NT Text: Hebrews 2:14-17
OT Source(s):
Source: No public domain commentary confirmation available
Reference Type: Echo
Connection Method(s): Typology
Significance: Hebrews grounds the incarnation in the logic of kinship-redemption: "since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death" (Heb 2:14), and "He had to be made like His brothers in every way, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest... to make atonement" (2:17). This echoes the conceptual world of the gō'ēl, the kinsman-redeemer embodied in Boaz of Ruth, who must be a near relative to redeem Naomi's family line and estate and who freely takes that obligation upon himself. The link is an Echo carried by the Boaz/kinsman-redeemer pattern rather than a verbal citation — Hebrews does not quote Ruth — yet the structural correspondence is real: redemption requires shared kinship, and the redeemer acts to rescue the helpless and continue the line. Read typologically the escalation is immense. Boaz redeems an estate, a name, and a widow within Israel; Christ takes on flesh-and-blood kinship to redeem His brothers from death itself and the devil's power, freeing those "held in slavery by their fear of death" (2:15). Where Boaz pays the price of land, the greater Kinsman pays with His own death. The telos is warmth, not mere mechanism: "Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers" (2:11) — the Redeemer became one of us so that we might delight in a Savior who is bone of our bone, our merciful High Priest and near Kinsman forever.