1. Who Wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews?

Let it be granted that the author of this epistle is not identified; yet for anyone who approaches its reading without having first formed some prejudice regarding its origin, this question cannot long remain unanswered. He will not have finished reading the first two or three chapters before he is compelled to acknowledge: this was written by the holy Paul. The further he advances in his reading, the more firmly this conviction will take root and grow within him, and will at last become an unshakeable certainty when he reaches the postscript. There, every word points to the holy Paul. Thus, even if we had no other reliable indications that this epistle originated with the holy Paul, it would itself declare as much. Moreover, this epistle was not discovered yesterday; from the very moment of its composition it was placed in the hands of Christians and has been revered and used by them to the present day — always as the epistle of the holy Paul. Wherefore, if the internal testimony of the epistle itself does not suffice for anyone, he may corroborate it with the witness of Christian antiquity regarding its origin, and thereby dispel every uncertainty.

These testimonies begin in the apostolic age, and indeed from among the Apostles themselves. Here is how they proceeded, until they were at last confirmed by conciliar decrees.

The first testimony in this regard belongs to the holy Peter. In his second epistle he writes: “Seeing that ye look for these things” (that is, a new heaven and a new earth) “give diligence that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things” (2 Pet 3:14–16). By these words the holy Peter testifies that the holy Paul wrote to those to whom he himself also writes. But he writes to believing Hebrews. Consequently, the holy Paul likewise wrote to them. And of Paul’s epistles to the Hebrews only one is known, which is contained in the codex of the New Testament Sacred Books. What other epistle but this one could the holy Peter have had in mind in the words quoted above? It must also be acknowledged,

1) that the holy Peter wrote his second epistle after the first imprisonment of the holy Paul in Rome, during which the Epistle to the Hebrews is held to have been written — that is, in the interval between this imprisonment and the second;

2) that the holy Paul, when sending his epistle to a particular community of Christians, intended it to be disseminated by them throughout all communities of Hebrews; and

3) that the holy Peter saw this intention of the holy Paul fulfilled in practice. The truth of which the holy Peter speaks in the words quoted is this: expecting the end of the age and the Second Coming of Christ, strive to live in such a manner that you may then be found without spot and blameless. This thought is encountered in almost all the epistles of the holy Paul; indeed it forms an indispensable article of the Christian faith and has always been part of the initial proclamation of the Gospel. Let the reader consult, as he pleases: Tit 2:11–14; Col 3:1–11; Phil 3:17–21; Eph 5:1–11; Gal 5:19–26.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews this thought is set forth in Heb 10:19–31. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, encouraging… one another in works of love, and so much the more as ye see the day drawing near. For faithful is he that promised” (Heb 10:23–25). If we fall away from the faith, or sin and remain in sin, then at the judgment there is nothing further for us to expect but severe condemnation and dreadful punishment.

The fact that this truth is expressed in different words by the holy Paul and the holy Peter does not diminish the force of this testimony. Nor, indeed, is such word-for-word correspondence required by the words of the holy Peter themselves.

A second testimony is furnished by St. Clement, bishop of Rome, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, written between 70 and 96 AD. Reading this epistle, one cannot fail to see how fully the Epistle to the Hebrews had been assimilated by St. Clement. Again and again one encounters propositions, phrases, and words taken verbatim from that epistle. Thus, concerning the Savior he says that He is the radiance of God’s glory and that He is “so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” Of the Angels it is said: “Who maketh his angels spirits”;” but of Him: “Thou art my Son… Sit thou at my right hand” (Clement, ch. 36; Heb 1:5, 7 in the Epistle to the Hebrews by the holy Paul). Of the holy prophet Moses he writes that he was faithful in all God’s house as a trusty servant (chs. 43 and 17). These are the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 3:2–5. And the words of this epistle are likewise employed when he praises the righteous men of the Old Testament: Enoch was translated and was not found (Clement, ch. 9; Heb 11:5 in the Epistle to the Hebrews); Abraham, obeying the call, departed from his land, hoping to leave behind the lesser and inherit the greater — the heavenly (Clement, ch. 10; Heb 11:8, 16); and of all the saints in general it is said: they received exile and prison bonds; they were stoned, they were sawn asunder; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins (Clement, chs. 45, 17; Heb 11:36–37). There are other similar passages as well. Although St. Clement does not state explicitly that he is drawing these expressions from the Epistle to the Hebrews by the holy Paul, this is evident even without such an indication.

What follows from all this? To say merely that, since the matter stands thus, one must conclude that the Epistle to the Hebrews is older than the writings of St. Clement, or belongs to the apostolic age — would be to say too little. One must add that it is also of apostolic origin: first, because in that era no one but an Apostle could have written in such a manner; and second, because, had it not been of apostolic origin, St. Clement would not have studied it so diligently and made it so thoroughly his own, as is evident from his Epistle to the Corinthians. He was himself a most immediate disciple of the Apostles and their trusted associate. Only to their word could he have paid such attention and conceived such love for it.

