Hebrews 1:10

Thou, Lord, in the beginning The quotation is from Psalms 102:25-27. The word "Lord" is not in the original, but it is in the LXX.; and the Hebrew Christians who already believed that it was by Christ that "God made the world" (see note on Hebrews 1:2) would not dispute the Messianic application of these words to Him. They are a prayer of the afflicted written at some late period of the exile. Calvin (on Ephesians 4:8) goes so far as to say of such passages that the Apostle "by a pious diversion of their meaning (piâ deflectione) accommodates them to the Person of Christ." The remark illustrates the courageous honesty and stern good sense of the great Reformer; but no Jewish-Christian exegete would have thought that he was practising a mere pious misapplication of the sacred words, or have admitted the objection of Cardinal Cajetan that "in a matter of such importance it was unbecoming to use such an argument." The writer's object is not proofwhich was for his readers unnecessary; he wished to illustrateacknowledged truths by admitted principles.

in the beginning Heb. לְפָנִים, "face-wards," i.e. of old.