Thomas Aquinas Commentary Hebrews 2:14-18

"Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death he might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily not to angels doth he give help, but he giveth help to the seed of Abraham. 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. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted." — Hebrews 2:14-18 (ASV)

Having shown the suitability of Christ’s death from the Father’s perspective in causing it, the Apostle now shows the same from Christ’s perspective in enduring it. He intends to show how Christ was made the author of salvation by His Passion. To do this, he addresses three points:

1. He shows the condition of the nature through which Christ could suffer and die.
2. He explains the benefits Christ obtained by dying (v. 14b).
3. He proves what he had proposed (v. 16).

The Apostle says, therefore: I have said that Christ and the children have one origin and that He called them brothers. Consequently, it was fitting that He be like them, not only because He confers on them a participation in the divine nature, which is from grace, but also because He assumed their nature. Therefore, he says, because the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same nature.

Here it should be noted that the phrase “flesh and blood” can be understood in several ways. Sometimes it refers to the nature of flesh and blood, as in, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh (Genesis 2:23). In this sense, “flesh” can mean the body, as in You have clothed me with skin and flesh (Job 10:11), and “blood” can refer to the soul—not as if the soul were blood, but because it is not preserved in the body without blood.

At other times, “flesh and blood” can refer to the vices of flesh and blood, as in, Flesh and blood have not revealed it to you (Matthew 16:17). It can also signify the corruptibility of flesh and blood: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:50). In this context, however, it does not refer to vices, for Christ assumed a nature without sin but with the capacity to suffer, because He assumed a flesh similar to that of a sinner: in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3). Therefore, like the children, He is a sharer in flesh and blood, and in the same way, for it was not imaginary flesh, as the Manicheans claim, nor was it assumed in an accidental way, as Nestorius said. Rather, true flesh and blood, such as children have, were assumed into the unity of His person.

That Christ is a sharer of flesh and blood is not to be understood as referring to their vices, because He did not take on sin or commit any. Instead, it refers to the very substance of living flesh, because He assumed both flesh and a soul. This also included the capacity to suffer, because He assumed our nature, which is capable of suffering. Therefore, the meaning is this: Because the children, that is, the faithful, have a nature capable of suffering, Christ Himself partook of the same, that is, of flesh and blood. We partake of them through our person, and Christ likewise assumed them to His person: The Word was made flesh (John 1:14). “Flesh and blood” can also be understood as the flesh and blood of Christ Himself, according to the statement: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood (John 6:55). The children, that is, the apostles, partook of this at the Last Supper, and Christ also partook of it; as Chrysostom says, “He drank His own blood.”

Then (v. 14b), the Apostle shows the benefits His death brought. Regarding this, he does two things: first, he shows its usefulness from the perspective of the devil, who had the power of death; and second, from our perspective, as we were held captive (v. 15).

He says, therefore, that Christ partook of flesh and blood—that is, He assumed a nature in which He could suffer and die, which He could not do in His divine nature—that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. But how does the devil have the power of death? This is God’s prerogative: The Lord kills and makes alive (1 Samuel 2:6); I will kill and I will make to live (Deuteronomy 32:39). I answer that a judge has the power of death in one way, by inflicting it as punishment. A thief, however, has it in another way, in the sense of deserving death because of his wrongdoing. God has the power of death in the first way: For in what day you shall eat of it, you shall die the death (Genesis 2:17). But the devil has it in the second way, because by persuading men to sin, he handed them over to death: by the envy of the devil, death came into the world . But the Apostle says that Christ might destroy him, not as to his substance, which is indestructible, nor as to his malice, so that the devil would someday become good, but as to his power: despoiling the principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15).

