Martyr's Manual: The Brilliant Tragic and Inspiring Message of Hebrews

Faith gets its most powerful definition from the New Testament book of Hebrews. Yet this anonymous treatise tantalizes with both its lack of contemporary precision about faiths definition and its shrouded original context. There are however sufficient clues in Hebrews text to guide astute investigators toward a strange and yet familiar world of religious challenge in which the deeply significant rituals of ancient Israel the attractive moral character of first-century Jews in Rome a crowd of disaffected righteous Romans and a purported Palestinian messiah converge to produce one of the worlds most thoughtful courageous and brilliant calls to martyrdom. In this careful pilgrimage along the authors meticulous development of a holy challenge to remain faithful to Jesus (precisely because there are no meaningful alternatives) Brouwer helps us find an inspiring and ever-relevant call to faith--we become the persons we are through the daily choices we make about Jesus and others.