1 Therefore we ought to give earnest heed to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
2 For if the word spoken by angels was true, and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment,
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation; first declared by the Lord, and then confirmed unto us by those that heard him;
4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and diverse miracles and by gifts of the Holy Ghost, distributed according to his will.
5 For it was not to angels that God gave the world to come, of which we are speaking.
6 It is written, somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor,[a] and set him over the works of your hands;
8 You have placed everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing that is not put under him. And yet now we see that not all things are put under him.
9 But we see Jesus, who while for a little while was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour for suffering death, so that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
10 For it is fitting that he, the author of salvation, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should be made perfect through sufferings.
11 For both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are of one; That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”
13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.”
And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”
14 For as the children share in the flesh and in the blood, so did Jesus also take part in them; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death; that is, the devil;
15 And deliver all them who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.
16 For Jesus did not take for himself the form of an angel, but he took for himself the seed of Abraham.
17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
18 For because he himself suffered death he was tempted, he is now able to help those who are being tempted.
[10] A mark of the NSV (i.e. uniquely phrased)
[16] This meaning is much closer to the KJV than the ESV; It presents an interesting theological double entendre if one can turn it this way and that.
[18] CJB “death”. The point of this passage is that Jesus can only help you because he had the same experience as you did.
[2] Mark 1:13 “And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.”
[2] Matthew 4:11 “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.”
A careful look at this chapter will discuss the fall into idolatry; it is a case study of someone falling into idolatry in the Christian fashion and a sort of unwilling diary of how it happened. In this sense v. 14-16 can be seen as a discussion of how Jesus was deified as a human being. Of course, none of this would be possible except for the severe corruption of the Torah found in the preceding verses. If a reader has reached the end of this chapter and can not recognize the corruption and idolatry he is being tempted into, then it is too late.
The idea that Jesus is the author of salvation is to state one has no frame of reference in the hebrew scriptures, and is flying blind when reading these texts and deriving doctrine.
Merely a glance at the first line places this chapter immediately at odds with the Torah and with the nation of Israel; The writer immediately seeks to separate the reader from any direct communication with God, even so much as to state the torah was given by Angels. This will allow the reader to count his own revelation as higher than the one given at sinai, even if only temporarily. For once such a door has been opened it cannot be closed easily. The writer of Hebrews will then build upon this device and place Jesus higher than the angels, so as to imply his message is more important than the Torah. This is one of the hearts of the Christian heresy.
1 Therefore we ought to give earnest heed to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
This is a stunning slap in the face to the chapters of Deuteronomy 4 and cf. It is unbelievable to think that the writer of Hebrews thinks so little of his audience as to assume they are completely unfamiliar with the source text he is about to beat them over the head with, and yet he does – not only in this moment but in every time he quotes the hebrew scriptures. I will defer to RMS for the remainder of the commentary notes.
(transcription of RMS commentary begins here) The problems extant in chapter 1 show themselves again here in chapter two.
We begin with v.2 where he writes about 'the word spoken through angels'. This is a fixation of the new testament, despite the theme of the torah being that the word was revealed directly by God. We see this taught again in Acts 7:53 where Luke writes 'you who have received the law as ordained by angels'. It is not clear how this strange idea crept into Christianity. (Also see Mark 1:13 “And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.” and Matthew 4:11 “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” –ed)
So if it is so clear that it was God and not angels who revealed the Torah where do the Christians get this idea? David Stern (a Christian) asserts that this idea is not foreign to rabbinic literature. This is a common approach, once it can be shown the torah does not confirm the belief, they go to the rabbinic literature and try to find a shoehorn. But in any case where in Rabbinic literature is this shown?
Midrash Exodus Rabbah, Acts 7:53 – “Rabbi Abdimi of Haifa said, 'Twenty-two thousand [angels] descended with God on Sinai, …” (Further reference, (“…as it says, “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thousands of shin'an” [often translated “angels”] (Psalm 68:18(17)). The very best, the choicest (sh'na'an) went down.'”(Exodus Rabbah 29:2)
This is the only proof brought but it does not really say the Torah was given by these angels, it is just a mistake in interpretation by the author of Hebrews.
