Copy of a publication in Tyndale Bulletin.

www.Tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Tyndale-Bulletin

Tyndale Bulletin 67.2 (2016) 269-286

HEBREWS 1:10-12 AND THE RENEWAL OF THE

COSMOS
Philip Church
([email protected])

Summary
The suggestion that the author of Hebrews is indebted to Philo
sometimes leads to the assertion that he has a negative bias against the
creation. One text where scholars have detected this bias is Hebrews
1:10-12, quoting Psalm 102:25-27, seemingly to predict the dissolution
of the cosmos. The text is part of a Psalm that predicts the restoration
of Zion and the gathering of the nations there to worship, and
expresses the confidence that the descendants of the servants of
Yahweh will live securely in Yahwehs presence. This makes it unlikely
that verses 25-26 predict the dissolution of the cosmos, and exegesis of
the verses in question indicates not dissolution, but renewal after the
destruction resulting from the exile. Attention to the context of the
quotation in Hebrews indicates that dissolution there is also unlikely.
The text supports the claim that the exalted Son upholds all things
(Heb. 1:3) and sits alongside a discussion of the dominion of humanity
over the world to come (2:5-9). A more remote co-text refers to the
gathering of the nations to Zion (12:22-24), itself a further echo of the
Psalm. The Psalm quotation functions to predict not the dissolution,
but the renewal of the decaying cosmos.

1. Introduction
One hundred and twenty years ago, French Lutheran theologian and
Sorbonne professor Eugne Mngoz proposed that Philo of
Alexandria was a major influence on the writer of Hebrews,1 a notion

1 Eugne Mngoz, La Thologie de lEptre aux Hbreux (Paris: Fischbacher,

1894), 197-219. Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica 2:17, cites Philo, De vita
270 TYNDALE BULLETIN 67.2 (2016)
that dominated studies of Hebrews throughout most of the twentieth
century, persisting until today. To be sure, Mngoz did not see the
author as a thoroughgoing Philonist and he argued for other influences
on Hebrews, but he did suggest that he received his primary education
in Alexandria and finished it off in Jerusalem.2 He also suggested that
the author of Hebrews was un philonien converti au christianisme,3 a
suggestion with which Spicq concurs.4 According to Spicq, Mngoz
speculated that the author of Hebrews probably knew Philo personally
and had heard him preach in a synagogue in Alexandria.5
One scholar who has consistently argued for the influence of Philo
on Hebrews is James W. Thompson. From the 1970s right up to his
2008 commentary and since, this notion has characterised all of
Thompsons work.6 Like Mngoz, Thompson does not suggest that
the author was a thoroughgoing Philonist; rather, he argues that he
simply employs philosophical categories from middle Platonism to
make sense of his world.7 Thus, the author, Thompson argues, operates
with a Platonic metaphysic,8 and a cosmological dualism,9 where
there are two spheres, the unchangeable and enduring heavenly world

contemplativa 29, and suggests that the writings of ancient men referred to by Philo
included some expositions of the ancient prophets, such as are contained in the Epistle
to the Hebrews, and in many others of Pauls (sic) Epistles. See Philip Schaff and
Henry Wace, Nicene and Post-Nicene Christian Fathers. Vol. 1, Eusebius: Church
History, Life of Constantine the Great, and Oration in Praise of Constantine, A Select
Library of the Christian Church: Second Series (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1952),
118-19. For the Greek text see Eduard Schwartz, Eusebius Werke: Die
Kirchensgeschichte, GCS, 10 vols. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1903), 2:146-48. Ceslas Spicq,
Lptre aux Hbreux, 3rd ed., 2 vols. (Paris: Gabalda, 1952), 1:39, suggests that Hugo
Grotius was the first in modern times to suggest the influence on Philo and Hebrews.
Grotius does not argue for dependence on Philo, but does make numerous references to
supposed similarities with Philo in his interpretation of Hebrews. See e.g. Hugo
Grotius, Annotationes in Epistolam ad Hebraeos, in Operum Theologicorum
(Amsterdam: Joannis Blaev, 1679), 1011, 21, 22, 23, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 35, 36, 38, 44.
2 Mngoz, La Thologie, 217.
3 Mngoz, La Thologie, 198.
4 Spicq, Hbreux, 1:91. Spicq marshals his arguments for dependence on Philo in
Hebrews on pages 39-91 of his first volume.
5 Spicq, Hbreux, 89.
6 James W. Thompson, That Which Cannot Be Shaken: Some Metaphysical
Assumptions in Heb. 12:27, JBL 94 (1975), 580-87; James W. Thompson, Hebrews,
Paideia Commentaries on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,
2008), 23-26.
7 Thompson, Hebrews, 25.
8 James W. Thompson, The Beginnings of Christian Philosophy: The Epistle to the
Hebrews, CBQMS 13 (Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association, 1982), 52.
9 Thompson, Beginnings, 49.
CHURCH: Hebrews 1:10-12 and the Renewal of the Cosmos 271
and the changeable, unstable and transitory earthly world, which will
ultimately come to an end.10 Moreover, Thompson also detects in
Hebrews what he refers to as anti-worldliness, suggesting that in two
texts the author uses the word (world) in a decidedly
negative way.11 As Edward Adams has pointed out, if this is the case it
would put Hebrews at odds with mainstream Christian theology,
which has traditionally emphasised the original goodness and ongoing
worth of the created order.12 This reading hardly does justice to the
author of Hebrews, and nor does it do justice to Philo, as Adams has
also pointed out.13
In this article I examine one text in Hebrews where Thompson
appears, at first glance, to be correct.14 In what follows I discuss
Hebrews 1:10-12, a quotation from Psalm 102:25-27, and demonstrate
that rather than anticipating the dissolution of the universe as a number

