Hebrews as Pseudepigraphon: The History and Significance of the Pauline Attribution of Hebrews

306 Pages·2009·1.639 MB·English

by  Clare K. Rothschild

Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen
zum Neuen Testament
Herausgeber/Editor
Jörg Frey (München)
Mitherausgeber/Associate Editors
Friedrich Avemarie (Marburg)
Markus Bockmuehl (Oxford)
Hans-Josef Klauck (Chicago, IL)
235

Clare K. Rothschild
Hebrews as Pseudepigraphon
The History and Significance of the
Pauline Attribution of Hebrews
Mohr Siebeck
Clare K. Rothschild, born 1964; 1986 B.A. University of California, Berkeley; 1992 M.T.S.
Harvard University; 2003 Ph.D. University of Chicago; currently Assistant Professor of Theology
at Lewis University, Romeoville, IL.
e-ISBN PDF 978-3-16-151524-8
ISBN 978-3-16-149826-8
ISSN 0512-1604 (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament)
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; de-
tailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
© 2009 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by cop-
yright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to reproductions,
translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems.
The book was typeset by Martin Fischer in Tübingen, printed by Gulde-Druck in Tübingen on
non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Spinner in Ottersweier.
Printed in Germany.
für Maxwell Alexander & Luke Nicholas,
meinen zwei kleinen Münchnern
The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews.
Let the Christian reader note the corruption and impudent boldnes of our Adversaries,
that upon a false private persuasion of their owne, that S. Paul was not the author of
this Epistle, leave out his name in the title of the same, contrarie to the authentical
copies both Greeke and Latin. In old time there was some doubt who should be the
writer of it, but then, when it was no lesse doubted whether it were canonical scripture
at al. Afterward the whole Church (by which onely we know the true Scriptures from
other writings) held it and delivered it, as now she doth, to the faithful, for Canoni-
cal, and for S. Paules Epistle. Notwithstanding the Adversaries would have refused
the Epistle, as wel as they do the Author, but that they falsely imagine certaine places
thereof to make against the Sacrifice of the Masse.
(In the English Bible of the Year 1579)
Acknowledgments
The foundational idea for this book came to me at the national meeting of the Soci-
ety of Biblical Literature (Philadelphia, PA) in November 2005. Dashing in and out
of seminars, I entered the Hebrews section to say hello to a friend. Because the ses-
sion began before our greeting had ended, I sat down. Pamela Eisenbaum presented
a paper entitled, “Hebrews, Supersessionism and Jewish-Christian Relations.” Her
paper triggered a question in me regarding the postscript of Hebrews. That evening
I sat around the Greek text with friends, considering the possible impact of the post-
script on first conceptions of authorship. I spent the rest of that night and most of
the rest of the next three years thinking about that question.
Thanks to a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, accept-
ance of which was made possible by President James McGaffney, Provost Stephany
Schlachter and Dean Angela Durante of Lewis University, I prepared the manu-
script at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich from August 2006 to June
2007. At L.M.U., I received excellent feedback on the manuscript from Prof. Dr.
Jörg Frey and all participants in theneutestamentliche Kolloquium of the Evange-
lisch-theologische Fakultät. During my stay in Germany, papers given at Eberhard
Karls Universität Tübingen and Universität Bielefeld also elicited helpful criticism.
Individual German colleagues to whom I am grateful for discussion of the topic over
the course of that year include Knut Backhaus (München), Jens Herzer (Leipzig),
Hermann Lichtenberger (Tübingen), Rainer Hirsch-Luipold (Göttingen), Eduard
Lohse (Göttingen), Jens Schröter (Leipzig) and Ruben Zimmermann (Bielefeld).
In addition, numerous other colleagues provided assistance on aspects of the
thesis, in particular Robert Matthew Calhoun, Karina Martin Hogan, James A.
Kelhoffer, Stefan Krauter, Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer, Alec Lucas, Nathan McDonald,
Christopher Mount, Johan Thom, Trevor Thompson and participants of the vari-
ous societies of which I am a member, including the Society of Biblical Literature,
the Chicago Society of Biblical Research, and the Association of Chicago Theologi-
cal Schools (New Testament). Robert Matthew Calhoun, James A. Kelhoffer and
Trevor Thompson each took part in rigorous debate on numerous aspects of the
thesis. The reader will note their names in the footnotes at critical junctures in the
argument. I also wish to thank Margaret M. Mitchell for the opportunity to present
part of Chapter 2 to the Chicago chapter of the Association of Colleges and Theo-
logical Schools, New Testament Group (ACTS/NT) in her home in May, 2006
VIII Acknowledgments
and Richard Bauckham for the invitation to present the exegetical analysis of Heb
13:20–25 in Chapter 3 in a section at “The St Andrews Conference on Hebrews &
Theology,” University of St Andrews, Scotland, July 18–22, 2006. Finally, I wish
to express gratitude to Dr. Henning Ziebritzki at Mohr Siebeck for interest in this
manuscript and Prof. Dr. Jörg Frey for its recommendation to the WUNT series.
I also wish to thank Kevin Schwartz and Jana Trispel (Mohr Siebeck) who assisted
in the production of this work.
Of course, without the generous support of my husband, Douglas, this project
would not have come to completion. I dedicate this book to our children, Maxwell
Alexander and Luke Nicholas, who interrupted very rich lives in Chicago to move
to München for a European adventure not soon to be forgotten.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments............................................. VII
Abbreviations and References .................................... XIII
Chapter1
Introduction
1
1.1Introduction.............................................. 1
1.2Historical Overview of the Pauline Attribution of Hebrews .......... 5
1.3Isolating the Postscript ...................................... 8
1.4Outline of the Present Investigation ............................ 9
1.5Summation .............................................. 12
Chapter2
Early Reception History of Hebrews: Rejected in the West?
15
2.1Introduction.............................................. 15
Chart I .................................................. 19
2.2What Was Rejected and What Constitutes Rejection? .............. 20
2.2.1Introduction ......................................... 20
2.2.1.1Two Purported Major Witnesses to Hebrews’s Censure
in the West .................................... 21
2.2.1.2Muratorian Fragment ............................ 21
2.2.1.3Gaius of Rome ................................. 24
2.2.1.4Minor Witnesses to Hebrews’s Purported Western Censure 25
2.2.1.5Major Witness to Hebrews’s Western Acceptance prior to
Augustine and Jerome ............................ 27
2.2.1.6Summation .................................... 28
2.2.2Introduction ......................................... 29
2.2.2.1Evidence of Hebrews’s Citation in the West prior to
Augustineand Jerome ............................ 29
2.2.2.2Summation .................................... 32