Father Boylan’s Commentary on Hebrews 2:14-18

(14) Since now children share in blood and ‘flesh, He hath likewise shared therein, that He might by death destroy him who hath power oyer death, that is, the devil,
(15) and set free all those who had been kept in slavery throughout their whole life by the fear of death.
(16) For He indeed taketh not hold of angels, but He taketh hold of the seed of Abraham.

Through their common, origin children have a common nature, and that nature is, in the case of men, liable to pain and death. Christ by His Incarnation became a sharer in that nature, and He became, thus, also liable to death. It was, however, the purpose of the Incarnation that Christ by His own death should overcome the prince of death, and establish the freedom of man which
had been destroyed by the ever-present fear of death. Though the primary purpose of the death of Christ was to overcome death itself, the author says that Christ died to overcome him who has power over death. This reference to the devil would suggest more clearly the origin of death and of the fear of death, and it would also set forth the death of Christ as a personal victory over Satan, the ‘prince of this world’. The devil got his power over flesh through sin (Gen 3:1 ff.; Wisdom 3:24. Cf. John 8:44; 1 John 2:8, 12). By destroying sin Christ has destroyed death, and has deprived of his power him who used death as his servant. If Satan brings men to death, the death of Christ brings them to life, and therefore to freedom from the fear of death. (Cf. 1 Thess 4:12.) Death had been the utmost effeqt of Satan’s power; it now becomes the chief instrument of his . defeat. The defeat of Satan was brought about by the, full atonement for sin which was, made by the death of Christ. We have here the ultimate motive of the Incarnation. Men were to be freed from the fear of death and from Satan. This could only be brought about by the action of One of like nature with men and able to make atonement, who would be willing to undertake the task of setting them free. Hence Christ became man.

The fear of, death is abundantly illustrated in the Old Testament. Christ’s death and resurrection have given death a new , meaning, and stripped it of its terrors.

Angels did not stand under the devil’s power, and Christ did not, therefore need to assume (‘take hold of’) their nature. The seed of Abraham are all who are tempted, and tried, and who trust, as Abraham did. Becoming a man meant for Christ becoming a means for bringing men to God, i. e. a Priest. This leads on
to the following.

(17) Hence it behoved Him to be made like unto the brethren in all respects that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, so as to atone for the sins of the people.
(18) For because He hath suffered, being tempted Himself thereby. He can give help to those who are tempted.

We have here another reason for the humiliation of Christ — that He might thereby come to have full and sympathetic understanding of our miseries,
and needs. In all essential points, κατα παντα (= “in all respects”), He was one in constitution with men, and He was one with them also in all that followed from that constitution, such as sufferings and trials. He was thus eminently fitted to be a Mediator between men and God, a High Priest. As sin is not a necessary part of a High Priest’s equipment, it is not included in the ‘all things’. (Cf. Heb 4:15.) Christ, being like men in all essential features, is a merciful and faithful High Priest in everything which has to do with religious matters, with man’s relations to God, τα προς τον θεον (= “things pertaining to God”). The most important of a High Priest’s functions was the offering of atoning sacrifices for sin, and for the Jewish High Priest the chief offering of atoning sacrifice took place on the great Day of Atonement. The ritual of Atonement Day is kept closely in view by the author throughout his exposition of the Priesthood of Christ.

The readers of the Epistle were tempted, it would seem, to despair because of their griefs, just as Jesus was ‘tempted’ by His (Luke 22:28). Hence He can sympathise with them, and give them suitable help. Thus we see here again that what might have appeared as a token of weakness in Christ may be set forth as the chief reason for trusting in Him.

The contrast between the temporary humiliation of Jesus, as compared with the angels, and His superiority to them as Son of God is, then, here further explained as due to the need of His sharing in the griefs and sorrows of human nature in order that He might rescue men from sin and death. What follows
immediately is an exhortation to loyalty towards Jesus the high Priest.

In verse 18 εν ω (= “For because”) can be taken either as (a) εαυτον εν ω = “Himself in that” (cf. Roms. 14:22), or (b) as εν τουτω οτι = “by this that” (cf. Rom 8:3: John 16:3o). The main emphasis is on πειραζομενοις (= “suffered”). πειραζομενοις is to be taken in a wide sense here as including all the sorrows of life and death with the temptations that went with them. Christ in
Luke 22:28 calls His sufferings πειρασμοις (= “adversity”, “temptations”).

Simply put, the beginning of Hebrews 2:18 could be translated in three different ways: (1) “For because he hath suffered”; (2) “In that he hath suffered”; (3) “By this that he hath suffered.”