10 Thompson, Beginnings, 48-50.

11 Thompson, Beginnings, 76. The two texts he refers to are Heb. 11:7, 38. See also
David A. DeSilva, Perseverance in Gratitude: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on the
Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000), 100: [a]ll material
creation is of limited value since it is of limited duration. Later, he claims, [i]nvesting
our lives in anything that dies with us or with this world amounts to a poor
investment in the eyes of faith (127).
12 Edward Adams, The Cosmology of Hebrews, in The Epistle to Hebrews and

Christian Theology, ed. Richard Bauckham et al. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009),
122. Adams points out (123-24) that Thompsons claims about Platonic cosmology are
unwarranted and actually misrepresent the cosmological data of Hebrews themselves,
although he does acknowledge that some middle Platonists may have taken Platonism
in a more radical direction.
13 In Edward Adams, Constructing the World: A Study in Pauls Cosmological

Language, SNTW (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000), 58-64, Adams demonstrates how
Philo can be very positive about the cosmos, referring to it, for example, as the most
perfect of created things ( , De
opificio mundi, 14, see also De plantatione, 131; De somniis, 1.207; De Abrahamo, 74,
De aeternitate mundi, 26, 50, 73; Quis rerum divinarum heres sit 199) and arguing that
the created world is imperishable (, Aeternitate, 19).
14 For Thompsons treatment of Heb. 1:11-12 see Thompson, Hebrews, 55, where he

writes, [t]he contrast between the material creation and the abiding reality reflects the
authors indebtedness to the Platonic tradition, according to which the transcendent
world is eternal, while the material creation is subject to change. Another scholar who
has critiqued this text is Jeffrey S. Lamp, The Greening of Hebrews: Ecological
Readings in the Letter to the Hebrews (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2012), 105. Lamp
finds in this text a bias against Earth and guilt by association [with angels, that]
relegates Earth to a subordinate position with respect to the Son. He continues, [a]t
the very least, consideration of Earth as an entity of intrinsic worth and consideration
in itself is a casualty of the authors concern to demonstrate the superiority of the Son
over angels precisely at the point of the transitory nature of angels and Earth.
272 TYNDALE BULLETIN 67.2 (2016)
of scholars suggest,15 this text anticipates the renewal of the creation,
currently in bondage to decay as Paul puts it in Romans 8:21.
The text in question reads (NRSV):16
10 In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are
the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like clothing;
12 like a cloak you will roll them up, and like clothing they will be

changed.
But you are the same, and your years will never end.

On the face of it this text proposes that the created universe will
ultimately outlive its usefulness and cease to exist. In what follows I
argue that this is an inadequate reading. I will first deal with the text in
the context of Psalm 102 before turning to Hebrews to examine the
quotation in the context of Hebrews 1.

2. Psalm 102 in the Hebrew Bible

The superscription to Psalm 102 labels it as a prayer (), or more
specifically a lament or a complaint.17 However, its content defies
precise description, for while verses 1-11 and 23-2418 fit the
classification of lament, verses 12-22 express confidence that YHWH
will restore Zion and Jerusalem, and verses 25-27 reflect on YHWHs

15 See, e.g. DeSilva, Perseverance in Gratitude, 100, who refers to the rolling up
and throwing away of the visible, temporal cosmos, and Alan C. Mitchell, Hebrews,
SP 13 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2007), 50, who suggests that the heavens
and earth will perish at an appointed time, having accomplished the purpose for which
they were created. Peter T. OBrien, The Letter to the Hebrews, PNTC (Grand Rapids,
MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 76, also uses the language of throwing away. Craig R. Koester,
Hebrews: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 36 (New York:
Doubleday, 2001), 203, proposes that heaven and earth will be brought to an end by
the Lord. Adams himself (Cosmology, 135-36) argues that this text indicates that the
visible heavens and earth will be brought to a definitive end. For a fuller
statement see Edward Adams, The Stars Will Fall from Heaven: Cosmic Catastrophe
in the New Testament and its World, LNTS 247 (London: T&T Clark, 2007), 183-85.
16 I give the NRSV here for convenience. My own translation follows in Section 5.
17 Bruce K. Waltke, James M. Houston, and Erika Moore, The Psalms as Christian

Lament: A Historical Comemntary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014), 221. See
HALOT 1777, where is said to be the general word for a prayer, especially for
a prayer of supplication, but also apparently especially for the poetically constructed
prayer known as the psalm of lamentation. The early church classified Psalm 102 as
one of seven penitential Psalms (Waltke, Houston, and Moore, The Psalms as
Christian Lament, 14).
18 I use English versification throughout this section. English Ps. 102:1-28 are

equivalent to MT Ps. 102:2-29 and LXX Ps. 101:2-29.

