Hebrews Chapter 1

Some people may wonder why I enjoy the study of customs and mannerisms that I do.

This morning I was reading in the book of Hebrews and there are things that if you don't understand this area of study as well as some of the law it will be meaningless to you. Now Hebrews was written to the Hebrew Christians. In fact it is no one knows who wrote the book of Hebrews.

Like other sections if you don't understand how the Hebrews lived you miss truths that are sitting there for you to understand. We are coming up on the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and there are things that become meaningless if you don't understand them in light of the how the Hebrews lived. I will give you one example which many of you already know.

Mat 27:50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

When Jesus died there was an earthquake which ripped the veil of the temple. That veil is what separated the holy of holies from the rest of the temple. This is where God resided in the temple. One man once a year entered this area He would have a rope tied around him so if he happened to die they could pull him out otherwise the body would have to remain there till the next year when the next person entered.

This is the sort of thing that as John Lynn might say fried the brain cells of the religious Jews.

They had around a 1000 years of this separation and now because of what Jesus had done it was gone, he was the bridge between God and man.

I want to go over some of the book of Hebrews. This will take much more than just one teaching because of the length of Hebrews. Chapters 11 and 12 could be a whole teaching in and of themselves.

All scriptures are quoted from the REV unless otherwise stated.

Hebrews Chapter 1  

1 God, having from old time spoken to the Fathers through the prophets in many times and in many ways,

The fathers normally refers to the early founders of Israel but here it has a general meaning. Those who came before us might be a good way to handle this.

The preposition en here is translated through which is probably the best way of translating this word. It could also be”by way of”.

We also have two words used in this verse that are only used once in the Word of God. Many times these are compound words that Paul put together.

polutropōs

G4181

polumerōs

pol-oo-mer'-oce

Adverb from a compound of G4183 and G3313; in many portions, that is, variously as to time and agency (piecemeal): - at sundry times.

Total KJV occurrences: 1

The Greek root word is polys Which means many. And the suffix is meros which means a portion or a part.

G4187

pol-oot-rop'-oce

Adverb from a compound of G4183 and G5158; in many ways, that is, variously as to method or form: - in divers manners.

Total KJV occurrences: 1

Again this is a compound word again polys means many and meros meaning a part or a portion.

This is how the NASB translates this verse

Hebrews 1:1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

From the Online Etymology Dictionary

portion (v.) Look up portion at Dictionary.com "to divide in portions," early 14c., from Old French porcioner "share out, divide in portions," from porcion (see portion (n.)). Related: Portioned; portioning. portion

(n.) Look up portion at Dictionary.com early 14c., "allotted part, share," from Old French porcion "part, portion" (12c., Modern French portion) and directly from Latin portionem (nominative portio) "share, part," accusative of the noun in the phrase pro portione "according to the relation (of parts to each other)" (see proportion). From late 14c. in general sense of "section into which something is divided."

Etymology is the study of word definitions over the years including slang. The best example of this is getting stoned in the bible is far different from what we generally mean when we say he got stoned today.

Proselyte converts were looked down on like the Samaritans half breeds at best.

If you think that the Judean were haughty you are correct. These people were suppose to be priests to the nations (gentiles) by the first covenant God made with Israel. Instead they thought themselves better than anyone else because they were descendants of Abraham who was a gentile himself. It was not available to be a Jew till the time of Abraham's  grandchildren.

No one ever got all the information. Remember it says the mystery or a better translation secret, it was hid in God and there was no hint of the joint heir idea in the Hebrew scriptures or the body of christ.

Again it fried their brain cells when revealed.

The Jews thought of the gentiles as dogs.

2 has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he has given form to the Ages,

This word world or universe should be translated age or ages as it is in the REV. Many translate it world or universe KJV, ESV, NASB, HCSB, AIPE, GNB, ect. Aion is a time word not a place word.

3 who is the reflection of his glory, and the exact representation of his nature, and is upholding all things by his powerful word.

After he had accomplished the cleansing for sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,

“reflection of his glory.” For more information on the image of God, see commentary on Genesis 1:27.  

