Book of Hebrews?

God

 

Paul wrote the book of Hebrews.

God told him to do it.

God also told him what to write.

And the first century NT church "knew to read it" without wating a few centuries for another church to come along and "tell them it was ok to read it as scripture".

In Christ,

Bob

 

Whoever wrote the Book of Hebrews had to know everything about Judaism. I do not think there is new information out about saying definitively who was the author. My best guess is the Apostle Paul. Why?

He says I was 'Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the Tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; and as touching the Law, a Pharisee . . . . and as touching the righteousness of the Law, I was blameless.' [Philippians 3:5-6]

 

Traditionally, the Paul has been considered the author of the Epistle of Hebrews. I also agree with Ray's reasoning about this question.

 

I like to think it was Apollos, but of course I don't know that.

 

I definitely believe that you can rule out Paul, as the style does not concur with Paul's style. My vote would go with Apollos first, then possibly Barnabas. I also believe that it was written somewhere about 60-64 AD.

 

I tend to side with Paul, but that's by no means certain. Apollos is a likely candidate as well, methinks.

Interestingly, the letter was written to Hebrews in Rome, but the earliest copies of the manuscripts are in Greek. Many believe that the original letter might have been written in Hebrew or Aramaic, which does make some sense. At the time of its writing (the early 60's ad), roughly 1/3 of the NT had been penned (but not generally distributed), 1/3 was in the process of being penned at the same time as this letter, and another 1/3 had yet to be written. (note that the books of the NT are arranged in the order in which they were written.

 

No they are not.

Some of the letters of Paul (for instance, Galatians) are apparently the oldest writings of the New Testament.

 

If it was written by someone who is well known in the scriptures, then I think it was one of these three (four).

In order of probability:

1.) Apollos
2.) Barnabas
3.) Priscilla and Aquilla

 

No they are not.</font>[/QUOTE]This is a clear example of my hands getting away from my head. It should have read:

note that the books of the NT are NOT arranged in the order in which they were written.

Sorry about that. Clearly, we need to devise a way to read the minds of posters...

 

I definitely believe you must accept Paul as the one and only source for this book based both on internal evidence in the NT (Paul is the only author using terms like "Hebrew of the Hebrews") and the external "earliest" sources.

In Christ,

Bob

 

In the back of my Bible there is a lot of data about Survey, Date of book written, etc. Dr. James I. Packer seems to believe that the Book of Galatians was written between A.D. 48-58. This book, then, is without doubt the earliest of the N.T. books making up our Bible.

Dr. Packer, Ph.D. is a noted conservative theologian. Formerly principal of Trinity College in Bristol, England. He once was on the faculty of Regent College in Vancouver, B.C. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including "I Want to Be a Christian and Knowing God."

The above information might well be true, but I do not value his five points of Calvinism.

Each of these writers in the back of my Bible apparently have searched, thought out, and researched the matter as to the writing of each book of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.

I believe that the Book of Revelation was probably the last book of the Bible to be written

 

Based on the way the book of Hebrews reads, would anyone care to guess whether it was written before the destruction of the temple or after the destruction of the temple?

 

I vote Paul.

Different target group, different purpose, hence different style.

Of course, as you all have mentioned, our best guesses are guesses.

 

My guess is that Hebrews was written before 70 AD, since it lacks any mention of the destruction of the temple. I also tend to rule out Paul as author since he seems to exclude himself from those who received the gospel directly from Jesus (2:3). Elsewhere, he doesn't do this. Apollos is a good candidate, based on what little we know of him. Of course, it won't bother me if I'm proven wrong.

 

The style is different from Paul's other letters - that still does not rule him out. I'm not really sure!!

 

Only Paul could have written this as only he speaks of himself as "A Hebrew of Hebrews". In fact Peter's writing never addresses the Jews as "Hebrews" nor does Peter go into the doctrinal arguments comparing NT and OT types the way Paul does in Romans and in Hebrews.

The evidence from history and from the text is overwhelming - it is Paul.

Further - in Acts 13 and 17 we see Paul going repeatedly to Jews and Gentiles.

In Christ,

Bob