Lumin
Get the appAsk on the web
Search Lumin
Download on the App StoreAsk on the web

Book introduction

The book of Hebrews

Hebrews is a long sermon in letter form for believers tempted to give up. It shows Jesus as greater than angels, Moses, and the priests, the final sacrifice and the one high priest. Then it points to the long line of the faithful and calls readers to run their race.

General letters · 13 chapters

Read Hebrews 11Start at chapter 1

Who wrote Hebrews?

The author is unknown. Paul, Barnabas, Apollos, and Priscilla have all been suggested. Origen, around AD 230, said that only God knows who wrote it.

When was it written?

Likely before AD 70, since it speaks of sacrifices as still going on; some date it to the 80s.

See Hebrews on the Bible timeline

Main themes

Jesus is greater
He is God’s final word and the exact image of his nature.
Our high priest
He knows our weakness and offered himself once for all.
Faith that endures
Chapter 11 lists those who trusted God without seeing the promise.

Outline of Hebrews

  1. Chapters 1–4Jesus greater than angels and Moses
  2. Chapters 5–10Jesus the high priest and his once-for-all sacrifice
  3. Chapter 11The faithful who went before
  4. Chapters 12–13Run the race and live it out

Key verses

For our high priest is not someone who cannot feel for us in our weaknesses; he has been tested in every way in the same manner we are, yet without sin. So let us approach the throne of grace boldly, to obtain mercy and find grace that brings help at just the right time.

Hebrews 4:15-16

Now faith is the firm foundation of what we hope for, the proof of what we do not see.

Hebrews 11:1

So then, with so vast a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, we too must strip off every burden and the sin that so readily wraps itself around us, and keep running with endurance the race that lies ahead of us, keeping our gaze on Jesus, the originator and completer of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay ahead of him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and he has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.

Hebrews 12:1-2

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Hebrews 13:8

Quoted from the Lumin Translation.

Where to start

Read chapter 11, then 12:1–3. Go back to chapter 1 after.

Read Hebrews 11

Ask about this book

Questions about Hebrews?

Lumin answers in a few sentences and shows each verse it cites in full.

Press Enter to ask. Shift and Enter starts a new line.

3 free questions a day here, no account. Questions are kept without your name to improve these guides (privacy). In crisis? Call or text 988 in the US and Canada, call 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, or find your country’s line at findahelpline.com.

All 66 books· Bible map· Search the Bible· Ask

Each introduction gives the traditional view and the main views scholars hold today. Where Christians disagree, it says so.

Report an error in this introduction. If we agree, we fix it and add a dated note.

This inbox is for corrections. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 in the US and Canada, call 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, or find your country’s line at findahelpline.com.

Try

Go to