Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Hebrews · About this commentary
The God of Peace
Hebrews 13:20-25
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, · WEB
The benediction gathers the whole letter into one sentence, and the only resurrection mention in the book arrives in it.
Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, make you complete in every good work to do his will.
The benediction is the letter in miniature, and it contains a surprise: this is the book's only direct statement of the resurrection. Thirteen chapters have run on the ascended, seated, interceding priest; here, once, the road through the tomb is named — brought again from the dead — and the shepherd title appears with it, the only time the letter uses it. The high priest of the argument is, in the blessing, a shepherd walking out of death ahead of the flock.
Every phrase pulls a thread from the letter. The God of peace, for readers told to pursue it Hebrews 12:14. The blood of an eternal covenant — the new covenant's seal Hebrews 9:15, with the letter's favorite adjective attached. Make you complete — the perfecting word one last time Hebrews 10:14, now a prayer. And the working is God's own: working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight — the law written on the heart Hebrews 8:10, asked for as a blessing.
Then the writer steps back from his own severity: I exhort you, brothers, endure the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words.
Few words — after thirteen chapters — is either humor or perspective, and probably both. The phrase word of exhortation names the genre honestly: a sermon, sent because its preacher could not come.
The closing news is ordinary and warm. Our brother Timothy has been freed — one line implying an imprisonment the letter never narrates — and the writer hopes to bring him along. Greetings go to all of your leaders and all the saints, and come back from the Italians.
And the last sentence is the shortest in the book: grace be with you all. Amen.
The word the letter used for the throne Hebrews 4:16, for the heart's establishment Hebrews 13:9, and for the tasting of death on everyone's behalf Hebrews 2:9 is the word it leaves in the room. For a congregation that was drifting, the final provision is not a warning but the thing warnings exist to keep them near.
settled What this mark means