Hebrews 1:5-2:4: Jesus Greater than Angels

Introduction:

In the first four verses of Hebrews, the author expounds on how great Jesus is - He is the Son of God, and therefore he is greater than the prophets. But a clever person who knows the Old Covenant might respond, “Okay, but that covenant was also given with the aid of angels, and that’s a pretty big deal.”

So the author of Hebrews will now respond that Jesus, as the Son, is ‘as much superior to angels as the name (‘Son’) he has inherited is more excellent than theirs (‘servant’).

To illustrate this, he’s going to quote several Old Testament passages. Here are a few things I want us to take away from this:

The author firmly believes that the Old Testament is the Word of God. In fact, in some places he will even say, “God has said...” before quoting the OT.

He views the OT through a ‘Jesus lens’, or Christologically. The early Church firmly believed that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah prophesied in the OT - so it made sense that as they began to read the OT after the resurrection, they saw more clearly how it pointed to Jesus.

Jesus himself did this after his resurrection, as described in Luke 24:25-27 “And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

Using this form of interpretation will allow us to see Christ all over the pages of the OT.

In chapter 4, the author will call the OT ‘living and active’.

The author of Hebrews mostly quotes from the Greek version of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint.

What is the Septuagint?

The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the OT. It’s name comes from the Greek number ‘Septa’ meaning ‘70’, which refers to the 70 translators, and it was translated in the 3rd century BC.

Our translation of the Old Testament comes mostly from the original Hebrew text. But as you read the OT you’ll probably see footnotes that refer to other translations, namely the Vulgate (Latin), and the Septuagint (often shortened to ‘LXX’ the Roman Numerals for ‘70’).

Many in the early church believed that the LXX was just as inspired as the original Hebrew. There were a couple reasons for this, namely it’s origin:

The story goes that Ptolemy, the Greek King of Egypt had created a large library in Alexandria. One book that he wanted in this library was the Hebrew Bible (OT). But because he didn’t speak Hebrew, he wanted it translated into the common language of the day: Greek.

Ptolemy summoned 70 of the best Jewish scholars and commanded that they translate their Bible into Greek. There’s just one problem: how would he know if the translation was accurate?

His solution: put all 70 translators in separate rooms, and have them write their own translation. Then, bring all 70 copies together and compare them.

This was done, and according to the story, when all 70 translations were brought forth they were exactly the same. Thus, the origin of the LXX was seen as miraculous.

The LXX actually helped spread the OT throughout the ancient world because Greek was the common tongue spoken, and nearly 300 years later it was very well known in Jesus’ day, and the early church (especially non-Jewish believers) found it very helpful - in part because it was the only way they could read the OT!

The Jewish community has always viewed the LXX as a lesser version of Scripture compared to the original Hebrew, and certainly not inspired. However, it was useful to Hellenized Jews (Jews who didn’t live in Israel and had assimilated into Greco-Roman culture), which is why the author of Hebrews quotes it more than the original Hebrew.

As I mentioned, for the first several hundred years of Church History, the Church viewed the LXX as just as inspired as the original Hebrew. One church father even argued that God had used the Septuagint to spread the OT throughout the world in preparation for Christ’s coming.

So what’s the problem? There are several places where the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew text (we’ll see this in Hebrews). Many early church fathers, especially Augustine, went to pain staking length to explain these differences.

As time went on, the LXX slowly fell out of favor, and after the Reformation in the 1500s, most translations preferred the original Hebrew text - which is what our English translations are based on.

What do we do with the LXX? Depending on who you ask some will say it can be safely ignored, while others will argue that it was inspired and should be used more.

I tend to think it’s somewhere in the middle. I’m not sure that it is inspired, but I think it’s extremely useful and at the very least it tells us how the 70 translators interpreted certain OT passages based on how they translated them.

Back to the show: Jesus is superior to the angels.

This topic is surprisingly relevant, as groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses erroneously believe (and teach) that Jesus is just the Archangel Michael in a human body, and therefore a creation of God - not the Son by which all things were Created.

In the first century, it was common Jewish belief that the angels played a major role in the institution of the Old Covenant, which the author alludes to (Paul also alludes to this in some of his letters). However, the Old Testament doesn’t actually tell us that much about angels, or the role they played in giving the Law. Nonetheless, the author understands it was important to his readers, and runs with it.

The author first quotes Psalm 2:7 “I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.”

Psalm 2 as a whole is one big prophecy pointing to the Lord’s Anointed. Pretty much every line in the Psalm can be applied to Jesus.

Second, he quotes 2 Samuel 7:14 “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men,”

Notice how he uses and interprets this passage. First he has no problem only using part of the verse to make his argument.

Second, this passage is when God is telling David that he would have a descendent on the throne forever. This is clearly a prophecy because

The Lord said this king would come ‘after David’ (many thought it would be Solomon, but Solomon began ruling before David died.) and

Every Davidic king ultimately died, so their Kingdom didn’t last forever.

Therefore, Jesus is the Son spoken of here because He was raised back to life and lives forever, therefore His Kingdom reigns forever.

