Hebrews 1

Hebrews 1:1

God, which used formerly several steps or degrees, and likewise several ways and means of revealing to men the things to come, delivering them out in portions, not all together, and that sometimes by visions or by dreams, sometimes by the oracle, sometimes by the coming of his Spirit upon the prophets, and sometimes by voice from heaven,

Hebrews 1:2

In this latter age of the world hath sent his Son out of his bosom, the eternal Son of God, to exercise this office, to take our human nature upon him,

Hebrews 1:3

Who being the means of reflecting to us the sight of him who is otherwise invisible, John i. 18, and having perfect dominion over all, and accordingly administering all by his divine power, having by his death and resurrection done his part toward the justifying and sanctifying us, pardoning our sins, and reforming our wicked lives, he ascended to the right hand of his Father in heaven, there to sit, as having finished that part of his priestly office which consisted in sacrificing, to which they that were separated were appointed to stand before the Lord, Deut. x. 8, and there to reign, and as a king to defend his faithful servants and punish his enemies;

[a] upholding] The Hebrew אשי signifies two things, fero, “to bear,” and rego, “to rule;” and from the latter of them it is that נשאי is the ordinary word for a prince. Agreeably to this, φίρων, which is sometimes the rendering of the Hebrew אשי, as Num. xi. 14, Deut. i. 9, may accordingly signify to rule, to govern, διοικῶν, to administer, as a

e In Epist. p. 879.

[b] wearied] Κάμνειν is also an agonistical word, literally signifying to be tired, belonging to them that are worsted in any of those exercises (Νικῶντων γὰρ οὐκ ἔστι κάμνειν, saith Plutarch, it cannot be affirmed of the victors) to go out of the field like a wounded, or wearied, or worsted person. So when Coriolanus being wounded was admonished by his friends to retire, and cure his wounds, he answered, οὐ δεῖ νικῶντα κάμνειν, A conqueror ought not to retire, or subduce himself out of the field. And thus generally it signifies to give over fighting, ἀπείπειν and ἀπαγορεύειν in Phavorinus, to give over, to despair, and again ὀκνήσαι, to play the coward or runaway.

[c] faint in your minds] Ψυχαῖς ἐκλύεσθαι, and ἐκλύεσθαι simply, ver. 4, signifies in the same sense that κάμνειν, to turn coward or pusillanimous, such as whose souls within them fall away like water, dissolve; and it is spoken of those who give over the attempt as hopeless, fly disheartened, crest-fallen, out of the field, (ἀναπίπτοντες and ἀθυμούντες in Thucydides,) expressed again, ver. 12, by παρειμένας χεῖρας, the hands that hang down, which note the prælii detractatio, giving over the business, yielding, flying out of the field, confessing themselves conquered. So Ecclus. ii. 12, after the woe against them that trust not in the Lord, δειλαὶ καρδίαι, cowardly hearts, and χεῖρες παρειμέναι, the hands

Hebrews 1:4

And so is advanced to a superiority even over the angels themselves, which you may discern by the compellations that are bestowed on him, far higher than any that are bestowed on the angels:

Hebrews 1:5

As that of Son, in the second psalm, which though in some sense it belong to David, yet is by the Jews themselves acknowledged in a more sublime sense to belong to the Messias; so likewise that

Hebrews 1:6

And again, when the scripture, psalm xcvii, speaks of the Lord, that is, the Messias’s reigning, ver. 1, and in the process of the psalm describes his entering on his kingdom, that which commenced at his ascending into the superior world, (the heavens here, ver. 3. and ch. ii. 5.) the express words of the psalmist are, ver. 7, And let all—

Hebrews 1:7

Whereas the titles which he gives the angels are no higher than of winds and flames, psalm civ. 4.

Hebrews 1:8

But he gives far higher titles to the Messias, calling him the eternal King and God, mentioning