Who wrote the Book of Hebrews?

Hebrews is unique among the New Testament letters in that it never names its writer. The KJV heading, "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews," reflects the tradition that had long been settled in the church by 1611, but such titles were added later and are not part of the letter itself. The early church was divided. Many in the East accepted it as Paul's, and Clement of Alexandria suggested Paul wrote it in Hebrew and Luke translated it into Greek. In North Africa, Tertullian attributed it to Barnabas, a Levite who would have known the priestly worship the letter explains. The scholar Origen, in the third century, said the thoughts were Paul's but the wording someone else's, mentioned that some named Luke or Clement of Rome, and concluded, as the historian Eusebius records, that only God knows who wrote it. By the late fourth and fifth centuries the Western church had generally accepted it as Pauline. At the Reformation, Martin Luther proposed Apollos, "an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures" (Acts 18:24), and in modern times some have suggested Priscilla. Clues within the letter are few. The author knew Timothy, writing "our brother Timothy is set at liberty" (Hebrews 13:23), and passed on greetings from "They of Italy" (Hebrews 13:24). The writer also says the message of salvation "was confirmed unto us by them that heard him" (Hebrews 2:3), which some find hard to reconcile with Paul's insistence that he received the gospel "by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1:12), and its polished Greek differs from Paul's usual style. Whoever the human author was, the church has always received Hebrews as Scripture, treasured for its teaching on Christ as the great high priest.

Key Passages