On Sunday morning I start a new 21 sermon series on the book
of Hebrews. You can see how the series will pan out by going to this page on the church website.
I love Hebrews.
But it is a bit of a puzzle.
When it comes to issues such as who wrote Hebrews and
when it was written and who it was written to and even the original
form of the book – there’s no overwhelming consensus among Bible
commentators.
The opening line of one commentary I used this week makes
the point well:
‘Hebrews is a delight for the person who enjoys puzzles.’
We won’t have time on Sunday morning to go into great depth about
some of the question marks surrounding Hebrews, so for those who are interested, I
thought I’d tackle some of them in this blog.
The Question of Authorship
Unlike the majority of letters that make up the New Testament there is
no greeting by the writer of Hebrews at the beginning of the book to help us
out here.
Traditionally, the apostle Paul was assumed to be the writer
of Hebrews, and so the King James Authorised Version of the Bible incorporated his name into the title
of the book.
However it’s a stark fact that there isn’t a single ancient
manuscript of Hebrews that attributes the book to Paul, indeed the weight of
evidence would seem to point very clearly away from Paul as being the
writer.
His assumed authorship actually has more to do with church
tradition than any strong evidence. It was only from about 180 AD that the eastern wing of the Church
began to claim that he had written the book. When the western Church -
under the leadership of Augustine - finally agreed with them, Augustine was at
pains to say that he only did so for the sake of unity, not because he was
thoroughly convinced.
Over the years other suggested authors have included
Barnabus, Luke, Luke ghost–writing for Paul, Priscilla and Aquila, Jude and
Apollos.
So who’s the most likely author?
There are some clues in the letter, mainly found in the last
chapter of the book.
Whoever wrote Hebrews was certainly within Paul’s circle. In 13:23 it’s clear that the author of Hebrews was acquainted with Timothy, Paul’s apprentice. He refers to him as ‘our brother
Timothy’ and says he hopes to travel with Timothy to see those to whom Hebrews
was sent.
However 2:3 suggests that the author was not an eye-witness
of Jesus. He writes: ‘This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord,
was confirmed to us by those who heard him.’ It seems the author of Hebrews hadn’t directly seen or
heard Jesus, as the apostles had and as Paul did later on the road to Damascus.
And so it seems likely that the author of Hebrews was a
second generation Christian who - together with his readers - had been
converted through the work of the apostles.
We get a further indication that Hebrews wasn’t penned by
Paul when we look at the style of writing that’s used in the book.
One Greek expert writes this about Hebrews:
‘There is no doubt that we find here the most fluent and
eloquent Greek of the entire NT.’
Hebrews is a masterpiece of the finest Greek in the NT. It
is superior in vocabulary, sentence construction and rhetorical style to
any of Paul’s letters. The writer of Hebrews was a well-educated scholar
who had a wide and varied vocabulary. Of the 4,942 words in Hebrews the writer
uses 1,038 different words, and of that number, 169 words are found only in
Hebrews.
The other clear piece of evidence we have as to the identity
of the author of Hebrews is that he was well-versed in the Septuagint:
the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament.
There are 37 direct quotes and 70 more clear allusions to
the Old Testament in Hebrews, all of which are taken - without exception – from the Greek
‘Septuagint’ translation.
So, putting it all together, who wrote Hebrews?
All these factors – the polished Greek, the rhetorical
style, and the thorough grasp of Old Testament theology - led Martin Luther
to suggest that Apollos was the most likely candidate for the
authorship of Hebrews. It’s an opinion other Bible commentators have had
sympathy with as well.
What we know of Apollos certainly fits with the profile of
the author of Hebrews.
In Acts 18:24 Apollos is described as ‘a learned man, with a
thorough knowledge of the Scriptures’ who spoke with ‘great fervour’.
Apollos certainly had
the rhetorical skill to marshal ideas in an orderly and compelling way and a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament. After Aquila and Priscilla had ‘explained to him the way of God more adequately’ (Acts 18:26), he went on
to ‘vigorously refute the Jews in public debate, proving that Jesus was the
Christ.’ (v28)
Apollos was also close to Paul, having taught with him in
Corinth, and so it’s likely he would have known Timothy.
And the icing on the cake is that he was also a native of
Alexandria: the place where the Septuagint Greek translation of the OT had
originated from and where it was widely used.
However, having said all of this, while I personally lean
towards Apollos as author of Hebrews, we have to admit that we simply cannot be sure who wrote it.
He was clearly a church leader with a deep pastoral concern
for his readers and a desire to show them how Jesus was the fulfilment of all
that had gone before.
The Question of Audience
Just as the author of Hebrews is not specified, there is also
no direct reference to the group to whom he was writing. However once again, we
can look at the evidence in order to make a pretty good judgement.
The book wasn’t known under the title ‘to the Hebrews’ until
around 180AD, so unlike many of the shorter New Testament books, it’s title isn’t any
particular help.
However once again, chapter 13 gives us some clues.
In v17 and in v24 we have a clear indication that the group
of believers Hebrews was written to had a clear leadership structure. Reference is
made to their leaders and the writer urges them to obey them and submit to
their authority. So the book seems to have been written to a church of some
kind.
We know that the early Christians met in each others houses
and that these wouldn’t have held very large numbers of people, and so it’s most
probable that this fellowship was one of several house-churches scattered
across a large city.
