Friday, October 28, 2022

Notes on Hebrews 1:10-12 from Benjamin Rojas Yauri, Hebrews’ Cosmogonic Presuppositions (2022)

  

καταρχας: [Pronoun] and [Noun accusative plural feminine] from αρχης, a noun which is used 236 times in the LXX, 505 times in Philo, fifty-five times in the New Testament, and six times in Hebrews. αρχη is only used four times in the New Testament (1:10; Luke 12:11; Eph 6:12; Col 2:15) with this accidence—[Noun accusative feminine plural]—but with the exception of Hebrews, the other three times it has a sense of principality. On the other hand, here αρχη is used without the article and as the object of the preposition κατα, which arrangement is found only once in the New Testament (1:10), twice in the LXX (Ps 101:26; 118:152 LXX) and eight times in Philo (Leg. 3.92; Det. 118; Ios. 225; Praem. 63, 68; Contempl. 63; Flacc. 11, 138). However, it is only used once in Philo in an indirect cosmogonic context, when he is talking about the very beginning of the human race. Besides, the LXX—which uses αρχη to translate various words—significantly uses the noun αρχη to translate the Hebrew noun רֵאשִׁית in Genesis 1:1. This noun is also used to translate פָּנֶה in Psalms 102:25 (101:26 LXX), text with a clear cosmogonic connotation, and also to translate the noun קֶדֶם in Psalms 119:152 (118:152 LXX). Therefore, it is possible that αρχη in the cosmogony of Hebrews in all likelihood refers to Genesis 1. (Benjamin Rojas Yauri, Hebrews’ Cosmogonic Presuppositions: Its First-Century Philosophical Context [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2022], 128-29)

 

οι ουρανοι: [Article nominative plural masculine] and [Noun nominative plural masculine] from ουρανος, a noun which is used 682 times in the LXX, 425 times in Philo, 273 times in the New Testament, and ten times in Hebrews. The article is working as a simple identification, while the noun is the subject of εισιν, a finite verb. In Hebrews ουρανος is consistently translated as heaven, as it seems that in most cases it is referring to the habitat of God (cf. 8:1; 9:23, 24) and also to the place where the heavenly bodies are placed, which is between the habitat of God and the habitat of human beings (cf. 4:14; 7:26; 11:12). It is never used with the sense of divinity, and in this, Hebrews departs from Philo’s and other Greek usages of the word. Also, it is well-known that the LXX consistently uses the articular ουρανος to translate the Hebrew שָׁמַיִם in Genesis 1-2; apparently, only in Genesis 1:8 the LXX uses ουρανος without the article—και εκαλεσεν ο θεος το στερεωμα ουρανον—and their God is naming the στερεωμα—רָקִיעַ—as ουρανος. Here it is important to note that the Hebrew רָקִיעַ has a sense of a large solid surface, because it is the word used to describe the barrier between the waters above and below (Gen 1:6-7). Therefore, ουρανος in the literary component of Hebrews has a clear union with the meaning of שָׁמַיִם and רָקִיעַ in Genesis 1-2, and it is also important to note that ουρανος is used in Genesis 1:1 LXX in parallel and as a complement of γη, i.e., both words are used in a kind of hendiadys. (Ibid., 132)

 

απολουνται: [Verb future middle indicative third-person plural] from απολλυμι, used ninety-three times in the LXX< forty-one times in Philo, ninety times in the New Testament, and only once in Hebrews. This intransitive lexeme has a perfective aspect, therefore it can imply a summary or an ingressive aktionsart, but since here the context sets a new direction, it must be portraying an ingressive aktionsart, i.e., it depicts the beginning of a new state or action. On the other hand, the middle voice shows that “the subject is acting in relation to himself somehow,” which here are ουρανος and γη through the pronoun αυτοι. (ibid., 133, emphasis in bold added)

 

 

[Hebrews] says that κυριος is the one who “laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning” (1:10), and that διουυιουο θεος εποιησεν τους αιωνας (cf. 1:1-2). Thus, the presence of three nouns: θεος, κυριος, and υιος, gives rise to a problem regarding the identity of the creator in Hebrews. As already asserted, the noun κυριος in Hebrews’ cosmogony pinpoints the Hebrew noun יהוה of the Old Testament, but it also functions in a sort of apposition to the nouns, υιος, Χριστος, and ‘Ιησους in the New Testament. Thus, it can be stated that all these names, including the Hebrew יהוה, pinpoint one person that was always interacting with human beings. Besides, Hebrews 1 clearly indicates that υιος and κυριος are only one being, and it is also indisputable that υιος, Χριστος, and ‘Ιησους are different nouns—perhaps titles—used to identify this same person. Therefore, in 1:10, he who “laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning” must be Jesus in his preincarnate condition. However, a big problem arises here [as] the subject of the [Primary Clause] is ο θεος, therefore the one that addresses Him—κυριος—must be ο θεος, i.e., it seems that in Hebrews’ cosmogony there are two persons in interaction. What is also interesting is that ο θεος addresses υιος as κυριος, which means that ο θεος considers υιος as a divine being, particularly if it is considered that υιος is also identified as ο θεος in Hebrews (cf. 1:8-9). Therefore, Hebrews posits two divine beings in its cosmogony. On the other hand, it is important to remember that ο θεος εποιησεν could be considered as a hyperbaton of the Hebrew בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים (cf. Gen 1:1 LXX). Therefore, in Hebrews’ cosmogony, ο θεος is used with the plural sense of the Hebrew noun אֱלֹהִים who is the creator in Genesis 1, and who performs his—their—creative action through one being that belongs to this plural being, which in Hebrews is identified with the noun υιος. Therefore, even though ο θεος, with the plural sense of אֱלֹהִים, is the creator—i.e., the two beings that interact in Hebrews’ cosmogony—his actions in order to create were accomplished through one of the members of this plural being. To the specific creator in Hebrews is named—also in other texts of the New Testament—as the Son, Christos, Jesus, or Lord. Thus Hebrews’ cosmogony seems to assume the existence of at least two different beings with equal value and will, and therefore the creator is ο θεος υιος even though ο θεος seems to be constituted not only by υιος. (Benjamin Rojas Yauri, Hebrews’ Cosmogonic Presuppositions: Its First-Century Philosophical Context [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2022], 193-94, emphasis in bold added)