Episode title | Letter 001 โ The Envelope: The Cloud of Witnesses (Hebrews 11)

We’re all a long way from home.
That’s the thing the Bible keeps trying to tell us. We’re sojourners. Pilgrims. People walking a road we can’t see the end of. And the whole canon of Scripture โ Moses, the prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels, Paul writing from a Roman prison โ is mail for people still on the road. Sent by a Father who has not forgotten where we belong.
Letters from Home is a daily Bible teaching podcast with host Hank Garner. Each weekday, we open one letter and read it slow. Monday through Thursday lays the groundwork โ the context, the language, the lives behind the words. Friday, the message lands.
No yelling. No hot takes. No twelve-step takeaways. Just Scripture, opened with care, for the kind of people who keep their Bibles dog-eared and their questions honest.
If you’re homesick for somewhere you’ve never been โ that’s not a problem. That’s the address on the envelope.
Pull up a chair. There’s mail.
One Greek word sits on the envelope. Parepidฤmos, a resident foreigner, appears three times in the New Testament, and the third use takes us back to Hebrews 11, where this show began a hundred letters ago.
In this letter
– Parepidฤmos (G3927) walked slow, built from three small pieces
– 1 Peter 1:1, the address line
– 1 Peter 2:11, and the word pair Abraham and David used in the Greek Old Testament
– Hebrews 11:13, strangers and pilgrims, and a callback to Season One, Week 1
– The twelve verses walked once more as a whole
– A direct word for the stranger, the comfortable, the withdrawn, the one in the fire, and the grieving
Scripture โ 1 Peter 1:1โ12, 17, 2:11โ12, 4:4, Genesis 23:4, Psalm 39:12, Hebrews 11:1, 13โ16
Greek word studies
– parepidฤmos (ฯฮฑฯฮตฯฮฏฮดฮทฮผฮฟฯ, Strong’s G3927) โ a resident foreigner, someone living for a while in a place not his own
– paroikia (ฯฮฑฯฮฟฮนฮบฮฏฮฑ, Strong’s G3940) โ a stay, a sojourn. “The time of your stay here.”
– paroikos (ฯฮฌฯฮฟฮนฮบฮฟฯ) โ a sojourner. Paired with parepidฤmos in 1 Peter 2:11.
– diaspora (ฮดฮนฮฑฯฯฮฟฯฮฌ, Strong’s G1290) โ the Dispersion (carried from Wednesday)
– dokimion (ฮดฮฟฮบฮฏฮผฮนฮฟฮฝ, Strong’s G1383) โ genuineness, faith proven by testing (carried from Wednesday)
Next week’s letter | Philemon โ The Runaway.
> That’s this week’s letter. We’ll see you Monday with another.

The week opens with a chapter you may think you know, and a question you may not have asked. Today we put Hebrews 11 on the table and read it slow. No commentary. Just the letter.
In this letter
- A slow read of Hebrews 11:1-2, 13-16, and 35-40 (NKJV)
- The frame for the whole week โ Hebrews 11 is not just the faith chapter. It is the chapter that names who we are.
- Why Letters from Home is starting Season One with this passage.
Scripture
- Hebrews 11:1-2
- Hebrews 11:13-16
- Hebrews 11:35-40
Coming tomorrow | The Sender. Who wrote Hebrews, and why?
There’ll be more mail tomorrow.

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