Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He teaches that Christ our High Priest was constituted not by Himself but by God; that He is like us and condoling with us; that He was heard when He prayed, on account of His reverence and obedience; a High Priest, I say, according to the order of Melchisedech. Whence at verse 11 he prepares his transition to Melchisedech, while rebuking the slowness and rawness of the Hebrews, in that they still have need of milk and not of solid food.
Vulgate Text: Hebrews 5:1-14
1. For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in those things which appertain to God, that he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins: 2. Who can have compassion on them that are ignorant and that err: because he himself also is encompassed with infirmity. 3. And therefore he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. 4. Neither doth any man take the honor to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was. 5. So Christ also did not glorify Himself, that He might be made a high priest; but He that said unto Him: Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. 6. As He saith also in another place: Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech. 7. Who in the days of His flesh, with a strong cry and tears, offering up prayers and supplications to Him that was able to save Him from death, was heard for His reverence. 8. And whereas indeed He was the Son of God, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered: 9. And being consummated, He became, to all that obey Him, the cause of eternal salvation; 10. Called by God a high priest according to the order of Melchisedech. 11. Of whom we have great things to say, and hard to be intelligibly uttered: because you are become weak to hear. 12. For whereas for the time you ought to be masters, you have need to be taught again what are the first elements of the words of God: and you are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13. For every one that is a partaker of milk is unskillful in the word of justice: for he is a little one. 14. But strong meat is for the perfect; for them who by custom have their senses exercised to the discerning of good and evil.
Verse 1: For Every High Priest Taken from Among Men Is Appointed for Men in Those Things Which Pertain to God, That He May Offer Up Gifts and Sacrifices for Sins
The word "namque" (for) gives the reason why he had said at the end of the preceding chapter, "Let us go with confidence to the throne of grace." The reason is this: that Christ is our High Priest and has in Himself all the endowments, offices, and duties of the best of priests. Therefore the Apostle conveniently passes here from the comparison and pre-eminence of Christ with Moses, in the leadership and legislation of the Church, to the comparison and high-priesthood of Christ; and he demonstrates Him to be endowed with even worthier and more excellent duties than the priesthood of Aaron.
Note here the remarkable description of a high priest under three endowments, offices, and notes, which he shows fit Christ. The first is that the priest be taken from among men, as it were chosen and worthier, more apt, more eminent, more excellent in prudence and virtue than the rest; one who can have compassion on, condole with, and succor other men as those who share his nature and likewise his frailties, and that the more readily and ardently the more he is a sharer and partaker, both of their nature and of their miseries — having frequently experienced the same in himself.
The second note and office of a high priest is that he be appointed for men in the things that pertain to God, that is, that he act as the man of men and plead their cause before God, as their mediator, and pray and intercede for them; and as the people's representative also exercise the priestly office before God, and administer the sacred rites which pertain to the worship of God. For since the people are bound to worship God with public worship, rite, and ceremonies, and to render to Him as to their own — and as Creator and Lord of all — the highest honor and worship; yet since this cannot be done decorously by each man individually (for they are often rude and common), for this reason there is chosen one out of all who is more skilled and fitter, who may rightly perform this duty for the others, and through whom the rest may publicly render to God the worship owed Him by fixed rites and ceremonies. Hence all nations, by the dictate of right reason and of nature, have always appointed certain priests, who would offer and perform this public worship of latria to God on their behalf. Whence it follows that Christians too, by the right of both nature and of the law of nations, ought to have their own priests, and likewise their own sacred things and sacrifices — namely those of the Eucharist — by which to publicly and solemnly worship God; otherwise the commonwealth and Church would be maimed and incomplete, and more imperfect than that of the Jews or of any other nation whatsoever.
The third endowment and office of a high priest is, "that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins," that is, that he may appease God, angry at sins and sinners, and reconcile Him by gifts and sacrifices. By "gifts" he means the offerings of first-fruits and other things — such as bread, wine, grain — which were not burned or consumed, but given whole to God for the use of the priests and the temple; by "sacrifices" he means the victims, both of animals slain to God, and of grain and wine, which were either burned or poured out, shed or consumed before God; thus Theophylact. For in Greek θυσίαι, that is, victims or sacrifice, is so called from the verb θύω, that is, to slaughter, to sacrifice, and to send up fumes, as it has its idea in part from θυμιάομαι, that is, I burn, fumigate.
