Hmmm, you just start to pull your hair out at the level of ignorance amongst lay-Christians concerning the Bible. Most Christians will claim the author of the Book of Hebrews is Paul of Tarsus. But...
Prepare for the faith-shattering truth
We do not know who wrote the Book of Hebrews. Yes, you read that correctly; we do not know who wrote the Book of Hebrews. Worse still, traditionally, the "holy-spirit inspired" Christians of yester-year thought Hebrews was authored by Paul - to this day, many "holy spirit inspired" Christians still believe this.
There are two issues here:
Why all the confusion and inaccuracy? I mean, Christians believe the "Holy Spirit dwells within" them but we see the more scholarly Christians are at loggerheads with the lay Christians.
Why in the world would you accept Hebrews as authoritative when you just don't know who penned it? Think about it, if you read an article/book of unknown authorship on English Law, would you accept it as authoritative or would you consider it unreliable? Christians, be honest, you would consider the claims within unreliable and untrustworthy
James White confirms the Book of Hebrews is unknown in authorship
Confusion
How do we know the author of Hebrews was not an enemy of Jesus? How do we know he is reliable or not? When you just do not know anything about the author because he is anonymous you are always prone to confusion and conjecture.
Christians tell us God is not the author of confusion yet the books which they claim to be "inspired" by God are indeed the cause of great confusion. There is even a verse within the New Testament in which Christians cannot even decide whether it is referencing "God" or "Satan" - I'm not kidding you - this verse really exists!
Fundamentalist Christians
Rest assured there will still be Christians out there who will continue to insist Paul authored Hebrews despite their leaders admitting they do not know. I guess it just shows these Christians - in their heart of hearts - know believing in a book (Hebrews) which is of doubtful origins is quite faith shattering hence their rejection of scholarship.
Related:
Jesus has Muslim brothers/sisters
The incarnation?
Original sin?
Learn about Islam
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umm
ReplyDeleteGod wrote Hebrews same as the rest of the Bible.
Knowing the human that God used to reveal his message might be interesting background like knowing who actually penned the US Constitution but it is irrelevant as far as the of the importance of the document.
The Constitutional convention could have used an anonymous scribe to pen their thoughts if they wanted to we should allow God the same freedom
Peace
Yahya said:
ReplyDeleteMost Christians will claim the author of the Book of Hebrews is Paul of Tarsus
I say,
This statement is just incorrect.
Most lay Christians I know don’t even speculate as to who wrote Hebrews. Among those that do the most popular candidate is Apolos followed by Barnabas and then Paul. I know one lady who thinks Priscilla wrote it.
It’s hard to make a convincing argument when your beginning premise is false
Peace
Keeping with the example of the US Constitution it might be helpful to look at the authorship of the vastly important federalist papers.
ReplyDeleteThrough out the history of my country the government has considered these documents to be authoritative witness to the thinking of the founding fathers despite them being anonymous.
The FP along with the Constitution and declaration of independence are considered to be the "Cannon" for the thoughts of the founders.
check it out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Papers
If some eighteenth century white guys had the ability to make their thoughts known to us with out ascribing a name to the bottom of the page why can't God?
I never cease to be amazed at the low view of God’s freedom and abilities that Muslims have.
peace
Can you prove Paul did not write the epistle to Hebrews? James White is not a scholar. Is he a liberal? Why do you not quote the Church Fathers?
ReplyDelete@Yahya Snow
ReplyDeleteYou wrote in shear desperation...
"How do we know the author of Hebrews was not an enemy of Jesus? "
Answer: READ THE BOOK OF HEBREWS lol
''James WHite is not a scholar, he is liberal !!'' loooool.
ReplyDeleteTo Fifth Monarchy Man, why early Christians were against including the book into the Bible? Are they moved by Satan? Is The content of other epistles not as important as Hebrews? Why not include the gospel of Peter?, it was widely read, and even considered scripture in Rhossus.
LAHORE, Pakistan, May 6 (CDN) — Police in Chichawatni, Sahiwal district have charged a mentally ill Christian with “injuring religious feelings” under Pakistan’s widely condemned blasphemy laws.
ReplyDeleteThree families related to 25-year-old Babar Masih – the only other Christian families in the area – have fled their homes after a Muslim mob threatened to harm them, relatives of the accused told Compass.
Police in Chichawatni, Punjab Province registered the blasphemy case against Masih on Monday (May 2) after arresting him at about 10 p.m. that night. Son of Iqbal Masih in Shakir Colony, Chichawatni Bypass, the young man’s own family handed him over to police because a large number of Muslim clerics had gathered outside their house and demanded that he be turned over to them so that they could “do justice” by killing him, relatives said.
A Muslim neighbor, Rana Sardar, had told Masih’s family that the police should be called so that he could be taken into custody, “otherwise he would be killed by the Muslim clerics who were getting more charged up with every passing moment,” a relative said. With a large number of people gathered at the house when police arrived, Babar Masih was handed over from another gate and immediately put into a police van.
When the clerics saw Masih being put into the police van, they rushed toward it and tried to take hold of him. They continued chasing after the vehicle as it carried him away, giving the three families related to Masih’s immediate family the opportunity to flee from their homes, relatives said. At press time they were still in hiding.
Masih’s brother, Amjad Masih, said that after fleeing from their home, he talked with neighbors who told him that several other neighbors had been pressured by Muslim clerics to go to the police station to provide testimony against the accused.
“These neighbors were of the opinion that they could not refuse to give evidence after the Muslim clerics forced them, telling them that they were coming out of the mosque after prayer when Babar Masih used abusive language against the prophet Muhammad,” Amjad Masih said. “They told me, ‘It is such a sensitive matter that we could not refuse.’”
one more muslim:
ReplyDeletewhy early Christians were against including the book into the Bible?
I say,
I don’t know of any Christians who rejected it. Some folks were leery precisely because the authorship was not beyond question.
You can explore the Church's recognizing of the cannon for yourself. In fact I highly recommend it.
Knowing that the early church took the decision of which books to include very seriously helps Christians to have confidence that no spurious book found their way in to our Bible.
you say,
Why not include the gospel of Peter?
I say,
Because it was not the Word of God.
Peace
From the content of the letter it was written BEFORE 70 AD,since it talks of Temple sacrifice.That is important.It shows it was written by a contemporary of James,Paul and Peter.
ReplyDelete