Better Than the Angels

But it is written, they say, in Proverbs, “The Lord created me the beginning of his ways, for his works”; and in the letter to the Hebrews the apostle says, “Having been made so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they.” And soon after, “Therefore, holy brothers, sharers in the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him who made him.” And in the Acts, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made that same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” They brought these passages forward at every turn, mistaking their sense, in the belief that they proved the Word of God to be a creature, a work, and one of the originated things. In this way they deceive the thoughtless. They make the language of Scripture their pretext, but in place of its true sense they sow on it the poison of their own heresy. For if they had known, they would not have committed impiety against ‘the Lord of glory,’ nor twisted the good words of Scripture. [a]

If, then, from now on they have openly taken up the way of Caiaphas and made up their minds to think as the Jews do, and know nothing of the text that says God will indeed dwell on the earth, let them not go searching into the apostles’ sayings; for that is not the way of Jews. But if they have joined themselves to the godless Manichaeans, and deny that ‘the Word became flesh’ and deny his presence in the flesh, then let them not bring forward Proverbs, for that is out of place among the Manichaeans. But if, for the sake of promotion, and the greedy gain that comes with it, and the wish for a good name, they do not venture to deny the text ‘The Word became flesh,’ since it is written, then let them either interpret the words of Scripture rightly, as speaking of the Savior’s presence in the body, or, if they deny that sense, let them deny that the Lord became man at all. For it is unseemly to confess that ‘the Word became flesh,’ and yet to be ashamed of what is written about him, and on that account to corrupt its sense.

For it is written, ‘So much better than the angels.’ Let us examine this first. Now it is right and necessary, here as in all divine Scripture, to set out faithfully the time of which the apostle wrote, and the person, and the subject. Otherwise the reader, through ignorance, may miss these or some other such point and fall wide of the true sense. The eunuch who was inquiring understood this when he begged Philip, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself, or of some other man?” For he was afraid that, by applying the passage to the wrong person, he would stray from the right sense. And the disciples, wishing to learn the time of what was foretold, begged the Lord, “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things be? And what is the sign of your coming?” Again, when they heard from the Savior what would happen at the end, they wanted to learn its time, so that they might be kept from error themselves and be able to teach others. So, for instance, once they had learned it, they set right the Thessalonians, who were going astray. When a person knows these points properly, his understanding of the faith is right and healthy; but if he mistakes any of them, he falls into heresy at once. So Hymenaeus and Alexander and their companions mistook the time when they said that the resurrection had already happened; and the Galatians came after the time, in making much of circumcision now. To mistake the person was the lot of the Jews, and still is. They think that it is said of one of themselves, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call his Name Emmanuel, which means, God with us”; and that “The Lord your God will raise up a prophet for you” is spoken of one of the prophets. And as for the words “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter,” instead of learning from Philip, they guess that they were spoken of Isaiah or of some other of the earlier prophets. [e]

This is the state of mind in which Christ’s enemies have fallen into their detestable heresy. For if they had known the person, and the subject, and the time of the apostle’s words, they would not have explained of Christ’s divinity what belongs to his humanity, nor in their folly have committed so great an impiety. This will be readily seen if one explains properly the beginning of this passage. For the apostle says, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son”; and again, shortly after, he says, “When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they.” It appears, then, that the apostle’s words refer to that time when God spoke to us by his Son, and when a purging of sins took place. Now when did he speak to us by his Son, and when did the purging of sins take place? And when did he become man? When, if not after the prophets, in the last days? [g]

