Nielsen’s Nook

Translation and Commentary on Hebrews 1:1-2

Translation

1 Previously, God spoke in many episodes and using a variety of media [1] to the fathers by means of the prophets. 2 During these last days He has spoken to us by means of His Son, who was made [2] heir of all things, through whom he also made the ages. [3]

Commentary

[1] ????????? ??? ?????????? is an interesting pair, perhaps hinting at Semitic authorship of the book with its parallelism. ????????? speaks of the many parts (?????), while ?????????? expands the scope of the parallelism to the manner (??????) in which God spoke. In other words, formerly God spoke by means of his prophets in many episodes, using a variety of media. [2] ?????? (??????) When used with a double accusative as is the case here, ?????? conveys the idea of making something of someone (BAGD, 816). Consider Psalm 109:1 (LXX) ????? ? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ????? ?? ?????? ???, ??? ?? ?? ???? ??????? ??? ????????? ??? ????? ???. The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand while I make your enemies a footstool for your feet" (author's translation). [3] ??? ?? ??? ???????? ???? ?????? First, there is a word order variation from this phrase in the NA27 and ??? ?? ??? ?????N? ?????? ????????, appearing in the Byzantine text and Textus Receptus. Second, ?????? is one of those Greek words that does not translate well into English. The ESV has "world" as a sort of generic plural, where the KJV opts for the plural "worlds" as does the NRSV. The NIV attempts to be more concrete rendering "universe" for ??????. While I believe these are conceptually true and sound translations (Jesus is in fact the creator and sustainer of the world, worlds and universe), I think the context directs us to an even more specific understanding for ???? ??????. I believe that what may be in view might be paraphrased like this. All the episodes and ways and times and situations in which God spoke to us through his prophets - all of that - was made by the One through Whom God now speaks to us, namely, His Son, Jesus the Christ. In other words, while it is true that Christ Jesus is Lord and Maker of the universe, this opening sentence is a statement about His lordship over revelation and the sitz im leben (historico-cultural situation) in which revelation came to us previous to the Incarnation.