d , 4 τοσούτῳ KPELT~
των γενόμενος τῶν ἀγγέλων, ὅσῳ διαφορώτερον παρ᾽ αὐτοὺς κεκληρο-
introducing Him to the place of security and favour, but also of dignity and power. ‘‘The King’s right hand was the place of power and dignity, belonging to the minister of his authority and his justice, and the channel of his mercy, the Mediator in short between him and his people” (Rendall). Cf. Ps. Ixxx. 17. In contrast to the ever-growing and never complete revelation to the fathers, which kept the race always waiting for some- thing more sufficing, there came at last that revelation which contained all and achieved all. But the expression not only looks backward in approval of the work done by the Son, but forward to the result of this work in His supremacy over all human affairs. μεγαλωσύνη is ascribed to God in Jude 25 and in Deut. xxxii. 3 δότε μεγαλωσύνην τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν. Cf. also Clem., Εῤ., xvi. Here it is used to denote the sovereign majesty inherent in God (cf. xii. 2; Mk. xiv. 62). The words ἐν ὑψήλοις are connected by Westcott and Vaughan with ἐκάθισεν. It is better, with Beza and Bleek, to connect them with µεγαλ- ωσύνης, for while in x, 12 and xii. 2, where it is said He sat down on the throne of God, no further designation is needed; in viii. 1, as here, where it is said that He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty, it is felt that some further designation is needed and ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς is added. No local region is intended, but supreme spiritual influence, mediation between God, the ultimate love, wisdom and sovereignty, and this world. This writer and his contemporary fellow-Christians, had reached the con- viction here expressed, partly from Christ’s words and partly from their own experience of His power.
Vv. 4—1i. 18. The Son and the Angels. Ver. 4, although forming part of the sentence I-3, introduces a subject which continues to be more or less in view throughout chaps. i. and ii. The exaltation of the Mediator to the right hand of Sovereignty is in keeping with His designation as Son, a designation which marked Him out as superior to the angels. Proof is adduced from the Ο.Τ. To this proof, in accordance with the writer’s manner, a resulting admoni- tion is attached, ii. 1-4. And the remainder of chap. il. is occupied with an explanation of the reasonableness of the
ου
4:--5.
νόμηκεν ὄνομα.
σὺ, ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέννηκά σε; ’΄ καὶ πάλιν, “᾿Εγὼ ἔσομαι αὐτῷ
incarnation and the suffering it involved ; or, in other words, it is explained why if Christ is really greater than the angels, He had to be made a little lower than they.
τοσούτῳ κρείττων γενόμενος - . . “having become as much superior to the angels as He has obtained a more excellent namethan they”. The form of comparison here used, τοσ. . . . ὅσῳ is found also, vii. 20-22, viii. 6, x. 25; also in Philo. κρείττων is one of the words most necessary in an Epistle in which com- parison is never out of sight. The Son became (γενόμενος) greater than the an- gels in virtue of taking His seat at God’s tight hand. This exaltation was the result of His earthly work. It is as Mediator of the new revelation, who has cleansed the sinful by His death, that He assumes supremacy. And this is in keep- ing with and in fulfilment of His obtain- ing the name of Son. Thisname κεκλη- ρονόμηκεν, He has obtained, not ‘“ von Anfang an” as Bleek and others say, but as Riehm points out, in the Ο.Τ. The Messiah, then future, was spoken of as Son; and therefore to the O.T. reference is at once madein proof. The Messianic Sonship no doubt rests upon the Eternal Sonship, but it is not the latter but the former that is here in view.