Barnabas it naturally suggests itself as the destination in connection with his supposed authorship of the Epistle. The Hebrew Christians in that city must have been very much in his care, and certainly they required some such exposition as is given in the Epistle, of the ‘relation of Judaism to Christianity. And some critics, even while dis- missing the claims of Barnabas, are inclined to find in Antioch the group of Jewish Christians to which the Epistle was addressed. Thus Mr Rendall? sums up his inquiry in the following terms: “To one of these great Syrian cities, perhaps to Antioch itself, I conceive the Epistle to have been addressed ; for there alone existed flourish- ing Christian Churches, founded by the earliest missionaries of the Gospel, animated with Jewish sympathies, full of interest in the Mosaic worship, and glorying in the name of Hebrews; who never- theless spoke the Greek language, used the Greek version of the Scriptures and numbered amongst their members converts who had, like the author, combined the highest advantages of Greek culture with careful study of the Old Testament and especially of the sacri- ficial Law.”’ But could a Church which had actually started the great mission of Paul and Barnabas and in which other teachers abounded be open to the rebuke of chap. v. 11 ff. ?
Recently critical opinion has decidedly veered towards Rome as the only possible destination. First suggested by Wetstein it is now advocated by Alford, Holtzmann, Zahn and many others. The clause in the Epistle which inevitably suggests this destination is the greet- ing in xiii. 24, ἀσπάζονται ὑμᾶς ot ἀπὸ τῆς ᾿Ιταλίας “they of Italy (the Italians) salute you”. This clause shows that the Epistle was either written from or to Italy. But it is difficult to believe that the words were intended to convey a greeting from Italians in their own country to the writer's correspondents. For if the writer was in Italy, he was in some particular locality, and this place he would more naturally have named instead of using the general term ‘‘ Italy ”. Certainly the more natural and satisfactory interpretation of the words is that which supposes that the writer who himself is a member of the Church he addresses is surrounded by those who also recog- nise Italy as their home and who seek to send greetings to their friends in Rome.
Nor does anything in the Epistle contradict this idea. That there was a large Jewish element in the Roman Church appears both from Acts and Romans, and is not denied. It has sometimes ‘been thought that Jewish Christians in Rome could not be expected
1 Epistle to Hebrews, p. 69.