Paul alludes to Leviticus 7:12 and 13, where Moses, treating of the peace-offering which is offered for thanksgiving, calls it תבזה "tsebach," that is — as the Septuagint translates — θυσία, that is, sacrifice or hostia that is immolated; while the loaves, cakes, and wafers offered with it he calls קרבן "korban," that is — as the Septuagint translates — δῶρον, that is, gift or present. Yet elsewhere these names are often confounded, and the bloody victims that are burned to God are themselves called gifts or presents.
Verse 2: Who Can Have Compassion on Them That Are Ignorant and That Err, Because He Himself Also Is Encompassed with Infirmity
Who can have compassion on them that are ignorant and that err. — "Possit" (may be able), that is, may be apt, prone, easy to condole. See what was said in chapter 2, verse 18. For "condolere" (to condole), the Greek is μετριοπαθεῖν, that is, to bear oneself moderately, modestly, gently — namely, so that he may not spurn sinners, nor be angry with them, nor blaze up against them; but humble himself to their misery, show himself humane and kindly to them, condole with their ignorance, rudeness, falls, and vices, knowing that he himself can stumble and sin. Hence Theophylact takes μετριοπαθεῖν for συμπαθεῖν, that is, to suffer along with. Hence our Translator renders it "condolere."
Note: The Apostle here calls all sinners — whether from weakness, from ignorance, or from malice — "ignorant and erring": for some ignorance or error, at least practical, is always conjoined with sin. For he who sins judges, here and now, implicitly that this good and this pleasure — for example, of gluttony, lust, vengeance — is to be seized for himself, and by that very fact he tacitly judges the same to be preferred to the law of God and to God Himself, who forbade and prohibited it; which is indeed a most grave error, of which I have said more elsewhere.
Because he himself also is encompassed with infirmity. — The Apostle here understands a twofold weakness: the first of nature, the second of concupiscence and of fault. Both have existed in all those high priests who were merely men; but in Christ there was only the former, which is as it were essential to a priest — namely, that he be of the same nature as other men, a sharer and consort of their miseries and afflictions. The second was not in Christ, since it is not essential to a priest; nay rather, it is a fault and impediment of a priest: for by the very fact that anyone is subject to sin, he is rendered less apt to expiate sins and to reconcile God with sinners — which is the proper duty of a priest. In this respect, therefore, Christ surpasses all other high priests, since He alone was wholly free from sin, so that He did not even feel the weakness and concupiscence prone to sin. Nevertheless, Christ was able to measure from the prior weakness of His nature how great this is in man; and so, in a like manner, He felt and experienced the same, and therefore easily has compassion on those laboring under the same and condoles with them.
Verse 4: Neither Does Any Man Take the Honor to Himself, but He That Is Called by God, as Aaron Was
He resumes and explains the first condition of the high priest, namely that they ought not to thrust themselves in and intrude, but to be taken up and chosen by God for the priesthood, just as Aaron and his descendants were chosen; and this with the purpose of applying the same to Christ and proving that it suits Christ, as is plain from what he immediately adds.
Verse 5: So Christ Also Did Not Glorify Himself, That He Might Be Made High Priest
In Greek ἐδόξασεν, that is, glorified — He did not seek out, did not usurp, glory and dignity, but was raised to it and chosen for it by God the Father, who said to Christ in Psalm 2: "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee"; as if to say: You ought not to wonder, O Hebrews, that Christ was constituted High Priest by the Father and set above Aaron, because Christ is the Son of God the Father; if He is the Son, what wonder if the priestly dignity is given to Him, especially since by the law of nations it was received even before Moses and Aaron that the firstborn sons should be priests and high priests. About which St. Jerome writes thus in epistle 126 to Evagrius: "The Hebrews report," he says, "that until the priesthood of Aaron, all the firstborn from the stock of Noah, whose succession and order is described, were priests and offered victims to God: and that these were the firstborn rights which Jacob bought from his brother Esau."
