He Was Obligated

Hebrews 2:11 to 2:16 settled the question of kinship. He calls them brothers, He shared in the same flesh and blood, and He came to help the seed of Abraham. The next verse turns from what He became to what that required of Him, and it uses a word you might not expect.

Hebrews 2:17-18 Therefore He was obligated to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because He Himself suffered when He was tested, He is able to help those who are being tested.

It is easy to read past the word obligated, yet it is the word that ties Hebrews most closely to the law of the goel.

A Word From the World of Debts

The Greek verb is opheilen (ὤφειλεν), from opheilo ὀφείλω of-i'-lo. In ordinary Greek it is a word of commerce: to owe, to be in debt. The New Testament uses it in both of its senses, for money that must be paid back and for a duty that must be carried out. Both senses stand in the Gospels.

Matthew 18:28 But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii(a day's wage); and he seized him and began to choke him, saying: 'Pay back what you owe!'

Here it is a debt in money.

John 13:14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

Here it is a duty, and the word behind “ought” is the same verb.

So when Hebrews says that He “was obligated,” it is not using a soft word. It is using the language of a debt that must be paid, a duty that must be done. Hebrews does not describe His becoming like His brothers as a kindness He might have shown or held back. It writes it as an obligation.

A Standing Obligation

The tense adds something. Opheilen is in the imperfect. The Greek imperfect describes something going on in the past, a state that continued rather than a single moment. It does not say that at one point He made up His mind. It says that the obligation was standing; it lay upon Him and kept standing until it was discharged.

What, exactly, was He obligated to do? The verse says it in a single phrase: kata panta tois adelphois homoiothenai, “to be made like His brothers in every respect”: not in some respects or in appearance only, but in every respect. Hebrews 2:16 has already shown what kind of brothers these are: not angels but the seed of Abraham, flesh and blood. To be made like them in every respect is to share their whole condition.

The Language of the Goel

In the law, redemption is not a favor that a stranger may choose to do for a poor man. It is a duty that falls to the nearest kinsman. Leviticus 25:25 does not say that his redeemer may come if he likes. It says he “shall come, and shall redeem.” In the book of Ruth the duty passes down the line in order: “there is none besides you to redeem, and I am after you” (Ruth 4:4). Boaz bound himself to it with an oath, and when the nearer man drew back, the duty came to Boaz and he carried it out.

Hebrews uses the same kind of language. The phrase “was obligated” in 2:17 overlaps exactly with the language of the goel law. Redemption is not a gift handed over the fence by someone outside the family. It is what the nearest kinsman owes.

Hebrews does not say that He was obligated to redeem as one who was already a brother; it says that He was obligated to be made like His brothers. The law says that no one may redeem without the qualification; Hebrews says that He was made like His brothers in every respect, and so came to have it. And it records the way He met that requirement with a word of debt: opheilen, He was obligated.

What the law required as sheer basar בָּשָׂר baw-sawr', flesh of the same flesh, Hebrews has already written as sarx σάρξ sarx and blood, flesh and blood. Now it adds that this was a debt He owed.

What the Obligation Was For

The verse does not stop at the obligation. It says what it was for, and joins the two halves with “so that”: He was made like His brothers in every respect so that He might become their merciful and faithful high priest. Verse 18 states the link from the other side: “because He Himself suffered when He was tested, He is able to help those who are being tested.”

The word able there is the second condition of the goel again: not only to be near, but to be able. He became like His brothers in every respect, and so He is able to help them.

Why It Is an Obligation

Hebrews does not say who laid this obligation on Him, and nothing needs to be added to what it says. What it does say is that, for the work He came to do, being made like His brothers in every respect was owed. A merciful and faithful high priest for the people, propitiation for their sins: that work required it.

The law of the goel works the same way. A man who is not kin cannot redeem, however much he may wish to. The requirement is not a matter of anyone’s preference; it lies in the nature of redemption itself. The One who stood outside the household of flesh and blood could not redeem it from outside. Hebrews writes that He was obligated to be made like His brothers, and three verses earlier it has already said that He did: He partook of the same flesh and blood.

From Kinship to Price

With 2:17, Hebrews has carried us from the first condition of the goel toward the second. Kinship is settled; the obligation is named. But an obligation to redeem is not yet a redemption. In Leviticus the goel had to pay, and in Ruth Boaz had to buy. Hebrews says He was obligated to become like His brothers in order to make propitiation for their sins. It does not yet say what the price was.

Another apostle says that plainly. Writing to believers scattered as sojourners, Peter names what they were redeemed with, and he begins by naming what they were not redeemed with: not silver, and not gold.