Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He demonstrates that Christ surpasses Moses, the Prophets, and the angels, and consequently that the law of Christ surpasses the law of Moses given through the angels.
Hence first, in verse 2, he teaches that Christ is God, the Son of God the Father, His heir and image, the founder and governor of the ages.
Second, in verse 3, he teaches that Christ, as He is man, is the redeemer of sinners, and that He sits at the right hand of God.
Third, from verse 4 to the end, he proves from the Psalms that Christ as man surpasses the angels in divine origin and sonship, in honor and the worship of latria, in power, eternity, dominion and rule — namely that Christ is the Lord of all, but that the angels are the ministers of God and of Christ.
Vulgate Text: Hebrews 1:1-14
1. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past unto the fathers by the Prophets, 2. hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds: 3. who, being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, having made purgation of sins, sits at the right hand of the majesty on high: 4. being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. 5. For unto which of the angels said He at any time: Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee? And again: I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son. 6. And again, when He bringeth in the Firstborn into the world, He saith: And let all the angels of God adore Him. 7. And of the angels indeed He saith: Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. 8. But unto the Son: Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a sceptre of equity is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. 9. Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. 10. And: Thou, O Lord, in the beginning hast founded the earth: and the heavens are the works of Thy hands. 11. They shall perish, but Thou shalt continue: and they shall all grow old as a garment, 12. and as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the selfsame, and Thy years shall not fail. 13. But to which of the angels said He at any time: Sit on My right hand, until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool? 14. Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?
Verse 1: At Sundry Times and in Divers Manners God of Old Speaking to the Fathers by the Prophets
1. At sundry times and in divers manners God of old speaking (in Greek λαλήσας, that is, having spoken) to the fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by His Son, — that is, through the Son. See Canon 25. By three antitheses the Apostle here prefers the Gospel, that is, the doctrine of Christ, to the doctrine of Moses and the Prophets.
The first antithesis is that this doctrine of the Prophets was handed down "at sundry times and in divers manners," that is, through various and multiple figures, visions, and oracles; but Christ's doctrine was given all at once and at one time through Christ alone, when He delivered to us the Evangelical law. Hence for "at sundry times" the Greek is πολυμερῶς, that is, multipartite — by many parts and turns — because indeed God did not reveal all things to one Prophet, for example Jeremiah, but revealed part of His truth, salvation, and the mysteries of Christ to Jeremiah, part to Isaiah, another part to the other Prophets. Again, for "in divers manners" the Greek is πολυτρόπως, that is, multiformly, as if turning Himself into various forms, ways, and similitudes. So Homer calls Ulysses πολύτροπος, because he was versatile in genius and knew how to accommodate himself to every place, time, and person. So God in the Prophets turned Himself into every form and figure, so that He might teach, soften, and bend the hard and rude people of the Jews — when He appeared to Ezekiel on the chariot of the Cherubim, to Jeremiah in the watchful rod and the boiling pot, to Isaiah on the high throne and Seraphim, to Daniel in the appearance of the Ancient of Days, where thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him; to Hosea, Joel, Zechariah, and the rest, He showed Himself in other symbols and forms. And this is what the Lord says through Hosea, chapter 12: "I multiplied vision, and in the hand of the Prophets I was likened," that is, through the visions, words, and deeds of the Prophets, I likened Myself to various persons and things. So St. Jerome there.
The Prophets therefore, through various parts and turns, and through various forms and similitudes, knew and taught others that which Christ, who is in the bosom of the Father, saw all at once in the Word, and taught us: for God exhibited as it were a part of Himself to the Prophets, but exhibited Himself wholly to Christ to be clearly beheld and promulgated.
The second antithesis is that the Prophets taught of old and spoke to the ancient Fathers, namely the Jews and to them alone; but Christ in these last days has spoken to us — to all, I say — the men of the whole world. As if to say: The Prophets in an ancient, rude, and uncultivated age taught our rude and uncultivated fathers; but Christ taught us — instructed and refined as we are by so many precepts of the law, so many rites of ceremonies, so many oracles of the Prophets — the very summit of truth, salvation, wisdom, and perfection.
Hence note: For "in these last days," the Greek is ἐπ' ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων, that is, in the latest or last days; that is, in these times. As if to say: Of old one Prophet succeeded another, one law succeeded another, but now to all the prophets the last has succeeded — Christ; and to all the laws the last law has succeeded — that of Christ — which no other shall succeed. Hence it follows that the laws and doctrines of the Prophets were neither full nor perfect: but Christ's law and doctrine are full and perfect, so that nothing is to be added to it.
Secondly, by these words, says Chrysostom, Paul rouses the Hebrews to hope and constancy in enduring persecutions for the faith, as if to say: Come, endure yet a little — behold, these are the last days, after which there will soon follow the end of labors and sufferings and the beginning of rewards and joys; behold, the day of eternity is now drawing breath, behold, that glorious and blessed life is at hand — Christ's kingdom, I say, of which there shall be no end.
The third antithesis is that the Prophets taught as Prophets, that is as men, foreseeing and foretelling obscurely the future things concerning Christ and Christ's Church; but now in the new law Christ the Son of God teaches us, who clearly sees and penetrates all the wisdom of God the Father: as therefore the shadow yields to the body, so the Prophets must yield to Christ and be silent in His presence. As if Paul said: See, then, O Hebrews, and acknowledge your happiness; give immortal thanks to God most good and great, that He has reserved you for this age of the new law, in which it is permitted not to behold Prophets imperfectly, piecemeal, and obscurely teaching and prophesying, but to behold the very Son of God Himself, conscious of all the secrets of the Father, and to hear Him teaching most clearly and fully, and pouring forth things hidden from the foundation of the world. And consequently, take note how you ought to believe Christ in preference to Moses and the Prophets, and to strengthen yourselves in His faith, namely so that you may willingly and constantly undergo the plundering of your goods, all evils, and even death and martyrdom for it: for the Apostle intends both, as I said in the proem.
Verse 2: Whom He Hath Appointed Heir of All Things, by Whom Also He Made the Worlds
Whom He hath appointed heir of all things, — not only of men, but of absolutely all things that have been created; for πάντων, that is "of all," is here taken in the neuter gender, as is clear from what follows. Note the word "appointed," namely God the Father appointed Christ as He is man. For Christ as He is God was born heir, lord, and maker of all: but as He is man, He was not born but appointed by God to be heir — that is, Lord — and on equal terms with God the Father a partner and possessor (for this is what κληρονόμος means) — namely of all creatures and men, and of the whole world. And this is what Psalm 2:8 says: "Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thy inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession." And John 13:3: "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands."
Note secondly: The Apostle calls Christ heir of the entire estate (heir ex asse) of all the Father's goods, in order to signify first, that Christ, as He is man, is the natural Son of God, on account of the grace of union by which He is united to the Word and Son of God. Christ therefore, as He is man, has a right to the inheritance of God the Father, namely that He should be partaker and partner of the divine beatitude and glory, and lord of all. Secondly, by these words he signifies that Christ is the primary and necessary heir of God the Father, and so that no one can be admitted into partnership of the inheritance, beatitude, and glory of God except by being adopted as a son through Christ; and therefore each one must take pains to be enrolled in this inheritance of Christ in the Church through faith and baptism, and to persevere in it. As if to say: Without Christ no one can be saved or be God's heir, no one can attain the inheritance of eternal life. Persist therefore, O Hebrews, in the faith, grace, and Church of Christ, and let no persecution separate you from Him: since you cannot be God's heirs unless you are Christ's: for Christ is the full and adequate heir of the Father. Wherefore whomever Christ does not admit into this inheritance of His, that one cannot enter it nor be heir of the Father and blessed.
By whom He also made the worlds. — The preposition "by" signifies a principal cause, not an instrumental or ministerial one as the Arians wish, as is clear from verse 10 and verse 3. As if to say: God the Father, through His Son who is His eternal Word, as through an idea containing all the grades and species of things, and as through the uncreated, omniscient, and omnipotent architectonic Wisdom, in which exist and live the everlasting reasons of all things, "made," that is, created and produced, "the worlds," that is, the times and all temporal things, namely the world and all things which are in the world. Note here: The Greek αἰών corresponds to the Hebrew olam, and properly signifies an age, era, and time running on and succeeding itself, which in the Scriptures is sometimes called a generation, as when Ecclesiastes 1:4 says: "A generation passes away, and a generation comes." And Genesis 15:16: "In the fourth generation (that is, in the fourth age or era) they shall return hither." Thus we call an age or era of Noah, Abraham, Moses, that is, the time in which Noah, Abraham, Moses lived. But metonymically αἰών — that is, age — signifies the things which exist in that age and time, so that ages are the same as secular, age-long, temporal things: namely the world and all worldly things which were created or made in some age or time and continue to exist. Therefore olamim, that is ages, is put for hannibrahim vehannaasim, that is, for things created and made in the age. So in chapter 11 the Apostle says that the worlds were framed — that is, all worldly things were created — by the word of God, which here he says in almost as many words: "By whom He also made the worlds," as if to say: Christ is above and before the worlds, He is from eternity Creator, not creature: He is the maker of the ages and of all things.