CHURCH: Hebrews 1:10-12 and the Renewal of the Cosmos 273
relationship to the cosmos. Verse 28 looks to the future security of the
offspring of the servants of YHWH, who will live securely in his
presence. The reference to the restoration of Zion and Jerusalem
indicates that this part of the Psalm at least is probably exilic, and while
it could have stood alone there is no indication that it ever did.19 In any
case, the author of Hebrews would have received it as a single
composition, and read it as the complaint of an individual living while
Jerusalem was in ruins (vv. 13-14), anticipating the restoration of Zion,
which would also entail the nations ( ) coming to fear the
name of the LORD, the kings of the earth ( )
fearing his glory (v. 16), and peoples () and kingdoms
() gathering in Zion and Jerusalem to worship him (vv. 21-
22). These are ideas that find expression in Hebrews 12:22-24, the
rhetorical climax of the book, where the people of God are said to
have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem ( ,
).
After affirming the certainty of the restoration of Zion, the Psalmist
takes a cosmic perspective. He notes that, in contrast to himself whose
days have been shortened (vv. 23-24), YHWHs years endure
throughout all generations (v. 24). A poem on the relationship of
YHWH to the cosmos follows (vv. 25-27), elaborating on the
statements of verses 12 and 24c that YHWH endures throughout the
generations. This poem is about YHWH and his endurance: he created
earth and heaven and will outlast them, and consequently, what the
poem says about created order is subsumed under the main theme
emerging throughout the Psalm: YHWH will endure and will restore
Zion and redeem his people.

25 Long ago you established the earth

And the heavens are the work of your
hands.

26 They may perish but you remain,
all of them like a garment could wear out.

19 John Goldingay, Psalms Volume 3: Psalms 90-150, BCOTWP (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Academic, 2008), 149. Artur Weiser, The Psalms: A Commentary (London:
SCM, 1962), 653, does not entirely rule out a pre-exilic date, as also John H. Eaton,
Kingship and the Psalms, The Biblical Seminar (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1986), 80.
274 TYNDALE BULLETIN 67.2 (2016)

Like clothing you would change them and

they will change

27But you are the same and your years will
not end.20

Along with several texts in Isaiah and elsewhere, verse 25 affirms that
YHWH laid the foundation of the earth and that the heavens are his
handiwork.21 The Isaiah texts that include the formula laid the
foundations of the earth ( ) have been connected with
YHWHs victory over cosmic forces and the subsequent ordering of
the cosmos for human habitation (cf. Ps. 104:1-9, Isa. 51:1-16), as
well as YHWHs rule over the cosmos (cf. Ps. 102:12).22 Similar
language is also used for the establishment of Zion and the building of
the temple (cf. Pss. 24; 78:67-72), traditions that Ps. 102:12-22 uses for
the re-establishment of Zion, and Isaiah for a new act of salvation.23 It
does seem incongruous that a Psalm reflecting the traditions of the
restoration of Zion and a new act of salvation, and concluding that the
descendants of the servants of YHWH will live securely and be
established in YHWHs presence, should then deconstruct it with the
suggestion that the earth on which those servants live will ultimately
disappear.
Verse 26 is a tricolon, with the main statement in line a, followed by
two parallel statements in lines b and c. The main statement is a strong
contrast expressed with two personal pronouns: ( they) and
(you) and two verbs in the imperfect tense form (( )they will

20 This is my own translation.

21 Isa. 48:13; 51:13, 16; Zech. 12:1. See also Job 38:4; Ps. 24:2; 78:69; 89:11; 104:5;
Prov. 3:19. 11QPsa reads the Niphal perfect ( was established) rather than the
Qal ( you established) of the MT. LXX has (aorist active
indicative). Franz Delitzsch, Psalms: Three Volumes in One, trans. James Martin,
Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982),
644, proposes that the Psalmist depends on Isaiah. See also Leslie C. Allen, Psalms
101-150, WBC 21 (Waco, TX: Word, 1983), 23: the collocation of divine
enthronement (v. 13), the rebuilding of Zion, and creation in this Psalm is not
accidental but an appeal to a composite tradition. I use the term Isaiah rather than
Second Isaiah, on the assumption that ancient readers would not have been conscious
of the various parts of Isaiah identified by modern critical scholars.
22 Theodore M. Ludwig, The Traditions of the Establishing of the Earth in Deutero-

Isaiah, JBL 92 (1973), 350-55.

