> ‎Chapter 2‎ > ‎Chapter 3‎ > ‎Chapter 4‎ > ‎Chapter 5‎ > ‎Chapter 6‎ > ‎Chapter 7‎ > ‎Chapter 8‎ > ‎Chapter 9‎ > ‎Chapter 10‎ > ‎Chapter 11‎ > ‎Chapter 12‎ > ‎Chapter 13‎ > ‎ 

 

 

 

 

Summary: 1. 1-4


In many ways, in many places, God in the past spoke to the Fathers
by the prophets. But in the end of ages, He spoke to us by His Son,
whom He made the heir of all things. Through Him the Father created
the ages. This Son shows us the glory, Father's glory: He is as it
were the impression, as if from a seal, of the Father's nature. He
is the bearer of authority, through His powerful word. Now that He
has made purification for sins, He has taken His seat at the right
hand of the Majesty on

high. He is as much greater than the angels, as He has inherited a
nature higher than theirs.

Comments on 1:1-4

Ancient literary writers commonly used an elaborate and beautifully
worded introduction to their works, in a loftiness of language they
did not sustain, or intend to sustain throughout the whole of their
work. Our author here does the same. the words "in many ways, in
many places" stand for adverbs in the Greek, polymeros and
polytropos, for which English has no precise equivalent. But the
sense is a contrast between the old and the new regimes.

Formerly the Father did speak to our race through the prophets.
They gave us some information about the Father, without ever
clearly telling us the Father had a Son. But they foretold the
Messiah would come when at last a ruler had failed from the tribe
of Judah (cf. Gen 49. 10), that He would appear at Bethlehem, would
be born of a virgin, would, though Himself divine, have the
fullness of the Holy Spirit, would suffer and die for the
purification of all, and would rise after being slain.

But now, in the new age, the new regime, He has spoken no longer
through the images the prophets gave us as in an imperfect mirror
in a dark manner. In Isaiah 55. 9 God said His ways are as far
above ours as the heavens are above the earth. How then could we
know Him? (cf. 1 Cor 13:12). But now He has spoken through His own
Son. Hence the message is now immeasurably greater and clearer.

This does not mean that inasmuch as the Son fully reveals the
Father, there is nothing more to learn. Some foolish catechists
have argued that since the Son fully reveals the Father, there is
no need of doctrinal formulations! No, the Son comes as a Person,
who only gradually, in His public life, revealed His true nature
and character. Had He said on the first day of His public life the
sort of things He said later, e.g.,"I and the Father are one", or
"before Moses was I AM" - the Jews would have stoned Him at once.
So He revealed Himself only gradually. Further although the
substance of the revelation He brings is now complete, so that
after the death of the last Apostle and the completion of the New
Testament, there is no more public revelation to be expected until
He returns at the end, yet, thanks to the Holy Spirit, whom He
promised to send, His Church is led gradually to an ever deepening
understanding and penetration of that original deposit of
revelation. Thus, for example, the Immaculate Conception was not
seen clearly until many centuries after His ascension; the
Sacrament of Penance, given the first day after His Resurrection,
in John 20, can be traced clearly only from the middle of the
second century, although it was around earlier. (We know it was at
hand before, since when we do get the first fully clear mention of
it, there was no storm or strife, which would have been the case
had it been invented at that time).

This Son is called the heir of all: for a Son as son does have a
right to inherit. And this Son is more than any ordinary Son. He,
as John 1 said, is the one through whom the Father made the ages.
We know (DS 800) that all the works done by the Three Divine
Persons outside the divine nature are common work to all three. Yet
we suitably attribute certain things to one rather than to the
others. Even the ages, time, is His creation. For in the Father
there is no time, since there is no change. Time is a unceasing
succession of future moments, changing to present moments, changing
to past moments. But as one grows older and approaches the goal,
these changes come faster and faster, as if anticipating passage
into the realm in which there is longer any such change to come.

Colossians 1:15-20 beautifully expresses the same truth of the
greatness of the Son, saying that He is the firstborn of all
creation, the image of the invisible God, that is, the one through
whom we can get to know what the Father is like ("He who sees me,
sees the Father: 1 John 14:9). Here Hebrews says He like a gleaming
mirror, that reflects the glory of the Father, and is as it were
the impression in wax made by the seal, the Father: the impression
is complete and perfectly faithful. So through this impression, the
Son, we can perfectly know even the invisible Father.

In the OT Wisdom is finally personified, as in Proverbs 8. 22-31.
In St. Paul, the Messiah is called the wisdom of the Father (1 Cor
1. 24). In the OT book of Wisdom 7. 25-26 wisdom is called "the
breath of God's power, a pure emanation (aporroia:"outflowing" ) of
the glory of the All-powerful, a reflection (apaugasma) of eternal
light, the spotless mirror of the divine working (energeia) of God,
and the image of His goodness". It is easy to see the echo of these
words in Hebrews 1. 2-3. (In passing, sophia, wisdom, is
grammatically feminine in Greek, as is also Hebrew hochmah. But to
anyone with even a slight knowledge of the languages, these are
purely artificial grammatical genders, and have nothing whatever to
do with sex or gender. Further, Christ is the wisdom of the Father,
and He is not feminine).

