HEBREWS AND THE ALEXANDRIAN ORIGIN OR DESTINY

HEBREWS AND THE ALEXANDRIAN ORIGIN OR DESTINY

Virgil Warren, PhD

1.   The only reasons for associating Hebrews with Alexandria are that (1) the earliest favorable attestation comes from there and that (2) it supposedly uses the allegorical method of interpretation.

        Philo joined Greek philosophy and Jewish revelation by allegorical method. He stood at

        the head of a line of scholars who did the same thing.

Hebrew writer

Allegorical interpretation is like using the Acts 27 trip to Rome as an allegory about life with its rough seas, throwing sins overboard, and so on.

2.     Hebrews does not really use this method.     Hebrews is not allegorical interpretation.

 a.   Exodus (is from Psalm 95:7-11)             (1)  The writer’s ideas are implicit in the       

        b.  Melchizedek (from Psalm 110:4)                     Old Testament materials he quotes.

        c.  Solomon and Jesus (2 Samuel 7:14)        (2)  The writer has precedent in the Old                                                 

                                                                                        Testament for handling these events                                                                                          

                                                                                        the way he does (Psalm 95; 110:1-4). 

3.   Even if it were an allegorical method he got from Alexandria, he would not have to be there when he wrote the book.

        Connecting the epistle with allegorical interpretation helps explain why Apollos is so well liked as a suggested author: he was from Alexandria. Allegorical interpretation may also explain the strong appreciation for the epistle in Alexandria among the ancients in the
Eastern Church.

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