23 Allen, Psalms 101-150, 23.
CHURCH: Hebrews 1:10-12 and the Renewal of the Cosmos 275
perish), and ( you will endure).24 Three factors weigh against
the suggestion that this means the dissolution of the created order.
In the first place I note that elsewhere where parts of the created
order are the subject of verb ( to perish) the verb does not have
this sense. In Jeremiah 9:11 YHWH pronounces judgement on
Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. He vows to make Jerusalem a heap
of ruins and the cities of Judah a desolation. In verse 12 the prophet
muses, Why has the land perished ( ) and laid
waste like the wilderness, without inhabitant? Similar themes occur in
Jeremiah 48:8, an oracle against Moab, where the valley shall perish
( ) and the plain be destroyed () . The
language of perishing expresses the results of the action of YHWH
judging his people and the people of Moab, judgement that finds
expression in ecological disturbance, which, in the case of Jerusalem
and the towns of Judah, was restored after the exile. The verb need not
express permanent destruction, and in the Jeremiah texts simply refers
to arable land becoming like the wilderness.25
Secondly, the imperfect tense form does not necessarily imply
certainty. Allen translates, they may perish, but you will continue,26
and Goldingay, They may perish but you would stand.27 Goldingay
comments,
EVV [English versions] affirm that they will have an end, but there is no
need to read the yiqtol verb thus, and the OT does not elsewhere make
such a statement. The psalm makes a hypothetical statement about the
cosmoss nature. There is nothing about the heavens and the earth that
means they must last forever; and if they do come to an end, YHWH will
outlast them.

Even if the cosmos should perish, YHWH would endure. Indeed, given
the context of the rebuilding of Zion and restoration of Gods people
and the streaming of the Gentiles to Zion, this seems an appropriate
reading of the line. Just as Zion perished when the people went into
exile and will ultimately be restored, YHWH could do the same with
heaven and earth, should they perish.

24 For this gloss for see , qal, 3, c, HALOT 841. Cf. Ps. 19:10; 33:11; Qoh.

1:4; Isa. 66:22.

25 Similar language appears in Qumran. See 4QpsMosesa 44 5; 4QpsMosesb 3 ii

7 (fragment, column and line numbers from DSSSE).

26 Allen, Psalms 101-150, 14.
27 Goldingay, Psalms 90-150, 160.
276 TYNDALE BULLETIN 67.2 (2016)
Thirdly, the shape of the tricolon, with lines b and c explaining the
statement of line a supports this opinion. These lines contain three
verbs in the imperfect tense form. The subject of the first is all of
them (),28 the subject of the second is you (YHWH) and the
subject of the third is they (the heavens and earth). The verbs in
question are ( to be worn out, deteriorate), ( Hiph., to
change, transitive) and ( Qal, to change, intransitive). The sense
is amplified with clothing imagery. Heaven and earth could wear out
like a garment ( )and YHWH could change them like clothing
( )and they would change. Similar clothing imagery is also found
in Isaiah (51:6, 8), in the context of a new act of salvation.
However, wearing out and being changed like clothing does not
necessarily imply dissolution. The verbs imply the replacement of an
old garment with another.29 As Goldingay notes, can denote a
change for the better or for the worse.30 Change for the better is the
sense in another Psalm where the word appears. In Psalm 90:5-6, the
grass that flourishes and renews ( )in the morning fades and
withers in the evening. Delitzsch argues that this is the sense in Psalm
102, where God changes the created order, the Hiphil signifies to put
on a new condition, 102:27, to set a new thing on in the place of an old
one.31 So while the NRSV (they pass away) and the 2011 NIV (they
will be discarded) assume that the verb means a change for the worse,
it is more appropriate in the context of the restoration of Zion and of
the lamenting individual, that the Psalm should anticipate not the
destruction of, but YHWHs renewal of, the deteriorating created order.
As Tengstrom and Fabry suggest, God is the author of creation and
all its transformations.32
Heaven and earth are his handiwork, and should they wear out
YHWH, who endures, could effect a new creative act, changing them
like a garment is changed. The connections with Isaiah bring with them

28 The antecedent of this expression is the heavens and the earth (v. 26).
29 For the use of this verb in connection with clothing see , TDOT, 4:433.
30 Goldingay, Psalms 90-150, 160. Goldingay continues with the suggestion that the

context denotes the exchange of one garment for another: YHWH could decide it is
time for a change like a human being deciding to get rid of one set of clothes for
another.
31 Delitzsch, Psalms, 596.
32 TDOT, 4:435. For similar imagery see Isa. 51:6.
CHURCH: Hebrews 1:10-12 and the Renewal of the Cosmos 277
the Isaianic hope not only for the restoration of Zion, but also for a new
heaven and earth to be created by YHWH (Isa. 65:17-25; 66:18-24).33
Verse 27 addresses YHWH: in contrast to the decaying universe,
YHWH is the one (),34 and his years never end. This verse
forms an inclusio around the poem with verse 24b, which addresses
YHWH as the one whose years endure throughout all generations,
underscoring in conclusion the main thrust of the poem, and reminding
those who sing the Psalm that God is the one who remains and is
always there to renew and restore.
There is no sense that God will bring the creation to an end in these
verses; there is a sense of ecological deterioration, along with the
confidence that God is able to effect renewal. Should it deteriorate,
God who created it in the first place is able to change it and renew it,
just as he will restore fallen Zion for the returning exiles. Once
renewed the earth is fit for human habitation again. There they will live
securely in Gods presence on the renewed earth.35

3. Psalm 101:26-28 in the LXX

Since the author of Hebrews quotes from the Jewish Greek Scriptures ,
I turn now to the Greek Psalter to assess any significant textual or
translation issues. The translation is relatively literal, especially in
verse 26, where it even reflects the Hebrew word order. In the Hebrew
text the verses are part of the lament, addressed to YHWH, while in the
Greek text the Hebrew ( he afflicted, v. 24) is rendered in LXX as

