Hebrewschapter 13
25 verses · BSBHebrews book hub →
Speaks with:Romans 12×31 Thessalonians 5×3Matthew 25×2Hebrews 10×2Deuteronomy 31×2Hebrews 13×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The letter lands in ordinary rooms. 'Let love of the brethren continue. Forget not to show love unto strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares' (13:1-2). Remember prisoners; honor marriage; be free from the love of money, because he hath said, 'I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee', so we say boldly with Psalm 118, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear.' 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever' (13:8). The sin-offering beasts burned outside the camp become the last image: go forth unto him without the camp, 'for we have not here an abiding city.'
Context
Epistle · Unknown — Hebrews overview
- A. 1–6 Brotherly Love, Hospitality, and Contentment
- B. 7–16 Go Forth to Him Outside the Camp
- C. 17–19 Obey Your Leaders and Pray for Us
- D. 20–25 The God of Peace Make You Perfect
The outline
A.Brotherly Love, Hospitality, and Contentmentvv. 1 to 6
Read vv. 1 to 6 →B.Go Forth to Him Outside the Campvv. 7 to 16
Read vv. 7 to 16 →C.Obey Your Leaders and Pray for Usvv. 17 to 19
Read vv. 17 to 19 →D.The God of Peace Make You Perfectvv. 20 to 25
Read vv. 20 to 25 →
The world behind this chapter
Hebrews 13The history
Visiting prisoners was dangerous and necessary. Roman jails supplied no food, so a prisoner lived on what friends brought, and the friend who brought it identified himself publicly as an associate of the accused.
Hospitality to strangers mattered because the alternative was an inn. Public inns had a foul reputation, often doubling as taverns and brothels, so traveling believers relied on being taken in by households they had never met, usually with a letter of introduction.
'Outside the camp' is precise ritual language. On the Day of Atonement the bodies of the sin-offering animals were carried outside the camp and burned; the same ground outside the walls was where the condemned were executed, which is where Jesus died. Going out to him there meant accepting the same position — outside the respectable community.
The last lines are ordinary letter business: Timothy has been released, the writer hopes to travel, greetings come from those from Italy. That final phrase is the main clue that the letter has Rome at one end of it, though whether it was written from Italy or to it is genuinely unclear.
What it meant to them
The hearers had been arguing themselves toward the door of the synagogue for thirteen chapters. This one says the door is the wrong way round: the sacrifice they belong to is outside the camp, and so is he.
What they are offered in exchange for the city they are leaving is a city that is coming. In the meantime the sacrifices they can actually bring are praise, doing good, and sharing what they have.
Sources cited
- F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews
- Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Hebrews 13. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 5 · Written to them
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee
topics/loneliness→MannaFest topical index
v. 6 · Quoted here
'The Lord is my helper': Hebrews.
Psalms 118:6→The LORD is on my side; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 10 · A picture of Christ
The bronze altar of burnt offering prefigures the cross where the sacrifice is consumed ('we have an altar').
Exodus 27:1→“You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.
Exod 27:1-8; Heb 13:10; Jukes 1854
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.