Interpretation of Hebrews

Those who have caught the Arian disease do nothing surprising when they rage against the apostolic writings, separating the letter to the Hebrews from the rest and calling it spurious. For those who move their tongues against our God and Saviour, what would they not dare against his loyal and loud-voiced heralds of the truth? For it is the saying of the Master himself: “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” But they ought, if nothing else, at least to have respected the length of time during which the nurslings of the church have continued to read this letter in the churches. For from the time the churches of God received the apostolic writings, from that time they have reaped the benefit of the letter to the Hebrews as well. And if not even this is enough to persuade them, [they ought to have been persuaded] at least by Eusebius of Palestine, whom they call the advocate of their own doctrines. For he too acknowledged that this letter is the most divine Paul’s, and said that all the ancients held this opinion about it. But these men, bidding farewell to all, shamelessly fight against the truth, unable to bear the brilliance of the apostolic theology with which the opening is adorned. For being unable to contradict what is said expressly about the divinity of the Only-begotten, they dared to reject the whole letter, although both in its doctrines and in its other arguments it has a close kinship with the other letters. As a pretext for the accusation they allege that the apostolic title is not placed in the opening as [in the others]. But they ought to have perceived that he had been appointed apostle of those who believed from the gentiles, and not of those from the Jews. For the Lord said to him: “Hurry and get out of here quickly, for they will not accept your testimony about me. Go, for I will send you far away to the gentiles.” And he made such agreements with the others as well: “For James,” he says, “and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go to the gentiles and they to the circumcision.” So too, writing to the Romans, he said: “Inasmuch as I am an apostle of the gentiles, I glorify my ministry.” For this reason, when writing to those who believed from the gentiles, he both added his title and set forth his apostolic rank, as a teacher writing to disciples; but writing to Hebrews, whose care had not been entrusted to him, he fittingly offered the teaching stripped of rank; for they were under the care of the other apostles. That the letter is full of spiritual grace, and offers not even the slightest occasion for slander, the interpretation in detail will teach more clearly. The subject of the letter is this. Those afflicted with the disease of unbelief surrounded those who had believed from the Jews with many and various pains. The divine Apostle mentioned these sufferings when writing to the Thessalonians too: “For you became imitators,” he says, “of the churches of God that are in Judea; for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews.” And writing to these too he added this: “And you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property.” And the blessed Luke teaches us that before his calling the divine Apostle was ravaging the church, entering house after house, dragging off men and women and handing them over to prison. And not only did the unbelievers dare these things against the believers, but they also mocked them as men who had consented to believe in a man who had died, and … [as having abandoned the law given by God]. For this reason the divine Apostle at once, in the opening, shows him to be greater than all the prophets. Then, beginning the theology, he declares him eternal, co-eternal with the Father, and creator of all things. Next, comparing him with the angels, he brings forward the divine Scripture, which teaches plainly that he is Son and God, but they are ministers and creatures. From there he shows that what was given by the Master Christ is greater than what was brought in through Moses. For the one gave the Old Covenant, the other the New, which he had promised beforehand through the ancient prophets; and the one promised to give Palestine, the other the kingdom of heaven. He also compares with the Levitical priesthood the [priesthood] “according to the order of Melchizedek,” and shows its superiority. Besides this, he shows that those nurtured in godliness before the law and under the law became illustrious through faith. He tells of their sufferings and their courage too, anointing his readers for the dangers. Then, having reminded them of their own contests and exhorted them to stand firm courageously to the end, and having joined moral exhortation to the doctrinal teaching, he has completed the letter. He wrote it in the language of the Hebrews; and they say it was translated by Clement. Now let us take up the interpretation. “In many parts and in many ways God spoke of old to the fathers in the prophets; in these last days he has spoken to us in a Son.” He has clearly shown the difference between the Master Christ and the prophets; for he called him alone Son. The opening resembles the Lord’s parable. For the Lord, telling the Jews the parable of the vineyard, showed first slaves sent to the wicked tenants, and then, after these had been killed, the son arriving. Now “in many parts” signifies the various dispensations, and “in many ways” the difference of the divine visions. For he appeared one way to Abraham, another way to Moses, another to Elijah, and another to Micaiah; and Isaiah and Daniel and Ezekiel saw different shapes. Teaching this the God of all said: “I multiplied visions, and by the hands of the prophets I was represented.” For the divine nature is not many-formed, but without form and shape, simple and uncompounded. So they did not see the unattainable nature itself, but certain shapes, which the invisible God showed as need required. “In many parts” also hints at something else: that each of the prophets was entrusted with some partial dispensation; but their God, I mean the Master Christ, did not administer one particular need, but by becoming man accomplished the whole and brought about the salvation of human beings. And it is shown that he is the one lawgiver of the old and the new. “Whom he appointed heir of all things.” The divine Apostle began from the human things, and, speaking first of the lowlier, so goes on to the greater. For the Master Christ is heir of all things not as God but as man. For as God he is maker of all things, and the creator of all is by nature Master of all; but an heir is declared lord of what he was not master of before. So believers are heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ; for by grace they receive what they did not have before. That he himself is Master of all, what follows bears witness: “Through whom also he made the ages.” This points to the divinity; for he showed him to be not only creator but also eternal. For an age is not a substance, but a thing without subsistence of its own, which accompanies whatever has a created nature. For the span from the constitution of the world to the consummation is called an age; so the Lord too said: “Behold, I am with you all the days, until the consummation of the age.” And the divine David called the time of each one’s life an age: “Our age,” he says, “is in the light of your face.” And the divine Apostle called the state of the future life an age: “Not only,” he says, “in this age, but also in the one to come.” And again: “So that in the coming ages he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us.” An age, then, is the span joined to created nature. And by calling the Son maker of the ages, he teaches that he is eternal, and instructs us that he always was, [before] anything whatever. So the Old Scripture says of God the Father: “He who exists before the ages,” in place of “he who always is.” Then, since he had declared the Son eternal, and it seemed somehow incredible to those uninitiated in divine things that one who is a son should not be second to his begetter in time, he shows the truth of the theology from a visible image, and says: “Who being the radiance of his glory.” For the radiance is both from the fire and with the fire; it has the fire as its cause, yet it is inseparable from the fire; for from the time the fire is, from that time the radiance is too. If, then, among things perceived by the senses it is possible for something to be from something and to coexist with that from which it is, do not doubt, he says, that God the Word, the only-begotten Son of God, both is begotten as light and coexists with his begetter as Word, as radiance of glory. For from the time the glory is, from that time the radiance is too; and the glory is always; therefore the radiance too is always. And the radiance is of the same nature as the fire; so too is the Son with the Father. And since the image of the radiance sufficiently showed the co-eternity and the consubstantiality, but offered an occasion for blasphemy to those sick with the errors of Sabellius and Photinus (for the radiance does not subsist by itself), by another image he banishes this blasphemy too. For he adds: “And the exact imprint of his hypostasis.” For he subsists by himself, he says, showing the whole Father in himself; for he bears the Father’s features. Like this is what the Lord said to Philip: “He who has seen me has seen my Father.” So by several names the divine Apostle taught the genuineness of the begetting, the consubstantiality, and the co-eternity. For since divine things surpass every mind, and it is not possible to teach the mystery of theology through one image only, the heralds of the truth are compelled to do it through several. So the inspired John named the Son “Word.” For since passion and time are joined to human begetting, he necessarily called him Word, to show that the begetting is impassible and timeless. And so that no one should suppose in turn that he is a word without subsistence, as Marcellus and Photinus and Paul held, he necessarily added: “And the Word was God,” signifying his own hypostasis, displaying the one nature, and teaching that the begetting is impassible and timeless. So the blessed Paul called him Son, showing him to be other than the Father by the principle of individual property. He called him Maker of the ages, teaching his eternity by this. He named him also radiance of glory, signifying by this both his co-eternity and the identity of substance; for the radiance is from the nature of the fire. And he added that he is also the exact imprint of the hypostasis, teaching both at once: that he subsists by himself, and that he shows in himself the Father’s features. And he adds yet another thing: “And upholding all things by the word of his power.” For he not only made all things, but also directs and steers them. He showed the surpassing greatness of his power by saying that a word suffices him for the creation and providence of all. For he said: “Let there be light,” and there was light; and he said, “Let there be a firmament,” and it was so; and all the rest likewise. So too the blessed David said: “He spoke, and they came into being; he commanded, and they were created.” Seeing that this theology is beyond dispute, those who hold the views of Arius tried to cast this letter out of the apostolic treasuries. For this reason we have shown that it agrees with the teachings of the Gospels. Now the divine Apostle, having thus gone through what concerns the divine nature, passes on to the human things, teaching the mystery of the incarnation. “Having made purification of our sins through himself, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” “Through him” should be read with a rough breathing, in place of “through himself.” For this Son of the Father, who is with his begetter, the creator and ruler of all, who shows the Father in himself, having become man brought about our salvation. And “he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” is said in human fashion. For being Most High he humbled himself, and being God he became man. It was not that, being lowly, he was exalted, nor that, being man, he became God; but as God he was always Master of all, and as man he received the glory that he had as God. This he himself said in the holy Gospels: “Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world was.” And he asked not to receive what he did not have, but that what he had might be shown.

“Having become as much better than the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.” This too he has said in respect of the human. For as God he is maker of angels and Master of angels; but as man, after the resurrection and the ascent into heaven, he became better than angels, since he had also been lower than angels because of the suffering of death: “For we see Jesus, made a little lower than the angels, because of the suffering of death.” Just as, then, he was lower than angels as man, since they have an immortal nature while he underwent the passion, so after the ascent into heaven he became better than angels: “For he sat far above every rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” The divine Apostle also makes the comparison from the names. So too he made the comparison with the prophets, showing the Master Christ to be Son; so too in the case of the angels he mentions the sonship, and by it shows the difference. “Having become as much better than the angels,” he says, “as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.” That he means the name of sonship, what follows teaches.

“For to which of the angels did he ever say, You are my Son, today I have begotten you? And again: I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son?” These things too he has said in respect of the human. For this is what “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son” shows; for these words are of future time. And indeed “Today I have begotten you” does not signify the eternal begetting, but the begetting joined to time. Such is the saying: “Today, if you hear his voice.” And what was said before these, “he has inherited a name,” agrees with them. For the one who is Son by nature does not receive this by grace; for he has it by nature. But, as I have already said, having taught the divine things, here he goes through what concerns the incarnation, and teaches that the same one is both maker of all as God and heir of all as man; both creator of angels as God and become better than they as man; both Son by nature, and receiving this again as man, what he had as God. And what follows agrees with what has been said.

