But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. (King James Version)
There are two major versions of verse 8,
1. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God… (King James Version)
2. He says of the Son, ‘God is thy throne… (Mofatt)
Although the said versions are not directly opposing in their meaning but the argument lies as to whom the statement is addressed. Accordingly, the KJV would say that the writer is addressing someone as “God who has a throne” while the Mofatt would say that the writer is telling that the “God is himself the throne”. The argument becomes relevant because this would suggest the alleged deity of Jesus Christ on the basis of being called as “God”.
The Iglesia ni Cristo does not have its own bible version. We will not meddle with the translation.
The Iglesia ni Cristo does not subscribe also to the above premise that Christ is God on the basis that Christ, allegedly is being called as “God”. (On a personal note, I just could not believe that such primary article or doctrine of faith will be based on “who said so”. Our Lord Jesus Christ deserves a formal introduction, so to speak. )
Not taking either side, we have the holy spirit to guide us in understanding this verse. Again, we employ the rule: Compare spiritual things with spiritual.( 1 Cor 2:13)
OUR STAND
The verse Hebrews 1:8 is among the references directly copied from the Old Testament by the writer. As references, we must understand the verses as to how they are used by the writer to support the main point or “thesis” of the chapter.
Before any further discussion, let us clarify what I mean by “REFERENCE”.
For example, the style of this blog is to make references to the verses in the bible. It begins with an assertion, a stand or point. Then, I copied the verses verbatim from the bible to support my claim. I left the understanding to the reader whether my statement are biblical or not. I just intend to use it as my guide.If we go back to the entire Chapter 1 of the book of Hebrews, we observe that nine(9) out of the 14 verses are taken from Old Testament. Six(6) of this nine verses are verbatim REFERENCES including the Hebrews 1:8. The first four verses (Heb 1:1-4) contain the main statement of the chapter while verses 5-13 are supporting verses. The last verse is the transition from chapter 1 to the next chapter.
At times, this blog may also employ “QUOTATION” as oppose to REFERENCING. In “quotation”, the verses are directly used during the course of discussion. I use the same phrasing used by the bible. For instance, we say that
“In order to understand a verse we are comparing spiritual things with spiritual”.
This is a quotation from 1 Cor 2:13.
If I rather choose to make a REFERENCING to this verse, I would say
“In order to understand a verse, we compare it to other verses of the bible. As written in 1 Cor 2:13, thus, Which things also we…..”
The main statements of chapter 1 are
1) God has spoken through prophets in the past but now through His Son (Jesus Christ).
2) God appointed Christ as heir of the universe and through Christ, God made the worlds.
3) Glorious Jesus Christ is sitting on the right hand of Majesty.
4) Christ is much better than angels because Christ inherited a NAME that is superior to those of the angels.
The supporting verses from Old Testaments cited in verses 5-13 are as follows:
1. Psalm 2:7, Psalm 89:26,27 for verse 5
2. Psalm 104:4 for verse 7
3. Psalm 45:6-7 for verses 8-9
4. Psalm 102:25-27 for verses 10-12
5. Psalm 110:1 for verse 13
The supporting verses are copied from Old Testament verbatim and pasted in series with conjunctions such as “but to son he say..”, “and of the angels he said”, “and” etc.
Had the book of Hebrews written in a formatted layout and not in a paragraph form, the whole chapter 1 of the book should only contain 5 verses with footnotes as REFERENCE.
As REFERENCES, we should look into each verse and find out how these supporting verses are connected to the main statements of chapter 1.
1. Verses Psalm 2:7, 89:26-27 support the first statement that Christ is the Son of God.
2. Psalm 104:4 supports the 4th statement. Angels are ministering spirits for the heir of salvation.
3. Psalm 45:6-7 support 2nd statement. Christ is anointed by God. The throne of God is forever. This supports 3rd statement since Christ sits on the right hand of God or throne of God (Heb 8:1)
4. Psalm 102:25-27 support 2nd statement. God created the world. He doesn’t not change.
5. Psalm 110:1 supports 3rd statement. Christ is sitting on the right hand of God.
The verses of Hebrew 1:8 and verse 9 were taken together from same part of the book of Psalm. The verses from 10 to 12 were taken from different chapter of the book of Psalm. This discontinuity suggests that Hebrews 1:10-12 is not anymore related in sense to Hebrews 1:8-9.
