Who wrote letter to the Hebrews? Theological scholars Alexandria, Clement (c.150-c.215) and Origen (c.185-c.254) have expressed their opinion in their writings: Clement says that Paul wrote the letter in Hebrew and that Luke translated it into Greek. Origen says that ‘the thoughts are the thoughts of the apostle’ but that the writer was someone else recalling Paul’s teaching. Who this writer was, says Origen, ‘only God knows for certain’, though current opinion in Origen’s time suggests either Clement of Rome or ‘Luke who wrote the Gospel and Acts’. Tertullian, in his De Pudicitia (On Modesty), chapter 20, refers to this letter with the words ‘there exists a letter of Barnabas to the Hebrews’. He means the Barnabas of Acts 4:36, a Cypriot convert who became a fellow-missionary of Paul (Acts 13-15). Barnabas was a Levite, i.e. of the Temple officials ranking next below the priests, and could have written the letter, with its knowledge of the sacrificial system. Luther who first suggested Apollo, the Jewish convert from Alexandria who became another of Paul’s colleagues (Acts 18:24). But Paul’s authorship, which they suggest, became the accepted view in the Eastern Church and (with doubts on the part of such scholars of Jerome, Augustine, and Luther) in the West also. It was thus incorporated in the Authorized (King James) Version of 1611, where the letter is called ‘The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews’. This led to its general acceptance in English-speaking countries till modern times. (J.H. Davies, ‘A Letter to Hebrews’, The Cambridge Bible Commentary on the New English Bible, published by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, London, N.W. 1967. P.9-10.)
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 03:20:53 +0000
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