(avg. read time: 5–10 mins.)
2:5 For it was not to the angels that he subjected the approaching/coming world, about which we are speaking.
2:6 But someone testified somewhere saying,
“What is a human being that you remember one, the son of man that you are mindful of one?
2:7 You have made the human to be a little [for a little while] lower than the angels, with glory and honor you crowned him,
2:8 subjecting all things under his feet.” For in subjecting all things to him, nothing was left that was not subjected to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him,
2:9 yet Jesus, “made to be a little lower than the angels,” we do see, who because of the suffering of death is “crowned with glory and honor,” so that by the grace of God on behalf of all he should taste/eat death.
2:10 For it was proper for him, through whom all things are and for whom all things are, in bringing many children to glory should make the pioneer of their salvation complete through suffering.
2:11 For also the one who sanctifies/purifies and the ones who are sanctified/purified are all from one; for this reason/cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,
2:12 saying,
“I will proclaim/declare your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.”
2:13 and again,
“I will put trust in him,”
and again,
“Behold I and the children whom God has given to me.”
2:14 Therefore, since the children have shared in blood and flesh, he also likewise [hapax] participates in them/the same, in order that through death he should annihilate the one who has/wields the power of death—this one is the devil,
2:15 and deliver them, who were through the fear of death all their lives were subjected to slavery.
2:16 For surely [hapax] he does not show such care for/take hold to help the angels, but for the seed/offspring of Abraham he does show such care/take hold to help.
2:17 Therefore he had/ought to be made like all of his brothers and sisters, in order that he should be a merciful and faithful high priest to God, in order to propitiate the sins of the people;
2:18 for since in what he suffered he himself was tempted, he is able to help the ones who are tempted.
I have written about 2:5–18 as it relates to other texts in Hebrews elsewhere, and much of that material will be reflected here (as it was, in turn, drawn from what these posts are based on). This section contains another long, coherent phase of the argument, this time centered primarily around Christ and Ps 8 (even as the author refers to other texts). The opening of 2:5 once again makes clear that there is an eschatological orientation and framework to this argument by reference to the coming world (or the world that is about to be). Naturally, the author argues that Christ is the one that this coming world is subject to, but the way in which he makes this argument is noteworthy.
Through a new creation and christological lens he reads a text about the original creation in Ps 8:4–6 (LXX 8:5–7 with the first line of the last verse omitted presumably to smooth out the citation and to comport it to the collocated text of Ps 110:1). This is not clearly read prosopologically—since it is attributed to “someone somewhere”—but it is rather particularized in a typological fashion and read in a prophetic light. This text is originally about “the human,” as it is singular in the Hebrew as it is in the LXX, but not in many English translations today, which tend to use “humanity” or “humans” as the referents. This is about the abstract human, particularized to signify what all heirs of Adam were supposed to be in ideal according to the purpose of God, beings created a little lower than the angels, yet crowned with glory and honor, set over all the other works of creation with all things placed under their feet to be ruled as God willed. But the singular is also conducive to a prophetic reading, as it opens the door to a particular fulfillment of this general ideal, a perfect representative of humanity that fulfills what the human vocation was always purposed to be. While Adam and other humans were types that could never fulfill this creative purpose of God because of their sinfulness and concomitant weakness, Jesus is the anti-type who fulfills what humanity was supposed to be, being the perfect image-bearer of God incarnate. But in order to achieve God’s purpose for humanity and to save others so that they too could fulfill this purpose, Christ—the one already shown to be higher than all the angels—had to be made lower than the angels and become flesh. And in his capacity as God and human in flesh, God the Father has put all things under his feet. However, this text that originally applied to the initial creation now becomes also appropriate to speak of new creation because at the present time we do not yet see the consummate reality of the kingdom in which all of creation abides by the reality of his kingship—and the consequent vice-regency of humans—by being subject to him. But what we do see is Jesus, the perfect human, who suffered through death and became crowned with glory and honor because of his resurrection and conquest of death. He thus becomes the way of salvation and everyone who follows him participates in this way by participating in the story of his life, death, resurrection, and consequent exaltation. In order to open this way of salvation, by the grace of God he tasted death for all. If he tasted death for the sake of everyone, then he was resurrected for their sake as well.
