From the Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews

Name: From the Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews
Author: Origen of Alexandria

Ex homiliis in epistulam ad Hebraeos

Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–c. 254 AD) · written c. 230–250 AD · PG 14

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Contents4 passages

1The polished style of Hebrews compared with Paul's plain speech
2Paul's thoughts, another's wording
3The church that holds Hebrews as Paul's may be approved, but only God knows the writer
4The tradition that reached us about the epistle's writer

Author

Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–c. 254 AD) — Teacher at Alexandria and later Caesarea, and the first great Christian scholar of the Bible. He wrote commentaries, sermons and treatises on nearly every book of Scripture and compiled the Hexapla, a six-column Old Testament. He was tortured in the Decian persecution and died soon after.

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About this text

Origen judges that Hebrews holds Paul's thoughts in another's polished wording, notes claims for Clement and Luke, and says only God knows who wrote it.

Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–c. 254) wrote this homily as part of a series commenting on the Epistle to the Hebrews. He addresses the question of the epistle's authorship, since it was traditionally attributed to Paul but differs from his usual manner of writing.

Origen observes that the Greek style of the Epistle to the Hebrews is more polished than Paul's admitted plainness of speech, though its thoughts are worthy of an apostle. He therefore suggests that the ideas are Paul's, but the wording and composition belong to someone who recorded the apostle's teaching and as it were made notes on what was said by the teacher.

Origen reports that some tradition says Clement of Rome wrote it, while others say Luke, the author of the Gospel and Acts. The epistle is referred to as Hebrews, and the Gospel and Acts are those of Luke.

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Translated from PG 14 (Greek)

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The polished style of Hebrews compared with Paul's plain speech§1

Origen opens his homily on Hebrews by comparing the epistle's Greek style with Paul's admitted plainness of speech.

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1The Epistle to the Hebrews does not have the untrained-in-speech quality of the Apostle in its style, even though he confessed that he was untrained in speech—that is, in wording. Rather, anyone who knows how to judge differences in wording would agree that the epistle is more Greek in the composition of its wording. And again, anyone who attends to the apostolic reading would also agree that this is true: the thoughts of the epistle are wonderful and not second to the acknowledged apostolic writings.

Greek · §1

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Paul's thoughts, another's wording§2

Origen is giving his own opinion about who composed the Epistle to the Hebrews, after noting that its style is more polished than Paul's.

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2After other remarks he adds this: I, speaking my opinion, would say that the thoughts are the Apostle's, but the wording and the composition belong to someone who recorded the apostolic teaching and, as it were, wrote notes on what was said by the teacher."

Greek · §2

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The church that holds Hebrews as Paul's may be approved, but only God knows the writer§3

Origen has just given his own opinion that the thoughts are Paul's but the wording and composition are by a recorder of the apostle's teaching; now he turns to the church's reception of the epistle and the hidden identity of its actual writer.

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3Origen continues: So if any church holds this Epistle as Paul's, let it be approved even in this, for the ancients did not hand it down as Paul's without reason. But who wrote the Epistle, the truth God knows.

Greek · §3

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The tradition that reached us about the epistle's writer§4

Origen is closing his discussion of Hebrews' authorship by reporting the two traditions that have reached him about who wrote it.

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4The tradition that has come down to us says that some claim Clement of Rome, who became bishop of the Romans, wrote the Epistle, while others claim it was Luke, the one who wrote the Gospel and Acts.

Greek · §4

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