Since then 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;
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Clement Of Alexandria
AD 215
Perish, then, the savage beasts whose food is blood! For it is unlawful for men, whose body is nothing but flesh elaborated of blood, to touch blood. For human blood has become a partaker of the Word:
It was not otherwise possible for man, being of a perishable nature, to escape death, unless he recovered that ancient grace, and partook once more of God who holds all things together in being and preserves them in life through the Son in The Spirit. Therefore His Only-Begotten Word has become a partaker of flesh and blood (Heb 2.14), that is, he has become man, though being Life by nature.., so that, having united himself with the flesh which perishes according to the law of its own nature... He might restore it to His own life and render it though himself a partaker of God the Father... And He wears our nature, refashioning it to his own Life. - "Commentary on John 14:20"
For since the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise partook of the same (Heb 2.14), that having been made partakers of His presence in the flesh we might be made partakers also of His Divine grace: thus Jesus was baptized, that thereby we again by our participation might receive both salvation and honour. According to Job, there was in the waters the dragon that draws up the Jordan into his mouth (Job 40.23). Since,
therefore, it was necessary to break the heads of the dragon in pieces (Ps 74.14), He went down and bound the strong one in the waters, that we might receive power to tread upon serpents and scorpions (Luke 10.19). The beast was great and terrible. No fishing- vessel was able to carry one scale of his tail (Job 40.26): destruction ran before him (Job 41.13), ravaging all that met him. The Life encountered him, that the mouth of Death might henceforth be stopped, and all we that are saved might say, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where...
That, through death, he might destroy the power of him who had the empire of death, who, by tempting men to sin, had made them slaves to him and to eternal death; so that they lived always slaves to the devil, under a miserable fear of death, and liable to eternal death. (Witham)
Next he sets down also the cause of the economy. That through death, he says, He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.
Here he points out the wonder, that by what the devil prevailed, by that was he overcome, and the very thing which was his strong weapon against the world, [namely], Death, by this Christ smote him. In this he exhibits the greatness of the conqueror's power. Do you see how great good death has wrought?