Here note: The Apostle here impresses upon the Hebrews both natures of Christ: the human, when he says: "Whom He hath appointed heir of all things;" the divine, when he says: "By whom also He made the worlds." And lest you suppose that He made them through the Son as through an instrument, He immediately adds:
Verse 3: Who Being the Brightness of His Glory and the Figure of His Substance, Upholding All Things by the Word of His Power, Making Purgation of Sins, Sits at the Right Hand of the Majesty on High
3. Who being the brightness of glory, and the figure of His substance, — as if to say: The Son is the brightness of glory, that is, of His — namely the Father's — glorious majesty. For "brightness" the Greek is ἀπαύγασμα, which the Syriac renders tsemcha, that is, sprout. But it has not sufficiently expressed the force of the Greek word: for ἀπαύγασμα is properly the same as the Hebrew zohar, that is, clarity, brightness, splendor, refulgence, or that in which the paternal glory — that is, the glorious majesty — shines forth. For just as a ray proceeds from the sun, so the Son proceeds from the Father; and just as the sun shows its light, beauty, and glory in its rays so brilliantly, and as it were shines and gleams in them: so the Father shows His glory in the generation of His Son so resplendent and glorious. The Apostle alludes to, or rather cites, Wisdom 7:26, where it is said of the eternal Wisdom, that is, of the Son: "He is the brightness of eternal light, and a mirror without spot." For there for "brightness" the Greek has the same word as here, namely ἀπαύγασμα, that is, splendor. St. Augustine in De Trinitate IV, ch. 2, interprets: "He is light of eternal light." But the word "brightness" more clearly signifies the radiance of eternal light. "Brightness" therefore is the same as bright, most luminous, most pure splendor and radiance. The Wise One adds that the Son is the Father's "mirror without spot," because in the Son as in the most clear mirror the Father's glory and majesty shines forth.
Note here that God the Father is most aptly compared to the Sun and to light, and this on account of the great and many analogies which St. Dionysius enumerates in De Divinis Nominibus, ch. IV; and consequently the generation of the Son is most aptly compared to the emanation of a ray from the sun. For by this similitude, as St. Ambrose notes (De Fide ad Gratianum, book I, ch. IV) and the Greek Fathers, three things are signified: first, that the generation of the Son is natural, and that the Son proceeds from the Father not freely but naturally, just as a ray from the Sun. Hence Cyril, in Thesaurus book X, ch. VIII, proves from this that the Son of God was begotten by the Father not by a preceding will and choice, but according to nature.
Secondly, by this similitude of the ray and the Sun the immutability of the generation of the Son is signified: for thus without change and immutably the ray flows forth from the Sun.
Thirdly, the eternity of this generation is signified: for the ray or splendor is coeval with the Sun. Where then, says Chrysostom, are the Arians who say: "There was when He was not?" — that is, there was a time when the Son was not.
Again fourthly, the purity of the same generation is signified, because light flows from the Sun without any dross or admixture, as a spiritual and most pure quality.
Fifth, from this Damascene gathers (De Fide book I, ch. IX) that the Son is inseparable from the Father: for thus light and ray are inseparable from the Sun. Again, that the Son can never fail, because the light of the Sun cannot fail while the Sun lasts. Finally, just as from the Sun and its splendor proceeds heat, so from the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit.
Wrongly therefore does Beza explain this passage of the Apostle of the humanity of Christ: for the Fathers everywhere explain it of the divinity, and what follows sufficiently evinces this: "And the figure of His substance." For this cannot fit the humanity. And again that passage of Wisdom 7:26: "He is the brightness of eternal light," which is said of uncreated Wisdom — which passage the Apostle cites here. I confess however that these things can secondarily be derived and applied to the humanity of Christ: for the humanity is the brightness of glory — that is, of the glorious divinity — because in the humanity of Christ itself, inasmuch as it is so beautiful, glorious, and august, the deity of the same substance shines forth.
And the figure of His substance. — For "figure" the Greek is χαρακτήρ, that is, an expressed and as it were sculpted image, sign, and likeness, from which we may recognize and behold the archetype or exemplar, that is, God the Father, just as from the image expressed in wax we recognize and behold the seal that imprinted it: for the Greek χαράσσω is the same as to engrave, to imprint a mark or form; hence χαρακτήρ is the same as an engraved and imprinted image. The "character" therefore here signifies that the Son is the image of the Father — not empty, shadowy, fleeting, and evanescent, but constant, expressed, engraved — which to the life represents the Father and the Father's countenance. "For Him hath the Father sealed (ἐσφράγισεν, that is, sealed, and as it were impressed with a seal), even God," the Son Himself says in John 6:27. The Son is the figure of the Father's substance, because He subsists through Himself and shows in Himself the paternal characters, says Theodoret; "that He may show every kind of likeness and the proper image of the exemplar," says St. Chrysostom.
Note: For "substance" the Greek is ὑποστάσεως: but ὑπόστασις, says St. Jerome (to Damasus), is the same as οὐσία, that is, essence and substance. And thus St. Jerome acknowledges in God one hypostasis, just as one essence, and does not dare to say that there are three hypostases in God, lest he seem to say that there are three substances in God. So too Epiphanius (in heresy 69) takes hypostasis here for essence, as though the Son were here called the figure of the hypostasis, that is, the figure of the essence of the Father. And he adds that the Son is called "figure," not because He lacks the truth of the Father's substance, but because through His substance He represents the Father. But this cannot be said: for the essence of the Father does not generate the essence of the Son. Nor does the Son have the image, figure, and character of the Father's essence, but its identity. Better therefore do St. Basil (epistle 43 to Gregory of Nyssa), Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, and others here take "hypostasis" for the person of the Father, whose image the Son is, namely that He subsists as a hypostasis similar to the hypostasis and substance of the Father, in the way I have said in 2 Corinthians 4:4; for ὑπόστασις is the same as subsistence: but subsistence is nothing other than person. Hence it is clear that the name "figure" or image fits properly and personally only the Son, not the Father, nor the Holy Spirit, because only the Son proceeds from the Father as Word. But the Word is the "figure" and image of the one understanding and of the thing understood, namely because it represents His concept and intellection plainly and fully to the one understanding, as a mirror represents the species of a thing set before it. Wherefore "figure" and image are relative names, and signify the relation of the Son to the Father: for figure is the figure of the figured, and image is the image of the exemplar, as the Son is the Father's Son. And this is the reason why the Son is distinguished from the Holy Spirit, namely because the Son, by force of His procession, proceeds from the Father as Word, that is, as the image of the Father, and therefore most similar to and consubstantial with Him in nature, and on this account is said to be begotten of the Father, and His procession is generation; but the Holy Spirit proceeds not as Word, but as the love of the Father and the Son. But love is not an image, nor does it assimilate the lover to the beloved, but is an impulse which impels and snatches the lover toward the beloved as something to be loved outside himself; but because this love is in God Himself, hence the Holy Spirit is God: because whatever is in God is immense, infinite, eternal, and therefore God. So St. Augustine, De Trinitate book VII, ch. 1; St. Thomas, part I, question XXXV, art. 2, and there Suarez and Vasquez.
Theodoret and Theophylact note secondly that "hypostasis" is here opposed to the heresy of Photinus, who taught that the Son does not subsist by Himself: for when the Apostle had said: "Who, being the brightness of glory," lest anyone should think that the Son is such a brightness as exists among us, which is an accident, He immediately excluded this and added, saying: "And the figure of His substance," as if to say: The Son is brightness, but a subsistent brightness, as it were a hypostasis and person similar to the hypostasis and person of the Father. Hence again the heresy of Sabellius is excluded, who taught that the hypostasis or person of the Father and Son is the same: for the expressed and produced hypostasis cannot be the same as the expressing and producing hypostasis, but must be distinguished from it, just as a seal is distinguished from its figure which it imprints in wax.
And upholding all things by the word of His power, — as if to say: The Son by His powerful word and command upholds all things, that is, by His subsistence, nod, and power He sustains and bears the whole weight of creatures, says Theophylact, as it were the Atlas of the world. For this is what the Greek φέρων signifies, which the Syriac renders achid, that is, embracing, containing, restraining all things as omnipotent. For achid is among the Syrians an epithet of God, and denotes omnipotence. Secondly, φέρων with Erasmus can be rendered driving, moving, moderating, governing all things, as He created them: for φερόμενα, says Erasmus, are said of things which are driven by a certain impetus; whence they also call φοράν impetus. Again, Paul does not say He governs, but He bears; indeed in the Greek He does not say He bears, but φέρων, that is, He carries. For, as Chrysostom says, he who governs and carries does so with effort and labor; but he carries who without effort most easily moves the thing wherever he wishes. And St. Anselm: "He bears all things — that is, He holds them up, lest they fall and return into nothing whence they were created by Him; and He sustains them not with labor and difficulty, but by the command of His power."