By this common law of nations, therefore, the priesthood and pontificate were owed to Christ as the only-begotten and firstborn of the Father — indeed, as the firstborn of every creature.
Verse 6: As He Also Says in Another Place: Thou Art a Priest Forever, According to the Order of Melchisedech
"He says," namely, God the Father to God the Son made man, when He chose and constituted Him priest. That these are the words of God the Father to the Son is clear from verse 1 of Psalm 109, where it says: "The Lord said" (namely, God the Father) "to my Lord" (namely, to Christ His Son).
Note: when he says that Christ is a "priest according to the order," that is, the rite, "of Melchisedech," by this very fact he sets Christ above Aaron; for Melchisedech was more worthy than Aaron, as the Apostle shows at length in chapter VII, where I will explain this order of Melchisedech.
Verse 7: Who in the Days of His Flesh, Offering Prayers and Supplications with a Strong Cry and Tears, Was Heard for His Reverence
Who in the days of His flesh. — That is, while He was living among men in this mortal and fragile flesh. Thus St. Thomas; for Christ put off this flesh in death, and at the resurrection put on a flesh immortal and impassible. The Apostle brings these things forward to prove that Christ our High Priest was clothed with our weakness and therefore could easily sympathize and have compassion with us. He proves this weakness of Christ: first, by the fact that Christ's flesh was like our flesh. Secondly, by the fact that when set in the agony of death, in the highest distress and grief, He prayed to be freed from death. Thirdly, by the fact that out of this distress He wept and cried strongly, and, as the Syriac has it, roared (for this is the meaning of נעתש "geata") to the Father, seeking aid and deliverance.
Note: The Apostle seems to be speaking of Christ's prayer in the garden, where He was betrayed by Judas and seized by the Jews. So Theodoret, Oecumenius, Anselm. Again, He seems to be speaking of Christ's prayer on the cross; for there Christ cried with a loud voice: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." So Ambrose. Hence it is clear that Christ in that prayer, and perhaps often elsewhere, shed tears, although the Evangelists do not narrate it; nor is this strange, since in the same prayer Christ from anguish sweated blood, as Luke records, chapter 22, verse 44; for, as St. Bernard says in sermon 3 on Palm Sunday: "Christ was not content with tears of the eyes, but willed to weep and wash our sins with bloody tears of His whole body."
Hence note secondly that this anguish, tears, and bloody sweat of Christ — witnesses to the weakness Christ had assumed — came from the vivid imagination of the scourging, crowning, death, and all the sufferings He was soon to undergo. From this naturally flowed the horror and anguish of these things; while Christ wrestled with it to overcome it and offered Himself the greatest possible violence, being placed in agony, He sweated blood.
Note thirdly, in that prayer Christ did not only ask to be freed from death, but also and more so asked that we be freed from sin and death; and therefore in the end He accepted death by an absolute and efficacious will, and asked that the Father's will concerning it be done, saying: "Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done"; and in this He was heard, as the Apostle adds.
He was heard. — Not in His earlier petition and as it were natural will, by which He asked conditionally and inefficaciously to escape death if possible (for Christ Himself corrected this and did not absolutely will it to be fulfilled), but in His later petition and absolute and efficacious will, by which He prayed not for escape from cross and death, but for the fulfillment of the Father's will concerning His passion and the fruit of it: namely, that by His passion and death He might merit for Himself resurrection from death, and for us salvation both of body and of soul.
Paul adds these things to show that the prayers of Christ our High Priest are efficacious and are heard by the Father, and that therefore we should place all our hope and confidence in Christ.
