Thomas Aquinas Commentary Hebrews 1:8-9

"but of the Son [he saith,] Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; And the sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee With the oil of gladness above thy fellows." — Hebrews 1:8-9 (ASV)

Having proved by scriptural authority that the angels are spirits, the Apostle now offers a proof drawn from Christ himself. Here, he intends to prove Christ’s royal dignity. He does this by first commending that dignity, and secondly, by showing Christ’s fitness for it, as mentioned in the second part of verse 9. Regarding the first point, he commends Christ's royal dignity by addressing three aspects:

1. Christ’s royal dignity itself.
2. The equity of His rule (verse 8b).
3. The goodness of His rule (verse 9a).

He says, therefore, But of the Son he says: Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. These are the words of the Father, speaking through the tongue of a prophet as if through a writer’s pen. He says, in effect, “O God the Son, your throne is forever and ever.” This denotes His royal majesty, for a throne is the king’s seat, a chair is the seat of a teacher, and a tribunal is the seat of a judge. All of these belong to Christ.

He is our king, as it is written, He will reign in the house of Jacob (Luke 1:32), and therefore deserves a throne: His throne is as the sun (Psalms 88:38). He is a teacher and therefore requires a chair: We know that you have been sent as a teacher from God (John 3:2). He is also our judge: The Lord, our judge, the Lord our lawgiver (Isaiah 33:22). Therefore, He deserves a tribunal: All of us must be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10).

The throne belongs to Him according to His divine nature, insofar as He is God: The king of the whole earth is God (Psalms 46:8). But as man, it belongs to Him as a result of His Passion, victory, and resurrection: To him who overcomes I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I also have overcome and have sat down with my Father on His throne (Revelation 3:21). This throne is eternal: And of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:33); His power is an eternal power, which will not be taken away (Daniel 7:14).

This kingdom is clearly eternal and belongs to Him because He is God: Your kingdom is a kingdom of all ages (Psalms 144:13). It also belongs to Him as man for two reasons. First, His kingdom is not directed toward temporal affairs, but to eternal ones: My kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). For He reigns in order to direct people to eternal life. This is not so for human kingdoms; therefore, their kingdoms end with this present life. The second reason is that the Church, which is His kingdom, will last until the end of the world, when Christ will deliver the kingdom to God the Father to be brought to its consummation and perfection.

Next, he commends His kingdom for its equity when he says, a righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. This kingdom is appropriately described by the scepter. A tyrannical kingdom differs from that of a king because the former exists for the tyrant’s benefit, causing great harm to the subjects, whereas a kingdom is specifically ordered to the benefit of its subjects. As a result, the king is a father and shepherd. A shepherd corrects not with a sword, but with a scepter: I will visit their iniquities with a rod (Psalms 88:33). Furthermore, a shepherd uses a rod to direct his flock: Feed your people with your rod (Micah 7:14). A rod sustains the weak: your rod and your staff have strengthened me (Psalms 22:2). It also strikes the enemy: A scepter will spring up from Israel and will strike the chiefs of Moab (Numbers 24:17).

This is the scepter of justice: He will reprove with equity for the meek of the earth (Isaiah 11:4). It should be noted that sometimes a person rules according to the strictness of the law, observing things that are just in and of themselves. However, something may be just in itself, but if observed in a particular situation, it causes suffering. In such cases, it is necessary to apply the law with discretion; when this is done, there is a rule of equity. The kingdom of the Old Testament was ruled according to the strictness of justice: A yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear (Acts 15:10). But the kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of equity and justice, because in it, only a gentle observance is required: My yoke is sweet and my burden is light (Matthew 11:30); He will judge the world with justice (Psalms 95:13).

Then, in verse 9, he commends the goodness of the ruler. Some observe equity not for the love of justice but from fear or for glory, and such a kingdom does not last. But Christ observes equity for the love of justice. He says, therefore, You have loved justice. It is as if to say: Your scepter is just because you have loved justice. Love justice, you who judge the earth . One who does not love justice is not just: Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice (Matthew 5:6). Yet some love justice but are lax in correcting injustice. However, Christ hates injustice, that is, he reproves it: I have hated the unjust (Psalms 118:113). Similarly, He hates the wicked and his wickedness: The Most High hates sinners, and has mercy on the penitent . Therefore, he says, you have hated iniquity.