“And when again he brings the Firstborn into the world, he says: And let all the angels of God worship him.” Both “he brings the Firstborn” and also “let them worship” hint at the incarnation. For he who upholds all things by the word of his power, the maker and creator of the ages, from where does he enter the world? And how is the Only-begotten Firstborn? And if the angels worshipped him after the incarnation, did they not offer him this honour before the incarnation? But he was both everywhere as God and entered the world as man. So too the inspired John said: “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” These things seem somehow contrary. For if he was in the world, how did he come? And if he came, how was he in the world? But he was both in the world as God and came as man. So too he is Only-begotten as God, and Firstborn as … he received from the angels; for he was always God; but they worshipped him also as man. Having made this comparison too in respect of the human, he passes again to the divine things, and says: “And of the angels he says: He who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But of the Son: Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” Through these words he has clearly shown that the angels have a created nature, but the only-begotten Son is uncreated and eternal. “For your throne,” he says, “O God, is for ever and ever.” And through these words he has taught us that “He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” was said in human fashion. For as God he has an eternal throne, and a kingdom without beginning and without end. And here too, moreover, the human things are joined. For “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you” is said in respect of the human. For the prophet Isaiah too, having foretold the things about Emmanuel, added this as well: “Before the child knows good or evil, he refuses wickedness, to choose the good.” And the anointing was not of the divinity but of the humanity. This the difference too teaches: “With the oil of gladness,” he says, “beyond your companions.” And we are companions and partners not of the divinity but of the humanity. This too the divine Apostle taught in the letter to the Philippians: “For he will transform,” he says, “the body of our humiliation, so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory.” For the body of the saints will be conformed not to the divinity but to the body of glory. This testimony, moreover, has refuted the blasphemy of Arius as well; for it has shown that the throne of God the Word is eternal; and by the duality of the persons it has driven out the confusion of Sabellius. And this same thing stops the shameless mouth of the Jews. And the divine Apostle added another testimony proclaiming his divine nature: “And you, Lord, in the beginning founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you remain, and they will all grow old like a garment; and like a cloak you will roll them up, and they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will not fail.” He showed him to be creator of all; for through heaven and earth he included all things in them. He taught that he is unchangeable and unalterable; for this is what “they will perish, but you remain” shows. He indicated also the change of creation for the better that will come about from him, and that he himself is without beginning and imperishable. “For you,” he says, “are the same, and your years will not fail.” For you did not come into being, but you are; nor do you admit any alteration; for you are always the same. These words show also the impassibility of the divinity. For if it had suffered, how is it the same? For it would have been altered; and if it had spent three days in death, its years would have failed. But both the prophet and the Apostle teach us, the one who wrote the testimony and the other who used it, that he is always the same, and his years will not fail. Having thus gone through the divine things, he turns again to the human …

“And to which of the angels has he ever said: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?” For if he says this to him as God, “Sit at my right hand,” how could that be? For “his throne is for ever and ever.” It is as man, then, that he has shared in this honour; for as God he has an eternal throne. … “sent out for service for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?” He has sufficiently shown the difference in respect of the human too. For he, he says, sits at the right hand; but these are sent as servants for the sake of the salvation of human beings. Then he turns his word to [exhortation], and says:

“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away.” Knowing this difference, then, we must attend more earnestly to the teaching, so that we may not suffer any slip.

“For if the word spoken through angels proved firm, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was first spoken through the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard, God [bearing witness] with signs and wonders and various miracles and distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his will.” To the exhortation he has again joined a comparison, and shows how far the teaching of the Gospels surpasses the ordinances of the law. For angels ministered at the giving of the law; but here the Master of the angels himself first brought the saving teaching, and those who enjoyed the apostolic grace received it in succession. And the law was a word pointing out what was to be done; but the Lord’s teaching brings about eternal salvation. And since Moses too used miracles, he necessarily shows grace excelling in this respect too. For here not only the Master worked miracles, but also his divine disciples and their successors. And he showed the New Covenant shining in the spiritual gifts as well. For of old only the prophets shared in the spiritual gift; but now all who believe enjoy this grace. For this is what he added: “and distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his will.” He said these things to urge them to attend more earnestly to the divine teaching; but in the form of exhortation he taught the difference between the one and the other. And very wisely he said that God bears witness to the preaching through the miracles; for the demonstration is clear, and the truthfulness of the witness indisputable. Having inserted these things in between, he [resumes] the argument of the comparison with the angels. “For it was not to angels that he subjected the world to come, of which we speak. But someone testified somewhere, saying: What is man, that you remember him, or the son of man, that you visit him? You made him a little lower than the angels; with glory and honour you crowned him, and set him over the works of your hands; you subjected all things under his feet.” He called the future life “the world to come.” Again, however, he compares the angels with the Master Christ not as God but as man, and shows that not the angels but he has received the lordship of all things. And “What is man?” is said about the common nature, but it fits the first-fruits taken from us, since he makes his own the things of the whole nature. So he said, in the person of all of us: “Far from my salvation are the words of my transgressions.” For he himself, even in his humanity, had no part in sin: “For he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.” But making ours his own, he became the mouth of the nature; for “he himself took our sins and bore our diseases.” And that [we should apply] this testimony too to the Master’s [humanity], let us hear the Lord saying to the Jews: “Have you not read: Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise?” He, then, having prepared praise out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, visited the nature of human beings. And the divine Apostle added the interpretation to the prophetic testimony: “For in subjecting all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him.” And since some would likely say, “And yet we see very many contradicting and unwilling to worship him,” he necessarily added: “But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.” For he had already said this: “For it was not to angels that he subjected the world to come, of which we speak,” in place of “In that life he will rule over all”; for then even those who now contradict will be subjected. And since he had called him both Maker and Master of the angels, and this seemed somehow incredible to those who were taught that the nature of the angels is immortal and learned of the passion of the Master Christ, he necessarily [speaks] about …

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour, so that apart from God he might taste death for everyone.” Not in the nature of the … of the humanity. And it too, after the resurrection, shared in the divine glory. The passion, however, he underwent for all. For all things that have a created nature needed this healing; for this is what he meant by “so that apart from God he might taste death for everyone.” Only the divine nature, he says, is without need; all other things needed the remedy of the incarnation. For God the Word, having become man, destroyed the power of death; and having destroyed it, he promised us the resurrection; and incorruption and immortality are joined to the resurrection; and the visible things too will share in incorruption. For this is what he said in the letter to the Romans too: “Because the creation itself will be set free from the bondage of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” And the angels too continue in gladness, beholding the salvation of human beings. For if they rejoice over one sinner, much more will they be filled with gladness when they see so many myriads counted worthy of salvation. For all, then, he underwent the saving passion; for only the divine nature [had no need] of the healing that came from it …

“For it was fitting that he, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, should make perfect the pioneer of their salvation through sufferings.” He showed God the Word perfecting the nature that he assumed. The pioneer of our salvation is the nature that was assumed; for it, having risen from the dead, brought about the resurrection for all of us.

“For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one.” This too he has set down in respect of the human. For the nature that was assumed is created, and one is the Maker both of us and of it; but through it we are sanctified. And if, as the heretics [say, this were said] according to the divine nature as well, … of the Only-begotten … For one Father, he says, we and he have. But it is quite clear that he is Son by nature, and we by grace. For this difference teaches us: that he sanctifies, and we … “For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying: I will proclaim your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise. And again: I will put my trust in him. And again: Here am I and the children whom God has given me.” The words “he is not ashamed” are enough to show the difference of the sonship. For when we talk about masters and slaves, and teach the humility of masters, we are accustomed to say: He is not ashamed to eat and drink with his household slaves, and to sit with them, and to tend their sick himself. This, then, is what he hints at here too: that he who accepted the passion on our behalf is not ashamed to call brothers those for whom he endured the passion. And not only brothers, but he also calls them children. So the Lord in the holy Gospels said to the divine apostles: “Little children, yet a little while I am with you.” And again: “Children, have you anything to eat?” And he showed that the lowly sayings are said by way of the economy; for with “he is not ashamed” he joined “I will put my trust in him.” For he is not ashamed, for the sake of the salvation of human beings, to use words that are lowly and beneath his own dignity. Then, taking up the testimony about the children, he unfolds the word about the saving passion. “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” How would it have been possible, he says, either for him to be called our brother, or for him genuinely to call us children, if he did not wear the same nature? For this reason, having assumed it, he destroyed the dominion of death and dissolved the fear that lay upon us. For we continually lived in dread of death, since we were compelled to drag the yoke of mortality. And very necessarily he set down “likewise,” to refute the calumny that it was in appearance only. He went through all these things to teach those who supposed the Son to be less than the angels because of the passion that he underwent the passion of necessity. And this he teaches more clearly through what follows. “For surely it is not angels that he takes hold of, but he takes hold of the seed of Abraham.” For if he had assumed the nature of angels, he would have been stronger than death. But since what he assumed was human, through the passion he paid the debt of human beings, and through the resurrection of the body that suffered he displayed his own power. And very wisely the divine Apostle has set down the specific name in place of the general. For he did not say, “he takes hold of the seed of man” … reminding them also of the promise made to Abraham. “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect.” For like us he partook of food, endured toil, felt anger, wept, and accepted death. “So that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.” He showed that his saving death had become an offering; for on behalf of the whole creation he offered the body that he assumed. And he added something else for their comfort: having learned by experience, he says, the weakness of human nature, inasmuch as he lived both under the law and under grace, he extends help to those who are under attack. And these things too are said in respect of the human. For he is our high priest not as God but as man; nor did he suffer as God, but as man; nor did he learn our condition through experience as God, but as God and creator he knows all things clearly. Thus he sets side by side with him the great Moses, who was greater than the prophets, so that, having shown the difference to be boundless, he might show at the same time the gap between the covenants, between the promises, and indeed between the priests. And again he mixes exhortation with the comparison, so as not to seem to do this deliberately, but as driven by some necessity. “Therefore, holy brothers, sharers in a heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus Christ, who was faithful to him who made him, as Moses also was in all his house.” Again he has called him high priest and apostle as man. For if he is high priest as God, he would have been this before the incarnation too. And that he became apostle of our confession after the incarnation, he taught in the letter to the Galatians: “For when the fullness of time came,” he says, “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman.” And he did not say, “He sent him to be born of a woman,” but “he sent him born of a woman,” so that it is clear that the name of sending fits the incarnation. And he called our faith “confession”; and by “making” he meant not the creation but the appointment. For “being faithful,” he says, “to the one who made him,” that is, made him apostle and high priest. Then, recalling also what God said about Moses (for it is the voice of God: “He is faithful in all my house”), he shows in what follows the difference.

“For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much as the builder of a house has more honour than the house.” As great as the difference between a thing made and its maker, he says, so great is the difference between Moses and Christ. And what follows teaches this more clearly.

“For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God.” One must know, however, that he showed the superiority from the divine nature, but said that he was counted worthy of more glory in respect of the human. For since the Master Christ is both God and man, and both are seen in the one person, he is necessarily compelled to say both lofty and lowly things about him, to make the two natures plain. “And Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of the things that were to be spoken; but Christ as a Son over his house, whose house we are, if we hold the boldness and [the boast] of hope firm to the end.” He has set down the names from the Old Scripture. For it has called Moses a servant; and again: “Not so is my servant Moses.” And the Old Scripture calls the Master Christ himself Son: “What is the name of his Son?” And: “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” And: “From the womb, before the morning star, I begot you.” The difference between the one and the other, then, he says, is known: the one is servant, the other Son. And that one was called faithful so that he might be shown to be a lawgiver worthy of credit; for this is what he meant by “for a testimony of the things …” But Christ as Son … this title … of lowliness …: “God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son.” And from the prophet David: “The Lord is faithful in all his words.” And again: “And the witness in heaven is faithful.” And the divine Moses too speaks thus: “God is faithful, and there is no injustice in him.” And he has called the believers the house of God, according to the prophecy that says: “I will dwell in them and walk among them.” And we shall enjoy this honour, he says, if we preserve the boldness we have obtained and the lovely hope … through the achievements of virtue. And since he had mentioned hope (and “hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he sees?”), and the Master has promised us the kingdom of heaven, he again makes a comparison between what was given to the Jews and what has been promised to us.

