Hebrews 11 are two texts providing us near text book examples of
how illuminating knowledge of Jewish backgrounds can be for New
Testament study.These are "Givens" that we have spoken of
before. Paul's text in Ephesians 6.10-18 bristles with power,
excites the mind, and challenges the soul. It is one of my
favorite (of course Ephesians is probably my favorite Pauline
epistle too but . . .). This text also has evoked a plethora
images in the imagination down through the years as well. Many a
preacher (including this one) has waxed eloquently on how Paul
was meditating on the dress of a Roman soldier and then applied
that to the Christian life. Though this makes for a great
analogy, it is probably not what Paul was doing at all -- much
to my consternation. Rather Paul is meditating, first and
foremost, upon Scripture as he so often does in his writings as
he wrestles with new life in the messianic age. I have argued
elsewhere that the NT writers are saturated with the Hebrew
Bible and virtually every paragraph