Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He teaches that not the Aaronic sacrifices, however many, but the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross expiates all sins. Then, in verse 19, passing from doctrines to morals, He concludes and urges the Hebrews to be constant in the faith of Christ, both because of the terror of God's vengeance, verse 26, and because of their former constancy in persecution, verse 32, and because after a little while Christ our judge and liberator will come, verse 37.
Vulgate Text: Hebrews 10:1-39
1. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, by the very same sacrifices which they offer continually every year, can never make those who approach perfect: 2. otherwise they would have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, once cleansed, would have had no further consciousness of sin: 3. but in them is made a commemoration of sins every year. 4. For it is impossible that sins should be taken away by the blood of bulls and goats. 5. Therefore on coming into the world He says: Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not: but a body Thou hast fitted to Me: 6. holocausts for sin Thou hast not been pleased with. 7. Then said I: Behold, I come: in the head of the book it is written of Me: That I should do, O God, Thy will. 8. Saying above: Because Thou wouldst not have sacrifices, and oblations, and holocausts for sin, neither are they pleasing to Thee, which are offered according to the law, 9. then said I: Behold, I come, that I may do, O God, Thy will: He takes away the first, that He may establish that which follows. 10. In which will we are sanctified by the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ once. 11. And every priest indeed stands daily ministering and often offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12. but this one, offering one sacrifice for sins, sits forever at the right hand of God, 13. henceforth waiting until His enemies be made His footstool. 14. For by one oblation, He has perfected forever those who are sanctified. 15. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us. For after He said: 16. This is the testament which I will testify to them after those days, says the Lord, giving My laws in their hearts, and in their minds I will write them: 17. and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. 18. Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an oblation for sin. 19. Therefore, brethren, having confidence in the entrance of the Holy Place by the blood of Christ, 20. which He has dedicated for us, a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21. and a great Priest over the house of God: 22. let us draw near with a true heart in the fulness of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water; 23. let us hold the confession of our hope unwavering (for He is faithful who has promised), 24. and let us consider one another to provoke unto charity and good works: 25. not forsaking our assembly, as is the custom of some, but consoling one another, and the more so as you see the day approaching. 26. For if we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27. but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and the rage of fire which is to consume the adversaries. 28. A man making void the law of Moses dies without any mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses: 29. how much worse punishments do you think one will deserve, who has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and has esteemed the blood of the testament unclean by which he was sanctified, and has done insult to the Spirit of grace? 30. For we know who has said: Vengeance is Mine, and I will repay. And again: Because the Lord will judge His people. 31. It is fearful to fall into the hands of the living God. 32. But call to mind the former days, in which, after being enlightened, you endured a great struggle of sufferings: 33. and on the one hand made a spectacle by reproaches and tribulations, and on the other hand became companions of those who lived in such a manner. 34. For you both had compassion on those in bonds, and accepted with joy the spoiling of your goods, knowing that you have a better and abiding substance. 35. Therefore do not lose your confidence, which has a great reward. 36. For patience is necessary for you, that doing the will of God, you may receive the promise. 37. For yet a little while, and He who is to come, will come, and will not delay. 38. But My just one lives by faith: but if he withdraws himself, he will not please My soul. 39. We, however, are not the sons of withdrawal unto perdition, but of faith unto the saving of the soul.
Verse 1: For the Law, Having a Shadow of the Good Things to Come, Not the Very Image of the Things
The word "for" proves and gives the cause why the law and the sacrifices of the law could not expiate sins and sanctify men, but this was to be expected from Christ and Christ's sacrifice, as he taught in the preceding chapter. This is the cause: that the law was only a shadow of the good things to come in the new Testament, namely of justice, grace and salvation to be given through Christ: but a shadow is not the thing itself, but only the shadow of the thing.
Theodoret notes, and from Gregory of Nazianzus, Theophylact, that here a shadow ("skian") is attributed to the law, an image ("eikona") to the Gospel, and the truth and the very thing ("alētheian kai to pragma") to heaven; that is, to the Old Testament is attributed a shadow, to the New an image, because it represents the future goods clearly and expressly as an image, and the very thing itself and truth is attributed to heaven. But because the Apostle here only compares the law with the Gospel, not however with heaven; and because he wishes to teach that the Gospel has actually exhibited the remission of sins and grace which the old law foreshadowed by its sacrifices and lustrations: hence Chrysostom better understands by "image" the truth of the things, or the things themselves. For here is a metaphor drawn from painters, who first by charcoal or pencil sketch and outline the thing in a rough manner. Hence they call this first and rough picture a shadow, because it is the first, rough and shadowy outline of the thing, which they afterwards fill in and adorn with their colors and pigments, that it may become a beautiful and perfect image: for the art of painting has nothing further to which it can aim, since in painting this is its last touch and perfection. So God in the old law only sketched a certain rough picture and shadow of reconciliation and justice through the blood of so many victims and the expiation: but in the new law He has expressed this reconciliation and sanctity in the very thing, polished it, and as it were depicted and exhibited to us a perfect image. Hence the Syriac translates for "image," "kenuma," that is, the substance of things, as if the shadow were in the law, but the thing and body which makes the shadow is in the Gospel. Although this is another metaphor than that of painters which Paul here implies, it nonetheless refers to and signifies the same thing as that.
