Was The Book Of Hebrews Originally Written In Hebrew?

There is a widely held assumption that since the Book of Hebrews was written to Hebrews, then it must have been originally written in the Hebrew language. However, such an assumption is largely unfounded, and there are a few problems with it.

Firstly, if the Book of Hebrews was written in the Hebrew language, we have no manuscript evidence for it. We have several Greek manuscripts of Hebrews, but no Hebrew ones. It is almost as if the Hebrew Christians did not care to preserve the original Hebrew text of the Book of Hebrews, but yet they bothered to meticulously preserve the Greek translation in copy after copy for generation after generation. This does not make sense. If the Book of Hebrews was originally written in Hebrew, the Christians would have definitely sought to preserve the original Hebrew text in some way, and we would still have at least one surviving copy today, or at least evidence for it.

Secondly, it is not true that the Hebrews, i.e., Jews, preferred being written to in the Hebrew language. By the time of Jesus, many Jews were more fluent in Greek than in Hebrew. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is recorded to have conversed primarily in Greek. Even today, many Jews around the world cannot read or understand Classical Hebrew. This includes the Jews of Modern Israel who speak Modern Hebrew, which is very different from the Classical Hebrew in which the Hebrew Bible was written. Sure, they might be able to vocalize familiar texts, but they would not be able to translate or understand a Classical Hebrew text given to them on the spot.

Thirdly, the Greek text of the Book of Hebrews suggests strongly that it was an original work, and not a translation of an original Hebrew text. The writing style makes it impossible to get a grammatically sound Hebrew text through reverse translation. Moreover, wherever the writer of Hebrews quotes and alludes from the Hebrew Bible (i.e., the Old Testament), he would not do so from the Hebrew text, but from the popularly used Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible of the time—even where those Greek translations differed significantly from the Hebrew text! Therefore, it is more likely that the Book of Hebrews was written originally in Greek rather than in Hebrew.