Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He exhorts the Hebrews to constancy in the faith of Christ, that through Christ they may be admitted into eternal rest. For this he teaches, in v. 7, has been promised to Christians, just as to the Jews was promised and given the rest of the Sabbath, and the rest in Canaan.
Hence secondly, in v. 11, he threatens those falling away from the faith of Christ with exclusion from the heavenly rest: for the word of God is living and effective, and the avenger of apostasy.
Thirdly, in v. 14, he again exhorts that they should confidently approach and invoke Christ, who was tempted in all things just as themselves, and who has compassion on them.
Vulgate Text: Hebrews 4:1-16
1. Let us fear therefore lest, the promise being left of entering into His rest, any of you should be thought to be wanting. 2. For unto us also it has been declared, in like manner as unto them. But the word of hearing did not profit them, not being mixed with faith of those things they heard. 3. For we, who have believed, shall enter into rest; as He said: As I have sworn in My wrath: If they shall enter into My rest; and indeed the works from the foundation of the world being perfected. 4. For in a certain place He spoke of the seventh day thus: And God rested the seventh day from all His works. 5. And in this place again: If they shall enter into My rest. 6. Seeing then it remains that some are to enter into it, and they to whom it was first preached did not enter because of unbelief: 7. again He limits a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time, as it is above said: Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts. 8. For if Jesus had given them rest, He would never have afterward spoken of another day. 9. There remains therefore a day of rest for the people of God. 10. For he that is entered into His rest, the same also has rested from his works, as God did from His. 11. Let us hasten therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall into the same example of unbelief. 12. For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13. Neither is there any creature invisible in His sight: but all things are naked and open to His eyes, to whom our speech is. 14. Having therefore a great High Priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God: let us hold fast our confession. 15. For we have not a High Priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities: but one tempted in all things like as we are, without sin. 16. Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace: that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in seasonable aid.
Verse 1: Let Us Fear Therefore Lest Perhaps, the Promise of Entering into His Rest Being Left, Any of You Should Be Thought to Be Wanting
The Apostle warns Christians lest they be excluded from the rest of heaven, as the Jews were excluded from the rest of Canaan.
1. Let us fear therefore lest perhaps, the promise of entering into His rest being left, any of you should be thought to be wanting. — There is a metalepsis in the word "let us fear," as if to say: Let us fear, and by fearing beware of slothfulness and inconstancy, lest by either fear of evils or love of temporal goods, falling away to Judaism, we forsake the faith and hope of the rest and eternal glory promised by Christ to His faithful; so that "any of you should be thought to be wanting," that is, so that someone may seem to have already failed in the journey and entrance into that rest, namely into heaven, and to have turned his mind and course elsewhere, and therefore to be deprived and excluded from that rest. Just as, in a type of this matter, many Jews were excluded from the rest of Canaan and the promised land flowing with milk and honey, while murmuring and wishing to return into Egypt, and died in the desert.
Note: The Greek "hysterekenai," which our Interpreter renders as "to be wanting," signifies both "to fail and fall away" (as the Syriac translates it) and "to be deprived."
Note secondly: Softening the expression, he says "should be thought," instead of "be found" or "be." So Theophylact. In Greek "dokē," that is, "lest it seem," i.e., "lest it be able to seem": for it is taken potentially. Maldonatus in his manuscript Notes renders it: "lest it happen that anyone fail."
Note thirdly: The Apostle rises from the type to the antitype, that is, from the Jews excluded from the rest of Canaan, of whom he treated in the preceding chapter, to Christians excluded from the rest of heaven on account of apostasy, or rather, who are to be excluded.
Verse 2: For Indeed It Was Declared to Us, as Also to Them
2. For indeed it was declared to us, as also to them. — In Greek "kai gar esmen euengelismenoi," that is, "for indeed we have been evangelized," i.e., we have received the Gospel, or glad tidings, equally with them, namely with the Hebrews. For the Hebrews received the Gospel concerning the possession of the land of Canaan; but we Christians have received the Gospel concerning the possession of the kingdom of heaven. What therefore David in Psalm 94 calls the voice of God, saying: "Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts" (for the Apostle cited this in the preceding chapter, verse 7, and presses it here), Paul here explains and calls the Gospel; from which it again is clear that the Gospel embraces not only joyful promises, as its etymology sounds, but also threats and punishments. For such is what follows in verse 3: "As I swore" to the unbelieving and disobedient, "in My wrath: They shall not enter into My rest." For which reason our Translator did not render it "it was evangelized," but "it was declared," which embraces both sad and joyful, both punishments and rewards.
But the word heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith (that is, not received by faith, nor believed by the Jews) from those things (that is, in accordance with those things) which they heard, — as if to say: This Gospel of theirs, this glad tidings, did not profit the Hebrews, because they did not believe what they heard from God through Moses, namely that by God's help they would overcome the Canaanites and would peacefully enter into their land so fertile; whence, despairing, they wished to return into Egypt.
The Apostle presses not the impious morals, but the unbelief of the Jews; because this alone served his purpose, namely so that from it, and from its punishment, he might deter the Hebrew Christians from apostasy and confirm them in the faith of Christ, lest they fall away from it on account of persecutions.