There’s a general consensus among commentators that Hebrews
was addressed to believers located in an urban setting.
In v14 the writer contrasts the city the believers see with
the one that is to come. And when we look at the combination of pastoral applications
offered in chapter 13 they also suggest a city-setting:
- In v2 – the fellowship are encouraged to extend hospitality
to strangers passing through – a situation that would only have occured regularly if
theirs was a relatively important and natural stop-over point on a trade or
travel route.
- In v3 – the church is urged to identify with those in prison
and those suffering for their faith, again suggesting that they were in a city
where this would have been most immediate.
- In v4 – The writer tells them they should have a
concern for the sanctity of marriage and maintaining sexual purity. We know
from the epistles that this was often a sin associated with large urban
centres.
- And in v5 – the believers are cautioned against greed and
materialism, a problem that would not have been such an issue in New Testament times
in rural areas.
When you put it all together, there is strong evidence to suggest an urban setting where these issues would have
been most immediate to the recipients of Hebrews.
While can’t be certain as to the exact city that the church
was located, it was in Rome that Hebrews was first widely known and used,
especially by prominent church leaders such as Clement of Rome, who drew
heavily on it in his pastoral letters.
Suggestions have ranged from Jerusalem in the east to somewhere
in Spain in the West, but the most popular of locations among Bible
commentators seems to be Rome, because it’s history dovetails neatly with what
the Christians in Hebrews had gone through in recent years and were currently
facing.
For instance - in 12:4 the writer says that these believers
had not yet reached the point where they had ‘resisted to the point of shedding
your blood.’
This clearly rules out Jerusalem as an option for their
location because the members of the church there had suffered death,
particularly in the persecution that had followed the stoning of Stephen in 33AD.
However when we look at chapter 10:32 - we see that these
believers had endured some kind of fierce persecution in earlier
days.
‘Remember those
earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a
great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to
insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who
were so treated. You sympathised with those in prison and joyfully accepted the
confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better
and lasting possessions.’ (10:32-34)
This persecution, particularly the confiscation of their
property and exposure to insult and ridicule, all dovetails with the history of
Rome.
In 49AD the Roman Emperor Claudius issued an edict that
expelled Jews from Rome. We read about it in Acts 18:2, because Aquila and
Priscilla were among those who were thrown out of the city.
The Roman historian Suetonius, writing only a few decades
later, records:
‘There were riots in
the Jewish quarter at the instigation of Chrestus.’
Historians believe that ‘Chrestus’ is a reference to Christ
and that the riots and subsequent expulsion occurred when Jewish Christians
were banished from the synagogue by the Jewish establishment.
As a result of being expelled, many of the Jewish Christians
in Rome would have lost their homes and possessions and been subjected to
public humiliation. They would had been forced to leave the city until the
death of Claudius and this would seem to fit with what the believers
in Hebrews had gone through.
This period of persecution
had occurred in the ‘earlier days’ of the believers' Christian lives, some time
had clearly passed since then. However, the believers seem to be growing fearful and shrinking back in
the face of a greater persecution they saw looming on the horizon. A fear that was to be fully realised in Rome under the
bloody and vicious reign of Claudius’s successor – Nero.
This reading dates Hebrews sometime between the great fire
of Rome in 64AD and Nero’s suicide in 68AD.
The NIV’s unhelpful translation of 13:22 would suggest that Hebrews was a letter.
‘Brothers, I urge you
to bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written you only a short
letter.’
However the word ‘letter’ is not in the original Greek. The
ESV translation is much more helpful here:
'I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.'
The phrase ‘word of
exhortation’ is used in only one other place in the New Testament: in Acts
13:25 when the synagogue rulers in Antioch invite Paul and Barnabus to give a
public address. And there are a other clues in Hebrews that point in the
direction that it was originally delivered as a sermon.
- There’s the fact that the writer fails to start in the
customary way that a letter would have started. He doesn’t begin by identifying
himself or the group to which he’s writing and there is an
absence of the usual ‘grace and peace’
greeting that characterises most of the letters in the New Testament.
- The author also often refers to himself as ‘speaking’ about
things. (For example in 2:5, 6:9, 11:32.)
- And the length and complexity of Hebrews doesn’t necessarily
mean that it couldn’t have been a sermon. It wasn’t unusual in New Testament
times for people to listen to long or difficult public addresses.
One commentator sums it up like this:
‘It is highly likely that Hebrews began as a
synagogue-type sermon given by a learned and experienced leader to a group of
Jewish believers.’
And it makes sense doesn’t it?
The opening of Hebrews has a dramatic, stately quality
about it. It immediately engages the readers attention.
It begins in fact, like
a sermon!
Summary
Putting all the evidence together then, it is likely that Hebrews
is:
- A 1st century sermon, which was transcribed, with
13:22-25 added as a personal postscript by the author;
- Which was delivered to Greek-speaking Jewish converts in a
house-church in or near Rome;
- Who had faced persecution for their faith in the past and were struggling under
renewed pressure to renounce Jesus and were in danger of falling away and returning to Judaism.
And what is the author of Hebrews antidote to this?
For them to fix their thoughts and eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 3:1, 12:2).
Time and time again, he reminds them that Jesus was better than anything they’d had before and that he was sufficient
for all their future needs.
And as we see study Hebrews together over the next few months, my prayer is that we will see that this message is just as true, just as relevant and just as comforting for us today as it was when Hebrews was originally preached.
