Hebrews 1:3,4 (ESV+LSB+MJ* references, Matthew Henry, John Calvin, Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal and Homiletical

 3 who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power; who, having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

1:3-(Revelation 4:11) “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”(John 1:14-18)*14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John bore witness about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has been ahead of me, for He existed before me.’” 16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.(2 Corinthians 4:1-6)* Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, 2 but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. 6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.(Jude 24-25)*24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.(Psalms 75)*75 We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks, for Your name is near; men recount Your wondrous deeds. 2 “For I select an appointed time, It is I who judge with equity. 3 The earth and all who dwell in it melt; It is I who have firmly set its pillars. Selah. 4 I said to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’ And to the wicked, ‘Do not raise up the horn; 5 Do not raise up your horn on high, Nor speak with insolent pride.’” 6 For one’s rising up does not come from the east, nor from the west, And not from the desert; 7 But God is the Judge; He puts down one and raises up another. 8 For a cup is in the hand of Yahweh, and the wine foams; it is full of His mixture, and He pours from this; surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs. 9 But as for me, I will declare it forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. 10 And all the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous will be raised up.(Ephesians 1:17-23)* that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the full knowledge of Him, 18 so that you—the eyes of your heart having been enlightened—will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of the might of His strength, 20 which He worked in Christ, by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (1 Peter 3:17-22)*17 For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing good rather than for doing wrong. 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that He might bring you to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. 21 Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal of a good conscience to God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him. (1 Chronicles 29:10-19)*10 So David blessed Yahweh in the sight of all the assembly; and David said, “Blessed are You, O Yahweh, the God of Israel our father, from everlasting to everlasting. 11 Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory

3 who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power; who, having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the kingdom, O Yahweh, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. 12 Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. 13 So now, our God, we are thanking You and praising Your glorious name. 14 “But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as willingly as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You. 15 For we are sojourners before You, and foreign residents, like all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope. 16 O Yahweh our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours. 17 And I know, O my God, that You try the heart and delight in uprightness. I, in the uprightness of my heart, have willingly offered all these things. So now with gladness I have seen Your people, who are present here, make their offerings willingly to You. 18 O Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the intentions of the heart of Your people, and prepare their heart to You; 19 and give to my son Solomon a whole heart to keep Your commandments, Your testimonies and Your statutes, and to do them all, and to build the temple, for which I have made preparation.”(Psalm 110)*Yahweh says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies as a footstool for Your feet.” 2 Yahweh will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Have dominion in the midst of Your enemies.” 3 Your people will offer themselves freely in the day of Your power; In the splendor of holiness, from the womb of the dawn, the dew of Your youthfulness will be Yours. 4 Yahweh has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” 5 The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings in the day of His anger. 6 He will render justice among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will crush the head that is over the wide earth. 7 He will drink from the brook by the wayside; therefore He will lift up His head.(Psalm 8)*O Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who displays Your splendor above the heavens! 2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have established strength because of Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. 3 When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have established; 4 what is man that You remember him, and the son of man that You care for him? 5 Yet You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You crown him with glory and majesty! 6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the animals of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. 9 O Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!(2 Peter 1:1-4)* To those who have received the same kind of faith as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

3 who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power; who, having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

Matthew Henry

(v. 3): It began at first to be spoken by the Lord, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah, the Lord of Life and glory, Lord of all, and as such possessed of unerring and infallible wisdom, infinite and inexhaustible goodness, unquestionable and unchangeable veracity and faithfulness, absolute sovereignty and authority, and irresistible power. This great Lord of all was the first who began to speak it plainly and clearly, without types and shadows as it was before he came. Now surely it may be expected that all will reverence this Lord, and take heed to a gospel that began to be spoken by one who spoke so as never man spoke.

4. Another argument is taken from the character of those who were witnesses to Christ and the gospel (v. 3, 4): It was confirmed to us by those that heard him, God also bearing them witness. Observe, (1.) The promulgation of the gospel was continued and confirmed by those who heard Christ, by the evangelists and apostles, who were eye and ear-witnesses of what Jesus Christ began both to do and to teach, Acts 1 1. These witnesses could have no worldly end or interest of their own to serve hereby. Nothing could induce them to give in their evidence but the Redeemer's glory, and their own and others' salvation; they exposed themselves by their testimony to the loss of all that was dear to them in this life, and many of them sealed it with their blood. (2.) God himself bore witness to those who were witnesses for Christ; he testified that they were authorized and sent by him to preach Christ and salvation by him to the world. And how did he bear them witness? Not only by giving them great peace in their own minds, great patience under all their sufferings, and unspeakable courage and joy (though these were witnesses to themselves), but he bore them witness by signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his will. [1.] With signs, signs of his gracious presence with them, and of his power working by them. [2.] Wonders, works quite beyond the power of nature, and out of the course of nature, filling the spectators with wonder and admiration, stirring them up to attend to the doctrine preached, and to enquire into it. [3.] Divers miracles, or mighty works, in which an almighty agency appeared beyond all reasonable controversy. [4.] Gifts of the Holy Ghost, qualifying, enabling, and exciting them to do the work to which they were called—divisions or distributions of the Holy Ghost, diversities of gifts, 1 Cor 12 4, etc. And all this according to God's own will. It was the will of God that we should have sure footing for our faith, and a strong foundation for our hope in receiving the gospel. As at the giving forth of the law there were signs and wonders, by which God testified the authority and excellency of it, so he witnessed to the gospel by more and greater miracles, as to a more excellent and abiding dispensation.

John Calvin

3.Who being the brightness of his glory, etc. These things are said of Christ partly as to his divine essence, and partly as a partaker of our flesh. When he is calledthe brightness of his glory and the impress of his substance, his divinity is referred to; the other things appertain in a measure to his human nature. The whole, however, is stated in order to set forth the dignity of Christ.

But it is for the same reason that the Son is said to be “the brightness of his glory”, and “the impress of his substance:” they are words borrowed from nature. For nothing can be said of things so great and so profound, but by similitudes taken from created things. There is therefore no need refinedly to discuss the question how the Son, who has the same essence with the Father, is a brightness emanating from his light. We must allow that there is a degree of impropriety in the language when what is borrowed from created things is transferred to the hidden majesty of God. But still the things which are indent to our senses are fitly applied to God, and for this end, that we may know what is to be found in Christ, and what benefits he brings to us.

It ought also to be observed that frivolous speculations are not here taught, but an important doctrine of faith. We ought therefore to apply these high titles given to Christ for our own benefit, for they bear a relation to us. When, therefore, thou hear that the Son is the brightness of the Father’s glory, think thus with thyself, that the glory of the Father is invisible until it shines forth in Christ, and that he is called the impress of his substance, because the majesty of the Father is hidden until it shows itself impressed as it were on his image. They who overlook this connection and carry their philosophy higher, weary themselves to no purpose, for they do not understand the design of the Apostle; for it was not his object to show what likeness the Father bears to the Son; but, as I have said, his purpose was really to build up our faith, so that we may learn that God is made known to us in no other way than in Christ: (11) for as to the essence of God, so immense is the brightness that it dazzles our eyes, except it shines on us in Christ. It hence follows, that we are blind as to the light of God, until in Christ it beams on us. It is indeed a profitable philosophy to learn Christ by the real understanding of faith and experience. The same view, as I have said is to be taken of “the impress;” for as God is in himself to us incomprehensible, his form appears to us only in his Son. (12)

