TRANSLATIONS.— O oid», x. 7.2. Who maketh his angels winds.—Stuart, Craik, Ebrard. Who maketh winds his messengers, and flaming fire his minis- ters.—Campbell on Gospels, Dissert. viii. part iii. sect. 10.—Ep.
172 AN EXPOSITION OF THE é [CHAP. I.
3. Others grant that it is the angels of whom the apostle treats; but as to the interpretation of the words they are of two opinions.
Some make “spirits” to be the subject of what is affirmed, and “angels” to be the predicate. In this sense God is said to make those spiritual substances; inhabitants of heaven, his messengers, employing them in his service; and them whose nature is “a flaming fire,” that is the seraphim, to be his ministers, and to accomplish his pleasure. And this way, after Austin, go many expositors, making the term “angels” here merely to denote an employment, and not the persons employed. But as this interpretation also takes off from the efficacy and evidence of the apostle’s argument, so we shall see that there is nothing in the words themselves leading to the embracement of it.
It remains, therefore, that it is the angels that are here spoken of ; as also that they are intended and designed by that name, which denotes their persons, and not their employment.
That angels are primarily intended by the psalmist, contrary to the first opinion, of the modern Jews, and the second mentioned, leaning thereunto, appears,—
1. From the scope and design of the psalmist. For designing to set out the glory of God in his works of creation and providence, after he had declared the framing of all things by his power which come under the name of “ heavens,” verses 2, 3, before he proceeds to the creation of the earth,—passing over, with Moses, the creation of angels, or couching it with him under the production of light or of the heavens, as they are called in Job,—he declareth his providence — and sovereignty in employing his angels between heaven and earth, as his servants for the accomplishment of his pleasure. Neither doth it at all suit his method or design, in his enumeration of the works of God, to make mention of the winds and tempests, and their use in the earth, before he had mentioned the creation of the earth it- self, which follows in the next verse unto this. So that these senses are excluded by the context of the psalm.
2. The consent of the ancient Jews lies against the sentiment of the modern. Both the old translations either made or embraced by them expressly refer the words unto angels. So doth that of the LXX., as is evident from the words; and so doth the Targum, thus rendering the place, NWN TT PS’PN wow NN PA Prd NS Tays sandy ;—“ Who maketh his messengers” (or “ angels”) “ swift as spirits, and his ministers strong” (or “ powerful”) “ as a flaming fire.” The supply of the note of similitude makes it evident that they un- derstood the text of angels, and not winds, and of making angels as spirits, and not of making winds to be angels or messengers, which is inconsistent with their words.
3. The word DYDNPD doth usually denote the angels themselves, and no reason can be given why it should not do so in this place.
VER. 7.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 173
Moreover, it appears that that term is the subject of the proposi- tion: for,—
1. The apostle and the LXX. fixing the articles before dyyéroug and Asroupyots, “angels” and “ministers,” do plainly determine the subject spoken of: for although, it may be, some variety may be ob- served in the use of articles in other places, so that they do not always determine the subject of the proposition, as sometimes con- fessedly they do, as John i. 1, iv. 24; yet in this place, where in the original all the words are left indefinitely, without any prefix to direct the emphasis unto any one of them, the fixing of them in — the translation of the apostle and LXX. must necessarily design the subject of them, or else by the addition of the article they leave the sense much more ambiguous than before, and give occasion to a great mistake in the interpretation of the words.
2. The apostle speaks of angels: “ Unto the angels he saith.” And in all other testimonies produced by him, that whereof he treats hath the place of the subject spoken of, and not of that which is attri- buted unto any thing else. Neither can the words be freed from equivocation, if “angels” in the first place denote the persons of the angels, and in the latter their employment only.
3. The design and scope of the apostle requires this construction of the words; for his intention is, to prove by this testimony that the angels are employed in such works and services, and in such a man- ner, as that they are no way to be compared to the Son of God, in respect of that office which as mediator he hath undertaken: which the sense and construction contended for alone doth prove.
4, The original text requires this sense; for, according to the com- mon use of that language, among words indefinitely used, the first denotes the subject spoken of, which is angels here: NIN Y2Ne0 NYY, —‘ making his angels spirits.” And in such propositions ofttimes some note of similitude is to be understood, without which the sense is not complete, and which, as I have showed, the Targum supplieth in this place.