4. The Place and Time of Writing

The place of writing is determined by the words: “Those who are from Italy greet you” (Heb 13:24) — that is, Italians. It follows, therefore, that the holy Paul was in Italy when he wrote his Epistle to the Hebrews. In Italy, however, only one place of his residence is known — Rome. We must therefore conclude that he wrote this epistle from Rome.

The holy Paul was in Rome twice, and on both occasions in chains. This epistle, then, was written from chains — but from which imprisonment? From the first. In Heb 13:19 the holy Paul expresses the hope that he will be released from Rome and will have the consolation of seeing those to whom he writes. Yet this was precisely the condition of his captivity toward the end of the first imprisonment, as may be seen from his epistles to the Philippians, the Colossians, and Philemon. It must be supposed that the Epistle to the Hebrews was written at this same period, in 63 or 64 AD.