Religion

&Theology
Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333 brill.nl/rt

Pre-existence, Naming, and Investiture in the

Similitudes of Enoch and in Hebrews

Robert G. Hall
Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney, VA 23943, USA
bhall@hsc.edu

Abstract
Understanding longings of readers of Wisdom, Philo, and the Similitudes of Enoch, can clarify
how to respond to a classic conundrum in Hebrews: how can Hebrews conceive God requiting
Jesus loud cries and tears (Heb 5:7) by instating him as pre-existent divine Son through whom
God created the world? Such readers long to conform to what God knows them to be. Hebrews
interprets Psalms to assuage this longing, revealing the Son conformed to Gods knowledge and
themselves following their forerunner to perfection.

Keywords
Hebrews 1:114, 1 Enoch 71, Wisdom, Pre-Creation, Heavenly Throne, Psalms in Early
Christianity

1. Introduction

Hebrews communicates by resonation with its readers. Readers understand

Hebrews by resonating with it and responding as it wishes or dierently by
refusing to respond. Since authors strive for resonance with the readers they
expect, those most attuned to the reverberations their authors hear will be
most responsive. Therefore, readers of Hebrews can heighten their responsive-
ness by tuning to echoes surviving from Hebrews milieu.
In his rhetorical dialects or rhetorolects1 Vernon Robbins postulates a
series of listening posts for distinguishing reverberations around early Chris-
tian writings. His pre-creational rhetorolect listens to claims to pre-existence.
This paper will listen for pre-creational intonations like those Hebrews
author and rst readers heard and will then amplify them. Hopefully those
who hear and learn to resonate can respond more fully as Hebrews wishes.

1
Vernon Robbins coined this suggestive phrase. I will use his pre-creational rhetorical
dialect and pre-creational discourse as equivalent to his pre-creation rhetorolect.
Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2012 DOI: 10.1163/157430111X631007
312 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333

This paper will rst recollect a puzzle: How can God requite Jesus desperate
cries and tears (Heb 5:7) by instating him as divine Son through whom he
created the world (Heb 1:23)? Next it will gather pre-creational reverbera-
tions within the Hebrew Scriptures clearly formative for the cluster of pre-
creational ancient Jewish writings among which Hebrews belongs. Then it
will amplify pre-creational resonances in some of these writings: Wisdom of
Solomon, works of Philo, Similitudes of Enoch. Finally, with newly tuned ears,
it will listen to Hebrews pre-creational readings of Psalms 45, 102, and 110.

2. A Puzzle

Hebrews twice speaks of the Son as creator (Heb 1:2, 10):2 God appoints as
heir of all things a Son through whom he made the ages (Heb 1:2) and
announces the Son as Lord who at the beginnings founded the earth and
worked the heavens (1:10).
As Caird,3 Hurst,4 and Schenck5 show, the early chapters of Hebrews focus
on the appointment of the Son. Perhaps he appointed is too weak; ,
he placed (Heb 1:2) would permit he instated or he established.6 God
instates him Son, heir of a name (1:2, 4) the inheriting of which makes him as
far greater than the angels as the name exceeds theirs (1:4). By instatement,
then, by God naming him, he is the Son, the radiance of Gods glory and the
stamp of Gods essence through whom God created the world and by whose
word he sustains it (1:23).7
The ensuing collocation of quotations amplies the instatement of the Son.
The author carefully concludes the introductory sentence by he has inherited
a name ( , Heb 1:4). When God next says, You are

2
As Attridge notes, other passages may assume the Sons pre-existence: Heb 2:1018; 9:26;
13:8. See H. W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989).
3
G. B. Caird, Son by Appointment, in The New Testament Age: Essays in Honor of Bo
Reicke (ed. W. C. Weinrich; Macon: Mercer University Press, 1984), 1:7381.
4
L. D. Hurst, The Christology of Hebrews 1 and 2, in The Glory of Christ in the New
Testament: Studies in Christology in Memory of George Bradford Caird (ed. L. D. Hurst and N. T.
Wright; Oxford: Clarendon, 1987), 151164.
5
K. Schenck, Keeping His Appointment: Creation and Enthronement in Hebrews, JSNT
66 (1997): 91117.
6
See Attridge, Hebrews, 3962; W. L. Lane, Hebrews 18 (WBC 47a; Nashville: Nelson,
1991), 12.
7
The middle voice (, Heb 1:3) might focus on the Sons instatement. Christs
making purication from sins works for Christs advantage: it issues in is enthronement. See
D. A. DeSilva, Perseverance in Gratitude: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the Epistle to the
Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 90 n.18.
 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333 313

my Son (1:5), God by at names him Son, instates him as Son. God is still
enthroning him as Son at the end of the catena of scripture: Sit at my right
hand (1:13). The quotations, then, reveal God by at naming the Son:8 God
declares him Son (1:5), leads him into the world to require angels to worship
him (1:6),9 pronounces him God on an everlasting throne (1:89), decrees
that he shall outlast his workmanship, earth and heaven (1:1012), and com-
mands him to sit at his right until he places ( [] again) his enemies as
his footstool (1:13). All these show God by at instating the son, endowing
the Son with the qualities of sonship. God has named the son; the Son has
inherited his name (1:4).
Hence, asking why Hebrews speaks pre-creation discourse entails a puz-
zle: how can Hebrews conceive God requiting Jesus loud cries and tears
(Heb 5:7) by instating him as pre-existent divine Son through whom God
created the world? How can Jesus the Son (Heb 1:2, 4) pre-exist Jesus? Hebrews
carefully balances the opposing moments but does not explain them.10 They
fueled Christological debate until fourth century readers understood them as
fruitful for supporting the Nicene Christology.
Can modern readers, by carefully tuning their own resonances with pre-
creational reverberations around Hebrews, resolve this puzzle? That is, can
learning a pre-creational rhetorical dialect train modern readers to respond
as Hebrews wishes?

8
For an explanation of the carefully drawn parallels between the prologue (1:14) and
the catena (1:514) see J. P. Meier, Structure and Theology in Heb 1:114, Bib 66 (1985):
168189 and Symmetry and Theology in the Old Testament Citations of Heb 1:514, Bib 66
(1985): 504533. Naming him Son permits Bauckhams contention that the name is the tet-
ragrammaton, for Hebrews names the Son God (Heb 1:89). See R. Bauckham, Monothe-
ism and Christology in Hebrews 1, Early Jewish and Christian Monotheism (ed. L. T. Stuckenbruck
and W. E. S. North; JSNTSS 263; London: T & T Clark, 2004) 175.
9
That we do not yet see all things subject to him . . . but we see him crowned with honor
(Heb 2:89) implies that, though some angels do not yet worship him, some already do (see the
similar position of the Beloved in Mart. Ascen. Isa. 611). It is unnecessary to limit the leading
out for the inhabited world to the incarnation (Attridge, Hebrews, 56) or to the second coming
(DeSilva, Perseverance in Gratitude, 9698), or to a heavenly as opposed to an earthly event
(Lane, Hebrews 18, 27). Rather it may refer to the complex event of the sons instatement: incar-
nation, exaltation, enthronement at Gods right, enemies under his feet; that is, to the entire
event Hebrews nds in Psalm 8 (Heb 2:510), as the mutual allusion to inhabited world
(, Hebrews 1:6 and 2:5) argues.
10
See the guarded excurses on Sonship in Attridge, Hebrews, 3435 and C. R. Koester,
Hebrews (AB 36; New York: Doubleday, 2001) 186187.
314 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333

3. Pre-creational Reverberations and the Hebrew Scriptures

A rhetorical dialect begins in a way of seeing, a controlling metaphorical

pattern that gives meaning to utterances in the dialect. Alternatively it is a set
of resonances with reverberations in a social fabric. Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Job
and other books of the Hebrew Scriptures both form and reect a social fabric
shared by Jewish writings contemporary with Hebrews. Tuning readers reso-
nances with these writings, therefore, can serve as a rst step toward a deeper
resonance with Hebrews.
Pre-creational readers in resonance with Hebrew Scriptures presuppose
divine creation, everything originating at Gods command: And God said,
Let there be light, and there was light (Gen 1:3). What God names, exists.
Gods knowledge and power are one. Several corollaries follow.

Corollary 1. Only the creating mind has true knowledge and real power:
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked o
the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and
weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed
the spirit of the LORD, or as his counselor has instructed him? Whom did
he consult for his enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding
(Isa 40:1214)?11
Heavenly, astral power only reects the creators power:
To whom then will you compare me, who is my equal? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out
their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great
in strength and mighty in power, not one is missing (Isa 40:2526).
Human power also merely reects Gods:
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from
the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like
grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them
like a tent to live in; who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of
the earth as nothing (Isa 40:2123).
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting
God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strength-
ens the powerless (Isa 40:2829).

11
Unless otherwise noted, I quote NRSV.
 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333 315

Such claims exert the mighty ethos of the mind that constrains the world to
order. All true knowledge reects Gods knowing; all real power derives from
Gods power. Isaiahs reader, resonating within a pre-creational mode, seeing
and desiring that knowledge and power, is comforted (Isa 40:12) and toes
the mark for a return from Babylon (Isa 40:34, 2931).

Corollary 2. Every created mind longs to conform to the divine knowing.

True but lesser knowledge and real but lesser power come only in agreement
with the divine knowing and willing. The singer of Psalm 104, perceiving the
beauty of creation, yearns to conform to the divine order:
O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures (Ps 104:24).
And
I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while
I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the
LORD. Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no
more. Bless the LORD, O my soul (Ps 104:3335).
All Gods creatures, even Leviathon (Ps 104:26), delight in Gods wisdom,
Gods law, but human beings rebel (Ps 104:35)! The psalmist, perceiving Gods
creative decrees, delights in them, and, repudiating wickedness, longs to unite
more fully with Gods will, Gods mind.
Or Psalm 19 shows the heavens declaring Gods glory, pouring forth knowl-
edge, and provoking delight in Gods law:
The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the rmament proclaims his
handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares
knowledge (Ps 19:12).
And
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the LORD
are sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoic-
ing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes
(Ps 19:78).
Once again, a mind seeing the beauty of creation and the law that forms it
yearns to conform to Gods commands:
Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great
reward. But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults. Keep
back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over
me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. Let the
words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer (Ps 19:1114).
316 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333

Conversely, Amos praises the creator to show how the unrepentant must not
spurn Gods call:
For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind, reveals his
thoughts to mortals, makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights
of the earth the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name (Amos 4:13;12 see
also 5:8; 9.56)!
Hence, descriptions of Gods creating reveal the beauty and profundity of
Gods power and wisdom, and call human beings to conform to that wisdom;
delighting in Gods decrees places a human will within the beauty of heaven
and earth ordered by Gods will. Passages asserting Gods creating the world
urge created minds to unite with Gods thoughts of them, urge them to con-
form their minds to Gods.

Corollary 3. To stand before God, human and divine minds must conform to Gods
wisdom:
The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: Who among
us can live with the devouring re? Who among us can live with everlasting
ames? Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly, who despise the
gain of oppression, who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it, who stop
their ears from hearing of bloodshed and shut their eyes from looking on evil,
they will live on the heights; their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks; their
food will be supplied, their water assured. Your eyes will see the king in his
beauty; they will behold a land that stretches far away (Isa 33:1417).
Even the King of Tyre, portrayed among the most glorious of divinities,
cannot stand in Gods presence unless united to the divine wisdom:
You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty . . .
With an anointed cherub as guardian I placed you; you were on the holy
mountain of God; you walked among the stones of re . . . Your heart was
proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of
your splendor . . . so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
and the guardian cherub drove you out from among the stones of re (Ezek
28:12, 14, 17, 16).

12
In the LXX, which reads, instead of MT
;,
Amos might, like Hebrews, reveal
God naming the messiah: Therefore, behold I am the one strengthening the thunder and creat-
ing wind and announcing to human beings his Christ, making dawn and mist and mounting
upon the heights of the earth: Lord, God, Pantokrator is his name (

).
(Amos 4:13).
 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333 317

Created beings can endure Gods presence only when their minds conform
to Gods. But, as Job fears, created minds cannot follow Gods; they are too
small to encompass the thoughts that create the world. Job knows that a
righteous God must bless the righteous; he knows that he is righteous; there-
fore, God must bless him. He wants to stand before God and plead his case to
wrest his blessing from God, but he knows his wisdom would not suce.
Though blameless, Gods creative wisdom could declare him guilty, and he
would be so:
How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? Though I am
innocent, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser. If I
summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe that he would listen to
my voice . . . Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me;
though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse (Job 9:1416, 20).
Therefore, when he does appear before God, Jobs wisdom is useless (42:3):
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have
understanding. Who determined its measurements surely you know! Or
who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its
cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings
shouted for joy (Job 38:47)?
Who shut in the sea with doors (Job 38:8)? Have you commanded the
morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place
(38:12)? Have the gates of death been revealed to you or have you seen the
gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth
(38:1718)? Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go and say to
you, Here we are? Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given under-
standing to the mind (38:3536)?
Only the one who perfectly shares the understanding that creates and sustains
the universe, has the wisdom to plead a case before Gods throne. Though
innocent, Job does condemn himself (42:56; cf. Job 9:20); he cannot judge
in the heavenly courtroom.

Corollary 4. God foreknows and creates some minds to reect and show forth true
knowledge:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born
I consecrated you; I appointed () you a prophet to the nations
(Jer 1:5).
But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! Thus
says the LORD who made you, who formed you in the womb and will help
you: Do not fear, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen
(Isa 44:12).
318 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:
I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens,
who by myself spread out the earth; who frustrates the omens of liars, and
makes fools of diviners; who turns back the wise, and makes their knowledge
foolish; who conrms the word of his servant, and fullls the prediction of
his messengers (Isa 44:2426).
From my mothers womb he has called my name; he made () my
mouth like a sharp sword, . . . and now the LORD says, who formed me in
the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him (Isa 49:1, 5).
He was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived
in the womb (Luke 2:21).
When God, who set me apart from my mothers womb and called me
through his grace . . . (Gal 1:15).
God knows and names before birth those through whom he declares and
establishes his word. Long ago he knew, chose, and appointed them. As the
sun rises or the moon sets so Jeremiah speaks, so the servant restores Jacob.
Therefore, pre-creational readers resonating with the Hebrew Scriptures
will delight in Gods creative knowing and power. Their every thought assumes
that only the creating mind owns true knowledge and power, that every cre-
ated mind, yearning after the divine knowing and willing, learns true but
lesser knowledge with real but lesser power, that anyone standing before God
to intercede with the divine mind must share in Gods creative knowing, and
that God, by foreknowing, creates minds to reect and show forth true knowl-
edge. Such readers long to live with God; therefore, they delight in the divine
mind and long to conform to it. They thirst for the temple (Ps 26:8; 36:8;
65:4; 84:12, 10); they love the law (Ps 119:97, 113, 163, 167) and guard it
because they love God (Deut 6:16; 10:1213). Such readers actively seek a
deeply converted mind and respond eagerly to every reection of the divine
thinking.

4. Resonances with Wisdom, Philo, and the Similitudes

Philo and the authors of Wisdom of Solomon and of the Similitudes of Enoch
(I Enoch 3771), all contemporary with or prior to the Book of Hebrews,13
arouse and assuage longing for the divine wisdom. By revealing divine agents

13
Even the Similitudes probably date to the rst century or even a little before; see M. Black,
The Messianism of the Similitudes of Enoch: Their Date and Contribution to Christological
Origins, in The Messiah in Earliest Judaism and Christianity, (ed. J. H. Charlesworth; Minne-
apolis: Fortress, 1992) 162. Hannah claims a consensus that the Similitudes must date before the
early second century; see D. D. Hannah, The Throne of his glory: the Divine Throne and
Heavenly Mediators in Revelation and the Similitudes of Enoch, ZNW 94 (2003) 81.
 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333 319

who participated in creation, they teach readers how to conform to the divine
knowing and to stand in Gods presence.

4.1. Wisdom of Solomon

Wisdom participated in creation (6:22; 7:22; 8:6; 9:9) and, as the active cause
of all things (8:5), she shares Gods creative thought (8:34), dwells with God
at his throne (8:3; 9:4, 10; cf. 18:15), and intervenes in Gods judgment. She
delivers Noah from the ood (Wis 10:4), Israel from Egypt (10:1521), and
her friends from death (6:1719; 15:23).
Wisdom establishes a community between divine and human thinking:
For wisdom is more mobile than any motion; because of her pureness she
pervades and penetrates all things. For she is a breath of the power of God,
and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing deled
gains entrance into her. For she is a reection of eternal light, a spotless mir-
ror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. Although she is but
one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all
things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends
of God, and prophets; for God loves nothing so much as the person who lives
with wisdom (Wis 7:2428).
Breathed from Gods power, owing out from his glory, radiating from eternal
light, mirroring Gods activity, imaging his goodness, wisdom perfectly reects
Gods thinking. As she passes into human minds, they think Gods thoughts:
they become friends of God and prophets. By wisdom human beings conform
to Gods knowing.
But human minds are weak (Wis 9:1618). They can grasp Gods thoughts
not by intellectual attainment but only by desire, yearning, love:
The beginning of wisdom is the most sincere desire for instruction, and con-
cern for instruction is love of her, and love of her is the keeping of her laws,
and giving heed to her laws is assurance of immortality, and immortality
brings one near to God (Wis 6:1719).
And
I loved her and sought her from my youth; I desired to take her for my bride,
and became enamored of her beauty. She glories her noble birth by living
with God, and the Lord of all loves her. For she is an initiate in the knowl-
edge of God, and an associate in his works (Wis 8:24).
Good minds long for wisdom, long for instruction, and she requites their love.
Yet they still must ask God to have her (Wis 8:21). Solomon prays:
You have given command to build a temple on your holy mountain, and an
altar in the city of your habitation, a copy of the holy tent that you prepared
320 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333

from the beginning. With you is wisdom, she who knows your works and
was present when you made the world; she understands what is pleasing in
your sight and what is right according to your commandments. Send her
forth from the holy heavens, and from the throne of your glory send her, that
she may labor at my side, and that I may learn what is pleasing to you. For
she knows and understands all things, and she will guide me wisely in my
actions and guard me with her glory (Wis 9:811).
Since Wisdom teaches him, Solomon can answer the questions God poses
Job:
For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists, to know the
structure of the world and the activity of the elements; the beginning and
end and middle of times, the alternations of the solstices and the changes of
the seasons, the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars, the
natures of animals and the tempers of wild animals, the powers of spirits and
the thoughts of human beings, the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots;
I learned both what is secret and what is manifest, for wisdom, the fashioner
of all things, taught me (Wis 7:1722).
Therefore, unlike Job, Soloman can stand in Gods council: Wisdom brings
him near God (6:19), makes him Gods friend (7:27), and qualies him as an
earthly ruler to administer godly justice (9:56, 12).
Although Solomon does not claim that God named and appointed him
before the womb, before birth he is allotted a soul already inclined to seek
wisdom (8:1921):
As a child I was naturally gifted, and a good soul fell to my lot; or rather,
being good, I entered an undeled body (Wis 8:1920).
The good soul from before birth gave him insight to ask God for Wisdom
(8:21), but now Solomon has imparted that insight to his readers. They
also can seek wisdom, ask for her, and begin participating in her privileged
living with God. They can also conform to Gods knowing and live in Gods
presence.

