SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:4
¶ hecho tanto ms excelente que los ngeles, por cuanto alcanz por herencia ms excelente nombre que ellos.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Hebrew 1:4
Verse 4. So much better than the angels] Another argument in favour of the Divinity of our Lord. The Jews had the highest opinion of the transcendent excellence of angels, they even associate them with God in the creation of the world, and suppose them to be of the privy council of the Most High; and thus they understand Gen. i. x16: Let us make man in our own image, in our own likeness; "And the Lord said to the ministering angels that stood before him, and who were created the second day, Let us make man," &c. See the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel. And they even allow them to be worshipped for the sake of their Creator, and as his representatives; though they will not allow them to be worshipped for their own sake. As, therefore, the Jews considered them next to God, and none entitled to their adoration but God; on their own ground the apostle proves Jesus Christ to be God, because God commanded all the angels of heaven to worship him. He, therefore, who is greater than the angels, and is the object of their adoration, is God. But Jesus Christ is greater than the angels, and the object of their adoration; therefore Jesus Christ must be God. By inheritance obtained] keklhronomhken onoma. The verb klhronomein signifies generally to participate, possess, obtain, or acquire; and is so used by the purest Greek writers: Kypke has produced several examples of it from Demosthenes. It is not by inheritance that Christ possesses a more excellent name than angels, but as God: he has it naturally and essentially; and, as God manifested in the flesh, he has it in consequence of his humiliation, sufferings, and meritorious death. See Philippians ii. 9.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 4. Being made so much better than the angels , etc..] Christ is so much better than the angels, as the Creator, than the creature; as an independent being, than a dependent one; as he that blesses, than he that is blessed; as he that is worshipped, than he that worships: as a king, than his subjects; as a master, than his servants; and as he that sends, than he that is sent: and Christ may be said to be made so, when he was manifested and declared to be so; and he was actually preferred to them, and exalted above them in human nature, after he had expiated the sins of his people, and when he was set down at the right hand of God, as in the latter part of the preceding verse, with which these words stand connected; for in his state of humiliation, and through his sufferings and death, he was made lower than they; but when he was risen from the dead, and ascended to heaven, he was placed at the right hand of God, where none of them ever was, or ever will be: besides, the phrase, being made, signifies no more than that he was; and so the Syriac version renders it, and he was so much better than the angels; and so the Ethiopic version, he is so much better: and this is observed, to prove him to be more excellent than any creature, since he is preferred to the most excellent of creatures; and to show, that the Gospel dispensation is superior to the legal dispensation, which was introduced by the ministration of angels; and to take off the Jews from the worship of angels, to which they were prone: and this doctrine of his could not be well denied by them, since it was the faith of the Jewish church, that the Messiah should be preferred to the angels: for in their ancient writings they say of him, he shall be exalted above Abraham, he shall be lifted up above Moses, and be higher than the ministering angels f18 ; and that he is above them, appears from what follows, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they ; which is that of the Son of God, a name peculiar to him; and which belongs to him in such a sense as it does not to angels, as is evident from the following verse: and though this name is not founded on his office, as Mediator, but arises from his nature and relation to God; yet he was declared to be the Son of God, and it was made manifest, that this name of right belonged to him, upon the discharge of his office, at his resurrection and ascension to heaven; and therefore he is said to obtain it by inheritance; or he appeared to inherit it of right, and that it was his possession for evermore.