Hebrews 1:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The one who wishes to reconcile them to the king does not bring them inside, but goes out himself and speaks with them, until he makes them worthy to appear before the king's gaze.

So also Christ acted. He came out to us, that is, He assumed flesh and taught us what is pleasing to the King. Then He brought us in, after cleansing us from sins and reconciling us to God.

Therefore He calls His coming an exodus. But Paul calls it an entrance, borrowing this metaphor from the example of heirs receiving some possession into ownership.

To say, "when He brings the Firstborn into the world," means that God entrusted the world to Him. He then received it all into His possession, when He was known.

This is said not of God the Word, but of the incarnate Christ. Indeed, if "He was in the world," as John says, "and the world was made through Him" (Jn 1:10), how could He otherwise have been brought into the world except in the flesh?

"And let all the angels of God worship Him," he says. Intending to say something great and exalted, he prepares the hearers for it and disposes them to receive the truth more readily by presenting the Father as bringing in the Son.

Observe this. Above he said that God spoke to us not through prophets, but through the Son. He showed that the Son is more excellent than the angels, proving this both by the very name of Son and by the fact that the Father Himself brought in the Son.

Here he proves the same thing in another way. How? By worship, which shows that He is as much more excellent than the angels as the Master is more excellent than the servant.

It is like someone who brings another into the king's dwelling and commands those standing there at once to worship him. So the Apostle acts, speaking of the coming into the world according to the flesh.

He adds: "And let all the angels of God worship Him." Are only the angels meant, without the other powers? No. Listen further: "Of the angels He says, Thou makest Thine angels spirits, and Thy ministers a flame of fire."

For then He received it, voluntarily submitting to Him, into His possession, when He also became known. He is brought in only in the flesh. For as God the Word, "He was in the world, and the world was made through Him" (Jn 1:10).

He represents the Father as bringing in the Son in order to make the speech pleasing. Gregory of Nyssa and Saint Cyril understood "He brings in" in this way.

Before the Incarnation, He had nothing in common with creation, being bodiless as God. But when He was incarnate, then, by sharing in creation, since He united what is created in Himself, He is said to have been brought into creation.

"And let all the angels of God worship Him" (Ps 96:7 LXX; cf. Deut 32:43). Plainly, they worship Him Who assumed flesh.

Here he also shows that He is as much more excellent than the angels as a master is more excellent than servants. It is like someone who brings another into a house and commands those standing there at once to worship him.

And they continued to ask, saying also this: "What are these wounds in the midst of Thy hands?" (Zech 13:6a). He answers them: "With these I was wounded in My beloved house" (Zech 13:6b).

Certainly one cannot say that it was necessary for the marks of the nails to remain on Him after His Resurrection, or that He had to ascend into heaven even with them.

Rather, this should be understood reasonably. Just as He showed the marks of the nails and even His side to unbelieving Thomas, leading him to say with a swiftly instructed mind, "My Lord and my God" (Jn 20:28), so also here.

I think that, making manifest the manner of His divine economy with the flesh, He appeared to the holy angels with the signs of His sufferings, bearing red garments and even the marks of the nails.

He did this so that they too might believe that He Who is God by nature truly became also the Son of Man, taking a body from the Holy Virgin.

He emptied Himself in order to save those under heaven, offering Himself to God the Father as an offering and sacrifice for all, for a fragrant aroma (cf. Eph 5:2).

For this reason the holy multitude of angels also worships Him. They did not refuse worship because He was Firstborn and Man among many brethren (cf. Rom 8:29).

Rather, they were instructed in the divine economy and recognized the Son Who is from the Father by nature, even when He became flesh.

For Scripture says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him" (Heb 1:6). Nothing like this is cited in the divine Scriptures concerning angels or any other rank of theirs.

For no one receives a command to worship angels, but only God. For it is written: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."

Does "makes" here mean nothing more than preserving them in subjection to the law according to which they were created? This nature is called spirit and fire, partly as intelligible and partly as purifying.

For the First Essence also receives the same names. Yet let this nature be for us bodiless, or as near to that as possible.

Do you see how we turn about in our discourse and cannot go further? Unless we extend ourselves only so far as we know that there are certain angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, principalities, authorities, splendors, ascents, noetic powers, or minds.

