Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Hebrews 2:5-18, The world to come is not for angels
God did not put the world to come under angels. Psalm 8 promised rule to human beings; it is not yet seen, but Jesus, made a little lower than the angels for a while, is crowned with glory, and he shared flesh and blood to break the devil's power and become a merciful and faithful high priest.
Hebrews 2:5-18, in every translation this tool compares.
The writer reads Psalm 8 as a promise that humans would rule God's world, and admits that the promise does not yet look fulfilled. His answer is Jesus, who took a place below the angels for a time, died, and has now been crowned. Jesus shared the full humanity of the people he came to rescue, so that his death would break the devil's grip and free them from their fear of dying. That shared humanity is what makes him a high priest who is merciful and can be trusted.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/powers-over-the-nations\/","n":"Rulers and powers over the nations","s":"Many Jews believed each nation had a spiritual ruler set over it, often hostile to God's people. Paul's rulers, authorities, powers and thrones belong to that picture.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/son-of-man\/","n":"The Son of Man","s":"Plain Aramaic for a human being, and also the figure in Daniel 7 who comes on the clouds and receives a kingdom. It is Jesus' favorite way of speaking about himself in the Gospels.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/present-age-and-age-to-come\/","n":"This age and the age to come","s":"Jews divided history into the present age, under the rule of evil nations, and the age to come, when God would rule unchallenged. The sufferings expected before the change were called birth pangs.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/high-priest\/","n":"The high priest","s":"The head of Israel's priests, from Aaron's line, who offered for his own sins and then the people's and alone went into the holy of holies, once a year. By the first century Herod and Rome named and removed him at will.","r":""}
Keener writes that "In Jewish thought, angels ruled the nations in this age", while the righteous would reign in the age to come (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Heiser reads the passage against Deuteronomy 32, where the nations were put under divine beings: the earth "wasn't created to be subject to the members of God's divine family", but to his human family. Arnold traces the same belief through the Greek of Deuteronomy 32:8, Daniel 10 and Jubilees 15:31, and reads 2:14 as Christ's death defeating the powers by "highlighting the leader of the powers, Satan." Where the Hebrew of Psalm 8:5 has elohim, the Greek has angels, and Hebrews follows the Greek (Keener; Heiser). Whether the son of man is simply a human being or already Daniel's figure is read differently: Keener and the cultural backgrounds notes take the ordinary Semitic sense and Wright and Wright and Bird allow the Messiah's sense too. Pioneer was used of founders who cut a path for followers, and the Greek Old Testament uses made perfect of consecrating a priest (Keener; the CSB Study Bible); for Carson, Moo and Morris perfection here is "essentially a matter of completion".
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Hebrews 2:5-18, and on Hebrews 2:5, 2:6-7, 2:8, 2:9, 2:10, 2:14-15 and 2:17-18
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Hebrews 2:5, 2:6 and 2:8
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Hebrews 2:7
- CSB Study Bible, word study box teleioo (Hebrews 2:10)
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 36, Lower Than the Elohim, section Jesus, Our Brother in the Council
- N. T. Wright, Hebrews for Everyone, comment on Hebrews 2.5-9
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 30, The Argument of Hebrews, section 2
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 4, Judaism, section Angelic Powers over the Nations, and ch. 7, The Defeat of the Powers at the Cross, section Christ's Victory over the Powers (Col 2:15)
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 17, Hebrews, Contents
