For every house is built by some man: but he that created all things is God.
πας γαρ οικος κατασκευαζεται υπο τινος ο δε τα παντα κατασκευασας θεος
9 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Therefore, since Moses too was part of the house, he too was created by someone, and the One who created him undoubtedly surpasses him. The Son of God created him, the One who assumed flesh and was called High Priest for his sake. Therefore He also surpasses him. See how the Apostle began with a comparison according to the flesh, but brought it to the Godhead and showed that the Creator incomparably surpasses the creature.
It is evident that, in teaching that the created and the Creator must not be honored equally, he in no way allows the Son to be ranked with created things. For, he says, the one who built the house has greater honor than the house.
Who, then, made all things? Let the same one who spoke concerning the Son say again: "For by Him were created things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things" (Col 1:16-17).
How, then, can the Creator be among created things? If time itself is included among all things, as one of them, and He is before all things, then it is evident that the Son is older than time.
For, Scripture says, "through Him God made the ages" (Heb 1:1-2). How, then, shall He who is before the ages be numbered among the things that came into being in time?
Everything created in the act of creation necessarily began to be in time. Everlasting being is reserved for the divine and pure nature alone, as its own proper attribute.
In the same way, the honor of the Lord and Son is greater than that of Moses the servant. For every house that is built is built by a man, but God created Moses and made all things.
It must be known that the Apostle proved His superiority by the divine nature, while saying that He "has been counted worthy of more glory" (Heb 3:3) according to the human nature. Since the Master Christ is both God and man, and both are revealed to us in one person, the Apostle is compelled by necessity, in showing the two natures, to say of Him both what is lowly and what is exalted.
"For every house is built by someone." Precisely because it is built. "But He who made all things is God." Behold the dread, great, and incomparable superiority. "He who made all things," he says, that is, both the house and all other creatures, is God, not merely glorious but surpassing every glory.
The Word of God is the Son of God, as I said above. He is also called Angel (Ex 3:2) and Apostle, because He announces all that must be known and is sent to reveal what is announced.
For the Lord Himself said to you, "He who hears Me hears Him who sent Me" (Lk 10:16). This will be clear from the writings of Moses. In them it is written thus:
"And the Angel of God spoke to Moses in a flame of fire from the thorn bush and said: I AM, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of your fathers. Go to Egypt and bring out My people."
What followed this you may learn from those writings, if you wish. It is impossible to transcribe everything here.
These words were spoken to prove that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Apostle. Formerly He was the Word, appearing sometimes in the form of fire and sometimes in the likeness of bodiless beings.
Now, by the will of God, He became man for the human race. He also endured the sufferings to which He was subjected, through the activity of demons, by the senseless Jews.
Yet the Jews, although it is plainly written in the writings of Moses, "And the Angel of God spoke to Moses in the fire burning in the thorn bush and said: I AM, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," assert that the Father of all and Creator spoke in this way.
Therefore the prophetic Spirit, rebuking them, said: "Israel does not know Me; My people have not understood Me" (Is 1:3).
Likewise Jesus, as I noted above, said while among them: "No one knows the Father except the Son; nor the Son except the Father, and those to whom the Son reveals Him."
Thus the Jews always thought that the Father of all spoke with Moses. Yet the One who spoke with him is the Son of God, who was called both Angel and Apostle.
Therefore they are rightly rebuked by the prophetic Spirit and by Christ Himself, because they know neither the Father nor the Son.
Those who call the Son the Father plainly show that they do not know the Father. Nor do they know that the Father of all has a Son, who, being the firstborn Word of God, is also God.
He formerly appeared to Moses and the other prophets in the form of fire and in a bodiless likeness. Now, in the times of your dominion, as I said above, He became man from the Virgin.
This was by the will of the Father, for the salvation of those who believe in Him. He endured humiliation and suffering, that by His death and Resurrection He might conquer death.
What was said to Moses from the bush, "I AM, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and the God of your fathers," means that they remain even after death and are men of the same Christ.
For they were the first of all men to devote themselves to seeking God. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac of Jacob, as Moses also wrote.
By the house the Apostle means the people who were with Moses. But Moses himself was from the people and from the house, while the builder of the house is Christ.
"If Scripture metaphorically calls the Old Testament Church the house of God," the Apostle is saying, as it were, "then this house certainly has a builder, as every ordinary house does. This builder is incomparably higher than the building itself.
It is evident that Moses, despite his very lofty dignity, does not constitute the whole building. He is one part, or one stone, of this house of the Old Testament Church.
Let him be a foundation stone and a cornerstone, yet he is still a contingent and particular stone. Who, then, is the architect and organizer of the whole building of the Old Testament Church?
The Lord Jesus Christ is the divine architect of the whole Old Testament Church and the creator of Moses himself." Such are the Apostle's thoughts.
It is useful for the Hebrews to consider this further. As Moses, according to God's own testimony (see Num 12:7), was faithful in his ministry, which embraced the whole Old Testament Church of God, the house of God, so Jesus also is faithful as envoy and high priest.
He is faithful, πιστός, that is, firm and constant, both in the past and the present. He is the eternal high priest and intercessor for us before God, who made Him apostle and high priest of our faith.
The expression ποιεῖν τινα means to give someone a definite historical significance. Having thus summoned his readers to attend to Christ, the Apostle sets before them special motives for this, since they are Hebrews.
For His ministry Jesus was deemed worthy to receive an honor surpassing all the glory of Moses, the greatest of the prophets (Deut 34:10). The measure is the same by which the honor of a house's builder exceeds the honor due to the house itself.
That the builder of the house, or kingdom of God, deserves greater honor than the house itself is clear from this. As every house is built by someone, so the builder of everything necessary for the kingdom of God is God.
Here θεός is necessarily the predicate, because it stands without the article. He is a being of the highest, divine nature and therefore more glorious than Moses.
Thus the Apostle first said that Jesus was the builder of the house of God. Now he allows the conclusion to be drawn that this Jesus, the builder of the house of God, is God.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 11 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS