Fr. Stephen: Verse 4: “God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?” So, this is, “in addition to” – the Apostles’ preaching, and then the Apostles’ preaching was confirmed by all of these signs. Why is that here? Well, were there any of those things in the book of Exodus?

Interlocutor 1: Yes. Signs that–

Fr. Stephen: Well, that Moses did, but remember, in Numbers there’s this moment where the elders receive the Holy Spirit briefly and prophecy like Moses, for this short time. And that ends with Moses saying, “Would that all the people could receive the Spirit and prophecy.” Which now has happened. So, he’s drawing a contrast on that, too. This is an understanding of Pentecost; this is an understanding of the transition that happens. And what was Pentecost before the Holy Spirit came? What was that feast in the Old Testament? That was the feast of the giving of the Torah and the making of the Covenant.

So, that’s why St. Paul is bringing up that Pentecost change: because Pentecost is the celebration of the giving of the Law. And it’s there that this prophecy was kept from Numbers, from the Prophet Joel: “Your young men will see visions” – “Your sons will see visions and your daughters will dream dreams,” that everyone is going to prophecy; that everyone is going to receive the Holy Spirit; everyone is going to have these signs and wonders that were confined to Moses, the one Prophet, before. So, this is another area of superiority between the two.

So, this contrast he’s making – I said I was going to stop picking on our Calvinist friends but I’m not. This contrast that he’s making is what? Is, people who received the Old Covenant, when they did not keep it, when they did not walk in the ways, when they did not keep the commandments—it’s all “works” stuff—when they did not do those things, when they were not faithful to God, they received those curses. Therefore, he’s warning the people hearing him that if they “neglect so great a salvation,” if they who have received this salvation in Christ, if they who have received this New Covenant, if they do not walk in his ways, if they do not keep his commandments, if they do not remain faithful to Christ, they’re going to suffer a far worse fate. Which means what? Which means it’s possible for someone who has received this salvation to neglect it, and to walk away, and to come under curse. Despite some of our friends saying that’s not possible. Because it does not say here, “Hey, if somebody leaves, they were never really one of us anyway.” We’ll get to that in First John.

But that’s not what it says here. That’s not what it says here. And it uses the word “salvation.” It doesn’t say, “Hey, these people were members of ‘visible Israel,’ and we’re members of the ‘visible Church.’ ” These are people who, according to the verses we’ve just read, have received salvation, have received the Holy Spirit, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit—they’ve received all these things; these are actual Christians—and he’s warning them of what will happen if they neglect it and if they walk away and they aren’t attentive to it. This isn’t the only time he’s going to do this in Hebrews, this is just the first one. But that’s the whole thrust of what he’s saying here. The whole thrust of these first four verses is, “The Son is greater than the angels—here’s all the great things he’s done—therefore, watch out.” Therefore, watch out. Because the salvation we’ve received is therefore much more wonderful, but that also means, the consequences of rejecting it are that much more dire than what was true in the Old Covenant. So, once saved, not always saved. Verse five: –[laughter] according to Hebrews. I’m just telling you what the Bible says.

Verse five: “For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels.” We’ll pause there. “For”: because. Because “He has not put the world to come, of which we speak,” which could also be translated – we talked about the world/age thing last time. Could be “the age to come”; we know what this means. We’re in the last days, then there’s going to be this final period, and that world is not – he has not made subject to angels, in contrast to… The current age, which he has.

Interlocutor 1: The current age meaning the Messianic age, or…

Fr. Stephen: Meaning the whole age until the restoration.

Interlocutor 1: Yeah ok, that’s [inaudible]

Fr. Stephen: Starting with Genesis.

Interlocutor 1: Oh, okay.

Fr. Stephen: Because he’s – the “for,” the “because,” he’s drawing out this contrast further. He’s drawing out his comparison further. The Torah was given through angels: God’s in his Council of angels. Why? Because he created the angels, and through [them] he administers his creation. He puts the angelic beings in charge of the different elements of creation. We read in Daniel, this is coming out of the Tower of Babel story, that the nations have an angel, a guardian angel—some of them are fallen—of the pagan nations, that are being worshiped. In fact, all of them except for St. Michael, who’s Israel’s prince according to Daniel. But at one point the devil is called “the prince and power of the air,” so there are these angelic beings through whom he administers the creation. In the present age. In this present epoch.

So, what’s the contrast? So, he’s saying, “but the next, the age to come is not subject to angels.” Who is it subject to?

