Thanks for posting this Matt. Another person to get into this discussion is H. Attridge who wrote a great commentary on Hebrews in the Hermenia commentary series.
The first time I read Hebrews in the Greek I wasn't even halfway through when I said to myself, "This was written by someone from Alexandria". Apollos is the obvious candidate, so I brought that up in class and we batted it around. It took us a while to realize our professor wasn't offering an opinion. When we asked, he pointed out that Origen thought the author was Paul, and posed us the question, "Under what circumstances would Paul have written in such a decidedly different manner than usual?" The book's title was the main clue: it was written to a Hebrew community, and where would you find a community that could be distinguished that way? Our answer was a large city with a notable Jewish community, and since the epistle is very Alexandrian, then that community would have been the Jewish believers in Alexandria. So we decided my first surmise was backwards: the author was someone writing TO Alexandrians! and Paul was certainly educated enough to adopt his writing to fit an audience in that city.
I'm with Dr. Black on this one, every time I read it I heard Paul's voice speaking with such love for the subject. I hadn't really thought about scribe but I could see it being Luke. Thank you so much for sharing this!
I personally don’t think it’s Paul since in the end the writer refers to Timothy as brother, whereas in the books of Timothy Paul sees Timothy as a spiritual son.
2 Corinthians 1:1 “Timothy our brother….” Sooo Paul referred to Timothy as a brother as well. Hebrews screams Paul. But idk for sure. Certain things said seems as though Paul wrote it.
thanks for having this fine scholar on, it was informative and offered good points concerning canonical groupings on the manuscripts which favored his ideas
Really strong arguments in this video for Pauline authorship. As a Lutheran growing up, I didn’t really know about the Church Fathers. You can download all of the Church Fathers writings in a matter of minutes for about $3, but it might take 50 years to read them all!
This was so amazingly insightful Matt!! Thanks so much for taking the time to reach out to Dr Black and taking the time to set up this interview! I've always had the suspicion that Paul was the author (totally unscholarly, purely intuition) so this was really really cool. Also thanks to Dr Black for spending time with you on this. For me, this has probably been one of my favourite episodes yet!! Going to share this as wide as I can. Really love your channel and your podcast!
Oh my gosh this was so surprising to see this!! I sat under Dr. Blacks teaching for a year learning Greek at Southeastern!!! Such a good man, believer and teacher!
Thank you Matt for having the open mind, the eyes to see & ears to hear, to be open to a new understanding of scripture. I run into so many believers that are really stuck on one way of seeing scripture.
Wow. The timing couldn’t be better! In a fantastic Hebrews bible study right now. Can’t wait to hear your view. There’s definitely some overlap with Colossians.
Hi Matt thanks for your channel I got to meet another wonderful writer, bible expository teacher by the name Dr. David Alan Black. Never heard him before till now after listening to him. I am now in the process of getting some of his book. Thanks
I am number 3. I always use the phrase, "Paul said in Hebrews..." The author had been to Rome. The author knew the Hebrew mind and mind-set. The author knew Timothy, the author had been bound by chains. Compare H-5:12ff with 1 Cor 3:1ff; H-12:1-2/1-C 9:24; H-6:11/Ph 3:13-14; H-2:5/Col 3:2; H-2:5/Ro 6:20-22; H3:13/1Th 5:11; H-4/12/2 Tim 3:16-17 and on, and on. 30 phrases in Hebrews correspond with phrases in the other Pauline letters. Paul wrote Hebrews. If anybody is unsure, send them to me. I'll help them know. I love Dr. DAB.
Thank you Dr. Black. If we begin with the truth, that God, through the Holy Spirit, gave us Hebrews, then we can speculate the rest as secondary to the enormous truths the book contains!
Thank you for this interview! I too have heard this quote for Origen and am so glad to have learned more about it (and the question of the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in general).
Hoping to start crosslands training next year, a UK kind of on the job MA degree accredited by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. This kind of unpacking I am looking forward to receiving in some way from minds like Dr. David.
I just saw the video about Matthean priority and bought/read his book a month ago. Looks like another trip to Amazon is in order! I love being taught by Dr. Black, and I really enjoy having you provide prompts. Awesome work!
-- Who is the firstborn of all creation & Who is the Invisible God? Colossians 1:15 He(Jesus) is the image of the "invisible God", the firstborn of all creation; Hebrews 11:27 By faith he left Egypt, but not fearing the anger of the king, for he continued steadfast as seeing the One who is invisible. Revelation 3:14 “To the angel of the congregation in La·o·di·ceʹa write: These are the things that the Amen says, "the faithful and true witness", THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION BY GOD.
I think you're the guy that goes to the different churches right Catholic and everything. So from one David Allen to another it's my name too. I really think what you're doing is so great because the times we live in we need to realize from Catholic to Baptist from Anglican the Methodist it's all one father-son holy Spirit our faith in Christ plain and simple he is worthy they say that saint Benedict used to say every time you say the savior's name or make the sign of the cross the evil ones will flee from everywhere so great work I don't know if I'll ever hear you from you but I really enjoy your videos peace of Christ
Apostle Barnabas which was of the Tribe of Levi(Acts 4:36) Wrote Hebrews, that's why when reading the Letter the Apostle breaks down the Old Priest hood perfecting and he also Let it be known that his knowledge of Christ was second hand knowledge( Hebrews 2:3) and yes Barnabas was an apostle too(Acts 14:14) that explains why he had so much knowledge of The Lord and the Old Testament
Very interested and I am almost persuaded. But one question lingers - is the text of Hebrews that we have complete? Might there have been an earlier chapter including authorship details that someone decided was not important or relevant enough to preserve? Be that or not, the content that we have is of divine authorship and we should accept it as such.
I love Dr. Black's perspective. As a relatively new Catholic (with a big C), it so encourages my heart each time I discover God leading additional learned brothers from the Protestant congregations back to a true Catholic view. I view Vatican II as "throwing open the doors of the Catholic Church" in the midst of "autumn"... where along with the Holy Spirit, a lot of dead leaves and debris flew in with the initial gust of wind, but now the debris is settling and is being swept back out of the doors. The Church seems to have suffered a "harsh winter" through recent scandals and the challenges of the pandemic, but I also see a steady "spring wind" of Christians from many congregations rediscovering traditional practices of the Church and carrying that understanding through those "open doors" in the true spirit of Vatican II, both by conversion and by teaching. Just my perspective on the signs of the times for Christ's Church...
