Hebrews 2

— to make — perfect] Or, completely fit for the full execution of His office. Dr. Doddridge. God, the universal designer of all, in His wisdom foreseeing the oppositions and sufferings, which would befall His people in this world, thought it fit that Christ, His own Son, the author of their deliverance, should through sufferings come to His reward and crown, that so He might after His own example deliver those who suffer constantly and patiently. Dr. Hammond.

— through sufferings.] This verse contains an argument for the doctrine of the atonement, which ought to stop all mouths which reason against it. It belongs to the sovereignty of the Deity to fix the conditions on which He will pardon sinners. Wherefore, God having determined that they are to be pardoned through the death of His Son, Gal. i. 4, and having expressly declared His determination, Ps. cx. 4; Heb. v. 10, our duty is to rest satisfied with the knowledge of the fact, and thankfully to acquiesce in the appointment, although God hath neither made known the reasons which induced Him to save mankind through the death of His Son, rather than in any other method; nor explained to us in what manner the death of His Son, as a sin offering, hath accomplished our salvation. Dr. MacKnight.

— Behold I and the children which God hath given me.] By calling them His children, He declared them to be of the same nature with Himself. Dr. Whitby.

Hebrews 2:9

9. — But now we see not yet all things put under him.] Not the wicked, nor Satan, nor death: which shall be done, not in one instant, but successively. Bp. Fell. But now, as yet, we do not indeed see all things actually so subjected to His government, as that none of the rebellious enemies of Christ do rise up against Him; it is enough, that He has taken possession of His glory; and will, in His own due time, subdue all the adverse powers. Bp. Hall.

10. But we see Jesus, &c.] But in the mean time we see that Jesus, who was indeed made a little lower than the angels, in respect of His suffering of death, which those blessed spirits are not capable of, we see Him, I say, crowned with glory and honour, who was before humbled by His own voluntary dispensation, and by the wonderful grace and favour of God towards mankind, that He might undergo that death for man, which every one is liable unto; and, by His tasting of death, sweeten it to all His faithful ones. Bp. Hall.

— for the suffering of death.] These words may seem ambiguous, and capable of being referred either to the preceding or to the following clause. It is indeed true, that Christ was crowned as a reward for suffering death, as the Apostle expressly teaches, Phil. ii. 8, 9. But the concluding words of the verse, which have plainly a connexion with these, appear to determine them to the former sense; namely, that Christ was humbled “for the suffering of death,” that He might be capable of it. Dr. Doddridge.

Hebrews 2:10

10. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things.] God, the author and end of all things. Bp. Fell. He thought fit to do this, saith Dr. Hammond, 1st, Because thus the same nature suffered which had sinned; and therefore purged us from the guilt, which we in that nature had contracted; and so dissolved that death, to which we became subject by the death of Adam. This is the reason of Christ’s sufferings, on which all the primitive Fathers insist. 2dly, Because these sufferings fitted Him to be a merciful High Priest, to them that suffer as He did, and also to

things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Hebrews 2:11

11. For both he that sanctifieth] He, namely our Priest, who by His oblation purgeth us from sin. The word, rendered “sanctifieth,” is used in this Epistle in the sacrificial sense, or with reference to the expiation of sin. Dr. Whitby.

— are all of one:] Both our Saviour and we are all of one nature, namely, we have all one common humanity: for which cause He being, as He is, God blessed for ever, is not ashamed to call us miserable men by the name of brethren. Bp. Hall.

Hebrews 2:12

12. Saying, &c.] David, Isaiah, and the other Prophets, in many of their actions and sayings, were types of Christ. Bp. Fell. See Ps. xxii. The former part of the Psalm is prophecal of the passion: at this verse, the 22d, the strain changes to an hymn of triumph in the mouth of the Redeemer, celebrating His victory, and its happy consequences. “I will declare Thy name,” &c. And accordingly when the deliverance, so long wished, and so earnestly prayed for, was accomplished by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, He “declared the name of God,” by His Apostles, to all His “brethren;” and caused the church to resound with incessant praises and hallelujahs. Bp. Horne.

Hebrews 2:13

13. — I will put my trust in him.] That is, God; which words plainly denote Him to be a real man, beset with troubles and afflictions. Dr. Wells. Since the Son,

It behoved Christ to be made like unto us. Anno DOMINI 64. e Ibid. 6. 18. in him. And again, *Behold I and the children which God hath given me.

Hebrews 2:14

14. — he might destroy him that had the power of death.] He might frustrate and make void the devil’s design, which was to keep men for ever under the power of death. Dr. Hammond.

— him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.] For, as saith the Book of Wisdom, “through envy of the devil came death into the world,” chap. ii. 24. Compare John viii. 44. The Apostle’s meaning is, that the devil, at the beginning of the world, had the power of bringing death on all mankind, by tempting their first parents to sin. Hence he is called “a murderer from the beginning;” and “a liar, and the father of lies,” John viii. 44. Parkhurst, Dr. Macknight.

Hebrews 2:15

15. — through fear of death] The whole heathen world was subject to this fear, and to them death was the king of terrours. From this fear we are delivered at present, by our deliverance from that guilt of sin, which alone makes death truly terrible, 1 Cor. xv. 85, 56; and by the promise of a glorious resurrection, when “death shall be swallowed up in victory,” ver. 54. Dr. Whitby.

Hebrews 2:16

16. — he took not on him the nature of angels.] This nature being void of our passions and affections; but of men, that having Himself the same infirmities, &c., He might in this office more compassionate theirs. Bp. Fell.

The two verses may be thus paraphrased: For Christ is to be considered as a Redeemer, not of angels and fallen spirits, but of mankind; of all those, who like true children of Abraham are subject to temptations and sufferings, and are to be advanced to pardon and happiness, by imitating Him in a patient submission to that Divine will, which they had transgressed. Upon which account it was highly expedient for Christ, our great Priest and sacrifice, to live and suffer in our nature, as the most perfect method, both to atone for our sins, and to support and encourage us under our present sufferings for His religion: whom we know to have had a fellow-feeling with us, and so to bear a compassionate regard towards us. Pyle.

As Christ took manhood, that by it He might be ca-

Hebrews 2:17

17. — in things pertaining to God.] In offering sacrifices, prayers, intercessions to God: in deriving grace, peace, and benedictions unto the people, Exod. xviii. 19. Bp. Fell.

Hebrews 2:18

18. — being tempted.] That our Lord’s life was a continued scene of temptation, or trial, we learn from Himself, Luke xxii. 28: “Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations.” Christ’s temptations, like those of His brethren, arose from the persecutions and sufferings to which He was exposed, as well as from direct attacks of the devil by evil suggestions: such as those mentioned in the history of His temptation in the wilderness. Dr. Macknight.

— he is able] He is thereby rendered able to have a fellow-feeling of our miseries and afflictions, and so to have the greatest compassion for us, and as an inseparable consequence of such His compassion, He will not fail, upon due application to Him, “to succour them that are tempted.” Dr. Wells.

Nothing enforces precepts like example. Now what example could the Messiah have set, in the midst of worldly pomp and grandeur? A very useful one certainly in some points to some of His chief officers, and others about His person: but removed from the sight, and unsuitable to the condition, of the bulk of mankind: whereas in the sort of life which He chose, an extremely publick, though a mean one, He was a daily and familiar pattern to all men of the most general and difficult virtues: of condescension, disinterestedness, and delight to do good: of indifference to worldly enjoyments, composedness under contempt, meekness under malicious provocations, and resignation to God’s will under the bitterest sufferings of every kind. These things most of us, in one part or another of our pilgrimage, have need to practise: and we find them so hard to learn, that the encouragement of His having done and borne much more than He requires of us, and the assurance, that “having been tempted” Himself, He will “sucour us when we are tempted,” will in a time of trial be blessings unspeakable. Abp. Secker.

Chap. III. The Apostle here treats the second branch of his first argument for their steadiness to the Christian profession; namely, the dignity of Christ as