It can never make those who approach perfect. — "Perfect," that is, the law cannot make perfectly expiated and purged from sins, just and holy, by its sacrifices.
Verse 2: Otherwise They Would Have Ceased to Be Offered, Because the Worshippers, Once Cleansed, Would Have Had No Further Consciousness of Sin
He calls "worshippers" the Jews, who worshipped God by their sacrifices, lustrations and ceremonies: for these the Greek "latreuontas" signifies.
You will say: What is this consequence? If the old sacrifices could have expiated sins, then they would have already ceased to be offered. For someone will object and say that they expiated past sins, but had to be repeated for present and future sins; otherwise I would similarly infer: The Sacrifice of the Mass expiates past sins, therefore it ought not to be repeated for future ones.
I answer first, that the Apostle directly speaks of the expiation of past sins, but indirectly and consequently also of the expiation of future ones, as if to say: If in the ancient sacrifices there had been the force and power to expiate past sins, then they would have already ceased to be offered for them, inasmuch as for them sacrifice had been made once, and they had been expiated and purged by this sacrifice: yet they do not cease to be offered for them. For every year on the feast of expiation sacrifice is made for all the sins of the people, not only present, but also past, as the Apostle teaches in the following verse; therefore it is plain that in them there was no power expiatory of sins; therefore these sacrifices were only shadows and types of the sacrifice of the cross, by which Christ expiated all sins.
I answer secondly: Indirectly, as I said, the Apostle speaks of the expiation of future sins, as if to say: If in the ancient victims there had been an expiatory power for past sin, then also for future sin, and consequently if they had ceased to be offered for past sins, then also for future sins, should it happen that someone fell back into them. The reason is that the whole difficulty which is in the expiation of sin does not consist in the past or future. For time has little to do with the matter, but it consists in the gravity and malice of sin. For sin is a certain immense and infinite evil, because it is an offense against the immense God; and consequently the power expiatory of sin must be immense and infinite; therefore if any sacrifice be by itself and by its own power expiative of past sin, it can easily be so also for the future. For since its expiatory power for sin is infinite, it will as easily take away future sin as past.
For which note: The Apostle speaks of a sacrifice not applicatory, but per se expiatory of sin, by which namely the ransom and price of the injury inflicted on God by sin is paid to God, namely so that by that sacrifice and victim satisfaction is made to the divine majesty wounded by sin, and that injury is repaired, and the honor taken away by sin is restored. For the Apostle opposes and prefers the sacrifice of the cross and the victim of Christ to the Mosaic sacrifices and victims of bulls, in that not these, but that one was propitiatory, expiatory, satisfactory and redemptive of sin: and therefore he gathers and concludes that those were only a shadow and type of this and on its coming had to cease, inasmuch as in them there was no power for expiating sin. "For it is impossible, as the Apostle adds, that sins should be taken away by the blood of bulls and goats."
Hence it follows first, that the Apostle does not compare the sacrifice of the cross with the Aaronic ones in respect that the sacrifice of the cross was redemptive and expiatory, but the Aaronic was applicatory: for there was no question on this matter between the Hebrews or Jews; but the question was concerning the parity, or equal dignity of Aaron's and Christ's sacrifices, of the legal sacrifices and the sacrifice of the cross. For the Jews wished to compare, indeed to prefer Moses and Aaron to Christ, and their sacrifices as expiatory of sin, justificatory and sanctificatory, to Christ's sacrifice, and that from the fact that God commanding in Leviticus iv that a victim be offered for sin, adds in verses 20, 26, 31, 35: "And it shall be forgiven him," namely the sin for which he offered the victim. This therefore the Apostle here and throughout the whole epistle strives to overthrow, and teaches that not Aaron's but Christ's sacrifice was redemptive and expiatory of sin: but concerning its application, the Apostle does not treat here. When therefore he says: "Otherwise they would have ceased to be offered," understand as prices, not as applications of the price; as redemptive and satisfactory, not as applicatory. For for this reason the sacrifice of the cross has ceased and is not repeated, because, as he says in verse 14, Christ "by one oblation (of the cross) has perfected forever those who are sanctified." On which more in verse 14.
Hence it follows secondly, that the Apostle does not here compare the sacrifice of the cross with the sacrifice of the Mass, which is not redemptive, but only commemorative and applicatory of the sacrifice of the cross: for if the Apostle wished to exclude the application of the sacrifice of the cross which is made through the sacrifice of the Eucharist, in like manner he would exclude baptism, penance, faith, and other things by which the fruit of the sacrifice of the cross is applied to us; for as much by baptism and faith as by the Mass the merit and price of Christ's cross is applied to us. Hence the solution of the proposed objection is plain: for a sacrifice by which the price and ransom of sins is procured, such as the sacrifice of the cross alone was, ought not to be repeated; but the Mass and sacrifices which apply this price, ought to be repeated for repeated sins.
You will say: The Jews could have insisted and said: Your reasoning, O Paul, well concludes that the old sacrifices had to cease, because they were not per se expiatory of sin; but why did they not remain at least for this, that they might be applications of the sacrifice of the cross. I answer: The Jews at that time did not press this, but if they had pressed it, the Apostle would have answered that Christ could, if it had pleased Him, have retained the old sacrifices that they might be applications of the sacrifice of the cross; but He did not will it, nor was it fitting that He should do so. First, because the old sacrifices were carnal and rude, for the rude and carnal Jewish people, and not suitable for the spiritual people of Christians. Secondly, because they were shadows and figures of the cross, therefore with the cross exhibited they had to cease and vanish. Thirdly, because it was fitting that Christ as new high priest should introduce a new sacrifice, namely the same as to the victim with the sacrifice of the cross, namely that in the Mass, of the body of Christ offered for us on the cross, and consequently of that expiation, redemption and grace, we might be made truly partakers.
And to comprise the whole matter in a few words, the Apostle here signifies a threefold difference between the old sacrifices and those of Christ. First, that the old ones, just as their high priests were equal in honor and office, so they had successive victims of the same price and dignity: for a lamb equal and similar succeeded a lamb, ox an ox, goat a goat. The reason was, that there was no worthy victim that could expiate sin; for if any such had been, the participation and application of that victim would have been made through other victims of lesser price: just as the redemptive and expiatory victim of the cross is applied to us through the sacrifice of the Mass and through the Sacraments instituted by Christ for this purpose. The second difference is, that the old sacrifices did not expiate past sins. The third, that neither did they expiate future ones, and therefore they were always repeated; but Christ by His one sacrifice expiated all past and future sins absolutely, and offered a worthy price, namely the one bloody victim of His own body, which therefore it is not necessary to offer again; but it is only needful to apply it, not by special faith alone, as the Novators wish, but by fear, contrition, love, the Sacraments, and the same unbloody victim offered in the sacrifice of the Mass, as Christ ordained, and as the Church before Luther and Calvin has hitherto taught and observed. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Œcumenius, Anselm.
Verse 3: But in Them a Commemoration of Sins Is Made Every Year
As if to say: That there was no expiatory power for sins in those old sacrifices is plain from this, that every year on the day of expiation not only present but also old sins of the whole year, for which sacrifice had already been offered before, were repeated. For the high priest once a year on the day of expiation expiated the sins committed by the people throughout the whole year, entering and sprinkling the Holy of Holies with the blood of goats, as is plain from Leviticus xvi. Therefore these old sacrifices were only certain protestations, by which the Jews protested that they required another sacrifice, namely Christ's, by which the remission of sins should be made: and consequently they were not so much the remission of sins as the accusation and commemoration of them; or, as it is in Greek, "anamnēsis," that is, a calling to remembrance, namely so that men should remember their sins, and know that these had not been remitted to them by the sacrifices which they had offered, but should have recourse by faith and hope to Christ's cross and sacrifice.
Verse 5: Therefore on Coming into the World He Says: Sacrifice and Offering Thou Wouldst Not
He proves by a new argument, namely by the testimony of Psalm xxxix, that the old sacrifices did not expiate sins, did not reconcile us to God; because in Psalm xxxix God says that He does not will, is not delighted, is not appeased by the old victims and offerings. For although the piety, obedience, and devotion of those offering these victims pleased God, the victims themselves, namely sheep and oxen, did not in themselves please God, nor did they appease Him, as Christ immolated on the cross pleases and appeases God.
Note the force of "therefore," as if to say: "Because it is impossible that sins should be taken away by the blood of goats and bulls," therefore Christ, in order to take away sins, coming and entering the world through His incarnation and nativity, says to God the Father: A bloody victim, namely of goats and bulls, and an oblation, namely the unbloody one of fine flour, wine, bread, oil, etc., Thou wouldst not, O Father; but Thou hast fitted a body for Me, which I may offer to Thee in sacrifice for sin: wherefore I said, and I say: Behold, I come, behold I, lo, I am here, I am ready, that I may do Thy will, O God, namely that I may offer Myself a victim for sins, by which I may reconcile men to Thee.
