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II
WHEN? THE DATE OF THE BOOK
External Evidence
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The Book of Hebrews is cited
as early as AD 95 by Clement
of Rome in his 1 Clement
Epistle. Clement was a
contemporary of Paul and is
referred by Paul as a
faithful fellow worker in
Phillipians 4: 3. Clement,
became the bishop of Rome.
According to Tertullian,
Clement succeeded. But in
the list of bishops given us
by Irenaeus and Eusebius he
occupies the third place
after the apostle. Linus and
Cletus (Anacletus) follows
immediately after Peter. It
is most likely that there
were two groups of
Christians in Rome. One
established by Paul and the
other by Peter (though we
have no record of Peter ever
being in tome) If this is
true, the Church at Rome had
two successions, one Petrine,
the other Pauline, which
eventually merged into one.
This will account for the
confusion in the lists of
the first bishops of Rome.
Petrine group was
essentially a Jewish
Christian group in which
Clement was the first
bishop. Paul's group must
have been predominantly
gentile in which Linus and
Cletus were bishops. The
fact that Clement quotes the
book of Hebrews
authenticates its Apostolic
authority and establishes
that it was written before
AD 95. Ignatius, Polycarp,
Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and
others of the second
century, names it. Council
of Antioch (A. D. 269) and
of Nice (A. D. 325) also
considers the Book of Hebrew
as canonical.
Internal Evidence
A.
While the book deals extensively
with the temple and temple
rituals there is no mention of
the destruction of the Jewish
Temple in Jerusalem which took
place under Emperor Titus in AD
70.
B.
The Second Temple was built
between 520 and 515 BC under the
leadership of Zerubbabel,Haggai,
and Zechariah. The design was
similar to the First. In the
first century BC, Herod the
Great completely rennovated the
Temple into a beautiful
structure. (Mark 13:1) Romans
needed only to wait outside the
walls of Jerusalem keeping the
city under siege, while civil
war raged within. The three
sects of Judaism killed each
other. The temple was then taken
by Rome and was burned This was
in AD 70, when the Roman
soldiers moved every stone to
take out the melted down gold
from between the stones in
accordance with the prophecy of
Jesus in Mark 13:2. Since no
mention of made of this event we
may safely assume that it was
written before AD 70
C.
The writer of Hebrews seems to
regard the sacrificial system of
the Old Testament to still be in
operation. Heb. 8: 4 If he were
on earth, he would not be a
priest, for there are already
men who offer the gifts
prescribed by the law.
D.
Heb 13:9-10 also indicate this
on going rituals and ceremonies.
Again these indicates a time
before AD 70
E.
Hebrews was written during the
lifetime of Timothy. Heb 13: 23
I want you to know that our
brother Timothy has been
released.
F.
There is a reference to some of
the community's leaders who were
martyred in past times (Heb.
13:7)
G.
The present community had not
yet suffered persecution and
martyrdom. Heb. 12: 4 In your
struggle against sin, you have
not yet resisted to the point of
shedding your blood. This would
imply that the large scale
massacre and persecution of
Christians by Rome was not
unleashed yet.
H.
The Letter points to the risk of
persecution about to come.
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Taking all this
into consideration we
can conclude with almost
certainity that the
Letter to the Hebrews
was written sometime in
63 -64 AD If Paul indeed
was the author it was
soon after the release
of Paul from the prison
in the later part of 63
AD.
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