Hebrews 2: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The writer urges close attention to the message announced by the Lord, confirmed by those who heard him and backed by God with signs, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, since the message given through angels carried real penalties. He quotes Psalm 8 about man being made a little lower than the angels and given rule over everything, notes that we do not yet see everything under his control, and points to Jesus, crowned with glory and honor after suffering death for everyone. Because those he makes holy share flesh and blood, he shared it too, so that by dying he could break the power of the devil and free those enslaved by fear of death. Made like his brothers in every way, he becomes a merciful and faithful high priest who can help those who are tempted.

Claim by Claim

1. 2:1
   • Because of what has been said, we must pay closer attention to the things we have heard.
   • The purpose of that closer attention is that we not drift away from what we heard.
2. 2:2
   • A message was spoken through angels.
   • That message proved binding and reliable.
   • Every transgression and act of disobedience received a just penalty in return.
   • These statements are set as the condition of an argument beginning with 'if'.
3. 2:3
   • The question is asked how we shall escape if we neglect so great a salvation.
   • It is implied that we will not escape if we neglect it.
   • This salvation began to be spoken by the Lord.
   • The salvation was confirmed to us by those who heard the Lord.
4. 2:4
   • God bore witness alongside them.
   • God bore witness with signs and wonders.
   • God bore witness with various miracles.
   • God bore witness with distributions of the Holy Spirit.
   • God distributed these according to his own will.
5. 2:5
   • God has not subjected the coming inhabited world to angels.
   • The coming world is the subject the writer is speaking about.
6. 2:6
   • Someone testified somewhere, in words that are quoted.
   • The testimony asks what man is, that God is mindful of him.
   • The testimony asks what the son of man is, that God visits him.
7. 2:7
   • God made him lower than the angels by a small measure; whether this means a small degree or a short time is not specified.
   • God crowned him with glory and honor.
   • God set him over the works of God's hands.
8. 2:8
   • God put all things in subjection under his feet.
   • In subjecting all things to him, God left nothing that is not subject to him.
   • At present we do not yet see all things subjected to him.
9. 2:9
   • We see Jesus.
   • Jesus was made lower than the angels by a small measure.
   • Jesus is crowned with glory and honor.
   • The crowning is connected with his suffering of death.
   • The purpose was that he should taste death for everyone.
   • He tasted death by the grace of God.
10. 2:10
    • All things exist for God.
    • All things exist through God.
    • It was fitting for God to act as described.
    • God is bringing many sons to glory.
    • God made the leader of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
11. 2:11
    • The one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one source.
    • For that reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers.
12. 2:12
    • He says he will declare God's name to his brothers.
    • He says he will sing praise to God in the midst of the assembly.
13. 2:13
    • He says again, 'I will put my trust in him.'
    • He says again, 'Behold, I and the children which God has given me.'
14. 2:14
    • The children share in flesh and blood.
    • He likewise shared in the same flesh and blood.
    • His purpose was to destroy through death the one who holds the power of death.
    • The one who holds the power of death is the devil.
15. 2:15
    • His purpose was also to set free those who were held in slavery.
    • Those people were subject to that slavery through fear of death.
    • They were subject to it their whole lives.
16. 2:16
    • He does not take hold of angels.
    • He takes hold of the seed of Abraham.
17. 2:17
    • He was obliged to be made like his brothers in all things.
    • The purpose was that he might become a merciful high priest.
    • The purpose was that he might become a faithful high priest.
    • His priesthood concerns the things pertaining to God.
    • The purpose was to make atonement for the sins of the people.
18. 2:18
    • He himself has suffered when tempted.
    • Because of that, he is able to help those who are tempted.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

2:1

"Let them slip" is not a warning about forgetting. The Greek image is of a boat drifting past its anchorage or a ring slipping off a finger: the danger is passive loss, sliding away from something rather than deciding against it.