Both these expositions are fitting and connected. For God, and the Son of God — who is the brightness and power of God's glory — as the supreme king and moderator of all, both bears and sustains, and drives and moves this whole universe: hence His glorious providence, sustentation, and governance was signified to Ezekiel in chapter 1 by the chariot of the Cherubim, which, as Ezekiel says, was a symbol of God's glory. For as Elisha cried out to Elijah when he was caught up into heaven: "My father, the chariot of Israel, and the driver thereof." As if he were saying: You, O Elijah, were as a chariot bearing Israel, and at the same time you were as the driver of the same, ruling and driving him to every good. For a prince, a Prophet, and a Prelate is as the chariot and driver of the people and the commonwealth; for like a chariot he sustains the burdens of the people, and like a driver rules the people, drives, and presides, and at the same time bears and carries them like a mother who bears and rules an infant. Hence it is said of Christ the prince: "Whose government is upon His shoulder," Isaiah 9:6. For this reason also a prince in Hebrew is called nasi, as if you would say carrier or porter, who lifts and carries the burdens of the people: from the root nasa, that is, he raised, bore, carried. Whence nasi is said to mean a carrier, and nose, one who bears: by which name the Apostle, writing in Hebrew, seems here to have been used. Hence Moses, Num. 11:12, complains to the Lord: "Why," he says, "hast Thou laid the burden of all this people upon me? Did I conceive all this multitude, or beget them, that Thou shouldst say to me: Carry them in thy bosom, as a nurse is wont to carry a little infant?" Therefore as Elias was the chariot of Israel and its driver, so God is as it were a chariot carrying the whole world, and sustaining all the creatures of the world, which otherwise would fall back into the nothing whence they came. And God is at the same time as it were the charioteer sitting upon and presiding over the chariot, driving, moving and governing this chariot of the whole world. Secondly, this chariot, as Ezekiel testifies, is on every side surrounded by the Cherubim angels, as God's ministers, whence also "the spirit of life was in His wheels," that is, the breath of life and the animal spirit from God permeated and was diffused into the wheels, according to that of Virgil: "A spirit within nourishes, and a Mind infused through the limbs stirs the whole mass, and mingles itself with the great body." That is to say: This chariot, this vehicle of God, ran of itself with the Cherubim animals going before, and the wheels moving of themselves, by the force and impulse impressed upon them by God through the angels. For by this phrase nothing else is symbolically signified than that the heavens and the world are as it were the chariot of God who presides, running of its own accord beneath Him, and that God dominating it, through the angels, makes the heavens revolve, and most powerfully and most sweetly rules, moves and governs the times and all things. Therefore it seems that Paul here alludes to this chariot of the Cherubim shown to Ezekiel, as Hieronymus Prado noted in that same place. Whence also He who sat and presided in this chariot was like the Son of man, says Ezekiel: which is the same as what Paul here says, that the Son carries all things by the word of His power.
Thirdly it can be said, that the Greek φέρων may be translated as bringing forth, nourishing, fostering all things as a pious mother, so that φέρων is the same as the Hebrew mecalkel; but, as I said, the Apostle seems rather to have used the word nose: for this properly signifies him who carries or bears something. "By the word of His power," that is, by the nod of His power (for power is the same as might, since this is what the Greek δύναμις signifies), or by His mighty command and authority, as a most powerful prince, for whom it suffices to have opened His mouth that whatever He has willed should be done, for He spoke and they were made — that is to say: As through the Son God made the ages, that is, the world and all worldly things: so through the same Son the same things which were made and founded, not by His own solicitude, care and industry, as men do when ruling their own, but by His own power, word and nod, He mightily rules and administers.
This power of God Isaiah signifies, chapter XL, verse 12, where he says that God weighs the mass of the earth with three fingers: "Who," he says, "has measured the waters in His fist, and weighed the heavens with His palm? who has weighed the mass of the earth with three fingers, and balanced the mountains by weight, and the hills in a scale?" Who? Save God alone, and the Son of God? And the Wise Man, Wisd. XI, 12: "Who," he says, "shall resist the might of Thine arm? for as a moment of a balance, so is the round world before Thee, and as a drop of dew before the dawn that descends upon the earth." Where "moment" is the same as the smallest inclination or motion. For in Greek it is ῥοπὴ ἐκ πλαστίγγων, that is, a tilting or inclining from the scales of a balance, which, since they are always being agitated, hence always one part more or less suspended inclines toward the other, that is, is raised or depressed, as if to say: Just as this propensity of the scale is least and of the smallest moment, so also is the world least with respect to God. Secondly, just as this propensity can, by the smallest motion of him who bears the balance in his hand, be inclined to one side or the other: so also the whole world is in the hand of God as of one holding the balance, that He may turn and twist it at His pleasure as He wishes; and so before God it is "as a drop of dew before the dawn." For just as this, when the light and sun have arisen, is at once dried up and absorbed by it, so the world by God can at any moment be overturned, indeed absorbed.
Morally and piously St. Bernard consoles the labors and austerities of His Religious with these words of the Apostle, in the preface on the Psalm Qui habitat: "Mortify yourselves," he says, "all day long in many fastings, in frequent labors, in watchings beyond measure, besides those things which are within, the contrition of hearts and the multitude of temptations. Mortify yourselves, but for the sake of Him who died for you. For if your tribulation abounds for His sake, your consolation shall abound through Him, that the soul may delight in Him which refuses to be consoled in these things. For with Him this very tribulation itself can be found to be a great consolation. For is it not certain that what you endure is above human powers, beyond nature, against custom? Another therefore carries these things, He without doubt who according to the Apostle carries all things by the word of His power. For what is there for us to fear, if He is present who carries all things? The Lord is the protector of my life: of whom shall I be afraid?"
Making purgation of sins, He sits at the right hand of the majesty on high. — In Greek it is in the aorist καθαρισμὸν ποιησάμενος, that is, after He made purgation of sins, or after by His death He expiated sins: for our Interpreter often is wont to translate Greek aorists by the present. First therefore Christ purged sins, then afterward by the merit of this expiation He sat at the right hand of God. So Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Oecumenius. Note: In the Greek there is added δι' ἑαυτοῦ, that is, through Himself: by which the marvelous charity of Christ is insinuated, namely that He not only expiated, but also that He expiated the same through Himself and through His own blood. So Chrysostom. Here Paul returns from the divinity to the humanity of Christ.
The Apostle here notes four forms and as it were the faces of Christ, which Ezekiel, chap. 1, designated by the four faces of the Cherubim. For the first face of the Cherubim is that of a man. This signifies the human nature of Christ. The Apostle notes this here when he says: "Whom He appointed heir of all things." The second face is that of an eagle. This signifies the divine nature of Christ. The Apostle notes this here when he says: "Who being the brightness of His glory." The third face is that of a calf. This signifies the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ. The Apostle notes this here when he says: "Making purgation of sins." The fourth face is that of a lion. This signifies the kingdom and triumph of Christ, by which as victor He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. The Apostle notes this here when he adds: "He sits at the right hand of majesty on high." The Apostle described the same four forms and faces of Christ, Philipp. II, 6, as I said there. For Christ alone shows in Himself the fourfold faces of the four Cherubim: for He is the eagle, because the Word of God; He is true man; He is the lion, because King; He finally is the calf, because sacrifice and priest. He therefore is the fourfold Cherub, in whom is hidden the manifold wisdom of God.
He sits at the right hand of majesty on high. — Both because this most eminent place is owed to that most eminent man Christ, the expiator and victor over death and sin; and so that, sitting beside the Father, He may perpetually show and offer His stigmata, wounds, cross and death for the daily expiation of the sins of men.
Note: For "majesty" in Greek there is μεγαλωσύνης, that is, of greatness, magnificence, majesty, namely divine and paternal. Hence, to express this, some, for "on high," supplying in Greek the article τῆς, that is to say μεγαλωσύνης τῆς ἐν ὑψηλοῖς, translate it "of the most exalted majesty," or "of that majesty which sits in the most exalted place and throne," which is none other than that of God the Father.
You will ask, how does Christ sit at the right hand of God the Father? I reply: To sit at the right hand of God symbolically signifies the highest dignity, excellence and glory of Christ: for God does not properly have a right or left hand; nor does Christ, as God, nor perhaps even as man, only sit in heaven, but stands as well as sits. For just as sitting is the position of a man at rest, reigning and judging: so standing is the position of a man strong, robust, vigorous and blessed, such as Christ is. Christ therefore is said to sit at the right hand of God: first, because Christ as God is equal to God the Father in essence, and so also in dignity and glory; secondly and better, because Christ as man has been raised to equality with God, or to a participation and communication of the divine, both as hypostasis and as glory. Whence Gabriel Vasquez: To sit, he says, at the right hand of God who is on high, by metaphor denotes the greatest honor which the humanity of Christ had, indeed even the partnership of the same dignity in the same throne: and thus by reason of the hypostatic union with the Word, the humanity of Christ from the beginning of His conception sat at the right hand of the Father. But because here and in the Creed Christ is said, after death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, to sit at the right hand of God, hence thirdly, and best, the humanity of Christ after it ascended to the heavens is said to sit at the right hand of God, because above all creatures both in place and in beatitude and glory it has been exalted, so that it far transcends the angels, Cherubim and Seraphim; and is closest to God as ruling over all angels, men and other creatures, and constituted as judge, that He may judge all the elect and the reprobate: for this election Christ merited through the purgation of sins, redemption and His death. I have said more about this session of Christ on Coloss. III, 1. The Apostle accumulates these so magnificent epithets of Christ, says Chrysostom, that we Hebrews and we may learn to make much of Christ above Moses and the angels, to hope great things from Him, to do and suffer great things for Him.
Verse 4: Being Made So Much Better Than the Angels, as He Hath by Inheritance Obtained a More Excellent Name Than They
4. Being made so much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name above them. — The word "better" here does not pertain to morals, but to excellence, dignity and power. "Better," therefore, in Greek κρείττων, is the same as more powerful, more excellent, more worthy. So the Syriac.
Secondly, for "more excellent" in Greek there is διαφορώτερον, which can be translated either "more excellent" or "more outstanding," as well as "more different." So the Syriac.
Thirdly, the word "made" does not signify that Christ was previously less than the angels, so that afterward He was made greater than them, as Erasmus would have it; but it signifies that Christ, by the very fact that He was made man, became incarnate and was born, was made greater than the angels: for by being born He was made the Son of God, whose ministers only the angels are. Therefore Christ was always greater, was always preferred in honor to the angels. Whence also others less correctly explain it thus, "made greater," that is, was declared greater: for the Apostle does not speak of Christ's declaration, but of His real excellence and preeminence.