“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me, put me to the proof, and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said: They always go astray in their heart … As I swore in my wrath: They shall not enter my rest.” He has set down the testimony, of course to frighten them, so that they may keep with zeal the hope that has been given; but he is preparing something else as well, again handling the argument unobtrusively. And he continues the exhortation: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God.” You need much care and zeal, so as to guard the faith and not admit the ruin of unbelief; for it separates one from the living God.

“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” He bids those who are still living to take every care for themselves every day, so that sin may not gain a foothold and make our heart resistant. And he has called the present life “Today.” “For we have become sharers in Christ, if indeed we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end.” … to the Master Christ through the all-holy baptism of [his] death, and, buried with him, we have become [sharers] in the likeness of the resurrection, if indeed we keep the faith firm. This he has called the beginning of our confidence; for through it we were born again, and were joined to the Master Christ, and have received the grace of the all-holy Spirit. Then he takes up again the prophetic word: “As it is said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” And he mentions those who suffered this.

“For who, having heard, rebelled? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt through Moses?” The first is to be read as a question; the second not as a statement, but with the tone of a question. For so what follows prompts us to understand it; for except for Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun, six hundred thousand perished. For it is these he called “those who came out of Egypt.” “And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who disobeyed? And we see that they could not enter because of unbelief.” For when God charged them to set out for the promised land, they refused, putting forward their fear and the size of the enemy. For this reason the God of all consumed them all, part by part, in the wilderness, and brought in their children instead of them. Having inserted these things, so as to show through them, and to prepare them to hold fast to the hopes that have been given, he now makes his discourse about the rest, teaching that the prophet David foretold it to us long ago.

“Let us therefore fear, lest, while the promise of entering his rest remains, any of you should seem to have fallen short.” God has promised us, he says, that there is another rest. Let us then be eager to obtain it, so that we may not suffer the like of those men.

“For we too have had the good news preached to us, just as they did; but the word they heard did not benefit them …” Hearing the words is not sufficient for salvation; for one must receive it with faith and guard it firmly. For what did God’s promise profit those who received it, since they did not receive it faithfully, nor trust in God’s power, nor were, as it were, mingled with the words of God?

“For we who have believed enter the rest, as he has said: As I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter my rest.” He wishes to show three rests in the divine Scripture: first, the seventh day, on which God completed the creation; second, the land of promise; and third, the kingdom of heaven. And he builds the proof of this from the prophetic testimony. For if there is not truly another rest, he says, why does he both charge those who had received the second not to harden their hearts, and threaten punishment, and make mention of those who despised the second rest? He sets them out in order, and first that of the seventh day: “And yet the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day thus: And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” That the blessed David does not speak about that one, he says, is plain to everyone; for that rest came about many generations before David; for on the seventh day the God of all completed the creation.

“And again in this place: They shall not enter my rest.” Yet even though he knew these things, the Prophet nonetheless [speaks of] another … “Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience, again he sets a certain day, Today, saying through David after so long a time, as has been said before: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” Then, teaching that the Prophet does not say these things about Palestine, he concludes:

“For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not speak afterwards of another day.” He would not, he says, have spoken about that land. For Joshua son of Nun brought them into it; and the divine David too was in it when he was promising this … “So then there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God.” It is to be read not as a question but as a statement. And he has called the rest a “sabbath rest,” since on the seventh day God rested from all the works that he made; and in the future life there will be a life without grief, free of toils and released from cares. So he named the release from bodily works a sabbath rest. For this is what what follows shows: “For whoever has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his own.” For just as the God of all, having completed the whole creation on the sixth day, ceased from creating on the seventh, so those who leave this life and pass over to that one will be released from present toils. And the law too commanded the Jews on the Sabbath to abstain from bodily works and to give care to their souls alone. Then, by way of counsel:

“Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same example of disobedience.” … desiring to enjoy the promised good things, he will be liable to the same accusations as those who disobeyed. Then he shows the judgment full of dread: “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden before him, but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, to whom we must give account.” Nothing can escape the notice of that incorruptible judge, but he knows all things exactly, even the very movements of the thoughts. He knows what is in the … the evil counsels of the soul do not escape him … to him the hidden things are naked. And “laid bare” he has set down [from the image] of animals being sacrificed, which lie altogether voiceless, the slaughter having taken away their life, and with their life their voice. So too, he says, when we are judged, we shall behold all that we have done impiously or lawlessly, and in silence we shall receive the sentence of punishment, since we know that it is just. These things the divine Apostle wrote not to them alone, but also to all of us. We ought, then, continually to keep that divine judgment in view, and to shudder and tremble, and to keep the divine commandments carefully, and to await the promised rest; which may we obtain in Christ, with whom to the Father, with the all-holy Spirit, be glory and majesty, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.

“Having then a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” In what was explained earlier he made the comparison of the rests. [For whoever lives in ease and does not … to enter into …] And he showed that the rest promised to us is better than the one promised to the Jews; for to them he promised the land of promise, but to us heaven. From here on he makes the comparison of the high priesthood, and shows that the one according to the order of Melchizedek is much greater and better than the Levitical. And again using the form of exhortation, he makes the comparison, so as not to seem to those who still embraced the way of life under the law to be making war on the law rather than pleading for the truth. He has called the Lord Jesus high priest, as having offered the [sacrifice] for sin. For this reason he was named lamb too: “Behold,” he says, “the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” And it is plain even to the very contentious that the names are human. And if some have supposed these to belong to the divinity, let them call it also “curse” and “form of a slave” and all such things. But if none of these is proper to the divine nature, it remains to understand these as names of the economy. For just as he is said to have become man, having assumed human nature, so he is called our high priest as man. And the apostolic words too teach us this; for he shows him to have passed through the heavens; but the divinity of the Master Christ has an uncircumscribed nature, is present everywhere, and stands by all things. This the Master himself also taught us: “For no one,” he says, “has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.” For while he was below and conversing with men, he said that he was also above. We must know, then, which names belong to theology, and which to the economy. Now the divine Apostle, having pointed out to us that our great high priest has entered first into the true rest and has become higher than the heavens, charges us to hold fast the confession. He has named our faith “confession”; for we confess that we believe not only in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, but also in the resurrection of the dead, and in eternal [life], and in the kingdom of heaven. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in every respect in the same way, without sin.” At that time those who had believed were receiving many storms of temptations. He comforts them, teaching that our high priest not only knows the weakness of our nature as God, but also as man experienced our sufferings, remaining untouched by [sin] alone. And knowing this weakness of ours, he says, he extends the fitting help …

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” As God the Master Christ has a kingship by nature, an eternal throne: “For your throne, O God,” he says, “is for ever and ever.” But as man, and high priest, and apostle of our confession, he hears: “Sit at my right hand.” This the divine Apostle has called the throne of grace. And I think he hints also at the lovingkindness that he will use when he judges. For this is what he added: “so that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” For if we approach in the present life and show unmixed and sincere faith, on the day of judgment we shall obtain lovingkindness. Then he teaches the reason for the priesthood, and for what reason some are counted worthy of it, and what befits the high priest. “For every high priest chosen 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 wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness; and because of this he must offer for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.” He had said, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in every respect in the same way, without sin”; necessarily, then, he has added these things too, teaching that even in the law it was not an angel who was appointed to act as priest on behalf of men, but a man on behalf of men, having the same nature, beset with the same passions, knowing the weakness of the nature, full of forgiveness for those who slip, stretching out a hand to sinners, judging his neighbour’s case from his own. [For this reason it was laid down by law that he should offer the sacrifices not on behalf of the people] alone, but also on behalf of himself. “And no one takes the honour for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.” For the lawful high priest is the one who receives his appointment from God; for so Aaron too, the first high priest, received this dignity. The divine Apostle said these things not because he wished now to show us the rules of the high priesthood, but preparing beforehand what concerns the Master’s priesthood. Wisely, then, he at once added: “So also Christ did not glorify himself to be made high priest, but the one who said to him: You are my Son, today I have begotten you; as he says also in another place: You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.” For since he was of another tribe (for according to his human nature he sprang from the family of David), the Apostle, knowing how resistant the mind of the unbelieving Jews was, took refuge in the prophetic [testimonies]; and wisely through these he confirmed his own argument; and wisely he showed him to be not only high priest but also called Son, and to have received a new and extraordinary high priesthood. And since he had said that for this reason a man is put forward as high priest on behalf of men, so as to sympathize with the ignorant and the wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness, he shows that the Master Christ too received all the sufferings of human nature except sin,

“In the days of his flesh, he offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God a high priest according to the …” … would say that these things are said about the divine nature? For if the blessed Paul did not fear death, but had the desire to depart and be with Christ, and said to those who foretold what would happen in Jerusalem, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” how could God the Word, the creator of the ages, who is unchangeable and unalterable and free of passion, have feared death? But indeed, perhaps even to dwell at length on these things is utter folly. For the extreme lowliness of what is said compels even those who blaspheme the divinity to apply none of these things to the divinity. For the divinity allowed the humanity to suffer, so that we might learn that he truly became man and assumed human nature, and that the mystery of the economy was not accomplished in appearance and seeming. For if, even when these things happened so, Simon and Menander and Cerdo and Marcion and Valentinus and Basilides and Bardaisan and Mani taught their followers that he had nothing of human nature, it is clear that more would have fallen into this error had he not borne the human sufferings, sin excepted. He called “the days of the flesh” the time of mortality, that is, when he had a mortal body. And he means the prayer that he prayed at the passion, saying: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” “He learned obedience from what he suffered” the Apostle has set down hyperbolically; for he showed his obedience not after the passion but before the passion. And he called the resurrection and immortality “perfection”; for this is the goal of the economy. He has set down all the sufferings hyperbolically, wishing not only to show the reality of the incarnation, but also to confirm the word he had already spoken: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in every respect in the same way, without sin,” so that by this too he might urge those to whom he was writing to persevere in the faith and to take courage from the high priest’s sympathy and lovingkindness. And mentioning Melchizedek again, he wishes to show that his priesthood is greater than the Levitical; but for the moment he seems to postpone it because of the weakness of those being taught. For this is what he said:

“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.” Then he makes a moderate accusation against them, and mixes it with praise, so that through this the …

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk, not solid food.” He called the lowlier words about Christ “the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God.” For to those who did not yet have perfect faith the heralds of the truth offered only what concerns the humanity. So the blessed Peter, preaching among the Jews, measured the teaching to the weakness of the hearers: “Jesus the Nazarene,” he said, “a man attested to you by God,” and what follows in keeping with this. And the inspired Paul, bringing the preaching to the Athenians, called the Master Christ not God but a man. So too, writing to the Corinthians, he said: “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able.” And in what is written before these words he showed what he called milk: “For I decided,” he says, “to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” This he says here too: “And you have come to need milk, not solid food.” We are compelled, he says, to tell you the lowlier things about the Master Christ; for to those who do not even receive these, how is it possible to offer the greater? Then he shows the difference between imperfect and perfect. “For everyone who partakes of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their faculties trained to distinguish good and evil.” He showed the difference from the ages of life. For just as to newborn infants we are accustomed to offer milk, but to those who have firmer teeth we then allow the enjoyment of every food, so to those who have imperfect faith we offer teaching proportioned to their weakness; but those who have received perfect [faith] … of the more perfect … teaching more clearly what he called milk, he added:

“Therefore, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be carried on to perfection.” And what is the word of the beginning of Christ? “Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of teaching about baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits.” Having blamed them for their wavering about the faith (for this is what he called milk), he exhorts them to hold to perfection and to build the rest upon the foundations already laid, and not to fix another foundation from the beginning. He called faith the foundation, and wickedness dead works. For those who have believed, loathing the stench of these and using repentance, come to divine baptism, and through the priestly hand receive the grace of the Spirit, and, receiving in divine baptism the type of the resurrection, await the common resurrection of all and the judgment to come. These he called the elements of the oracles. For just as the schoolmaster first shows boys the shapes of the letters, so the teachers of godliness teach these things first to those who come to the faith. So the divine Apostle says that one must aim at the more perfect things, and not learn again from the beginning the elements of godliness. But “And this we will do, if God permits” he joined to what was said above: “Therefore, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be carried on to perfection. And this we will do, if God permits”: in place of “let us be eager, let us desire, let us embrace every toil for the sake of perfection.” The Apostle is accustomed to make everything depend on divine providence; for this reason he added “if God permits.” So too, writing to the Corinthians, he said: “I will come to you, if the Lord wills.” He set baptism in the plural, not teaching that there are many baptisms, but because many enjoy the grace of baptism. For that he preached one baptism, what follows teaches: “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and become sharers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of …” [It is impossible], he says, for those who have come to the all-holy baptism, and have received the grace of the divine Spirit, and have accepted the type of the eternal good things, to come again and obtain another baptism. For this is nothing else than to nail the Son of God to the cross again, and to attach to him again the dishonour that took place. For just as he himself underwent the passion once, so we too must share in his passion once. We are buried with him through baptism, and we rise with him. It is not possible, then, for us to enjoy the gift of baptism again. “For Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.” And our old man too was crucified with him in baptism, having received the type of death. “The goodness of the word of God” he called the promise of the good things. And he called baptism and the grace of the Spirit “the powers of the age to come”; for through these it is possible to obtain the promised good things. The Apostle said these things to teach those who had believed from the Jews not to think that the all-holy baptism resembles the Jewish baptisms. For those did not loose sins, but cleansed the apparent defilement of the body; for this reason they were offered many times and continually. But this baptism is one, since it has the type of the saving passion and of the resurrection, and prefigures for us the resurrection to come. These words the followers of Novatus arm against the truth, not understanding that the divine Apostle did not forbid the remedies of repentance, but laid down the rule of divine baptism … the Son of God, and put him to open shame.” For to put the divine mystery to open shame is to partake of it twice. For that he preaches repentance everywhere, what he wrote to the Corinthians bears witness, and what he wrote to the Galatians bears witness too; and he sows these words everywhere. But let us proceed to the continuation of the interpretation. “For land that drinks the rain that often comes upon it, and produces vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.” By the image he showed what good things those enjoy who bear the ripe fruits of godliness, and what those will suffer who [bear] thorns … And metaphorically he called the teaching [rain]; for so the prophet Isaiah too said, or rather God through the Prophet: “And I will command the clouds not to rain rain upon it.” And in the divine Gospels: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” And since he had used rather harsh words, mentioning thorns and fire, he offers the comfort of praise.

“But we are persuaded of better things concerning you, beloved, things that belong to salvation, even though we speak in this way.” And so as not to seem to use flattery rather than truth, he reminds them of what they had already achieved, making them by this more eager for divine things. “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the labour of love that you showed toward his name, in serving the saints and still serving them.” Knowing these things of them, then, why do you call them dull, and infants, and … “And we desire each of you to show the same zeal for the full assurance of hope to the end, so that you may not become dull, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” He hints through these words that they had shown much patience from the beginning, but the continual and successive waves of their opponents had blunted it. And he displayed his own affection too: For I long, he says, and greatly yearn to see you always with that eagerness. And this will be, if without any doubt you hold fast the hopes of things to come that have been given you, looking to the saints who became illustrious through faith, who through great endurance enjoyed the promised good things. Of most of them he makes mention after the comparison; for the moment he brings forward the patriarch Abraham, and shows that he received the divine promises, but saw their fulfilment after a very long time. “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying: Surely, blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And so, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.” He showed the truthfulness of the one who promised. For he was God, he says, having nothing above him; and the oath is a witness, for he swore by himself. Yet even after promising, and doing this with oaths, he did not at once fulfil the promises; but the patriarch needed great endurance, and only after a very long time had passed did he see the truth of the promise. And he teaches also why he swore, and why by himself … “and for them an oath is the end of all dispute, for confirmation.” It is the custom of men to confirm their words by an oath, and their custom also [to swear] by … “In this way God, wishing to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his counsel, guaranteed it with an oath.” … wishing [to show] the truthfulness of the promise, and that it is impossible to plan anything else after the oath.

“So that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.” He has called the word and the oath two things. For God fulfils his promise even when he uses only a word; much more when he joins an oath to the word. And this, he says, he has done to encourage us and to prepare us to await the divine promises, and not to disbelieve because we do not see the promises. For “hope that is seen is not hope” …

“Which we have as an anchor of the soul (that is, the hope), sure and steadfast, and …” … he called heaven the curtain. For the Lord promised to give the kingdom of heaven to those who believe in him. Those good things, he says, we hope for; this hope we hold, like a sacred anchor. For an anchor hidden in the deep does not allow our souls to be tossed about. He shows from another side too that the hope of the good things is beyond dispute: “Where a forerunner has entered for us, Jesus.” For us, he says, he became man; for us he handed over his body to death; and having destroyed death he has ascended into heaven, having become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. And he increased their courage by the title “forerunner.” For if he is our forerunner, and has ascended on our behalf, it is necessary that we too follow and obtain the ascent. This the Lord too said to the apostles: “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, you may be also.” So here too: “where a forerunner has entered for us, Jesus.” And he takes up again the word about the high priesthood: “Having become a high priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.” This he has taken from the prophetic testimony: “For you are,” he says, “a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.” And he is high priest for ever, not as offering sacrifices (for he offered his own body once), but as mediator bringing those who believe to the Father. “For through him,” he says, “we both have access to the Father.” And the Lord himself in the holy Gospels says: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” One must know, however, that the divine Apostle mentioned the oaths made to Abraham so that the unchangeableness of the divine counsel might be shown; for he is preparing beforehand the firmness of the high priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek. For here too an oath is joined to the word. And the comparison that he had often been in labour to make, he now makes; and first he recalls the history of Melchizedek. “For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom Abraham also apportioned a tenth of everything.” He seems to be telling a story, but he is preparing the matter at hand. For this reason he showed Abraham being blessed and offering the tenth of the spoils, to show the patriarch giving way even to the type. Then he shows his greatness from his names as well: “First, being interpreted, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, that is, king of peace.” This name, Melchizedek, means “king of righteousness” in the language of the Hebrews and Syrians. And he reigned over Salem; and Salem is interpreted “peace.” By these things he wishes to show that he is a type of the Master Christ. For he, according to the Apostle, is our peace; he has been called, according to the Prophet, our righteousness.

“Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains for ever.” The divine Scripture gave the genealogy of Abraham, and of many others too, both before him and after him, his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and his ancestors; and it added that at such an age he begot, and having lived on so many years more he died. But of Melchizedek the divine Scripture taught neither the father nor the mother nor the lineage, neither how long he lived nor when he met the end of his life. In this respect, then, he is without father, and without mother, and without genealogy, neither having had a beginning of days nor having an end of life; for the divine Scripture taught us none of these things. The Master Christ, however, has each of these by nature and truly. For he is without mother as God, since he was begotten of the Father alone; and without father as man, since he was born of a mother alone, the Virgin, I mean. He is without genealogy as God; for he who is begotten of the unbegotten Father needs no genealogy. He had no beginning of days, for his begetting is eternal; nor has he an end of life, for he has an immortal nature. For this reason he did not liken the Master Christ to Melchizedek, but Melchizedek to Christ; for the one is the type of the other, and the other the truth of the type. In the priesthood, however, it is not Melchizedek who has imitated the Master Christ, but the Master Christ is priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek. For to act as priest belongs to man, but to receive what is offered belongs to God. Nevertheless, the only-begotten Son of God, having become man, became also our high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, not taking on a dignity, but concealing his divine rank and accepting lowliness for our salvation. So he has been called lamb, and sin, and curse, and way, and door, and very many other things like these. And of Melchizedek he said that he remains a priest for ever because he did not hand on the priesthood to children, as Aaron and Eleazar and Phinehas did. For one who hands this office on to another seems in a way to be deprived of the dignity, since another has the exercise of it. The words have another sense too. For just as we call by the name “Moses” not only the lawgiver but also the law itself, so by “Melchizedek” we name both the person and the thing, the priesthood. And this the Master Christ has, having an endless life.

“See how great this man was, to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils.” He mentioned Abraham’s dignity not idly, but wishing to show that he, the root of the priests, the foundation of the good things, through whom the nations share in the blessing, [gave] the tenth of the plunder to Melchizedek … “And those of the sons of Levi who receive the priesthood have a commandment to take tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brothers, though these have come out of the loins of Abraham.” So great, he says, is the dignity of the priesthood that the priests under the law receive the tithes even from those of their own race and tribe, although the same …

“But this one, whose descent is not counted from them, has received tithes from Abraham and has blessed the one who had the promises.” The priests under the law demand tithes from those of their own tribe. But this man, though of another race, received tithes from the patriarch himself, and gave in return the blessing to the one who had received the divine promises. And he has interpreted “without genealogy” too; for he said that Melchizedek’s descent is not counted “from them.” It is clear, then, that he was not truly without genealogy, but in a figure.

“And without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater.” It is beyond dispute and quite incontestable that the greater are accustomed to bless the lesser.

“And here mortal men receive tithes, but there one of whom it is testified that he lives.” This he has set down from the prophetic testimony: “For you are,” he says, “a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.” And since the Jews would likely say that Abraham was not a priest, and so it was natural that he offered the tithes and received the blessing, but that Aaron received the dignity of the priesthood, and his family after him shared in the divine grace, he shows ingeniously that these too offered the tithes through the patriarch. “And, so to speak, even Levi, who receives tithes, has paid tithes through Abraham. For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.” He had not yet become the father of Isaac when the patriarch received Melchizedek’s blessing; he still had in himself, then, the seeds of begetting children. And from Isaac sprang Jacob, and from him Levi. Levi, then, he says, was in him when he offered the tithe and received the blessing; necessarily, then, he too has paid tithes and shared in the blessing. Then he again approaches the argument from another side, and by … the Levitical priesthood receiving …, and the one according to the order of Melchizedek being brought in in its place. And at the same time he sows beforehand the teaching about the New Covenant.

“If, then, perfection had been through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not to be named according to the order of Aaron?” If the priesthood under the law, he says, had what is perfect (for through it all the legal ordinances were fulfilled), what does the giving of the other mean? And why does he promise to give it not according to the order of Aaron, but according to the order of Melchizedek? And yet the legal ordinances were fulfilled according to that one; for it [offered] the sacrifices … through it the commandments about the feasts were fulfilled. For this is what he said: “For under it the people received the law.” Having thus shown the change of the priesthood, he shows also the cessation of the law.

“For when the priesthood is changed, a change of law also necessarily takes place.” The law is joined to the priesthood. Necessarily, then, when the priesthood ceases, the law too undergoes this.

