AUTHORSHIP
EPISTLE
HEBREWS
21
OF THE
TO THE
hope of an inheritance awaiting believers at the last. And the great chapter of Hebrews reaches its climax in the
words redolent of 1 Peter, and of 1 Peter when most near to 1 and 2 Thessalonians'.
(The First Epistle of Peter, 1946, p. 241).
The possibility therefore exists, that Silas may have had a part in writing Hebrews, if he fulfils the other
conditions. We know that the writer and readers were known to each other (6:9; 13:18,19,23,24). Now whether the
readers were Hellenistic Jewish Christians at Jerusalem or Rome, they would be known to Silas who had
connections with both places.
Hebrews 13:23 shows that Timothy was known to both the writer and readers. 1 Thessalonian 1:1;
2 Thessalonians 1:1 and 2 Corinthians 1:19 make clear that Silas was known to Timothy, and it would appear that
Timothy was with Paul at Rome and would therefore be known to the church there.
The writer of Hebrews was familiar with the hieratic ritual. Before Silas joined Paul in his missionary journeys,
he was attached to the Jerusalem church and would be well acquainted with the ritual of the Temple.
The author of Hebrews was a classicist who constantly made use of the LXX. The writer of 1 Peter has a wealth
of vocabulary and is deeply steeped in the Old Testament Scriptures, as he shows by direct quotation and frequent
indirect allusions, and he knows them in the LXX form.
Thus, the background and personality of Silas, his circumstances, divine knowledge, style and vocabulary are not
against the theory that he was the author of Hebrews.
However, no one can dogmatically say who the amanuensis was, and we feel a little modesty may not be amiss
here. If early Christian scholars were not sure, how can we be, living more than 1900 years later? We believe
Origen summed up the position well when he stated that he believed that `the thoughts are the thoughts of the
apostle, but the language and the composition that of one who recalled from memory and, as it were, made notes of
what was said by his master ... it was not without reason that men of old time (Origen was born A.D. 185) have
handed it down as Paul's ... But who wrote the epistle (i.e., as the amanuensis) God only knows certainly'. There
must have been an ancient and genuine tradition concerning the Pauline authorship of Hebrews for the Eastern
church to give such a united testimony in this way.
From the foregoing Scriptural facts we have brought forward, we unhesitatingly take the same standpoint as
Origen of old, although it may not be the fashion in theological circles at the moment to ascribe this magnificent and
important epistle to Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles.
STUART ALLEN