This epistle does not have a traditional epistolary introduction or prologue as do other Pauline epistles. Explanation for the absence of such was made by Clement of Alexandria (c. 200 A.D.), noting that Paul avoided the inclusion of his name at the beginning of the letter so that the message he had to share would not be detracted from by any previous biases or prejudices of the recipients who were suspicious of his association with, and inclusion of, the Gentiles. Paul, therefore, gets right to the point of demonstrating and documenting that Jesus Christ is the better revelation of God to men. He will do so by asserting that Jesus is better than the prophets (1:1-3), and better than the angels (1:4-14), and thus provides a better incentive to be receptive to Christ (2:1-4).

The saints in the church at Jerusalem were wavering in their stand with Christ. They were in danger of drifting (2:1) back to Judaic religion, of slipping away from their moorings in the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. From the very outset of this letter Paul proceeds to affirm the superiority of Christ over the religion of Judaism, and thus to demonstrate that the reality of Jesus is better than any religion.

1:1 ­  In the original Greek language the letter begins with two "poly" prefixed words referring to "many parts and many ways". The revelation of God in the old covenant was multiportional and multifarious, or to use "poly" words, polypartitive and polymodal. "Of old (long ago) God was speaking to the fathers in the prophets" in multiple portions and by multiple means. Over a period of several millennia God revealed Himself partially and progressively throughout the Hebrew history recorded in the Old Testament. Paul begins this letter to the Palestinian Jews by reminding them of the multiple occasions and multiple dimensions by which God spoke and made Himself known in old covenant history, but the point he is making is simply to set up the logical contrast of how Jesus Christ is the singular, undivided and complete self-revelation of God to mankind. The multiple preliminary prefiguring of God's actions in Jewish history, as He spoke to the fathers through the many Hebrew prophets, is used by Paul to create the explanation of the better revelation of God in the singularity of His self-revelation in His Son. The "fathers" are not necessarily restricted to the "patriarchs" of Genesis, but are the ancestral forefathers of previous generations of Hebrew peoples (cf. 3:9; 8:9).

Jesus was not just another in a long line of Hebrew prophets. He was not merely a spokesperson for God. Jesus was the singular and unique God-man, the Son of God incarnated in the humanity of a man. As such, He provided the only provision of God for the needs of mankind, superior to all previous and prior revelatory pronouncements about God in the old covenant. Jesus did not come to tell us more about God, or to give mankind more information about God's attributes and God's intentions. No, Jesus came as God ­ the self-revelation of God. His every act was invested with the very Being of God, and the very Being of God was fully operative in every act. The self-revelation of God in Jesus necessarily implies the oneness of His Being and act. Jesus was not the "virtual reality" of God, "as if" He were God in action; nor was He the "remote action" of God, manipulated from a position of transcendence to produce a secondary and mediated action of God. No, Jesus was the real action of the very reality of God, the ontological dynamic of the very essence of God operational in the man, Jesus. I do not believe that this in any way overstates the point Paul sought to make in his contrast with the prior prophetic pronouncements of God in the past.

The participial form of the verb Paul uses about "God having spoken" in this first verse may have been intended to be contrasted with the aorist indicative form of the same verb in the second verse. That "God has spoken to us in the Son" expresses a more definite and deliberate act of God, perhaps even the punctiliar action that emphasizes the singularity and superiority of God's revelation of Himself in the Son, as contrasted with polymorphous expression of the prophets in the old covenant. The better expression and revelation of God is in the Son. Such revelation is not just a proclamation, but an incarnation, a personified self-revelation.

The use of "old" (Greek palai) in this initial verse of the epistle establishes a theme that will be employed throughout, contrasting the old covenant arrangement of God's preparatory dealing toward mankind with the new covenant arrangement of God's permanent and eternal action for man in Jesus Christ. (cf. covenants) Paul wants to dissuade the Jewish Christians from reverting to the old covenant religion of Judaism after they have already participated in the better spiritual realities of the new covenant in Jesus Christ.

1:2 ­  The Pauline perspective of history is always divided by not only the old covenant and the new covenant, but by the correlative concept of the "past" and the "last." The old is "past", even obsolete (8:13), and the "last" in the sequence (Greek word eschatos from which we transliterate the word "eschatology") is the new reality that God has made known in His Son, Jesus, who is the "last Adam", the Eschatos Man (I Cor. 15:45); God's "last word" for mankind ­ singularly, completely, decisively and finally. (cf. last things) Eschatology is often mistakenly understood to be the study of the future and that which is yet to transpire. Properly understood, eschatology is the study of "last things", and God's last and final arrangement for man is in Jesus Christ. In the first proclamation of the early church, Peter commenced by saying that Joel's prophecy of the "last days" (Joel 2:28) was fulfilled by the Pentecostal manifestation of the Spirit of Christ (Acts 2:17). Now Paul commences with the same theme that "in these last days God has spoken to us in His Son." The "last days" are not future. Rather, they began in the past when God historically revealed Himself incarnationally in the Son, and they continue throughout the new covenant "day of salvation" (cf. II Cor. 6:2) unto the "last time" (cf. I Peter 1:5) of the future. Although Jewish eschatology was always future-focused, Christian eschatology is focused on Christ, the fulfillment of God's "last things", and must necessarily be based on what Christ has already accomplished on our behalf in His "finished work" (John 19:30), all the while recognizing the perpetuity and continuum of His eternal work into the future. Christian eschatology will always recognize the "already" and the "not yet" of God's "last things" in Jesus Christ.

Writing to the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, Paul wanted to emphasize the inaugurated and realized eschatological realities in Jesus Christ. The Jews in Palestine in the middle of the seventh decade of the first century (mid 60s A.D.) were anticipating a hoped-for future of deliverance from Rome and consequent self-rule. The Zealot theme of patriotic Jewish nationalism was at a crescendo. They were confident this would reestablish the Davidic kingdom which they considered to be their God-given right of self-rule in the Palestinian land that they regarded as given to them by God. Paul did not want the Jewish Christians to accept the false hopes for a physical utopian kingdom being offered by the Jewish religionists, but wanted them to base their hope in Jesus Christ alone (cf. I Tim. 1:1).

