Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 1:6

"And when he again bringeth in the firstborn into the world he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him." — Hebrews 1:6 (ASV)

This verse is the only place in the NT where “firstborn” (GK 4758) is used absolutely of Christ. Elsewhere it is linked with Jesus’ birth , many brothers (Romans 8:29), all creation (Colossians 1:15), or the church (Colossians 1:18; Revelation 1:5), where it represents Christ in his relationship to others and gives the word a social significance. Here, however, it signifies that he has the status with God that a human firstborn son has with his father (cf. reference to “heir” in v.2). Christ is exalted and enthroned as sovereign over the inhabited world, including the angels. The quotation is from the LXX of Dt 32:43; it is absent from our Hebrew text. The LXX reads “sons of God” where this quotation has “God’s angels,” but “angels” occurs later in the verse and again in a similar context in Ps 97:7. “All” shows that this is no small, hole-in-the-corner affair but one in which the worship of all heaven is offered to the Son. The one the angels worship is clearly superior by far to them.