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  • From: Jack Kilmon <jkilmon AT historian.net>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: C-P: Who wrote Hebrews?
  • Date: Thu, 03 Jun 1999 15:38:32 -0500




Liz Fried wrote:

> 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.

I believe that Apollos wrote Hebrews for several reasons. First, of course,
is the almost classic philoesque Alexandrian Greek, hence an Hellenistic
Alexandrian Jew.

Jack
--
______________________________________________

taybutheh d'maran yeshua masheecha am kulkon

Jack Kilmon
jkilmon AT historian.net

http://www.historian.net






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