Hebrews 2:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Why are you afraid, he says? Why do you fear death, which has been abolished? It is no longer terrible. It has been trampled down, despised, made worthless, and brought to nothing.

What then do the words mean: "who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage"? What does the Apostle express by them? He means that the man who fears death is a slave and does everything so as not to die. Or he means that all men were slaves of death, and, since it had not yet been conquered, remained under its dominion.

Or, if not this, then that men lived in continual fear. Always expecting that they would die, and fearing death, they could feel no pleasure, because this fear was always within them. The Apostle hints at this by the words, "throughout all their life."

Here he shows that those who grieve, are persecuted, hunted down, deprived of homeland, possessions, and every other good, pass their life more pleasantly and freely than those who always live in luxury, suffer nothing of this kind, and prosper. For the latter spend their whole life under this fear and are its slaves. The former are free from it and laugh at the very things the latter fear.

It is as if someone were fattening with abundant food a prisoner condemned to death and constantly awaiting it. Such was death's treatment of men in ancient times. But now it is as if someone, after driving away fear, urged men to contend with joy. He sets before them a contest and promises to lead them, not to death, but to the Kingdom.

Tell me, then, among which would you wish to be numbered? Among those who are fattened in prison, daily awaiting their sentence? Or among those who voluntarily contend and toil much, that they may be clothed with the diadem of the Kingdom?

Do you see how the Apostle lifts up their soul and raises them on high? Moreover, he teaches that not only has death been abolished, but through death He has struck the one who is always rising up and waging implacable war against us, that is, the devil. For whoever does not fear death is outside the devil's power.

If "skin for skin, and all that a man has he will give for his life" (Job 2:4), then he who is ready to sacrifice even life, whose slave can he be? He fears no one, trembles before no one, is above all and freer than all. For whoever despises his own life will much more despise the rest.

When the devil finds such a soul, he cannot accomplish any of his designs against it. Tell me, what can he do to it? Will he threaten it with loss of possessions, dishonor, and exile from homeland? All these are slight to one who does not value even his own life, like blessed Paul (Acts 20:24).

Do you see that whoever casts off the grievous dominion of death also crushes the devil's power? He who knows how to philosophize without measure about the resurrection, will he fear death? Will he dread anything else?

Therefore do not grieve and do not say, "Why do we suffer this and that?" For in this way the most glorious victory is achieved. It would not have been glorious if Christ had not destroyed death by death. And the marvelous thing is that He conquered it by the very thing through which it was strong, manifesting everywhere both His power and His wisdom.

Let us not betray the gift given to us. "You did not receive," says the Apostle, "a spirit of bondage" (Rom 8:15), "but of power and love and self-control" (2 Tim 1:7). Let us stand manfully, laughing at death.

But I must sigh heavily when I think to what height Christ has raised us, and to what depth we bring ourselves down. When I picture the cries heard in the marketplace, the lamentations made over those departed from life, the groans, and the other disorders, believe me, I am ashamed before pagans, Jews, and heretics. They see this and all of them utterly laugh at us for it.

Whatever I may say afterward about the resurrection, my words will be vain reasoning. Why? Because pagans do not attend to what I say, but to what is done by you. They will immediately say, "Can any of them ever despise death, if he cannot even see another man dead?"

Paul speaks beautifully, beautifully and worthily of heaven and of God's love for mankind. What does he say? "And deliver those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage." But you do not allow this to be believed, since you refute his words by your deeds, although God has used many means to destroy your evil custom.

Tell me, what do the burning lamps mean? Do we not escort the dead as athletes? What do the hymns mean? Do we not glorify God and thank Him because He has at last crowned the departed, freed him from labors, delivered him from fear, and received him to Himself? Are the hymns not for this? Are the songs not for this?

All these belong to those who rejoice. "Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms," says the Apostle (Jas 5:13). But the pagan does not look at this. "Do not show me," he says, "one who philosophizes when he is not under grief. That is neither important nor wonderful. Show me one who philosophizes in the very midst of grief. Then I too will believe the resurrection."

It is not surprising when worldly women act so, though even this is grievous, for philosophy is required of them also. "I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, that you may not grieve as others who have no hope" (1 Thess 4:13). He wrote this not to monks or to those who had dedicated themselves to perpetual virginity, but to worldly women joined in marriage and to worldly men.

