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Hebrews

About this book
Chapter 1

1 After God spoke long ago in various portions and in various ways to our ancestors through the prophets, 2 in these last days he has spoken to us in a son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the world. 3 The Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence,⁠ and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.⁠ 4 Thus he became so far better than the angels as he has inherited a name superior to theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my son! Today I have fathered you”? And in another place he says, “I will be his father and he will be my son.” 6 But when he again brings his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him!” 7 And he says of the angels, “He makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire,”⁠ 8 but of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and a righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. So God, your God, has anointed you over your companions with the oil of rejoicing.” 10 And, “You founded the earth in the beginning, Lord, and the heavens are the works of your hands. 11 They will perish, but you continue. And they will all grow old like a garment, 12 and like a robe you will fold them upand like a garment they will be changed, but you are the same and your years will never run out.” 13 But to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? 14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to serve those who will inherit salvation?

Texts in conversation

Compare Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3:95 and Hebrews 1:3

Classical · New Testament

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Summary

Philo reads the name Bezalel, the builder of the tabernacle and ark, as 'in the shadow of God,' and identifies that shadow with God's Word, used to create the world. Hebrews opens with the Son similarly as the image of God's essence and world-maker.

Passages

Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3:95

Classical
This, moreover, is the reason why God proclaims Bezalel by name, and says that He has given him wisdom and knowledge, and that He will appoint him artisan and chief craftsman of all the works of the Tabernacle, that is of the soul (Exod. xxxi. 2 ff.), though He has so far pointed to no work or deed of Bezalel’s that would win him even commendation. We must say, then, that here too we have a form which God has stamped on the soul as on the tested coin. We will know what image is impressed on it if we first determine the exact meaning of the name. Bezalel means, then, “in the shadow of God”; but God’s shadow is His Word, which he used like an instrument, and so made the world. But this shadow, and what we may describe as the representation, is the archetype for further creations. For just as God is the Pattern of the Image, to which the title of Shadow has just been given, even so the Image becomes the pattern of other beings, as the prophet made clear at the very outset of the Law-giving by saying, “And God made the man after the Image of God” (Gen. i. 27), implying that the Image had been made as a representation of God, but that the man was made after the Image when it had acquired the force of a pattern.
20–50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Philo, Allegorical Interpretation

Hebrews 1:3

New Testament
1 After God spoke long ago in various portions and in various ways to our ancestors through the prophets, 2 in these last days he has spoken to us in a son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the world. 3 The Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. 4 Thus he became so far better than the angels as he has inherited a name superior to theirs.
80–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Hebrews

References

“... The stamp of that divine seal is the eternal Logos. This idea of Philo is seen in the passages quoted below: Allegorical Interpretation 3.95-96 [...] We must say, then, that here too we have a form which God has stamped on the soul as on the tested coin. What, then, the image impressed on it is we shall know if we first ascertain accurately the meaning of the name. Bezalel means, then, “in the shadow of God”; but God’s shadow is His Word, which he made use of like an instrument, and so made the world. But this shadow, and what we may describe as the representation, is the archetype for further creation. For just as God is the Pattern of the Image, to which the title of Shadow has just been given, even so the Image becomes the pattern of other beings ...”
Edgar V. McKnight and Christopher Church, The Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary: Hebrews-James (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2004), 34.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3:95 and Hebrews 1:3

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