.MjAy.NDU5NTg

The Book of Hebrews 1. Peculiarity as an Epistle = Not formally addressed to any one Like 1st Epistle of John = No authors name prefixed or subscribed. Like Job, Esther. 2. How do we know that it should be regarded as of divine Authority? Because - It was received by the Early church in the 1st Century without dissent and read in the Ch's with other S.S. = Evidence - Clement of Rome. A.D. 70 Justin Martyr =Obj - In the 2nd & 3rd Cent; The Latin Ch's rejected it. Why? Because Owing to the persecutions among the Eastern Ch's Scattering thru the oral tradition and direct Evidence of its Apostolical An - was lost. But after the 4th Cent. it was unanimously rec'd & Jerome at the End of the 4th Cent, also St. Augustine reviewed the Evidence and pronounced in favor of the Epistle.

3. How do we know who wrote it? We do not positively know. It has been ascribed to Barnabas, Luke, Clement, Paul. Yet the greatest & the unclear refer to it as Paul's (Jerome, Origin, Eusebius, & Augustine) If Paul's, He withheld his name because unpopular with the Jews.