Hebrews
1:10–12 presents a third antithesis highlighting the Son’s abiding, lasting
nature in contrast with the mutability and temporality of created things.
Unlike previous antitheses, this one is inherent in the quotation and not the
product of the author’s construction:
From the beginning,
Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of
your hands. These will perish, but you remain; they will all grow old like a
garment, and like a scroll you will roll them up, and as a garment they will be
changed, but you are the same and your years will not fail. (Heb. 1:10–12)
The author has used an
extended but inexact recitation of Psalm 101:26–28 (LXX), which in its original
setting would have addressed God but now is taken to address the Son as “Lord.”
The quality of the material creation, both heaven and earth, is described by
means of similes of scrolls being rolled up and garments wearing out and being
changed. Such an assessment of the durability of the visible world anticipates
the author’s eschatological expectations set forward in 12:26–28, the final
“rolling up” and throwing away of the visible, temporal cosmos. These verses
introduce axiological claims (assessments of value) that will be crucial to the
success of the author’s strategy. All material creation is of limited value
since it is of limited duration. The addressees will therefore be urged to
invest only in the eternal possessions (10:34; 11:13–16; 12:26–28; 13:13–14)
and to consider worldly goods and security ultimately to be a bad and foolish
investment (11:24–26; 12:16–17). Viewed another way, continued commitment to
the group (even at the cost of ongoing deprivation of this world’s goods,
security, and honor) will be urged on the basis of the belief that the visible
world is of secondary value to the presently invisible world, in which the
believers are to set their hopes and ambitions.
Unlike the
earth and heavens, the Son “remains.” He was present before the foundations of
the material creation were laid, and will abide long after the earth and
heavens are rolled up like a scroll or wear out like an old garment. On the one
hand, this quotation affirms the significance of the Son, as one who will
outlast all that is seen. On the other hand, Hebrews 1:10–12 has significant
resonances with discussions of trustworthiness or reliability in the
Greco-Roman world. Dio Chrysostom, for example, devotes two orations to the
topics of accepting the responsibility of being entrusted with something and
the causes for distrusting others (Or.
73 and 74). In his oration on “distrust,” he presents the following as the
greatest impediment to trust:
What someone has said
about Fortune might much rather be said about human beings, namely, that no one
knows about any one whether he will remain as he is until the morrow (εἰ μέχρι τῆς αὔριον διαμενεῖ
τοιοῦτος). At any rate, men do violate the
compacts made with each other and give each other different advice and,
believing one course to be expedient, actually pursue another (Or. 74.21–22).
Topics of trust and
distrust are indeed quite central to Hebrews (3:7–19; 6:13–20; 7:20–21, 28;
10:23; 11:1–40; 13:7–9), and so it would be appropriate to consider the impact
of 1:10–12 and 13:8 on these issues. The author is making assertions about the
constant nature of Jesus, but this will have important ethical ramifications.
With Jesus there is none of that variableness that makes people untrustworthy.
Jesus will indeed “remain as he is until the morrow” and through all tomorrows
(13:8), and thus he can be trusted never to violate his compacts made with his
clients and partners (3:14). By advancing the trustworthiness of the Son and of
God himself, the author is serving his goal of motivating the addressees to
hold fast to their confession of hope—a hope anchored in the efficacy of Jesus
as broker (3:6, 14; 6:19–20; 10:23). Moreover, the addressees are being
reminded that they cannot place their trust in, or seek to build their sense of
security and safety on, anything belonging to this shakable, visible creation.
Material wealth and the security or honor that are afforded in this earth are
ultimately unreliable, destined not to “remain” constant but rather to be
shaken and removed (12:26–28). Only the Son and his promise provides a “sure
anchor” (see 6:19–20). (David
A. deSilva, Perseverance in Gratitude: A
Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Epistle “to the Hebrews” [Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 2000], 99–101)