The wordἀπαύγασμα means here nothing else but visible light or refulgence, such as our eyes can bear; andχαρακτὴρ is the vivid form of a hidden substance. By the first word we are reminded that without Christ there is no light, but only darkness; for as God is the only true light by which it behaves us all to be illuminated, this light sheds itself upon us, so to speak, only by irradiation. By the second word we are reminded that God is truly and really known in Christ; for he is not his obscure or shadowy image, but his impress which resembles him, as money the impress of the die with which it is stamped. But the Apostle indeed says what is more than this, even that the substance of the Father is in a manner engraven on the Son. (13)

The wordῦποστάσις which, by following others, I have rendered substance, denotes not, as I think, the being or essence of the Father, but his person; for it would be strange to say that the essence of God is impressed on Christ, as the essence of both is simply the same. But it may truly and fitly be said that whatever peculiarly belongs to the Father is exhibited in Christ, so that he who knows him knows what is in the Father. And in this sense do the orthodox fathers take this term, hypostasis, considering it to be threefold in God, while the essence (οὐσία) is simply one. Hilary everywhere takes the Latin word substance for person. But though it be not the Apostle’s object in this place to speak of what Christ is in himself, but of what he is really to us, yet he sufficiently confutes the Asians and Sabellians; for he claims for Christ what belongs to God alone, and also refers to two distinct persons, as to the Father and the Son. For we hence learn that the Son is one God with the Father, and that he is yet in a sense distinct from him, so that a subsistence or person belongs to both.

And upholding (or bearing) all things, etc. To uphold or to bear here means to preserve or to continue all that is created in its own state; for he intimates that all things would instantly come to nothing, were they not sustained by his power. Though the pronoun his may be referred to the Father as well as to the Son, as it may be rendered “his own,” yet as the other exposition is more commonly received, and well suits the context, I am disposed to embrace it. Literally it is, “by the word of his power;” but the genitive, after the Hebrew manner, is used instead of an adjective; for the perverted explanation of some, that Christ sustains all things by the word of the Father, that is, by himself who is the word, has nothing in its favor: besides, there is no need of such forced explanation; for Christ is not wont to be calledῥη̑μα, saying, but λόγος, word. (14) Hence the “word” here means simply a nod; and the sense is, that Christ who preserves the whole world by a nod only, did not yet refuse the office of effecting our purgation.

Now this is the second part of the doctrine handled in this Epistle; for a statement of the whole question is to be found in these two chapters, and that is, that Christ, endued with supreme authority, ought to be head above all others, and that as he has reconciled us to his Father by his own death, he has put an end to the ancient sacrifices. And so the first point, though a general proposition, is yet a twofold clause.

When he further says, by himself, there is to be understood here a contrast, that he had not been aided in this by the shadows of the Mosaic Law. He shows besides a difference between him and the Levitical priests; for they also were said to expiate sins, but they derived this power from another. In short, he intended to exclude all other means or helps by stating that the price and the power of purgation were found only in Christ. (15)

Sat down on the right hand, etc.; as though he had said, that having in the world procured salvation for men, he was received into celestial glory, in order that he might govern all things. And he added this in order to show that it was not a temporary salvation he has obtained for us; for we should otherwise be too apt to measure his power by what now appears to us. He then reminds us that Christ is not to be less esteemed because he is not seen by our eyes; but, on the contrary, that this was the height of his glory, that he has been taken and conveyed to the highest seat of his empire. The right hand is by a similitude applied to God, though he is not confined to any place, and has not a right side nor left. The session then of Christ means nothing else but the kingdom given to him by the Father, and that authority which Paul mentions, when he says that in his name every knee should bow. (Philippians 2:10) Hence to sit at the right hand of the Father is no other thing than to govern in the place of the Father, as deputies of princes are wont to do to whom a full power over all things is granted. And the word majesty is added, and also on high, and for this purpose, to intimate that Christ is seated on the supreme throne whence the majesty of God shines forth. As, then, he ought to be loved on account of his redemption, so he ought to be adored on account of his royal magnificence. (16)

(11) The fathers and some modern divines have held that these words express the eternal relation between the Father and the Son. But Calvin, with others, such as Beza, Dr. Owen, Scott and Stuart, have regarded the words as referring to Christ as the Messiah, as the Son of God in human nature, or as Mediator, consistently with such passages as these, — “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” John 14:9; “He that hath seen me hath seen him that sent me.” (John 12:45). By this view we avoid altogether the difficulty that arises from the expressions, “the impress of his substance,” or essence, he being so, not as to his eternal divinity, but as a Mediator. — Ed.

(12) The remarkable wisdom of the preceding remarks must be approved by every enlightened Christian. There is an “Excursus” in Professor Stuart’s Commentary on this Epistle, on the same subject, which is very valuable, distinguished for caution, acuteness, and sound judgment. Well would it be were all divines to show the same humility on a subject so remote from human comprehension. The bold and unhallowed speculations of some of the fathers, and of the schoolmen, and divines after them, have produced infinite mischief, having occasioned hindrances to the reception of the truth respecting our Savior’s divinity, which would have otherwise never existed. — Ed.

(13) See Appendix A.

(14) Stuart following Chrysostom, renders the wordsφέραν, “controlling” or governing, and so does Schleusner; but the sense of “upholding” or sustaining, or supporting, is more suitable to the words which follow — “by the word of his power,” or by his powerful word. Had it been “by the word of his wisdom,” then controlling or governing would be compatible; but as it is “power”, doubtless sustension or preservation is the most congruous idea. Besides, this is the most obvious and common meaning of the word, and so rendered by most expositors; among others by Beza, Doddridge, Macknight and Bloomfield.

Doddridge gives this paraphrase, — “Upholding the universe which he hath made by the efficacious word of his Father’s power, which is ever resident in him as his own, by virtue of that intimate but incomparable union which renders them one.” This view is consistent with the whole passage: “his substance” and “his power” corresponds; and it is said, “by whom he made the world,” so it is suitable to say that he sustains the world by the Father’s power. — Ed

(15) The word here used means properly “purification,” but is used for expiation by the Sept.; see Exodus 30:10. The same truth is meant as when in chapter 10:12, that Christ, “after he had offered on sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God.” The reference here cannot be to the actual purification of his people; for what was done by Christ when he died is what is spoken of, even when he “put away sin” as it is said in chapter 9:26, “by the sacrifice for himself.” The word then, may be forgiveness proceeds from the atonement: see 1 John 1:9.

Dr. Owen gives three reasons for considering the word in the sense of expiation or atonement, — It is so rendered in some instances by the Septuagint; the act spoken is past, while cleansing or purification is what is effected now; and “himself” shows that it is not properly sanctification as that is effected by means of the word, (Ephesians 5:26,) and by the regenerating Spirit. (Titus 3:5)

The version of Stuart is, “made expiation for our sins,” which is no doubt the meaning. — Ed.

(16) It has been observed by some that in these verses the three offices of Christ are to be found: the Father spoke by him as a prophet; he made expiation for our sins as a priest; and he sits at God’s right hand as a king. — Ed.

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Verse 4

4.Being made so much better, etc. After having raised Christ above Moses and all others, he now amplifies His glory by a comparison with angels. It was a common notion among the Jews, that the Law was given by angels; they attentively considered the honorable things spoken of them everywhere in Scripture; and as the world is strangely inclined to superstition, they obscured the glory of God by extolling angels too much. It was therefore necessary to reduce them to their own rank, that they might not overshadow the brightness of Christ. And first he proves from his name, that Christ far excelled them, for he is called the Son of God; (17) and that he was distinguished by this title he shows by two testimonies from Scripture, both of which must be examined by us; and then we shall sum up their full import.

