<- Previous   First   Next ->

ajggevlou" ; 10:38 kai; eja;n uJposteivlhtai ; 12:5 f. mastigoi' ). And arguments are based on peculiarities of the LXX, so that the quotations cannot have been first introduced in the translation from Aramaic to Greek (e.g., 10:5 ff. sw'ma kathrtivsw ; 12:26 f. a{pax ).

It may also be added that the passages in which difficulties in the Greek text are supposed to be removed by the hypothesis of a false rendering of the original offer no solid support to the theory. Scholars who allege them shew little agreement as to the difficulties or as to the solutions of them. Thus in the two lists given by Michaelis and Biesenthal, of eighteen and nineteen passages respectively, only four are identical (1:2; 6:19; 9:17; 10:1), and in these four the solutions are different.

The passages alleged by Michaelis (Bleek, i. p. 23 anm.) are 1:2; 2:1, 9; 3:3 f.; 5:13; 6:14, 19; 7:14; 9:2-4, 14-17; 10:1; 11:11, 35; 12:15, 18, 25; 13:9, 15. Those alleged by Biesenthal are: 1:2; 2:3; 3:13; 4:12, 13; 6:19; 7:4, 5, 15, 27; 8:2; 9:16 f.; 10:1, 11; 11:26, 27; 12:18.

V. DESTINATION

The letter is described in all existing copies as addressed ‘to Hebrews’; and Tertullian, who assigned the authorship to Barnabas, gave it the same destination ( de Pudic. 20 Barnabae titulus ad Hebraeos). There is, as has been already seen (§ 111.), no evidence that it ever bore any other address. Though there is no reason to suppose that the title is original, it expresses at least the belief of those by whom the Epistle was placed among the apostolic Scriptures, and describes truly the character of those for whom it was written, so far as their character can be determined from its general scope, as men who by birth and life were devoted to the institutions of Israel.


The argument of von Soden ( Jahrb.
f. Protest. Theol.
1884), who endeavours to shew that it was written to Gentiles, cannot be regarded as more than an ingenious paradox by any one who regards the general teaching of the Epistle in connexion with the forms of thought in the apostolic age.

The term JEbrai'o" (or rather jEbrai'o" ) occurs in the N. T. in two senses

( a ) of language:

Acts 6:1 tw'n JEllhnistw'n pro;" tou;" JEbraivou" . ( b ) of descent:

2 Cor. 11:22 JEbrai'oiv eijsin ;... jIsrahlei'taiv eijsin ;... spevrma jAbraavm eijsin ;...

Phil. 3:5 JEbr. ejx JEbraivwn .

The title properly describes ‘the people from beyond the river Euphrates’; and is the national name of the race having regard to the divine call. In this widest sense Eusebius speaks of Philo as JEbrai'o" : H. E. 2.4 to; gevno" ajnevkaqen JEbrai'o" h\n . Comp. H. E. 3.4.


<- Previous   First   Next ->