the faltering disciples to their heaven-commissioned work, and sent them forth conquering and to conquer. May it not be the moral and spiritual resurrection and return of Christ now to his faltering and faint-hearted followers that is needed to re-empower the Church with fresh life and courage, and make Christianity for centuries to come, as it has been in centuries past, the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation? INTRODUCTION TO THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. THIS epistle in the received version is attributed to the Apostle Paul as its author, but this caption has not much weight, because it was added at a comparatively late period to the title which is found in the earliest manuscripts and versions of the book, which simply read "to the Hebrews." GENUINENESS. The question of the authorship of this book stands therefore at the very threshold of its examination. The difficulties of satisfactorily settling this question are so great, that few interpreters have ventured to dogmatize about it or express an infallible opinion. Even the character of the book as an epistle is doubted by some, from the absence of the name of the author and that of the special place to which it is addressed, and the absence of signature or direction at the close, which generally characterize the epistles of Paul. The work has more of the qualities of a treatise or essay than of an epistolary composition. A great variety of opinions has been entertained as to the authorship of the work both in ancient and modern times. Paul has had the majority of suffrages, but Apollos, Luke, Barnabas, Silas, or Silvanus and Zenas have respectively had their claims pressed by different writers, both earlier and later. While the general opinion of the Christian world has given an anti-Pauline verdict, it is far from settling down confidently, on any other author, but Apollos is esteemed as most nearly fulfilling the requisitions of the genuine author of the work. The Revised. Version still retains the old title "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews." I. The internal testimony of the book is very complete and decisive against its Pauline authorship. It consists of a great variety of particulars, some more convincing than others, but when all are combined, they constitute an almost overwhelming argument. I. The name of Paul is not attached to the epistle in the oldest MSS. either at its beginning or its close, as is done in his epistles, a remarkable omission. 2. The epistle to the Hebrews is placed after the thirteen epistles of Paul, as if indicative of the doubt felt by the critics and translators of its belonging to his canon. 3. There is a previous improbability that the apostle to the Gentiles would leave the peculiar sphere of propagandism which he had selected in harmony with the call of God, and his conference with his brethren, and enter the special field of Jewish conversion. Rom. xv. 20, 22. He would certainly have intruded into the province of James and the Jerusalem chiefs if he had addressed this epistle to that city. For the character of the book and the assumed familiarity of its readers with the Jewish temple and ritual presuppose according to most critics, that it was to that city the writer addressed his exhortations. The apostle to the Gentiles found ample occupation for all his enterprise and zeal in other directions. 4. Not only so, but the whole atmosphere of Hebrews is different from that of Romans or Corinthians. If he was the author of the work under consideration, he seems suddenly to have narrowed down his view from a world-wide liberality to a consideration of the Jews, as if they were the only people to be regarded or saved. The intellectual and moral change from the Corinthians or Ephesians to the sentiments here spans too wide a chasm to be rationally explained. |