Almost every time I tell someone I am writing a bit about Hebrews, they inevitably ask me the same question. “Who wrote it?” I tell you despite my depth of research and time taken from trying to decipher this brilliant work you will likely gain little from my writing in the way of actually answering your question. It’s fine if you wish to move on to some other fine piece as this work will only cause additional brain salivation but provide nothing for the stomach. But if you must! If you love riddles that only provide clues but few answers! Read on!
Unlike most other New Testament Epistles Books, or what have you, Hebrews supplies no author’s name! Paul’s letters often open with the flourish, “Paul, an Apostle…” No such luck with this work. Well tell me about people who were close to this time period? Might there be any help there? Historical research from the first century produces no details on who the author might be. We don’t have a document from say Saint Peter that reads, “check out this important work by so-and-so.”
Well with that, let’s take a look at the internal evidence. Let’s take apart the work itself and see if we can say it’s St. Paul. Although authorship is attributed to Paul for Hebrews by some Church Fathers, the author is likely not Paul. Within the text the author testifies that he or she did not hear about salvation directly through Jesus, but through witnesses of Jesus.1 Hebrews 2:3b-4 in the ESV says, “how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” This is different from the way Paul gives his testimony in Acts. Paul describes his testimony as a radical encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.2 (It’s also possible he is describing his testimony as being through a revelation of Jesus Christ in Galatians.3) There are language differences as well. Greek scholar Dana Harris has noted “differences in both the Greek style (quite literary) and the vocabulary (distinctive) in Hebrews and the Pauline epistles. There is no opening salutation in Hebrews, unlike every Pauline epistle. Additionally, Hebrews uses distinctive imagery, such as an anchor or a ship drifting away, not found in Pauline epistles. The common Pauline designation ‘Christ Jesus’ does not occur in Hebrews.”4 Okay, there are testimony and language differences. Surely the theology is the same, right? Well the biggest differences between Paul and the author of Hebrews may be the theology itself. Harris speaks of the differences in theology, “Hebrews focuses on the priestly and cultic significance of Jesus’s death (a once-for-all sacrifice), whereas Paul focuses on the [...] vicarious substitutionary atonement. Hebrews focuses on Jesus’s exaltation, whereas Paul focuses on his resurrection. Clearly these different emphases are complementary and not contradictory, yet they are significant.”5
It’s wild to look at the many speculations in regards to who wrote this work throughout the centuries. Many theories have been generated regarding the authorship of Hebrews through the centuries including the following: Paul, a disciple of Paul, Clement of Alexandria, Luke, Barnabas, Peter, Jude, Philip the deacon, Aristion, Stephen, Priscilla (and Aquila), Epaphras, and Apollos.6 I doubt I listed all of them. Feel free and add a few more possibilities to my list if you so desire. I think after much research and thought, I have come to the same as that of Origen in the third century. The author of Hebrews “is known to God alone.”7
“The single most striking piece of internal evidence against Pauline authorship of Hebrews is the author’s explicit statement that the message which began with Jesus ὑπὸ τῶν ἀκουσάντων εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐβεβαιώθη (2:3); in other words, that the author and his readers received the gospel indirectly.” Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 1993), 7.
Act 9, Act 22, Acts 26
Gal 1:1,1:11-12
Dana M. Harris, Hebrews, ed. Andreas J. Köstenberger and Robert W. Yarbrough, Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2019), 3.
Dana M. Harris, Hebrews, ed. Andreas J. Köstenberger and Robert W. Yarbrough, Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2019), 3.
Paul Ellingworth has a good study of the different authorship theories within his work, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 1993), 3-21.
Origen follows from God alone into speculation, “the statement of some who have gone before us is that Clement, bishop of the Romans, wrote the epistle, and of others that Luke, the author of the Gospel and the Acts, wrote it.” Philip Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN, The Church History of Eusebius), 12, 14.