But a body Thou hast fitted to Me. — So read the Septuagint as emended by Cardinal Caraffa, and from the Septuagint Paul, and the Syriac here. So also read Ambrose, Chrysostom, Theodoret and Augustine on Psalm xxxix, verse 7.
You will say: How then is it found in Hebrew in Psalm xxxix "oznaim carita li," that is, ears Thou hast dug or pierced for Me: whence also in Psalm xxxix, from another edition of the Septuagint, we read in our Latin version, but ears Thou hast perfected for Me. And so read in the same place Arnobius, Cyril, Eusebius and Jerome, namely "ōtia," that is, ears, instead of "sōma," that is, body. I answer that the meaning is the same, whether you read "ears" or "body Thou hast pierced through, or perfected for Me." For the sense is: Thou hast made Me, O Father, Christ Thy servant docile, obedient and perpetual (for such a servant, in Exodus xxi, 6, used to be marked by the piercing of his ears), by this very thing by which Thou didst form My humanity, with the grace of union and habitual grace, and with pierced ears, that is, with perpetual servitude and obedience, most difficult in a most hard matter, namely the death of the cross to be undergone, which obedience pierces the ears more than an awl. For from this slaves had their ear pierced, that they might know they would receive the troublesome commands of their masters, which would as it were pierce the ear like an awl. Hence the Chaldee in Psalm xxxix translates, but Thou hast pierced ears for Me to listen to Thy precepts.
Secondly and better, Genebrardus on Psalm xxxix, and Ribera and Galenus here, judge that by synecdoche "ears" in the Hebrew is put for the whole body. For the Psalmist treats in that place of the incarnation of Christ, and of the formation of that body which, as a victim in place of the old holocausts of bulls and sheep, which did not please God, was to be immolated to God for sins, as is plain from the preceding and following. For Psalm xxxix contains on this matter as it were a dialogue of God the Father and of His most obedient Son Christ the Lord. Hence the Syriac also translates, "pagra den albeshtani," that is, but with a body Thou hast clothed Me. By "ears" therefore the body is understood; but the ears are named in preference to other members of the body, because the matter concerned the servitude and obedience of the Son, even unto the immolation and death of the cross. But ears are the symbol of obedience and servitude.
Thou hast fitted. — In Hebrew "carita," which first can be rendered "Thou hast dug," that is, "pierced." So as to allude to the slave whose ears were pierced, as I said. Secondly, Genebrardus and Ribera render: "Thou hast dug ears and body for me," that is, kneaded — as a potter is wont to knead and work clay so that he may form his vessel: in like manner Thou, O Father, as it were a fashioner, by kneading and working My body, hast formed and fitted it for Me. Thirdly, others render "Thou hast dug," that is, "Thou hast purchased" or "acquired a body for me" — namely by fitting and forming it. For by a similar Hebraism Hosea 3:2 says he "dug" a wife, that is, bought her, and by buying betrothed her to himself as a wife for fifteen pieces of silver. Fourthly and best, "carita," that is, "Thou hast cut out a body for Me," as statues are wont to be cut out from rock, marble, or other stone; for the Hebrew "cara," like also "carat," properly signifies not so much to dig as to cut out. Hence is derived "michra," that is, a pit, mine, or cavern that has been cut out; in whose likeness the Hebrews say sons are cut out from the bodies of their parents. Whence Isaiah, chapter 51, verse 1, says: "Attend, he says, to the rock from which you were cut out, and to the cavern of the pit from which you were hewn." Explaining this, he adds: "Attend to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you." Where, as St. Jerome interprets, he calls Abraham a rock because of the firmness of faith; and he calls the cavern of the pit Sarah's womb, from which the Jews were cut out. For the Hebrews call families "battim," that is, houses; whence "banim," that is, sons, are called "abanim," that is, stones — cut out and dug out from the father as it were a rock, and from the mother as it were a mine. So Christ in Daniel 2:34 was seen by Nebuchadnezzar as a stone cut from the mountain, which overthrew and shattered the four-formed statue signifying the four monarchies. For just as stonecutters cut statues out of rock and trim and shape them so that they appear to be men of stone, so God cut out, composed, and shaped from the Blessed Virgin, as from a most strong rock, both the ears and the whole body of Christ. Whence the Septuagint for "carita," i.e. "Thou hast dug" or rather "Thou hast cut out," render "katērtisō," that is, "Thou hast aptly and congruently fitted together, fitted, shaped, and perfected My body" — namely so that the parts and members of My body are well joined to one another and to the whole body, and are clearly fitted and composed for their proper use and end, namely that in this body I, Christ, may hear, fulfill, obey My Father's will, labor, preach, suffer, be crucified, and be immolated. Whence Chrysostom thus explains: "But Thou hast perfected a body for Me," that is, Thou hast decreed that a perfect sacrifice should be made, and hast shaped Me for it.