Although this letter primarily contrasts old covenant and new covenant, Judaism and Christianity, it is important to note that there is both continuity and discontinuity in the connection and contrasts. Continuity is evident in that it is "God who spoke to the fathers in the prophets" (1:1), and the same "God who has spoken in His Son" (1:2). Judaism and Christianity are historically linked, and God's action in the old covenant must not be regarded as irrelevant or of no value by those who participate in the new covenant. Though the previous revelation of God was temporary and preparatory as a pictorial prefiguring, it was nonetheless foundational and necessary, having been enacted by God. Paul's point is that the old arrangement has been superseded by all that is new and better in Jesus Christ. So it is that he commences by noting the diverse and fragmentary modality of the prophetic proclamation of God in the old covenant as contrasted with the superior, singular modality of God's self-revelation in the Son, who Himself declared, 'I AM the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes unto the Father but by Me" (John 14:6).

It is "the Son whom God appointed heir of all things." A son is always a primary heir prior to any eligibility (if any) of servants. Later in the epistle (3:5,6) Paul will note that Moses was a "servant," whereas Jesus was the "Son." In the distinctly Messianic second Psalm, we discover the prophetic pointer to the Messianic Son inheriting all from His Father: "He said to Me, 'Thou art My Son... Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance'" (Psalm 2:7,8). Jesus, the Son, was foreordained of God to be the heir of all things, i.e. everything God has to give. The prophets were not the heirs of all things of God. The Jewish people were not the heirs of all things, even though they thought they had an exclusive right to all the things of God. This may be the contrastual point Paul was making when he wrote that the "Son was appointed heir of all things." The Jews had long considered that they had an exclusive right to the fulfillment of all God's promises, that the divine inheritance was all theirs. Particularly, they laid claim to the promises of God to Abraham pertaining to land (Gen. 12:7; 15:7; 17:8), nation (Gen. 12:2; 17:4,5; 18:18), blessing (Gen. 12:2,3; 18:18), and posterity (Gen. 13:15,16; 15:5; 22:17), believing these to be their divine right of inheritance in physical fulfillment. When this epistle was written the Palestinian Jews were zealously mobilizing to claim their inheritance of land, nation and blessing by attempting to oust the Romans from Palestine. In that context Paul writes that "the Son has been appointed heir of all things." Does that mean that Jesus is the heir and fulfillment of all God's promises and intents? Yes, for as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "For as many as may be the promises of God, in Him (Jesus Christ) they are yes..." (II Cor. 1:20) ­ affirmed, confirmed, fulfilled. The mistake of the Jewish people was to interpret God's promises only as physical, racial and national promises, rather than figurative and spiritual promises which were to be fulfilled in the Son, Jesus Christ. So Paul explains to the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem that "Jesus was appointed by God as heir of all things." All things? Yes, all things pertaining to God's intentions to give Himself to mankind in His Son in order to restore the necessary divine presence that allows man to be man as God intended. Jesus is "heir of all things" because God has only one "only-begotten" Son, who is the one heir of all that is His. But those who are incorporated into the one heir, "in Christ" as Paul uses the phrase, are then "joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17). As such, Christians "inherit the promises" (Heb. 6:12) and "receive the promises of eternal inheritance" (Heb. 9:15). Christians are thus "heirs of all things" in Christ, "blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3), having been "granted everything pertaining to life and godliness" (II Pet. 1:3), so that "all things belong to us" (I Cor. 3:21-23). Paul wanted the Christians in Jerusalem to realize that they were the heirs of "all things" of God in Jesus Christ, and did not need to fight for such militarily in insurrection against Rome, as they were being pressured to do by the Jewish nationalists. Why is it then that Zionist interpretations still influence Christian thinking today, still advocating that the Jewish people are to be the "heirs of all things", and that the promises of God to Abraham are yet to be fulfilled physically for the Jews in the future? (cf. Abrahamic promises) This can be nothing less than a failure to understand the point Paul is making throughout this epistle to the Hebrews, if not an abominable attempt to recreate the aberrant religious model of physical, racial and national privilege that Paul was attempting to deny by directing the Jerusalem Christians to Christ alone, and to the recognition that He is "the heir of all things", which things Christians participate in "in Him."

Paul proceeds to explain to his readers that this Son is the one "through whom also He made the ages." In other words, Jesus was preexistent with God, one in Being with God, and active in the divine creation of all created existence. Paul had explained this in other writings, noting that "through Christ are all things, and we exist through Him" (I Cor. 8:6), for "by Him all things were created...by Him and for Him" (Col. 1:16). John likewise explained that "all things come into being by Him (Jesus, the Word), and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being" (John 1:3), for "the world was made by Him" (John 1:10). Jesus, as God, created "all things" and is the heir of "all things". He is the beginning and the end (Rev. 21:6; 22:13) of all things, the origin and the objective of all divine things, for He is divine Being in action. Etiology and teleology merge in the divine action of the Son. This is the point that Paul is seeking to drive home to these Christians of Jewish heritage, that the popular Jewish perspective of God as a singular and isolated monad is insufficient to explain God's actions and intents. A Trinitarian perception of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is required to understand the better revelation of God's self-revelation of Himself in the Son.

It was as God that Jesus was instrumental in the creation of the universe, of time and space. The word Paul employs here is not kosmos, the Greek word for "world", but aionas, the Greek plural for "ages" (cf. Heb. 11:3). Though these two words can be used synonymously for divine creation in general, there may be an emphasis on Christ's creative action in both the old age and the new age, and that to establish that "at the consummation of the ages (which He Himself had created) He was manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. 9:26), so that those "in Him" might participate in "the powers of the age to come" (Heb. 6:5). Jesus' divine action in the physical creation of time and space is reenacted in the re-creation of man spiritually by His redemptive and restorative work. "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature" (II Cor. 5:17), a participant in the "new creation" (Gal. 6:16). Despite the attempts of the Jewish nationalists in Judea to create a "new thing" in Palestine, Paul would tell the Christians to be content with the creative acts of Jesus Christ, who had already constituted them "a holy nation" (I Pet. 2:9) in Him.

Paul has explained that the better revelation, the final revelation of God, presently available "in these last days" was incarnationally, redemptively and restorationally enacted in the self-revelation of Himself in the Son, who is the divine creative source of all things and the divinely ordained heir of all things, so that all of God's Being in action is in Him. He will continue to explain this unitive and Trinitarian basis of divine action in the next sentence.

