QUICK FACTS: HEBREWS 1:1–2 — DID GOD SPEAK THROUGH HIS SON IN OLD TESTAMENT TIMES?
If Jesus Personally Existed Before His Birth, Why Does Hebrews Say God Has Spoken Through His Son “In These Last Days”?
Research by Simon Brown
Hebrews 1:1–2 is one of the most important passages in the entire discussion about the pre-existence of Jesus Christ.
Many Christians believe Jesus personally existed in heaven before His human birth and that God worked and spoke through Him throughout Old Testament history.
But when the writer of Hebrews introduces the Son, he makes a remarkable contrast.
He tells us how God spoke in the past, and then tells us how God has spoken “in these last days.”
So before assuming what Hebrews teaches about Jesus’ pre-existence, we need to examine exactly what the passage says.
HEBREWS 1:1–2
“God, having spoken long ago to our fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the ages.”
“God, having spoken long ago to our fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the ages.”
The Greek opening establishes a striking contrast:
πάλαι — palai
long ago / formerly
and:
ἐπ’ ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων
in these last days
The writer therefore places two periods of divine revelation side by side:
LONG AGO → GOD SPOKE IN THE PROPHETS
THESE LAST DAYS → GOD SPOKE IN HIS SON
And that immediately raises an important question:
IF GOD HAD ALREADY BEEN SPEAKING THROUGH HIS SON THROUGHOUT OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY, WHY DOES HEBREWS INTRODUCE GOD’S SPEAKING IN HIS SON AS THE REVELATION OF “THESE LAST DAYS”?
Let us investigate.
QUICK FACT 1 — WHO IS DOING THE SPEAKING?
The subject of Hebrews 1:1 is:
GOD
It is God who spoke long ago.
It is God who spoke through the prophets.
And it is the same God who has now spoken in His Son.
Notice the relationship:
GOD → spoke through the prophets
and:
GOD → has spoken in His Son
The prophets were God’s messengers.
The Son is presented as God’s climactic revelation.
The passage therefore distinguishes the God who speaks from the Son through whom God speaks.
This distinction by itself does not settle every question concerning the nature of Jesus. Trinitarians also distinguish the Father from the Son.
But we should first allow Hebrews to establish its own categories before imposing a theological conclusion upon the passage.
QUICK FACT 2 — HOW DID GOD SPEAK “LONG AGO”?
Hebrews tells us:
“God, having spoken LONG AGO to our fathers IN THE PROPHETS…”
The Greek word:
πάλαι — palai
means:
long ago
formerly
in time past
And who does Hebrews identify as God’s means of revelation during that former period?
THE PROPHETS.
This is significant.
The writer could have said:
God formerly spoke through His Son and through the prophets.
He could have said:
God’s Son spoke through the prophets.
He could have said:
God has always spoken through His Son.
But Hebrews 1:1 does not say any of these things.
Instead:
GOD SPOKE IN THE PROPHETS.
QUICK FACT 3 — SOMETHING CHANGES “IN THESE LAST DAYS”
Hebrews then contrasts that earlier period with another:
“In these last days has spoken to us in His Son…”
This is one of the central observations of the passage.
We have:
FORMERLY
God spoke in the prophets.
Then:
IN THESE LAST DAYS
God spoke in His Son.
Therefore we have to ask:
WHEN DOES HEBREWS PLACE GOD’S SPEAKING IN HIS SON?
Its answer is:
“IN THESE LAST DAYS.”
If the Son had already been God’s personal spokesman throughout Old Testament history, why does Hebrews introduce God’s speaking in His Son in this way?
That is a legitimate question that the doctrine of personal pre-existence must address.
QUICK FACT 4 — DOES THIS ALONE PROVE JESUS DID NOT PRE-EXIST?
We need to be precise.
NO — NOT BY ITSELF.
Hebrews 1:1–2 does not explicitly say:
“The Son did not exist before these last days.”
Therefore, we should not make the passage say something it does not literally say.