For His reverence. — In Greek ἀπὸ τῆς εὐλαβείας, which first Calvin and Beza translate "from fear," namely of eternal damnation. As if Paul were saying: Christ was heard and freed from the fear of damnation in which He was, while, placed in agony, wholly stricken in soul, dismayed and overwhelmed by the weight of God's wrath, He saw God to be utterly hostile to Him on account of men's sins; so that He thought He could not sustain the weight of the divine wrath, and that it was now all over with Him — whence He cried out, "God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Which words, Beza says, are those of a man crying out in the very gulf that he has perished. For Calvin and Beza think that Christ's redemption and satisfaction would not have been complete, unless Christ had borne all the wrath of God, and felt God to be utterly hostile to Him, and so felt the damnation owed for our sins and the torments of a damned man. For Calvin recognizes no other hell or damnation than this of apprehension and imagination, by which damned souls perpetually apprehend God as angry with them, and by which apprehension they torture themselves. But this is a blasphemy as monstrous as it is horrible, and unheard of in all ages. For if Christ in agony so despaired, and felt and suffered our damnation, then He not only sinned most gravely, but for that time was damned, just as Judas is now damned; and consequently in that very act He so could not satisfy for us that He rather far more provoked God and inflicted on Him the gravest injury. Wherefore Christ then could not be our Redeemer, but rather needed another and far more powerful Redeemer. What Christian ears could endure these words: Christ despaired, Christ succumbed to God's wrath, Christ was damned by God? We know that Christ succumbed to death, but voluntarily, and therefore He cried out: "God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" — namely, in the perception of cross and death, that by this perception of His He might either remove or diminish the perception of death for the Martyrs and for us all. But that Christ succumbed to despair, damnation, and Gehenna — who would not shudder to say, or even to hear it? Beza will reply that these motions of despair in Christ were not deliberate, nor in the higher will and reason, but only in the lower part and appetite. But this is said wrongly and foolishly: first, because in Christ, as in Adam, no motion of concupiscence or passion preceded reason, but reason foresaw, elicited, and directed all His acts, so that they were the acts of a perfect man, that is, rational and deliberate. Secondly, because the sensitive or lower appetite cannot apprehend God as angry with one: for this object, being spiritual and sublime, belongs to reason and the higher part. Thirdly, because even if we grant that these motions of Christ were only in the lower part, yet it cannot be denied that they were in some way voluntary in Christ: for Christ noticed these motions in Himself and permitted them, when He accepted them as it were a penalty owed for our sins; for all acceptance of penance and satisfaction must be free, and must be done through reason and will. Therefore, just as any man who notices in himself motions of blasphemy, vengeance, lust, even in the sensitive appetite alone, and does not repel them, is reckoned to consent to them and to sin: so according to Beza, Christ, noticing these motions of despair in Himself, and permitting them, indeed accepting them, ought to be reckoned to have consented to them. For so it happens with any other man who yields and succumbs to despair. Finally, Christ could not conceive God as so hostile to Him, be stricken in soul, and fall into this abyss of despair: for Christ knew that He loved the Father supremely, and that He in turn was most dear to the Father; He knew that out of His supreme charity, reverence, and obedience toward the Father, He had taken upon Himself our sins to be expiated; He knew that He could not be forsaken by the Father; He knew that in all this passion the Father would be with Him, that He might constantly meet and overcome death and all torments; He knew that His passion, our redemption, and everything would turn out for Him according to His wish, and that He would be the victor and lord of all: how therefore could He fall, be stricken, overwhelmed, despair in soul? Especially since He knew that God properly is angry only at fault, and He Himself knew Himself to be free from all fault, since He had taken on Himself not the faults of men, but only the punishments owed to their faults. He knew, therefore, that God was angry with Him only metaphorically and metonymically, namely because He was inflicting on Him the effect of His wrath, by which He was angry at men's sins — that is, the penalty of death and the cross — which He Himself willingly received with brave and confident soul. Truly and properly, therefore, Christ could not conceive and think God to be angry with Him, much less could He bring Himself to admit that He was succumbing to God's wrath.
Add: by Calvin's opinion, all the faithful are predestined, and by the special faith they have are certain of their salvation, of their predestination, and of God's eternal favor toward them, and know that they cannot fall from salvation by any sins: hence those who follow Calvin do not even fear damnation; therefore much less could Christ, who is the exemplar and parent of the faithful and the predestined, have feared the wrath and damnation of God. See here, then, the impiety of Calvin, who in the knowledge and certainty of salvation and divine favor places himself and his followers far above Christ.
But that Paul means nothing of this sort is clear from the word εὐλάβεια, which in Scripture signifies not such fear and horror as Calvin would have it, but reverence, or the fear of reverence, by which we fear and revere parents or Superiors or Saints. Therefore here St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Theodoret, Ambrose, Oecumenius, Anselm, and all the orthodox take εὐλάβεια in this sense.
You will say: in Greek there is the preposition ἀπό, which means "from, out of, away from"; this fits rightly with fear, but not with reverence: for it is rightly said, "Christ was heard out of fear," but not rightly said, "He was heard out of His reverence." I answer: ἀπό is often taken for διά, that is "on account of," or "for": for it corresponds to the Hebrew מן, which signifies both "on account of" or "for" and "from, out of, away from," as in Acts 12:14, ἀπὸ τῆς χαρᾶς, that is, "out of joy," she did not open the door; Luke 22:42: "He found them sleeping ἀπὸ τῆς λύπης, that is, from sorrow, or on account of sorrow." Similar examples are at Luke 24:41; Matthew 13:44, and elsewhere.
Add that Calvin explains this very phrase much more awkwardly, in this way: "Christ was heard out of fear," that is, he says, Christ was heard so that He might be freed from fear; for the word "praying" cannot be supplied, as if to say: "He was heard, praying out of fear," since Paul a little before expressed this by saying, "offering prayers and supplications." Let this suffice concerning Calvin's first exposition.
Secondly, Photius, in Oecumenius, translates εὐλάβεια as φιλανθρωπία, that is, distinguished charity. As if Paul were saying: Christ was heard on account of His great charity toward us, or, as Erasmus translates, on account of His piety.
Thirdly, and best, all the others with our Interpreter render εὐλάβεια as "reverence": for from this everywhere εὐλαβεῖς are called men who are pious, religious, fearful, and reverent of God. Our [translator], in Wisdom 17:8 and elsewhere, sometimes translates εὐλάβεια as "fear," namely divine fear, or fear inspired by God's majesty and reverence.
Hence note: This reverence, or fear of reverence or of admiration — as St. Gregory calls it (book XVII Moralia, chapters 14 and 15) and St. Dionysius (Celestial Hierarchy XIII) — is a habit or act of judgment and will by which the rational creature in the sight of the divine excellence and eminence so bears itself and so highly esteems it that it scarcely dares to approach it, and shrinks utterly from usurping in the least its excellence; rather, plainly bashful, fearing and reverencing, it flees from it, and so fears and shrinks from investigating its great works, counsels, and secrets. From this follows a chaste fear, that for nothing whatever will it offend so great a Majesty. Hence in Hebrew reverence is called יראה "ira," that is, fear; in Chaldaic אימה "ema," that is, terror; in Arabic היברה "hiba," that is, dread.
Hence it follows secondly that this reverence is distinct from the act of humility, by which one wills to subject oneself to God; and from the act of obedience, by which one wills to obey Him as supreme Lord; and from the act of religion, by which one wills to worship Him as the supreme principle of all things and to prefer His honor to one's own in all things. For the act of reverence is to revere and fear in the highest degree the supreme majesty of God, as I said a little before.
Note thirdly: Reverence here is to be understood actively, namely, that by which man reverences God. As if the Apostle were saying: Christ was heard by the Father because He reverenced the Father, because He behaved reverently and obediently toward the Father in all things. Yet secondly, reverence here can also be taken passively, namely that by which the Father in turn reverenced Christ, who was so reverent toward Him, as His own Son, who together with His prayers offered a price — namely His divine blood, which was a thing of infinite value — and that out of the highest reverence toward the Father and out of mere and purest charity toward men, as Anselm says. As if Paul were saying: That Christ was heard by the Father was not so much a matter of grace as of Christ's dignity: so great.
Verse 8: And Although He Was the Son of God, He Learned Obedience from the Things Which He Suffered
The Apostle had said that Christ, "offering prayers with tears, was heard on account of His reverence"; here he explains and amplifies it, and teaches that Christ's reverence was attested and proved by His obedience: that Christ was heard when He "was made consummate for us, the cause of eternal salvation." As if to say: "And although" — Greek καίπερ, that is, although — Christ was the Son of God, yet He willed to suffer, and so to learn, that is, to experience, an obedience so arduous and difficult, namely that He would humble Himself and obey even unto the death of the cross.
