The Letters
- When
- c. AD 60–70
- Written by
- Unknown; by tradition Paul
- Chapters
- 13
The big idea
Jesus is greater than the angels, Moses and the old priesthood. He is the high priest of a new covenant who offered himself once for all, so hold fast and run with patience.
Themes
- The greatness of Christ
- The new covenant
- Christ our high priest
- Faith and endurance
Memory verse
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Key passages
- 1:1–4God hath spoken by his Son
- 4:14–16A high priest who knows our weakness
- 9:11–14By his own blood
- 11By faith
- 12:1–3Run with patience
Links to other Scripture
- Psalm 110A priest forever
- Genesis 14:18–20Melchizedek
- Leviticus 16The Day of Atonement
- Jeremiah 31:31–34The new covenant
Read the text
Choose a chapter to read it here in the King James Version. Verses with a dotted underline have notes from Bible scholars. Tap one to open them.
Notes from
Chapters
King James text and the commentaries of Henry, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Gill, Clarke, Calvin, and Keil and Delitzsch are in the public domain. Tyndale Open Study Notes are used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, from tyndaleopenresources.com. Texts were reformatted for this site.
Journal prompts
Keep a journal or notebook for your study. Write your answers there, in your own words.
- Where do you see Christ in this book?
- Hebrews says Jesus is a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. What do you want to say to him about yours?
- Read the list of the faithful in chapter 11. Whose story speaks to you and why?
- “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” What is the pace of your race right now?
- In one sentence, this book is about…