I have no axes to grind about the authorship of Hebrews. It is certainly a
fascinating and in many ways wonderful book; it's always seemed to me to be
more Platonic in its assumptions than anything else in the NT, which could,
but need not, point to Alexandria.
What puzzles me, however, is your statement above that "the style is
literary, almost Ionic." "Literary" is obviously right, but I don't know
what you mean by "Ionic" in this instance--certainly not the dialect,
inasmuch as all Koine is based on Ionic with Attic grammar (considerably
transmuted, of course), but what is "Ionic style?" You don't mean the style
of Herodotus, do you--it certainly is not in that style. Sometimes the
"Romances" are called Ionic--I think Apuleius' Meamorphoses is called "an
Ionian tale," and that certainly has nothing to do with the locale of its
story, which is essentially northern mainland Greece. So just what are you
referring to in describing it thus?
Oh, another item for Ken Litwak: I don't think there's any particular
reason for thinking Aquila must be a woman; this is the Latin word for
"eagle" and is not that uncommon a Roman masculine name. I had thought that
in olden days you were touting Priscilla as the likely author of Hebrews.
That's beyond proof, perhaps, but why not, since all we can do is
hypothesize.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/