Hebrews 1:5

Illustrations from Scripture of the superiority of Christ to Angels

5. For The following paragraphs prove "the more excellent name." By His work on earth the God-man Christ Jesus obtained that superiority of place in the order and hierarchy of salvation which made Him better than the Angels, not only in intrinsic dignity but in relation to the redemption of man. In other words the universal heirship of Christ is here set forth "not as a metaphysicalbut as a dispensationalprerogative." That it should be necessaryfor the writer to enter upon a proof of this may well seem strange to us; but that it wasnecessary is proved by the earnestness with which he devotes himself to the task. To us the difficulty lies in the mode of proof, not in the result arrived at; but his readers were unconvinced of the result, while they would have freely admitted the validity of this method of reasoning. The line of proof has been thoroughly studied by Dr W. Robertson Smith, in some papers published in the Expositorfor 1881, to which I am indebted for several suggestions. "There is nothing added," he says, "to the intrinsic superiority of Christ's being, but He occupies towards us a position higher than the angels ever held. The whole argument turns, not on personal dignity, but on dignity of function in the administration of the economy of salvation." It may be due to this Epistle that we find in later Jewish books (like the Jalkut Shimeoni) such sentences as "The King Messiah shall be exalted above Abraham, Moses, and the Ministering Angels" (see Schöttgen, p. 905).

For unto which of the angels said he at any time The "He" is God. This indirect mode of reference to God is common in the Rabbinic writings. The argument here is from the silenceof Scripture, as in Hebrews 1:13; Hebrews 2:16; Hebrews 7:13-14.

Thou art my Son The quotation is from Psalms 2:7 (comp. Psalms 89:20; Psalms 89:26-27). The author does not need to pause in order to prove that this, and the other passages which he quotes, apply to the Christ; still less to prove that Christ is the Son of God. All Christians held the second point; the first point would have been at once conceded by every Jewish reader. Many of the Jews adopted the common view of the Rabbis that everything in the Old Testament prophecies might be applied to the Messiah. St Peter, in Acts 13:33, also applies this verse to Christ, and the great Rabbis, Kimchi and Rashi, admit that the Psalm was accepted in a Messianic sense in ancient days. The Divinity of Christ was a truth which the writer might assume in addressing Christians.

It must therefore be observed that these passages are not advanced as proofsthat Jesus was the Son of God which, as Christians, the readers in no wise disputed but as arguments ad hominemand ex concessis. In other words they were arguments to those whom the writer had immediately in view, and who had no doubt as to the premisses on which he based his reasoning. He had to confirm a vacillating and unprogressive faith (Hebrews 6:12; Hebrews 12:25), not to convince those who disputed the central truths of Christianity.

Our own conviction on these subjects rests primarily upon historical and spiritual grounds, and only depends in a very subordinate degree on indirect Scriptural applications. Yet even as regards these we cannot but see that, while the more sober-minded interpreters have always admitted that there was a primary historicmeaning in the passages quoted, and that they were addressed in the first instance to David, Solomon, &c., yet (1) there is a "pre-established harmony" between the language used and its fulfilment in Christ; (2) the language is often so far beyond the scope of its immediate application that it points to an idealand distantfulfilment; (3) it was interpreted for many centuries before Christ in a Messianic sense; (4) that Messianic sense has been amply justified by the slow progress of history. There is surely some medium between regarding these passages as soothsaying vaticinations, definitely and consciously recognised as such by their writers, and setting them aside as though they contained no prophetic element at all. In point of fact the Jews themselves rightly looked on them as mingling the present and the future, the kingly-theocratic and the Messianic. No one will enter into their real meaning who does not see that all the best Jewish literature was in the highest sense prophetic. It centred in that magnificent Messianic hope which arose immediately from the connexion of the Jews with their covenant God, and which elevated them above all other nations. The divine character of this confident hope was justified, and more than justified, by the grandeur of its fulfilment. Genuine, simple, historical exegesis still leaves room in the Old Testament for a glorious and demonstrable Christology. Although the old aphorism Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, Vetus in Novo patethas often been extravagantly abused by allegoric interpreters, every instructed Christian will admit its fundamental truth. The germ of a highly-developed Messianic prophecy was involved from the first in the very idea of a theocracy and a separated people.

this day have I begotten thee St Paul says (Romans 1:4) that Jesus was "determined" or "constituted" (ὁρισθέντος) Son of God, with power, by resurrection from the dead. The aorist in that passage points to a definite time the Resurrection (comp. Acts 13:33). In other senses the expression "to-day" might be applied to the Incarnation (Luke 1:31), or to the Ascension, or to the Eternal Generation. The latter explanation however, which explains "to-day" of "God's eternal now" the nunc stansof eternity though adopted by Origen (who finely says that in God's "to-day" there is neither morning nor evening) and by St Augustine is probably one of the "afterthoughts of theology." Calvin stigmatises it as a "frivola Augustini argutia," but the strongest argument in its favour is that Philo has a somewhat similar conception. The words, however, originally applied to the day of David's complete inauguration as king upon Mount Sion. No onetime can apply to the Eternal Generation, and the adoption of Philo's notion that "to-day" means "for ever," and that "all Eternity" is God's to-day would here be out of place. Possibly the "to-day" is only, so to speak, an accidental part of the quotation: in other words it may belong rather to the literal and primary prophecy than to its Messianic application. The Church shews that she understood the word "to-day" to apply to the Resurrection by appointing the second psalm as one of the special psalms for Easter-day.

I will be to him a Father 2 Samuel 7:14 (LXX.). The words were primarily applicable to Solomon, but the quotation would not, without further argument, have helped forward the writer's end if he had not been able to assume with confidence that none of his readers would dispute his typological method of exegesis. It is probable that the promise to David here quoted is directly connected with the passage just adduced from Psalms 2.

he shall be to me a Son The quotation (comp. Philo De Leg. Allegor. iii. 8) though primarily applied to Solomon, has the wider sense of prophesying the advent of some perfect theocratic king. The "Angels" it might be objected are called "Sons of God" in Genesis 6:2; Job 1:6; Job 2:1; Job 38:7; Daniel 3:25. In these passages, however, the Alexandrian manuscript of the LXX. which this author seems to have used (whereas St Paul seems to quote from another type of manuscript the Vatican), has "angels" and not "sons." If it be further urged that in Psalms 29:1; Psalms 89:7, even the AlexandrianMS. also has "sons" we must suppose either that the writer means to distinguish (1) between the higher and lower senses of the word "son;" or (2) between "Sons of Elohim" and "Sons of Jehovah," since Elohimis so much lower and vaguer a name for God than Jehovah, that not only Angels but even human beings are called Elohim; or (3) that he did not regard the name "sons" as in any way characteristicof angels. He shews so intimate a knowledge of the Psalms that on this ground alone, not to dwell on others the supposition that he forgot or overlooked these passages is hardly admissible.