The ancient Jews held Moses in very high esteem (Deuteronomy 34:10), and the Jews of the first century AD even put him on par with God (Acts 6:11). Therefore, unbelieving Jews would hardly have considered Jesus equal to Moses, let alone his superior (John 9:28-29). This was the attitude of the Jews of the first century AD, and such an attitude was used to intimidate those among them in Palestine, who did put their trust in Jesus. The friction between the two Jewish groups was so strong that three major persecutions erupted in the land of the Jews between Jesus’ resurrection and 70 AD. Jews of Judaism stood against Jews following Jesus (Acts 8:1; 12:1-3; and Hebrews 10:32-24), and this would eventually reach even into foreign lands (Acts 9:1-2; 26:9-11; 1Peter 1:1, 6-7; 4:16; Jude 1:1-4).
Nevertheless, the Lord spoke through Moses, saying he would in due course send his people a Prophet like Moses, but the words of that Prophet would be weightier than the words of Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-19). So, the Jews of the first century AD were very selective about what they believed about words written in the Law.
Paul claimed at the writing of this epistle that Jesus **is** faithful to the Lord who appointed him, indicating that his faithfulness was ongoing. It would have been witnessed by Paul’s readers. It wasn’t something that was completed during his public ministry and ended at his crucifixion. The Jews already believed that Moses was faithful. This Scripture even tells us that Moses was faithful in all my (God’s) house (Numbers 12:7), which Paul quotes in Hebrews 3:2. However, notice that Paul claims Jesus **is** faithful, just as “Moses **was** faithful” over the house God (Numbers 12:6-8). In other words, Moses proved his faithfulness for forty years or for one generation following Israel’s leaving Egypt. Paul was alluding to the forty years of Jesus’ faithfulness, which began either in 27 AD at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, or in 31 AD (some conclude 30 AD) following his crucifixion. So if Paul’s letter was written after his arrival in Rome cir. 62-64 AD, Paul was alluding to the history of Jesus’ faithfulness, which had been an ongoing event for over three decades.
What Paul writes here in Hebrews 3:3 would have been absolutely astonishing for Jews of the first century AD. As I mentioned above and according to Acts 6:11, first century Judaism had begun to see Moses in an almost supernatural context. One simply does not commit blasphemy against a mere man. Notice what the rabbis of the first century concluded, as cited from the Jews’ esoteric work, the Kabbalah:
“Thus the Rabbis said that “the soul of Moses was equivalent to the souls of all Israel;” (because by the cabbalistic process called Gematria the numerical value of the letters of “Moses our Rabbi” in Hebrew = 613, which is also the value of the letters of “Lord God of Israel”). They said that “the face of Moses was like the Sun;” that he alone “saw through a clear glass” not as other prophets “through a dim glass” (comp. St Paul’s “through a mirror in a riddle,” 1Corinthians 13:12).” [1]
In 1Corinthians 13:12 Paul seems to be drawing upon first century AD Jewish reasoning of the Scripture, Numbers 12:8, where Moses is said to have spoken to God face to face. Nevertheless, all Moses was able to do was “to testify to the things that were to be spoken later” (Hebrews 3:5; cf. Deuteronomy 18:15). In other words, Moses was but one of the prophets through whom “God formerly spoke in many ways and by many means to the fathers” (Hebrews 1:1), but in these last days God spoke through his Son (Hebrews 1:2). Here in Corinthians Paul reminded his Jewish brethren of how dimly they were able to understand that prophetic truth, until such things were made clear as they were fulfilled in Christ (1Corinthians 13:8b-12).
Although Jesus took upon himself the persona of a slave, in that he **had** to live out and fulfill all those things that were spoken of him (Philippians 2:7-9), he is, in point of fact, also the Builder of the House, not a servant in the House as Moses was (Hebrews 3:5). Therefore, if Moses was, himself, part of the House, over which the Builder presided (Hebrews 3:6), then Jesus, the Builder of the House, is obviously more worthy of glory than Moses (Hebrews 3:3).
Clearly, the New Covenant shows that Jesus is the Builder of the House of God (Hebrews 3:4). First of all, the House of God, as such, is mentioned only six times in the New Covenant, three in the Gospels: Matthew 12:4, Mark 2:26 and Luke 6:4, which always refer to the Temple at Jerusalem. Nevertheless, both Peter and Paul also refer to the House of God, but they spiritualize the Temple by referring to the disciples of Jesus as the House of God (1Timothy 3:15; 1Peter 4:17), and this would have its counterpart as Israel in the Old Covenant (cf. Numbers 12:7). Moses, therefore, was a faithful servant to but a part of this House. Nevertheless, Jesus, as the Builder of this House (Matthew 16:18), was over or Ruler of it (Hebrews 10:21).
[1] See “Rabbinic references in Early days of Christianity, 1. 362” cited in The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.
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