Homilies on Hebrews 0.1–0.2

Writing to the Romans, the blessed Paul says, “Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke my flesh to jealousy”; and again elsewhere, “For he who worked in Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision worked also in me for the Gentiles.” If, then, he was an apostle of the Gentiles (for in the Acts too God says to him, “Go, for I will send you to the Gentiles”), what had he in common with the Hebrews? And why did he write to them? Moreover, they themselves were hostile toward him, and this can be seen from many places. Hear what James says to him: “You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed; and they have all been informed about you, that you teach apostasy from the law”; and many disputes often arose for him … Why then, someone might ask, did God not send to the Jews this man learned in the law (for he was trained in the law at the feet of Gamaliel, and he had great zeal for the matter), who for that very reason was best able to put them to shame? Because for that very reason they would have been all the more hostile to him. Foreseeing this, then, and that they would not bear with him, God says to him, “Go to the Gentiles, because they will not receive your testimony about me.” Then he himself says, “Yes, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in the synagogues those who believed in you; and when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and consenting to his killing, guarding the garments of those who were killing him.” And he shows that this very thing was the sign and ground of their not believing him. And so it is: when someone deserts from a people, if he is one of the least and of no account, it does not much sting those whom he has left; but if he is one of the admired, very zealous and of their way of thinking, it grieves them most and pains them beyond measure, since by going over to others after deserting them he most of all pulls down their teaching. And something else besides this produced unbelief toward him. What was it? That Peter and those with him had been with Christ and had seen signs and wonders, whereas this man had enjoyed none of these things, but, being with the Jews, suddenly deserted and became one of them [the believers]; which was most able to exalt our cause. For those others seemed to bear witness out of favor, and someone might have said that they testified these things from longing for their teacher; but the one who bore witness to the resurrection was, above all, a man who had heard only a voice. That is why you see them fighting him furiously, and doing everything and raising tumults on this account, so as to kill him. But the unbelievers hated him for this reason; and why did those who had believed? Because, preaching to the Gentiles, he was compelled to preach Christianity purely; and if he was ever caught in Judea, he did not care. For Peter and those with him, since they preached in Jerusalem, where the zeal was great, were under necessity to command the keeping of the law; but this man was in great freedom. And those from the Gentiles were more numerous than the Jews, being outside; and this weakened the law, and they did not have so much reverence for it, because he preached everything purely. Indeed, in that passage they seem to shame him with their numbers, saying, “You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed?” For this reason they hated him and turned away from him, because, it says, “they have been informed about you, that you teach apostasy from the law” …

Why then does he, who was not the teacher of the Jews, write to them? And where were they when he wrote to them? In my opinion, in Jerusalem and Palestine. How then does he write? Just as he was not commissioned to baptize, and yet baptized (“For I was not sent,” he says, “to baptize”; yet he was not forbidden), but does it as a side matter. And how should he not write to those for whom he was even willing to become accursed? That is why he said, “Know that our brother Timothy has been released; with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you.” For he had not yet been arrested. He spent two years in Rome in bonds; then he was released; then he went to Spain; then he went to Judea, when he also saw the Jews; and then he came again to Rome, when he was also put to death by Nero. This epistle, then, is older than the one to Timothy. For there he says, “For I am already being poured out”; and there again he says, “At my first defense no one stood with me.” … writing he says, “You became imitators of the churches of Judea.” And writing to these very people he says, “You accepted with joy the plundering of your possessions” … and this he relaxed the law … them. If they treated the apostles so, not only in Judea but also where they were among the Gentiles, what would they not have done to the believers? That is why you see him caring for them especially. For when he says, “I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints”; and again when he urges the Corinthians to beneficence and says that the Macedonians had contributed, and says, “If it is fitting that I go too,” he means this. And when he says, “Only that we should remember the poor, which very thing I was also eager to do,” he means this. And when he says, “They gave me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcision,” he means this. And he says these things about the poor there not without purpose, but so that in this we too should share in the beneficence. “For we did not divide the care of the poor,” he says, “as we divided the preaching among ourselves, we to the Gentiles and they to the circumcision.” And everywhere you see Paul taking great care of them, and rightly. For among the other nations, where there were both Jews and Greeks, nothing of this sort happened; but there, since for a time they seemed to hold power and to govern themselves, and to administer many things by their own laws, the government not yet being settled nor wholly subject to the Romans, they naturally exercised great tyranny. For if even in other cities, as in Corinth, they beat the ruler of the synagogue before the proconsul’s judgment seat, and Gallio cared nothing for any of this, yet in Judea it was not so.

