The Epistle to the Hebrews (New Testament Collection Book 18)

Authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews

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Who wrote the epistle is known to God alone: Further, "Men of old have handed it down as Paul's, but who wrote the Epistle God only knows".

Book of Hebrews

In the 4th century, Jerome and Augustine of Hippo supported Paul's authorship: Scholars argued that in the 13th chapter of Hebrews, Timothy is referred to as a companion. Timothy was Paul's missionary companion in the same way Jesus sent disciples out in pairs. Also, the writer states that he wrote the letter from "Italy", which also at the time fits Paul. Because of its anonymity, it had some trouble being accepted as part of the Christian canon , being classed with the Antilegomena. Eventually it was accepted as scripture because of its sound theology, eloquent presentation, and other intrinsic factors.

However, the KJV's attribution to Paul was only a guess, and is currently disputed by recent research. At present, neither modern scholarship nor church teaching ascribes Hebrews to Paul. Gordon ascribes the authorship of Hebrews to Priscilla , writing that "It is evident that the Holy Spirit made this woman Priscilla a teacher of teachers". Harnack believes the letter was written in Rome — not to the Church, but to the inner circle.

In setting forth his evidence for Priscillan authorship, he finds it amazing that the name of the author was blotted out by the earliest tradition. If Luke , Clemens, Barnabas, or Apollos had written it, Harnack believes their names would not have been obliterated. Believing the author to have been Priscilla , Ruth Hoppin posits that the name was omitted either to suppress its female authorship, or to protect the letter itself from suppression.

Also convinced that Priscilla was the author of Hebrews, Gilbert Bilezikian , professor of biblical studies at Wheaton College, remarks on "the conspiracy of anonymity in the ancient church," and reasons: The use of tabernacle terminology in Hebrews has been used to date the epistle before the destruction of the temple , the idea being that knowing about the destruction of both Jerusalem and the temple would have influenced the development of the author's overall argument. Therefore, the most probable date for its composition is the second half of the year 63 or the beginning of 64, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia.

However, there is no way to prove the actual dating of this writing, even from within the internal structure of the writing.

Throughout the writing, all mentions of the priestly acts of worship are connected to the tabernacle in Sinai, as built by Moses, with no mention of the temple in Jerusalem. An argument for a later date of the Hebrew text can be assumed due to the absence of any mention of the temple in Jerusalem. If the Hebrew writer composed this message after the first century it would be entirely possible that the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and that of the city of Jerusalem would not be relevant to the writer.

Original Audience

Thus, some academic scholars [ who? James and Paul represent the moderates of each faction, respectively, and Peter served as moderator. It sets before the Jew the claims of Christianity — to bring the Jew to the full realization of the relation of Judaism to Christianity, to make clear that Christ has fulfilled those temporary and provisional institutions, and has thus abolished them.

Those to whom Hebrews is written seem to have begun to doubt whether Jesus could really be the Messiah for whom they were waiting, because they believed the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures was to come as a militant king and destroy the enemies of his people. Jesus, however, came as a mere man who was arrested by the Jewish leaders and who suffered and was crucified by the Romans.

And although he was seen resurrected , he still left the earth and his people, who now face persecution rather than victory. The Book of Hebrews solves this problem by arguing that the Hebrew Scriptures also foretold that the Messiah would be a priest although of a different sort than the traditional Levitical priests and Jesus came to fulfill this role, as a sacrificial offering to God, to atone for sins. His role of a king is yet to come , and so those who follow him should be patient and not be surprised that they suffer for now.

Some scholars today believe the document was written to prevent apostasy. Some have seen apostasy as a move from the Christian assembly to pagan ritual. In light of a possibly Jewish-Christian audience, the apostasy in this sense may be in regard to Jewish-Christians leaving the Christian assembly to return to the Jewish synagogue. The author writes, "Let us hold fast to our confession". The book could be argued to affirm special creation. Hebrews is a very consciously "literary" document. This letter consists of two strands: Hebrews does not fit the form of a traditional Hellenistic epistle , lacking a proper prescript.

