Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

336 Hebrews II. 9, 10.
ing enough to fiucl out this simple sense j but although " it seems'*
that he first speake of Christ in ver. 9, he must yet necessarily
have meant the Messiah by the pregnant term vlbg dvOp^-nov
—however different this expression is from 6 vlo^ rov dvOpconov.
True, what is said in vers. 8-10, as we shall afterwards see, is altogether
inconsistent with this supposition which has nothing to
rest upon, and Bleek is there driven to an extremely forced interpretation
of the sense ; but yet, the author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews must bear the charge of a Rabbinico-Messianic explanation
of the Psalms, which owes its existence
solely to modern mistrust
of the writers of the Bible.
What ground, then, can there be for departing from the simple
interpretation of the words as they stand ?
Indeed, had the author
said, " Not to the angels has he made the future kingdom subject
hut to the Son; for one testifies," etc.—then, Bleek might be right.
But the author has in chap. ii. entirely relinquished the comparison
of the angels with the Son as such, and purposely shews, from ver.
5 to ver. 18, that not merely the Son, as first-born and Messiah,
but that in him humanity as such is exalted above the angels,
and that therefore it was necessary that the Son of God should
become a member of humanity (vers. 16-18).—We remain therefore
firm and unshaken in the view, that, in vers. 6-8, not merely
in the sense of the Psalmist, but also in the sense of our author,
it is man or humanity that is spoken of and by no means the
Messiah.
In vers. 9, 10 there follows a new chain of thought consisiting of
three links, a, Man as a luhole is at present not yet exalted above
the angels, h. The man Jesus is, however, already exalted, and he is
exalted, c, as leader of the rest of humanity, for which he has
secured by his suffering the possibility of a like exaltation.
The first of these points needs no farther explanation either
grammatically or otherwise. The second, on the contrary, even
with respect to the construction, requires a more particular consideration.
Three constructions are possible. The first and most
natural is to take 'hjoovv as object, i)XaTTi>)fitvov as adjectival attribute
of 'l7]aovv and tarecpavujutvov as predicate to the object. Ma7i
is not yet exalted ; but we see Jesus who, indeed (although asjirsthorn
already higher than the angels, yet through his iucarnatiun)
was for a time made lower than the angels, already, on account of
his sufferings unto death, crowned with glory and honour. By the
being crowned is meant, of course, nothing else than the having cdl
things subject to him; he who is crowned is thereby set up as ruler.
And the gloiy and honour with which Jesus lias been crowned is
just that in virtue of which, since his ascension, he now, not merely
as the Son of God, but rather also as the exalted son of man, excels