Читать книгу The Letter to the Hebrews - Jon C. Laansma - Страница 13

“You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Context

The exordium (1:1–4) has set the tone and the agenda for the sermon. It also introduced the leading foil—angels—which will be used to set in relief who the Son is, the one in and as whom God has spoken his word of cleansing (1:5–14). When this theme continues after a brief exhortation (2:1–4) it will develop the Son’s career (2:5–18). The preacher liked to bundle associations and arguments so there is no one reason why angels are brought into the mix but two reasons are immediately evident and a third can be inferred. Firstly, Ps 8 was routinely joined to Ps 110 in early preaching (see on 1:1–4) and the writer is headed toward Ps 8’s exposition in 2:5–9. The Son’s place on the divine throne over the angels is exploited as a way of contemplating who the Son really is and how the promise reaches its conclusion in him; this of course is done through the Scriptures because of the theme of God’s speaking. Secondly, as is noted in 2:2, the angels were to have played a role in the giving of the first covenant that has now given way to the new covenant. As a sign of divine authorization the angels mark the great weight of the first covenant, and so the even greater weight of the new covenant. Thirdly, with God as creator, history always proceeds from heaven to earth. This contemplation of angels has a literary effect not unlike that of Rev 4–5. We are brought into the heavenly throne room where the work of God originates so as to move from there to earth where the Son joins his people and becomes their high priest.

As for the arrangement of the seven citations, which tease out 1:1–4: The first (Ps 2:7) and last (Ps 110:1) are prominent elsewhere in the NT and would have formed cornerstones of their confession. The mid-point passage (Ps 104:4) is reprised in v. 14. Again, in the first two God addresses him as Son, while in the third the angels are to worship him. The fourth indicates the created and thus limited nature of the angels as servants, while the fifth and sixth declare the Son’s eternity as king and creator. The seventh, complementing the first (compare 5:5–6), is a key text for the whole sermon, and indicates where 1:3 was going. Finally, v. 14 provides a closing flourish that uses the middle citation to return to the theme of the inheritance promised in the divine speech (1:2). This will form the segue into both the exhortation (2:1–4) and the next stage of the argument (2:5–18).

In the main, the imagined setting for all seven citations is the post-resurrection enthronement of the Son, but the writer does not labor here or elsewhere (e.g., 7:16) to keep that distinct from the Son’s eternity (e.g., 1:10–12). Son he was, and Son he became. In 1:5–14 the portrayal is of the risen, enthroned Son, yes. But more than that, he is the one who was already Son, who received the body prepared for him, who obeyed and was crowned. He is the Son of God—God, Creator—and the seed of Abraham—man—who inherits the glory that Adam forfeited. Heb 1:5–14 is the praise of the one who is Son not merely in one moment or aspect, but the Son who is Jesus and who can be addressed as God and Lord.

Background

Throughout his sermon the writer will make use of the Greek version of the OT, the Septuagint (LXX). The translation of the Pentateuch occurred in the third century bc and the rest of the OT trickled out over the following century or so. It was never a single translation to begin with, therefore, and the many copies would have added differing readings. Whatever books were to hand would have existed in scroll form; much of of it would have been committed to memory and cited as such. The extent to which there was a definite canon of Scripture before ad 70 is debated. All of Hebrews’ citations are from the books included in the Protestant canon, but there are also echoes and allusions to other writings such as Wisdom of Solomon (see 1:1–4) and the history of the Maccabees (see on 11:32–40). Hebrews has no qualms accepting the Greek version directly as God’s speech, consistent with the likelihood that 2 Tim 3:16 includes in its scope the LXX. Though there is no evidence that the writer of Hebrews knew the Hebrew language and though Hebrews’ argument can make use of the LXX’s distinctive wording (e.g., 1:6–7; 10:5–8), we take for granted that Hebrews’ interpretations have been informed by many influences including (possibly) other interpreters directly engaged with both Hebrew texts and alternative wordings of LXX scrolls. Like other early Christian interpreters of the OT the writer of Hebrews shares the formal principles that would have been utilized by most ancient interpreters. Just for that reason, the very different interpretive conclusions they drew compared to their Jewish neighbors must be indebted to their material principles, that is, for instance, their convictions about who Jesus Christ is and the reality that he was the subject matter of the OT; again, their convictions that the Spirit was involved in their reading (e.g., 3:7) and that their reading practices were to be shaped by obedience (see 5:11–14). It was in fact just such convictions that were indicated in 1:1–4 and that are now cashed in. Using the words of the Scriptures God speaks directly of and to the Son or about the angels in their relationship to the Son.

