{"id":984,"date":"2026-03-24T12:28:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/?p=984"},"modified":"2026-03-24T14:41:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:41:28","slug":"what-we-know-and-do-not-know-about-the-epistle-to-the-hebrews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/?p=984","title":{"rendered":"What We Know and Do Not Know About the Epistle to the Hebrews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From A Brief Word of Exhortation<\/a><\/em>, Volume 1:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nature of the Book<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This book has been known as the Epistle to the He\u00adbrews since the latter half of the second century. The word \u201cepistle\u201d means \u201cletter,\u201d but this Epistle is un\u00adlike the other New Tes\u00adta\u00adment letters. It ends with per\u00adsonal notes like a letter normally does, but it does not begin like a letter does. A New Testament letter nor\u00admally starts with the name of the writer followed by the name or names of the person or persons being addressed. This \u201cletter\u201d has neither.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book refers to itself in 13:22 as a word of ex\u00adhor\u00ad\u00adtation. Paul was asked to give a word of ex\u00adhor\u00adta\u00adtion in Acts 13:15 and he proceeded to give a sermon. So, this book is more like a sermon. An exhortation is a com\u00ad\u00admunication (such as a speech or a letter) which strongly urges someone to do something. The Greek word for \u201cexhortation\u201d also means \u201cen\u00adcour\u00adagement.\u201d The pur\u00adpose of the book, therefore, is to encour\u00adage and strongly urge its readers to continue in the faith un\u00adtil the end. This purpose is per\u00ad\u00adhaps best stated in 6:11-12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What We Do Not Know about the Book<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Author<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The personal notes at the end of the book tell us that who\u00adever first received this book was very fa\u00admil\u00adiar with this author. However, the knowledge of who wrote this book was quickly lost. Origen, a Christian teach\u00ader and writer who lived in Alex\u00adan\u00addria, Egypt, and in Caesarea during the first half of the third century AD, did not know who the author was and said that only \u201cGod knows the truth of the mat\u00adter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has not stopped people from speculating on who might be the author of this book. Barnabas, Apol\u00adlos, Luke, and even Priscilla and Aquila have all been suggested as the author(s) of the book. The most wide\u00adspread and persistent sug\u00adgestion is that Paul wrote this book. However, this sug\u00adges\u00adtion can be traced back to only the latter half of the second cen\u00adtury and appears to have been started by the church in Alex\u00adandria, the very place in which Ori\u00adgen lived. This means, of course, that Origen was not con\u00advinced by the evi\u00addence presented by his own church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is all speculation. If we go with what the Scrip\u00ad\u00adtures tell us, we would have to say that we do not know who the author is. God, who has inspired the Scrip\u00ad\u00adtures, has not seen fit to preserve the name of the author, which means that it is not important for us to know who wrote it in order to un\u00adder\u00adstand it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is necessary to know who wrote the Gospels be\u00ad\u00adcause they are presented as the testimony of eye\u00adwit\u00adnesses who had seen and heard the Lord Jesus him\u00adself. The authors were the witnesses themselves (Mat\u00adthew and John) or they recorded the testimony of the witnesses (Mark and Luke). The validity and his\u00ad\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcity of the Gospels would be suspect if they had been writ\u00adten by people who had heard the tes\u00adti\u00admony third or fourth hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul\u2019s letters tell the churches what they should be\u00ad\u00adlieve and do. The validity of what he had to say rested on his au\u00adthor\u00ad\u00adity as an apostle. If the letters had come from someone with lesser authority, the churches could have rightly ignored them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer of Hebrews also tells his readers what they should believe and do, but the validity of what he has to say does not rest on his own authority. Per\u00adhaps more so than any other New Testament book, this book quotes the Old Tes\u00adta\u00adment. The validity of what the writ\u00ader has to say rests on the authority of the Scrip\u00ad\u00adtures. Therefore, the arguments that are pre\u00adsent\u00aded in this book would remain valid no matter who had written it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Audience<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer encourages his readers to remain in the faith and not revert back to following the old cov\u00ade\u00adnant. It is evident, therefore, that he is writing to Jews who had converted to Chris\u00adtianity. What we do not know is where these Jewish Chris\u00adtians lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is