new consciousness of the transcendent worth of that which they still possessed, but were likely to lose. This, and not their theological instruction, or adjustment to the downfall of Judaism, is the idea which dominates every part of the letter, and it is this that explains the fact that admonition and practical exhortation are so constantly interwoven with teaching in the epistle. Hebrews is thus to be understood not as a treatise upon the relation of Christianity to Judaism, or upon the supreme worth of Christianity, but as an impassioned oration, wholly centred upon recalling to steadfast devotion to Christ weary and wavering disciples. With the practical the writer skilfully combines the apologetic. In his effort to secure his readers in their Christian faith, he enters upon a spirited and original defence of Christianity, which he approaches from the point of view of philosophical Judaism. It is plain that if the readers can be convinced of the truth of the writer's claims for Christianity, his practical purpose will be attained, and their steadfastness will be assured. But from his apologetic the writer again and again returns to his exhortation, in which the great motive of the epistle finds most direct expression. The writer well describes it as a "Word of Exhortation," a hortatory discourse (13: 22). VI. DATE AND PLACE OF COMPOSITION I. DATE The unquestionable use of the epistle in Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, A.D. 95, supplies the latest possible date, and places the writing of Hebrews in the first century. The allusion (137) to the glorious end met by the former leaders shows that at least a generation has passed since the founding of the Christian church,1 and strongly suggests the Neronian persecution. Yet it has Cf. 2: 3 and 5: 12. been held by Harnack that the expulsion of the Jews in the time of Claudius, in which of course the Christians then in Rome were involved, better satisfies the writer's references to a great conflict of sufferings in the former days (10: 32 ff.), since the words "after you were enlightened (1032) show that the persecution ensued almost immediately upon the founding of the church, or at least fell in the early days of its history. It is true that the words of Suetonius, "The Jews who were constantly rioting under the instigation of Chrestus, he drove from Rome" (Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit) (Claudius 25; cf. Acts 18: 2), imply that Christians were involved in that expulsion; but no such persecution can be recognized here as is reflected in 10: 32-34 and 13: 7. Moreover, Dion Cassius expressly says that Claudius did not expel the Jews, but prohibited their assemblies (Hist. 60:6). These three notices practically exhaust our ancient testimony to this edict of Claudius, and they hardly seem to accord with the strong language used in Hebrews with reference to the conflict of former days. On the other hand, these allusions to former persecution are in every way fully satisfied by the Neronian persecution attested by Tacitus (Annals 15: 44), and reflected in Clement of Rome (chh. 5, 61). The Neronian persecution of A.D. 64 is thus the earlier limit, before which the letter cannot have been written.2 Between these dates, A.D. 64 and A.D. 95, all agree that the writing of Hebrews must fall. Those who hold the purpose of the letter to have to do with the prospective destruction of Jerusalem, and the interpretation of that event for Christian Jews, place the composition of it in the time of the Jewish war, A.D. 66-70. Bleek observed the coincidence of this date with the reference to forty years (3:17), which, if reckoned from the Cf. also Dionysius of Corinth, in Eusebius H.E. 2: 25: 8. The possible influence of Rom. 12: 19 upon the form in which Deut. 32: 35 is quoted in Heb. 10: 30 while not essential to this position, is wholly consistent with it. death of Jesus, would bring us to A.D. 68 or 69, but this somewhat fanciful corroborative has had little weight with more recent scholars. The chief objection to this dating of the letter lies in the evident remoteness of the Neronian persecution, which lies now so far in the past as to belong to the former days, and even to the infancy of the church, "after you were enlightened" (10: 32). Those who maintain the early date of the epistle, however, hold to the Jerusalem destination of it, and for them the matter of the Neronian persecution has no connection with Hebrews. But the impossibility of maintaining the Jerusalem destination has already been shown. If the remoteness of the Neronian persecution brings the date of Hebrews down to a time later than the fall of Jerusalem, however, the silence of the letter as to the latter occurrence shows that it too lay well in the past, and brings the date down still further. For it needs no argument to show that had that momentous event been of recent occurrence, some hint of it would almost certainly have shown itself in the letter. This reticence