Hebrews 1:4

‘Having become by so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they.’

Furthermore in His exaltation He, as man, ‘has become’ (contrast ‘being’ - Hebrews 1:2) superior to the angelic realm (see Hebrews 2:6-9). He has received superiority (kreitton) in status and power above the angels as a result, being raised far above all (Ephesians 1:19-22), something which will now be shown from Scripture. This was important. The Jews saw the Law as having been ministered by angels (Hebrews 2:2; Galatians 3:19), and as therefore superior. They saw it as something which gave it its supernatural aura (see also Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalms 68:17; Acts 7:53).

This idea of Messiah’s exaltation above the angels is also found in the Rabbinical writings. For example, commenting on Isaiah 52:13, they wrote ‘he shall be exalted beyond Abraham, and extolled beyond Moses, and raised high above the ministering angels’. He was to be supreme.

Angels had an important place among both orthodox (e.g. the Pharisees) and unorthodox (the Essenes, etc.) Jews, as well as in the Gentile world (Colossians 2:18). They were seen as intermediaries and mediators, maintaining the separation of the awesome holiness of God from men. They were those through Whom God acted because He Himself was unapproachable. Others considered that there were hierarchies of them between God as pure spirit, and man as unworthy flesh, a descending order with a gradual lessening of deity as the lower ‘angels’ became less spirit-like. Through them men received ‘knowledge’ about God. Their mediation was seen as essential so that they had even been introduced into the idea of God’s dealings with Moses. In their view it had to be so. Thus the thought that Jesus as the Christ (Messiah) was in direct touch with God and reigned with Him as representative Man was awesome. It was a revelation of the fact that even in His Manhood He was superior to the angels. Who then, the writer will ask, could sensibly and rightly seek to come to God through angels, when a greater than the angels, Who is directly approachable, is here?

That Jesus Christ is already seen in His essential deity to be superior is first confirmed by the fact that the One Who came is called ‘Son’, that is, among other things, the One Who is over the house instead of just being in it (Hebrews 3:6), the One Who has unique rights of intimate relationship. However, the writer now describes Him as also ‘having become so’ in His manhood as a result of inheriting a ‘more excellent’ name. He will then go on to describe other indications of His superiority to the angels from Scripture.

‘Having become.’ Note the contrast with ‘being’ (Hebrews 1:3 a). What is described in Hebrews 1:3 is His essential being, what is described here is what He ‘became’ as man in the purposes of God, ‘so much better than the angels’.

‘As he has inherited (come into possession of) a more excellent name than they.’ And this is because He ‘has inherited’, perfect tense, ‘has inherited and still possesses’, ‘a more excellent name.’ In view of the following quotations where it is continually mentioned, it would appear that that more excellent name is the title ‘Son’. Although it may be that we should not lay the emphasis on a particular name, but on the significance of ‘name’ which indicates status. Thus the more excellent name also has in mind His exaltation in His manhood as ‘Lord and Christ’ (Yahweh and Messiah) which goes with the idea of His sonship (Acts 2:34-36; Philippians 2:9-11 compare Ephesians 2:20-22). For ‘the name’ refers to what a person actually is. As the appointed heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2) He Who was already the outshining of the glory of God has now ‘inherited’ in His manhood that exalted status as the Son, the anointed Christ, the receiving Heir. He receives in practise what was already His.

So in these verses the writer has laid bare the full truth about Jesus Christ; His eternal Being (Hebrews 1:2), His being able fully to reveal the Father (Hebrews 1:2), His being appointed before time began to bring the world to Himself (Hebrews 1:3), His creative and sustaining power and activity (Hebrews 1:3), His becoming man and dying for our sin (Hebrews 1:3), His rising and being exalted in His manhood by taking His seat at ‘at God’s right hand’ (Hebrews 1:3), and His receipt as man of the name of ‘Son’ as both ‘Lord’ (Yahweh) and ‘Christ’ (Messiah) (Hebrews 1:4).