The Mystery Of Who Wrote The Letter To The Hebrews

The New Testament Letter to the Hebrews contains powerful writing and deep theology. But who wrote it?

Look at older versions of the Bible – the King James Version, for instance – and you will often see the Letter to the Hebrews titled 'The Letter of Paul to the Hebrews'. But the text of the letter itself doesn't say so.

The early Church recognised the problem. One of the early Church Fathers, Clement of Alexandria, suggested that Paul might have written the letter in Hebrew but that it was translated into Greek by Luke, who left out Paul's name because of the tension between him and the Jewish community. It was a continuing controversy in the early years of the Church, though one of the reasons we have it in the New Testament is that the consensus was that it was by Paul. Today, though, scholars have long abandoned the idea that Paul was the author; there are too many dissimilarities between Hebrews and everything else he wrote.

So who was it? Paul Ellingworth, in his ICC commentary on Hebrews, admits we are unlikely ever to know. Some ancient authors thought it might be Clement of Rome, who quotes or alludes to Hebrews in some of his writings; Clement misuses Hebrews' teaching about Christ's high priesthood, though, to argue for a Christian priestly heirarchy, so it was certainly not him.

Others thought it might have been Luke, the Gospel writer. Both his Gospel and Hebrews are written in excellent Greek and they have many words in common.

Another candidate is Barnabas – Tertullian refers to "an epistle of Barnabas entitled 'To the Hebrews'". Whether it's the Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament is not known.

Others have suggested the letter might have been written by Peter, whose First Letter has similarities in thought and language to Hebrews, or Silas. Still another candidate is Stephen, whose speech in Acts 7 has similarities to Hebrews 11 in its retelling of Jewish history from a Christian perspective. However, this is still a long way from proving their common authorship. Martin Luther thought Apollos might have written it.

In the end, as Ellingworth says, it's unlikely that we will ever know the answer. What matters to Christians today is not who wrote it, but what we do with it. And it's Hebrews that says: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith." (12:2)

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