Thomas Aquinas

1 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, and there is none according to your works. Ps. 85:8. In these words the excellence of Christ is expressed as to two things. And first as to a comparison to the other gods, when he says there is none like you among the gods, O Lord; second by a comparison as to his effects, when he says and there is none according to your works. Concerning the first it should be known that although there is only one God by nature, as is said in Deut. 6:4: the Lord your God is one God, nevertheless by participation there are many gods, both in heaven and on earth. 1 Cor. 8:5: for there are indeed many gods and many lords. For sometimes the angels themselves are called gods, as is clear in Job 1:6 and 2:1: when the sons of God came to stand before the Lord. And sometimes the prophets, as is said of Moses, Exod. 7:1: I have made you a god to Pharaoh. Likewise it is said of the priests, Exod. 22:28: the gods, that is, the priests, you shall not speak ill of. Likewise there: if the thief lies hidden, the master of the house shall be brought to the gods. But the angels are called gods on account of the most abundant refulgence of the divine brightness. Job 25:3: upon whom his light does not shine. But the angels are not like Christ among the gods, who is the splendor of the Father's glory, as is said below, 1:3. Eph. 1:20: setting him at the right hand in the heavenly places, above every principality, etc. But the prophets are called gods because the word of God came to them. Jn. 10:35: he called them gods, to whom the word of God came. Therefore Christ is God much more excellently, who is substantially the very Word of God. But priests are called gods because they are ministers of God. Is. 61:6: you, priests of the Lord, shall be called ministers of God. But Christ much more so, who is not a minister, but the lord of all, Esth. 13:11; likewise Apoc. 19:16: lord of lords; and below: as lord in his whole house. Christ therefore is God, great above all gods, because he is splendor, because he is the Word, because he is Lord. Second, this excellence is shown through the effects, when it is said and there is none according to your works, where it should be known that the excellent work of Christ is threefold. One that extends to the whole creature, namely the work of creation. Jn. 1:3: all things were made through him. Another indeed only to the rational creature, which is illuminated through Christ, which is the work of illumination. Jn. 1:9: he was the true light, etc. The third is of justification, which pertains only to the saints, who through him are quickened and justified by quickening grace. Jn. 1:4: and the life was the light of men. For in these three ways the aforesaid gods cannot work. For the angels are not creators, but creatures. Ps. 103:4: who make your angels spirits, etc. The prophets, too, are illumined, not illuminating. Jn. 1:8: he was not that light, etc. The priests, too, did not justify. Below, 10:4: for it is impossible that sins be taken away by the blood of goats and bulls. Therefore the excellence of Christ is clearly shown in these words, and this is the subject matter of this epistle to the Hebrews, by which it is distinguished from the others. For in certain epistles the grace of the New Testament is treated as to the whole mystical body of the Church, and this in all the epistles which he sends to Churches, namely that which is to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, and up to the first to Timothy. But in certain others as to the principal members, as in those which he sends to individual persons, namely to Timothy, to Titus, and to Philemon. But in this one he commends grace itself as to the head, namely Christ; for in the body of the Church these three things are found just as in a natural body, namely the mystical body itself, the principal members, namely the prelates and the greater ones, and the head, from which life flows into the whole body, namely Christ. But before we come to the division, it should be known that before the Council of Nicaea, some doubted whether this epistle was Paul's. And that it was not, they prove by two arguments. One is that it does not keep this manner which he keeps in the other epistles. For here he does not put a greeting first, nor his own name. The other is that it does not savor of the style of the others, rather it has a more elegant one, nor is there any Scripture that proceeds so in order, in the order of words, and in sentences, as this one. Hence they said that it was either Luke the Evangelist's, or Barnabas's, or Pope Clement's. For he himself wrote to the Athenians almost entirely according to this style. But the ancient doctors, especially Dionysius and certain others, take the words of this epistle as testimonies of Paul. And Jerome receives it among the epistles of Paul. To the first, therefore, it should be said that there was a threefold reason why he did not put his name. One is that he was not the apostle of the Jews, but of the Gentiles. Gal. 2:8: he who worked in Peter for the apostolate of the circumcision, worked also in me among the Gentiles, etc. And therefore he made no mention of his apostolate at the beginning of this epistle, because he did not want to make known the office of his apostolate, except to the Gentiles themselves. Second, because his name was hateful to the Jews, since he said that the legal observances were not to be kept, as is clear in Acts 15:2 and following. And he kept this silent, lest the most salutary teaching of this epistle be rejected. Third, because he was a Jew. Are they Hebrews? So am I. 2 Cor. 11:22. And those of one's own household do not easily bear the excellence of their own. A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, and in his own house. Matt. 13:57. To the second argument, it should be said that he is more elegant in style for this reason: that although he knew every tongue — 1 Cor. 14:18: I speak with the tongue of all of you — yet he knew Hebrew better, as more connatural to himself, in which he wrote this epistle. And therefore he was able to speak more ornately in his own idiom than in any other. Hence he says, 2 Cor. 11:6: even if unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge. But Luke, who was an excellent speaker, translated this ornateness from Hebrew into Greek.