Chrysostom interprets, οὐ φαντασίᾳ οὐδὲ εἰκόνι ἄλλ᾽ ἀληθείᾳ. It means not merely 1 like manner,” but ‘in absolutely the same manner”; as in Arrian vii. I, 9, σὺ δὲ ἄνθρωπος ὧν, παραπλήσιος τοῖς ἄλλοις, Herod. iii. 104, σχεδὸν παραπλησίως ‘almost identical’’; see also Diod. Sic., v. 45. τῶν αὐτῶν, {.ε., blood and flesh. The purpose of the incarnation is ex- pressed in the words ἵνα διὰ τοῦ θανάτου . . . ἦσαν δουλίας. He took flesh that He might die, and so destroy not death but him that had the power of death, and deliver, etc. The double object may be considered as one, the defeat of the devil involving the de- liverance of those in bondage. The means He used to accomplish this object was His dying (διὰ τ. θανάτου). How the death of Christ had the result here ascribed to it, we are left to con- jecture; for nowhere else in the Epistle is the deliverance of man by Christ’s death stated in analogous terms. We must first endeavour to understand the terms here employed. καταργήσῃ: “might render inoperative” (depyov), “bring to nought”. Sometimes ‘de- ειον ου. ραε amend εο 415 ΠῚ 1 Cor. xv. 26 ἔσχατος ἐχθρὸς καταργεῖται ὁ θάνατος. τὸν τὸ κράτος ἔχοντα τοῦ θανάτου, “him who has the power of death, that is, the devil,” τὸν διάβολον (διαβάλλω, 1 set asunder, put at variance) used by LXX
to render που in ]οῦ 1. ii. and Zach. iii.,.
etc.; Σατάν is used in τ Kings xi. In N.T. both designations occur frequently. But the significance for our present pas- sage lies in the description ‘‘him who has the power of death”. ἔχειν τὸ κράτος is classical, and κράτος with the genitive denotes the realm within which or over which the rule is exer- cised, as Herod., iii. 142, τῆς Σάμον τ.. κράτος. In connection with this uni- versal human experience of death he uses his malign influence, and the striking vision of Zech. iii. shows us how he does.
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