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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Heb_2:17. Inference from Heb_2:16, and consequently a reverting to the main statement in Heb_2:14.
ὅθεν ] wherefore, sc. on account of the essential constitution of those to be redeemed, as indicated in Heb_2:16. The particle ὅθεν is of very frequent occurrence in the Epistle to the Hebrews (comp. Heb_3:1, Heb_7:25, Heb_8:3, Heb_9:18, Heb_11:19). In Paul’s writings, on the other hand, it is nowhere met with.
ὤφειλεν ] He ought. Expression, not of the necessity founded in the decree of God (cf. ἔδει , Luk_24:26), but of that founded in the nature of the case itself, comp. Heb_5:3; Heb_5:12.
κατὰ πάντα ] in all respects. Chrysostom: τί ἐστι κατὰ πάντα ; ἐτέχθη , φησίν , ἐτράφη , ηὐξήθη , ἔπαθε πάντα ἅπερ ἐχρῆν , τέλος ἀπέθανεν . Theodoret: Ὁμοίως γὰρ ἡμῖν καὶ τροφῆς μετέλαβε καὶ πόνον ὑπέμεινε καὶ ἠθύμησε καὶ ἐδάκρυσε καὶ θάνατον κατεδέξατο .
ὁμοιωθῆναι ] is not: “to be made the same or equal” (Bleek, de Wette, Ebrard, Bisping, Delitzsch, Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 33; Alford, Maier, Moll, Kurtz, al.), but expresses, as always, the notion of resemblance. Christ was in all things similar to men, His brethren, inasmuch as He had assumed a truly human nature; He was distinguished from them, however, by His absolute sinlessness. Comp. Heb_4:15.
ἐλεήμων ] merciful, full of compassion for the sufferings of the ἀδελφοί , may be taken by itself (Luther, Grotius, Böhme, Bleek, Stein, de Wette, Tholuck, Woerner [after Peshito, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions]), but also as πιστός , may be taken with ἀρχιερεύς (Owen, Bengel, Cramer, Storr, Stuart, Ebrard, Delitzsch, Riehm, p. 330; Alford, Moll, Kurtz, Ewald, Hofmann). In the former case, which, on account of the position of the words, seems more natural, καί denotes “and in consequence thereof,” so that ἐλεήμων indicates the quality, the possession of which fits him to become a πιστὸς ἀρχιερεύς
πιστὸς ] faithful, so fulfilling His high-priestly office as to satisfy the requirements of those to be reconciled.
τὰ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ] with regard to the affairs of God, or: with regard to the cause of God. Comp. Heb_5:1; Rom_15:17.
ἱλάσκεσθαι ] middle voice.
τοῦ λαοῦ ] of the people (of Israel, Heb_13:12), see on Heb_2:16.
The idea of the high-priesthood of Christ here first comes out in this epistle. From Heb_4:14 onwards it is unfolded in detail. It is disputed, however, at what point our author thought of the high-priestly office of Christ as beginning, whether even on earth, with His death on the cross (so Cramer, Winzer, de sacerdotis officio, quod Christo tribuitur in ep. ad Hebr., Lips. 1825, Comment. I. p. vi. sq.; de Wette, Delitzsch, Alford, and others), or only after the return to the Father; in such wise that, according to the view of the author, the offering of His own body upon the earth, and the entering with His own blood into the heavenly sanctuary, is to be regarded only as the inauguration of Christ to His high-priestly dignity, this dignity itself, however, beginning only with the moment when Christ, in accordance with Psa_110:1, sat down at the right hand of God the Father, Heb_8:1 (so Bleek and Kurtz, after the precedent of Faustus Socinus, Schlichting [Whitby], Griesbach, Opusc. II. p. 436 sq.; Schulz, p. 83 f., and others). It is certainly undeniable that the author in the course of his epistle very strongly accentuates the high-priesthood of Christ (comp. Heb_5:9 f., Heb_6:19 f., Heb_7:24-26, Heb_8:4, Heb_9:24). But the polemic against readers who thought they could not dispense with the ritual of the Jewish sacrifice of atonement for the attainment of salvation, naturally led him to insist with emphasis on the superiority of Christ as the heavenly High Priest over the Jewish high priests as the merely earthly ones. Since now, on the other side, it is equally undeniable that the author places the voluntary sacrificial death of Christ, and the entering with His blood into the heavenly Holy of Holies,—as the two inseparable acts of the same proceeding,—in parallel with the slaying of the sacrificial victim, and the entering of the earthly high priest with the sacrificial blood into the earthly Holy of Holies, and looks upon the sins of men as completely expiated by the sacrificial death of Christ itself (comp. Heb_2:14 f., Heb_7:27, Heb_9:11-14; Heb_9:26; Heb_9:28, Heb_10:10; Heb_10:12; Heb_10:14, Heb_13:12), there can be no room for doubt, that according to the mind of our author the investiture of Christ with the high-priestly dignity had already begun on earth, from the time of His death; and the representation of mankind in the presence of God is to be thought of as the continued administration of the high-priestly office already entered upon. So in substance also Riehm (comp. the detailed discussion by this writer, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 466–481); although it is certainly not in accordance with the view of the writer of the epistle, when Riehm afterwards (like Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 1, p. 63 f., 2 Aufl.) supposes a distinction is to be made between Christ as High Priest and Christ as High Priest after the manner of Melchisedec, in that he represents Christ as having become the former by virtue of that which He did during the days of His flesh, as well as on His entrance into the heavenly Holy of Holies, and the latter only by virtue of His exaltation to God, where He ever liveth to make intercession for us.