Through Whom He Made the Ages

The Hard Texts · Article 4 of 13

Hebrews opens with some of the highest words about Jesus anywhere in the New Testament. God has spoken “by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2). A few verses later the writer turns a psalm toward the Son: “You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of your hands.” (Hebrews 1:10). Many Trinitarian readers take this as proof that the Son is the Creator, Yahweh himself. Readers who grew up with the Jehovah’s Witnesses were taught that the Son was God’s first creation, and that God made everything else through him.

Both readings are held sincerely, and both deserve a careful answer. This article gives one. Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3). Hebrews 1 says the same thing: one God who speaks and acts, and one Son whom he appoints, anoints and exalts. Read in its own words, it is one of the clearest chapters in the Bible on who Jesus is.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), current eBible.org edition, checked word for word. The WEB prints God’s name as Yahweh. Notes on the Greek, Hebrew and Septuagint are at the end.

Our Case, Stated Plainly

One God made all things, himself. Israel’s Scriptures say this as directly as words can: “I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself” (Isaiah 44:24). The prophet Malachi asks, “Don’t we all have one father? Hasn’t one God created us?” (Malachi 2:10). The Levites prayed, “You are Yahweh, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army, the earth and all things that are on it” (Nehemiah 9:6).

Hebrews begins with that same God. “God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2). God is the subject: he spoke, he appointed, he made. Paul puts the two side by side: “yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.” (1 Corinthians 8:6).

Hebrews 1 in its own words. Notice what the chapter says about the Son:

• He was appointed: “whom he appointed heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2).
• He became better than the angels: “having become as much better than the angels as the more excellent name he has inherited is better than theirs.” (Hebrews 1:4).
• His sonship has a day: “You are my Son. Today I have become your father?” (Hebrews 1:5).
• He has a God who anoints him: “therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.” (Hebrews 1:9).
• He shared our nature: “Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same” (Hebrews 2:14), and “he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers” (Hebrews 2:17).
• And Hebrews names the builder of everything: “For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God.” (Hebrews 3:4).

This is how the apostles preached Jesus from the start: “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you” (Acts 2:22). “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus” (Acts 3:13). “God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to you first to bless you” (Acts 3:26).

Our conclusion, stated at the start: Hebrews 1 is about the one God exalting his human Son over the angels and over the world to come, and its creation language serves that purpose.

A Fair Question

Here is the question for this article: When Hebrews says God made the ages “through” the Son, and applies to the Son a psalm about laying the foundation of the earth, does it teach that the Son personally created the world, or does Hebrews itself show how its words are meant?

The Text in Its Setting

Hebrews 1 is one argument. Read Hebrews 1:1 to 2:9 in one sitting. The writer proves the Son’s rank above the angels with seven quotations:

• “You are my Son. Today I have become your father?” (Hebrews 1:5, from Psalm 2:7).
• “I will be to him a Father, and he will be to me a Son?” (Hebrews 1:5, from 2 Samuel 7:14).
• “Let all the angels of God worship him.” (Hebrews 1:6).
• “He makes his angels winds, and his servants a flame of fire.” (Hebrews 1:7).
• “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” (Hebrews 1:8, from Psalm 45:6).
• “You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth.” (Hebrews 1:10, from Psalm 102:25).
• “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet?” (Hebrews 1:13, from Psalm 110:1).

Then the writer says what he has been speaking about: “For he didn’t subject the world to come, of which we speak, to angels.” (Hebrews 2:5). He quotes Psalm 8 about man and applies it: “But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor” (Hebrews 2:9).

Four things are explicit. First, God speaks, appoints and makes; the Son is the one by whom he speaks and through whom he makes. Second, the Son became better than the angels and inherited his name (1:4), in the same sentence that says he “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). Third, the Son called God in 1:8 is anointed by God, your God (1:9). Fourth, the writer says he is speaking of the world to come (2:5). Our conclusion: every quotation in the chain serves one point, the exaltation of the Son over the angels in that coming world.

Hebrews 1:2: Through Whom He Made the Ages

The WEB’s worlds translates the Greek tous aiōnas, literally the ages (see the Notes). Hebrews uses the word for the ages of God’s plan: “But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26). It speaks of “the powers of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:5). Hebrews 11:3 also uses tous aiōnas for the created universe: “By faith we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:3). Notice the agent there: the universe was framed by the word of God.

Hebrews 1:2 sits in a sentence about what God has done at the end of these days: he spoke by a Son and appointed him heir. Our conclusion: the Son is heir of all things, and God made the ages with that heir as their goal. Peter speaks of Christ in the same way: he “was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake” (1 Peter 1:20).