Note: For "admixtus" the Greek is "synkekramenos," which signifies wine or another drink mixed, diluted and tempered with water or another liquid, as if to say: This word, or Gospel, and promise of God, having for its object so arduous and difficult a matter — namely the subjugation of the most mighty Canaanites — was to the Hebrews as undiluted and potent wine, because it surpassed their opinion and estimation, and seemed to them incredible because they drank it as if it were undiluted, that is, they received it as a thing too arduous, too mighty, impossible, and did not mix and temper it with the water of faith, as St. Augustine reads in Psalm 77. For if they had believed God to be most faithful and equally most powerful, they would surely have believed that God would stand by His promises and bring them into Canaan; and so, following God as their leader, and believing and trusting in Him, they would have penetrated into Canaan: but because, measuring such great matters by their own strength, they did not believe, hence becoming distrustful and wishing to turn back, they fell short of this promise and did not enter Canaan, and therefore this whole Gospel did not profit them.
Note secondly: There is a variety of readings of this passage, and an emendation of the text. Instead of "synkekramenos" the Greeks now read in the accusative, "mē synkekramenous tē pistei tois akousasin," that is: "the word heard did not profit, not having been mingled or commixed by faith with those who heard"; for the verb "ōphelein" among the Greeks requires the accusative, just as "profuit" among us requires the dative, as if to say: This word, by which God promised the Hebrews the land of Canaan, did not profit those Hebrews who were not commingled by faith with Joshua and Caleb, who alone of those two heard, that is, believed. So Chrysostom and Theophylact. Whence some with Cajetan here read: "the word did not profit those not mingled with faith who heard," that is, the word did not profit those who heard, because they were not mingled with faith, i.e., because they did not believe. But, as Ribera rightly observes, the true reading of this passage seems to be this: "But the word heard did not profit them, not being mingled with faith, in those (that is, in those) who heard." For so the Greek manuscripts, the Greeks, and the Syriac have it, as if to say: This word, this Gospel or glad tidings about rest and the possession of Canaan, did not profit the Hebrews who heard it from God through Moses: for although at first, when they went out of Egypt with this hope, they believed God who was promising it, yet afterwards, having heard the spies saying that the Canaanites were most mighty men and had impregnable cities, they fell away from this faith. In like manner, for you Christians, O Hebrews, having heard and believed this Gospel of Christ, in which He promises the kingdom of heaven, will not profit, if through fear of persecutions you fall away from the faith of Christ; therefore persevere in the faith of Christ, that the Gospel may profit you, and that you may behold and reach the heavenly inheritance promised in it.
Verse 3: For We Who Have Believed Shall Enter into Rest; and Indeed the Works Being Finished from the Foundation of the World
3. For we who have believed shall enter into rest: as He said: As I swore in My wrath: They shall not enter into My rest: and indeed the works being finished from the foundation of the world. — In Greek "eiserchometha," "we are entering," that is, we are beginning and continuing to enter, and we are striving so that we may in fact enter into it: for the act of entering is signified as not yet complete, but as begun and continued, according to Canon 32.
Note: The word "for" gives the reason why he said in verse 1: "Let us fear lest perhaps, the promise being left, any of you be thought to be wanting," as if to say: It must be feared by you that you may be frustrated of the heavenly hope, if you forsake the faith of Christ, in which God promised it to you: for if you steadfastly retain this faith, nothing is to be feared by you; for certainly you will enter that rest. He proves this from the cited verse of Psalm 94: "As I swore in My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest." And it is an argument from the contrary, as if to say: Only the unbelieving Hebrews did not enter the land of Canaan; but all who believed entered it: therefore, just as unbelief alone excluded them from it, so faith introduced these into it. Now the Hebrews — believing and unbelieving in Moses — allegorically signified men believing and unbelieving in Christ; again, the rest of Canaan signified the rest of heaven. Therefore likewise only those will be excluded from the rest of heaven who refused to believe and obey Christ: but all who believe and obey Christ, and persevere in Him, will enter this rest of heaven.
Note secondly: Instead of "sicut," the Translator reads in the Greek "hōs," whereas above at verse 11 of chapter III he had read "hōs" as "quibus" (to whom), as I said there. This verse provides a sharp stimulus to the Hebrews, by which St. Cyprian likewise, in his treatise On the Praise of Martyrdom, urges Christians in the Decian persecution to martyrdom: "You must remember," he says, "that you are bound, as it were, by a certain pact of a covenant, from which there is either a just condition for laying hold of salvation, or the dread of merited punishment. You stand amid adversity and prosperity alike, amid arms and weapons; on this side worldly ambition, on that the heavenly magnitude warns you. Let the rewards offered and the dangers prepared, I beg, run together before your eyes. The Martyrs rejoice in heaven; fire consumes the enemies of truth. The Paradise of God flourishes for His witnesses; the eternal fire of an embracing Gehenna burns hot for the deniers." "Burns hot," that is, consumes — namely Gehenna itself, which is nothing else than the eternal fire; for it is an apposition. Thus Virgil, Georgics IV, says: "Sirius was burning the Indians."
