Letter to the Hebrews 2:1–18 Catholic Bible study lesson 2

The Letter to the Hebrews:
An Explanation of the Mechanism
of Our Salvation

Lesson 2 Like His Brethren in Every Respect
the Letter to the Hebrews 2:1–18

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
Tami Palladino’s visual-meditation journal
cross references in the Letter to the Hebrews
next lesson: More Glory Than Moses

This material coordinates with Lesson 2 on pages 10–13 in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation.

“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”—the Letter to the Hebrews 5:7–10

welcome to our in-depth study of the Letter to the Hebrews
We invite you to check out the sample first lesson and video from this 18-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. Our online study pages link to free lesson videos and cross references in the biblical text, and include illustrations and prayers based on Scripture in each lesson. The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation has been granted an imprimatur. This study currently is being expanded; the content will be available in a new printed study at a later date. Please contact us if you’re interested in purchasing a digital copy of the existing study.

open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:

Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.

pay attention to a message declared by angels
In the opening of the Letter to the Hebrews, the author introduced the idea that God’s Son is superior to the angels. We know that the angels’ purpose is to function as messengers for God. From this we can conclude that Jesus isn’t just another messenger. There’s something more important about Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth. Don’t miss Turning to God’s Word co-founder Tami Palladino’s illustrated reflections on the Scripture passages that form the basis of The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation. Click on the illustration to enlarge it, and also check out Tami’s visual-meditation journal to see all of her drawings. Her reflections for this lesson, “Like His Brethren in Every Respect,” are on pages 6 through 9 of her journal.

every lesson has a free video (13:27)
Don’t forget—each lesson of The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation has a related video. In these short presentations, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps reads the biblical text for the lesson and comments about it. You can watch the videos as part of your preparation for group discussion or to catch up if you have to miss a discussion. Some groups watch the videos together prior to their discussions. Because the videos are on YouTube, you can access them wherever and whenever it’s convenient—and they’re free. This study and its videos are undergoing revision to incorporate additional material. The original content will be included in a different printed study. The original 18 lessons pertaining to the Letter to the Hebrews currently are available digitally.

shared insight—angels delivering the law
In the Letter to the Hebrews 2:2-4, the author writes that every transgression or disobedience of the message declared by angels receives just retribution. The original Jewish audience to whom the author was writing would have recognized this as a reference to angels delivering the law, although not many present-day Christians would pick up on this. We can see evidence of such traditional Jewish thinking in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians 3:19, which is cited in Question 2 of the lesson. Turning to God’s Word founder Tami Palladino points out that this role of the angels also is apparent in the speech made by Stephen in The Acts of the Apostles 7:38 and 7:53 prior to Stephen’s death as a martyr.

WHAT DO YOU THINK is at the heart of Jesus’ message?
Just as the Son is superior to the angels, so the message declared by the Son is superior to the message declared by the angels.

? To someone of Jewish background, this would have indicated that Jesus’ message supersedes the law. What’s Jesus’ primary message?
? What’s this change in the law, and how is it possible?
? All Christians should be able to answer the following question without a second thought, but we sometimes get bogged down in the academic aspects of Bible study and lose sight of what it is that we already know. What is it that you believe that marks you as a Christian?
? What separates Christianity from other world religions?
? What is at the heart of Jesus’ message for men and women?
? What can you point to in your own life as evidence that you take Jesus’ message seriously?

salvation—you could look it up in our archives
Can you define salvation? You can read one definition on page 12 of The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation. For more information, read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.

danger lurks
Once we’ve figured out what’s “declared at first by the Lord,” the author of the Letter to the Hebrews cautions that we need to pay closer attention to what we’ve heard. What will happen if we don’t pay attention? We’ll be in danger of drifting away from our faith. It’s no secret that this has happened to many people who failed to understand their faith well enough to stick with it through life’s difficulties. The author’s claim is that if we truly understand our faith, we’ll be better equipped to withstand earthly pressures and setbacks. He sees it as his task to explain not only that Jesus has brought about the possibility of our salvation, but also how it is that Jesus is able to accomplish this.

a must-read for anyone interested in apologetics
The Letter to the Hebrews functioned as a brilliant argument for Christianity in the 1st century, and it continues to do so in the present day. To learn more about the issues the author of the Letter to the Hebrews is addressing, read “Early Apologetics” on page 13 in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation.

