Abstract
The text examines whether Hebrews 11 is an example of collective memory. This question is developed with the help of a critical conversation between Philip Esler and Pamela Eisenbaum, in which the former corrects her colleague's notion that the text of Hebrews 11 is primarily an intertextual restatement of Old Testament figures.
The author of the essay, in line with Esler, is inclined to the thesis that the text under scrutiny is not "only" interconnected with Old Testament texts and characters - here in particular Abel, Enoch and Noah - but above all a radically new interpretation that constitutes a completely new collective - perhaps even better, according to the author of the essay, communal - identity of the addressees of the letter based on a Christologically based faith.