Hebrews 2:10

It became him (eprepen autwi). Imperfect active of prepw, old verb to stand out, to be becoming or seemly. Here it is impersonal with teleiwsai as subject, though personal in Hebrews 7:26 . Autwi (him) is in the dative case and refers to God, not to Christ as is made plain by ton archgon (author). One has only to recall John 3:16 to get the idea here. The voluntary humiliation or incarnation of Christ the Son a little lower than the angels was a seemly thing to God the Father as the writer now shows in a great passage ( John 2:10-18 ) worthy to go beside Philippians 2:5-11 . For whom (di on). Referring to autwi (God) as the reason (cause) for the universe (ta panta). Through whom (di ou). With the genitive dia expresses the agent by whom the universe came into existence, a direct repudiation of the Gnostic view of intermediate agencies (aeons) between God and the creation of the universe. Paul puts it succinctly in Romans 11:36 by his ex autou kai di autou kai ei auton ta panta. The universe comes out of God, by means of God, for God. This writer has already said that God used his Son as the Agent (di ou) in creation ( Romans 1:2 ), a doctrine in harmony with Colossians 1:15 (en autwi, di autou ei auton) and John 1:3 . In bringing (agagonta). Second aorist active participle of agw in the accusative case in spite of the dative autwi just before to which it refers. The author (ton archgon). Old compound word (arch and agw) one leading off, leader or prince as in Acts 5:31 , one blazing the way, a pioneer (Dods) in faith ( Hebrews 12:2 ), author ( Acts 3:15 ). Either sense suits here, though author best (verse Hebrews 2:9 ). Jesus is the author of salvation, the leader of the sons of God, the Elder Brother of us all ( Romans 8:29 ). To make perfect (teleiwsai). First aorist active infinitive of teleiow (from teleio). If one recoils at the idea of God making Christ perfect, he should bear in mind that it is the humanity of Jesus that is under discussion. The writer does not say that Jesus was sinful (see the opposite in Romans 4:15 ), but simply that "by means of sufferings" God perfected his Son in his human life and death for his task as Redeemer and Saviour. One cannot know human life without living it. There was no moral imperfection in Jesus, but he lived his human life in order to be able to be a sympathizing and effective leader in the work of salvation.