Note: "Christ from the things which He suffered learned obedience" — not as if in His passion He at last learned or acquired the virtue of obedience which He had not known before; for He knew and was perfectly skilled in it, both by infused knowledge from the first instant of His conception, and by the experience of thirty-four years and of His whole life. But because He experienced this obedience in a new and more exact way in His passion, more than in all the rest of His life: namely, what it is to obey, how difficult and arduous it is to submit oneself in all things, how great a virtue and labor obedience is, as St. Anselm and Photius say — that obedience which receives, endures, and carries out whatever is hard, bitter, ignominious, dreadful with ready soul, and that for the sake and reverence of the one God whom it obeys. Here is, as I said, the proof of Christ's reverence from Christ's obedience.
Hence note secondly: Christ by suffering "learned obedience," to show that obedience, patience, and the other virtues are much better, more fully, and more effectively learned by men through suffering and practicing them than through speculating and contemplating, namely τὰ παθήματα μαθήματα — sufferings are the best teachings and discipline. And, as St. Bernard says (epistle 88): "Humiliation is the way to humility, as patience to peace, as reading to knowledge. If you seek the virtue of humility, do not flee the way of humiliation. For if you do not endure humiliation, you cannot be advanced to humility." Obedience the Apostle here above all other things impresses upon the Hebrews, that they may imitate it, and learn to obey God and Christ constantly, even though for that cause they must undergo and suffer despoliation, exile, and even death itself. Hence he adds that Christ "was thus made consummate, the cause of eternal salvation to those who obey Him."
Note thirdly: Christ not only by experience "learned obedience," that is, the arduous labor and difficulty of obedience, but also learned obedience, that is, how great is the greatness, excellence, merit, and reward of obedience; for by its merit He saw Himself a little later raised to the highest degree of glory, that He might be made consummate as the leader and herald of obedience for us, and so the cause of eternal salvation. For this is what the Apostle subjoins. So Chrysostom and Theophylact.
Climacus splendidly defines obedience thus: "Obedience is voluntary death, the tomb of one's will, life devoid of curiosity, safe danger, immediate excuse before God, secure navigation, a journey accomplished while sleeping, the laying aside of discretion, which carries one's burdens to heaven, the total renunciation of one's own desire."
Verse 9: And Being Consummated
In Greek τελειωθείς, that is, "immolated," or "consecrated," or, as the Syriac has it, "perfected" — Christ was perfected by this His passion and obedience, and was thereby endowed with the beatitude of body and immortal glory. For Christ on the cross was consummated in patience, in charity, and in every virtue, and so was consummated in grace, and presently in glory. Hence St. Anselm says: "Christ was consummated" — that is, when, having consummated all the actions of obedience, patience, and sanctity, He cried on the cross, "It is consummated." As if the Apostle were saying: The consummation of the Christian man is brought about through afflictions; how then are you, O Hebrews, fainthearted in persecutions, which make you consummate? — say Chrysostom and Theophylact.
Verse 10: Called by God a High Priest According to the Order of Melchisedech
As if to say: Christ is for us the cause of salvation, because He has been constituted and called by God our High Priest, when namely God said to Him in Psalm 109: "Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech."
