Exile of Judah

In Minor Prophets today we were going over the history of the exiles of Judah from 605BC to 586BC. Israel in the north had already been taken into captivity in 722BC. The first time Nebuchadnezzar came through he took men like Daniel who he was planning on training up to be leaders back in Judah for him. He wanted them to work for him but be more accepted by the people. This exile was not part of God's punishment. The next two were.
In 597 the second exile takes place when Jehoiachin is king. His father, Jehoiakim, had been made to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzer. This kind of relationship or international treaty is called a Szerine (I'm not quite sure how to spell that) Treaty I think. Bebuchadnezzer was the szerine and Jehoiakim was his vassel, but Jehoiachin rebels. Nebuchadnezzer comes through and takes the royal family, and those fit for war, and changes the kingship to Jehoiachin's uncle Mattaniah, renamed Zedekiah. Jeremiah tells Zedekiah that Judah will be given to Nebuchadnezzer, and because of his wickedness and rebellion the Babylonians come through once more in 586 and destroy just about everything.
The last two exiles take place through Divine Punishment and human mechanisms. The people are doing wicked things like practicing witchcraft, worshiping at high places they had built in their cities, and idolatry. Then they break their treaty with the king of Babylon and he has to come to squell the problem. Their breaking of the human treaty shows that they had already broken their divine szerine treaty.
It was interesting to find that all the time from the Exodus, and even before that I guess with Abraham, the promised land was the place to be. It was the land of blessing. However, during this time the land of exile becomes the place of blessing and the land of Israel is the place of disobedience and punishment. There is 70yrs. of exile and my prof. said that the wording used to describe the land seems to imply that it needed to be purified and this was a time of purging. The soiling or poiosonous elements had been removed and this was time for the land to remain fallow. Up to this time the Israelites had not been keeping the year of jubilee every seven years so this was also kind of making up for that time as well.
When it is time to come back the people aren't sure where God is and where His blessing is going to be. It had been in Israel but then it moved to Babylon, the land of exile. This time they are given a choice whether they want to return or not, they are not being driven by any army. Ones who do decide to return are commended.

Hebrews

In The Book of Hebrews on Monday we went over who the author of Hebrews could have been. The author does not say nor does anyone else who would have known. Thus, there have been many specualations and proposed candidates as to who it was. From the text we know that the author knew Timothy, had spent time in prison, was well educated (he uses 169 Greek words that are not used anywhere else, and his writing style in general is very eloquent), knew the Old Testament very well, but also has had some Greek influence.
The traditional view is that it was Paul, but the writing, though similar in style, is better than Paul's, nor does he not give his name at the beginning like he did in all his other letters. Also, in ch.2:3 the author says that the gospel "was confirmed to us by those who heard." This would imply that the author is a 2nd generation Christian. In Gal. 1:12 Paul says that he did not receive the gospel from men but from Jesus Christ.
Martin Luther was the first to argue for Apollos because in Acts 18:24-28 he is said to be an eloquent man who was mighty in the scripture. He is a good candidate but we think the best candidate would be Barnabas. We know Barnabas had been with Paul (accounting for the similar style), and he had spent time in prison. He was a Levite which means he probably had been educated and was well versed in the Old Testament.
However in the end we must agree with the early church father Origen (I think) who said that only God knew who the author really was.

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