A note on Hebrews

If you compare my reading plan to the one I've patterned it after at Back to the Bible you'll notice a significant difference: I've moved Hebrews.  The reason for this is pretty simple; I don't agree that is the correct placement for the book.  The plan at Back to the Bible places Hebrews before 2 Timothy.  2 Timothy is agreed by all to be Paul's last letter, frankly his farewell before his execution.  Placing Hebrews before 2 Timothy suggests that it was written before the second Timothy letter.  That's possible: we don't really know when it was written, only that it was in all likelihood written before the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD.  2 Timothy was written shortly before Paul's death in 67 AD.  However, I think the placement also suggests that Paul wrote Hebrews.  I don't really agree with that.

The truth is, we don't really know who wrote Hebrews.  There's no definitive authorship.  There are several suggestions out there.  My former youth minister always liked the idea that Priscilla wrote it.  The two most popular possibilities are actually Paul and Barnabas.  I don't think Paul wrote it.  It's not his style.  Though it is similar to Paul, there are some subtle but significant differences to how he builds his argument, responds to possible objects, etc.  This is my opinion, I know there are those that disagree with me.  But in my reading in the background of Hebrews, the authorship argument, and looking at the styles of the Books, I just don't think Paul wrote it.  Plus, there is a reference to Timothy being released from prison.  As far as we know, Timothy was not imprisoned during Paul's lifetime.  Silas was imprisoned with Paul, but Timothy was elsewhere.  Paul wrote to Timothy from prison, but never suggested Timothy had experienced Paul's chains and in fact exhorts and encourages Timothy to look after the flock in Paul's absence.  To me, this suggests that Timothy was likely imprisoned around Paul's death, therefore dating Hebrews between 67-70AD and therefore chronologically placing Hebrews after 2 Timothy.  This, of course, is my opinion.  I am not really a trained Bible scholar, though I have had Bible training in undergraduate college and have done some reading.  For these reasons, I moved Hebrews.  That's all.