1 God has spoken in the past to our ancestors through the prophets, in many different ways, although never completely;
2 but in our times he has spoken definitively to us through his Son.
He is the one God appointed heir of all things, since through him he unfolded the stages of the world.
3 He is the radiance of God’s Glory and bears the stamp of God’s hidden being, so that his powerful word upholds the universe. And after taking away sin, he took his place at the right hand of the divine Majesty in heaven.
4 So he is now far superior to angels just as the name he received sets him apart from them.
5 To what angel did God say: You are my son, I have begotten you today? and to what angel did he promise: I shall be a father to him and he will be a son to me?
6 On sending his Firstborn to the world, God says: Let all the angels adore him.
7 Whereas about angels we find words like these: God sends the angels like wind, makes his servants flames of fire.
8 But of the Son we read this: Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever; a rule of justice is your rule.
9 You loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness, above your fellow kings.
10 And also these words: Lord, in the beginning you placed the earth on its foundation and the heavens are the work of your hands.
11 They will disappear, but you remain. They all wear out like a garment;
12 you will fold them like a cloak and change them. You, on the con trary, are always the same and your years will never end.
13 God never said to any of his angels: Sit here at my right side until I put your enemies as a footstool under your feet.
14 For all these spirits are only servants, and God sends them to help those who shall be saved.
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Comments , Chapter 1
• 1.1 This chapter shows Christ, the Son of God, as superior to angels. See the same controversy in Col 1:15-20and Eph 1:2-23. Before Jesus was born, the Son was in God, the radiance of the glory of the Father. God from God, Light from light, invisible Image of the invisible God, bearing the stamp of God’s hid den being (Jn 1:1-14).
This comparing Jesus with the angels may sur prise us (as in Eph 1and Col 1). For believers of Jesus’ time, it was enough to contemplate nature to presume, beyond the harmony and splendor of creation, the active presence of cosmic powers, beings that they called angels – the distributors of divine riches. In the same degree that the Old Testament had battled against the gods of nature, God remained extremely distant and far above. If people refrained from pronouncing his name, it was an additional reason for seeing the action of heavenly spirits in the constant proofs of divine providence in our favor.
Even when looking at Israel’s past, many things were attributed to these spirits: it was an angel that appeared to Moses, not God himself (Acts 7:30), and the angels gave the Law (see 2:2). Those who have a deep sense of the for midable mystery of God are easily tempted to seek a contact with spiritual powers of a lesser order – in fact, much lower. Such was the case in those times, just as it still is in our day. It was then necessary to reaffirm that Jesus surpasses them all although he was not an angel but one of us.
Lord, in the beginning (v. 10). Let us pay attention to the method of discussion: from the beginning of the Church, the apostles attributed to Christ all the texts where the Bible says “Lord.” In fact, the word “Lord” which they read in the Greek text translated “Yahweh” in the Hebrew text. They consciously attributed to Christ a great number of words addressed to Yahweh-God. This suffices to destroy what we hear sometimes, namely that it was only with time that Jesus was recognized as Son of God and fully God; and that in the early Church the apostles saw him only as a Messiah.