Bible Discussion Thread

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS (Part 3):

III. THE AUTHOR:

The author of Hebrews is unknown.

The writer knows Timothy. We know from Hebrews 13:23 that he knew Timothy. He says, "know you not that our brother Timothy is set at liberty." That's because Timothy was put into prison. He says with whom if he comes shortly, I will see you. So, the writer of the book of Hebrews knew Timothy.

The writer was with believers who were from Italy, which is found in Hebrews 13:24. The writer was with the Italians, with the Jews from Italy.

In his salutation, he says salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you. The word "of" in the Greek text is literally the word from. And that poses a problem. The scholars that have gone by the English text say that the writer wrote it from Italy, probably Rome. The problem is that he is with the Jews "from" Italy, not "in" Italy.

So, it's too ambiguous to nail it down and say he's writing from Rome, but he definitely is with Hebrew believers who are from Italy, wherever he is writing this letter from.

Several people have been named as possible authors:

Paul is the most common one. In fact, if you have a King James Bible, it will probably say in there that this is the book of Hebrews written by Paul. Remember I said that the title "To the Hebrews" was not put on it until the 2nd century. But there was no inscription about Paul until about the third century when the Council of Carthage added it to the book and claimed that Paul had written the letter.

So, there was no claim on the letter itself that it was written by Paul until the 3rd century. And by the way, this was the Eastern Church. The Western Church didn't even accept it as being inspired by God until the 4th century, and they too accepted it as written by Paul.