Digital Continent Digital Continent_Template amended | Page 63

McCruden argues that this is an example of synkrisis being employed by the author of
Hebrews. 242 Synkrisis is rhetorical device which uses comparison for the purposes of
evaluation. 243 The synkrisis is employed Christologically in 12:24 so as to invoke in the hearers
the perception of Abel’s faithfulness and to enable them to understand the even greater
faithfulness of Christ. “The point of the contrast in 12: 24 between the blood of Jesus and Abel,
therefore, is not to denigrate Abel, but to affirm that Jesus recapitulates and at the same time
surpasses an attribute associated with Abel.” 244
Much debate has centered around the exact nature of the difference between the blood of
Christ and that of Abel, and in what sense Christ’s blood is superior. Many contend that the
difference centers on the fact that Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance, whereas Christ’s cried
out for mercy and achieved redemption. 245 However, Moberly offers a more intriguing, and
textually plausible, interpretation of the difference. Observing that God’s response to Cain in
Genesis 4 is merciful rather than vengeful, he argues that rather than crying out for vengeance,
the voice of Abel’s blood instead cries out for mercy towards Cain for his actions. 246 In this view,
therefore, the difference between the blood of Christ and that of Abel is potency.
Thus the difference between what is said by the blood of Jesus and of Abel is not in
content (forgiveness versus vengeance) but in potency - which exactly corresponds with
the idiomatic use of κρεῖττον elsewhere in Hebrews (1:4; 7:19; 8:6; 9:23) where it
indicates the greater efficacy of the new order brought in by Christ. What Abel's blood,
although calling for mercy, could not achieve, Christ's blood has achieved - definitive
reconciliation with God. 247
242
Kevin B McCruden, A Body You Have Prepared for Me: The Spirituality of the Letter to the Hebrews,
Kindle edition, (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2013), Kindle locations 2120-2121.
243
James Thompson, Hebrews (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 13.
244 244
Kevin B McCruden, A Body You Have Prepared for Me: The Spirituality of the Letter to the
Hebrews, Kindle Locations 2123-2125.
245
For example, cf. Mary Healy, Hebrews, Kindle edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016),
Kindle locations 6889-6890.
246
R. Walter L. Moberly, “Exemplars of Faith in Hebrews 11: Abel,” in The Epistle to the Hebrews and
Christian Theology, Kindle edition, edited by Richard Bauckham, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2009),
Kindle locations 4058-4059.
247
Ibid, Kindle locations 6320-6322.