Homilies on Hebrews 8.1–8.4

“For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things relating to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins; he can deal gently with the ignorant and the erring, since he himself is beset with weakness; and because of this he must offer for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.” The blessed Paul now wishes to show that this covenant is much better than the old; and he does this by laying down his reasonings beforehand from afar. For since there was nothing bodily or for show, for example, no temple, no holy of holies, no priest with so great an array, no legal observances, but everything higher and more perfect, and nothing bodily, but the whole was in spiritual things, and spiritual things did not draw the weaker sort so much as bodily things, for this reason he takes up this whole discourse. And see his wisdom: he makes his beginning from the priest first, and continually calls him high priest, and first shows the difference from him. That is why he first defines what a priest is, and shows what belongs to a priest and what are the symbols of priesthood. And since it was objected against him that he was not of noble birth, nor of a priestly tribe, nor a priest on earth, it was likely that some would say for this reason, “How then is this man a priest?” What he does in the Epistle to the Romans, he does now too. For having taken up an argument hard to believe, that faith accomplishes what the toil of the law and the sweat of a way of life could not, and wishing to show that what seemed impossible has come to pass and been achieved, he took refuge in the patriarch and carried the whole back to that time. So here too he cuts the other road of the priesthood, setting before it those that came earlier. And just as, in speaking of punishment, he does not bring forward gehenna only, but also what befell the fathers, so too here: first he confirms this from things present. For earthly things ought to be made credible from heavenly things; but when the hearers are weak, the reverse happens. For the present, then, he first sets down what is common, and then shows what surpasses. For superiority by comparison comes about in this way, when it shares in some things and surpasses in others; otherwise it no longer comes about by comparison. “For every high priest taken from among men.” This is common to Christ. “Is appointed on behalf of men in things relating to God.” This too is common. “To offer gifts and sacrifices for the people.” This too, though not wholly; but the rest, no longer. “He can deal gently with the ignorant and the erring.” Here now is the superiority. “Since he himself is beset with weakness, and because of this he must offer for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.” Then he adds something else too: that he is made by another, and does not leap into it himself. This too is common. “And one does not take the honor for himself, but is called by God, just as Aaron was.” Here again he heals another point, that he was sent from God; which Christ said up and down when discoursing with the Jews: “He who sent me is greater than I,” and, “I have not come of myself.” Here he seems to me to hint also at the priests of the Jews, as being no priests, men who leaped into the office and corrupted the law of the priesthood. “So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest.” Where then was he appointed, he says? For Aaron was appointed many times, as in the case of the rod, and when the fire came down and destroyed those who leaped into the priesthood; but here the contrary: they not only suffered nothing, but are even held in honor. From where, then? He shows it from prophecy. He has nothing perceptible, nothing visible; that is why he argues from prophecy, from things to come. “But he who said to him,” he says, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” What has this to do with the Son? Yes, he says, this was said to the Son. And what does such a thing contribute to the question? Very much; for it is a preparation for his being appointed by God. “As he also says in another place, You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” To whom was this said? Who is according to the order of Melchizedek? No one but he; for all were under the law; if anyone can show another, he says, [let him]. “Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard because of his reverence, although he was a Son, learned obedience from what he suffered.” Do you see that he does nothing else than set forth his care and the excess of his love? For what does “with loud crying” mean? Nowhere does the Gospel say this, nor that he wept when he prayed, nor that he uttered a cry. Do you see that it was condescension? For it was not enough to say that he prayed, but also “with loud crying.” “And having been heard,” he says, “because of his reverence. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and having been made perfect he became to all who obey him the cause of eternal salvation, being designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.” Granted, “with crying”; why “and having been heard because of his reverence”? … Let the heretics who reject the flesh [be ashamed]. What do you say? Was the Son of God heard because of his reverence? And what more could one say of the prophets? And what … to add, “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered”? Would anyone say these things about God? And who is so mad? Who, out of his mind, would have uttered these things? “Having been heard,” he says, “because of his reverence, he learned obedience from what he suffered.” What obedience did he learn? He who before this had obeyed even to death, as a son a father, how did he learn it afterwards?

2. Do you see that it is said of the flesh? Tell me, did he entreat the Father that he might be saved from death, and was he for this reason very sorrowful, and did he say, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me”? Yet nowhere did he entreat the Father concerning the resurrection; on the contrary, he himself declares, saying, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”; and, “I have authority to lay down my life, and I have authority to take it again; no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself.” What then is it? And for what did he entreat? And again he says, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and [they will deliver] him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify, and on the third day he will rise.” And he did not say, “The Father will raise me.” How then did he entreat about this? But about whom did he entreat? About those who believed in him. What he says is this: … is heard easily. For since they did not yet have the right opinion about him, he said that he was heard; as he himself too said, consoling the disciples, “If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for my Father is greater than I.” And how did he not glorify himself, who emptied himself, who gave himself up? “For he gave himself,” it says, “for our sins”; and again, “who gave himself as a ransom for us all.” What then is it? Do you see that because of the flesh he speaks lowly things about himself? So here too: “although he was a Son, he was heard because of his reverence,” he says. For he wishes to show his achievement rather than the grace of God. So great, he says, was his reverence, that because of it God himself respected him. “He learned obedience” to God, he says. Here again he shows how great the gain of sufferings is. “And having been made perfect,” he says, “he became to all who obey him the cause of salvation.” And if he, being a Son, gained obedience from sufferings, much more we. Do you see how much he discourses about obedience, so as to persuade them? For they seem to me to have been continually restive and not following what was said; for he hinted at this by saying, “You have become dull of hearing.” From what he suffered, he says, he continually learned to obey God. “And having been made perfect,” through sufferings, he says. This, then, is perfection, and through this one must come to perfection. For not only was he himself saved, but this became to others too an abundance of salvation. “Having been made perfect, he became to those who obey him the cause of eternal salvation, being designated,” he says, “by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. About whom we have much to say, and it is hard to explain.” Being about to bring his discourse down to the difference of the priesthood, he first rebukes them, showing that even such great condescension was milk, and that because they were infants he lingered longer on the lowly discourse about the flesh, and discoursed about him as about some righteous man. And see: he neither kept silent altogether about the discourse, nor spoke it; the one, so as to lift up their mind and persuade them to be mature, and not be deprived of the great doctrines, he has done; the other, so as not to bury their mind. “About whom we have much to say,” he says, “and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.” Since they do not hear, therefore the discourse is hard to explain. For when someone has to do with men who do not follow nor understand what is said, he cannot explain things well to them. But perhaps one of you standing here grows dizzy, and thinks it a wrong that he was hindered by the Hebrews from speaking the more perfect discourse. Perhaps here too, apart from a few, I think many are such that this may be said of you too; but for the sake of the few I will speak. Did he, then, keep silent, or did he take it up again in what follows, and do the same as in the Epistle to the Romans? For there too, having first silenced the objectors and said, “Rather, O man, who are you to answer back to God?”, he then brings in the solution. But I think that he neither kept silent altogether nor spoke, so as to bring the hearers to longing. For having mentioned it and said that great things were stored up in the discourse, see how he makes the rebuke with praise. For this is always Paul’s wisdom, to mix hard things with kind ones; which he does in the Epistle to the Galatians too, saying, “You were running well; who hindered you?” and, “Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain?” and, “I am confident about you in the Lord.” Which he says to these too: “But we are persuaded of better things concerning you, and things belonging to salvation.” For he does two things: he neither presses them too hard nor lets them fall back; rightly; for if the examples of others are enough to rouse the hearer and bring him to emulation, when someone has the example from himself and is urged to emulate himself, much more does the power of the teaching come in from this. This, then, he shows, and he does not let them fall back as utterly condemned, nor as always being bad, but says that they were once good too: “For though by this time you ought to be teachers.” Here he shows that they had believed long ago; and he shows that they ought to instruct others too. See, then, how he is continually in labor to bring in the discourse about the high priest, and always puts it off. Hear how he began: “Having a great high priest who has passed through the heavens”; and, omitting to say how great, he says again, “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things relating to God”; and again, “So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest.” And again, having said, “You are a priest forever according to the order …”, “who in the days of his flesh … prayers.”

