The Epistle to the Hebrews claims attention because of the developed character of its doctrine of the Person of Christ, and because its writer, while not an eye-witness (ii. 3), has a vivid knowledge of many events in the earthly life of Jesus. As regards the Virgin Birth, the Epistle is completely silent. In the comparison with Melchizedek (vii. 1-3), no stress can be laid on the fact that the latter is described as “without father”; he is also “without mother” and “without genealogy”. The reference to the descent of Jesus from the tribe of Judah (vii. 14) is left quite bare. Even the statements concerning the sinlessness of Christ (iv. 15, vii. 26), and the lofty characterization of the Son as “the effulgence” of God's glory and “the very impress of his substance” (i. 3), are made without a word as to the method of the Incarnation. It is difficult to read the Epistle without feeling that the writer's thought is nowhere influenced by the Virgin Birth. Especially is this the case in such passages as ii. 14 (“Since then the children are sharers (?e????????e?) in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of (et?s?e?) the same”),20 and ii. 17 (“It behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren”). Two considerations forbid, however, the drawing of this conclusion. We have no certain knowledge of the writer's identity, and we have no other work from his pen with which to compare the Epistle. Its significance is therefore mainly theological; it is an instance of an elaborate [pg 015] doctrinal writing,21 coming possibly from the seventh decade of the first century, or, more probably, from about the year 80 a.d., in which no reference of any kind is made to the Miraculous Conception. This fact, however it is explained, cannot be ignored, and the later we date the Epistle the more important it becomes.