This doesn’t argue in favor of Paul. It precludes him unless Hebrews was written before Paul left Timothy in Ephesus when Paul left for Macedonia about AD 63 (1 Tim. 1:3). During this time, Paul travels with Timothy around his evangelized cities and left Timothy in Ephesus, with Titus to Crete (Titus 1:5), spent the winter with Titus in Nicopolis (Titus 3:12) and evangelized the far west. This does not leave time to write Hebrews or travel with Timothy. During the period of Acts, Timothy was never imprisoned. There is no good time for Paul to write Hebrews and travel with Timothy after his imprisonment. This is an obstacle, not an argument in favor of Paul.

1. Silas was a leader in the church at Jerusalem (Acts 15:22).
2. The letter was given the title “To the Hebrews” by someone who recognized it was clearly written to Jews because of the large amount of exclusively Jewish material. The destination of the letter must have a large Jewish population, like Jerusalem.
3. In AD 66, a war started between the Jews in Israel and the Romans. Jerusalem was destined to become the target of the Romans where the church lived. The church needed a message from Christian leaders telling them how to respond.
4. Earlier, Paul wrote letters to both Rome (Romans) and Ephesus (Ephesians) which were very different than the message to the Hebrews because those churches had different needs than this exclusive Jewish church.
5. The author of Hebrews says: “Those from Italy greet you” (Heb. 13:24). Any letter to an exclusive Jewish audience mentioning Italy would likely be written from Rome rather than to Rome. Hebrews mentions no other Gentile city but the heavenly Jerusalem is mentioned (Heb. 12:22).
6. Hebrews states when the church began, it endured suffering with public insults, distress, and some were imprisoned and their property seized (Heb. 10:32-36). When the Jerusalem Church began, it endured persecution. Stephen was stoned. Paul dragged men and women away and put them in prison (Acts 7:54-8:3; 9:1, 2). No other church meets this description of its beginning.
7. The author knew the church well and the church knew the author well (Heb. 13:18, 19, 22—24). We know that Silas and the Jerusalem church knew each other well (Acts 15:22).
8. Hebrews was written exclusively to Jews. First, a strictly Jewish church in the middle of Rome or Ephesus makes no sense. Anyone leaving Judaism for Christianity, would naturally join the Christian church and not remain isolated. Second, we know from Paul’s letters that the Roman and Ephesian churches were mixed Jewish and Gentile (Rom. 16; Eph. 2:11-22; 3:6; 4:17; 6:5-9) There was no known exclusively Jewish-Christian church in any exclusively dominated Gentile city like Rome and Ephesus.

Click on this post to read the 10 reasons.

1. Silas was a prophet (Acts 15:32) and Paul called him an apostle (1 Thes. 2:6) qualifying him to speak with authority for God.
2. Silas was a leader in the church of Jerusalem (Acts. 15:22) and would have known the stories in Jerusalem about Jesus and could have written boldly to the members of the church of Jerusalem. The author of Hebrews wrote boldly.
3. Silas was in Rome with Peter helping him write 1 Peter at the same time Hebrews was written from Rome. (1 Peter 5:12)
4. Paul chose Silas to travel with him on his second Missionary journey (Acts 15:40) and heard him preach often as he traveled with him from Antioch to Syria, Cilicia (Acts 15:41), Derbe, Lystra (Acts 16:1), Iconium (16:2), Phrygia, Galatia (16:6), Macedonia, (16:9-11), Philippi, (16:12), Thessalonica (17:1), Berea (17:10) and Corinth (18:5) making him well known among the Gentile churches as well as trained in Paul’s theology.
5. Silas wrote Scripture by helping Peter write 1 Peter (1 Peter 5:12) and had some responsibility in writing 1 and 2 Thessalonians as Paul listed him as a co-author and used the pronoun “we” repeatedly (1 Thes. 1:1; 2 Thes. 1:1).
6. Silas’ presence with Paul in jail in Philippi shows he was bold, evangelistic and fearless (Acts 16:22-39). All of these were qualities of the author of Hebrews
7. Silas was a Roman citizen, giving him advantages in travel and education.
8. The Jerusalem Council chose Silas to travel to Antioch to defend the transition of the first covenant to the new covenant (Acts 15:22, 23) as Hebrews does.  (Heb. 8:7, 13; 9:1, 15, 18)
9. There was a war going on in Israel in AD 66 and a letter was needed to encourage the church to persevere. If Paul wanted someone to write a letter to Jerusalem, Silas was the Jerusalem leader he knew well.
10. Silas knew Timothy well (Acts 15:40-16:10) as did the author of Hebrews (Heb. 13:23)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0atpQszfq-8&list=PLjIkeUPgd-oAe9Td8U8JTewCXvYUmxv8w&index=3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAhOX1pg0vo&list=PLjIkeUPgd-oAe9Td8U8JTewCXvYUmxv8w&index=4

