Thy Throne, O God
Hebrews 1, the Son above the angels, as the early church read it
Hebrews opens by lifting the Son high above every creature, and twice it does something startling: the Father turns to the Son and calls Him "God" with an everlasting throne (verse 8), and then applies to the Son the words of the psalm spoken to the LORD the Creator, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth… Thou remainest" (verses 10-12). Chrysostom calls this "a mortal blow" to Arius: what belongs to God the Father is here said of the Son. The Father in his own words below, with a plain restatement.
The Father's words are verbatim and attributed (Chrysostom, Homilies on Hebrews, NPNF, public domain; selected from the running prose, footnote apparatus omitted). The box marked "In plain terms" is our own restatement, never the Father's words.
Hebrews 1:8-9 · KJVBut unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom… therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
"'But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.'… against the word, 'He made,' he put, 'Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.' Against the Arians there is both this same again, and also that He is not a slave; but if a creature, He is a slave… Didst thou see how what is created and what is begotten are not the same?"
St. John ChrysostomThe Father Himself addresses the Son as "God," and grants Him not a temporary office but an everlasting throne. Chrysostom sets this against the angels, of whom Scripture says God "made" them; the Son is not made but begotten, and these are not the same thing. If the Son were a creature, He would be a servant; but here He is called God and enthroned forever. (The next line, "thy God hath anointed thee," is spoken of His humanity, the manhood anointed, not the Godhead, so both natures appear in one verse.)
Hebrews 1:10-12 · KJVAnd, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands… they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
"'Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thine hands… but Thou remainest… Thou art the same and Thy years shall not fail.'… he strikes both Paul of Samosata and also Arius a mortal blow, applying to the Son the things which relate to the Father… 'in the beginning': not now, but from the first."
St. John ChrysostomThis is the decisive stroke. The psalm being quoted (Psalm 102) is addressed to the LORD, the Creator who made heaven and earth and outlasts them unchanged. Hebrews puts those very words in the Father's mouth, spoken to the Son. So the Son is the Creator "in the beginning", not a latecomer, not a creature, but the unchanging God whose "years shall not fail." Chrysostom: what belongs to the Father is here applied to the Son, a mortal blow to anyone who would make Him less than God.
Where this stands among the traditions
Shared, Nicene ground again. Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant confess together what Chrysostom argues here: the Son is true God, addressed as God by the Father, enthroned forever, the eternal Creator, "begotten, not made." Hebrews 1 was a cornerstone of the church's case at Nicaea against Arius, and it remains the common confession of all. The drift it stands against is the perennial one of treating Christ as the highest and best of creatures rather than as God the Son, of one being with the Father.
Patristic text from Chrysostom's Homilies on Hebrews (NPNF, public domain), selected from the running prose with footnote apparatus omitted; nothing added or paraphrased within the quotation marks. Scripture in the King James Version; the plain-language lines are our own restatement. See also The Word Was God and The Image and the Firstborn; this passage in the Study Bible; Hebrews 1 at BibleHub.