And: Thou in the beginning, O Lord, didst found the earth: and the works of thy hands are the heavens.
και συ κατ αρχας κυριε την γην εθεμελιωσας και εργα των χειρων σου εισιν οι ουρανοι
11 Church Fathers comment on this verse
So that, when you hear the words, “when He brings the Firstborn into the world,” you may not think that this was later granted to the Son as a gift, the Apostle had already guarded against such a thought above.
Now he guards against it again, saying, “in the beginning.” Not now, he says, but from of old.
Here again he deals a mortal blow to Paul of Samosata and Arius, ascribing to the Son what is ascribed also to the Father.
So that, on hearing the words "when He brings the Firstborn into the world," you should not think this was a gift afterward given to Him by the Father, he now shows that He is Creator of the world, not in recent time, but from of old.
This is also against Paul of Samosata, and it establishes that Christ is before Mary, since He is Creator of creation. It is also against Arius, who considers Him an assistant, or rather an instrument.
For above it was said: "through Whom also He made the ages" (Heb 1:2). Here He is presented as Creator. See how the teaching about the uncreated being and the teaching about the divine economy are joined together.
At times, because of the former, exalted things are said. At times, because of the latter, lowly things are said.
The divine Paul himself does not allow us to doubt that the Word did not cease to be what He was, what He is, and what He will unceasingly be, namely God.
Although He is said to have been anointed by the Father according to His humanity, Paul immediately adds: "Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst found the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands."
"They shall perish, but Thou remainest; and they all shall grow old like a garment. Like a cloak Thou shalt roll them up, and they shall be changed. But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail" (Heb 1:10-12).
It is difficult for a man to turn away from long-standing habits. He may have acquired them under the influence of his family, or they may have developed through personal taste, education, and the example of companions. It is still harder to abandon convictions, especially religious convictions, by which he has been comforted all his life.
It happens that even after accepting other convictions and another faith, a man still remembers his old convictions with regret in his soul. In daily life, secretly, with a troubled conscience, and even with sympathy, he manifests habits and performs customs that do not agree with the new faith.
We notice this phenomenon in our forefathers. Even after accepting the faith of Christ and performing Christian rites, they still worshiped the old idols in their chambers. They also respected and observed pagan feasts and games.
Saint Paul the Apostle noticed exactly the same thing among Jews who had already turned to Christ. As is known, even after accepting the Christian faith, the Jews considered it necessary for salvation to observe certain rites prescribed in the Old Testament.
Their sympathy for Judaism often went so far as open insult to the faith of Christ (Acts 15:1, 10). Therefore, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Saint Paul says that in Christianity the Jews must be especially attentive.
They must attend not to what had been prescribed to them in the Law of Moses, but to what they had heard from Christ the Messiah, lest they fall away (Heb 2:1).
Why is this so? First, because Christ, the Lawgiver of the Christian faith, is God, the Creator and Provider (Heb 1:10-11). Second, because the old law was given to the Jews by God through Angels and Moses, the servants of God.
But the evangelical law was proclaimed to men by the Son of God Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ (Heb 2:2-4). From this the superiority of the evangelical law over the Law of Moses is clear.
Our Holy Church, offering us today the apostolic teaching, urges us also to care more zealously for our salvation. We must hold firmly to the teaching of Christ and fulfill it in holiness.
We must not be carried away by any traditions of remote antiquity that oppose the faith. Nor should we be drawn away by new and fresh information that is still immature and far from the truth.
Chapter 1, verse 10: "In the beginning Thou, Lord, didst found the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands." Verse 11: "They will perish, but Thou remainest, and they all will grow old like a garment."
Verse 12: "And like a cloak Thou wilt fold them up. Thou wilt change them, and they will be changed. But Thou art the same, and Thy years will not fail."
"In the beginning Thou, Lord, didst found the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands."
So the Jewish world believed in every age. Adam, Abraham, Noah, and David with his descendants held this conviction. Many pagan peoples also believed and sensed that in nature there is a certain Rational Power.
They perceived a Being who created and adorned the world, governs it, preserves it in order, watches over the proper course of the universe, and to this day orders all things wisely.
These same beliefs passed over to Christians. They were sanctified by the word of Christ and made clear by the Apostles. But today there are people, even a whole succession of students and men learned in their own way, who preach otherwise.
They say that the universe did not come from God at all. They say it began to exist by itself and to act according to certain laws, for no reason whatever, without any cause.
As though an effect could exist without a cause. As though the wondrous structure of the world, the wise movement of the heavenly lights, and the manifestation of powers in the earth were possible without a Wise Ruler, without an Almighty Being.
We see that there is order in the universe. There are laws that sustain order. Therefore, there must be some supreme Lawgiver. And this Lawgiver, this Creator of the world, is God.
He existed before the creation of the world and before all ages. He will remain forever unchanging, while the universe He created will be changed.
The present heaven and earth will be changed at the universal resurrection of the dead. Then there will be other conditions of life. Our body will then receive other properties, suited to the endless life that awaits man beyond the grave.
And: “Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst found the earth, and the heavens,” that is, the firmament, which was created after the earth, “are the works of Thy hands.”
The Apostle showed that God the Word is the Maker of all. By naming heaven and earth, he embraced everything in them. He taught that He is unalterable and unchangeable.
