The Book of Hebrews

[Praxeas]

(3) Rome and the West: Anonymous
All the evidence tends to show that in Rome and the remaining churches of the West, the epistle was originally anonymous. No tradition of authorship appears before the 4th century. And Stephen Gobarus, writing in 600, says that both Irenaeus and Hippolytus denied the Pauline authorship. Photius repeats this statement as regards Hippolytus. Neither he nor Gobarus mentions any alternative view (Zahn, Intro, II, 310). The epistle was known in Rome (to Clement) toward the end of the 1st century, and if Paul's name, or any other, had been associated with it from the beginning, it is impossible that it could have been forgotten by the time of Hippolytus. The western churches had no reason for refusing to admit Hebrews into the Pauline and canonical list of books, except only that they did not believe it to be the work of Paul, or of any other apostle.

It seems therefore certain that the epistle first became generally known as an anonymous writing. Even the Alexandrian tradition implies as much, for it appears first as an explanation by Pantaenus why Paul concealed his name. The idea that Paul was the author was therefore an Alexandrian inference. The religious value of the epistle was naturally first recognized in Alexandria, and the name of Paul, the chief letter-writer of the church, at once occurred to those in search for its author. Two facts account for the ultimate acceptance of that view by the whole church. The spiritual value and authority of the book were seen to be too great to relegate it into the same class as the Shepherd or the Epistle of Barnabas. And the conception of the Canon developed into the hard-and-fast rule of apostolicity. No writing could be admitted into the Canon unless it had an apostle for its author; and when Hebrews could no longer be excluded, it followed that its apostolic authorship must be affirmed. The tradition already existing in Alexandria supplied the demand, and who but Paul, among the apostles, could have written it?

The Pauline theory prevailed together with the scheme of thought that made it necessary, from the 5th to the 16th century. The Humanists and the Reformers rejected it. But it was again revived in the 17th and 18th centuries, along with the recrudescence of scholastic ideas. It is clear, however, that tradition and history shed no light upon the question of the authorship of Hebrews. They neither prove nor disprove the Pauline, or any other theory.

2. The Witness of the Epistle Itself
We are therefore thrown back, in our search for the author, on such evidence as the epistle itself affords, and that is wholly inferential. It seems probable that the author was a Hellenist, a Greek-speaking Jew. He was familiar with the Scriptures of the Old Testament and with the religious ideas and worship of the Jews. He claims the inheritance of their sacred history, traditions and institutions (Heb_1:1), and dwells on them with an intimate knowledge and enthusiasm that would be improbable, though not impossible, in a proselyte, and still more in a Christian convert from heathenism. But he knew the Old Testament only in the Septuagint translation, which he follows even where it deviates from the Hebrew. He writes Greek with a purity of style and vocabulary to which the writings of Luke alone in the New Testament can be compared. His mind is imbued with that combination of Hebrew and Greek thought which is best known in the writings of Philo. His general typological mode of thinking, his use of the allegorical method, as well as the adoption of many terms that are most familiar in Alexandrian thought, all reveal the Hellenistic mind. Yet his fundamental conceptions are in full accord with the teaching of Paul and of the Johannine writings.

The central position assigned to Christ, the high estimate of His person, the saving significance of His death, the general trend of the ethical teaching, the writer's opposition to asceticism and his esteem for the rulers and teachers of the church, all bear out the inference that he belonged to a Christian circle dominated by Pauline ideas. The author and his readers alike were not personal disciples of Jesus, but had received the gospel from those who had heard the Lord (Heb_2:3) and who were no longer living (Heb_13:7). He had lived among his readers, and had probably been their teacher and leader; he is now separated from them but he hopes soon to return to them again (Heb_13:18 f).

Is it possible to give a name to this person?

[Praxeas]

(1) Paul Not the Author
Although the Pauline tradition itself proves nothing, the internal evidence is conclusive against it. We know enough about Paul to be certain that he could not have written Hebrews, and that is all that can be said with confidence on the question of authorship. The style and language, the categories of thought and the method of argument, all differ widely from those of any writings ascribed to Paul. The latter quotes the Old Testament from the Hebrew and Septuagint, but He only from Septuagint. Paul's formula of quotation is, “It is written” or “The scripture saith”; that of Hebrews, “God,” or “The Holy Spirit,” or “One somewhere saith.” For Paul the Old Testament is law, and stands in antithesis to the New Testament, but in Hebrews the Old Testament is covenant, and is the “shadow” of the New Covenant. Paul's characteristic terms, “Christ Jesus,” and “Our Lord Jesus Christ,” are never found in Hebrews; and “Jesus Christ” only 3 times (Heb_10:10; Heb_13:8), and “the Lord” (for Christ) only twice (Heb_2:3; Heb_7:14) - phrases used by Paul over 600 times (Zahn). Paul's Christology turns around the death, resurrection and living presence of Christ in the church, that of Hebrews around His high-priestly function in heaven. Their conceptions of God differ accordingly. In Hebrews it is Judaistic-Platonistic, or (in later terminology) Deistic. The revelation of the Divine Fatherhood and the consequent immanence of God in history and in the world had not possessed the author s mind as it had Paul's. Since the present world is conceived in Hebrews as a world of “shadows,” God could only intervene in it by mediators.

The experience and conception of salvation are also different in these two writers. There is no evidence in Hebrews of inward conflict and conversion and of constant personal relation with Christ, which constituted the entire spiritual life of Paul. The apostle's central doctrine, that of justification by faith, does not appear in Hebrews. Faith is less the personal, mystical relation with Christ, that it is for Paul, than a general hope which lays hold of the future to overcome the present; and salvation is accomplished by cleansing, sanctification and perfection, not by justification. While Paul's mind was not uninfluenced by Hellenistic thought, as we find it in Alexandria (as, e.g. in Col and Eph), it nowhere appears in his epistles so clearly and prominently as it does in Hebrews. Moreover, the author of Hebrews was probably a member of the community to which he writes (Heb_13:18 f), but Paul never stood in quite the relation supposed here to any church.

Finally, Paul could not have written Heb_2:3, for he emphatically declares that he did not receive his gospel from the older disciples (Gal_1:12; Gal_2:6).

The general Christian ideas on which He was in agreement with Paul were part of the heritage which the apostle had left to all the churches. The few more particular affinities of Hebrews with certain Pauline writings (e.g. Heb_2:2 parallel Gal_3:19; Heb_12:22; Heb_3:14 parallel Gal_4:25; Heb_2:10 parallel Rom_11:36; also with Ephesians; see von Soden, Hand-Commentar, 3) are easily explicable either as due to the author's reading of Paul's Epistles or as reminiscences of Pauline phrases that were current in the churches. But they are too few and slender to rest upon them any presumption against the arguments which disprove the Pauline tradition.

[Praxeas]

(2) Other Theories
The passage that is most conclusive against the Pauline authorship (Heb_2:3) is equally conclusive against any other apostle being the author. But almost every prominent name among the Christians of the second generation has been suggested. The epistle itself excludes Timothy (Heb_13:23), and Titus awaits his turn. Otherwise Luke, Clement of Rome, Barnabas, Silas, Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila, Philip the Deacon, and Aristion have all had their champions.

(a) Luke and Clement
The first two, Luke and Clement, were brought in through their connection with Paul. Where it was recognized that a direct Pauline authorship could not be maintained, the Pauline tradition might still be retained, if the epistle could be assigned to one of the apostle's disciples. These two were fixed upon as being well-known writers. But this very fact reveals the improbability of theory. Similar arguments from language and thought to those derived from the comparison of Hebrews with the Pauline writings avail also in the comparison of Hebrews with the writings of Lk and Clement. Both these disciples of the apostle adhere much closer to his system of thought than Hebrews does, and they reveal none of the influences of Alexandrian thought, which is predominant in Hebrews.