“powerful word.” The Greek text reads, “word of his power,” which, by putting both “word” and “power” in the sentence as nouns emphasizes them both equally (nouns usually have more emphasis grammatically than adjectives). However, it makes the English translation more difficult to understand. The genitive noun “power” has the effect of an adjective, thus we, and many versions, have “powerful word.”

Bullinger translates Reflection of his glory as “an exact impression of his substance”
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Whatever God is Jesus Christ was. If you saw Jesus you knew what God looked like, how he would have acted, what he would have done in that circumstance. That however does not mean Jesus was God anymore than I am Clarence Chamberlain who was my dad. We are different in some ways but very similar in many ways. I remember saying to my sister that I hated to go shopping and she answered me by saying now listen dad. He thought of shopping the same way I do. You decide what you need you go to one store and find it the buy it and go home. No need to go to another store just buy it and go save time energy and even if it’s cheaper someplace else my time is more valuable than whatever small amount of money I might save. That is how my dad felt about it that is how I feel about it. Now Jesus Christ dad was God so he always did what God wanted him to. I never managed to get that completely right with my dad but he wasn’t God so there were times when he may have been wrong. Jesus never had to be concerned with that because his dad was always 100% correct.

This is where it gets to me that they thought it ended, but they continued the verse into the next paragraph.

After he had accomplished the cleansing for sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much better than the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

“having become as much better than the angels.” The entire opening section of Hebrews, usually used to show that Christ is God, actually shows just the opposite. After Christ sat down at the right hand of God, “he became as much better than the angels” as his name is better than theirs. “God” has always been superior to the angels. If Christ only became better than angels after his resurrection, then he cannot be the eternal God. Furthermore, it is sometimes taught that before his birth, Jesus was an angel or referred to as “the angel of the Lord.” Hebrews 1:4-5, 13 clearly refute this.

So many try to say well there is the trinity. That word never is in the bible anyplace just the same as God the Son is never in the bible anyplace. These are terms made up by men. Around the 3rd or 4th century. There is no indication of this in the Hebrew or the Greek scriptures. Oh by the way did you know we are gods?

Psalms 82:6

I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.

The word god’s is plural not possessive. All through the bible certain words are used in this fashion. The word Lord can mean a person of authority If it’s LORD it means God sometimes it is not even the word Yhwh it is the word adown and many times should not be capitalized. When Thomas said to Jesus
John 20:28

And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my god.

The word God should be lowercase not upper. Thomas was just showing Jesus respect of his authority.  

5 For to which of the angels did he say at any time, You are my Son; today I have become your Father? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he will be to me a Son?

This is a gnome a quote from the Hebrew scriptures Check Psalm 2:7.

Now many times in the Hebrew scriptures it uses the phrase son of God or sons of God.

Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.

Daniel 3:25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.

Both of those times it is using an idiom meaning angels not Jesus Christ. You will find this a few times in the Hebrew scriptures.

2 Samuel 7:14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:

6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the inhabited world, he says, And let all the angels of God pay him homage.

Here it is from the ESV

And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”

Remember you have to read what is written. This is not talking about when Christ was born it is talking about the the resurrection. His second birth if you will. This is the same thing that will happen to us should the Lord tarry for 10,000 years

7 And of the angels he says, He makes his angels as winds, and his ministers as a flaming fire,e

This is a quote from Psalm 104:4 again this is from the ESV:

he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.

“angels as winds.” The point of this verse is to elevate the Son. The angels of God are swift as the wind, strong as a fire, but they pay homage to the son (verse 6).

The “feel” of the verse is that angels are beings whom we should hold in awe, but they are subject to the Son. In the Old Testament both wind and fire were ways that God revealed Himself, and as well as angels being quick and powerful, they reveal God.  This is the only time in the New Testament when the Greek word pneuma (#4151 πνεῦμα) is translated “wind.” Pneuma can mean “wind,” and often does so in the Greek writings, but it is not used that way in the New Testament except here. The reason for the translation “wind” is that this verse is a quotation from the Old Testament. The Old Testament uses the word ruach, which can mean “spirit,” “breath,” or “wind,” to refer to the wind on many different occasions (cp. Gen. 8:1; Exod. 10:19; 1 Kings 18:45), so it is not at all unusual that it would refer to the wind in Psalm 104. The translation “wind” seems clearly to be the correct one.