“Every violation of its laws is met with punishment.”
These verses seem to say that the only way to be rescued from the effects of our sins is to believe Jesus died for us, and this is a horrible mistake:
The example given is of speeding. You do not rely on a lawyer to get you out of the commission of a crime, you avoid committing the crime.
The response to sin is (exhausively) repentance.
What is the response to the charhe that he was merely a symbolic (and not literal) sacrifice? This is an admission that he fulfills none of the requirements of the sacrifice. The problem here is that John speaks about the requirement that the bones were not broken (because john paints the picture of the paschal lamb). If this was such an important fulfillment citation to John it becomes difficult to ignore the other requirements for a proper sacrifice. So, the Christian bible does see Jesus as a literal sacrifice and that his sacrifice had to fulfull the requirements. You cannot pick and choose (cherrypick) only in those instances where it is convenient.
Signs and wonders are provided to establish the credibility of Jesus.
Signs and wonders are totally irrelevant. Miracles are not proof of divine authorization – for example the Pharaoh's magicians could produce miracles. In Deuteronomy 18 for example we see “21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”
Deu 13; “13 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
So God tells us that miracles are not proof of God's authorization. This is admitted even by the greek christian scriptures; Matt 24:24 “24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” – If false prophets and false messiahs can perform miracles, then miracles can never be used to prove a mandate from God.
The writer here continues to massacre prooftexts from Psalms.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.Psalm 8:4-8 (ESV)
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor,
8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.Hebrews 2:5-9 (ESV)
The reference here is to Genesis 1:26 “…And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”” and Genesis 2:15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”
In Verse 9 the writer of Hebrews tries to pull a fast one on us by making us think that the passage is about Jesus: “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, …”
Where does this idea comes from? David Stern's commentary to Hebrews states '“he hebrew means 'a bit' i.e. 'a bit lower…' but in the Greek translation it can mean 'a little bit' or 'a little while'. The writer here quotes from the Septuagint, and did not distort the meaning of the Hebrew, but made an interlingual midrash which he could not do from the Hebrew text.” Well obviously if you could not do this from the Hebrew text, you have distorted the meaning of the original text, you have inserted a foreign idea that can not be drawn out of the original text…
So not only does the writer abandon the meaning of the Hebrew text, he engages in a fanciful manipulation of the Greek text. This is a disaster area; Stern has admitted that the writer has intentionally departed from the meaning of the original in order to support his explanation. No one with a straight face can explain this intentional mistranslation.
Another example of the writer of Hebrews taking something from the Hebrew scriptures out of context: the author tries to insert Jesus into Psalm 22.
This is a stark contrast to Paul's representation of this person as Jesus; The Psalm is written about David; so David is speaking here, not Jesus. The context of the verses indicate that it is not speaking about Jesus; the context is that because God is rescuing David from his enemies (from physical danger), that is why he will praise God in the assembly of people. This has nothing to do with Jesus; Jesus was never rescued from his enemies.
Here, the writer cites parts of two verses from the prophet Isaiah.
Paul then tries to make this about Jesus: “14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he (Jesus) himself likewise partook of the same things, …” The problem is that this clearly is not about Jesus, but about the teachings of Isaiah, and the Torah.
This speaks about Jesus becoming a high priest. Of course, if Jesus is supposed to have had Davidic lineage – which the gospels are outspoken in attempting to prove (Matthew 1, Luke 3). So in this case if we assume Jesus had Davidic lineage, he could not have been a priest – a Kohein – descended from the tribe of Levi. Being descended from two tribes is in fact impossible.
Again, is Jesus a literal or symbolic high priest? If the christian scriptures intend it to be a figurative representation, then it would not attempt to prove Jesus fulfilled (literally) certain biblical requirements. One may not cherrypick or flip between literal and figurative interpretation.