Don't be silly. I am a protestant and your words, I stopped reading what you wrote once you imply the catholic church is the "true" church. People like you need prayer, your ego is clouding you. Catholics put Mary above Christ and that is not what Jesus taught. Jesus has ALL AUTHORITY ON HEAVEN AND EARTH he does NOT have to ask his mommy for permission. And catholics worship body parts of dead people, they parade around old hearts and peoples blood and etc... Catholics and orthodox are mistaken. Protestant is not perfect and it is a vague term, you display ignorance in suggesting that all "protestant" is one uniform group of thinking. It is not. I follow the teaching of Jesus. Above any man made church, even my own protestant Church, I only care on the word of Jesus.
I have heard the argument for the author being PRICILLA (Pricilla and Aquilla). It has a flavor of Paul because she was a partner of/disciple of Paul. But it had to be titled “Hebrews” because at the time women were not writers at the time. There are 2 books of the Bible about women, why can there not be at least one book/letter in the New Testament by a woman? Thoughts??
A few people here have already pointed this out, but I also want to say that Hebrews definitely seems like it has Paul's flow to it. Paul was a very prolific writer who used excellent reasoning combined with old testament understanding. We see this extensively in Hebrews. The only other alternative that I see as a possibility is Luke, if we're just basing this off NT authors. Luke has a more complicated stye of writing as opposed to simple literature like apostle John. And one last thing: I know this is irrelevant to the topic entirely, but after doing an in depth study of Hebrews, I have never been so convinced that the OSAS doctrine is false. Anyone feel the same way?
@@MrMarkovka11 I believe we are not safe until we are gone from this life and reunited in the kingdom, then we are safe. till then there is always the danger that we can be bitten by a snake in the grass. So keep your eyes on the Son of Man who was lifted up
Yup OSAS doctrine is false. The Bible speaks against that. You can fall from grace. If you come to God with a sincere heart and start your first works such as those sins being washed away and getting filled with the Spirit again because God doesn’t stay in unclean temples. But we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. There’s always something trying to take your focus off of what matters most (your soul) so we all gotta fight for our souls and hold to God’s unchanging hand. We are truly saved once we make it back to be with God. We have salvation and it’s applied to us by the blood of Jesus Christ BUT we still have to work it out as long as we live in these natural bodies. Staying with God through Christ Jesus will keep you safe so you can ultimately be saved.
Hebrews was signed anonymously in 13:22 "word of exhortation" that was what Barnabus name meant. From Acts 4:36-37. He liked to encourage believers. The Apostles renamed him. He has an Epistle of Barnabus mentioned in Colossians 4:10, that epistle is full of commandments. Paul always said he wrote a letter if he wrote it.
It’s so good to hear this as Kay Arthur has been teaching this for years. Paul is the penman, God is the Author. Every book written by Paul begins with “Paul...”, but Hebrews begins, “God...”
@@blipflorn6453 She doesn’t intentionally teach men, but she doesn’t kick them out of the room if they want to be there. And her husband has given her permission to do so. His authority is all that matters.
But Paul has such a distinct voice! You can hear Paul's authorship from a mile away, even Peter called it out: "He writes the same way in all his letters..." 2 Peter 3:16 If Paul wrote Hebrews, even without a salutation we would know - but it just doesn't sound like him! Not to mention how Paul references time and again that he was called to the Gentiles and not his own people.
Great video and i enjoyed Dr. Alan Black's book titled "why 4 gospels?". I have commented on Dr. Licona video's on regards with Mark Gospel and asked of his views on Matthean Priority and told me that he was not convinced by the data, also Papias statement describing Matthew as "ta logia" and also mentioned that Matthew did not wrote his "gospel" or "bios". What are your thoughts on that?
@History and Reviews The early church starting from AD 50 records the authorship of the Gospel. Eusebius' Church History, Justin Martyr, Ireneas, etc., confirmed that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and later, John, recorded the Gospel.
It says "we" because it was written at the Council of Jerusalem by the apostolic college The Gospel according to John says "we" near the end because others added their commendation of his witness.
Unless Paul lied about having his salutation in every epistle he authored, he could not have been the author of Hebrews. Every Epistle that Paul wrote began with Paul, Hebrews begins with God, so if anything God authored Hebrews.
Brian McFarlane I will choose to believe the Word of God over the word of men. So I find it hard to believe that Galatians and Hebrews are connected when there is zero indication of that in the scriptures. I also see contradictory information in Hebrews from the epistles of Paul that God inspired him to author.
Dear Jessel, Hope you are well and keeping safe during these troubled times. I heard about your question regarding authorship of Hebrews and I write to offer a humble opinion. I would like to bring to your attention that every letter I wrote began with "Dear X" and finished with my name. I did not do that when I wrote a sermon, or a college essay, or any UA-cam comment before this one. The form a document takes depends on the type of communication, so the lack of a formal introduction in the style of a letter only tells us that it is not a letter. As much as we would like it to, it unfortunately does not give any information as to the author. Hope this clarifies the issue at least in part. I've sometimes pondered this issue myself and I think this video offers an interesting contribution to answering the question, although of course it is difficult to be conclusive. Yours sincerely, Raichu
This authorship conversation was great, as a non-scholar, arm chair bible reader, I am kind of am agnostic on this just because I hear different views. But he puts forward a very compelling argument, and I've often unsatisfied hearing that a book is not written by someone because of stylistic difference from other writings and that sort of thinking (off the top of my head I think of the first section of Tolkien's Silmarillion contrasted with the Hobbit, they seem so completely different), so its cool to hear someone actually venturing down the road of studying the legitimacy of historical attributions. It would great to explore this question in regards to the authorship of Revelation as well (I don't know if Dr. Black would have anything to say on this, but if you or someone you are connected with has done the leg work, it would be great to hear), is it authored by John the disciple, another John (the elder?) or someone else?
The way Paul referred to Timothy at the end of Hebrews is similar to his other Epistles. Paul was a brilliant theologian. Oh course just as he wrote to the Roman's and Greeks he would also write to his own people.
