For clearly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendants of Abraham.
Parallel translations
- WEB For most certainly, he doesn’t give help to angels, but he gives help to the offspring of Abraham.
- KJV For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
- BSB For surely it is not the angels He helps, but the descendants of Abraham.
- NKJV For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
- NLT We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Christ came to help not angels but the descendants of Abraham. His saving aid is directed to human beings, the people of faith.
Overview
The author clarifies that the Son's redemptive mission was for humanity, specifically 'the offspring of Abraham,' the line of God's covenant people. This explains why He took human nature rather than angelic. Understood in light of the wider New Testament, this 'offspring' embraces all who share Abraham's faith in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Gal 3:29If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise.
- Gal 3:16Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. He doesn’t say, “To descendants ”, as of many, but as of one, “To your offspring ”, which is Christ.
- Rom 4:16–25For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
- Gen 22:18All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.”
- Heb 6:16For men indeed swear by a greater one, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation.
- Rom 2:25For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
- Heb 12:10For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
- Matt 1:1–17The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
- 1 Pet 1:20who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake,
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Christ at the center
Hebrews is sustained worship of Christ: better than angels, Moses, and the priests; the great High Priest after Melchizedek who by one sacrifice perfects forever those he saves.
How Hebrews 2:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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