THE EPISTLE TO THE

HEBREWS.

I. Author, uncertain. Two principal hypotheses: i. PAUL. 1. The writer was well known (x. 34; xiii. 18-23), and must have been spoken of. Early fathers of E. Ch. say that it was handed down as a writing of P.'s. Some (Clem. Alex., Orig., Euseb.) regard this testy. as conclusive. 2. The writer intimate with Jewish system, and having sympathy with Jews (cf. Ro. ix. 10, 11; Phil. 3). 3. The personal refs. not oppos. to known hist. of P. 4. Style not strikingly Pauline, yet resembling his speeches recorded by Lu. 5. The withholding of author's name increases the prob. that it was the work of P. Among those who believe this Ep. to be the work of P., are Lardner, Wetstein, Sir Is. Newton, Lightfoot, Whitby, Mill, Pearson, Beza, Bengel, Moses Stuart, Davidson, Michaelis, Wordsworth, Angus, etc. But Erasmus, Luther, Calvin, and the principal modern critics, as Ewald and Bleek, followed by Alford, reject the Pauline hypothesis. "I do not believe St. Paul to be the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Luther's conjecture is very probable, that it was by Apollos, an Alexandrian Jew. The plan is too studiously regular for Paul. It was evidently written during the yet existing glories of the Temple. For 300 years the Church did not affix Paul's name to it; but its Apostolical or Catholic character, independently of its genuineness as to Paul, was never much doubted."-Coleridge. "The arguments adduced to prove it was written by Paul, as set forth by Moses Stuart, in his work on the Epistle, appear to me convincing. It may be observed that some who do not admit it was exactly written by that Apostle, acknowledge its Pauline character, and consider it to be composed under his influence by Luke or Barnabas."-J. Stoughton, D.D. ii. APOLLOS [iii. 172]. One of the first to sugg. this view was Luther, more recently adopted by De Wette, Tholuck, Credner, Bunsen, Reuss, Lunemann, and Bleek, who says, everything seems to favour the hypothesis that Apollos wrote our Epistle." Of others, who have been indicated as the poss. authors of this Ep., may be named (1) Luke (Delitzsch, Grotius); (2) Luke and Paul (Ebrard, etc.); (3) Clemens Rom.; (4) Barnabas (Ullman, Wieseler, Tertullian); (5) Silas (Böhme). II. For whom written. For JUDEO-CHRISTIANS. Not prob. to the whole of such converts throughout the world. Not, necessarily, to the mother Ch. at Jerus., but perh. to the Ch. at Alexandria (Schmidt, Wieseler, who favour the view that Apollos was the writer), or more likely to the Jewish Christians at Rome (Wetstein, etc. This hypothesis accs. for the greater use being made in this Ep. of the Ep. to the Roms. above all other of Paul's Epp.). III. Time, bef. destr. of Jerus. If aft., that event would prob. have been refer. to, in an Ep. addressed to such readers. Prob. A.D. 68-70, i.e. during siege of Jerus. (to wh. xiii. 14 may be an all.). IV. Place, uncertain, but perh. EPHESUS (Alford). V. Design, "The object of this Ep. is to show the superiority of the Gospel to the former covenant: and that mainly by exhibiting, fr. the Scriptures, and fr. the nature of the case, the superiority of Jesus Himself to both the messengers and the high priests of that former covenant. This is the main argument of the Ep., filled out and illustrated by various corollaries springing out of its dif. parts, and expanding in the directions of encouragement, warning, and illustration" (Alford). "The Epistle was designed primarily for the Jewish Christians of Palestine, who were tempted to relapse into Judaism, and for other Jewish Christians, and also for the benefit of Jewish readers throughout the world, and lastly for universal use. It was designed for enemies as well as for friends, for Judaizing Christians, and for unchristianised Jews." -Wordsworth.

Synopsis.

CIR. A.D. 68-70.

the prophets
and Christ
a 2 Pe. i, 21.

6 Nu. xii. 6; Ps.
lxxxix. 19; Ac. ii.
30, 31.

e Jo. i. 17; xiv. 10; He. ii. 3.

d Ps. ii. 8; Jo.iii. 35; Ma. xxviii.

18; He. ii. 6, 8; Ro. viii. 17.

e Jo. i. 3; 1 Co. viii, 6; Col. i. 16. f Dr. E. Bayley.

Serm. by FW

Robertson, M.A., iii. 153.

CHAPTER THE FIRST.

1, 2. sundry times," many parts, or portions. God did not communicate His will all at once, or by one man; but part at one time and part at another. divers manners, many ways: by angels, visions, word of mouth. fathers, forefathers, ancestors. prophets, who were channels of communication; not simply reservoirs. in.. days, the period closing the age of prophecy. spoken.. Son, confirming, enforcing, fulfilling what had been said before. heir,d both bec. of His Divine nature and His redeeming work. things, in the universe of matter and spirit. by.. worlds [ii. 225; iv. 34].

The prophets.-I. Their theology: that there was but one God. II. Their morality. III. Their politics. IV. Their preaching: it addressed itself directly to the hearts and consciences of men.— The Great Prophet.-I. His mission: as the Great Interpreter of God's will to man. II. His credentials: the testimony of John the Baptist, the witness from heaven of the Father Himself, the miracles which He wrought, the fulfilment in His life and ministry "What a beauti- of Old Testament prophecy. III. His teaching: What did He ful sermon or teach concerning-1. God?—The unity of the Godhead, the essay might be spirituality of the Divine nature, God's sovereignty, His Fatherwritten on the hood and Fatherly care, the freeness of Divine grace, the severity growth of prophecy!-from of the Divine punishment when merited; 2. Man?-The corrupthe germ, no tion of His nature, the certainty of a future state; 3. The kingbigger than a dom of God, founded by Him on earth? Its members, laws, life Genesis, till the and dangers.

man's hand, in

column of cloud

just like the

comes up and at

a

Sundry times and divers manners.—God spake at sundry times, gathers size and and He spake in divers manners. The Jewish doctors observed strength, and height and subfour degrees of Divine revelation. The first they called Prophecy, stance, and as- which included vision, and any apparition whereby the will of sumes the shape God was made known. They had a second way of Divine revelaof a perfect man; tion, which they called the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, whereby smoke in the the party was enabled, without vision or apparition, to prophesy, Arabian Nights' either as prophesying is taken for the foretelling of things to come, tale, which or for the resolving of things in doubt. The Rabbins give us the last takes difference between these two, prophecy and inspiration: in progenie's shape."- phecy (though it was from the Holy Ghost), a man was cast into Coleridge. a trance, or brought into an ecstasy, his senses being taken away; "Whatsoever is but, speaking by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, was without any Divine revela- such change in or impressions upon the body. So David and other tion ought to over-rule all our penmen of the Scriptures wrote by the immediate inspiration of opinions, preju- the Holy Ghost, yet without visible apparitions to them, or visible dices, and inter-change upon them. Thirdly, God revealed Himself by Urim and right to be re- Thummim, which was an answer given by the ephod, or by the ceived with full stones that were on the breastplate of the high priest. These assent. Such a three ways of Divine revelation, as they observe, ceased in the submission as second Temple; the Jewish writers having this tradition, that

ests, and hath a

this of our reason

to

faith takes after the latter prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the not away the Holy Ghost departed from Israel; meaning the Holy Ghost, not land-marks of in the ordinary work of sanctification, but in those extraordinary shakes not the ways of prophecy, inspiration, and of Urim and Thummim, went foundations of up and departed from them. There was yet a fourth way of Divine

knowledge: this