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Did The Apostle Paul Write The Book Of Hebrews?
by There are two ways you can know for certain that the Apostle Paul did not write the book of Hebrews. The first thing you have to do, and you should do this regardless of whether or not you care who wrote the book of Hebrews, is to sit down with your Bible and start reading in the book of Romans. Do not stop until you finish the book of Philemon. This will take 30-60 minutes depending on your reading speed. Put the Bible down. The very next day, do the exact same thing, remembering to stop after reading the book of Philemon. Repeat this for five consecutive days. On the sixth day, after reading from Romans 1:1 to the end of Philemon keep going. As you do this you will instinctively discover that you are not reading something written by the same person. It's a different style. You can tell someone else has written it. There's a different personality coming off the pages. Try it. The next way we know that Paul is not the author is the most obvious. He flat out tells us he didn't write it. Where? Well, right here: "The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write". 2 Thessalonians 3:17 There you go. There is no signature on the book of Hebrews. Therefore Paul, by his own admission, did not write the book of Hebrews. The "salutation of Paul" basically means he signed every letter he wrote with his name; usually at the beginning of the letter and sometimes at the end as well. That is how the believers knew it was Paul writing it. There were people going around, probably the Judaizers mentioned in Acts 15, who were writing letters to the churches and claiming to be Paul. He says: don't believe it. If it doesn't have my signature on it, Paul says, it's not from me. It is my humble and yet well informed opinion that the book of Hebrews was written by a committee of Jewish believers who desperately desired for their fellow Jews to be saved. They got together and wrote a letter pleading and reasoning with them to accept Jesus as the Messiah as well as encouraging those who had already done so. This is not a doctrinal mountain worth dying to defend. If you believe Paul wrote the book, then carry on. I still love you, warts and all. My name is Michael D. Shoesmith. God bless you. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |