Does Hebrews use Paul?

[rgprice]

I swear I had notes on this before, but I can't find them. Anyway, while it is widely recognized today that the so-called Letter to the Hebrews (which I think was really a letter to God-fearers (Gentile Judaizers)), engaged in imitation of Paul, which is why it was originally considered a Pauline epistle, I'm trying to determine if there is evidence that the writer drew on specific Pauline letters.

Are known relationships between Hebrews and the Pauline corpus? For some reason I seem to remember thinking that Hebrews had a connection to Philippians, but I can't find my notes on that.

[DCHindley]

I swear I had notes on this before, but I can't find them. Anyway, while it is widely recognized today that the so-called Letter to the Hebrews (which I think was really a letter to God-fearers (Gentile Judaizers)), engaged in imitation of Paul, which is why it was originally considered a Pauline epistle, I'm trying to determine if there is evidence that the writer drew on specific Pauline letters.

Are known relationships between Hebrews and the Pauline corpus? For some reason I seem to remember thinking that Hebrews had a connection to Philippians, but I can't find my notes on that.

Hebrews is more of a treatise or essay, not a letter, although as we have received it, it does have some letter-like parts grafted to the essay.

My opinion is that the author of Hebrews was certainly aware of the Christological statements in the letters of Paul and had tried to systematize them, more or less successfully. The Christology of the Pauline letters is not systematically presented by any means.

Unfortunately, I have never really dived into this matter, trying instead to find a satisfactory method to present my own beliefs regarding my proposal that the Christology was actually added to Pauline letters that knew nothing at all about either Jesus the man or the Christ mythos. The Christology was added as a sort of private commentary on the letters of Paul by a later person. These letters with notes probably later got re-written to yield the Pauline letters as we know them.

I could take a look, though, as my research progress has been dragged down by health problems and a computer crash that I has not properly prepared for. Even so, you could do pretty much the same thing with some form of a chain reference bible (with those little symbols by each verse that point to other verses of the bible). A concordance wouldn't hurt. I'd recommend Young's Concordance over Strong's Concordance, though.

DCH

[Stuart]

My RSV only lists one verse as having any NT reference. Verse 5:7 has the tears of Jesus found only in the interpolated Luke 22:44, and his fear of death in the cup scene from the parallel Synoptic accounts.

I do see verse 2:9 paralleling some of the Philippians hymn. And verse 2:10 seems to come from the same concepts as John 1:3 and Colossians 1:15-16. There are other interesting parallels, but not a single quote I'm aware of.

[Ben C. Smith]

I have never formally done up a comparison of Hebrews to the Pauline epistles, but I know the commentaries look into that matter. (For example, they will compare and contrast Hebrews with Paul on the matter of atonement.)

I have compared Hebrews to the Johannine epistles a little bit.

[Jax]

I swear I had notes on this before, but I can't find them. Anyway, while it is widely recognized today that the so-called Letter to the Hebrews (which I think was really a letter to God-fearers (Gentile Judaizers)), engaged in imitation of Paul, which is why it was originally considered a Pauline epistle, I'm trying to determine if there is evidence that the writer drew on specific Pauline letters.

Are known relationships between Hebrews and the Pauline corpus? For some reason I seem to remember thinking that Hebrews had a connection to Philippians, but I can't find my notes on that.

Unfortunately, I have never really dived into this matter, trying instead to find a satisfactory method to present my own beliefs regarding my proposal that the Christology was actually added to Pauline letters that knew nothing at all about either Jesus the man or the Christ mythos. The Christology was added as a sort of private commentary on the letters of Paul by a later person. These letters with notes probably later got re-written to yield the Pauline letters as we know them.

DCH

Personally I would love to read whatever you have on this.

[gryan]

Are known relationships between Hebrews and the Pauline corpus?

There is an article by Ben Witherington on the topic that is, IMHO, underappreciated: The Influence of Galatians on Hebrews (NTS, Jan. '91). He offers evidence that the author of Hebrews read the Pauline corpus (think P46), and was influenced especially by Galatians. In Hebrews he finds echoes of the idea of the new covenant "in human terms," (the death of the testator), the idea of the law delivered by angels, and the idea of the Faithfulness of Christ. Vis-a-vis the "faith of Christ" debate, Witherington argues that since the author of Hebrews read and was influenced by Paul's epistles, the extensive characterization of Jesus as faithful supports the subjective genitive reading of the "faith of Christ" in Paul.

I'm exploring the possible influence of Galaitans 2:20 on Hebrews.

ζῶ δὲ οὐκέτι ἐγώ, ζῇ δὲ ἐν ἐμοὶ Χριστός· ὃ δὲ νῦν ζῶ ἐν σαρκί, ἐν πίστει ζῶ τῇ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντός με καὶ παραδόντος ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ. (Gal 2:20)

If the genative is subjective, then Paul is speaking of participation in the faithfulness of Jesus in the sphere of the flesh (Cf. 2 Cor. 4:11, and Col 2:24). Compare that to the declaration of the "faithfulness" of Jesus "in the days of his flesh" in Hebrews.

rgprice: If you find time to read the Witherington article, I'm interested in hearing your assessment of his argument for the influence of Galatians on Hebrews. Also, I welcome your comments on my specific hypothesis of a possible influence of Gal. 2:20 on the portrait (in Hebrews) of the "faithfulness" of Jesus "in the days of his flesh".

