of Irenaeus[1] almost compels us to ask if the Greek
Churches of Southern Gaul and Asia Minor regarded this Epistle as
Pauline. Irenaeus might naturally omit to quote a short and
comparatively unimportant Epistle, but his omission of a long Epistle,
well adapted to his arguments, inclines us to place him in a rank
opposite to his contemporary, Clement of Alexandria. A Greek writer of
the 6th century actually says that Irenaeus, in a passage now lost,
denied that St. Paul wrote the Epistle.[2]

The Latin Churches of the west seem to have been for three centuries
under the conviction that this Epistle was not by St. Paul. It is
quoted by Clement of Rome, A.D. 95, a fact which {210} alone is
sufficient to prove its early date and its sacred character. But
Clement makes no statement as to its authorship. Caius of Rome, A.D.
200, excludes it from the list of St. Paul's Epistles, and the same
hesitation with regard to it existed in the great Latin-speaking Church
of Carthage. St. Cyprian, A.D. 250, does not include Hebrews among St.
Paul's Epistles. No Latin Father attributes it to St. Paul before
Hilary of Poictiers in A.D. 368, and Hilary was in close contact with
the East. At the end of the 4th century St. Jerome shows distinct
hesitation in attributing it to St. Paul, and it was not commonly
attributed to him in the west until the time of St. Augustine, who died
in 432.

Internal evidence agrees with the external evidence in making it very
difficult for us to believe that St. Paul wrote Hebrews.

(1) The Greek is more elegant than that of St. Paul's Epistles. The
styles are widely different. That of St. Paul is abrupt and vehement
like a mountain-torrent, that of Hebrews is calm and smooth like a
river running through a meadow.

(2) The quotations are very unlike St. Paul's. They are all from the
Greek version of the Old Testament, with the exception of that in x.
30, which occurs in the same form in Rom. xii. 19. It had probably
taken this shape in popular use. The quotations are introduced by
phrases such as "God saith," or "the Holy Spirit saith." But St. Paul
often shows a knowledge of the Hebrew when he makes quotations, and he
uses such phrases as "it is written," or "the Scripture saith," or
"Moses saith."

(3) There is no salutation such as is usual in St. Paul's Epistles.

(4) In Hebrews the incarnate Son is called "Jesus," or "Christ," or
"the Lord." In St. Paul's Epistles we find fuller ti