with the Alexandrian theosophy of Philo,^1213 but he never introduces foreign ideas into the Scriptures,
as Philo did by his allegorical interpretation. His exhortations and warnings go to the quick of the
moral sensibility; and yet his tone is also cheering and encouraging. He had the charisma of
exhortation and consolation in the highest degree.^1214 Altogether, he was a man full of faith and the
Holy Spirit, and gifted with a tongue of fire.
The Style.
Hebrews is written in purer Greek than any book of the New Testament, except those
portions of Luke where he is independent of prior documents. The Epistle begins, like the third
Gospel, with a rich and elegant period of classic construction. The description of the heroes of faith
in the eleventh chapter is one of the most eloquent and sublime in the entire history of religious
literature. He often reasons a minori ad majus (εἰ ... πόσῳ μᾶλλον). He uses a number of rare and
choice terms which occur nowhere else in the New Testament.^1215
As compared with the undoubted Epistles of Paul, the style of Hebrews is less fiery and
forcible, but smoother, more correct, rhetorical, rhythmical, and free from anacolutha and solecisms.
There is not that rush and vehemence which bursts through ordinary rules, but a calm and regular
flow of speech. The sentences are skilfully constructed and well rounded. Paul is bent exclusively
on the thought; the author of Hebrews evidently paid great attention to the form. Though not strictly
classical, his style is as pure as the Hellenistic dialect and the close affinity with the Septuagint
permit.
All these considerations exclude the idea of a translation from a supposed Hebrew original.
The Readers.
The Epistle is addressed to the Hebrew Christians, that is, according to the usual distinction
between Hebrews and Hellenists (Acts 6:1; 9:27), to the converted Jews in Palestine, chiefly to
those in Jerusalem. To them it is especially adapted. They lived in sight of the Temple, and were
exposed to the persecution of the hierarchy and the temptation of apostasy. This has been the
prevailing view from the time of Chrysostom to Bleek.^1216 The objection that the Epistle quotes the
Old Testament uniformly after the Septuagint is not conclusive, since the Septuagint was undoubtedly
used in Palestine alongside with the Hebrew original.
Other views more or less improbable need only be mentioned: (1) All the Christian Jews
as distinct from the Gentiles;^1217 (2) the Jews of Jerusalem alone;^1218 (3) the Jews of Alexandria;^1219(^1213) See Carpzov, Sacrae Exercitationes in Ep. ad Heb. ex Philone Alex. (Helmstadii, 1750); Riehm, l.c., pp. 9 sqq.; Hilgenfeld,
Einleit., p. 384; and Pfleiderer, Paulinismus.
(^1214) The Epistle is called a λόγος παρακλήσεως ,Heb. 13:22; comp. 12:5; 6:18
(^1215) See note II. at the close.
(^1216) So also DeWette, Tholuck, Thiersch, Delitzsch, Lünemann, Riehm, Moll (in Lange’s Com.), Langen, Weiss.
(^1217) So Oecumenius, Lightfoot, Lange; also Grimm (sub verbo): "Omnes de Judaeis sive aramaice sive graece loquentibus
Christiani."
(^1218) Ebrard. Moulton, on the contrary, thinks that some other church in Palestine is addressed, and that Jerusalem is excluded
by Heb. 2:3.
(^1219) Wieseler (who adds an unlikely reference to the temple of Onias in Leontopolis), Credner, Baur, Hilgenfeld, Köstlin, Reuss,
Bunsen, Conybeare and Howson, and Plumptre.
A.D. 1-100.