Fourthly, for "has inherited" in Greek there is κεκληρονόμηκε, that is, He has obtained by lot, has received by lot. By lot, that is, by inheritance: for inheritance was divided by lots, or by lot, among the heirs, and hence is called the hereditary lot. Therefore "He has obtained by lot" is the same as "He has inherited." Indeed Christ as man, by the very fact that He was born and united to the Word of God, just as He was made heir of all goods, so also of the name of God, namely that He should be called, celebrated and invoked as the Son of God.
Note: Ex professo the Apostle compares and prefers Christ to the angels, in order to show how much Christianity, instituted by Christ, surpasses Judaism and the old law, inasmuch as the latter was given only through angels.
Verse 5: For to Which of the Angels Hath He Said at Any Time: Thou Art My Son, This Day Have I Begotten Thee? And Again: I Will Be to Him a Father, and He Shall Be to Me a Son
5. For to which of the angels has He ever said: Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee? — Note, that the angels are called sons of God, but metaphorically, Job XXXVIII, 7: "When the morning stars praised Me, and all the sons of God rejoiced." For thus by the same Job God is said to be the father of the rain, of the sea, of the stars, and so the father of all creatures, that is, creator, producer, maker. But here Paul takes the name "son" properly for a natural and genuine son; for he adds: "This day have I begotten Thee;" and so not the angels, but Christ alone is the Son of God. So Chrysostom.
This day have I begotten Thee. — He cites Psalm II, 7, which Theodoret, Hilary, Origen and Cyril, on Psalm II; Ambrose, book III De Sacrament., chap. II, and Athanasius in Oecumenius, understand of the human generation of Christ, as if to say: "I this day," that is, in the present time and life, "have begotten Thee," O Christ, as man from the Blessed Virgin, and have united Thee as man to the person of the Word, so that Thou shouldst be My natural Son, just as the Word is. The preceding words in the psalm favor this, when it says: "But I have been appointed king by Him over Sion His holy mountain, preaching His commandment." For Christ, not as God but as man, has been appointed king of Sion; and "today," that is, on this same day on which He was appointed king, namely on the day of the Incarnation, the Father begot Him, that He should be man, and man God; and that He should preach the precept of God concerning the redemption of men and reconciliation prepared and promised to those who believe in Him. But better and more aptly St. Augustine, on Psal. II, and Chrysostom, Theophylact, Anselm, D. Thomas, take this passage of the eternal and divine generation of the Son of God. Whence "today" signifies present duration, which is always present, indivisible and immovable, and embraces all time, past, present and future, such as eternity is. Whence He does not say: I today beget Thee, as though He were just beginning to beget, but "I have begotten Thee," as if the generation were already complete, and the Son perfect, inasmuch as already from all eternity He has been begotten — as if to say, says D. Thomas: Thou art perfect, O Son, and yet Thy generation is eternal, and Thou art always being begotten by Me, as light in the air is perfect, and yet is always as it were begotten and emanated by the sun. "Today" therefore, that is, in and from eternity, in which there is one Today, one instant, one now, namely one stable and enduring present, I beget, and have begotten, and shall always beget Thee, as My Word and Son.
Hence it follows first, that this generation does not pass, flow and pass away, but always remains the same numerically in God, so that He always begets the Son. The same reasoning applies to the spiration of the Holy Spirit: for the Father and the Son always spirate the Holy Spirit, just as the sun always pours out from itself and produces light; and just as God always creates the world, as it were, by the very fact that by His continual influx He preserves in its being the same thing created by Him: for this preservation is nothing other than the continuation of creation, and continual creation. All these things in God proceed from the immensity of the simplicity, immutability, fecundity and perfection of the divine essence: for from this the Father has the power and act of always begetting the Son, and of always spirating the Holy Spirit with the Son.
It follows secondly, that in divine things to beget and to have begotten, to spirate and to have spirated, and conversely to be begotten and to have been begotten, to be spirated and to have been spirated, are the same: for divine actions are accomplished in an instant, and eternity is accomplished in one "today," indeed in one instant; whence in eternity present, past and future are the same.
It follows thirdly, that the immanent actions, namely generation and spiration, and their terms, namely the Son and the Holy Spirit, are co-eternal with God the Father, because they begin with the Today of eternity.
It follows fourthly, that in God there truly is generation, namely through the intellect. For the intellection, conception and saying in the Father, by which He understands, conceives and says, that is, speaks within Himself and produces the concept or word of His mind adequate to Himself, that is, infinite and divine, is generation. For this divine Word adequate to the Father can be nothing other than the Son.
It follows fifthly, that Psalm II literally does not speak of David in himself, as the Rabbis would have it; nor even of David inasmuch as he was a type of Christ, as Jansen would have it; but properly, per se, and primarily it was dictated and written of Christ: for to Christ alone applies "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee." And: "Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession;" and many other things which are said in that psalm.
Finally Ambrose, Hilary, Chrysostom, Jansen interpret that "I have this day begotten Thee," not only of the human and divine generation of Christ, but also of the resurrection of Christ, as if to say: "I today," that is, on this day of the resurrection or of Easter, "have begotten," that is, have regenerated and resuscitated, "Thee." For so St. Paul seems to interpret it, Acts XIII, 33. But there the mind and argument of St. Paul are different, as I shall show in that place.
And again: I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son. — The Apostle cites II Kings VII, 14, which Lactantius, book IV, chap. XIII; Rupert, book II on the book of Kings, chap. XXX; Catharinus and Adam here judge to be spoken literally not of Solomon, but of Christ. But this is most clearly refuted both by Solomon himself, III Kings V, 3, where he interprets of himself the words which immediately precede this verse, II Kings VII, pertaining to the building of the temple; and by David, I Paralip. XXII, 10, where dying he commends to Solomon his son, who would succeed him in the kingdom, the worship of God and the building of the temple, because God for this purpose had chosen Solomon, and had said of him: "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to Me a son." What could have been said more clearly?
Secondly, Lyranus, Burgensis and Abulensis on II Kings, chap. VII, want this passage to be taken literally both of Christ and of Solomon. But this also is incongruously said, because Solomon was only a type of Christ: therefore if these things apply to Solomon literally, they apply to Christ not literally, but only typically.
I say therefore, with Eucherius and Angelomus on II Kings, chap. VII, that this verse literally speaks of Solomon, but allegorically of Christ. This is clear from the very passage II Kings VII, and I Paral. XXII. For there the cause is given why David was not permitted to build the temple according to his desire, but it was entrusted by God to Solomon, whom He raised up and exalted to be king for this purpose, namely because David in wars had shed much blood of the enemy: but Solomon would be peaceful in the kingdom, and most beloved of God and chosen. Whence concerning the same person David, speaking, soon adds: "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to Me a son." Namely Solomon himself, whom after thee, O David, I will raise up as king, to whom I assign and entrust the building of the temple, of whom I have hitherto been speaking. Who does not see that these things are said of Solomon literally indeed, but in such a way that they apply allegorically more to Christ, and so that these things are said of Solomon for Christ's sake, namely that Solomon in these matters might bear the type of Christ's kingdom. You will say: If this passage applies to Christ only allegorically, then the Apostle is using a weak argument, inasmuch as it is sought from the mystical and allegorical sense.
I reply: An argument sought from the allegorical sense is just as firm as one sought from the literal sense, if it is established that such is the allegorical sense of the passage, as is established here; for the allegory was equally, indeed more, intended by the Holy Spirit than the literal sense of Scripture. For allegory contains the mysteries of Christ and the Church, which are far more excellent and august than the deeds of David, Solomon and other Jews. Which deeds are literally signified and narrated in the histories of the books of Kings, and of others of the old Testament, and the Jews knew this, especially those who had been converted to Christ. For they knew that Solomon was a type of Christ, and that these things were said of Solomon not for his own sake, but for Christ's, and so that the quiet, peaceful, rich and opulent kingdom of Solomon was only a figure of the spiritual opulence and eternal felicity to be given to Christians in the kingdom of Christ.
But that at least allegorically these things apply to Christ, no one denies, nor can deny: for there are certain things which apply more to Christ than to Solomon; as what is said here: "I will be to him a father." And: "My mercy I will not take away from him." And: "Thy house shall be faithful," that is, thy royal family and progeny shall be stable. And: "I will establish the throne of his kingdom unto eternity." Which words, although in some way thinly, and as if by hyperbole, apply to Solomon, in that God did not depose him from the kingdom, as He deposed Saul, but continued and perpetuated his kingdom through descendants for four centuries of years, namely until the Babylonian captivity, in which the state of Israel collapsed, and the people of the Jews was utterly overturned — which is a certain kind of eternity. For the Hebrews call olam, that is, "eternal," a long time whose end is not yet seen, but is hidden, covered and concealed. For the root alam means to hide. Again they call it "eternal" not absolutely, but relatively, namely what always endures with respect to this or that people or nation; that is, what endures as long as that people or nation endures, to which the thing itself is promised. Thus the old law is said to be eternal, and the old testament is said to be eternal; because, namely, it will endure forever, that is, throughout all that time during which the Jewish people and the Jewish Church will endure; in the same way the kingdom of Solomon is said to be eternal, because the scepter of the kingdom remained in the line of Solomon throughout all that time during which the kingdom of Judah itself remained, and the people of the Jews; which if it should fail, or perish, or be dispersed, what wonder if the kingdom and king of the same likewise should collapse and perish?