1:3 ­  "He (Jesus) is the radiance of His (God's) glory." As the "I AM" (cf. John 8:58; 10:9,11; 11:25; 14:6), Jesus is the eternally present tense emanation of divine glory. "The Word was made flesh, and we beheld His glory" (John 1:14), and the eternal Word continuously radiates divine glory as God. It is not that the Son merely reflects the glory of God like a mirror. That would be to separate the Son from the divine source. No, Jesus radiates, emanates and expresses divine glory as the self-generating God. Through the prophet Isaiah, God declared, "I am the Lord..., I will not give My glory to another" (Isa. 42:8; 48:11). God cannot dispense His glory as if it were a detached commodity. His glory is in Himself, and God is glorified when His all-glorious character is expressed unto His own glory. Again, He is subject and object, source and recipient, of His own glory. "Crowned with glory and honor" (Heb. 2:7,9) as the God-man, Jesus glorified the Father by expressing divine character at all times as a man, and then prayed that He might "be glorified with the glory that He had with the Father before the world was" (John 17:5), in order to continue as the Glorified One to express and emanate divine glory as God.

It seems that religion is always attempting to find God's glory in something other than the Christic expression of such, believing that God's glory "shines from" determined manifestations or successful results. Some have thought that God's glory was only in their belief-system, their denomination, or their worship patterns. The particular religious situation that Paul addresses in writing to the Jerusalem Christians was that the Jewish religion conceived of God's glory either as the Shekinah glory observed by the high priest once a year in the Holy of Holies of the temple, or in considering themselves as "God's chosen people" to be the glory of God. Paul explains that the living Lord Jesus is "the radiance of God's glory", allowing the invisible character of God to be made visible by generating such out of His own Being. Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" (II Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15), and only by His presence and activity (Being in action) can Christians "do all to the glory of God" (I Cor. 10:31), having beheld "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (II Cor. 4:6), in order to be "transformed into the same image from glory to glory" (II Cor. 3:18).

In what some have regarded as a synonymous or parallel statement to the previous, but which is surely a deeper amplification of Jesus' deity, Paul explains that the Son is "the express image of God's essence." This is a difficult phrase to translate, as is evident in the many English translations: "exact representation of His nature" (NASB), "express image of His person" (KJV), "bears the very stamp of His nature" (RSV), "exact representation of His being" (NIV). It seems inadequate to indicate that Jesus is the "representation" of God, for the point that Paul seems to be making is that Jesus is the very "reality" of God. The word that Paul uses, the Greek word charakter (from which we get the English word "character"), was used in the engraving of an imprint to stamp an image on a coin, thus eliciting the translations of "representation", "image", "stamp," "imprint", etc. What we must avoid is any translation that implies that Jesus is a separated, secondary, instrumental stamp or imprint that is in any way less than God. The second noun in the phrase is no less difficult to translate: the Greek word hupostasis refers to the underlying reality of essence, substance or constitution. Since the Greek language has a clear word for "nature" (phusis), it is preferable not to translate this word in the same way, but to translate it as "essence" or as "substance" (as the KJV translates the same word in Heb. 11:1).

What is Paul attempting to convey in this phrase? Apparently the same thought as he expressed to the Colossians, that "in Him (Jesus) all the fullness of Deity dwells" (Col. 2;9). Or as Jesus said, "He who has seen Me, has seen the Father" (John 14:9), for "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30), essentially and purposefully. Perhaps to counter the tendency of Judaism to make God into a monad, Paul wanted to emphasize to the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem that Jesus is the very embodiment of deity, the self-existent, self-generating essence of God. All that God is, Jesus is, and Jesus is the better revelation of God, superior to the Jewish prophets because He is the very essence and Being of God in action.

Christian theologians have long struggled to express this inexplicable oneness of Father and Son (and Spirit). (cf. trinity) Sometimes they have referred to the "hypostatic union" (from hupostasis) of the persons of the Godhead, or to the consubstantial oneness of God as "three in one". Other explanations have referred to the ontological coinherence of Father and Son in perichoretic oneness (based on the Greek word perichoresis, meaning the interpenetration of Being), or of the homoousion of the singular sameness and oneness of Being in Father and Son. Simply put, Paul wanted to tell the Jewish Christians that "Jesus is God," a foundational premise of Christianity that they may have been in danger of denying as they endured the pressure of Judaism in Jerusalem. But from Paul's perspective to reject Jesus would be to reject God.

Continuing his extended statement concerning Jesus, Paul writes that the Son "upholds all things by the word of His power." This is not a portrayal of Jesus as an "Atlas figure" holding up the planet in his hand. The statement conveys more than the words of the popular song, "He's got the whole world in His hand." Though inclusive of the idea of God's providential sustenance of the created order, it appears that Paul's meaning is closer to what he wrote to the Colossians, that "in Him (Jesus) all things hold together" (Col. 1:17). "All things" of God (which He is the co-creator of and heir of - cf. 1:2) are continually borne and carried by the Son. Jesus bears the responsibility to express the dynamic of God's empowering in all things. He was "declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4), and thus serves as the divine agent of expressing the divine dynamic and empowering of all the activities of God, including "the power of God for salvation to every one who believes" (Rom. 1:16). The Palestinian Jews were preparing to make a power-play against Rome, but Paul tells the Christians that the real power of God is invested in Jesus, on whom they should rely instead of military might.

In his continuing explanation of the divine work of the Son, Paul wrote, "Having made cleansing for sins, He (Jesus) sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." The Jewish religion was obsessed with the cleansing of bodies, hands, feet, food, utensils, etc., always seeking a ceremonial purification. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies of the temple to effect a "cleansing of their sins before the Lord" (Lev. 16:30; cf. Exod. 30:10). Paul's objective in this epistle to the Hebrews is to categorically declare that Jesus is the fulfillment of the type of the high priest (Heb. 2:17; 4:14; 7:24-28), having dealt with the sins of mankind (Heb. 8:12; 10:12,17,18) once and for all (Heb. 7:27; 9:12,25,26; 10:10-12) by His own atoning sacrifice in death. The redemptive cleansing is complete and permanent in Christ. By His "finished work" (John 19:30) the penalty for sins is removed, and the sanctifying catharsis of the power of sin in Christian lives is operative.

