Following Paul with WTBC - Did Paul Write Hebrews, and Why It Doesn't Matter

Few questions about the Scriptures have been argued longer or harder than this one: who wrote the epistle to the Hebrews? Scholars have wrangled over it for the better part of two thousand years, and the wrangling continues. Yet the book itself is perfectly silent on the matter. The Holy Ghost, who moved holy men to write, did not see fit to record the name of the man who held the pen for Hebrews. That silence is not an accident, and it ought to make us pause before we spend our zeal where God spent none. In a companion study we asked the more important question — who Hebrews was written to — and found it was written to believing Israel, the scattered remnant tempted to go back to the temple. Here we take up the question men love to debate, lay out the best arguments on both sides, weigh each in its own light, and then show why the answer, settled or not, does not move a single point of doctrine.

The Book Does Not Name Its Writer

Every one of the thirteen epistles we know to be Paul's begins the same way — with his name. "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God" (Ephesians 1:1 KJV) is the pattern from Romans to Philemon. Paul signs his work, and he tells us plainly that his signature is no idle habit:

"The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write." (2 Thessalonians 3:17 KJV)

Hebrews has no such salutation. It opens not with a man's name but with God's voice:

"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." (Hebrews 1:1-2 KJV)

No greeting, no signature, no claim of apostleship. As to its human writer, the book is anonymous.

Nor can we settle the matter from the caption printed above the book or the subscription printed below it. The heading "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews," and the line at the close that reads "Written to the Hebrews from Italy by Timothy," are supplied by men and form no part of the inspired text. Indeed the subscription answers itself: the book speaks of Timothy in the third person — "Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty" (Hebrews 13:23 KJV) — so it was plainly not written by Timothy. We cannot lean on the printers' additions. If the question is to be answered at all, it must be answered from the inspired text itself. So let us hear both sides honestly.

The Case That Paul Did Not Write It

Those who deny Pauline authorship do not do so frivolously. They point to real features of the book.

First, the missing name. Paul never wrote an epistle without naming himself, and he called his salutation "the token in every epistle" (2 Thessalonians 3:17 KJV). Hebrews has no such token. To these readers, an unsigned letter is the very last thing we should expect from a man who made his signature his trademark.

Second, and weightier, is the writer's own testimony about how he received his message. He places himself among those who got it secondhand, from the eyewitnesses of the Lord's earthly ministry:

"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him." (Hebrews 2:3 KJV)

That is the exact opposite of what Paul swears about his own gospel:

"But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." (Galatians 1:11-12 KJV)

Paul received the mystery directly from the ascended Christ, not from the men who walked with Jesus in the days of His flesh. The writer of Hebrews ministers a salvation that came down to him through those eyewitnesses. To many, that single contrast is decisive.

Third, the manner of the writing differs from Paul's known letters. Hebrews reads less like Paul's pointed, argumentative correspondence and more like a finished sermon, an extended exhortation built passage upon passage from the law and the temple. Readers who know Paul's thirteen epistles well have long felt that a different hand is at work.

Fourth, the dispensational objection. Paul is the apostle of the Gentiles, the steward of the mystery, the minister of the Body of Christ. There was a plain division of labor, struck and agreed in Jerusalem:

"But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter... they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision." (Galatians 2:7, 9 KJV)

Paul to the heathen, the twelve to the circumcision. Why, then, would Paul, of all men, write a covenant treatise to Hebrews steeped in priesthood, sacrifice, and the new covenant made with the house of Israel? The subject matter belongs to Israel's program and Israel's apostles, not to the ministry Christ gave Paul.

Fifth, the witness of history. The early centuries were themselves divided. Some named Barnabas, some Apollos, some Luke, some Clement of Rome. The very fact that the early church could not agree tells us the book never announced its author and never depended on him.

The Case That Paul Did Write It

Those who hold to Pauline authorship are not without their own evidence, and it is more substantial than the other side often allows. Almost all of it gathers in the last six verses of the book.

First, a phrase that elsewhere is Paul's alone. The closing benediction opens:

"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus." (Hebrews 13:20 KJV)

That title, "the God of peace," is found nowhere in Scripture but in Paul's epistles — and here. To many that single fingerprint is telling.

Second, the writer calls his letter by a name that recalls Paul in the synagogue:

"And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words." (Hebrews 13:22 KJV)

"The word of exhortation" is the very phrase the rulers of the synagogue used when they invited Paul to preach his great sermon on Israel's history: "if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on" (Acts 13:15 KJV). Some take Hebrews to be just such a synagogue sermon, and Paul the preacher.