All this is signified by the words: "They shall perish, but Thou remainest." He showed the change of creation for the better, which will be accomplished by Him, and also His beginninglessness and imperishability.
For he says: "Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." He did not come into being, but exists. He receives no change, because He is always "the same."
By this the impassibility of the Godhead is also signified. For if God had suffered, how would He be the same? One who suffers is changed.
If He had remained in death for three days, His years would have failed. But both the prophet who wrote the testimony and the Apostle who used it teach us that He is always "the same," and that His "years shall not fail."
Having thus spoken of the divine nature, the Apostle turns again to the human.
After the Apostle said, "when He brings Him into the world," and indicated the beginning of His being in time according to the flesh, he again returns to His pre-eternity.
He shows that according to His divinity He is not only without beginning, but also without end. He shows that He is not created, but on the contrary is Himself the Creator of heaven and earth, and so forth.
"And Thou, Lord," he says, Thou Who wast brought into the world through Thy becoming man, "in the beginning didst found the earth," as David also said. That is, Thou didst establish and strengthen it in the beginning.
"And the heavens are the works of Thy hands" means that this too is the work of Thy active power. "The heavens" are the first object according to the beginning of creation, and likewise the firmament.
For "in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen 1:1). And further: "God called the firmament heaven" (Gen 1:8).
“And again: In the beginning, Thou, Lord.” So that, when you hear, “when He again brings the Firstborn into the world,” you may not think that the world was afterward given by the Father to the Son as a gift, he shows that He is its Creator.
Understand the latter before the Incarnation, and the former after the Incarnation.
Since the Hebrews honored the words of the holy prophets, believing that these words are God's, and always studied them, the divinely speaking Paul gathered prophetic sayings in his Epistle to them. From them he composed proof for his apostolic words.
With such force he proves from prophetic sayings that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, true God, incorruptible, immutable, and Creator of all creation. With such heavenly wisdom he refers to Christ the prophecies concerning His humanity.
He thereby removes every doubt and assures every soul that believes the prophetic words that Christ is the very One about Whom the divine prophets foresaw and prophesied.
The most blessed one also founded his moral teaching on examples from divine Scripture. He frightens those who are inattentive and negligent about their salvation by pointing to those who transgressed the commandments of the Law and were punished by God.
He shows that an inescapable punishment awaits such people as well. In his apostolic words read today, proof from the Scriptures is set forth concerning the two natures joined in Christ, the divine and the human.
They contain the lofty and saving teaching of faith, and also a moving and wondrous exhortation to virtuous life. These words are truly a vessel containing heavenly myrrh, but a vessel sealed by the difficulty of the letter.
I will strive to open its seals by interpretation. Draw near to it with attention, so that, breathing in its fragrance, you may be filled with divine grace, which guides you to eternal salvation.
"In the beginning, Thou, Lord, didst found the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands." In David's one hundred first psalm we read: "Thou shalt arise and have mercy on Zion" (Ps 101:14).
And: "The Lord shall build up Zion in His glory" (Ps 101:17), and other prophecies concerning Christ. The God-inspired Paul assured us that David was speaking of Jesus Christ in this psalm.
For from it he took the words before us in order to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ. Before these words, to prove the supernatural excellences of Christ's human nature, he set forth this from another psalm of David.
"Thy throne, O God, is unto the age of the age. A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, Thy God, has anointed Thee with the oil of gladness" (Ps 44:7-8).
See how he joins these words with those before us, in order to show that Jesus Christ is the Creator of creation and true God.
"And Thou, Lord, in the beginning." Not only, he says, did David speak the preceding words about Christ, but also these: "In the beginning, Thou, Lord, didst found the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands."
By these words first the Prophet, having foretold this, and then the Apostle, having understood it, showed that Christ is the Creator of heaven and earth, and consequently true God.
For God created heaven and earth in the beginning. "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" (Gen 1:1).
But why did Moses say "heaven" in the singular, while David says "heavens" in the plural? Some say this is a property of the Hebrew language, in which both heaven and heavens are said.
Perhaps he said "heavens" meaning by this the atmosphere and the air that encompass and surround the whole earth. By "works of Thy hands" he meant the creative powers of the Godhead, in order to declare more strikingly that the heavens are the work of God.
“And again: In the beginning, Thou, Lord, didst found the earth.” The eternity of the Son of God, and His superiority over the angels, is confirmed still more by the fact that He is the Creator of earth and heaven.
As He was before them, so He will remain unchangeable even after their existence comes to an end.
On the other hand, Ps 44:7-8 presents the Messiah, the Son of God, as God, Who will reign eternally. His scepter will turn neither to the right nor to the left, ῥάβδος εὐθύτητος, but will indicate the path straightly.
He will be furnished with every kind of blessing, greater than those received by His partakers, that is, Christians, His co-heirs (Rom 8:17) and co-rulers (2 Tim 2:12).
Furthermore, Ps 101:26-28 bears witness to the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth. From the Apostle's point of view, see verse 2 above, this means the Son of God.
He eternally remains equal to Himself, while He deals with the created world as He wills. Even the heavens themselves, which seem to us so unchanging, are in fact destined for destruction, even the highest, πάντες.
Finally, Ps 109:1 attributes to the Son the sitting at the right hand of Jehovah, that is, participation in the dominion of Jehovah.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 16 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS