Hebrews 1:4-7

1:4 Thus he became ¹  so far better than the angels as ²  he has inherited a name superior to theirs.

The Son Is Superior to Angels

1:5 For to which of the angels did God ³  ever say, “You are my son! Today I have fathered you”? ⁴  And in another place ⁵  he says, ⁶  “I will be his father and he will be my son.” ⁷  1:6 But when he again brings ⁸  his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him!” ⁹  1:7 And he says ¹⁰  of the angels, “He makes ¹¹  his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire,” ¹² 

[1:4]  ¹ tn Grk “having become.” This is part of the same sentence that extends from v. 1 through v. 4 in the Greek text.

[1:4]  ² tn Most modern English translations attempt to make the comparison somewhat smoother by treating “name” as if it were the subject of the second element: “as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, CEV). However, the Son is the subject of both the first and second elements: “he became so far better”; “he has inherited a name.” The present translation maintains this parallelism even though it results in a somewhat more awkward rendering.

[1:5]  ³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:5]  ⁴ tn Grk “I have begotten you.”

[1:5]  ⁵ tn Grk “And again,” quoting another OT passage.

[1:5]  ⁶ tn The words “he says” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to make a complete English sentence. In the Greek text this is a continuation of the previous sentence, but English does not normally employ such long and complex sentences.

[1:5]  ⁷ tn Grk “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me.”

[1:6]  ⁵ tn Or “And again when he brings.” The translation adopted in the text looks forward to Christ’s second coming to earth. Some take “again” to introduce the quotation (as in 1:5) and understand this as Christ’s first coming, but this view does not fit well with Heb 2:7. Others understand it as his exaltation/ascension to heaven, but this takes the phrase “into the world” in an unlikely way.

[1:6]  ⁶ sn A quotation combining themes from Deut 32:43 and Ps 97:7.

[1:7]  ⁷ sn The Greek correlative conjunctions μέν and δέ (men and de) emphasize the contrastive parallelism of vs. 7 (what God says about the angels) over against vv. 8-9 and vv. 10-12 (what God says about the son).

[1:7]  ⁸ tn Grk “He who makes.”

[1:7]  ⁹ sn A quotation from Ps 104:4.