Modern scholars generally believe this book was originally a sermon or homily , although possibly modified after it was delivered to include the travel plans, greetings and closing. Hebrews contains many references to the Old Testament — specifically to its Septuagint text. The Epistle to the Hebrews is notable for the manner in which it expresses the divine nature of Christ. Consider Christ who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood Hebrews As this passage indicates, the author expected more persecutions to come against his audience, and he was deeply concerned with this feature of their experience. The original audience of Hebrews faced a number of issues… as the author mentions in chapter 10, they had faced various forms of suffering; some of them had lost property, some of them had been imprisoned, they'd been subjected to public ridicule of some sort.

And he still is urging the readers at this point, as he writes, to be willing to bear the reproach of Christ to face exclusion from the camp, which he's describing in Old Testament terms but probably means to be excluded from the synagogue, and if they were to go to Jerusalem, to be excluded from the temple, which I believe was still standing as he wrote. So there are those forms of persecution they were facing. He says in chapter 12 that their sufferings had not escalated to the point of shedding blood, and yet he seems to be aware of their need to be assured that they have been set free from the fear of death, as he says in chapter 2, by the victory of Jesus Christ.

So, it may be that even a more intense, violent persecution is on the horizon. Fifth, as the audience of Hebrews faced persecution, at least some of them were near apostasy.

Rather than simply being discouraged or weakened by sufferings, they were in danger of turning away from Christ entirely. For instance, in Hebrews If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God Hebrews We need to be clear here that the author of Hebrews was not concerned about peccadillos or small sins. He warned his audience severely because for those who utterly turn away from Christ, "no sacrifice for sins is left.

And for this reason, they can only have "a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire" reserved for "the enemies of God. As we'll explain in our next lesson, this and similar passages don't imply that true believers can lose their salvation. Rather, this verse refers to those who profess faith and experience many of its blessings, but without regeneration and justification. In all events, it's evident that some in the original audience of Hebrews were sorely tempted to leave the faith.

Now that we've investigated the background of Hebrews by considering the book's authorship and the original audience, we should turn to our third issue: Although the exact date for Hebrews remains uncertain, the earliest and latest dates for this book can be established rather firmly. We'll look first at the earliest possible date for the book, or terminus a quo , and then at the latest possible date, or terminus ad quem. Both of these dates can be determined with some degree of confidence using scriptural and historical evidence. On the one side, Hebrews In this verse the author wrote:.

I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you Hebrews Here we see that "Timothy [had] been released" recently from prison. We don't hear of Timothy's imprisonment anywhere else in the New Testament. In fact, in the book of 2 Timothy, Paul's last letter written shortly before his death, Timothy was free to travel and bring Paul supplies. Yet, this verse tells us that by the time Hebrews was written Timothy had been imprisoned and released. For this reason, the book of Hebrews must have been written after Paul's death, which took place sometime around A.

On the other side, the latest likely date for the book would be around A. In addition, many commentators have observed that, in passages like Hebrews 5: This is important because in the rest of his book the author consistently used the Greek past tense when referring to past events.

Epistle to the Hebrews

So, it's likely that these priestly activities were still going on when Hebrews was written. He explained that in light of the new covenant, these practices would "soon disappear. So, these evidences suggest a date for Hebrews sometime after Paul's death around A. In our lesson on the background and purpose of Hebrews, we've looked at several features of the background of the book of Hebrews. Now, we're in a position to address the overarching purpose of the book. Why was Hebrews written? It's fair to say that any book as long and complex as the book of Hebrews is written with many different purposes in mind.

But for this lesson, we're primarily interested in summarizing the overarching purpose of the book. Each part of this book has its own emphases, and we'll explore these emphases in our next lesson. At this point, we want to see how the book as a whole was designed to impact the concepts, behaviors and emotions of the original audience.