3. Since, then, he was so often driven off, he says as if excusing himself, The cause lies with you. Alas, how great a difference! Though they ought to teach others, they are not even simply disciples, but the last of disciples. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers,” he says, “you again need someone to teach you the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God.” Here by “elements of the beginning” he means the humanity. For just as in secular letters one must first learn the elements, so too in the divine oracles one had first to be taught about the humanity. Do you see the cause of speaking lowly things? So too Paul did when discoursing with the Athenians, saying, “The times of ignorance, then, God overlooked; now he commands men … a day, on which he will judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom he has appointed, having given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” For this reason, if he says something lofty, he says it briefly, while the lowly things are scattered in many places of the epistle. And in this way too the loftiness is shown; for the very lowliness does not allow these things to be suspected of the Godhead. So here too, keeping to what is safe, he attaches the lowly things to the humanity; and the cause is that they could not hear the perfect things. This he signified especially in the Epistle to the Corinthians, saying, “For where there is jealousy and strife and divisions among you, are you not fleshly?” But see his great wisdom, how he always deals suitably with the underlying passions. For there the weakness came mostly from ignorance, or rather from sins; but here not from sins only, but also from continual afflictions; that is why he used words able to express the difference: there saying, “You are fleshly,” but here, since the pain is greater, “You have become dull.” And they were not able to bear it, being fleshly; but these were able. For to say, “since you have become dull of hearing,” was the language of one showing that they had once been healthy and strong, boiling with eagerness; and he bears witness that they suffered this later. “And you have become such as need milk, and not solid food.” He always calls the lowly discourse milk, both here and there. “Though by this time you ought to be teachers,” he says; as if he said, Through that through which you have above all grown faint and become supine, through this above all you ought to be strong, by reason of the time. And he calls the lowly discourse milk because it suits the simpler; but this is contrary for the more mature, and it is harmful to linger in it. So the things of the law should not now be brought in, nor the comparison made from them, that he is high priest, and that he sacrificed, and that he prayed with crying and supplication. See, at any rate, how these things disagree with us; but they nourished those men then, never disagreeing with them. So the oracles of God are true food, nourishing the soul. And that the word is food is plain from this: “I will give them,” it says, “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.” “I gave you milk to drink, not food.” He did not say, “I fed you,” showing that such a thing is not food, but as with little children who cannot be fed with bread (for such are not given drink, but the food serves them instead of drink); so here too. And he did not say, “You need,” but “You have become such as need milk, and not solid food”; that is, you willed it, you yourselves brought yourselves into this state, into this need. “For everyone who partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.” What is “the word of righteousness”? Here he seems to me to hint at life too; as Christ also said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.” This he too says: “unskilled in the word of righteousness,” that is, unskilled in the higher wisdom, he cannot receive a life that is perfect and exact. Or by “righteousness” he means Christ here, and the lofty discourse about him. That they had become dull, then, he said; but from what cause, he did not add, leaving it to them to know, and not wishing to make the discourse offensive. But in the case of the Galatians he both wondered and was at a loss; which is much greater for consolation, as of one who would never have expected this to happen. For this is what the perplexity is. Do you see that infancy is one thing? Do you see that maturity is another? Let us become mature, then, with this maturity; it is possible even for boys and young men to come to that maturity; for it is not of nature, but of virtue. “But solid food is for the mature, for those who because of practice have their faculties trained to distinguish good and evil.” What then? Did those not have their faculties trained, nor know what is good and evil? Here his discourse is not about life when he says, “to distinguish good and evil”; for this it is possible and easy for every man to know; but about doctrines sound and lofty, and corrupt and lowly. The child does not know how to distinguish bad food from good; often at any rate it puts even dirt into its mouth, and takes in what is harmful, and does everything without discernment; but the mature is not so. Such are those who simply give heed to all, and indiscriminately hand over their ears to the unapproved. And he blames these, as carried about at random, and giving themselves now to these, now to those; which he hinted at toward the end too, saying, “Do not be carried away by various and strange teachings.” This is “to distinguish good and evil.” “For the throat tastes food, but the soul tests words.”

