The question has been debated for centuries. So is it even worth asking: Who was it that first felt the blowing of the Spirit’s inspirational wind across his spirit and so eloquently contemplated the surpassing glories of the New Covenant and its blessed Mediator?
I KNOW THE ANSWER—and so do you. It could not be more obvious because it is found in the first sentence of the book. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son…” (Heb. 1:1-2). That is the definitive answer. However He worked and whomever He used, ultimately “God spake all these words” (Ex. 20:1).
Of course the question is appropriate to ask. The God who has spoken chose to do it through holy men, utilizing them not as secretaries to whom He dictated word for word, but by supernaturally illuminating them. Each chosen instrument had a distinct writing style, vocabulary, life experience and personality which often shows itself in his writing, making the Bible at the same time a collaborative work yet wholly the pure Word of God.
Suggestions are legion as to the human authorship of the book: Timothy or Barnabas (a back-handed appeal to Pauline influence); Apollos (“mighty in the scriptures,” Acts 18:24); Priscilla (a female candidate who, with her husband, instructed Apollos); Clement or one of the “second generation” of believers. God alone knows.
Of course, the all-time favorite is Paul himself. Objections are heard that the style is different from his other writings, but so it should be. One would expect a different treatment when he is writing as “the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles” (Rom. 15:16) or to his “brethren, [his] kinsmen according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:3). Yet William Kelly, a renowned Greek scholar, saw no stylistic difficulty in attributing the book to Pauline authorship:
The epistle to the Hebrews differs in some important respects from all the other epistles of Paul, so much so that many have questioned whether it be the writing of the Apostle Paul…Of this my mind has no doubt. I believe that Paul, and no other, was the author, and that it bears the strongest intrinsic traits of his doctrine (Introductory Lectures, p. 3).
Kelly goes on to discuss the logical reasons for the differing style.
WHY PAUL? Let me give five reasons.
1. Because Paul was the most highly qualified author of such a letter. As he would write: “If any other man think-eth that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more” (Phil. 3:4), being expert in the Jewish language and idiom, law and ceremony—“taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers” (Acts 22:3).
2. Peter tells us that Paul had written an epistle to the Hebrews (2 Pet. 3:15-16; with 1 Pet. 1:1 to see to whom Peter refers when he says “you”) and links it with “all his epistles” which he then includes with “the rest of the Scriptures.” Certainly Hebrews contains “things hard to be understood” (see Heb. 5:11-14, for example).
3. “Grace be with you all. Amen,” concludes the epistle (13:25), Paul’s trademark seal of authenticity, as he would himself say: “The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” (2 Thess. 3:17-18; see the warning re pseudo-Pauline letters, 2 Thess. 2:2).
4. Hebrews is the third link in a chain of divine commentary on Habakkuk 2:4. Paul wrote the other two (Rom. 1:17, where he emphasizes “the just”; Gal. 3:11, with stress on “shall live”). It makes good sense that he wrote the third also—Hebrews 10:38—where the theme is “by faith.” Dare I apply “a threefold cord is not quickly broken”?
5. Practically, it makes sense that Paul should mask his authorship from yet undecided Jews who might otherwise prejudge the case. And doctrinally, a book presenting the superiority of God’s Son above all others could hardly begin with the word “Paul”! Instead it’s lofty theme blazes from the first sentence: “God…hath…spoken unto us by His Son…the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person…when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down…being made so much better…as He hath…obtained a more excellent name than they” (1:1-3).