Hebrews 3:3-4

Hebrews 3:3-4. For, &c. The apostle proceeds in this verse, and the three following, with his design of evidencing the excellence of Christ above Moses, as he had done before in reference to angels, and all other revealers of the will of God to the church; the word for denoting the connection of this paragraph with Hebrews 3:1: “Consider him,” says he; for he is worthy of more glory than Moses. The church being called the house of God, and that by God himself, the apostle takes advantage of the metaphor to express the dignity of Christ. He that buildeth the house, &c. The verb κατασκευαζω , here used, and rendered to build, signifies to set things in order, Hebrews 9:6. It likewise signifies to form a thing as an artificer doth; in which sense it is applied to Noah’s forming the ark, Hebrews 11:7. In this passage it signifies the forming a church, or religious society, by bestowing on it privileges, and by giving it laws for the direction of its members. And, as the apostle is speaking of the forming of the Christian Church, his meaning is, that Jesus, who formed the Christian Church, is a more honourable or greater person than all the members of that church collectively; consequently greater than any particular member of it. By making this observation, the apostle intimated that Moses, being a member of the Jewish Church, which he formed as God’s servant, and needing its services and privileges equally with the Israelites, he was not to be compared with Jesus, who by his own authority had erected and supported the church in all ages and places, and had need of none of the privileges or services of the church which he had formed. For every house is builded by some man As the discourse is not concerning a material edifice, but concerning the Jewish and Christian Churches, every house must mean every church or religious society; perhaps also every community, state, or government righteously established, is included in this general expression. But he that built all things Or all these things, as Beza renders the expression, namely, the whole church, and all the persons that belong to it, or the parts of it, in all ages; the expression all things being properly restrained to the subject treated of, and the word used by the apostle to express the building of the house, plainly declaring that it is the same kind of building he is treating of, and not the absolute creation of all things, which is nowhere expressed by that word; is God “The words may be so understood as to signify either that God made or built all these things, or that he who made and built all these things is God; the first sense making God the subject, the latter the predicate of the proposition. But as to our purpose, they amount to the same thing; for if he who made them is God, his making of them declares him to be so. And that it is the Lord Christ who is intended in this expression, will appear immediately; for, 1st, If God absolutely, or God the Father be intended, then by the building of all things, the creation of the world is designed; so they all grant who are of that opinion; but that this is not so, we have already demonstrated from the words themselves. 2d, The introduction of God absolutely, and his building of all things in this place, is no way subservient to the apostle’s purpose; for what light or evidence doth this contribute to his principal assertion, namely, that Christ was more honourable than Moses, and that on account of his building the house of God, the confirmation whereof he doth in these words expressly design? 3d, It is contrary to his purpose. For he doth not prove the Lord Christ to be deservedly preferred before Moses, unless he manifest that by his own power he built the house of God in such a manner as Moses was not employed in; whereas, according to this interpretation, he assigns the principal building of the house to another, even the Father, and so overthrows what he had before asserted. This then is that which by these words the apostle intends to declare; namely, the ground and reason whence it is that the house was or could be in that glorious manner built by Christ, even because he is God, and so able to effect it; and by this effect of his power he is manifested so to be.” Owen.