Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

590 APPENDIX.
ing a condusive proof that Timothy was at that time in prison with
Paul, but we think we have only shown from them the i)Ossibility
that he may have been at that time in prison. The Epistle to the
Philippians was written in the year 62, at all events before the third
year of Paul's imprisonment at Rome, in which his situation became
worse. Now, if the setting at liberty of Timothy recorded in Heb.
xiii. 23 is identical with that which Paul liopcs for in Phil. ii. 19,
then the Epistle to the Hebrews was written somewhere towards the
end of the year 62, therefore just after the death of James the son
of Alphaeus.
If this were the only time when an imprisonment, of Timothy in
Italy is conceivable, then would the choice which was left open
above, between the year 62 and the year 64, be thereby already determined.
But Timothy, after having been actually sent by Paul
into the East, was urgently entreated by Paul (2 Tim. iv. 21), whose
case in the meanwhile (during the first half of the year 63) had
taken a very serious turn, to come back to him before the harvest of
63. We may be sure that he complied with this request of his
" father." Then, however, it is possible that he himself was involved
in the procedure against Paul, — possible also, that after Paul's
death he was taken prisoner in the persecution under Nero (July,
64.) In shoH, an imprisonment of Timothy in Italy may likciuise
he conceived of as possible in the year 64 ;
only, that his being again
set at liberty is less probable on this occasion than in the year 62.
"We have therefore not yet got beyond the alternative between
the harvest of 62 and late in the summer of 64. The Epistle to the
Hebrews might have been written at either of these two points of
time. The inquiry as to the author will, perhaps, be the first thing
to throw a clearer light on the question.
CHAPTER THIRD.
WHETHER WRITTEN ORIGINALLY IN
GREEK.
Before we can proceed to the inquiry respecting the author of
the Epistle to the Hebrews there is still a preliminary question
which nmst be settled, namely, whether this epistle was really tvrittcn
orifjinatty in GrecTi, or whether it is not merely a translation or
a reproduction of an Aramaic original. There is nothing in the
epistle itself that could lead to the raising of such a question ;
but a series of Cliurch Fathers speak of an original Aramaic writing,
and therefore we are not at liberty entirely to evade the
question.