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  • From: "Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: C-P: Who wrote Hebrews?
  • Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 14:55:14 -0400


Dear Mike,
You asked me to read Hebrews and I did, or reread rather.
I retain my opinion that it was not written by a Jew.

I think a Jew living at that time would be just as horrified at the thought
of a human being being used as a sacrifice as are Jews today. Jews today
say they are horrified because God indicated his disapproval of human
sacrifice with the story of the binding of Isaac.

This is not the real reason they are horrified, imo. The main problem with
Jesus being a human sacrifice is that human beings are not kosher. That is
all there is to it. The purpose of the sacrifice is for God to *eat* it.
That is why only clean animals are offered. Or rather, the definition of a
clean animal is that which may be offered. The thought of God eating a
non-kosher animal (like a human) is an abomination. A Jew wouldn't have
written it.

I'm trying to think tho, who could have written it? It would have to be
someone whose conception of the sacrifice does not include the god eating
it. This lets out all of Mesopotamia, all of Canaanite, all of Hittite
religions.

I don't know much about Greek notions of sacrifice. I don't know whether
according to the Greeks, the god ate the sacrifice or not. It occurs to me
that it may not be so with the Greeks. I know that in Greek temples the
god/esses were not fed. There was an altar, but it is my understanding that
there were no daily sacrifices. In Meopotamian and Levantine temples the
gods were fed twice daily, regularly, not counting the extra sin-offerings,
thanksgiving offerings, etc. In Mesopotamia and the Levant these were all
meals of the gods. In the Greek temple, like the Parthenon, and others,
there was an altar in which there were sacrifices. These sacrifices were not
daily events, but perhaps yearly, at great festivals. The temples were
built, not to house the gods, who lived on Olympus, but as temporary
shelters from which they could stand and watch the festivities. The gods
*watched* the sacrifices, they didn't eat them. In Mesopotamia and in the
Levant, the temples were houses of the gods, where they lived, and where
they ate.

I think in Greek religious thought it is not unusual to have human
sacrifice. This you would not find in Jewish or Mesopotamian religion. You
do have human sacrifice in Carthage and Phoenicia. Was this from Greek
influence? I don't know if they viewed the god as eating the sacrifice or
not. Perhaps some of you know. It seems unlikely to me.

Thus I think the author of Hebrews could not have been Jewish, and was
probably Greek.

Best regards,
Liz

Lisbeth S. Fried
Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
New York University
51 Washington Sq. S.
New York, NY 10012
lqf9256 AT is3.nyu.edu
lizfried AT umich.edu





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