107 THE CRUX HEBREWS 2,9 IN ITS CONTEXT AT Thus the sub-sections on Jesus as victim introduce the sub-sections of Jesus as priest. Here other patterns seem to present themselves. In 2,17 Jesus “was obliged” (ofeilen) to become like his brothers in all things, ¶ i.e., including death, in order to become a merciful and faithful high priest in order to expiate the sins of the people. The inference is from the death of Jesus to his priesthood. ofeilen is introduced by the inferential particle ¶ ouen, “wherefore”, which links 2,14-16 with 2,17-18. The descendants of ™ Abraham were subject to death (2,16 in the light of 2,15), therefore Jesus had to become subject to death so that he could become a high priest. This thought is carried through to 2,18, where Jesus’ being “tested” is proposed as a preliminary stage to his help those who are being “tested”. The testing, of course, is with regard to the faith-trust which is the theme of the entire passage 2,8b-18 and which involves both priesthoods and, by supposition, both victimhoods 18. The note of necessity conveyed by ofeilen with regard to Jesus as ¶ earthly high priest is placed in contrast with the note of mere appropriateness with regard to God conveyed by eprepen in 2,10 with ¶ regard to Jesus as heavenly high priest. 19 The latter verb must be interpreted in the light of the overarching theme of the section 2,5-18: the faith-trust exhibited by Jesus both as earthly high priest and as heavenly high priest (cf. 2,13a) and which is the basis for the designations “children” and “ brothers ” in the passage. This faith-trust of Jesus is precisely a faith-trust in God, and as such “limits” God’s freedom to a certain extent. 20 God is constrained by the nature of the situation to respond in a way that is appropriate — he can hardly ignore a person who trusts in him if he himself The classic scene about “testing” (peirazw) in the Old Testament is ¥ 18 found at Gen 22 where God tests Abraham to see if he is faithful to the covenant which God made with him with regard to offspring. This centrality in the Old Testament of Abraham with regard to testing is mirrored in Hebrews where Abraham’s testing is central for the thought of the epistle (cf. Heb 11,17- 19). Thus at Heb 2,18 the “testing” of Jesus involves his being faithful to God’s covenant with Abraham. Cf. B. GERHARDSSON, The Testing of God’s Son (Matt 4 :1-11 & PAR). An Analysis of An Early Christian Midrash (CB.NT 2; Lund 1966) 25-35, especially the connection between peirazw and paideıa (cf. Heb ¥ ¥ 12,1-11). ELLINGWORTH, Hebrews, 180, thinks that eprepen is stronger than ¶ 19 ofeilen. But this seems to be a false reading of the two verbs, of a piece with ¶ his view that much of Heb 2,17a “restates old ideas in fresh language” (ELLINGWORTH, Hebrews, 157). The contrast eprepen / ofeilen is another ¶ ¶ indication that the author of Hebrews was contrasting 2,14-18 with 2,8b-12. This “limitation”, of course, is a limitation freely willed by God, for he it 20 was who, “having spoken in a son”, has freely willed the coming of the son.