Hebrews 1:5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father”? Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”?
The author asks a rhetorical question, with the implied answer as, God has never told any angel that the angel is God’s Son. The author then quotes Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14 or 1 Chronicles 17:13. This verse raises some questions about who Jesus is and his relationship to God. In the first quotation, the word “become” could have the idea that at one point Jesus was not God’s Son. This interpretation forces the text too much and creates a theology based on one small quotation. If one wants to be literal, then this could be a reference to the miraculous conception of Jesus. It may be better just to see this as a form of proof texting from the Old Testament in order to verify the claim of the sonship of Jesus. The author of Hebrews often quotes the Old Testament without considering the historical or literary context, as we do in modern Biblical Studies. It would be easy for us to pass judgment on his method of Bible study, but it is best for us to be objective and try to see his key point, which is the supremacy of Jesus and his relationship to God the Father. The second quotation confirms this even more. Jesus was no ordinary human. He was unique. No other person can fit all the criteria for the Messiah as found in the Old Testament prophecies. The author is using his “Bible” (Old Testament) to show who Jesus is and that he is worthy of everything the early Christians claimed about him.
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