Authorship of Hebrews

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darinhouston
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Authorship of Hebrews

Post by darinhouston » Sat Nov 12, 2022 10:31 am

I heard a new argument (to me anyway) against Paul being the author of Hebrews.

Based on Hebrews 2:3, it is said the this proves the authorship by a "second generation" believer - some say Apollos. What do you think?

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

dizerner

Re: Authorship of Hebrews

Post by dizerner » Sun Nov 13, 2022 9:22 am

I'm fairly convinced Paul wrote this with Luke as his amanuensis.

https://www.amazon.com/Authorship-Hebre ... 0805447148

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dwight92070
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Re: Authorship of Hebrews

Post by dwight92070 » Mon Nov 14, 2022 1:10 pm

"confirmed to us by those who heard (Him, the Lord)". I don't see how this disproves that Paul could be the author, or Luke, as Dizerner said. Those who heard Him would at least be His twelve apostles, although I'm sure there were many more. Paul met with the apostles on more than one occasion, so they could have related many of Jesus' words to him.

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darinhouston
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Re: Authorship of Hebrews

Post by darinhouston » Mon Nov 14, 2022 11:41 pm

dwight92070 wrote:
Mon Nov 14, 2022 1:10 pm
"confirmed to us by those who heard (Him, the Lord)". I don't see how this disproves that Paul could be the author, or Luke, as Dizerner said. Those who heard Him would at least be His twelve apostles, although I'm sure there were many more. Paul met with the apostles on more than one occasion, so they could have related many of Jesus' words to him.
But Paul was not one of the 12

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dwight92070
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Re: Authorship of Hebrews

Post by dwight92070 » Tue Nov 15, 2022 1:01 am

I'm not sure I follow your statement. Paul wouldn't have to be one of the twelve to be the author of Hebrews, would he? If he got reliable information from those who heard Jesus, isn't that sufficient? Not to mention the fact that Paul got his own personal revelations from Jesus as well.

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darinhouston
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Re: Authorship of Hebrews

Post by darinhouston » Tue Nov 15, 2022 11:21 pm

dwight92070 wrote:
Tue Nov 15, 2022 1:01 am
I'm not sure I follow your statement. Paul wouldn't have to be one of the twelve to be the author of Hebrews, would he? If he got reliable information from those who heard Jesus, isn't that sufficient? Not to mention the fact that Paul got his own personal revelations from Jesus as well.
Sorry - I was really tired - I wasn't thinking. I think the issue with Paul is that he would not be likely to have said this of himself. And also he did have a personal encounter with the Lord.

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mattrose
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Re: Authorship of Hebrews

Post by mattrose » Mon May 01, 2023 3:55 pm

I also don't think this is a very good argument against Paul being the author of Hebrews

Paul did, on occasion, use language similar to this. For instance, in 1 Cor. 15...
"For what I received I passed on to you"

Even though Paul did have a first hand encounter with Christ, it was not the type of encounter where he received a ton of content. The basic stories & teachings of Christ still needed to be shared with him by the Apostles.

I think the strongest argument against Pauline authorship of Hebrews is simply that the text doesn't say it was from Paul (Which Paul elsewhere does). But it's pretty clearly Paul-ish writing and comes from the same circle.

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dwight92070
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Re: Authorship of Hebrews

Post by dwight92070 » Mon May 01, 2023 7:17 pm

mattrose wrote:
Mon May 01, 2023 3:55 pm
I also don't think this is a very good argument against Paul being the author of Hebrews

Paul did, on occasion, use language similar to this. For instance, in 1 Cor. 15...
"For what I received I passed on to you"

Even though Paul did have a first hand encounter with Christ, it was not the type of encounter where he received a ton of content. The basic stories & teachings of Christ still needed to be shared with him by the Apostles.

I think the strongest argument against Pauline authorship of Hebrews is simply that the text doesn't say it was from Paul (Which Paul elsewhere does). But it's pretty clearly Paul-ish writing and comes from the same circle.
His first encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus appears to be quite brief. But later in Arabia, I think he could have had several encounters with the Lord. We don't know how long Paul was in Arabia, which is mentioned in Galatians 1:17, but I think it's safe to assume that he received many revelations there. In fact, I think he did receive a ton of revelations because of 2 Corinthians 12:7 - "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, ..." It's very possible that the "greatness" here could be referring to not only the content but also the number of revelations.

There is another argument against Paul's authorship, however. In every one of Paul's 12 epistles, he opens with: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" or a close facsimile thereof. But that is obviously missing in Hebrews. That is very much unlike Paul. But I don't have a dog in the fight. Whoever wrote Hebrews, I'm sure glad he did. It's a great book.

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