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Heb 2:16. Δήπου) [you will grant, we may suppose]. A particle expressive of courtesy, and implying some degree of conjecture, στοχασμὸν; but by the οὐκ being added, promoting βεβαίωσιν, confirmation [Heb 2:3, assurance]. The whole verse has a wonderful power of explanation; comp. πρόδηλον, ch. Heb 7:14. Not angels, therefore us; there is no third party.-ἀγγέλων, of angels) without the article. That is, they are not angels without flesh and blood, of whom He lays hold.-ἐπιλαμβάνεται) Christ lays hold of, or takes, in the words quoted; about to bring assistance, about to deliver, Heb 2:15; Heb 2:10-11. The same word occurs, ch. Heb 8:9; Mat 14:31. If the apostle were speaking of the very incarnation of the Son of GOD, there would be in the antithesis the singular number ἀγγέλου, an angel, or the angelic nature; as it is, since ἀγγέλων occurs in the plural, σπέρματος, seed, is taken as a collective noun.[21]-ΣΠΈΡΜΑΤΟς ἈΒΡΑᾺΜ, seed of Abraham) So he calls the whole human race, but by Synecdoche, because the reference is to Genesis; and there the promise is found which was given to Abraham, and which belonged especially to his descendants: and Christ was born of the race of Abraham. It is to be added to these observations, that the apostle is writing here to the descendants of Abraham, and it was not suitable to say, σπέρματος Ἀδὰμ, of the seed of Adam, because the first and second Adam are opposed. And yet the Gentiles are not excluded; for “the seed of Abraham” is not opposed to them, but to “the angels;” and all believers are the seed of Abraham. [See Heb 2:12, respecting “the great congregation;” comp. Psa 22:23; Psa 22:26; Psa 22:28.-V. g.] I think the omission of the article before σπέρματος corresponds to the construct state of the Hebrew. The omission of the article would not so much include the Gentiles, as exclude the carnal Jews.
[21] Σπέρματος, as a collective noun, expresses not the seed or nature which He assumed, but the whole race which He, as it were, takes by the hand to help. Thus σπέρματος, collective, is a just antithesis to the plural, ἀγγέλων.-ED.