July 13, 2014 (Sunday)
Tomorrow this blog will present the book of Hebrews. No one knows for sure who wrote it. Please let me point out, perhaps crudely, why there is uncertainty about this.
William Shatner played Captain James Kirk in the original T.V. program, “Star Trek.” Later a new series replaced it: “Star Trek the Next Generation.” Patrick Stewart played Captain Jean-Luc Picard, from France, but speaking with the dialect of a British aristocrat. The space ship in each program was the U.S.S. Enterprise, the second being a much later model. Most fans enjoyed both programs and they liked both captains, who could not have been more different from each other in almost every way. Now, if you were handed a single page from each program and asked to identify which captain is doing the talking, you probably would have no difficulty in correctly identifying the right man. Why? The style of each captain was entirely unique. The starship captains were unique; they were unlike each other and their scripts reavealed their individuality. Shatner’s character could have come from New York’s lower east side or Brooklyn. He was no philosopher; he was a man of action and easily exhibited his emotions. Stewart’s role, however, was absolutely not the same as Shatner’s. Picard, on the other hand, was “by-the-book.” His language was precise and his decisions always rational. His grammar was impeccable. If you had only a script, read to you anonymously by an unseen voice, you would have no difficulty whatsoever in knowing which captain is doing the talking in the script.
Now, having said all that about a popular T.V. series, I want you to examine the Book of Hebrews. The evidence literally screams at you: Paul was not the writer. All of Paul’s letters are written in the Koine Greek, the every-day language of the day. Hebrews is written in Classical Greek. The difference is remarkable, like the difference between Mickey Spillane and Shakespeare. Most of Paul’s letters were in two parts: Doctrinal and Practical. The Hebrews style does not follow that pattern and is completely different from any of the letters of Paul. But because some of the expressions used in Hebrews were similar to some of those in his letters, some insist that Paul is the author. They are a minority. Most scholars today agree that Paul was not the writer.
If not Paul, who wrote Hebrews? No one knows, although there have been guesses. Some say Apollos, others Priscilla, still others Luke, Barnabas, Clement of Rome, or an unnamed disciple of Paul. All of these, though based upon historical hints, are still just guesses. We will probably never know for sure. But we know that Hebrews presents a finely tuned argument to Jews that Jesus is qualified to be their High Priest and worthy of their acceptance as Messiah. When we get to Heaven, the unkown writer will come clean and, like King Saul, come out from his hiding place, saying, “Aw, shucks. It was me.”