Breaking: Author of Hebrews discovered!

December 15, 2011 By

Well this is exciting news. The Epistle to the Hebrews, long a highly regarded part of the Christian canon, has also long been shrouded in mystery.

Hebrews is basically a sermon with a brief letter attached. It describes temple sacrifices and persecution, possibly at the hands of Nero. The sermon writer’s name was not included and neither was it given by early Christian historians. Over the years, many different authors have been proposed, from Paul to Luke to Barnabas to Apollos. But none of those have been fully convincing. Some feminist scholars even wondered whether the author was Priscilla, a learned woman described in other books. But since the author clearly refers to himself as a man in parts, the authorship had remained a mystery.

Until now, that is.

The news broke in both today’s New York Times and in a widely circulating Associated Press piece. The news is buried in their articles about George Whitman, the Paris bookseller and cultural beacon.

Here’s the Times:

He welcomed visitors with large-print messages on the walls. “Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise,” was one, quoting Yeats. Next to a wishing well at the center of the store, a sign said: “Give what you can, take what you need. George.” By his own estimate, he lodged some 40,000 people.

Here’s the Associated Press as published by NPR.com:

Shakespeare and Company was also a haven for every author or would-be writer passing through the City of Light.

For them, Whitman reserved a welcome that turned Yeats’ famous verse — “Be not inhospitable to strangers / Lest they be angels in disguise” — into deed: He took in aspiring writers as boarders in exchange for a helping hand in the store.

There you have it. William Butler Yeats wrote Hebrews! I’ll admit it. I’m a bit surprised by this news.

Hebrews 13:2 (KJV):

2Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

And I had high regard for Yeats before this news!

(h/t Eric Metaxas)

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Filed Under: Academia, Books, Journalism, Pop Culture, Religion
  • Jettboy

    FACE PALM! What more can you say with this idiotic report.

  • Susie Rabatine

    And here I thought that if you didn’t know for sure who wrote it you had a three way choice – Shakespeare, Ben Franklin, or the Bible.

    Who knew? Now we get to add William Butler Yeats.

    A terrible beauty is born :)

  • http://millennialstar.org Ivan Wolfe

    Susie –

    I was always told “Ancient Chinese Saying” was a great default citation. At least they didn’t go with that one.

  • http://www.getreligion.org Mollie

    I’m a big fan of “African Proverb.”

  • Bill

    And I thought Bob Dylan wrote that!

  • Will

    I note that Yeats is regularly credited with “education is the lighting of a fire, not the filling of a pail”, which has no discernible citation; and “Strangers are friends you haven’t met”, which does not even SOUND like the Wild Old Wicked Man.

    But these are not as tiresome as the incessant quoting of “Things fall apart….” by talking heads who invariably go on to assert that We are the “best” who “lack all conviction”, and They are the “worst” who are “full of passionate intensity.”

  • Steve S

    “Strangers are friends you haven’t met”,

    I think that was Garrison Keillor.

  • Julia

    Last night, Jimmy Fallon (a repeat) did an incredible impression of Jim Morrison & the Doors using Doors-like music and lyrics from “Goodbye Moon”, “Horton Hears a Who”, “The Hungry Caterpillar”, etc. Morrison is widely acclaimed as a poet, much like Bob Dylan who Fallon also impersonates.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBTie0F_BCc

    I’m thinking many of the younger people in the audience have no idea where these lyrics originated and will be quoting either Morrison or Fallon as the author in years to come.

  • Julia

    Should have pointed out for young people reading this blog that Jimmy Fallon’s lyrics were from pre-grade-school-level books lovingly read to little kids over the past few decades. Fallon was probably inspired while reading to his own kids.

  • Jerry

    I wondered if Yeats had used those lines or something similar in his poetry but I’ve not found anything. Did I miss something? Or is the attribution wholely in error?

  • John M.

    Can I zoom out and ask why this man’s death has been such big news? I heard it covered on NPR and on BBC. While not an expert on anglophone Parisian booksellers, I consider myself both well-traveled (though admittedly I’ve only been to the Rive Gauche once) and well-read, and I had never heard of this fellow or his bookstore. Was it a slow news day?

    -John

  • SouthCoast

    I suppose, to the NYT, a Bartlett’s is just another pear.

  • Julia

    If I remember correctly, shakespeare and company was the first publisher of James Joyce when nobody else would give him the time of day. The folks there nurtured his writing.

    Yes, here’s a photo of him in the book store’s doorway.

  • Julia
  • Will

    The Concordance to Yeats’ Poems shows nothing resembling this. I KNEW I should buy that.

  • Debbie mosley

    I suggest the Lukan Authorship of Hebrews by David Allen.

  • George Harper

    Yesterday I emailed the Times to request a correction. As of today I’ve received no acknowledgment and there’s been no correction.

  • Will

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning was probably “inspired” by scripture such as

    “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”?(Romans 8:38-39 KJV)

    When she wrote her 43 sonnet

    How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
    I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
    My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
    For the ends of being and ideal grace.
    I love thee to the level of every day’s
    Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
    I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
    I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
    I love thee with the passion put to use
    In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
    I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
    With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
    Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
    I shall but love thee better after death.

    Below is part of a bio I found of her on the web. I have always wondered why passages like the one in Romans have not been looked at more closely against the work of EBB and others. It isn’t outright plagiarism, but it appears to be very shadowy.

    Despite her ailments, her education continued to flourish. Throughout her teenage years, Elizabeth taught herself Hebrew so that she could read the Old Testament; her interests later turned to Greek studies. Accompanying her appetite for the classics was a passionate enthusiasm for her Christian faith. She became active in the Bible and Missionary Societies of her church.