278 bryan r. dyer
sections were later additions to hebrews—and rightly so! it is apparent
that the author of hebrews had a large vocabulary and demonstrated this
throughout his epistle.
in his 1967 monograph, floyd filson argued not only for the unity of
hebrews but that ch. 13 is vitally linked to its preceding chapters.44 filson
first shows how hebrews 13 follows a similar four-fold pattern as other new
Testament letters (including romans, galatians, and 1 peter). he reasons
that, within ch. 13, one should not expect “neat and complete parallels to
all that chapters 1–12 present,” but that there is some measure of parallel
style, vocabulary, and themes.45 filson then moves through hebrews 13
highlighting where many themes of chs. 1–12 are picked up and further
developed. he notes similarity in the author’s Christology, eschatology,
priestly imagery, and other themes. f. f. bruce notes that 13:10–16 picks
up a main theme of the epistle—that is, that the sacrificial ritual is obso-
lete in light of the finality of the sacrifice of Christ.46 in her discourse
analysis of the epistle, Cynthia long westfall shows that the discourse’s
three main themes (the access of believers to god as priests, the pursuit of
spiritual goals, and the holding on to the confession) are all expressed in
12:28–13:16.47 Vanhoye draws attention to the themes of love (13:1–3; 6:10,
10:24, 12:14), judgment (13:4; 6:2, 9:27, 10:30–31), camaraderie with those in
prison (13:2; 10:34), and assurance of god’s aid (13:6; 2:18, 4:16).48
it is also significant that there is no external evidence to imply that
hebrews ever existed without chapter 13 or 13:20–25. The epistle’s ear-
liest witness, 픓46 (200 ce), contains all of hebrews 13—as do many
other witnesses.49 it is widely held that 1 Clement knew and quoted from
hebrews—often reflecting language from ch. 13.50 as Tasker has pointed
(2:2; 3:8; 5:16; 11:33; 13:2), 1 Corinthians (6:7; 11:29, 34), galatians (5:10), and 1 Timothy (3:6;
5:12)—although hebrews’ use of “eternal judgment” (κρίματος αἰωνίου) is not found any-
where in the new Testament.
44 floyd V. filson, ‘Yesterday’: A Study of Hebrews in Light of Chapter 13 (sbT ii:4; naper-
ville, il: alec r. allenson, 1967).
45 filson, ‘Yesterday,’ 25.
46 bruce, Epistle to the Hebrews, 368, 384.
47 westfall, Discourse Analysis, 290–92. she does note, however, that only the theme
of access is explicitly repeated with the formulaic hortatory subjunctives. The other two
themes are inferred from the text.
48 Vanhoye, “la Question littéraire,” 128–30.
49 Chapter 13 is also found in Codex sinaiticus (4th century), Codex alexandrinus
(5th century), and Codex Claromontanus (6th century) (Koester, Hebrews, 129–31; elling-
worth, Epistle to the Hebrews, 81–85).
50 Tasker, “integrity of the epistle to the hebrews,” 137; rothschild, Hebrews as Pseude-
pigraphon, 55.