Now that we know that Hebrews 1:8-9 is copied from Psalm 45:6-7, our next step is to determine how these verses are used as references to the Son( But unto the son he saith…). We need to know who spoke the said verses in Psalm.
If we inspect all supporting verses taken from Psalm, we note that the above-mentioned five (5) references have different point of views. Reference #1 is spoken by God Himself as quoted by the writer of the PSALM. Reference #2 is spoken by the writer of Psalm while praising God. Reference #3 which is part of Psalm Chapter 45, is spoken by writer of PSALM addressed to a King and to a daughter. Reference #4 is spoken by the writer of PSALM while praying to God. Reference #5 is spoken by third person which is David talking about his Lord speaking to a Lord.
Who spoke the Psalm 45:6-7? Who said about the Son?
The verses are,
“Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.
Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”(Psalm 45:6-7)
The entire chapter 45 of Psalm is spoken by the author for a king (Psalm 45:1) and also to a daughter (verse 10). It is NOT the God who spoke these verses. If we read the entire Chapter 1 of book of Hebrews as one whole article, the pronoun “he” in the phrases “And of the angels he saith..(v.7”) and “But unto the Son he saith..(v.8)” appears to be spoken by God. The two should not contradict one another. Therefore, this validates our point that the supporting verses (Hebrews 1:5-13) are appended as REFERENCES.
As REFERENCE, it is not of primary importance who and for whom the verse was spoken. It is the content of the verse that matters. For instance, if we quote inspirational verses from the bible, it doesn’t matter anyhow if the verse was spoken by God, by prophets, by Jesus, by apostles for anyone like Israel, to brethren, to loved ones etc. Likewise, if the verses from Psalm are used as references, the author of the book of Hebrews doesn’t take into account whose point of view is the Psalm 45:6-7 and for whom it was uttered.
A GOD OF A GOD?
If we inspect Psalm 45:6-7, it appears that someone being called as God has a God. This is true if we are reading a continuous and coherent statement. However, the book of PSALM is a POETRY. In Poetry the point of view is very dynamic. Consider this verse
“Thy God hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.” (Psalm 68:28)
To whom this verse is talking to?
Is there a passage in the book of Psalm where a verse is addressing to God yet the following or even the preceding verse is not directed to God? YES. Lots of them.
Example:
“Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.” (Psalm 116:7-8)
The first sentence (or line of a song) is addressing to his soul yet the following line addresses to the LORD.
There is even a single verse in Psalm where it addresses to two beings. Consider Psalm 104:1,
“Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.”
This verse has two(2) second person point of view: o my soul and o Lord my God.
Therefore grammatical continuity of reference point of view is NOT consistent and coherent in the book of PSALM. However, this inherent property, similar to that of other poetry should not in any way set against our understanding of the book.
Thus, Hebrew 1:8( or Psalm 45:6) is addressing to God having a throne that is forever while Hebrew 1:9 (or Psalm 45:7) is talking to the anointed one who has a God. The conjunction “But unto the son he saith” of Hebrew 1:8 applies to Hebrew 1:8-9 which is taken from the same chapter of book of Psalm. Moreover, Hebrew 1:10-12 verses were taken from separate chapters of the book of Psalm. As references, these verses are not in any way connected to Hebrew 1:8-9.
The subsequent questions now are: Why does the writer of the Book of Hebrews use the two verses from Psalm as references to the Son? What does the “throne of God” associate with the Son? The answer can be found in Hebrews 12:2, saying
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Christ is the heir of all things. It might as well proper for the author of the book of Hebrews to describe the throne of God of which Christ would sit into. (Acts 2:30)