Verse 6: Holocausts for Sin Have Not Pleased Thee
In Psalm xxxix it reads "Thou didst not require." For although Thou didst command these things to the Jews, yet Thou didst not command nor require them as if they pleased Thee in themselves and as if they could appease Thee, offended by the sins of men.
Verse 7: Then Said I: Behold I Come
That is, when, having become incarnate, I knew that the holocausts of oxen and the goats for sin did not please Thee, "then I said: Behold I come," namely, in place of the old goats, oxen, and lambs which could not appease Thee, that I might offer Thee My body, blood, and life as a sacrifice for sins and the redemption of men.
Note: At Christ's very advent and entry into the world — that is, as St. Thomas and Anselm explain, at the very moment of the incarnation — Christ had an act, both of reason, by which He knew God and all the things just mentioned, and likewise of will, obedience, and oblation, by which He offered Himself and His death, His labors and afflictions, and all His own to God as a price for our sins and our salvation; and by that will we have been sanctified, as the Apostle says in verse 10. Therefore from that moment Christ merited for Himself the renown of His name and the glory of His body, but for us grace and salvation. And by continuing this act of oblation thenceforth up to His death, He continued this same merit of His; so that Christ continually merited the same throughout His whole life, and so this continued oblation of Christ and His whole life was as it were one single continued merit, which was perfected in His death, the Father so willing and ordaining. So St. Thomas and the Doctors, Part III, Question 34, article 3.
In the head of the book it is written of Me: that I should do, O God, Thy will. — In Psalm xxxix, for "in the head of the book," the Hebrews have "bimgillat sepher," which St. Jerome and Vatablus render as "in the volume of the book," that is, of the whole sacred Scripture, it is written of Christ, as Theophylact and Photius explain. But Aquila and Symmachus translate it as "in the wrapping, in the rolling-up of the book," which the Septuagint, and Paul from them, render "en kephalidi bibliou," that is, "in the head" or "in the chapter of the book." For the ancients used in place of books long parchments, which they rolled into a cylinder at the head or beginning of the book — that is, of the parchment — and when they wished to read them they unrolled and unfolded them like sheets of paper or geographical charts, which they call "maps of the world." Whence the Hebrew "megillat" (from the root "galal," that is, "to roll, unroll") signifies both the head and beginning of the volume or book, around which the whole book was rolled, and the book or volume itself, which was thus rolled. Some add that "megillat" is to be taken for "gulgolet," which properly signifies the head of a man and descends from the same root "galal." But it is nowhere else so taken: for "gulgolet" always signifies the head of a man because of its rounded shape, while "megilla" signifies a volume or rollable book.
You will ask: in the head of what book are these things written of Christ? Some take it as the book of divine foreknowledge and predestination, in the beginning of which book it is written of Christ: for Christ is the beginning of all the works of God, and is the first of all the predestined. Whence Symmachus translates, "in the volume of His decree it is written of me." But others commonly take "book" to mean Sacred Scripture. For this was called "the book" by the Hebrews absolutely and by antonomasia.
First, then, St. Augustine on Psalm xxxix takes "the head of the book" as the beginning of the Psalms, that is, the first psalm, which begins thus: "Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, but his will is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he shall meditate day and night." Which, although it applies to all the just, yet most especially fits Christ.
Second, St. Jerome, at the beginning of the Hebrew Traditions on Genesis, takes "the head of the book" as the beginning of Genesis, where it is said: "In the beginning," that is, in the Son, as he himself explains, "God created heaven and earth."
Third, St. Chrysostom takes it as the beginning of the Gospel of St. John; for there it is clearly said: "In the beginning was the Word, etc., and the Word was made flesh." But in David's time this Gospel had not yet been written. And these are the words of David, in Psalm xxxix.
Fourth, Franciscus Ribera takes "the head of the book" as Genesis chapter 2, where it is written allegorically of Christ and the Church: "This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh," etc. For just as Eve was built from the side of the sleeping Adam, so afterwards the Church was built from the side of Christ sleeping on the cross, when blood and water flowed from Him — in which the two greatest Sacraments, namely Baptism and the Eucharist, were prefigured. Whence Paul, citing these words of Genesis at Ephesians 5 and explaining them allegorically, says: "This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church." But these things seem cramped, slight, and obscure.