4.2. Philo

Like Wisdom, Philos pre-existent Logos bridges divine and human minds.
The Logos creates both the world (Cher. 127; Migr. 6; Spec. 1.81; Her. 130
140) and human minds (Spec. 3.83, 207) to reect the divine mind:
He gives the name of birds to the two words or forms of reason, both of
which are winged and of a soaring nature. One is the archetypal reason above
us, the other the copy of it which we possess. Moses calls the rst the image
of God, the second the cast of that image. For God, he says, made man not
 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333 321

the image of God but after the image. And thus the mind in each of us,
which in the true and full sense is the man, is an expression at third hand
from the maker, while between them is the Reason which serves as model for
our reason, but itself is the egies or presentment of God14 (Philo, Her.
230231[Colson and Whitaker]).
Since human reason and created reality both share in the Logos, human reason
can know created things.
As mediator between divine and human minds, the Logos draws human
beings to commune with God, to conform to Gods reason, and to win eternal
life:
The man who is capable of running swiftly it bids stay not to draw breath but
pass forward to the supreme Divine Word, Who is the fountain of Wisdom,
in order that he may draw from the stream and, released from death, gain life
eternal as his prize (Philo, Fug. 97).
God appoints the Logos his Son to rule and judge on Gods behalf:
This hallowed ock [the universe] He leads in accordance with right and law,
setting over it His true Word and Firstborn Son Who shall take upon Him
its government like some viceroy of a great king (Agr. 51).
But sharing in human as well as divine rationality, the Logos also pleads for
human frailty: This same Word both pleads with the immortal as suppliant
for aicted mortality and acts as ambassador of the ruler to the subject
(Philo, Her. 205; cf. Her. 205206; Somn. 1.215). Like Wisdom, the Logos,
creating, ruling, judging, pleading before God, by drawing human beings to
conformity with the divine mind, gives them place in Gods presence.

4.3. The Similitudes of Enoch

Similitudes (1 En. 3771) poses a temporal quandary reminiscent of Christs

instatement as pre-existent Son in Hebrews.15 Enoch, seventh descendant
from Adam (Gen 5:2124), in a series of heavenly trips, discovers the pre-
existent Son of Man:
And at that hour that Son of Man was named in the presence of the Lord of
Spirits, and his name was choicest of the Head of Days. Even before the sun
and the constellations were created, before the stars of heaven were made, his
name was named before the Lord of Spirits. He will be a sta to the righteous

14
The last sentence makes the point more clearly in Greek:

.
15
Attridge, Hebrews, 55 n.58 notes the parallel.
322 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333

and the holy, that they may lean on him and not fall, and he will be the light
of the nations and he will be the hope of those who grieve in their hearts. All
those who dwell on the dry ground will fall down and worship before him,
and they will bless, and praise, and celebrate with psalms the name of the
Lord of Spirits. And because of this he was chosen and hidden before him
before the world was created, and forever 16 (1 En. 48.26; cf. 62.7).

Eventually, Enoch appears before the Son of Man:17

And it came to pass after this that, while he [Enoch] was living, his name was
lifted from those who dwell upon the dry ground to the presence of that Son
of Man and to the presence of the Lord of Spirits. And he was lifted on the
chariots of the spirit, and his name vanished among them (1 En. 70.12).
But, as Enoch transforms in Gods presence, Enoch is named Son of Man:
And I fell upon my face and my whole body melted, and my spirit was trans-
formed . . . and he said to me, You are the Son of Man born to righteousness,
and righteousness remains over you, and the righteousness of the Head of
Days will not leave you (1 En. 71.14).
Apparently, God exalts the earthly, temporal Enoch to rule as heavenly, pre-
existent Son of Man.
Students of the Similitudes often seek to relax the tension among these pas-
sages. For instance, J. C. VanderKam acknowledges that Enoch becomes the
Son of Man but questions whether the Son of Man pre-exists Enochs appoint-
ment: perhaps before the stars were created his name was named before the
Lord of Spirits (1 En. 48.3) implies only foreordination.18 J. J. Collins con-
cludes that the Son of Man pre-exists but wonders whether you are Son of
Man identies Enoch as the Son of Man. Perhaps son of man merely identi-

16
Quotations of 1 Enoch reproduce M. A. Knibbs translation (Knibb, M. A. I Enoch, in
Apocryphal Old Testament [ed. H. F. D. Sparks; Oxford: Clarendon, 1984], 169319) unless
otherwise noted. Here I altered Knibbs translation (Knibb, 1 Enoch, 229): and his name was
named before the Head of Days. For baqdema, before, all but one manuscript have maqdema,
rst of its kind, choicest of or chief of. I prefer the majority reading. Perhaps sem maq-
dema might easily become sem baqdema, for the two labials do sound alike, and the following
verse has the phrase, his name was called before the Lord of Spirits. Better, some scribe, under-
standing head of days as a temporal expression for the beginning of time, heard baqdema,
which can mean before in the temporal sense. His name was before the beginning of time
yields an acceptable sense in the context. Maqdema makes no sense if head of days be under-
stood temporally.
17
Note the clear statement of the quandary in J. C. VanderKam, Righteous One, Messiah,
Chosen one, and Son of Man in I Enoch 3771, in The Messiah: Developments in the Earliest
Judiasm and in Christianity, (ed. J. H. Charlesworth; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992) 177.
18
VanderKam, Rigteous One, 179182.
 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333 323

