There are two ways you can know for certain that the Apostle Paul did not write the book of Hebrews. The first thing you have to do, and you should do this regardless of whether or not you care who wrote the book of Hebrews, is to sit down with your Bible and start reading in the book of Romans. Do not stop until you finish the book of Philemon. This will take 30-60 minutes depending on your reading speed. Put the Bible down. The very next day, do the exact same thing, remembering to stop after reading the book of Philemon. Repeat this for five consecutive days. On the sixth day, after reading from Romans 1:1 to the end of Philemon, keep going. As you do this you will instinctively discover that you are not reading something written by the same person. It’s a different style. You can tell someone else has written it. There’s a different personality coming off the pages. Try it.
The next way we know that Paul is not the author is the most obvious. He flat out tells us he didn’t write it. Where? Well, right here:
“The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write”.
2 Thessalonians 3:17
There you go. There is no signature on the book of Hebrews. Therefore Paul, by his own admission, did not write the book of Hebrews. The “salutation of Paul” basically means he signed everyletter he wrote with his name; usually at the beginning of the letter and sometimes at the end as well. That is how the believers knew it was Paul writing it. There were people going around, probably the Judaizers mentioned in Acts 15, who were writing letters to the churches and claiming to be Paul. He says: don’t believe it. If it doesn’t have my signature on it, Paul says, it’s not from me.
It is my humble and yet well informed opinion that the book of Hebrews was written by a commitee of Jewish believers who desparately desired for their fellow jews to be saved. They got together and wrote a letter pleading and reasoning with them to accept Jesus as the Messiah as well as encouraging those who had already done so.
This is not a doctrinal mountain worth dying to defend. If you believe Paul wrote the book, then carry on. I still love you, warts and all.
prosperousindividual
10 responses so far ↓
Vince Otten // September 4, 2008 at 12:19 pm |
Here’s my warts for you to love, then.
As you may well know, there are two camps of textual criticism: those who believe the texts which underlie the KJV and NKJV are the most reliable, and those who trust the texts used in every other English-language translation or paraphrase. If you agree with the former, then you simply follow the Greek title of the letter: “Paul to the Hebrews.” If you follow the latter group, you will read “Hebrews.”
That’s the objective view of this wind-storm in a Tim Horton’s mug. Those who massaged together the latter group of manuscripts (known commonly as either the Westcott & Hort text or the Nestle-Aland text) used “internal evidence” as one of their arguments, similarly to what you’ve done here in your method of reading Romans and Philemon. It’s an interesting (although not, to me, conclusive) argument.
I personally believe the text upon which the KJV and NKJV are based (commonly known as the Received Text, closely related to the Majority Text) is the most reliable. Having said that, though, I don’t think “reliability of the text” is necessarily a deciding issue. About three-quarters of the quotes from the Old Testament in the New Testament–quotes made by Jesus and the apostles–are not from the Hebrew, but from a Greek paraphrase known as the Septuagint (the “LXX”). The LXX is a “sloppier” rendition than any modern evangelical paraphrase we know (like “The Message” or “The Living Bible”), yet Jesus had no problem reading and quoting it verbatim.
As Arsenio Hall used to say, “Just one of those things that makes you go, ‘Hmmmmm.’”
–Vince
prosperousindividual // September 4, 2008 at 12:53 pm |
You know, Vince, I always thought you were smarter than me. Now you’ve gone and proven it.
Your comment didn’t address the signature within the text body problem but that is alright, brother.
Jimmy Swaggart believes 100% that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews so you are in good company. I will continue to admire both him and you.
I like to trick people sometimes with the question: who WROTE the book of Romans? When they answer: “Paul”, I correct them with:
I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord.
Romans 16:22
Either way, we can at least agree that even though they are not the “words” of God, they are indeed, the WORD of God. Amen
Please read my trinity explanation as well as other entries and let me know what you think.
Thanks
Vince Otten // September 13, 2008 at 3:15 am |
Interesting.
Don’t know if I dare comment more. You might find me in company with other famous people.
prosperousindividual // September 13, 2008 at 12:21 pm |
don’t be put off by the swaggart comparison, vince. he is on the short list of people I would most like to meet this side of heaven, even though we have some strong disagreements.
I’m a regular listener to his radio show and a subscriber to his magazine. Although I admire the MAN, I am not a financial supporter of the MINISTRY. I hope to hear more from you, Vince.
Vince Otten // September 14, 2008 at 2:39 am |
I agree, pi (is that a suitable short form for “prosperous individual”?)–I am proud to be in the same company with Jimmy Swaggart, and King David, and Jim Bakker, and Billy Graham, and Todd Bentley, and anybody else who, like me, have admitted that they are a sinner and who count on God to impute the righteousness of Jesus Christ to them. How’s that for more?
prosperousindividual // September 15, 2008 at 1:51 am |
Well said, brother.
Bob Davis // January 26, 2009 at 7:14 am |
Have you noticed God of peace, “theos eirene”, written side by side, found only 5 times in NT?
Romans 15:33 and 16:20; Phil 4:9; 1 Thess 5:23; and Heb 13:20.
the two words not side by side are found in 32 verses (look it up) once by Luke, twice by Peter, once by John in 1 John. Who used them the other 28 times? I think you can guess.
How about “grace be with you”? Last verses in Col, 1 Tim, 2 Tim, Titus and Hebrews (Titus and Hebrews add the word “all”. When writing to a congregation of Jews AND Gentiles Paul identified himself. Are we going to demand he did the same when writing Jews only?
prosperousindividual // January 26, 2009 at 2:43 pm |
That is some great insight but has little, by my estimation, to do with the authorship of Hebrews. Paul did say “every epistle”. Let’s take him at his word.
Here’s another little insight for y’all…
“If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
1 Corinthians 14:37″
So, if Paul said “every epistle” and it’s a “commandment of the Lord”, then perhaps we should take the “every epistle” comment a little more seriously, eh?
Charles Clever // September 5, 2009 at 12:05 pm |
Eusebius had all of Clement’s works and quotes:
“The Epistle to the Hebrews he [Clement] atributes to Paul, but says that it was written for Hebrews in their own language, and then accurately translated by Luke and published for Greek readers. Hence, in the Greek version of this epistle we find the same stylistic color as in the Acts. The usual opening — “Paul, an apostle” — was omitted, with good reason…” (then explaining why). — Eusebius: “The Works of Clement”
Break the code in Daniel 12 at http://abiblecode.com
Charles
prosperousindividual // September 5, 2009 at 2:10 pm |
Thanks for the comment Charles. I still believe we should continue to take the “every epistle” warning from Paul more seriously in spite of what Clement had to say about it.
Also, I looked at your Bible code article. I highly suggest looking into the work of Pastor Carl Gallups who has found where Jesus himself told us the name of Antichrist.
http://www.youtube.com/ppsimmons
These are the final days.