This study is a revised and shortened version of a thesis accepted by the University of Oxford in 1982 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. George Caird acted as supervisor. Over several years he patiently read at least three drafts of each chapter, always producing many pages of handwritten criticism. My debt to him is recorded elsewhere, most obviously in the volume of memorial essays entitled The Glory of Christ in the New Testament (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1987). But to this he would like me to add that our original interest in this investigation was as a kind of Grundausbildung for his forthcoming New International Critical Commentary on Hebrews. I still treasure a letter he wrote me in 1982 in which he stated his intention to build much of his commentary on the following work. His unheralded death in 1984 can only mean the loss of what would have been a memorable exercise in New Testament exegesis.

I would also like to thank those of my colleagues, at Davis and elsewhere, who read the thesis in whole or in part and made suggestions. To my former pupils Bill Kynes and Mike Tristram I owe a special debt of gratitude, for they helped to stimulate and refine questions which in 1978 were just beginning to be asked. The Senior New Testament Seminar at Oxford listened patiently to papers on the christology and eschatology of Hebrews and made probing criticisms.