Interpreters have summarized the overarching purpose of the book of Hebrews in a variety of ways. But for this study, we'll describe the original purpose of Hebrews in this way:. The author of Hebrews wrote to exhort his audience to reject local Jewish teachings and to remain faithful to Jesus. This description of the author's purpose helps orient us to the main ideas found in the book of Hebrews. As we've just suggested, the author of Hebrews wrote to exhort his audience. Listen to the way the author himself characterized his book in Brothers, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation Hebrews Notice here that the writer "urge[d]" his audience to receive his book as a "word of exhortation.

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The terminology of exhortation implies "to summon to the speaker's side" or "to call for someone to take the speaker's point of view. Interestingly, the phrase "word of exhortation" also appears in Acts It's quite possible that the expression "word" — or message — "of exhortation" was a first-century technical designation for what we call a sermon today. Well, the author identifies his work as a word of exhortation — this is in And so the use of rhetoric is basically a tool for persuading the audience to be faithful in their commitment to Jesus as the Son of God and as their Lord and Savior.

So, the rhetoric in the letter of Hebrews, or the homily of Hebrews, allows the author to elaborate on themes, to exegete Jewish Scriptures — that is, interpret Jewish Scriptures in a way that is meaningful — and then present it in a very forceful way so that the audience understand clearly what the author wants him to do, wants them to do.

He wants them to adhere to the salvation that Christ has offered to them, that God has offered in Christ. Every epistle or letter in the New Testament contains exhortations to its audience. But the book of Hebrews stands apart from other New Testament epistles due to the intensity of its exhortations. To explore the author's purpose, let's look more closely at the intensity of the exhortations that are so prominent in the book. And then, we'll examine the goal of these exhortations, how the author hoped his audience would respond.

Authorship

Let's look first at the intensity of the author's exhortations to his audience. To look further at what we mean by the intensity of the author's exhortations, we'll look at two issues: Let's begin by examining the frequency of exhortations. The frequency of the author's exhortations helps us understand the urgency of his message. These exhortations are implicit at times, but at least 30 times they appear explicitly. On many occasions, the author used what Greek grammarians call the "hortatory subjunctive.

For instance, in 4: Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess… Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence Hebrews 4: The author also exhorted his audience by using imperatives, which we often translate as direct orders. For example, in Strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet … Make every effort to live in peace with all men … be holy … See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up … See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau Hebrews One of the reasons it's important to keep in mind how often the author directly exhorted his audience is that the book's complex theological reflections often obscure the author's purpose for writing.

He didn't simply want to inform his audience of theological doctrines. He informed them doctrinally in order to persuade them to adopt different attitudes and actions. This is what he meant when he called his book a "word of exhortation. We've seen how the intensity of the author's exhortations is reflected in the frequency with which he exhorted his audience.

Now, let's consider how the author's rhetorical style also reveals his desire to exhort his audience. The book of Hebrews has often been characterized as highly rhetorical. By this we mean that it employs many literary devices that were associated with persuasive oratory or urgent debate in the first century. Many of these rhetorical devices appear now and then in other New Testament books, but we find them far more often in Hebrews.

Hebrews is probably the best example in the New Testament of an author who has strong literary and rhetorical skills, and those rhetorical skills really help to accomplish the author's purpose. He's trying to demonstrate the superiority of Christ and the new covenant over the old covenant, and he does so in part with a very convincing strong literary argument. And he uses lots of different structural features to accomplish that… So, beautifully structured, using rhetoric to draw his readers in, and then to convince them of the argument that he's making.

One rhetorical device, called synkrisis in Greek, is a detailed comparison between two or more things designed to convince audiences to affirm the speaker's point of view. For example, synkrisis appears in the book of Hebrews in 7: There, the author argued that Jesus was a royal priest like Melchizedek, a priest and king mentioned in the book of Genesis. But rather than simply asserting his belief, the author of Hebrews gave his audience a compelling, eight-point comparison between Melchizedek and Christ: These detailed comparisons were designed to settle all doubts about the claim that Jesus is the great, royal High Priest.

