God has spoken by his Son: the Son and the angels

Hebrews does not name its author. It describes itself as a 'word of exhortation' (13:22), and the Greek is among the most polished in the New Testament. Early Christians disagreed about who wrote it. Churches in the East, especially in Alexandria, linked it to Paul. Tertullian suggested Barnabas, and later writers proposed Luke, Clement of Rome, Apollos (Luther's view) and even Priscilla. The scholar Origen said that who wrote it is known only to God. Most modern scholars doubt that Paul wrote it, because the style, the manner of quoting the Old Testament and the absence of his name differ from his letters. The teaching is nevertheless in line with the rest of the New Testament, and the class does not need to name an author.

The date is also uncertain. First Clement, written from Rome about AD 96, uses Hebrews, so it was written before that. Many scholars place it in the 60s, before the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70, since the author describes the sacrificial worship in the present tense, though that is not decisive. The greeting 'those from Italy send you greetings' (13:24) and the mention of Timothy's release (13:23) suggest a link with Rome or Italy.

The first readers were Christians, probably including many Jewish believers, who had suffered public abuse and loss of property (10:32-34) and who were in danger of drifting or turning back. The author writes a sermon in which careful exposition of the Old Testament alternates with warning and encouragement. The theme is that Jesus is greater than every earlier means of God's revelation and saving help, and the first step is to show who he is.

Hebrews is a sermon, and chapter 1 is a single long opening argument.

• The first four verses are one sentence in Greek, a prologue in carefully balanced clauses. Verses 5 to 14 are a catena, a chain of Old Testament quotations, seven in all, which the author lets speak in turn. He introduces them as words God said to the Son, or about the Son, and he treats the Old Testament as God's own speech.
• The first thing a reader should notice is the contrast set out in verses 1 and 2: 'many past occasions and in many different ways' against 'a Son', and 'the prophets' against 'these last days'.

The author reads the Old Testament as a Jewish Christian teacher of his time would. He draws on the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint), which sometimes differs in wording from the Hebrew, and he reads psalms about the king of David's line as speaking of the final king, the Messiah. This is not arbitrary. The royal psalms were widely understood in Judaism to look beyond any one king (2 Samuel 7:12-16), and the New Testament as a whole reads them this way (Acts 13:33; Mark 12:35-37). The author's method is to pair quotations and let the later ones fix the sense of the earlier ones.

The comparison with angels needs explanation. Angels were honoured in Judaism as God's messengers, and as those through whom the law was given (Deuteronomy 33:2 in the Greek; Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 2:2). Some scholars suggest that the author's readers were tempted to give angels too high a place, as the Colossian letter may also imply (Colossians 2:18). The text does not tell us, but it is clear that the chapter's purpose is to place the Son above every other messenger.

Verses 1 and 2

'On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.' The sentence begins with God. Revelation was given in pieces and in varied forms, by dreams, visions, words and events. It is now given in a person. 'These last days' means the final period of God's plan, begun with the coming of the Son. The Son is described at once as 'heir of all things' and the one 'through whom He made the universe'. Heir looks to the future, and agent of creation looks to the past.

Verse 3

The Son is 'the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His nature'. 'Radiance' (apaugasma) is the light that shines from a source, such as the brightness from the sun; it can also mean reflection, but the sense of shining out is more likely here. The words picture a light that comes from the source and cannot be separated from it, and the Nicene Creed's 'light from light' draws on this image. 'Exact representation' (charakter) was the stamp or impression a die leaves on a coin. 'Nature' (hypostasis) means the underlying reality. The Son shows God as he is. He is also 'upholding all things by His powerful word', which is the work of God. Then the author turns from his person to his work: 'After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.' The cleansing of sins is done, and it is why he sits, since in the temple a priest never sat because his work was never finished (10:11-12). The seat at God's right hand is the language of Psalm 110:1.

Verse 4

The Son has 'become as far superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is excellent beyond theirs'. The name is 'Son' (verse 5). Most readers take 'became' to refer to his enthronement as man after the cross, not to a time when he was not God.

Verses 5 and 6

Two questions anticipate the answer no. To which angel did God ever say, 'You are My Son; today I have become Your Father' (Psalm 2:7)? And 'I will be His Father, and He will be My Son' (2 Samuel 7:14)? Both are royal texts about the son of David. In Judaism angels could be called sons of God collectively, but no single angel is addressed as the enthroned royal Son. Verse 6 introduces the next quote with 'when God brings His firstborn into the world' and says 'Let all God's angels worship Him'. This sentence matches the Greek version of Deuteronomy 32:43, and a similar line is in a Hebrew manuscript from Qumran; Psalm 97:7 in the Greek also has 'worship Him, all you angels'. The source is debated, but the claim is clear: angels are told to worship him.

Verses 7 to 9. Of the angels God says, 'He makes His angels winds, His servants flames of fire' (Psalm 104:4). Angels are created and changeable. Of the Son he says, 'Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever, and justice is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You above Your companions with the oil of joy' (Psalm 45:6-7). Psalm 45 is a royal wedding song, and the king is addressed as 'God' and also as one whose God has anointed him. The author hears both as said of the Son.

Verses 10 to 12. Psalm 102:25-27 is addressed to the Lord who laid the foundations of the earth. The heavens will perish and wear out like clothing, but 'You remain the same, and Your years will never end.' The author applies words about God the Creator to the Son, which fits what verse 2 says about the universe being made through him.

Verses 13 and 14

The final quotation is Psalm 110:1: 'Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.' No angel was ever told this. Angels are 'ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation'. The chapter ends with the great reversal: the Son sits, and angels serve the heirs.

Hebrews 1 is among the clearest statements of the deity of Christ in the New Testament. The Son is the agent of creation, the sustainer of the world, the radiance of God's glory, the one addressed as God (verse 8), and the Lord who laid the foundation of the earth (verse 10). He is also truly the one who made purification for sins and then sat down. The chapter thus holds together his divine and royal identity and his saving work.

It also teaches the unity of revelation. The God who spoke to the fathers is the God who has spoken by the Son. The Old Testament is God's word, and its fullness is Christ, so that the New Testament does not replace the Old but completes it. Revelation moves from many parts to one person. The doctrine of the Trinity is not stated in terms, but the chapter speaks of God, of the Son who shares his nature and work, and elsewhere of the Spirit (2:4), and the church's later definitions rest on passages like this one. Finally, the chapter teaches the place of angels. They are real, powerful and honoured, but they are servants, created, and they serve those who are to inherit salvation.

The whole chapter is Christology. The Son is heir, creator, radiance, representation, sustainer, purifier and king. He is worshipped by angels. He is called God. He reigns at God's right hand.

Each Old Testament quotation is applied to him in the New Testament's own way. Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14 are promises to David and his line, and the New Testament proclaims their fulfilment in the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus (Acts 13:33; Romans 1:3-4). Psalm 45:6-7 is a royal wedding psalm, whose king is greater than any earthly king; Hebrews hears it as a word addressed to the Son. Psalm 102 is a prayer to the eternal Lord, whose words about creation the author assigns to the Son. Psalm 110:1 is one of the Old Testament verses most often quoted in the New Testament, and Jesus himself asked how David's son could be David's Lord (Mark 12:35-37). Colossians 1:15-17 speaks in a similar way of Christ as the image of God and the one through whom all things were created. The New Testament writers thus present him as the one in whom God's Wisdom and Word are made known.

The prologue also looks ahead. The Son purified sins and sat down; this prepares for the argument that he is the great high priest (4:14-5:10) and that his one sacrifice replaces the repeated sacrifices of the temple (10:11-14).