Jeopardy Got It Wrong
If you know me, you know I am a huge fan of the television game show Jeopardy. I am amazed at the memory of the contestants and am humbled by the Jeopardy staff to keep on cranking out the answers and the questions.
As I watch each episode now as a recording, so I can watch episodes as they fit within my schedule, I am intimidated by what these contestants know and (on a few occasions) surprised at what they do not know. I rarely question the crack Jeopardy staff.
On Wednesday evening (August 30, 2023) the Jeopardy folks did a replay of the 2022 Tournament of Champions. To my amazement, they got it wrong on Final Jeopardy. The category was “The New Testament.” Here was the answer: “Paul’s letter to them is the New Testament Epistle with the most Old Testament quotations.” The correct question (as per the Jeopardy staff) was: “Who are the Hebrews.”
In my opinion and in the opinion of a vast number of historians, scholars, linguists, and theologians, that is incorrect. If you believe Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, I am not writing to pick a fight with you. I support your right to hold to your opinion. However, there are several reasons to question your position.
First, Paul did not claim to write the letter. In all of his thirteen other letters he claimed authorship. Sometimes he included other people, like Timothy, or gives credit to an amanuenses (a secretary) as the actual scribe, but he claims ownership of the letter. Open your copy and see how the book of Hebrews opens. I love those words and I love this book in our Bible, but Paul never claimed ownership of the epistle.
During my days in seminary, I took a class on the book of Hebrews. At that time, my professor was included in what was known at that time as a leading scholar on the book of Hebrews. I remember him telling us very clearly, “The Holy Spirit knows who wrote the book and He’s not telling.”
Also, linguists (people who have an IQ higher than most if not all of us) have studied the letter. Their analysis is that the linguistic style of the book of Hebrews is different from Paul’s other letters. Their professional opinion is, whoever wrote the letter was influenced by Paul but it is different enough to say that Paul did not actually write the letter.
Finally, the publishers of the Bible do not believe he wrote it. Checkout your copy of the Scriptures. What does it say as the heading. Mine says, The Epistle to the Hebrews.” All the other thirteen letters has Paul’s name in the heading. Also, from as far back as we know, Paul’s letters have been and are arranged in the New Testament in order of size: largest (longest) to smallest (shortest). They are not listed in the chronological order of when he wrote them. The Epistle to the Hebrews is found to be after Philemon for the reasons already stated.
So, in my opinion, it would have been an error to have this as a clue during the regular game. It was a major error to have it as a clue for Final Jeopardy. What say you?
