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Hebrews

Hebrewschapter 1

14 verses · BSBHebrews book hub →

Speaks with:John 1×2Colossians 1×2Psalms 45×2Psalms 102×21 Peter 3×22 Peter 1×1

Summary

Chapter summary

No greeting, no sender, the letter opens like a trumpet. God spoke of old to the fathers in the prophets 'by divers portions and in divers manners,' but 'hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son' (1:1-2): heir of all things, maker of the worlds, 'the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance,' who sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. The rest is a catena of seven Old Testament texts proving the Son greater than angels: Psalm 2's 'Thou art my Son,' 2 Samuel 7, Psalm 45, and Psalm 110's 'Sit thou on my right hand,' the psalm that governs this whole letter.

Context

Epistle · Unknown — Hebrews overview

  • A. 1–3 God Has Spoken at Last in a Son
  • B. 4–14 Seven Scriptures That Outrank the Angels

The outline

  1. A.God Has Spoken at Last in a Sonvv. 1 to 3

    Read vv. 1 to 3 →

  2. B.Seven Scriptures That Outrank the Angelsvv. 4 to 14

    Read vv. 4 to 14 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

The better things

Pattern

Hebrews argues its whole case with one word: better. The Son is better than the angels, surety of a better testament, mediator of a better covenant upon better promises, purifying with better sacrifices, and his blood speaketh better things than that of Abel.

The word falls a dozen times across the letter, and the beats show the ladder: person, covenant, sacrifice, country, blood. Readers pressed to drift back to the old order are answered by comparison rather than scolding; everything they would return to has been surpassed.

  1. Hebrews 1:4 you are here

    Better than the angels

    The Son has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

  2. Hebrews 7:22

    Surety of a better testament

  3. Hebrews 8:6

    A better covenant upon better promises

  4. Hebrews 9:23

    Better sacrifices than these

    The heavenly things themselves are purified with better sacrifices than the patterns required.

  5. Hebrews 11:16

    A better country

    They desire a better country, that is, an heavenly, and God hath prepared for them a city.

  6. Hebrews 12:24

    Blood that speaketh better things

    The blood of sprinkling speaketh better things than that of Abel.

Sit thou at my right hand

Pattern

Psalm 110 is the Old Testament chapter the New Testament reaches for most. Its first verse seats David's Lord at the right hand of God, and its oath makes him a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord, Peter, and Hebrews each build an argument on its exact words.

One psalm supplies the question that silenced the Pharisees, the spine of the first Pentecost sermon, and the priesthood argument of Hebrews. The verse David wrote only resolves if the son of David is also David's Lord.

  1. Psalms 110:1

    The Lord said unto my Lord

  2. Psalms 110:4

    A priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek

  3. Matthew 22:44

    The question no man could answer

    If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?

  4. Acts 2:34-35

    Peter's Pentecost argument

    For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself.

  5. Hebrews 1:13 you are here

    To which of the angels said he at any time

  6. Hebrews 5:6

    The Melchizedek priesthood taken up

The world behind this chapter

Hebrews 1
When
While the temple in Jerusalem still stood and its priests were still working · c. AD 64–68
Where
A written sermon sent to Jewish believers, most likely in Rome, under pressure to return to the synagogue
Who first heard it
Hearers who knew the Psalms by heart and held angels in the highest regard

The history

Angels stood very high in Jewish thinking of this period. The community at Qumran wrote of worshiping alongside angels, other writings had them carrying prayers up and revelations down, and some groups edged toward honoring them outright. Opening a sermon by putting the Son above them was not an obvious move; it was an argument.

The chapter is built almost entirely out of quoted Scripture — seven passages, mostly from the Psalms, strung together. That was a recognized Jewish way of arguing, stacking texts on a single theme, and it assumed hearers who could place each line.

The letter never names its author, and the early church did not agree on one; Paul, Barnabas, Apollos, and Priscilla have all been proposed. What the text does show is a preacher steeped in the Greek Old Testament writing polished Greek for people in danger of drifting.

The closing image is a priest's world: 'he sat down.' There were no chairs in the tabernacle or the temple sanctuary, because a priest's work was never finished. A seated priest meant a completed sacrifice.

What it meant to them

The hearers were considering going back to a faith with an unbroken pedigree — Moses, the angels at Sinai, the temple still smoking. The sermon starts by saying the God who spoke through all of that has now spoken in a Son.

For people wondering whether they had traded a great heritage for something smaller, the piled-up psalms answer with the highest words Israel had, all applied to one man.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Hebrews 1. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 5 · Quoted here · Prophecy and fulfillment · A picture of Christ

'I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son' (Davidic covenant) applied to the Son (also Ps 2:7) - messianic on both readings.

2 Samuel 7:14→

I will be his Father, and he will be My son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.

v. 5 · Quoted here

same line: Hebrews, Son superior to angels (w/ 2Sa 7:14).

Psalms 2:7→

I will proclaim the decree spoken to Me by the LORD: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 8 · Quoted here · Spoken beforehand, fulfilled here

'Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever': Hebrews, the Son addressed as God.

Psalms 45:6→

Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever, and justice is the scepter of Your kingdom.

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 13 · Quoted here

'until I make thine enemies thy footstool': Hebrews.

Psalms 110:1→

The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

public-domain commentaries in agreement

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 110; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews.

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