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The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is unknown as is the community which he addressed. The work is not a letter. It seems if it were originally meant for oral presentation. The document is Hellenistic in its language and in its use of Hellenistic philosophy to interpret Jewish Scripture. Church tradition ascribes authorship to Paul but most reputable scholars instruct us that the internal evidences of the epistle reveal it written after Paul's death by a pro-Pauline disciple.
Hebrews reflects a general preoccupation of Christian writers in the late first century with demonstrating the supposed superiority of Pauline Christianity over Biblical Judaism. In reality such is not the case.
Scholars have labeled the Book of Hebrews as the most sustained case of early Christian writings against the continued validity of the Old Covenant. To make sure they translators of the Greek manuscripts have even added words to the Bible which are not in the originals and there are more internal errors in this document than any other New Testament work.
For example, the writers and later editors of the epistle have ingeniously added “covenant” in special places to reinforce their mistaken ideas that we are under a “new” and “replaced” covenant today when the original manuscripts do not contain such words or ideas. See our articles on the Second Priesthood or the Second Covenant and The New Re-Newed Covenant for an exhaustive study which will demonstrate to you conclusively that the covenant with Jesus was a re-affirmed and re-newed covenant and not a replaced covenant.
The book of Hebrews is written for one purpose and one purpose only; to help believers in Christ avoid a danger that is very real; namely, the desertion of Pauline Christianity for Mosaic faith, which many were doing in the first century when given all the facts. As Paul was constantly hounded by those of James and the Jerusalem church we find that his teachings were constantly being "untaught" by those who came after him in order to correct the errors of Paul and the misrepresentation of what Yeshua actually believed and taught. The arguments which the author-apostle put forth are a microcosm of Christological reasoning. For the author of the Book of Hebrews the abandonment of "the" brand of Gentile Christianity as taught by Paul is understood as apostasy which will bring dire punishment to those who reject or revert back to Moses and the Torah. This was a real problem for Paul as he confesses later:
2 Tim 1:15 15 This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; ... (KJV)
For the writer of the Book of Hebrews the whole difference between Christianity and Judaism could be seen in that the “new covenant” replaced the old one as Jesus and his faith supplanted Moses and the Law. To make sure we agree with such a false scenario, as stated earlier, words in italics have been added to your Bibles to make sure you understand that the “covenant” has passed away with Jesus and a new and replaced covenant made by Christ has taken its place. Such a premise can be shown to be full of errors once other parts of the Bible are consulted. The context of the passages in the book of Hebrews refers to the "priesthood" which was soon to pass away and not the Covenant but "covenant" has been added by the printers of your Bibles to ensure you adopt "their" theology. Read the text and look at the context and you can easily see that the "priesthood" and not "the covenant" is to soon vanish. The Temple was soon to be destroyed in 70 C.E. and with it the destruction of the priesthood but the Covenant is "eternal."
The writer of Hebrews, like Paul, quoted profusely from Hebrew Scriptures...but the altered ones! The book contains over one hundred quotations from the Septuagint text (Greek text) of the Hebrew Bible which is different from what is found in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible).
Answer for yourself: Did you hear what I just said…that there are over 100 Hebrew Scriptures misquoted in the Book of Hebrews (THINK)?
The author began this document by saying God spoke in ancient times “to our forefathers" through the prophets and in the recent past had spoken "through the Son.” He illustrated that God has now spoken through His Son by ascribing God's communication with David and Solomon as if it was to Jesus instead. If anyone is familiar with the context of the verses Paul or this Pauline writer uses we have a total deception.
In Heb. 1:5 the writer evoked Psalm 2:7 and 2 Sam. 7:14 as follows:
You are my Son. Today I have become your Father. I will be his Father and he will be my Son.
Contrary to how Paul used the passages, they originally were allegorical, reflecting the special relationship of God to the Jewish king on the throne of Israel and have no bearing on Jesus especially in light that Jesus never sat upon the throne of Israel. The king, upon his accession to power, was symbolically “begotten” as God's son when he ruled over His people. This is not meant to be literal as most Christians try to make it out to be. The passages were directed to kings of Israel. Although this passage was not relevant to Jesus who had never been of officially anointed and publicly acknowledged as king of Israel even though his actions upon entering Jerusalem gave the Romans the impression that he aspired to that role, we as followers of Jesus, if the account of his immersion is correct as we understand that God spoke from Heaven over him at his anointing at the Jordan, there there might be a hidden and possible secondary fulfillment. Only time will tell since the number of forged passages and alterations of the text of the New Testament, not to mention the purposeful mistranslation and misquotation of the Jewish Scriptures within it, make the whole thing suspect. The best we can hope for is an intelligent reading of the New Testament with a prior background of Biblical Judaism where we can witness to what we know to be true when reading the Biblical Judaism within it. When one becomes accomplished to understand both Gnosticism and Mystery Religions then it is easy to read the New Testament and filter out the paganism from the truth within it and then and only then can we capture truth concerning the Jewish Jesus. It is a shame but such is the condition of the document as inherited by us. It is the hope and faith of many that one day Yeshua will return and then be King over all Israel. But time will tell and when the true Messiah appears.....it just might be he; but if not, we shall welcome he who comes in the name of the LORD. Shalom.