A Trinitarian, or another Christian who believes in personal pre-existence, can argue:
The Son existed before His human birth, but God’s climactic revelation through His Son occurred only in these last days.
That is a possible interpretation.
But an important question remains:
IF THE SON WAS PERSONALLY ACTIVE THROUGHOUT OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY, DOES HEBREWS IDENTIFY HIM AS GOD’S SPOKESMAN DURING THAT FORMER PERIOD?
In Hebrews 1:1–2:
IT DOES NOT.
Instead, Hebrews contrasts:
THE PROPHETS THEN
with:
THE SON NOW.
That observation does not by itself prove non-pre-existence.
But it is important evidence that deserves serious consideration.
QUICK FACT 5 — THE SON IS “APPOINTED HEIR”
Hebrews continues:
“…His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things…”
Again notice who performs the action.
GOD APPOINTS
and:
THE SON IS APPOINTED.
The Greek word translated heir is:
κληρονόμον — klēronomon
The Son receives the position of heir from God.
This fits a pattern found elsewhere in Scripture.
MATTHEW 28:18
Jesus said:
“All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.”
ACTS 2:36
Peter declared:
“God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
PHILIPPIANS 2:9
Paul wrote:
“Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name.”
The recurring pattern is:
GOD GIVES
GOD APPOINTS
GOD EXALTS
and:
JESUS RECEIVES.
This distinction deserves careful attention when asking who Hebrews understands the Son to be.
QUICK FACT 6 — BUT DOESN’T HEBREWS 1:2 SAY JESUS CREATED THE UNIVERSE?
This is one of the most important objections.
Many English Bibles end Hebrews 1:2 with wording such as:
“through whom He made the worlds”
or:
“through whom He made the universe.”
At first sight this appears to settle the question.
If God created the physical universe through Jesus, then Jesus would necessarily have existed before His human birth.
But what does the Greek actually say?
Hebrews reads:
δι’ οὗ καὶ ἐποίησεν τοὺς αἰῶνας
di’ hou kai epoiēsen tous aiōnas
The crucial word is:
αἰῶνας — AIŌNAS
It is the plural of:
αἰών — aiōn
whose basic temporal meaning is:
AGE
Therefore:
τοὺς αἰῶνας — tous aiōnas
can be directly rendered:
THE AGES.
The Greek text does not contain κόσμος (kosmos), the familiar Greek word for “world.”
That distinction matters.
QUICK FACT 7 — THEN WHY DO SOME TRANSLATIONS SAY “WORLDS” OR “UNIVERSE”?
This needs to be represented fairly.
The English words “worlds” and “universe” are not the literal lexical form appearing in Hebrews 1:2.
The Greek word is:
AIŌNAS — AGES.
However, that does not automatically mean that every translation using “worlds” or “universe” is fraudulent or deliberately mistranslated.
Greek lexicons recognize that aiōn can sometimes be used more broadly or metonymically in connection with the world or created order existing through the ages.
Some translators therefore understand Hebrews 1:2 as referring to the universe.
But that is an interpretive rendering of aiōnas.
The actual Greek word remains:
AIŌNAS
AGES.
Therefore we need to distinguish two separate questions:
WHAT GREEK WORD DID HEBREWS USE?
AIŌNAS — AGES.
And:
WHAT DID THE WRITER MEAN BY “AGES”?
That second question requires interpretation.
QUICK FACT 8 — WE HAVE ALREADY INVESTIGATED “AIŌNAS” IN DETAIL
Because this question is so important, I have already conducted a separate investigation devoted specifically to Hebrews 1:2:
HEBREWS 1:2 — HAS THE GREEK WORD BEEN MISTRANSLATED AS “WORLDS” OR “UNIVERSE”?
In that study I examine the Greek word:
αἰῶνας — aiōnas
I examine why “ages” directly represents the Greek word, why many English translations instead use “worlds” or “universe,” and what difference this makes to claims that Hebrews 1:2 proves Jesus created the Genesis universe.
