1 So we must pay the closest attention to the preaching we heard, lest we drift away.
2 If words spoken through angels became law and all disobedience or neglect received its due reward,
3 how could we now escape if we neglect such powerful salvation? For the Lord himself announced it first and it was later confirmed by those who heard it.
4 God confirmed their testimony by signs, wonders and miracles of every kind – especially by the gifts of the Holy Spirit that he distributed according to his will.
5 The angels were not given domi nion over the new world of which we are speaking.
6 Instead someone declared in Scripture: What is man, that you should be mindful of him, what is the son of man that you should care for him?
7 For a while you placed him a little lower than the angels, but you crowned him with glory and honor.
8 You have given him dominion over all things.
When it is said that God gave him dominion over all things, nothing is excluded. As it is, we do not yet see his dominion over all things.
9 But Jesus who suffered death and for a little while was placed lower than the angels has been crowned with honor and glory. For the merciful plan of God demanded that he experience death on behalf of everyone.
10 God, from whom all come and by whom all things exist, wanted to bring many children to glory, and he thought it fitting to make perfect through suffering the initiator of their salvation.
11 So he who gives and those who receive holiness are one. He himself is not ashamed of calling us brothers and sisters,
12 as we read: Lord, I will proclaim your name to my brothers; I will praise you in the congregation.
13 He also says: I will trust in God; here I am and the children God has given me.
14 And because all those children share one same nature of flesh and blood, Jesus likewise had to share this nature. This is why his death destroyed the one holding the power of death, that is the devil,
15 and freed those who remained in bond age all their lifetime because of the fear of death.
16 Jesus came to take by the hand not the angels but the hu man race.
17 So he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every respect, in order to be the High Priest faithful to God and merciful to them, a priest able to ask pardon and atone for their sins.
18 Having been tested through suffering, he is able to help those who are tested.
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Comments , Chapter 2
• 2.1 The author has just reaffirmed the divinity of Christ, but immediately takes other texts from the Old Testament which speak of “man” (son of man is the Hebrew term) and this time applies them to Christ. This shows that in God’s design, Man and Christ are one. All that he has been, the glory that is his, of all this we are invited to share.
The new world (v. 5). Actually the text says: the world to come. This does not mean fu ture times, or the end of the world, but the new and definitive times that began with the resurrection of Christ.
The new world is where the risen Christ is. It is the homeland we are hoping for. This new world has already come to us: a believer who lives in the Spirit constantly has experiences which are not of the earth even if in the beginning he is not aware of it.
All the history of Jesus is then both his and ours. He thought it fitting to make perfect through suffering the initiator of their salvation (v. 10). There is no other way to human libera tion than the way of the cross. Those who are eager to free others must be tested, some through opposition, others through indifference. Suffering is a good teacher and it tests the strength of our surrender.
It is on the cross of Christ that we must discover the love of the Father for his Son, since he did not “condemn him” to suffer on earth, but rather, by way of suffering, he called him to be the Savior and model for everyone.
Jesus had to share this nature (v. 14). God uses human solidarity to save us. Christ saves us through sharing flesh and blood, and human destiny. In the same way, we are saved if we help in the liberation of the world, if we courageously accept our dependence on and solidarity with others. To work side by side with others, to suffer and rejoice with them is a way of saving them. We would like, at times, to escape our human condition and to be more independent: it seems to us that we would be better able to serve God, yet this dependence in the details of daily life is the means by which God wants us to take the human race by the hand.