But allegorically these things apply more fully and integrally to Christ; for of Christ most properly it is said: "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to Me a son." Again, Christ's kingdom, that is, the Church, absolutely and simply is eternal. Whence it is clear.
Fittingly indeed the Apostle proposes here to the Hebrews, harassed and despoiled for the faith of Christ, the type and example of Solomon, as if to say: Persist, O Hebrews, in the faith of Christ, endure exiles, the plundering of goods, blows and stripes; remember how once, after David's bloody kingdom, there succeeded the quiet kingdom of Solomon, rich and flourishing in all good things; know that after these tribulations there will succeed such a kingdom of Christ, prefigured by the kingdom of Solomon: which heaped up will not only restore to you the goods taken away, but will enrich you with immense treasures of heavenly glory and wealth, and will give and bless you with eternal joys, and an abundance of all good things.
In the same way, from the allegorical sense of that passage of Deut. XXV, 4: "Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain," the Apostle proves that sustenance is not to be denied to the Apostles and preachers, I Cor. IX, 9; and John, chap. XIX, vers. 36, proves that the bones of Christ on the cross ought not to have been broken, because of the paschal lamb, which was a type of Christ, it is written in Exodus XII, 46: "Ye shall not break a bone of it." And St. Matthew, chap. II, vers. 15, proves that it was fitting for Christ to go and to return into Egypt, because Hosea XI, 1, concerning the people of the Hebrews, who were a type of Christ, says: "Out of Egypt I called My Son." Therefore it is not new, nor strange, if the Apostle here argues from the allegorical sense.
Verse 6: And Again, When He Bringeth in the Firstbegotten into the World, He Saith: And Let All the Angels of God Adore Him
6. And when again He bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, He saith: And let all the angels of God adore Him. — The Syriac, Erasmus, Vatablus and Adam think there is a metathesis and transposition in the word "again"; for thus they translate, "and again, when He brings in the firstbegotten," as if "again" merely signified a new citation and new testimony of Scripture. But this is to invert the order of the words without necessity, and this transposition is rather harsh and violent.
Hence secondly, others explain it thus, as if to say: Christ, the future man and to be born in the flesh, was first set above the angels in their creation, and the angels were commanded by God to adore Christ the future man through faith. "And again," that is, secondly, they were commanded to adore the same, when in fact He was incarnate and brought into the world. But in the creation of the angels Christ as man was not brought into the world, which the Apostle here says; but was only set before the angels' mind, as Antichrist is set before our mind, when we think of him as future, of whom however it cannot yet be said that he has been brought into the world.
Thirdly, St. Chrysostom, Ambrose, Theophylact, Oecumenius here, and Cyril, book De Fide ad reginas, explain it so that Christ as God is said to have been first brought into the world by the eternal generation: for when He was begotten by the Father, immediately He filled all these spaces in which afterward this world, that is, heaven and earth, were created; but "again," or secondly, here Christ is said to have been brought into the world, through the incarnation, when the Blessed Virgin bore Him. This exposition yields to those already mentioned, yet is not the most apt: for the Apostle in this whole discourse speaks of Christ, not as God, but as man, and signifies that He was brought into the world both first and second as man.
Fourthly therefore and most aptly, Christ was first brought into the world as man through the incarnation, passible and mortal; but again, or secondly, He was brought through resurrection from death, glorious and impassible. Or rather "again He brings in," that is, will bring in, God the Father will bring Christ on the day of judgment as judge, that He may judge the world: and then all the angels who first adored Him at the nativity, will again or a second time publicly adore the same in glory. For then the Father will, as it were, inaugurate the Son, and will send Him in fact into possession of the whole world: for this verse, as I shall presently say, is taken from Psalm XCVI, which treats of the last judgment, and of the majesty of Christ as judge.
He saith: And let all the angels of God adore Him. — Some think that Paul here cites Deut. XXXII, 43, according to the version of the Septuagint. So Theodoret, Euthymius and Procopius on the canticle of Moses, which is in Deut. XXXII. But the Hebrew and Latin have nothing of the kind there. Whence perhaps in the Septuagint this verse crept in from elsewhere. Better therefore others everywhere judge that this sentence was taken from Psalm XCVI, where in the Hebrew there is vehistachavu lo col elohim, which St. Jerome translates, "and adore Him all ye gods"; you would translate more clearly, "and let all the angels adore Him." For elohim signifies not only God, or gods, but also angels, as will be clear chap. II, vers. 7. But rather in the Hebrew the word malache, that is, "angels," seems to have fallen out. For so it seems should be read, vehistachavu lo col malache elohim, that is, "and adore Him all ye angels of God." For thus the Septuagint translates, and Paul from them here: for in that verse the Psalmist plays on the word elilim, that is, "gods," or idols and images; and elohim, that is, the true God: for he opposes those who glory in elilim, that is, in idols and images (whom on the day of judgment he longs to be confounded and put to shame by Christ as judge); these, I say, he opposes to the angels, who adore and glory in elohim, that is, in the living and true God.
Note that Psalm XCVI, which the Apostle here cites, describes, and as it were depicts to the life, both the extreme judgment, and the kingdom and majesty of Christ coming to judgment with clouds, fire, earthquake and lightnings preceding Him; whence it begins thus: "The Lord hath reigned," that is, the Messiah or Christ, formerly humble, poor, abject on earth and condemned to death, but now after the resurrection and ascension hidden in heaven, on the day of judgment will appear conspicuous and glorious to the whole world, and as it were as a king sitting on the throne of judgment will reign: for which cause "let the earth rejoice, let the many islands be glad," all the faithful and elect, and the whole Church rejoice and exult. "Clouds and mist are round about Him," that is, Christ with a cloud, and sitting in a shining and glorious cloud will carry out the judgment. "Justice and judgment are the correction (basis) of His seat." For "correction" in Hebrew there is mechon, that is, rectitude and firmness, or, as St. Jerome translates, the foundation of His throne is justice and equity. "Fire (of the conflagration of the world) shall precede before Him, His lightnings (with thunders, as it were trumpets, going before the majesty of the judge) have shone forth to the whole world: the mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of all the earth," namely will appear to be shaken and to melt in this commotion of the earth, or in a most violent earthquake, which at such majesty of the judge as if trembling will appear to be wholly moved and torn from its center. "Let them be confounded (condemned by Christ as judge) all who adore graven things, and who glory in their idols" (in Hebrew, "in elilim"). "Adore Him all His angels, Sion heard and was glad," that is, the Church of the saints and the elect.
From the adoration therefore of the angels Paul gathers that Christ is more excellent than the angels, and is God and the Son of God. Hence it is clear that Christ, as man (specifically, not reduplicatively) and as judge, is to be adored with latria, just as Christ as God is, and consequently in the Eucharist by parity of reasoning Christ as man present is to be honored and adored with latria; as the Council of Trent defines from the perpetual use of the Church, sess. XIII, chap. V, and can. 6. In this place therefore, and in others of this chapter, the Arians are plainly convicted of heresy. For David in that Psalm XCVI speaks of the true God of Israel, and says that He is adored by the angels; but this is the Son, namely Christ, as Paul here explains: therefore Christ is the true God of Israel to be adored by the angels.
Verse 7: And to the Angels Indeed He Saith: He That Maketh His Angels Spirits and His Ministers a Flame of Fire
7. And to the angels (that is, to the angels: for the Hebrew el, that is, "to," often signifies this; for el is taken for al, that is, "over," "concerning") indeed He saith: He that maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. — For "ministers" Tertullian, book II Against Marcion, chap. VIII, reads "attendants." The Apostle cites Psal. CIII, 4, where the Hebrews and Calvin, even Vatablus and Jansen, by "spirits" understand winds; by "flame of fire," lightnings; and so they explain: who makes "spirits," that is, winds, and "a flame of fire," that is, lightnings, "His angels," that is, messengers and ministers of His wrath, that is, of His vengeance. For of the winds the Psalmist had spoken immediately before, saying: "Who walkest upon the wings of the winds." But this sense is opposed to the version of the Septuagint and to St. Paul here, and inverts the words themselves, because it makes the predicate, namely "spirits," the subject; and the subject, namely "angels," it makes the predicate. For that "angels" is the subject is clear both from the order of the words, and from the version of the Septuagint, who as it were prefix to that subject the article when they translate, ὁ ποιῶν τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ πνεύματα, that is, who makes His angels spirits. Where the article τούς designates ἀγγέλους to be the subject, and πνεύματα, which lacks the article, to be the predicate.
So in the following verse where it is said, "a rod of equity, the rod of Thy kingdom," from the Greek article τῆς βασιλείας it is clear that "rod of the kingdom" is the subject, and that this is the sense: The rod, or scepter, of Thy kingdom, is a rod or scepter of equity. So John I, 1, where it is said, "God was the Word," the Word is the subject, because it has the article; God is the predicate, because it lacks the article: for so it is in Greek, Θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος, that is to say, The Word Itself was God. So everywhere else the subject is denoted by the article, which the predicate lacks. Since therefore here to "angels" the article is added, it is clear that here "angels" is the subject, not the predicate. This sense also is opposed to St. Paul: for he understands this verse of the psalm not of winds, but of angels: for if it were to be understood of winds, in no way, neither literally nor allegorically, could it be understood of angels. For winds literally are not angels; nor allegorically do they signify angels, as is plain. Nor is it strange that the Psalmist leaps from winds to angels, because in that Psalm CIII he brings forward all creatures into the midst for the praise and encomium of God. And winds have a certain similitude with angels, and symbolically represent the angels.
