1. Silas was a leader in the church at Jerusalem (Acts 15:22).
2. The letter was given the title “To the Hebrews” by someone who recognized it was clearly written to Jews because of the large amount of exclusively Jewish material. The destination of the letter must have a large Jewish population, like Jerusalem.
3. In AD 66, a war started between the Jews in Israel and the Romans. Jerusalem was destined to become the target of the Romans where the church lived. The church needed a message from Christian leaders telling them how to respond.
4. Earlier, Paul wrote letters to both Rome (Romans) and Ephesus (Ephesians) which were very different than the message to the Hebrews because those churches had different needs than this exclusive Jewish church.
5. The author of Hebrews says: “Those from Italy greet you” (Heb. 13:24). Any letter to an exclusive Jewish audience mentioning Italy would likely be written from Rome rather than to Rome. Hebrews mentions no other Gentile city but the heavenly Jerusalem is mentioned (Heb. 12:22).
6. Hebrews states when the church began, it endured suffering with public insults, distress, and some were imprisoned and their property seized (Heb. 10:32-36). When the Jerusalem Church began, it endured persecution. Stephen was stoned. Paul dragged men and women away and put them in prison (Acts 7:54-8:3; 9:1, 2). No other church meets this description of its beginning.
7. The author knew the church well and the church knew the author well (Heb. 13:18, 19, 22—24). We know that Silas and the Jerusalem church knew each other well (Acts 15:22).
8. Hebrews was written exclusively to Jews. First, a strictly Jewish church in the middle of Rome or Ephesus makes no sense. Anyone leaving Judaism for Christianity, would naturally join the Christian church and not remain isolated. Second, we know from Paul’s letters that the Roman and Ephesian churches were mixed Jewish and Gentile (Rom. 16; Eph. 2:11-22; 3:6; 4:17; 6:5-9) There was no known exclusively Jewish-Christian church in any exclusively dominated Gentile city like Rome and Ephesus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0atpQszfq-8&list=PLjIkeUPgd-oAe9Td8U8JTewCXvYUmxv8w&index=3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAhOX1pg0vo&list=PLjIkeUPgd-oAe9Td8U8JTewCXvYUmxv8w&index=4

We agree on much of our information and argument. We agree that Silas wrote Hebrews from Rome around AD 67. We disagree on the destination city of the letter. Cruceru states that Timothy came from Ephesus at Paul’s request and then took Hebrews back to Ephesus when he returned so the book was written to the church in Ephesus. He even believes that Silas helped Peter write 1 Peter. I don’t think he connected the fact that Hebrews and 1 Peter were written at the same time but to different locations. 1 Peter says it was written to Asia (i.e. Ephesus), Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia and Bithynia (all on the Anatolian Peninsula). It was written to a Gentile audience and Hebrews was written to a Jewish audience. The Gentile audience would have been in Ephesus while the Hebrew audience was in Jerusalem. He knew Silas was a leader in the church of Jerusalem but doesn’t emphasize that the church in Jerusalem would have known Silas far better than those in the church in Ephesus. Timothy knew the Ephesians, but Silas did not accompany Paul on the third missionary journey when Paul started the church in Ephesus. But Silas knew the Jerusalem church well and was well known to them, which easily explains why he didn’t need to identify himself.

The second disagreement is minor. He states that the persecution in Rome was at the same time as the rebellion in Israel. I believe he is close but not precise enough. He correctly states the fire in Rome was in AD 64 but tries to push the Jewish rebellion back to the persecution of Christians starting with the fire of Rome. The primary persecution of the Roman church under Nero was in Rome in 64 and 65 and it is not clear that there was persecution outside Rome. The Jewish rebellion doesn’t start in earnest until AD 66. The clarity we have concerning the persecution during the fire of Rome is lacking when it comes to 1 Peter. It is more difficult to prove the timing and nature of the persecution in Asia, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. I believe that when Paul returned to Rome from the far west and Jerusalem and found out about the Jewish rebellion, he saw the need for a letter to Jerusalem. Paul asked Timothy and Mark to come to Rome to help write and possibly deliver Hebrews to Israel. But when they arrived, they probably brought the information about persecution–which necessitated repurposing the letter into another letter (i.e. 1 Peter) to the Gentiles. I believe Hebrews was written before 1 Peter because it looks like Paul assembled the team to write Hebrews to respond to the Jewish rebellion before he was martyred.