Verse 11: Of Whom We Have Great Things to Say, and Hard to Be Intelligibly Uttered, Because You Are Become Weak to Hear
For "grandis" the Greek has πολύς, that is, much discourse; "et ininterpretabilis" (so it is to be read with the Roman and Greek copies, not "interpretabilis"), that is, most difficult to explain: for this is the Greek δυσερμήνευτος. Wherefore the commentary ascribed to St. Thomas wrongly reads "interpretabilis" and explains it in two ways: first, that the prefix "in-" indicates negation, so that "interpretabilis" means the same as "that which cannot be interpreted"; second, that "interpretabilis" affirmatively means the same as "needing interpretation." But these contradict the etymology itself: for according to it, "interpretabile" is said of that which is easy to interpret. It is otherwise with the word "investigabile"; for that can be taken for "not traceable." The sense of the Apostle then is, as if to say: Concerning Melchisedech many and great things might be said, but for you, O Hebrews, they are hard to explain, because for these things you are uninstructed and weak; for you understand your Aaron more readily than Melchisedech. These mysteries of Melchisedech the Apostle explains in part in chapter VII, that he may raise the mind of the Hebrews to Christian and divine matters and teach them as much as they could grasp; in part he is silent on the things that are more difficult, lest by things so hard to understand he should turn either them or other readers from the faith or overwhelm them, says Chrysostom. Such is the question how the bread and wine offered by Melchisedech in Genesis 14 were a type of the sacrifice of the Eucharist. Hence the ancient Greeks, as St. Jerome testifies in epistle 126 to Evagrius, used to say that Paul in chapter VII, where he treats of Melchisedech, had passed over a certain sacrament and arcanum of his, and that he here calls it an uninterpretable discourse, especially to unbelievers. For although Paul primarily writes this epistle to believers, yet secondarily he also writes it to unbelievers, namely the Judaizers, whom he is striving to convert from Judaism to Christianity. Add that the doctrine of the mysteries of the Eucharist was handed down even to believers only when well instructed. For this is the most sublime, arcane, and divine Sacrament: hence the Fathers call it "the arcane Sacrament," "the mystery," "the mysteries which the faithful know," etc.
Since you are become weak to hear. — For "imbecilles" the Greek has νωθροί, that is, you have been made sluggish, lazy, and negligent in hearing and knowing Christian and divine things: such as many today are among Christians, who are so intent on and absorbed in their gains and business that they can scarcely hear Mass and a sermon, scarcely think of God or of the salvation of their own soul, or are willing to. Oecumenius judges that the cause of this negligence and sloth was persecution. Temptations, he says, and afflictions have made you sluggish, and you cannot hear perfect discourses: for temptation, when one yields to it or listens to it, softens the soul and makes it sluggish, lukewarm, and weak for good. Such today are many in England, who, lest they be despoiled of their goods, neglect or despise every Christian duty and discipline — the homegrown examples of the Martyrs and very many others most constant and fervent in faith and piety.
Verse 12: For Indeed, When by Reason of Time You Ought to Be Masters
That is, in proportion to the length of time during which you have been instructed both in the law of Moses and in Christianity, again I should need to teach you, what are the elements of the beginning of the words of God, — that is, what are the rudiments of Christian and divine doctrine, which catechumens are taught and learn.
And you have become such as have need of milk. — That is, you who need instruction in weak, simple, and childlike doctrine concerning Christ's humanity, concerning baptism, resurrection, and judgment, as the Apostle explains in the following chapter, verses 1 and 2.
Not of solid food. — That is, not of higher and more perfect erudition concerning Christ's divinity, concerning Melchisedech, and concerning Christian perfection. Note: The Apostle says this by way of stirring and stimulating, namely so that He may sharpen and lift up the minds of the Hebrews to hear and grasp the mysteries of Melchisedech, and the other things which He is determined to set forth in chapter VII and following. Thus a teacher rebukes and stimulates his pupils, otherwise well taught, when they grow sluggish and present a theme not sufficiently accurate, saying that this theme is not for a rhetorician, but for a grammarian or a syntax-teacher, and that they ought to be sent back to syntax. This meaning will be clear at the beginning of the following chapter.
Verse 13: For Every One That Is a Partaker of Milk
That is, who is to be instructed and nourished by childlike teaching and doctrine. Of this milk I have spoken at 1 Corinthians 3:2.
Is unskillful (Greek ἄπειρος, that is inexperienced, untrained, unskilled) in the word of justice. — That is, in the discourse which treats of perfect justice and holiness: for this befits only the perfect. So Theophylact and Anselm.
Others explain it thus: "is unskillful in the word of justice," that is, is not capable of the justification which is to be expected from Christ's divinity. But that the former meaning is the genuine one is plain from what the Apostle adds:
Verse 14: But Strong Meat Is for the Perfect
For he is a little child (Greek νήπιος, that is infant, namely in Christ and in Christianity): but strong meat is for the perfect. — That is, solid and perfect doctrine and instruction, as I have already said.