There is no basis for thinking that 1:5–14 is correcting deviant speculation about angels and the Son, nor is it encouraging mystical participation in angelic liturgies. The argument of 1:5–14 is satisfactorily explained by the rationales noted above. The preacher is turning our attention to the Son. The exalted status of angels is assumed as well as their prominence in revelatory (especially apocalyptic) texts. Beyond their relationship to the Son and his salvation, however, little is said of the angels that could not otherwise be read off the surface of the OT as cited.

Not all of the passages cited in 1:5–14 had been a part of Jewish messianic hopes. Their use here is for in-house consumption, as it were, not to prove that Jesus is messiah or even that he is God, but to extol him as the one in and as whom God speaks and works salvation.

Comments on Wording

1:5 You are my Son, today I have begotten you. No angel is addressed as son like this. Ps 2:7 was a well-established text in Christian traditions. Its chief point for Hebrews is the declaration of Sonship, though the today may refer to the resurrection where he was revealed as the Son he was (cf. Rom 1:4). As originally written it described a human figure in terms of his representation of God before the people, but as applied to Jesus it indicated who he is by nature. There can be no exegetical bridge to this latter meaning. It is firstly a claim about what is simply true and goes back to Jesus’ claims through his words and actions, God’s pronouncements in word and deed (Mark 1:11; 9:7; 15:39), and the Spirit’s witness. The original application of the psalm to a Davidic king such as Solomon is not canceled but it is being treated as among the shadows and patterns that witnessed to the Son (8:5).

1:6 when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” This is in reference to the heavenly world of his enthronement (2:5) though the Greek wording lends indefiniteness as to timing and so probably has in mind a certain achievement that is in process of completion. The emphasis is on what is true with respect to the angels and the Son. The citation is from the LXX of Deut 32:43 (cf. LXX Ps 97:7); in the original context the one worshipped is God. The Son’s deity is both assumed and expressed in this worship,49 and the Son’s humanity is celebrated in anticipation of 2:5–9.

1:7 He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire. Compare Ps 104:4; Hebrews is relying on the wording of the LXX. The preacher is not exploiting an idiosyncratic translation or stressing the specifically non-corporeal nature of angels but rather indicates non-controversially the created and thus limited nature of the angels as servants by way of contrast with the Son’s eternity as king and creator. In Hebrews’ context the upshot will center on the universally authoritative and unchanging word that God has spoken in the Son in contrast with the provisional and not-yet-perfect word spoken through angels (2:1–4); the law serves (witnesses to) the Son. As such they are ministering spirits in subjection to the Son and are sent to serve the seed of Abraham, who will inherit salvation with the Son (1:14; 2:5–9).

1:8 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. Ps 45:6–7. The Son is addressed as God outright (cf. John 1:1; 20:28; 1 John 5:20; possibly Rom 9:5; 2 Thess 1:12; Titus 2:13; 2 Pet 1:1), but there is consistently identity with distinction. From the perspective of Hebrews, that this address is in the form of a citation from Scripture makes it all the stronger since it is God’s own witness. Hebrews never calls him King but it is entailed (e.g., 7:1–2; cf. 1:3, 8–9, 13; 12:27). He is the priest-king-prophet.

1:10 You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning. Ps 102:25–27; cf. Heb 1:2. In the original context the Lord is YHWH so this application is as potent as 1:8.

1:13 Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Ps 110:1 is one of the most utilized OT passages in the NT (at least 22x) and was alluded to in 1:3. Cf. Matt 22:41–46. Hebrews will contemplate it from almost every angle: The very act of speaking, the address of Father to Son, the act of sitting, where he sits, the promise of complete subjugation and the delay until it is accomplished.

1:14 ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. Cf. 13:2. The angels are the Son’s entourage whose only role is to serve in his train and at God’s command. Since his is a saving-doxological movement on behalf of his brothers and sisters the angels have no other role and never have. This is their proper honor. This has implications, too, for the word delivered through them (2:2). The inheritance of the Son (1:2) is here shared with his brothers and sisters, which accounts for their status relative to the angels (2:5–16; cf. Gal 3:16, 29). Therefore, all that was said of the Son and his rule constitutes the kingdom being granted believers as their inheritance (12:27).

Comments on Theological Themes

Clearly the early Christian interpreters of the OT operated in ways that make moderns uncomfortable, raising questions of whether we must or can “do what they did” in our exegesis. We recall, then, the observation that it was their core theological commitments and practices—what we called material principles—that were the real key to their readings, and these of course are authoritative for us. They are really just the key commitments and practices of the gospel itself. There is a relationship between material and formal principles, the latter being what we moderns usually think of first when we think of rules of exegesis. For instance, the gospel discourages readings that do not respect the literary and historical aspects of God’s revelation. But the gospel’s material principles finally allow room for a limited range of formal principles, which explains the relative stability of the church’s reading down through the many centuries in spite of the variations in formal approaches. What is required is neither a simple replication of what Jesus and the apostles did nor a simple replacement of their exegetical methods with our modern ones. What is required, rather, is the faithful translation of what they did into our cultural setting for the sake of effective proclamation and mission.

