Chapter 2

¹This is why we must give the very closest attention to the message we have heard, to keep from ever losing our hold upon it. ²For if the message delivered by angels proved to be authentic, and every violation or neglect of it led to a corresponding penalty, ³how can we escape if we pay no attention to such a salvation as this? It was first proclaimed by the Lord himself, and it was guaranteed to us by those who heard him, ⁴while God himself corroborated their testimony with signs, portents, and various wonders, and by impartations of the holy Spirit when he saw fit.

⁵For it was not for angels that he destined the control of that world to be, that we are speaking of. ⁶For someone has somewhere solemnly declared,

“What is man? for you think of him;

Or any man? for you care for him.

⁷You made him for a little while inferior to angels;

Yet you have crowned him with glory and honor,

And you have put him in charge of the works of your hands!

⁸You have put everything under his feet!”

In thus making everything subject to man, God left nothing that was not subjected to him. But we do not as yet see everything made subject to him, ⁹but we do see Jesus, who was “made for a little while inferior to angels, crowned with glory and honor” because he suffered death, so that by the favor of God he might taste the bitterness of death on behalf of every human being. ¹⁰For it was appropriate that he who is the great First Cause of the universe should, in guiding his many children to his glorious salvation, make their leader in it fully qualified through what he suffered. ¹¹For both he who purifies them and they who are purified spring from one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, ¹²and say,

“I will tell your name to my brothers,

In the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise”;

¹³and again

“I will put my trust in God”;

and again,

“Here I am with the children that God has given me.”

¹⁴Therefore since these children referred to have the same mortal nature, Jesus also shared it, like them, in order that by his death he might dethrone the lord of death, the devil, ¹⁵and free from their slavery men who had always lived in fear of death. ¹⁶For of course it was not angels but the descendants of Abraham that he came to help. ¹⁷And so he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might prove a compassionate high priest as well as one faithful in his service to God, in order to forgive the people’s sins. ¹⁸For because he has himself been tempted in what he has suffered he is able to help others who are in trial.