Throughout its pages, Hebrews makes clear that Jesus Christ exceeds all other people, pursuits, objects, or hopes to which human beings offer allegiance. Furthermore, Jesus became the permanent and perfect High Priest, going beyond all other priests by offering Himself as a sinless sacrifice on behalf of the sins of human beings (7:24–26 9:28). The priesthood of Jesus is superior to the Old Testament priesthood of Aaron,īecause only through Jesus do we receive eternal salvation (5:1–9). Jesus is both the divine Son of God and completely human, and in His priestly role He clears the way for human beings to approach the Father in heaven through prayer (Hebrews 4:14–16). Hebrews clearly lays out the present priestly ministry of Christ in the life of the believer. Likely sent to a Jewish Christian community, possibly in Rome. With its myriad references to Hebrew customs and the Old Testament, the book was Significantly, the book makes no reference to the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem in AD 70, and the author wrote as if the sacrificial system were still in existence (Hebrews 10:1–2, 11). The strongly Jewish character of the letter to the Hebrews helps to narrow down its date of composition, most likely AD 64–69. Hebrews makes important theological contributions to the biblical Canon, it has been drawn upon as sacred Scripture since the late firstĬentury, and Christians have for two millennia consistently upheld the divine inspiration and, therefore, the canonicity of the book of Hebrews. The unknown authorship of this book should not shake our confidence in its authority. Authors such as Luke, Barnabas, Apollos, and even Clement have been considered as possibilities. Even though Clement of Rome drew much from Hebrews in his late-first-century letter to the Corinthian church, many in the Western church pointed away from PaulĪs the source of the book. Most of the churches in the eastern part of the Roman Empire believed Paul to have authored the book, leading to its early acceptance into the Canon by the churches in those areas. Several theories regarding the author’s identity have been proposed over the years, but all of them contain significant problems. Even early in the church’s history, a Christian as learned as Origen had to admit his ignorance of the true author of Hebrews. The author of the letter to the Hebrews remains shrouded in mystery.
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