“For the one of whom these things are said belonged to another tribe, from which no one has served at the altar.” And he states the name of the tribe too: “… our Lord, about which tribe Moses said nothing concerning priesthood.” He has set down “evident” as something beyond dispute. For when the Magi arrived, and Herod asked the Jews where the Christ was to be born, they said: “In Bethlehem of Judea.” Then they confirmed their own word with the testimony of Scripture; for it is written: “And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come forth for me a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” And from this tribe, he says, no priest was appointed. Indeed Uzziah, having dared to seize the priesthood, received the disgrace of leprosy as the penalty for his presumption. And the mystery of the economy deserves wonder: for just as the Master Christ, though eternal king, was named our high priest, so the tribe of Judah, which before was royal, obtained the priesthood through the Master. “And it is yet more abundantly evident, if another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become priest not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an indestructible life. For it is testified: You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.” From another side too, he says, it is possible to show the likeness of the one to the other. For just as that one had no successors in the priesthood, so neither will this one hand it on to another. For he called this a fleshly commandment, since the law, because of the mortality of men, commands that after the high priest’s death his son should receive the priesthood. And I think this word hints at something else too. For the priests for the most part cleansed the body, sprinkling and washing it; it was for the body that they offered the sacrifices. For they were not accustomed [to offer] for murderers or for … marriages, but for those with a discharge, and for lepers, and for those who had touched the bones of the dead. Then he takes up again the word about the law: “For there is a setting aside of the former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect), and the introduction of a better hope, through which we draw near to God; and inasmuch as it was not without an oath.” The law ceases, he says, and the hope of better things is brought in. And the law ceases not as evil, as the madness of the heretics has it, but as weak and unable to offer perfect benefit. One must note, however, that it is the superfluous parts of the law that he calls weak and useless: circumcision, the Sabbath, and things like these. For “You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery,” and things like these, the New Covenant too … Instead of those, then, we have received the hope of the good things to come; this brings us close to God. And an oath confirms God’s promise to us. “For those became priests without an oath, but this one with an oath, through the one who said to him: The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.” For since he himself had also appointed the priests in the law, but stopped them and appointed another in their place, he necessarily said that he appointed those without an oath, but for this one he added an oath as well. Do not think, then, that this priesthood too will cease like that one, and that yet another will come in its place; for the oath that was given excludes any such suspicion. “By so much has Jesus become the guarantor of a better covenant.” Having shown that the priesthood is joined to the law, and then that the Levitical priesthood is ceasing and the one according to the order of Melchizedek has appeared, he now fearlessly uncovers the new covenant too, and shows it to be as far superior to the old as the second priesthood has proved better than the first. And since the new covenant promised us the kingdom of heaven, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal life, and none of these was seen, he fittingly named the Lord Jesus its guarantor, who by his own resurrection confirmed the hope of our resurrection, and gave proof of his own resurrection through the miracles performed by the apostles. Then from another side too he shows that this priesthood is superior. “And the former became priests in greater numbers, because they were prevented by death from continuing; but this one, because he remains for ever, has a priesthood that does not pass to another.” The priests under the law have a mortal nature; for this reason they cannot act as priests continually, but have their sons as successors in the priesthood. But this one, being immortal, does not pass the honour of the priesthood on to another. “Hence he is able to save completely those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.” The very lowliness of the words cries out that none of these things fits the divinity of Christ. For he does not live for this, that he may intercede for us; for his life is without beginning and imperishable. These things too, then, are to be understood in respect of the human. For just as he accepted the passion for us, so he intercedes for us. The divine Apostle, however, has joined the lofty to the lowly; for he said that he saves us and provides perfect salvation. “For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and become higher than the heavens.” I think that even those who hold views contrary to the truth would acknowledge that these things too are proper to the humanity, not to the divinity. For, to pass over the rest, “higher than the heavens” … to God the Word, who fashioned all things? The word points to the one who after the passion came to be above the heavens; but God the Word has an uncircumscribed nature. Let us, then, apply these things too to the Master Christ as man, not thinking of him as anyone other than God the Word, but knowing what is proper to the divinity and what to the humanity. “Who does not need daily, as the high priests do, to offer sacrifices first for his own sins and then for those of the people; for this he did once for all when he offered up himself.” He has set down two things that those who obtained the priesthood did not have. For they both offered the victims continually and sacrificed for themselves, since they too sinned as men; and those who are subject to sins do not have so much boldness when they offer. But this one does neither of these: the one, because he had no part in sin; the other, because the one sacrifice sufficed for salvation. And they offered other victims; but this one offered his own body, becoming himself priest and victim, and as God receiving the gift together with the Father and the Spirit. “For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness.” For such is the nature of men. “But the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son made perfect for ever.” The only-begotten Son has perfection together with his begetting; for the Father begot him perfect. This too, then, is to be understood in respect of the human; for here he calls the immortal one “perfect.” Yet we must not think of another son besides the Son by nature, but of the same one, who is Son by nature as God and again received the same title as man. “Now the main point in what is being said is this: we have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the holy places and of the true tent, which the Lord pitched, not man.” He left the greatest honour for last, and showed him sitting at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty. For Aaron, the ancestor of the priests, the first to receive the honour of the high priesthood, used to enter the divine tent with fear and trembling; but this one has the seat at the right hand. But “minister” he said because he is speaking about a high priest. For what ministry does he perform, having offered himself once and no longer offering another sacrifice? And how is it possible for him at once to sit enthroned and to minister? Unless perhaps one were to call the salvation of human beings, which he brings about as Master, a ministry. And he called heaven the tent; though he himself is its creator, the Apostle said that he ministers as man.

“For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this one too to have something to offer.” It is proper to a high priest to offer gifts to the God of all. For this reason the Only-begotten, having become man and our nature … “If he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; they serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” These things he has set down by way of defence, teaching that he is not accusing the law, but regards it too as venerable, as having the type of the heavenly things. For this reason he said that it would be superfluous to call him a priest while he lived on earth, since the priests under the law were carrying out the legal worship. If, then, the priesthood under the law has received its end, and the high priest according to the order of Melchizedek has offered the sacrifice and made other sacrifices unnecessary, why do the priests of the new covenant perform the mystical liturgy? But it is clear to those instructed in divine things that we do not offer some other sacrifice, but perform the memorial of that one saving sacrifice. For the Master himself commanded us this: “Do this in remembrance of me,” so that by beholding the type we may recall the sufferings undergone for us, and kindle our love for the Benefactor, and await the enjoyment of the good things to come. Now the divine Apostle, having called the worship under the law a shadow of the heavenly things, confirms the word with a testimony of Scripture: “Just as Moses was instructed when he was about to complete the tent: See, he says, that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” For having shown him certain shapes on the mountain, he commanded him to construct things like them. So the old things are types of the heavenly things. For this is what he adds:

“But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.” He has shown the superiority briefly. For the old covenant had bodily promises joined to it: a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of olive groves and vineyards, a multitude of children, and things like these; but the new has eternal life and the kingdom of heaven. Having thus shown that the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek is superior to the Levitical, he now openly takes up the contest on behalf of the new covenant.

“For if that first tent had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second.” “Faultless” in place of … making those who used it faultless. And since this sufficed to strike those who clung to the way of life under the law, he calls the prophet Jeremiah to testify to what has been said, and says: “For finding fault with them he says: Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will establish with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: putting my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Having brought forward this testimony, he very wonderfully and briefly casts out the law, and says:

“In speaking of a new covenant, he has made the first old; and what is becoming old and growing aged is near to vanishing.” For the law was suited to mortal men, but the new covenant promises us eternal life. Fittingly, then, that one has grown old, but this one remains new always, as joined to the ageless ages. This the prophecy too has shown: “They shall not teach, each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.” This has not happened in the present life, but will happen in that one. For those who still wear the darkness of unbelief will there see the truth, and will mourn, according to the divine word. And since in what was explained before he called the worship under the law a shadow of the heavenly things, he now weaves this argument.

“Now even the first covenant had regulations of worship.” He so called the commandments according to which they performed the divine worship. So too the blessed David says: “Teach me your statutes.” And the lawgiver himself: “These are the judgments and the statutes that the Lord spoke to the sons of Israel.” But before all the rest he discusses the tent. “And the earthly sanctuary.” He so called the tent, as bearing the type of the whole world. For it was divided in two by a curtain in the middle, and one part of it was called the Holy Place, the other the Holy of Holies. And the Holy Place imitated life on earth, and the Holy of Holies the dwelling in heaven. And the curtain itself fulfilled the function of the firmament. For the divine Scripture has taught us that there are two heavens, of which God created the first with the earth, and made the second on the second day, saying: “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water.” Then he added: “And God called the firmament heaven.” So too the blessed David says: “The heaven of heaven is the Lord’s.” For this heaven is a roof for us, but for the invisible powers it fulfils the function of a floor. Just as, then, it separates the things below from those above, so the curtain stretched across the middle of the tent separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place.

“For a tent was prepared, the first one, in which were the lampstand, and the table, and the presentation of the bread; this is called the Holy Place.” “Holy Place” (hagia) is to be read with the accent on the third syllable from the end; for so the other name teaches us to understand it.

“Behind the second curtain was a tent called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; and above it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.” Through the mercy seat and the cherubim he showed that those things bear the type of the heavenly things; and through the lamp and the table he hinted at the present life. “These things having been so prepared, the priests go continually into the first tent, performing the services; but into the second, only the high priest goes, once a year, and not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of ignorance of the people.” For he was commanded to sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat with his finger. “By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places has not yet been revealed while the first tent still has standing.” For this reason, he says, the Holy of Holies was inaccessible to the many, since the worship under the law still prevailed. One must know, however, that, though it was God who commanded these things to be done so, the divine Apostle said that the Holy Spirit indicated them, showing the dignity of the Spirit. “This is a parable for the present time, according to which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshipper as to the conscience, but deal only with foods and drinks and various washings, regulations of the flesh imposed until the time of reformation.” By a parable, he says, we are taught through the tent that the law is suited to this life and fitted to those who still have a mortal nature. For this reason the priests went into the first tent and performed the customary worship, but no longer into the Holy of Holies; one alone, the high priest, going in, fulfilled the type of the Master Christ, who first ascended into heaven and made it accessible to us. Clearly, in these words too, he has taught us that he does not cast out the whole law, [but] the rules about food and drink, and about the man with a discharge, and the leper, and the woman after childbirth, and the flow of blood. For these were washed, and … of these had power to render the conscience pure. Each of these was given not without reason, but for some need, which it is not the present occasion to state. Yet all of them were temporary, awaiting the time of perfection; for this is what he said: “imposed until the time of reformation.” Having thus shown their weakness, he sets beside them the things of the new covenant. “But when Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, not through the blood of goats and calves but through his own blood, he entered once for all into the holy places, having obtained eternal redemption.” Here he has called the human nature that the Master Christ assumed a tent not made with hands. For he was not born according to the law of marriage, but the all-holy Spirit constructed the tent. And “not of this creation” is in place of “not according to the law of nature that governs in creation.” And he offered for us not the blood of bulls and goats, but his own blood; and through this blood he ascended into heaven, not as the high priests did, once a year, but once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For having become our ransom, he freed us all from the dominion of death. Then from an example he shows the truth of what has been said. “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the defiled, sanctify for the purity of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” For if the blood of irrational animals and ashes sprinkled with water cleanse the defilement that seems to have come upon the body, much more does the blood of Christ free our consciences from evil works. For he has called the foul and evil works dead. And this too he has said in respect of the human: for it was the divine Spirit that made that body without blemish. For it had all the gifts of the divine Spirit; and “from his fullness,” according to the divine John, “we have all received.” One should note that he has called the divine Spirit eternal; and what is eternal is not created. For the eternal had no temporal beginning of its being.

