Verse 13 speaks of the period of birth, but this verse speaks of something far more

mysterious. This secret thing, wrought in the lower parts of the earth, the LXX calls "my

hupostasis", and this hupostasis is to birth (13) what the Substance of Heb. 1: 3 is to the

Express Image. While the verse which follows does not contain the same word in the

LXX, it is nevertheless an expansion of the meaning of hupostasis.

In the earlier verses of the Psalm there is found this same thought of something hidden

and unseen except by God (See verses 2 and 4). Another passage where the word occurs

in the LXX, is Psa. 39: 5 "Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreath, and

mine age (hupostasis) is as nothing".  Here the word "age" is in Hebrew cheled,

something that creeps imperceptibly, and so not manifest.  "Time slips our notice

and unheeded flies". The Syriac version used cheled to translate, "to creep in" in

II Tim. 3: 6.

Psa. 69: 2 gives us an example of the simpler concept of "standing". Our own

word "understanding" is a faculty of the mind, a meaning we can very well imagine a

would-be expositor ridiculing, who simply used the dissecting knife and limited himself

to the etymology "stand" "under". In the New Testament we find hupostasis used in

the sense of "confidence", a most natural development of the idea of underlying reality,

II Cor. 9: 4; 11: 17; Heb. 3: 14.  Heb. 11: 1 reads, "Now faith is the substance of

things hoped for", something real, though not seen. The unseen faith of the worthies that

occupy Heb. 11: was manifested in their lives.

Their hupostasis had its express image in their lives and conduct. One thing was

common to them all. They lived, suffered, and died for something "unseen", or "seen

afar off"; they endured as seeing Him Who is invisible. If faith is the substance of things

hoped for, we can use either term with good sense. Instead of the words, "By faith Abel

. . . . . Noah, Abraham", we can say, By the conviction produced by the substance (the

deep hidden reality) of things hoped for, Abel, Noah, Abraham did this or that.

Christ is the charakter of God's hupostasis. No law or set of laws, no fasts, feasts, or

sacrifices, no series of typical men could ever be the Express Image; Christ alone is that.

It is this thought that permeates the epistle to the Hebrews. It is because of this that the

title occurs here. It is essential to its true understanding that we remember that it would

not have been employed if the theme of the epistle had not demanded it. Because Christ,

and Christ alone, is the Express Image, He is above angels (Heb. 1:), above Moses

(Heb. 3:), and Joshua (Heb. 4:), above the high priesthood of the order of Aaron

(5:-8:), above all typical sacrifices and offerings (9:-10:), and above all examples and

patterns (12: 1, 2).  None but Christ in every phase of His charakter can express the

glorious hupostasis of the invisible God.

No prophet, however closely he walked with God, could ever be "The Express Image

of the Divine Substance". This is the prerogative of Him Who is the Image of the