Jesus is the Model and the Object of (Our) Faith: A Critical Reading of Hebrews 12,2

Abstract

This paper examines the possibility of considering “Jesus as the model and the object of believers’ faith” based on the divergent interpretations of Heb 12, 2. The paper investigates further whether ‘the faith’, denoted in the text, refers to Christ’s faith in God or believers’ faith in Jesus, considering the absence of personal pronoun before τῆς πίστεως in v. 2. The meaning of the combination of τελειωτής and ἀρχηγός in the context of ἀγών motives and the indication of the faith of ancestors in chapter 11 suggest the unique role of Jesus being, on the one hand, the model and, on the other, the originator and completer of believers’ faith. Even though, the text explicitly denotes Jesus as the object of Christians’ faith, the Christological significance of v. 2 in the context of the ἀγών motives, the discontinuity of the text from the previous chapter and the meaning of the combination of τελειωτής and ἀρχηγός suggests Jesus as the model and the object of believers’ faith. The study proposes a reading without the personal pronoun “our” as a more appropriate translation of the text highlighting both the Christological (the faith life of Jesus) and the ecclesiological (the faith life of believers) notion of Christin faith.