This was accomplished by the death of Christ in three ways:

1. From the perspective of Christ, for the true nature of justice is that the victor subjects the vanquished to himself: For by whom a man is overcome, of the same is he the slave (2 Peter 2:19). But Christ overcame the devil: The Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed (Revelation 5:5). Therefore, it is just that the devil be subject to Him: When a strong man armed keeps his court, those things are in peace which he possesses (Luke 11:21).
2. From the perspective of the devil, for justice requires that a person who unjustly uses the power granted to him should lose it. The devil had been given power over the sinners he seduced, but not over the good. Therefore, because he presumed to extend this power even to Christ, who did not sin—The prince of this world comes, and in me he has nothing (John 14:30)—he deserved to lose it.
3. From our perspective, for it is just that the vanquished be the servants of the victor. By sin, man was the servant of the devil: Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin (John 8:34). Consequently, he was subject to the devil and liable to sin. But Christ paid the price for our sin: Then I restored that which I did not take away (Psalms 69:4). Therefore, when the cause of servitude was removed, man was set free by Christ.

It should be noted, however, that a different kind of satisfaction was suitable. Man was in debt, and while one man can make satisfaction for another out of charity, no single man could satisfy for the entire human race, because he does not have power over it. Nor could the entire human race satisfy sufficiently, because it was entirely subject to sin. Nor could an angel, because this satisfaction was for glory, which exceeds the power of an angel. Therefore, it was necessary that the one who made satisfaction be both man and God, who alone has power over the whole human race. By the death of this God-man, therefore, He destroyed him who had the dominion of death.

Then (v. 15), another advantage from our perspective is mentioned. A man is a servant of sin to the extent that he is induced to sin. The most effective inducements to sin are the love of temporary goods and the fear of present punishments: It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of your countenance (Psalms 80:16). But these two amount to the same thing, because the more a person loves something, the more he fears its evil contrary. We see that even savage beasts are kept from the greatest pleasures through fear of punishment; thus, fear makes cowards of us all. Therefore, if a man overcomes his fears, he overcomes everything; and when fear is overcome, all disordered love of the world is overcome.

Christ broke this fear by His death because He removed the fear of death and, consequently, the love of the present life. For when a person considers that the Son of God, the Lord of death, willed to die, he no longer fears death. That is why before the death of Christ, it was said: O death, how bitter is the remembrance of you . But after Christ’s death, the Apostle expresses a desire to be dissolved and be with Christ. Hence, we are told: Fear not them that kill the body (Matthew 10:28). The author says, therefore, that Christ came to deliver all those who through the fear of death were subject to lifelong servitude, namely, the servitude of sin.

Christ freed us from a twofold servitude: that of the Law and that of sin. The Law is called a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear (Acts 15:10). The difference between the Old and the New Law is fear and love. In the New, there is love: If you love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15). But the Old was the law of fear: You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear (Romans 8:15). Therefore, he says, Christ came to deliver them who through the fear of bodily death, which the Law inflicted, were all subject to lifelong servitude.

But why did He not free us at once from death itself, but only from the fear of death? I answer that He freed us immediately from the cause of death but not from death itself, although He did free us from the fear of death. The reason is that if He had freed us from bodily death, men would serve Christ only for their bodily good, and the merit of faith and hope would be destroyed. Furthermore, bodily evils enable us to merit eternal life: Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). It should be noted that He freed us from the fear of death in several ways:

1. By showing the immortality that awaited us. As a result, man could scorn temporal death: Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of them that sleep (1 Corinthians 15:20).
2. By giving us a foretaste of death, He made us more ready to undergo death for Christ: Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps (1 Peter 2:21).
3. By opening the gate to glory, which was closed before His death. As a result, we not only do not fear death, but we desire it: Having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is much better (Philippians 1:23).

Then (v. 16), the Apostle proves the benefits that Christ’s death obtained. He does three things: first, he shows that by His death Christ freed us because of the condition of the nature He assumed; second, he concludes with a likeness (v. 17); thirdly, he shows the benefit of that likeness (v. 17b).

Therefore, I have stated that Christ by His death freed us from sin and death. There is no doubt that in regard to the condition of its nature, an angel is greater than man. But because the angels were not subject to servitude or deserving of death, He did not assume an angel. If He had, this would have been on account of the dignity of its nature. But we have never read that He assumed an angel, but only the seed of Abraham—that is, a human nature, not in the abstract but in an individual, and from the seed of Abraham. He adds this so that the Jews, who glory in being of the seed of Abraham, might venerate Christ more.