Through whom describes real agency, and Hebrews uses the same pattern of God himself: “For it became him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” (Hebrews 2:10). The phrase tells us the Son has a real part in God’s work. It does not say the Son was a second worker beside God at Genesis 1, and Isaiah 44:24 says Yahweh spread out the earth “by myself.”

Our conclusion: God made the ages through his Son in the sense that the whole plan of the ages was made for him and is carried out through him, the heir appointed at the end of these days; God alone is the maker.

Hebrews 1:10-12: The Psalm and the World to Come

The psalm. Psalm 102 is “A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before Yahweh.” (Psalm 102:1). The sufferer prays to God: “I said, ‘My God, don’t take me away in the middle of my days. Your years are throughout all generations.” (Psalm 102:24). Then: “Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed. But you are the same. Your years will have no end.” (Psalm 102:25-27).

Hebrews quotes the Greek version of the psalm, which names the one addressed with kyrie, Lord, in that line. The Hebrew line has no title there: “Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth.” (Psalm 102:25). The psalm is addressed to God in both languages, and we do not build on the word Lord alone.

What the psalm looks to. Psalm 102 looks to the future. It looks to Zion’s restoration: “You will arise and have mercy on Zion, for it is time to have pity on her.” (Psalm 102:13). “For Yahweh has built up Zion. He has appeared in his glory.” (Psalm 102:16). It looks to a people not yet made: “This will be written for the generation to come. A people which will be created will praise Yah” (Psalm 102:18). It looks to the nations gathered: “when the peoples are gathered together, the kingdoms, to serve Yahweh.” (Psalm 102:22). And it says the present heavens and earth will not last: “You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed.” (Psalm 102:26).

What Hebrews says it is speaking of. One verse after the chain ends: the world to come, of which we speak (2:5). The word for world there is oikoumenē, the same word as in 1:6: “When he again brings in the firstborn into the world he says, ‘Let all the angels of God worship him.’” (Hebrews 1:6). Our conclusion: the setting of the whole chain, including 1:10-12, is the coming world into which God brings his firstborn.

The heavens that perish. Hebrews 1:11-12 says the heavens “will perish” and “will be changed” (Hebrews 1:11-12). Hebrews returns to this near its end: “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.” (Hebrews 12:26). “This phrase, ‘Yet once more’ signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain.” (Hebrews 12:27). “Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28). Our conclusion: the prophets and apostles describe the same change. God says, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17). Isaiah speaks of God putting his words in someone’s mouth “that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth” (Isaiah 51:16). Peter writes, “But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:13).

Our conclusion: Hebrews 1:10-12 sets the passing of the present heavens beside the Son who remains, and places him over the unshakable kingdom that follows; the world that is shaken is the old one, and the world to come is his.

You are the same. The psalm ends, “but you are the same. Your years won’t fail.” (Hebrews 1:12). Hebrews says of the risen Jesus: “But he, because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable.” (Hebrews 7:24). And: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8). Our conclusion: the permanence the psalm praises belongs to the Son as the one God raised to an endless life, which is exactly where Hebrews places it.

“In the Beginning”

The words in the beginning (1:10) are the strongest point readers raise, and they deserve a direct answer. Here are the scriptural reasons for our reading.

1. Hebrews quotes a passage and then tells us how it applies. It quotes Psalm 8:4-6, “You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor.” and “You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” (Hebrews 2:7-8), then explains the application: “But now we don’t yet see all things subjected to him. But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus” (Hebrews 2:8-9). In chapter 1 it frames the chain the same way, with the Son as heir “through whom also he made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2) and as the one over “the world to come” (Hebrews 2:5). Our conclusion: Hebrews applies the founding line to the Son in the sense 1:2 has already given, God’s work done through and for his heir, and the point it presses is that he remains while the heavens he was heir to are changed. The phrase itself, kat’ archas, is not the en archē of Genesis 1:1 in the Greek Old Testament; it renders the Hebrew lefanim, of old (see the Notes).

2. Scripture leaves no room for a second creator at Genesis 1. Yahweh made all things “alone” and “by myself” (Isaiah 44:24). “I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens.” (Isaiah 45:12). Hebrews itself says “he who built all things is God” (Hebrews 3:4). Our conclusion: whatever in the beginning means when applied to the Son, it cannot make him a second worker beside God at the first creation without setting Hebrews against Isaiah and against itself. Trinitarian readers claim instead that the Son is Yahweh himself; point 4 and the next section answer that from Hebrews’ own words.

