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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Hebrews 1:2 - 1:2
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
In these last times (ἐπ' ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων)
Lit. at the last of these days. The exact phrase only here; but comp 1Pe 1:20 and Jud 1:18. lxx, ἐπ' ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν at the last of the days, Num 24:14; Deu 4:30; Jer 23:20; Jer 25:18; Dan 10:14. The writer conceives the history of the world in its relation to divine revelation as falling into two great periods. The first he calls αἱ ἡμέραι αὗται these days (Heb 1:2), and ὀ καιρὸς ὁ ἐνεστηκώς the present season (Heb 9:9). The second he describes as καιρὸς διορθώσεως the season of reformation (Heb 9:10), which is ὀ καιρὸς ὁ μέλλων the season to come: comp. ἡ οἰκουμένη ἡ μέλλουσα the world to come (Heb 2:5); μέλλων αἰών the age to come (Heb 6:5); πόλις ἡ μέλλουσα the city to come (Heb 12:14). The first period is the period of the old covenant; the second that of the new covenant. The second period does not begin with Christ's first appearing. His appearing and public ministry are at the end of the first period but still within it. The dividing-point between the two periods is the συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος the consummation of the age, mentioned in Heb 9:26. This does not mean the same thing as at the last of these days (Heb 1:2), which is the end of the first period denoted by these days, but the conclusion of the first and the beginning of the second period, at which Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. This is the end of the καιρὸς ἐνεστηκώς the present season: this is the limit of the validity of the old sacrificial offerings: this is the inauguration of the time of reformation. The phrase ἐπ' ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων therefore signifies, in the last days of the first period, when Christ was speaking on earth, and before his crucifixion, which marked the beginning of the second period, the better age of the new covenant.
Hath spoken unto us (ἐλάλησεν ἡμῖν)
Rend. spake, referring to the time of Christ's teaching in the flesh. To us God spake as to the fathers of old.
By his son (ἐν υἱῷ)
Lit. in a son. Note the absence of the article. Attention is directed, not to Christ's divine personality, but to his filial relation. While the former revelation was given through a definite class, the prophets, the new revelation is given through one who is a son as distinguished from a prophet. He belongs to another category. The revelation was a son-revelation. See Heb 2:10-18. Christ's high priesthood is the central fact of the epistle, and his sonship is bound up with his priesthood. See Heb 5:5. For a similar use of υἱός son without the article, applied to Christ, see Heb 3:6; Heb 5:8; Heb 7:28.
Whom he hath appointed heir of all things (ὃν ἔθηκεν κληρονόμον πάντων)
For ἔθηκεν appointed, see on Joh 15:16. For κληρονόμος heir, see on inheritance, 1Pe 1:4; and comp. on Christ as heir, Mar 12:1-12. God eternally predestined the Son to be the possessor and sovereign of all things. Comp. Psa 89:28. Heirship goes with sonship. See Rom 8:17; Gal 4:7. Christ attained the messianic lordship through incarnation. Something was acquired as the result of his incarnation which he did not possess before it, and could not have possessed without it. Equality with God was his birthright, but out of his human life, death, and resurrection came a type of sovereignty which could pertain to him only through his triumph over human sin in the flesh (see Heb 1:3), through his identification with men as their brother. Messianic lordship could not pertain to his preincarnate state: it is a matter of function, not of inherent power and majesty. He was essentially Son of God; he must become Son of man.
By whom also he made the worlds (δι' οὗ καὶ ἐποίησεν τοὺς αἰῶνας)
Διὰ commonly expresses secondary agency, but, in some instances, it is used of God's direct agency. See 1Co 1:1; 2Co 1:1; Gal 4:7. Christ is here represented as a mediate agency in creation. The phrase is, clearly, colored by the Alexandrian conception, but differs from it in that Christ is not represented as a mere instrument, a passive tool, but rather as a cooperating agent. “Every being, to reach existence, must have passed through the thought and will of the Logos” (Godet); yet “the Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father doing” (Joh 5:19). With this passage Col 1:16 should be studied. There it is said that all things, collectively (τὰ πάντα), were created in him (ἐν αὐτῷ) and through him (δι' αὐτοῦ as here). The former expression enlarges and completes the latter. Δι' αὐτοῦ represents Christ as the mediate instrument. Ἐν αὐτῷ indicates that “all the laws and purposes which guide the creation and government of the universe reside in him, the Eternal Word, as their meeting-point.” Comp. Joh 1:3; 1Co 8:6. For τοῦς αἰῶνας the worlds, see additional note on 2Th 1:9. Rend. for by whom also he made, by whom he also made. The emphasis is on made, not on worlds: on the fact of creation, not on what was created. In the writer's thought heirship goes with creation. Christ is heir of what he made, and because he made it. As πάντων, in the preceding clause, regards all things taken singly, αἰῶνας regards them in cycles. Ἀιῶνας does not mean times, as if representing the Son as the creator of all time and times, but creation unfolded in time through successive aeons. All that, in successive periods of time, has come to pass, has come to pass through him. Comp. 1Co 10:11; Eph 3:21; Heb 9:26; 1Ti 1:17; lxx, Tob. 13:6, 10; Ecc 3:11. See also Clement of Rome, Ad Corinth. xxxv, ὁ δημιουργὸς καὶ πατὴρ τῶν αἰώνων the Creator and Father of the ages. Besides this expression, the writer speaks of the world as κόσμος (Heb 4:3; Heb 10:5); ἡ οἰκουμένη (Heb 1:6), and τὰ πάντα (Heb 1:3).