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Hebrews 2

1 Because of this it is far more necessary we be paying heed to what was heard, lest we slip away. 2 For if the word spoken through angels became established, and every transgression and disobedience received just recompense, 3 how will be being neglectful escape so great [a] deliverance, whose beginning we took to be spoken through the Lord, by those having heard to us it has been established, 4 God testifying at the same time with signs and wonders and various powers and with distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his will?

5 For he has not subjected the impending inhabited-world to angels, concerning which we speak. 6 But someone testified somewhere saying,

What is man that you remember him?
Or the son of man that you look after him?
7 You have made him less, less beside the angels,
With glory and honor you crowned him,
8 You subjected everything under his feet.

For in subjecting everything he allowed nothing to not be subject to him. But now we do not yet see everything subject to him. 9 But the "Less, less beside the angels having been made" we see Jesus having been crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, in order that by God's grace he taste death in behalf of all. 10 For it was fitting for him, because of whom [is] everything and through whom [is] everything, having led many sons to glory, the prince of their deliverance, to be completed1 through sufferings. 11 For who makes holy and those being holy [are] all out of one [thing], through which cause he was not being ashamed to calling them brothers, 12 saying,

I will proclaim your name to my brothers,
In the midst of the assembly2 will I sing praise [of you].

13 And again:

I will be confident in him.

And again:

Behold I and the children which God gave to me.

14 Since therefore the children have shared blood and flesh, and he similarly participated in theirs, in order that through death he make ineffective the [one] having the strength of death—this is the devil— 15 and deliver them, how much by fear of death through all their zoe-life3 were they subject to slavery. 16 For certainly not with angels was he concerned, but he is concerned with the seed of Abraham. 17 Wherefore he ought, according to all, be likened to his brothers, in order that he become [a] merciful and trustworthy chief-priest of the [things] towards God, for conciliating the sins of the people. 18 For in what he himself suffered when he was tested, he is able for those being tested to be help.


1or "perfected"

2EKKLESIA (εκκλησια) from "called out". Appears 114 times in the N.T., but only in two places in the Gospels ( Matt.16:18 (twice) and Matt.18:17 (twice)). It's worth noting that when Jesus uses the term EKKLESIA, Christian community as we know it didn't yet exist—there were only the disciples. EKKLESIA is apparently different from 'synagogue' (SYNAGOGE (συναγωγη) which occurs 56 times in the N.T.) EKKLESIA is used in secular Greek literature of a popular assembly 'called to assemble', and also of those 'called' to a cult. EKKLESIA is used frequently in the N.T. outside of the Gospels to refer to Christian communities, but in Acts.7:38 it is used of the people of Israel led through the desert by Moses, and in Acts.19:32 ff. of a secular assembly. Thus, all told, the common translation of EKKLESIA as 'church' doesn't really reflect 1st century usage—it seems to mean more like 'a group of people assembled for some specific purpose'.

3from ZOE "ZOH-ay" (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected. Although it means 'life' in the conventional sense (for example: Matt.9:18, Matt.27:63, Luke.2:36, Acts.25:24, Rom.7:2, 2Cor.1:8, 1Thes.4:17, 1Tim.5:10, Rev.19:20), Jesus uses ZOE exclusively of 'life eternal' (with the possible exceptions of Luke.15:13, Luke.16:25). The other N.T. writers use ZOE in both senses—temporal and eternal, generally clear from the context. The Father is the 'zoe-living God' (see Matt.16:16). The Septuagint (LXX) in Gen.2:7 has "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of zoe-life, and the man became a zoe-living psyche-life" (and see 1Cor.15:45); and Gen.3:20 (LXX) "And Adam called his wife's name ZOE, because she was the mother of all zoe-living." Contrast PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. See John.12:25 where both ZOE and PSYCHE occur. Greek also has the word BIOS (βιoς ) for 'life' in the sense of biological processes.