There are deeper riches contained in these divine testimonies to the Son and his salvation to which we should at least gesture. It is not hard to imagine how these things would have encouraged an audience struggling with hardship and losing hope: Ps 2 portrays the futility of the nations’ rage against God and his Anointed One. His King is installed, his own Son, whose inheritance is the nations and the ends of the earth his possession; he rules them with an iron rod. Second Samuel 7:14 (1 Chr 17:13) promises God’s people a secure place and freedom from the menace of enemies, that is, a resting place; God will provide David a house and a Son, who will build God’s temple and whose kingdom will endure. Jesus is that Son, in whom God’s promise is fulfilled. Deut 32 and related passages celebrate the vindication of God and his atonement. Ps 104 depicts God coming in his glory to save and provide, attended in his glory by ministering angels who do his bidding. The angels are a sign of his glory, but the Son is the radiance itself. Ps 45 praises God the enthroned Son, for righteousness will be the scepter of his kingdom; he loves righteousness and hates wickedness. His identity as high priest will be the dominant one in what follows, but according to Ps 110 he is the Priest as the King seated at the right hand of God, an identity that is ever relevant to the whole of Hebrews. The Son reigns. Psalm 102 is a psalm for the afflicted one who is reminded that God the Son is Creator, the one who will bring all things to their conclusion but who himself is unchanging—whose saving word and work is therefore permanent. The Son’s glory is not an abstract glory but the glory of his saving movement (2:9). In this, the angels have no independent existence, will, or role but embody and signify the will of God done perfectly in heaven (Matt 6:10) and moving to earth that it might also be done there, the will that is entirely that of his love.

Teaching Hebrews 1:5–14

1. Scripture, translation, interpretation, canon. All of the things just listed are at stake in the way that Hebrews opens its argument by a series of citations from the OT Scriptures. What Scripture is, where and how its meaning is to be found, the possibility and necessity of its translation-in-mission (translation is not a problem to be solved but a possibility and command to be obeyed), and its scope are finally all clarified with the revelation of the one who is the radiance of God’s glory.

2. Christology. These verses elaborate what is said of the Son in 1:1–4 by deepening and broadening them through God’s own witness in the Scriptures. We are sons and daughters by grace, but he is Son by nature. He is the heir of all things, and we inherit salvation because he condescended to share our blood and flesh and bring God’s creative word to its intended goal. Son he was, and Son he became. Savior he was, and savior he was revealed to be in his resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of God—as he is praised through these Scriptures. The truth that he is the one in and as whom God speaks has many facets but it includes this, that in uttering the OT Scriptures it was the Son whom God intended as their subject matter and in these last days he makes this explicit. These Scriptures are not merely applied to the Son as if at a stretch but rather he is their most basic and original meaning. The entire sermon to come is founded on this truth.

3. Salvation. The truth that the Son is God for us (as also humanity for God) is more assumed than emphasized in 1:1–13 but it is very much the theme and it breaks through in v. 14 in preparation for the warning of 2:1–4 and the further exposition of 2:5–18. So much is this true that when we arrive at 2:5 the preacher will observe that it is the world to come about which he has been speaking all along. As noted above there is much to harvest from these citations about this “great salvation” (2:3).

4. Angels. Heb 1:5—2:16 might be the premier biblical text on angels, where they are not merely present and active but brought into contemplation. Yet when this occurs we find that their entire meaning as creatures centers on the Son and his salvation. If attention is given them, if it is to honor them, it must follow their gaze to the Son on the divine throne and then follow the Son to the world and his fellow children. Their status over humanity was a sign of the disordering of creation (2:5–9), so that although their role in the giving of Moses’s law was a sign of its greatness (2:2) it was also a sign of its temporary and provisional role as a witness to the Son (3:5; 5:5; 10:1). He descended below the angels (placed himself under the law) to the point of death on a cross (Phil 2:6–11), tasting death for everyone (Heb 2:9). He was then crowned with glory and honor with all things, angels included, under his feet. In this way, the promise for humanity latent in Ps 8 was fulfilled.

49. There were Jewish legends of a refusal of the angels to worship Adam in the Garden. Hebrews shows no acknowledgement of this, however, making it speculative to propose that the worship of the risen Son (a new Adam) is intended specifically as a response to that legend.