Better therefore secondly, others with St. Gregory, homil. 34 on the Gospel, explain this verse of the angels in this way: who, namely God, makes those who by nature are spirits to be angels, that is, His messengers; but these too invert the order of the words, and make the subject itself the predicate.
I say therefore thirdly: The plain and genuine sense is this: "Who," namely God, "makes His angels" swift and subtle, as it were spirits, that is, as it were winds. Again the same angels, who are His ministers, God makes to be as a "flame of fire," that is, of a most effective and as it were fiery nature. Whence the Chaldean translates: who makes His messengers swift as spirits, and His ministers strong as fire. For by a customary Hebraism the mark of similitude "as" is understood: for "spirits," that is, as spirits, and "flame of fire," that is, as a flame of fire. Finally Maldonatus in his manuscript Notes thus explains: "Who makes His angels spirits," etc., that is, who uses the ministry of His angels to stir up winds and to send forth lightning.
Note first: By "spirits" may be understood spiritual nature: for so God, the soul and the angels are said to be spirits, that is, of a spiritual nature; more aptly however the Hebrew ruchot, that is "spirits," here signifies winds. For just as the Psalmist compares the angels to flame, so also to winds.
Note secondly: For "flame of fire" in Hebrew there is es lohet, that is, fire flaming and burning, as St. Augustine reads, and as our Interpreter translates in Psalm CIII, "burning"; the Septuagint from the Caraffa edition translate, πῦρ φλέγον, that is, blazing fire; or, as other copies, namely the Royal, have, πυρὸς φλόγα, that is, flame of fire; Aquila translates, πῦρ λάβρον, that is, impetuous, vehement, voracious fire; Symmachus, πυρίνην φλόγα, that is, fiery flame; the Roman Psalter, "shining fire." All which signify that the angels have equal, indeed far greater, agility, ignition, fervor, force of penetrating, activity and sharpness with respect to divine desire and ministry; again, that purity which is greater and which lifts upward away from every material substance — the purity which fire and flame possess — as Damascene says, Book II, On the Faith, ch. III. So too Theodoret and Euthymius. See St. Dionysius, On the Celestial Hierarchy, ch. XV.
Tropologically, St. Augustine and Arnobius on Psalm CIII hold that the "Angels," that is, the legates and messengers of God, are the Apostles and Apostolic men: these Christ made to be "spirits" when He said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." He made the same to be a burning fire when at Pentecost He sent upon them the Holy Spirit in the form of fiery tongues, which set their hearts and tongues ablaze. "For unless the preacher who ministers burns, he does not enkindle the one to whom he preaches," says St. Augustine; and at the same time, as the Psalmist has it, He "founded the earth," that is, the earthly minds of men, "in the stability" of His grace and charity. Hence, as St. Jerome says in the same place, God for this reason made His angels properly so called "spirits," namely that they might inspire both the Apostles and other men to do the will of God, and that they might be agile and expeditious in carrying it out. In the same way He made these angels to be like a burning fire, that they might enkindle and inflame all men with divine love.
Verse 8: But to the Son: Thy Throne, O God, Is Forever and Ever; a Sceptre of Equity Is the Sceptre of Thy Kingdom
8. But to the Son (concerning the Son and at the same time to the Son Himself) (supply: God says, Psalm XLIV): Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a sceptre of equity is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.
There is an antithesis, as if to say: God speaks of the angels as of His ministers and messengers, but speaks of the Son as of God and Lord of the angels and of all things: therefore Christ far transcends the angels.
Note: Erasmus here doubts whether "God" is in the nominative case or the vocative. "It is uncertain," he says, "whether the sense is, O God, Thy throne is forever and ever; or this: God Himself is Thy throne forever and ever." But it is certain that "God" is in the vocative: for Aquila and Symmachus render it ho Theos. Again, the sense would be inept and absurd if it were taken in the nominative; for what sense would it make if one interpreted it thus: Thy seat, O Christ, is God Himself? For God is not a seat, but the One who sits on the seat or throne, and Christ does not sit in the Father, but at the right hand of the Father. Again, the deity is not the seat of the humanity, but rather the contrary: the humanity is the seat — indeed the footstool — of the deity. It is therefore certain that this is the sense: O God, that is, O Son, who art true God, Thy royal and divine throne is eternal, Thou art an eternal king, Thou hast an eternal kingdom and dominion.
Note secondly: Some Rabbis, with Vatablus, think that Psalm XLIV, which Paul here cites, is an epithalamium for Solomon and Pharaoh's daughter, and that it is said of Solomon: "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever," that is, says Vatablus: thou, O Solomon, art God (in Hebrew elohim), that is, prince and governor of the people of Israel, and thy throne, principality, and kingdom shall be eternal, because it shall be propagated forever through thy descendants. But all Christians, and even the more learned Rabbis, refute this: for it is certain from the very august words of the psalm itself that this is not an epithalamium for Solomon, but for Christ and the Church: for the kingdom of Solomon was not absolutely eternal, which is nevertheless asserted here of the kingdom of Christ. For although "age" does not always signify absolute eternity, it always signifies it when it is doubled, that is, when one says: "unto the age of the age"; or "unto ages of ages"; or as it is said here in Hebrew for the sake of amplification, leolam vaed, that is, forever, and beyond. Again, although the Hebrew elohim sometimes signifies a prince and a judge, the Greek ho Theos in the singular is said only of the one and true God. Whence it follows that these things cannot apply to Solomon, but only to Christ — and that He is truly God.
A sceptre of equity is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. — "Rod," that is, sceptre; for in Hebrew it is shevet: for the sceptre of a king was once a rod or pastoral staff. For just as shepherds rule and direct their sheep with their rod, so the king with his sceptre and royal power ought to direct his subjects as it were sheep. Whence Homer calls King Agamemnon poimena laon, that is, shepherd of the peoples.
Secondly, for "of equity" the Hebrew has mishor, that is, of rectitude, of justice, of equity.
Thirdly, "the sceptre of Thy kingdom" is here the subject: for in Greek it has the double article he rabdos tes basileias sou; the predicate, however, is "a sceptre of equity," which lacks the article — as if to say: The rod, that is, the sceptre of Thy kingdom, O Christ, is most equitable; that is, Thy kingdom is most full of rectitude, justice, equity, and holiness, and Thou judgest most rightly and equitably, advancing and rewarding the just and punishing and condemning the wicked — which Thou shalt most clearly disclose on the day of judgment. So Eusebius, Cyril, and Basil in the Greek Catena, on Psalm XLIV.
Verse 9: Thou Hast Loved Justice and Hated Iniquity: Therefore God, Thy God, Hath Anointed Thee with the Oil of Gladness Above Thy Fellows
9. Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity. — Here he explains in clearer words how "the sceptre of Christ's kingdom is a sceptre of equity," namely because Christ in His governance loves justice and the just, but hates and punishes iniquity and the wicked.
Therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. — Note: He repeats the name "God" for emphasis (auxesis), saying: "God, Thy God," namely God the Father. For in both places "God" seems to be in the nominative case and to refer to the Father. Yet, with Eusebius (Bk. IV of the Demonstration, ch. XV) and St. Jerome (to Principia), "God" in the first place may be taken in the vocative, and in the second in the nominative — as if to say: God the Father hath anointed Thee, O God, that is, O Son. But the former sense is plainer. For Christ was anointed inasmuch as He is man, not inasmuch as He is God.
Thou wilt ask: what is this "oil of gladness" with which Christ was anointed? I answer first, it is the oil of grace, which gladdens the soul.
Concerning which, note that to be anointed by God with oil is to be made a partaker of the power of God which avails in all things, which bestows all goods, and which penetrates all things like oil. For oil increases light, lifts up the weary, soothes labors, makes one cheerful, bright and splendid; and grace and divine virtue accomplish the same, says Eusebius in the place cited. Hence kings, prophets, and priests were anointed with oil, to signify that they were imbued with the power of God, to this end: that they might diffuse the same upon the people, just as oil diffuses itself and penetrates and imbues all things; and from this they are called "Christs," that is, "anointed ones," Psalm CIV:15: "Touch not My anointed, and do no evil to My prophets." And "touch" means "do harm": for it is the Psalmist's custom to explain the first hemistich by the latter; for to "touch the Christs" of God is nothing other than "to do evil to the prophets." Hence by excellence our Redeemer is called in Hebrew Maschiach, or Messiah, in Greek Christos, in Latin "Anointed"; whence also in Punic messe (from the Hebrew maschah) signifies "to anoint," as St. Augustine says in Tract 15 on John. The Prophets, then, are Christs of God, that is, anointed and imbued by God with the gift of prophecy. The name "Jesus," therefore, is proper to this man who is called Jesus Christ, just as my own proper name is Cornelius: but the name "Christ" is not proper but appellative, and is a name of dignity and office. Wherefore St. Peter, explaining this oil with which Christ was anointed, says in Acts X:38: "God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power." This oil of gladness, then, is the Holy Spirit, and the divine virtue which wondrously gladdens the soul, by which Christ as man was anointed as supreme King, Prophet, Priest, and Judge of all men — and this in the first instant of His incarnation.
Of this oil, anointing, and the name of Christ, the symbol and portent which occurred at Christ's nativity is told by Paulus Orosius, Bk. VI, ch. XVIII and XIX: "In those days," he says, "(those of Augustus Caesar) a most copious fountain of oil flowed all day from the taberna meritoria. By which sign what could more evidently have been declared, in the days of Caesar reigning over all the world, than the future nativity of Christ? For Christ, in the language of the nation in and from which He was born, is interpreted as 'the Anointed.'"
