Many times and many ways, and then a Son

The opening sentence of Hebrews is one long Greek period, and it is the best summary in Scripture of everything this volume has been about.

Take the first half slowly, because it concedes something.

At many times and in many ways. Two adverbs in Greek, both built on the word for many — in many portions and in many manners.

That is an admission that the Old Testament came piecemeal. Not one revelation but many; not one method but several — a bush that burned, a voice at a mountain, a still small sound, dreams, visions, a hand writing on plaster, a donkey, lots cast, a scroll eaten, an almond branch.

The writer is not apologizing for that. He is describing it accurately, and he uses the accuracy to set up the contrast.

In these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.

Four things change in one sentence. The time: then, and now. The audience: our fathers, and us. The agent: the prophets, and a Son. And the manner: many ways, and one.

Which is the guard against a mistake that runs through church history in both directions — treating the Old Testament as superseded and therefore optional, or treating the two Testaments as interchangeable and losing the finality of the Son.

Hebrews does neither. Its argument for the superiority of Christ is built almost entirely out of Old Testament quotations. The book that says in these last days by His Son proves it from the Psalms.

And note the phrase by His Son — in Greek, literally in Son, without an article. The stress is on the category. Not through another spokesman, but in one who is a Son.

Then the rest of the sentence, which most readers hurry past: whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The one who is the final word is the one through whom the world was spoken into being — which is Week Three’s prologue in different vocabulary.

So the whole doctrine of Scripture, in two verses.

God has spoken. He spoke over centuries, in pieces, by many means, through men. He has now spoken in a Son, who is the radiance of His glory and the exact expression of His nature, and who sustains all things by His powerful word.

And notice how the sentence handles the prophets. It does not say they were mistaken or provisional in content. It says God spoke in them — the same speaking, in a different mode and by other agents. Hebrews will spend two chapters arguing the Son’s superiority to angels and to Moses without once suggesting that what came earlier was untrue.

The pieces were real. The Son is the point.

The two adverbs opening the Greek are polymeros and polytropos — in many parts and in many manners. The alliteration is deliberate and is one of the marks of the book’s unusually polished Greek, which is a standard argument in the discussion of its authorship.

Hebrews never names its author. Suggestions across the centuries have included Paul, Barnabas, Apollos, Luke, Silas and Priscilla; the honest position, stated by Origen in the third century, is that God knows. The book’s canonicity was debated in the West partly for that reason and settled on other grounds.

The phrase in these last days renders a Hebrew idiom common in the prophets for the latter days or the end of days. The writer is claiming that the period the prophets pointed to has begun, which is the assumption behind everything that follows.

The chapter continues with a catena of seven Old Testament quotations — from Psalms 2, 45, 102, 104 and 110, and from 2 Samuel 7 and Deuteronomy 32 — arguing the Son’s superiority to angels. The demonstration of the new word is conducted entirely by means of the old one.

Hebrews 2:1–4 draws the practical conclusion immediately: we must pay the most careful attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. The argument from the finality of the Son is turned at once into a warning about attention.

Look it upG4181 πολυμερῶς polymeros, in many parts · G4187 πολυτρόπως polytropos, in many ways · G2980 λαλέω laleo, to speak · G5481 χαρακτήρ charakter, exact impression, engraving

Where this touchesHebrews 1:1–4 · John 1:1–18 (Week Three, Day Three) · Deuteronomy 18:15–19 · Colossians 1:15–17 · Hebrews 2:1–4. Psalm 19, 2 Timothy 3:16–17, Isaiah 55:10–11, Matthew 24:35, Psalm 12:6, Matthew 5:18, Romans 15:4, Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 119:89, Joshua 21:45, Isaiah 66:2, Psalm 138:2 and Jeremiah 1:12 were the earlier single-verse days.