To answer your question, Paul says he knows Clement in Philippians 4.3--he is a coworker of Paul in Christ. That is a really good insight about Origen (show how he used it other places, not just the single out of context quote). I have really loved to get to know him [Origen] over the past few months, so it is good to get what his thoughts are more clearly! It does also remind me of how people misread him on the Canon. His reciting of the Jewish OT (plus Baruch and the Maccabees) is often cited as his supporting the Protestant OT. But (along with this being a list of the books to use specifically with dialoging with the Jews, rather than the Christian canon) the rest of Origen's writings are ignored when he quoted the Deuterocanonical Books as Scripture. He may have not known who Paul's secretary was for Hebrews, but he believed it was from Paul. He may have believed you should only use 39 (plus Baruch and Maccabees) books while talking with Jews, but he firmly believed that the rest of the books were Scripture. And my thoughts: don't know if I was fully convinced, but the good doctor made some really solid points. (I favored/favor Clement as the author--but this was a very good argument/I don't know what I think anymore)
@gamecruncher1 From what I have read, Hebrews is the longest NT Letter, and Clement's Letter (1 Clement--the legit one) is actually 3 times the size of Hebrews (chapter divisions are much shorter in Clement). I am only just getting into Greek, so I have no idea whether the underlying language is actually similar, but at least in the translations they seem to have similarities/parallels. (It has been a while since I read thru Clement--may have to put him on the docket at some point. Teresa de Ávila right now, then likely Origen On Prayer, before the next spiritual book. Always more to read... [great problem to have!])
@gamecruncher1 short answer: it's complicated. Of the few documents that survived Justinian's purges, you can access a few of them for free online: see the documents available on New Advent or the collection of excerpts collected by St. Basil called the Philocalia/Philokalia of Origen. Unfortunately (apart from the sections of Matthew and John available on New Advent), most of the Scripture commentaries/homilies are only available in books (so, great if you have Library access, or a huge investment if you want more permanent access). There are also some books like the Defense of Origen (by St. Pamphilius the Martyr, translated by Rufinus), which have excerpts--or Church Histories or commentaries like St. Thomas Aquinas who quotes from him. The reasons for the sparseness/randomness of what is available: Origen was condemned long after his death by the Emperor Justinian (though he was living at a time when some of the things he had speculated on were not yet doctrinally defined), and he ordered the burning of Origen's works--so most of what we have are fragments, translations of his works into Latin, etc. And, since he was condemned, there were not a ton of translations done of him in English (just some of the longer surviving works like "On First Principles" or "Against Celsus"). There has been a bit of a rehabilitation of him and his work in theological circles in the past 60ish years, so more of the surviving works have been translated (with the translations having copyrights, meaning no free access online yet) And yeah, Clement is really interesting--one of the earlier writings I read on my journey to Catholicism. Since it was often collected with the NT and was counted by some Christians as Scripture even as late as St. John of Damascus, I like to think of it like 3 Maccabees, the Greek Ezra, Odes, and Psalm 151: "semi-Scriptural things"/"Bible-ish books"--not Scripture, but definitely very related to it/to be held in high regard.
Taylor Marshall also argues in favor of the Paulian authorship of Hebrews, he said it's on his book "A Catholic perspective on St Paul" (or something similar) personally I haven't read it, but he said it's in there. (Also, he is a traditionalist, so perhaps he could be a little bit biased)
In my alma mater whenever we wrote an exegetical commentary paper on Hebrews but didn't want to dedicate space to the authorship question we were allowed a tradition in the footnotes. "Due to the shortage of space and a question of relevance to the topic at hand we are going to proceed with this paper assuming that the author of Hebrews was written by Dr. Kenny Boles" Dr. Boles was a beloved Greek professor who taught for five decades and retired in 2016, very much not a serious candidate. if you put his name down you didn't get graded on the historical background as opposed to if you took a stance you got graded on your defense
A fellow pastor and I go back and forth with each other over this topic all the time. Myself haveing the Opinion shared with Dr. Black and my friend believing it to be Barnabas. Good discussion.
Hi Matt, long time viewer here. Could you help me out with something please? I'm having difficulty on whether or not a truly saved Christian can lose their salvation, it seems like there are many warning passages in the New Testament that suggest you can (Eph 5:5 for example), I hear people dismiss this as it is addressed to people who are not truly saved, but the letter to the Ephesians is written to saved believers "To the saints who are in Ephesus". A big struggle in my faith is over how many different interpretations and denominations there are, one week I think I align best with Calvin, the next Luther, etc... I would appreciate your input
Revelation 3:11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Sorry nobody else replied to you. I have no authority to be in a position to answer your question. However, from the above verse I would agree, yes salvation can be lost. If having salvation is like having a crown... Then, yes, it seems your crown can be taken from you. If our life here is like drowning in an ocean, and Jesus is the lifeguard, our savior. When are you saved? Are you saved as soon as he tosses you a line? Or are you only saved once you are out of the water and on solid ground? Do not align yourself with men, not Luther, not Calvin. Align yourself with the One who was sent. The One who was lifted up. Keep your eye on Him and no snake in the grass can harm you
Still hoping for some critique/support of Margaret Barker’s first temple theory, which potentially provides more context around the content of Hebrews and Revelation specifically.
Read Acts 18:24ff. Apollos was eloquent; so is Hebrews. Apollos was Jewish; so is the author of Hebrews. Apollos "powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus;" so does Hebrews. According to 1 Cor. 1:12 and 3:4, Apollos had a following that could rival Paul's and Peter's. Hebrews does not have the earmarks of Paul's epistles. It does not have his customary greeting, or the normal form his letters take. I see no reason to believe that Apollos did not write Hebrews.
When I was younger, I had always thought James wrote Hebrews, if not him, then it was a tie with John Mark, Aquilla or Peter. But Apollos makes a lot of sense!
David Alan Black's book Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek is still to this day one of my favorites. (but I guess I'm a bit of a nerd). It opened my eyes to understand semantics and other concepts so important to interpreting the New Testament. Great to see him on this video!
Lots of people can quote the bible, i’ve never seen someone bring up SUCH obscure quotes to support what they’re talking about like this guy! ‘So and so used the word ‘pizza’ exactly four times, here here here and here’... he’s like a human concordance
Hebrews is written by someone who agrees with the thought of St Paul. Maybe one of his contemporaries like Aquila or Priscilla or Luke. Cliement is even given a nod, since.the person writes from Italy.
Could there be at least two? 1 wrote Chapters 1-10, and another wrote 11-13. The first is well-versed with Old Testament. The srcond part written by one of the apostles.