es Enoch as human since the lack of article would permit the translation,
you are a son of man born to righteousness.19
Probably Collins correctly understands the Son of Man as pre-existent: in
the Similitudes, name stands for the person (see 1 En. 70.1 above). The Son
of Man is not only named but also hidden and preserved before creation
(1 En. 48.6; 62.7), and the Son of Man clearly is exalted in Gods presence
before Enoch becomes the Son of Man (1 En. 70.1).20
Probably VanderKam rightly understands Enochs becoming the Son of
Man. Since Ethiopic lacks any article (denite or indenite), deniteness is
indicated dierently than in English. Son of Man may be designated as de-
nite by a demonstrative, as in the phrase that Son of Man (see 70.1; 71.17)
or by a qualifying phrase as in Son of Man who is born to righteousness, (1
En. 71.14). Since in the immediate context occurrences of that Son of Man
(1 En. 70.1; 71.17) refer to the pre-existent heavenly judge, and since Gods
righteousness is especially appropriate to that judge, Son of Man who is born
to righteousness most naturally refers to the heavenly judge that Enoch has
seen all along.
Therefore, God exalts Enoch as pre-existent Son of Man, judge of the uni-
verse. VanderKam points to two texts where, like Enoch, the man, Jacob,
seems to have an exalted, already existing, heavenly reality (Gen. Rab. 68.12;
Pr. Jos. A 13, 78).21 Indeed, in the Prayer of Joseph, heavenly Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob may all pre-exist their earthly careers, but too little of the text has
survived to be certain. However, it is unnecessary to look so far aeld for par-
allels to Enochs experience.
On an earlier heavenly trip, Enoch sees the lightnings and the stars and God
calling each by name (1 En. 43.1). God names each heavenly light, and they
obey him, each fully conforming their heavenly movements to Gods call:
And again I saw ashes of lightning and the stars of heaven and I saw how he
called them all by their names, and they obeyed him. And I saw the balance
of righteousness, how they are weighed according to their light, according to
the width of their areas and the day of their appearing, and how their revolu-
tions produce lightning (1 En. 43.12).
An angel explains:
Their likeness has the Lord of Spirits shown to you; these are the names of the
righteous who dwell on the dry ground and believe in the name of the Lord
of Spirits for ever and ever (1 En. 43.4).

19
J. J. Collins, The Scepter and the Star: the Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient
Literature (ABRL; Doubleday, 1995) 179181.
20
Collins, The Scepter, 179180.
21
VanderKam, Rigteous One, 182183.
324 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333

While they still live on the earth, the righteous have heavenly names. They
look at the stars and see themselves, obediently conforming to Gods law in
Gods heavenly presence. When Enoch inherits his heavenly name, he becomes
Son of Man. When his followers inherit their heavenly names, they will each
become the star God names each to be. It is all in Daniel, And those who
understand will shine as the lights of the heavens and those strong in my word
as the stars for ever and ever (Dan 12:3 LXX).
How can these things be? Within a pre-creational dialect, they are not
strange. The righteous have merely conformed to Gods heavenly wisdom,
Gods creative wisdom which gives reality to what it knows. Enoch and his
followers, by conforming to Gods wisdom in Gods presence, become what
God knows them to be.
In the Similitudes of Enoch, every human being should forsake iniquity and
conform to Gods wisdom. Yet iniquity has replaced wisdom on the earth:
Wisdom went out in order to dwell among the sons of men, but did not nd
a dwelling. Wisdom returned to her place and took her seat in the midst of
the angels. And iniquity came out from her chambers; those whom she did
not seek she found, and dwelt among them, like rain in the desert, and like
dew on parched ground (1 En. 42).
Therefore, human minds can nd wisdom only by seeking heavenly
experience:
And after this it will be said to the holy that they should seek in heaven the
secrets of righteousness, the lot of faith (1 En. 58.5).
Heaven oers a source for the righteousness that conforms to wisdom:
And in that place I saw an inexhaustible spring of righteousness, and many
springs of wisdom surrounded it, and all the thirsty drank form them and
were lled with wisdom, and their dwelling was with the righteous and the
holy and the chosen (48.1; cf. 1 En. 58.24).
This spring is the Son of Man:
And in those days the Chosen One will sit on his throne, and all the secrets
of wisdom will ow out from the counsel of his mouth, for the Lord of Spir-
its has appointed him and gloried him (1 En. 51.3; cf. 49.13).
But, through Enoch, God has already revealed the Son of Man as source for
the wisdom that enables the righteous to stand before him:
For from the beginning the Son of Man was hidden, and the Most High kept
him in the presence of his power, and revealed him only to the chosen; and
the community of the holy and the chosen will be sown, and all the chosen
will stand before him on that day (1 En. 62.78).
 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333 325

The righteous, heeding the heavenly, pre-existent Son of Man and conforming
to his creative knowing, will stand before God as the Son of Man does.
Therefore, Enochs experience patterns his followers: As Enoch learns wis-
dom on his heavenly journeys, so his followers must seek the wisdom in heaven
(I Enoch 58.5). As God summons Enoch into his presence (1 En. 70.12), so
God will summon them (1 En. 62.8). As Enoch can endure seeing God (71.2)
only after Michael takes his hand and shows him further secrets (1 En. 71.14)
so his followers will drink from the heavenly fount of wisdom before entering
Gods presence (1 En. 48.1). As Enoch, overwhelmed in Gods presence, melts
and transforms into the Son of Man (1En. 71.14) so his followers will trans-
form into the stars of their heavenly names (1 En. 43.4).
Authors and responsive readers of the Similitudes of Enoch, initiated into the
secrets of the universe by Daniel, Enoch, and the Son of Man, look at the stars
and see their own heavenly bodies. One day they shall wear them: having
ascended to see God, conforming to his knowledge, they shall nd out who
they really are as they inherit their real names. By seeking Gods knowledge
and conforming themselves to it, Enoch and all the righteous take their proper
stations in Gods presence. Conforming to Gods mind is salvation: as they
conform to Gods knowing they become what he knows them to be. Their
persuasion (?) is the substance of things hoped for the essence of things
not seen.
Though they share motifs, Wisdom of Solomon, Philo, and the Similitudes
do not share one argument. Motifs include (a) the primacy of the creators
knowledge: Gods thoughts produce reality; (b) the dependence of creatures
knowledge: our true thoughts derive from Gods; (c) the need for a mediator:
only one who, by participation in creation, can understand Gods thoughts,
can judge the earth, and can impart Gods wisdom; (d) the imitation of the
mediator: by sharing in Gods wisdom, human beings also enter life in Gods
presence. Such a list is comprehensible, even exciting, to the resonating reader.
But to reduce Wisdom of Solomon, Philo, and the Book of Similitudes to such
abstract principles ruins them and obscures the depth of contact among these
writings through the rich conversation in which they share. Far from catalog-
ing motifs, resonating authors and readers will be lled with yearning: longing
to share Gods thoughts, to be conformed to them, longing to be transformed
into what God knows each to be, longing with boldness to stand in Gods
presence where each belongs.
Readers gain uency in a pre-creational rhetorical dialect by joining the
conversation, by reading, writing, or speaking within that dialect. Of course,
as readers write or speak, they will alter the dialect; better, they will contribute
to it, but only as they read, write, and speak it, can they gain enough uency
to respond as the readers such texts hope for. Pre-creational readers of
326 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333

