Page 4, par. 3
"The apostle Paul offers this practical answer . . . (Heb 6:12)"
Throughout this, and indeed, all WT pubs, "the apostle Paul" is attributed authorship of the book of Hebrews.
This is interesting because there is no agreement by scholars, ancient or modern, regarding who was the writer of Hebrews. The book itself does not identify the writer. Various possibilities proffered include Paul, Luke, Barnabas, as well as others. Some have strong opinions about their preferred choice, as does the WT.
I used to give the elders strained faces by always prefacing my comments on the book of Hebrews with, "The anonymous writer of Hebrews said . . . ."
What I was saying (about its authorship) was absolutely true. Neither did it dispute the possibility that Paul may have written it. Yet it would fly in the face of the publications that would always, unequivically, attribute Hebrews to Paul. It was one of my ways of 'rebuking' the WT. It was also a way of saying, 'Your conclusions are not necessarily mine.'
There is an amount of hypocrisy in the WT's stance on the writer of the book of Hebrews. If one were to openly speak of the names of the translators of the NWT, the Society would be affronted by it. They insist that they wanted to be anonymous. (Unfortunately, Ray Franz spilled the beans, and the writers's names are now public.) Yet the WT insists on identifying the writer of Hebrews whenever they cite the book. Why do they not respect the writer of Hebrews right to remain anonymous?
[Compare Acts 23:1, 2, NWT:
Looking intently at the San′he·drin Paul said: “Men, brothers, I have behaved before God with a perfectly clear conscience down to this day.” 2 At this the high priest An·a·ni′as ordered those standing by him to strike him on the mouth.
Paul's saying that nothing about acting as a Christian bothered his conscience was a backward way of condemning the Sanhedrin which opposed Christianity.]
