Hebrews 1:1-9

1 God having spoken in many parts and in many ways formerly [a] to the fathers in the prophets,
2 at the end [b] of these days has spoken to us in [the person of the] [c] Son, whom he has established heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; [d]
3 who being [the] effulgence [e] of his glory and [the] expression of his substance, [f] and upholding all things by the word of his [g] power, having made [h] [by himself] the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high,
4 taking a place by so much better than the angels, as he inherits a name more excellent than they.
5 For to which of the angels said he ever, *Thou* art my Son: this day have *I* begotten thee? [i] and again, *I* will be to him for father, and *he* shall be to me for son? [j]
6 and again, when he brings [k] in the firstborn into the habitable world, he says, And let all God's angels worship him. [l]
7 And as to the angels he says, Who makes his angels spirits and his ministers [m] a flame of fire; [n]
8 but as to the Son, Thy throne, O God, [is] to the age of the age, and a sceptre of uprightness [is] the sceptre of thy kingdom.
9 Thou hast loved righteousness and hast hated lawlessness; therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee with oil of gladness above thy companions. [o]

Footnotes 15

  • [a]. Or 'of old.'
  • [b]. See Isa. 2.2. A Hebrew expression, as several here, for the end of the period of law, when Messiah was to be introduced.
  • [c]. Lit. 'in Son.' The absence of the Greek article here is important, though difficult to render in English; the result is, that God, speaking in the prophets, and using them as his mouth, is clearly distinct: 'in Son' is not exactly 'as Son,' because that would be the character of the speaking, yet is perhaps the nearest to an adequate expression. It is God himself who speaks; not by another; not as the Father nor in the person of the Father; not merely by the Holy Spirit using a person not divine, but as himself a divine person, and that person the Son.
  • [d]. A Jewish expression, meaning 'the universe.'
  • [e]. That which fully presents the glory which is in something else. Thus light makes us know what the sun is; the tabernacle, what the pattern in the mount was.
  • [f]. Clearly 'substance,' 'essential being,' not 'person.' It is of God, not of the Father.
  • [g]. That is, his own, the Son's.
  • [h]. The form (middle) of the verb here, has a peculiar reflexive force, 'having done it for himself.' Though we, as alone the sinners, have the profit, yet the work was done within his own person and work, without us, as when a man journeys, and so when he makes a person his friend, his wife.
  • [i]. See Ps. 2.7.
  • [j]. See 1Chron. 17.13.
  • [k]. The present tense in English gives the sense of the aorist here. The reference is to Ps. 97, where he is just coming in, in his kingdom glory; but, in a certain sense, he must be there to be worshipped. His introduction is antecedent to his worship as firstborn, but it is on introducing him that this follows (hence the aorist), not when his whole introducing is a past thing. The glory of the person of Christ is before the writer, not the time of introducing. I have no doubt that the translation I give is the only right one.
  • [l]. See Ps. 97.7: 'worship' is proskuneo.
  • [m]. Leitourgos. See Note k, to Rom. 15.16. 'Ministering' in ver. 14 is from the same root.
  • [n]. See Ps. 104.4.
  • [o]. Metochos: see Note q, ch. 2.14: and Ps. 45.6,7.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.