(avg. read time: 7–14 mins.)
13:1 Let brotherly/fraternal love abide.
13:2 Do not neglect hospitality/love for strangers, for by it some have without knowing entertained/hosted angels.
13:3 Remember those who are in prison as if you were imprisoned with them [hapax], those who are being tormented as though you yourselves are there in person/tormented in body.
13:4 Let marriage be honorable to all and the marriage bed undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
13:5 Keep your character/conduct from the love of money, so that you may be content with what you possess, for he has said, “I will certainly never leave you nor forsake you,”
13:6 thus we can have confidence to say,
“The Lord is my helper [hapax], and I will not fear, what can a human do to me?”
13:7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you, the outcome of whose conduct you should consider and whose faith you should imitate.
13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
13:9 Do not be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is well for your heart to be strengthened/established by grace, not by food, by which those who observe did not profit.
13:10 We have an altar from which those who minister in the tent do not have the authority/right to eat.
13:11 For the bodies of the animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priests for sins are burned outside the camp.
13:12 Therefore Jesus also, in order that he should sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered outside the city gate.
13:13 Hence let us go out to him outside the camp, by bearing his abuse/reproach,
13:14 for we do not have here an abiding city, but we seek the one that is approaching/about to come.
13:15 Therefore, through him let us offer a sacrifice of praise [hapax] continually to God, this is the fruit of lips when confessing his name.
13:16 Now do not neglect the doing of good [hapax] and sharing/fellowship, for God finds such sacrifices pleasing [only in Hebrews].
13:17 Obey your leaders and submit [hapax] to them, for they keep guard/watch over your lives/souls about which they will give an account, in order that they may do this with joy and not with groaning, for this would be harmful [hapax] to you.
13:18 Pray for us, for we are convinced that we have a good/clear conscience, because in all things we wish to conduct ourselves well.
13:19 Now I urge you all the more to do this in order that I may be restored to you more quickly.
13:20 Now may the God of peace, who brought back up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the everlasting covenant,
13:21 equip [optative] you with everything good in order to do his will, by doing in us what is pleasing/acceptable before him through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
13:22 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, bear with this word of exhortation, for indeed I have written to you briefly.
13:23 Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom, if he comes more quickly, I will see you.
13:24 Greet all of your leaders and all the saints. The ones from Italy greet you.
13:25 Grace be with all of you.
In ch. 13 the author once again takes up the strategy adopted in the latter part of ch. 12, wherein a central theological exposition is surrounded by ethical exhortations. This time, the construction serves as the formal ending of the homily prior to the epistolary postscript that officially ends the document. The first exhortation of this chapter—to let fraternal love (φιλαδελφία) abide—fits with what the author has instructed elsewhere concerning the need to watch out for one another, to exhort one another, to have peace with one another, to take care that no one should fall short of the purpose God has planned for them (3:11–15; 4:11; 12:14–16). As a complement to this, he instructs them not to neglect love for strangers (φιλοξενία), otherwise known as hospitality. By attending to this virtue, some have unknowingly entertained angels, which is a statement that seems to allude to Abraham and Lot, but could also more indirectly reference Gideon, Manoah’s wife, and other stories such as Tobit. While this may have a broader application in terms of being welcoming to outsiders as a testimony, in the context here it most directly applies to being hospitable to brothers and sisters from afar as distinct from being loving to brothers and sisters of the local congregation(s). These brothers and sisters would be the more mobile contrasts to the ones who are always present among them or the ones who are in prison, who they are to remember as if they were imprisoned with them (cf. 10:33–34; 11:36). Likewise, they are to remember those who are being tormented as though they are there in person being tormented in body along with them (cf. 10:33; 11:37). Their love for one another also needs proper expression in the context of marriage. Marriage is to be held in honor and, as a consequence, the marriage bed is to be undefiled (cf. Horace, Odes 3.6). This language is used as an acknowledgment that proper conduct in marriage is a matter of holiness in respect to God’s own holy will for marriage. The author warns that anyone who falls afoul of these instructions by being sexually immoral—by engaging in sexual intercourse outside of the context of marriage—or being adulterous—by engaging in sexual intercourse with the spouse of another or with someone other than one’s spouse—invites the judgment of God upon themselves. Such statements are manifest throughout the OT, NT, Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Such conduct calls for divine judgment not simply because it violates God’s will for a holy institution, but also because it defies God’s will—thereby denying that God is God, as all sin does—for how to conduct one’s body in the respect of sexuality.