We agree on much of our information and argument. We agree that Silas wrote Hebrews from Rome around AD 67. We disagree on the destination city of the letter. Cruceru states that Timothy came from Ephesus at Paul’s request and then took Hebrews back to Ephesus when he returned so the book was written to the church in Ephesus. He even believes that Silas helped Peter write 1 Peter. I don’t think he connected the fact that Hebrews and 1 Peter were written at the same time but to different locations. 1 Peter says it was written to Asia (i.e. Ephesus), Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia and Bithynia (all on the Anatolian Peninsula). It was written to a Gentile audience and Hebrews was written to a Jewish audience. The Gentile audience would have been in Ephesus while the Hebrew audience was in Jerusalem. He knew Silas was a leader in the church of Jerusalem but doesn’t emphasize that the church in Jerusalem would have known Silas far better than those in the church in Ephesus. Timothy knew the Ephesians, but Silas did not accompany Paul on the third missionary journey when Paul started the church in Ephesus. But Silas knew the Jerusalem church well and was well known to them, which easily explains why he didn’t need to identify himself.

The second disagreement is minor. He states that the persecution in Rome was at the same time as the rebellion in Israel. I believe he is close but not precise enough. He correctly states the fire in Rome was in AD 64 but tries to push the Jewish rebellion back to the persecution of Christians starting with the fire of Rome. The primary persecution of the Roman church under Nero was in Rome in 64 and 65 and it is not clear that there was persecution outside Rome. The Jewish rebellion doesn’t start in earnest until AD 66. The clarity we have concerning the persecution during the fire of Rome is lacking when it comes to 1 Peter. It is more difficult to prove the timing and nature of the persecution in Asia, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. I believe that when Paul returned to Rome from the far west and Jerusalem and found out about the Jewish rebellion, he saw the need for a letter to Jerusalem. Paul asked Timothy and Mark to come to Rome to help write and possibly deliver Hebrews to Israel. But when they arrived, they probably brought the information about persecution–which necessitated repurposing the letter into another letter (i.e. 1 Peter) to the Gentiles. I believe Hebrews was written before 1 Peter because it looks like Paul assembled the team to write Hebrews to respond to the Jewish rebellion before he was martyred.

Since Paul wrote 13 books of the New Testament and was the major theologian of the group, he was the obvious candidate. But there are significant problems with his authorship. Generally, current-day commentators don’t think Paul is the author so I did not spend a lot of time discussing him in my book because so much has already been written.

Some of the problems with a Pauline authorship are as follows:

1. The author of Hebrews says: “This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.” (Heb. 2:3) Yet Paul in Galatians says: “I did not receive it [the gospel] from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” (Gal. 1:13) Since Paul was so adamant that he received the gospel directly from Jesus, it seems incomprehensible to believe that he would tell the recipients of Hebrews he received the gospel from those who heard Jesus. This verse is one of the serious challenges to Pauline authorship.
2. But there are numerous other problems. Paul signed all 13 of Paul’s books. There is no exception. But the author of Hebrews does not sign the letter. This violates Paul’s style. Also, Paul makes personal notes to people in the receiving congregation. This letter mentions no one other than Timothy by name–also a violation of Paul’s style.
3. The two strongest warnings in Hebrews are: Heb. 6:4-8 and Heb. 10:26-31. These are very strong warnings and this also violates Paul’s style.
4. Paul always starts with a doctrinal section and concludes his letters with a practical section.
   Hebrews has a doctrinal section (Heb. 1:1-14) followed by a practical section (Heb. 2:1-4) followed by a doctrinal section (Heb. 2:5-3:6) followed by a practical section (Heb. 3:7-4:13) followed by a doctrinal section (Heb. 4:14-5:10) followed by a practical section (Heb. 5:11-6:12) followed by a doctrinal section (Heb. 6:13-10:18) followed by a practical section (Heb. 10:19-36) followed by a doctrinal section (Heb. 11:1-40) followed by a practical section (Heb. 12:1-29). Even Romans, Paul’s longest letter (even longer than Hebrews) follows Paul’s regular pattern.
5. A little more difficult to understand in English is that many of the ancients thought the Greek writing style of Hebrews was different from Paul’s. This was the genesis of the idea that the thoughts were Paul’s but someone else wrote the book. Origen thought this but he was not the only one.

If I thought Paul wrote Hebrews, I never would have begun mine. But I believe Silas is the person who had the ability, credibility, and knowledge of both the events in Israel during Jesus’ ministry and Paul’s thinking to be able to write New Testament theology while still being a second-generation Christian who heard the gospel from those who heard it from Jesus.

My book, Who Wrote Hebrews? The Case for Silas and His Message for Today, gives a great deal of information in favor of Silas’s authorship. Many who write on this subject ask who wrote Hebrews and objectively discuss various authors, giving arguments for and against some of the possibilities. Usually, they are informative and don’t take a position themselves. This book is different. It presents the argument in favor of Silas because, after much thought and study, I think I know.

This is not a commentary. It is more of an introduction to the book of Hebrews. It helps the reader understand the setting and why Silas had to write it. Once you understand the author, date, and location of both the writer and recipients, it enlightens the reason the book was written. And, once you understand the setting, you will better understand the implications for people today.