(17) Some by “name” understand dignity, but not correctly, as it appears from what follows; for the name, by which he is proved here to be superior to angels, was that of a Son, as Calvin here states. — Ed.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal and Homiletical

Hebrews 1:3. Beaming image.—Ἀπαὑγασμα is by Bleek following previous interpreters (as Clarius, Schlichting, Capellus, Gerhard, Calov., Böhme), explained as effulgence, beaming or shining forth; but the form of the word would lead us to take it passively. We might hence (with Erasm., Calv., Bez., Grot., etc.) refer it to the image, the form received and reflected in a mirror. More exactly, however, it denotes the distinct, concrete result of the beaming or shining forth (Lob., Paralip. 396, Krüger, Gr. Gram. 191); so that according to Lün. it involves a threefold idea: 1. that of independent existence; 2. that of origin or descent; 3. that of likeness. Δόξα denotes the resplendent glory of God’s majesty as the means by which He makes a revelation of Himself, and claims the adoring recognition of His creatures. In Christ this glory is received and concentrated in an individual, personal image, rayed or beamed forth, as it were, from the Deity, and itself, therefore, beaming forth its brightness in turn. This beaming image is thus no mere mirrored reflection, no fleeting phenomenon produced merely for a specific and definite purpose. It has expressed in it the essential being of God, just as the figure or image is contained in the die. The numerous significations of ὑπόστασις may be reduced to four fundamental ones: 1. underplacing, underlaying, hence, foundation, basis, substruction, support, even sediment; 2. the fact of putting one’s self under a thing, taking it upon one’s self; hence, firmness, steadfastness, confidence of spirit, enterprise, determination; 3. that which lies at the basis as the proper object, or subject matter of a discourse or narrative; 4. real being in contrast with fancy and illusion; hence, essence, substance. Since now every real being has a special mode of existence corresponding to its essence, the term ὑπόστασις could become a doctrinal terminus ecclesiasticus for the trinitarian distinction in the existence of God=πρόσωπον, persona, and so many interpreters explain it here, even Calvin, Beza, Gerhard, Calov., Thom. Aquinas, Bellarmine, and Corn. a Lapide. This signification of the word, however, belongs demonstrably to a later ecclesiastical usage. We must refer the term, therefore, to the essential being of God, as Philo employs it as a synonym of οὐσία, and the Vulgate translates figura substantiæ ejus, or still better Origen de Princip. iHebrews Hebrews 1:2; Hebrews 1:8, figura expressa substantiæ. For the etymology of χαραλτήρ points at all events to a means by which a thing is made recognizable or even valid in exchange, and that by stamped or engraved marks. The word, however, never denotes the stamped figure or impression itself, but only the means for it. It may thus denote partly the features or marks which in general are the means of recognition, and partly may indicate the stamp itself; but this not merely as the external instrument, or tool for stamping, but as bearing in itself the form to be impressed, and having the destination and capacity by means of this of making the impression. In this sense Philo (ed. Mangey I. p. 332) calls the rational soul a genuine coin which has obtained its οὐσία and its τύπος from that seal of God whose χαρακτήρ is the eternal Logos.

Bearing.—The character of the discourse will not allow our transforming the idea of φέρειν, bearing, into that of maintaining and governing. And, moreover, not merely do the later Jews frequently make use of this language, that God bears the worlds with His power and with the arm of His strength, but also Paul expresses a kindred idea thus: “all things consist (συνέστηκεν) in him,” Colossians 1:17. On the other hand this φέρειν must not be conceived as a mere passive bearing (portare); for the Son sustains no merely external relation to the world, nor in His action upon it merely puts forth His power in a manner like that ascribed to those who bore the heavens and the structure of the universe in the old mythologies; He acts through the word of His power. The ‘Word’ is not here that of the Gospel (Socin.) although his (αὐτοῦ) refers not to God (Cyril, Grot., etc.) but to the Son. It is the word in which the power essential to the Son utters itself, with which power it is itself fraught. The utterance of the Son, by which the world is upheld in its unity, and carried forward to the accomplishment of its purposes, is parallel to the creative word of God in the account of creation. The idea of bearing thus passes over into the active conception of gerere (carrying forward), of a sustaining movement and guidance which works upon and within it by an overmastering, spiritual agency. In this sense the prophets are said (2 Peter 2:4) to be φερόμενοι ὐπὸ πνεύματος ἁγίου, and the Sept. thus uses φέρειν, Numbers 11:14; Deuteronomy 1:9.

Purification.—The expression, “making a purification of sins,” refers not to an altered condition of the world wrought through the ministry of Christ, nor to a moral renovation of the human race effected in consequence of that ministry, but to the accomplished work of redemption in removing the hinderances created by sin to our intercourse with God. The form of expression is drawn from that Levitical worship in which only pure Israelites were permitted to take part. God, that is to say, has separated His people for His service, Leviticus 20:7; Numbers 16:5; that they may be His sanctified ones, His Saints, Psalms 16:3; Proverbs 30:3. But the Saints are to be not merely corporeally pure, Exodus 19:20; Deuteronomy 23:12-14; 1 Samuel 16:5, but also Levitically pure, Leviticus 11:44, since it is the business of those whom God has set apart from the nations as His possession, to observe the distinctions between the “clean” and the “unclean,” which He Himself has established, Leviticus 20:24-26. Even though in all these arrangements we may not be able specially to refer back to death and corruption, as permanent tokens and memorials of sin (as Sommer has with great acuteness attempted (Bibl. Treatises, Bonn, 1846, p. 183–367), still to the ceremonially defiled, equally as to the sinner, participation in the service was allowed only in consequence of priestly mediation on the ground of sacrifice, and thus alone access to God and appearance in His presence were rendered possible. To this our text refers, which, by the addition of τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν, of sins (gen. obj. Exodus 30:10; Job 7:21; comp. Matthew 8:3), points specially to the purification from all sins, Leviticus 16:30, which was made on the great day of atonement, and thus brings as definitely before the reader the high-priestly work of Christ as the words immediately following exhibit His kingly office. The Mid. form, ποιησάμενος, intimates a close and immediate relation of the action to the acting subject (Kühner Gr. § 250, (d), Hadley Gr. Gr., § 689). The act of purification is thus designated as the special and peculiar act of the Son. The reading δἰ ἑαυτοῦ designates, at the same time, directly the person of Jesus Christ as the means of purification, and we must refer in our minds specially to the identity of the priest and of the expiatory sacrifice (Hebrews 7:27; Hebrews 10:10), as the ideas of purification and expiation stand in so close relation that כִּפֻּרִים, Exodus 29:36, is translated ἡμέρα τοῦ καθαρισμοῦ, day of purification, and Malachi 2:16; Malachi 2:16, the feast of atonement is called καθαρισμός. Moreover, Grimm (Stud. und Krit., 1839, p. 751) regards as conjectural root of the Gothic sauns (ransom, λύτρον), the word sinna, saun=to be pure. Köstlin’s assertion [Joh. Lehrbegr., p. 534) that the doctrine of our passage differs essentially from that of Paul, who makes atonement vicarious, is unfounded. The καθαρισμός wrought by the death of Christ is mentioned, Ephesians 5:26; Titus 2:14, while again substitution appears, Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 10:10. Purification involves as its necessary condition, cleansing; as its consequence, sanctification, in the sense of consecration, Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 9:22 f.; Hebrews 10:2.