(b) Barnabas; Priscilla and Aquila; Philip; Aristion; Apollos
Of all the other persons suggested, so little is known that it is impossible to establish, with any convincing force, an argument for or against their authorship.

(i) Barnabas was a Levite of Cyprus (Act_4:36), and once a companion of Paul (Act_13:2). Another ancient writing is called “the Epistle of Barnabas,” but it has no affinity with Hebrews. The coincidence of the occurrence of the word “consolation” in Barnabas' name (Act_4:36) and in the writer's description of Hebrews (Heb_13:22) is quite irrelevant. Tertullian's tradition is the only positive argument in favor of the Barnabas theory. It has been argued against it that Barnabas, being a Levite, could not have shown the opposition to the Levitical system, and the unfamiliarity with it (Heb_7:27; Heb_9:4), which is supposed to mark our epistle. But the author's Levitical system was derived, not from the Hebrew Old Testament, nor from the Jerusalem temple, but from Jewish tradition; and the supposed inaccuracies as to the daily sin offering (Heb_7:27), and the position of the golden altar of incense (Heb_9:4) have been traced to Jewish tradition (see Moffatt, Introduction, 438). And the writer's hostility to the Levitical system is not nearly as intense as that of Paul to Pharisaism. There is nothing that renders it intrinsically impossible that Barnabas was the author, nor is anything known of him that makes it probable; and if he was, it is a mystery why the tradition was confined to Africa.

(ii) Harnack has argued the probability of a joint authorship by Priscilla and Aquila. The interchange of “I” and “we” he explains as due to a dual authorship by persons intimately related, but such an interchange of the personal “I” and the epistolary “we” can be paralleled in the Epistles of Paul (e.g. Romans) where no question of joint authorship arises. The probable relation of the author to a church in Rome may suit Priscilla arid Aquila (compare Rom_16:5 with Heb_13:22-24), but even if this interpretation of the aforementioned passages were correct, it is possible and probable that Luke, Barnabas, Apollos, and certainly Clement, stood in a similar relation to a Roman church. Harnack, on this theory, explains the disappearance of the author's name as due to prejudice against women teachers. This is the only novel point in favor of this theory as compared with several others; and it does not explain why Aquila's name should not have been retained with the address. The evidences adduced of a feminine mind behind the epistle are highly disputable. On the other hand, a female disciple of Paul's circle would scarcely assume such authority in the church as the author of Hebrews does (Heb_13:17 f; compare 1Co_14:34 f). And nothing that is known of Priscilla and Aquila would suggest the culture and the familiarity with Alexandrian thought possessed by this writer. Act_18:26 does not prove that they were expert and cultured teachers, but only that they knew and could repeat the salient points of Paul's early preaching. So unusual a phenomenon as this theory supposes demands more evidence to make it even probable. (But see Rendel Harris, Sidelights on New Testament Research, 148-76.)

(iii) Philip the Deacon and Aristion, “a disciple of the Lord” mentioned by Papias, are little more than names to us. No positive knowledge of either survives on which any theory can be built. It is probable that both were personal disciples of the Lord, and they could not therefore have written Heb_2:3.

(iv) Apollos has found favor with many scholars from Luther downward. No ancient tradition supports this theory, a fact which tells heavily against it, but not conclusively, for someone must have written the letter, and his name was actually lost to early tradition, unless it were Barnabas, and that tradition too was Unknown to the vast majority of the early churches. All that is known of Apollos suits the author of Hebrews. He may have learned the gospel from “them that heard” (Heb_2:3); he was a Jew, “an Alexandrian by race, a learned (or eloquent) man,” “mighty in the Scriptures,” “he powerfully confuted the Jews” (Act_18:24), and he belonged to the same Pauline circle as Timothy and Titus (1Co_16:10-12; Tit_3:13; compare Heb_13:23). The Alexandrian type of thought, the affinities with Philo, the arguments from Jewish tradition and ceremonial, the fluent style, may all have issued from “an eloquent Jew of Alexandria.” But it does not follow that Apollos was the only person of this type. The author may have been a Gentile , as the purity of his Greek language and style suggests; and the combination of Greek and Hebrew thought, which the epistle reflects, and even Philo's terms, may have had a wide currency outside Alexandria, as for instance in the great cosmopolitan cities of Asia. All that can be said is that the author of Hebrews was someone generally like what is known of Apollos, but who he actually was, we must confess with Origen, “God alone knows.”

