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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Hebrews 1:7 - 1:7
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Fourth quotation, Psa 103:4, varies slightly from lxx in substituting a flame of fire for flaming fire.
Who maketh his angels spirits (ὁ ποιῶν τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ πνεύματα)
For spirits rend. winds This meaning is supported by the context of the Psalm, and by Joh 3:8. Πνεῦμα often in this sense in Class. In lxx, 1Ki 18:45; 1Ki 19:11; 2Ki 3:17; Job 1:19. Of breath in N.T., 2Th 2:8; Rev 11:11. In Hebrew, spirit and wind are synonymous. The thought is according to the rabbinical idea of the variableness of the angelic nature. Angels were supposed to live only as they ministered. Thus it was said: “God does with his angels whatever he will. When he wishes he makes them sitting: sometimes he makes them standing: sometimes he makes them winds, sometimes fire.” “The subjection of the angels is such that they must submit even to be changed into elements.” “The angel said to Manoah, 'I know not to the image of what I am made; for God changes us each hour: wherefore then dost thou ask my name? Sometimes he makes us fire, sometimes wind.”' The emphasis, therefore, is not on the fact that the angels are merely servants, but that their being is such that they are only what God makes them according to the needs of their service, and are, therefore, changeable, in contrast with the Son, who is ruler and unchangeable. There would be no pertinency in the statement that God makes his angels spirits, which goes without saying. The Rabbis conceived the angels as perishable. One of them is cited as saying, “Day by day the angels of service are created out of the fire. stream, and sing a song, and disappear, as is said in Lam 3:23, 'they are new every morning.'” For λειτουργοὺς ministers, see on ministration, Luk 1:23, and see on ministered, Act 13:2.