Hebrews is a book that holds up Jesus, the Christ, as supreme over all—over the Law, over Moses, over the prophets of old, over the Patriarchs—over all, even over the angels of heaven, and his supremacy over angels is the subject of the first chapter. The recipients of this epistle were Jews, living in Jewish lands. They were being persecuted and intimidated in an effort to cause them to compromise their faith in Jesus. They were being harassed by family and friends, priests and zealots both in and out of the synagogue (Hebrews 10:32-36), and it would get worse (cf. Luke 21:12-19). The Jews boasted that they received the Law from the angels of heaven, and that the Law was eternal. They also looked upon Moses as the supreme prophet. Where did the Messiah fit into all this, and how should one live in such a context? These are some of the questions addressed and answered in this epistle.
The Jews of the first century AD held a very high opinion of angels (Hebrews 1:4). Many even associated them with creation, itself, concluding that when God said “Let **us** make man in **our** image (Genesis 1:26), he was speaking with the angels.[1] They were considered next to God in excellence, authority and character. The struggle for believing in Jesus, therefore, was cast by Paul against compromising with false doctrine. Such false doctrine included that angels were greater in authority than the Messiah. Moreover, that same false doctrine, probably originating out of the intertestamental apocryphal works,[2] presumed messages from these heavenly messengers needed to be obeyed.
According to Hebrews 1:4, Jesus, who had been made a little lower than angels (Hebrews 2:7, 9), became much better than they, because he had obtained a more excellent name through his inheritance. What this means is that the One who became Jesus, who had been essentially equal with the Father but didn’t cling to such an attribute (Philippians 2:6), humbled himself and became a man in order to be able to redeem mankind through his death (Philippians 2:7-8). Having done this, the Father exalted the man, Jesus, and gave him a name, which is above every other name that had ever been named. Therefore, in the name of Jesus every knee would need to bend to him and every tongue, both in heaven and on earth, would need to confess that he is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11).
Having received a more excellent name (Hebrews 1:4), simply means that Jesus was called the Son of God (Psalm 2:7; cf. 1Chronicles 22:10; Psalm 89:26-27), meaning Jesus is declared to be the Messiah. The Lord declared Jesus was his Son by raising him from the dead (Psalm 2:1-12; Romans 1:4; Hebrews 1:5; Philippians 2:8-11; Revelation 1:5). No one but God has power over life and death, so if Jesus arose from the bonds of death, that power that raised him must have come from God (1Samuel 2:6; cf. 2Kings 5:7; Genesis 30:2).
When the Lord brought his Firstborn into the world, he commanded all the angels of God to worship him (Hebrews 1:6). Paul was quoting from the Septuagint at Psalm 97:7. Many scholars understand this to mean Jesus was made the Firstborn of God when he was born as a babe in Bethlehem, but this couldn’t be so, since at that time he entered the world as a servant (Philippians 2:7), lower than the angels, and it wasn’t until sometime later that he was crowned with glory (Hebrews 2:9). Others believe when God would bring the Firstborn into the world must refer to Jesus’ Second Coming, but this assumes that Jesus’ reign today from the heavens will morph into a physical reign upon the earth in a physical form, in physical Jerusalem on a physical throne in a physical Temple made with hands, but this contradicts the Scriptures (Acts 7:48; 17:24).
The Firstborn is a title given to the Messiah (Psalm 89:27), and the Lord brought his Firstborn (the Messiah) into the world by resurrecting him from the dead. There and at that time Jesus was declared to be the Son of God (Romans 1:3-4) in the sense that he is the Messiah, the King of kings and Lord of lords (Psalm 2:1-12, where he is called God’s Son in verse-12), and the Apostles interpret Psalm 2 to refer to Jesus (Acts 4:24-27).
__________________________________________
[1] See the Targum Jonathan at Genesis 1:26.
[2] These works would include Enoch 1 & 2; the Book of Jubilees; Esdras 1 & 2; Tobit; Sirach; Wisdom of Solomon etc.
Smoodock's Blog 