Once again, the author makes sure to make clear in v. 10 that everything which Jesus accomplished was all the execution of God’s will. He is the one through whom and for whom all things are and it is his will to make all things that are as he purposed them to be. In order to correct the disorder that disjoins the “is” and the “ought”, it was proper for him to bring many children to glory by making their Savior complete through suffering. I take this to mean that in order for the Son to follow God’s will completely, in order for him to be complete in forging the way of salvation, he had to suffer and to die. By this means, he could open the way for others to follow. In fact, the word ἀρχηγός (sometimes translated as “author”) properly has the sense of the one who is the pioneer, the trailblazer, the way-maker. By his complete obedience through suffering unto death, he completely fulfilled the will of God for himself and for humanity as a whole, making the way for others to follow, so that they too may be made holy through him. God willed for Jesus to be the sanctifier and through him to sanctify others so that the sanctifier and sanctified would all be one, having their common source and basis of trust in one—namely, God the Father.
And wondrously, by this way he forged Jesus exalts his followers to be part of his family as they were created to be, that he may call them brothers and sisters and not be ashamed. He is now the one who fulfills the words spoken in prosopon in Ps 22:22 and Isa 8:17–18, revealing that these words were his all along and that it was his brothers and sisters—the assembly of God—and his children that were spoken of in these texts by him through the prophets. They are the provision of God, the children of his blessing, the brothers and sisters of the one who sings and embodies God’s praises and God’s glory. In order for believers to be made as Christ is, Christ had to become as they are, thereby making them all one family. Humans could not by themselves rise to his level, so he had to come down to theirs in order to raise them up.
The most important action which made the way for humanity was Christ’s conquest of death. His conquest not only liberates, but delivers in the fullest sense for it enables the life of new creation (i.e., resurrection life, everlasting life). As a consequence, his own death became a means for annihilating the devil, who wields the power of death and enslaves people to the fear of it. In short, he triumphed over death by death because of resurrection, even though it is not explicitly mentioned here. The language is nevertheless reminiscent of 1 Cor 15:24, 26, since the same verb—καταργἐω—is used in both contexts in reference to the goal of Christ’s work against the enemy that is death (or, in the case of Hebrews, the one who wields death). Both texts also use Ps 8 and—more distantly—Ps 110 to refer to the kingship of Christ while maintaining the recognition that the kingdom has not yet been fully implemented/embodied in the world. They also both use these texts to signify Christ as the perfect human representative who fulfills these texts even as he is God-in-flesh. This union of God and human in flesh and bringing that human through death to resurrection and exaltation was necessary for the redemption and exaltation of humans, beings who were supposed to have all other parts of creation subject to them but instead became fearfully subjected to death.
The author then closes this section of the argument by recalling a point that he has already made and by anticipating a later point. As he said in v. 5, it was not to angels that God subjected the world that is coming and thus it was not for angels that God showed such care (in the sense of “took hold to help”) as to make his own Son one of them and have him experience death for them. Rather, it was for the offspring of Abraham that he so acted, the Abraham to whom he had made such grand promises millennia beforehand. In order to fulfill these promises and to bring his cosmic plan to fruition—and this is to anticipate a later and much more detailed argument—Christ had to be made like those who God also called his children and he had to take on the role of high priest mercifully and faithfully fulfilling his office, his vocation to God. The children of God could never fulfill their creative purpose so long as the disorder, dysfunction, and disjoint of sin remained. Propitiation for sins was required to restore order, proper function, and relationship. As with the situation of the old covenant with its high priests, the Father is the one who is the recipient of sacrifice and the one who must be propitiated in order for reconciliation to be effected. I hope to get into these dynamics in more detail later, but it is interesting to note for now that the author also anticipates a point he will expand on in ch. 4 about Jesus’s temptation and his ability to help those who are tempted, since he himself never surrendered to temptation so as to sin.