They are pure natures, unmixed, unbending, or not easily bent toward evil, ever rejoicing around the First Cause.

These natures, as another might sing of them, are either illumined by the purest illumination from the First Cause, or, according to their nature and rank, receive another illumination in another way.

They have so formed and impressed the Good within themselves that they have become secondary lights. By the outpourings and transmissions of the first Light, they can enlighten others.

They are ministers of God's will, strong both by their natural power and by the strength they have acquired. They go everywhere and are ready to stand before all, everywhere, through zeal for service and the lightness of their nature.

Each of these minds has received some one portion of the universe, or has been appointed over some one thing in the world, as was known to Him Who ordered and distributed all things.

They all lead everything to one end, at the command of the Maker of all. They hymn the majesty of God and contemplate eternal glory, and this eternally.

They do this not so that God may be glorified, for nothing can be added to the Fulness, Who is also the giver of blessings to others. They do it so that even the first natures after God may never cease receiving benefits.

If this has been sung worthily, thanks be to the Trinity and to the one Godhead in Three. But if the desire was not sufficient, even in this case my discourse has prevailed.

For it labored to prove only one thing: that even the nature of secondary beings is beyond mind, not to speak yet of the First and Only One, Who surpasses all.

"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not" (Jn 1:10-11). There appears to be some contradiction here. If "He was in the world," how did He "come"?

And if He "came," how was He "in the world"? But He was in the world as God, and He came as man.

In this way He is Only-begotten as God, and as man He was Firstborn "among many brethren" (Rom 8:29). Thus He always received honor from the angels, because He was always God. Yet they worshiped Him also as man.

Then, having judged them worthy of seeing the king, he leads them inside the palace and presents them to the king. So also Christ acted.

He Himself came out to us, that is, He took flesh upon Himself. Through it He entered into communion and converse with us, and cleansed us from sins.

But Paul, by calling His appearance an entrance, borrowed the expression metaphorically from the example of heirs who receive a certain allotment and are brought into possession of it.

"I will give Thee the nations as Thine inheritance, and all the ends of the earth as Thy possession" (Ps 2:8). For Christ, possessing the world as the pre-eternal Son, received it into possession also as the Son Who appeared in time, after assuming flesh.

"When," he says, "He brings Him into the world," that is, when the Father entrusted it to the Son, according to His word: "I have been established as king over it by Him" (Ps 2:6 LXX).

The expression "let them worship Him," and what follows, which He said through David, "let all His angels worship Him," refers to the flesh. It expresses the thought that the angels worshiped Him also as man.

He called Him Firstborn as One begotten before the ages and existing before every creature, according to His beginningless origin.

So thinks Saint Cyril in his work Christ Is God, and Saint Gregory of Nyssa in his discourses against Eunomius.

The word "Firstborn" is not about a second, but about the One and Only One begotten of the Father. "And again, when He brings the Firstborn," that is, when He was pleased to show His Firstborn Son to men with the flesh.

For it says: "and behold, angels came and ministered to Him" (Mt 4:11). And: "from now on you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (Jn 1:51).

That is, let the angels worship the Son with the flesh, Him Who appeared in the flesh. "And let them worship Him." Him together with the flesh.

As Firstborn, worship from the angels always befitted Him. There was no need for any command. But when He again brings the Firstborn into the world, then such a command became necessary.

This is precisely because the Son of God is brought into the world in His human form, and the kingdom over all creatures is given to Him. This is the second introduction into the world, "again." The first was at the creation of the world.

Nevertheless, some interpreters understand by the first introduction the first coming of Jesus Christ for the salvation of men. That was the state of humiliation. The second coming will be for judgment, glorious, when He comes with myriads of angels.

But the first explanation is better, because after the judgment the Son of God will deliver the kingdom to God the Father (1 Cor 15:24).

"Again." In the Slavonic text, in agreement with the Greek construction, the ancient translations, the Syriac and the Vulgate, and the interpretations of the Holy Fathers, Chrysostom and Theodoret, this word is referred to the expression "He brings in."

Another corresponding passage about the ascent of the Son of God into the world gives the same sense (Heb 10:5). But the Russian text refers the word "again" to the citation from Scripture, as above in verse 5.