Who is "The Lord God", the one who will give Jesus the throne? Luke 1:32 He(Jesus) will be great and will be called "the Son of the Most High". "The Lord God" WILL GIVE HIM THE THRONE OF HIS FATHER DAVID, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” Psalms 2:5 At that time "HE" will speak to them in his anger. And terrify them in his burning anger, 6 Saying: “I myself have installed MY KING. On Zion, my holy mountain.” 7 Let me proclaim the decree of Jehovah; He said to me: “You are my son; Today I have become your father. Acts 13:33 Paul said: God has completely fulfilled it to us, their children, BY RESURRECTING Jesus; just as it is written in THE SECOND PSALM: ‘You are my son; today I have become your father JOHN 5:26 Jesus said: For just as the Father has life in himself, SO HE HAS GRANTED ALSO TO THE SON to have life in himself. JOHN 14:31 BUT FOR THE WORLD TO KNOW THAT I LOVE THE FATHER, I am doing just as the Father HAS COMMANDED ME TO DO. Get up, let us go from here. --
I know this is tough for the guys to even consider, but Priscilla is thought in some scholarly circles to have written/authored Hebrews. That would be a better explanation for the anonymity, and let's remember that Priscilla & Aquila helped to disciple both Paul and Apollos. The style of Greek doesn't match Paul's, and also Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles, not the Jews...that would be Peter's calling. Paul never hid his identity in the other books attributed to him. (I was actually taught that Apollos wrote it because his Greek was known to be so eloquent compared to Paul's.)
Good stuff, but why is there this insistence that Luke was a Gentile? Is there any support for that? (11:45). The Jews were shrieking in Acts 21:28 that Paul allegedly brought Greeks into the Temple, the Gentile in view being Trophimus, NOT a complaint about Luke. Further, Luke had access to the complete genealogy of Jesus, which (I understand) was maintained in the Temple. How could Luke have written his gospel without access?
Luke was certainly not a gentile, the Bible says the oracles of God we’re given to the Jews so if we choose to believe the Word of God Luke was jewish.
Great presentation... Today's "Critical Bible Scholars" could be dangerous to some extent... Some have come to mislead with own feelings and with mindset to question everything including the bible itself... It's safe to go with the orthodox church traditions... I agree with the Dr
I decided to produce a video response to the many theories about Hebrews because I think the analyses of the question are often incomplete. I highly respect Dr. Black. He is right that the most common views are that either Paul authored it (whether he himself 'penned' it or not) or we don't know and can't know. However, there's a growing belief among many that Apollos wrote it; a good guess in some ways. Still I argue for a different view altogether and find it a bit surprising that more haven't adopted it, given the strength of the evidence. Two major factors for my conclusion are that western Xians (where the letter originated) held this view and that the author actually DOES identify themselves through their own name. Judge for yourself: ua-cam.com/video/5Ovy6CdswEI/v-deo.html
It’s interesting when you change up, in your mind, who wrote the document how much the book of Hebrews starts to change in your (my) approach to the book of Hebrews.
Collate 1 Corinthians 13.13, 1 Thessalonians 5.8 and Hebrews 10.22-24, which ALL use a faith-hope-love triad. There is no question as to who wrote Hebrews.
Matt, you noted that Paul was very keen on stating his authorship of the other 13 letters. I find this to be indicative of his apostleship to the gentiles. It makes sense that his name be attached to instruction given to gentiles. The apostleship to the Jews belongs to Peter and by extension the other 11. Another note. Paul is the thirteenth apostle and the Canon sovereignly preserves 13 letters of instruction to gentile believers. The 14th letter corresponds to the 14 generations X3 mentioned by Matthew who knows his pharisaically trained readers will immediately see the connection to the numerical value of David's name (14). Matthew's gospel is written in midrashic style for a rabbinically minded reader. So I find these cross sections fascinating.
Thanks to everyone who supports the program at www.patreon.com/TMBH
You're the reason this stuff happens!
Excellent video Matt! Top notch stuff, really great to see interesting interviews like this. Very helpful
Thanks for posting this Matt. Another person to get into this discussion is H. Attridge who wrote a great commentary on Hebrews in the Hermenia commentary series.
I’ve heard the suggestion that Luke wrote it but dictated by Paul 🤔. Hebrews is for sure one of my favourite books of Gods Word.
The first time I read Hebrews in the Greek I wasn't even halfway through when I said to myself, "This was written by someone from Alexandria". Apollos is the obvious candidate, so I brought that up in class and we batted it around. It took us a while to realize our professor wasn't offering an opinion. When we asked, he pointed out that Origen thought the author was Paul, and posed us the question, "Under what circumstances would Paul have written in such a decidedly different manner than usual?" The book's title was the main clue: it was written to a Hebrew community, and where would you find a community that could be distinguished that way? Our answer was a large city with a notable Jewish community, and since the epistle is very Alexandrian, then that community would have been the Jewish believers in Alexandria. So we decided my first surmise was backwards: the author was someone writing TO Alexandrians! and Paul was certainly educated enough to adopt his writing to fit an audience in that city.
I'm with Dr. Black on this one, every time I read it I heard Paul's voice speaking with such love for the subject. I hadn't really thought about scribe but I could see it being Luke. Thank you so much for sharing this!
I've always wondered what Pauls voice sounds like
I personally don’t think it’s Paul since in the end the writer refers to Timothy as brother, whereas in the books of Timothy Paul sees Timothy as a spiritual son.
2 Corinthians 1:1 “Timothy our brother….” Sooo Paul referred to Timothy as a brother as well. Hebrews screams Paul. But idk for sure. Certain things said seems as though Paul wrote it.
thanks for having this fine scholar on, it was informative and offered good points concerning canonical groupings on the manuscripts which favored his ideas
Really strong arguments in this video for Pauline authorship. As a Lutheran growing up, I didn’t really know about the Church Fathers. You can download all of the Church Fathers writings in a matter of minutes for about $3, but it might take 50 years to read them all!
Out of interest, where can one find this download?
This was so amazingly insightful Matt!! Thanks so much for taking the time to reach out to Dr Black and taking the time to set up this interview! I've always had the suspicion that Paul was the author (totally unscholarly, purely intuition) so this was really really cool. Also thanks to Dr Black for spending time with you on this. For me, this has probably been one of my favourite episodes yet!! Going to share this as wide as I can. Really love your channel and your podcast!
This guy should have its own channel
Your channel is so good. I learn something new with every video
I've reeeeeeally enjoyed this conversation!!
Awesome!! The timing of this couldn't have been better. My journey through Hebrews begins tomorrow morning!! God moment!! :) :)
Oh my gosh this was so surprising to see this!! I sat under Dr. Blacks teaching for a year learning Greek at Southeastern!!! Such a good man, believer and teacher!
Love the video, brother! Thanks to Dr Black as well.
nice work brother.
I finished the bible for the first time yesterday. Looking forward to going back through it with new understanding.
