Lesson 2: Hebrews 1:1-4
God Has Spoken
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
We persevere because God has spoken. In the past (and continuing into the present) God has spoken through prophets and angels as well as other messengers. And also God has spoken through a son who will inherit all things, a son who is the wisdom of God from teh beginning and became human in order to become a royal priest for our sakes.
Though the NRSV translation, like most, offer their translation in several sentences, the Greek text is one magnificent sentence. It is like a thesis statement. Its auricular impact with alliteration and other rhetorical devices escapes English readers. We miss the effect the original rhetoric would have had on its first readers. Nevertheless, the theological point is evident in English as well as Greek: God has spoken.
More specifically, God has spoken through the prophets and has, in these last days, spoken through a Son.
| Topic | Past | Present | Relation |
| Speech | God has spoken | God has spoken | Continuity |
| Era | In the past | In these last days | Contrast |
| Recipients | To our ancestors | To us | Contrast |
| Agents | Through the prophets | Through one who is son | Contrast |
| Manner | In various ways | Embodied presence | Contrast |
| Times | In various times | In a particular time | Contrast |
| Content | Redemption and Perseverance | Redemption and Perseverance | Continuity |
It is not that the God has spoken in the past and no longer speaks through prophets and in various ways. Rather, God has now also spoken through a Son (there is no article “the” before Son, though it is clear the preacher is describing a particular Son). There is no “but” in the Greek text of 1:1-4, which the NRSV and NIV among others provide at the beginning of verse 2. A conjunction is perhaps needed (though there is no conjunction in the KJV, CVS, NET), but it should be something like “and now” (NLT, or “but also”). It is a contrast between prophets and Son but not a contrast in the fact that God has spoken.
The content of the speech is not contrasted, but the means or mode of speaking is. God still speaks through the prophets (often quoted in Hebrews), and what the prophets spoke, the Son also speaks. It is the voice of God, the word of God through both the prophets and the Son. The message—the good news—is the same (Hebrews 4:2, 6). The message of the prophets and the Son does not stand in contrast but in typological continuity, fulfillment, or eschatological meaning. The preacher uses the Hebrew Bible to substantiate, expound, and ground the role of the Son. The Hebrew Bible, as the product of the prophets, speaks of the Son.
At the same time, even though the era, recipient, means, manner, and times are contrasted, there is still an assumed continuity. There is one people of God who has lived with God in history and heard the voice of God. This is a shared familial relationship. God has not changed, God has spoken, and continues to speak.
The contrast is in the particularity of the son’s message. The Son speaks in the “last days,” that is, at the end of the ages. He speaks to us in the present rather than prophets in the past. He is a son, not just a prophet. He spoke as an embodied person at a particular time during his ministry (Hebrews 2:1-4) rather than through dreams and visions in the past over a long period of time.
The preacher does not diminish what God said through the prophets. The contrast does not mean the rejection of what the prophets said or that there are no more prophets. Rather, it is about the wonder of the incarnation that God has now spoken through a son rather than through mere prophets. There is something climactic about this speech through a son; it has a finality as the criterion by which all the thoughts and intents of the heart are judged. It is spoken in the last days as an embodied presence. In effect, God has spoken in person in addition to speaking through prophets. God still speaks through the prophets, through the Spirit, and the climactic and full revelation of God is in a son, who is the heir of all things. Given that it is God’s own self-expression, the speech (revelation) of this son is the message that forms the criterion by which we discern the mystery of God in Christ.
This does not contradict the prophets or what God has earlier said but confirms it, fills it, and completes it. What God said in the past is true and is still true, and now we see it more clearly through the self-revelation of God by a son.
The contrast between prophets and son includes a contrast between the function of prophets and the function of a son. Both speak, but they are different. A prophet is God’s messenger who speaks the word of God and represents God among the people. The Son is a divine messenger who shares the nature of God and is the heir of all things. The person and work of the Son far exceeds the person and work of a prophet.
This son participates in both the divine and human natures. The description, it seems, applies to the exalted son, the one who “sat down” at the right hand of God. But some of the characteristics are also appropriate to the son as an eternal person while others are only true in terms of the exaltation. The point is the preacher describes a son who now sits at the right hand of God, and that one was both the agent of creation from the beginning and was made human for the sake of purification. He is both the heir from the beginning and in light of his exaltation. In sitting down, he becomes the fullness of all that God intended from the beginning.
The preacher’s description of this son begins with his status as heir of all things. This is the final status of this son but it also the intent from the beginning since the creation, according to Colossians, was made “by him and for him.” He inherits as son, the one who is exalted to the right hand of the father.