Took his seat.—Καθίζειν, in older classical use, is ordinarily transitive, but Hellenistic usage makes it generally intransitive, as elsewhere also constantly in our Epistle (Hebrews 8:1; Hebrews 10:12; Hebrews 12:2); while with Paul again, except 2 Thessalonians 2:4, it is uniformly transitive. Ἐνὑψηλοῖς (corresponding to בַּמָּרוֹם, Psalms 93:4; as ἐν ὑψίστοις, Luke 2:14; Luke 19:38; to בַּמְּרוֹמִים Job 16:19) is grammatically to be referred to ἐκάθισεν, inasmuch as μεγαλωσύνη, majesty, (comp. Hebrews 8:1), like ἡ μεγαλοπρεπὴς δόξα, 2 Peter 1:17, and δύναμις, Matthew 26:64, is a designation of God in the respect that no greatness, power and majesty can reach to Him, compare itself with Him, or of itself attain to Him. The term “Majesty” has no need to be specialized by a defining clause like ἐν ὑψηλοῖς, a construction which (Beza, Bleek) would require the article (μεγαλωσύνης τῆς ἑν ὑψηλοῖς). But the phrase ἐνὑψηλοῖς is important as added to ἐκάθισεν, describing more definitely Christ’s exaltation after and by means of His ascension. We must not, however, with Ebrard, in the Reformed interest, maintain that ἐν ὑψ. contains a manifest local relation, while the καθίζειν ἐν δεξιᾷ is a figurative expression, embracing purely the idea of participation in the Divine dominion and majesty, and utterly void of any local import. Inasmuch as the local relations are concrete and real, but yet can neither be sensibly beheld, nor are developed in the form of distinct conceptions in the Scriptures, but are revealed only in a general way to Christian apprehension, the figurative mode of expression and the local conceptions are neither to be dispensed with nor limited to a single isolated point. Such erroneous localization and possible misconceptions are in Scripture in part expressly and formally corrected, as John 4:21; John 4:50 ff.; Jeremiah 23:23; 1 Kings 8:27; partly set aside by counter statements, as at Hebrews 4:14 Christ is said to have “passed through the heavens” (comp. Ephesians 1:21; Ephesians 4:10, “who ascended above all heavens”); Hebrews 7:14, to have become “higher than the heavens,” and finally Acts 7:55, Stephen sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Finally the original and primary conception involved in the phrase, “sitting at the right hand of God,” is not that of participation in the fulness of the Divine power and honor, or in the exercise of universal dominion; but of being taken into protection under the sheltering presence of Jehovah from the assaults of enemies, Psalms 11:1; Matthew 22:44; Revelation 12:5. Only as a consequence of this follows participation in Divine honor, omnipotence and sovereignty; and this, in that the language is applied not to the theocratic kings in general, but to the Messiah, and, in its application to Jesus, presupposes, as its condition, His theanthropic exaltation. This sitting of the exalted Christ at the right hand of Majesty, which is to continue without interruption until His Second Coming, must be conceived, therefore, not as a state of repose, or of mere security, as of one rescued from his enemies, but of Messianic activity in the accomplishment of redemption. This activity may assume the most varied forms (Acts 2:23; Romans 8:34; Hebrews 8:1); among them especially that of asserting the Divine dominion over all hostile assaults, and over all ungodly persons, Ephesians 1:20; 1 Corinthians 15:25; Hebrews 2:8; Hebrews 10:12; 1 Peter 3:22.

Hebrews 1:4. Becoming.—The participial clause, which at once forms the close of the period and introduces the capital thought of the immediately following discussion, gives, in contrast with what Christ, in His essential nature and under all circumstances, is and does, the change in position and dignity which He has experienced in His actual historical career. The word γενόμενος is neither to be taken separately nor unduly pressed. It stands in close connection with κρείττων (becoming mightier, superior); ideo que non ad essentiæ ortum, sed ad conditionem pertinet (Matth. Polus, Synops. Crit.). It is an error, however, to deduce from it the meaning factus=declaratus; and not less erroneous, on the other hand, is the rendering existens (Faber Stapul.), or the reference of the word, as with many older interpreters, to an eterna generatio. Nor does the term apply (as with Thom. Aquin., Cajet.) to the act of incarnation, or to Christ’s investiture with the office of Mediator, “quo pacto non uno modo factus dici potest” (H. B. Stark, Not. Sel., p. 4); but it refers to the exaltation of Him who had become incarnate (Theodoret, Œcumen.). Applied to Christ, it involves the idea of a change in the mode of His being and manifestation, but by no means in His nature, Romans 1:3; Galatians 4:4; Philippians 2:7. It implies no apotheosis or exaltation of a man to Deity, but an actual exaltation of the Incarnate One as such into the place of Deity in the progress of a series of historical events. Κρείττων (=κρατύτερος) denotes not of itself Divinity (Cyrill), although the Greeks familiarly designated supernatural beings as οἱ κρείττονες. In its frequent use by our author it always denotes a preëminence, whose exact character is determined by the context. (See Hebrews 9:19; Hebrews 9:22; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:23; Hebrews 10:34; Hebrews 11:16; Hebrews 11:35; Hebrews 11:40; Hebrews 12:24). Clem. Rom. (1 Cor. 36.) in citing our passage, puts instead of it, μείζων. The formula τοσούτῳ—ὅσῳ, occurring in Philo and in our Epistle here, as also at Hebrews 7:20-22; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 10:25, is never used by Paul; nor is παρά after a comparative though frequent in our Epistle, as Hebrews 3:3; Hebrews 9:23; Hebrews 11:4; Hebrews 12:24, and occurring Luke 3:13; Luke 3:0 Esdras 4:35. The comparative διαφορώτερον, found elsewhere in the New Testament only at Hebrews 8:6, enhances the idea of dignity which is already contained in the positive.

Name.—The term ‘name’ (ὄνομα) is referred by Bez. and Calov, etc., to the dignity and glory attained by Christ; by Akersloot to his extraordinary appellatives as high-priest, Lord; and by Del. to the aggregate heavenly name of the Exalted One, His שֵׁמ הַמְּפֹרָשׁ, nomen explicitum, which has entered no human mind on earth, and can be pronounced by no human tongue, ὄνομα ὄ οὐδεὶς οἶδεν εἰ μὴ αὐτός, Revelation 19:12. The majority, however, refer the name to υἱός, Son. This view is sustained by the immediately following citations from the Old Testament, in proof that the name Son, used of an individual person, as such belongs exclusively to the Messiah; by the fact that while the name of ‘Angel’ points to the idea of servant and messenger, the name of Son, on the contrary, involves that of essential equality with the Father, of dominion and of heirship; and, finally, by the choice of the word ‘inherited’ (κεκληρονόμηκεν) which clearly refers back to the clause, “whom He constituted heir of all,” while the perf. has inherited, shows that it relates not to an act parallel to, and simultaneous with, the ἔθηκε, after the resurrection, by which Christ obtained in His humanity, what in His divine nature He already possessed from eternity (Theodoret, Œcumen., Theophyl.), but to a complete and final taking possession of that which, as His befitting allotment, corresponding with His essential character, the Messiah has received once for all in permanent possession. The term refers not then to absolute Sonship, as a relation which Jesus may be supposed to have obtained on account of His merits, as His special allotment; but rather to that name of Son, challenging universal recognition (Philippians 2:9), which Christ received, neither after His ascension nor at His conception (Sebast. Schmidt), Luke 1:35; but bears even in the Old Testament. Camero appropriately remarks: “He is not said to have inherited the thing which belonged to Him by nature, but the name of the thing, that, viz., by which it was known to angels and men that He Himself was the Son of God.”

