How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
We - emphatic: who have received the message of salvation so clearly delivered to us (cf. Hebrews 12:25).
So great salvation - embodied in Jesus, whose name means salvation, not only deliverance from foes and death, and the grant of temporal blessings (which the law promised to the obedient), but also grace of the Spirit, forgiveness of sins, and the promise of glory (Hebrews 2:10).
Which, х heetis (G3748)] - 'inasmuch as being a salvation which began,' etc.
Spoken by the Lord - not as the law, spoken by angels (Hebrews 2:2). Both law and Gospel came from God; but promulgated by different instrumentality (cf. Hebrews 2:5). As the law began with God's writing of the Ten Commandments, so the Gospel began with the word of the Son of God Himself. His sermon on the mount confirms the law in its far-reaching spirituality, and His life fulfilled it. As the gospels record His actings in person, so the Acts His actings by His Spirit. As the Acts set forth the externals of the Church, so the letters its internal aspect. Angels recognize Him as "the Lord" (Matthew 28:6; Luke 2:11).
Confirmed unto us - not by penalties, as the law, but by spiritual gifts (Hebrews 2:4).
By them that heard him (cf. Luke 1:2). Though Paul had an independent revelation of Christ (Galatians 1:16-17; Galatians 1:19), yet he classes himself with those Jews whom he addresses, "unto us;" for, like them, in many particulars (ex. gr., the agony in Gethsemane, Hebrews 5:7), he was dependent for autoptic information on the Twelve. So the discourses of Jesus-ex. gr., the sermon on the mount, and the first proclamation of the gospel kingdom by the Lord (Matthew 4:17) - he could only know by report of the twelve: so Christ's saying, Acts 20:35. Paul mentions what they had heard, rather than seen, conformably with what he began with (Hebrews 2:1-2), "Spake ... spoken." Appropriately, in his letters to Gentiles, he dwells on his independent call to the apostleship of the Gentiles; in his letter to the Hebrews he appeals to the apostles who had been long with the Lord (cf. Acts 1:21; Acts 10:41): so in his sermon to Jews in Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13:31). 'He only appeals to the testimony of these apostles in general, in order to bring the Hebrews to the Lord alone' (Bengel); not to become partisans of particular apostles, as Peter, the apostle of the circumcision, and James, the Bishop of Jerusalem. The Hebrews of the churches of Palestine and Syria (or those dispersed in Asia Minor (Bengel), 1 Peter 1:1, or in Alexandria) are primarily addressed; for of none so well could it be saint the Gospel was confirmed to them by the immediate hearers of the Lord: the past tense, "was confirmed," implies some time had elapsed since this testification by eye-witnesses.