Author – Silas Wrote Hebrews

Does Hebrews 13:19 and 23 imply Paul as Author

Bob Andersen — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 05:52:17 +0000

A problem for Pauline authorship is the author’s reference to being restored to the congregation in Hebrews 13:19 and 23. The author and Timothy would even travel together to the congregation. There are two separate problems. The problem after 2 Timothy was written is that Paul reports that he has been condemned to die. This stopped all possible Pauline travel with anyone. But prior to 2 Timothy, Paul had commanded Timothy to remain in Ephesus (1 Tim 1:3) when Paul left Macedonia. Timothy was still in Ephesus when Paul wrote 2 Timothy. Paul and Timothy were not together. In fact, Timothy had not been imprisoned yet as stated in Hebrews 13:23.

This doesn’t argue in favor of Paul. It precludes him unless Hebrews was written before Paul left Timothy in Ephesus when Paul left for Macedonia about AD 63 (1 Tim. 1:3). During this time, Paul travels with Timothy around his evangelized cities and left Timothy in Ephesus, with Titus to Crete (Titus 1:5), spent the winter with Titus in Nicopolis (Titus 3:12) and evangelized the far west. This does not leave time to write Hebrews or travel with Timothy. During the period of Acts, Timothy was never imprisoned. There is no good time for Paul to write Hebrews and travel with Timothy after his imprisonment. This is an obstacle, not an argument in favor of Paul.

10 Short Reasons

Bob Andersen — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 04:14:56 +0000

Here are 10 short reasons why Silas was qualified to write Hebrews to Jerusalem in AD 67. The book, Who Wrote Hebrews? The Case for Silas and His Message for Today has a much more complete defense of his authorship.

Click on this post to read the 10 reasons.

Silas was a prophet (Acts 15:32) and Paul called him an apostle (1 Thes. 2:6) qualifying him to speak with authority for God.
Silas was a leader in the church of Jerusalem (Acts. 15:22) and would have known the stories in Jerusalem about Jesus and could have written boldly to the members of the church of Jerusalem. The author of Hebrews wrote boldly.
Silas was in Rome with Peter helping him write 1 Peter at the same time Hebrews was written from Rome. (1 Peter 5:12)
Paul chose Silas to travel with him on his second Missionary journey (Acts 15:40) and heard him preach often as he traveled with him from Antioch to Syria, Cilicia (Acts 15:41), Derbe, Lystra (Acts 16:1), Iconium (16:2), Phrygia, Galatia (16:6), Macedonia, (16:9-11), Philippi, (16:12), Thessalonica (17:1), Berea (17:10) and Corinth (18:5) making him well known among the Gentile churches as well as trained in Paul’s theology.
Silas wrote Scripture by helping Peter write 1 Peter (1 Peter 5:12) and had some responsibility in writing 1 and 2 Thessalonians as Paul listed him as a co-author and used the pronoun “we” repeatedly (1 Thes. 1:1; 2 Thes. 1:1).
Silas’ presence with Paul in jail in Philippi shows he was bold, evangelistic and fearless (Acts 16:22-39). All of these were qualities of the author of Hebrews
Silas was a Roman citizen, giving him advantages in travel and education.
The Jerusalem Council chose Silas to travel to Antioch to defend the transition of the first covenant to the new covenant (Acts 15:22, 23) as Hebrews does. (Heb. 8:7, 13; 9:1, 15, 18)
There was a war going on in Israel in AD 66 and a letter was needed to encourage the church to persevere. If Paul wanted someone to write a letter to Jerusalem, Silas was the Jerusalem leader he knew well.
Silas knew Timothy well (Acts 15:40-16:10) as did the author of Hebrews (Heb. 13:23)

Paul is Not the Author of Hebrews

Bob Andersen — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 21:54:39 +0000

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.