Angels.—The subsequent citations show that by ἄγγελοι we are to understand not the servants of God under the old covenant (Frenzel in Augusti’s Theol. Blätter, No. 25. Haberfeld: Angeli e primo et secundo cap. ep. ad Hebr. Exulantes. Isenac. 1808), but the heavenly angels. The mention of them is not introduced casually, as if suggested by the mention of the Throne of God, and scarcely either for an independent polemical purpose, in opposition to Jewish Gnostic conceptions of the Messiah as an intermediate spirit and angel (Thol.) Ideas of this kind found, indeed, utterance among the Jews of this period, and had in part penetrated into the Christian church (Hellwag in the Theol. Jahrb. Tübingen, 1848. But no trace of an allusion to them is found in our Epistle whose purpose is to portray the infinite elevation of the new covenant, and of its perfect Founder above the old covenant, and its manifold and imperfect mediators. But to these intermediate agencies of the Old Testament belong essentially Angelophanies, which are expressly mentioned (Hebrews 2:2), in connection with the giving of the Law. Nor can any appeal be made to the Fourth Book of Esdras, and this, whether with Lawrence, Lücke and Hilgenfeld, we carry back the date of this book as early as the first century, B. C., or with Volkmar and Ewald (the Fourth Book of Esdras, etc., 1863), bring it down to the first century after Christ, and with Dillman regard it as the work of a Hellenistic Jew, belonging to the last quarter of the first post-Christian century, exhibiting a Judaism which, after its rejection of Christianity, and after the Roman conquest of Palestine, is now in rapid progress toward its state of Talmudic ossification. For the Angels Uriel and Jeremiel are, indeed, in a certain sense, mediators of the revelations of God; they explain to Esra the visions which he has received, and answer the questions when and by whom God will introduce the judgment and the end of things, and others of like nature. But the Messiah is designated not as an angel, but as the Son of God (4 Esdras 7:28, 29) and beheld under the figure of the Lion from Judah, who annihilates the eagle, the symbol of the Roman Empire (4 Esdras 11). In some features the apocalyptic representations assume a wild and monstrous character; while in the Book of Enoch, in the Jubilees, in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the contents taments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the contents of the revelation are at least recited from heavenly are given to Esra to be drunk in from a pitcher (4 Esdr. 14:40). Also in the Book of Enoch, (translated and explained by Dillman, Leipz., 1853) we find, indeed, an uncertain and inconsistent enumeration of angels, who are called in brief ‘the white ones’ (Enoch 87:2; 90:21, 31) or ‘those who do not sleep’ (Enoch 39:12; 61:12; 71:7), and equally with the heroes (Enoch 43:3; 46:7) are often styled ‘stars,’ (Enoch 21:3, 6; 86:3; 87:4; 88:1, 3; 90:21). There are also of these, different orders and proper names. At the head of the Satane stands Satan (Enoch 40:7) who (Enoch 54:5, 6; 55:4) is also called Azazel, alongside of whom in the section Enoch 6:16 and 79:2 appears Semjâzâ. Avenging angels are mentioned Enoch 53:3; 54:3; 56:1; 62:11; 63:1; 79:28. Among the good angels by the throne of God are found three principal and highest leaders, Cherubim, Seraphim and Ophanim; Enoch 61:10; 71:7, and four supreme angels, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Phanuel, Enoch 40:4, 10; 54:6; 71:8, 13. In the sections that treat of Noah, Zuriel, (צוּרִיאֵל) takes the place of Phanuel. At Enoch 21:5, Uriel, and Enoch 23:4, Raguel are named as conductors of Enoch through heaven, while elsewhere also Michael Enoch 24:6, and Raphael, Enoch 23:3, 6; 32:6, perform this service; though the proper calling of Raphael and Gabriel is healing and purifying, Enoch 10:4; 10:10; 40:9. The Messiah nowhere appears here as an angelic being, but as Son of a woman (Enoch62:5), as Son of a man (Enoch 69:29), and Son of Man who has righteousness (Enoch46:1), who will be a staff to the righteous and holy, and the light of the nations; (Enoch 48:4), whom also the angels praise (Enoch40:5), and who, with the Lord of Spirits and the head of days, as the anointed one (Enoch 48:10; 52:4), who bears in Himself the fulness of the Divine Spirit (Enoch49:2, 4), was chosen out and concealed before the world was created, Enoch 48:6. On the one hand the attributes which distinguish the members of the true church, are in the highest sense applied to the Messiah. He is hence called absolutely the Chosen One, Enoch 40:5; 45:3; 48:2; 51:3, 5; 52:6, 9; 53:6; 55:4; 51:5, 8, 10; 62:1, and the ‘root’ or the ‘branch of righteousness,’ Enoch 10:16; 93:2, and as such, or as the righteous one, Enoch 38:2; 92:2, 10, is distinguished from the Messianic people, who, in like manner, are conceived as plants of the eternal seed, Enoch 84:6, and is designated as the aggregate of the chosen, righteous and holy ones, Enoch 38:2; 40:2; 45:5; 51:5; 61:12, and hence also can collectively be called the righteous one, Enoch 91:10. On the other hand the Messiah is called absolutely the Word, Enoch 90:38; the Word of God, Enoch 14:24; 102:1, and the Son of God, Enoch 105:2, who will bear the sword of righteousness, and will appear in the eighth week of the world, Enoch 91:12. God, who is often called the “Ancient of Days,” Enoch 46:1; 47:3; 58:2; 71:10, 13, (after Daniel 7:13) swears before Michael, Enoch 69:15 ff. that the salvation beheld by Enoch shall be eternal, and that the Messiah, as king of the kingdom of heaven, will establish on the earth an imperishable kingdom. Moreover, at Enoch 39:5; 49:1; 62:2, there is promised the outpouring of the Spirit of wisdom and righteousness. (Comp. Ewald: Treatise on the Origin, Import and Construction of the Æthiopic Book of Enoch, Gött., 1854, and Dillmann, who, in Herzog’s Real-Encycl. XII., places the composition of Enoch 37–71, after taking out the Noachian fragment—in the first decennium of the Hasmonean princes, that of the remaining sections in the time of the rule of John Hyrcanus, and that of the books of Noah in the first Christian century. Among these latest portions, in which, however, the Romans still do not appear as a secular power, dangerous to the Jews, he reckons Enoch 54:7–55:2; Enoch 60; 65:1–69:25; Enoch 106, and the greatest part of Enoch 6–16. The hypothesis defended by Hilgenfeld (The Jewish Apocalyptic in its Historical development, Jena, 1857) of a Christian origin of Enoch 37–71 stands connected with other opinions of this scholar, and is refuted by Dillmann. This whole subject, however, is not yet thoroughly cleared up.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The character of the historical revelation of God, made to the fathers through the lips of prophets, and brought to perfection in the Son, is essentially different from that general manifestation of God in respect of His eternal power and Godhead (Romans 1:20), which is made by means of His works and the rational nature of man. By its element of human speech it is immeasurably exalted above that Symbolical language of nature which stands in need of a special interpretation. It avails itself indeed, in like manner, of imagery for the expression of ideas that lie beyond the sphere of sense. But this imagery belongs to human speech as such, and God avails Himself of it for the purpose of direct address to certain men, in setting home positive communications which He makes in the way of direct personal approach and appeal. This revelation in language presupposes the religious vitality of man, and aims at its development, purification and perfection. As containing the word of God, this revelation actually solves the problem of His relation to the world, of its creation, preservation and redemption: it unveils to us His counsels and procedure in respect to salvation; shows us the destination of the world, and the Divine arrangements for its recovery, government, and ultimate blessedness; and thus sheds light alike on the true nature of God, and on the history of our race.

