Thursday, January 7, 2010
Peter, Paul, and Hebrews
(II Peter 3:15, 16)
As he closes his epistle, Peter gives his readers, and us, remarkable insight into his attitude toward epistles written by the Apostle Paul. The New Testament canon—the collection of books comprising the New Testament—was compiled and finalized as local churches independently recognized the quality of inspiration in the various writings. In verse 16, Peter refers to Paul’s writings as having equal authority with “the other scriptures.” In other words, Peter viewed Paul’s epistles as inspired scripture—on par with the Old Testament.
Perhaps no book of the New Testament came under more scrutiny as to canonicity than did the book of Hebrews. The reason is simple: The human penman nowhere attached his name to the book. For a book to be included in the New Testament, it had to be penned by an Apostle or under the authority of an Apostle. Hebrews made no such claim; and, therefore, it was held in doubt by some.
A careful examination of Peter’s words regarding Paul’s writing, however, clears up the matter of the penmanship of Hebrews. Peter reminds his audience that Paul had written specifically to them (15). We know Peter’s target audience was Jewish, the “strangers scattered”—Jewish believers of the Diaspora (I Pet. 1:1). So, Peter claims that Paul had written an inspired epistle specifically addressed to Jewish believers. Looking at Paul’s autographed epistles, it becomes obvious that none of them were addressed to a Jewish audience. Only the book of Hebrews, a book specifically addressed to Jews but left unsigned, fits the bill. Therefore, not only did Peter regard Paul’s epistles as scripture, but he assigned the penmanship of Hebrews to Paul.