8but of the Son he says, Your throne, O god, is for ever and ever, and the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

Here in verse 8 it is correct by not capitalizing the word god. It should be lower case as it is talking about Jesus. You have to go back to the example of Joseph and Pharaoh. Joseph was never the Pharaoh  he just represented the the Pharaoh in all that he did so Pharaoh could go to the batting cages and get ready for the baseball season.

9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness rather than your companions.

This is a quote from Psalm 47:5,6 which you should check out sometime.

10 And, You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands.

Again a quote from the Hebrew scriptures In fact vs 9-13 are all quotes from the Hebrew scriptures. I will list the quotes and you can check them for yourselves. This one I also want to present from the commentary.

“And, You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands.” This verse is quoted from the Old Testament (Ps. 102:25), but it is modified somewhat. In the Old Testament it applied to Yahweh, but the author of Hebrews lifted it from the Psalms and applied it to Jesus Christ. Sometimes God lifts Old Testament verses from their original context and modifies them to fit a new context.  

One modification is that the opening, “in the beginning” in the Greek text of the New Testament, is “from of old” in the Hebrew Old Testament. The Hebrew text does not make a reference to a beginning, as the Greek seems to, although the Greek could be translated something such as “from the first,” instead of “in the beginning.” But Hebrews uses Psalm 102:25 very differently than it is used in the Old Testament.  

A good example of God lifting a verse from the Old Testament and using it differently in the New Testament is Psalm 2:7. Psalm 2:7 reads, “I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, You are My son. Today I have become your father” (New European Version). In Psalm 2:7, the Messiah is called the “Son” when he comes into his kingdom, that is, when he takes his full authority in the household of God and takes over the actual rulership of the world. So the Messiah becoming the “Son” is not at his conception or birth, but at a much later (and still future) time. Thus in Psalm 2:7 the word “Son” is describing the relationship that the Messiah has with the Father as a fully developed Son, participating in ruling the house.  

Once we understand that “Son” in Psalm 2:7 is describing a relationship between the Father and Son, we can see why Psalm 2:7 is used the ways it is in the New Testament. Some Western texts of Luke 3:22 quote Psalm 2:7, making Jesus become the “Son” at his baptism, when he receives God’s gift of holy spirit, takes on his ministry, and begins a new and very interactive relationship with the Father (however, the original text of Luke 3:22 likely did not quote Psalm 2:7). Then, Acts 13:44 quotes Psalm 2:7 in the context of Jesus’ resurrection, making Jesus become the “Son” when God raised him from the dead and he began a whole new relationship with the Father. Then Hebrews 1:5 quotes Psalm 2:7 in the context of the ascension (cp. Heb. 1:3), making Jesus become the “Son” when he actually sat down at God’s right hand and began still another new relationship with the Father. So we see that Psalm 2:7 is used differently in the New Testament than in the Old Testament, but each time it is quoted, the context makes clear what God is trying to communicate. Other Old Testament verses that are used in the New Testament in a modified way include: Matthew 2:18 (Jer. 31:15); Ephesians 4:8 (Ps. 68:18); and 1 Peter 2:9 (Exod. 23:22; cp. Exod. 19:5-6; Isa. 43:20-21);  

Like Psalm 2:7 is modified in the New Testament, Psalm 102:25 is modified when it is quoted in Hebrews 1:10. For one thing, the subject of the verse changes from Yahweh (Old Testament) to Jesus Christ (New Testament). Since the subject of the verse changes, it seems logical that the action being attributed to the subject changes also. Many Old Testament verses testify that God created the original heavens and the earth (cp. Gen. 1:1, etc.). However, both the Old Testament and New Testament tell us that there will be a new heavens and earth after this one, that we are currently inhabiting, passes away. In fact, there will be two more. First the heaven and earth of Jesus’ 1000 year Millennial Kingdom, which will perish (Isa. 65:17; Rev. 20:1-10), and then the heaven and earth of Revelation 21:1-22:21, which will last forever. The context reveals clearly that Hebrews 1:10 is speaking of these future heavens and earth.  

