Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Hebrews 2:17 - 2:17

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Hebrews 2:17 - 2:17


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

17. ὅθεν. This word “whence,” common in this Epistle, does not occur once in St Paul, but is found in Act 26:19, in a report of his speech, and in 1Jn 2:18.

ὤφειλεν. He was morally bound, stronger than the “it became Him” of Heb 2:10. It means that, with reference to the object in view, there lay upon Him a moral obligation to become a man with men. See Heb 5:1-2.

κατὰ πάντα. These words should be taken with “to be made like.”

ἵνα … γένηται. “That He might become,” or, “prove Himself.”

ἐλεήμων … καὶ πιστὸς ἀρχιερεύς, “merciful,” or rather “compassionate” to men; “faithful” to God. In Christ “mercy and truth” have met together, Psa 85:10. The expression “a faithful priest” is found in 1Sa 2:35. Dr Robertson Smith well points out that the idea of “a merciful priest,” which is scarcely to be found in the O. T., would come home with peculiar force to the Jews of that day, because mercy was a quality in which the Aaronic Priests had signally failed (Yoma, f. 9, 1), and in the Herodian epoch they were notorious for cruelty, insolence and greed (see my Life of Christ, II. 329, 330). The Jews said that there had been no less than 28 High Priests in 107 years of this epoch (Jos. Antt. xx. 10), their brief dignity being due to their wickedness (Pro 10:27). The conception of the Priesthood hitherto had been ceremonial rather than ethical; yet it is only “by mercy and truth” that “iniquity is purged.” Pro 16:6. The word “High Priest,” here first introduced, has evidently been entering into the writer’s thoughts (Heb 1:3, Heb 2:9; Heb 2:11; Heb 2:16), and is the most prominent conception throughout the remainder of the Epistle. The consummating elements of genuine High Priesthood are touched upon in Heb 5:10, Heb 6:20, Heb 9:24.

ἀρχιερεύς. The Greek word is comparatively new. In the Pentateuch the high priest is merely called “the Priest” (except in Lev 21:10). In later books of Scripture the epithet “head” or “great” is added. The word occurs 17 times in this Epistle, but not once in any other.

τὰ πρὸς τὸν θεόν. This is the adverbial accusative of reference. Comp. Heb 5:1. The phrase is found in the LXX. of Exo 18:19.

ἱλάσκεσθαι τὰς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ λαοῦ, “to expiate the sins of the people.” In Pagan and classic usage ἱλάσκομαι is always followed by the accusative of the Person who is supposed to be angry and to be appeased by a present or sacrifice. And this heathen notion has been transferred to Christianity by a false theology. But Christ is nowhere said in the N. T. to “expiate” or “propitiate” God or “the wrath of God” (which are heathen, not Christian, conceptions), nor is any such expression found in the LXX. Nor do we find such phrases as “God was propitiated by the death of His Son,” or “Christ propitiated the wrath of God by His blood.” Throughout the Old and New Testaments the verb is only used with the accusative of the sinner, in which case it means “to be merciful to,” and of the sin, in which case it means “to neutralise the effects of.” The propitiation changes us, not God who is unchangeable. We have to be reconciled to God, not God to us. It is therefore wholly unwarrantable with Winer (p. 285) to understand τὸν θεὸν here and to regard the verb as governing a double accusative. Further we may observe that in the N. T. ἱλάσκεσθαι occurs but twice (Luk 18:13, and here) and ἱλασμὸς only twice (1Jn 2:2; 1Jn 4:10). God Himself fore-ordained the propitiation (Rom 3:25). The verb represents the Hebrew kippeer “to cover,” whence is derived the name for the day of Atonement (Kippurim). In Dan 9:24 Theodotion’s version has ἐξιλάσασθαι ἀδικίας. We are left to unauthorised theory and conjecture as to the manner in which and the reason for which “expiation,” in the form of “sacrifice,” interposes between “sin” and “wrath.” All we know is that, in relation to us, Christ is “the propitiation for our sins” (1Jn 2:2; 1Jn 4:10; Rom 3:25). Accepting the blessed result as regards ourselves we shall best shew our wisdom by abstaining from dogmatism and theory respecting the unrevealed and transcendent mystery as it affects God.

τοῦ λαοῦ. Primarily the Jewish people, whom alone the writer has in mind. Angels, so far as we are told, did not need the Redemptive work.