[DCHindley]

Well, I was able to put together a side by side comparison of Hebrews (Greek Column & RSV column) with other verses from OT (another column) in both Greek & RSV, and a final column of NT allusions.

14 - Hebrews Greek-English Analysis (Incomplete).doc

(513.5 KiB) Downloaded 213 times

I may have gave up on the effort halfway (the citations are still shown, only the full text itself may be omitted). I got the scriptural citations from an Oxford RSV Study Bible and from a copy of the Catholic published New American Bible. YMMV, as Ben says. Sorry it is in MS Word Format. I was too lazy to convert it to PDF ...

I'll make an effort to present the more substantial Christological statements in the letters of Paul maybe this weekend.

DCH

[Bernard Muller]

It was Paul who used Hebrews (and the concepts of the author, most likely Apollos of Alexandria). The letter (despite its title) was addressed to the Christians of Corinth and states all the basics of Gentile Christianity.
Details, evidence and arguments here: http://historical-jesus.info/appp.html then "find" on: 3. The Corinthians letters
I am now showing part of my web page on that matter:

Here is a recapitulation, according to my studies, as explained in HJ-3b, HJ-3b extension, Appendix B, this page, and the aforementioned (nine) ones about each Corinthians & Philippians letter:

a) Spring 52: Paul's trip to Jerusalem from Corinth (fourteen years after the one in 38). The "council" of Jerusalem takes place then.
b) Summer and early fall 52 (or earlier): Paul spends time in Antioch (dispute with Peter) and departs (alone).
c) Fall 52 to winter 53: Paul becomes sick on his way NW and recuperates in "northern" Galatia where he makes converts.
d) Winter 53: Paul's arrival in Ephesus. He learns Apollos & Peter had visited Corinth and each one got followers at his detriment.
'1aCorinthians' written spring 53
e) Winter 53 to spring 55: Paul preaches in Ephesus for two years and three months. He feels partially abandoned by the Corinthians.
'1bCorinthians' written later in 53
'aPhilippians' written from early 53 to early 56?, likely 53-54
{'Hebrews' written (by Apollos) in 54} (pre-existence (explained) (1:1-3a,5-10,2:5-8), Sacrifice (explained) (1:3,5:8-9,7:27,9:11-15,10:1-14), (Jesus') blood (9:12,10:19,29), co-Creator of the universe (explained) (1:2,10), Moses' followers dying in the wilderness (3:16-17), home in heaven for Christians (12:22-23), atonement for sins (explained) (1:3,2:17,10:12), "Son of God" (explained) (1:5,8-9), Christians as seed and heirs of Abraham through the "promise" (2:16,6:13-17), the heavenly Jerusalem (12:22-23), Jesus offering himself for sacrifice for atonement of sins (explained) (7:27b,10:12), "at the right hand of God" (explained) (1:3,13,8:1,10:12,12:2), "firstborn" (explained) (1:6,12:23), Jesus interceding with God in behalf of Christians (explained) (7:25))
But, later, the situation improves greatly.
'1cCorinthians' written early spring 55 (First (for Paul): pre-existence (8:6,10:4), Sacrifice (clear-cut) (5:7), (Jesus') blood (10:16), co-Creator of the universe (8:6), Moses' followers dying in the wilderness (10:2-8))
f) Spring 55: Paul's trip to Macedonia and then Corinth (2nd one here), where Paul is rejected. Likely, no collection (as planned in 1Co16:1-4) is done.
g) Summer 55 to spring 56: Paul stays in Ephesus (about nine months).
'2aCorinthians' written early spring 55 (First (for Paul): home in heaven for Christians (5:1), atonement for sins (5:19,21))
'2bCorinthians' written late spring/early summer 55
h) Spring 56: Paul's short trip to Troas and Macedonia (where Paul hears the good news from Titus) then back to Ephesus. Meanwhile a collection has been on-going in Corinth since late 55.
i) Late spring 56: The "riot" in Ephesus.
j) Late spring 56 to fall 56: Paul is imprisoned in Ephesus. The collection in Corinth is aborted.
'Philemon' and 'bPhilippians' written then
k) Fall 56: Paul is freed and goes to Macedonia (probably Philippi first).
l) Fall 56 to early spring 57: Paul visits the Macedonian Christians and then stays in Corinth (for three months; the third trip to that city). The collection is restarted and completed in Corinth.
'2cCorinthians' written fall 56 (First (for Paul): "Son of God" (1:3,19))
'Galatians' (First (for Paul): Christians as seed and heirs of Abraham through the "promise" (3:16-29), the heavenly Jerusalem (4:26), Jesus offering himself for sacrifice for atonement of sins (1:3b-4a))
'cPhilippians'
& 'Romans' written winter 57 (First (for Paul): "at the right hand of God" (8:34), "firstborn" (8:29), Jesus interceding with God in behalf of Christians (8:34))

Cordially, Bernard