Interlocutor 1: Christ.

Fr. Stephen: Close. This age is also subject to Christ, because he’s God. 

Interlocutor 1: Okay.

Fr. Stephen: Humans.

Interlocutor 1: Ah.

Fr. Stephen: Remember, he already has the Apostles taking the place of the angels in his earlier comparison, and I mentioned how we use that verse talking about the Sun, Moon, and stars—in the Psalm talking about the Sun, Moon, and stars—we apply that to the Apostles. Remember what Christ says to the Apostles – “You’ll sit beside me on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Sitting beside him on thrones is this Divine Council image. So, this is the flip side of the comparison he just made. That comparison was, look, if you break it, how dire is that? But if you keep it – what were the blessings you get from the Old Covenant?

Interlocutor 1: Grandchildren.

Fr. Stephen: Yeah. Grandchildren – you get to see your grandkids; you get your crops in season. [laughter] Right? Things go well for you, generally. What do you receive for the salvation that comes in Christ? Whole lot bigger. Whole lot bigger. This is the core of our understanding of Sainthood. That this is what salvation is. When you hear people say, in the Orthodox Church, salvation is Theosis, becoming like God, this is what we’re talking about. That humans become, as Luke 20:36 says, become “equal to the angels.” The Sons of the Resurrection are equal to the angels.

So, in the age to come it’s going to be humans who are part of God’s Council, who are the “gods” – small-g. That are the angels in the Old Testament.

Interlocutor 3: In the intermediate time, so, in the time since Christ until then, his creation’s still under the subjection of the angels?

Fr. Stephen: In part. So, this is happening in real time.

Interlocutor 3: Right.

Fr. Stephen: So, this is the image we get, and we’ll talk about this more when we’re near the end of the book of Revelation, when St. John talks about it. We’ve talked before about how there’s this time period that’s talked about, the Messianic age, that he describes there as a thousand years, and what he says is – he’s talking specifically about the Martyrs, who, of course, are one class of Saints, but the idea [is] that the Saints, when they die, they then go to rule and reign with Christ. They reign with him, and they’re described as serving as priests. Well, priests did two things. And it’s not “presbyter,” like elders. He uses the word “hieros,” which is “priest,” like, making sacrifices priest.

So, Old Testament priests did two things: they offered sacrifices—which, we can imagine they’re not sacrificing animals in heaven—and they made intercessions. They made prayers and intercessions. So, St. John’s literally saying, “they come alive” – he describes that as the first resurrection. He says, blessed are those who partake of the first resurrection, who, though they die here, they come alive and rule and reign with Christ for this long period of time, the Messianic age, when he’s ruling in the midst of his enemies like we talked about last time. And they serve that function. And so, the places where the Fathers talk about this, they talk about the angelic beings who fell being replaced by divinized humans.

And so, this is happening in the Messianic age, in real time. So, there was a time where the spirit who they were calling Aphrodite was the local spirit being worshiped at and exercising, therefore, dominion over the city of Thessaloniki, and now it’s St. Demetrius. This is part of the “conquering” language that we use about the Saints and the Martyrs. We talk about them conquering the demons, and conquering the devil, that this is something that happens in real time.

Interlocutor 1: So, we’re in a process of moving from subjection only to angels toward subjection to humans, but we’re in the middle now.

Fr. Stephen:Yes. Yes. And “elect” angels – quote-unquote “elect” angels. Good angels. That’s why, in the Tabernacle, and we’ll talk about this more later in Hebrews because it comes up – the Tabernacle, in all of its furnishings and in all of the embroidery on the sides, it was all angels, because the idea was, when you’re entering into the Tabernacle, you’re entering into the presence of God and the Divine Council.

If we walk a few feet and walk into the Church, what are surrounded by in the furnishings and the…? Angels and Saints. Because, in the same way, we’re entering into the presence of God. The altar is the footstool of his throne. Still. So, Christ is enthroned—he’s actually depicted that way, we have the icon of Christ enthroned—and Christ is enthroned on his Mother’s lap, and on the Cherubim, if you look at the icon, which reflects the fact that he’s human, because he’s sitting on his human Mother’s lap, and he is Yahweh, the God who created the universe, who is enthroned upon the Cherubim at the same time.

