Hebrews 1:6-8

This is the third post sourced from the translation of the NT into Hebrew in the mid-19th century cantillated by Ezekiel Margoliouth. You can find his text here.

Hebrews 1:6

And further, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he himself says,
And let all the messengers of God worship him.

The music is not unexpected, the revia, telisha-gedola in bar 1 occurs 144 times within verses and 16 of those at or near the beginning of a verse. All the rest of Hebrews 1:6 is without ornament (accent above the text). You can see 7 notes of the scale here. The high C does not occur in this verse. 

You will note two short stroke accents on the last word הָֽאֱלֹהִֽים. Tradition would see the first as a meteg and it would be right. It is acceptable to extend the recitation on the f and delay the move to e until the last syllable. So you may read the score as: הָאֱלֹהִֽים. I know Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura did not follow this practice. She did not distinguish meteg from silluq. I found the move to the emphasized cadence that she uses awkward at first, but I got used to it, thinking it was an archaism in the idea of final cadence.

Having seen how many of these signs have been added over the years of copying, and having removed so many to agree to the earliest copty we have, I have come to think that the use of the tonic mid-verse, or prematurely at the end of a verse is rare. In the Tanach, I was able to compare with an earlier text. In the Hebrew NT, I have only this one copy from the mid 19th century, a time when copies of Tanach like Letteris show metegs in the text multiplying with every generation.

Firstborn is the first hint of resonance with the sacramental system of Tanach. God is bringing this firstborn to the world, in full view of the people and powers of this realm in which we live.

The Greek of the NT uses angels, Margoliouth uses כָּל־מַלְאֲכֵ֥י, which I could render as messengers or angels. The Psalm uses כָּל־אֱלֹהִֽים, all gods. The graven images, including the money worshipped so fully in our age, are commanded to worship.

Angels, like corporations, powers, principalities, and robots, have no feelings, no ability to sense. They are commanded to worship the human firstborn of God. All these things are to be subservient. And those who worship them will be ashamed. The systems that create inequity which we manage, are called into submission to the firstborn, and the oligarchs that fail to care for their fellow beings will be ashamed.

Psalm 97:7

This phrase -- worship him all gods, also occurs in the LXX reading of Deuteronomy 32:43. This is not something I would look for in my translation because I have not compared the Hebrew with the Greek of the Septuagint. They are substantially different versions of Scripture and both are considered authoritative.

I am recognizing that letter perfect, jot and tittle perfect, is not God's way with the word of God. It is vital to see that the letter can kill (in any language) -- because we think we have to be right and we fear we might be wrong. It is the Spirit that gives life, not the letter. The Spirit teaches both seeing and hearing. That is why we must not be senseless. What is authoritative is from the author of life, whatever its provenance.

In this section of Hebrews, we encounter God: in the Greek, in the variant readings of the Septuagint, in the Biblical Hebrew into which Margoliouth has translated the Greek of the NT, and in English too, and in the Music which accompanies the text. In short, don't be concerned about variations in the text and in the traditions. They are a fact of life. Do be concerned with what you read though. Many translations have an axe to grind. What can I say? Referee with kindness. Read the book of Job and think of the tensions already in the Scripture criticising itself. Job is a critique of a rigid view of Torah.

Hebrews 1:7

And faithfully, concerning the messengers, he himself says,

He makes his messengers spirits, and his ministers a blazing fire.

I was struck by the form of the first word וְאָמְנָ֕ם in this verse. The opening of Hebrews does not put down angels, but calls indeed, faithfully, all to worship the Firstborn nevertheless recognizing their glory, their origin from God, and their fiery function. I do see this adverbial form of amn in Tanach, but not with the preceding vav. My SimHebrew algorithm pronounces it with the /o/ vowel.

vaomnm yl-hmlacim hua aomr 

yowh mlaciv rukot umwrtiv aw lohT

וְאָמְנָ֕ם עַל־הַמַּלְאָכִ֖ים ה֣וּא אֹמֵ֑ר

עֹשֶׂ֤ה מַלְאָכָיו֨ רוּח֔וֹת וּמְשָֽׁרְתָ֖יו אֵ֥שׁ לֹהֵֽט

It is interesting to note that the music forms the e-major triad in its opening phrase. This musical motif ties the music to the creation, where it is used in the first verse of Genesis. It also ties it to several other verses that speak to the shaping of the creation of character within us, such as in Leviticus 26:29 noted this month here. When we are being corrected, God is walking with us through difficulties of our own creation. The angels / messengers are made and are active agents, wind (=spirit) and fire. The music rises to the high C in the second part of the verse (bar 5 above). This part is reporting the music of Psalm 104:4:

Psalm 104:4

This music in this verse of Psalm 104 is a proclamatory statement. It begins with the fundamental (tonic) moving to the first natural harmonic of the shofar (dominant) and ends with the same interval in reverse, dominant to tonic, a cadence unique to the poetry books in Tanach (Psalms, Proverbs, and the speeches of Job). I do not expect ever to see such a cadence in the Margoliouth text of the New Testament.

The whole psalm 104 is about creation in all its aspects from our human point of view. It reflects the language of Genesis 1. In the psalm, light is God's garment, clouds are chariots, lions seek their prey, humans labour until evening. 

Who knew that Psalm 104 was quite so suitable for the author of Hebrews to quote when one is introducing the creator to the world? I expect one verse would be sufficient to immediately recall the whole psalm to the first hearers.

Hebrews 1:8

And to the son, Your throne, O God is now and for ever,
the sceptre of equity is the sceptre of your reign.

The music in this section has only one accent above the text. All the rest below the text spell out the melody in successive recitation notes that a cantor can easily learn and read. These signs are very similar to some that have been found in ancient Greek manuscripts. If you are interested in the history of such signs in ancient texts, see this paper by David C. Mitchell from 2017.

There is no explicit vocative in this verse. It could be read as God is your throne. I found this striking but I didn't translate the Hebrew that way in Psalm 45:7. The king in the marriage celebration is never called God, so the Psalm reads without confusion as an implied vocative, O God.

Psalm 2 (see previous post) introduces God’s chosen king as my son in sharp contrast to the rebellious ''kings of the earth". Psalm 45 elevates the royal figure such that the king is addressed with divine titles. Hebrews draws on both psalms to argue that the Firstborn possesses a status and authority no angel shares. 

In these days when equity is questioned, the sceptre of equity should bring us all to our senses, and not to the adulation of the "kings of the earth". We may say there is no king, but our situation shows us that we have not paid attention. The worship of Mammon, the adulation of billionaires is our equivalent of 'boasting in the good for nothing'.