precisely their changed status to that of foreigner in their own homeland that precipitated the crisis our author addressed in this letter.35 Because the words do describe the actual social situation of Christians, it is less appropriate here to understand the terms as though they referred to exile from the true home of the Christians, which was heaven.36 That idea is of course present in the NT37 and becomes explicit in later Christian literature.38 Here, however, the force seems to be not