Hebrews 1:1–4

1:1–2a Hebrews opens with the God who speaks, a theme that pervades the sermon (2:1–4; 3:7, 15–16; 4:2, 12–13; 6:13; 11:3; 12:25–27). When the living God speaks, his voice is heard in Scripture and in preaching (3:7); “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard” (2:1).

This prologue contrasts the messengers through whom God has spoken throughout biblical history. It opens with a contrast between human prophets who spoke God’s Word to Israel and the Son in whom God has spoken “in these last days.” It concludes with a contrast between the Son and angels, who delivered the law to the prophet Moses. Thus the prologue introduces the first two movements of the sermon, which show that, as God’s spokesman, Christ is superior to angels (1:5–2:18) and to Moses (3:1–4:13).

The first two clauses are balanced to demonstrate both the continuity (one divine speaker) and the differences between God’s self-revelation in the OT and the NT. The Greek word order shows the parallels:

At many times and in many ways

  long ago     [epoch]

   God spoke    [speech]

    to the fathers   [audience]

     by the prophets  [messengers]

  in these last days     [epoch]

   he has spoken    [speech]

    to us   [audience]

     by his Son  [messenger]

God’s OT speech came in many installments and modes: visions, dreams, riddles, and clear “mouth-to-mouth” self-disclosures granted to the patriarchs, Moses, and his prophetic successors (Num. 12:6–8, cited in Heb. 3:2, 5; cf. Hos. 12:10). The piecemeal, multiform character of God’s speech to Israel differed from his singular word spoken in the Son in these “last days.” Hebrews reasons that the plurality of agents and modes in the OT implies imperfection and incompleteness. There had to be many priests in the order of Levi and Aaron because death prevented them from continuing in office (Heb. 7:23), whereas Jesus holds his priesthood permanently and needs no successor (7:16, 20–21, 24). The many animal sacrifices offered in the tabernacle could not cleanse worshipers’ consciences, as Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice has now done (10:1–4, 10). So also, whereas OT revelation came piecemeal over a millennium or more, NT revelation came in one installment, complete in the Son and conveyed by those who heard him (2:3–4).

Like other NT texts (Acts 2:17; 1 Cor. 10:11; 1 Pet. 1:20), Hebrews announces that the “last days” foretold through the prophets have arrived with the incarnation of the Son (cf. Heb. 9:26). God had promised to intervene decisively in history to save and to judge in “the last days” (e.g., Num. 24:14; Isa. 2:2; Jer. 23:20; Dan. 10:14; Hos. 3:5). Christ’s life, death, and resurrection have launched those “last days,” delivering believers from the “present evil age” (Gal. 1:4). “The powers of the age to come” already operate in the Christian community (Heb. 6:5), yet believers still wait for Christ to “appear a second time” to consummate salvation (9:28).

1:2c–3b At the prologue’s center are three affirmations of the Son’s divine preexistence. As we have seen, the first and third pertain to his agency in the creation and preservation of the universe. Between them is a declaration of the Son’s eternal relationship to God the Father (v. 3a).

Like John 1:1–3 and Colossians 1:15–16, Hebrews affirms the Son’s agency in the creation of the world. The statement of the Son’s ongoing rule over the created order, whereby he “upholds the universe by the word of his power,” agrees with Paul’s statement that in Christ “all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). Yet the author’s word choice invites hearers to view the physical universe from a temporal perspective. The “world” (Heb. 1:2) that was created through the Son is literally “the ages” (aiōn; also in 1:8; 5:6; 6:5, 20; 7:17, 21, 24, 28; 9:26; 11:3; 13:8, 21). The referent here and in 11:3 is the spatial expanse of the heavens and the earth. But our preacher bypasses kosmos (used in 10:5), substituting “ages” to hint that the present heavens and earth are “wearing out” through successive ages (1:10–12; 13:8).

The incarnate Christ uniquely reveals the Father’s glory because he eternally “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (v. 3a). He shares God’s divine being (John 1:1–3, 14; 10:30–33; Phil. 2:5–6; Col. 1:15; cf. 2 Cor. 3:18; 4:4–6; Rom. 9:5). As early as Origen (early third century AD), commentators have heard here echoes of Wisdom of Solomon 7:25–26, which characterizes God’s attribute of wisdom as an emanation of his “glory” and the “radiance” of his light. Unlike that intertestamental book, Hebrews (following Proverbs 8) applies these terms not to the personification of a divine attribute but rather to a divine person, distinct from yet equal to the Father. “Exact imprint” in extrabiblical Greek was the design on a coin that replicated the die from which it was cast, or the insignia in a wax seal that reflected the stamp impressed into it. Through the images of “radiance” and “exact imprint” Hebrews captures Jesus’ claim that “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

1:3d–4 Jesus’ reward for his messianic obedience, culminating in his sacrifice for sinners, was his resurrection, ascension to heaven, and enthronement “at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” This allusion to Psalm 110:1 complements the allusion to Psalm 2:8 in Hebrews 1:2b, since the following series of OT passages in Hebrews 1 will open with Psalm 2:7 and close with Psalm 110:1, which will also reappear throughout the sermon (Heb. 8:1; 10:12; 12:2). The more excellent “name” that Christ “inherited” through his redemptive mission is the title “Son” (Ps. 2:7), addressed to him at his resurrection from the dead (cf. Acts 13:33). Angels replace the human prophets with which we began for two reasons: (1) angels delivered the law to the prophet Moses (Heb. 2:1–4), and (2) the divine Son became “lower” (Ps. 8:5) than angels through his incarnation in order to save his siblings, the offspring of Abraham.