Hebrews 1:3

the brightness The substitution of "effulgence" for "brightness" in the Revised Version is not, as it has been contemptuously called, "a piece of finery," but is a rendering at once more accurate and more suggestive. It means "efflux of light" "Light of (i.e. from) Light" (" effulgentia" not "repercussus") Grotius. It implies not only resemblance which is all that is involved in the vague and misleading word "brightness," which might apply to a mere reflexion: but also "origin" and "independent existence." The glory of Christ is the glory of the Father just as the sun is only revealed by the rays which stream forth from it. So the "Wisdom of Solomon" (Hebrews 7:26) which offers many resemblances to the Epistle to the Hebrews, and which some have even conjectured to be by the same author speaks of wisdom as "the effulgence of the everlasting light." The word is also found in Philo where it is applied to man. This passage, like many others in the Epistle, is quoted by St Clement of Rome (ad Cor.36).

of his glory God was believed in the Old Dispensation to reveal Himself by a cloud of glory called "the Shechinah," and the Alexandrian Jews, in their anxious avoidance of all anthropomorphismand anthropopathyi.e. of all expressions which attribute the human form and human passions to God often substituted "the Glory" for the name of God. Similarly in 2 Peter 1:17 the Voice from God the Father is a Voice "from the magnificent glory." Comp. Acts 7:55; Luke 2:9. St John says "God is Light," and the indestructible purity and impalpable essence of Light make it the best of all created things to furnish an analogy for the supersensuous light and spiritual splendour of the Being of God. Hence St John also says of the Word "we beheld His glory" (John 1:14); and our Lord said to Philip "he who hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). Comp. Luke 9:29.

the express image Rather, "the stamp" (charactçr). The R. V. renders this word by "very image" (after Tyndale), and in the margin by "impress." I prefer the word "stamp" because the Greek "charactçr" like the English word "stamp," may, according to its derivation, be used either for the impressor for the stamping-tool itself. This Epistle has so many resemblances to Philo that the word may have been suggested by a passage (Opp. i. 332) in which Philo compares man to a coin which has been stamped by the Logos with the being and type of God; and in that passage the word seems to bear this unusual sense of a "stamping-tool," for it impresses a man with the mark of God. Similarly St Paul in the Epistle to the Colossians (Colossians 1:15) which most resembles this Epistle in its Christology called Christ "the image (eikôn) of the invisible God;" and Philo says, "But the word is the image (eikôn) of God, by Whom the whole world was created," De Monarch, (Opp. ii. 225).

of his person Rather, "of His substance" or "essence." The word hypostasis, substantia(literally that which "stands under") is, in philosophical accuracy, the imaginary substratum which remains when a thing is regarded apart from all its accidents. The word "person" of our A. V. is rather the equivalent to prosôpon. Hypostasisonly came to be used in this sense some centuries later. Perhaps "Being" or "Essence," though it corresponds more strictly to the Greek ousia, is the nearest representative which we can find to hypostasis, now that "substance," once the most abstract and philosophical of words, has come (in ordinary language) to mean what is solid and concrete. It is only too possible that the word "substance" conveys to many minds the very opposite conception to that which was intended and which alone corresponds to the truth. Athanasius says, "Hypostasisis essence" (οὐσία); and the Nicene Council seems to draw no real distinction between the two words. In fact the Western Church admitted that, in the Eastern sense, we might speak of three hypostaseisof the Trinity; and in the Western sense, of one hypostasis, because in this sense the word meant Essence. For the use of the word in the LXX. see Psalms 38:6, Psalms 88:48. It is curiously applied in Wis 16:21. In the technical language of theology these two clauses represent the Son as co-eternal and co-substantial with the Father.

upholding all things He is not only the Creative Word, but the Sustaining Providence. He is, as Philo says, "the chain-band of all things," but He is also their guiding force. "In Him all things subsist" (Colossians 1:17). Philo calls the Logos "the pilot and steersman of everything."

by the word of his power Rather, "by the utterance (rhemati) of His power." It is better to keep "word" for Logos, and "utterance" for rhema. We find "strength" (κράτος) and "force" (ἰσχύς) attributed to Christ in Ephesians 6:10, as "power" (δύναμις) here.

when he had by himself purged our sins Rather, "after making purification of sins." The "by Himself" is omitted by some of the best MSS. (א, A, B), and the "our" by many. But the notion of Christ's independentaction (Philippians 2:7) is involved in the middle voice of the verb. On the purification of our sins by Christ (in which there is perhaps a slight reference to the "Day of Atonement," called in the LXX. "the Day of Purification," Exodus 29:36), see Hebrews 9:12, Heb 10:12; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Peter 1:9 (comp. Job 7:21, LXX.).

sat down His glorification was directly consequent on His voluntary humiliation (see Hebrews 8:1; Hebrews 10:12; Hebrews 12:2; Psalms 109:1), and here the whole description is brought to its destined climax.

on the right hand As the place of honour comp. Hebrews 8:1; Psalms 110:1; Ephesians 1:20. The controversy as to whether "the right hand of God" means "everywhere" which was called the "Ubiquitarian controversy" is wholly destitute of meaning, and has long fallen into deserved oblivion.

of the Majesty In Hebrews 10:12 he says "at the right hand of God." But he was evidently fond of sonorous amplifications, which belong to the dignity of his style; and also fond of Alexandrian modes of expression. The LXX. sometimes went so far as to substitute for "God" the phrase "the place" where God stood (see Exodus 24:10, LXX.).

on high Literally, "in high places;" like "Glory to God in the highest," Luke 2:14 (comp. Job 16:19); and "in heavenly places," Ephesians 1:20 (comp. Psalms 93:4; Psalms 112:5). The description of Christ in these verses differed from the current Messianic conception of the Jews in two respects. 1. He was divine and omnipotent. 2. He was to die for our sins.