Adolph van Harnack of the University of Berlin has argued that the qualities reflected in the Epistle to the Hebrews were such that they pointed to Prisca and Aquila as the authors, with the former playing the more active role (“Probabilia über die Adresse und den Verfasser des Hebräerbriefs,” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 1 [1900], pp. 16–41). According to this argument, it would have been originally composed for members of their house-church, but soon became public. Male chauvinism, van Harnack claims, is the reason why it passed into general circulation without any author being named: A Church that had repudiated (see 1 Timothy 2:11–14) the equality that Paul had recognized in women (1 Corinthians 11:5) could hardly accept as authoritative a letter composed by a woman! Attractive as this hypothesis is in its recognition of the important role that women played in the first Christian generation, it shatters on one word: the masculine Greek participle in Hebrews 11:32 (epileipsei me gar diêgoumenon hos chronos peri Gedeon…) shows the author to be a man! (See Ceslaus Spicq, L’epitre aux Hebreux [Paris: Gabalda, 1952], vol. 1, pp. 205–206.)