“Wo wrote the Epistle God only knows.” Such was the verdict of Origen, and modern criticism has gotten no farther. That it is not the work of Paul is the almost unanimous judg- ment of modern scholars. Its authenticity as a Pauline writ- ing has been challenged from the earliest times. In the Eastern church, both Clement and Origen regarded the Greek Epistle as Paul’s only in a secondary sense; Clement holding that it was written by Paul in Hebrew and translated by Luke. Origen knew only that some held Clement of Rome and some Luke to be the author. Its position and designation in the Peshitto Version shows that it was regarded as not strictly one of Paul’s epistles, but as an appendix to the col- lection. Eusebius’s testimony is inconsistent. He holds a Hebrew original, and a translation by Clement, and cites the letter as Pauline (H. #. 38). Again, he expressly classifies it with antilegomena (vi. 13); but in iii. 25 he evades the question, naming the Pauline Epistles as homologumena, but without stating their number.
In the West the epistle was known to Clement of Rome, who frequently quotes it, but without naming the author. The Pauline authorship was expressly denied by Hippolytus : the Muratorian Canon does not mention it, and reckons only seven churches to which Paul wrote: Tertullian in Africa apparently knew nothing of a Pauline Epistle to the Hebrews, but spoke of an Epistle of Barnabas to the Hebrews. It was not recognised by Cyprian. From the fourth century its canonical authority was admitted in the West, partly on
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