And indeed the works being finished from the foundation of the world. — This is an occupatio, by which the Apostle ascends to explaining the anagogical meaning of the sabbath, so that from it, and from the rest in Canaan, he may prove, through the words cited from Psalm 94: "Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as your fathers exasperated Me in the desert; to whom I swore in My wrath: They shall not enter into My rest" — hence, I say, he may prove that there remains for Christians a third rest in heaven, as if to say: A double rest was once promised by God to our fathers. The first rest was the sabbath, in which God in Genesis 2:3, in honor and memory of His creation and rest, ordered men to rest from works on the seventh day. The second rest was in Canaan: but David, when in Psalm 94 he speaks of rest, and tacitly promises it to believers, is not speaking of the rest of the seventh day or the sabbath, because men had long since been brought into that one — namely, from the beginning of the world, when God, the works of His creation being completed, sanctified the day of the sabbath and ordered men to rest on that day and to imitate His rest. David also does not speak of the rest in Canaan, as will appear in verses 6 and 7. Therefore it must be confessed that David speaks of a third rest in heaven, and promises it to the faithful and Christians, if they persevere in the faith of Christ. All these things will be more evident in verse 7.
Hence it is sufficiently clearly elicited and proved that the worship and rest of the sabbath were in use among men before the law of Moses, from the origin of the world (although Abulensis denies this on Leviticus 23, Question III), namely that men should observe the seventh day, and on it rest from their labors in memory and thanksgiving for the creation both of themselves and of the whole world, which God completed on the seventh day: for otherwise the discourse and argument of Paul would have no force, as is clear from what has been said, and as will be more evident from what is to be said shortly.
Again, Paul here does not speak of God's rest on the seventh day, but of its effect and image, namely the rest of men on the sabbath, into which he says we enter, or rather have entered from the foundation of the world: therefore from that time men began to observe the sabbath.
Thirdly, the same thing is signified in Genesis 2:3, where it is said that God then sanctified, that is, decreed and established as festal and holy the seventh day, so that men should continually recall this recent blessing of creation on this solemn day, and give thanks to God.
Verse 4: For He Said in a Certain Place of the Seventh Day: And God Rested on the Seventh Day from All His Works
4. For He said in a certain place (Genesis 2, as you Hebrews know) of the seventh day thus: And God rested on the seventh day from all His works. 5. And in this (Psalm 94, already cited) again: If they shall enter into My rest. — Behold here a twofold rest of God: the first in the sabbath and sabbatism, the second in Canaan, as I have already said.
Note: God rested on the seventh day from the creation of new things and species, but not from the production and propagation of new individuals in each species.
Note secondly: The rest of the sabbath is called God's, both formally, because on the seventh day God rested from creation; and exemplarily and efficiently, because the rest of men on the sabbath, and the worship of the sabbath was instituted by God after the example of God's rest on the sabbath: for therefore God commanded men to rest on the sabbath, because He Himself on the same day rested from His works.
Note thirdly: "again," as if to say: Besides the rest of the sabbath, God has another rest, which He has prepared for men, and from which He excluded the unbelievers, saying: "If they shall enter into My rest," concerning which He immediately adds:
Verses 6 and 7: Since Therefore It Remains That Some Enter into That Rest; Again He Limits a Certain Day, Today, Saying through David
6. Since therefore it remains that some enter into that rest, and those to whom it was first announced (in Greek "euangelisthentes," that is, "to whom it was evangelized," of which I spoke at verse 2), did not enter on account of unbelief: 7. again He limits a certain day, Today, saying through David. — This is the Apostle's discourse: God promised and prepared His rest for some men, and invited the Jews to it, namely that under God they might first in this life rest and live in quiet in Canaan, then in the other life live quietly and most happily in heaven. But many were unbelieving toward God, and therefore were excluded from this rest of God, that is, both from the land of Canaan and from heaven. Hence then God, lest His rest remain empty, thirdly through David invites the faithful and Christians to His rest, saying: "Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts."
Someone could object that Joshua and Caleb with the sons of the unbelievers entered into the rest of Canaan, and therefore that it is not empty but full. But this objection he will exclude below in verse 8.
7. Again He limits a certain day, Today, saying through David, after so much time, as was said above: Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts. — For "limits" the Greek is "horizei," that is, "predefines and determines," that is, signifies a certain space of time, namely today, that is, the time of our life, in which we can enter into this rest of God, after which there is no faculty of entering, as if to say: David implicitly suggests to us a certain rest of God, when he exhorts us in Psalm 94 not to harden our heart to God's voice, as the fathers did, when God, calling them out of Egypt, wished to lead them into Canaan: whom therefore God excluded from His rest; but rather that we should listen to God leading us into His rest. But David does not speak of the rest of the sabbath: for this was done and accomplished in the genesis and creation of the world. Nor secondly does he speak of the rest which God gave to the Hebrews in the promised land through Jesus, or Joshua, since this had already so long passed, and they already possessed it when David said: "Today if you shall hear His voice," etc. Therefore it is necessary to say that David understood another and a third certain rest, namely an eternal one in heaven, which is set before us, the faithful and Christians, in every age in this "today"; a third rest, I say, which through the two preceding ones, namely through the rest of the sabbath and the rest in Canaan, was anagogically signified, which Jesus Christ furnishes to us, prefigured by Joshua.
Verse 8: For If Jesus Had Given Them Rest, He Would Never Afterwards Have Spoken of Another Day
8. For if Jesus (Joshua) had given them rest, He would never afterwards have spoken of another day. — There is an occupatio. The Hebrews could have objected to Paul's reasoning: You, Paul, say that our fathers were excluded from the rest of God in Canaan on account of unbelief, and therefore that others, namely Christians, are to be admitted into the rest of God: we object, and we say that the sons of our fathers, believing in God with Joshua, entered into the rest of Canaan, and consequently no others are to be sought who may enter the rest of God.
