Hebrews 2:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Having said above, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same,” the Apostle here also says: “to be made like His brethren in all things.”

It is as though he said: He who is so great, who is the radiance of glory and the image of the hypostasis, who made the ages and sits at the right hand of the Father, willed and strove to become our brother in all things.

For this He left the Angels and the powers on high, came down to us, and assumed our flesh.

And see how many good things He brought. He destroyed death, freed us from the devil’s power, delivered us from bondage, and honored us with His brotherhood.

“Therefore He had to be made like His brethren in all things.” Since, he says, He was pleased to assume our nature, it was entirely fitting that He should become like us in all things.

That is, He had to be born, be nourished, grow, endure all that was fitting, and finally die. This is what it means to be made like us in all things.

“That He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest before God.” He did not assume our flesh for any other reason, he says, than to have mercy on us through it and restore those who had fallen deeply.

How? By becoming our High Priest and bearing the flesh He assumed from us in place of any other sacrifice. In this way He cleanses us from sins and becomes our mediator before God, for we were at enmity with Him.

Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in all things, the sons of Abraham, so that He might be merciful, like Moses, who, as a type of the Son, offered himself for the sons of his people (Ex 32:31-32). He also had to be faithful, so as to save all nations from death, like Aaron, who, being a mystical prefiguration of Him, turned death away from the sons of his race by means of the censer with which he stood against death (Num 16:48). He called Him High Priest not because of what is communicated to us through sacrifices, but because of what is given to us spiritually in Him. That is, He is our Purifier through baptism, or immersion, and not through sprinkling.

“Therefore He had to be made like His brethren in all things.” For like us He ate food, grew weary, sorrowed, wept, and received death.

“That He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God, in order to cleanse the sins of the people.” “For in that He Himself suffered, being tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted.”

The Apostle showed that His saving death was an offering, because for the whole creation He offered the body He had assumed.

For the consolation of the Hebrews he added something else as well. He says: Having learned by experience the weakness of human nature, as one who lived according to law and grace, He gives help to those who are under attack.

“Therefore He had to be made like His brethren in all things.” Since He became man, He had to be like human beings in everything that belongs to human nature.

And He truly was made like them by remaining in the womb, by birth, nourishment, growth, submission to the laws of common life, sufferings proper to man, and finally by death.

“That He might be merciful.” He became man according to His love for mankind, in order to have mercy on us as we were perishing, and to give us a helping and saving hand.

“And a faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God.” He did this so that, together with what He became a partaker of for our sake, He might also be High Priest, both in relation to God and for mediation and propitiation.

“Therefore He had to.” Since He deemed it worthy to assume, in accordance with this He had to be made like human beings in all things. For He was born, grew, ate, drank, slept, died, and rose.

“That He might be merciful.” All this, he says, He ordered for no other reason than to pour out mercy on those who live on earth and raise them from their falls.

“And a faithful High Priest.” “Faithful” means true. For the duty of a genuine and true High Priest is to deliver from transgressions those for whom He is High Priest.

Therefore, in order to offer a sacrifice capable of cleansing us, He became man and offered Himself.

Then he states how and why He became a faithful High Priest. “In order,” he says, “to cleanse the sins of the people.”

"A faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God," that is, in relation to God, or, as in the Russian, before God. Only the one who knows those whom he must sanctify can be high priest. Only the one who has experienced the weaknesses and needs of those for whom he serves can be merciful.

What is new, in comparison with the preceding material, in these arguments of the Apostle about the necessity of the Incarnation of the Son of God?

Above, Saint Paul the Apostle explained why and for what purpose the Lord Jesus had to take upon Himself our human nature in general. Here he wishes more particularly to indicate why and for what purpose He had to take upon Himself the very weaknesses of our nature.

The Apostle indicates three grounds, or three particular purposes, in addition to the two chief purposes of the Incarnation mentioned above.

First, the living awareness and personal experience of human weaknesses would bring human beings as close as possible to the heart of Christ and increase in it, if this may be said, compassion for their weaknesses.

From what has been said above about the fittingness of Christ’s perfection through sufferings, it necessarily follows, othen, that Christ, by force of circumstance, had, opheilen, to resemble the redeemed brothers in all things, kata panta.

This means not only in the assumption of flesh and blood, but also in the endurance of every kind of suffering, torment, and insult that oppresses human life.

The latter was necessary for Him in order to become a merciful and faithful High Priest. He is merciful because, through His own experience, He became a High Priest who deals condescendingly with human sufferings.

He is faithful in relation to God. He had to become such in the sphere of the ministry entrusted to Him by God, ta pros ton theon.