Hebrews 1:10-12

Context

The author of Hebrews is unknown. This passage falls within 1:5-14, where the author strings together a series of Old Testament quotations to show that the Son is superior to the angels. The section quotes, in turn, Psalm 2, 2 Samuel 7, and Psalms 104, 45, 102, and 110, among other texts. Verse 7 describes the angels as "ministers," likened to wind and a flame of fire. By contrast, the address that begins in verse 8 with "But unto the Son he saith" extends through verses 10-12. Psalm 102 was originally the prayer of a sufferer addressed to God. Hebrews reads the "Lord" of this prayer as the Son, linking it with 1:2: "by whom also he made the worlds."

Interpretation

• Reading as a testimony to the deity of Christ: Most denominations and commentary traditions that confess the Trinity note that a confession addressed to the LORD (Yahweh) in the Old Testament is applied directly to the Son. They therefore read this passage as evidence that the Son is God and took part in creation. This reading is frequently invoked in Christology (the doctrine concerning who Christ is).
• Reading as comfort grounded in immutability: This reading connects "thou art the same" with Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." It takes the passage as an encouragement to readers facing persecution and instability to hold fast to the One who does not change.
• Reading concerning the end of the created world: The phrases "They shall perish" and "they all shall wax old as doth a garment" are cited in eschatology in discussions of the end of the created order. Interpreters divide into two camps. One holds that the world will be completely annihilated and then created anew. The other places weight on the expression "they shall be changed" and holds that the world will be renewed. Many theologians in the Reformed tradition have generally favored renewal, while some seventeenth-century theologians of Lutheran orthodoxy are known to have advocated annihilation.

Debates and Issues

• The Septuagint and "Lord": The Hebrew text of Psalm 102:25 lacks the vocative "Lord," which appears in the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint). Scholars hold that the author of Hebrews was quoting from the Septuagint. Some scholars suggest that the Septuagint text of Psalm 102:23-24 can also be read as a scene in which God answers the one praying. They therefore propose that the author may have understood this psalm as words spoken by the Father to the Son.
• The verb in verse 12: The rendering in the Korean Revised Version tradition, "thou shalt change [them]," is close to the Hebrew psalm's verb "to change." The Greek text of Hebrews, however, generally has a verb meaning "to roll up" (as one rolls up a scroll or a cloak). Accordingly, some English translations, such as the ESV, bring out the sense of "rolling up"; compare the KJV's "as a vesture shalt thou fold them up." Some manuscripts are known to read "change."
• Readings by nontrinitarian groups: Jehovah's Witnesses and others do not regard the language of Hebrews 1 as evidence that the Son shares the same essence as God. They are known to explain it as meaning that the Son served as God's agent in creation and was granted that status.

Related Passages

• Psalm 102:25-27
• Hebrews 1:1-3
• Hebrews 13:8
• Colossians 1:15-17
• 2 Peter 3:10-13