I say therefore that "head" or "chapter" here means the same as "sum," as if to say: In the sum of the law, that is, in the whole law and the whole Pentateuch, in the whole Sacred Scripture it is written of me. For thus in chapter 8, verse 1, the Apostle calls the sum of his sayings "kephalaion," that is, "chapter." Whence the Hebrew "bimgillat" can be rendered "in the volume of the book it is written of me," that is, in the whole of Sacred Scripture, as I said from Theophylact; and so Eusebius, Didymus, Theodoret, Cyril in the Catena of the Greeks explain it on Psalm xxxix.
Or, more aptly, fitting the Greek and the Syriac (though it amounts to the same thing), "the head of the book" is the very argument and table of contents of the book. For the Greek "kephalis" means this index. So also the Hebrew "megilla" signifies the rolling up at the beginning and the argument of the book, and consequently signifies the very argument and index of the book. So Matthaeus Galenus here, as if to say: "In the head of the book," that is, in the argument and index of the whole Scripture, it is written of me: not that the Hebrews really had such an argument and index — who from religion and veneration of Sacred Scripture were unwilling to add either argument or anything else to the text of Sacred Scripture — but so that it is a catachresis and metonymy, by which a thing is said to be called and written, when it is in itself such that it can rightly and truly be so called and inscribed. So in Isaiah 9 it is said that Christ "shall be called Emmanuel, wonderful, counsellor, strong, father of the world to come"; "shall be called," that is, "shall be": for Christ is nowhere read of as being called by these names, since at His circumcision He was called only Jesus.
In the same way the Psalmist here says it is written of Christ in the head or argument of the book: because just as the argument of a book is written at its head and index, so at the head and index of Sacred Scripture is Christ — that is, all Sacred Scripture has Christ as its argument, the whole revolves around Christ. Therefore Christ says: "In the head of the book it is written of me," that is, the whole index of the law looks to Me, the whole law gazes at Me, and its sacrifices and everything it has are directed toward signifying and representing My sacrifice and My redemption; and so whatever it writes and prescribes about these things, it writes and prescribes for My sake, namely that I should come into the world through the incarnation, with this end: that I might satisfy Thy will, O Father — in Hebrew "retsonecha," in Greek "eudokia," that is, Thy desire and good pleasure — which means that by My death I might redeem and expiate the sins of men, which could not be expiated by any legal or other victims.
Hence it is clear that Psalm xxxix was written literally not of David, or any just man, as Vatablus, Jansenius, and the Jews wish, but of Christ. For these are Christ's words: "In the head of the book it is written of me," as St. Paul here, and the Fathers everywhere, explain.
Tropologically, the whole Scripture inculcates obedience in us: this is the sum, this is the argument of all Scripture, of wisdom and of virtue, that with Christ we may say to God: "Behold I come, in the head of the book it is written of me, that I should do, O God, Thy will."
That I should do, O God, Thy will. — Refer these words not to "I willed," which follows in Psalm xxxix, when it is said: "That I should do Thy will, O my God, I willed, and Thy law in the midst of my heart." Rather, refer them to "behold I come," namely "to this end, that I may do, O God, Thy will." This is clear from the Greek and the Hebrew. The interpolated phrase, "In the head of the book it is written of me," is inserted as if in parenthesis, and is to be referred to both, namely both to "behold I come" and to "that I may do Thy will." For it is written that Christ would come in the flesh for this purpose: that He might do and fulfill God's will concerning the redemption of men. What then follows in the Psalm, "I willed, and Thy law in the midst of my heart," must be distinguished from the preceding by a hypocolon, as if to say: I willed to come into the world for this end, that I might do Thy will, O Father; I willed, and with prompt will I accepted Thy decree and will concerning My incarnation and death for the salvation of men: and this Thy law and statute I have impressed and engraved in the midst of My heart.
Verses 8 and 9: He Takes Away the First, That He May Establish the Next
"Above, saying" (that is, when he had said, namely David in the person of Christ, Psalm xxxix): "Because sacrifices and oblations and holocausts (and victims) for sin Thou wouldst not; then said I" (namely I, Christ, in whose person David wrote and said these things): "Behold I come" — the Syriac and Greek convey this more clearly, having "tote eirēken," that is, "then he said"; so that the words are not Christ's but Paul's, about Christ, as if to say: Christ, who shortly before had said "Sacrifices and oblations Thou wouldst not," because He saw that they did not please God nor appease Him, then said: Behold I come, that I may do Thy will, O God: by which words — "he taketh away the first, that he may establish the next" — that is, He takes away the first old thing, namely the priesthood and sacrifice, by saying: "Sacrifices Thou wouldst not, that the next" — Greek "to deuteron," that is, "the second," namely Christ's obedience and sacrifice — "He may establish," when He adds: "Then I said: Behold I come," that by immolating Myself to Thee on the cross, "I may do Thy will," O Father.