3. Scripture can use founding language for God’s new work. Isaiah 51:16 speaks of planting the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth in the same breath as telling Zion, “You are my people.” (Isaiah 51:16). Psalm 102 itself looks to Zion rebuilt and a people yet to be created (102:13, 18). Our conclusion: when Hebrews applies the psalm to the Son, it does so in the light of the new beginning God makes through him, the world to come that God subjects to him (2:5).

4. The same chapter defines the Son by his appointment. The Son of Hebrews 1 is appointed (1:2), became better (1:4), was fathered today (1:5), and was anointed by his God (1:9). Our conclusion: a reading of 1:10 that makes him the uncreated Maker of Genesis 1 sets that verse against the lines that call him appointed, become, begotten today and anointed by his God, while our reading lets the chapter speak with one voice.

Answering the Trinitarian Reading

Trinitarian readers say: the psalm is addressed to Yahweh; Hebrews addresses it to the Son; therefore the Son is Yahweh. They add Hebrews 1:3 and 1:8, and they read Hebrews 2:14 and 10:5 as a Son who existed before taking flesh. We take this seriously, and we answer from the chapter itself.

• He has a God. “God, your God, has anointed you” (Hebrews 1:9). Our conclusion: one who has a God over him is not himself the uncreated God, and this is not limited to the days of his flesh, since the risen Jesus says “my God and your God” (John 20:17) and, from heaven, “the temple of my God” (Revelation 3:12).
• He was appointed and became. “whom he appointed heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2); “having become as much better than the angels” (Hebrews 1:4). Our conclusion: the uncreated God is not appointed by another, and does not become greater than angels.
• He was made like his brothers. “he also himself in the same way partook of the same” (Hebrews 2:14), in the same way as the children who share flesh and blood. When he comes into the world he says, “you prepared a body for me” (Hebrews 10:5). Our conclusion: God prepared the body, and the Son came into the world as one of the children, made like the “brothers” he helps, “the offspring of Abraham” (Hebrews 2:16-17).
• He prayed to the one who could save him. “He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death” (Hebrews 5:7).
• Hebrews 1:3 calls the Son “the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance” (Hebrews 1:3). Radiance and image are of God; the verse distinguishes the Son from the God whose glory he shows. Our conclusion: he upholds all things as the one now seated at God’s right hand, to whom God has put “all things in subjection under his feet.” (Hebrews 2:8).
• Hebrews 1:8 we answered in Article 3: the king of Psalm 45 is addressed as God, and the next line says God, your God, has anointed you.

Our standard is the text. The apostles in Acts proclaimed “a man approved by God” (Acts 2:22) and God’s “Servant Jesus” (Acts 3:13). Our conclusion: Hebrews 1 speaks the same way.

Answering the Jehovah’s Witness Reading

Witness readers say: the Son is not Jehovah, but he existed before the world as God’s first creation, and God made everything else through him. We share the conviction that the Father alone is the true God, and we are glad of it. But this reading does not fit the texts either.

• No co-creator. Yahweh made all things “alone” and “by myself” (Isaiah 44:24). A created master worker beside him at Genesis 1 is exactly what that verse rules out.
• One Creator. “Hasn’t one God created us?” (Malachi 2:10). “he who built all things is God.” (Hebrews 3:4).
• Hebrews never calls the Son a creature made before the world. It calls him a Son appointed, anointed and made like his brothers. The first-creation idea has to be brought to Hebrews 1; the chapter does not supply it. Colossians 1:15-20 will be weighed in Article 6, Firstborn of All Creation.

Questions Readers Ask

Doesn’t Hebrews 1:6 say the angels worship him? It says, “Let all the angels of God worship him.” (Hebrews 1:6), when God brings in the firstborn into the world, the same word as the world to come in 2:5. Restoring the Foundations Article 10 treats this verse in full.

Doesn’t “through whom are all things” in 1 Corinthians 8:6 make Jesus the creator? The same verse first says “one God, the Father, of whom are all things” (1 Corinthians 8:6). Paul gives Jesus a real part in all things, and he also shows how far all things reaches when he speaks of Jesus: “it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him” (1 Corinthians 15:27), and the Son “will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). Our conclusion: the Father is the source of all things, and the Lord Jesus is the one through whom God carries out his purpose, “and we live through him” (1 Corinthians 8:6); Trinitarian readers join the verse to John 1:3, which our Article 1 answers.

Isn’t Jesus “the same yesterday, today, and forever”? Yes (Hebrews 13:8). The verse before speaks of the readers’ leaders, “men who spoke to you the word of God” (Hebrews 13:7). Our conclusion: Hebrews 13:8 speaks of the reliability of the Christ they had been taught, and does not say how far back his existence reaches.