Therefore, Paul declares, "Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." In the Jewish temple the responsibilities of the priests were never finished. "Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins" (Heb. 10:11), but Jesus "having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God" (Heb. 10:12). There is a repeated allusion throughout this epistle (Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2) to Psalm 110:1 and David's comment that "the Lord says to my Lord, 'Sit at My right hand...'" There was no place to sit in the Jewish temple because the job was never done, and this is true of religion in general as it requires ever-repetitive rituals and exercises in an attempt to please God. Jesus, on the other hand, "accomplished the work which the Father gave Him to do" (John 17:4), and exclaimed from the cross, "It is finished!" (John 19:30). That is why He sat down, not because He was tired or exhausted, but because as Christus Victor He had triumphed over evil, cleansed mankind from their sins, and could thus assume the place of honor and authority at the right hand of Majesty. The figure of Jesus being "at the right hand of God" does not diminish His equality and essential oneness with God, but represents pictorially His authority and divine reign. "All authority is given to Me in heaven and earth" (Matt. 28:18), Jesus declared. Despite this declaration, religion always wants to attribute authority to a holy book, to a tradition, to an organization, or to a person. All divine authority is vested in Jesus based on His "finished work" which effectively and remedially dealt with men's sins in order to restore God's intended Being in action in man. That is why Paul can tell the Ephesians that all Christians are "seated in the heavenlies with Christ" (Eph. 1:20; 2:6), resting (Heb. 4:1-11) in Christ's "finished work". Why, then, would any Christian consider reverting back to religion and its ceaseless activities, "standing up" for this or that, fighting the pseudo-enemies in never-ending power plays? Why would the Christians of Jerusalem want to join the nationalists and their religious defense to "stand up" against Rome, and engage in a militaristic power-play? That was Paul's question to the Jewish Christians to whom he wrote. Why not participate in the victory already won by the Lord, Jesus Christ, rather than seek a triumph over the Romans? Meanwhile, religion always strives for a "right-hand position with Christ, just as the mother of James and John sought such for one of her sons (Matt. 27:38; Lk. 23:33), but the religionists are never willing to "be seated" and rest in Christ's victorious sufficiency. They always want to "stand up" and do battle, forgetting that Christ's work is finished by God's grace. This was the temptation that the Jerusalem Christians faced ­ to forget the triumphant and completed work of Jesus, and revert to the Judaic activistic cause of the day ­ a fatal and permanent relapse according to Paul (cf. Heb. 6:4-6; 10:29-31).

1:4 ­  Though still a part of the previous sentence, Paul commences to explain that not only is Jesus better than the prophets, He is also better than the angels. This theme necessitates some background concerning the Jewish conception of angels and their relationship to God in order to fully appreciate Paul's argument.

The conception of God as a transcendent monad in Jewish theology fostered an elaborate development of angelology. Whenever there is alleged to be a great distance or a vast separation between God and man, religion often employs the explanatory medium of angels to serve as intermediaries to fill in that great gap, and to provide an explanation of an indirect access to God via such angelic go-betweens or liaisons. Such was certainly the case in the Judaic understanding of the first century. Angels were regarded to be the agents of everything God did. They were thought to be hierarchically formed into the "army of God", controlling the destiny of the people and nation of Israel (and the Jews of Palestine were confident that angelic intervention would assure the victory of their revolt against Rome). There were angels assigned to every act of God and every object of creation: guardian angels for every individual, prosecuting angels for every violation of God's Law, death angels who could terminate life. An angel was identified with every physical element such as fire, wind (cf. 1:7), thunder, lightning, rain, snow, dew, as well mountains, the sky and the sea. The movement of the stars was thought to be controlled by the angels. One rabbinic source stated that "every blade of grass has its angel." On a practical level, despite their monotheistic assertion of the one Jehovah God, their worship was not that far removed from animism or the nature-religions with their innumerable nature-gods.

Jewish interpretation of Old Testament history inserted angelic involvement throughout. When God said, "Let us make man in our image" (Gen. 1:26), they explained that God was speaking to the angel assembly who would serve as His divine assistants in creation. Prayer was understood as angelic intercession whereby angels carried the prayers of God's people into the unapproachable presence of God, and returned to implement God's answer. Though the narrative in Exodus 19 and 20 does not refer to angels delivering the Law-tablets to Moses, this became the Jewish explanation, as is apparent in both the Old and New Testaments. Moses, himself, had explained that "the Lord came from Sinai...and He came from the midst of ten thousand holy ones (angels?); at His right hand there was flashing lightning for them" (Deut. 33:2). The psalmist, David, mentions that "the chariots of God (angels?) are myriads, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them as at Sinai" (Psalm 68:17). These references to the involvement of angels at Mount Sinai when Moses received the Law are reiterated in the New Testament when Stephen's recitation of Jewish history notes that "the angel was speaking to him (Moses) on Mount Sinai" (Acts 7:38), and that the Jewish people "received the law as ordained by angels" (Acts 7:53). That this was also Paul's understanding is evident in his epistle to the Galatians: "It (the Law) was added because of transgression, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed (Jesus) should come to whom the promise had been made" (Gal. 3:19).

It is in the context of this Jewish perception of angels that Paul writes that Jesus, the Son, "has become as much better than the angels", as He is superior to the prophets (1:1-3). The self-revelation of God in the Son supersedes previous revelations of God through both the prophets and the angels. It is not Paul's primary objective to counteract the erroneous reverence that the Jewish people may have had concerning angels. Paul apparently shared the belief about the intermediary actions of angels on Mount Sinai (Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). His primary objective was not to attack Jewish angelology, but to assert the superiority of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ above any revelatory participation by angels. In so doing he will necessarily counter some of the presuppositions that formed the foundation of an exaggerated Jewish angelology. The self-revelation of God in the Son posits that the transcendent God has acted to intervene incarnationally in human history, taking the form of a man (Phil. 2:7,8). God in Christ is not a separated and detached deity, unknown and to be feared. Rather, God has made direct contact and identification with humanity in order to facilitate a direct and immediate access and union with Himself for those "in Christ." Such a revelation of God in the Son allows the transcendent God to have a direct and immanent indwelling in mankind by His triune spiritual presence in the spirit of man (cf. Rom. 8:16). "The Lord is the Spirit" (II Cor. 3:17), and "the one who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (I Cor. 6:17). Paul wanted the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem to understand the superiority of God's revelation which is Christ, and to reject the temptation to revert to an inadequate view of a far-removed transcendent God whose action were enacted by angelic intermediaries because He was unapproachable without direct access. Jesus is better than angels because those "in Christ" have direct and immediate access with God in spiritual union with Christ, and the operation of God's grace in the living Lord Jesus empowers all that God desires to continue to express in and through the Christian.