2. The fragmentary character of this revelation produces in it no error; for God is He who speaks to us in the prophets, and all the utterances of revelation are oracles of God (λόγια τοῦ θεοῦ). The great variety of its forms best bears testimony to the goodness of God in graciously condescending to human necessities, and demonstrates at once the sincerity and earnestness with which He draws near to us, and the depth of His condescension. For God did not use the prophets as merely passive instruments, nor speak through them as through a speaking trumpet; nor did He merely “exercise His power in them, and inspire in their mind and heart what, when and how they were to speak,” 2 Peter 1:0 (Starke). He deposited His own thoughts in the prophetic modes and forms of thought, and clothed His own word in the peculiarities of speech which belonged to the prophet and to his time. It is precisely for this reason that in the prophetic writings of the Old Testament the discourse frequently passes from the third person to the first, and conversely, and that without indication of any change in the person of the speaker.

3. The fact that the same God has spoken to us at an earlier period in the prophets, and, at the close of the Ante-Messianic period, in the Son, assures to us the unity, amidst its manifold variety, of the historical revelation; while it teaches us that the individual utterances mutually illustrate each other, and yet derive their full light only from the actual central point of all revelation, Jesus Christ. For which reason also the Old Testament is rightly understood only from the stand-point of the New, and the entire body of Scripture is to be regarded in the light of a revelation of God for the salvation of the world, whose parts stand related to each other as preparation and fulfilment.

4. The successive stages of Revelation (Rosenm., Treatise on the successive stages of Divine Rev., 1784) point to a divine plan of salvation, which, ordained from eternity, has in its execution in time, given birth to a completely adjusted economy of salvation, and discloses a wisdom into whose mysteries Angels desire to look, 1 Peter 1:12, and to whom it is made known in the church of Jesus Christ, Ephesians 3:10, as also to us to whom the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, has given the spirit of wisdom and revelation for the knowledge of Himself, Ephesians 1:17. The answer of Cyrill (adv. Julian, I 1:126) to the inquiry of the emperor Julian regarding the reason of the lateness of Christ’s appearance, viz., that “Revelation advances with advancing culture, and its perfection could be reached only in connection with a corresponding culture of the race,” is an answer at once erroneous and puerile. More to the purpose remarks Heubner: “Christianity completes the circle of Revelation; it is its perfection, and stands good for the highest reach of culture which man can attain on earth.”

5. The designation of God’s revelation in the Son as the final one, while decidedly repelling the idea that any grade of human culture can transcend, and leave behind it Christianity as a thing antiquated and effete, remands to the realm of dreams every anticipation of a new revelation in behalf of some religion of the future. And the declaration—that Christ, only after accomplishing a purification of sin, took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, reminds us that there can be no degree of human need which should require another religion. “If God has finally spoken to us by Christ and His Apostles, we must not turn away to the next doctrine that may arise, be it Mohammedanism or Popery; but abide by that which we heard from the beginning from Christ and His Apostles; and so abiding we shall abide with the Father and the Son.” (Starke).

6. In the fact that through the Son, in whom God has spoken to us in the fulness of times, He originally made the worlds, is involved the possibility of a perfect harmony in natural and historical revelation. But the apostasy and its consequences have changed their original relation. The realization of this harmony must be brought about by a complete triumph over sin, and an accomplished elimination of evil from the world, and will be effected not by any heightened development on the part of nature, but by the special acts of God in a series of historical revelations.

7. While Jesus Christ is placed on a level with the prophets in that—according to the rule, Amos 3:7 : “Jehovah does nothing without revealing His counsel to His servants, the prophets,”—He is a personal organ for genuine oracles of God, He stands essentially distinguished from them not exclusively in the fact of His being the perfect Mediator of the final revelation, of whom all earlier prophets have prophesied. For in this case He might possibly have been conceived merely as the most perfect teacher and the most distinguished prophet. The specific distinction lies in the three following points: 1. Christ is become king at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven, while the prophets have been and remain simply servants of Jehovah. 2. Christ is Saviour and Redeemer of the world, which presupposes His personal purity from every sin; the prophets, on the contrary, were at all times sinful men. who stood in need of redemption. 3. The exaltation of Jesus Christ to divine Majesty after accomplishing on earth the work of redemption, corresponds to His ante-mundane condition and life, to His eternal relation as Son to the Father, and to his supra-mundane character and work; so that in His personal appearance on earth He is to be designated as God-man (θεάνθρωπος), while the prophets, as men of God, who have spoken under the impulse of the Holy Ghost, maintained and attested their created and finite character.

8. That the historical Mediator of the final revelation of God is the ante-mundane Mediator of the creation of the world, imparts to Him a special majesty and dignity beyond that of all created mediators. The comparison of Him with the Angels shows that He is not, in this relation, conceived as an unconscious intermediate cause, but has exercised this mediating agency in a personal existence. And the declaration that He is the beaming image of God’s glory and the impress of His substance, shows that the Mediator who is distinguished above all beings, and even above the Angels, by the name of “Son,” does not bear His filial name in a conventional and theocratic sense. “The Son is the mediating essence of the whole spiritual world, in whom the Deity presents Himself in that world, mirrored in all His perfections, in power, wisdom, holiness, love. Such is the external relation of the Son; for the world, for us, He is the being from whom beams forth the divine δόξα. The ground of this is that on Him is impressed and stamped the divine essence; that He is Himself participant of the divine nature. This language expresses the Son’s internal character and relation.” (Heubner). Hence, Ignatius (ad Magnes. 5) strikingly styles the renewing of the Christian into the image of God a recoining by virtue of a new stamp which God applies through Jesus Christ; and Origen, (ad Romans 4:2) remarks that in this transformation is explained the fact that the world does not know the true disciples of Jesus. The Son appears not as a revealer unequal to the Father, and hence an inadequate revealer of some part or a single side of His nature; but He is here designated as the perfect co-equal revealer of the Father (v. Gerlach), in whom the ‘form of God’ (μορφὴ θεοῦ) permanently dwells, Philippians 2:6, and whom Paul designates (Colossians 1:15) the “first-born of the whole creation (πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως) and the image (εἰκών) of the invisible God;” since the essential form of God is that εἶδος θεοῦ (John 5:37) which the Son essentially possessed in His pre-incarnate glory, John 17:5. The declaration then, that He, as Son, has issued from the Father, and is dependent on Him, implies not a temporal but an eternal relation, involving no succession in time, no subordination in power or rank, no lowering of the divine attributes. As light of light He is not a mere ray of the divine Majesty, but sun from sun, because God from God, a personal subsistence of the divine substance.

9. In the ascription to the Son of the essential attribute that he bears (sustains, moves, and guides) all things with the word of His power, believers may find an ample consolation. The Lord of the Church is the Lord over the world; the mediator of revelation and salvation is also the mediator of the maintenance and government of the world; the Saviour of sinners is the controller of the history and the destinies of all men and things. The Roman Clement styles Him (1 Corinthians 16:0.) “the outstretched sceptre of the divine majesty,” and Paul says Colossians 1:17, that in Him all things are, as consisting and held together in Him. Without His mediating agency the world would fall asunder alike in its elements, and its moving forces. But as it is, neither nature nor the course of events can hinder the victory of the Church of Christ, the triumph of believers, the accomplishment of all things according to the divine plan.

