The Language of the Epistle to the Hebrews as Bearing upon Its ...

LANGUAGE OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.
I3
It may be thought that all this tedious examination is not worth
the trouble. It goes to show - what has always been noticed by
every reader - that the style of the epistle is unlike that of S. Paul;
but if it also show, as it seems to do quite as clearly, that it is unlike
that of S. Luke too, something has been gained. It makes it
improbable, at least, that S. Luke wrote the epistle to give expression
to the ideas and arguments of S. Paul.
It remains now finally to examine words of another class. There
are many words and groups of words so peculiarly appropriated to
certain ideas or shades of thought, that the use or non-use of them
indicates pretty clearly the habitual thought of the writer. If he use
them habitually, the phase of truth which they represent must have
been one of its prominent aspects in his mind; or if he very seldom
employ them, then that aspect of truth was not the predominant one
from his point of view. Such words or groups of words are of very
different degrees of importance; but even those of inferior significance
help to complete the picture of the writer's mental habits, and it is
therefore well to examine all which are in any degree characteristic.
The group aya-rdao, ayadrrJ, and aya7rrrog is noteworthy. They are
very common in the Pauline writings, but are rare both in S. Luke
and in Heb. In fact only one of them, ayai7ryro, occurs at all in the
Acts, and none of them are ever used by S. Luke except in recording
the words of others. So also of the Heb. Of the 5 instances of
their use, two are in quotations from the LXX. They are common
enough in other writers, but are especial favorites of S. John. Of the
I54 instances in "other writers," 109 are in S. John, so that the words
may be called Pauline and Johannean. Their rarity in S. Luke and
Heb. may be partly explained by the fact that aya,rr is an exclusively
biblical word, and that ayaird-o also is used in a higher sense in the
sacred than in profane writings. Still they were common words in
the Christian community, and they mark a distinction in thought
between S. Luke and Heb. on the one side, and S. Paul and the
rest of the N. T. on the other. The actual number of instances of
their use is: Heb., 5 times; S. Luke, 15; S. Paul, 35 ; all others
(Jno. I09), 154; but if we exclude from the enumeration all quotations
from the LXX, and all record of the words of others, the
numbers become: Heb. 3; S. Luke, o; S. Paul, I32; all others
(Jno. 43), 87. The comparison is too obvious to call for proportionate
numbers. As an appendix to this group it may be mentioned
that LtXE'w never occurs in Heb., is used only twice by S. Luke, twice
by S. Paul, and 21 times elsewhere, I5 of which are in S. John.