When was it that Jesus "became so much better than the angels" according to Paul's statement in this verse? It does not appear that Paul is referring to the incarnation of God in Jesus at His birth, but rather to the resurrection exaltation of Jesus, which will be supported in the following verses. The preexistent Son of God "inherited a more excellent name than the angelic beings" when He "was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4). When God "raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named...and put all things (including angels) under his feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church" (Eph. 1:20-22), Jesus became "heir of all things" (1:2), having been "bestowed with the name that is above every name" (Phil. 2:9). "Through the resurrection," Jesus "is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him" (I Peter 3:22), writes Peter. What Paul is saying here is that by His resurrection-victory (cf. I Cor. 15:57) Christus Victor is confirmed as the revelation of God Himself, superior to all angels. Though eternally the Son of God, He was "born as a child; a son given to man" (Isa. 9:6) whose name would be called "Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6), such "excellent name" made explicit by His resurrection when He was "declared the Son of God with power" (Rom. 1:4) to enact the entirety of God's grace initiative among men.

1:5 ­  Continuing his argument Paul asks the Jewish Christians, "For to which of the angels did He ever say, 'THOU ART MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN THEE?'" This rhetorical question contains within its wording an implied negative answer. Never to any angels was such a divine declaration made. Employing the first of seven Old Testament quotations to bolster his argument of the superiority of Jesus over angels, Paul utilizes this series of quotations to demonstrate that "all the promises of God" (II Cor. 1:20) are fulfilled in Jesus Christ as "the heir of all things" (1:2). This first quotation is from the second Psalm, understood by the Jews to be a Messianic Psalm referring to God's anointed Messiah who would be decreed God's Son in a special way, and be given the nations as His inheritance (Psalm 2:7,8). Paul had previously used these very same words of Psalm 2:7 when he expounded the gospel in Antioch of Pisidia, declaring that "God has fulfilled this promise...in that He raised up Jesus, as it is written in the second Psalm, 'THOU ART MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN THEE'" (Acts 13:33). Clearly Paul considered the statement of this Messianic Psalm to have been fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus, whereby Jesus was "declared the Son of God with power" (Rom. 1:4), a "more excellent name" (1:4) than any angels, and was "begotten" of God. The word "begotten" is the Greek word meaning "to be born," and it is used of Moses' physical birth in 11:23, but here it is obviously to be understood figuratively as Jesus' being brought out of death into life in resurrection. In His resurrection Jesus was "the first-born from the dead" (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5), having experienced spiritual death on behalf of all fallen humanity in order to allow the spiritual life of God to conquer death for all, that "He might be the first-born among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29) who would experience such spiritual birthing to life "in Him." By His victorious resurrection Jesus is the more excellent Son, begotten of God unto eternal life for all mankind. No angel qualifies for such a name or place, so Paul is asking the Jerusalem Christians why they would even consider going back to the inferior religious revelation of angels.

"And again," Paul adds to reinforce his argument of Jesus having inherited the "more excellent" name and place of Sonship, and then he proceeds to quote from II Samuel 7:14, "I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM, AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME." The original context of this statement was God's statement to David through Nathan, the prophet, indicating that He would provide a descendant of David who would build a temple. Though this was an obvious physical reference to his son, Solomon, who did build the temple in Jerusalem, the Davidic offspring who would extend the Davidic kingdom was often applied to the expectation of the Messiah in Jewish thought, and that in conjunction with the similar statements of Psalm 89:1-4; 26-29. Paul certainly connected the resurrection of Jesus with the promised Davidic kingdom as is evident in that same message in Antioch of Pisidia cited above, where he declared that God's raising up Jesus from the dead was the bestowal of "the holy and sure blessings of David" (Acts 13:34). In the opening of his epistle to the Romans the same link is made concerning God's Son, "who was born a descendant of David, according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:3,4). To Timothy, Paul wrote, "Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David" (II Tim. 2:8). In Paul's mind the long-sought continuation of the promised Davidic kingdom was established by the resurrection when the Son "inherited a more excellent name" (1:4; Rom. 1:4) and assumed the throne of the promised spiritual kingdom of God. Paul's argument is that there are no angels who can claim that kind of unique relationship with God, the Father. The extension of Paul's thought is that Christians are the "temple of the living God" (II Cor. 6:16), and have a relationship in Christ wherein God says, "I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to Me" (II Cor. 6:18), by the indwelling presence of the resurrection life of the risen Lord Jesus.

1:6 ­  Paul extends the documentation of his argument, writing, "And again, when He brings the first-born into the world, He says, 'AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.'" It is still the resurrection that Paul has in mind, when "Christ was raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep" (I Cor. 15:20). By the resurrection God brought "the first-born from the dead" (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5) into His eschatological economy, the salvific economy wherein He would restore mankind by "bringing many sons to glory" (Heb. 2:10) through the living Lord Jesus who was "the first-born among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). Let it be noted that if Jesus is the "first-born from the dead", then the Old Testament patriarchs and believers cannot be regarded as having passed from death to life spiritually in the same manner as new covenant Christians, for such regeneration is predicated on the prerequisite of Christ's resurrection (cf. I Peter 1:3). The word Paul employs concerning God's bringing "the first-born into the world" is not the Greek word kosmos, but the Greek word oikoumene, a derivative of the word from which we get the English word "economy," thus explaining the interpretation given above. As Paul will write in summation of this section of his epistle, "God did not subject to angels the economy to come" (2:5 - using the same Greek word, oikoumene), so his argument here is that the resurrected Son, the living Lord Jesus and His economy of grace, is superior to the actions of angels.