Hebrews will not merely seek pre-creational motifs in the letter; rather they
listen carefully for resonance as Hebrews enters their conversation. Their con-
versing with other pre-creational texts will help their understanding Hebrews
only by changing them, awakening them for resonance with the persuasion
Hebrews oers.

5. Hebrews and the Psalms

How will awakened readers respond to the precreational proem, to Jesus

instated as pre-existent divine Son through whom God created the world
(Heb 1:2)? Awakened readers will long to follow Gods thoughts, to conform
to them, to become what God knows each reader to be, and to stand welcome
in Gods presence. Christ by divine at established as pre-existent divine Son
will not puzzle but intrigue them: if only what they hope for has begun! They
will yearn to share the creative knowing that names Christ Son. By cleaving
to what they hear (Heb 2:1), they will hope to join those, his siblings, whom
Christ leads to glory (Heb 2:1011). What to the modern reader is a cipher,
an enigma, to the pre-creational reader promises the assuaging of long awak-
ened desire. And Hebrews immediately moves toward fullling that promise,
interpreting Psalm 110 (Heb 1:3, 13; cf. 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:3, 17, 21; 8:1;
10:1213), Psalm 45 (Heb 1:89), and Psalm 102 (Heb 1:1012) to glimpse
Gods creative speech instating Christ as eternal, pre-existent, creating
Son (Heb 1:114) and to urge the readers holding fast to what is revealed
(2:14).

5.1. Psalm 110

Hebrews quotes Psalm 110 to reveal Gods mind: the eternity and creative
activity of the Son and the decrees that invest Jesus as Son and heavenly High
Priest. Although Hebrews alludes to Psalm 110 in the opening sentence (Heb
1:3) and quotes Psalm 110:1 (Heb 1:13) to conclude the ensuing bouquet of
scripture (Heb 1:513), Hebrews reserves a fuller interpretation of Psalm 110
for the discussion of Melchizedek (Heb 6:10; 7:18.6).
From the Sons eternity Hebrews infers Melchizedeks: Without father,
without mother, without traceable pedigree, having neither beginning of days
nor end of life, having been made like the Son of God, he remains forever
(7:3). Since Melchizedek has been made like () the Son of God
(Heb 7:3; cf. 7:15), the Sons eternity can reveal Melchizedeks.22 How does

22
Lane, Hebrews 18, 16667; Koester, Hebrews, 343.
 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333 327

Hebrews know the Son remains forever, without father, mother, pedigree,
beginning of days, or end of life?
The eternity of the Son appears in Psalm 110: He remains forever, (Heb
7:3), restates Psalm 110:4.23 Since Psalm 110 reveals the Son (Ps 110:1, 4),24
the author knows that the Son of God is a priest continually without end of
life (Heb 7:3) because he is a priest forever (Ps 110:4).
The author knows that the Son is without mother, without father, without
beginning of days not from an argument from silence25 but from the Septua-
gint of Psalm 110:3 (LXX Psalm 109:3):

, With you the beginning26 is in the day of your power; among
the splendor of the holy things,27 from the womb,28 before the one who brings
the dawn29 I have begotten you. With you the beginning is in the day of
your power implies that the Son was exerting his power in the creation.
Before the one who brings the dawn, I have begotten you implies God begot
the Son before the rst star, before the rst day. Among the splendor of the
holy things, I have begotten you implies God begot the Son in the primal
holy of holies,30 wherever God is before he creates the universe.
As interpreted by Hebrews, then, Psalm 110 (109 LXX) reveals the instate-
ment, the appointment, of Jesus as creating Son who, as heavenly high priest,
reigns forever. God enthrones the Lord by at until he places his enemies as
his footstool (Ps 110:1). Again by at, God invests him with power to rule in
the middle of those enemies (Ps 110:2). Next God names him his Son, begot-
ten with him in the Holiest place before the rst dawn, with the day of cre-
ation already in his power (Ps 110:3 LXX). Finally by oath, God ordains him
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4) and decrees he shall

23
, Heb 7:3, rather than , Heb 6:20; 7:17. Lane, Hebrews 18,
167.
24
Hebrews quotes Ps 110:1 of the Son in Heb 1:13; 8:1; 10:1213; 12:2 and refers to Ps
110:4 in Heb 5:10; 6:20; 7:3, 17, 21.
25
Attridge, 190; cf. DeSilva, Perseverance in Gratitude, 266.
26
in the context of dominion might be rule, but Hebrews never uses , to mean
rule. In Heb 7:3 it means beginning.
27
Hebrews uses , holy things, of the holy things in the heavenly throne room, often
understood as referring to the Holy Place itself (8:2; 9:8, 12, 24, 25; 10:19). Might Hebrews
preferred manner of naming the holy place, stem from Ps 110:3? Of course it occurs frequently
in descriptions of the Tabernacle (Exod 26:33, 34; 29:30; 30:10; 36:8; 38:24; 40:10).
28
The prexed in , to beget, refers to the father out of whom a child comes.
Hence, Hebrews might have understood as apart from a womb, but a correlation
to the similar (Isa 49:1, 5) seems more natural.
29
, before the bringer of dawn or before the morning star (LXX Ps 109:3).
Might this imply before the rst angel? Or before the light of the rst day?
30
Hebrews knows a tent, not of this creation (Heb 9:11).
328 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333

shatter the heads of kings (Ps 110:57). Through Psalm 110 Hebrews has
revealed Gods mind concerning the Son and the creative decrees that invest
Jesus as Son and Priest. Resonating readers will long to conform to those
thoughts, to hold fast their agreement (Heb 4:14), and, by the Sons priestly
oce, to gain boldness to ask mercy before the throne of grace (Heb 4:16).