Q&A—our faith rests on some complicated facts
A participant in this Bible study has raised a question about this sentence in “Early Apologetics” on page 13 in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation: “Christianity claims that this guy Jesus, who was executed as a criminal, is alive, and because he didn’t die, we don’t have to die either.”

Q: I’m concerned that the clause “because he didn’t die, we don’t have to die either” is making a flat statement that Jesus didn’t die. If this were indeed true, it absolutely would fly in the face of the Creed that we recite every Sunday.

A: Let’s back up just a little to the first part of this sentence: “Christianity claims that this guy Jesus, who was executed as a criminal, is alive…”. This guy Jesus was executed as a criminal. That means he died, plain and simple. The claim of Christianity isn’t that Jesus didn’t ever die so we don’t have to. If we try to take that part of our faith out of context, we’re left with a statement that makes a farce of Jesus’ Passion, death, and Resurrection. The essential claim of Christianity rests on the indisputable (to Christians) fact that humanity crucified the human Jesus—but the second person of the Blessed Trinity is both human and divine, and it’s impossible to kill God. Jesus is very much alive today—and Jesus is both human and divine. What’s crucial to Christians is that Jesus as a human being has defeated death. He did this by never sinning, something that all other human beings proved incapable of doing. Because Jesus never sinned, it was impossible for him to die. It’s definitely complicated. While we profess in the Creed that Jesus died, no Christian ever would describe Jesus as being dead. It’s of interest that both the Gospel According to Matthew 27:50 and the Gospel According to John 19:30 record that Jesus “yielded” or “gave up” his spirit. Jesus willingly allowed his spirit temporarily to be separated from his body. When we celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead, we’re celebrating the reuniting of Jesus’ body and spirit.

Jesus’ death is an extremely difficult concept to wrap our heads around
The point of the commentary is that this is an almost impossible thing for humanity to wrap our heads around. How could a person die and not be dead? To further muddy the waters, how is it that because this one man has died but still lives, that miraculous fact continues to open the possibility of eternal life for each and every one of us? How does Jesus still live? How does Jesus’ eternal life bring about our salvation? These questions have acted as a stumbling block for some would-be Christians since the earliest days of the Church, and it’s these same questions that the author of the Letter to the Hebrews is attempting to answer. The answers form the core of all Christian apologetics and the core of this Bible study. Over the next lessons, we’ll be looking in depth at the explanation offered by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews. By the conclusion of the final lesson, we should be confident that we’re equipped to follow the instructions found in the First Letter of Peter 3:15: “Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you.”

an important change in God’s law
The Letter to the Hebrews is surprisingly similar to the Gospel According to John 1:17: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The Evangelist John emphasizes that Jesus is superior to Moses, who only gave the law. In the Letter to the Hebrews, the author points out that God’s Son is superior to angels, who only declared the law. The angels’ connection to the law is significant, because the author of the Letter to the Hebrews intends to use his audience’s familiarity with Old Testament law to explain the spiritual principles underlying how salvation works. The original message—the law—declared by the angels is from God, but the author of the Letter to the Hebrews focuses on the fact that the message of our salvation was declared at first by the Lord. God gave the law through the angels and through Moses. As the Son of God, Jesus is able to declare a change in God’s law that allows for our salvation. Learn more about the similarity between the Letter to the Hebrews and the Gospel According to John in Lesson 1 In the Beginning Was the Word in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth.

a study leader shares her thoughts
The following exchange veers from our standard question-and-answer format, but others may find it helpful. It comes from a study leader in a group planning to tackle one of our other studies.

comment: Thank you for your online study pages. They’re such a bonus. In our Bible study more questions come up in our leaders’ group than in my individual group about why you ask a certain question, or what you might be thinking, or where you are leading with your questions. I’ve often been able to point to the online study pages for direction and clues. I need to remind the other group leaders and myself that you’re trying to get us to think and pray about Scripture and its impact in our lives rather than limiting Bible study to an assignment that can be completed with a single academic answer.

response: We appreciate your comments, especially since we know that these online study pages aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. We go to some effort to provide optional information here and in the videos for participants who might be interested.

Matthew, Tami, and I feel that it’s important for people to know that sometimes asking the right questions is more valuable than having all the answers. It took us at Turning to God’s Word some time to get to this idea. The bottom line is that no one is able to hold onto information that they’re spoon-fed the same way that they can remember and live it when they have to dig concepts out for themselves. This is a big departure from the popular scholarly model of Bible study where everyone expects an expert to tell them what Scripture means, what’s important, and why. Sometimes when one of us sits in with a group, someone will ask what we were going for with a particular question. People almost always find it shocking when they’re told that we were thinking we wouldn’t mind hearing a discussion about what others think about the passage in question.

Studying any of the Old Testament writings presents some special stumbling blocks. These books introduce images and ideas that we might or might not recognize as also occurring in the New Testament. There’s a danger that we become so concerned with understanding the Old Testament message as it originally would have been received that we miss noticing that everything that happens in the Old Testament points toward Jesus. Then there’s the other side of that danger, in which we concentrate so much on a Christian interpretation that we miss important historical information that can shed light on Jesus and what he came to do. Finally, there’s a very real danger that we begin to view Jesus as the end point and miss seeing that the work of the Church only begins with Jesus’ death and Resurrection.

It’s easy to get derailed in one area and miss the big picture, which is why group discussion of the questions is so helpful. If one person is focusing on Old Testament history, someone else may be looking at the way the writing points to Jesus. Another person may be concentrating on how these ancient books are relevant in today’s world. Combining these different points of view gives us a clearer picture of what God is saying to us in Scripture.

more about the online study pages & videos
We hope that some people will find Bible study so compelling that they’ll want more information than realistically fits in the study books. We want to provide a vehicle for extra material and an easy way for people to ask questions and make comments, especially with so many contradictory views floating around on the Internet and elsewhere.

It’s also our intent that the books, the online study pages, and the videos each can stand alone if need be. We don’t want financial concerns or the lack of a compatible group to prevent anyone from reading and praying with the Bible. We know that there are people in our groups who never look at the website or watch the videos, just as there are people who do those things and more. The only really necessary part of studying the Bible, however, is reading the Bible. Everything else is secondary.

The caution we would add is that if you’re limiting your Bible study experience to reading the Bible—and you’re aware that you don’t understand what you’re reading—you probably should take a look at the commentaries in the study book and the online study pages, and also listen to any related videos. Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps frequently addresses some of the more obvious difficulties in those places. If you’ve read all of our related commentaries and watched our related videos and still have questions, shoot us an email. We’re always happy to discuss Scripture, and some of our most cherished insights have come about in conversation with others.

the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.

the Letter to the Hebrews 2:4—paragraph 156
the Letter to the Hebrews 2:9—paragraphs 624, 629
the Letter to the Hebrews 2:10—paragraph 609
the Letter to the Hebrews 2:12—paragraph 2602
the Letter to the Hebrews 2:13—paragraphs 2777, 2795
the Letter to the Hebrews 2:14—paragraphs 407, 636
the Letter to the Hebrews 2:14–15—paragraph 635
the Letter to the Hebrews 2:15—paragraphs 1520, 2602
the Letter to the Hebrews 2:17–18—paragraph 609

to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a particular passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the relevant cross references—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page, and it includes links to cross references in the primary biblical text for The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation.

don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a passage in Scripture, you can look it up in the index in the online sample lesson. If you want to revisit a particular commentary, you can look that up by title in the topics index. If you want to learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, you can read the online commentaries and watch any accompanying videos by going to the online study directories. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.

ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
Link to magisterial documents referred to in our Bible studies at ex libris—magisterial documents. This listing includes significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.

wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translations used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

the Letter to the Hebrews 2:1–18 (NIV)

close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers you can follow our four easy steps, or you can use the following prayer based on this lesson’s text from the Letter to the Hebrews.

God our Father,
for a short time you allowed your Son to be lower than the angels.
Grant that we may not be ashamed to call Jesus our brother
and so may be delivered from bondage to sin and death.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ,
whom you made like us in every respect but sin. Amen.

Lesson 3 More Glory Than Moses, the Letter to the Hebrews 3:1–19
Lesson 1 Superior to Angels, the Letter to the Hebrews 1:1–14

you also may like our study of the Gospel According to John
The Gospel According to John: An Encounter with Grace & Truth, a 25-lesson Catholic Bible study with an imprimatur, examines the Fourth Gospel’s view of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, with special emphasis on the institution of the sacraments of the Church as the means by which Christians are purified and made holy. This recently revised study includes maps and additional commentary, and takes a closer look at the way in which Jesus relates to individual men and women. Click on the book’s cover to view a sample lesson.

start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation. Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer your questions and to offer support. Contact us if you’re interested in purchasing a digital version of this study, in starting another Turning to God study, or in having your study schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer

*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?

Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online pages of The Letter to the Hebrews: An Explanation of the Mechanism of Our Salvation are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.

The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces these with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.

Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.

You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.