33 Cf. Delitzsch, Psalms, 644: [t]he prayer not to sweep him away before his time,
the poet supports not by the eternity of God in itself, but by the work of the
rejuvenation of the world and of the restoration of Israel that is to be looked for, which
He can and will bring to an accomplishment, because He is the ever-living One. See
also Waltke, Houston, and Moore, The Psalms as Christian Lament, 235.
34 Goldingay, Psalms 90-150, 160 critiques the translation you are the same,

pointing to Ps. 100:3: ( YHWH he is God). He continues, [t]here is

a unique absoluteness about YHWHs being, one aspect of which is that YHWHs years
do not come to an end. Cf. Waltke, Houston, and Moore, The Psalms as Christian
Lament, 235, you are He who is (italics original). Susan E. Docherty, The Use of the
Old Testament in Hebrews, WUNT 2, 260 (Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), 167
suggests the possibility that has the sense but you are God.
35 Adams, Stars Will Fall, 30-31 has a brief treatment of this text, which he reads as

predicting that God will cause heaven and earth to be changed and pass away. He
concludes, [h]ere, therefore, we have a creational monotheism which actually requires
the end of the world. It is more likely that the text postulates that God will renew the
deteriorating universe.
278 TYNDALE BULLETIN 67.2 (2016)
(he answered), implying that the following words are
spoken by God. Also, in the LXX verse 26 reads in the beginning you,
Lord, laid the foundations of the earth ( , ,
), with the addition of ,36 a word that also
appears in Hebrews 1:10, with God speaking the words in the Psalm to
the exalted Son.37
I argued with reference to verse 27 that the Hebrew ( they
will perish) has the sense of the deterioration of the cosmos rather than
its dissolution. The LXX renders this word with the future middle of
(they will perish). While this word is often used in the
sense of permanent destruction, the semantic range also includes
situations where this is not permanent.38 For example, in 2 Peter 3:6 the
antediluvian world perishes, and Josephus uses the word of Jerusalem
perishing.39
The structure in the Hebrew text of verse 27 is followed in the LXX,
where the notion of perishing is elaborated with the future passive
indicative of (they will become old),40 paving the way for
the active and then the passive of , (you will change them
and they will be changed). If anything the clothing imagery is
stronger in the LXX, with the created order growing old like a garment
and the Lord (, v. 26) changing them, again like a garment. As
in the Hebrew text, the symbolism pictures, not the destruction of the
created order, but its deterioration, followed by its eventual renewal in
a new creative act of God.

36 The words , are omitted from Codex Sinaiticus. Other witnesses have the
words in a different order. See the critical apparatus in A. Rahlfs, Psalmi cum Odis,
Septuaginta Vetus Testamentum Graecum X (Gttingen: Vandenheck & Ruprecht,
1931), 255.
37 Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,

1993), 125-26; William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, WBC 47A (Dallas: Word, 1991), 30.
Ellingworth lists several other factors that could have led the author to read the words
of the Psalm with reference to Christ,
38 See , 1, , BDAG 116.
39 Josephus, War, 2.650. In the synoptic Gospels wineskins do not cease to exist when

they have holes in them, they just become useless (Matt. 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37),
and in Luke 15:9 a coin cannot be used because it is lost. See the discussion in Douglas
J. Moo, Nature in the New Creation: New Testament Eschatology and the
Environment, JETS 49 (2006), 468-69, 468n77. LSJ, 207 includes demolish, lay
waste in its definition of . See Homer, 5.648 for an example of this usage.
40 For this gloss see , 2, BDAG, 751.
CHURCH: Hebrews 1:10-12 and the Renewal of the Cosmos 279
4. The Context in Hebrews 12 of the Quotation of
Psalm 102:25-27
This text is the last in a chain of six OT quotations encompassing
Hebrews 1:5-13. They provide evidence from the OT for the claims of
verses 1-4 that the Son is exalted to the right hand of God, and give
further OT background to these claims. This final quotation establishes
that the Son is superior to the angels since he founded the heavens and
the earth, and will outlast them: he remains the same and his years will
never end. It also supports the claim of verses 2-3 that he was involved
in the creation of the worlds ( ),41 and sustains ()
everything ( ) by his powerful word.42
The context needs to be taken wider than just the introduction to
Hebrews and the catena of quotations, however. As George Caird
wrote in the middle of the last century, the citation of Psalm 8 in
Hebrews 2:5-8,
controls the argument of the preceding chapter, for from the first
mention of angels at 1:5 [sic: angels appear in 1:4] throughout the
formidable catena of texts in ch. 1 the authors one aim is to illustrate the
theme of the psalm that man has been destined by God to a glory
excelling that of angels and that this destiny has been achieved by
Christ.43

Cairds point that the theme of Psalm 8 in Hebrews 2:5-8 that man has
been destined by God to a glory excelling that of angels is well made.
In Hebrews 2:5 the author introduces the citation of Psalm 8 with the
comment that the world to come ( ), about
which he has been speaking, had not been made subject to angels.
Unfortunately, he does not make clear to whom the world to come has
been made subject, and while numerous scholars have argued that it

41 Cf. Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (Minneapolis:

Fortress, 1989), 41: the spheres that comprise the universe.
42 Attridge, Hebrews, 45; Gareth Lee Cockerill, The Epistle to the Hebrews, NICNT

(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 112.

