

At least I now know what the basics are
According to this letter from a star:
It's teachings about baptisms in dread,
And laying on of hands, rising of dead,
And judgement falling down on every head.
These are the things repentance leads men too,
And when they're done, to go on to what's true.
That's clear enough, but what then comes in view
Is a hard statement to both men and crew.
If any fail the mark, they should not think
To return once again back from the brink,
For doing so is but to crucify
The Christ again and openly defy.
I stand aghast and turn back with a sigh.

7 For the earth that drinks in the rain
That often falls on it for pain,
And brings forth herbs meet for those who
Are made deserving of the view,
Receives the blessing come from God.
8 But that which bears thorns on the sod
And briers is rejected, and near
To cursing, whose end is the bier.
9 But now, beloved, we do believe
In better things or your reprieve,
And things drawn of salvation’s peek,
Though these are things of which we speak.
10 God's not unrighteous to forget
Your work and love's labour to fret,
The which you've shown toward His name,
In that you've served the saints of fame,
And still you serve them without blame.
11 And we desire that every one
Of you should show diligence done
To the full certainty of hope
To the end of the time and scope:
12 That you should not be lazy, but
Followers of those who've not shut
Out faith and patience but will gain
The gauge of promises for pain.

The book of Hebrews met the pain in view
When the great temple with its porticue
Was thrown down by the Romans come in crew
And all the worshippers left without pew.
Some thought that loss so great, atonement made
For sin could no more join in the parade
And all were lost who could not bring a lamb
To slaughter there to pay for eating ham.
Beloved, Your promise is not set to stand
Or fall upon a marble arch and grand,
But on the faithfulness of Your own heart
No matter what men do in evil part.
And yet I must not take a lazy way
Of resting in Your hope by night and day.

13 For when God made Abraham know
His promise, because He could show
No greater oath, He came to make
An oath by His own self in stake,
14 Saying “Surely blessing I'll come
To bless, and multiply in sum
Of multiplying you.” 15 And so
After he patiently held row,
He got the promise for his show.
16 For men truly swear by the great
And an oath affirming in state
Ends all strife for them in their gate.
17 So God, wishing to be by far
Abundant to show heirs and star
Of the promises how He is
Unchanging in counsel and biz,
Confirmed it by an oath in whiz:
18 So by two changeless things in which
It was impossible to pitch
As a lie on God, we might get
A consolation strong and set,
Who have fled for refuge to lay
Hold on the hope set for our prey:
19 Which hope we have as anchor by
The soul, both sure and set in sky
To enter in the veil and try;
20 Where the forerunner's entered in
For us, Jesus, made high priest's win
For ever after order set
Before Melchisedec when met.

My temple's not a room set on the mount
In fair Jerusalem beside the fount.
It's not a cross outside the gate where one
Died in the darkness coming down to stun.
My temple is within the heavenly veil
Where true atonement’s made with no blood's wail,
But by the intercession and the prayer
Of innocence and grace upon the stair.
Beloved, my church in fleshly heart and sky
Needs nothing of the earthy stone and cry,
The temple caught on time instead of space
Will tender day by day the living grace
In Sabbath hours to contemplate the race
From earth into eternity and face.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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