Bible Gem 2180 – Outside the Camp; Outside the Gates (Hebrews 13:11-13)

⁷Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith. ⁸Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, today, and forever. ⁹So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them. ¹⁰We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat. ¹¹Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. ¹²So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. ¹³So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore. ¹⁴For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come. ¹⁵Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. ¹⁶And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God. ¹⁷Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.

Hebrews 13:11-13

We now come to these three verses which contain a reference to the outside the camp or outside the gates. Our prime question needs to be why does the author of Hebrews mention this locative phrase three times. It was clearly uppermost in his mind in the context of the altar and the comparison he was making. There is also a progression of his thought process concerning this phrase.

1. the high priest brought the sacrificial animals into the Holy Place
2. the bodies were burned outside the camp
3. Jesus died outside the city gates
4. so let us go out to him, outside the camp and bear His disgrace

I have always thought that this reference to ‘outside the camp’ and ‘outside the gates’ was connected to the sin offering on the Day of Atonement and the fact these two offerings were brought into the Holy Place and offered up for sacrifice. The one was sacrificed and burnt and the other (the scapegoat) was taken outside the camp and released to die in the wilderness to symbolise that fact that the sins were removed from the people of Israel. Thus, surely what is in focus here is the issue of the removal of the shame of sin and that sin against God was to be removed from the people. Thus Jesus was crucified outside the city gates in a shameful death, yet was innocent of the charges. He was taking our sin and shame upon himself. Thus identifying oneself with Christ is an association in part with the shame of the sin He died to release us from. Put another way, we willingly say, I am a Christian, willing to be named as a follower and not ashamed to identify with Christ. I will not deny Him before men; He will confess me as one of His before the Father in Heaven.

At the time of Christ and even later there was a stygma associated with identifying with Christ. In times of persecution, Christians are to identify with Christ, subjecting ourselves to shame, humiliation and even death. This was the likely outcome at the time of Nero. Thus many commentators make this connection with the author’s three references to “outside the camp” or “outside the gates”. That is the standard way of interpreting this section in Hebrews 13. That is what is in focus in the writings of the majority of commentators on these three verses. There are more analogies drawn with this thought in mind. The Jews of the time saw everything ‘outside the city of Jerusalem’ as being associated with that which was unclean and evil by nature. To be cast outside the city was to be ostracised from a civilised and ordered life style. The Jewish requirement according to Levitical laws was for the dead to be buried outside the city so as to avoid ritual uncleanness due to the contact with graves and dead bodies. Roman law also required crucifixions to be carried out outside the city gate, more to create separation between ‘civilised’ Roman society and those regarded as criminals, mal-contents or malefactors. Other commentators see the link being the association with the world outside the city and in Christian terms being out in the world which was hostile to Christianity. In Roman times Christianity was viewed as a religio-illicita. Later by the time of Constantine, Christianity became a religio-licita. In what many see as a post-Christian era, the same could be applied to this modern day and age when many are turning to any non-Christian religion to seek answers and rejecting orthodox Christianity.

But I have a different take on what I feel the writer of Hebrews is intending by his use of ‘outside the camp’ and ‘outside the gates’. I sense he was using these words in a different context in much the same way he did with [brōmata] and the strange new teaching. I can’t help but think that the author of Hebrews is using this outside the camp refrain on a more macro level than is described above. Look at the expanding context of this term. I believe the main thrust of the author of Hebrews’ point is that the Christian Jews were not to turn back to the synagogue. So I want to see if that idea fits the context of these verses. I believe the author is using this refrain “outside the camp” and “outside the gates” to say to the readers, “therefore we need to leave the old system of Judaism behind and press into Christ”. That would then make perfect sense of his comment related to the priests of the old system not sharing in the altar we have as Christians and would then make more sense of the flow of the text. It seems to me that it does but I need to test it out to see if it all fits. However, I am hesitant to suggest a new idea if it is only me who thinks it. So I decided to check it out and see if there are others who agree with me.

There is a reading in Ignatius’ Letter to the Magnesians where he comments in the context of Hebrews 13.

Gather together-all of you-to the one Temple of God, as it were to one altar, to one Jesus Christ . . . Do not be led away through strange teachings and outmoded fables, which are not useful. If we still go on observing Judaism, we acknowledge that we never received grace, the godly prophets lived Christ Jesus’ way. That is why they were persecuted, for they were inspired by his grace.

Magnesians 7:2-8:2

Neva Miller in her Analytical and Exegetical Handbook on the Epistle to the Hebrews writes:

The prominence of the adverbial prepositional phrase “outside the camp/gate” is marked by its threefold use (vv 11, 12, 13). It is thus made a pivot on which the argument and exhortation turns: “participation in Judaism excludes participation in Christianity; let us leave Judaism entirely!”

Miller p 438

Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament has a reference to Joachim Jeremias regarding the use of πύλη (gate) in Heb 10:12 is used to illustrate the complete separation of Christianity from Judaism.

Arnold Fruchtenbaum in his commentary on Hebrews: An Exposition from a Messianic Jewish Perspective writes:

Here the author plays with two words: camp and gate: camp meaning the Camp of Judaism and gate meaning the City-gate of Jerusalem. . . Those who stayed inside the Camp of Judaism could not eat it. . . Since Jesus is outside the camp, He is there to receive His people and they should go outside the camp to receive Him. For now, this entails going outside the camp of Judaism; later it will entail going outside the City (gate) of Jerusalem.

Arnold G.Fruchtenbaum p 193 Hebrews 13:9-13

I have satisfied myself and I hope you my readers, that I am not off on a tangent with this thought but indeed have found some solid scholarship behind my idea: the author’s use of ‘outside the camp‘ and ‘outside the city gates‘ are references to the need of these Jewish Christians to follow Christ under this New Covenant and to leave Judaism behind. I will pull all of this work together on the four difficult passages in the next Gem and attempt to sum it up. I think I can see now how these verses all flow together and fit in with the overall thrust of the Letter to the Hebrews.

Realise that you have immediate access to the throne room of heaven because of the action of the One who became the sacrifice for you.

Ian

Can you imagine what it’s like to be a child of the King? Just ask William. He can enter into the King’s presence at any time on the basis of relationship.

Ian

Do you know you are a child of God? If you are, you have access rights 24 / 7.

Ian

He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

John 1:11-12