St. Paul and the Letter to the Hebrews

For centuries Christians assumed that Paul was the author of Hebrews. Today scarcely any biblical experts accept that assumption. Most deny that Paul wrote the letters to Timothy and Titus, but even they maintain that these letters do reflect Paul's attitudes and theology. Hebrews, on the other hand, is decidedly different. Scripture scholar Raymond Brown compared the elaborate literary style of Paul with that in Hebrews and found them incompatible. The common Pauline expression "Christ Jesus" is not used in Hebrews. In Paul's writings, the resurrection of Jesus is a major and recurrent theme; in Hebrews it is mentioned only once. In Hebrews, Jesus is the great high priest; that theme does not appear in the letters of Paul. In addition Brown found that the author of Hebrews was far more critical of Jewish cultic practices than Paul had been. If we compare Romans 9 - 11 with Hebrews 9 - 10, we can see the difference.