Sounds like you've read the Bible in a linear way.
Jose Lozano it does, and it sounds like a good thing! At some point one will read it all over, here some, there some, but linear is great!
@@Iampowerful8 What's wrong with that?
Hebrews is such a hard book for me, this is so helpful
Thank you for making this video. God bless.
Good one . Love this stuff .
Blessings
Bill
In my circles we actually DO refer to Hebrews in the sense of "in Hebrews, Paul wrote..."
Check out Acts 18:24-28.
Thank you Matt for having the open mind, the eyes to see & ears to hear, to be open to a new understanding of scripture.
I run into so many believers that are really stuck on one way of seeing scripture.
Dr. Black was my favorite professor during seminary!
Me too! He’s a wonderful teacher
Same!!
Wow. The timing couldn’t be better! In a fantastic Hebrews bible study right now. Can’t wait to hear your view. There’s definitely some overlap with Colossians.
Awesome Jennifer. Hope you enjoy it!
I have Dr. Black's book sitting in front of me. Really looking forward to reading it this week.
He's a national treasure - I'm sure you'll have fun!
Nighthawkinlight you are a Christian? That's awesome very rarely do you find scientists who believe in Christ.
Jeremy Hattenstein That’s actually quite incorrect! Francis Collins and John Lennox come to my mind right now.. there’s so many more.
@@jrhattenstein Christian, yes. Scientist, not really. I just play one on UA-cam.
Wow, that was an awesome 27 minutes well spent, I had never heard this line of reasoning b4. David Black is one smart cookie.
Hi Matt thanks for your channel I got to meet another wonderful writer, bible expository teacher by the name Dr. David Alan Black. Never heard him before till now after listening to him. I am now in the process of getting some of his book. Thanks
I am number 3. I always use the phrase, "Paul said in Hebrews..." The author had been to Rome. The author knew the Hebrew mind and mind-set. The author knew Timothy, the author had been bound by chains. Compare H-5:12ff with 1 Cor 3:1ff; H-12:1-2/1-C 9:24; H-6:11/Ph 3:13-14; H-2:5/Col 3:2; H-2:5/Ro 6:20-22; H3:13/1Th 5:11; H-4/12/2 Tim 3:16-17 and on, and on. 30 phrases in Hebrews correspond with phrases in the other Pauline letters. Paul wrote Hebrews. If anybody is unsure, send them to me. I'll help them know. I love Dr. DAB.
this is absolutely fantastic.... best on you tube.... ptl....
Thank you Dr. Black. If we begin with the truth, that God, through the Holy Spirit, gave us Hebrews, then we can speculate the rest as secondary to the enormous truths the book contains!
Thank you for this interview! I too have heard this quote for Origen and am so glad to have learned more about it (and the question of the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in general).
Hoping to start crosslands training next year, a UK kind of on the job MA degree accredited by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. This kind of unpacking I am looking forward to receiving in some way from minds like Dr. David.
I just saw the video about Matthean priority and bought/read his book a month ago. Looks like another trip to Amazon is in order! I love being taught by Dr. Black, and I really enjoy having you provide prompts. Awesome work!
-- Who is the firstborn of all creation & Who is the Invisible God?
Colossians 1:15 He(Jesus) is the image of the "invisible God", the firstborn of all creation;
Hebrews 11:27 By faith he left Egypt, but not fearing the anger of the king, for he continued steadfast as seeing the One who is invisible.
Revelation 3:14 “To the angel of the congregation in La·o·di·ceʹa write: These are the things that the Amen says, "the faithful and true witness", THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION BY GOD.
I think you're the guy that goes to the different churches right Catholic and everything. So from one David Allen to another it's my name too. I really think what you're doing is so great because the times we live in we need to realize from Catholic to Baptist from Anglican the Methodist it's all one father-son holy Spirit our faith in Christ plain and simple he is worthy they say that saint Benedict used to say every time you say the savior's name or make the sign of the cross the evil ones will flee from everywhere so great work I don't know if I'll ever hear you from you but I really enjoy your videos peace of Christ
Good Stuff. I like it. I have always thought Paul was the Author.
Apostle Barnabas which was of the Tribe of Levi(Acts 4:36) Wrote Hebrews, that's why when reading the Letter the Apostle breaks down the Old Priest hood perfecting and he also Let it be known that his knowledge of Christ was second hand knowledge( Hebrews 2:3) and yes Barnabas was an apostle too(Acts 14:14) that explains why he had so much knowledge of The Lord and the Old Testament
So excellent!! Very informative!!
Very interested and I am almost persuaded. But one question lingers - is the text of Hebrews that we have complete? Might there have been an earlier chapter including authorship details that someone decided was not important or relevant enough to preserve?
Be that or not, the content that we have is of divine authorship and we should accept it as such.
You have zero proof its divine
He is making some powerful points about Hebrews being a sermon and not an ordinary letter
I love Dr. Black's perspective. As a relatively new Catholic (with a big C), it so encourages my heart each time I discover God leading additional learned brothers from the Protestant congregations back to a true Catholic view. I view Vatican II as "throwing open the doors of the Catholic Church" in the midst of "autumn"... where along with the Holy Spirit, a lot of dead leaves and debris flew in with the initial gust of wind, but now the debris is settling and is being swept back out of the doors. The Church seems to have suffered a "harsh winter" through recent scandals and the challenges of the pandemic, but I also see a steady "spring wind" of Christians from many congregations rediscovering traditional practices of the Church and carrying that understanding through those "open doors" in the true spirit of Vatican II, both by conversion and by teaching. Just my perspective on the signs of the times for Christ's Church...
Don't be silly. I am a protestant and your words, I stopped reading what you wrote once you imply the catholic church is the "true" church. People like you need prayer, your ego is clouding you.
Catholics put Mary above Christ and that is not what Jesus taught. Jesus has ALL AUTHORITY ON HEAVEN AND EARTH
he does NOT have to ask his mommy for permission. And catholics worship body parts of dead people, they parade around old hearts and peoples blood and etc... Catholics and orthodox are mistaken. Protestant is not perfect and it is a vague term, you display ignorance in suggesting that all "protestant" is one uniform group of thinking. It is not.
I follow the teaching of Jesus. Above any man made church, even my own protestant Church, I only care on the word of Jesus.
Remember the whole idea of the protestant movement was to cut away all the garbage that people added on, and to get back to the heart of the matter.
Whoa, I guess you were triggered. God help you both.
Revelation 17 😬😬😬
Signed a Jesus named witness
Fascinating, Matt.