Verse 10: In Which Will We Are Sanctified Through the Oblation of the Body of Jesus Christ Once
That is, through this will of the Father, which Christ undertook and fulfilled by offering Himself for us on the cross — namely, through the victim not of the legal oxen and sheep, but of Christ Himself, we have been justified and sanctified.
Verse 11: And Every Priest Indeed (of the Old Law) Is Present Daily Ministering, and Often Offering the Same Sacrifices, Which Can Never Take Away Sins
Lest the Hebrews, accustomed to so many and so various sacrifices and slaughterings, marvel that all these have been abolished by the one immolation of Christ on the cross, he inculcates this very thing and often repeats it, teaching that the cause of this is that the legal sacrifices could not expiate sins and therefore had always to be repeated; but Christ by His single oblation on the cross expiated all the sins of men.
Note: For "is present" the Greek has "hestēke," that is, "stands continually and constantly," namely at the altar and to God and to the sacrifices and ministries of God, as servants stand by their master or king while they minister to him. Hence the Hebrews take "amad," that is, "to stand," for "lehaqriv," that is, "to sacrifice and perform sacred rites." For to stand before the Lord is the same as for the priest to act before the Lord, to minister, or for the Levite, and to sacrifice to God, or to perform other sacred functions, as is clear from Numbers 4:3; Numbers 16:16; 2 Chronicles 29:11; 2 Esdras 7:63.
Verse 12: But This Man, Offering One Sacrifice for Sins (Greek "prosenenkas," That Is, "After He Had Offered"), Forever Sitteth on the Right Hand of God
As if to say: Christ has no need of many victims. For by His one victim He has expiated all things and has unlocked heaven for Himself and for us, that He may now sit gloriously in it at the right hand of God.
Note: He contrasts the sitting of Christ with the standing or attendance of the legal priests. For to stand is a sign of servitude and ministry, but to sit is a sign of dominion to which ministry is rendered, says Theophylact.
Verse 13: From Henceforth Expecting Until His Enemies Be Made His Footstool
As if to say: Henceforth Christ will no longer minister, no longer immolate, no longer offer Himself; but He only awaits the day of judgment, that He may then subject, crush, and condemn all unbelievers and rebels against Him: and so, with full victory won over His enemies, He may reign and triumph forever. The Apostle in these words, as is His custom, drives a goad of constancy and patience into the Hebrews, that for the faith of Christ they may bear despoilment and exile bravely and generously, considering and hoping with certainty that these their own despoilers and enemies of Christ will soon be subjected and trampled under both Christ's feet and theirs.
Verse 14: For by One Oblation He Hath Perfected Forever Them That Are Sanctified
He gives the reason why Christ now sits at the right hand of God and only awaits that His enemies be subjected to His feet. This is the reason: because by His one oblation Christ has consummated all things, so that nothing now remains for Him to offer, to labor at, or to bring to perfection. As if to say: Christ by His single oblation on the cross "consummated" — that is, He gave a consummated oblation, the consummated and perfect price of our redemption, by which, as by an immense and inexhaustible fountain that is to avail always and until the end of the world, indeed for all eternity, He may consummate and perfect "those who are sanctified," Greek "tous hagiazomenous," that is, those who are being sanctified — that is, He may perfectly sanctify and as it were consecrate them to God. For this is the meaning of the Greek "teteleiōke." So that, although infinite men were to be born and were to commit infinite sins, no other oblation would be needed to sanctify them, but for this purpose this single oblation of Christ on the cross would suffice, by whose application all those would be perfectly justified and sanctified from all their sins. So the Fathers, and the Council of Trent, session 22, chapter 1. Therefore Christ on the cross "consummated" the sanctified, as much as is in Himself and from His part — that is, He consummated in the first act. For in the second act, and in actual reality, He consummates and perfects us through baptism, penance, the Eucharist, and the other Sacraments and good works, by which He applies to us the general and consummated sacrifice, price, and merit of His cross. For it is clear that not all unbelievers, Pagans, and sinners are justified by Christ's oblation on the cross alone, but it is required that this oblation of Christ be applied to them — not by faith alone, as the Innovators wish, but also through good works and the Sacraments instituted by Christ for this purpose, as the Church has taught in all ages.
Verse 15: And the Holy Spirit Also Doth Testify to Us
Greek "epimartyrei," that is, He testifies, He bears witness to this matter, namely that the remission of sins is to be sought not from Moses, but from Christ; not from the Old Testament, but from the New; not from the sacrifices of goats and bullocks, but from the single oblation of Christ on the cross, by which Christ has consummated forever those who are sanctified.
