Do you have some scriptural references you can point me to?
The earliest possible date is 65AD. Five years before the Temple was destroyed. The latest possible is 100AD. Some scholars have argued that the author had in depth knowledge of the Temple and this is why it should be dated before the destruction. I will attempt to demonstrate that this can't possibly be the case. The author mentions the work of the apostles in the past tense and most believe it was written after there ministries. Either way there is a dilemma for this epistle. If the author was writing before the destruction then he was literally going against the views of James (Yeshua's brother) and the 12, who still believed in continued animal sacrifices. Not an "end all" sacrifice as the letter asserts.
Can you direct me to those verses ?
Yes.
Ezekiel 45 is ONE of them. He is speaking of the
future Temple which the Messiah will be in:
13“This is the offering that you shall offer: a sixth of an ephah from a homer of wheat; a sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley;
14and the prescribed portion of oil (
namely, the bath of oil), a tenth of a bath from
each kor (
which is ten baths
or a homer, for ten baths are a homer);
15and one sheep fromeach flock of two hundred from the watering places of Israel—for a grain offering, for a burnt offering and for peace offerings, to make atonement for them,” declares the Lord GOD.
16“All the people of the land shall give to this offering for the prince (Messiah) in Israel.
17“It shall be the
prince’s part (Messiah) to provide the
burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the drink offerings, at the feasts, on the new moons and on the sabbaths, at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel; he shall provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering and the peace offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.”
18‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “In the first
month, on the first of the month, you shall take a
young bull without blemish and cleanse the sanctuary. 19“The priest shall take
some of the blood from the sin offering and put
it on the door posts of the house, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar and on the posts of the gate of the inner court.
20“Thus you shall do on the seventh
day of the month for everyone who goes astray or is naive; so you shall make atonement for the house.
21“In the first
month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.
22“On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land
a bull for a sin offering.
23“
During the seven days of the feast he shall provide as a burnt offering to the LORD
seven bulls and seven rams without blemish on every day of the seven days, and a male goat daily for a sin offering. 24“He shall provide as a grain offering an ephah
with a bull, an ephah with a ram and a hin of oil with an ephah.
25“In the seventh
month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he shall provide like this, seven days for the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering and the oil.”
Could you point out a few of the contradictions you believe it to contain?