10. In the word ‘heir’ lies a relation not merely to the name of Son, or to the fact that the Son has received, according to Matthew 28:18, universal dominion, but at the same time, and chiefly to the Messianic fulfilment of the promises given Romans 4:13 to the seed of Abraham, on which foundation rests the promise that we are to be heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, Romans 8:17. The expression reminds us not so much that Jesus Christ is the second Adam (Calv.), as rather that He is ὁ ἐρχόμενος, He that cometh. “What belongs to God belongs to Christ. Only, therefore, as we have part in Christ can we claim a share in the riches of God.” (Fricke.)

11. Having descended by His incarnation into a lower position than that held by the Angels, in so far as these are spirits and dwellers in heaven, (Hebrews 2:7; Hebrews 2:9) the Messiah, after accomplishing His redemptive work, has, by an actual historical change in the circumstances of His life, passed into a position as much transcending that of Angels in majesty and power, as His characteristic name is nobler and loftier than theirs. “Non naturam sed personam Christi hic confert cum Angelis respectu dignitatis, officii, potentiæ, et gloriæ.” (Matt. Polus, Synops. crit., IHebrews 1:1125, ed. Francf.). As in Christ the personal union of the divine and human natures is in the most perfect manner accomplished, while yet the two natures are in no way confounded, the two thus remain always distinguishable, yet are never to be conceived as actually separated. We must regard, therefore, as erroneous the language of so many earlier writers who limit the exaltation exclusively to the human nature of Christ. It applies rather, as already remarked by Œcumenius (II. 320), to the person of the God-man.

12. “Although Christ with His body has ascended above all heavens, yet in relation to His ubiquity we are to distinguish the two kinds of His actual presence, according as this presence belongs merely to His bodily nature, or to His personality. Under the former relation He is, in His present condition, in a certain ποῦ (where), not indeed circumscribed within strictly local limits, but such as, while transcending time and place, still belong to a finite essence, and subject it, therefore, to like conditions with all the glorified bodies of the blessed. In the other relation, Christ, by virtue of His personal unity, and of that divine majesty and glory which He shares, is no less present every where to all creatures than the Logos itself.” (Oetinger, Idea vitæ, § 119). “The words that speak of His departure and re-appearing do not exclude His bodily presence, of which He indeed gives express assurance, Matthew 28:18, but distinguish merely the dissimilar modes of His presence—bearing one form before His passion, another at the final judgment, and still another during the intervening period.” (Sim. Musæus, Sermon on the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, 1561.). Whatever be the special explanations, the emphasis laid by the Lutheran church on the personal presence, ministry, and self-communication of Christ, and that too of the whole and undivided Christ in His Church, is but a thoroughly authorized and justifiable practical application of the Scripture teaching regarding the sitting of the God-man at the right hand of Majesty in the highest heavens.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.

The unity of Revelation amidst the variety of its manifestations: 1. as unity of the author, God; 2. as unity of the means, the word of God; 3. as unity of its purpose, the salvation of the world.—Whereby does the one revelation of the true God present itself so variously that only the believer can comprehend its unity? 1. By the diversity of the times of which God regards the necessities; 2. by the different character of the persons in whom God has spoken to men; 3. by the peculiar and various modes of intercourse and expression which God has made use of.—Christ the sole and single, because perfect mediator, 1. of the existence of the world in respect to a. its creation, b. its preservation, c. its government; 2. of the revelation of God to the world in respect to a. His power, b. His will, c. His essence; 3. of the saving of the world in a. its redemption, b. its sanctification, c. its final perfection as the kingdom of God.—Wherein we Christians are at once like and unlike the Israelites? 1. In our possession of the word of true Revelation 2:0. in our faith in the coming of the Messiah; 3. in our hope of salvation by purification from sin.—The antitheses in Jesus Christ: 1. in His person as God and man; 2. in His history, as one of humiliation and exaltation.—The threefold office of Jesus Christ: 1. as that of the perfect prophet in whom the revelation through the word has found its completion and close; 2. as that of the true high-priest who offered Himself for purification from sin; 3. as that of eternal king who, elevated above all created existence, bears and rules over all things.—The dominion of Jesus Christ: 1. in its character, a. by the word of revelation, b. by the word of His power, c. by the word of His grace; 2. in its establishment, a. by His nature, b. by His works, c. by His place at the right hand of Majesty on high; 3. in its extent, a. in time, b. in space, c. in respect to its objects.—The Lord always governs His church, 1. by virtue of His personal life with the Father in glory, 2. by virtue of the accomplishment of the work of redemption committed to Him, 3. by means of the word in which His Spirit bears sway and His power works.—The threefold relation of Jesus Christ to God: 1. as servant, 2. as Song of Solomon , 3. as joint-ruler.—The peculiar and unique relation of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, 1. to men, 2. to God, 3. to the entire universe.—The completed and perfected life of our Lord Jesus Christ Isaiah 1:0. the pledge of our deliverance, 2. the type of our glorification, 3. the means of our union with God.—The significance of the elevation of Jesus Christ to the right hand of Majesty on high, 1. for the personal life of the Lord, 2. for the faith of His disciples, 3. for the progress of His work, 4. for the destiny of the world, 5. for the completion of the revelation of God.—What abides to us amidst the vicissitudes of times and the change of all things? 1. The word of God which a. in manifold ways, b. by virtue of divine constitution and arrangement, c. reveals to us eternal truth; 2. the Son of God who a. as image of His substance, b. after accomplishing His mission on earth, c. sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high; 3. the salvation of God, which in Christ is a. destined for us from eternity, b. obtained for us in time, c. and for all eternity imparted to believers.—Whither do all our Sabbaths and religious services summon us? 1. Into the church whose a. Founder, b. Saviour, and c. Head is the Son of God; 2. to devotional contemplation a. of His word, b. of His ways, c. of His works; 3. to believing appropriation a. of revealed truth, b. of the proffered cleansing from sin, c. of the opened access to the Majesty of God.—The homage which we owe to Christ: 1. in its origin and procurement a. by His divine sonship, b. by His mediatorial office, c. by His position at the right hand of God; 2. in its expression a. in acknowledgment of that which we receive from Him, b. in the use of that which we have through Him, c. in the striving after that which we hope from Him.—For what shall the name which distinguishes Christ above all other beings, serve us? 1. To remind us of that image of God for which we are created; 2. to assure us of the Sonship for which we are redeemed; 3. to aid us on our way to the glory to which we are called.—Whither does the preaching of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, direct our eyes? 1. To the eternity a. from which He came, b. of which He bore witness, c. to which He is gone; 2. to the ways of God, a. in upholding, b. in enlightening, c. in purifying the world; 3. to our personal position a. in respect to the word, b. to the people, c. to the Son of God.

