There is further internal evidence that the letter was written before the destruction of
Jerusalem (70), before the outbreak of the Jewish war (66), before the Neronian persecution (in
July, 64), and before Paul’s martyrdom. None of these important events are even alluded to;^1223 on
the contrary, as already remarked, the Temple was still standing, with its daily sacrifices regularly
going on, and the doom of the theocracy was still in the future, though "nigh unto a curse," "becoming
old and ready to vanish away;" it was "shaken" and about to be removed; the day of the fearful
judgment was drawing nigh.^1224
The place of composition was either Rome or some place in Southern Italy, if we assume
that the writer had already started on his journey to the East.^1225 Others assign it to Alexandria, or
Antioch, or Ephesus.^1226
Authorship.
This is still a matter of dispute, and will probably never be decided with absolute certainty.
The obscurity of its origin is the reason why the Epistle to the Hebrews was ranked among the
seven Antilegomena of the ante-Nicene church. The controversy ceased after the adoption of the
traditional canon in 397, but revived again at the time of the Reformation. The different theories
may be arranged under three heads: (1) sole authorship of Paul; (2) sole authorship of one of his
pupils; (3) joint authorship of Paul and one of his pupils. Among the pupils again the views are
subdivided between Luke, Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Silvanus, and Apollos.^1227- The Pauline Authorship was the prevailing opinion of the church from the fourth century
to the eighteenth, with the exception of the Reformers, and was once almost an article of faith, but
has now very few defenders among scholars.^1228 It rests on the following arguments:
(a) The unanimous tradition of the Eastern church, to which the letter was in all probability
directed; yet with the important qualification which weakens the force of this testimony, that there
was a widely prevailing perception of a difference of style, and consequent supposition of a Hebrew
original, of which there is no historic basis whatever. Clement of Alexandria ascribed the Greek
(^1223) Zahn refers Heb. 10:32-34 to the Neronian persecution; but this is excluded by 12:4, "Ye have not yet resisted unto blood"
(μέχρι αἳματος). Harnack finds also traces of the Domitian persecution. Still more unlikely.
(^1224) Lardner, Thiersch, Lindsay, Bullock (in Smith’s B. Dict., Am. ed., II., 1028), and others, assign the Epistle to a.d. 63;
DeWette, Moll, and Lange to between 62 and 66 (between the death of James and the outbreak of the Jewish war); Ebrard to
62; Wieseler (Chronol, des Ap. Zeitalters, p. 519) to July, 64; Stuart and Tholuck to about 64; Weiss to 65 ("bald nach der Mitte
der sechziger Jahre"); Hilgenfeld to between 64 and 66; Davidson (Introd., revised ed., I. 222) to 66; Ewald to 67; Renan and
Kay to 65. On the other hand, Zahn gives as the date a.d. 80, Holtzmann and Harnack about 90, Volkmar and Keim, 116-118.
These late dates are simply impossible, not only for intrinsic reasons and the allusion to Timothy, but also because Clement of
Rome, who wrote about 95, shows a perfect familiarity with Hebrews.
(^1225) The inference of the place from οἱ ἀπὸ τῆσ ἸταλίαςHeb. 13:24, is uncertain, since in the epistolary style it may imply that
the writer was at that time out of Italy, or in Italy (which would be more distinctly expressed by ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ orοἱ ἐξ ). The brethren
may have been fugitives from Italy (so Bleek). But the latter view seems more natural, and is defended by Theodoret, who knew
Greek as his mother tongue. Tholuck and Ebrard quote the phrases οἱ ἀπὸ γῆς and οἱ ἀπὸ θαλάσσης, travellers by land and sea,
and from Polybius, οἱ ἀπὸ τῆσ Ἀλεξανδρείας βασιλεῖς, the Alexandrian kings. Still more to the point is Pseudo-Ignatius Ad. Her.
8, quoted by Zahn (see his ed. of Ign., p. 270, 12): ἀσπάζονταί σε ... πάντες οἱ ἀπὸ Φιλίππων ἐν χριστῷ, ὂτεν καὶ ἐπέστειλά σοι.
(^1226) The Sinaitic MS. and C have the subscription "to the Hebrews," A adds "from Rome," K "from Italy." Sam. Davidson dates
it from Alexandria, Renan from Ephesus, where he thinks Barnabas was at that time with some fugitive Italians, while Timothy
was imprisoned perhaps at Corinth (L’Antechrist. p. 210).
(^1227) For the patristic testimonies, I refer to the collection in Charteris, Canonicity, pp. 272-288; for a candid and exhaustive
discussion of the whole question, to Bleek’s large Com., I., 82-272; also to Alford’s Com., vol iv., Part I., pp. 1-62
(^1228) Von Hofmann (of Erlangen) is almost the only one in Germany; Bishop Wordsworth and Dr. Kay in England. Among the
older defenders of the Pauline authorship we mention Owen (1668), Mill (1707), Carpzov (1750), Bengel (1752). Sykes (1755),
Andr. Cramer (1757), Storr (1789), and especially the learned and acute Roman Catholic scholar, Hug, in his Einleitung.
A.D. 1-100.