There is a letter in the New Testament that really isn’t a letter at all. It is the Letter to the Hebrews (or “Hebrews” for short). Hebrews isn’t written like a letter. It has no salutation at the beginning and no farewell at its conclusion. It just jumps right into the subject matter — which is too bad for historians, because the author never identifies himself.

Some early Church fathers believed the author to be St. Paul. The first Church historian, Eusebius, quotes Clement of Alexandria as saying:

“And as for the Epistle to the Hebrews ... indeed that it is Paul’s, but that it was written for Hebrews in the Hebrew tongue, and that Luke, having carefully translated it, published it for the Greeks; hence, as a result of this translation, the same complexion of style is found in this Epistle and in the Acts: but that the [words] ‘Paul an apostle’ were naturally not prefixed ...”

The earliest copies of Hebrews confirm Clement’s statement. Paul’s name does not appear in the title until the late second century or early third century.

Clement also noticed something that scholars notice today. The style of Hebrews is very different than Paul’s other letters. Its Greek is very eloquent and polished, where his letters are not. This has led many scholars to doubt Paul’s authorship. However, Clement recounts a tradition that says that Hebrews was said to be originally written in Hebrew, but translated into Greek by St. Luke, the author of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.

Doubts about Paul’s authorship continued after the second century. Tertullian, for example, believed Paul’s companion Barnabas wrote Hebrews. Others thought it was written by Pope St. Clement of Rome. St. Jerome had doubts about Paul’s authorship, although St. Augustine defended it.

Today, modern scholars still wrestle with the same questions as did the early Church. The differences in writing style, subject matter, and other items have turned many scholars against Paul being its author, but it is not clear exactly who else could have written it.

A few modern scholars thought Priscilla might have written it, although there is nothing to support this theory. Others point to Apollos, who is described in Acts 18:24-25:

“A Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, an eloquent speaker, arrived in Ephesus. He was an authority on the scriptures. He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and, with ardent spirit, spoke and taught accurately about Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.”

A scholar named E. H. Plumptre suggested that Apollos may be the author of both the Old Testament Book of Wisdom and the Letter to the Hebrews, claiming that Apollos wrote Wisdom while a Jew and wrote Hebrews after his conversion to Christianity. His theory rests mainly on the fact that Hebrews has dozens of parallels with the Book of Wisdom. Be that as it may, there still isn’t anything to link Hebrews to Apollos. So who wrote Hebrews?

If you step back and look at all the possible candidates — Luke, Barnabas, Apollos, Priscilla and Clement — you’ll notice that they all have one thing in common: They had contact with or were disciples of St. Paul. All of these different hypotheses ultimately boil down to a single common denominator: that St. Paul was in some way the source of the Letter to the Hebrews. Either he wrote the work and it was later reworked by another author who used Paul’s teaching while writing Hebrews. One way or another, Hebrews and Paul are connected.

Regardless of how the Letter to the Hebrews is produced, its primary author is the Holy Spirit, and it is therefore authentic Scripture. In regards to its human author, however, we certainly can appreciate the beauty and its eloquence in which the author expressed himself, not to mention its powerful argumentation and depth of wisdom.

Gary Michuta is an apologist, author and speaker and a member of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Livonia. Visit his website at www.handsonapologetics.com.