I have heard the argument for the author being PRICILLA (Pricilla and Aquilla). It has a flavor of Paul because she was a partner of/disciple of Paul. But it had to be titled “Hebrews” because at the time women were not writers at the time. There are 2 books of the Bible about women, why can there not be at least one book/letter in the New Testament by a woman? Thoughts??
But “God is speaking...” “Author is intentionally drawing attention away from himself...” yes, this is good. I love that.
Good stuff keep it coming...
Thanks, will do!
A few people here have already pointed this out, but I also want to say that Hebrews definitely seems like it has Paul's flow to it. Paul was a very prolific writer who used excellent reasoning combined with old testament understanding. We see this extensively in Hebrews. The only other alternative that I see as a possibility is Luke, if we're just basing this off NT authors. Luke has a more complicated stye of writing as opposed to simple literature like apostle John.
And one last thing: I know this is irrelevant to the topic entirely, but after doing an in depth study of Hebrews, I have never been so convinced that the OSAS doctrine is false. Anyone feel the same way?
What’s OSAS?
@@MrsYoung-in9ov once saved always saved.
@@MrMarkovka11 I believe we are not safe until we are gone from this life and reunited in the kingdom, then we are safe. till then there is always the danger that we can be bitten by a snake in the grass. So keep your eyes on the Son of Man who was lifted up
@@voidremoved we are safe as long as we are in christ's hand. Amen brother
Yup OSAS doctrine is false. The Bible speaks against that. You can fall from grace. If you come to God with a sincere heart and start your first works such as those sins being washed away and getting filled with the Spirit again because God doesn’t stay in unclean temples. But we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. There’s always something trying to take your focus off of what matters most (your soul) so we all gotta fight for our souls and hold to God’s unchanging hand. We are truly saved once we make it back to be with God. We have salvation and it’s applied to us by the blood of Jesus Christ BUT we still have to work it out as long as we live in these natural bodies. Staying with God through Christ Jesus will keep you safe so you can ultimately be saved.
Dr. Black truly is great! He should have his own channel. 🙂
Hebrews was signed anonymously in 13:22 "word of exhortation" that was what Barnabus name meant. From Acts 4:36-37. He liked to encourage believers. The Apostles renamed him. He has an Epistle of Barnabus mentioned in Colossians 4:10, that epistle is full of commandments. Paul always said he wrote a letter if he wrote it.
It’s so good to hear this as Kay Arthur has been teaching this for years. Paul is the penman, God is the Author. Every book written by Paul begins with “Paul...”, but Hebrews begins, “God...”
@@blipflorn6453 Says who?
@@blipflorn6453 She doesn’t intentionally teach men, but she doesn’t kick them out of the room if they want to be there. And her husband has given her permission to do so. His authority is all that matters.
Did you saw the video? Dr. David Alan Black explain that really well. He said the book of Hebrews is a sermon that most probably Luke wrote.
LOVE Dr Black!
But Paul has such a distinct voice! You can hear Paul's authorship from a mile away, even Peter called it out: "He writes the same way in all his letters..." 2 Peter 3:16
If Paul wrote Hebrews, even without a salutation we would know - but it just doesn't sound like him! Not to mention how Paul references time and again that he was called to the Gentiles and not his own people.
Peter did not write 1 and 2 Peter lol
Great video and i enjoyed Dr. Alan Black's book titled "why 4 gospels?". I have commented on Dr. Licona video's on regards with Mark Gospel and asked of his views on Matthean Priority and told me that he was not convinced by the data, also Papias statement describing Matthew as "ta logia" and also mentioned that Matthew did not wrote his "gospel" or "bios".
What are your thoughts on that?
The gospel authors are unknown, so no
@History and Reviews
The early church starting from AD 50 records the authorship of the Gospel. Eusebius' Church History, Justin Martyr, Ireneas, etc., confirmed that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and later, John, recorded the Gospel.
The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews was written by Saint Paul.
It’s kind of amazing how much of what we think about the Bible these days was first thought in the 1800’s. Always great to get a TMBH video!
This was pretty cool, thanks!
It says "we" because it was written at the Council of Jerusalem by the apostolic college
The Gospel according to John says "we" near the end because others added their commendation of his witness.
Wow, what a knowledgeable guy. It's so interesting to listen to him.
Very nice conversation!
Glad you enjoyed it!
At the end it says “those from Italy send their greetings.”
So whichever apostle(s) went to Italy wrote it.
Unless Paul lied about having his salutation in every epistle he authored, he could not have been the author of Hebrews. Every Epistle that Paul wrote began with Paul, Hebrews begins with God, so if anything God authored Hebrews.
This is my reason for believing that Paul did not write Hebrews.
Jessel Jones it is also taught that Hebrews was connected to the end of Galatians and thus the authorship of Hebrews was not necessary.
Brian McFarlane I will choose to believe the Word of God over the word of men. So I find it hard to believe that Galatians and Hebrews are connected when there is zero indication of that in the scriptures. I also see contradictory information in Hebrews from the epistles of Paul that God inspired him to author.
Dear Jessel,
Hope you are well and keeping safe during these troubled times. I heard about your question regarding authorship of Hebrews and I write to offer a humble opinion.
I would like to bring to your attention that every letter I wrote began with "Dear X" and finished with my name. I did not do that when I wrote a sermon, or a college essay, or any UA-cam comment before this one.
The form a document takes depends on the type of communication, so the lack of a formal introduction in the style of a letter only tells us that it is not a letter. As much as we would like it to, it unfortunately does not give any information as to the author.
Hope this clarifies the issue at least in part. I've sometimes pondered this issue myself and I think this video offers an interesting contribution to answering the question, although of course it is difficult to be conclusive.
Yours sincerely,
Raichu
Unless it was a record sermon, not initially a letter.
"I'm sure most of your audience are pastors."
me: backs out of the room slowly
Beg to differ...
I'm not a pastor either. I just love to understand God's Word as much as possible.
Why?
That comment made me chuckle. I assume almost no one in my audience is a pastor.
@@MattWhitmanTMBH I think you assume correctly.
me: steps back into the room. :)
The style sounds like Paul's writing.
No it doesn't
Have you read the final verse of the final chapter in the book of Hebrews?
@@savedbychrist6783 "Grace be with you all. Amen."
Grace be with you all. Amen. Written to the Hebrews from Italy by Timothy.
Hebrews 13:25 KJV
Read it kjv
Are you on lbry,Rumbles Odessa, bit chute as well as other platforms?