[James Griffin]

http://www.fpcr.org/blue_banner_arti...te-Hebrews.htm

This article is a little bit lengthy so I did not cut and paste.

Author does an excellent job of addressing the various views and points out the majority view (it was Paul) is the most logical but we shall probably never know for sure this side of eternity.

[Praxeas]

End if citation from ISBE

My thoughts. Nothing is said about Peter or James....perhaps because the date of Hebrews is so late and Peter and or James died before hand. But if not why not Peter or James authoring Hebrews with the help of some other disciple to refine the grammar and the greek?

I say that because Paul was entrusted with the gospel to the Gentiles but Peter to the Hebrews....or maybe it was a disciple or student of Peter? I say that because many scholars suspect that John did not write John, He authored the ideas and the content but a student of Johns put them all together for him.

[1Corinth2v4]

To those who believe Paul was the author of Hebrews, consider this.


2 Thessalonians 3:17

The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write.



Paul said his salutation validates the epistle he writes. The book of Hebrews doesn't contain Paul's salutation.






Let me give you examples:


Galatians 1:3
Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,


Ephesians 1:2
Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ


Colossians 1:2
To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.


Philemon 1:3
Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.



Paul validates all his written epistles with his salutation. According to Paul's statement, he didn't write the book of Hebrews. Why, because it doesn't contain Paul's salutation.

[1Corinth2v4]

No salutation in Hebrews like Paul's other books.


Hebrews 1
1God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

2Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

3Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:

4Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

5For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

6And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

7And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.

[James Griffin]

Originally Posted by 1Corinth2v4

To those who believe Paul was the author of Hebrews, consider this.


2 Thessalonians 3:17

The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write.



Paul said his salutation validates the epistle he writes. The book of Hebrews doesn't contain Paul's salutation.






Let me give you examples:


Galatians 1:3
Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,


Ephesians 1:2
Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ


Colossians 1:2
To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.


Philemon 1:3
Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.



Paul validates all his written epistles with his salutation. According to Paul's statement, he didn't write the book of Hebrews. Why, because it doesn't contain Paul's salutation.

http://www.fpcr.org/blue_banner_arti...te-Hebrews.htm

"Along this same line of thought, in 2 Thessalonians 3:17-18, Paul writes: “The salutation [aspasmos] of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every epistle; so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” Note is made that Paul does not say in these verses that he signs every epistle that he writes. What he says is that he always gives this “salutation” [aspasmos]: “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” This salutation (or something similar to it) is found at the end of every one of Paul’s signed thirteen epistles. It is also at the end of Hebrews (13:25): “Grace be with you all. Amen.” Paul did write his salutation at the end of this epistle, just as he said he would do in all of his writings."

[1Corinth2v4]

Originally Posted by James Griffin

"Along this same line of thought, in 2 Thessalonians 3:17-18, Paul writes: “The salutation [aspasmos] of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every epistle; so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” Note is made that Paul does not say in these verses that he signs every epistle that he writes. What he says is that he always gives this “salutation” [aspasmos]: “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” This salutation (or something similar to it) is found at the end of every one of Paul’s signed thirteen epistles. It is also at the end of Hebrews (13:25): “Grace be with you all. Amen.” Paul did write his salutation at the end of this epistle, just as he said he would do in all of his writings."

Paul's salutation is found at the beginning of his epistles.

When writing an epistle/letter, the salutation is always before the letter's body.


Dictionary:
Main Entry: sal·u·ta·tion
The word or phrase of greeting (as Gentlemen or Dear Sir or Madam) that conventionally comes immediately before the body of a letter

[Sister Alvear]

I think Pauline Tolstead mentioned from some sources that sole scholars feel Priscilla wrote Hebrews...