Collective Memory Loss or Deliberate Suppression?

      [Martin] Luther's suggestion that Apollos is the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has much to commend it.  Should this be the case, we would be indebted to Priscilla for many of the insights contained in that great document.
      Even more intriguing is the theory that Priscilla herself is the author of Hebrews (A. Harnack. A. S. Peake, O. Michel, R. Hoppin, among others).
      It is not inconceivable that Priscilla had been commissioned by church leaders to address the issue of the relation of the two covenants.  As a Jewish leader who had been associated with the now-deceased apostle Paule during his teaching ministry, she would be uniquely qualified to write authoritatively on an issue that they had confronted together repeatedly in their ministries to Jewish-Gentile churches.  Because of the antifemale bias of the Judeo-Christian congregations, she may have been requested to write anonymously, with her identity known only by the local leaders who had given her the assignment.  In this manner she would be able to address the issue from her expertise as a scholar of Jewish background, under the cover of apostolic authority derived from her close association with the apostle Paul and other worthies of the apostolic church.
      In so doing, she may also have set a precedent for nonapostles such as Mark, James, and Jude, but especially for Luke, as he wrote the third Gospel and the book of Acts, both anonymous in the text but authoritative for the church on the strength of Luke's association with Paul.  This device of semi-anonymity would enable her to direct her exhortations to Christians wavering between the two covenants without her gender being an obstacle for the acceptance of her message by the tradition-bound Judaizing belivers.   This theory would help explain a number of baffling features of the epistle.
      a.  It could account for the absence of an authorial superscription and the conspiracy of anonymity that surrounded its authorship in the ancient church.  The lack of any firm data concerning the identity of the author in the extant writings of the church suggests a deliberate suppression more than a case of collective memory loss....
      b.  ....
      c.  ....
      d.  ....
      e.  ....
      f.   ....
      g.  ....  The same Priscilla who taught Apollos when he was already an eloquent man--well versed in Scripture, instructed in the way of the Lord, fervent in spirit, speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus (Acts 18:24-26)--could be the one who continues to nurture the life and thought of the church through this ageless portion of Scripture.

-- The above is an excerpt from a footnote from pages 248-250 of a book by Gilbert Bilezikian, Beyond Sex Roles: What the Bible Says about a Woman's Place in Church and Family.  The bold font above is my emphasis.

The multiple links within the excerpt above are to the same blogpost, by Rachel Marszalek, "Woman is a misbegotten male", the title of which, of course, is a quotation of Thomas Aquinas, who, of course, is quoting "the philosopher," who, of course, is Aristotle.  The first link I've made above is on Martin Luther, whom Marszalek quotes as saying, "Eve originally was more equally a partner with Adam, but because of sin the present woman is a far inferior creature. Because she is responsible for the Fall, woman is in a state of subjugation. The man rules the home and the world, wages war and tills the soil. The woman is like a nail driven into the wall, she sits at home."  We can only guess what Luther might have made of Apollos's apprenticeship under Priscilla.

I am not a conspiracy theorist.  I am, nonetheless, especially during women's history month, wondering how it is that so much of our histories foreground men and suppress and silence women in the shadows.  I thought it might be worth reconsidering the absence of a named author for the Jewish-Christian book, "Hebrews."

I'm prompted to keep the theory of Priscilla as a possible author in the foreground when, today, Michael F. Bird posts that "There has been interesting proposals on this topic [of 'The Authorship of Hebrews'] of late."  But Bird, in his subsequent and extensive interview with proposer Andrew Pitts, allows Pitts to gloss over the proposed possibility of the female author:

3. Could you summarize what it is about Hebrews that indicates that it is Pauline and what suggests that there is a Lucan hand involved?

We also find it difficult to imagine another person in early Christianity with the background necessary to produce such a composition. We don’t have enough information to make solid judgments regarding the abilities of many proposed authors (Barnabas, Pricilla, Apollos, etc.).

So, if you read what Pitts is saying today, in contrast with what Bilezikian is proposing, then once again none of the silence in history is really addressed.  Thus, it might again be time to look carefully at the text of Hebrews itself.  More than a year ago now, Wayne Leman got several looking at and discussing the question of Priscilla as an author, quoting blogger EricW's question:  "So, how strong or good is the argument that the masculine participle in Hebrews 11:32 by which the author refers to himself rules out female authorship?" (Note in the comments thread how author Ruth Hoppin answers:  "You asked if the participle in Heb. 11:32 rules out female authorship. Although this claim is often asserted, the answer is no, it doesn’t.").

Can the question of collective memory loss or deliberate suppression ever go away?