524 James Swetnam This faith-trust is the basis for the work of sanctification being achieved by the risen Christ (v. 11) in the Christian tôdâ. It is the work of Christ the heavenly high priest. Christ’s heavenly high priesthood was made possible with relation to his earthly priesthood by the ontological change which has taken place in his body as a result of his being perfected. This perfection took place at the moment of his entrance into God’s glory as son (v. 10). Christ’s entrance was achieved definitively at the moment of his resurrection; the entrance of the sons was achieved at the moment of Christ’s resurrection but only in principle, with the need for this entrance to be worked out in time. Christ’s heavenly priesthood is the perfection of his earthly priesthood, i.e., it “absorbs” this earthly priesthood so that the saving effects of Christ’s unique death are conserved in his presiding at the Christian tôdâ. The one sacrificial death of Jesus is, through the risen Christ, applicable in all celebrations of the Christian tôdâ. Christ is the originator of salvation of Christians (v. 10) in the sense that he established the Eucharist: Heb 2,10 throws light on Heb 2,3 where the great salvation for Christians, as opposed to the giving of the Sinai Law, had its beginning of being spoken through the Lord (24). Finally the fact that one of the underlying suppositions of the passage is the fact of the Christian tôdâ or Eucharist explains why, in v. 9, Jesus is portrayed as dying and crowned with glory and honor so that he may taste death (o{pw" cavriti qeou" uJjpe;r pantov" geuvshtai qanavtou): he dies and is glorified so that he may preside as heavenly high priest in the liturgical banquet by which he sanctifies and by which Christians are sanctified in the context of his realized faith-trust and their faith-trust which has still to be put to the test. Thus a close reading of Heb 2,8b-18 seems to establish a plausible case for the phrase ejx eJnov". It means the seed of Abraham, but with the faith-trust of Jesus included so that what emerges is a functioning unity based on faith- trust in the face of death. * ** Such, then, is an interpretation of Heb 2,11 which presumes to present a plausible solution to crux in question. At 2,11 Christ’s faith-trust is viewed as an addition to the faith-trust of Abraham but in such a way that the faith-trust of both him and of Abraham form a unity. And this basic unity is not detrimental in any way to its being shared by the Christians, as 2,11 states —————— portrayed at Heb 12,2, where Jesus is presented as the “originator and perfecter of the faith”. In his role as earthly high priest he originated this faith-trust in the face of his own death; in his role as heavenly high priest he brings this faith to perfection. But he does this while not losing the identity which he came to share with Abraham’s seed, those who are spiritual descendants of Abraham because they share in the heroic faith-trust which he showed at the moment of his being tested at the Aqedah. (24) Cf. SWETNAM, “The Structure of Hebrews 1,1–3,6”, 62. The precise force of “salvation” (swthriva) as opposed to “redemption” (ajpoluvtrwsi") in Hebrews needs elucidation. Salvation seems to be already possessed by the addresses, at least in principle, through their union with Christ (cf. Heb 3,6 and 3,14).