So, yes, that’s reflected in how our Church temple looks compared to the way the Tabernacle looked. And there’s also the other piece we have here about the Holy Spirit coming, in that we all march in there and have services, whereas only the priests were allowed to go into the Tabernacle. And so, this is talking about that transition. So, the penalties are greater because the salvation is so much greater. Because the blessings and the promise is so much greater.

Verse six: “But one testified in a certain place, saying”– which is the best way to quote Bible verses ever. Literally in the Greek – “one testified in a certain place” sounds way more formal; the Greek is actually more like, “someone somewhere said…” [laughter] “A great man once said,” y’know, and then…

–” ‘What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that you take care of him?’ ” Ugh, I hate the New King James translation sometimes. “Take care of him.”

–” ‘You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.’ ” And that’s Psalm 8, verse 4-6, and it’s Psalm 8 always, because the difference in numbering starts with Psalm 9. So, how is this – we talked about, now we bring in a scripture with this concept. And so, we see this idea that “the works of Your hands,” the creation is put under humanity. And that this is a blessing that comes from God.

And this is the purpose for which – we’re bouncing back to Genesis again, but in Genesis, why is Adam created? To have dominion over the creation. This is the purpose for which humanity was created. And didn’t achieve it; the first Adam failed. But this was the original purpose. This is why the devil was jealous, or envious. This is why he fell and why he set out to destroy man, because of this purpose for which man was originally created.

Then it continues – verse eight continues: “For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”

So, “He put all things in subjection under him” – the “him” here should be capitalized, because it’s talking about Christ. It’s talking about Christ. He left nothing that’s not put under him [apologies to the reader for inconsistent conventions; Ancient Faith typically does not capitalize pronouns for Christ, but the New King James Bible does]. Christ is over everything. And of St. Matthew’s Gospel: “All things in heaven and on earth have been given to me.” – “All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me.” But then he says, “But now we do not see all things put under him.” This is that “ruling in the midst of his enemies” thing.

Interlocutor 1: Not yet.

Fr. Stephen: So, there’s both pieces there. This is happening in real time, like we were just saying. But we see Jesus, “who was made a little lower than the angels” – pause on that. That’s not “made” like “created.” If he was “made” a little lower than the angels, what does that mean?

Interlocutor 3: Incarnated as man.

Fr. Stephen: Right. It means, before that he was not lower than the angels.

Interlocutor 1: He’s just quoted the “lower than the angels”…

Fr. Stephen: Right, but he’s still talking about the Son, so I’m just talking – incarnationally, for him to have been made – this is, again, alluding to the fact that he’s God, before the ages, through which it was all created, but he’s now – by becoming human he’s made a little lower than the angels; by becoming human, this applies to him. Because the Psalm’s talking about humans.



“…for the suffering of death” – because of. Because of his death. Because of suffering death, he is “crowned with glory and honor.” This is a contrast. This is a contradiction. Suffering something isn’t what we associate with glory and honor, especially not getting killed. So there’s this inversion. “…that He” – so that he, “by the grace of God,” meaning, through the working of God; remember, grace isn’t “stuff.” Grace is God doing something. By God’s working, “might taste death for everyone.”

So, what’s the dynamic here? Because he goes from talking about humans to talking about Christ, and a lot of people get lost in that transition, where they say, “Oh, he’s saying the Psalm is just about Jesus.” It’s not just about Jesus. Because we saw, as he’s setting it up, he’s talking about humanity in the age to come. He’s talking about humanity in the age to come, and so, this transition is, Jesus, as the Messiah, as God the Son, is the one who makes this happen. Adam was created for this, did not make it happen, but God the Son becomes lower than the angels; he becomes human; he suffers death, even though no death was due to him, so that he could taste death for all. For all humans.

So, he removes humans from the dominion of death and thereby makes this possible. Makes this divinization, makes this Theosis, makes humanity being elevated – he himself is elevated and enthrones, still incarnate, taking our humanity with him. And so, Christ, in his person, is the means by which our humanity is raised to this, and this is accomplished that Adam did not accomplish, that he failed to accomplish. And this is God working. So, he’s the means by which this can happen.

Verse 10: “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things” – so, always back and forth between his humanity and his identity as God. So, for whom and by whom are all things, “in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: ‘I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.’ ” Okay, we’ll pause there.