If we simply continue to read Hebrews, remembering that the original text had no chapter breaks, Scripture tells us, “It is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking” (Heb. 2:5). This verse is very clear. The subject of this section of Hebrews is not the current heavens and earth, which God created, but the future heavens and earth, that the Son will oversee. The reader must remember that the word “beginning” does not have to apply to the absolute beginning of time, but rather the beginning of something the author is referring to (see commentary on John 6:64).  

Although we believe the above explanation to be the correct one, we must point out that there are theologians who read Hebrews 1:10 and see it as a reference to the Father. Verse 10 starts with the word “and” in the Greek text, so verse 9 and 10 are conjoined. Since verse 9 ends with, “Your God has set you [the Christ] above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy,” these theologians see the reference to “the Lord” in the beginning of verse 10 as a reference back to the God last mentioned, i.e., the Father. Andrews Norton explains this point of view:

Now the God last mentioned was Christ’s God, who had anointed him; and the author [of the book of Hebrews], addressing himself to this God, breaks out into the celebration of his power, and especially his unchangeable duration; which he dwells upon in order to prove the stability of the Son’s kingdom…i.e., thou [God] who hast promised him such a throne, art he who laid the foundation of the earth. So it seems to be a declaration of God’s immutability made here, to ascertain the durableness of Christ’s kingdom, before mentioned; and the rather so, because this passage had been used originally for the same purpose in the 102nd Psalm, viz. [Author uses KJV] To infer thence this conclusion, “The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed be established before Thee. In like manner, it here proves the Son’s throne should be established forever and ever, by the same argument, viz., by God’s immutability” (Andrews Norton, A Statement of Reasons for Not Believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians Concerning the Nature of God and the Person of Christ. Nabu Public Domain Reprints. Originally: Boston, Hilliard, Gray, and Co., Boston. 1833, pp. 150, 151).  

In the way that it is used in the Old Testament, theologians such as Norton say that the verse shows how the unchanging God can indeed fulfill His promises, and they see it used in exactly the same way in Hebrews. Their conclusion is that since God created the heavens and the earth, and since He will not pass away, He is fit to promise an everlasting kingdom to His Son.  In contrast, authors who believe that the verse refers to the Son include: James Broughton and Peter Southgate, The Trinity: True or False (The Dawn Book Supply, Nottingham, England, 1995); Anthony Buzzard and Charles Hunting, The Trinity: Christianity’s Self-Inflicted Wound (International Scholars Publication, New York, 1998); Patrick Navas, Divine Truth or Human Tradition? (Authorhouse,They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.

11 They will perish, but you continue on, and they will all grow old as does a garment,

Psalm 102;26

From the NIV: They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.

12 and you will roll them up like a cloak, and they will be changed like a garment. But you are the same, and your years will not fail.

Psalm 102:26,27

From the NIV: 26 They will perish, but you remain;

they will all wear out like a garment.

Like clothing you will change them

and they will be discarded.

27 But you remain the same,

and your years will never end.

What a promise we are not going to end up like old clothing tossed away we will be the Lords forever more.

13 But to which of the angels has he said at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?

Psalm 110:1 1 The Lord says to my lord:a

“Sit at my right hand

until I make your enemies

a footstool for your feet.”

This is where the mistaken idea that Jesus Christ was an angel in the Hebrew scriptures because of it saying “which of the angels”.

14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are about to inherit salvation?

“for the sake of.” The Greek is dia with the accusative, meaning for the sake of, on account of. A number of modern versions have translated this verse as, “sent to serve those who will inherit salvation” (NIV), but that is not quite accurate. It is not that angels serve Christians, as if we could tell angels what to do. Angels serve God for the sake of Christians, which the preposition makes clear.

I have a group of friends and we have started asking for angelic help where God thinks it is necessary.  It is not our place to tell God what to do but we can always ask for this kind of help if God thinks it necessary. We are supposed to ask God for help in all kinds of situations.