Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Hebrews 1:8

πρὸς δὲ τὸν υἱόν, “but with reference to the Son.” The Psalm (45) from which the quotation is taken, is called in the LXX. “A song for the beloved,” and has been Messianically interpreted by Jewish as well as Christian expositors. Hence it is chosen as one of the special Psalms for Christmas Day.

Ὁ θρόνος σου ὁ θεὸς εἰς αἱῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος. ὁ θεὸς is the ordinary vocative in Hellenistic Greek. This use of the nominative for the vocative is sometimes scornful in classical Greek (as in χαῖρε ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων), but is used in Hellenistic in direct addresses, comp. Luke 12:32 μὴ φοβοῦ τὸ μικρὸν ποίμνιον, Luke 8:54 ἡ παῖς ἔγειρε. The quotation is from Psalms 45:6-7 (LXX.), which in its primary and historic sense is a splendid epithalamium to Solomon, or Joram, or some theocratic king of David’s house. But in the idealism and hyperbole of its expression it pointed forward to “the King in His beauty.” “Thy throne, O Elohim,” is the rendering which seems most natural, and this at once evidences the mystic and ideal character of the language; for though judges and rulers are sometimes collectively and indirectly called Elohim (Exodus 21:6; Exodus 22:8; Psalms 82:1; John 10:34-36) yet nothing which approaches a title so exalted is ever given to a human person, except in this typical sense (as in Isaiah 9:6). The original, however, has been understood by some to mean “Thy divine throne”; and this verse may be rendered “God is Thy throne for ever and ever.” Philo had spoken of the Logos as “the eldest Angel,” “an Archangel of many names” (De Conf. Ling. 28), and it was most necessary for the writer to shew that the Mediator of the New Covenant was not merely an Angel like the ministers of the Old, or even an Archangel, but the Divine Prae-existent Son whose dispensation therefore supersedes that which had been administered by inferior beings. The Targum on this Psalm (45:3) renders it “Thy beauty, O King Messiah, is greater than the sons of men,” and Aben Ezra says it refers not so much to David as to his son Messiah.

ἡ ῥάβδος τῆς εὐθύτητος, “the sceptre of rectitude.” The A.V. gave the same word for εὐθύτητος and δικαιοσύνην in the next verse. The R.V. rightly distinguishes between the two words. Εὐθύτης is in the N.T. a ἅπαξ λεγόμενον.

τῆς βασιλείας σου. The two oldest MSS. (א, B) read αὐτοῦ.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Hebrews 1:8

Old Testament

New Testament