Hebrews

D. A. Carson & Douglas J. Moo
An Introduction to the New Testament

Any assessment of the purpose of Hebrews is inextricably tied to one’s understanding of who the addressees were: one cannot discuss the purpose without presupposing some things about the addressees, and vice versa. In the earliest form of the text that has come down to us, p 46, this book had the title “To [the] Hebrews.” Apparently Clement of Alexandria, writing c. A.D. 180, knew the book under this title, since he speaks of it as having been written…“for Hebrews.” Most scholars assume that this is a later editorial label attached to the work for convenient reference and therefore should not influence our efforts to establish the identity of the addressees. This may be too skeptical (cf. comments in chap. 2 above on the Author of Matthew). In any case, it is the content of the book that must finally determine the direction of the discussion, not least because, even if the title was original, it has some ambiguity (e.g., it could refer to Jewish Christians whose mother tongue is Hebrew/Aramaic [Acts 6:1] or to Christians who are Jewish by birth, irrespective of their mother tongue [Phil. 3:5]).

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