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 4-14 - Many Jews had a superstitious or idolatrous respect for angels, becaus they had received the law and other tidings of the Divine will by their ministry. They looked upon them as mediators between God and men, an some went so far as to pay them a kind of religious homage or worship Thus it was necessary that the apostle should insist, not only of Christ's being the Creator of all things, and therefore of angel themselves, but as being the risen and exalted Messiah in human nature to whom angels, authorities, and powers are made subject. To prove this, several passages are brought from the Old Testament. On comparin what God there says of the angels, with what he says to Christ, the inferiority of the angels to Christ plainly appears. Here is the offic of the angels; they are God's ministers or servants, to do his pleasure. But, how much greater things are said of Christ by the Father! And let us own and honour him as God; for if he had not bee God, he had never done the Mediator's work, and had never worn the Mediator's crown. It is declared how Christ was qualified for the office of Mediator, and how he was confirmed in it: he has the nam Messiah from his being anointed. Only as Man he has his fellows, and a anointed with the Holy Spirit; but he is above all prophets, priests and kings, that ever were employed in the service of God on earth Another passage of Scripture, Ps 102:25-27, is recited, in which the Almighty power of the Lord Jesus Christ is declared, both in creatin the world and in changing it. Christ will fold up this world as garment, not to be abused any longer, not to be used as it has been. A a sovereign, when his garments of state are folded and put away, is sovereign still, so our Lord, when he has laid aside the earth an heavens like a vesture, shall be still the same. Let us not then se our hearts upon that which is not what we take it to be, and will no be what it now is. Sin has made a great change in the world for the worse, and Christ will make a great change in it for the better. Le the thoughts of this make us watchful, diligent, and desirous of tha better world. The Saviour has done much to make all men his friends yet he has enemies. But they shall be made his footstool, by humbl submission, or by utter destruction. Christ shall go on conquering an to conquer. The most exalted angels are but ministering spirits, mer servants of Christ, to execute his commands. The saints, at present are heirs, not yet come into possession. The angels minister to them in opposing the malice and power of evil spirits, in protecting an keeping their bodies, instructing and comforting their souls, unde Christ and the Holy Ghost. Angels shall gather all the saints togethe at the last day, when all whose hearts and hopes are set upon perishin treasures and fading glories, will be driven from Christ's presenc into everlasting misery __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
τοσουτω 5118 κρειττων 2909 γενομενος 1096 5637 των 3588 αγγελων 32 οσω 3745 διαφορωτερον 1313 παρ 3844 αυτους 846 κεκληρονομηκεν 2816 5758 ονομα 3686
Vincent's NT Word Studies
4. The detailed development of the argument is now introduced. The point is to show the superiority of the agent of the new dispensation to the agents of the old - the angels and Moses. Christ's superiority to the angels is first discussed.
Being made so much better than the angels (tosoutw kreittwn genomenov twn aggelwn). The informal and abrupt introduction of this topic goes to show that the writer was addressing Jewish Christians, who were familiar with the prominent part ascribed to angels in the O.T. economy, especially in the giving of the law. See on Gal. iii. 9. For being made, rend. having become; which is to be taken in close connection with sat down, etc., and in contrast with wn being, ver. 3. It is not denied that the Son was essentially and eternally superior to the angels; but his glorification was conditioned upon his fulfillment of the requirements of his human state, and it is this that is emphasized. After having passed through the experience described in Philip. ii. 6-8, he sat down on the right hand of the divine majesty as messianic sovereign, and so became or proved to be what in reality he was from eternity, superior to the angels. Tosoutw- osw so much - as. Never used by Paul. Kreittwn better, superior, rare in Paul, and always neuter and adverbial. In Hebrews thirteen times. See also 1 Pet. iii. 17; 2 Pet. ii. 21. Often in LXX. It does not indicate here moral excellence, but dignity and power. He became superior to the angels, resuming his preincarnate dignity, as he had been, for a brief period, less or lower than the angels (ch. ii. 7). The superiority of Messiah to the angels was affirmed in rabbinical writings. He hath by inheritance obtained (keklhronomhken). More neatly, as Rev., hath inherited, as a son. See ver. 2, and comp. Rom. viii. 17. For the verb, see on Acts xiii. 19, and 1 Pet. i. 4.
More excellent (diaforwteron). Diaforov only once outside of Hebrews, Rom. xii. 6. The comparative only in Hebrews. In the sense of more excellent, only in later writers. Its earlier sense is different. The idea of difference is that which radically distinguishes it from kreittwn better. Here it presents the comparative of a comparative conception. The Son's name differs from that of the angels, and is more different for good. Than they (par autouv). Lit. beside or in comparison with them. Para, indicating comparison, occurs a few times in Luke, as iii. 13; xiii. 2; xviii. 4. In Hebrews always to mark comparison, except xi. 11, 12.
