The rhetorical question expressing denial. We is emphatic. We, to whom God has spoken by his Son, and who, therefore, have so much the more reason for giving heed. Ἐκφευξόμεθα lit. flee out from. The English escape conveys the same idea, but contains a picture which is not in the Greek word, namely, to slip out of one's cape, ex cappa, and so get away. Comp. French Èchapper. In Italian we have scappare “to escape,” and also incappare “to fall into a snare,” and incappuciare “to wrap up in a hood or cape; to mask.”
If we neglect (ἀμελήσαντες)
Lit. having neglected. Rare in N.T., oP. Comp. Mat 22:5; 1Ti 4:14. The thought falls in with drift past, Heb 2:1.
Salvation (σωτηρίαν)
Characterizing the new dispensation, as the word (Heb 2:2) characterizes the old. Not the teaching or word of salvation, but the salvation itself which is the gift of the gospel, to be obtained by purification from sin through the agency of the Son (Heb 1:3).
Which (ἥτις)
Explanatory. A salvation which may be described as one which was first spoken by the Lord, etc.
At the first began to be spoken (ἀρχὴν λαβοῦσα)
Lit. having taken beginning to be spoken. Rend. which, having at the first been spoken. The phrase N.T.o.
By the Lord (διὰ τοῦ κυρίου)
Const. with ἀρχὴν λαβοῦσα, not with λαλεῖσθαι. It is the beginning, not the speaking which is emphasized.
Was confirmed (ἐβεβαιώθη)
It was sure (βέβαιος) even as was the word spoken by angels (Heb 2:2), and it was confirmed, proved to be real, by the testimony of ear-witnesses.
By them that heard (ὑπὸ τῶν ἀκουσάντων)
We heard it (Heb 2:1) from those who heard, the immediate followers of the Lord. The writer thus puts himself in the second generation of Christians. They are not said to have heard the gospel directly from the Lord. Paul, on the other hand, claims that he received the gospel directly from Christ (Gal 1:11).