Hebrews 1 Footnotes

1:2 The writer of Hebrews did not wrongly place us in the “last days.” This verse speaks of God’s revelation of himself. In times past God spoke to the fathers by the prophets, but in these “last days”—the Messianic Age—God has revealed himself in Christ. Jesus inaugurated the “last days,” which stretch between his first coming and his second. We are in the last days and will be so until Christ returns. This period of time is also the age of the Spirit (of Jesus) in which he abundantly works and ministers.

Some object to this verse by saying that one cannot be an “heir” unless someone dies, and that therefore, if Jesus is an heir, God must be dead. But this neglects the fact that in the first century an inheritance could be passed on to an heir well before the benefactor’s death.

1:8 Some skeptics argue that this verse, which addresses Jesus as “O God,” contradicts Jn 8:40 and Ac 17:31 which say that Jesus was a man. Such objections, however, miss the fact that Scripture teaches the concept of the “hypostatic union”—that Jesus is both fully God and fully man.

1:10 Some have claimed that if God “established the earth,” as this verse states, it must not move. But that is false. As the writer of Hebrews maintained that Christ is superior to the angels, he used Ps 102:25 and the metaphor of a foundation to describe Christ’s founding of the earth. Like other biblical writers, the author of Hebrews described things as they appeared to him.

1:11 Skeptics wrongly see a contradiction between this verse, which says that the earth will perish, and Ps 78:69 and Ec 1:4, which say that it will last forever. However, in Ec 1:3 the Teacher discussed the futility and vanity of humanity’s endeavors: “What does a person gain for all his efforts that he labors at under the sun?” The author continued this theme in Ec 1:4, where he viewed the earth entirely from a human perspective. In the course of life he saw the earth as abiding forever because that was how it seemed to him. Ps 78:69 was written from a similar standpoint. This verse in Hebrews, however, is different. Like 2Pt 3:10, it teaches that the earth will indeed perish before the new heavens and a new earth are made (see 2Pt 3:13).