Hath spoken unto us (éAaAncev nyiv). Rend. spake, referring to the time of Christ’s teaching in the flesh. To us God spake as to the fathers of old.
By his son (év vig). Lit. ina son. Note the absence of the article. Attention is directed, not to Christ’s divine per- sonality, but to his filial relation. While the former revela- tion was given through a definite class, the prophets, the new revelation is given through one who is a son as distinguished froma prophet. He belongs to another category. The reve- lation was a son-revelation. See ch. ii. 10-18. Christ’s high
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priesthood is the central fact of the epistle, and his sonship is bound up with his priesthood. See ch. v. 5. For a simi- lar use of vids son, without the article, applied to Christ, see ch. ili. 6; v. 83 vil. 28.
Whom he hath appointed heir of all things (dv é@nxev KAnpovdmov mavrwv). Kor é0nxev appointed, see on J. xv. 16. For xAnpovepos heir, see on inheritance, 1 Pet.i.4; and comp. on Christ as heir, Mk. xii. 1-12. God eternally predestined the Son to be the possessor and sovereign of all things. Comp. Ps. Ixxxix. 28. Heirship goes with sonship. See Rom. viii. 17; Gal. iv. 7. Christ attained the messianic lordship through incarnation. Something was acquired as the result of his incarnation which he did not possess before it, and could not have possessed without it. Equality with God was his birthright; but out of his human life, death, and resurrection came a type of sovereignty which could per- tain to him only through his triumph over human sin in the flesh (see ver. 3), through his identification with men as their brother. Messianic lordship could not pertain to his prein- carnate state: it is a matter of function, not of inherent power and majesty. He was essentially Son of God; he must become Son of man.
By whom also he made the worlds (&’ od «al érroincev Tovs ai@vas). Ava commonly expresses secondary agency; but, in some instances, it is used of God’s direct agency. See 1 Cor. i. 1; 2 Cor. i.1; Gal. iv. 7. Christ is here repre- sented asa mediate agency in creation. The phrase is, clearly, coloured by the Alexandrian conception, but difters from it in that Christ is not represented as a mere instrument, a passive tool, but rather as a codperating agent. ‘ Every being, to reach existence, must have passed through the thought and will of the Logos” (Godet); yet “the Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father doing” (J. v. 19). With this passage Col. i. 16 should be studied. There it is said that all things, collectively (ra mavra), were created in him (év air@) and through him (8 adrod as here). The
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former expression enlarges and completes the latter. Av’ avrod represents Christ as the mediate instrument. ’Ev avT@ indicates that “all the laws and purposes which guide the creation and government of the universe reside in him, the Eternal Word, as their meeting-point.”* Comp. J.i. 3; 1 Cor. viii. 6. For rods aiavas the worlds, see additional note on 2 Th. i. 9. Rend. for by whom also he made, by whom he also made. The emphasis is on made, not on worlds: on the fact of creation, not on what was created. In the writer’s thought heirship goes with creation. Christ is heir of what he made, and because he made it. As mdvrwv, in the pre- ceding clause, regards all things taken singly, a/@vas regards them in cycles. *Avdvas does not mean times, as if represent- ing the Son as the creator of all time and times, but creation unfolded in time through successive aeons. All that, in suc- cessive periods of time, has come to pass, has come to pass through him. Comp. 1 Cor. x. 11; Eph. iii. 21; Heb. ix. 26; 1 Tim. i. 17; LXX, Tob. xiii. 6,10; Eccl. iii. 11. See also Clement of Rome, Ad Corinth. xxxv, 6 Onusoupyos Kal jaThp Tav atovev the Creator and Father of the ages. Besides this expression, the writer speaks of the world as xécpos (iv. 3; x. 5) 3 % otcoupevy (i. 6), and ta wavta (i. 3).