the author and perfecter of our faith." As Jesus endured, looking beyond the shame and suffering of the cross to the joy of His reward, so should the readers "endure their chastening." Apostacy will meet a fearful doom in the judgment of fire. To this homily (Heb. i.-xii.) is appended a concluding chapter (probably by the author himself) which transforms it into a letter. The author is a church-teacher of the second generation, as he frankly confesses himself (ii. 3); a disciple of Paul, to judge by his use of Paul's doctrine and some of his epistles, especially Romans. To judge by his rhetorical style and his Alexandrian ideas and mode of thought, he is the sort of teacher Apollos will have been. Just at present he is separated from his flock (xiii. 19). Where they are we can only infer from xiii. 24, which conveys salutations from those in the writer's neighbourhood who are "from Italy." He himself is probably among the Pauline churches, for he sends news of Timothy (xiii. 23) and hopes to come soon in company with him. Ephesus, where Apollos was at last accounts, may possibly be the place of writing. Hebrews would seem then to be written to Rome, long after the first "great fight of afflictions" (the Neronian outbreak of 64) and when the danger of "fainting under the chastening" of a second persecution (that of Domitian _c._ 90) was imminent. Such slight indications as we have of a literary relation between Hebrews and 1st Peter suggest the priority of Hebrews, but the date and occasion must be nearly the same.