Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 1:1

"God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners," — Hebrews 1:1 (ASV)

It is significant that the subject of the first verb is “God,” for God is constantly before the author (used sixty-eight times in the letter). Right at the beginning, then, we are confronted with the reality of God and the fact that he has been active. The first divine activity commented on is that God has spoken in a variety of ways. He spoke to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:2ff.), to Elijah in a still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12ff.), to Isaiah in a vision in the temple (Isaiah 6:1ff.), to Hosea in his family circumstances (Hosea 1:2), and to Amos in a basket of summer fruit (Amos 8:1). God at times conveyed his message through visions and dreams, through angels, through Urim and Thummim, through symbols, through natural events, etc. He appeared in various locations, such as Ur of the Chaldees, Haran, Canaan, Egypt, and Babylon. Revelation was never monotonous activity that took place in the same way. God used variety. The revelation the writer is speaking of has its roots deep “in the past” (GK 4093). He is referring to what God did in days of old, in the time of “our forefathers.” This expression is usually translated “fathers” and is normally used in the NT of the patriarchs, but here the contrast to “us” in v.2 shows that the term “forefathers” is a shorthand way of referring to OT believers in general. “Through [lit., in] the prophets” uses the Greek preposition en; this suggests that God was “in” the prophets as his interpreters. They were God’s messengers, inspired by his Spirit. The construction used here is parallel to that in v.2: God was in Christ and before that he was in the prophets, using them as his voice. The “prophets” here probably means more than the canonical prophets and may include people like Abraham.