Bible Book of Hebrews (page 2)

Gladring

When I was on my way out, I had read The God Delusion. To get a balanced view of things I also read Alister McGrath's "The Dawkins Delusion" (an attempt at a rebuttal). I wanted to see what McGrath had to say about Dawkins' criticism of the Bible.

To my surprise, he made no attempt at defending the Bible. About all he said on the subject was (this is from memory now) - "You know how bad things are getting when Dawkins says that Hebrews was written by Saint Paul."

It was around this time that I realised just how wrong the WT had got stuff. If even the defenders of Christianity disagree with them...

PSacramento

While some scholars have debated on the authorship of Hebrews base don things like textual critique and such and perhaps have valid points, we do need to remember that Paul tend to write for his audience and Hebrews would have been written quite differently than to Romans or such.

Certainly if it was not Paul, it was someone under his direct influence.

I think there was a Koren research that did some seriosu work on that and concluded that it probably was Paul who wrote it...

snowbird

I wondered the same thing two years ago.

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/experiences/134748/1/Who-Wrote-the-Book-of-Hebrews

Sylvia

JosephMalik

PSacramento,

Yes, And we know that Paul did not personally write but dictated or commissioned a letter except for a few words that marked a letter like a signature for proof of his involvement. 2Th 3:17 The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write. This is but one of other such comments made by Paul. Then Hebrews was written at a much higher level for informed Jews and some words had a sacred meaning for them that few notice. Like some JW expressions that mark them as being on the inside. So it is not easy for us to interpret or compare to other of his letters and words like angels or heaven go astray.

Joseph

BurnTheShips

That's a valid point, authors write in different styles to different audiences. At least the smart ones do. Also, a writer's style can vary over his life.

BTS

Midget-Sasquatch

Thanks for that detail Leolaia about no mention at all of 2 Corithians appearing in Clement's material. Its hard to explain his never mentioning parts of it if he really were the source behind Paul's letters. So scratch that scenario.

I really appreciate all the facts you've brought thus far. Don't burden yourself with too much about other stuff about the supposed clementine authorship. Its simply fun for me considering speculations like that and others like Paul being a Herodian.

Back on topic, its true that a person can alter their style depending on the genre and also how they develop over time. But Hebrews isn't such a different genre of literature (like poetry or apocalypses say), that we should expect a vastly different style of expression.

The Pauline letters generally have a basic similar form to them. The way the material is expressed is more refined in Hebrews, so the question is did Paul really become a more improved writer from his earlier material in the 50s? Who knows.

Origen, said one could never know who wrote Hebrews but he really believed the ideas were Paul's. Well he said only God knows who wrote it, but I'm going to being obstinate and not acknowledge any deities....in one of those moods

Bible Book of Hebrews