Kenneth Schenck

In 1755, John Wesley was forced to rest for a year because of illness. In that year, he wrote his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament. These were meant to provide brief commentary on the text for his lay preachers and others to use. These Explanatory Notes on the Sermon of Hebrews are also meant to provide brief interpretations of the text of Hebrews without extensive engagement with scholarship. The goal is for the reader to gain a good overview of Hebrews' train of thought, its overall purpose, as well as some engagement with contemporary application for a Christian. In the case of Hebrews, a good deal is unknown. If we knew the details, the sermon's argument would come clearly into view. For this reason, these notes engage in a little more speculation than a normal commentary might.

In 1755, John Wesley was forced to rest for a year because of illness. In that year, he wrote his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament. These were meant to provide brief commentary on the text for his lay preachers and others to use. These Explanatory Notes on the Sermon of Hebrews are also meant to provide brief interpretations of the text of Hebrews without extensive engagement with scholarship. The goal is for the reader to gain a good overview of Hebrews' train of thought, its overall purpose, as well as some engagement with contemporary application for a Christian. In the case of Hebrews, a good deal is unknown. If we knew the details, the sermon's argument would come clearly into view. For this reason, these notes engage in a little more speculation than a normal commentary might.

Going against the tide of much recent scholarship on Hebrews, Kenneth Schenck argues that the letter was addressed to a primarily Gentile audience, to console them and strengthen their faith in the wake of the destruction of the Temple. The implications—that Christians, Jews and Gentiles alike, valued the Temple highly and grieved its destruction—point to a new perspective on the so-called parting of the ways between Jews and predominantly Gentile Christians. Schenck’s work challenges many of the established assumptions of Hebrews scholarship and will deserve close attention for years to come.

This is a compact introduction to the work of Philo (c. 20 BCE-50 CE), the important Jewish thinker and scriptural interpreter. Kenneth Schenck provides a guide for understanding Philo's complex works, a roadmap for topics and contents of Philo's writings, and a description of contemporary research so students can easily find their ways into Philo study.

In this work, Kenneth Schenck re-presents the complex argument of Hebrews in terms of the salvation story it tells. Written at a level for college and seminary students, Understanding the Book of Hebrews shows how this early Christian sermon utilized the events, settings, and characters of the salvation story line to remind the Christian audience that Christ has provided a definitive sacrifice for sins and that reliance on any other means of atonement is apostasy.