2:2

"The word spoken by angels" refers to the law given at Sinai. By the first century it was widely held in Jewish tradition that God delivered that law through angels, and the New Testament assumes the same idea elsewhere. "Stedfast" here is a legal term: the message was valid and enforceable. "A just recompence of reward" does not mean a prize; in 1611 "reward" meant simply what was paid back, good or bad, so the phrase means the penalty that was properly due.

2:3

"Salvation" in the King James does not carry only the churchly sense it has now. The underlying Greek word means rescue or deliverance, the kind of word used of being saved from drowning, an enemy, or an illness. The writer also places himself in the second generation: he did not hear Jesus directly but received the message from those who did.

2:4

"Divers" is the older spelling of "diverse" and means various or of many kinds, not the modern "divers" who swim. "Holy Ghost" is simply the 1611 way of saying Holy Spirit; "ghost" then meant spirit or breath and had no connotation of a haunting.

2:5

"The world to come" translates a phrase for the inhabited world under the coming age, a standard Jewish way of dividing time into the present age and the age God will bring. It is a period as much as a place.

2:6

"One in a certain place" is a normal way of citing Scripture in Greek writing of this period, where texts had no chapter or verse numbers and an author could gesture at a passage his hearers would recognize. The quotation is Psalm 8, verses 4 to 6. "Son of man" there is a Hebrew idiom meaning simply a human being, a member of the human race; it is a poetic restatement of "man" in the line before, not a title.

2:7

"A little lower than the angels" follows the Greek version of Psalm 8; the Hebrew word behind "angels" can also mean God or heavenly beings, and ancient translators differed. The Greek phrase rendered "a little" is also genuinely ambiguous: it can mean a little in degree, or for a little while in time. The writer will use that second sense in verse 9.

2:8

"Put all things in subjection under his feet" is the language of a victorious king with a defeated enemy literally beneath his foot, a common image in ancient royal art and inscriptions. It means total authority, not just ownership.

2:9

"Taste death" is a Semitic idiom meaning to undergo death, to experience it fully. It does not suggest a sip or a partial experience.

2:10

"It became him" means it was fitting for him, suitable to his character, not that he turned into something. "Captain" translates a Greek word meaning the one who goes first and opens the way: a pioneer, founder, or leader whom others follow. "Make perfect" translates a verb meaning to bring to completion or to its intended goal; in Greek usage it could also describe qualifying a priest for office. It does not imply that he was previously morally flawed.

2:11

"Sanctifieth" means makes holy, sets apart for God. "All of one" is deliberately unfinished in the Greek: one what is not stated. It may mean of one father, of one family, or of one origin, and translators have long disagreed.

2:12

The quotation is Psalm 22, verse 22. "Church" here translates a Greek word meaning an assembly of people gathered together; in the psalm it is the congregation of Israel at worship. It never means a building in this text.

2:13

Both quotations come from Isaiah, chapter 8, verses 17 and 18, where the prophet declares his trust in God and presents himself and his children as signs to Israel.

2:14

"Flesh and blood" is a standard idiom for human beings in their ordinary mortal condition. "Destroy" here translates a Greek verb meaning to render useless, break the power of, or put out of action; it is about stripping away force rather than wiping out of existence.

2:15

"Bondage" means slavery. The picture is of people who obey fear the way a slave obeys an owner.

2:16

The King James supplies the words "the nature of," which are not in the Greek. The verb means to take hold of someone, the gesture of grabbing a person to pull them out of danger, and so to come to their aid. "The seed of Abraham" means Abraham's descendants.

2:17

"Behoved" is an old word meaning it was necessary for him, he was obliged to. The high priest was the single chief priest of Israel, the one man who entered the innermost part of the temple on the Day of Atonement to present blood for the people's sins. "Make reconciliation" translates a word from that same ritual world, meaning to make atonement, to deal with sin so that the relationship is settled.

2:18

"Succour" is an old word meaning to run to someone's aid, to come to the help of a person in distress. The Greek word translated "tempted" covers both senses of being enticed to do wrong and being put to the test by hardship, and the writer is drawing on both.