Heb 1:10 the Hardest Verse for Socinian Christology

This verse, if it said that Jesus was the creator of the Genesis creation, would overturn 50+ statements in both Testaments that God the Father, alone, unaccompanied (Isa 44:24) created the original heavens and the earth. Even Hebrews says that the Son is active only in these last days (1:1-2). And Heb 4:4 says that God, not Jesus rested at the creation. Jesus said that God made them male and female (Mark 10:6). If Jesus was conscious and alive in Genesis he would not be true human being and he would not be the blood descendant of David and thus not the promised Messiah. One cannot preexist oneself.

Heb 1 is dedicated to saying that the Son is superior to the angels (and later that he is superior to Joshua, Melchizedek and to Moses).

Jesus was never an angel, and therefore never an archangel.

The Son is said to “lay the foundation of the heavens and earth” in verse 10.

Note:

1) Verse 6 says that certain things may be said “when God again brings the firstborn into the inhabited earth” (NASV) or “again, when he shall have brought the Son into the inhabited earth. The reference is to the second coming. This is confirmed by Heb 2:5 which says that the writer is discussing “the inhabited earth of the future.”

2) Isa. 51:16 speaks (NASV) of an agent of Yahweh whose job it will be to lay the foundation of the new heavens and earth.  (see handout comment in Word Bible Comm. on this verse)

3) In Heb 1:10 the writer cites Ps 102. This psalm is clearly a Messianic Kingdom, future-looking psalm.  It speaks of “the generation, society to come” and it looks forward to the restoration of Jerusalem after captivity. In the LXX version of this psalm, the text is different from the Hebrew Bible. In vv. 23-25 the LXX has this:

“He [God] answered him [the one praying]...You, lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the heavens and the earth.”

The writer to the Hebrews saw a second lord here who is addressed by God as lord. That second lord is taken to be the Messiah and so fits exactly the idea the Messiah is to be the parent and founder of the future heavens and earth. The millennial heavens and earth will also pass away (Rev. 20:11) and give way to another renewed cosmos.

The comment by FF Bruce — New International Commentary on Hebrews —  (which we gave you as handout) explains how the different translation of the LXX arose. It was by an ambiguity in the Hebrew by which “he answered” (Heb) could be repointed to mean “he weakened.”

Jesus is indeed the Father of the coming age (Isa 9), and he is the executive under God of the present new creation in which Christians are being prepared for the Kingdom to come.

Anthony Buzzard

Difficult Texts, Oct 2001