So, when it says Christ is made “perfect through sufferings,” what does that mean? He wasn’t perfect before? We’ve talked about the word “perfect,” the way it gets used in translating the New Testament. This is “mature,” “complete,” “reaching the end, the purpose.” So, this is saying, “Christ achieved this goal,” as he just said; he’s reiterating. He’s saying, “It was fitting that this was the way Christ accomplished it.” Because it doesn’t seem fitting at first. Like, “Well, wait, wait, why do you have to die to do that?” So, he’s saying that is fitting that this is the way he did it because the one who sanctifies, the one who makes holy, the one who accomplishes this salvation in us, this Theosis in us, the one who exalts us, and those who are being sanctified, those who are being made holy ones – the one who makes holy ones and those who are being made holy ones—process—are all one. Are all one.

So, the understanding here is that Christ’s suffering and suffering death is part and parcel of his Incarnation, of him being one with us; that there’s not an aspect of our humanity that he doesn’t share. He doesn’t just appear similar to us; he’s not just a perfect version of us, but he shares everything with us. And then notice where he takes it in the quote, which is from Psalm 22, or 21 in the Greek: “I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.” What’s the assembly?

Interlocutor 1: The Heavenly Court.

Fr. Stephen: The Heavenly Court that we were just talking about. The Divine Council. So, we’re brethren now. And so, the image here is of – when a saint dies, of Christ welcoming them and announcing them to the Council as, sort of, the new member, the new person coming in. Because he knows each of us by becoming like us. So, this is the connection between the Incarnation and Theosis, deification, divinization, whatever English terms we want to use – is what is being talked about here in Hebrews.



Verse 13: “And again: ‘I will put My trust in Him.’ And again: ‘Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.’ ” So, that’s quoting from Isaiah chapter 8. This is talking about Christ’s faithfulness, the first one: “I will put My trust in Him.” It’s the same word again. “Trust,” “faith,” “belief,” different ways. But this is, Christ is faithful—these are sequential verses in Isaiah—Christ is faithful in suffering death, therefore, “Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.” Who is he talking to when he says, “Here am I and the children God has given me”? He’s talking to the Father. About us. So, it’s through his faithfulness, his faithfulness even unto death, that we now are brought in by and with him to the heavenly places.



Verse 14: “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” So, when he says, “Inasmuch as the children have partaken of flesh and blood,” he’s using those terms – we’ve talked about how St. Paul uses “flesh” and “body” differently. When we’re talking about flesh and blood, and bleeding, flesh and blood, we’re not just talking about being physical. “For some reason Christ had to become a physical entity.” This is flesh and blood as in our mortal bodies. Our bodies after the fall, the skins that we’re clothed with after the fall.

So, this is talking about our mortality. Our mortality. Because we had become mortal, because Adam had failed, and therefore we had become mortal, we had been enslaved to death, and how did that work? Well, the devil, in Genesis 3—I think I’ve talked about this – I’m sure I’ve talked about this before, but we’ll reiterate—when the devil is cursed, when the serpent is cursed in Genesis 3, it’s, “You’ll crawl on your belly and eat dust.” Ancient people knew that snakes don’t eat dirt. They saw them eat mice. Maybe we need one around this church. Actually, I think most of the women in the church would rather have mice than snakes. But they knew they ate mice and small mammals. The “dust” there, it’s the same word as—remember the curse on Adam—“Adamah” means “earth,” “dirt”; he says to him, “Dust you are and to dust you will return.” That’s his mortality. You were made of dust; you’re going to die and return to dust. That’s the “dust” that the devil, the serpent, eats.

That’s why when you see in iconography – you see Hades, or Death, you see this big gaping maw of this thing that looks like a big serpent, swallowing people. That’s the idea. And so, that’s why, here, the devil – the one “who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Why did Christ have to die? We’re talking about why Christ had to die – it’s death; it’s through death that he does this, through suffering death; why did he have to die? Well, we had become mortal, and since we had become mortal, Christ grants us immortality by defeating the one who had the power of death. So, the devil had wanted to make himself God for God’s creation, for Adam and Eve, for humanity, and instead he gets thrown down into the underworld, becomes the ruler of the dead, and now Christ has even gone and taken that away from him. Which is why we see, again and again, Christ being referred to as the lord of the living and the dead. So, no one is judged by demons; no one is judged by the devil; everyone is subject to Christ’s authority; its’ Christ who judges and who has judgment.

But so, Christ becomes human, according to Hebrews here, so he can die, so that he can free us from death by defeating the devil through his death. So, the harrowing of Hades that we celebrate at Pascha is here, this is part and parcel of the Incarnation, the Gospel; this is how our Theosis is accomplished, because of Adam’s failure by Christ.

