Written to Jerusalem

/ Destination / By

How do we know that this letter was written to Jerusalem instead another church like Rome or Ephesus?

  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.