Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 80:320 (Oct 1923)
Article: The Authorship And Circumstances Of “Hebrews”—Again!
Author: John Vallance Brown

BSac 80:320 (Oct 1923) p. 505

The Authorship And Circumstances Of “Hebrews”—Again!

“He Being Dead Yet Speaketh”

J. Vallance Brown

A new theory on the subject? Would even the few have the patience to consider? Has it not been a closed question for centuries practically, a millennium perhaps, longer possibly?

But, Clausa quaestio? Who shall say? With added evidence and mainly from the Book, might one hazard fresh conjecture? Interrogatively first, please. And tentatively and hesitantly. And, kind reader, your gentlest charity!

I. Why may not “the Epistle of Priesthood” have been written to priests, ex-priests, survivors among the “great company of priests” who “were obedient to the faith” in the midst of the Stephen episode (Acts 7:7), the specially privileged and once promising group now disposed to apostacy (5:11, 12; 3:12, 141 )?

II. They were addressed from Rome (the simpler interpretation of 13:24); but—at Antioch in Syria, where they might most naturally have fled (Acts 11:19) “upon the tribulation that arose about Stephen”?

III. The time was at the imminent break-up of Jewish unities—”at the end of these days” (1:2), after the earlier pioneers of the new Church had deceased (11:8; 13:7), after due season for the cooling of first loves (10:25, 32ff), after unrealized opportunities for spiritual leadership (5:11f); but—before the regular succession of sacrifices had ceased (10:12); yet when the Christians’ hope for “an abiding city here” had passed (13:14); almost (to use Stephen’s and “Hebrews” ‘reiterated cycle) “when forty years were fulfilled”—after the crucifixion?

BSac 80:320 (Oct 1923) p. 506

IV. Was the book’s immediate purpose to keep this priestly contingent from slipping back into Ju...