“And for this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” For this reason he accepted death on behalf of all, so that he might count worthy of salvation even those who had come under the curse of the law through transgression, and make them sharers in the eternal good things. “For where there is a covenant, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a covenant is valid over the dead, since it is never in force while the one who made it is alive.” He has set this down to console those who were troubled by the Master’s death: since a new covenant was being given, the death had to take place. For covenants take their force after the death of those who make them. And he shows this also from the old covenant. “Hence not even the first was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment according to the law had been spoken by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded for you.’ And likewise he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels of the ministry. And under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” He has shown beyond dispute that the old things are types of the new. If, then, in the type too the lawgiver took blood, mixed it with water, and sprinkled the covenant itself, the people, and the tent, and they indeed received the benefit, what wonder is it if we find that this has happened also in the reality? He has necessarily set down also the testimony of Moses, which shows this plainly: “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded for you.” For since the divine nature is immortal, he fulfilled the type of death through the blood of the victims and ratified the covenant. But when God the Word had become man and had a mortal body, he no longer needed irrational victims, but ratified the new covenant with his own blood. For the type befits the shadow, and the reality befits the body. The water was a type of baptism; the blood of the irrational animals, of the saving blood; the warmth of the hyssop, of the grace of the divine Spirit; the scarlet wool, of the new garment; the cedar wood, of the impassibility of the Godhead, for the wood does not decay; the ashes of the heifer, of the passion of the humanity. “It was necessary, then, for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these,” that is, with the irrational animals, “but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these,” that is, with the rational, spotless, and holy sacrifice. He has called heavenly the spiritual things by which the church is purified. “For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, antitypes of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” He showed the difference also from the place: the priests entered the tent made with hands or the temple of hewn stone, but he entered heaven. “Now to appear” means “as man.” For now for the first time has human nature ascended into heaven. “Nor was it to offer himself often, as the high priest enters the holy places year by year with blood not his own; for then he would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world.” The priests under the law enter the Holy of Holies every year, but Christ has done this once, at the end of the ages; and they did so with blood not their own, but he with his own. “But now once for all at the end of the ages he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” For he has destroyed the power of sin completely, promising us immortality; for sin cannot trouble immortal bodies. “And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment, so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time without sin to those who eagerly wait for him, for salvation.” For just as it is fixed that each human being dies once, and the one who has received the limit of death no longer sins but awaits the examination of the life he has lived, so the Master Christ, having been offered once for us and having taken up our sins, will appear to us again, with sin no longer prevailing, that is, with sin no longer having any place against human beings. For he himself, even while he still had a mortal body, “committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.” One must know, however, that he said he bore the sins “of many,” and not of all. For not all believed; so the sins of those only who believed …

“For since the law has a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.” He calls the life to come “the realities”; the image of the realities, the gospel way of life; and the shadow of the image of the realities, the Old Testament. For an image shows the originals more vividly, while the shadow-sketch of the image indicates them more faintly. With this he compared the weakness of the Old Testament. For, he says, though they offer many sacrifices, and the same ones, year by year, they cannot make perfect those who live under the law.

“Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, once cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?” For this reason those things come to an end, as unable to render the conscience pure. “But in them there is a reminder of sins year by year.” He has shown both the weakness of the law and its usefulness. For it cannot take away sins, but it accuses them, instills fear, and compels people to run to grace.

“For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” For what murderer or parricide did the blood of irrational animals let go unpunished? For this reason the blessed David too cried out, “If you had wanted sacrifice, I would have given it; you will not be pleased with burnt offerings.” And the divine Apostle sets down another testimony as well: “Therefore, coming into the world, he says: Sacrifice and offering you did not want, but a body you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and offerings for sin you took no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.” Then he interprets the testimony: “When he said above, Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not want nor take pleasure in (which are offered according to the law), then he said, Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.” For having shown, he says, that the sacrifices of irrational animals displeased God, he then pointed to himself and to the predictions about his appearing; for this is what he said: “In the scroll of the book it is written of me.” And he says the same thing again in another way: “He takes away the first in order to establish the second.” He called the first the sacrifice of irrational animals, and the second the rational one, which was offered by him. “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” He clearly showed that the salvation of human beings is the will of God. This the Lord also said: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who believes in me should not perish but have eternal life.” “And every high priest stands daily ministering and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” For the priests were commanded to offer the same sacrifices continually; yet release from sins in no way came through them.

“But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down for ever at the right hand of God, waiting from then on until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering …” There, a multitude of priests and a multitude of victims, and no benefit; here one and the same is both priest and victim; he accomplished the release of sins and needs no further ministry, but sits with the Father who begot him, awaiting the end of the present life. For then all his foes will worship him as God and Master. His enemies are, first, the devil and the band of demons; then those of the Jews and of the gentiles who did not receive the ray of faith; and with these the gangs of heretics who dare to utter blasphemies against him. Then, about to bring the comparison to an end, he again recalls the prophecy of Jeremiah; he does not say the prophet’s name, but points to the Spirit who spoke through him, and says: “And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us. For after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: putting my laws on their hearts, I will also write them on their minds,’ he says, ‘and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’” Then he wonderfully adds …

“Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” For it is superfluous once forgiveness has been granted. And he promised the forgiveness: “For their sins,” he says, “and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” This has come about through the new covenant; for we receive forgiveness of sins in the all-holy baptism. And in the life to come, when immortality is bestowed on us, we shall live free of all these things, since sin can no longer trouble those who have become immortal. May it be granted us to attain that life! We shall attain it by eagerly embracing in the present life the labours of virtue and by taking up the contests on its behalf. And the Master himself, the provider of the good things to come, will work with us; to whom, and with whom to the Father, together with the all-holy Spirit, belong glory and majesty, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

“Having therefore, brothers, confidence for the entrance into the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he inaugurated for us through [the curtain, that is,] his flesh, and having a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” Having already made the comparison, and shown that this rest is far better than the rest under the law, and having set the priesthood and the covenant side by side and shown their superiority, he now offers exhortation, urging them to hold fast to the greater things. He has called heaven “the holy places”; for so he said earlier: “For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, but into heaven itself.” By the way to these he means the best way of life and the resurrection from the dead; and by inaugurating the way, being the first to travel it. For the Master was the first to rise from the dead, and he ascended into heaven. For this reason he called the way both new and living: new, since it then appeared for the first time; living, since death has ceased; for those who have attained the resurrection cannot fall into death again. He named the Master’s flesh the curtain; for through it we enjoy entrance into the Holy of Holies. For just as the high priest under the law went into the Holy of Holies through the curtain, and could not enter otherwise, so those who have believed in the Lord will enjoy the way of life in heaven through partaking of the all-holy body. He has called the faithful the house of God. He necessarily added “in full assurance of faith,” since all these things are unseen, the inner sanctuary of the tent, the sacrifice, and the high priest, and are perceived by faith alone. This, then, is the sense of what has been said: since it has been shown, he says, that the things of grace are far greater than those of the law, and heaven has been opened to us, and the way is fitting, and the Master Christ himself first travelled it, let us draw near with a sincere disposition, believing that these things are so, and every … “having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our body washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.” These too he has set side by side. For under the law they used sprinklings and washed the body continually; but those who live under the new covenant are cleansed in soul through the all-holy baptism and render the conscience free of former stains. So he called the divine baptism a sprinkling and pure water, and the confession of hope believing in the good things to come. For he added: “For he who promised is faithful.” For the one who gave the promise is truthful; by the quality of the person he showed the firmness of the promise. “And let us consider one another to stir up love and good works.” Let us look to one another, he says, and let each emulate his neighbour’s good deeds. For iron sharpens iron, and … “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of some.” For the work of love is not division but exact union; for he called concord “assembling together.” And he hints at some who had dared to tear it apart. “But exhorting one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” For it draws nearer every day; so he also said in writing to the Romans: “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we believed.” Then he alarms them with the remembrance of the judgment: “For if we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a zeal of fire that will consume the adversaries.” By these words he did not forbid repentance, but said that there is no second sacrifice; for the Master Christ was sacrificed for us once. And he has put “willfully,” teaching that what is done against one’s intention receives some pardon. He has called adversaries not only the enemies of the truth but also those who dare to pursue things contrary to the divine laws. And again he shows how outrageous this is by setting it beside the ordinances of the law: “Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will he deserve who has trampled on the Son of God, and regarded as common the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” If the one convicted of transgressing the law of Moses is put to death, consider how many deaths he deserves who dishonours the very God of Moses, despises the precious blood as if it were common, and insults the very grace of the Spirit. For again, in the form of exhortation, he has shown the difference: that the one is Son and the other servant, and that those were sacrifices of irrational animals while this is rational and all-holy. And he set against the law not a law, but the blood and the Spirit; for through these salvation comes to us. He confirms the threat with testimonies from Scripture: “For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’” Having fortified his argument with the testimonies, he makes the threat definite. … of the divine gift, that the Lord will judge the …

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” But since these words were enough to grieve them, hinting at negligence and neglect of divine things, he tempers the severity of what he has said with the remembrance of what they had already achieved; for nothing rouses to eagerness so much as the remembrance of one’s own achievements. “But recall the former days, in which, after you had been enlightened, you endured a great contest of sufferings, partly being made a public spectacle by reproaches and afflictions, and partly becoming partners of those so treated. For you sympathized with my bonds, and accepted the plundering of your possessions with joy, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and abiding possession in heaven.” I want you to call to mind those splendid contests. For as soon as you had received the light of the knowledge of God, you won many splendid contests: sometimes being yourselves reviled and insulted and deprived of your possessions with great cheerfulness, sometimes sharing with those who suffered these things and offering them every kind of care. And you did each of these eagerly, since you had the hope of the good things promised in heaven. Then, by way of exhortation:

“Do not, then, throw away your confidence,” for from the victory you have acquired great confidence. And he points out also the prizes of the contests: “which has a great reward.” And he teaches also how it is possible to obtain them: “For you have need of endurance, so that, having done the will of God, each of you may receive the promise.” For the reward is equal in measure to the labour, and the recompense is supplied according to the work. And consoling them as being very disheartened (for the attacks of their opponents were violent) … and that the crowns are not far off: “For yet a very little while, and the one who is coming will come and will not delay.” The Master is near, he says; he will come very soon and will repay the labours with the heavenly good things. And since it was likely that some would have doubts about these things, he fittingly added: “But the righteous one shall live by faith.” God said these things, he says, through the prophets; so that even when the law prevailed, the medicine of faith was effecting salvation. “And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” He has called doubt a shrinking back.

“But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” For through faith we are made God’s own. Then he shows those before the law and those under the law who through faith became dear to God and illustrious. By these he establishes two things at the same time: he shows the strength of faith (for what the law did not accomplish, faith achieved), and he offers consolation to those disheartened by the uprisings of their opponents, showing that all who have won ever-remembered fame travelled through such storms. And first he teaches us the very definition of faith.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen.” For through it we see what is not seen; it becomes an eye for us for the contemplation of what is hoped for, and it shows as already existing what has not yet come to be. While all the dead still lie in their tombs, faith paints the resurrection for us in advance and enables us to picture the immortality of the bodies’ dust. Then he gives the catalogue of the saints of old: “For by it the elders received testimony.” That is, those who lived long ago, the saints who shone before the law and under the law. And he sets first what was first handed down to us in writing. The first teaching given to us in writing was: “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth,” and the rest that is said about creation.

