hebrews
+ NewThe Deity of Christ — Hebrews 1:1-4
Heb 1:1-4 opens with the Son as "the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature," who "upholds the universe by the word of his power." The Son is not a creature but the eternal heir of all things. Athanasius marshalled this text against any subordination of the Son, and Nicaea confessed him 'true God from true God'. The catena of Old Testament quotations that follows in Hebrews 1 applies divine titles directly to Christ. The creative agency of 1:2-3 matches the Logos of John 1:3 and the cosmic Christ of Col 1:16-17. Aquinas treats the Son's consubstantial glory as the basis of his priestly mediation, which Hebrews will develop in chapter 9.
Christ Our High Priest — Hebrews 9
Heb 9:11-14 presents Christ entering "the greater and more perfect tent... by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption." The earthly tabernacle was a copy; Christ ministers in the true sanctuary. Aquinas read Christ's priesthood as the perfect fulfillment of the Levitical types, and Owen built his entire theology of the atonement on Hebrews' priestly logic. The once-for-all sacrifice of 9:26 ends the cycle of repeated offerings. The chapter is a sustained meditation on the Day of Atonement in Lev 16:14-15, and its new-covenant frame fulfills Jer 31:31. The blood that inaugurates the new covenant reappears at the Lord's Supper in 1Cor 11:25.