43 G. B. Caird, The Exegetical Method of the Epistle to the Hebrews, CJT 5 (1959),

49. Both Lincoln D. Hurst, The Christology of Hebrews 1 and 2, in The Glory of
Christ in the New Testament, ed. Lincoln D. Hurst and N. T. Wright (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1987), 151-64 and Kenneth L. Schenck, A Celebration of the Enthroned
Son: The Catena of Hebrews 1, JBL 120 (2001), 469-85 demonstrate the validity of
this claim. Loren T. Stuckenbruck, Angel Veneration and Christology: A Study in
Early Judaism and in the Christology of the Apocalypse of John, WUNT 2, 70
(Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995), 135-36 suggests that the citation of Ps. 8 is the final
OT citation in the set that began in 1:3 with Ps. 110:1.
280 TYNDALE BULLETIN 67.2 (2016)
has been made subject to the exalted Son of God, it is preferable to
recognise that his exaltation is as a pioneer (, 2:10), and that
the world to come has been made subject to humanity.44 And while this
is not yet clear, the exaltation of Jesus to the right hand of God gives
assurance that this will eventually take place.
If Caird and others are correct in their claim that the citation of
Psalm 8 in Hebrews 2:5-8 controls the entire argument from Hebrews
1:32:10, then it is significant for my argument that Hebrews 2:5-8
concerns the world to come. According to Hebrews 1:6, the firstborn
has been exalted into this world ().45 This makes it difficult
to see a reference to the dissolution of the cosmos in Heb 1:10-12,
unless it also contains the seeds of a reference to the renewal of
creation.46 As Caneday writes,
the Son has brought the old era to a close and has inaugurated the
new aeon of the new covenant with its heavenly realities. Heaven has
come to the cosmos in order that the cosmos might finally come to its
consummation in the world that is to come, the habitable world that will
be subject to humans, not to angels47

5. Psalm 102:25-27 in Hebrews 1:10-12

There are several differences between the extant LXX text and
Hebrews, but only two are substantive. In verse 12a the word
(roll up) appears in place of (change), a word that
appears in some witnesses to the LXX, perhaps influenced by Isaiah
34:4. Secondly, in verse 12b the expression (like

44 For recent restatements of the arguments for this reading see Craig L. Blomberg,
Better Things in This Case: The Superiority of Todays New International Version in
Hebrews, BT 55 (2004), 311-18; Craig L. Blomberg, But We See Jesus: The
Relationship between the Son of Man in Hebrews 2:6 & Verse 9 and the Implications
for English Translations, in A Cloud of Witnesses: The Theology of Hebrews in its
Ancient Contexts, ed. Richard Bauckham et al., LNTS 387 (London: T&T Clark,
2008), 88-99.
45 A. B. Caneday, The Eschatological World Already Subjected to the Son: The

of Hebrews 1:6 and the Sons Enthronement, in A Cloud of Witnesses: The

Theology of Hebrews in its Ancient Contexts, ed. Richard Bauckham et al., LNTS 387
(London: T&T Clark, 2008), 29.
46 Adams, Cosmology, 137 argues that the authors use of strongly

suggests that he has in view a new world a new worldly environment to be

populated by the people of God, i.e., a new created order.
47 Caneday, Eschatological World, 39.
CHURCH: Hebrews 1:10-12 and the Renewal of the Cosmos 281
clothing) is repeated. While this is omitted from several witnesses, the
evidence for its inclusion is strong, and it should be retained.48

LXX Psalm 101:26-27 Hebrews 1:10-12

10

26
, , 52 , ,
,49 ,


27 11
, ,
,50 ,53

, ,
12

,
51 54 ,
55
28
,
.
.

48 Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament: A

Companion Volume to the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament (Fourth
Revised Edition), 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994), 593, proposes
that the author of Hebrews may have added the words to underscore the clothing
symbolism. Even though no extant LXX witnesses include the words, certainty is not
possible, since we cannot identify the Vorlage used by the author. Attridge, Hebrews,
61, thinks the change emphasizes the transitory nature of the creation.
49 See footnote 36 (above) for a discussion of the textual issues in this line.
50 is future; some witnesses read (present).
51 Vaticanus and Alexandrinus and several other witnesses, including the Lucianic

recension, read (you will roll up).

