Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Hebrews 2:15 - 2:15
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Heb_2:15. Καί ] consecutive: and in consequence thereof.
ἀπαλλάξῃ ] stands absolutely: might set free, deliver. Without warrant do Grotius, Wolf, and others supplement τοῦ φόβου or τοῦ φόβου θανάτου .
Τούτους ] does not go back to τὰ παιδία (Böhme, Kuinoel), but serves for the bringing into relief of the following ὅσοι , and τούτους ὅσοι κ . τ . λ . is a periphrasis of the unredeemed humanity; the thought is not merely of the Israelites (Akersloot, Rambach, Braun, Woerner), and still less merely of the Gentiles (Peirce).
φόβῳ θανάτου ] out of fear of death, causal definition to διὰ παντὸς τοῦ ζῆν ἔνοχοι ἦσαν δουλείας .
διὰ παντὸς τοῦ ζῆν ] throughout the whole life. The infinitive is employed, by virtue of the addition παντός , entirely as a substantive ( διὰ πάσης τῆς ζωῆς ). This practice is more rare than the coupling of the infinitive with the mere preposition and article. Yet this very infinitive ζῆν is found exactly so used, as Bleek remarks, with Aesch. Dial. Heb_3:4 ( ὥσπερ εἰς ἔτερον ζῆν ἐπιθανούμενος ); Ignat. Ep. ad Trall. 9 ( οὗ χωρὶς τὸ ἀληθινὸν ζῆν οὐκ ἔχομεν ), ad Ephes. 3 ( καὶ γὰρ Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς τὸ ἀδιάκριτον ἡμῶν ζῆν ).
ἔνοχοι ἦσαν δουλείας ] belongs together; were held in bondage, had become subject to bondage. We have not to construe ἔνοχοι ἦσαν with φόβῳ θανάτου , and δουλείας with ἀπαλλάξῃ (Abresch, Dindorf, Böhme). For against this the position of the words is decisive. On the thought, comp. Rom_8:15.