Summary of Tested Claims

1. Yahweh made all things alone and by himself (Isaiah 44:24; Nehemiah 9:6; Malachi 2:10). Explicit.
2. In Hebrews 1:1-2, God speaks, appoints and makes; the Son is the one by and through whom. Explicit.
3. The Son was appointed heir (1:2), became better than the angels and inherited his name (1:4), and is anointed by God, your God (1:9). Explicit.
4. The Son partook of flesh and blood in the same way as the children and was made like his brothers (2:14, 17). Explicit.
5. God built all things (Hebrews 3:4). Explicit.
6. Worlds in 1:2 is tous aiōnas, the ages; Hebrews uses the plural for the ages (9:26) and for the universe framed by God’s word (11:3). Explicit, from the Greek.
7. Psalm 102 is a prayer to Yahweh that looks to Zion restored, a people yet to be created, and heavens that will be changed (102:1, 13, 16, 18, 22, 26). Explicit.
8. Hebrews says it speaks of the world to come (2:5), the same word as 1:6. Explicit; that this governs 1:10-12 is our conclusion.
9. Hebrews says the shaken things are removed so that an unshakable kingdom remains (12:26-28). Explicit.
10. Hebrews applies Psalm 102:25-27 to the Son as the one who remains while the old heavens pass, ruling the world to come. Our conclusion.
11. God made the ages through the Son as their appointed heir; God alone is the maker. Our conclusion.

Verify It Yourself

• Read Hebrews 1:1 to 2:9. Underline every verb whose subject is God.
• Read all of Psalm 102. Mark the verses about the future.
• Read Hebrews 1:8-9 and count who is called God.
• Read Isaiah 44:24 and Hebrews 3:4, and ask who built all things.
• Read Hebrews 12:26-28 beside Hebrews 1:10-12.

Where We Stand

Our conclusions: There is one God, the Father, “of whom are all things” (1 Corinthians 8:6), who made heaven and earth alone (Isaiah 44:24). He has spoken by his Son, the man Jesus, whom he appointed heir, anointed above his fellows, and exalted over the angels and the world to come (Hebrews 1:2, 9; 2:5). Hebrews applies Psalm 102 to the Son as the one who remains while the old heavens pass. Jesus did not personally exist before his conception.

What Scripture does not say: God the Son; that the Son was the first thing God created; that anyone stood beside God as a second creator; that the Son has no God (1:9).

Notes

• Hebrews 1:2: di’ hou kai epoiēsen tous aiōnas (SBLGNT). Westcott-Hort, Tregelles and NA28 read epoiēsen tous aiōnas; Robinson-Pierpont reads tous aiōnas epoiēsen (SBLGNT apparatus). The meaning is the same.
• Hebrews 11:3: katērtisthai tous aiōnas rhēmati theou; 9:26: epi synteleia tōn aiōnōn; 6:5: mellontos aiōnos (SBLGNT).
• Hebrews 1:10: Sy kat’ archas, kyrie, tēn gēn ethemeliōsas (SBLGNT).
• Psalm 101:26 LXX (102:25 English): Swete (BibleHub, numbered verse 25) reads kat’ archas tēn gēn sy, Kyrie, ethemeliōsas; Rahlfs (1935; eliranwong/LXX-Rahlfs-1935) reads kat’ archas sy kyrie tēn gēn ethemeliōsas. Göttingen and individual manuscripts not checked.
• Psalm 101:26 LXX: kat’ archas renders the Hebrew lefanim, formerly, of old (OSHB 102:26). In Rahlfs’ Septuagint (digital text, eliranwong/LXX-Rahlfs-1935) the phrase occurs only here and in Psalm 118:152 (119:152 English), where it renders qedem: “Of old I have known from your testimonies” (Psalm 119:152). Genesis 1:1 in the Septuagint has en archē. In the New Testament kat’ archas occurs only in Hebrews 1:10 (SBLGNT).
• Psalm 102:26 Hebrew (102:25 English): lefanim ha’aretz yasadta (OSHB); no divine name or title in the line.
• Psalm 102:19 Hebrew (102:18 English): ve‘am nivra yehallel-yah, a people created will praise Yah (OSHB).
• Psalm 101:24 LXX (102:23 English): the Greek reads apekrithē autō, he answered him (Swete on BibleHub, numbered verse 23; Rahlfs 101:24), where the Hebrew has innah, he weakened (OSHB 102:24). We rest nothing on it.
• Hebrews 2:5 and 1:6: tēn oikoumenēn tēn mellousan; eis tēn oikoumenēn (SBLGNT).

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