These Paul refutes here by the words of David saying "today." For by "today" he intimates that there still remains a rest into which we may enter, and consequently it follows that it was not exhibited by Joshua, who long ago is dead. So Paul signifies that David in those words: "If they shall enter into My rest," by "rest" indeed understood literally the rest in Canaan; but allegorically, and much more, signified the rest in heaven promised to Christians, figured by Canaan: for to this David still invites everyone, saying: "Today if you shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts."
David therefore intimates that God, calling and promising rest in Canaan to the Hebrews, by this very fact tacitly and allegorically called the same and promised them rest in heaven, and that the Hebrews on account of unbelief were excluded from both this and that. Whence Paul concludes: it remains therefore that Christians occupy this rest of God in heaven, to which especially God had called the Hebrews: for this is what he adds, saying:
Verse 9: Therefore There Is Left a Sabbath-Rest for the People of God
9. Therefore there is left a sabbath-rest for the people of God. — That is, from what has been said it follows that another sabbath, that is, another rest, is left and remains for the faithful and Christian people, namely a heavenly rest, joy, and solemnity, figured by the quiet and festival of the old and Jewish sabbath. For "shabat" in Hebrew means "to rest," whence "shabbat," or "sabbath," is called "rest": whence the seventh day, on which rest was enjoined upon all, is called "sabbath"; sabbatism therefore is the same as rest.
Verse 10: For He That Has Entered into His Rest, the Same Also Has Rested from His Works, as God Did from His
10. For he that has entered into His rest, the same also has rested from his works, as God did from His. — The word "for" gives the reason why he called this rest of Christians a sabbatism. This reason is the analogy and allegory of sabbatism: for the old sabbatism was nothing other than rest from works on the seventh day, so that by this rest men might recall and represent the rest of God, by which on the seventh day He rested from the works of creation. But all these things signified allegorically, or rather anagogically, that the faithful and Christians in that eternal rest of God in heaven shall in like manner, and much more happily, rest from all the troublesome and difficult works of the virtues, from all labor and struggle against vices and temptations, from all active and passive mortification, by which they labored and were afflicted in this life. Therefore he signifies that the Saints in the Church — not the militant, as Beza will have it, but the triumphant — cease from all labor of this miserable life, which wholly consists in toil. For he wishes to prove that that true rest not only was not in the land of Canaan, but cannot even be in this life, which, as Job teaches, chapter 7, verse 1, is nothing other than a warfare and a theater of all labors and miseries.
How sweet this rest of the Blessed in heaven is, St. Chrysostom beautifully teaches in moral homily 6: "Truly," he says, "that is the rest, where pain, sadness, groaning flee, and where there are neither anxieties nor labors nor contests; not there: in the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread; not there: In sorrows you shall bring forth children; but all is peace, joy, gladness, pleasure, goodness, meekness; not there is envy, nor zeal, nor disease, nor death; not there is darkness, nor night, but always the brightness of day; not to be wearied, not to receive disgust, ever in the desire of good things shall we persevere." And what follows.
Verse 11: Let Us Hasten Therefore to Enter into That Rest, Lest Any Man Fall into the Same Example of Unbelief
11. Let us hasten therefore to enter into that rest. — As if to say: While in the desert of this life, like the Hebrews, we sojourn and tend toward the rest and the promised land in the heavens, let us not stand still, let us not look back, let us not weary, let us not fall in spirit on account of labors and the assaults and persecutions of enemies, but let us proceed with strong and constant spirit, indeed let us hasten to enter into that rest.
"A running," says St. Chrysostom here in moral homily 7, "is needed, and a vehement running: he who runs, attends not to the adjacent meadows, not to friends, not to spectators, but to the palm, does not stand still, near the goal does not languish, but intensifies his course: so the older we are and the nearer to heaven, the more and more eagerly we ought to run." "We must hasten," says St. Thomas, "in this pilgrimage, because the way is long, life is short, God's calling urges, and in delay there is danger."
Lest any man fall into the same example of unbelief. — That is, lest anyone become a similar example of unbelief, such as the Hebrews were; so that, as the Hebrews on account of unbelief were excluded from Canaan, so we, on account of the same, may be excluded from heaven. Vatablus and Erasmus translate: "lest anyone fall by the same example of unbelief"; or, "lest anyone fall on account of unbelief," as they fell and were laid low in the desert.
Note: The Hebrews, having completed the greatest part of their journey from Egypt into Canaan, when they were already neighbors of Canaan, on account of the sad and fearful reports of the spies, began to distrust God, and wished to return into Egypt; whence God in His wrath led them about for forty years in the desert, that He might consume them all by death. The Apostle here threatens and intends the same against the Hebrews, already converted to Christ; namely that they, unless they persist in the faith of Christ and overcome all temptations, terrors, and persecutions, are to be excluded from heaven, that is, if through fear of persecutions they fall away from Christ to Judaism.
Morally let each one of those apply this same example to himself, who resist God's calling to faith and penitence, or even to virginity, Religion, and perfection, and neglect and despise it, against whom the Lord thunders in Proverbs 1:24.
Verse 12: For the Word of God Is Living, and Effectual, and More Piercing Than Any Two-Edged Sword
12. For the word of God is living, and effectual. — The word "for" gives the reason why the Hebrews ought to fear, if they fall away from the faith of Christ, lest they fall into the same example of unbelief as the ancient Jews. This reason is that the word of God is living and effectual, which can and wills to establish this example concerning them.
You will ask, what is this "word." Some understand God's miracles and threats, which He brought against the unbelievers. But far more aptly and better others everywhere understand the Son of God: for here, just as in John 1:1, He is called "logos," that is, "word" or "discourse," namely of the paternal mind and concept. The same is clear from what follows. For to no word or discourse but the Son does that which follows belong, namely that He is a discerner of thoughts, and that all things are naked and open to His eyes.
You will say: Why then does Paul not clearly name the Son, but calls Him "logon," that is, discourse or word?
It is answered first: because the proper name of the Son is "logos": for just as we, by thinking or understanding, form for ourselves the concept of the thing thought or understood, which is called the word or discourse of the mind: so the eternal Father, by understanding and comprehending His own essence and all things which are in it, formed and produced this eternal Word: with this difference, however, that our word, being imperfect, is not adequate to our mind, but is an accident and a vital act of the intellect by which we conceive and understand the thing; but God's Word, most perfect and adequate to God, is a subsisting and produced person (namely the Son of God), by whom and through whom the Father spoke and all things were made, John 1:3; whence St. John 1, describing and defining the proper rationale and nature of the Son of God: "In the beginning," he says, "was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Which Nonnus beautifully translated in his verse, when he sings thus:
"Achronos en, dieikytos en arrheto Logos archē, Isophyēs, genetēr, homēlikos, hyios amētor."
That is: He was without time, the incomprehensible Word in the ineffable beginning, of equal nature, coeval with the Father, Son without mother.
The second reason why Paul calls the Son of God "word" rather than "son" is that he alludes to the word of faith, of which I spoke at verse 2; for this mental Word from eternity became vocal in time, when It spoke through the mouth of Moses and the Prophets, and especially when the Word Himself put on flesh, mouth and voice of man, and by His word recounted and evangelized to us the faith and will of God the Father.
The third reason is that the Son of God by His word, that is, by His sentence, decree, and command, will punish those who as unbelievers rejected His word of faith; but the believers, and those obedient to His word, He will reward. For this is what the Apostle here properly intends.
The sense therefore is, as if to say: Whatever the Son of God has promised and threatened to the unbelievers through the mouth and discourse of David, the Prophets, and the Apostles, He will surely and effectually accomplish by His word, decree, and command. For He Himself is a word omnipotent, living, and effectual, to slay, condemn, and torment the unbelievers and rebels with a living punishment forever; but to reward and save the faithful, that they may reign and live forever. So Theodoret, Oecumenius, St. Thomas, Lyranus, Cajetan, and others.
Note: "logos" signifies both "discourse" and "word"; whence just as that of John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word," can be rendered "in the beginning was the discourse," for hence Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Jerome, and other ancients often call the Son "the Discourse": so here in turn it can be rendered "for the word of God is living and effectual," and so reads St. Ambrose, book IV On the Faith, chapter III. For just as "Verbum," as being one and simple, signifies simplicity: so "sermo" signifies the integrity and perfection of the Son of God. For a discourse, consisting of many words, brings forth and enunciates an integral and perfect sentence, not one only, but often several. For one discourse of God often coalesces and is fused from many propositions and sentences, which suits this passage. For Paul here introduces Christ as a manifold discourse, namely one which examines and discerns the thoughts of individuals; and punishes these, rewards those.
And more piercing than any two-edged sword. — For "more piercing" the Greek is "tomōteros," that is, sharper, more incisive; for "temnō" is the same as "seco, incido" (I cut, I incise). Secondly, for "two-edged" the Greek is "distomos," that is, having two mouths, that is, two edges, namely sharp and incising on both sides. For just as the Hebrews, so also the Greeks call the edge of a sword "mouth," because like a mouth it bites and devours men. Whence that common saying in Scripture: "He struck them with the mouth of the sword," that is "with the edge," or "through the edge" of the sword. Now the sense of this passage is, as if to say: The word of God penetrates all things, and is as it were a two-edged sword having a double edge, namely the edge of the two testaments, that is, of the new and the old, says St. Augustine, book XX of the City of God, chapter XII. But this is mystical. Secondly, St. Thomas: The word of God, he says, is two-edged, because it is ready and prompt, both to know and to do; both to promote good and to avert evils. But this is mystical and tropological.
I say therefore thirdly and genuinely: "The word of God," that is the Son of God, is "more piercing than a two-edged sword," that is, He is most sharp, most profoundly and on every side penetrating, just as a two-edged sword maximally cuts and penetrates, since it cuts on both sides. Furthermore, this power of penetrating of the word, that is of the Son of God, consists partly in knowledge, partly in activity. For just as a two-edged sword, cutting and penetrating a man, is not only most active and shows the greatest force of cutting, but also by this very fact, by which it cuts and penetrates a man, lays bare the man's inmost parts and exposes them to be known and beheld by all: so also the Son first penetrates and sees through all hearts and thoughts, so that no unbelief or iniquity, however hidden in the heart, can lie hidden from Him; whence explaining the same the Apostle adds: "He is a discerner of thoughts, and all things are naked and open to His eyes." Secondly, the same Son by His presence and activity penetrates all things, so that He can punish, condemn, slay, and dissect any sinners and any sins however hidden: for just as He has eyes, so He has hands most sharp, and most efficacious and penetrating.
