Toto

On Saturday September 15th's Bible Geek, someone asked about the theory that the author of Hebrews was a woman, namely Priscilla, who is a character in the Book of Acts and also mentioned in the epistles, and Price answered that this was a respectable theory developed first by Adolf Harnack.

Harnack's essay is not readily available. It was translated and published in 1900 in "The Authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews." Lutheran Church Review 19 (1900) and translated again in "Probability about the Address and Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews," pp 392-415 in an out of print book, The Bible Status of Woman, Edited by Lee Anna Starr.

The theory is summarized on Brian Small's blog devoted to Hebrews, Is Priscilla the Author of Hebrews? - although from Price's description, this is too brief a summary.

(These translations must be out of copyright - is there any possibility of finding them and posting them on the web?)

J. Rendel Harris also supported this theory: Rendel Harris on the authorship of Hebrews

Ruth Hoppin picked up the idea in her "Priscilla's Letter: Finding the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews." (or via: amazon.co.uk).

Her book was published in 1997 and then quickly withdrawn, but republished in 2009. The second publisher writes that "Circumstances suggest deliberate suppression, due to the influence of religious extremists who regard the concept of female authorship of the epistle intolerable." Hoppin discusses that in this interview:

The question of the authorship of Hebrew has its own wikipedia page Authorship_of_the_Epistle_to_the_Hebrews.

dockeen

Fascinating. I generally run about a week behind in listening to the geek, I will have to do that one out of order

stephan huller

I don't know. Clement both (a) thinks the letter is Pauline and (b) is connected with Luke. The only early witness who has doubts about it being written by Paul is Gaius of Rome. The arguments for Priscilla suck because they filter through Acts and Acts suck. The key question to me at least is what does Clement mean by this:

The author of Hebrews thinks that the sacrifices have come to an end meaning either (i) the letter is apostolic and written by a Samaritan or (ii) the letter was written after 70 CE.

andrewcriddle

One problem with having Hebrews written by a woman is that chapter 12 refers to author and readers as having been punished as children by their fathers.

If the author was a woman one would expect that she would have been disciplined when necessary by her mother rather than her father.

Andrew Criddle

stephan huller

That's actually very impressive Andrew. Do we know though that father's refrained from punishing their daughters? I know that's not true in traditional cultures today.

andrewcriddle

I think mothers were the usual disciplinarians for daughters. I'm sure some daughters were punished by their fathers, but the taken-for-granted nature of paternal discipline in chapter 12 comes more naturally from a male author.

I'm not claiming this is a conclusive argument but chapter 12 does seem to appeal to a shared experience of father son relations.

Andrew Criddle