Now some stumble over the phrase here, ‘when he brings his firstborn into the world’ - because it sounds like it implies that Jesus was created. But that’s not what the phrase means. Throughout Scripture, ‘firstborn’ was a title/ranking. It didn’t necessarily imply creation. As the ‘firstborn’ there is nothing before Jesus and therefore greater - he is before and over all creation (and through him all creation was made).

To illustrate the difference between Jesus and angels, he quotes Deuteronomy 32:43, showing that the angels worship the Son, and are therefore inferior.

This is where a difference in the LXX and Hebrew shows up. Many English translations will go with the Hebrew text, which actually doesn’t mention anything about angels! The CSV reads: “Rejoice, you nations, concerning his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries; he will purify his land and his people.”

Some translations like the ESV will combine the Hebrew and LXX. But all translations will have a footnote giving the difference.

Some call this controversy, but I call it valuable. The author of Hebrews would have known the difference. But he wasn’t concerned with it. And most scholars believe that the original Hebrew text probably matched the LXX - and the 70 translators knew this, which is why they translated it as such!

Now, not only is Jesus superior to angels because he is the Son of God, but the author of Hebrews wants us to know very clearly that the Scriptures tell us the difference of their natures:

According to Psalm 104:4 “he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.” ‘Angel’ literally means ‘messenger’, so it’s clear here that the angels are at best ministers and take on varying forms.

In contrast, the nature of the Son is described in Psalm 45:6-7 “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;”

We see Jesus referred to as ‘O God’ here and this his Kingdom reigns forever, and he rules with a scepter of righteousness.

But we also see a glimpse of the Trinitarian nature of God, and the connection between Father and Son when the Psalmist says, “Therefore God (the Son), your God (the Father), has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

As a side note, the original authors of these Psalms and of the entire OT, probably didn’t realize that they were actually prophesying. Psalm 45 is a wedding song for King Solomon! When the ‘sons of Korah’ wrote this beautiful melody, they probably didn’t realize they were also writing a prophecy about Jesus! But this is how the Holy Spirit inspires prophecy.

The second passage the author of Hebrews quotes is Psalm 102:25-27 “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.”

Again, the author of Hebrews attributes this quote, which is clearly talking about the Lord God, to Jesus.

Psalm 102 is a hymn of lament. It is titled, “A prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord.” Do you think the Psalmist realized that this Psalm was prophesying about the Messiah? Probably not! But it does.

The author of Hebrews finishes his contrast with Jesus and the angels by quoting Psalm 110:1 “The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.””

This is the same Psalm Peter used in his Pentecost sermon in Acts 2!

Peter asks the obvious question: Who was David talking about? Both him and the author of Hebrews agree: Jesus!

David’s Lord is Jesus (the Son), who sits at The Lord’s (God the Father) right hand.

Most importantly, no angel ever received that privilege!

And to make this point clear, the author asks an obvious question: ‘Aren’t angels just spirits meant to serve us?’ How then could they be greater than the Son of God?

Remember the original context: these Christians would have been contemplating returning the Old Covenant. And the Old Covenant had a pretty impressive resume: it was instituted by prophets and angels. But if the New Covenant was instituted by the Son of God - it has to be superior, and why would they want to return to something inferior?

As mentioned last week - there are a variety of teachings, religions, whatever that maybe we once were a part of, or even lure us back now. But none of them were instituted by the Son of God. Jesus is by nature greater than all. He is by nature Creator of all. Why would we want anything else?

Hebrews 2:1-4: Listening is more important.

If they thought that the Old Covenant was divinely inspired (it was!), and it was implemented by ‘mere’ prophets and angels - how much greater is the New Covenant which is implemented by the Son of God (and specifically, His blood)?

This is ultimately why it matters: if the punishments for ignoring the Old Covenant were severe, how much greater will the punishment be for ignoring the New? And even more so for walking away?

Notice the four ways by which the Gospel (the New Covenant) was made known:

The Lord (Jesus) himself declared it. He didn’t need prophets or angels this time - it came from the mouth of God himself.

‘Those who heard’ - this tells us that the author was likely a second generation believer, because he’s talking about the Apostles, and that first generation of Christians who saw and heard Jesus speak.

God bore witness to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles - not just by Jesus himself, but also the apostles after. This was a clear way by which people knew Jesus was who He claimed to be. He himself even said, “If you don’t believe me, at least believe the miracles!”

The fourth way was by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul gives a list of these various gifts. Christians testified to the truth of the Gospel by their gifts. Do we do the same?

Conclusion

No matter what we’ve heard, or what other messages we may be enticed by - none are as great as this ‘great salvation’ by which God declared to us by His Son, Jesus. If we ignore Jesus, the punishment will be great. But more than that, if we walk away from Jesus, it will be even worse - which is what the author will articulate to us throughout the book. So no matter how tempting it may be to go elsewhere, or follow someone else, we can’t. After all, how can we? Remember the words of Peter in John 6:68-69 “Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.””