(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
Superiority of the Son over Angels
- God, having previously spoken to the patriarchs1“patriarchs” is literally “fathers”. Patriarchs was chosen to preserve the alliteration present in Greek. See note at the end of this verse. in plentiful parts and in plentiful ways by the prophets, 2Heb 1:1 Verse note: This verse contains alliteration in Greek, which has been preserved here. A slightly more literal translation without the alliteration would read: “God, having spoken to the fathers long ago in many parts and many ways by the prophets,
- spoke to us in these last days by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the ages;
- who being the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His substance; both upholding all things by the spoken word of power, and having accomplished the cleansing of sins through Himself, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
- Having become so much greater than the angels, He has inherited a name that’s so much more excellent than theirs.
- For to which of the angels did He ever say: “You are My Son; today I have fathered you.”?3quotation/allusion to Psalm 2:7 And again: “I will be a Father to Him, and He will be a Son to Me.”?4quotation/allusion to 2 Samuel 7:14
- And again, when He brought the firstborn into the inhabited world He says: “And let all God’s angels worship Him.”5quotation/allusion to Psalm 97:7
- And indeed, He says of the angels: “The One making His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire.”6quotation/allusion to Psalm 104:4
- But He says of the Son: “Your throne O God, lasts through the age of the age, and the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
- “You ^loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.7“lawlessness” this Greek word is more literally “ignoring God’s law”. It’s a noun, and literally means “those who are without law”; i.e. those who – either by ignorance or by rebellion – don’t obey God’s (moral) law. Because of this, God – your God – anointed you above your companions with the oil of ecstatic delight.”8quotation/allusion to Psalm 45:6-7
- And “Lord, in the beginning you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands.
- “They will perish but you remain; and all will grow old like a robe.
- “And you will roll them up like a cloak and they will be changed like a robe, but you are the same and your years won’t cease.”9quotation/allusion to Psalm 102:25-27
- But to which of the angels has He ever said: “Sit at My right hand until I put your enemies under your feet as a footstool.”10quotation/allusion to Psalm 110:1
- Aren’t they all ministering spirits, being sent out for service for the sake of the men about to inherit salvation?
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