The Letter To The Hebrews
In the manuscripts and versions of the New Testament the position of the Letter to the Hebrews varies widely. 1 It follows (a) immediately after Romans in î46 103 455 1961 1964 1977 1994 2104 2576 2685; (b) after 2 Corinthians in 1930 1978 1992 2000 2248 copsa; (c) after Galatians in an ancestor of codex Vaticanus; 2 (d) after Ephesians in 606; (e) after 2 Thessalonians in a A B C H I K P 0150 0151 more than eighty minuscules (including 33 81 88 181 436 1739 1877 1881 1962 2127) copbo arm geomss ethmss; (f) after Titus in 1311 2183 (so too the pi,nax [list] in 1521, but not the text); (g) after Philemon in D L Y 048 056 075 0142 most minuscules (including 104 326 330 451 614 629 630 1984 1985 2492 2495) itd vg syrp, h copbomss ethpp. There are also the following sequences: (h)…Colossians, Philemon, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Philippians, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus in 2690 2739, and (i)…1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Jude, 1 and 2 Peter, 1 John in 1241 (the manuscript breaks off with 1 John).
Most printed editions of the Greek New Testament have followed the traditional sequence represented by (g), with Hebrews at the end of the Pauline canon. Other editions, however, following the witnesses mentioned under (e), place it after Paul’s Letters to churches and before his Letters to individuals. These include Lachmann (1831), Tregelles (1857—72), Tischendorf (1869—72), Westcott and Hort (1881), B. Weiss (1894—1900), J. M. S. Baljon (1898), and H. von Soden (1913).
1 The information given here has been derived chiefly from W. H. P. Hatch, “The Position of Hebrews in the Canon of the New Testament,” Harvard Theological Review, XXIX (1936), pp. 133—151, with many valuable additions supplied through the kindness of Kurt Aland from the files of the Institute for New Testament Text Research at Münster. For information concerning evidence from early canonical lists and patristic writers, see the article by Hatch.
2 Although in codex Vaticanus Hebrews follows 2 Thessalonians, the chapter numbers in that manuscript disclose that in an ancestor it occupied a position after Galatians. The chapter numeration of the Pauline Letters begins with Romans and runs continuously through 2 Thessalonians. The Letter to the Galatians concludes with the 58th chapter, whereas the next Epistle, that to the Ephesians, begins with the 70th chapter, and then the numbers continue regularly through Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, ending with the 93rd chapter. Following 2 Thessalonians (as was mentioned above) stands Hebrews, which begins with the 59th chapter, and proceeds with the 60th, 61st, 62nd, 63rd, and 64th chapters, as far as Hebrews 9:14, where the manuscript breaks off, the remaining part being lost. Doubtless there were originally eleven chapters in Hebrews (59 to 69). It is clear, therefore, from the sequence of chapter divisions that in an ancestor of codex Vaticanus Hebrews stood after Galatians and before Ephesians, and that the scribe of Vaticanus copied mechanically the chapter numbers even though they no longer were appropriate after Galatians.