52 is omitted from P114.
53 The second reviser of D and a few minuscules read , perhaps assimilating

to the LXX. Attridge, Hebrews, 49 notes the ambiguity, disambiguated with future
accentuation in D (second reviser), 0121b, 365, 529, pc, b, v, vg. OBrien, Hebrews,
77, following Ellingworth, Hebrews, 128, notes that in this quotation, future tenses
refer to change while present tenses point to a permanent state.
54 The original hands of and D, plus a few other versions read , as in the

preponderant reading in the LXX. Subsequent scribes altered the text to . See
Metzger, Textual Commentary, 593.
55 The words do not appear in the LXX in this line, and are omitted by

first reviser of D, K, L, P, and numerous minuscules. The text is found in P46, , A,

B, the original hand of D, 1739 and some MSS of the Vulgate.
282 TYNDALE BULLETIN 67.2 (2016)
10 and
26 At the beginning it was you, Lord, It was you, at the beginning, Lord,
who founded the earth, who founded the earth
and the heavens are the work of your and the heavens are the work of your
hands. hands.
27 They will perish, but you will remain, 11 They will perish, but you remain,
and all of them like clothing will and all of them like clothing will
grow old, grow old,
and as a cloak you will change them, 12 and as a cloak you will roll them up,
and they will be changed. like clothing they will also be
changed.56
28 But you are the same and your years But you are the same and your years
will not come to an end. will not come to an end.

In verse 10 the exalted Son of God, now called Lord (), is said
to have laid the foundations of the earth, with the heavens are the work
of his hands (v. 10). This picks up on the statement in verse 3 that God
made the worlds ( ) through the Son.57
Verse 11 compares the temporal nature of the created order with
endurance of the Son who made them. As in the Hebrew text this is
expressed with a strong contrast using two pronouns:
, (As for them, they will perish, but as
for you, you remain.) As I discussed in connection with this verb
() in its original context in the Greek Psalter, while it may
indicate permanent dissolution, this need not be the case, and as I will
show, the elaboration in Hebrews 1:11b-12a indicates that the sense is
that of deterioration. Over against the enduring reign of the Son, the
created order is subject to decay.
Verses 11b-12a contain three verbs that concern the creation. The
subject of the first is the created order, they [i.e., heaven and earth]
will grow old (), the subject of the second is the Lord
addressed in the Psalm quotation, you will roll them up (),
and the third is a passive, probably a divine passive, they will be
changed (). The addition of (like clothing) in
verse 12 turns the three lines into a concentric structure,
A all of them like clothing will grow old,
B and as a cloak you will roll them up,
A like clothing they will also be changed

56 For the translation also for in this verse see Ellingworth, Hebrews, 129.
57 Attridge, Hebrews, 60.
CHURCH: Hebrews 1:10-12 and the Renewal of the Cosmos 283
I deal with the A lines first and then the B line.
That the created order grows old () complements the
statement of the previous line in the same way as it did in the Hebrew
and Greek Psalter. The verb only appears four times in the NT, three of
which are in Hebrews.58 In Hebrews 8:13 the former covenant is
growing old and close to destruction (),59 an adjective that
is not used with reference to the created order in Hebrews 1. While the
old covenant will be destroyed the created order will be changed
().60 This verb appears six times in the NT, and three of these
(including Hebrews 1:12) are divine passives, with the other two in
1 Corinthians 15:51-52.61 There, we will be changed at the resurrection.
In the NT, when God changes things he changes them for the better. In
the present context, while the created order grows old, it will not be
destroyed: it will be changed.62 And in the context of Hebrews 12, the
change leads to the world to come, where the Son is exalted in the
present, and to which God is leading many to glory through him.
The B line includes the future active indicative of ,
addressed to the Lord, and with the Lord as subject, you will roll them
up. While the Gttingen Septuagint of Psalm 101:27 reads the future
active indicative of (you will change them), three
important witnesses to the text read , the verb found in

58 The other occurrence is Luke 12:33 concerned with treasure in heaven, which does
not wear out.
59 For this sense of see BDAG 155.
60 Kenneth L. Schenck, Cosmology and Eschatology in Hebrews: The Settings of the

Sacrifice, SNTSMS 143 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 124, makes
this connection with 8:13, via the use of , and connects the taking off of
the created realm with the end of the old covenant, as does Ellingworth, Hebrews,
128. But quite different language is used in 8:13 for the end of the old covenant.
Adams, Stars Will Fall, 184, also makes the connection with Heb. 8:13, noting the
appearance in both texts of the verb , with the author plainly associating
ageing with perishability and destructibility. But it is what follows the ageing that is
significant. In 8:13 it is destruction; in 1:11-12 it is change.
61 The other occurrences are Acts 6:14, where Stephen is accused of changing the

customs handed down, Rom. 1:23, where humans change the glory of God for images,
and Gal. 4:20, where Paul refers to changing his tone.
62 See Donald A. Hagner, Hebrews, NIBCNT (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1990),