READ THE FULL HEBREWS 1:2 STUDY
This detailed investigation is important because Hebrews 1:2 should not simply be paraphrased as:
“God created the physical universe through Jesus before Jesus was born.”
That is an interpretation of the verse.
It is not the literal wording of the Greek.
QUICK FACT 9 — “THROUGH WHOM HE MADE THE AGES”
Now consider the wording in context:
“…His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the ages.”
The Greek verb is:
ἐποίησεν — epoiēsen
from:
ποιέω — poieō
which can mean:
to make
to do
to produce
to bring about
depending upon context.
This creates an important interpretive question.
Is Hebrews saying:
God created the physical Genesis universe through a personally pre-existent Son?
Or is the writer speaking about:
God bringing about or ordering the ages of His purpose through the Messiah who stands at the centre of those ages?
The first is the traditional interpretation.
The second takes seriously the temporal meaning of:
AIŌNAS — AGES.
We therefore cannot settle Jesus’ personal pre-existence merely by replacing aiōnas with the English word “universe” and then using that translation as proof of the doctrine.
QUICK FACT 10 — JESUS IS AT THE CENTRE OF GOD’S PLAN FOR THE AGES
The idea that God’s purposes and ages reach their fulfilment through Christ is certainly found elsewhere in the New Testament.
Paul speaks about God’s:
EPHESIANS 3:11
“eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And Hebrews itself later speaks of Christ appearing:
HEBREWS 9:26
“…at the completion of the ages…”
“…at the completion of the ages…”
Jesus stands at the centre and climax of God’s purpose for human history.
Therefore, understanding Hebrews 1:2 in relation to God’s ages and purposes is something that deserves careful consideration.
QUICK FACT 11 — WHAT ABOUT HEBREWS 11:3?
This verse must also be considered because Hebrews uses aiōnas again:
HEBREWS 11:3
“By faith we understand that the ages were prepared by the word of God…”
“By faith we understand that the ages were prepared by the word of God…”
Again the Greek contains:
τοὺς αἰῶνας — TOUS AIŌNAS
THE AGES.
Many English translations again render the expression “worlds” or “universe.”
This is one reason some scholars understand aiōnas in Hebrews as encompassing the created world.
But notice something else.
Hebrews 11:3 says they were prepared:
BY THE WORD OF GOD.
It does not explicitly say:
“Jesus Christ created them.”
Connecting “the word of God” in Hebrews 11:3 directly with a personally pre-existent Jesus is itself an interpretation.
Again we must distinguish:
WHAT THE TEXT ACTUALLY SAYS
from:
OUR INTERPRETATION OF THE TEXT.
QUICK FACT 12 — THE SON IS NOT AN ANGEL
A few verses later Hebrews says:
HEBREWS 1:5
“For to which of the angels did He ever say, ‘You are my Son. Today I have begotten you’?”
“For to which of the angels did He ever say, ‘You are my Son. Today I have begotten you’?”
And:
“I will be to him a Father, and he will be to me a Son.”
Whatever interpretation we ultimately give these quotations, one point is clear:
THE SON IS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE ANGELS.
This is particularly important when considering theories that Jesus existed before His birth as an angelic being.
Hebrews establishes a strong distinction between:
THE SON
and:
THE ANGELS.
Therefore Hebrews 1 does not identify Jesus as Michael, Gabriel or another angel.
QUICK FACT 13 — WHAT DOES “TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU” MEAN?
Hebrews 1:5 quotes Psalm 2:7:
“You are My Son; today I have begotten You.”
This requires careful treatment because the word “begotten” can easily cause confusion.
First, we need to establish something very important:
JESUS WAS ALREADY GOD’S SON BEFORE HIS RESURRECTION.
The resurrection did not make Jesus God’s Son for the first time.
The miraculous conception account takes us much earlier.
LUKE 1:35
The angel tells Mary:
“The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.”
