Feb 2: Father Callan on Hebrews 2:14-18 for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Note: This post was previously published; Hebrews 2:14-18 was also the reading for Jan 12.

Heb 2:14. Therefore because the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner hath been partaker of the same, that, through death, he might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil;
Heb 2:15. And might deliver them, who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude.

In these verses the Apostle gives another reason why Jesus should suffer and die like other men, namely, in order to deliver mankind from the bondage of the fear of death.

Because the children (i.e., mankind) are partakers of flesh and blood, i.e., have a suffering, mortal nature, the Saviour would also have such a nature and go through the agony of death. These words and those that follow prove the reality of our Lord’s human body against the Docetae, who maintained that the Saviour’s body was only a phantasm.

That, through death, he might destroy, etc. It was Satan that led man into sin, and by divine decree the punishment of sin was death (Gen 3:19; Wis. 2:23-24; Rom 5:12). According to Jewish conceptions, death meant separation from God and interruption of loving intercourse between the soul and its Maker (Num 17:13, 18:5; Ps 6; Ps 30, etc.); and hence, before Christ came, mankind were in bondage of the fear of death. But by dying our Lord proved that death was the gateway to life and the prelude to a glorious resurrection of the body and a happy eternity (1 Cor 15:21 ff.; Apoc 1:18). Thus, death, Satan’s instrument of terror, has been turned into a means of defeat; for by death Christ has fully atoned for man’s sin and thrown open wide to all faithful souls the portals of life without end. The verb “might destroy” here is a common one with St. Paul, occurring some twenty-eight times in his other Epistles.

16. For nowhere doth he take hold of the angels, but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold.

In this verse the writer tells us that, since our Lord came to redeem mankind and not angels. He took human and not angelic nature.

For nowhere (ου γαρ δηπου) means “certainly,” “surely.” The word δηπου is found only here in the Greek Bible.

Take hold means, literally, “take by the hand,” i.e., help, succor; the Saviour came into the world to succor those who had sprung from Abraham, the father of all God’s faithful people, of all those who should believe in Him, Jews and Gentiles alike (Rom 4:16-17, 9:6 ff.; Gal 3:6 ff., 6:16).

Heb 2:17. Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, that he might be a propitiation for the sins of the people.

Wherefore. The Greek word is common in this Epistle, but it is not found elsewhere in St. Paul. Since Christ came to the world to help men, it was becoming that He should be like them “in all things,” except sin (Heb 4:15), that is. He should have the same human nature, be subject to the same trials and sufferings, etc. The expression, “all things,” must not be understood to embrace anything incompatible with our Lord’s divinity, grace, or mission. Hence not only sin, but also inclination to evil, ignorance, and the like must be excluded from this statement.

That he might become, etc. Here we have still another reason for the humiliation and sufferings of Christ, namely, that He might be able to feel our needs and miseries, and thus be able the more easily to enter into our lives and be our mediator with God. He was to be our “high priest, etc.,” i.e., He was to occupy a position in the New Covenant similar to that of the High Priest of the Old Covenant; He was to be, therefore, “merciful” (i.e., full of sympathy and understanding for our needs and miseries) and “faithful” (i.e., trustworthy in the fulfillment of all His duties and functions) “in things pertaining to God” (i.e., in all religious matters that have to do with man’s relations to God), the most important of which was to “be a propitiation, etc.” (i.e., to offer an atoning sacrifice to God for sin), as the Jewish High Priest’s chief function was to offer an atoning sacrifice on the great Day of Atonement “for the sins of the people” (Lev 4:15 ff., 26:1 ff.). As the great Jewish sacrifice was a propitiation for the sins of the Jewish people, so the sacrifice which Christ offered was a propitiation for the sins of all mankind; the former was a type of the latter.

18. For in that, wherein he himself hath suffered and been tempted, he is able to succor them also that are tempted.

In the preceding verse the writer touched on the central thought of the whole Epistle, namely, the high-priestly work of Christ in being a propitiation for our sins. But the motive of the Incarnation was not only to offer an atoning sacrifice for the sins of men, but also in order that the Saviour might Himself enter into our sufferings and trials, so as to be able to succor us who “are tempted,” i.e., who are subject to the sorrows and trials of life and death. Temptation as applied to our Lord here does not mean incitement to sin, of which there could be no question, but trial, as in the wilderness and Gethsemane especially, and throughout our Lord’s life in general. The thought of this verse is also characteristic of the Epistle.