ACC ~ Hebrews 2 v5 - 7

ONLY THREE DAYS IN HADES. CHRYSOSTOM: There is another consolation if indeed he, who is hereafter to have all put in subjection under him, has himself died and submitted to sufferings innumerable. “But,” Paul says, “we see him who was made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, for the suffering of death”—then turns immediately to the good things again—“crowned with glory and honor.” Do you see how all things apply to him? For the expression “a little” would rather suit him, who was only three days in Hades, but not ourselves who are in corruption for a long time. Likewise also, the expression “with glory and honor” will suit him much more completely than us. Again Paul reminds them of the cross, thereby effecting two things, both showing Christ’s care for them and persuading them to bear all things nobly, looking to the master. For, he would say, if he who is worshiped by angels endured for your sake to have a little less than the angels, much more ought you, who are inferior to the angels, to bear all things for his sake. Then Paul shows that the cross is “glory and honor,” as Christ himself always calls it, saying, “that the Son of man may be glorified” and “the Son of man is glorified.” If then he calls his sufferings for his servants’ sake “glory,” much more should you endure sufferings for the Lord. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 4.3.

THE ULTIMATE HUMILIATION AND THE ULTIMATE HONOR. PHOTIUS: Why does he bring up the quote, “what are human beings that you are mindful of them?” He purports to prove, from the contrary, the following statement, that Christ is far superior to the angels. “A little while lower than the angels,” he brings … up in order to disprove the opposite proposition. He means that he was made lower through the suffering of death, “we saw him, but he had no form nor beauty.” Therefore, it was appropriate to say that about the Lord, because he was exalted; again, it was appropriate to exhort them [angels] to “put everything in subjection under his feet.” FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 2.6-9.

PLACED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MASTER’S CROWN. GREGORY OF NYSSA: When, according to the prophetic word, people were alienated from the life-giving womb through sin and went astray from the womb in which they were fashioned, they spoke falsehood instead of truth. Because of this, the Mediator, assuming the first fruit of our common nature, made it holy through his soul and body, unmixed and unreceptive of all evil, preserving it in himself. He did this in order that, having taken it up to the Father of incorruptibility through his own incorruptibility, the entire group might be drawn along with it because of their related nature, in order that the Father might admit the disinherited to “adoption”as children and the enemies of God to a share in the Godhead. And just as the first fruit of the dough was assimilated through purity and innocence to the true Father and God, so we also as dough in similar ways will cleave to the Father of incorruptibility by imitating, as far as we can, the innocence and stability of the Mediator. Thus, we shall be a crown of precious stones for the only begotten God, having become an honor and a glory through our life. For Paul says, “Having made himself a little lower than the angels because of his having suffered death, he made those whose nature had previously become thorny through sin into a crown for himself, transforming the thorn through suffering into honor and glory.” And yet, once he has “taken away the sins of the world” and taken upon his head a crown of thorns in order to weave a crown of “honor and glory,” there is no small danger that someone may be discovered to be a burr and a thorn because of his evil life, and then be placed in the middle of the Master’s crown because of sharing in his body. The just voice speaks directly to this one: “How did you get in here without a wedding garment? How were you, a thorn, woven in with those fitted into my crown through honor and glory?” ON PERFECTION.

HE WILLED TO TAKE THE NATURE OF A SLAVE. AUGUSTINE: The fact that he is the Word is not the reason why he is a mediator, for certainly the Word at the summit of immortality and the apex of beatitude is far removed from miserable mortals. Rather, he is a mediator because he is human and, as a human, shows us that to attain that supreme good, blessed and beatific, we need not seek other mediators to serve like rungs on a ladder of ascent. For the blessed God who makes us blessed by deigning to share our humanity showed us the shortest way to sharing in his divinity. Freeing us from mortality and misery, he leads us, not to the immortal blessed angels so as to become immortal and blessed by sharing in their nature, but to that Trinity in communion with which even the angels are blessed. When, then, in order to be mediator, he willed to take “the form of a servant” below the angels, he remained in the form of God above the angels, being simultaneously the way of life on earth and life itself in heaven. CITY OF GOD 9.15.

Heb