Notice the connection:
THE POWER OF THE MOST HIGH OVERSHADOWS MARY
THEREFORE
THE CHILD WILL BE CALLED THE SON OF GOD.
For the question of Jesus’ origin and birth, this passage is extremely important.
Jesus did not first become God’s Son at His resurrection.
He was already:
THE SON OF GOD
during His earthly ministry.
BUT THEN WHY DOES HEBREWS SAY:
“TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”?
Because Hebrews 1:5 is quoting:
PSALM 2:7.
Psalm 2 concerns God’s anointed King.
Therefore “Today I have begotten You” can function as royal Messianic language connected with God’s appointment, declaration and exaltation of His chosen King.
This becomes especially interesting because the New Testament quotes the same Psalm in Acts.
ACTS 13:33
“You are my Son. Today I have begotten you.”
“You are my Son. Today I have begotten you.”
Acts uses Psalm 2:7 in a context concerning God’s fulfilment of His promises in Jesus, with resurrection language immediately surrounding the discussion.
Hebrews itself quotes Psalm 2:7 again in:
HEBREWS 5:5
where the context concerns Christ’s appointment as High Priest.
Therefore:
“TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU” DOES NOT REQUIRE US TO CONCLUDE THAT JESUS FIRST BECAME GOD’S SON AT HIS RESURRECTION.
Nor should we automatically assume that Psalm 2:7 is identifying the exact moment Jesus first came into existence.
AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION
We should therefore keep two biblical ideas separate.
THE MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION — LUKE 1:35
God acts miraculously upon Mary, and the resulting child is identified as:
THE SON OF GOD.
But:
PSALM 2:7 / HEBREWS 1:5
“Today I have begotten You” can function as royal and Messianic language concerning God’s appointment, declaration and exaltation of His Son.
Therefore we should not confuse the two uses.
For the question:
WHEN DID JESUS FIRST COME INTO EXISTENCE?
Luke 1:35 is much more directly relevant to the discussion than simply assuming Psalm 2:7 describes His biological beginning.
This distinction becomes extremely important in our larger investigation of whether Jesus personally existed before His miraculous conception.
QUICK FACT 14 — HEBREWS DOES NOT IDENTIFY JESUS AS AN OLD TESTAMENT PROPHET OR ANGEL
Hebrews 1 does not tell us:
Jesus was Gabriel.
It does not tell us:
Jesus was Michael.
It does not tell us:
Jesus was an unnamed angel.
Nor does Hebrews 1:1 tell us:
God formerly spoke through His Son.
Instead, its opening sequence is:
GOD
↓
SPOKE LONG AGO THROUGH THE PROPHETS
↓
IN THESE LAST DAYS SPOKE IN HIS SON
That is what the passage explicitly gives us.
QUICK FACT 15 — WHAT DOES THE TRADITIONAL PRE-EXISTENCE INTERPRETATION SAY?
To investigate this fairly, we must understand the opposing interpretation correctly.
Trinitarian Christianity does not normally claim that Jesus was an angel before His birth.
It teaches that the eternal Son existed personally with the Father before creation and that God created the universe through the Son.
Under this interpretation:
Hebrews 1:1–2 does not mean that the Son only began existing in the last days.
Instead, it means that although the Son already existed, God’s definitive revelation through the incarnate Son occurred in these last days.
And aiōnas is understood broadly as the created universe or the ages together with everything contained within them.
That is a coherent theological interpretation and should be represented accurately.
But we must still ask:
IS THAT WHAT HEBREWS EXPLICITLY SAYS?
Or is that conclusion being drawn by interpreting several statements together through an already-established doctrine of pre-existence?
That is precisely what we are testing.
QUICK FACT 16 — THE OPENING CONTRAST STILL HAS TO BE EXPLAINED
After considering the traditional interpretation, we return to the opening words.
Hebrews makes a clear historical contrast:
LONG AGO
GOD SPOKE IN THE PROPHETS.
Then:
IN THESE LAST DAYS
GOD SPOKE IN HIS SON.
