Kathy Stewart - Hebrews: Its Not How You Start - Its How You Finish: A Study Guide to the Most Encouraging Book in the New Testament

Before we get ahead of ourselves, however, lets pause to briefly examine one of the most intriguing questions pertaining to this epistlenamely, who wrot e it?

The question of authorship has led to much scholarly speculation for centuries. Just like the ancestral background of Melchizedek (whom well study in detail), the answer is unknown, and at times in the early centuries of the church, the epistles uncertain authorship posed a potential threat to its inclusion in the New Testament. Despite lacking the familiar traditional greeting that one expects from an epistle, it is obvious from the way Hebrews closes in verses 13:1825 that it was meant to be an epistle to its original recipients. The writer was obviously not anonymous to them. For whatever reason, we can only surmise that the author either wished to not draw attention to himself to future recipients or the first recipients chose not to share this information when they began circulating copies of the original manuscript. Tradition and scholars seem to be divided into two camps as to proposed authorshipsupporters of Paul or supporters of one of his close associ ates.

Supporters of Pauline authorship point out the reference to Timothy in 13:23. They also cite the similarity of language and phrases in Hebrews to Pauls other known epistles. As examples, look at the Scripture passages below from Pauls letters and compare them to similar analogies in Hebrews. What subjects do these passages have in co mmon?

1 Corinthians 3:12; Hebrews 5:1

1 Corinthians 9:24; 2 Timothy 4:7; Hebrews 12:1.

Nevertheless, significant differences have led many biblical scholars to reject Pauline authorship. Although it is difficult to understand because of our English translations, the Greek language of Hebrews is better than the Greek language typically used by Paul in his epistles. With regard to the reference to Timothy in Hebrews 13:23, it is clear from the context that Timothy has been released from prison. However, in 2 Timothy 1:8 and 4:9,11 (the letter generally regarded as Pauls last epistle, composed just before his death), Timothy had not yet suffered for the gospels sake to the point of being imprisoned as other Christian martyrs had. Therefore, his imprisonment and his release from prison alluded to in Hebrews 13:23 must have occurred after Pauls d eath.

In addition, Pauls customary salutation to his readers, which always included his name, is noticeably missing from the beginning of the book.

The letters theme of Christs High Priestly ministry is also never alluded to in other Pauline epis tles.

Finally, it seems inconceivable to me and others that the apostle Paul would ever have written Hebrews 2:3 since he consistently asserted that his apostleship and calling came directly from the risen Christ (see Gal. 1:11,12). He constantly declared that he was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, and every serious attempt he made to reach out to the Jewish community seemed to meet with failure and rejection. The author of Hebrews, however, seems to have developed a good enough relationship with his obviously Jewish group of recipients that he believes they will ultimately listen and heed the strong truths that he imparts to them in his word of exhortation (1 3:22).