Pricilla wrote the letter to the Hebrews. Paul's name was put on it so that the writings would be accepted.
This authorship conversation was great, as a non-scholar, arm chair bible reader, I am kind of am agnostic on this just because I hear different views. But he puts forward a very compelling argument, and I've often unsatisfied hearing that a book is not written by someone because of stylistic difference from other writings and that sort of thinking (off the top of my head I think of the first section of Tolkien's Silmarillion contrasted with the Hobbit, they seem so completely different), so its cool to hear someone actually venturing down the road of studying the legitimacy of historical attributions.
It would great to explore this question in regards to the authorship of Revelation as well (I don't know if Dr. Black would have anything to say on this, but if you or someone you are connected with has done the leg work, it would be great to hear), is it authored by John the disciple, another John (the elder?) or someone else?
Love this!! I’ve always thought it was Paul.
Hey when Dr. Black says 13 paulines hes not including henrews right? (approx 8min)
The way Paul referred to Timothy at the end of Hebrews is similar to his other Epistles.
Paul was a brilliant theologian. Oh course just as he wrote to the Roman's and Greeks he would also write to his own people.
To answer your question, Paul says he knows Clement in Philippians 4.3--he is a coworker of Paul in Christ.
That is a really good insight about Origen (show how he used it other places, not just the single out of context quote). I have really loved to get to know him [Origen] over the past few months, so it is good to get what his thoughts are more clearly! It does also remind me of how people misread him on the Canon. His reciting of the Jewish OT (plus Baruch and the Maccabees) is often cited as his supporting the Protestant OT. But (along with this being a list of the books to use specifically with dialoging with the Jews, rather than the Christian canon) the rest of Origen's writings are ignored when he quoted the Deuterocanonical Books as Scripture. He may have not known who Paul's secretary was for Hebrews, but he believed it was from Paul. He may have believed you should only use 39 (plus Baruch and Maccabees) books while talking with Jews, but he firmly believed that the rest of the books were Scripture.
And my thoughts: don't know if I was fully convinced, but the good doctor made some really solid points. (I favored/favor Clement as the author--but this was a very good argument/I don't know what I think anymore)
@gamecruncher1 From what I have read, Hebrews is the longest NT Letter, and Clement's Letter (1 Clement--the legit one) is actually 3 times the size of Hebrews (chapter divisions are much shorter in Clement). I am only just getting into Greek, so I have no idea whether the underlying language is actually similar, but at least in the translations they seem to have similarities/parallels. (It has been a while since I read thru Clement--may have to put him on the docket at some point. Teresa de Ávila right now, then likely Origen On Prayer, before the next spiritual book. Always more to read... [great problem to have!])
@gamecruncher1 short answer: it's complicated. Of the few documents that survived Justinian's purges, you can access a few of them for free online: see the documents available on New Advent or the collection of excerpts collected by St. Basil called the Philocalia/Philokalia of Origen. Unfortunately (apart from the sections of Matthew and John available on New Advent), most of the Scripture commentaries/homilies are only available in books (so, great if you have Library access, or a huge investment if you want more permanent access). There are also some books like the Defense of Origen (by St. Pamphilius the Martyr, translated by Rufinus), which have excerpts--or Church Histories or commentaries like St. Thomas Aquinas who quotes from him.
The reasons for the sparseness/randomness of what is available: Origen was condemned long after his death by the Emperor Justinian (though he was living at a time when some of the things he had speculated on were not yet doctrinally defined), and he ordered the burning of Origen's works--so most of what we have are fragments, translations of his works into Latin, etc. And, since he was condemned, there were not a ton of translations done of him in English (just some of the longer surviving works like "On First Principles" or "Against Celsus"). There has been a bit of a rehabilitation of him and his work in theological circles in the past 60ish years, so more of the surviving works have been translated (with the translations having copyrights, meaning no free access online yet)
And yeah, Clement is really interesting--one of the earlier writings I read on my journey to Catholicism. Since it was often collected with the NT and was counted by some Christians as Scripture even as late as St. John of Damascus, I like to think of it like 3 Maccabees, the Greek Ezra, Odes, and Psalm 151: "semi-Scriptural things"/"Bible-ish books"--not Scripture, but definitely very related to it/to be held in high regard.
Taylor Marshall also argues in favor of the Paulian authorship of Hebrews, he said it's on his book "A Catholic perspective on St Paul" (or something similar) personally I haven't read it, but he said it's in there. (Also, he is a traditionalist, so perhaps he could be a little bit biased)
All i know is that 3 miracles makes Kyle a living saint.
I have always held to the Paulne authorship of Hebrews.
Matt didn't do his typical sign off, I think this video is a work of pseudepigrapha 👀
Well done
Hi Matt, thanks for this intriguing video. I too have a high opinion of the Church Fathers and am hesitant to dismiss what they say.
In my alma mater whenever we wrote an exegetical commentary paper on Hebrews but didn't want to dedicate space to the authorship question we were allowed a tradition in the footnotes. "Due to the shortage of space and a question of relevance to the topic at hand we are going to proceed with this paper assuming that the author of Hebrews was written by Dr. Kenny Boles"
Dr. Boles was a beloved Greek professor who taught for five decades and retired in 2016, very much not a serious candidate. if you put his name down you didn't get graded on the historical background as opposed to if you took a stance you got graded on your defense
A fellow pastor and I go back and forth with each other over this topic all the time. Myself haveing the Opinion shared with Dr. Black and my friend believing it to be Barnabas.
Good discussion.
Zero proof for Barnabas lolol
Hi Matt, long time viewer here. Could you help me out with something please? I'm having difficulty on whether or not a truly saved Christian can lose their salvation, it seems like there are many warning passages in the New Testament that suggest you can (Eph 5:5 for example), I hear people dismiss this as it is addressed to people who are not truly saved, but the letter to the Ephesians is written to saved believers "To the saints who are in Ephesus".
A big struggle in my faith is over how many different interpretations and denominations there are, one week I think I align best with Calvin, the next Luther, etc...
I would appreciate your input
Revelation 3:11
I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.
Sorry nobody else replied to you. I have no authority to be in a position to answer your question. However, from the above verse I would agree, yes salvation can be lost. If having salvation is like having a crown... Then, yes, it seems your crown can be taken from you.
If our life here is like drowning in an ocean, and Jesus is the lifeguard, our savior. When are you saved? Are you saved as soon as he tosses you a line? Or are you only saved once you are out of the water and on solid ground?
