Introduction 483

Epistle to the Hebrews is thought by some to be directed against angel worship, but this is improbable. Twice in the Apocalypse the angel who shows the visions to the writer restrains him from an attempt to worship him. This seems to have a polemical reference to angel worship. There is a similar passage in the Ascension of Isaiah, vii. 21, cf. viii. 4,5. In the Testament of Levi the seer asks the angel to tell him his name that he may call upon him in the day of trouble. So in the Testament of Dan, the patriarch bids his children “draw near to God and the angel’. We have no ground in the angel worship for assuming a post-Pauline date, since already before Paul’s time the conditions for it were present. That the angelic orders were created by the Son follows from the fact that the creation of all was ascribed by Paul to Christ (1 Cor. viii. 6), combined with the fact that, as we have seen, Paul recognised the existence of angelic orders. That he adds “thrones” and “lord- ships’ to the list in Colossians is no proof of difference of authorship, for in the undisputed Epistles the lists, which he gives, vary. That they are included in the scope of the Son’s work of reconciliation cannot be objected to on the ground that they did not need this, for the doctrine of angelic sinlessness is contrary to the teaching of Paul, as also to that of the O.T. and Jewish theology. A more plausible difficulty may be urged as to the method of Redemption. The death of Christ was a death in the body of flesh, and thus availed to destroy the sinful flesh in humanity. But it might be said, How can this have any effect on the angelic world? Should we not say: “ Not of angels doth He take hold, but He taketh hold of the seed of Abra- ham”? It is true that the N.T. writers, Paul included, think in the main of the effects of Christ’s death on mankind. But in face of the false teaching it was natural for Paul to draw an inference already implicit in his doctrine. Wherever sin was present, there grace was present to meet it; and this grace found its expression in the Cross-of Christ. No limit could be set to its saving power; for angels as for men it made complete atonement. And the relation to the angels which this involved is just what we should expect in Paul. The redemption of man was made possible by Christ’s Headship of the race. That He was the Head of the angelic world was a natural thought to Paul, once he regarded Christ as its Creator, and realised its need for redemption. His connexion with it went back to its creation, and therefore His redeeming acts could avail for it, as for the race of men. It was also a natural thought for Paul, since the Cross abolished the Law, and the Law had been given by angels, that in the death of Christ God had despoiled and triumphed over