Verse 15: “…and release those” – he defeats the devil, and releases “those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” So, it’s not just that once they died, they went to Hades, and Christ had to free them from Hades, though that’s true. But that the fact that we’re mortal, the fact that we are going to die, every one of us, the fear of that death extends back into our life. And that fear of death shapes and twists our whole life. So, this is – and you see the Fathers talking about this, but this is how Hebrews sees it; this is how pretty much all Second-Temple literature sees it, is that death comes first, and then death produces sin. Cain’s the archetypal sinner, who comes after Adam. Adam sins; he commits a sin; he commits a transgression – the word “sin” is not used in Genesis to describe it. The first time the word “sin” appears, it’s talking about Cain, and sin is already out there in the world, roaming around, and is after Cain.

So, sin comes into the world through what Adam did, but that’s connected to mortality. Because, first of all, if there was no death, Cain couldn’t have murdered his brother, but the idea is that because we’re going to die, and because we’re afraid of it, there are things – food, shelter, clothing; we get that through money; we get that through power, through influence, and so we’re willing to do all manner of atrocities in this world to try to postpone our deaths, protect ourselves, ward death off; that’s the idea here about being held captive. Held captive by sin through our whole life, culminating in going to Hades. So, it’s not just that. It’s “men die and they are not happy,” to quote a famous French author. Yes sir?

Interlocutor 1: This strikes me as something that in classical civilization, they’re always seeking immortality, by which they mean immortal fame. How do you get immortal fame? Usually through war. So…

Fr. Stephen: Right, yeah. Or great deeds, which usually involves killing things and people.

Interlocutor 1: Which usually involves killing.

Fr. Stephen: Yeah.

Interlocutor 1: So, to me that’s a vivid example of – we seek fame; we seek at least local reputation, and sometimes we do horrible things in order to achieve that.

Fr. Stephen: Yeah, and the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the first stories we have, what is he doing? He’s after immortality.

Interlocutor 1: Right.

Fr. Stephen: He’s on a quest to try and become immortal, and not die. Yeah, so that’s picking up on this.

So, Verse 16: “For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.” So, Christ does not become an angel; he’s not incarnate as an angel to do something with angelic nature, to elevate angelic nature, but for the seed of Abraham. Now, notice what he’s done here, because he could’ve said, “Seed of Adam.” Because he’s been talking in these very general terms about all humanity, but remember, he was talking about neglecting it. So, he’s here being clear he’s not a universalist. As much as we might want him to be. Because who are the seed of Abraham?

Even if you don’t think St. Paul wrote this or was directly involved in it, everybody agrees the terminology and stuff, this is Pauline theology. So, Pauline theology 101: Book of Galatians, book of Romans, who are the seed of Abraham? The faithful. Christ renders help to the faithful. Which fits, because remember, he was talking about the Old Covenant, New Covenant. These blessings, all these greater blessings he’s just described are received by the faithful to the New Covenant over against the dire state of those who would neglect this salvation in this covenant.

Verse 17: “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” Okay. So, this is going to come back. But this is the first mention of Christ as high priest. As I said, as we go forward there’s going to be more about this. Why is this coming in? This seems like a random thing to bring up. Well remember, Psalm 110/109 is our overarching structure, and what comes right after the whole “sit at my right hand” – “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand”? “I have made you a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” So, that’s why priesthood is now coming up.

So, this is a shift. That “therefore” is a shift, as they often are. It’s a shift in topic, slightly. It’s not completely – “Now for something completely different.” No, it’s just a shift to talking about Christ’s role of priesthood now, which is a different aspect of what he was just talking about. Because he was talking about death there; now he’s talking about sin. We talked about how that follows, so we’ve got these two things. So, this is another reason why he’s made like his brethren; talked about partaking of flesh and blood and death. He’s made like us so that “He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest” – I like that, “pertaining,” in the things of God, in God’s things. In divine things. “…to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Pause there.

Verse 18: ” For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” So, putting this word, “tempted,” here—this is an example of what not-great translations can do to you—has caused, again, a bunch of people to come in here with the wrong questions, to argue that, “Well, this is saying Jesus could’ve sinned. Because if Jesus is God, and therefore can’t sin, then he can’t really be tempted, and then all the tempting is fake, and then this verse isn’t true.” I’ve had people make this argument to me recently. So, the problem here is that the word “tempt” is being used, and we’ve talked about this word before because it gets translated different ways in different places, but a better translation of this word is, “tested.” Or “tried.” “Tested” or “tried.”