Do not align yourself with men, not Luther, not Calvin. Align yourself with the One who was sent. The One who was lifted up. Keep your eye on Him and no snake in the grass can harm you
"Jesus said, 'woe to you hypocrites!' Or not. I don't know, I wasn't there."
Kyle 4:9
Still hoping for some critique/support of Margaret Barker’s first temple theory, which potentially provides more context around the content of Hebrews and Revelation specifically.
I'm trying hard to not pause this video and start reading Hebrews. Not since your videos on Mark have I felt this excited.
I think it was Barnabas. Explains both the similarities with Paul and its differences.
Read Acts 18:24ff. Apollos was eloquent; so is Hebrews. Apollos was Jewish; so is the author of Hebrews. Apollos "powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus;" so does Hebrews.
According to 1 Cor. 1:12 and 3:4, Apollos had a following that could rival Paul's and Peter's. Hebrews does not have the earmarks of Paul's epistles. It does not have his customary greeting, or the normal form his letters take.
I see no reason to believe that Apollos did not write Hebrews.
You've never read Apollo's writings, do you?
When I was younger, I had always thought James wrote Hebrews, if not him, then it was a tie with John Mark, Aquilla or Peter. But Apollos makes a lot of sense!
Matt. Any plans to meet a priest from Syriac Orthodox church?
I like to think that Apollos wrote the book.
David Alan Black's book Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek is still to this day one of my favorites. (but I guess I'm a bit of a nerd). It opened my eyes to understand semantics and other concepts so important to interpreting the New Testament. Great to see him on this video!
Bro William branham settled this question back in the mass Pentecostal revivals of the 1940s and 50s and 60s and said paul wrote the book of Hebrews
Lots of people can quote the bible, i’ve never seen someone bring up SUCH obscure quotes to support what they’re talking about like this guy! ‘So and so used the word ‘pizza’ exactly four times, here here here and here’... he’s like a human concordance
My Dad is this way as well 😏
Hebrews is written by someone who agrees with the thought of St Paul. Maybe one of his contemporaries like Aquila or Priscilla or Luke. Cliement is even given a nod, since.the person writes from Italy.
Hebrews was written by Priscilla wife of Agrippa the tentmaker.
👆🏼👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
*Aquila
Could there be at least two? 1 wrote Chapters 1-10, and another wrote 11-13.
The first is well-versed with Old Testament. The srcond part written by one of the apostles.
Who is "The Lord God", the one who will give Jesus the throne? Luke 1:32 He(Jesus) will be great and will be called "the Son of the Most High". "The Lord God" WILL GIVE HIM THE THRONE OF HIS FATHER DAVID, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
Psalms 2:5 At that time "HE" will speak to them in his anger. And terrify them in his burning anger, 6 Saying: “I myself have installed MY KING. On Zion, my holy mountain.” 7 Let me proclaim the decree of Jehovah; He said to me: “You are my son; Today I have become your father. Acts 13:33 Paul said: God has completely fulfilled it to us, their children, BY RESURRECTING Jesus; just as it is written in THE SECOND PSALM: ‘You are my son; today I have become your father
JOHN 5:26 Jesus said: For just as the Father has life in himself, SO HE HAS GRANTED ALSO TO THE SON to have life in himself.
JOHN 14:31 BUT FOR THE WORLD TO KNOW THAT I LOVE THE FATHER, I am doing just as the Father HAS COMMANDED ME TO DO. Get up, let us go from here.
--
I know this is tough for the guys to even consider, but Priscilla is thought in some scholarly circles to have written/authored Hebrews. That would be a better explanation for the anonymity, and let's remember that Priscilla & Aquila helped to disciple both Paul and Apollos. The style of Greek doesn't match Paul's, and also Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles, not the Jews...that would be Peter's calling. Paul never hid his identity in the other books attributed to him. (I was actually taught that Apollos wrote it because his Greek was known to be so eloquent compared to Paul's.)
Why we debate author and writer my point here is better obey and put into practice is the best
Good stuff, but why is there this insistence that Luke was a Gentile? Is there any support for that? (11:45). The Jews were shrieking in Acts 21:28 that Paul allegedly brought Greeks into the Temple, the Gentile in view being Trophimus, NOT a complaint about Luke. Further, Luke had access to the complete genealogy of Jesus, which (I understand) was maintained in the Temple. How could Luke have written his gospel without access?
Luke was certainly not a gentile, the Bible says the oracles of God we’re given to the Jews so if we choose to believe the Word of God Luke was jewish.
I believe it was a message spoken by Paul but wrote down by a member of the congregation in attendance to the message
Very good!
Great presentation... Today's "Critical Bible Scholars" could be dangerous to some extent... Some have come to mislead with own feelings and with mindset to question everything including the bible itself... It's safe to go with the orthodox church traditions... I agree with the Dr
am still waiting for you to invite Micheal Heiser....
I decided to produce a video response to the many theories about Hebrews because I think the analyses of the question are often incomplete. I highly respect Dr. Black. He is right that the most common views are that either Paul authored it (whether he himself 'penned' it or not) or we don't know and can't know. However, there's a growing belief among many that Apollos wrote it; a good guess in some ways. Still I argue for a different view altogether and find it a bit surprising that more haven't adopted it, given the strength of the evidence. Two major factors for my conclusion are that western Xians (where the letter originated) held this view and that the author actually DOES identify themselves through their own name. Judge for yourself: ua-cam.com/video/5Ovy6CdswEI/v-deo.html
It’s interesting when you change up, in your mind, who wrote the document how much the book of Hebrews starts to change in your (my) approach to the book of Hebrews.
I did not write Hebrews.
Collate 1 Corinthians 13.13, 1 Thessalonians 5.8 and Hebrews 10.22-24, which ALL use a faith-hope-love triad. There is no question as to who wrote Hebrews.
What about Priscilla and Aquila?
Matt, you noted that Paul was very keen on stating his authorship of the other 13 letters. I find this to be indicative of his apostleship to the gentiles. It makes sense that his name be attached to instruction given to gentiles. The apostleship to the Jews belongs to Peter and by extension the other 11.
Another note. Paul is the thirteenth apostle and the Canon sovereignly preserves 13 letters of instruction to gentile believers. The 14th letter corresponds to the 14 generations X3 mentioned by Matthew who knows his pharisaically trained readers will immediately see the connection to the numerical value of David's name (14). Matthew's gospel is written in midrashic style for a rabbinically minded reader. So I find these cross sections fascinating.
Paul was writing to gentile JEWS not pure gentiles