Next, as he goes on with his account of the plan of salvation that concerned us, and speaks of the last times, he is naturally led to observe that not even in former times was God silent toward men, but spoke to them by the prophets. And since the prophets served, and the Law was spoken by angels, while the Son too came on earth, and came in order to serve, he was obliged to add, ‘Having become so much better than the angels.’ He wished to show that as much as the son excels a servant, so much is the ministry of the Son better than the ministry of servants. Contrasting, then, the old ministry and the new, the apostle speaks freely to the Jews, writing, ‘Having become so much better than the angels.’ This is why he uses no comparison throughout, such as ‘become greater’ or ‘more honorable,’ so that we should not think of him and them as one in kind. ‘Better’ is his word, to mark the difference of the Son’s nature from originated things. And we have proof of this from divine Scripture. David, for instance, says in the Psalm, “One day in your courts is better than a thousand”; and Solomon cries out, “Receive my instruction and not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared with it.” Are not wisdom and stones of the earth different in substance and separate in nature? Are heavenly courts in any way akin to earthly houses? Or is there any likeness between things eternal and spiritual and things temporal and mortal? And this is what Isaiah says: “Thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant: even to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.” In the same way there is nothing akin between the Son and the angels, so that the word ‘better’ is used not to compare but to contrast, because his nature differs from theirs. And so the apostle himself, when he explains the word ‘better,’ puts its force in nothing less than the Son’s excellence over originated things. He calls the one Son, and the others servants: the one, as a Son with the Father, sits at the right hand; and the others, as servants, stand before him, and are sent, and carry out their tasks.

In speaking this way, you Arians, Scripture implies not that the Son is originated, but rather that he is other than originated things, and the Father’s own, being in his bosom. Nor does even the expression ‘become,’ which occurs here, show that the Son is originated, as you suppose. If it were simply ‘become’ and nothing more, the Arians might have a case. But they are forestalled by the word ‘Son’ throughout the passage, which shows that he is other than originated things; and in the same way the word ‘become’ does not stand on its own, but ‘better’ is added immediately after it. For the writer thought the expression made no difference. He knew that, in the case of one who was confessedly a genuine Son, to say ‘become’ is the same as saying that he had been made, and is, ‘better.’ For it does not matter if we speak of what is begotten as having ‘become’ or been ‘made.’ But on the other hand, originated things, being God’s handiwork, cannot be called begotten, except in so far as, after they were made, they share in the begotten Son, and for that reason are said to have been begotten too. This is not at all by their own nature, but because they share in the Son in the Spirit. Divine Scripture recognizes this too. For in the case of originated things it says, “All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be,” and, “In wisdom you have made them all.” But in the case of sons, who are begotten, it says, “To Job there came to be seven sons and three daughters,” and, “Abraham was a hundred years old when there came to be to him Isaac his son”; and Moses said, “If to anyone there come to be sons.” Therefore, since the Son is other than originated things, and alone the Father’s own offspring from his substance, this plea of the Arians about the word ‘become’ is worth nothing. [i]

If, moreover, baffled so far, they still insist violently that the language is that of comparison, and that comparison therefore implies oneness of kind, so that the Son is of the nature of angels, then first of all they will bring on themselves the disgrace of rivaling and repeating what Valentinus held, and Carpocrates, and those other heretics. Of these, Valentinus said that the angels were one in kind with the Christ, and Carpocrates that angels are the makers of the world. Perhaps it is under the teaching of these masters that they compare the Word of God with the angels.

Surely, in the middle of such speculations, they will be moved by the sacred poet, who says, “Who is he among the gods who shall be like the Lord?” and, “Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord.” Still, they must be answered, in the hope that they may profit by it. Comparison, as everyone admits, belongs to things that are one in kind, not to things that differ. No one, for instance, would compare God with man, or again man with animals, or wood with stone, because their natures are unlike. God is beyond comparison; but man is compared with man, and wood with wood, and stone with stone. In such cases we would not speak of ‘better,’ but of ‘rather’ and ‘more.’ So Joseph was more handsome than his brothers, and Rachel more beautiful than Leah; and one star is not better than another star, but rather excels it in glory. But when we bring together things that differ in kind, then ‘better’ is used to mark the difference, as has been said in the case of wisdom and jewels. If, then, the apostle had said, ‘By so much has the Son precedence over the angels,’ or ‘by so much greater,’ you would have had a plea, as though the Son were compared with the angels. But as it is, by saying that he is ‘better,’ and differs as far as a Son differs from servants, the apostle shows that he is other than the angels in nature. [l]

Moreover, by saying that it is he who has ‘laid the foundation of all things,’ he shows that he is other than all originated things. But if he is other than their nature and different from it in substance, what comparison of his substance with them can there be, or what likeness to them? And even if they have any such thoughts, Paul will refute them, for he speaks to this very point: “For to which of the angels did he ever say, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’? And of the angels he says, ‘Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.’”