And this is picking up on an analogy that’s common in the prophets. When judgment is being talked about, like our judgment, the judgment of our lives, or repentance is being talked about, or any of those related elements are being talked about, the analogy that gets brought back up over and over and over again is the refining of metal. So, when you refine metal, you have metal that’s good metal—let’s say gold—and then you’ve got a bunch of junk. Dross that’s mixed in with it when you pull it out of the ground. And so, what do you do? You stick it in a blast furnace. You put it in a super-hot fire, and what does that do? That softens the gold, the gold melts, and the other stuff either burns away or the gold runs away from it, and the gold is now purified. But to purify it, you have to put it through a fire. You have to put it through a fire. And so, that’s what repentance and judgment are compared to by the prophets over and over again, is that we’re like that metal that’s been extracted from the earth; we have to go through the fire so that what’s pure and good and golden in us gets refined and purified and brought out, and all the junk and all the garbage gets burned away. [The gold] gets collected.

But if the gold nugget was sentient, and could experience pain, it would probably not enjoy going through a blast furnace. So, this is the idea, like when it says that God tempted or tested Job, it’s the same kind of idea of what he’s doing. He’s not giving him a pop quiz. There’s not something about Job that God doesn’t know that he needs to test him to find out. But no, Job has to go through something to learn certain things and develop certain things and understand certain things. So, Christ wasn’t tempted to sin in the sense that when the devil came to him, he’s there, “Huh, maybe– y’know, I mean, that would be cool. Maybe I should… Nahh.” That’s not what happened. He’s God. But he was tested, because we just read about Christ’s faithfulness. Christ’s faithfulness is how this was brought about, his willingness to suffer death. Christ went through the blast furnace and was entirely pure, was entirely pure and entirely holy, but he went through the blast furnace that we go through.

And so, notice that verse 18 there starts with a “for,” so that’s, “because.” So, what he’s talking about him doing as high priest is related to this. Because he went through it, he’s able to now help those of us who are what? Undergoing judgment, participating in repentance. Who are repenting. And that repenting isn’t just, “Oh, I’m sorry, let me off the hook.” We’re not apologizing to God to get out of the consequences of what we did.

Interlocutor 1: Actually, I am, often.

Fr. Stephen: Well, we shouldn’t be. That’s not what real repentance is. Yeah, that may be what we’re doing, but it’s not like, I made my wife mad so she’s going to make my life less pleasant, so I apologize so that she won’t make my life less pleasant. It’s that we’re actually changing; we’re actually being changed and transformed by it. That’s real repentance. We’re being healed, and we’re being the means through which God can heal some of the damage we did when we were sinning. So, real repentance, we’re undergoing that now.

And so, because Christ suffered, he’s able to now aid us when we’re suffering for our own sins, in the sense that – not that we’re being punished and being smacked around for them, but that we’re suffering because we’re being purified; we’re coming to maturity, to perfection, is the way perfect was used; that we’re now, through our struggles of faithfulness being brought to perfection. And so, because Christ is like us and has suffered, he is able to aid us, and the way he aids us is what’s described in verse 17, which is by serving as this “merciful and faithful High Priest”—so, he’s faithful to God and merciful to us—“to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” And that’s, “in order to make propitiation” for the people.

This is–… One of the–… Well, I’ll start with this. So, the word “propitiation” a lot of people get hung up on. A lot of our Protestant friends will define the word—and even some of our Roman Catholic friends—will define the word “propitiation” as “satisfying God’s wrath.” They’ll just define it that way. “God is angry because we broke the rules, and making propitiation means satisfying that.” So, here’s the problem. Christ is here being compared to the high priest in the Old Testament. The high priest didn’t do that in the Old Testament. It wasn’t like, “Well, the people in Israel, they committed idolatry and sexual immorality and all these things, and I’m really mad, and I want to kill ‘em, but I’ll settle for killing a goat. There! Twelve dead bulls, now I’m fine. Now we can go on about our business.” Not only does that not make any sense, that never happens in the Old Testament. That’s not how God works. “We need blood for the blood god.” That’s not in view anywhere in the Bible.

