standard of comparison by which the supposed Alexan- drian tone of this epistle is evinced is suppUed by the writings of Philo, between wliicli and this epistle it is aftirnied that there is so close a resemblance that it can be accounted for only on tlie supposition that the author of the latter was, like Philo, an Alexandrian Jew. Now, before this reasoning can be so much as looked at, it be- hooves those who use it to point out clearly how much of rh'lo's peculiar style and sentiment was owing to his Jewish, and how much to his Alexan(h-ian education or habits of thought ; because, unless this can be done, it will be impossible to show that any alleged peculiarity necessariln bespeaks an Alexandrian origin, and could not possibly have ajipeared in the writings of a pure Jew of Palestine. No attempt, however, of this sort has been made ; on the contrary, it has been assumed that what- ever is Pliilonian is therefore Alexandrian, and hence all resemblances between the writings of Philo and the Epistle to the Hebrews have been urged as certain proofs that the latter must have been written by a converted Jew of Alexandria. Such an assumption, however, we woidd by no means concede ; and we feel contirmed in this by an examination of the evidence adduced in sup- port of the alleged Alexandrian character of this epistle. As Stuart has, we think, clearly shown (i, 321), and as even Tholuck, though obviously inclining the other way, lias cancUdly admitted {Comnwnt. on the Hebrews, i, 68, § 7), there is nothing in this evidence to show that this epistle might not have been written by a Jew who had ne\er left the bounds of Palestine. It is worthy of no- tice that several of the points on which Eichhorn chiefly insists as favoring his view, such as the ]jrevalence of typical expositions of the Mosaic ritual in this epistle, and the greater elegance of its language and style {Ein- leit. iii, 443 sq.), arc given up by Bleek, and that of the two chiefly insisted upon by the latter, viz. the close af- finity between this epistle and the writings of Philo, and the alleged mistake in regard to the furniture of the tab- ernacle which Bleek charges upon the author of this c])istle in chap, ix, 3, 4, and which he thinks no Jew of Palestine could have committed, both are relinquished Iiy Tholuck as untenable (com p. the valuable remarks ol' I Iiig, Introd. p. 584, note, Fosdick's transl.). With re- gard to the latter, it may be remarked that, even sup- posing it proved that the writer of this epistle had erred in asserting that the pot containing the maima and Aaron's rod were placed in the ark of the testimony, and that, supposmg QviaaTtipiov to denote the altai' of in- cenxe, and not the censer, he had fallen into the mistake of placing this within instead of without the vail, noth- ing could be thence deduced in favor of the Alexantlrian origin of the author. For, with regard to the former of these, it was a matter on which the Jews of Palestine had no better means of information than those of any other place, since, in the Temple as then standing, none of the furnitiu-e of the Holy of Holies had been pre- served; and with regard to the latter, as it could not be the residt of ifpiorance either in a Jew of Palestine or in a .lew of Alexandria, but must have been a piece of mere iiKuIrcrtiiire on the part of cither, it seems rather too much to conclude that it was such as the latter alone was capable of committing. That, however, there is no blunder in the case, has, we think, been very satisfacto- rily shown by Deyling (Obs. Sac. tom. ii, No. 47) and others (com]i. Stuart, Tholuck, and Delitzsch, ad loc.).
((i.) A polios.— The first to suggest Apollos as the prob- able author of this epistle was Luther ( Wer/ce, ed. Walch, xii, 204, 199G, etc.). He has been followed by the ma- jority of recent German scholars, many of whom have supported his conjecture with much ingeiuiity. It has iindoul)tedl}- been shown by them that Apollos may have been the writer; and they have, we think, proved that of all Paul's companions this is the one who was most fitted by education, life-circumstances, modes of tliought, and religious stand-point, to have accomplished sucli a
weight they have is derived almost entirely from the assumed Alexandrian tone of the epistle ; so that in set- ting aside this we of necessity invalidate what has been built on it. But it may be permitted us to remark that, even supposing the former established, the latter would by no means follow, any more than because a work ]iro- duced in Germany in the present day was deeply tinc- tured with Hegelianism, it would follow from that aldiie that it must be the production of some certain individ- ual rather than of any other disciple of Hegel's school. The adoption of this theory by Tholuck, after his ex- posure of the imsoundness of Bleek 's reasonings, is mat- ter of surprise. " Still," says he (i, G9), " could it be ren- dered probable that any distinguished person having in- tercourse with Paul were an Alexandrian, and of Alex- andrian culture, we might, with the greatest appearance of truth, regard him as the author of the epistle. Now such a one is found in the person of Apollos." What is this but to say, " The arguments for the Alexandrian origin of this epistle, I must confess, prove nothing ; but show me an end to be gained by it, and I will admit them to be most conclusive !" Such a statement affords, we think, very clear evidence that the disposition to as- cribe this epistle to Apollos is to be traced not to any constraining force of evidence, but exclusively to what Olshausen, in his strictures on Bleek {Ojntsc. p. 92), justly denounces as the main source of that able writer's errors on this question — "Quod non ab omni partium studio alienum animum servare ipsi contigit." It may be add- ed that if this epistle was the product of Apollos or any other Alexandrian convert, it is very strange that no tradition to this effect should have been preserved in the church at Alexandria, but, on the contrary', that it shoidd be there we find the tradition that Paid was the author most firmly and from the earliest period estab- lished.