Notice here that the word ‘made’ belongs to originated things, and he calls them things made. But to the Son he speaks not of making, nor of becoming, but of eternity, and kingship, and the office of Framer, exclaiming, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever”; and, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you remain.” From these words even they, if only they were willing, might see that the Framer is other than the things framed: the one is God, the others are originated things, made out of nothing. For what has been said, ‘They will perish,’ is said not as though the creation were destined for destruction, but to express the nature of originated things by the end toward which they tend. For things that are capable of perishing, even if through the grace of their Maker they do not perish, have still come out of nothing, and themselves bear witness that once they were not. And because their nature is such, it is said of the Son, ‘You remain,’ to show his eternity. For he does not have the capacity of perishing, as originated things have, but has eternal duration. So it is foreign to him to have it said, ‘He was not before he was begotten’; it belongs to him to be always, and to endure together with the Father. [m]

Even if the apostle had not written this way in his letter to the Hebrews, his other letters, and the whole of Scripture, would certainly forbid them to entertain such notions about the Word. But he has expressly written it here. And, as has been shown above, the Son is the Offspring of the Father’s substance; he is the Framer, and other things are framed by him; he is the Radiance and Word and Image and Wisdom of the Father; and originated things stand and serve in their place below the Triad. Therefore the Son is different in kind and different in substance from originated things. On the contrary, he belongs to the Father’s substance as its own, and is one in nature with it. That is why the Son too does not say, ‘My Father is better than I,’ so that we should not think him foreign to the Father’s nature, but ‘greater.’ He is greater not in size, nor in time, but because the Son is begotten from the Father himself. Indeed, in saying ‘greater’ he shows again that he belongs to the Father’s substance as its own.

The apostle’s own reason for saying ‘so much better than the angels’ was not, in the first place, any wish to compare the substance of the Word with originated things. He cannot be compared with them; rather, they cannot be measured against him. But he had in view the Word’s coming to dwell in the flesh, and the plan of salvation he then carried out, and he wished to show that he was not like those who had gone before him. So, as much as he excelled in nature those who had been sent ahead by him, by so much was the grace that came from him and through him better than the ministry through angels. For it is the task of servants to demand the fruits and no more; but it belongs to the Son and Master to forgive the debts and to transfer the vineyard. [p]

Certainly what the apostle goes on to say shows the excellence of the Son over originated things: “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest attention to the things we have heard, so that we do not at any time let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels stood firm, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard him.” But if the Son were one of the originated things, he would not be better than they, nor would disobedience bring an increase of punishment because of him. In the ministry of angels, after all, the guilt of transgressors was not greater or less according to each angel; the Law was one, and its punishment of transgressors was one. But since the Word is not one of the originated things, but is the Son of the Father, therefore, as he himself is better, and his acts are better and surpassing, so too the punishment is worse. Let them consider, then, the grace that is through the Son, and let them acknowledge the witness he gives even from his works, that he is other than originated things, and alone the true Son in the Father, and the Father in him.

The Law was spoken by angels and made no one perfect, since it needed the coming of the Word, as Paul has said; but that coming has made perfect the work of the Father. Then, from Adam to Moses, death reigned; but the presence of the Word has abolished death. No longer are we all dying in Adam; in Christ we are all coming to life again. Then, the Law was proclaimed from Dan to Beersheba, and God was known in Judea only; but now their voice has gone out to all the earth, and the whole earth has been filled with the knowledge of God, and the disciples have made disciples of all the nations, and now what is written is fulfilled: “They shall all be taught by God.” Then, what was revealed was only a type; but now the truth has been made known. The apostle himself describes this again more clearly later on, saying, “By so much has Jesus been made the guarantor of a better covenant”; and again, “But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is also the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises”; and, “For the Law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did.” And again he says, “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.” So both in the verse before us and throughout, he gives the word ‘better’ to the Lord, who is better than originated things and other than they. For the sacrifice through him is better, the hope in him is better, and so are the promises through him. They are better not merely as great compared with small, but as differing from the others in nature, because he who carries out this plan of salvation is ‘better’ than originated things.

