Re: authorship of Hebrews
kdlitwak (kdlitwak@concentric.net)
Sat, 08 Feb 1997 22:19:07 -0800
Most recent scholarly commentaries take up this issue. Many
suggestions have been made. Besides Barnabas and Apollos, there are
Luke (compare Acts 6-7), Aquila (a woman -- see chap 13 on the marriage
bed), Silas (associate of Paul) and others. Origen was proably right on
the mark when he observed that God alone knows. Its association with
Paul is a probable contributor to its canonization. Its language and
style are usually used to argue against Paul's authorship. That is my
view, but I would not be dogmatic about it, as I hold to the view that
to adequately determine the style and vocabulary of an author, we need
massive quantities of material of all possible genres written by the
individual in order to know his or her writing style and vocabulary.
You may also find a summary of choices in Robert Gundry's NT Survey (or
at least it was there in the copy I used in 1975).
Ken Litwak
CUrrently at GTU, destination unknown