The Exalted Son Enters the Place of Human Weakness

Both verbs have a nautical ring. “Give heed” is prosecho, which can mean to bring a ship in to moor; “let them slip” is pararreo, to flow past, used of a boat drifting past its harbour on the current, or a ring slipping off a finger. The danger pictured is drift, with no storm required.

The law given at Sinai was believed to have come through angels: the Greek of Deuteronomy 33:2 places angels at God’s right hand there, and Stephen speaks of receiving “the law by the disposition of angels” (Acts 7:53; compare Galatians 3:19). “Stedfast” is bebaios, legally binding. “Recompence of reward” is misthapodosia, a word only Hebrews uses.

The writer counts himself among those to whom the message “was confirmed” by the first hearers, a second-generation believer. Paul insisted he received his gospel from no man (Galatians 1:12), which is one reason Luther, Calvin and many since have doubted that Paul wrote Hebrews. The letter itself never names its author.

“Gifts” is merismoi, distributions or portions, from the same root as the “many portions” of 1:1: God spoke in portions and gives the Spirit in portions. “According to his own will” matches 1 Corinthians 12:11, the Spirit “dividing to every man severally as he will”. Signs and wonders was the Exodus pairing (Deuteronomy 6:22).

“World” is oikoumene, the inhabited world, the word of 1:6 and of Luke 2:1, “all the world should be taxed”. Jewish tradition set angels over the nations of the present world: the Greek of Deuteronomy 32:8 divides the peoples “according to the number of the angels of God”, and Daniel 10:20 speaks of “the prince of Persia”. The coming world is given to another.

“One in a certain place testified” is a deliberately vague formula; Hebrews seldom names the human writer of Scripture, since for this author God is the speaker, and every reader knew the psalm. “Visitest” is episkeptomai, to look after or care for, the verb of Luke 1:68, “he hath visited and redeemed his people.”

“A little lower” is brachy ti, which can mean a little in degree or a little while in time, and verse 9 seems to use the time sense. The Hebrew of Psalm 8:5 reads “lower than elohim”, which can mean God or heavenly beings; the Greek translators chose “angels”. Some early manuscripts lack the final clause about the works of thy hands.

The writer comments on the quotation clause by clause, pressing “all things” until it admits no exception, then setting it beside what can actually be seen. Paul reads the same psalm verse of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:27 and makes one exception, God himself. The hinge word is “not yet”, oupo.

This is the first time the name Jesus appears in Hebrews, and in Greek it is held back to the end of the clause: “him who was made a little lower... we see, Jesus.” A few manuscripts and early writers, Origen among them, knew the reading “apart from God” instead of “by the grace of God”, a difference of a few letters.

“Make perfect” is teleioo, the verb the Greek Pentateuch uses for consecrating priests, where the Hebrew speaks of filling their hands (Exodus 29:9). The word already points toward the priesthood of verse 17. “Captain” is archegos, a founder or leader who goes first, translated “author” in 12:2.

“All of one” is literally “from one”, and whether the one is God the Father, or a common ancestor such as Adam or Abraham, is disputed. “Sanctifieth” is a present participle, an ongoing work. The phrase “not ashamed” returns in 11:16, where “God is not ashamed to be called their God.”

Psalm 22 opens with “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and at verse 22 turns abruptly from lament to praise. Hebrews quotes precisely that turning point, placing the words in the mouth of Jesus. “Church” is ekklesia, the Greek rendering of the psalm’s qahal, the assembled congregation of Israel.

Both quotations come from Isaiah 8:17-18, split in two by “and again”. The King James of Isaiah has “I will look for him”; Hebrews follows the Greek, “I will put my trust in him.” In Isaiah the children were the prophet’s own sons, whose names were given “for signs and for wonders in Israel.”

Two different verbs: the children “are partakers”, a perfect tense of koinoneo, sharing flesh and blood as their standing condition; he “took part”, an aorist of metecho, taking his share at one point in time. “Destroy” is katargeo, to make powerless, the verb of 2 Timothy 1:10. The Wisdom of Solomon (2:24) traces death to “the envy of the devil”.

Greek philosophers made freedom from the fear of death one of philosophy’s chief goals; Epicurus taught that “death is nothing to us”. Hebrews names the same fear and offers a different release. “Subject to” is enochos, liable, a legal word: the fear places people under a lifelong sentence of servitude.

“Took on him” is epilambanomai, to take hold of, often to take someone by the hand to help; Hebrews 8:9 uses it of God taking Israel “by the hand”, and Isaiah 41:9 of Abraham’s seed, “whom I have taken”. The King James supplied “the nature of” in italics; the Greek says he takes hold not of angels but of Abraham’s seed.

For the first time in the letter Jesus is called high priest, the title that governs chapters 4 to 10. “It behoved him” is opheilo, he was obliged, it was owed. “Make reconciliation” is hilaskomai, to make atonement, the root of the mercy seat, hilasterion, in 9:5, and the verb of the tax collector’s prayer: “God be merciful to me” (Luke 18:13).

“Tempted” is peirazo, which covers testing as well as enticement. “Succour” is boetheo, built from words meaning to run at a cry, to answer a shout for help, the verb of Mark 9:24, “help thou mine unbelief.” His help rests on the same trial he underwent.