Heinrich Meyer Commentary - Hebrews 1:8 - 1:9

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Heinrich Meyer Commentary - Hebrews 1:8 - 1:9


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Heb_1:8-9 derived from Psa_45:7-8 (6, 7). The psalm is an epithalamium, a wedding-song. But even by Rabbins like Aben Esra, Kimchi, and others, it is Messianically interpreted.

Heb_1:8. The nominative ὁ θεός is taken by our author in the sense of the vocative (comp. e.g. Col_3:18 ff.; Luk_8:54; Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 172; Kühner, II. p. 155), thus as an apostrophe to the Messiah.[38] In the Hebrew words: ëÌÄñÀàÂêÈ àÁìÉäÄéí òå ̇ ìÈí åÈòÆã , àÁìÉäÄéí is not vocative, but to be translated either after the analogy of Lev_26:42 ( åÀæÈëÇøÀúÌÄé àÆúÎáÌÀøÄéúÄé éÇòÂ÷å ̇ á , I will remember my Jacob’s-covenant, i.e. the covenant made by me with Jacob), with Bleek, de Wette, and Kurtz: “thy throne of God,” i.e. “thy divine throne;” or, with Ewald (ad loc. and Gramm. § 547): “thy throne is (throne) of God or divine.” The Greek ὁ θεός , too, it has been thought by Grimm (Theol. Literaturbl. to the Darmstadt Allg. Kirch.-Zeit. 1857, No. 29, p. 662) and Ewald (das Sendschr. an d. Hebr. p. 55), ought not to be explained in the sense of a vocative. According to Grimm, the words are to be taken in the acceptation: “Thy throne, i.e. the foundation of Thy throne, is God;” according to Ewald, they say that “the throne of the Messiah for everlasting ages is God Himself, so that where He reigns, there God Himself is virtually ever present.” But the argument urged by Grimm in favour of this construction—that, since Philo, as frequently also the Christian Alexandrians, makes a sharp distinction between ὁ θεός (with the article) as a designation of God, and θεός (without an article) as designation of the Logos, it is hardly to be regarded as probable that a man of Alexandrian culture, like our author, would have called Christ as to His divine nature Ὁ ΘΕΌς —would have had weight only if that designation, in place of being met with in a citation, had occurred in our author’s own discourse.

ΕἸς ΤῸΝ ΑἸῶΝΑ ΤΟῦ ΑἸῶΝΟς ] sc. ἐστίν . So LXX., Cod. Alex.; Cod. Vatican.: εἰς αἰῶνα αἰῶνος . The same (merely Hellenistic) formula, strengthening the simple εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα (Heb_5:6, and often), also Tob. 2:18; Psa_83:18, al. In independent discourse the author uses in place thereof ΕἸς ΤῸ ΔΙΗΝΕΚΈς . Comp. Heb_7:3, Heb_10:1, Heb_12:14.

ῬΆΒΔΟς ΕὐΘΎΤΗΤΟς ] a sceptre of uprightness, i.e. of righteousness. εὐθύτης , in the N. T. only here; but comp. LXX. Psa_9:9; Psa_67:5; Psa_96:10; Psa_98:9. Comp. also Aeschylus, Persae, ver. 1:726 f. (according to the division in Hartung’s edition, Leipzig 1853):

[38] Against the peculiar opinion of Hofmann (Schriftbew. I. p. 168 f. 2 Aufl.), that, vv. 8, 9, it is not Christ who is addressed; that, on the contrary, the author of the epistle leaves it to the reader “to take the words: ὁ θρόνος σου ὁ θεός , as an address to Jehovah, or with a right understanding of the connection ëÌÄñÀàÂêÈ àÁìÉäÄéí as an address to the king, the anointed of Jehovah,” see Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 286, Remark.

ἝΝʼ ἌΝΔΡʼ ἉΠΆΣΗς ἈΣΊΔΟς ΜΗΛΟΤΡΌΦΟΥ

ταγεῖν , ἔχοντα σκῆπτρον εὐθυντήριον .