the epistolary closing of hebrews and pauline imitation 279
out, “[a]s far as we know, hebrews was never in circulation without the
closing chapter. in no greek mss and in no extant version is there evi-
dence to the contrary.”51
Hebrews 13:20–25 and Other New Testament and Ancient Letters
as we have seen, heb 13:20–25 is often invoked in discussions of hebrews
as an example of pauline pseudepigraphy. Clare rothschild is the most
recent to put forward the theory that these verses demonstrate clear intent
to imitate a pauline letter closing. she writes, “although paul’s name does
not occur in the text, the postscript makes a claim to paul’s authorship.”52
There are certainly places in hebrews’ closing that point to some connec-
tion with paul’s letters. however, when read in comparison to epistolary
closings of the first century and other early Christian writings (1 peter,
2 and 3 John, and revelation especially), it is less clear that the author of
hebrews is imitating paul but rather following fairly conventional closings
of the first and second centuries. hebrews’ letter closing demonstrates
not only connections with paul’s letters but also with other early Chris-
tian writings. any parallels that could be construed as imitating paul are
within the practice of early Christian literature.
in his analysis of paul’s letter closings, Jeffrey weima identifies a typi-
cal pattern:
1. peace benediction
2. hortatory section (sometimes before the peace benediction)
3. greeting
a greetings (first-, second-, or third-person types)
b. Kiss greeting
c. autograph greeting
4. grace benediction53
while weima allows for variation and additional elements in paul’s letter
closings, this is the sequence of a typical pauline closing. as we will see,
51 Tasker, “integrity of the epistle to the hebrews,” 137.
52 rothschild, Hebrews as Pseudepigraphon, 215.
53 weima, Neglected Endings, 154. gamble presented a similar sequence, although flip-
ping the peace benediction and the hortatory section: (1) hortatory remarks, (2) wish of
peace, (3) greetings, (3a) greeting with the kiss, (4) grace-benediction (harry gamble,
The Textual History of the Letter to the Romans: A Study in Textual and Literary Criticism
[sd 42; grand rapids: eerdmans, 1977], 83).