kaqarismo;n tw'n aJmartiw'n poihsavmeno"
ejkavqisen ejn dexia'/ th'" megalwsuvnh"
.
One Person is the agent in creation, the medium of revelation, the heir of the world. One Person makes God known to us in terms of human life, and bears all things unceasingly to their proper goal, and having made purification of sins waits for that issue which man's self-assertion has delayed.
The same thought is traced in the O. T. where the Son is spoken of as King and Creator (1:8-12). And it appears in its simplest form in the combination of the two contrasted Names Jesus and the Son of God (4:14 note; compare 13:20
to;n kuvrion hJmw'n jIhsou'n
with 1 Cor. 12:3; Rom. 10:9); and again in the abrupt and unique phrase, Heb. 13:8,
jIhsou'" Cristo;" ejcqe;" kai; shvmeron oJ aujto;" kai; eij" tou;" aijw'na"
.
i.
The Divine Being (Nature and Personality) of the Son.
(1) In relation to God. The Divine Being of the Son in relation to God is presented (
a
) by the use of the general titles Son, the Son, the Firstborn and (
b
) by the definite description of His nature and work.
( a ) The use of the anarthrous title Son, which emphasises the essential nature of the relation which it expresses, is characteristic of the Epistle (Heb. 1:2 note, 5 [comp. Heb. 12:5]; 3:6; 5:8; 7:28 note; comp. p. 34). The form occurs elsewhere in the Epistles only in Rom. 1:4 oJrisqevnto" uiJou' qeou' (comp. John 19:7 uiJo;n qeou' ).
This title is defined by the personal titles the Son (Heb. 1:8), the Son of God (6:6; 7:3; 10:29), the Firstborn (1:6 note); and the Son of God is identified with Jesus (4:14 note).
The title Son is used in the Epistle only in reference to the Incarnate Lord. This follows from the scope of the teaching. But the title expresses not merely a moral relation, but a relation of being; and defines in human language that which was beyond time immanent in the Godhead (10:5; 7:3 notes). There was (so to speak) a congruity in the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity (comp. p. 18).
In this connexion it must be noticed that the writer represents the Father as the Source ( miva phgh; qeovthto" ) from which the Son derived all that He has (1:2 e[qhken ; 5:5 oujk eJauto;n ejdovxasen ). Comp. St John 5:26.
It is remarkable that God is spoken of as Father only in Heb. 1:5 (from the LXX. comp. 12:9, 7). The title is used by St Paul in all his Epistles.
( b ) The definite description of the Divine Personality given in 1:3 has been examined in detail in the notes upon the passage. The use of the absolute, timeless, term being ( w[n ) guards against the thought that the Lord's Sonship was by adoption and not by nature. In Him the glory of God finds manifestation, as its effulgence ( ajpauvgasma ), and the essence
( uJpovstasi" ) of God finds expression, as its embodiment, type ( carakthvr ). The two ideas are complementary and neither is to be pressed to consequences. In ajpauvgasma the thought of personality finds no place