often assumed that the readers lived in Jeru\u00adsa\u00ad\u00adlem. How\u00adever, when the writer quotes from the Old Tes\u00ad\u00adtament, he always quotes from the Greek trans\u00adla\u00ad\u00adtion (known as the Sep\u00adtu\u00adagint), which was used by the Jews who lived outside of the Holy Land. Hence, it is thought that the readers were Hel\u00adlen\u00adis\u00adtic Jews who had converted to Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Hellenistic Jews lived throughout the Ro\u00adman Em\u00adpire. Suggestions as to where the readers of this book lived include Alexandria, Caesarea, Sa\u00admar\u00adia, Colossae, Eph\u00ade\u00adsus, and even Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, this is all speculation. The fact is the Scrip\u00adtures have not told us where they lived, which means that it is not ne\u00adcessary for us to know where they lived in order to un\u00adder\u00adstand the book. Perhaps God left this information out because, even though this book was originally sent to a par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar group of Jew\u00adish believers, its message applied to all be\u00adlievers everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Date<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We cannot be certain as to when the book was written. Clement, who was a bishop in the church at Rome, wrote a letter to the Corinthian church in 95 AD and he quotes from the book, which means that the book had to have been written by then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Epistle makes it clear that the sacrificial system set up by the Law was still being practiced, which means that the book was written before 70 AD, when the Temple and the sacrificial sys\u00adtem associated with it were de\u00adstroyed. However, we cannot get more spe\u00adcif\u00ad\u00adic than that for the book\u2019s date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What We Do Know about the Book<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we do know comes from the book itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Audience<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do know that the readers had already en\u00addured intense persecution (10:32-34) and because of that, they were con\u00adsid\u00adering abandoning Christianity in favor of returning to Ju\u00adda\u00adism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Message<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer of the book encourages his readers to keep the faith. He does this in two ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, he shows that the new covenant is superior to the old covenant. His favorite word is \u201cbetter.\u201d It oc\u00adcurs 13 times in 12 verses. The writer\u2019s main ar\u00adgu\u00adment, which takes up the bulk of the book, is that the new covenant is better than the old cov\u00adenant. He dives right into the argument at the be\u00adgin\u00adning of the book, where he declares that Jesus is better than the an\u00adgels (1:4). He makes this point because the Jews be\u00adlieved that the Law was given to Moses through the mediation of angels. The writer refers to this in 2:1-4. Paul also re\u00adfers to this in Gal. 3:19. The writ\u00ader\u2019s point is that the new covenant which was me\u00addi\u00adated by Je\u00adsus Christ is better than the old covenant which had been mediated by angels. Thus, he en\u00adcour\u00ad\u00adages his read\u00aders to stay in the faith because it is better than going back to the old covenant, despite the per\u00adse\u00adcu\u00adtion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, he warns them that if they do go back, they are not just abandoning Christianity but Christ him\u00adself and will be punished for doing so. The book to the He\u00adbrews has more warnings about aban\u00addon\u00ading the faith than any other New Testament book. The writer does not say that it is possible for one to lose his salvation but he does say that it is possible for one to give it away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironically, this is why the message in the Epistle to the Hebrews is still one that we need to hear today. We are not in danger of reverting to Judaism but we are al\u00adways in danger of abandoning Christianity. The per\u00adse\u00adcution of Christians is com\u00ading to our country, perhaps soon. We will be tempted to abandon the faith and deny Christ so that we can escape the per\u00adse\u00adcu\u00adtion, but we can\u00adnot escape God\u2019s punishment \u201cif we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven\u201d (12:25). The Epistle to the Hebrews is a word of encour\u00adage\u00adment. It is also a warning. Let us pay heed to both its encouragement and its warning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From A Brief Word of Exhortation, Volume 1: The Nature of the Book This book has been known as the Epistle to the He\u00adbrews since the latter half of the second century. The word \u201cepistle\u201d means \u201cletter,\u201d but this Epistle … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-epistle-to-the-hebrews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=984"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":997,"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions\/997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}