Indeed, the characteristics outlined here in these opening verses of chapter 13 of love for one another, proper sexual conduct, as well as what holds them together in terms of worshiping their one God and not others, became definitive markers of Christians to non-Christians in the early centuries of the Church. All of these aspects of conduct also ensure the divinely-willed harmony and wholeness of the community—a long way of saying the shalom thereof—by giving no place for seeds of discord and bitterness to be sown and take root.
In this same vein, the author instructs his audience to keep their conduct from the love of money, which has the obvious potential for damaging the community and for idolatry. Instead, the author encourages them to be content with that they possess. For God has said he will never leave nor forsake them, meaning that God will provide for them, and they do not need to seek money above all else (cf. Matt 6:19–33). Likewise, the believer can have confidence to say that the Lord is their helper, and they have no reason to fear (Ps 118:6 [117:6 LXX]). The love of money often coincides with the desire for security, which can easily become overweening, but if one’s security is in God, the love of money is not allowed to grow.
To ensure further the harmony of the community, the author instructs them to remember their leaders, the ones who spoke the word of God—namely, the gospel—to them. Presumably, these leaders have died or perhaps departed elsewhere, since reference is made to a prior speaking of the word of God to the audience. They too belong in the annals of faith among those who they should follow as examples. They should consider their conduct and imitate their faith in order to live into that word of God proclaimed to them. By this word, they know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Christ who was proclaimed to them is the Christ whom they follow now and the Christ who will bring to fruition the entirety of God’s promises. For this reason, they must not be carried away by various and strange teachings that deviate from the word of God already proclaimed to them, which speak to them of a different Christ. Their hearts are to be strengthened by grace rather than by regulations about food, like those who adhere to the old covenant, because such regulations do not profit them. It is through the observation of the new covenant established by Christ that they live, not through the observation of the old covenant that has already been fulfilled and rendered obsolete.
Now the author provides some of the theological bases for his previous statements in vv. 7–9 with the exposition of vv. 10–15. He notes that the signatories of the new covenant have a greater altar than those who minister in the tent, an altar they have no authority to eat at, for that authority is only granted to members of the new covenant. And once again, the author uses Day of Atonement imagery (Lev 16:27) to describe the new covenant reality. For this sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, the animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priests for sins are burned outside the camp. As the fulfillment of this ritual and of this type, Jesus also sanctified the people with his blood by suffering outside the city gate (namely, on Golgotha). Those who follow him must participate in his story by following him outside the camp, so to speak, and by bearing his reproach as their own in order that they may receive what he has received. They should not fear going outside the camp, leaving it behind, because that camp is not theirs; they have no abiding city on earth. Rather, they are looking for the city that is about to come; namely, they look for the new Jerusalem that will come from heaven to earth. In acknowledgment of this participation in Christ and their inheritance of the coming city, the author calls upon them to offer a sacrifice of praise continually to God through Jesus. This sacrifice of praise is given with the lips when confessing the name of God. This statement can also have the sense of “acknowledging” or “praising” the name, although the latter connotation fits better in this context. It is the praise that comes from remembering and confessing what God has done, especially for his people, and identifying God as the one who has done it all, thereby confessing his name.
