Hebrews 1:9

ἠγάπησας δικαιοσύνην … “Thou lovedst righteousness and didst hate lawlessness, therefore God, thy God, anointed thee with oil of gladness above thy fellows.” The quotation is verbatim from LXX of Psalms 45:8 [the Alexand. text reads ἀδικίαν in place of ἀνομίαν, so that the author used a text not precisely in agreement with that of Cod: Alex. v. Weiss]. The anointing as King is here said to have been the result [διὰ τοῦτο] of his manifestation of qualities fitting him to rule as God's representative, namely, love of right and hatred of iniquity. [ἀνομία is used in 1 John 3:4, as the synonym and definition of ἁμαρτία. ἡ ἁμαρτία ἐστὶν ἡ ἀνομία. It is contrasted with δικαιοσύνῃ in 2 Corinthians 6:14, τίς γὰρ μετοχὴ δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ἀνομίᾳ ;] It is the Messiah's love of righteousness as manifested in His earthly life which entitles Him to sovereignty. ὁ Θεός is taken as a vocative here, as in Hebrews 1:8, by Lünemann, Weiss and others; and ὁ Θεός σου as the direct nom. to ἔχρισε. Westcott thinks that the ἔλαιον ἀγαλλ. refers “not to the solemn anointing to royal dignity but to the festive anointing on occasions of rejoicing”. So Alford. Davidson, on the other hand, says: “As Kings were anointed when called to the throne, the phrase means made King”. So, too, Weiss and von Soden. But the psalm is not a coronation ode, but an epithalamium; the epithalamium, indeed, of the ideal King, but still a festive marriage song (Hebrews 1:10-14), to which the festal ἔλαιον ἀγαλ. is appropriate. The oil of exultation is the oil expressive of intense joy (cf. Psalms 23:15 of the psalm). The only objection to this view is that God is said to be the anointer, but this has its parallel in Psalms 23:5; and throughout Psalms 45. God is considered the originator of the happiness depicted (cf. Psalms 23:2). Whether the marriage rejoicings are here to be applied to the Messiah in terms of Psalms 23:16 of the psalm is doubtful. The verse is cited probably for the sake of the note of superiority contained in παρὰ τοὺς μετόχους σου. In the psalm the μέτοχοι are hardly other Kings; rather the companions and counsellors of the young King. In the Messianic application they are supposed by Bleek, Pierce, Alford, Davidson, Peake, etc., to be the angels. It seems preferable to keep the term indefinite as indicating generally the supremacy of Christ (cf. Psalms 45:2). [παρά “From the sense of (1) beside, parallel to, comes that of (2) in comparison with; and so (3) in advantageous comparison with, more than, beyond ”. Vaughan].