And it makes even less sense because the place where they want to take that, then—our friends—is that they want to say that Christ appeases God’s wrath by God killing him, God torturing him on the Cross. God doing these horrible things to him, and so now he doesn’t have to do those things to us; he can let us off the hook because he took all his wrath out on Jesus. That really makes no sense with this verse because here Christ is the high priest. We’ll get into this more as we go on, because there’s going to be more explicit Day of Atonement stuff, and we’ll talk about that. But all of this is like a weird rabbit trail. It’s a weird rabbit trail that they get to by reading the Greek word that’s translated “propitiation” backwards in a weird way, and making comparisons to pagan Roman gods. I say Roman gods because that Greek word is never used by Greeks to talk about sacrifices to the Greek gods. The earliest use we have of it outside of Jewish sources—they used it to translate particular Hebrew words—the earliest use we have is Plutarch, and Plutarch’s usages of it happen to be talking about sacrifices – one of them is to a ghost. One of them is to an angry ghost. Happen to be to angry spirits, but nowhere does he say – that’s in the context.

So, the word “propitiation” in English just means, appropriately enough, “to make propitious.” “Propitious” is not a word we use a lot, but it just means, “happy.” “Well-disposed.” So, a sacrifice – the “propitiatory” element of a sacrifice is just the element that pleases God or makes him happy. So, I might, on my way home—it’ll probably be late, so maybe not tonight, but on any given day on the way home—I might stop and get flowers for my wife and bring them home. Any time I did that I would be doing it to make her happy. Because it would please her for me to think about her and bring her flowers. Sometimes when I do that it might be because she’s mad at me. Because I messed up. And she’s mad, and I want to smooth it over by doing something nice that will please her and make her happy. But sometimes I just do it to please her and make her happy, and she’s not particularly mad at me – at least that I know of. So, that’s not necessitated.

So, making propitiation, a propitiatory offering to God, is just something that pleases God, and this is the language God uses about sacrifices all the time. He talks about the smoke going up from the sacrifice to the heavens as a pleasing aroma in his nostrils. It smells good. That doesn’t mean he was mad. So, we don’t have to read a whole bunch into it; we can just read what it says. Because what was said, again – let’s not take these verses by themselves like they’re a fortune cookie, all on their lonesome. Right before that, what was the imagery that was being used? Christ standing before God and presenting us to the Father in the Council. Him welcoming us. Him presenting us as his children who are given to him by the Father, as his brethren. That’s the image we just saw. Why would this not be a parallel image? Of Christ standing before the Father and making pleasing offerings on our behalf.

Sacrifices are not about killing things, because some of them you don’t kill anything. Unless you really stretch “killing.” I guess you kill wheat to make a wheat cake, but… It’s about hospitality. Most often that takes the form of a meal. But so, what did this image of welcoming and presenting us to the Father – these are these hospitality images. So, why isn’t the high priest sacrificial image the same? Well, no reason.

Interlocutor 1: Well, what about the phrase, “for the sins of the people”?

Fr. Stephen: Yes. Because the “tempted” there is this “tested”; we’re repenting. We’re repenting; we’re suffering through this repentance, and Christ aids us in that, is what it says. How does he aid us? By making these offerings to the Father to render him propitious to us, so that he will bless us as we go through this process. Remember, Christ is the one who makes holy ones; we’re the ones who are being made holy. We’re the ones who are going through it. That “captain” language which was used of Christ – later on in Hebrews he’s going to be called “the pioneer and perfector of our faithfulness.” Right here, he did it. He went through it. He’s done. And so, now he’s aiding us in what he’s done.

So, this isn’t just something he does when we die and come into the presence of God – he welcomes us and presents us to the Father. It is that, but that’s also something he’s doing now, while we’re in process. While we’re still sinning and struggling with sin and repenting, being made holy, on the way, hopefully, to maturity and completion and perfection, the way the Bible talks about it. Christ is interceding for us now. That doesn’t have to be, “Don’t hit ‘em! Lay off!” Most of the time, when I pray for other people, it’s because I love them and I want God to bless them and help them with whatever is going on in their life right now. It’s not because I think God’s mad at them, and I’m begging him not to smite them. So, why should Christ’s prayers for us be any different as high priest?

Interlocutor 1: Makes sense.

Fr. Stephen: Now, if I meet somebody who mostly prays that God won’t smite people, I’ll say, “Well, thanks, I don’t want to be smote.” But I’ll think he’s missing some things in his prayer life, because he has kind of a weird view of God. That’s not how we typically pray.

So, that brings us to the end of chapter 2. So, we’ll go ahead and end here, and pick up in chapter 3 next week. So, thank you, everybody.