But from which Apostle could it have originated? — From none other than the holy Paul. The entire content of the epistle points to him, and most especially the postscript; and St. Clement was particularly close to him, being called by Paul in the Epistle to the Philippians his fellow-laborer and co-worker (Phil 4:3). On the basis of what has been said, Eusebius draws the same conclusion regarding the origin of the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying that, judging by these considerations, it is rightly numbered among the other epistles of the holy Apostle Paul. Furthermore, in the writings of St. Ignatius the God-bearer, St. Polycarp, and St. Justin Martyr there are passages that with greater or lesser clarity point to the Epistle to the Hebrews. This must be said especially of St. Justin Martyr, who, in his Dialogue with Trypho, calls the Lord Savior the eternal Priest of the Most High according to the order of Melchizedek (§118); and in his First Apology calls Him the Apostle — a title given to Him nowhere except in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 3:1). Although the name of Paul is not mentioned in this connection, it is evident that the Epistle to the Hebrews was in use and was recognized as authoritative — that is, apostolic — and therefore Pauline, for everywhere in it the hand of the holy Paul is visible.

In the Church of Alexandria there follow already definite and continuous attestations of the origin of the Epistle to the Hebrews from the Apostle Paul. This is witnessed by Pantaenus, the founder of the Alexandrian catechetical school, Clement of Alexandria, his disciple, and Origen, the disciple of the latter. All of them regard the holy Paul as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews — and raise for themselves only the question of why the holy Paul did not place his name at the beginning of the epistle, as was his custom, and offer their solutions; which in no way gives occasion to suppose that they wavered in the slightest in their conviction.

It is worth noting that Origen in his writings cites the Epistle to the Hebrews nearly two hundred times, and almost everywhere with the indication that these are the words of the holy Paul. The foundation of his conviction lay not only in the fact that the thoughts of the epistle point to the holy Paul, but also in the fact that they possessed on this matter a constant tradition received from men of old.

After these writers in Alexandria, all subsequent scholars likewise regarded the Epistle to the Hebrews as Paul’s. These include: St. Dionysius, St. Alexander, St. Athanasius the Great, Anthony the Great, Didymus, and Theophilus.

The Syrian Church expressed its confidence in the Pauline origin of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the Peshitta translation, made in the second century, in which this epistle is included among the epistles of the holy Paul — and at the Synod of Antioch convened against Paul of Samosata, in the acts of which the following passages from this epistle were cited: 2:14, 4:15, 11:16, and one passage — 12:1 — with the addition: “according to the words of Paul the teacher.” After this, St. Jacob of Nisibis and St. Ephraim the Syrian cited passages from this epistle always with the words: “the holy Apostle says,” or “the blessed Paul says.” The testimonies of the Syrian Church on this matter are completed and sealed by the Council of Laodicea, which in its sixtieth canon, enumerating the books of Holy Scripture, places the Epistle to the Hebrews among the New Testament books, within the number of the epistles of the holy Paul.

The testimonies of the other Eastern Churches on this matter are conveyed by their chief teachers, all of whom attributed the Epistle to the Hebrews to the holy Paul. These are: Eusebius of Caesarea, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius of Cyprus, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, St. John Chrysostom, and Theodoret. Having reviewed all of this, we cannot but acknowledge as irrefutably true the words of blessed Jerome — that this epistle is recognized as Paul’s not only by all the Eastern Churches, but by all ecclesiastical writers who wrote in Greek.

In the West, after St. Clement, traces of reference to the Epistle to the Hebrews are found in the writings of St. Irenaeus, though these are few. Thus he says that God created all things and sustains all things “by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3), that the law in its purificatory rites is a “shadow of things to come” (bk. 4, ch. 11, §4 — Heb 10:1; Heb 8:5; Heb 9:23), and that Enoch “pleased God and was translated” (bk. 5, ch. 5, §1). Eusebius mentions another book by St. Irenaeus, entitled Resolution of Disputed Questions, and asserts that it too contains certain expressions borrowed from the Epistle to the Hebrews. A contemporary witness to this epistle from the time of St. Irenaeus is also furnished by the Latin translation of Holy Scripture — the Itala — in which the Epistle to the Hebrews appears alongside the other epistles of the holy Paul. This epistle was also known to Tertullian, who attributed to it apostolic authority (De pudicitia, ch. 20). After this, Latin writers refrained from mentioning this epistle for a little over a hundred years, although it continued to be read in the commonly used Latin translation of Holy Scripture — the Itala: Quotidie ecclesiarum lectione celebratur. But then, beginning with Hilary, who flourished in the mid-fourth century, Latin writers once again began to cite it — and specifically as a Pauline epistle. After Hilary, this was done by Lucifer, St. Ambrose, Philastrius, Gaudentius, blessed Jerome, and Augustine. In the time of the latter, this epistle was recognized as apostolic at the Council of Hippo and the Council of Carthage.

The fact that Western writers ceased to cite the Epistle to the Hebrews for a period cannot serve as proof that doubts were entertained in the West at that time regarding its authenticity and apostolic dignity, for, as has been said, its use in the Church never ceased. This interruption may have been demanded by the circumstances of the time. It is so explained, on the supposition that it was done on account of the Marcionite and Novatianist errors. After the conciliar decrees, there is no further occasion to raise the question of who wrote this epistle, or to manufacture uncertainty as to whether or not the holy Paul was its author.