5.2. Psalm 45

Psalm 45 introduces the Beloved, a common early Christian designation for

Christ:31

, About the end, concerning the things which shall be
changed, an ode for insight concerning the Beloved, by the sons of Korah
(Ps 44:1 LXX).
Since the Psalm concerns the things about the Beloved which shall be changed
at the end, Hebrews understands it of Gods transforming32 Christ in these
last days (Heb 1:2). After a claim to inspiration (LXX Ps 44:2),33 the singer
portrays God blessing the Beloved forever (LXX Ps 44:3) and then quotes the
blessing (LXX Ps 44:410). God invests the Beloved as the Son at the last
days, decreeing the power of his reign (LXX Ps 44:45), his victory over his
enemies (44:56), and, in the verses Hebrews quotes, his eternal enthrone-
ment and anointing as God:
Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the scepter of your kingdom is a
scepter of righteousness; you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness,
therefore, O God, your God has anointed you with the oil of joy beyond
your fellows (LXX Ps 44:78).
Hence Hebrews naturally and precisely quotes Psalm 45 as revealing the decree
investing the resurrected Christ with the Sons power and deity. Resonating
readers, who discover that Christ belongs judging and pleading in Gods pres-
ence, begin to know that Jesus always lives to plead for those who approach
God through him (Heb 7:25).

31
In Hebrew, a play on the name David ( either dawid [David] or dd [Beloved]): Matt
3:17; 12:18; 17:5; Mark 1:11; 9:7; 12:6; Luke 3:22; 20:13; 2 Pet 1:17; Mart. Ascen. Isa. passim.
32
Notice that Luke uses the same verb, , to transform, of the transguration,
where Jesus, in the presence of the heavenly glory, is conformed to a heavenly existence.
33
My heart gushes out a good word; I speak my works to the King; my tongue is the reed
of a fast-writing scribe (Ps 44:2 LXX). For gushes out as a claim to inspiration see Mart.
Ascen Isa. 3:31; Odes Sol. 16:2; 36.7; 40.2. The psalmist compares his singing to a scribe taking
dication.
 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333 329

5.3. Psalm 102

Psalm 102 titles itself, A prayer for the poor whenever he is in anguish and is
pouring out his entreaty before the Lord. Hebrews recognizes Jesus in anguish
pouring out his own petition to God:
In the days of his esh, Jesus oered up prayers and supplications, with loud
cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was
heard because of his reverent submission (Heb 5:7).
But Hebrews also sees Jesus uniting with everyone facing death in anguish
(Heb 2:911, 1418; 4:15; 12:14). Therefore, Hebrews can read the Septua-
gint of Psalm 102 as voicing the loud cries and tears Jesus oers to the one
who is able to save him (Heb 5:7) and his followers (Heb 2:1415) from
death. For Hebrews, Psalm 102 glimpses the messianic consciousness of
Jesus on the cross. Christ sings this song. More precisely, Jesus sings aiction,
trust, and petition, and then God sings in answer.
As the song begins (Ps 102:111), Jesus cries out for God to hear him in his
aiction (Ps 102:12 [LXX Ps 101:23];34 cf. Heb 5:7) and lodges his com-
plaint. Surrounded by enemies, Jesus is outcast. Gods anger dashes him down.
His days are ending; he faces death (Ps 102:311; Heb 2:1318; 5:710).
Then Jesus sings the joy set before him (Ps 102:1223a; Heb 12:2). Fore-
seeing God delivering him and all his anguished fellows (Ps 102:1218), Jesus
hopes in Gods good will toward those in danger of death (see the plurals in
LXX Ps 101:15, 18, 2021; cf. Heb 2:1415) and foresees deliverance when
God announces the Lords name (LXX Ps 101:22 [Ps 102:21]). God will loose
those in danger of death (Ps 102:20; cf. Heb 2:15) by naming the Lord (LXX
Ps 101:22 [Ps 102:21]; cf. Heb 1:4) and answering his cry (LXX Ps 101:24a:
He answered him in the way of his strength. cf. Heb 5:7). Meanwhile, the
coming generation, created to praise the Lord (Ps 102:18; cf. Heb 11:3940),
gathers to serve him (Ps 102:22).
Jesus singing climaxes in a petition for deliverance from death (LXX Ps
101:24b25a [Ps 102:23b24a]). Jesus asks that God not cut him o early,
that God grant him the full period of his life: Announce to me the fewness of
my days; do not oer me up in the middle of my days, (LXX Ps 101:24b
25a; once again, see Heb 5:7).
Then God sings the answering decree naming Jesus Lord (LXX Ps 101:25b
28). The sudden second person (, LXX 101:25b [Ps 102:24b]) signals the

34
Hereafter quoted from the LXX numbering.
330 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333

decrees beginning.35 By pronouncing the eternity of Jesus days, God instates

Jesus as eternal Lord, and saves his people with him. The Septuagintal readings
are crucial:
Your years are in all generations (literally, in generation of generations):
In the beginning you, Lord, founded the earth;
And the heavens are the works of your hands;
They shall perish, but you shall remain
And all shall grow old like a garment,
And all like a cloak shall change and be altered,
But you are the same and your years shall not fail;
The children of your servants shall make homes,
And their seed shall be guided into eternity
(LXX Ps 101:25b28; cf. Heb 1:1012).
Hence, Psalm 102 reveals Jesus crying out to God and God delivering him.
God saves Jesus by naming him (LXX Ps 101:22 [Ps 102:22]), giving him the
name of the eternal, creating Lord, the name that Jesus always has in the
deeper reality and eternity of Gods mind. From Psalm 102, also, Hebrews has
quoted the passage in which God instates the Son. The resonating reader of
Psalm 102 (LXX) watches God bringing many children to glory by perfecting
their pioneer through suering (Heb 2:10). Like Moses, they yearn to see
Gods glory (Exod 33:1734:8); they long to hear Christ declaring the divine
name (cf. Exod 33:19; 34:5) among his brothers and sisters (Heb 2:12).
Hebrews opens Psalms 110, 45, and 102 as windows into Gods mind con-
cerning the Son. Psalm 110 discloses Gods decree that enthrones Jesus in
power among his enemies (Ps 110:12), invests him as creating Son begotten
in the heavenly Holy of Holies before the rst day (Ps 110:3), and ordains him
priest forever (Ps 110:4). Psalm 45 reveals the decree by which God invests
Jesus with the Sons power and deity; Psalm 102 portrays Jesus crying out the
shortness of his days, pleading for help in the face of death, and God answer-
ing him by decreeing him Creator whose years do not fail. God by at as
naturally invests Jesus with the creative activity, eternity, and godhead of the
Son as he enthrones him at his right hand or appoints him a priest forever. The
discerning reader, resonating with the pre-creational overtones, already longs
to enter the heavenly holy of holies by the new and living way Jesus has opened
(Heb 10:1922).