The passage does not explicitly say:
God spoke through His Son throughout Old Testament history and continued speaking through Him in these last days.
Instead, it distinguishes God’s former prophetic revelation from His climactic revelation in the Son.
Therefore, anyone arguing that the Son was God’s active personal spokesman throughout Old Testament history still needs to establish that proposition from other passages.
HEBREWS 1:1–2 DOES NOT SAY IT.
QUICK FACT 17 — THIS CONNECTS DIRECTLY WITH THE PRE-EXISTENCE QUESTION
This is why Hebrews 1:1–2 belongs alongside several other passages we have recently investigated.
Jesus says:
JOHN 6:38
“I have come down from heaven…”
“I have come down from heaven…”
Does that necessarily describe a conscious person literally descending from a former heavenly existence?
Jesus later says:
JOHN 6:62
“What if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?”
“What if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?”
Does that explicitly mean:
“returning to heaven where I consciously lived before my birth”?
And in John 13:3 and John 16:28, does the Greek actually contain a separate word meaning Jesus was “going back” or “returning” to God?
I have investigated these questions separately.
JOHN 6:62 — DOES “ASCENDING TO WHERE HE WAS BEFORE” PROVE JESUS LIVED IN HEAVEN BEFORE HIS BIRTH?
JOHN 13:3 & JOHN 16:28 — DID JESUS REALLY SAY HE WAS “RETURNING” OR “GOING BACK” TO GOD?
READ THE JOHN 13:3 & JOHN 16:28 STUDY
These studies are important because no single verse should be isolated from the cumulative biblical evidence.
SO, DID GOD SPEAK THROUGH HIS SON IN OLD TESTAMENT TIMES?
Hebrews 1:1–2 does not explicitly tell us that the Son was God’s spokesman during Old Testament history.
What it explicitly tells us is:
1. GOD SPOKE LONG AGO.
2. GOD SPOKE TO THE FATHERS IN THE PROPHETS.
3. GOD HAS NOW SPOKEN TO US IN HIS SON.
4. THIS REVELATION IN THE SON IS ASSOCIATED WITH “THESE LAST DAYS.”
5. GOD APPOINTED THE SON HEIR OF ALL THINGS.
6. GOD MADE THE AIŌNAS — “AGES” — THROUGH HIM.
The disputed question is what that final statement means.
Does aiōnas encompass the physical universe, as the traditional interpretation understands it?
Or does it retain its temporal emphasis and concern the ages of God’s purpose, with the Messiah standing at their centre?
The Greek itself gives us:
AIŌNAS — AGES.
That question therefore deserves to be settled by context rather than by simply assuming that the English word “universe” proves personal pre-existence.
THE QUESTION HEBREWS LEAVES US WITH
If Jesus personally existed before His human birth, that claim must ultimately stand upon the cumulative evidence of Scripture.
But Hebrews 1:1–2 presents us with a question that should not be brushed aside:
IF GOD HAD ALREADY BEEN SPEAKING THROUGH HIS SON THROUGHOUT OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY, WHY DOES HEBREWS SAY THAT GOD SPOKE THROUGH THE PROPHETS “LONG AGO,” BUT HAS SPOKEN IN HIS SON “IN THESE LAST DAYS”?
The passage does not explicitly say that Jesus did not exist before His birth.
We should acknowledge that.
But neither does it say that the Son was God’s Old Testament spokesman.
Instead, the writer introduces the Son as God’s climactic revelation:
“IN THESE LAST DAYS.”
For me, this forms an important part of the cumulative biblical case against the doctrine of a consciously pre-existent Jesus.
And when Hebrews 1:1–2 is considered alongside the miraculous conception in Luke 1:35, Jesus’ genuine humanity, the Adam-Christ comparison, and the passages we have separately examined concerning “coming down from heaven,” “where He was before,” and “going to the Father,” the question of personal pre-existence deserves much closer examination than it is often given.



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