By the resurrection of "the first-born from the dead" (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5), Paul indicates that God's pronouncement is, "LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM", quoting from Deuteronomy 32:43. The quotation is from the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Old Testament, rather than from the Hebrew text, where these words are not found. The verse in Deuteronomy is the conclusion of an extended "Song of Moses" before the assembly of Israel, and was regarded as Messianic prophecy in Jewish eschatological expectation. Paul, recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, utilizes the statement to assert that by His resurrection Jesus is worthy of angelic worship, and is therefore superior to the angels. Conversely the "worship of angels" is part of "self-made religion" (Col. 2:18,23), Paul advised the Colossians, and the apostle John in his vision was told not to worship the angel, but to worship God (Rev. 22:8,9). Paul puts the words of Moses into the mouth of God, with the admonition that the angels are to worship the superior Son. Worship of the Son implies that Jesus is God as Paul has previously explained. Recognizing this, John Bunyan is reported to have stated, "If Jesus Christ be not God, then heaven is filled with idolaters," for the angels would be engaged in idolatrous worship of one who is not God. Paul's point to the Jewish Christians in Palestine is that Jesus Christ alone is worthy of worship, and they should not go back to inadequate forms of Jewish worship which placed an inordinate emphasis on or improper worship of angels, who are themselves subordinated in worship of the Son.

1:7 ­  Revealing his own belief in angels, Paul cites Psalm 104:4, "And of the angels He says, 'WHO MAKES HIS ANGELS WINDS, AND HIS MINISTERS A FLAME OF FIRE.'" This was a typical Jewish interpretation of the verse from Psalms, identifying angels as the agents used by God within natural, physical phenomena such as wind and fire. It can certainly be questioned whether that was the original intent of the Psalmist, for in the context of explaining God's sovereign control and care of the created order the words can be, and perhaps are most legitimately translated with the meaning that "God makes the winds His messengers, flaming fire His ministers," indicating that God can use natural phenomena for His purposes. Keying off of the word angelloi, the Greek word for "messengers" in the Septuagint (LXX) version of the Old Testament, Paul applies these words to the actions of angels, and that for the purpose of contrasting such with the superior action of the Son, Jesus Christ.

1:8 ­  "But of the Son," God says through the Psalmist again, "THY THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM." Psalm 45:6, which Paul quotes here, is a Psalm celebrating the king's marriage, but Paul employs the words to indicate their Messianic fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Referring to the reign of Christ as Lord in the spiritual kingdom of God, Paul allows this verse to indicate the perpetuity and continuity of Christ's reign "forever and ever", i.e. the kingdom reign of Christ is eternal. Christ's reign as King in the spiritual kingdom of His people is the reign of the "Righteous One" (Acts 3:14; 7:52; 22:14; I Jn. 2:1). As Paul wrote to the Romans, "the kingdom of God is...righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17), for "the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:17). That is why Jesus, Himself, advised us to "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness..." (Matt. 6:33). The very reality of Christ's reign is His inherent divine character of righteousness. It is the only manner in which He can reign or rule, for He does what He does only because He is who He is, the "Righteous One", the God who is righteous (I John 2:29; 3:7). All authority (cf. Matt. 28:18) of the reigning Christ as Lord is therefore a "righteous scepter", never abusive, seeking only the highest good of those united with Him in righteousness, allowing "grace to reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 5:21). The "O God" phrase may well have been interpreted by Paul to refer to the inherent deity of Christ, as he had explicitly affirmed such previously (1:2,3). Paul's intent in citing this verse was to express the superiority of the revelation of the Son over that of angels, but also perhaps to show the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem that the eternal kingdom of righteousness in Christ was greater and superior to any attempts to reestablish a Jewish kingdom in Palestine by revolt against the Romans.

1:9 ­  In a continuation of the quote from Psalm 45, Paul quotes the next verse 45:7, "THOU HAST LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFORE GOD, THY GOD, HATH ANOINTED THEE WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE THY COMPANIONS." Continuing to apply this to the resurrected and exalted Lord Jesus, Paul recognized Jesus as "the Righteous One" (Acts 3:14; 7:52; 22:14; I Jn. 2:1), the "Anointed One" who was the Messiah (the Hebrew word for "Anointed One"). That He was "anointed with the oil of gladness" might well have brought the Messianic passage in Isaiah 61:1-3 to Paul's mind, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted...to grant those who mourn...the oil of gladness instead of mourning" (cf. Lk. 4:18,19). As oil was long considered to be symbolic of the Holy Spirit (cf. I Sam. 16:13), there may be an allusion here to the "joy of the Holy Spirit" (I Thess. 1:6; Acts 13:52). The superior reign of the risen Lord Jesus, as the Spirit of joy Himself (cf. John 15:11; 16:22,24) is "above His companions" in the angelic realm, who were often associated in Jewish angelology with punishment and destruction, fostering fear rather than joy or gladness. As the Risen One, Jesus has become the "Spirit of Christ" (Rom. 8:9), and Christians have an "anointing from the Holy One" (I John 2:20,27) whereby He abides in them and manifest joy as the "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22,23). This spiritual reality is far superior to anything available in the Jewish religion ­ this being the point that Paul wanted to emphasize to the Christians in Jerusalem.

1:10 ­  Paul adds to his list of documentary quotations in an extended citation from Psalm 102:25-27, a paean of praise to God for His eternality and unchangeableness. "And, 'THOU, LORD, IN THE BEGINNING DIDST LAY THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH, AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORKS OF THY HANDS" (Psalm 102:25). These words are being applied to Jesus as Lord, noting once again (cf. 1:2) the preexistence of the Son and His involvement as the divine Creator. As the uncreated Creator, the Son of God is the originating source of the angels who are created beings, and thus Jesus is "better than the angels" (1:4).

1:11  "THEY WILL PERISH, BUT THOU REMAINEST; AND THEY ALL WILL BECOME OLD AS A GARMENT" (Psalm 102:26). The created order, including the angels, is a degenerating and disintegrating order which is not eternal. "Heaven and earth will pass away" (Matt. 24:35); "the sky will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment" (Isa. 51:6). The reality of the Son of God, divine reality, is alone eternal and unchangeable.

