Section 2:5–18

Jesus, the Son of God, became a human being

In the previous section, the author stated the seriousness of ignoring the Son’s message of salvation. In this section he gave more reasons why Jesus is greater than the angels and why we should take Jesus’ salvation more seriously than the law that was received through the angels. Some of these reasons are:

(a) Jesus, not the angels, will control the future world (2:5)

(b) Jesus humbled himself in order to make himself like us:

• In our lower position (2:7, 2:9)

• In our suffering and death (2:10, 2:14)

• As his brothers, God’s children (2:11–14, 2:17)

(c) Jesus can:

• Bring us to glory (2:10)

• Bring us to salvation (2:10)

• Make us holy (2:11)

• Break the power of death (2:14)

• Sets us free from the fear of death (2:15)

• Help us (he did not come to help angels) (2:16)

• Be a merciful and faithful high priest before God (2:17)

• Take away the sins of people (2:17)

• Help us when we are tempted (2:18)

• [Angels cannot do this]

Some other possible headings for this section are:

The Son became human to save us
-or-
Christ Became like Humans (New Century Version)
-or-
Jesus Became One of Us to Help Us (God’s Word)

Paragraph 2:5–9

There is an interpretation issue in 2:6–8. These verses contain a quote from Psalm 8:4–6. The psalm refers to “man” and “son of man,” and uses words like “him” and “his.” In the psalm these words refer to human beings (mankind) in general. However, there are two ways to interpret these forms when they are quoted here in Hebrews 2:

(1) They refer to both humanity and to Jesus as the Messiah. For example:

What is a mortal that you should remember him, the Son of Man that you care for him? (God’s Word)

(2) They refer only to humanity. This interpretation is implied by English versions that use plural or collective forms. For example:

What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? (New Revised Standard Version)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). The author of Hebrews often used verses from the OT as evidence that Jesus is the Messiah. A number of commentaries, including recent ones, also support this interpretation.

In some languages it may not be possible to use a singular form to refer to human beings in general. If this is true in your language, you may want to include a footnote in your translation. For example:

Some scholars believe that “son of man” is used in the psalm to refer to humans in general. However, the author of Hebrews also used it to refer to Jesus as the Messiah who “leads many sons to glory” (2:10). Jesus is the one who fulfilled the psalm’s prophecy that God put all things under mankind’s control.

It is clear that in the OT the psalmist is praising God for choosing “human beings” to rule over creation. However, the author of Hebrews does not have only humanity in mind. He also uses the psalm to refer to the Messiah. He implies that the psalmist also spoke about Jesus becoming human and being crowned with glory and honor.

2:5

For: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as For is the same conjunction that it translated as “for” in 2:2. It introduces a second reason and explanation for saying that we must pay attention to what we have heard (2:1). Some versions use the English word “Now,” but it does not refer to time here.

Some English versions translate the Greek conjunction as “for” or “because.” Other versions do not have a conjunction here. Connect this paragraph to the preceding section in a natural way in your language.

it is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking: In Greek this clause is more literally “not…to angels he subordinated the coming world about which we speak.” The clause emphasizes that it was not angels whom God chose to rule the future world. It implies that he chose a different ruler (or rulers) for it.

Some other ways to translate the clause in English are:

God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
For God did not say that angels will be the ones to control the coming world of which we speak.
-or-
As for the future world that we are telling about, it is not the angels whom God chose to rule it.

angels: The word angels here refers to the spirit beings that serve God. It first occurs in this book in 1:4. You should translate it in the same way here.

The word angels is in an emphatic position in the Greek sentence to show that the author was making a contrast. It is not angels who will rule over the world to come. Human beings will rule it with Jesus as the leader.

the world to come: The phrase the world to come refers to the world that will exist in the future. The word world refers mainly to the way of life in that future place. The word come refers especially to the time when Jesus will come again and rule everyone.

Some other ways to translate the world to come are:

the future world (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
the life that will replace ⌊this present life⌋

about which we are speaking: Here the pronoun we refers to the author. He often referred to himself in this way in the book of Hebrews. Another way to translate this phrase is:

about which I speak

However, when the author used the word we, he probably implied that his listeners were thinking with him about the truths that he was telling them. Use an appropriate pronoun in your language here.

The phrase about which we are speaking is an explanatory comment, so you will need to make that clear in a natural way in your language. For example:

the new world to come—the world of which we speak (Good News Translation)
-or-
the future life. This is the life I am talking about.

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