The Promised Land and the land of promise: A sanctuary for the faithful inthe 'Letter to the Hebrews' - A theocentric transformation and christological interpretation of Israel as fatherland

The letter to the Hebrews develops a theological topography in which conven tional biblical goods are desanctified by means of christological reorienta tion. The "land of promise" (11.9), the promised rest, the sanctuary of the first covenant, Mount Sinai, are left behind in the shadows of earth where as all light is shed upon their counterparts in God's heavenly realm, which turns out to be the faithful's true fatherland. This theocentric transform ation is ascribable to the author's radical interpretation of "epangelia": any earthbound hope will look vague because with Christ's "new and living w ay" (10.20) promise has come to be bright.