Morally Hugh of St. Victor on Joel chapter III: "Living," he says, "is the word of God, that you may believe; effectual, that you may hope; penetrating, that you may fear. It is living in precepts and prohibitions; effectual in promises and threats; penetrating in judgments and condemnations. Because therefore the word of God is living, it must be believed that He promises true things; because effectual, it must be believed that He fulfills His promises; because He is penetrating and cannot be deceived, to have offended Him is to be mourned, and for the rest, to offend Him is to be guarded against."
And reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow. — The soul is the lower part of man, in which reside desires and affections partly of nature, partly of concupiscence, from which men are called Animal. But the spirit is the higher part of man, illumined by the faith and grace of God, from which men are called Spiritual, as if to say: This Word, or word of God, namely the Son, examines and discerns the motions and thoughts both animal and spiritual, "the joints also and the marrow," that is, the inmost parts of man: for the joints are the cartilages, muscles, and nerves, by which in man one bone is joined to another; but the marrow is the juice and fat enclosed in the bones. He discerns, I say, these things the Son, namely so as to see through what motions arise from the soul, what from the spirit, namely whether this or that thought, affection, and desire flows from nature or concupiscence, or rather from the grace of God, as if to say: All things absolutely, even the most hidden and inmost, Christ the Son of God sees, penetrates, examines, judges, and avenges; nothing is so hidden that the eyes and hands of Christ do not penetrate it.
St. Gregory, homily 11 on Ezekiel, by "joints" understands the thoughts mutually connected like joints; but by "marrow" he understands the intentions, as the Apostle adds, explaining himself.
He is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. — For "discerner" the Greek is "kritikos," that is, Christ is a critic, judge, and censor of the thoughts and intentions of the heart; He knows and sees through what each one thinks and wills, and to what end; He sees through the depth of our soul, just as we see through pebbles lying at the bottom of the clearest water: Christ sees through, I say, our inmost desires, with this end that He may judge and reward them, or punish and avenge them, e.g. that you, O Hebrews, if you persist in His faith, He may glorify; but if through fear of persecutions you fall away from it, even through a hidden or merely concealed distrust, apostasy, or unbelief, He may condemn and reprobate.
Morally note this passage for the presence and omniscience of God, which to each one ought to be a great spur, that he may restrain himself from hidden and mental sins and depraved desires, and may always be intent on good and holy thoughts and pursuits. "From the eyes of God, beholding all things at once," says St. Augustine, sermon 2 On Time, "neither hidden places nor enclosures of walls shut things off; nor are only deeds and thoughts known to Him, but also things to be done and to be thought. This is the true knowledge of the supreme judge, this is the dreadful aspect, to whom every solid thing is pervious, and every secret open, to whom dark things are clear, mute things answer, silence confesses, and without voice the mind speaks." Beautifully and affectively the author of the Soliloquies treats the same in chapter 14, which is extant in volume IX of the works of St. Augustine. The Gentiles recognized the same. Thus Thales, the wisest of the seven sages of Greece, said, "Men ought to persuade themselves that the gods see all things, and that all things are full of the gods, that they may live before them chastely and holily." The same being asked whether wicked deeds were hidden from the gods, replied: "Not even thoughts: for the heavenly Deity is present at and partakes in secret movements." Homer thus defines who God is:
"Hē hēlios hos pant' ephora, kai pant' epakouei."
That is: He is the sun who sees all and hears all.
Truly, as the Wise Man says, "in every place the eyes of the Lord behold the good and the evil," Proverbs 15:3; and chapter 16:2: "All the ways of man are open to His eyes; the Lord is the weigher of spirits."
Hence the Egyptians used to paint God as an eye leaning on a staff, to signify God's omniscience and providence, and His ever-watchful, as it were pastoral, care. Thus they painted Osiris their god as a scepter with an eye carved into it, says Macrobius, book I, chapter 21. The scepter signifies dominion and royal power, the eye signifies omniscience. Hence the Greeks too name Him "Theon apo tou theasthai," that is, from seeing. Hence Jeremiah also, chapter 1, saw God as a watching rod.
Verse 13: And There Is No Creature Invisible in His Sight; but All Things Are Naked and Open to His Eyes
13. And there is no creature invisible in His sight. — For "invisible," the Greek has "aphanēs," that is, not appearing, hidden, and consequently invisible.
But all things are naked and open to His eyes. — For "open" the Greek is "tetrachēlismena," which is derived from "trachēlos," that is, from "neck," and can first be translated, with Theophylact, as "throat-cut" or "beheaded," and with Chrysostom as "flayed," so that it is a metaphor from sheep that have been slaughtered and skinned, as if to say: Just as sheep flayed of their skin from neck to tail are bare, and all their outer and inner parts are revealed, so to Christ the Son of God all things are bare and open. Secondly Gagnaeus: "trachēlizein," he says, "is to cut down the middle from neck to tail, or to split through the middle of the back, so that the entrails of the split animal are exposed and lie open to the viewer"; thus to Christ all things lie open as though split apart. Thirdly, Erasmus, Ribera, and Scapula in his Lexicon say "trachēlizō" is "to bend back a man or animal onto its neck or nape and lay it on its back, so that the upturned face is presented openly and conspicuously to all." In which sense the poet says: "He lays open the hall of his friend" — "resupinat," that is, he opens, makes patent and conspicuous, so as to examine it; so Christ beholds all things as if turned upward, baring them in plain and clear sight. All these etymologies fit this passage well; but the second, of Gagnaeus, is more vigorous and more expressive.
