137 finished before Paul’s case went to trial (late 62 or early 63). This would imply that Mark reached Rome soon after Paul did (in AD 61). Since Paul’s book of Hebrews, written while he was in Rome, seems to correct some of the harsh anti-Judaic rhetoric and misguided theology of the Epistle of Barnabas, it implies that Paul had access to it before he wrote Hebrews (AD 62-63). And the fact that his epistle to the Romans also seems to correct some of the defective theology of Barnabas, there is a good chance that Paul had already seen the Epistle of Barnabas, or at least knew what Barnabas was teaching among the churches, before he wrote his epistle to the Romans in AD 58. See the Masters Thesis of Ed Stevens which deals with this in greater detail (Redating the Epistle of Barnabas). Further evidence that this is the correct dating for Hebrews comes from its similarities and connections with the book of Revelation. It is very significant that the similarities between Hebrews and the Apocalypse do not show up in Hebrews until late in the book (chapters 12 and 13). This gives us a clue as to when the book of Revelation was written in relation to the book of Hebrews, and vice versa. The book of Hebrews was probably started before a copy of the Apocalypse reached Paul. Then later in 62, after Paul received a copy of the Revelation, he included some material in chapters 12 and 13 of Hebrews which show his awareness of Revelation. Paul would have received his copy late in the writing process of Hebrews, probably after the first eleven chapters were already finished. That explains why the similarities with the book of Revelation do not show up in Hebrews until chapters 12 and 13, just as Paul was putting the finishing touches to Hebrews in late 62 or very early 63. Paul added the final verses to Hebrews (13:22-25) just after his release, and before he left Italy to travel with Timothy toward Colossae in the Spring of AD 63. The epistle was evidently sent via courier to his network of churches in Greece, Macedonia, and Turkey. When Timothy returned, they left Rome to go visit the churches addressed in his other prison epistles and this epistle of Hebrews. As we noted above, it seems pretty likely that Mark was the courier for the epistle to the Hebrews. We will discuss that in more detail below. So the book of Hebrews appears to be Paul’s last big book that he wrote before his shorter pastoral epistles and his death about the time of the Neronic persecution. Why Was Hebrews Written?
The “why” question is always a very important question to answer, since we need to know why a book was written in order to understand what it means. It is just as important as knowing who wrote it, to whom it was written, when and where it was written. When Paul went to Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey, he had to address the concerns of the law-zealous Jewish Christians in Jerusalem who accused him of teaching the Diaspora Jews to not circumcise their children, nor walk according to the customs of Moses and the Law (Acts 21:17-26). This accusation was probably not surprising to Paul. He had already addressed similar issues in some of his epistles. Furthermore, when he visited Corinth at the end of his third missionary journey, just before going to Jerusalem, he must have discovered what Barnabas was teaching to Diaspora Jews about forsaking Moses and all the customs including circumcision. That may have been what prompted him to write the epistle to the Romans right there at Corinth, in which he clarified the Jewish Christian’s relationship to the Law. And since Paul had been associated with Barnabas just eight years before this, many of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem would have assumed that Paul was teaching the same thing as Barnabas. So, it would have been no shock to Paul when he was questioned by his fellow apostles and elders in Jerusalem to explain why he was supposedly teaching Diaspora Jews to forsake Moses, just like Barnabas was. He had an excellent answer to that question in his epistle to the Romans, which was written just before he came to Jerusalem. Anyone who had listened to Paul knew that he did not teach any Jews (Diaspora or Palestinian) to abandon the Mosaic Law and cease circumcising their children, since he himself also “walked