The final exhortations of the homily proper are more general in nature. The author reminds his audience not to neglect the doing of good and sharing (or fellowship, as some may prefer to translate it) that is intrinsic to the Christian life. For such acts are sacrifices that God finds pleasing, for they are the obedience that God always desired more than sacrifices. They must also be obedient to their leaders, since they keep watch over their lives, and they will give an account for the watch that they kept. That is enough of a responsibility without their congregation making matters more difficult for them. For the harmony of the community and for the sake of fulfilling the will of God for all, it is better if these leaders can do what they are called to do with joy and not with constant groaning about those who are in their charge. It would be harmful to them because when the leaders do not serve with joy, it affects the quality of their leadership and everyone who should seek to live together in faithfulness to the will of God suffers as a result. The Christian community is a feedback loop, so that when the leaders receive grief from the rest of the community, that community in turn will receive grief from their leaders. The community only operates properly when both leaders and laity do as they are called to do. The author also asks for prayers that he and his fellows would continue to conduct themselves well, as they already have done, since they are convinced that they have a good conscience. Finally, he urges these prayers all the more so that he and his fellows can be restored to the audience more quickly (i.e., that God may guide them back to the community sooner rather than later).
The closing of the book as a whole consists of vv. 20–25. As the author has just asked for prayer, he provides his own prayer that the God of peace, who brought back up from the dead the Lord Jesus—who is the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the everlasting covenant—may (in a rare use of the optative) equip them for everything good in order to do his will, particularly by doing in the author and his fellows what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. This is properly the closing doxology, and it is, of course, theologically dense. The reference to God as the God of peace seems to have been a standard reference to God, especially in or near epistolary postscripts, as the source of the peace that the author wishes for the people (Rom 15:33; 16:20; 1 Cor 14:33; 2 Cor 13:11; Phil 4:9; 1 Thess 5:23). This God is also identified as the God who raises the dead (cf. 11:19), specifically the Lord Jesus. This is the one explicit reference to Jesus’s own resurrection in the book, but I have tried to note the places where I think it is implied and in the subtext. Because God has raised Jesus, they can also trust that he will raise those who are his sheep. He is their shepherd by virtue of the blood of the everlasting covenant—as was argued especially in ch. 9—which is everlasting because it is established by his indestructible, resurrection life. It is also everlasting because of the resurrection to everlasting life that the people of God have yet to attain. In that light, he wishes that God should equip them in everything good in order to do his will to persevere until that time. Consistent with the emphasis in this last chapter on the leaders, the author specifically hopes that God will do in them what is pleasing through Jesus Christ. The final praise of glory is most naturally directed primarily to God the Father. Not only is this standard in other doxologies (Rom 11:36; 16:27; Gal 1:5; Eph 3:21; Phil 4:20; 1 Tim 1:17; 1 Pet 4:11; Jude 25; Rev 7:12; though see the more ambiguous 2 Tim 4:18 and Rev 1:6), but God is the subject of this single sentence in vv. 20–21 and the most natural referent syntactically. However, the glory is direct to God the Father through Jesus who executes his will.
The closing of the letter fits with the features of other letters in the NT. The author urges his brothers and sisters to bear with this word of exhortation, for he has written only briefly (cf. 1 Pet 5:12; Ignatius, Rom. 8:2; Pol. 7:3; Barn. 1:5). Reference is also made to Timothy, who is typically identified with the figure in the NT church mainly associated with Paul, being set free. For this reason, and by means of some theological similarities—including those that that I have noted previously—it was once popular to argue that Paul was the author of this homily (with an epistolary closing). Like most scholars today, I am not convinced of that attribution in light of many significant stylistic differences, strikingly different theological emphases, and the otherwise weak connection that could possibly be made with Paul. I will not, however, get into the details of examining authorial theories here. I am content to say that only God knows who wrote Hebrews. Another critical issue that has raised a lot of discussion, but which I do not care to comment on here, is the location of the audience. The author makes no locational references until v. 24, when he says “the ones from Italy greet you.” Since Italy is distinguished from the audience, presumably that is the only location in the Roman Empire that we can rule out. He finally wishes grace for all of them. While the textual tradition disagrees on whether or not “Amen” concludes the book as a whole, I can think of no better way to conclude this lengthy reflection on Hebrews than that with which “Amen” belongs. To God the Father, who raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and united us with himself in the Holy Spirit, to the Son who makes us complete, and to the Holy Spirit who unites us to God, be the glory forever and ever. Amen.