Then, in the second part of verse 9, he shows Christ’s fitness to accomplish and govern. But a question arises concerning the statement, Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you. These words speak of a spiritual anointing, by which Christ is filled with the Holy Spirit. But is He filled in this way because He loved justice? If so, then He merited grace. But this is contrary to Romans 11:6: If it is from works, it is no longer from grace. This is a general principle, because Christ in His conception was filled with the Holy Spirit: full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Therefore, He did not merit it.

Here one must avoid the error of Origen. He held that all spiritual creatures, and even the soul of Christ, were created from the beginning, and that a distinction was made among them according to how they clung to God more or less in the freedom of their judgment. In his work On First Principles, he says that the soul of Christ merited a greater fullness of grace than other spiritual substances because it adhered more strongly to God by loving justice and hating iniquity. But it is heretical to say that any soul, even the soul of Christ, was created before its body. This is especially true of Christ, because His soul was created and His body formed in the same instant, and this whole—soul and body—was assumed by the Son of God.

Why, then, does the text say, therefore? One commentary seems to agree with Origen. But if we are to interpret this commentary charitably, we must say that in Scripture something is said to “come to be” when it is being made known. For example, it is stated in Philippians 2:8: He was made obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. Did Christ, then, merit to be God through His Passion? Not at all, for this is the error of Photinus. Therefore, it should be said that Christ, being God, exceeds all merit; but by His Passion He merited to be revealed everywhere as God, and that God gave Him a name that would be above every name. So, when the text says, therefore, God has anointed you, it means: Since you have loved justice, you deserve to have this matter known.

Or, another and better way, the word “therefore” does not refer to a cause of merit, but to a final cause. It is as if to say: So that you might have these things—namely, a perpetual throne, a scepter of justice, and the other things mentioned—God has anointed you with the oil of holiness. The Lord commanded this to be done when the vessels and priests were anointed, as well as the kings, as is clear in regard to Solomon and the prophets, namely, Elisha.

But why was that sanctification brought about by anointing? There is a literal reason. Men in eastern lands were anointed before celebrations to prevent exhaustion, because they live in a very warm climate. But even poor people were anointed at festivities: I, your servant, have nothing in my house but a little oil to anoint myself (1 Kings 4:2). In Scripture, men were anointed for the celebration of a feast or for a celebrated person. To show Christ’s excellence, he says that He was anointed with the oil of gladness. For He is a king: Behold, the king will reign in justice (Isaiah 32:1); For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, and he will save us (Isaiah 33:32). He is also a priest: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Psalms 109:4). He was also a prophet: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your nation and from your brothers (Deuteronomy 18:15).

It is also fitting for Him to be anointed with the oil of holiness and gladness, for the sacraments, which are vessels of grace, were instituted by Him: And they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, vessels of every kind (Isaiah 22:24). This anointing also befits Christians, for they are kings and priests: You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9); You have made us a kingdom and priests for our God (Revelation 3:10). Furthermore, He has the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of prophecy: I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy (Joel 2:28). Therefore, all are anointed with an invisible anointing: Now he who has confirmed us with you in Christ and who has anointed us is God, who has also sealed us and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts (2 Corinthians 1:21); But you have an anointing from the Holy One and know all things (1 John 2:20).

But what comparison is there between the anointed Christ and anointed Christians? The comparison is this: He has it first and foremost, while we and others receive it from Him: Like the precious ointment on the head that ran down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron (Psalms 132:2). And, therefore, he says, above your companions: Of his fullness we have all received (John 1:16). Hence, others are called holy, but He is the Holy of Holies, for He is the root of all holiness. He says, with the oil of gladness, because spiritual gladness proceeds from that anointing: The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17); The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace... (Galatians 5:22); That he may make the face cheerful with oil (Psalms 103:15); The oil of joy for mourning (Isaiah 61:3).

The phrase, God, your God, is explained in two ways. One way is to see it as a repetition in the nominative case. It is as if to say: God has anointed you with God Himself, while we are anointed through you, the mediator between God and men, the man Christ: By whom he has given us most gracious promises (2 Peter 1:4). Another way, according to Augustine, is that one “God” is in the nominative case and the other is in the vocative case. It is as if to say: O God, who are God the Son, God the Father has anointed you with the oil of gladness.

But since Christ was not anointed as God (for as God, it is not fitting for Him to receive the Holy Spirit, but rather to give Him), the second explanation does not seem to be true. I answer that He is the same person, both God and man, but He was anointed as man. And when it is said, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness, it refers to the one person of Christ. The one who is anointed is God and man, and this anointing applies to Him as man, who is one and the same person with God.