Note 1 — Chapter XIII · Epistle to the Hebrews (A Sequel to Sophia Solomontos).

It appears to me that the evolution is represented in the order given. Paul’s phrase, “first-born of all creation,” is an amplification of the word “first-born” used in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but there used in another connection,—and not solely, as we shall see, relating to Christ. Paul’s phrase corresponds with “the only-begotten,” etc., of John, and with the “son constituted heir” of the Epistle to the Hebrews, though the latter is a different Christological conception. When this writer’s doctrinal statement is finished, and after his argument is begun, he says (i. 6), “But when of old bringing the first-born into the inhabited earth, he saith, And pay homage to him all angels of God.” The word “first-born” here is probably the seed from which Paul develops his full flower of doctrine, given above. Paul’s conception of a creative Christ seems later than the “guiding” Christ (Heb. i. 3), which recalls the function of Wisdom as “director” at the creation (Prov. viii. 30); and the idea in this epistle to the Hebrews of a previous and historical Christophany, while harmonious with that of the “Wisdom of Solomon” (vii. 27),—that she (Wisdom) “in all ages enters into holy souls,”—is so primitive, unique, and so foreign to Paul, that the writer may have been one of those accused by him of preaching “another Jesus” (2 Cor. ii. 4).1