Yet this is not so grievous. But when someone, a woman or a man, who claims to have been crucified to the world, tears his hair, while she weeps inconsolably, what could be more indecent than this? Believe my words: if things were done as they ought, such people should be kept for a long time away from the thresholds of the churches.

If anyone is truly worthy of tears, it is those who still fear and tremble at death, and who do not believe the resurrection. But you will say, "I do not disbelieve the resurrection. I follow custom." Tell me, then, why do you not do this when you set out on a journey and undertake a long voyage?

"Then too," you say, "I weep and lament, following custom." There you truly follow custom. Here you despair of the return. Remember what you sing at that time, at the burial: "Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you" (Ps 114:6). And again: "I will fear no evil, for You are with me" (Ps 22:4). And again: "You are my refuge; You preserve me from trouble" (Ps 31:7).

Consider the meaning of these hymns. But you do not attend to them and are driven mad by grief. Be attentive and sensible at least at the burial of others, so that you may find medicine for your own.

"Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you," you say, and yet you yourself weep? Is this not pretense? Is it not hypocrisy? If you truly believe what you say, you weep in vain. If you pretend, act hypocritically, and regard this as a fable, why do you sing? Why do you endure those who are present? Why do you not drive away the singers?

"But," you say, "that belongs to madmen." The other belongs to them still more. I speak of this now in passing, but later I will examine the matter more carefully, for I greatly fear that in this way some grievous disease may creep into the Church.

We shall correct this lamentation afterward. For now I speak and proclaim to rich and poor, to women and men. May God grant that all of you depart this life without sorrow. May aged fathers be buried by sons, according to the appointed law, and mothers by daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, in venerable old age. May premature death never befall you.

May God grant you this. I myself pray for it, and I exhort the presbyters and all of you to pray to God for one another and to raise to Him a common prayer for this. But if, may it not be and may it never happen, if a grievous death overtakes any of you, I call it grievous not by its essence, for death is no longer grievous and differs in no way from sleep, but according to our feeling.

If such a thing happens, and someone hires these wailing women, then believe my words. I speak only as I must speak, and let whoever wishes be angry. I will exclude such a person from the Church for a long time, as an idolater. If Paul calls the covetous man an idolater (Col 3:5), much more may one call this man so, who performs over a believer what belongs to idolaters.

Tell me, why do you call the presbyters and the singers? Is it not to receive consolation? Is it not to honor the departed? Why then do you insult him? Why do you dishonor him? Why do you behave disorderly, as though at a spectacle?

We come to philosophize about the resurrection. By the honor paid to him, we teach everyone, even those not yet struck by death, to bear manfully when something similar happens to them. But you bring in those who, as far as they can, destroy our actions. What could be worse than such mockery and ridicule? What could be more grievous than such incongruity?

Be ashamed and come to your senses. If you will not, we shall not tolerate such destructive customs existing in the Church. "Those who sin," says the Apostle, "rebuke before all" (1 Tim 5:20). Therefore through you we command those wretched and contemptible women never to come to the burial of believers. Otherwise we shall force them to lament their own misfortunes, and teach them to grieve more over their own calamities than over those of others.

So a loving father who has an unruly son not only forbids him to associate with corrupt people, but also threatens them. In the same way I command you, and through you them, that neither you invite them nor they come to the burial.

May God grant that our words alone bring some benefit, and that the threat alone have force. But if, may it not be, our words are disregarded, then at last we shall be compelled to put the threat into effect: to punish you according to the laws of the Church, and them as they ought to be treated.

If even after this some insolent person does not come to his senses, let him hear Christ, who even now says: "If your brother sins against you, go and reprove him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not hear, take with you one or two more, that every word may be confirmed by the mouth of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to hear them, tell it to the Church. And if he refuses even to hear the Church, let him be to you as a pagan and a tax collector" (Mt 18:15-17).

If the Lord commands us thus to turn away from a brother who has sinned against me when he does not listen to reproofs, judge for yourselves how I must act toward one who sins against himself and against God. You often condemn us, saying that we do not deal with you gently.

And whoever despises the prohibitions we impose, let Christ again teach him, who says: "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Mt 18:18). Though we are insignificant, worthless, and worthy of contempt, as indeed we are, we do not exact satisfaction for ourselves or gratify our anger, but care for your salvation.

Be ashamed, then, I exhort you, and come to your senses. If everyone patiently endures the rebukes of a friend who attacks him even beyond measure, knowing his purpose and that he does this from good will and not pride, much more should one endure the rebukes of a teacher. And this teacher speaks not by his own authority, nor as a ruler, but as a caretaker.

