The Letter to the Hebrews develops a theological topography in which conventional biblical goods are desanctified by means of christological reorientation. 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 whereas all light is shed upon their counterparts in God's heavenly realm, which turns out to be the faithful's true fatherland. This theocentric transformation is ascribable to the author's radical interpretation of επαγγελια: any earthbound hope will look vague because with Christ's ‘new and living way’ (10.20) promise has come to be bright.