oJ ajjpovstolo" in Hebrews 3,1 261 the basic orientation of Jesus towards his father as presented in Hebrews, and it was the basic orientation which the Christians were called on to share: precisely on this basis they were of “one faith”, they were Jesus’ “brothers” (41). The liturgy, in other words, was the common source of the orientation of the very first Christians to a central, perhaps the central, aspect of their relation with God. Jesus as man shows the way. His courage in asking to die in the face of the challenge posed by his vocation is balanced by the generosity of God in raising him to a life which is presented as something Jesus “learned”, i.e., it is presented as being beyond his expectations of salvation(42). In other words, it was the way Jesus is presented as learning the nature of the Christian God, “father”, which corresponds to his role in the resurrection/ exaltation as the Christian “son”. 5. Summary and Conclusion The present note investigated the meaning of the word ajpovstolo" in Heb 3,1. Four factors in the text were used to come to a plausible interpretation of why the author used this word for Christ: 1) the meaning ajpovstolo"; 2) the link between ajpovstolo" and ajrciereuv" 3) the relevance of pistov" in 3,2; 4) the parallelism between Jesus and Moses. On the basis of these four factors and on the supposition that the word referred to some text in 2,5-18, the conclusion was reached that the word refers to Heb 2,12 where the risen Christ is presented as one who, like Moses, was “sent” to announce the name of God to those who have given themselves in faith-trust to the risen Christ. Christ is parallel as “one sent” to Moses because he, like Moses, is worthy of trust, and the announcing of God’s name is to done in a cultic context, i.e., the Christian tôdâ, so that in this respect his function is parallel to his role as ajrciereuv". The name of God which Jesus is sent to announce is the Christian name “father”, on the basis of the correlation with the Christian meaning of “son” that is solemnly announced in Heb 1,5. In Hebrews the emphasis is on the son as revealer, so that the fatherly role of God is not explicitly developed: God as father is distinctively revealed in the speaking of Jesus as son. This interpretation makes plausible sense of Heb 3,1 in its context, and is plausibly inserted into a larger view of New Testament theology which sees Christ as son in a distinctively Christian sense who reveals the father. The word ajpovstolo" clearly cannot support the above interpretation entirely on its own. But viewed as it is used in Hebrews it supplies the key to unlocking the interplay of other words which together trace out a plausible view of what it means to be the Christ, and what it means to be a Christian. Pontificio Istituto Biblico James SWETNAM Via della Pilotta, 25 I-00187 Roma (41) In this context it is instructive to note how the author of Hebrews motivates the addressees in the face of the challenges he mentions in Chapter 12 of his epistle. His motivation is based on the evocation of the meaning which the word pathvr has in their lives (cf. Heb 12,7.9). (42) Cf. Heb 5,8, e[maqen ajf j w|n e[paqen th;n uJpokohvn and J. SWETNAM, “The Crux at Hebrews 5,7-8”, Bib 81 (2000) 359-360.