Epistle To The Hebrews

MANY anonymous writers, though unknown, endeavour to be useful to their readers ; but the writer of this Divine Epistle shows, that he was known to those to whom he writes : xiii. 19. And the Apostle Paul is said to be the writer of the epistle, with the general consent of antiquity. Above all, Peter, writ ing to the elect strangers scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, praises the letters of Paul, which he wrote to them also. But the other epistles of Paul were sent to Gentile converts ; this one alone to the Hebrews, although he himself does not call them Hebrews ; and in the title, no doubt old, but not prefixed by the hand of Paul, they are with less propriety called Hebrews, instead of Judaico- Hellenistic Christians, to whom we have observed below that he wrote, ch. vi. 10. Moreover the method and style of Paul may be easily recognised : for he puts the proposition and division before the discussion, ch. ii. 17. He distinctly and separately subjoins the practical to the doctrinal part : he puts the practical part at greater length at the end of the epistle. He quotes the same words of the Old Testament which he does elsewhere, ch. ii. 8, x. 30, 38 ; also, i. 6 : he uses the same ideas and expres sions. See note on ch. i. 3, 6; ii. 2, 5, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15; iii. 1, 6, 12, 16 ; iv. 9, 16 ; v. 6, 11, etc. ; vi. 1, 9, 10, 11, 12 ; vii. 2,