1. Read Psm 2. For more on this psalm, see ☰.
2. It has sometimes been claimed that first-century rabbinic Judaism considered the passages quoted in this chapter as messianic, and that this is the background against which they should be undersood. Concrete evidences for such messianic readings are mostly lacking. With regards to Psm 110 (which is quoted by our author in v13), e.g., David Hay notes, "Messianic interpretation of the psalm is not clearly attested in rabbinic sources before the second half of the third century CE, but thereafer it appears frequently. The earliest advocates of it are identified as R[abbi] Hama b. Hamina (ca 260), R[abbi] Eleazar b. Pedat (ca 270) [etc]." At the same time, Hay concludes that there "is nothing in the psalm which, to our knowledge, Jews could not have predicted of the messiah. On balance, then, it seems fair to suppose that in the NT era a messianic interpretation of Ps 110 was current in Judaism, although we cannot know how widely it was accepted." (Glory at the Right Hand: Psalm 110 in Early Christianity (SBLMS, 18; Nashville: Abingdon, 1973), 28 & 30).
3. Angels are sometimes called "sons of God" in the OT, and in the Septuagint and in Philo, this became the dominant rendition for angels. See, also Sons of God.
Our author may seem to us as taking great liberity and selectivity in his method of biblical exegesis, which have been the subject of many scholarly thesis. What can be said about it is that he is consistent but also his method cannot be duplicated without falling into genuine charges of being subjective. Unfortunately for us we have no claim to the divine inspiration that he has been attributed.