To whom is our discourse. — That is, concerning whom is our discourse, of whom I am speaking. It is a Hebraism, and is put for "tō hō," "pros hon" for "peri hou," that is, "to whom" for "concerning whom."
Otherwise Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius, and Adam, as if to say: With whom we have reckoning, business, dealings, to whom we shall give an account of all our deeds. For the Greek "logos" signifies not only "speech," but also "reckoning."
Verse 14: Having Therefore a Great High Priest Who Has Passed into the Heavens, Jesus the Son of God, Let Us Hold Fast Our Confession
14. Having therefore a great High Priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. — From verse 11 to here he has been speaking against unbelievers, and has frightened the Hebrews away from unbelief by the fear of vengeance to be exercised by the Word and Son of God; now he addresses believers and gently exhorts them to persist in the faith of Christ, and so to enter into that rest of heaven to which in verse 11 and the preceding verses he urged them, as if to say: Come, O Hebrews, persist in the faith of Christ; hasten to the rest in the heavens; granted that the heavens are far from us, we shall easily climb up and enter them, with Christ as our leader, who has penetrated them and made them passable for us, provided only that we steadfastly retain the confession, namely, of our faith and hope (as some Latin Bibles add and express, though in the Greek and Roman copies no such thing is found). See what was said on chapter III, verse 1.
Note: In chapter III up to this point the Apostle has set Christ against Moses as a new Apostle against the old; now from here on he sets Christ against Aaron and prefers Him to him, as the new High Priest against the old; who has penetrated not the Holy of Holies as Aaron did, but the heavens themselves, that He may stand before God as our High Priest interceding for us, expiating our sins, and opening the heavens to us:
Verse 15: For We Have Not a High Priest Who Cannot Have Compassion on Our Infirmities, but One Tempted in All Things Like as We Are, Without Sin
15. For we have not a High Priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities, but one tempted in all things like as we are, without sin. — This is an occupatio. For the Hebrews could have said: You, Paul, rightly say that Christ has penetrated the heavens and that He is our High Priest there; but this is small consolation to us: for Christ, blessed and glorious in the heavens, does not feel, does not experience, and consequently does not greatly sympathize with or weigh our weaknesses, nor strive much to help and remove them — that is, our persecutions and afflictions, so many and so great that they seem nearly intolerable, which here grievously oppress us and make us faint, weak, and almost despairing: for he who feels and experiences another's sorrows is far more easily moved to compassion and help for them. "Not unacquainted with woe, I learn to succor the wretched," said Dido. To this objection the Apostle here answers by denying the assumption: for Christ has experienced all our weaknesses and has in all things been tempted and afflicted "according to the likeness," that is, altogether like us, and therefore having experienced all things He knows and is able — that is, He is inclined and ready — to have compassion on and to succor all our temptations, afflictions, and weaknesses.
Note: He calls sufferings "weaknesses" by a Hebrew metonymy and metalepsis: for sufferings are the cause of weakness and faintness, both of body and of soul. See what was said on 1 Corinthians 12, verses 5 and 10.
Secondly, for "to sympathize" the Greek has "sympathēsai," that is, to be touched and affected by the sense of another's suffering, to suffer with one who suffers.
Thirdly, for "according to the likeness" the Greek has "kath' homoiotēta," that is "homoiōs," that is, similarly — supply: "to us" or "to our weaknesses." For the "to hēmōn," that is "our," which preceded, is here understood and to be repeated; which the Hebrews call "kidmutenu," that is, according to our likeness, that is, altogether similar to us. For the Hebrews, when they wish to signify a perfect and total likeness, are accustomed to double the marks of similitude, such as "k" and "demut," which the Greeks imitate by saying "hōs kath' homoiotēta," or "mala homoiōs," as the Apostle said in chapter II, verse 14.
Fourthly, for "but tempted," Vatablus and others translate more clearly, "but tempted." For it is an antithesis to what preceded, "who cannot sympathize," namely because He has not been tempted, has not experienced our temptations. Again, "in all things," that is, through all our weaknesses.
Fifthly, "without sin," that is, sin excepted; in Greek "chōris hamartias," that is, apart from sin, as if to say: Christ, although He was tempted in all things, He kept Himself nonetheless free and removed from sin; so also you, O Hebrews, although you are tempted, do not yield to temptation, do not consent to sin: for this lies in your hand and power, as it lay in Christ's power.
Here it is asked whether Christ was properly tempted, and whether in every way and in every weakness by which we are tempted. I answer: Properly speaking, Christ was tempted only outwardly by the devil, but inwardly He could not be tempted by the flesh, fantasy, or concupiscence. The reason is that interior temptation is the disordered delight of the lower part, or is itself the movement of concupiscence preceding reason and enticing to sin. Therefore, just as Christ, being about to expiate and abolish sin, was wholly free from sin, so also He was free from concupiscence and from interior temptation: for concupiscence, sprung from sin, is the beginning and onset of sin, and therefore cannot exist except in a nature wounded and stricken by sin, such as Christ's nature could not be.