35, the time is coming when it will be revamped, altered completely. Contra Attridge,
Hebrews, 61, who argues that the heavens will not simply be changed, but
removed; Koester, Hebrews, 196, who argues that change points to an end; and
OBrien, Hebrews, 76, who refers to the heavens being removed. Neither BDAG
45-46 nor LSJ 68 give the sense of removal or bringing to an end for ,
although BDAG comments, of the change to be wrought by Christ in the heavens
when the world is destroyed.
284 TYNDALE BULLETIN 67.2 (2016)
Hebrews.63 It is impossible to tell whether this is a change introduced
by the author of Hebrews, or whether it was in his Vorlage, or even
whether these readings arose due to the influence of Hebrews, since
they long postdate Hebrews.64 The answer to the question is somewhat
academic, however, since an alert reader the Greek Psalter would likely
hear an echo of another occurrence of this word, Isaiah 34:4, where the
heavens are rolled up like a scroll.65
Isaiah 3435 concern Gods judgment on the nations for the sake of
Zion (34:8), and with a view to its restoration and the return of the
redeemed there. An allusion to Isaiah 35:3 in Hebrews 12:12, where
they are to lift their drooping hands and strengthen [their] weak knees
and persevere, and the claim that the readers have come to Mount Zion
in 12:22-24 strengthens the identification of an intertextual echo of
Isaiah 34:4 in Hebrews 1:10, especially since the entire Psalm breathes
the atmosphere of the restoration of Zion.66
In Isaiah 34 the rolling up of the heavens is a prophetic hyperbole,
with the prophet depicting Gods judgement on the wicked in cosmic
terms.67 The outcome of Gods fierce judgment is the return to the
primeval chaos as the heavens rot away and are rolled up, and the earth
becomes formless and empty once again.68 As Marlow points out, God
executes judgment on human behaviour and the effect on the
heavens is portrayed as a reflection of this.69 But this is not the end,
for a scroll is not rolled up to be destroyed. It is rolled up to be stored

63 See note 51 (above).

64 Lucian is 3rd century AD, Vaticanus 4th century AD and Alexandrinus 5th century
AD.
65 The word also appears in Job 18:8, where (in the LXX) the wicked are entangled

in a net. There is an allusion to Isa. 34:4 in the only other NT occurrence of the word,
Rev. 6:14, where the sky vanishes like a scroll being rolled up. NA28 notes an allusion
to Isa. 34:4 in Heb. 1:12. Attridge, Hebrews, 61, notes that even if the author was not
influenced by Isa. 34:4, the use of recalls that text.
66 Richard B. Hays, The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of

Israels Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 37-38, refers to recurrence or

clustering as one of the tests used to identify an intertextual echo. NA28 notes
allusions to Isa. 50:9 (LXX) and 51:6 in Heb. 1:11, further strengthening the case for
an echo of 34:4 in 1:12.
67 The identity of the objects of Gods judgement is debated. See Hilary Marlow,

Biblical Prophets and Contemporary Environmenal Ethics: Re-Reading Amos, Hosea

and First Isaiah (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 227.
68 The terms and appear in 34:11.
69 Marlow, Biblical Prophets, 199.
CHURCH: Hebrews 1:10-12 and the Renewal of the Cosmos 285
until reused.70 In Isaiah 34 the wicked are judged and removed and
human dwellings depopulated. Then, after being laid waste, the earth is
re-inhabited with wild animals and birds (34:9-17). What is removed
then, is what is displeasing to God, so that what pleases God can
remain, and the earth can be re-created. If this echo is correctly heard,
then, this context can be brought into Hebrews 1:10-12, indicating not
the dissolution of the created order, but the removal of the old to make
way for the new as the created order is changed.71
The quotation concludes as it began with statements about the
exalted Son of God, who, in contrast to the changeable created order,
remains the same and whose years will not come to an end.72

6. Conclusion
The author of Hebrews places the Psalm text in the new context of his
discussion of the exaltation of the Son of God in these last days in the
world to come. He is depicted as the changeless one who laid the
foundation of the earth, and, though it is subject to deterioration and
decay, he will roll it up like a garment and transform it, ushering in the
world to come (2:5), where all that is displeasing to God will have
been removed.
Contrary, then, to some readings of Hebrews there is no
disparagement of the created order in this text, and there is no
suggestion that God will discard it.73

70 Anne Gardner, Ecojustice or Anthropological Justice? A Study of the New

Heavens and the New Earth in Isaiah 65:17, in The Earth Story in the Psalms and the
Prophets, The Earth Bible 4, ed. Norman C. Habel, (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic
Press, 2001), 217. See also Adams, Stars Will Fall, 38.
71 R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC

(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 532-33, commenting on the influence of Isa. 34:4 in
Mark 13:24, notes that God is redrawing the map of world politics, and the familiar
structures of international affairs will never be the same again. But the dramatic
collapse of the power structures is not the end of world history, but the beginning of a
new and better phase, in which Gods purpose will be worked out.
72 appears four times in the NT, three times in Luke and once in Hebrews. In

Luke 16:9 it refers to money running out, in Luke 22:32 it refers to Peters faith
failing and in Luke 23:45 the light of the sun fails when Jesus dies. Come to an end
seems to be an appropriate gloss in Ps. 102:28 and Heb. 1:12.
73 See Footnote 14 (above).
286 TYNDALE BULLETIN 67.2 (2016)
Rather the Son, who upholds all things by his powerful word (1:3),
will outlast the creation that grows old and will transform it and renew
it, and place it under the dominion of redeemed humanity (2:5-9).74

74 I have argued that this text predicts the renewal of a universe that is deteriorating
(as in e.g. Rom. 8:21). It is not entirely clear whether the verb in Heb. 1:11
refers to this deterioration or to the reduction of the cosmos to nothing and its re-
creation. It is, nevertheless, clear that the text does anticipate the renewal of creation.
Adams, Cosmology, 137, suggests, there is good reason to think that a re-creation of
the cosmos after its dissolution is anticipated, even though there is no overt reference
to it. The language of change () in v. 12 provides such a reference.