We say this not to display our authority. How could one think so, when we desire that they should not even experience it? We speak from pity and compassion for you. Forgive, then, and let none of you despise the prohibitions of the Church. For it is not man who binds by them, but Christ, who has granted us such authority and made men possessors of such honor.

That is, He freed human beings who were slaves of death, feared it, and were subject to it. They were held in bondage by it because it had not yet been destroyed.

Or the meaning is that the people of old lived in constant fear, always expecting that they would die. Under such fear they could experience no delight. The Apostle hints at this when he says, “through the whole life.”

Thus they were subject to bondage, always trembling before death like slaves before a harsh master, enjoying nothing joyful.

From this understand that whoever fears death is not free, but is the slave of everything.

Therefore He died in order to free by His death those over whom the fear of death reigned, and who throughout their whole life were subject to the bondage of eternal death.

Could He, says the Apostle, either be called our brother, or call us His children in the proper sense, if He had not been clothed with the same nature as ours?

Therefore, having assumed it, He crushed the dominion of death and dispersed the fear that oppressed us. For we never ceased to fear death, since we were compelled to drag the yoke of mortality.

The Apostle very fittingly used the word “likewise,” in order by it to expose the slanderous notion of an apparition. He set all this forth to teach those who suppose that, because of His suffering, the Son is less than the Angels.

He shows that He endured suffering by necessity. He teaches this still more clearly in what follows: “For He does not take hold of Angels, but He takes hold of the seed of Abraham.”

And He did this to deliver from fear those who, through fear of death, were throughout their whole life subject to its bondage, that is, slaves to the fear of death. For by His death Christ placed boldness against death into His disciples. He armed them against it and persuaded them to despise it, and thus delivered them from slavish fear before it. Therefore those who trembled before death all their life now despise it and count it as nothing.

You asked what this means: “and deliver those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.” Therefore listen.

It is not death, my excellent friend, that turns people away from sins, but the judgment after death. For the impious held the thought that the soul is a spark. When it is extinguished, as they said, the body will be ashes.

Thinking that they only had to die, and not stand before judgment, they regarded nothing as forbidden to them. They reasoned this way in the book of Wisdom attributed to Solomon, as you know.

If you do not know it, take up the book and you will gain an understanding of this. Since they thought they would no longer exist after death, they dared to do everything shameful and worthy of both deaths and punishment.

“Those who through fear of death.” Formerly, he says, death had not been destroyed. Through their whole life people were subject to it and were exposed to the fear of bondage.

They feared death because it had not yet been destroyed. None of the pleasures of life could comfort the prudent before the fear of death, the judgment of a strict and severe master always watching and frightening those who live on earth.

“They were subject to bondage.” People feared death as those liable to this bondage. The bondage of death is to be subject to sin and obey it. For the dominion and sting of death is sin.

Therefore, when Christ abolished the one who had the power of death, namely the devil, the inventor and cause of sin, sin naturally became weak. We were naturally freed from bondage.

Above (Heb 2:11), the Apostle derives the necessity of the death of Jesus Christ in general from His being of one blood and brotherhood with us. “We are mortal. The Lord Jesus Christ became like us. Therefore He too had to die.”

Here the Apostle derives this necessity more particularly from the purposes for which Jesus Christ took our nature upon Himself. He did this precisely to strike the devil, who had subjected human beings to death, and to dispel every mortal fear.

Human beings remained in this fear, trembling throughout their earthly life like slaves condemned to execution and to eternal death after temporal death.

It is said that Jesus Christ was crucified for us in this sense: by His death on the Cross He delivered us from sin, curse, and death. Holy Scripture speaks of this in the following way. Concerning deliverance from death: "Since therefore the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same, that through death He might destroy," that is. Deprive of power, "him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb 2:14-15).

Having thus proved from the Old Testament that Christ and the sanctified human beings stand in the same relations to God, the Apostle now shows why Christ could become our Sanctifier only through sufferings.

Since, says the Apostle, the children who in the book of the prophet Isaiah were presented as types of the Church placing her hope in God, ta paidia, have human nature, flesh and blood, in which sin has made its nest, the Son who was to redeem these children had to take their nature upon Himself.

He truly assumed them just as human beings do, paraplesios, approximately and similarly, since Christ was not only man but also the Son of God.