This Son is before all things in rank (cf. Col 1. 15-20), and in
time (though he is not as God in time), He is above every
imaginable spirit power, whether thrones, dominations,
principalities and powers (these seem to be terms used by the
opponents of St. Paul against whom he writes in Colossians).

As will be explained later, He was sent to make, and has made the
full and complete purification for sins, and now that that is
accomplished once for all, He has taken His seat at the right hand
of the Divine Majesty, the Father. (Majesty is one of several words
used by the Hebrews to avoid saying the ineffable word, Yahweh).
Even though angels are around that throne, this Son has inherited -
for Sons do inherit from parents -- a name greater than theirs. In
Hebrew ways of speech, the name was often practically identified
with the person or nature.

So this introduction gives us the first of the multiple contrasts
we will see in the course of this letter: The Son is greater than
the angels (1:5 to 2:18), is greater than Moses ( 3:1 to 4:16), is
the only perfect High Priest, offering the only perfect Sacrifice (
5:1 to 10:39) in a new covenant greater than the old covenant.
After these contrasts, the author will speak of faith, first that
of those who waited through ages for the coming of the Son, and
then the faith we should have, upon whom the fullness of ages has
come (1 Cor 10. 11), who have been privileged to know that Son.

Summary of 1. 5 to 1. 14: Superior to angels

The Father never said to any one of the angels: "You are my

Son. Today I have begotten you." Rather, when He led His first born
Son into the world, the Father said: "Let all the angels of God
prostrate themselves before him". In speaking of the angels He
said: "He makes winds his messengers, and his ministers, flames of
fire. :" But to His Son: "Your throne, O God, is forever". The
staff of righteousness is the staff of His kingdom. You loved all
that is right and hated iniquity. So God, your God, anointed you
with the oil of joy, more than all others around you." And again,
the Father said to Him: "You, Lord, in the beginning laid the
foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your
hands. They indeed will perish, but you endure. They will grow old,
and like a robe, you will roll them up, and they will be changed.
But you are the same, your years will not end."

The Father never told one of the angels: "Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool". For the angels are all
ministering spirits who are sent to serve those who are to attain
eternal salvation.

Comments on 1. 4-14.

Hebrews here uses seven OT texts, most of them from the Psalms.

The first text,"You are my son, today I have begotten you," is from
Psalm 2. 7. Angels could be called, in a group, sons of God
(elohim) but never was an individual angel called a son of God as
the Messiah was. This Messiah was eagerly prayed for in the century
just before his coming, in the Psalms of Solomon. 21-26, In that
same Psalm 2, in verse 9 the son is said to be going to rule the
nations with an iron rod. That same expression,"iron rod" marks the
child of Apocalypse/Revelation 12. 5 as the Messiah, and so His
Mother must be Our Lady, even though the mother in Apoc 12 is said
to have birth pains, which Our Lady did not. The reason seems to be
a telescoping of images in Apoc 12 - common enough in Hebrew
writing, in which an individual stands for and even embodies a
group. Hence St. Pius X (ASS 36. 458-59; cf. John Paul II, Mother
of the Redeemer #24) wrote: "No one of us does not know that that
woman signifies the Virgin Mary... . John saw [her] already
enjoying eternal happiness, and yet laboring from some hidden
birth. With what birth? Surely ours, we who, being yet detained in
exile, are still to be brought forth to ... eternal happiness."

Interestingly, the first Christian community of Jerusalem, after
Peter and John were released by the Sanhedrin, spoke (Acts 4. 25-
27) these lines to refer to the Messiah as well as to the leaders
of the Church:"Why do then nations rage?" And they added that in
that very city Herod, Pilate and the people of Israel had raged
against Jesus.

The word today, have I begotten you most likely refers to the never
beginning, never ending day of eternity, the day on which the

Father eternally begets His eternal Son.

The second text; "I will be his Father and he shall be my son"
comes from 2 Samuel 7:14. There David had considered building a
house, a temple for the Lord. But the Lord told him through Nathan
that He, the Lord, would build a house, a dynasty for David. He
said that if the son was wicked-- which could not refer, of course
to the messiah, but did refer most fully to so many later kings--
God would correct him, with the rod of men, but God said he would
not take his hesed His faithfulness to the king's appointment as
son of David, as He had taken it from Saul - whose dynasty was
rejected after he sinned twice against God's commands.

Still more interestingly, Nathan said God would raise up a
descendant for David,"after you have slept with your fathers." But,
as St. Augustine keenly observed (City of God 17. 8) an indication
was given that the son thus foretold was not Solomon, but a future
son. For Solomon began to reign before the death of David, not
after it. This promise was recalled in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q
174, Florilegium), and is celebrated in the words of the Archangel
to the Virgin Mary: "He will reign over the house of Jacob
forever".

