James Swetnam, «The Crux at Hebrews 5,7-8», Vol. 81 (2000) 347-361

Heb 5,7-8 is a classic crux. It is not clear, as the text seems to say, how Jesus could beg to be freed from death and then be heard `although He was son'. Further, it is not clear how Jesus could `learn obedience from the things He suffered' since Hebrews pictures Him as antecedently ready to do God's will. The present paper reviews some of the principal suggestions which have been made and makes its own: that the Sitz im Leben of Jesus' plea is the cross, and the words refer to Ps 22 which Jesus cites in Matthew and Mark. In the context, reference to the psalm is taken by bystanders as an allusion to God intervening through Elijah to save Jesus. Hebrews understands Jesus' citing the initial verse of the psalm as an agreement to all that the psalm implies, i.e., as an implicit petition to die. Further, the main verse alluded to in Ps 22 seems to refer to the tôdâ which Jesus celebrated with His disciples, and this explains how He could `learn' obedience: He learned by experience the benignant effect of obedience to God.

the psalms, and it is difficult to see what the distinctive purpose of the citation of the opening verse could be if not an indication of this abandonment in the context of the entire psalm, i.e., an abandonment which leads to the advent of the Kingdom⁴⁷.

        In the context of the death of Jesus on the cross as portrayed as being understood by Him with reference to Ps 22[21], the tôdâ is of crucial importance, because the citation indicates that He thinks of His death as referring to the tôdâ which He celebrated with His disciples at the Last Supper⁴⁸. In the tôdâ meal the bread offering had a special place (Lev 7,12-15). The use of wine had a prominent part (in Ps 116 vv. 17-18 [LXX 115,8-9] with mention of the tôdâ (hdwt xbz – qusi/a ai)ne/sewj) are parallel to vv. 13-14 [LXX 115,4-6] with mention of the ‘cup of salvation’ (tw(w#$-swk – poth/rion swthri/ou). The tôdâ-meal introduced a new level of fellowship because it introduced a new level of existence characterized by praise of the Lord and the recognition of Him as the one saving (whence the mention of the lament which leads to salvation). This is the tôdâ which figures in the second part of Ps 22[21], in vv. 23-32⁴⁹. The fact that the death of Jesus leads to the arrival of the Kingdom (i.e., in terms of Ps 22[21], the fact that the laments and petitions of vv. 2-22 lead to the joy of vv. 23-32), explains the phrase e!maqen a)f )w|n e!paqen th_n u(pakoh/n: Jesus learns by experience the benignant effect of obedience to God’s will⁵⁰. The crucial difference between the tôdâ celebrated by Jesus and alluded to by Him on the cross (according to the interpretation being advanced here) and the tôdâ as it was practiced in the Old Testament world, is that