“By faith we understand that the ages were framed by the word of God, so that what is seen came into being not from things that appear.” For the eye of the body did not see the God of the universe creating, but faith has taught us that God, who always is, made the things that were not. For there is no example of this among human beings; yet, though nature teaches us nothing of the kind, we have faith as our teacher of things beyond expectation. For human beings make things from things that exist, but the God of the universe brought what exists out of what does not exist.

“By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he received testimony that he was righteous, God testifying over his gifts; and through it, though he died, he still speaks.” He called the more precious one “better.” And this is clear from the accusation against Cain; for he said to him: “If you offered rightly but did not divide rightly, did you not sin?” So Abel both divided rightly and offered piously; and he did both with faith as his teacher. “He still speaks” means: he is celebrated to the present day, and much talked of, and …

“By faith Enoch was taken up so as not to see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him up; for before his being taken up he had received testimony that he had pleased God.” God took him up because he had pleased him …; and he pleased him by believing that God exists … Then he declares: “And without faith it is impossible to please God.” And he has added the proof of the declaration: “[For whoever draws near] to God [must believe] that he exists and that he becomes a rewarder of those who seek him.” For the one who … does not endure labours. For neither would the farmer have endured the sweat of farming unless … of his labours … endures dangers. “By faith Noah, having been warned about things not yet seen, … salvation of his household, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness that is according to faith.” … the ark. For if he had not firmly believed the one who [commanded] him to do this … loved wickedness. He condemned the world … “Became heir” means “achieved it.” For he did not follow the way of life under the law, but, having become a nursling of faith, he obtained the prizes.

“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to the place which he was to receive as an inheritance …” … Abraham, because of the name … he was named. Believing the one who called him, he left his ancestral house and followed, not knowing what land he was promising to give him. “Come,” he said to him, “into the land that I will show you.”

“By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the fellow heirs of the same promise.” … the promised land, he did not become its master; but he himself, and his son, and his grandson lived the life of migrants, sojourning as in a … land in what was their own by promise …, even though they did not see the outcome of events agreeing with their faith. “For he was waiting for the city that has foundations, whose craftsman and builder is God.” For he did not desire present things, but longed for things to come. By the foundations he signified permanence. He called the way of life in heaven a city not made with hands; and this he also said earlier: “For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, but into heaven itself.”

“By faith Sarah herself also received power to conceive seed, and bore a child past the time of life, since she considered him faithful who had promised.” For at first she laughed, not knowing the nature of the one who promised and knowing the limits of human nature; for not only old age but also the barrenness of the womb ruled out childbirth. Later, however, having learned who had made the promise, and … “Therefore from one, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven in multitude and as the innumerable sand by the seashore.” From one: Abraham. And if we understand the two of them as one, we shall not be wrong; for “the two,” he says, “shall become one flesh.” Then he shows by reasoning that all these saw through faith the rewards of good labours, but did not enjoy them in the present life. This being shown, and the judge … For those who travelled the whole road of virtue but did not receive the prizes of their labours in the present life will clearly receive them without fail, since the judge is just. There will therefore be another life, in which the rewards of the victors will be given. And these things the Apostle teaches in what follows:

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar and greeted them, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” So the patriarch Abraham said to the sons of Heth: “I am a sojourner and an exile among you; give me possession of a burial place among you, and I will bury my dead out of my sight.” He who had received the promise of the whole land did not possess even a plot of three cubits. This the glorious victor Stephen also said: “And he did not give him even a foot’s length.” So also the blessed David, though he was king and ruled that land, constantly cried out: “I am a sojourner with you and an exile, as all my fathers were.” “For those who say such things make it plain that they are seeking a homeland.” Those who call themselves strangers, he says, … present things, but desire other things. This the Lord also said: “If you have not been faithful in what is another’s, who will give you what is your own?” …

“And if they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.” For if he had regarded … Charran or the land of the Chaldeans as his homeland, … the patriarch, and for this reason called himself a sojourner while living in Palestine, he could very easily have returned. “But as it is, they desire a better one, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he has prepared a city for them.” He does not mean some building, but the way of life in heaven; for this he says a little later too: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” And he has aptly set down “is not ashamed.” For the Lord of the powers, the Master of the angels, the Maker of heaven and earth, when asked “What is your name?”, passed over everything else and said: “I am the God of Abraham and the God of Jacob. This is my eternal name and my memorial for generations of generations.” “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac shall your seed be called.’” God had promised to make the number of Isaac’s descendants like the sand of the sea, and he himself commanded that Isaac become a sacrifice. Besieged, then, by two opposing reasonings, and in addition having his own nature against him, the patriarch … and offered the sacrifice. And he shows also the reasoning by which he … the others …

“Considering that God is able to raise even from the dead.” For [he believed] the one who [had promised] about the multitude of descendants … that even if the boy were slain he could come back to life, if God willed. “From there he also received him back in a figure,” that is, as in a symbol and type of the resurrection. For he was slain by the father’s eagerness and came back to life by the voice of the one who prevented the slaughter. In him the type of the saving passion was also prefigured; for which reason the Lord too said to the Jews: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau even concerning things to come.” For he would not have given blessings concerning things not seen unless he believed that the deed would follow the words. “By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and bowed in worship on the top of his staff.” For he foreshadowed the kingship of Ephraim and the subjection of the ten tribes; for which reason he himself prefigures their obeisance … “By faith Joseph, at his end, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel and gave orders about his bones.” For he would not have given a command about his bones unless he believed the divine promises. “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they did not fear the king’s edict.” For looking at the child’s appearance, … divine … “By faith Moses, having grown up, [refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,] choosing rather to suffer ill-treatment with the people of God than to have the fleeting enjoyment of sin.” For one who was brought up in palaces, enjoying every kind of luxury and called the son of the princess, would not have preferred the ill-treatment of his kinsmen unless, using the eyes of faith, he saw the judge of the contest. By the enjoyment of sin he means the [life] with the impious … “considering the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward.” That is, the reproach in the type of Christ, which resembled the reproaches of Christ, dared by the opponents against piety. “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the anger of the king; for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.” He left Egypt out of fear, but he had boldly struck down the Egyptian. So he has put the flight in place of the cause of the flight. “By faith he kept the Passover and the pouring of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch them.” For without faith how would he have believed that death is prevented by the blood of a sheep? But through the type he foresaw the reality, and the Master’s … “By faith they crossed the Red Sea as by dry land; when the Egyptians attempted it, they were drowned.” For striking the waters with the rod in faith, he prepared that strange road for the people, which became a tomb for the Egyptians.

“By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after they had been encircled for seven days.” For the sound of the trumpets, made with faith, … the walls like siege engines …

“By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with the disobedient, having received the spies in peace.” And the lawlessness of her life did not prevent her salvation; for faith covered the deeds of her sin. The apostolic wisdom is worthy of admiration, or rather it is fitting to praise the working of the divine Spirit, in that he ranked a foreign woman and a harlot with Moses, Abraham, Noah, Enoch, and the other saints, both to show the power of faith and to humble the pride of the Jews. For six hundred thousand of them were consumed in the desert because of unbelief, having gained nothing from the way of life under the law; but she, though far from kinship with Abraham, outside the way of life under the law, and having spent most of her time in licentiousness, reaped salvation through faith and sketched the type of the church. For just as she received the spies with faith, so the church received the apostles. And just as she received the scarlet cord as a sign of salvation, so the church through the Master’s blood has enjoyed the eternal good things. Having mentioned these things, the divine Apostle, seeing the multitude of what had been said, mentions the rest together:

“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak and Samson and Jephthah, David and Samuel.” He has set down their names but kept silent about the kinds of their achievements. In what follows he states, though obscurely, the excellences of each. Then he mentions the others together and says: “and of the other prophets.” He tells also what they achieved.

“Who through faith conquered kingdoms.” Gideon destroyed Midian, Samson the foreigners, Barak Sisera, David both the Ammonites and the Amalekites and both kinds of Syrians, Samuel the foreigners. “Worked righteousness.” This is common to all the saints. “Obtained promises.” God promised Abraham to bless all the nations in his seed, and he gave the same blessing to Isaac and Jacob; and he also gave David the promises concerning the Master Christ, and showed their truth by deeds. He promised also the return from Babylon, and fulfilled the promise. “Stopped the mouths of lions”: Daniel. “Quenched the power of fire”: Ananias, Azarias, and Misael. “Escaped the edge of the sword”: those in wars. “Were made strong out of weakness”: those who returned with Zerubbabel, who were set free from captivity and defeated the neighbouring peoples who rose against them. “Became mighty in war”: both those already mentioned and the sons of Mattathias, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon. “Put foreign armies to flight.” He has said the same thing in different words. “Women received their dead by resurrection.” These are the miracles of the great Elijah and of Elisha; for the one raised the son of the widow, the other the son of the Shunammite woman. “Others were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection”: Eleazar, the seven Maccabees, and their mother. “Others experienced mockings and scourgings, and further bonds and imprisonment”: the same, and many others besides. “They were stoned”: Zechariah the priest, the son of Jehoiada. “They were sawn in two”: they say the prophet Isaiah suffered this. “They were tested.” … and Jacob. “They died by murder with the sword.” This the Lord also said: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her.” “They went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, … of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth.” So the great Elijah, so Elisha, the heir of his grace, so most of the prophets, who did not even have houses, but cutting wood … “And all these, though they received testimony through their faith, did not receive the promise, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” Such and so great, then, were the contests of these men, yet they have not yet enjoyed the crowns. For the God of the universe is waiting for the contests of the others, so that, when the stadium is dismissed, …

“Therefore, since we too have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us, and let us run with endurance the contest set before us.” On every side, he says, the models of piety lie before us, and so great a multitude, a cloud in its density, bears witness to the power of faith. Looking to them, then, let us become light for the race and throw off the weight of superfluous cares; for so we shall be able to escape also the sin that so easily besets us. Above all else we need endurance, so that we may win the contest set before us. He has called sin “easily besetting” as being readily formed and committed. For the eye is enticed, the hearing is charmed, the touch is tickled, the tongue slips very easily, and the reasoning is quick to incline toward the worse. And he adds the greater model: “looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.” He has said both with respect to his humanity. “Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” He could, he says, have not suffered, if he had willed it; but he endured the passion, doing good to all. The Saviour’s joy is the salvation of human beings. For its sake he endured the passion, and after the passion [he sits with] the Father who begot him.

“Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against themselves, so that you may not grow weary and faint in your souls.” “Against themselves” is put for “against their own selves.” Reckon, he says, among yourselves how much hostility from sinners the Master of all endured; for from this you will reap sufficient consolation. Then he offers them a sharper remedy as well: “You have not yet resisted to the point of blood in your struggle against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, nor faint when you are reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives.’” This does not contradict what was said earlier. For there he testified of them that they accepted the plundering of their possessions with joy and nobly bore the reproaches for piety’s sake, while here he blames them as flagging. And he has aptly put “not yet [to the point of blood …] struggling,” showing by comparison how far they fall short of those who were stoned and sawn in two and died by murder with the sword. Then … “If you endure discipline.” If you nobly bear the disciplines brought upon you. “God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, in which all have shared, then you are illegitimate and not sons.” Fathers, he says, are accustomed to discipline their true sons, and when they see them beaten by their teachers they are not grieved, for they see the fruit that grows from discipline. But they disregard illegitimate children and do not count them worthy of the same care. If, then, you too shun discipline, you belong to the portion of the illegitimate.

