Hebreus 2
Ephrem the Syrian · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Hebreus 2:1-2
"Therefore we must pay the closer attention to what we have heard" from the Son, "lest we drift away" just like the former people. "If," because of that message declared through the angel in Sodom, those who did not want to listen to it "received the penalty of punishment, then how can we be saved, if we neglect so great a new life?" — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
Hebreus 2:9
God "tasted death for every one," but, because his immortal nature could not die in the flesh in which he died, he who was dead, as it is, did not die. He did not die because of his nature; he nominally clothed himself with death for his love to us. Since he was superior to death by his nature, death could not approach him. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
Hebreus 2:15
"Since therefore the children," summoned through his promise, "share in flesh and blood," that is sin, as signified by flesh, "and he himself likewise partook of the same nature" in the likeness of flesh, he was mingled with them, so that he might become for them a model of goodness. He consigned himself to death, so that through his death "he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil," who instilled death into living creatures when the fruit was eaten. So he died in order "to free," through his death, those over whom the fear of death ruled and "who were, for all their lives, subject to the slavery of eternal death." You do not receive the medicine that vivifies your life from angels, but from the seed itself of Abraham, to whom it was said, "In your seed all nations will be blessed." "So he had to become similar in everything …" to the children of Abraham, "in order to become as merciful" as Moses, who, as an image of the Son, devoted himself to the salvation of the children of his nation. And [he had to become similar] also in order to become faithful and save all the nations from death, like Aaron, who in the mystery of the Son repelled death from the children of his generation by using the censor, which he received to oppose death. God appointed him high priest not for those things which are generously given to us through sacrifices, as through Eleazar, but for those which are spiritually granted to us in him: that is, in order that he becomes the propitiator through baptism and not through aspersion."Because he himself has suffered and been tempted"—that is, he was tempted through his becoming connatural with us—he is able to assist those who are infirm in their weakness and victims of temptation. In fact, he is now made aware of … the weakness of flesh and knows humans more fully after clothing himself with flesh. — COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS