Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word

Hebrews 2:15

And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

KJV

καὶ ἀπαλλάξῃ τούτους, ὅσοι φόβῳ θανάτου διὰ παντὸς τοῦ ζῆν ἔνοχοι ἦσαν δουλίας.

Greek NT

et liberaret eos qui timore mortis per totam vitam obnoxii erant servituti.

Vulgate

and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

ASV

And might deliver them, who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude.

Douay-Rheims

Open in reader with connections →

In the original Greek

13 distinct Greek words appear in this verse.

διά
dia
preposition · 633×
δουλεία
douleia
noun · 5×
εἰμί
eimi
verb · 2461×
ζάω
zao
verb · 140×
θάνατος
thanatos
noun · 120×
καί
kai
conjunction · 8973×
οὗτος
outos
demonstrative · 1380×
πᾶς
pas
adjective · 1226×
φόβος
phobos
noun · 48×
ἀπαλλάσσω
apallasso
verb · 3×
ἔνοχος
enochos
adjective · 10×
ὁ
o
article · 19778×
ὅσος
osos
correlative · 108×

Historic Christian voices

10 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.

§635Christ went down into the depths of death so that "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live."484 Jesus, "the Author of life", by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage."485 Henceforth the risen Christ holds "the keys of Death and…
§1520A particular gift of the Holy Spirit. the first grace of this sacrament is one of strengthening, peace and courage to overcome the difficulties that go with the condition of serious illness or the frailty of old age. This grace is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews trust and faith in God and strengthens against the temptations of the evil one, the temptation to discouragemen…
§2602Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude, on a mountain, preferably at night.46 He includes all men in his prayer, for he has taken on humanity in his incarnation, and he offers them to the Father when he offers himself. Jesus, the Word who has become flesh, shares by his human prayer in all that "his brethren" experience; he sympathizes with their weaknesses in order to fre…
14. 'Has then the passage no meaning?' for this, like a swarm of gnats, they are droning about us. No surely, it is not without meaning, but has a very apposite one; for it is true to say that the Son was created too, but this took place when He became man; for creation belongs to man. And any one may find this sense duly given in the divine oracles, who, instead of accounting …
Heidelberg Catechism · 2 passages
Q. Can another creature — any mere creature — pay this debt for us? A. No. To begin with, God will not punish another creature for what a human is guilty of. Besides, no mere creature can bear the weight of God's eternal anger against sin and release others from it.
Q. Why did Christ have to go all the way to death? A. Because God's justice and truth demand it: only the death of God's Son could pay for our sin.
Gregory teaches that the incarnation was fitting because God entered human nature in order to heal it from within. Like a physician who enters a sick house, the Word took on flesh so that what was corruptible might put on incorruption. Through death He destroyed the one who held the power of death, the devil.

Cross-references

  • 1Cor 15:50 — Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
  • 2Cor 1:10 — Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;
  • 2Tim 1:7 — For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
  • 2Tim 1:7 — For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
  • Isa 53:3 — He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
  • Job 18:11 — Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
  • Job 18:14 — His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
  • Job 24:17 — For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
  • Job 33:21 — His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out.
  • Luke 1:74 — That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
  • Luke 1:74 — That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
  • Ps 33:19 — To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
  • Ps 55:4 — My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
  • Ps 56:13 — For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
  • Ps 56:13 — For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
  • Ps 73:19 — How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
  • Ps 89:48 — What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
  • Rom 7:24 — O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
  • Rom 8:15 — For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
  • Rom 8:15 — For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
  • Rom 8:21 — Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.