Moreover, the words ‘He has become guarantor’ refer to the pledge he has provided on our behalf. For as, being the ‘Word,’ he ‘became flesh,’ and we ascribe the ‘became’ to the flesh, since it is originated and created, so we take the expression ‘He has become’ here too, explaining it in a second sense: that is, because he has become man. And let these quarrelsome men know that they fail in this perverse purpose of theirs. Let them know that Paul does not mean that his substance has come into being, since he knew that he is the Son, and Wisdom, and Radiance, and Image of the Father. Here too he refers the word ‘become’ to the ministry of that covenant, in which death, which once ruled, is abolished. For here also the ministry through him has become better, in that “what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” He rid the flesh of the trespass in which it had been held captive continually, and in which it did not admit the divine mind. And having made the flesh capable of receiving the Word, he made us walk no longer according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, and say again and again, “But we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,” and, “For the Son of God came into the world not to judge the world, but to redeem all men, and that the world might be saved through him.” Formerly the world, being guilty, was under judgment from the Law; but now the Word has taken the judgment on himself, and having suffered in the body for all, has bestowed salvation on all. With this in view John exclaimed, “The Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Grace is better than the Law, and truth than the shadow. [t]

‘Better,’ then, as has been said, could not have been brought about by anyone other than the Son, who sits at the right hand of the Father. And what does this mean but that the Son is genuine, and that the Godhead of the Father is the same as the Son’s? For since the Son reigns in his Father’s kingdom, is seated on the same throne as the Father, and is contemplated in the Father’s Godhead, therefore the Word is God, and whoever sees the Son sees the Father; and so there is one God. So, though he sits on the right, he does not put his Father on the left. Rather, whatever is right and precious in the Father, the Son has too, and he says, “All things that the Father has are mine.” That is why the Son, though he sits on the right, also sees the Father on the right, even though it is as having become man that he says, “I saw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, so that I shall not fall.” This shows, moreover, that the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son. For when the Father is on the right, the Son is on the right; and while the Son sits at the right of the Father, the Father is in the Son. The angels serve, going up and coming down; but of the Son he says, “And let all the angels of God worship him.” When angels serve, they say, “I have been sent to you,” and, “The Lord has commanded.” But the Son, though in human fashion he says, “I have been sent,” and comes to finish the work and to serve, nevertheless says, as being the Word and Image, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me,” and, “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” and, “The Father who abides in me does the works.” For what we see in that Image are the Father’s works. [v]

What has been said already ought to shame those who are fighting against the truth itself. However, if, because it is written ‘having become better,’ they refuse to understand ‘become,’ used of the Son, as meaning ‘has been and is,’ or else as referring to the better covenant that has come into being, as we have said, and instead conclude from this expression that the Word is called originated, then let them hear the same again in brief, since they have forgotten what has been said.

If the Son is one of the angels, then let the word ‘become’ apply to him as it does to them, and let him not differ from them at all in nature. Either let them be sons with him, or let him be an angel with them; either let them all sit together at the right hand of the Father, or let the Son stand with them all as a ministering spirit, sent out to serve as they are. But if, on the other hand, Paul distinguishes the Son from originated things, saying, “To which of the angels did he ever say, ‘You are my Son’?”; and if the one frames heaven and earth, while they are made by him; and if he sits with the Father, while they stand by and serve, then who does not see that he has not used the word ‘become’ of the substance of the Word, but of the ministry that came through him? For as, being the ‘Word,’ he ‘became flesh,’ so, once he had become man, he became so much better in his ministry than the ministry that came through the angels, as a Son excels servants, and a Framer the things he framed. So let them stop taking the word ‘become’ of the substance of the Son, for he is not one of the originated things; and let them acknowledge that it points to his ministry and to the plan of salvation that was carried out. [x]

