Christ Superior to Angels

Paul shows the superiority of the Messianic covenant to the Mosaic in Heb. 1:4 – 2:18.¹ He does so by comparing the agents through which God established the covenants.

The Mosaic covenant—also called “the law”—came with a prominent display of angelic ministry. Israel “received the law by the disposition of angels” (Acts 7:53). Paul describes the Mosaic covenant as “the word spoken by angels” (Heb. 2:2). The Jews held the angels in high regard because they were the agents through whom the Mosaic covenant came.

Paul wants the Hebrews to know, however, that in the “last days” (Heb. 1:2) of the Mosaic age, God had acted through his own Son (Heb. 1:5). The angels through whom so much of God’s prior revelation had come must now worship him (Heb. 1:6).² Their temporary revelation must give way to the Son’s permanent and superior revelation. In this section of the Hebrews letter, Paul says God has established the superior age through a superior agent: the Son surpasses the angels.

We wish to show how three elements of inmillennialism support Paul’s argument for the superiority of Christ. These include 1.) its last-days orientation, 2.) its optimism, and 3.) its stress on imminence (i.e., events necessary to complete the transition to the Messianic covenant would occur in Paul’s near future).

The Last Days Orientation

Paul says the Son is superior to the angels because God never enthroned them. However, “unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom” (Heb. 1:8; emphasis added). The angels served (and would serve) as ministers to God’s people (Heb. 1:14), but the Son is King of his holy nation (cp. 1 Pet. 2:9). Because of this, God has given him the emblem of superiority: “a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.”

This sceptre-bestowal reinforces inmillennialism’s view that the term “last days” most often refers to the final period of the Mosaic age. In our A Parting of the Ways — Part 2 post, we mentioned that Jacob (Israel) told his sons the sceptre would remain with Judah until Shiloh (i.e., the Messiah) would come. This would occur, Jacob said, “in the last days.” In this prophecy, given around 1700 BC,³ the patriarch inferred the sceptre would then pass to the Messiah, for “unto him shall the gathering of the people be” (Gen. 49:1, 10).⁴

Paul, writing around AD 66,⁵ declared God had fulfilled Jacob’s prophecy. Jesus now holds the kingdom sceptre (Heb. 1:8). He gained this emblem of power during the “last days” (Heb. 1:2).

The “last days” of Jacob’s sceptre-transfer prophecy did not refer to the entire Messianic Age, as most prophetic models require. Inmillennialism suggests “last days” refers to the final period of the Mosaic Age when the old covenant was ready “to vanish away” (Heb. 8:13). That age ended when Christ, as the reigning King, destroyed apostate Israel and the Temple in AD 66-70 (cp. Matt. 24:3, 34). During this period, God gave the sceptre to his Son, proving his superiority to the angels.

The Optimism

Paul’s optimism in this section of Hebrews also reinforces inmillennialism. The Son transcends the angels because, “to which of the angels said [God] at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool” (Heb. 1:13)? The expected answer to this rhetorical question is that God had said this to none of the angels. He said this only to the Son.

This promise comes from the writings of David: “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool” (Ps. 110:1). This is “the most oft-referenced OT text in the NT,”⁶ a fact that suggests its foundational importance in God’s revelation to us. We have seen it already while developing inmillennialism in First Corinthians 15.

Our model emphasizes the optimism this passage describes. Jesus, the Son, will sit on his throne, wielding his sceptre of righteousness, until God blesses him to accomplish the purpose of his reign. “He must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.” Once he does that, he will defeat death itself by resurrecting our physical bodies (1 Cor. 15:25–26). During the Messianic kingdom, established in the “last days” of the Mosaic age, God will overthrow all Christ’s enemies. This will occur during the reign of Christ, not that of angels.

Paul takes care to shape the Hebrews’ expectations regarding victory in the new age. God had started the era during which the victory would occur, but full success would not come soon. It would be an age-long process. Paul said:

One in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. (Heb. 2:6–7a)

Paul is quoting the prophetic words of David (Ps. 8:4–6), written a thousand years earlier. He adds the following explanation:

For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Heb. 2:7–9)

The process of subjugation had begun. During the “last days” of the Mosaic age, God initiated the Messianic age. Jesus had, for a short time, been “made a little lower than the angels,” but he now sat on “the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). Here he would remain until God made his foes his footstool (Acts 2:34–35).

The Hebrews (and we) should recognize this process had just begun in Paul’s day. It has progressed ever since. Still, we see much evil remaining in our world. We should remember how Paul said things would develop. Milton Terry puts it this way: “The coming and kingdom of Christ consist with the lingering existence of many forms of evil, and he is to be thought of as reigning and ruling a long time before all his enemies are put under his feet.”⁷

Jesus sits enthroned, a sure sign of what is coming, but he has not yet subjugated all his enemies. The kingdom leaven has only started transforming the world’s dough (Matt. 13:33), but the end result—a fully leavened lump—is certain. Inmillennialism posits this optimistic view of the kingdom of God in history.

The Imminence of Events in Hebrews

Third, our prophetic model, like Paul throughout Hebrews, emphasizes the imminence of the new age in which Christ would reign. This Messianic age was beginning as Paul wrote this letter. He does not state the old order might end in his near future; he emphatically, repeatedly, and authoritatively declared it would soon end.

