Hebrews 1:5-6

The Son Is Superior to Angels

1:5 For to which of the angels did God ¹  ever say, “You are my son! Today I have fathered you”? ²  And in another place ³  he says, ⁴  “I will be his father and he will be my son.” ⁵  1:6 But when he again brings ⁶  his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him!” ⁷ 

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

[1:5]  ² tn Grk “I have begotten you.”

[1:5]  ³ tn Grk “And again,” quoting another OT passage.

[1:5]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Grk “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me.”

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