Hence it follows that, although passions existed in Christ, yet there were no propassions in Him. I explain: there was in Christ anger, boldness, fear, but in such a way that they could not anticipate Christ's reason and will, nor arise, be stirred up, or rise without His will or knowledge; for that is the nature of propassions: every movement of anger, boldness, sadness in Christ was freely assumed by Him, and was elicited and commanded by Christ's reason and will, so that Christ could not be angry or sad unless He willed and chose to be angry or sad. For all the passions in Christ, set in His integral and perfect nature (such as was in Adam before sin), were entirely subject and subordinate: for such a nature befitted the Savior and the Son of God. But of this kind of temptation, by which the devil tempts Christ, or by which concupiscence solicits us to sin, the Apostle is not properly speaking here, as will soon appear.
Secondly, when the Apostle says that Christ was tempted in all things, that is, through all our weaknesses, he does not include or embrace ignorance and a defect of knowledge or grace: for these are not weaknesses, that is, sufferings and afflictions; nor was it fitting that these be in Christ, since He had come into the world for this very end, that He might heal men from these defects, teach the ignorant, instruct them with grace, and render them pleasing to God. Wrongly, therefore, do Luther, Bucer, and Calvin infer from this saying of the Apostle: Therefore there was ignorance in Christ; they thus make Christ an Agnoete from this passage. I answer: I deny the consequence. For ignorance is the daughter and necessary appendix of sin, just as is concupiscence. For one might equally infer: Therefore concupiscence was in Christ. Therefore, just as there was no sin in Christ, so neither was there concupiscence or ignorance: for these are the proper and inseparable companions of sin, and are reckoned to be of the same order, ranking, and unseemliness as sin. Wherefore these would have been in Christ not instruments (as torments and pains were), but impediments to the satisfaction and redemption wrought by Him: therefore they could not be in Him. See Bellarmine, book IV De Christo, chapter 1.
Thirdly, by "weaknesses" the Apostle does not mean diseases and illnesses: for these are not of nature, that is, common to all men, but belong to particular persons, arising from the particular intemperance of their parents, or of the sick themselves, or from some other excess, defect, or vice. Christ, however, assumed only the natural and harmless passions common to the whole human race, not those proper to certain persons, such as this or that disease; for this befitted Christ — namely, that He, who had come to wholly heal our nature, should be wholly sound. On this I have said more in chapter II, verse 17. Therefore, although Christ admitted and took on Himself blows and pains, He did not allow the temperament of His body to be so distempered by them as to fall into disease; but only allowed His soul to be driven from His body by their force and bitterness, and a violent death, by which He would redeem us, to be inflicted upon Him.
You will ask: What then are "our weaknesses" which Christ took upon Himself, and with which He sympathizes?
I answer: First, it is the fragility of flesh and soul; secondly, thirst, hunger, weariness, and the like human afflictions; thirdly, the natural horror of death, ignominy, scourgings, and despoliation; fourthly, death itself, scourgings, mockings, insults, and the despoiling of all goods. The Apostle here properly understands the last two under the name of "weaknesses": for these were the weaknesses of the Hebrews, namely the persecutions, despoliations, and other punishments inflicted on them by the Jewish magistrates because of the faith of Christ. Hence, by the example of Christ and by the hope and promise of His grace and help, the Apostle here and often elsewhere in this epistle exhorts them to bear them bravely. For by these Christ was "tempted," that is, afflicted, or "tempted," that is, tried and proven; and by His faith and constancy, surpassing and conquering these, Christ merited by His grace to overcome and surmount both these and any other temptations whatsoever, even those stirred up in us by the devil and concupiscence.
Verse 16: Let Us Therefore Go with Confidence to the Throne of Grace
16. Let us therefore go with confidence to the throne of grace. — As if to say: Since we have Christ as a High Priest who thus condoles and has compassion on all our weaknesses, let us — not timid, not diffident, but boldly and trustingly — approach Him as He sits and reigns on the heavenly throne at the right hand of the Father, and let us call upon Him in every temptation, tribulation, and persecution: for now He sits placable on the throne of grace, but hereafter He shall sit terrible on the throne of judgment, says Theophylact.
Note: For "confidence," the Greek is παρρησία, which (as it were πᾶν-ρησία) is the freedom and license of speaking by which all things are said: that is, free speech withholding nothing; from there, by catachresis, παρρησία signifies confidence or trust, out of which arises this freedom of speech, and Paul often takes the word in this sense. Now confidence, or trust, says Cicero, is that by which the mind places much of itself in great and honest matters with a sure hope — at least if it be human confidence; but if it be divine, as it is here, it places its hope not in itself but in God.
That we may obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid. — As if to say: That, if we have fallen into sin, we may mercifully obtain its forgiveness from Christ. Again, that we may find grace — that is, that we may win for ourselves Christ's grace, favor, and benevolence — "in seasonable aid;" in Greek εἰς εὔκαιρον βοήθειαν, that is, into opportune help, namely, so that at the opportune time — for example, in the time of temptation and persecution, when we shall need Christ's help — He Himself may bestow it on us for bravely overcoming all difficulties.