Albert Barnes Commentary Hebrews 2:17

"Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people." — Hebrews 2:17 (ASV)

17. Wherefore in all things. In respect to his body, his soul, his rank, and character. There was a propriety that he should be like them and should partake of their nature. The meaning is that there was a fitness that nothing should be lacking in him concerning the innocent propensities and sympathies of human nature.

It was fitting for him. It became him; or there was a fitness and propriety in it. The apostle proceeds to state the reason why it was proper.

Like his brethren. Like those who stood in the relation of brethren to him; particularly as he undertook to redeem the descendants of Abraham, and as he was a descendant of Abraham himself, there was a fitness that he should be like them. He calls them brethren; and it was proper that he should show that he regarded them as such by assuming their nature.

That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest.

1. That he might be merciful; that is, compassionate. So that he might know how to pity us in our infirmities and trials, by having a nature like our own.
2. That he might be faithful; that is, perform with fidelity all the functions pertaining to the office of high priest. The idea is that it was necessary that he should become a man; that he should experience, as we do, the infirmities and trials of life; and that, by being a man and partaking of all that pertained to humanity except its sins, he might feel how necessary fidelity was in the office of high priest.

Here were a race of sinners and sufferers. They were exposed to the wrath of God. They were liable to everlasting punishment. Judgment impended over the race, and the day of vengeance hastened on.

All now depended on the Great High Priest. All their hope was in his fidelity to the great office he had undertaken.

If he were faithful, all would be safe; if he were unfaithful, all would be lost. Therefore, it was necessary that he should enter fully into the feelings, fears, and dangers of humanity; that he should become one of the race and be identified with them, so that he might be qualified to perform with faithfulness the great trust committed to him.

High priest. The Jewish high priest was the successor of Aaron and was at the head of the ministers of religion among the Jews. He was set apart with solemn ceremonies—clothed in his sacred vestments—and anointed with oil (Exodus 29:6–9; Leviticus 8:2). By his office, he was the general judge of all that pertained to religion, and even of the judicial affairs of the Jewish nation (Deuteronomy 17:8–12; Deuteronomy 19:17; Deuteronomy 21:5; Deuteronomy 33:9–10).

He alone had the privilege of entering the Most Holy Place once a year, on the great Day of Atonement, to make atonement for the sins of the whole people (Leviticus 16:2 and following). He was the oracle of truth—so that, when clothed in his proper vestments and wearing the Urim and Thummim, he made known the will of God regarding future events. In the Christian dispensation, the Lord Jesus became what the Jewish high priest was in the old; and an important object of this epistle is to show that he far surpassed the Jewish high priest, and in what respects the Jewish high priest was designed to typify the Redeemer. Paul, therefore, introduces the subject early and shows that the Lord Jesus came to perform the functions of that sacred office, and that he was eminently endowed for it.

In things pertaining to God. In offering sacrifice; or in services of a religious nature. The great purpose was to offer sacrifice and make intercession. The idea is that Jesus took on himself our nature so that he might sympathize with us, and that in this way he might be faithful to the great trust committed to him—the redemption of the world. Had he been unfaithful, all would have been lost, and the world would have sunk down to woe.

To make reconciliation. By his death as a sacrifice. The word used here—ilaskomai—occurs in only one other place in the New Testament (Luke 18:13), where it is translated, God be merciful to me a sinner; that is, reconciled to me. The noun ilasmos—propitiation—is used in 1 John 2:2 and 1 John 4:10. The word here properly means to appease, to reconcile, to conciliate; and therefore to propitiate AS TO SINS; that is, to propitiate God concerning sins, or to make him propitious. The Son of God became a man so that he might so fully enter into the feelings of the people as to be faithful, and that he might be qualified as a high priest to perform the great work of making God propitious concerning sins. How he did this is fully shown in the later parts of the epistle.