Third, the closing sits squarely within Paul's own circle. The writer speaks of Timothy as a familiar companion:

"Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you." (Hebrews 13:23 KJV)

Timothy was Paul's son in the faith and his constant fellow-traveler. The personal notes also match Paul's circumstances — a writer longing to be restored to his readers and sending greetings from Italy:

"But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner." (Hebrews 13:19 KJV)

"They of Italy salute you." (Hebrews 13:24 KJV)

Fourth, and most striking, is the way the book ends:

"Grace be with you all. Amen." (Hebrews 13:25 KJV)

Grace is the keynote of Paul's signature. He ends every one of his epistles with grace, and he calls that benediction the mark by which his letters may be known (2 Thessalonians 3:17-18). Hebrews ends exactly so. To those who hold Pauline authorship, the grace benediction is the fingerprint Paul left even when he withheld his name.

Fifth, the testimony of Peter. Writing to the scattered believing Jews — the very sort of readers Hebrews addresses — Peter says Paul also wrote to them:

"And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you." (2 Peter 3:15 KJV)

Peter writes to the circumcision, the strangers scattered abroad, and says Paul "hath written unto you." Defenders of Pauline authorship ask: where is the epistle Paul wrote to that audience, if not Hebrews?

Sixth, the doctrine and the testimony of history. The book's exaltation of Christ, its glory in the once-for-all sacrifice that ended the whole sacrificial system, and its great chapter on faith breathe an understanding of the cross in harmony with the man who gloried in it above all. The Eastern church received the book as Paul's from early days, and the translators of our King James Bible set his name over it.

Weighing Each Argument in Its Own Light

Set side by side, the arguments do not all carry equal weight, and several cut less cleanly than their champions suppose. Let us hold each up to the light.

The missing name. Its absence is real, but it is not the proof against Paul that it first appears. Consider who these readers were. The believing Jews had been told, falsely, that Paul taught the nation "to forsake Moses" (Acts 21:21 KJV), and many of them were "zealous of the law" (Acts 21:20 KJV) and deeply suspicious of the apostle of the Gentiles. A letter signed by Paul might have been thrown down before it was read. If Paul did write to Hebrews, there is a plain reason he might have withheld the name that would have prejudiced them against the message. So the silence about the author is not decisive either way — it fits a letter Paul wrote anonymously on purpose just as well as it fits a letter Paul never wrote at all.

The writer received the message secondhand (Hebrews 2:3). This is the strongest argument on the table, and it deserves an honest answer. Some who hold Pauline authorship reply that the writer's "us" identifies him with his nation and its experience rather than describing how he personally received his own apostleship; the salvation that "began to be spoken by the Lord" was confirmed to the believing remnant by the eyewitnesses, and the writer simply stands with them as one of that people. That is possible. But taken at face value, the words still place the writer among second-generation hearers, which sits uneasily beside Paul's insistence that he was taught his gospel by no man. Whatever else we conclude, this verse tells us something far more important than the penman's name: the salvation set forth in Hebrews came down through the earthly eyewitnesses to Israel, and is therefore not the mystery Christ revealed directly to Paul. Whoever held the pen, Hebrews is not the revelation of the mystery given for the Body of Christ. That conclusion stands no matter how the authorship is decided.

The difference in manner. Style is the most subjective of all the arguments. A man does not write to suspicious Hebrew brethren reasoning from Moses and Aaron the same way he writes to Gentile assemblies who never knew the temple. The subject shapes the sound. A change of audience and theme can account for a change of manner without requiring a change of author. The argument from style is suggestive at best; it can never be conclusive.

The dispensational objection. That Paul is the apostle of the Gentiles does not forbid him from writing to his kinsmen according to the flesh. He says he could wish himself accursed for Israel's sake (Romans 9:3), and he reasoned from the Scriptures with Jews in synagogue after synagogue. A letter from Paul to believing Israel is not impossible. But neither does this argument prove he wrote this letter — only that he could have.

The "God of peace" phrase. It is true that the title belongs to Paul everywhere else it appears. But look at the rest of the same sentence: the God of peace brought again from the dead "that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant" (Hebrews 13:20 KJV). Paul never calls the Lord the Shepherd of the sheep — Peter does (1 Peter 2:25; 5:4) — and Paul never puts believers under an everlasting covenant. So the one verse offered as Paul's fingerprint carries, in the same breath, two phrases that sound like Peter and not like Paul at all. The evidence cuts both ways inside a single line.

The "word of exhortation." The phrase is real, but it is not Paul's private property. The man surnamed Barnabas was called "The son of consolation" (Acts 4:36 KJV) — the same word as exhortation, comfort, encouragement. A "word of exhortation" suits a son of exhortation at least as well as it suits Paul. Suggestive of the synagogue, yes; proof of Paul, no.