We can see, God's plans without effort span the centuries. A
thousand years with Him is as one day, and one day as a thousand
years: 2 Peter 3. 8.

Our third OT quotation said that when He brought His first born
into the world He said: "Let all the angels of God worship Him."
The text resembles somewhat Psalm 97. 7. Very interestingly in the
intertestamental work, Life of Adam and Eve 12-17 (in: J. H.
Charlesworth, ed. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Doubleday,
1985. The work dates from 100 BC to 200 AD, p. 262) we read that
satan told Adam that God had ordered him and the other angels to
worship Adam, as the image of God. Some refused, and fell and
became devils. However, that story refers to the first Adam, not to
the second, Christ. And that Life does not speak of a Messiah.

The fourth quotation is clearly from Psalm 104. 4. In regard to
angels He says:" He makes His messengers [angels] winds [as fast as
winds], and He makes His ministers flames of fire." Hebrews here
seems to be following the understanding shown by the Septuagint of
this line. The Hebrew text of the OT would seem to turn things
around: "He makes winds His messengers, flames of fire He makes His
ministers."

The Hebrew for wind is ruach , which can mean either the spirit, of
God, or the wind, as in Genesis 1, where the spirit moved over the
primeval waters. Now of course here Hebrews does not mean to
compare the angels to the Spirit of God as a Divine Person, but may
have in mind the spirit that moved over the waters.

The fifth quote is from Psalm 45. Commentators often say this as a
song to celebrate a royal wedding. However, the Targum takes it to
refer to the Messiah, e. g, in verse 2:"You, O KIng Messiah, are
fairer than the children of men."

Hebrews quotes, as referring to the Son, the Messiah: "Your throne
, O God, is ever and ever. A rod of righteousness is the rod of
your reign. You have loved what is right, and hated evil, therefore
God your God has anointed you with the oil of rejoicing." The word
used for God in the Hebrew text is elohim, which could have been
used merely for angels, or even human judges, but from the context
here the author of Hebrews clearly intends the divine sense.

The rod of his reign brings to mind Psalm 2. 9, part of which was
cited at the start of this chapter (let us recall the comments
given there), which says the Messiah will rule the nations with an
iron rod .

Samson Levey (The Messiah:An Aramaic Interpretation, Hebrew Union
College, 1974) said that the word for king, melech, in verses 2, 6,
12, 15 and 16, is understood as God. Quite an insight for a major
Jew!

Hebrews continues, in v 10, with the sixth quotation, taken from
Psalm 102. 25-27: "You, O Lord, in the beginning did found the
earth, and the skies are the works of your hands. They will perish,
but you will go on. All will grow old as a garment that wears
out... but you are [ever] the same, and your years will not fail
[run out].

The Psalmist is moved by the brevity of his life, or any human
life, and contrasts this with the unending years of God. Really,
God has no years: all is present to Him. We say, not wrongly, that
He made the world -- a past statement. Yet to His eye, that is
present. Similarly we say: Christ will return at the end - a future
statement - but again, that is simply present to His eye.

We often wonder how it is that time picks up speed, that a year
which in childhood seemed almost unending, seems little now. Could
the reason be that we are approaching entry into a different kind
of duration, called in Latin aevum (there is no English equivalent)
in which the restless movement from future to present to past
ceases. There will be no end, yet in a sense all is present to the
soul. St. Augustine says well (City of God 10. 7) that those in
heaven "participate" [a Platonic framework of thought] in the
eternity of God, the duration in which all is present, no past, no
future. The souls there have a future only in the sense that it
will never end. And they have had a past. But their status with God
is like His. He told Moses His name was "I AM", indicating He
simply IS. The blessed simply ARE unspeakably filled with all the
happiness their finite soul can take in of the bliss of God
Himself.

Finally the last quote of this beautiful chapter is from Psalm 110,
where the Father says to the Son: "Sit at my right hand, until I
make your enemies your footstool." The NT generally took this Psalm
as messianic: cf. Mk 12. 35-37 in which Jesus Himself used the
opening words,"The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand... ."
He then asked: How could David call Him Lord if He was David's son?
The reason was that that Son, the Messiah, was and is divine, God
Himself.

The chapter rounds off with the words: Are not all, the angels,
administering spirits, sent to minister to those who will receive
the inheritance of salvation? -- The word inheritance is
significant: Sons as such have a claim to inherit. By grace we are
adopted by God as His sons. So if we reach the house of our Father,
we reach it not by earning it, but as an inheritance; not because
we are or have been good enough to earn it - impossible -but
because He is good, and wished to give it to us. We on our part
must refrain from earning to lose it, as Romans 6:23 tells us: "The
wages of sin [what we earn] is death; the free gift of God [what we
do not earn] is eternal life."