1:12 ­  "AND AS A MANTLE THOU WILT ROLL THEM UP; AS A GARMENT THEY WILL ALSO BE CHANGED. BUT THOU ART THE SAME, AND THY YEARS WILL NOT COME TO AN END" (Psalm 102:26,27). The created order ages. It suffers from entropy, as the scientists have observed in the "Second Law of Thermodynamics". It will be rolled up like a tattered and worn-out garment, and cast aside as having no further use in God's economy. Even the angels will apparently perish, for God speaks through Isaiah saying, "all the host of heaven will rot, and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll; all their hosts will wither away as a leaf withers from the vine, or as one withers from the fig tree" (Isa. 34:4). But in the "new heavens and new earth" (Rev. 21:1) the unchangeableness of Jesus Christ "who is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb. 13:8) will be experienced unto eternity, and Christians participate in the "eternal life" (I John 5:11,13) of that "eternal kingdom" (II Peter 1:11) even now. This is the superiority of the revelation of Christ's reign that Paul wanted the Jerusalem Christians to recognize.

1:13 ­  In the last of seven Old Testament quotations used to verify that Jesus is "better than the angels" (1:4), Paul asks, "But to which of the angels has He (God) ever said, 'SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE THINE ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR THY FEET'?" This text from Psalm 110:1 was alluded to previously when Paul stated that "When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of God" (1:3). Here, wording the question to elicit a negative response, Paul is arguing that no angels have ever been assigned the position of honor, exaltation and authority that is accorded to Jesus Christ alone by virtue of His victorious resurrection, ascension and enthronement as the reigning Lord of the universe who sits at God's right hand until the consummation of history. In the first sermon of the church Peter referred to Jesus "raised up by God,...exalted to the right hand of God," and quoted Psalm 110:1 (cf. Acts 2:32-36). Later in his first epistle Peter again alludes to Psalm 110:1 by referring to "the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him" (I Peter 3:22). Paul had also previously made mention of the ascendancy of the risen Lord Jesus and His "reign until He has put all enemies under His feet" (I Cor. 15:25). The "finished work" of Christ (cf. John 17:4; 19:30) involving the triumph of His resurrection, allows Jesus to be figuratively seated in the place of honor, reigning as Lord until the ultimate consummation of history when all enemies and anomalies become but a "footstool for His feet" in the metaphor of a triumphant King (cf. Joshua 10:24). No angel can ever assume the exalted position of the resurrected Jesus.

1:14 "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?" The angels are worshipers, not the object of worship as is the Son, Jesus Christ. They worship the Son (cf. Lk. 2:13,14; Rev. 5:11,12). The angels are mere servants (cf. Psalm 103:20,21), whereas Jesus is the Son of God. Angels can serve, but only Jesus can save men from their sins. Angels exist for the sake of serving Christians, not as the object of the worship of Christians. Christians who are receptive to inheriting and experiencing the dynamic "saving life" (Rom. 5:10) of Christ are the recipients of angelic service, according to Paul. This is not a future inheritance of salvation that Paul is referring to, but the present process of being "made safe" (the meaning of the Greek word sozo meaning "to save") to function as God intended man to function by the indwelling function of the Triune God in the spirit of man. Salvation is not an achievement earned, nor is it a commodity possessed. Salvation must be understood only in the context of the resurrection reign of Jesus Christ in a Christian. Salvation is the Savior, Jesus Christ, at work in our lives, the dynamic saving activity of the Spirit of Christ "making us safe" from the misuse and abuse of Satan and sin, in order to manifest the character of Christ, the "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22,23) in our behavior to the glory of God. The mission of the angels is to serve in facilitating that process of "being saved" (cf. II Cor. 2:15) in those identified with Christ as Christians. Angels are, therefore, not to be elevated in reverence or worship, for that is the sole right of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2:1 ­  "For this reason," Paul explains to the Jerusalem Christians, "we" (Paul identifies himself with his readers as Christians participating in salvation as the Savior lives within) "ought to give much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away." That Jesus is the better revelation of God, "better than the prophets" (1:1-3) and "better than the angels" (1:4-14), has been Paul's argument, and now he concludes this section by arguing that Christians have a "better incentive" to continue to be involved in that better revelation of salvation in Jesus Christ. The superiority of Christ as the sole, divine Savior is sufficient reason for Christians to pay attention to the gospel revelation of the Son. Jesus is God's last Word ­ there is no additional revelation of God to man.

It has been suggested that the Greek word prosechein, meaning "to attend to", may have been used as a Greek nautical term meaning "to hold to port," which would serve as a contrast to the nautical figure of "drifting away." That seems to be Paul's primary objective in writing this epistle to the Jewish Christians of Jerusalem, to emphasize the "safe port" of salvation in Jesus Christ alone to those who were in danger of getting caught in the "drift" of Jewish nationalism and reversion to Judaism. Apparently Paul had received word at his residence of confinement in Rome that the Christians in Palestine were becoming listless and lax, and he wanted to encourage his "kinsmen according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:3) who were also "brothers in Christ" by telling them of the better incentive that we have in Christ to continue to live by His grace.

2:2 ­  Paul, the little Jewish lawyer, sets up his argument using an "if...then" format. "For if the word spoken through angels was validated, and every infringement and disobedience received a just recompense..." In this introductory lead-in Paul reveals his acceptance of the involvement of angels as intermediaries in the deliverance of the Law to Moses (Deut. 33:2; Gal. 3:19). He goes on to explain that "the word", the old covenant revelation of the Mosaic Law, was validated as a binding covenant of God as evidenced by the divine consequences meted out for its violation. The absolutely just and faithful God stood behind His word given through Moses, and if God demanded that He be "taken at His word" in the old covenant revelation, then we can be sure that He means what He says in the new covenant revelation of His Son, Jesus Christ. In the old covenant every violation and transgression received a just redress, Paul explains. The man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath did not escape the consequences (Numb. 11:32-36). Moses, himself, in striking the rock twice, did not escape the consequences (Numb. 20:11,12). Uzza reached out to steady the ark of God and did not escape the consequences (I Chron. 13:9,10). Time and again the nation of Israel disobeyed and did not escape the consequences (cf. I Cor. 10:5-12). If it was so in the old covenant, that very same God regards His revelation just as inviolable in the new covenant, "for he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality" (Col. 3:25). A sentimental emphasis on God's love and graciousness that does not take into account the corollary of His wrath against all that violates His character is not consistent with the new covenant gospel.

