First, we have a mystery here, and who doesn’t like a mystery? Who wrote Hebrews? For a long time people said it was Paul, but there are a few reasons this may not be true. For one thing, the book of Hebrews quotes extensively from the Old Testament. Paul, as a Pharisee, would have been familiar with the Scripture in its original Hebrew language. In other letters, Paul either quotes the Masoretic Text (the original Hebrew) or paraphrases it. However, all of the quotes in this epistle are taken out of the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament), which is inconsistent with Paul’s usage.

If not Paul, who might have written it? The most plausible suggestion is that this was actually a sermon Paul gave and it was transcribed later by Luke, a person who would have had the command of the Greek language that the writer shows. Barnabas is another likely prospect, since he was a Levite (one who performed subordinate services of worship) and would have been speaking on a subject that he knew much about. Martin Luther suggested Apollos, since he would have had the education the writer of this letter must have had. Priscilla and Clement of Rome have been suggested by other scholars.

But the majority of scholars still believe Paul was the author. The most compelling reason comes from Scripture itself. Remember that Peter wrote to the Hebrews (that is, the Jews). Here’s what he had to say in 2 Peter:  “Just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.” In that last verse, Peter is confirming that Paul had also written a letter to the Hebrews! In addition, the theology presented in Hebrews is consistent with Paul’s. Paul was a proponent of salvation by faith alone (Ephesians 2:8, 9), and that message is strongly communicated in this epistle (Hebrews 4:2, 6:12, 10:19-22, 10:37-39, and 11:1-40), indicating that either Paul wrote the epistle or the writer was trained by Paul. One more thing–although it is a small detail, this epistle makes mention of Timothy, and Paul is the only apostle known to have ever done that in any letter.

OK, this is an important book, so I will save details about it for the next blog entry.