I’m sure that you have noticed that as we continue through the book of Hebrews, I haven’t mentioned the name of the author, instead, I’ve just said “the author.”  This is because his name is never mentioned in the text. Obviously, whoever it was knew an awful lot of Old Testament details, so many scholars believe that it must have been Paul. Others have suggested Barnabas, while still others have suggested different possibilities.

Some suggest that it couldn’t have been Paul, since Paul’s other letters have a greeting that includes his name, and this has no greeting of any kind.  The complete lack of any greeting at the beginning has led some to theorize that Hebrews isn’t a letter at all, but a sermon that has been transcribed, and there is some merit to this thought since it follows an outline that is more like that of a sermon than any other of the epistles in the New Testament.

As for me, if I were a betting man, I would probably bet that Paul wrote it, but I am not a betting man.  He is my guess, but since there is no evidence that directly supports the guess, I will simply continue to refer to him as “the author.”

I hope that you will consider this as an interpretational principle when you read the Bible.  If the text doesn’t actually say something, we should use caution about asserting it as a fact. Yes, of course there are things we can infer, and many times this inference is so clear as to make it a necessary inference. Yet more often, these inferences are only possible, and not necessary.  Very often these possible inferences, taken as fact without adequate evidence become the basis of unnecessary arguments, and even division within the church. Thus, I would conclude that since some things aren’t completely certain, we should leave others to draw their own conclusions in those areas without debate, for while many things are left open to interpretation and opinion, one thing is very clear in Scripture: Dissention, endless arguments and divisions within the church are frowned upon!