Pioneer and Perfecter of Faith: Jesus’ Faith as the Climax of Israel’s History in the Epistle to the Hebrews

By providing a detailed exegetical examination of the references to Jesus’ faith in Hebrews, Christopher A. Richardson demonstrates that this epistle makes a profound contribution to our understanding of the early church’s christology. Rather than engaging with the pistis Christou debates in Paul, the author reveals that Jesus’ own faith in God in terms of theology is most clearly articulated in Hebrews. He argues that the author of Hebrews has integrated Jesus’ example of faith throughout the epistle, with Heb. 12.2 being the climactic illustration of his faith; consequently, the reader is compelled to compare Jesus’ perfect example of steadfast confidence with the ancestors of faith in Hebrews 11. It is evident that these have been recapitulated in order to amplify the person and work of Christ, and thus to present the former exemplars as true yet imperfect anticipations of the one who perfectly embodied and expressed the virtue of faith.