M Selbrede: Jude wrote Hebrews

[lynnie]

This is from a recent issue of Faith for all of Life, Chalcedon Foundation, featuring "The Ultimate Meme" on the cover ( Faith For All of Life - Chalcedon). I wrote to the author to get a copy to send to a few friends. Selbrede mentions the Jude-Hebrews connection in a footnote, thus:

(bolding mine)

Every few years I have occasion to reassert the view I first published in the early 1980s, that Jude composed the book of Hebrews. This follows from the analogy of scripture:

Jude asserts in the third verse of his epistle that he was working on a larger treatise "concerning our common salvation" which he felt obligated to lay aside temporarily to write a brief letter of exhortation to the people. In Hebrews 13:22, the writer says he had also written a brief letter of exhortation to the recipients. The two epistles are essentially pointing at each other.

Ironically, scholars assert that nobody knows where Jude's big doctrinal letter went, and nobody knows what became of the Hebrews' writer's short exhortation: they've both gone missing. Or have they? Not surprisingly, the examples of Old Testament events alluded to by Jude follow the ones mentioned in Hebrews. On this hypothesis, the reason for that is because these examples were fresh in Jude's mind when he set aside writing Hebrews to take up the brief 25-verse epistle bearing his name. Then he went back to work to complete the book of Hebrews. The view that the "brief word of exhortation" mentioned in Hebrews is the book of Hebrews itself strains credulity: it contains 13 chapters of the most complex theology this side of Romans. The 25-verse epistle of Jude is a far better candidate. Unfortunately, some translations have attempted to distort these texts to conform to modern notions of authorship (or lack thereof).

 

[Bill The Baptist]

This is certainly an interesting theory, but it hardly constitutes proof. Neither of the verses cited seem to clearly state what the author is claiming, and even if they did, this would still fall far short of conclusive. I find it quite interesting indeed that the church used to know who wrote Hebrews, but somewhere along the way forgot.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

It's a theory I've not encountered before; which is neither here nor there, but it has its own charm. It's as worthy as most others, and better than some I suppose.

 

[bookslover]

The early church fathers knew that Paul wrote Hebrews - even Origen: his statement that "only God knows who wrote Hebrews" refers to who Paul's secretary was. Origen believed that Paul was the author of the book, but didn't know who wrote the book down for him.

 

[Hamalas]

Interesting.

 

[RamistThomist]

I'm intrigued despite myself. I basically categorically reject anything from Chalcedon (and more than a bit ironic, since I have published in Faith for all of Life!), but this is actually quite interesting.

 

[timmopussycat]

Definitely a possibility.

On Origen's comment, I can't see Paul as the ultimate author of Hebrews because of too many discontinuities with his usual style that are common even when different secretaries are employed (e.g., the way Scriptural citations are introduced).

 

[Bill The Baptist]

On Origen's comment, I can't see Paul as the ultimate author of Hebrews because of too many discontinuities with his usual style that are common even when different secretaries are employed (e.g., the way Scriptural citations are introduced).

You are correct that there are some definite differences in style in Hebrews as compared to the rest of the Pauline corpus. Do you think it is possible that Paul wrote this letter in Hebrew, since it is addressed to the Hebrews, and that it was later translated into Greek? This would not be the same as Paul merely dictating it to someone else, as he frequently did, but was a full translation that may have been done without his knowledge. This could certainly explain some differences in style. Just a thought.

 

[SeanPatrickCornell]

I like James White's take, as regards to the Pauline authorship of Hebrew. Take any scholar, and look at a letter they've written to their friends, and then look at a paper they've written for college. Chances are you'd never guess they had the same author. Likewise, assuming the author of Hebrews was Paul, the target audience and intention of composition is clearly different between Hebrews and his other epistles so it makes total sense that they'd had differing styles.

 

[bookslover]

Contextually, "I have written to you briefly" (Hebrews 13.22) refers to the Book of Hebrews itself. Jude 3 ("I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation") refers to something Jude was going to write about, but changed his mind. Hebrews and Jude are not pointing to each other.