We are currently looking at evidence for the credibility of the New Testament. This evidence is based on what was available in the early months of 1971 when I was investigating truth claims for the existence of God. I believed it would be simple to disprove God and Christianity, but I ran into some problems during the investigation. The problems were the evidence I found.

We started sharing the evidence that can lead an atheist to theism and Christianity several years ago (click here to read the first article in this series). We’ve most recently been looking at evidence for the reliability of the New Testament writings.

So far we’ve looked at –

[Just a reminder that we’re only revealing the evidence available for investigation in early 1971. A future series will look at evidence that has been discovered since that time.]

Here is a basic investigative process for determining ancient authorship:

  • Internal evidence – what we find in the letter itself .. claim of authorship, historical information, geographical information, biographical information.
  • Language and style – comparing writing style of other letters believed to have been written by same author (e.g. vocabulary, sentence structure, grammar, idioms).
  • Content – comparing the content with other letters believed to have been written by same author (e.g. theology, historical data).
  • External evidence – ancient writers supporting claim of authorship, ancient writers quoting from writings in question.

We move now to the evidence for the authorship and credibility of Hebrews.

Hebrews

Internal Evidence

Hebrews is exactly what it sounds like — writings to the Hebrew people. It’s obvious from Hebrews that the Jewish audience believed that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah, though some were doubting their belief because of persecution and other pressures. The author wrote to the Jewish believers to both confirm and bolster their faith in Christ as the promised Messiah. The author referenced the Old Testament Scriptures to confirm Jesus as the Messiah.

Hebrews includes more than 40 direct quotes from the Old Testament, but also has many allusions to OT Scripture as well. Only Romans has more direct OT quotes. However, Hebrews contains more words from the OT than Romans. The Jewish readers would have also appreciated the many references to Hebrew life and religious worship in the Book of Hebrews as well. They would understand that in a way Gentiles could not.

The Book of Hebrews quotes prominently from the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint), which might point to an audience of Jewish readers living outside of Israel (part of the Diaspora).

Some of the big questions about the Book of Hebrews are:

  • Who is the author?
  • When did the author write it?
  • Where was the author at the time of writing?
  • Why did the author write it?
  • Who was the original audience?
  • How did the author deliver the writings to the audience?

Hebrews does not begin in a typical letter form. We find no introduction, welcome or mention of the author’s name. In fact, there is no identification of the author’s name anywhere in Hebrews. The author did mention “our brother Timothy” at the end of Hebrews (13:23), and the possible writing location (“Those from Italy greet you.” 13:23). The author also asked the Hebrews to “pray for us” and wrote that “I especially urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.” The idea of being “restored” (apokatastathō – restore back to original position) may indicate that the author had spent time with these Hebrew believers previously.

The mention of Timothy’s name, that he had “been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly,” and the possible writing location of Italy may narrow the list of authors a bit. The author knew Timothy personally and wrote about visiting the recipients of the letter “with” Timothy. We know that Timothy was a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul. However, that’s not necessarily strong enough to identify Paul as the author with any certainty.

What we can be certain about is that the recipients of the letter knew the identity of the author. The author’s personal appeal for prayer to be restored to them, the mention of Timothy’s being set free and visiting them with Timothy, and the greetings from “Those from Italy,” would point to a relationship between writer and readers.

The author had a strong understanding of 1st century Judaism and how the writings of the Old Testament prophets fit in with the identity of Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah. The author wrote in an authoritative style. What I mean by that is the author wrote with the authority the Hebrew Christians would have viewed as being authoritative (e.g. apostle, prophet). The author warned, exhorted, reproved, and commanded the readers, which supports the idea of the author being a recognized authority in the early Church. The readers would not have accepted a letter like that from a lesser authoritative figure. The author used the Greek translation of the Old Testament Scriptures, and appeared to be well educated and highly literate in the Greek language.

Hebrews 2:3 mentions the salvation spoken by the Lord and “confirmed to us by those who heard Him.” That would seem to exclude the Jewish apostles from authorship of the Book of Hebrews since they were the people who had heard Jesus in person. Some believe that would also exclude the Apostle Paul since he did speak personally with Jesus. However, the sense of “by those who heard Him” seems to be in the context of those disciples who traveled with Jesus prior to His ascension to Heaven. If true, that would leave Pauline authorship as a possibility.

Hebrews chapters 7 – 10 point to the practice of priests offering sacrifices for sin at the time of the writing.

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Hebrews 10:1-4

That practice ceased once the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 AD. The internal evidence of Hebrews points to someone with apostolic authority writing the letter prior to the Temple’s destruction.

External Evidence

Several of the early Church fathers wrote about the Book of Hebrews and mentioned possible authors. The list includes the Apostle Paul, Luke, Barnabas, Silas, Apollos, Aquila, Priscilla, and Clement of Rome. All of these people would have personally known Timothy and could have written from Italy.

First, let’s look at some of the Apostolic Fathers (late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD). They did not mention who the name of the author of Hebrews, but did allude to the writing:

Ignatius of Antioch (Bishop of Antioch, disciple of the Apostle John) had a possible allusion to Hebrews 11:39-40 in his Letter to the Philadelphians.

Polycarp (Bishop of Smyrna, disciple of the Apostle John) referred to verses from Hebrews 6:20, 7:3, and 12:28 in his Letter to the Philippians.

Though Clement of Rome quotes often from Hebrews in his Letter to the Corinthians, that does not mean he was the author of Hebrews. Clement was the bishop of Rome toward the end of the 1st century, which would be after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The fact that Clement quoted from Hebrews during the 1st century AD demonstrates that Hebrews was written earlier than 1 Clements and accepted as authoritative. Clement mentioned Paul as an “Apostle” who suffered at the hands of people “By reason of jealousy and strife” and also referred to Paul’s “epistle.”

Several of the early Church Fathers (2nd – 4th centuries AD) did mention who they believed wrote Hebrews. Some believed Paul was the author and that he did not mention his name because many Jews mistrusted him because of his primary calling to the Gentiles. Some speculated that Paul wrote the letter in Hebrew and Luke translated it into Greek. Others thought the author was Clement or Barnabas influenced by Paul.

Here’s an example from Tertullian of Carthage (late 2nd century AD Christian apologist):

For there is extant withal an Epistle to the Hebrews under the name of Barnabas–a man sufficiently accredited by God, as being one whom Paul has stationed next to himself in the uninterrupted observance of abstinence. Tertullian, On Modesty, XX

Hebrews was not included in the Muratorian Canon (2nd century AD), possibly because of the anonymity of authorship. However, the entire writing was included in the Codex Sinaiticus (4th century AD). Hebrews was also included in Codex Vaticanus (4th century AD).

Atheist Conclusion

It seemed to me as an atheist that Hebrews had been accepted by early Christians even though the identity of the author was not known with certainty. It was interesting to see the high view the author had about Jesus of Nazareth and how the early Church received that as truth. Not proof, but evidence to consider along with the rest of the New Testament.

Next Time

In the next part of our report we will look at the single most powerful evidence for Christianity that led me from atheism to theism to become a Christian.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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