Hebrews 11, 1-13, 24 : a suggested structure

Abstract

Two previous articles by the present writer have suggested a structure for the Epistle to the Hebrews which takes in the first ten chapters. The present article will attempt to finish the project by suggesting a structure for the remaining portion of the writing. Perhaps it would not be out of place to emphasize again the tentative nature of this enterprise. And its importance. The Epistle to the Hebrews has been a conundrum from the early days of Christianity, and it would take more optimism (or naIvete) than the present writer can muster to be able to claim a definitive solution to even one ofthe many problems connected with the ordering ofthis conundrum. But the project is important: if any real progress is to be made in the understanding of Hebrews it will have to be based on attempts to come to grips with the way in which the writing is organised, either by way of a more persuasive justification of structures already proposed, or by way of justification of structures which are new. For only by focusing on structure will the basic perspectives which underlie the text of the epistle be discovered. Only by focusing on structure will the contexts intrinsic to the epistle be revealed, as a whole and in their several parts. In brief, only through a satisfactory structure will the epistle really make sense.