He says significantly that He take hold of, because that which flees is properly said to be taken hold of. Not only did human nature flee from God, but also the children of Abraham: But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear (Zechariah 7:11). This taking hold of human nature into the unity of the person of the Son of God exalts our nature beyond measure. Hence, Chrysostom says: “It is a great and marvelous thing for our flesh to be seated above and to be adored by angels and archangels. As I turn this over in my mind, I experience excessive joy, imagining great things about the human race.”

But it might have seemed better to assume an angelic nature than a human one. Likeness is the reason making the Incarnation of a divine person fitting. But a more express likeness of God is found in the angelic nature than in the human, because the former is the seal of resemblance. Therefore, it would seem more fitting to take hold of an angel than of the seed of Abraham. Furthermore, sin is found in the angelic nature just as in the human. Therefore, if He took hold of human nature to free it from sin, it seems there was more reason to take hold of the angelic.

I answer that a nature is assumable by the Son of God depending on its fitness to be united to the person of the Word. This fitness depends on two things: dignity, in that the nature is capable of attaining to the Word Himself by knowing and loving Him; and need, in that it is subject to a reparable sin. Although the first is found in the angelic nature, the second is not. But both are found in human nature, which is capable of knowing and loving God and which has a reparable sin; consequently, it is assumable. Although the first condition is found in an angelic nature, it lacks the second. A sin is irreparable not because of its gravity, but because of the condition of the nature. What death was to men, the fall was to the angels. It is clear that all the sins of man, whether small or great, are reparable before death; after death, they are irreparable and remain forever. Therefore, the angelic nature is not assumable.

Then (v. 17), he concludes with a likeness. As if to say: Therefore, because He did not assume an angel but the seed of Abraham, it was necessary for him in all things to be made like his brothers. In all things, I say, in which they are brothers—not in guilt but in punishment. Therefore, it was necessary for Him to have a nature that could suffer; hence, He was one tempted in all things as we are, without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Likewise, they are brothers as to grace: Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God (1 John 3:1); Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29).

Next, he shows the usefulness of that resemblance when he says, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest. Here he does two things: first, he mentions the likeness; second, he explains it (v. 18).

As mediator, Christ has two functions. One sets Him over the whole human race as judge: He gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man (John 5:27). The other is in relation to God, before whom He intercedes for us as our advocate. In a judge, mercy is desired, especially by the guilty; but in an advocate, faithfulness is desired. Both of these qualities were exhibited by Christ during His Passion. Hence, regarding the first, he says that by His Passion He was made like His brothers, that he might become merciful.

But was He not merciful from all eternity? It seems so, because his tender mercies are over all his works (Psalms 145:9). Mercy consists in having a heart grieved at another’s misfortune. This can happen in one way by merely recognizing the misfortune, which is how God recognized our wretchedness without suffering. It can happen in another way by experiencing our misfortune, which is how Christ experienced our misery, especially during the Passion. In addition, He is a faithful advocate; hence, He is called a faithful high priest. But Christ being come a high priest of the good things to come (Hebrews 9:11); and it is required that He be faithful: Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2). All this was so that He might make propitiation for the sins of the people, for whom He willed to die.

Then, when he says, For in that he himself has suffered and been tempted, he shows its utility. It is as if to say: I do not speak of Christ as God, but as man. Therefore, in that—that is, in the nature which He assumed—He experienced our cause as His own. Hence he says, he suffered and was tempted; therefore, he is able to help them also that are tempted. Alternatively, He became merciful and faithful because in suffering and being tempted He has a disposition toward mercy. He says, tempted, not by the flesh but by the enemy: Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1). For in Christ there was no rebellion of the lower powers against the higher, but He suffered for us in the flesh: Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps (1 Peter 2:21); Forasmuch then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind (1 Peter 4:1).