shows that that catastrophe with all that attended it is no longer fresh in men's minds, and thus the lapse of some years, perhaps a decade, is implied. The probable date of the letter is thus carried into the times of Titus or Domitian. In the discussion of the destination of Hebrews it has been shown that an atmosphere of persecution, prospective or actually present, pervades the letter. The existence of apostates, the stirring appeal to heroic behavior in former persecution, the reference to the noble example set by early leaders in the issue of their life, the imprisonment of Timothy (13: 23) and others (13: 3), the discussion of chastening (12: 5-13), especially the verse that introduces it (12:4), all these unite to show that persecution is hovering over the congregation addressed. For such a condition in the time of Domitian there is abundant evidence in the pages of Clement of Rome, Melito, Tertullian, Cf. the use of Mount Zion in a Christian sense, 12: 22. Lactantius, Eusebius, and later writers.' Indeed, at no time in the first century, after Nero's persecution, can the situation implied in the letter be so well satisfied as in the "sudden and repeated calamities and reverses," with which the cruelty and caprice of Domitian visited the Roman church. There is therefore every probability that Hebrews was written in the time of Domitian, A.D. 81–96. It is not easy to determine the date of the epistle more precisely. The Timothy of 13: 23 is probably the disciple of Paul, and the fact that he is still living and apparently active fits well with this period, but does not help to anything more specific. Nicephorus states that he suffered martyrdom in the time of Domitian (H.E. 3:11), and this notice, in so far as it has any worth, accords well with the date assigned to the letter, since it at least implies that Timothy lived until the times of Domitian. In the hints of persecution already noted there is, however, ground for placing the date of the letter late in Domitian's reign, for his early years seem to have been comparatively free from excesses and atrocities, which broke out after the revolt of Antoninus Saturninus in A.D. 88. His cruel treatment of his niece Flavia Domitilla and his cousin T. Flavius Clemens, generally believed to have been Christians, belongs to the close of his reign. The exaction of the Jewish temple tax for the Capitoline Jupiter, or the fiscus, which was so harshly carried out as to be practically a persecution, seems likewise to belong to this late time. A passage in the epitome of Dion Cassius (Hist. 67: 14) is of importance here. "Against both of them (Clemens and Domitilla) a charge of atheism was brought, under which many others also who were perverts to the practices of the Jews were condemned. Of these some were put to death and others had their property confiscated at the very least." 2 The fact that Domitian's outbreaks against Jews, Christians, and noble Romans belong for the most part to his last years • Collected in Lightfoot, S. Clement of Rome, I, pp. 104-115. makes it rather probable that Hebrews was written toward the close of his reign. If it be true that the Epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians was in some degree called forth by Hebrews, Hebrews must have been written shortly before I Clement, and this date late in Domitian's reign is rendered still more probable. 2. PLACE In the matter of the place of the letter's composition a definite result is even more difficult to obtain. The words they of Italy salute you" (13: 24) point away from Italy, but in what direction we can only conjecture. Were the writer a prisoner, as Timothy has lately been, and as 13 18, 19, possibly suggest, we might think of Sardinia, to the quarries of which persons were often sent from Rome. But it is by no means certain that the writer has been a prisoner, and were he an exile in the Sardinian quarries, his prospect of being speedily restored to his readers (13:23) must have been small indeed. The reference to Timothy would be helpful, if we knew where Timothy had been imprisoned, for the thought seems to be that Timothy on his way to Rome will join the writer and they will proceed to the city together. It is indeed possible that his meaning is simply that he will meet Timothy when he meets his readers, in Rome, provided Timothy arrives there before the writer has left the city again; but this seems altogether less natural, and the fact that the writer has news of Timothy which he transmits to his readers, shows that he writes from a point lying between Timothy and them. Eusebius1 and Nicephorus state that Timothy was the first bishop of Ephesus, a tradition evidently resting on notices in the pastoral epistles (1 Tim. 1: 3, etc.). Yet it is not improbable that Timothy continued his oversight of the church at Ephesus, or at least was active in that region, after the death of Paul. Further, while the persecution experienced 2 Nicephorus, H.E. 3:11. 2 H.E. 3:4:6. |