2:3 If that be the case, Paul argues, "how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" This is not an evangelistic ultimatum rhetorically asking, "How shall we escape God's condemnation if we reject so great a salvation?", though it has often been misused as such. Paul is writing to Christians to encourage them to "work out their salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12,13), as he wrote to the Philippians. The Hebrew Christians in Judea were apparently becoming careless and unconcerned about the glorious, "so great" reality of Christ living in them. The rhetorical question that Paul poses again assumes a negative answer ­ there is no escape if we abandon the saving activity of the living Savior dwelling in us as Christians. The question implies that Christians are responsible to exercise the receptivity of faith that allows the "saving life" (Rom. 5:10) of Christ to "make us safe" from sin and to manifest His righteousness. This dynamic "so great" salvation in Christ is the better revelation, the complete revelation, the last revelation, the only viable revelation of God for the restoration of humanity. But because it is a dynamic union and action of God, there is the need for the Christian to "pay attention" (2:1), to continue to be receptive in faith to the grace of God in Christ, for as choosing creatures we remain accountable for our choice and the consequences thereof. Neglect and failure to allow the living Savior and Lord to live in us can have grave consequences, and the abandonment of relationship with Christ can put us into a place where there is no escape, as Paul will note later in this epistle to the Christians in Jerusalem (Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26-31).

Paul does not leave the discussion there, though. He proceeds to explain how the better revelation of God in Jesus Christ was proclaimed by Jesus, confirmed by the disciples, and signified by supernatural verification. "After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard." The gospel of salvation in Christ was first proclaimed by the Savior-Son Himself as is recorded in the gospel narratives. It was not just a message delivered by angelic intermediaries, but the message was a Person, "the man Christ Jesus, the one Mediator between God and man" (I Tim. 2:5), the "mediator of a new covenant" (Heb. 12:24), delivered in Person, presenting Himself as the better revelation of God in the self-revelation of God by the Son, who is the "Lord", Jehovah-God.

This better revelation of the gospel of salvation in Christ was then "confirmed to us" says Paul (including himself with the Jerusalem Christians who were the readers of this epistle), "by those who heard" ­ an apparent reference to those who heard Jesus teach first-hand. Paul was not one of the original twelve disciples who heard Jesus teach throughout His three years of physical, public ministry on earth. He had to obtain information about what Jesus "first spoke" through the twelve disciples "who heard" that teaching first-hand. That does not prevent Paul from asserting "that the gospel preached by me is not according to man, for I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal. 1:11,12). Though not one of the twelve disciples who accompanied Jesus, Paul could still argue that he was a first-hand apostle (cf. Gal. 1:1), having been met by the living Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, and there commissioned to share the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles (cf. Acts 9:3-8; 22:6-11; 26:12-18). Paul's direct, first-hand revelation of Christ by which he was commissioned as an an apostle is in no way contradictory to his receiving the second-hand confirmatory reports of what Jesus "first spoke" through the twelve disciples who heard those teachings from Jesus' own mouth. The statements in this verse cannot legitimately be used to preclude Paul's authorship of this epistle, but are completely consistent with Pauline authorship.

2:4 ­  Having affirmed the proclamation of the better revelation by Jesus, and the confirmation of that gospel by the twelve disciples, Paul adds the authentification of the same by supernatural phenomena and the activity of the Holy Spirit. "God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles, and by distributions of the Holy Spirit according to His own will." Supernatural phenomena do no establish God's revelation, but they do serve as an authenticating witness of divine activity. "Signs and wonders and miracles" authenticated Jesus' ministry (Acts 2:22), the ministry of the twelve disciples (Acts 8:13), and the ministry of Paul (Rom. 15:19; II Cor. 12:12). The divine expressions of the activity of the Holy Spirit also serve to testify of God's self-revelation in the Son. Though Paul does not here use the Greek words charismata or pneumatikon for the functions of the Holy Spirit (cf. charismata) as he does in Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12, he is still referring to the diverse distributions (merismois) of the active expression of the Holy Spirit in and through Christian people. It must always be remembered that the work of the Holy Spirit is the action of the risen and living Lord Jesus, the "Spirit of Christ" (Rom. 8:9). To unduly separate the Holy Spirit and the risen Jesus, or to over-emphasize the work of the Spirit to the neglect of recognizing the reality of the living Christ, is to engage in a deficient Trinitarian understanding of God's work that will inevitably diminish one's appreciation for "the better revelation of God" in the Son and by the Spirit, as Paul has sought to explain it in these verses.

Concluding Remarks

The pertinence of Paul's emphasis on the better revelation of God in Jesus Christ is quite apparent when we consider the contemporary religious emphases on "prophets" and "angels", rather than on the living Lord Jesus.

Angels, in particular, have had a renaissance of acceptability in recent years. The skeptical mind-set steeped in scientific method had regarded angels as empirically unverifiable religious superstition, to be tolderated only as cultural tradition in the depiction of angels in Christmas nativity scenes, the cupid-angel on Valentine cards, or as decoration in children's nurseries. But in typical cyclical emphasis, angels have been popularized as acceptable through such television programs as "Touched by an Angel", and by a plethora of books and art representations. The popularity of angelology in our society and in religious adoration today seems to re-create a situation similar to that confronted by Paul in the Judaism of first century Palestine ­ that of elevating angels to an object of adoration and worship, failing to recognize Jesus, the Son of God, as the better, complete and last revelation of God to man.

It is not that angels are to be denied, for Paul accepts their intermediary involvement in the delivery of the Mosaic Law on Mount Sinai, and regards angels to be involved in divine service to Christians. Angels are mentioned approximately 300 times in the Bible, and due consideration must be given to their existence and activity, but they must not be regarded as more important than the self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ.

The Mormon religion teaches that the angel Moroni brought additional revelation to the prophet, Joseph Smith, about Jesus being the first-created spirit-being. The Jehovah Witnesses believe that the angel, Michael, is the Son of God, and that Jesus was Michael prior to becoming man, but is not to be equated with God. Paul's opening statements to the Hebrew Christians in Jerusalem counter such teachings about "prophets" and "angels" by identifying Jesus as the self-revelation of God, the better revelation of God to man.