Hebrews 2.1 

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

Drift away - is a concept of the world that is moving forward and our simply moving forward with it, so that our consciousness moves slowly away from the revelation of the new creation.

"Considering these things, we should conclude that, more than ever, we need to learn and observe all that Hashem has taught us [to bring us as a people to this place and time] — so that the time does not comes when we find the word of God that we have heard to no longer feel relevant to our lives."

Διὰ 

διά diá, dee-ah'; a primary preposition denoting the channel of an act; through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional):—after, always, among, at, to avoid, because of (that), briefly, by, for (cause) … fore, from, in, by occasion of, of, by reason of, for sake, that, thereby, therefore, × though, through(-out), to, wherefore, with (-in). <br/>Strong’s Definitions 

This word and concept is supported and refined by being combined with the word τοῦτο - which is to say, "the same." <br/>

This is then followed by δεῖ, meaning "it follows by necessity", and here, "it follows for us by necessity" to attend to...προσέχειν (_prosechō_) much more περισσοτέρως (_perissoterōs_) [even than we did before] τοῖς = ὁ _ho_ the [word that] we have heard..  ἀκουσθεῖσιν = ἀκούω _akouō_

lest at any time

lest it happen that... μήποτε  _mēpote_, or lest over time it happens that we become distant from them παραρρυῶμεν > παραρρέω _pararreō_  < let them slip away...

Proverbs 3:21

Hebrews 2.2 

For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast,  and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;

This verse is about Israel corporately. It was to Israel corporately that this first word was spoken which required such punishing chastisements if not listened to. 

So also this Word now is spoken to Israel corporately and what will be the punishing action for correction needed if it is not listened to. So we see that the concern about drifting away by moving on with the world applies foremost to the Jewish people as a whole.

*For if when the word was spoken by angels it was unchangeable and there was no compromise with sin and transgression, but every sin was charged as rebellion against God and judged in God's Eternal Court of Divine Justice and given a perfect sentence...*!

Hebrews 2.3

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

> [!note] Notes on

How will Israel escape the need for and the action of correction?

Hebrews 2:5 (NKJV) For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels.

Psalms 8:1-9 (NKJV)

3When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, 4What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?  5For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. 6You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,

7All sheep and oxen-- Even the beasts of the field, 8The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas. 9  O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

Israel’s correction is to come to the level of having the world to come subject to her.

Hebrews 2.4 

God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

The Word continued and continues to this day to be to the nation of Israel corporately.

Hebrews 2.5 

For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.

cf. [Psa 8:1–9]

The whole of the revelation is set against the background of angels. 

What is the meaning of this?

 Not angels but Adam...

Hebrews 2.6 

But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of Adam, that you visit him?

Spoken to us by a son...

If by angels then without concealment, without grace...

Hebrews 2.7 

You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honour,  and set him over the works of thy hands: 

A little lower than....

Creating the space for concealment, corporate representative suffering, Grace, redemption in new creation.

If we ask, what conditions of creation would be necessary in creation for redemption if it is necessary, we can see clearly that....

Hebrews 2.8 

Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.

We do not yet see it. 

This is due to the correction being the process by which the world to come is revealed.

Hebrews 2.9 

But we see Yehoshua, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Here we have the summary of the introductory statements of the first chapter and the first verses of this chapter.

Hebrews 2.10 

For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

It was beautiful that he be heir through a well designed and prepared redemption and new creation.

Hebrews 2.11 

For both he who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

Fitting then on both sides....each side in its appropriate way.

Hebrews 2.12 

Saying, I will declare your name unto my family, in the midst of the assembly will I sing praise unto you.

Every assembly of Israel is a Grace assembly.  In Israel, among his family gathering, the whole assembly of the Jewish people, the Son of David will sing praise to his Father in heaven.

Hebrews 2.13 

And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.

The commandment to Mashiach is from his Father.

Hebrews 2.14 

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

This is the truly difficult verse. Partaking of flesh and blood is idiomatic saying “mortal”.

“Mortality” is the basis of the plan of the redemption-world to come. 

This requires clarification that mortality is not fatalism. The person of Mashiach being the foundation of Adam, the Adam being made in reflection of the Son of Adam, did not fatalistically require that, or want at all that, the Adam should succumb to their mortality.

Hebrews 2.15 

And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Fear of mortality was involved in the rationalization that led to sin.  Now it is fear of the sentence of dying in death. Before sin mortality was only living in the possibility of death without having secured life. Now death is the sentence of judgement upon humanity. Still there is an unknown, one which entwines hope with fatalism.  The fear of death is made complex. It is this complex fear that he is come to resolve.

Hebrews 2.16 

A.

The seed of Abraham. What does it mean that the author uses this term here?

It is Mashiach who is this help. It is Israel who is the seed of Abraham that is meant here.  

In what way is it being said that it is Mashiach who is the help? He came to his own, not to angels. 

In what way is Israel being defined? If Mashiach himself is being said to be the one being aided instead of angels, then it is not on account of his own need that he is being aided. Insofar as he is aided, he is aided on account of the need of Israel. Non-Jews who want to say it is they who are the Israel in question here are forced in this place, in that case, to call themselves the seed of Abraham..

B.

Just as He gave aid to Abraham on the third day of his weakness, so he gives aid to the seed ofAbraham on the third day of his weakness. 

And this aid He gives to the seed of Abraham, which is given to Mashiach as the one seed of Abraham, like Isaac, is given to all Israel, which is the seed of Abraham in him, through him and with him. And this aid is the salvation of the world through the corporate judgment upon the transgressor [as explained in Romans 5] in the enactment of strict justice and just and righteous mercy. 

How could there be both strict justice and also just and righteous mercy? With humans this is impossible, but within God all things are possible. For with humans, when a human court of law exercises strict justice for a capital offence there is nothing and no one left for the exercise of mercy. But with God it is possible to raise the dead. 

But this resurrection of the dead is not, and cannot be, a matter of the a merciful justification of an individual apart, to justify an individual’s merit in its own right. As the resurrection that God performs is not a new creation out of nothing, so it is not the gift to humans of a new righteousness out of nothing that existed in the world before it. This would not be the nature of a just and righteous mercy. It is not the nature of God’s mercy.  The justification of life that comes through the atonement made by Mashiach is a redemption of the righteousness and goodness that God saw in His  Creation.  That righteousness and goodness had been critically damaged but God could redeem it. 

Indeed, God designed His Creation in such a way that if broken it could be redeemed. The foundation of this design was making the Creation to rest upon Adam and the freewill of Adam given to them by the authorization of a commandment being given to them, and making Adam to rest upon the Son of Adam. This is the corporate nature of Adam and the design which made the redemption of creation possible through God’s justice and mercy: “that He might be just and the justifier of the ungodly”. This is the resurrection of the dead that God performs. It is the death and resurrection of the Son of Adam, the eternal corporate head of Jerusalem and therefore of Adam. 

The commandment given to Israel on Mount Sinai laid claim according to strict justice upon the righteousness and goodness that God found in His Creation. Accordingly, it was given by angels. It was so given in order that strict justice might be carried out upon the corporate headship of the first Adam, according to the corporate aspect of Adam’s transgression. This was done in the sacrifice of Mashiach for Jerusalem. Accordingly, the justification of life and the redemption of Adam is accomplished through the redemption of Torah Israel, with the righteousness and goodness of the nations illuminated and redeemed through faith in the testimony given to the corporate redemption of all Israel in Jerusalem.

B.

He could not say, “the seed of angels”....  There being literally no such thing. While it cannot be said literally, the parallel with “seed of Abraham” suggests the idea. This parallel construct of Hebrews 2:16, suggesting the nature of angels might be something that one bringing a new message from God might have taken on, is only a literary device. The meaning is layered. 

First, “seed of angels” produced as a poetic thought means the nature of the generation of angels. If a new need for a message from God is created, a new angel might be created. With this in mind, by means of a literary construct we can say that this son by whom God now speaks to Israel did not come into the world in the way angels come int the world. He did not take upon himself the nature of angels. 

But it would not be sufficient to correspondingly say he took upon himself the nature of Abraham.  The subject is made clear. The subject is the promised seed of Abraham.  In other words, Hashem did not create angels in such a way that they could be a single corporate entity with a corporate head, which head, as being the very root of the organic whole, could then be replaced by a branch arising from the first root and becoming the final and everlasting root and head. This is what is stated briefly in the phrase “ took upon him the seed of Abraham”.

Hebrews 2.17 

A.

His family. Israel.

B.

By following the ongoing argument of the context of this verse, we see that the definition of the high priesthood, ( and so priesthood per se), comes from his mission. Priesthood does not define Mashiach. Mashiach defines priesthood.

C.

What does it mean that God’s claim on creation is at its heart Adamic?

Hebrews 2.18 

He Intercedes For Those Who Suffer With Hope In God

Just as Moses was sent to intercede for Israel when the children of Israel hoped to be redeemed from Egypt because of the covenant that God made with Abraham, so Moshiah was sent to redeem all Israel from the suffering of the fear of death in response to Israel's hope resting on the covenant that God made with Abraham.

18 For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.

tempted — This is the weakness to temptation that arises in all humans through the potential of mortality  with which Adam was created, which through sin has now become a certainty in their heart and mind.  And yet, while they are now certain of their mortality they can never know while living in the present time under the Divine sentence of death, what the final outcome will be for them. Therefore, certain of their mortality and whether denying of fearing the judgment of God, having no knowledge of their final destiny they are constant prey for temptation to idolatry and corruption.

able to aid  — This goes back the sufferings in which Mashiach partook with them spoken of in verse 10 and verse 14.   In corporate solidarity with all Jews, Yehoshua suffered the human potential of mortality and, through the necessity of obeying the commandments of God, the understanding and feeling of the temptation of sin. For he himself was commanded of his Father in heaven personally to subject himself corporately to the sentence of death on behalf of the whole people of Israel, in order to bring the judgment of justice and mercy to humanity.