Introduction to Hebrews

adapted from Smith’s Bible Dictionary

1. Author. For many years Paul was considered the author; others think it may have been Luke, Barnabas, or Apollos. Much of the theology and the language are similar to Paul’s, but the authorship of the epistle ia still disputed.
2. To whom written . Probably addressed to the Jews in Jerusalem and Palestine. The argument of the epistle indicates a church consisting exclusively of Jews by birth, personally familiar with the temple service.
3. Date. Evidently written before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, probably about A.D. 62-64.
4. Place. Probably while Paul was a prisoner at Rome.
5. Contents . While numerous churches throughout Judea, (Acts 9:31;Galatians 1:22) were continually exposed to Jewish persecution (1 Thessalonians 2:14), one additional weapon in the hands of the predominant oppressors of the Christians is the destruction of the magnificent national temple – the knowledge that the end of all the beauty and awfulness of Zion is rapidly approaching. The writer shows that the new faith gives them Christ the Son of God, “more prevailing than the high priest as an intercessor; that his Sabbath awaited them, his covenant, his atonement, his city heavenly not made with hands. Having him, believe in him with all your heart, with a faith in the unseen future strong as that of the saints of old, patient under present and prepared for coming woe, full of energy and hope and holiness and love.”