Enlightenment Through Parallelism
Like a lot of people, I take to the Word everyday.
Unlike a lot of people, I don’t use the Bible as chicken soup to get me through my hard day of Western civilization. I go to it so that I might become more enlightened to redemption, that efficacious work that Jesus accomplished on the cross and in his resurrection. And I take that he inspired his writers with all deliberateness and clarity.
This morning I drew on Hebrews 2.14.
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; (KJV)
The contemporary take on the cross is that Jesus died there all right, but he didn't come close to experiencing the type of death that Adam experienced in the Garden. Frankly, that way of thinking hits a wall with verses like Hebrews 2:14, a verse that enlightens us with its use of parallelism.
Consider the Greek behind the translation.
Forasmuch than as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death (thanatoo) he might destroy him that had the power of death (thanatoo), that is, the devil
That's right. The writer used the Greek word thanatoo speaking of both Jesus' death and Satan's power of death.
Now consider the contemporary take.
Forasmuch than as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through [physical] death he might destroy him that had the power of [spiritual] death, that is, the devil;
Notice the disconnect. One word, two meanings.
Here is my reading.
Forasmuch than as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through [spiritual] death he might destroy him that had the power of [spiritual] death, that is, the devil;
The parallelism gives us a better understanding of why dying like he did on that cross was so crucial.
A preacher friend once told me that knowing the nature of Jesus' death really wasn't material to walking out one's salvation. He said I shouldn't ever raise the specter of Jesus' spiritual death, his exile from the Father until he was raised the third day, because it has become so controversial these days. I told him I couldn't do that. You can't undo revelation.