Timothy and Italy. These plant the writer in Paul's circle and time, but they do not isolate Paul within it. There may well have been more than one Timothy in that generation, and even granting it is Paul's Timothy, Barnabas, Silas, and Luke all traveled with him too — any of them could call him "brother." It is worth noticing, in fact, that Paul habitually calls Timothy his son, not his brother as Hebrews does. And others besides Paul passed through Italy. The notes point toward the Pauline company without nailing down the apostle himself.

The grace benediction. The grace ending is a real echo of Paul's hand — but it is not his alone. John closes the Revelation the very same way: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." (Revelation 22:21 KJV). If the grace benediction proved Pauline authorship, it would prove Paul wrote Revelation too. A companion who learned the benediction at Paul's side could close a letter in the same words.

Peter's testimony (2 Peter 3:15). Peter does establish that Paul wrote something to the scattered believing Jews, and that is real evidence not to be waved away. But the very next verse widens it past Hebrews: Peter speaks of Paul "as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things" (2 Peter 3:16 KJV). The thing Peter learned from Paul — that the Lord's long delay is for salvation's sake — Paul lays out plainly in Romans, where he tells believing Israel that blindness is come upon the nation in part until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in (Romans 11:25). Peter need not be pointing to Hebrews at all; he may well be pointing to Romans. The verse is a hint, not a proof.

The witness of history and the caption. The early divisions and the printed title can settle nothing, because neither is inspired. The same church that placed Paul's name over the book elsewhere confessed it did not know. We are right back where the inspired text leaves us: with no name.

When all the arguments are weighed, the honest verdict is that the case is genuinely mixed. Good and careful men have landed on both sides for centuries, precisely because the Holy Ghost did not record the answer. We are not told. And that brings us to the point that actually matters.

Why It Does Not Matter

Here is the heart of it: the author of a letter does not determine its audience, and it does not determine its doctrine. A letter is governed by who it is written to and by what God says in it — never by whose hand held the pen. Settle the authorship of Hebrews however you like, and not one line of its teaching shifts. The book still names its own readers as those who already had the fathers, the prophets, the covenants, the law, and the temple. It still builds its whole argument on the new covenant God promised "with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah" (Hebrews 8:8 KJV). Those facts are fixed whether Paul, Apollos, or Barnabas wrote them down.

Consider a case where the author is not in doubt at all. No one questions that Paul wrote the epistle to the Romans. Yet in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters, Paul turns from the Body of Christ to speak of Israel — his kinsmen according to the flesh, the natural branches, the olive tree, the present remnant, and the nation's future:

"Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." (Romans 11:5 KJV)

"And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." (Romans 11:26 KJV)

Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, is unmistakably the author of those words. But the fact that Paul wrote them does not turn Israel's national salvation into Body-of-Christ doctrine. The casting away and the receiving of the nation, the covenants and the promises that pertain to Israelites (Romans 9:4), the Deliverer coming out of Sion — these belong to Israel's prophetic program no matter whose pen recorded them. The author is Pauline; the subject is Israel; and it is the subject and the audience that govern the application, not the signature. We do not read ourselves into Israel's olive tree simply because Paul held the pen.

Now turn it around. Even if it were proven beyond dispute that Paul wrote Hebrews, that would not make Hebrews a charter for the Body of Christ — any more than Romans 9 through 11 being Paul's makes Israel's national destiny ours. And if it were proven that Apollos or Barnabas wrote it, that would not lower the book one inch. It would still be "given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16 KJV), and it would still be addressed to believing Israel. The penman changes nothing.

This is why the authorship debate, fascinating as it is, carries no doctrinal weight. The question that settles how we read Hebrews is not "Whose hand wrote it?" but "To whom is it written, under what covenant, in what program?" Answer that question, and the warnings, the priesthood, the sacrifices, and the earthly hope all fall into their place with Israel — and the grace believer's assurance, sealed in Christ, stands untouched. Get the author wrong and the audience right, and your doctrine is sound. Get the author right and the audience wrong, and you will read covenant Israel's conditions onto a Body that was never under them.

The Settled Answer and the Unsettled One

So, did Paul write Hebrews? The truthful answer is that we are not told, and faithful men have differed for two thousand years. The evidence is genuinely divided. Some of it leans toward the Pauline circle — Timothy, Italy, the grace benediction, the God of peace. And some leans toward a member of Israel's own little flock — a writer who received the message secondhand from the eyewitnesses, who ministers covenants and priesthood and an earthly hope, and who reasons from Moses and the prophets to a people who already knew them. We may hold an opinion, but we cannot hold a certainty the text refuses to give.

Does it matter? Here the answer is certain: not for doctrine. The Holy Ghost is the Author behind every human pen, and He addressed this book to the Hebrews — the believing remnant of Israel — under their covenant and toward their kingdom hope. Read it that way, and the book stops warring against grace whether or not we ever learn the name of the man who wrote it down. To rightly divide the word of truth, we need to know the audience. We were never required to know the penman.