The apostle makes this assertion twice in his discussion of Jesus’ superiority to angels. First, he asks a rhetorical question about these heavenly creatures: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for (those about to inherit) salvation” (Heb. 1:14; italicized words from YLT)? He expects us to supply an affirmative answer, “yes, the angels will continue as ministering spirits, not rulers, in the new age.”

Our primary interest in this statement centers on the fact those to whom the angels would minister were “about to inherit salvation.” Just as the Israelites of Joshua’s day were “about to inherit” their earthly promises, so the Christians of Paul’s day were about to inherit their heavenly promises. They were entering the age of salvation secured for them by the work of the Messiah, the age in which, as we have seen, he would wield the scepter taken from Judah. This is what our model suggests.

To secure this point, we must address a translation issue. We incorporated Young’s Literal Translation above because it recognizes a Greek verb in this text that most translations ignore. That word, mellō,⁸ has two primary definitions. It can show the certainty of a future event or action, or it can mean “to be about to, in [a] purely temporal sense.”⁹

The decision about which meaning to use is not always clear-cut. When doubt exists, the surrounding context serves as the final authority in determining the best meaning. As Milton Terry says, “Some words have a variety of significations, and hence, whatever their primitive meaning, we are obliged to gather from the context, and from familiarity with the usage of the language, the particular sense which they bear in a given passage of Scripture.”¹⁰

In Hebrews, Paul’s explicit time statements suggest “to be about to” is the best meaning. We have already seen he considered himself to be living in the “last days” of a particular age (Heb. 1:2). Later, we will see he considered that age to be on the verge of passing away and that the Messianic age would remain (Heb. 12:27–28). In light of these facts, we should let mellō’s “about to be” influence our understanding of several passages in this letter.

The second imminence passage in Paul’s discussion of angels also contains mellō. Paul asserts Jesus, not the angels, would rule “the inhabited world the one being about to be” (Heb. 2:5, McReynolds).¹¹ Regarding this verse, A. T. Robertson said, “The world to come [is] the new order, the salvation just described. . . . The author is discussing this new order introduced by Christ which makes obsolete the old dispensation of rites and symbols. God did not put this new order in charge of angels.”¹²

The “old dispensation” was the Mosaic age, and the “the new order” of salvation is the Messianic age. Again, our prophetic model recognizes this note of imminence: the long-expected end of the Mosaic age was about to come. God had already established the new world order (oikoumenē) under Christ.

Inmillennialism reflects Paul’s insistence on the imminence of these events.

Conclusion

In summary, our model matches Paul’s discussion about the superiority of agents. God had established the new covenant through his own Son. It was, therefore, superior to the old covenant—and the age during which it existed—established through angels.

Inmillennialism enhances our understanding of Paul’s argument in at least three ways. God had transferred the emblem of superiority to the Son during the “last days” of the Mosaic Age. This was not an age-long process as other prophetic models suggest by defining “last days” as the entire Messianic Age.

The optimism inherent in Paul’s argument matches that in inmillennialism. God did not give the sceptre to the Son in vain. During the Messianic Age reign, God would make the Son’s enemies his footstool (Heb. 1:13).

The new age did not lie in the distant future. Paul often asserts the nearness of the end of the Mosaic Age. The Messianic Age, which was already present, would remain when the old age passed away.  The old-to-new transition was “about to be,” just as inmillennialism suggests.

So, we must ask ourselves questions like the following. Do I believe that Christ is seated on His throne and reigning in this Messianic age? Do I recognize that God has given him all power and that he rules heaven and earth over angels and men (Matthew 28:18, et al.)? And, in view of these facts, have I submitted to his reign and become an obedient citizen of his kingdom?

1. We are using the division given in John Brown, Hebrews, (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1961).
2. We obtained the image, “Christ in Majesty,” here. The license is here.
3. Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 16–50, vol. 2, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), xxii. Much uncertainty exists regarding the dates of the patriarchs.
4. As Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse, and as inmillennialism shows, the angels would gather the elect to Christ during the Messianic Age (Matt. 24:31).
5. Leon Morris, “Hebrews,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews Through Revelation, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1981), 8.
6. Christopher A. Beetham, Echoes of Scripture in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians, (Leiden: Brill, 1980), 228.
7. Milton S. Terry, The Prophecies of Daniel Expounded, (New York: Hunt & Eaton, 1893), 39.
8. We will encounter this word several more times in Hebrews. It occurs 109 times in the Greek New Testament. According to an analysis done using Logos Bible Software, 81 of these have a sense of “to be about to”; 27 have “to be destined (state)”; and 1 has the sense of “to delay.”
9. Henry George Liddell et al., A Greek-English Lexicon, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), 1099.
10. Milton S. Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics: A Treatise on the Interpretation of the Old and New Testaments, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, Academie Books, n.d.), 181.
11. Paul R. McReynolds, Word Study Greek-English New Testament, (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1999), 788. Emphasis added.
12. Archibald Thomas Robertson, “The Epistle to the Hebrews,” in Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville: Broadman, 1932), 5:344.