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corpus-paul - RE: [Corpus-Paul] Why was Hebrews ever thought to be by Paul?

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  • From: "David Inglis" <david AT colonialcommerce.com>
  • To: <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Corpus-Paul] Why was Hebrews ever thought to be by Paul?
  • Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 10:12:26 -0700

On Sat, 10 May Steve Black wrote:

> Perhaps I misunderstand what you are saying - but are you suggesting
> that the writer of Hebrews intended the work to be understood as
> being written by Paul. If so, this would have been better achieved
> had the name "Paul" actually been used within the text (like the
> writers of Eph, Col, etc). I have thought that this writer in no ways
> intended to have this work understood as Pauline - a feat which later
> tradition accomplished anyways...

This point comes back to the original reason for my questions. Clearly it
would have been much easier to make Hebrews appear to have been by Paul if
it looked more like the other Paulines. Like Steve, it is my view that the
writer of Hebrews did not intend it to be understood as having been written
by Paul, and the Pauline influences are IMHO much more likely to be just due
to the writer knowing (or having known) Paul, or knowing some of his
letters. Given the obvious dissimilarities between Hebrews and the other
Paulines, I haven't read anything on this thread that suggests how the
tradition arose that Paul wrote it. For example, I don't believe (please
correct me if I'm wrong) that we have any early commentary that states
something like "I believe this letter was written by Paul because ...." The
tradition seems to be based on early father stating that they believed this,
but without saying why. So, I come back to my original question. Is it
likely/possible that it was just an accident? That it's simply that once a
MS with some of the Paulines plus Hebrews was assembled, Hebrews was then
*assumed* to be by Paul by people who saw them together in one MS?

Dave Inglis
davidinglis2 AT attbi.com
3538 O'Connor Drive
Lafayette, CA, USA







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