35
Hurst, Christology of Hebrews 1, 160; Lane, Hebrews 18, 30. Hence in the Septuagint,
Ps 101:2628 does not address God. Against DeSilva, Perseverance in Gratitude, 100.
 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333 331

6. Conclusion

Hebrews reinforces a set of resonances with God as creating by speech. Gods

thought is prior to every lesser reality. Only one who shares that priority, who
thinks Gods creative thoughts, can commune with God, can stand pleading
or judging in Gods presence. As Wisdom, Logos, and Enoch pre-exist to think
these thoughts and enter human experience to share them, so in Hebrews God
has spoken through a Son who made the worlds.
Hebrews interprets the Psalms as windows glimpsing Gods pre-creational,
archetypal mind. The prologue to Hebrews recapitulates what the windows
glimpse: a Son whom God appointed heir of all things (Heb 1:2; cf. Ps 110:
12, 56), through whom he made the worlds (Heb 1:2; cf. Ps 110:3), who
carries all things by the word of his power (Heb 1:3; cf. Ps 110:2), and who,
having cleansed sins (Heb 1:3; cf. Ps 110:4), sat at the right of majesty (Heb
1:3; Ps 110:1). Psalm 110 structures the prologue.
The collection of quotations in Hebrews 1:514, broadens the exegetical
base for the pattern of instatement in the prologue (Hebrews 1:14). After
appointing him Son (Heb 1:5; Ps 2:7) and leading him out to receive the
angels worship (Heb 1:56; Deut 32:43 LXX; Ps 97:7 LXX), God names
Jesus God (Heb 1:89; Ps 45:67) and eternal creator (Heb 1:1012; Ps
102:2527), then enthrones him by at (Heb 1:13; Ps 110:1).
Readers who glimpse the beauty of the Son will yearn to conform to what
they see and will thirst for deeper glances into Gods thinking. To improve the
yearning to conform to Gods thinking, Hebrews immediately urges readers to
listen and hold fast () to what they have heard (Heb 2:14). To slake
the thirst for deeper sight, Hebrews then opens the window in Psalm 8, the
Son of man made a little lower than the angels to be crowned with glory and
honor, an experience shared with all who are sanctied, all who join the Son
in conforming to Gods good pleasure (Heb 2:511). Hebrews continues
arousing and assuaging these yearnings and thirsts, alternating exegetical
glimpses of Gods winsome intentions in the Son (Heb 1:114; 2:33:6;
4:145:10; 6:1310:18) with admonitions encouraging listening and obedi-
ence (2:14; 3:74:16; 5:116:12; 10:1913:25). For, like other pre-
creational texts, Hebrews seeks the transformation of the readers minds,
their hearts inscribed by Gods law (Heb 8:10; 10:16, 22), their conscious
minds () perfected (Heb 9:9, 14; 10:2, 22), their yearning holding
fast to their persuasion (, see Heb 6:12; 10:22, 3839; 11:112:2) or to
their concurrence (, Heb 3:1; 4:14; 10:23), their minds conforming
to Gods thinking.
332 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333

Readers conversing within a pre-creational rhetorical dialect see Jesus trans-

formed into the pre-existent, eternal, high priestly Son (Heb 1:4) and trans-
forming his sisters and brothers into citizens of the heavenly city (Heb
12:2224; 13:14; cf. 4:16; 10:1922; 11:10, 16). As Jesus inherits the name
God knows him by, entering the Holy place as pre-existent Son perfected
through suering (Heb 5:89), so his siblings approach the holy place with
minds conforming to Gods:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, having boldness for entry among the holy
things by the blood of Jesus which has inaugurated a new and living way
through the curtain, that is, his esh, and a great high priest over the house
of God, let us approach with true hearts in the certainty of persuasion
(), our hearts sprinkled from an evil awareness () and
our bodies washed with pure water; let us hold fast the concurrence
() of hope unwavering, for the one who promised is faithful, and
let us study one another for the incitement of love and good works (Heb
10:1924).
And, incidently, pre-creational readers who long to conform to the divine
mind will not have stumbled at God requiting Jesus loud cries and tears by
instating him as pre-existent divine Son through whom God creates the world.
All reality ows from the divine mind. Reality is Gods decree. Final salvation,
for Jesus and for every reader, is Gods decree making them what Gods thought
knows them to be. Unlike modern readers, pre-creational readers would not
trip over Gods making Enoch the pre-existent Son of man, or over Gods
making Enochs readers the already existing (not pre-existent) stars of their
heavenly names. Like the author of Hebrews they can read the Septuagint of
Psalm 110 to assert both that the God begets the Son before the rst dawn
with the beginning in his power (LXX Psalm 109.3) and that God enthrones
the Son to await the subjection of his enemies (Ps 110.1) and by at ordains
him Priest forever (Ps 110.4). They can understand God requiting Jesus loud
cries and tears by instating him pre-existent divine Son because it echoes their
hope for themselves: as the Sons brothers and sisters, they long for God to
make them whatever God knows them to be. If God has perfected their fore-
runner () through suering, can their perfection be far behind (Heb
2.10; 5.9; 11.40; 12.23)? Perhaps such readers have not yet grasped the pro-
fundity of what Hebrews asserts, but they are ready to leave behind what they
already know and move on toward perfection (Heb 6.1).
 R. G. Hall / Religion & Theology 18 (2011) 311333 333

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