Another rhetorical device in the book of Hebrews is known as exempla. Exempla are lists of illustrations or examples that follow one after the other to build a persuasive argument for a particular point of view. This oratorical technique appears in the familiar list of the faithful in Hebrews There the author listed by name: This long list was designed to persuade the audience that servants of God should remain faithful throughout their persecution. A third rhetorical device used by the author of Hebrews is known by the Hebrew expression qol wahomer.

This expression is well known from both Greco-Roman and rabbinical traditions and may be translated "light to heavy," "less to great," or "simple to complex. It then builds to a more complex conclusion that the audience initially doubts, but can now more easily accept. Simply put, this argument says that because the simple premise is true, then surely the more difficult conclusion must also be true.

The Book of Hebrews: The Background and Purpose of Hebrews (high definition video)

Listen to the way this rhetorical device appears in Hebrews Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot?

Here the author began with a premise that the audience understood: Then he pressed his audience further by arguing "how much more" punishment should come to those who "trampled … under foot" one greater than Moses — "the Son of God. These examples help us see the urgency of the author's intentions. He was convinced that his audience faced a very serious situation and that it was time for them to make some very difficult decisions. So, he did all he could to urge and persuade them to make the right choices. Now that we've seen how the author's purpose was strengthened by the intensity of his exhortations, we should turn to a second feature of the book: As this definition affirms, the goal of the author's exhortations was twofold.

He wanted his audience to reject local Jewish teachings and he wanted them also to remain faithful to Jesus as the Messiah. Let's consider how the author urged his audience to reject local Jewish teachings. We've noted that the audience of Hebrews had suffered persecution and that this persecution was tempting them toward apostasy.

But this temptation was not what we might first imagine. It seems that at the time Hebrews was written, Christians could find safety from persecution if they rejected their distinctively Christian beliefs and identified more closely with their local Jewish community. In the first century, Jews often had to pay special taxes, and they suffered persecution from time to time. But often, Jewish communities in the Roman Empire were free to observe their faith. Early on, the same was true for Christians because they were closely identified with Judaism.

But as time passed, Christian identification as a Jewish sect began to disappear. In fact, the book of Acts reports that even in the days of Paul, Jewish synagogues rejected followers of Christ and encouraged local authorities to mistreat them. In all likelihood, this was the kind of situation facing the original audience of Hebrews.

And their prolonged sufferings tempted them to accept teachings in their local Jewish community that were contrary to the Christian faith. Interestingly, the author of Hebrews didn't address the sorts of issues normally associated with Jewish hypocrisy and legalism. As crucial as these matters were, they're not a major concern in the book of Hebrews. Rather, the author dealt primarily with erroneous beliefs and practices, specifically those that developed in Jewish communities outside the mainstream of Palestinian Judaism.

Listen to what the author of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them Hebrews In this verse, the author contrasted being "strengthened by grace" with being strengthened "by ceremonial foods.

But notice also that this was just one example of what he called "all kinds of strange teachings. Therefore, the author presents to the readers for their reflection the everlasting priesthood of Christ Heb 7: It also provides the meaning God ultimately intended in the sacrifices of the Old Testament Heb 9: They should also be strengthened by the assurance of his foreordained parousia, and by the fruits of faith that they have already enjoyed Heb It is in the nature of faith to recognize the reality of what is not yet seen and is the object of hope, and the saints of the Old Testament give striking example of that faith Heb The perseverance to which the author exhorts the readers is shown forth in the earthly life of Jesus.

Despite the afflictions of his ministry and the supreme trial of his suffering and death, he remained confident of the triumph that God would bring him Heb The letter concludes with specific moral commandments Heb As early as the end of the second century, the church of Alexandria in Egypt accepted Hebrews as a letter of Paul, and that became the view commonly held in the East. Pauline authorship was contested in the West into the fourth century, but then accepted. In the sixteenth century, doubts about that position were again raised, and the modern consensus is that the letter was not written by Paul.

There is, however, no widespread agreement on any of the other suggested authors, e.

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