A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Volume 1-2) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842. Excerpt: ... would he not, in accordance with his principle of hecoming all things to all men, have indulged the partiality of his nation for the language which they had inherited, and have written to them in Aramaic? CHAPTER IV. TIME AND PLACE OP THE COMPOSITION OF THE EPISTLE. Whatever can be determined upon these points, is naturally dependent upon the opinion respecting the author. They who look upon Paul as the writer have a tolerably firm foundation for their opinion in those passages of the 13th chapter which touch upon the personal relations of the author, and may suppose the time of that Apostle's first imprisonment in Rome, and, indeed, shortly before the termination of it, as the period of the composition of the Epistle (Comp. above, chap. I. . 2. A.) The usual subscription, also, favours this view: iysupri dcri rij; 'iraX/a;, Cod. A. dxb 'Ptojttjjs. They who suppose other authors are almost unanimous in this, that the Epistle was written before the destruction of Jerusalem. But they differ respecting the place, or leave it altogether undetermined. In supposing Apollos the author, we are too little acquainted with the circumstances of that Apostolic man's life to be able to advance any thing more definite respecting the place of its composition. But, so far as the lime is concerned, we may certainly conclude, from the Epistle, that the sanctuary and the Levitical service must have subsisted at the period when it was composed. Comp. particularly, chap. ix. 8-, where sacrifice is spoken of as still practised. It cannot, however, have been written long before the destruction of that city, for the receivers of it appear to have, some considerable time before, embraced Christianity (v. 12), having, as Christians, had experience of many things, both good an...