Let us too learn this, then; and if you hear that someone is not a Greek nor a Jew, do not at once think him a Christian, but examine all the rest too; since the Manichees too and all the heresies have put on this mask, so as to deceive the simpler in this way. But if we have the faculties of the soul trained to distinguish good and evil, we shall be able to distinguish such people. And how do our faculties become trained? By continual hearing, by experience of the Scriptures. For when we set their error before you, and you hear it today and tomorrow, and judge that it is not right, you have learned the whole, you have known the whole; and even if you do not grasp it today, you will grasp it tomorrow. “Of those who have their faculties trained,” he says. Do you see that we must train our hearing by divine hearings, so as not to be strangers … that is, to be experienced? One says there is no resurrection; another expects nothing of the things to come; another speaks of another God; another, that he had his beginning from Mary. And see at once how all fell away from lack of measure, some by excess, others by defect. For example, the first heresy of all is Marcion’s; it brought in another God, who does not exist. See the excess. After it, Sabellius’s, saying that the Son and the Father and the Spirit are one person. Then that of Marcellus and Photinus, which holds the same. Then that of Paul of Samosata, saying that he had his beginning from Mary. Then that of the Manichees; for this is the newest of all. After those, that of Arius. And there are others too. But we have received the faith simply for this reason, so that we may not be compelled to go through countless heresies and have trouble, but whatever anyone may attempt either to add to it or take from it, this we may consider spurious. For just as those who give out rulers do not compel us to busy ourselves with countless measures, but bid us hold to that which has been given, so too with doctrines. But no one wishes to give heed to the Scriptures; for if we gave heed, not only would we not have fallen into deceit, but we would also have freed others who are deceived and dragged them out of dangers. For the strong soldier is able not only to suffice for himself, but also to guard the man beside him and free him from harm from the enemy. But now some do not even know that there are Scriptures; and yet the Holy Spirit arranged so much so that they should be preserved. And see from the beginning, so that you may learn God’s unspeakable loving-kindness. He inspired the blessed Moses; he engraved the tablets; he kept him forty days on the mountain, and again as many others, so as to give the law. And after this he sent prophets who suffered countless terrible things. War came; they destroyed everything; he inspired a wonderful man to set them forth, I mean Ezra, and caused them to be put together from the remains. And after this he arranged for them to be translated by the Seventy; those men translated them. Christ came; he receives them; the apostles scatter them among all; Christ did signs and wonders. Then what? After so much labor the apostles too wrote, as Paul too said: “They were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” And Christ said, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures.” And Paul again said, “that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope”; and again, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable”; and, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” And the prophet: “In his law he will meditate day and night”; and again elsewhere, “Let all your discourse be in the law of the Most High.” And again, “How sweet to my throat are your words (he did not say, to my hearing, but, to my throat), above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth.” And Moses: “You shall meditate on them,” he says, “continually, rising up, sitting down, lying down.” That is why Paul too, writing to Timothy, said, “Be in them, meditate on these things.” And one could say countless things about them. But nevertheless, after so much, there are some who do not even know that there are Scriptures at all. For this reason nothing sound, nothing useful comes from us. But if someone wishes to know the things of soldiering, he must learn the military laws; and if someone wishes to know the art of steering or of carpentry, or anything else, he must learn the things of the art; but here one can see no one doing anything of the kind; and that, though this knowledge needs much watchfulness. For that this too is an art needing teaching, hear the prophet saying, “Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” So the fear of God truly needs teaching. Then he says, “Who is the man who desires life?” He means the life there. And again, “Keep your tongue from evil, … and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” Do you know, then, which prophet or historian or apostle or evangelist said these things? I do not think so, apart from a few; and even these again, if we bring a testimony from elsewhere, will be in the same case as you. For see, I will say this same saying spoken in other words: “Wash yourselves, become clean, put away your evils from your souls before my eyes, learn to do good, seek justice”; “keep your tongue from evil, and do good”; “learn to do good.” Do you see that virtue needs teaching? For the one says, “I will teach you the fear of the Lord”; the other, “Learn to do good.” Do you know, then, where these things are written? I do not think so, apart from a few. And yet every week these things are read to you twice or even three times; and the reader, going up, first says whose book it is, of such a prophet perhaps, or apostle, or evangelist, and then says what it says, so that it may be clearer to you, and you may know not only what is written but also the cause of what is written, and who said it. But all is to no purpose, all in vain; for all your zeal has been poured out on the things of this life, and there is no account of spiritual things. That is why those things do not turn out for you as you wish, but there are many difficulties there too. Christ says, “Seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you”; and these things he said would be given by way of addition; but we have reversed the order, and seek the earth and the good things on earth, as though those would be given us by way of addition. That is why we have neither these nor those. Let us come to our senses, then, at last, and become desirers of the good things to come; for so these things too will follow. For it is not possible for one who seeks the things of God not to obtain human things too; it is the declaration of the Truth himself, who says this. Let us not, then, do otherwise, but let us hold fast to Christ’s counsel, so that we may not fall from all. And God is able to prick our hearts and make us better, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, honor and worship, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.