In the sense already given, the word "therefore" does not signify a meritorious cause but a final one; whence in Hebrew it is al ken, that is, as Aquila renders it, "upon this" — as if to say: To this end God the Father anointed Thee, O Christ, with this oil of gladness: namely, that Thou shouldst love justice and hate iniquity, and so have a sceptre and kingdom of equity and a perpetual throne. So St. Thomas and others.
I answer secondly that more aptly and better "the oil of gladness" is here called oil — that is, abundance and excellence — not of grace, but of glory, which through His justice and holiness Christ merited and obtained; as if to say: The glory of body and fame, and the celebrity of Thy name, that Thou shouldst be acknowledged and worshiped by all as Savior of the world — this Thou hast merited, O Christ, from this very thing: namely, because Thou hast loved justice; and that Thou mightest satisfy divine justice, Thou didst humble Thyself, becoming obedient unto the death of the Cross. So St. Jerome above, and Jansenius on Psalm XLIV. That this sense is more apt and simpler is clear first because both the Psalmist and Paul are treating of the throne of the kingdom: for Christ obtained this not in the Incarnation, when He was anointed with the oil of grace, but in the Resurrection, when He was anointed with the oil of glory.
Secondly, because the oil of glory is properly the "oil of gladness," which Christ received on account of the merit of His justice. For this is what the word "therefore" properly signifies.
Above Thy fellows. — In Hebrew mehabrecha, that is, "above Thy companions"; and, as Aquila renders, "Thy friends." By Christ's companions and friends he means the Apostles and all the saints, who, just as they share in His sonship and grace, so also share in the kingdom and glory of Christ from Christ Himself, since by Him they are adopted as sons — indeed, as brothers — and made heirs of His heavenly kingdom. David alludes to his own anointing, by which, above all his brothers — though they were older and according to outward appearance more suitable, while he himself was the least of all and most abject in appearance — he was chosen and anointed king by Samuel, 1 Samuel XVI:7 ff. For in like manner Christ, poor, lowly, and in appearance abject, was set above all the Prophets, Patriarchs, and Apostles, and above all anointed with the oil of grace and glory in such a way that all should receive and participate in this oil from Him. Hence from Christ we are called Christians, that is, anointed ones from the Anointed One. Hence also the grace of Christ poured into us is called "anointing," 1 John II:27. For this reason St. John said in chapter III, verse 34, that Christ did not receive "the Spirit by measure," namely so that to all men as His associates, fellows, and participants — even were they infinite — He might communicate some portion and measure of His immense Spirit; for this Spirit and grace was as it were connatural to Christ, and in some manner infinite. Whence St. Basil in the Greek Catena, on Psalm XLIV, explains this verse thus: "Thou hast loved justice above Thy fellows. Other men," he says, "do good things by labor and exercise, and turn themselves away from evil; but in Thee, O Christ, there is implanted by nature (by virtue of the union of the human nature with the Word) a propensity to good and a separation and aversion from evil."
All these verses the Apostle so fully cites from Psalm XLIV in order to encourage the Hebrews to constancy in the faith of Christ and to endurance of persecutions, as if to say: Bear bravely whatever adversities come, O Hebrews, because Christ the most equitable Judge will shortly make you sharers of His glory, kingdom, and joy; but your persecutors He will hand over to eternal fires. For, as I said, it is truer that the Apostle is speaking of the anointing of glory, not of grace — although the former presupposes the latter.
Verse 10: And: Thou, O Lord, in the Beginning Hast Founded the Earth
10. And: Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast founded the earth. — He cites Psalm CI, in which, just as literally the Psalmist prays that Sion and the temple, burned by the Chaldeans, may be rebuilt; allegorically and more intensely he beseeches that the old Church, tottering and overwhelmed with sins and miseries, may be restored by Christ the Liberator, and built up and transformed into a new — namely, a Christian — Church, as is clear from verses 14, 16, 23. He says therefore, "Thou," that is, O Messiah, in the "beginning" (Hebrew lephanim, that is, already before, already long ago, namely, from the very beginning of the world and of time), "hast founded the earth," in Greek ethemeliosas, that is, Thou hast laid the foundations of the earth — that is, Thou hast made the earth from its first foundations, and at the same time hast founded it firm and stable.
Verse 11: The Works of Thy Hands Are the Heavens: They Shall Perish, But Thou Shalt Remain, and They All Shall Grow Old as a Garment
11. The works of Thy hands (that is, of Thy power, which a man is wont to show through his hands, while he acts and works with them) are the heavens: they shall perish, — not as to essence, but as to external and accidental form, because of course they shall be changed as a garment, as follows.
But Thou shalt remain — that is, the same, eternal and immutable. Our text reads diameneis with the circumflex accent, that is, "Thou shalt remain": for in Hebrew it is the future taamod; some now read it with the acute accent diameneis, that is, "Thou remainest."
And they all (the heavens) shall grow old as a garment, — by their motion and continual agitation and change they will, as it were, grow aged; so that they appear to grow old, as a new garment which is worn down and grows old.
Verse 12: And as a Vesture Thou Shalt Change Them, and They Shall Be Changed
12. And as a vesture Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed. — In Hebrew tachalipheme, that is, "Thou shalt change them." Whence in Greek it should be read allaxeis; Chrysostom and others, however, read elixeis, that is, "Thou shalt enwrap or weave them in." But the sense comes to the same; for he means that Christ the Savior of Sion, on the day of judgment, just as He will make men blessed, so also will free the heavens from the former vanity and servitude of alteration and change to which they were subjected after man's original sin (as the Apostle says, Rom. ch. VIII, v. 21), and will turn them around and change them into new light, stability, and glory — just as a garment is wont to be turned and changed, when its outer face, worn out, is turned and becomes the inner, and the inner face becomes the outer, so that the inverted garment seems new. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others, as if the Apostle were saying: So likewise, O Hebrews, Christ will turn around your bodies — which now are vexed by hunger, thirst, and exile for the faith of Christ, are consumed and grow old — and will make them splendid, glorious, immortal in the resurrection.
Verse 13: But to Which of the Angels Said He at Any Time: Sit at My Right Hand, Until I Make Thine Enemies the Footstool of Thy Feet
13. But to which of the angels said He at any time: Sit at My right hand. — Paul cites Psalm CIX, in which the Psalmist sings not of the kingdom of Abraham, nor of David, nor of Hezekiah, as the Jews would have it, but of Christ — begotten before the morning star — the kingdom which through the resurrection and ascension He obtained in heaven and on earth, and which from Sion (that is, from the Church, which began in Sion and in Jerusalem) He reigns and continues to propagate the kingdom of His Church to all nations, and continues until He shall crush His enemies, namely all the impious, on the day of judgment. David therefore says: "The Lord said," namely God the Father, "to my Lord," in Hebrew ladoni, in the singular, namely to Christ — not so much to God (for then it would have had to be said in the plural ladonai) as to the man who, by title of the hypostatic union, of redemption, and of salvation of all men (and consequently of me), is my Lord, that is, of David, is Lord: He said, I say, to Christ, ascending in triumph into heaven: "Sit at My right hand," that is, sit closest to Me, be partner of My honor and kingdom, reign with Me in My supreme glory. See on this sitting what is said in Col. III:1.
Until I make Thine enemies the footstool of Thy feet. — That is, until the end of the age and the general judgment: in which I shall plainly subject to Thee all — both demons, and tyrants, and impious men — who here vex and harass Thee, O Christ, and Thy Christians. The Apostle adds this so that the Hebrews may remember: if they persist in the faith of Christ, on the day of judgment they will, with Christ, judge their own persecutors and as it were trample on them as a footstool and condemn them.
Note: The word "until" does not signify that Christ will sit at the right hand of God only that long, namely up to the day of judgment, as if afterwards He will not sit; rather, it indicates the very opposite — namely, that then Christ, as plainly triumphant over His enemies, will most fully and most peacefully begin to sit and reign. So in Matt. I:25 it is said that Joseph "did not know Mary until she brought forth Christ," where "until" signifies what happened before the birth, not what happened after the birth: for Matthew wished only to assert a wondrous and naturally incredible thing — namely Christ's conception without a father, in that His mother did not know a man until — that is, up to — the birth. So St. Jerome and others, against Helvidius.
Verse 14: Are Not All Ministering Spirits, Sent Forth to Minister for Those Who Shall Receive the Inheritance of Salvation?
14. Are not all (the angels) ministering spirits, sent forth for ministry on account of those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation? — The word "are not" does not so much ask as plainly assert: for the Hebrews use interrogation when they wish to establish and affirm a matter more strongly, as if to say: The angels do not sit at the right hand of Christ as Christ does, because it is theirs to minister to God and to be sent forth to procure the salvation of men, and so to serve Christ.
Note: Angels are not here called, nor are they to be called, ministers of men, but ministers and messengers of God to men and for the salvation of men. Paul therefore here calls angels "administrators of God," that is, officials, who administer God's court — namely this world — and human affairs on God's behalf; yet in such a way that in any of their administration and mission they never withdraw from God, but always enjoy His vision and are blessed. "Their angels," says Christ, Matt. XVIII:10, "always see the face of the Father."
Note secondly: For "sent" in Greek it is apostellomenoi, that is, "those who are sent" — namely, even now and daily — not as if all are actually being sent (since they are innumerable), but because they are appointed and ready at the nod of God to be sent and to go, whenever and wherever it shall please God.
