Many Christians today think Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. That is a little simplistic. I would say most Christians think that Paul probably wrote Hebrews because he was qualified to write it and no other candidate has emerged to challenge the position.
Paul was the major Christian thinker of the first century early church. The remaining apostles were not known as educated people. The Jewish rulers, the High Priest Annas, Caiaphas, John Alexander and other men of the high priest’s family as well as elders and teachers of the law who met in Jerusalem (Acts 4:5, 6) were astonished when they realized Peter and John were “unschooled, ordinary men”. (Acts 4:13)
Since Paul wrote 13 books of the New Testament and was the major theologian of the group, he was the obvious candidate. But there are significant problems with his authorship. Generally, current-day commentators don’t think Paul is the author so I did not spend a lot of time discussing him in my book because so much has already been written.
Some of the problems with a Pauline authorship are as follows:
- The author of Hebrews says: “This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.” (Heb. 2:3) Yet Paul in Galatians says: “I did not receive it [the gospel] from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” (Gal. 1:13) Since Paul was so adamant that he received the gospel directly from Jesus, it seems incomprehensible to believe that he would tell the recipients of Hebrews he received the gospel from those who heard Jesus. This verse is one of the serious challenges to Pauline authorship.
- But there are numerous other problems. Paul signed all 13 of Paul’s books. There is no exception. But the author of Hebrews does not sign the letter. This violates Paul’s style. Also, Paul makes personal notes to people in the receiving congregation. This letter mentions no one other than Timothy by name–also a violation of Paul’s style.
- The two strongest warnings in Hebrews are: Heb. 6:4-8 and Heb. 10:26-31. These are very strong warnings and this also violates Paul’s style.
- Paul always starts with a doctrinal section and concludes his letters with a practical section.
Hebrews has a doctrinal section (Heb. 1:1-14) followed by a practical section (Heb. 2:1-4) followed by a doctrinal section (Heb. 2:5-3:6) followed by a practical section (Heb. 3:7-4:13) followed by a doctrinal section (Heb. 4:14-5:10) followed by a practical section (Heb. 5:11-6:12) followed by a doctrinal section (Heb. 6:13-10:18) followed by a practical section (Heb. 10:19-36) followed by a doctrinal section (Heb. 11:1-40) followed by a practical section (Heb. 12:1-29). Even Romans, Paul’s longest letter (even longer than Hebrews) follows Paul’s regular pattern. - A little more difficult to understand in English is that many of the ancients thought the Greek writing style of Hebrews was different from Paul’s. This was the genesis of the idea that the thoughts were Paul’s but someone else wrote the book. Origen thought this but he was not the only one.
If I thought Paul wrote Hebrews, I never would have begun mine. But I believe Silas is the person who had the ability, credibility, and knowledge of both the events in Israel during Jesus’ ministry and Paul’s thinking to be able to write New Testament theology while still being a second-generation Christian who heard the gospel from those who heard it from Jesus.