“Moreover, [we had] the fathers of our flesh [to discipline us and we respected them]; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live?” Do we, who accept the discipline given by our bodily fathers, not welcome the discipline of the spiritual Father? He has called the spiritual Father the Father of spirits as the source of the spiritual gifts; and through these he has given us the dignity of adoption. Then he shows also the difference in the discipline: “For they disciplined us for a few days as seemed good to them, but he for our benefit, that we may share his holiness.” And of the former he said “as seemed good to them,” for not all of them teach what is beneficial; but in God’s case he showed the fruit of the discipline. For he wishes, he says, to make us holy and sharers of his own holiness …

“All discipline for the present seems to be not of joy but of grief, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” The beginnings of all discipline are painful and very distressing, but it produces admirable fruits: peace according to God and the righteousness that is praised. So too the Lord said: “Narrow is the gate and hard the way that leads to life.” “Therefore straighten the drooping hands and the weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be turned aside but rather healed.” Of these words he has taken some from Proverbs and some from the prophecy of Isaiah. For “Make straight paths for your feet” is taught by the exhortation of Proverbs, while “Be strong, you drooping hands and weakened knees” the prophet Isaiah said. Through these words the divine Apostle hints that, flagging before the multitude of dangers, they had grown more sluggish in the race of piety. And these words are enough to destroy the conceit of Novatus as well. For he strengthens those who had contended splendidly and then grown slack, and heals them with the medicines of repentance; for in saying “lame” he promised healing. And he offers them also counsels of practical virtue:

“Pursue peace with all.” This he also said in writing to the Romans: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, living at peace with all people.” Do your part; show your eagerness. “And holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” He has called chastity holiness; and this can be achieved also by those in marriage: “For marriage is honourable, and the bed undefiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.” “Seeing to it that no one falls short of the grace of God.” Not only of yourselves, but also … and heal the one who needs guidance. “That no root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and through it the many be defiled.” This he also wrote to the Corinthians: “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” He has named as a root of bitterness both wicked doctrines and a corrupt life. For this is what he added: “That no one be sexually immoral or profane like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright.” He has called Esau’s gluttony sexual immorality; for through it he sold the blessing of the birthright. But one would not be wrong to call his unlawful marriage sexual immorality too; for he took foreign wives. “For you know that afterward, when he wished to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it with tears.” This too the followers of Novatus think a weapon of their own, but they will be struck with their own arrows. For Esau wept not in repentance but in envy of his brother’s good fortune. The same thing Cain also suffered: “For his face fell,” it says; not because he had offered badly, but because he saw his brother honoured by the divine verdict. And the divine Apostle hinted at this by what he said. For “he found no place for repentance,” he says, means: he did not find the way of repentance, nor did he lament the evil he had planned. He wailed not … but at Jacob’s good fortune. And his words bear witness: “Let the days of mourning for my father draw near,” he said, “that I may kill my brother Jacob.” Not without reason did the divine Apostle mention Esau, but to teach that just as he, though he was the firstborn, was deprived of the blessing through gluttony and wickedness, so the Jews, though honoured with the rights of the firstborn, were enslaved through gluttony to the superfluous things of the law and fell from salvation, while the gentiles, the new people, whose type is Jacob, enjoyed the rights of the firstborn. So he exhorts those of the Jews who had believed not to emulate the lawlessness of the firstborn but to share in the blessing of the younger people. From here he again turns the discourse to another comparison, showing the superiority of the good things provided by the Master Christ: “[For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched,] and to burning fire, and darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and the sound of a trumpet and a voice of words, which those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear what was commanded: ‘If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.’ And so [terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I am terrified] and trembling.’” Fearful, he says, were the things that took place on Mount Sinai: visible fire, smoke running about everywhere, gloom, … whirlwind, and the fearful sound of a trumpet. And such dread arose from them that not only did the people say to the inspired prophet, “You speak to us, and let not God speak to us,” but even the lawgiver himself … He showed the fearful things but did not lay bare the fruit that grew from them; and he said “the sight,” since they did not see the God of the universe himself, but a certain appearance of the divine manifestation. Next he reveals the purpose of grace … he says: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to a festal gathering and church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than Abel.” There, he says, was dread, here a feast and festal gathering; those things on earth, these in heaven; there thousands of human beings, here myriads of angels; there unbelievers and lawbreakers, here the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven and the spirits of righteous men made perfect; there an old covenant, here a new; there a servant as mediator, here the Son; there the blood of irrational animals, here the blood of a rational Lamb. “Speaks better than Abel” means: it utters by deeds and shows its own working. For Abel’s blood is celebrated in song, but this one even effects the salvation of human beings. He has called the elect firstborn, since under the law the firstborn received a double portion. He has said these things both to show their superiority and, eager … “See that you do not refuse the one who speaks. For if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, much less shall we who turn away from the one who warns from heaven.” Since they said, “You speak to us, and let not God speak to us,” he urges them not to emulate their dullness, nor like them to leave the Master and run to the servant, taking Moses in place of God, and remaining with the old things in place of the new. And yet, he says, God gave them the law not from heaven but on Mount Sinai, while we await the Master’s manifestation from heaven. And teaching that he himself became lawgiver of both the one and the other … “Whose voice then shook the earth.” For the mountain was shaken, signifying God’s manifestation. “But now he has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also heaven.’” He himself, he says, shook the earth then, and he himself foretold heaven together with the earth. “And this ‘yet once more’ indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of things that have been made, so that what is not shaken may remain.” Earthquakes, he says, happen frequently; so “once” indicates a certain change of things, and … the change of perishable things to what is better, … which will thereafter have an abiding nature.

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may offer acceptable worship to God with reverence and awe.” He has put “cannot be shaken” for “lasting.” And he showed how one must offer worship to God. Then he also recalls the divine oracles, producing fear: “For our God is a consuming fire.” And again he offers moral exhortation.

“Let brotherly love continue.” The composition of the word shows the intensity of the love; for he has formed one word from “friend” and “brother.”

“Do not forget hospitality; for through it some have entertained angels unawares.” For the patriarch Abraham, approaching them as men, found angels and the Master of angels. So also the blessed Lot received the angels as men, but received the blessing as from angels. “[Remember those in bonds, as bound with them, and] those who are ill-treated, as being yourselves also in the body.” Share, through sympathy and fitting care, with those who suffer these things for the sake of piety. “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.” … For the one is lawful, the other utterly unlawful. And God legislated the one from the beginning: “Let us make for him,” he said, “a helper suited to him.” And having formed her, he brought her and joined them, and gave the marriage blessing, saying, “Increase and multiply and fill the earth.” But adultery and sexual immorality were brought in by licentious reasoning.

“Let your way of life be free from love of money.” He did not forbid the use of money, but the love of money; for from this greed is born. “Being content with what you have.” Let no one strive to increase his possessions; for self-sufficiency is praised. And he gives a sufficient guarantee for the exhortation: “For he himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” The one who promised does not lie; let us receive the promise faithfully. For this is what he added:

“So that we may confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear; what will man do to me?’” He necessarily fitted this too to the exhortation, so that they might take courage against their persecutors, [looking] to the one who in all things …

“Remember your leaders, who spoke to you the word of God; considering the outcome of their way of life, imitate their faith.” He spoke of the saints who had already died: Stephen the protomartyr, James the brother of John, and James surnamed the Just. And very many others were killed by the fury of the Jews. Looking to them, he says, and learning their praiseworthy way of life, [imitate] their faith … “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” And he has not put this without reason, but … he was nailed to the cross by the Jews … and his eternal existence. By “yesterday and today” he meant the human nature, and he named the Godhead eternal. And he said that the same one is both this and that, since there is one only-begotten Son, the same who is also firstborn.

“Do not be carried away by various and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, from which those who walked in them did not benefit.” He has called strange teachings those contrary to the teachings of the gospel. He urges them, then, to remain with the teaching of grace and to abandon the observances of the law; for no one, he says, has reaped benefit from them. And since the divine temple was still standing at that time and the sacrifices were offered according to the law, he necessarily added: “We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.” This, he says, is far more precious than the old one; for that one is its shadow. That one receives the irrational sacrifices, this one the rational and divine sacrifice. For this reason none of those priests partakes of this one unless he first accepts faith in the Lord. “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, in order to sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate.” See the type, set the reality beside it, and observe the likeness. The law commanded a red heifer to be slaughtered, and the high priest to take some of its blood and sprinkle it with his finger seven times before the mercy seat. And burning the heifer itself outside the camp, they took its ashes and by them purified those who were called unclean. This fulfilled the type of the saving passion. For here too there is the body from Adam, and the name means “red” in the Hebrew language. He was nailed to the cross outside the gate, and his blood cleanses our souls. And in place of the ashes, the life-giving body itself becomes ours.

“Let us go forth, then, to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.” “Outside the camp” means: let us be outside the way of life under the law, bearing the reproaches for the sake of the … “For here we have no lasting city, but … of present things, and let us wait for those things that are abiding and lasting. … [Through him, then, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise] continually to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.” For hymnody offered to God benefits us nothing without faith in the Son. For since he was writing to Hebrews, who were accustomed to honour only the Father, he necessarily added “through him.”

“Do not forget to do good and to share; for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” He showed that the sacrifice of praise is pleasing to God; and he joined to it the sacrifice of doing good, which he fittingly called sharing. For the Lord too said: “Make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when you fail they may receive you into their eternal dwellings.” And the divine Apostle: “Your abundance for their need, so that their abundance may also be for your need, that there may be equality.” Sharing, then, is also an exchange: the one gives money, the other gives a blessing in return; and the greater part belongs to the one in need. “Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give account, so that they may do this with joy and not with groaning; for that would be unprofitable for you.” He exhorts the disciples to obey their teachers, and at the same time he rouses the teachers also to greater eagerness; for he teaches them … “Pray for us; for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, wishing to conduct ourselves well in all things.” He had been slandered to them as preaching things contrary to the law. So he teaches them that he does this for no other reason than in obedience to the divine word; for this reason he also called his conscience as witness. “And I urge you the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you sooner.” Give the help of your prayers, work together with my eagerness; for I long to see you. “Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ, equip you in every good work to do his will, working in you what is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory to the ages of ages. Amen.” He necessarily added the blessing to the teaching and set it like a seal on his many words. He has called the Master Christ the great shepherd of the sheep; for his is the saying, “I am the good shepherd.” He has called the new covenant eternal, since there will be no other after it. For so that no one might suppose that this one too would be brought to an end by another covenant, he fittingly showed that it has no end. “I appeal to you, brothers, bear with the word of exhortation; for I have written to you briefly.” Receive gladly the exhortation sent by me through the letter; for so that the length of the discourse might weary no one, I have written the letter in summary. “Know that our brother Timothy has been set free; with him, if he comes soon, I will see you.” He showed that he sent the letter through him. And it was natural for them too to rejoice with him, since he too was … “Greet all your leaders and all the saints.” The word hints that those who presided over them did not need such teaching; for this reason he wrote not to them but to the disciples. “Those from Italy greet you.” He showed from where he wrote the letter, and at the same time taught that in a short time the preaching of the gospel had run through everything, and the gentiles, according to the promise made to Abraham, … of the blessing … “Grace be with you all. Amen.” He has set down the customary ending, praying that they may share in grace. But let us praise the lawgiver of the new and the old, and beseech him that we may obtain his help, so that, keeping his divine laws, we may obtain the promised good things, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the all-holy Spirit, …