Berlenburger, Bible: We must not fancy, now that we have the Scripture, that we need not the teaching of Christ, and that He therefore may remain dumb. Rather must we reverse the position and say: precisely because we have the Scripture, Christ must speak and explain it to us. This is Christ’s proper office and work; this the Father has assigned to Him; this He will not allow to be taken from Him, and of so rich a blessing the believing Christian must not allow himself to be deprived.—The Holy Scripture of the Old Testament is the morning dawn and day-break, which thence advances to meridian day.—Articles of faith are not like other things, learned out, as it were, and rendered antiquated. Rather might the Hebrews now well profit by their former teachings and lessons. Among these stands conspicuous the course of God’s providential dealings, up to the time of Him who was to come.—The Jews of our time close up their door, and shove to this bolt, and say: We adhere to Moses! They are not fond of reading the prophets. But the Christian religion is no falling away from the Fathers, but a fulfilment of that which God spoke to them.—People often convert into a stumbling-block that which they should have employed as a help.—We must not narrow up the time of Christ to the years of His flesh, but regard Him as being of eternity, who is styled God of the whole world, Isaiah 54:5.—Redemption belongs to the kingdom of grace; but the being who was to redeem us was required of necessity to be mighty. Grace and power mutually aid and sustain each other.—Steinhofer: The Lord would fain receive honor from his inheritance, and that inheritance are we. We are the work of His hands, and are indebted to Him for life and being. We are a fruit of His painful toil, and have through Him our salvation. We are His peculiar heritage, presented to Him by the Father for an ornament and a delight. His purpose shall succeed; the work of His hand shall not be in vain; His honor shall be secured to Him by His grace in us, His own inheritance.—Ders: Jesus is able to make known and execute the whole purpose of God. For this great and glorious work, for which He was destined from Eternity, He was 1. not too mean or insignificant, since He is the splendor of God’s majesty and the image of His substance. Nor was He for this 2. too weak and impotent: for He it is who bears all things with the Word of His power. 3. He evinced himself to be the Son appointed to the inheritance, in that He left not the obstacles to be removed by a stranger; but became Himself the sacrifice, and made through Himself a purification of our sins.—The course of the Son of God from the bosom of the Father to His throne.—He has made by Himself the purification of our sins: 1. Without this mission and message all the attestations to His glory would be to us matter rather of terror than of joy; 2. but with the Word of His grace the recognition of His majesty becomes matter of at once weighty and delightful import: 3. The experience of the forgiveness of sins in His blood draws our hearts so that we delight to adore Him.

Starke: God always reserves the best unto the last. Although He may not give thee speedily what thou desirest, at last all will turn out good, Psalms 37:37; Habakkuk 2:3.—Christ obtains the inheritance for all those who adhere to Him. We are through Christ all children, and heirs of God. Are we then not sufficiently rich? I have but little in the world, and have but a small inheritance to leave behind me; yet I am not therefore sad. Though poor here I shall be abundantly rich in heaven, Romans 8:17.—Though the one only God has spoken formerly through the prophets to the fathers, and at last to us by His Son; yet, as there is only one God, has there been also but one religion, one faith, one worship, and one way to eternal bliss from the beginning of the world until now, Acts 15:11.—I adhere to Christ; He has all power. He knows what is my ability; I believe that He will help me always and everywhere, John 4:4.—Jesus exalted into heaven, and yet, as God and man, at all times present with His church on earth by virtue of inseparable, personal union. If he is there and here, then why so troubled, my heart? If thou diest, thou comest into heaven to Jesus. So long as thou livest, Jesus is with thee. Jesus, thy magnet, will finally draw thee wholly to Himself, John 17:24.—To dwell on the name of Christ is a blessed work, for one learns thus to know His great glory, John 17:3.

Heubner: We have here a comprehensive outline of all Christology: 1. what Christ is in Himself: 2. what He is to us; Revealer of God, Ransomer of sinners; 3. into what condition He is exalted.—How important is it to have a genuine, Scriptural, adequate conception of Christ! The more value we attach to Christ, so much the more value do we attach to His Word; so much the more sacred He becomes as an example; so much the more power issues forth from Him; so much the more unlimited is the confidence which we can repose in Him.

[Owen: All the glorious perfections of the nature of God do belong unto, and dwell in, the person of the Son. Were it not so, He could not gloriously represent unto us the person of the Father; nor by the contemplation of Him could we be led to an acquaintance with the person of the Father. The whole manifestation of the nature of God unto us, and all communications of grace, are immediately by and through the person of the Son. He represents Him unto us; and through Him is everything that is communicated unto us from the fulness of the Deity conveyed.]

Footnotes:

Hebrews 1:1; Hebrews 1:1.—ἐπ’ ἐσχάτου instead of ἐσχάτων after Cod. Sin. A. B. D. E. K. L. M.

[2] Hebrews 1:3.—Sin. omitting ἡμῶν has τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ποιησ., the order which after A. B. D. E. M. has been prevalent since Bengel. A later hand has added ἠμῶν in the Sin.

Hebrews 1:4.—κρείττων, mightier than, superior to.—γενόμενος, becoming, not being made, by which γιγνομαι, ἐγενοίμην should rarely be rendered when applied to persons, though they may be when applied to things.—κεκληρονόμηκεν, hath inherited.—K.]

[3] [Hebrews 1:1.—πολυμερῶς in many parts, or portions (μείρομαι, divide, μέρος, a part), not, at sundry times, (which may follow as a fact) but as it were fragmentarily, by piece-meal. Πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως emphatically and sonorously open the majestic sentence—λαλήσας after speaking, or having spoken. Though the Eng. Perfect is not strictly the proper rendering of the Aor. participle, it is not unfrequently, though by no means uniformly, and, I think, not commonly, the best English equivalent for it,—ἐν, in, with Owen, Alt., de Wette, Moll, &c., is taken, in its proper signification of in. Unless perhaps sometimes by a Hebraistic use, it should so be always taken, although the Eng. idiom sometimes requires a different rendering. But not so here. Owen: “The certainty of the revelation and the presence of God with His word are intimated in the expression,”—ἐπ’ ἐσχάτου better taken as neuter=in the closing period of these days,—ἐλάλησεν, spake, (not, hath spoken) viz., historically when Christ appeared as Messiah,—ἐν υἱῷ, in one who was Son: the absence of the article turning the attention from the individual to the character.

Hebrews 1:2.—The position of ἐποίησεν immediately after καί, was recommended by Griesb., after A. B. D*. D***. E. M., is approved by Lachmann and Tischendorf, and confirmed by Cod. Sin. [This reading emphasizes the ἐποιήσεν.].

Hebrews 1:2.—ὃν ἔθηκε, whom he appointed, Aor. pointing, as ἐλάλησεν, above, to the historical act.—καὶ ἐποίησεν, he also made, implying the naturalness of making Him heir of the universe who had been the agent of His power in making it.

[4] Hebrews 1:3.—δἰ ἑαυτοῦ before καθαρισμόν is cancelled by Bleek, de Wette, Lachm., Tischendorf, Alford, but readmitted by Tisch. VII., and Reiche (Comm. Crit. 6) after D * * *. and nearly all the minusc.; but is wanting in Sin., as in A. B. D**. The Uffenbach Uncial fragment (Tisch. Anecdota Sacra et Profana, p. 177) reads τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυνάμεως, δἰ ἑαυτοῦ καθαρισμὸν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ποιῃσάμενος.

Hebrews 1:3.—ἀπαύγασμα, radiant image—ὑπόστασις, not person, but substantia, substance.—φέρων, bearing, τῷ ῥήματι, by the utterance, mandate—ποιησάμενος, after making for himself, Aor. Med. implying the completion of the act in His own person.

[5][True indeed, Jelf, (Gr. Gram. 3 Ed. 1861) gives Vol. II. § 622, examples of ἐν “applied to persons viewed as instrumental agents.” Herod. ix. 48 ψευσθῆνοι ἐν ὑμῖν, to be deceived by (lit. in) you: Thucyd. vii. 8 : So Gr. Test. Matthew 9:34, ἐν τῷ ἄρχοντι τῶν δαιμόνων, to cast out, etc. by the ruler of the devils: Acts 17:31, ἐν ανδρὶ κρίνειν, to judge by the man, etc. Still it may be doubted if in these cases the departure from the proper force of ἐν is not more apparent than real, and here to suppose such departure is by no means necessary; and I incline with Moll to regard the author’s conception, not as that of God’s speaking by the prophets and His Son, but in them.—K.].