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"For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought
for the second" (Heb. 8: 7).
". . . . . He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second" (Heb. 10: 9).
Not only this, but special stress of the law as a shadow is peculiar to Hebrews and
Paul's writings:
"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or
of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come"
(Col. 2: 16, 17).
"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the
things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make
the comers thereunto perfect" (Heb. 10: 1).
The trinity of graces: faith, hope and love, are characteristic of the Apostle Paul:
"Now abideth faith, hope, love (charity), these three; but the greatest of these is love"
(I Cor. 13: 13).
They also occur in Rom. 5: 1-8 in pairs; Gal. 5: 5, 6; Eph. 1: 15-20; Col. 1: 4, 5;
I Thess. 5: 8; and twice in Hebrews and nowhere else (Heb. 6: 10-12; 10: 22-24, where
`faith' in verse 23 should read `hope', see the R.V.).
Paul is the only N.T. writer who requests prayer for himself, and this usually comes at
the end of his epistles:
"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit . . . . . and for me . . . . .
that I might open my mouth boldly . . . . ." (Eph. 6: 18, 19).
"Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance"
(Col. 4: 3).
"Brethren, pray for us" (I Thess. 5: 25).
"Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be
glorified, . . . . ." (II Thess. 3: 1).
To which may be added Rom. 15: 30; Phil. 1: 19 and Philemon 22.
Hebrews likewise requests prayer in the same way:
"Pray for us; for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live
honestly" (Heb. 13: 18).
And this feature is not found in Peter, James, Jude or John.
Another point needs to be made. The stress in Romans on Abraham and Sarah's
physical incapacity to have a son and heir in their old age, and the quickening power of
resurrection is seen also in Hebrews:
". . . . . Abraham, who is the father of us all. (As it is written, I have made thee a
father of many nations) before Him Whom he believed, even God, Who quickeneth the
dead . . . . . and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead . . . . .
neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:" (Rom. 4: 16-19).