This Son. . .
| Divine | Human |
| appointed heir of all things | |
| through whom God created the worlds | |
| the radiance of God’s glory | |
| the exact imprint of God’s very being | |
| sustains all things by his powerful word | |
| having made purification for sins | |
| sat down at the right hand of [God] | |
| having become superior to the angels | |
| the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs | |
The preacher describes this son in divine terms. The Son is the agent of creation. The term is more literally “ages” rather than “worlds,” but it refers to the history of creation itself. The ages through which the creation has progressed are actualized through the work of the Son. He made the ages, the worlds, or the creation itself.
This son is the reflection (or better, radiance) of God’s glory. The Greek word is apaugasma, which only occurs here in the New Testament. And it occurs only once in the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek Bible of the early church in Wisdom 7:26: “For she is the brightness (apaugsama) of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness.” In the context, Wisdom is describing God’s wisdom, a personification of God’s agent in creation (much like Proverbs 8:22-31 uses Lady Wisdom in a similar way). God is never without God’s wisdom, and God’s wisdom is the means by which God created the world. The wisdom of God is the “radiance” or “brilliance” of God’s own glory, being, and presence. Glory is the revelation of God’s essence. God and the Son are intricately tied together.
This son is the imprint or exact representation of God’s being. He is the exact representation, the strict image, of God’s own essence. There is no distinction in their essence. He re-presents God’s very being. He is divine. In some ways, glory and being are overlapping synonyms in Hebraic thought, and in this way radiance and imprint reflect similar ideas. The upshot is that the very nature of the Son is divine and is intimately connected to God through that shared nature.
This son sustains (“bears”), just as the Son created, all things by “his word.” This refers to the son’s speech. The Son speaks and creation obeys. The creation is sustained by the speech of the son, his (the son’s) powerful word. This is often placed in the context of providence as God through the son governs the creation towards its goal and sustains the creation in its existence. He “bears” or “carryies” the creation itself. In effect, this son is the speech of God that originates, sustains, and brings the creation to its goal.
The preacher also describes this Son in human terms. His language assumes the incarnation of the son. When the son “made purification for sins,” he did so as High Priest. Through his incarnation, obedience, and sacrifice the son purified a people for God from their sins (Hebrews 9:11-14; 10:11-14).
Having made purification through sacrifice and entrance into the heavens as High Priest, this son set down at the right hand of God (cf. Hebrews 9:13-14, 22-23; 10:2, 22). This alludes to a major Hebrew text in this sermon, Psalm 110. This son, having made purification as priest, sat down at the right hand of God as king. This is union of king and priest into a royal priesthood. This son, through whom the worlds were created and by whom they are sustain, sits enthroned over the creation by virtue of having made purification for sins.
This Son, in terms of both his person and his name, is better (superior) to the angels. His person is radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being from before creation itself. His name (“Son”) is given to him in connection with his inheritance. The eternal Son inherits a name, which is “Son”. He is Son both in terms of an eternal relationship with God, and he is also Son in terms of his incarnation and subsequent exaltation to the right hand of God.
“Better” or “more excellent” is a common word in Hebrews (thirteen times; only six other places in the NT):
- better than angels, 1:4;
- more than Moses, 3:3;
- better gifts than the present, 6:9;
- betters bless inferiors, 7:7;
- better hope, 7:19;
- better covenant, 7:22 and 8:6;
- better promises, 8:6;
- better sacrifices, 9:23;
- better possessions, 10:34;
- better country (heavenly one), 11:16;
- better resurrection, 11:35;
- provided something better to perfect us, 11:40;
- better blood than Abel, 12:24).
It is important to remember that this is not “better” in contrast to “bad” or “evil,” but better in contrast to good. What is better is more than the other rather than saying something was wrong with the other. It is a qualitative such that it identifies something superior. Typically, the contrast is more like what is temporal or finite in contrast to what is eternal or everlasting. It is not a contrast between what is material and what is spiritual since the incarnate son is material and gives everlasting life to materiality through his resurrection body.
Why contrast the Son to angels? Is it because someone was worshipping angels? Or that the preacher was responding to an angelic Christology (as in, Jesus was just another angel or even a high ranking angel). There is little to no evidence in Hebrews for either of those alternatives. Rather, the angels are messengers like the prophets, and the angels mediated the Torah spoken by the prophets. The Torah was delivered by angels at Mt. Sinai (Acts 7:38-39; Gal. 3:19, which is a common tradition in Jewish Second Temple literature). In other words, the Son is superior to the other messengers, whether prophets or angels.
So, to whom does creation belong? Who is the heir of creation? It is given to this son rather than to the angels. But why? We have already been given the answer: this son is heir of the cosmos because he is the eternal one who through his incarnational priesthood has been crowned as king. That is not the place of the angels; it belongs to this Son.