Adoption Into The Canon
ADOPTION INTO THE CANON
In the Western church, as we have seen above in the section Author, although the epistle to the Hebrews was widely known and quoted, it was not at first received as canonical. In addition to the evidence from Clement of Rome, a number of other early Western fathers allude to it or cite it (e.g., Ignatius, Phil. 9:1; Shepherd of Hermas 2.3.2; Justin Martyr, Dial. 116.1), but none treats it as apostolic or canonical. The Muratorian Canon (c. A.D. 170-80) excludes Hebrews.
Doubtless when it was incorporated into the Pauline corpus—probably in Alexandria, in the second century—it was being acknowledged to have canonical status. Indeed, its canonicity was never (so far as we know) doubted in Alexandria or in the Eastern church, whatever doubts may have been entertained about its authorship (by Origen and others, as we have seen). Eusebius (H.E. 3.3.5) includes Hebrews among the "acknowledged” books, though he is aware of doubts in the West. The Syrian fathers never dispute its canonical status. And eventually, as we have seen, the convictions of the Eastern church won out in the West, owing to the influence of Jerome and Augustine. 44