How he became better in his ministry, being better in nature than originated things, is plain from what has been said already, and that, I think, is enough in itself to put them to shame. But if they keep up the contest, it will be right to close with them in their reckless daring, and to set against them similar expressions that are used about the Father himself. This may shame them into keeping their tongue from evil, or may teach them the depth of their folly. Now it is written, “Become my strong rock and house of defense, that you may save me.” And again, “The Lord became a defense for the oppressed,” and other such passages found in divine Scripture. If, then, they apply these passages to the Son, which is perhaps nearest to the truth, let them acknowledge that the sacred writers ask him, as one who is not originated, to become to them ‘a strong rock and house of defense.’ And from now on let them understand ‘become,’ and ‘he made,’ and ‘he created,’ of his presence in the flesh. For it was then that he became ‘a strong rock and house of defense,’ when he bore our sins in his own body on the tree, and said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

But if they refer these passages to the Father, will they go so far, since here too it is written ‘Become’ and ‘He became,’ as to declare that God is originated? Yes, they will dare to, since they argue this way about his Word; for the course of their argument carries them on to imagine about the Father the same things they invent about his Word. But far be such a notion from the thoughts of all the faithful! For neither is the Son one of the originated things, nor do the words of Scripture in question, ‘Become’ and ‘He became,’ mean a beginning of being. They mean the help that was given to the needy. For God always is, and is one and the same; but men came into being afterward through the Word, when the Father himself willed it. And God is invisible and inaccessible to originated things, and especially to men on earth. So when men in weakness call on him, when they ask for help in persecution, when they pray under injuries, then the Invisible One, being a lover of mankind, shines on them with his kindness, which he exercises through and in his own Word. And at once the divine manifestation comes to each according to his need: to the weak it comes as health, and to the persecuted as a ‘refuge’ and ‘house of defense’; and to the injured he says, “While you are speaking, I will say, Here I am.” [y]

Whatever protection, then, comes to each person through the Son, each says that God has become this to him, since the help comes from God himself through the Word. Human usage, too, recognizes this, and everyone will admit that it is fitting. Help often comes from one man to another. One has taken on hard labor for the injured, as Abraham did for Lot; another has opened his home to the persecuted, as Obadiah did to the sons of the prophets; another has entertained a stranger, as Lot did the angels; and another has supplied the needy, as Job did those who begged from him. Then, if one and another of those who were helped should say, ‘So-and-so became a help to me,’ and another, ‘And to me a refuge,’ and another, ‘And to me a provider,’ in saying so they would not be speaking of the original coming into being of their benefactors, or of their substance, but of the kindness that came to themselves from them. So too, when the saints say of God, ‘He became’ and ‘Become,’ they do not mean any original coming into being, for God is without beginning and unoriginate. They mean the salvation that comes to be for men from him.

Since this is how it is understood, it follows in the same way for the Son that whatever is said of him, and however often, such as ‘He became’ and ‘Become,’ should always have the same sense. So, when we hear the words in question, ‘having become better than the angels’ and ‘He became,’ we should not conceive of any original coming into being of the Word, nor imagine in any way from such terms that he is originated. We should understand Paul’s words of his ministry and of the plan of salvation, when he became man. For when ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,’ and came to serve and to grant salvation to all, then he became salvation to us, and became life, and became propitiation. Then his plan of salvation on our behalf became much better than the angels, and he became the Way and became the Resurrection. And as the words ‘Become my strong rock’ do not mean that the substance of God himself came into being, but his loving-kindness, as has been said, so also here ‘having become better than the angels,’ and ‘He became,’ and ‘By so much has Jesus become the guarantor of a better covenant’ do not mean that the substance of the Word is originated (perish the thought!), but the kindness that came to be toward us through his becoming man, however ungrateful the heretics may be, and however obstinate in defense of their impiety. [z]