The Letter to the Hebrews:
An Explanation of the Mechanism
of Our Salvation

Lesson 14 Strangers & Exiles on the Earth
the Letter to the Hebrews 11:13–22

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
Tami Palladino’s visual-meditation journal
cross references in the Letter to the Hebrews
next lesson: Abuse Suffered for the Christ

This material coordinates with Lesson 14 on pages 50–52 in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation.

“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”—the Letter to the Hebrews 5:7–10

welcome to our in-depth study of the Letter to the Hebrews
We invite you to check out the sample first lesson and video from this 18-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. Our online study pages link to free lesson videos and cross references in the biblical text, and include illustrations and prayers based on Scripture in each lesson. The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation has been granted an imprimatur. This study currently is being expanded; the content will be available in a new printed study at a later date. Please contact us if you’re interested in purchasing a digital copy of the existing study.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

let’s think about our homeland & ultimately a better country
The concept of a homeland for the faithful underlies this section of the Letter to the Hebrews. How do you think it is that this emphasis on a new and better homeland indicates an shift in ancestry? To learn more, read “Homeland” on page 50 in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation. Don’t miss Turning to God’s Word co-founder Tami Palladino’s illustrated reflections on the Scripture passages that form the basis of The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation. Click on the illustration (left) to enlarge it, and also check out Tami’s visual-meditation journal to see all of her drawings and read her meditations. Her reflections for this lesson, “Strangers & Exiles on the Earth,” are on pages 54 through 57 of her journal.

every lesson has a free video (06:39)
Don’t forget—each lesson of The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation has a related video. In these short presentations, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps reads the biblical text for the lesson and comments about it. You can watch the videos as part of your preparation for group discussion or to catch up if you have to miss a discussion. Some groups watch the videos together prior to their discussions. Because the videos are on YouTube, you can access them wherever and whenever it’s convenient—and they’re free. This study and its videos are undergoing revision  to incorporate additional material. The original content will be included in a different printed study. The original 18 lessons pertaining to the Letter to the Hebrews currently are available digitally.


WHAT DO YOU THINK about patriarchal trickery?
Question 6 in this lesson refers to the Letter to the Hebrews 11:20–21, and includes this question: “What’s unexpected about the blessing given to Jacob? What does this suggest about how God views our expectations of blessing?” Although this question is concerned with the trickery employed to ensure that Isaac gives the blessing to Jacob instead of Esau, it nevertheless isn’t a trick question.

?  What indications are there in the book of Genesis 27:1–40 that Isaac definitely intends the blessing to go to Esau? You can learn more in Lesson 16 Isaac Blesses Jacob; Jacob’s Dream at Bethel in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis.
?  What about Isaac enables Jacob and his mother to arrange for Isaac to pass the coveted blessing to Jacob—despite Isaac’s wishes that it go to Esau?
?  In our world, we tend to think that it’s relatively easy for someone to “take back” their words. Consider why Isaac is unable to “take back” the blessing he’s given Jacob instead of Esau.
?  Have you ever “taken back” a promise that you made to someone else?
?  Has someone else ever “taken back” a promise that they made to you?
?  Consider whether there are any circumstances in which we would expect God to allow a person to go back on their word?
?  What would happen if God decided to “take back” his Word?

sojourn—you could look it up in our archives
One lesson we can learn from Scripture is that our lives on earth are temporary. Our permanent home is elsewhere, which makes us sojourners. To learn more about the word “sojourn,” read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

patriarchs as Old Testament types of God
The author of the Letter to the Hebrews sees Isaac as an Old Testament type of God. There’s a strong clue about this because Isaac is being lauded as a father. Indeed, all of the patriarchs, by virtue of the very title of patriarch, serve as types of God the Father—albeit imperfect ones. This reinforces one of the key themes of the Letter to the Hebrews, which is that God’s word is binding on everyone, including God himself. Once God makes a promise, that’s the way things are going to be. The Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study In the Beginning: The Book of Genesis provides an in-depth look at the Old Testament patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

what does it matter?
The binding nature of God’s word is important to the author of the Letter to the Hebrews because of his understanding of the spiritual laws underlying the Old and New Covenants. It’s important to us because it shows that throughout salvation history God’s word can be trusted. We also can see that even when men and women conspire to influence the manner in which God’s blessings are given, God is able to work around our human weaknesses to continue to move human history toward the ultimate Promised Land of heaven.

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

the Letter to the Hebrews 11:17—paragraphs 145, 2572
the Letter to the Hebrews 11:19—paragraph 2572

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a particular passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the relevant cross references—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page, and it includes links to cross references in the primary biblical text for The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a passage in Scripture, you can look it up in the index in the online sample lesson. If you want to revisit a particular commentary, you can look that up by title in the topics index. If you want to learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, you can read the online commentaries and watch any accompanying videos by going to the online study directories. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
You can find links to magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This page includes a listing of significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Letter to the Hebrews 11:13–22 (NIV)

round black doveclose with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s text from the Letter to the Hebrews.

God our Father, you sent the patriarchs
to model faith for your people
prior to the time of Jesus Christ.
Help us to follow their example
and to trust in the promise of eternal life
made possible through your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lesson 15 Abuse Suffered for the Christ, the Letter to the Hebrews 11:23–31
Lesson 13 By Faith, We Too Live, the Letter to the Hebrews 11:1–12

you also may like our two-part study of the prophets
Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided examines the prophets in their historical context using the First and Second Books of the Kings and other Old Testament passages written before the Babylonian Exile in 586 B.C. Volume II: Restoration & Redemption looks at the post-exilic prophets. This 51-lesson Catholic Bible study builds on The United Kingdom of Israel: Saul, David & Solomon Foreshadow Christ the King. Click on the books’ covers to view a sample lesson from each volume.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer your questions and to offer support. Contact us if you’re interested in purchasing a digital version of this study, in starting another Turning to God study, or in having your study schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online pages of The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces these with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.