th the
apostles in the work of the ministry had the gifts needful for
the composition of writings that should be given to the churches
as the authoritative word of God, so neither can we deny to
_some_ the possession of these gifts, as is plain from the
examples of Mark and Luke. When men who stood in the second
grade of relation to Christ--_apostolic men_, as we may
conveniently call them--composed their works, it is not
necessary to assume that they wrote under a formal apostolic
supervision. The "discerning of spirits" is a gift which we must
concede to all of the apostles. If, then, an associate of one of
the apostles had such relations to him and wrote in such
circumstances that we cannot suppose it to have been done
without his knowledge and approbation formal or implied, we have
for his work all needful authority. What further connection the
apostle may have had with it in the way of suggestion or
supervision is a question which we may well leave undetermined.
In judging of this matter we consider first of all the testimony
of the early churches, since they enjoyed the best means of
ascertaining the origin of a writing; and then the character of
the writing itself. Proceeding in this way we come to the full
conviction of _the canonical authority_ of the epistle to the
Hebrews, whether we believe, with many, that Paul was its
immediate author, or, with Origen, that "the ancients not
without reason have handed it down as Paul's; but on the
question who wrote the epistle God only knows the truth."

43. That the apostle wrote for the instruction of Jewish Christians is
manifest. The uniform tenor of the epistle indicates, moreover, that
they were _Jewish Christians_ without any admixture of a Gentile
element. The salutations at the end further imply that the epistle
addresses not Hebrew Christians in general, but some particular
community of them, which is most naturally to be sought in Palestine,
perhaps in Jerusalem. As to the _time_ of the epistle, the manner in
which it refers to the temple and its services makes it certain that the
author wrote before the overthrow of Jerusalem, that is, before A.D. 70.
The arguments adduced to show that Paul was its author, either
immediately or virtually, carry it back beyond A.D. 67 or 68, when,
according to ancient tradition, the apostle suffered martyrdom. It was
probably w