Note thirdly that the angels are sent "on account of those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation," that is, on account of those who are to be saved — not as if the reprobate are deprived of angelic help, or as if angels are not sent to absolutely all men, even those who are to be damned for their sins: for the contrary is established by the common sense of the Church, which holds and teaches that to absolutely every man, even to every reprobate, at the moment of his birth a Guardian Angel is appointed by God. But the fruit of the angels' ministry is most clear and apparent in those who are saved and whom the angels actually lead to salvation; and the angels' ministry is not effective and does not attain its effect — namely salvation — except in those who, by listening to the angels and obeying them, are saved: for in the reprobate every ministry of the angels is ineffectual, and all their labor and care is lost. Again, by these words is signified that the end and term of the angels' ministry is this, namely that they lead men to salvation. For the ultimate office of the angels is to lead holy souls into heaven.
Thus the soul of Lazarus was carried by angels into heaven, Luke XVI. Thus St. Anthony, on the testimony of St. Jerome, saw the soul of St. Paul the first hermit borne by angels into heaven. So the angels bore the soul of St. Martin into heaven, as St. Severinus, bishop of Cologne, saw. Thus in St. Gregory, Bk. IV of the Dialogues, ch. XIV, St. Servulus at his death heard the melody of angels inviting him into heaven. And when St. Romula was dying, before her door two heavenly choirs of singers were heard. So too St. Benedict saw the soul of Germanus, bishop of Capua, borne by angels into heaven in a sphere of fire. So St. Mary Magdalene was daily lifted up seven times by the angels into heaven and heard their heavenly music: there is no doubt that at her death she was likewise lifted by them and heard the same. So too the body of St. Catherine was carried by angels to Sinai, her soul into heaven. So the angels of St. Agatha cared not only for her soul but for her body as well: for after her martyrdom they placed this epitaph upon her: "A holy and willing mind, honor to God and the liberation of her country."
Wherefore St. Bernard rightly says in Sermon 41 on the Psalm Qui habitat: "To our angel we owe reverence for his presence, devotion for his benevolence, confidence for his guardianship. Walk warily — as one to whom angels are present (as has been commanded them) in all thy ways. In whatever lodging, in whatever corner, hold reverence for thine angel: dost thou dare in his presence what thou wouldst not dare in mine?" The same in Sermon 2 on the Vigil of the Nativity of the Lord: "How greatly think you the heavenly citizens desire that the ruins of their city be restored? How do they run as intermediaries between us and God, most faithfully bearing our groans to Him, and most devotedly bringing back to us His grace? Plainly they will not disdain that we be their companions, of whom they are already made ministers. For are not all ministering spirits? etc. Let us hasten, I beseech you, beloved, let us hasten — the whole multitude of the heavenly court awaits us. We made the angels rejoice when we turned to penitence: let us advance and hasten to complete their joy concerning us. Woe to thee, whoever thou art, who deliberatest to return to the mire, to return to the vomit. Dost thou think them appeased at the judgment, whom thou wishest to deprive of so great and so hoped-for a joy?"
It is here asked: are absolutely all angels sent by God in ministry? St. Dionysius denies it, Celestial Hierarchy, ch. VIII and XIII, and after him Gregory, Hom. 14 on the Gospels; Anselm here, St. Thomas, Part I, q. CXII, art. 4. For they teach that some angels are "assistants," who namely always assist God and are never sent — and such are the four supreme orders, namely Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, and Dominations. Others are "ministers," who namely are sent to every ministry — and such are the remaining five lower orders. St. Dionysius proves this from Daniel VII:10, where it is said: "A thousand thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him." Behold, here Daniel distinguishes the "assistant" angels from the "ministering" ones, and says that the former far outnumber the latter — namely, that the ministering ones are some millions (for a thousand thousands is a million), but the assistants are ten thousand times a hundred thousand, which makes a thousand million: for a million is ten times a hundred thousand. Secondly, because the right order of nature and of grace requires this — that the higher angels illuminate the lower, and the lower carry out what they have learned through the illumination of the higher to be God's will.
But the contrary opinion is more probable, namely that absolutely all angels are sent by God: for this is clearly what the Apostle says here. St. Thomas answers in two ways: first, that the Apostle is not speaking of absolutely all the angels, but only of those who gave the Law to the Hebrews; for to these he prefers Christ, in order to prove that the Law of Christ is more excellent than the old Law. But this does not satisfy. For it is doubtful from which order was the angel that gave the Law to the Hebrews: indeed many Catholics, too, hold that he was not of the order of Angels but of the order of Seraphim — namely, that he was Michael; for he is the prince of the Hebrews, as is said in Daniel ch. X, last verse. If Michael, who is the highest of the assisting angels, is sent, then all the others lower than he are sent.
Secondly, the Apostle here proves Christ to be God from this — that He is superior to absolutely all the angels, and that He is to be adored by all the angels: therefore in this place he understands all the angels, even Cherubim and Seraphim.
Thirdly, because in like manner the Apostle, Ephes. I, 21, and Col. I:16, prefers Christ above absolutely all the angels, even the Thrones and Dominations.
St. Thomas answers secondly that absolutely all angels are sent — but the assistant ones only interiorly, namely that they may illuminate the lower; while the ministering ones are sent exteriorly, that they may carry out commands. But this too is said more subtly than solidly: for to be sent "into ministry" is, absolutely speaking, to be sent exteriorly to carry out God's will.
Secondly, because in Isaiah VI:6 one of the Seraphim — the highest order — is said to have been sent to Isaiah. St. Dionysius answers that he was of a lower order of angels, but called "Seraphim" either because he had been sent by some Seraph, or by reason of his office — namely because he was being sent to burn the lips of Isaiah with a fiery coal and to consume his sins. But since nothing compels us to depart from the proper meaning of the words, the true "Seraphim" here seems to be taken as elsewhere true Angels, true Thrones, and Dominations are taken — especially since nowhere else in Scripture are the Seraphim found and named. For if no Seraph flew to Isaiah but sent another lower one to fly: how could the Seraph himself, remaining in heaven, be said to have flown to Isaiah? Wherefore by "Seraphim" Sts. Cyril, Basil, Jerome, Chrysostom, Procopius, and others on Isaiah ch. VI properly understand an angel of the order of Seraphim.
Thirdly, in Gen. III:24, a Cherub — who is of the second order — was sent to guard paradise.
Fourthly, because in Daniel X:13 and 21 Michael was sent — whom many teach to be the first of the angels and the guardian of the Church, as he was once of the Synagogue: whence the Church calls him "primate of the heavenly host."
Fifthly, because in Matt. XXV:31 all the angels are said to come with the Son of Man to judgment, namely for the sake of ministry; just as it is very probable that all the angels came to meet Christ ascending into heaven, for the sake of honor. Finally, if the very Son of God Himself was sent as legate to men by the Father not through angels but through Himself — why should not the Seraphim themselves also be sent in person?
To St. Dionysius I answer that he does not assert his own opinion but only proposes it as probable (the same does St. Gregory, who confesses that in this matter nothing can be said with certainty); yet his foundation does not press the case. For many deny that in Daniel VII the assisting angels are distinguished from the ministering ones, saying that the same are both ministering and assisting; but for fullness of expression they are by Daniel called now "assistants," now "ministers." For in Apoc. VII:11 and 3 Kings, last chapter, v. 19, absolutely all angels are said to stand, or to assist, before God; whence the Church too prays: "Grant, O Lord, that by those by whom Thou art ever assisted ministering in heaven, our life on earth may be defended." Which seems to be taken from Matt. XVIII, where it is said: "Their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven." But granted that Daniel does distinguish them — it still does not follow that the "assistants" are never sent: for they are called "assistants" because they are sent more rarely and almost always assist God. This is plain: for in the same chapter Daniel says that he approached one of the assistants and was taught by him the interpretation of the words. Raphael too, who was sent to Tobit, says he is "one of the seven who stand before God," Tobit XII:15. So too Gabriel sent to Zechariah: "I am Gabriel," he says, "who stand before God, and I was sent to speak to thee," Luke I.
To the second objection I answer that this is the common order of divine providence — that He reveals His decrees to the higher angels, who signify them to the lower, that the lower may execute them. Examples of which are in Zech. II:3; Dan. VIII:16; Apoc. VII:2.
But this does not prevent that God, for just causes known to Himself, may from time to time change this order and send some of the higher angels who in person carry out God's commands — as we have already seen the Seraphim sent to Isaiah, the Cherub to paradise, Michael to Daniel and to the Jews. The higher angels, then, or the assisting ones, are indeed sent more rarely, but nonetheless are sometimes sent. "For they are all ministering spirits sent forth in ministry." Where note that the "all" does not mean that absolutely all are sometimes sent, but that from every order (granted, very rarely from the highest) some are from time to time sent. For here in the word "all" there is a distribution not for the individuals of the kinds or orders, but for the kinds of individuals — as if to say: All the angels are administrators of God and His "sent ones," that is, His legates, because they assist God ready for every ministry: in fact all are sent in ministry. "All," that is, some out of all the orders. So Molina, Part I, q. CXII.
Morally, St. Chrysostom here, from this ministry of the angels, teaches that zeal for souls and the eagerness to convert and save men is a work not human but angelic: "This," he says, "is the office of an angelic function, to render to God the ministry for the salvation of men. Hence this is an angelic work — to do all things for the salvation of one's neighbors; but even more, this is the work of Christ."