At first glance, this is a
particularly interesting selection by the author of Hebrews. In most other
instances, he has selected a text where God the Father was already the speaker
and identified other unspecified participants (e.g., the addressees); here,
however, the author has selected a psalm that appears to be without any
dialogue. Instead, it is just a Psalmist’s cry to the Father. But this is not
the case in Greek traditions. Throughout Greek Psalm 101 (MT 102), the speaker
describes his affliction and plight as a temporary, mortal being, while
praising God for his permanence. Verse 24 of the MT contains the consonants ענה
, which can designate one of two verbal roots. The MT seems to favor one option
(I: “to oppress or humiliate),” while the Greek favors another (II: “to
answer”), represented by ἀπεκρίθη. The latter introduces a dialogue between the
speaker and God:
He [God] answered him by means of
his strength [ἀπεκρίθη αὐτῷ ἐν ὁδῷ ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ], . . . “You are from the
beginning, Lord . . .” (101:24b–26a)
Greek traditions not only
introduce the curious “answer,” but also another potential participant. Who is
the one who receives the answer (the “him”)? Throughout this psalm, the speaker
has referred to himself in the first person, and God in the second, as well as
the third. But in verse 24, we have two third-person references. Who is the
other participant? Perhaps the author of Hebrews was also intrigued by this
question. Nevertheless, he seems to either overlook 101:24b–25, where the one
answering laments his own temporal existence, or reason that the answer does
not begin until verse 26.
In other words, the author,
seeing that he is to expect some answer, may then look forward to the portion
that can be read with God (or in this case more specifically the exalted
Christ) in mind. If this is the strategy utilized by the author, then it is not
the most straightforward interpretation in Hebrews 1, but even if this insight
is not the best explanation, then this still does not minimize the result of
the text’s application to Christ in Hebrews.
In Hebrews, the addressee of
Greek Psalm 101, the Son, is called “Lord” (κύριε), a title attributed to
Christ elsewhere in Hebrews also (2:3; 7:14; 12:14; 13:20). Thus between this
citation and the prior (Ps 44:7–8), the author has presented Jesus as both God
and Lord. Although some quibble with the meaning of these titles being applied
to Jesus – arguing they hold little more significance for him than they did for
the previous royal recipient, for instance – the rest of this citation does
little to undermine his authority. In it, the author continues to contrast the
evanescence of the angels and the eternality of the Son by presenting first the
Son’s role in creation (1:10), and then his stability from the time when the
world is “rolled up” and “destroyed” until eternity (1:11–12). Like the angels,
particularly in contrast to the Son, the earth is temporary (in its current
“shakable” state; cf. 12:25–29), but Jesus is always the same (cf. Heb 13:8).
Even so, the Son’s presence at or
role in creation presented by the author, for some, does not allow for the
necessary “distinction between his eternal and his temporal existence.” As
Caird argues, when Christ is exalted to his “cosmic role,” he is raised above
the angels; he is praised for his role in creation simply because “he is the
man in whom the divine Wisdom has been appointed to dwell, so as to make him
the bearer of the whole purpose of creation.” He was not present at creation,
but is “figuratively deemed so” (emphasis original). Now near the end of the
catena, it seems even clearer that the author has presented the Son as a
personal, embodied entity. He is a Son to the Father (1:5–6), and he is a
companion to humans (1:9). Further, he is in conversation. The Father speaks to
him (1:5–13; 5:5), and he speaks back (2:12–13; 10:5–7). No single citation (or
speech) or title proves this definitively, but the evidence taken as a whole
suggests it. (Madison N. Pierce, Divine Discourse in the Epistle to the
Hebrews: The Recontextualization of Spoken Quotations of Scripture [Society
of New Testament Studies Monograph Series 178; Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2020], 57-59)
