Aéyet, “he saith;” that is, God the Father saith, or the Holy Ghost in the Scripture saith, as was before observed.
Tods rirovpyovs. Aeirovpyds is “minister publicus,” “a public minister,” or agent; from Agiros, which is the same with dnecoros, as Hesychius renders it, “public.” He that is employed in any great and public work is Ae:roupyes. Hence, of old, magistrates were termed Asirovpyol cay, as they are by Paul, d:c- xovor @zod, Rom. xiii. 4,“ the ministers of God.” And, chap. viii. 2 of this epistle, he calls the Lord Jesus, in respect of his priestly office, ray &yidy Aes- zoupyoy, “the public minister of holy things ;” and himself, in respect of his apostle- ship, Aeirovpyov Inood Xpiorov, Rom. xv. 16, “ a minister of Jesus Christ.” So the name is on this account equipollent unto that of angels; for as that denoteth the mission of those spirits unto their work, so doth this their employment therein.
This testimony is taken from Ps. civ. 4, where the words are to the same pur- pose: Uri? Uy TH>we ninth aNd mbyY. The translation now in the Greek is the same with that of the apostle, only for xvpes Pardya, “a flame of fire,” some copies have it xp Pagyov, “ a flaming fire,’—more express to the original; and the change probably was made in the copies from this place of the apostle. Sym- machus, zp A&Epov, “ a devouring fire.”
Ver. '7.—But unto [of] the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire, [or, flaming fire. |
The apostle here entereth upon his third argument to prove the pre-eminence of the Lord Christ above angels, and that by com- paring them together, either as to their natures or as to their em- ployments, according as the one or the other is set forth, declared,
* Exposirion.—Ilosav, x. 7. a. “ Who maketh his angels that serve him the ministers of his will, as the winds and the lightning are.” The angels are em- ployed simply in a ministerial capacity, while the Son is lord of all.—Stuart. Angels are ministering elements of nature; the Son is everlasting king. Ipéc, like ip turned towards; @. ¢., “in respect of.”—Tholuck. lpésis to be rendered, not “to,” but “ respecting.” The angels are regarded as duvamsrs of God, through whom God works wonders in the kingdom of nature.—Ebrard. God’s angels. are employed by him in the same way as the more ordinary agents of nature,— winds and lightnings.—Turner.
Calvin, Beza, Bucer, Grotius, Limborch, Lowth, Campbell, Michaélis, Knapp, and others, translate the Greek words as equivalent to the Hebrew. Luther, Caloy, Storr, Tholuck, and others, interpret the Hebrew according to the Greek. The Hebrew, it is alleged, must from the context be rendered, © He makes the
VER. 7.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 171
and testified unto in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. And this first place which he refers unto angels we shall now explain and vindicate; and in so doing inquire both who they are of whom the psalmist speaks, and what it is that he affirmeth of them.
There is a threefold sense given of the words of the psalmist, as they lie in the Hebrew text :—
1. The first is that of the modern Jews, who deny that there is any mention made of angels, affirming the subject that the psalmist treats of to be the winds, with thunder and lightning, which God employs as his messengers and ministers to accomplish his will and pleasure. So he made the winds his messengers when he sent them to raise a storm on Jonah when he fled from his presence; and 2 flaming fire his minister, when by it he consumed Sodom and Go- morrah. And this opinion makes ninv1, which it interprets “ winds,” and Di}? BY, «a, flaming fire,” to be the subjects of the proposition, of which it is affirmed that God employs them as his messengers and ministers.
That this opinion, which is directly contradictory to the authority of the apostle, is so-also to the design of the psalmist, sense of the words, consent of the ancient Jews, and so no way to be admitted, shall afterwards be made to appear.
2. Some aver that the winds and meteors are principally intended, but yet so as that God, affirming that he makes the winds his mes- sengers, doth also intimate that it is the work and employment of _ his angels above to be his messengers also; and that because he maketh use of their ministry to cause those winds and fires whereby he accomplisheth his will. And this they illustrate by the fire and winds caused by them on mount Sinai at the giving of the law.
- But this interpretation, whatever is pretended to the contrary, doth not really differ from the former, denying angels to be inten- tionally spoken of, only hooking in a respect unto them, not to seem to contradict the apostle, and therefore will be disproved toge- ther with that which went before.
winds his messengers,” etc. To the former view it is justly objected, that the Greek rendering would haye been, ‘O xoiav dyytnovs airod ra rveymare. To the latter, that the analogy of the context requires us in the Hebrew psalm to under- stand winds as the messengers of God, even as light is his garment, the heaven his tent, and the clouds his chariot. Tholuck, Stuart, and Turner hold that the Hebrew psalm leads to the opposite conclusion, from the natural order of the words, from the connection of angels with natural causes, and from the real scope of the context,—* Who maketh the clouds his chariot.” The former, says Storr, like angels and ministers, must be understood literally, and the latter (chariot), like winds and lightnings, figuratively for agents of his will. The translation adopted by the New Testament from the Septuagint has the sanction also of the Chaldee and Syriac versions.