Hebrews 2:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What do the following words mean: "I will put My trust in Him"? And the words that follow are not in vain: "Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me." In them He calls Himself father. Just as there He called Himself brother when He said: "I will declare Your name to My brethren." Here again His superiority and the great difference between Him and us are expressed, as also in the following words: "Since the children have partaken of flesh and blood."

And again: “I will put My trust in Him.” By this he also shows that He became man and our brother. For as each human being trusts in Him, that is, in the Father, so does He Himself.

At the same time He shows us that we must hope in God alone. For He Himself, being the Son and lacking nothing, nevertheless says that He trusts in the Father.

Some have interpreted it thus. Since, they say, above he called Christ brother, and below Father, in the middle he shows that these names belong to the divine economy of the last times. His eternal name is God.

Who, properly speaking, hopes in another, if not in God? It is as though he said: When you hear that He is brother and father, do not think that He is one among many. He is God, he says, and in Him, as Scripture testifies, one must hope.

See verse 11. This phrase “He is not ashamed” is enough to show the distinction of sonship. When speaking of masters and servants, and showing the humility of masters, we are accustomed to say: “He is not ashamed to eat and drink with servants, to sit with them, and himself to heal their sick.” Therefore the same thing is implied here. The One who accepted suffering for us is not ashamed to call brethren those for whom He endured suffering. He calls them not only brethren, but also children. Thus the Lord said in the Holy Gospel to the divine Apostles: “Children, yet a little while I am with you” (Jn. 13:33). And again: “Children, have you any food?” (Jn. 21:5). The Apostle showed that even what He said in a lowly manner was said according to the divine economy.

And again: “I will put My trust in Him” (Is 8:17). He used this also as proof of Christ’s brotherly kinship with us, for Christ spoke these words through the prophet Isaiah. As man, He hoped in God. If as man, then also as brother of men.

And again: “Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me” (Is 8:18). He also said this through Isaiah, and again cited these words as proof of His kinship and closeness to us.

The disciples whom the Father entrusted to Him are His brothers according to human nature. They are also His children, since they become like Him through imitation. “Those whom You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition” (Jn 17:12).

Or again, in another sense: “Behold,” He says, “I and the children of God, like Me in My humanity, as creatures of God.” Thus His brotherhood is manifest here also.

"Behold, I and the children." He made Christ our Father. "He gave" through the Incarnation. This is like the expression: "Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance" (Ps 2:8).

These apostolic words disclose the necessity of the death of the Son of God, arising now from Himself. The Apostle begins his reasoning with the observation that, in the wondrous divine economy of human salvation, the Lord God ordained that both the sanctifying Son of God and the sanctified human beings should come from one principle.

They were to have one source of life, and, in a word, to be of one and the same nature. This providential purpose of God concerning mankind was fully accomplished through the Incarnation of the Son of God.

The Old Testament also bears witness that this Sanctifier always regarded, felt, and even designated Himself as the brother of men, and as one near to those whom God chose for sanctification.

Thus the Messiah, as depicted in Ps 21:20, appears as acting among men, proclaiming to them the name of God, and calling men His brothers (cf. v. 12). The Apostle then proves the same point by the words of the prophet Isaiah (Is 8:17).

In Isaiah’s life, namely in one event, the prophet, at God’s command, went in to the prophetess, and she bore him two sons. By the names given to them, they symbolically indicated the destinies of all members of the Kingdom of God.