Part 83 of the David Pawson 'Unlocking the Bible' Podcast series 

David Pawson says that Hebrews is a very ‘Jewish’ letter and is appreciated by Jewish readers whereas Gentiles need familiarity with the Old Testament scriptures. It relates our Christian faith to the ritual of the temple in the old days. David says it throws new light on Jesus that no other writer of the New Testament does. A key word is ‘better’ – Jesus is better than… the prophets, the angels, the ancient leaders, the priests. While there is a continuity of faith from the Old Covenant to the New, the substance is better than the shadow. In the Old Testament they had a lot of foreshadowing of Jesus but now they had the real thing. We do not know who the author is, but David thinks it was sent to the Jewish half of the church in Rome at the time of Nero. They were suffering persecution as Christianity was at that time illegal and this drove some believers back to the synagogue where they would have to deny Jesus. David believes this was the catalyst for the letter to encourage them to hold on to their salvation and to go forward. It’s very encouraging while being severe.