You see, at any rate, that in the other cities they bring them before the magistrates and ask the help of these and of the Gentiles; but here they took no thought for this, but they themselves seat a council and kill whomever they wish. So at any rate they killed Stephen; so they scourged the apostles, without bringing them before rulers; so too they would have killed Paul, had not the tribune thrown himself in. For this happened while the priests were still standing, while the temple, the worship and the sacrifices still stood. See at any rate Paul himself being judged before the priest and saying, “I did not know that he was high priest,” and this before the ruler. For they had great authority then. Consider, then, what those living in Jerusalem and Judea were likely to suffer. He, then, who prayed to become accursed for those who had not yet believed, and who so served the believers as to go himself, if need be, and who took great care of them everywhere, what wonder if he also exhorts and consoles them by letter, and raises them up when they were sinking and prostrate? For they were by now worn out and in despair through their many afflictions. And he shows this toward the end, saying, “Therefore lift up the drooping hands and the weakened knees”; and again, “Yet a very little while, and he who is coming will come and will not delay”; and again, “If you are without discipline, then you are illegitimate and not sons.” For since they were Jews and had learned from their fathers that they should expect both good things and bad close at hand, and so live, whereas now the reverse was the case, the good things lying in hopes and after death, and the bad things in hand, it was likely that many of them, having endured much, were losing heart; so he makes a long discourse about this. But these things we will resolve at the proper time; for the present, let it be said that he wrote to them of necessity, since he took such great care of them; for the reason why he was not sent to them is plain; he was not, then, prevented from writing. And that they were losing heart he shows by saying, “Lift up the drooping hands and the weakened knees, and make straight paths”; and again, “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and love.” For the soul overtaken by many trials often turns aside even from faith. That is why he exhorts them to give heed to what they had heard, and not to have an evil heart of unbelief. That is why in this epistle especially he discourses at length about faith, and at the end shows many examples, that to those too good things were promised as though at hand, and he gave them nothing then. And besides these, so that they might not think themselves forsaken, he establishes these two things: one, for bearing nobly all that befalls; the other, for surely expecting the reward; for he will certainly not leave Abel’s company and the righteous after him without their prize. And he makes his exhortation in three ways: one, from what Christ suffered, as he himself says, “A servant is not greater than his master”; another, from the good things laid up for those who believe; and the third, from the evils. And this he supports not only from things to come, which was less persuasive, but also from things past, from what happened to their fathers. Christ too does this, saying at one time, “A servant is not greater than his master,” and again, “There are many dwellings with the Father,” and pronouncing countless woes on those who have not believed. He also discourses at length on the New and the Old Covenant; for this was very useful to him for faith in the resurrection. For so that they might not disbelieve that he rose because of what he suffered, he confirms it from the prophets, and shows that it is not the Jewish things that are venerable but ours; for the temple was still standing, and the sacrifices; that is why he also said, “Let us, then, go forth outside, bearing his reproach.” This too stood against him: for some would likely say, “If these things are a shadow, if these are an image, how is it that they have not given way nor withdrawn now that the truth has appeared, but still flourish?” And this too he quietly hinted would come about at the proper time. And that they had spent a long time in the faith and in afflictions, he made clear by saying, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers”; and, “Lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief”; and, “Become imitators of those who through [faith and] long-suffering …” … still the temple.