Hebrews: Background information

The letter to the Hebrews was written to encourage Christians in a time of trial. It does so by focusing on the absolute supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. While God spoke in the past “many times and in many ways,” he has now spoken to us “by his Son,” Jesus Christ, who is the “exact imprint” of God’s nature and who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (1:1–3). Jesus accomplished complete salvation for all who trust in him (1:1–10:18). We dare not “neglect such a great salvation” (2:3; 5:12–6:20; 10:19–39). Rather, in our faith and in our everyday living, we should imitate the example of Christ and of those on the honor roll of faith (chs. 11–13). This letter, whose author is unknown, was probably written between a.d. 60 and 70.
The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Heb). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Audience
The epistle to Hebrews is clearly targeted at a Jewish audience. We can tell that the author is a fellow Jew just by the first chapter and first verse, namely, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets”. Throughout the entire book, the writer makes reference after reference from the Septuagint, and shows the contrast (or fulfillment) of the Jewish law system in Christ. This one point will be critical for understanding the book as a whole and how it applies to modern-day Gentile Christians such as ourselves.
Yes, I believe the bible (including the old testament) is the very living Word of God, but I am also logical enough to know certain things in it were not written “directly” to us, but are there for us to further understand things about God, man, etc. For example, in Deuteronomy 20, we have a command from God: “But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded”. Now we know this is a command, in the Bible, but immediately we can say to ourselves, “well that command is not to me”. If you fly over to Canaan and start slaughtering the nations, thinking that you are obeying God, not only have you proven a disregard for the careful study of the word of God, but you have sinned by disobeying him since he did not command you to do that.

Purpose
The purpose of Hebrews is founded on the Gospel. It has many warnings against “apostasy”, but as we will see, it needs careful study before we can freely apply it to gentile Christians. The premise of the book is showing that Jesus Christ is indeed God himself, he has fulfilled the duties of a high priest, but to such a great extent that they are complete now, various warnings not to slip back into an earthly religion that is perishing, encouragements to keep strong in the face of trials, and much more. It could be seen as a treastie of the Christian faith to a group consisting of new converts as well as those on the brink of converting.

Author
I will not say much on this topic since I am by no means an expert, and the authorship has been debated for a very long time. The things we can gather about the author is that they are Jewish, they where close to Timothy.

Structure
This book has two parallel streams of thought intertwined that serve together two purposes. There is the doctrinal content and it is emphasized parenthetically by the ethical content. For example: 1:1–14 contains facts about Christ, things we need to know, and is followed by 2:1-4 as a warning to do something with this knowledge. A modern example of this would be reading a piece on the dangers of tobacco. We would see a mixture between the statistics and data, which give us the facts, and ethical warnings and encouragements.
Tobacco increases the risk of many types of cancer (the data)
Join a program to save your life, or pass on information to a loved one who smokes (the ethical).
One stream deals with the head, the other deals with the heart.

To anyone reading along, I challenge you, as we go chapter by chapter, read the book in its entirety, keeping the book as a whole.