A number of features of Hebrews indicate its fundamentally ‘oral’ rather than written character: the writer’s use of the first person plural (which ‘enables the speaker to identify with his listeners while addressing them with authority’4); frequent references to speaking and hearing, rather than writing (2:5; 6:9; 8:1; 11:32); and the regular alternation between exposition and exhortation.5 As noted above, Hebrews is arguably the earliest extant full-length Christian sermon.6