He had already proved this same thing by the testimony of the Son of God Himself, verses 6 and 7, and by the testimony of the Father, verse 13. For the Father, excluding the old law and the Aaronic sacrifices, said to the Son in Psalm cix: "Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." And after the sacrifice on the cross had been accomplished and Christ had ascended into heaven, He said to Him: "Sit at My right hand, until I make Thy enemies the footstool of Thy feet." Here he proves the same thing by the testimony of the Holy Spirit, who, having spoken through the Prophets and especially through Jeremiah, foretold and promised this remission of sins through Christ to be given in the New Testament. This testimony of Jeremiah the Apostle has already cited above, chapter 8, verse 10, where I have explained it.
Verse 18: Now Where There Is a Remission of These (Sins): There Is No More an Oblation for Sin
"Oblation," namely that by which satisfaction is made for sin and a worthy ransom for sins is paid and a price procured, by the application of which we are in actual fact freed from the slavery of sin and of the devil, justified, and sanctified. For Paul speaks of such an oblation, as the Fathers teach, and Calvin and Beza acknowledge. Therefore Paul does not here exclude the oblation of the Mass, which, just as faith, baptism, and penance do, applies to us again and again the ransom and price of the oblation accomplished on the cross, as we again and again relapse into sins.
Wrongly and foolishly, therefore, Luther tries to prove from this passage of the Apostle and from chapter 7 that the Mass is a great abomination — and he asserts that he learned this from the angel of darkness, namely from the devil, when, disputing with him on this matter, he confesses that he was convinced by him, in the book "On the Private Mass and the Unction of Priests," which he published in the year 1534. The arguments of Luther and his followers are four, which I shall here briefly repeat and dissolve.
First: The Apostle in this epistle establishes Christ alone as pontiff and priest; therefore no other priests are to be set in the Church, and therefore no sacrifice of the Mass either.
I reply to the antecedent: Christ is the sole pontiff in this sense, namely the one who by His victim of the cross has satisfied for all sins and is the redeemer of sinners. In this matter no one succeeds Christ as equal in honor and office, as Eleazar succeeded Aaron, equal and on a par with Aaron in the pontificate. So both consequences of the argument are to be denied: for our priests are not equal to Christ, but vicars and ministers of Christ, who time and again represent and apply to us the sacrifice of the cross through the sacrifice of the Mass.
Second: The Apostle in this epistle inculcates the single sacrifice of Christ on the cross; therefore that, namely the sacrifice of the Mass, is nothing; and so the Mass is an injury to the cross of Christ.
I reply to the antecedent: The Apostle is speaking of the universal and all-powerful sacrifice; for this is the single sacrifice accomplished on the cross, from which our sacrifices have their force. For that one was as it were the matter, source, and price of ours; and ours are as it were a stream, the continual application and representation of it. Hence it is clear that the Mass is no injury to the cross, since it is the constant commemoration and commendation of the cross: for the sacrifice of the cross procured the price for us, while the Mass confers on us the application of this price. Otherwise the Church, which is Christ's commonwealth and the most perfect law, would daily lack the sacrifice and the solemn and public worship of God's latria. Since no nation, no religion, no Church has ever been without sacrifice and priesthood, who would believe that this one thing was neglected by Christ when He instituted and formed His Church, as it were a divine commonwealth complete in every respect?
Third: The Apostle teaches that the old sacrifices ceased because they were repeated daily as if weak and ineffective; but the Mass is likewise such.
I reply: The Mass is not such. For those old ones were repeated because they had no power of expiating real guilt, but only legal and shadowy guilt. For this is their weakness. They were also repeated to foreshadow the sacrifice of Christ and to stir up those who offered them to faith in and love of Christ, that through these they might obtain remission. But our sacrifices of the Mass are repeated because we relapse into new sins, which need a new expiation of sacrifice by which the merit and satisfaction of the sacrifice of the cross may be applied to us. For the Apostle only opposes the Aaronic sacrifices to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross in respect of the power of meriting, expiating, and satisfying, in which they were weak and ineffective, but Christ's was mighty and most effective; he does not, however, oppose or compare an expiatory sacrifice, such as the cross was, with an applicatory one, such as the Mass is — indeed, he tacitly includes the latter under the former; for this is subordinated to that, and consequently the same with it as to the victim. For it has the same victim, namely the body and blood of Christ; yet Christ willed that in the sacrifice of the Mass this should be of fixed and limited power and efficacy as to the power of impetrating and satisfying, since on the cross it was unlimited and immense.
The fourth is Calvin's: Sufficiently, he says, the word of God, faith, and the Sacraments apply to us the merit and price of the sacrifice of the cross; therefore for this application the Mass is not needed.
I reply, denying the antecedent. For although faith and the Sacraments apply the merit to us in regard to justification, they do not apply it in regard to propitiation; because the Mass alone is a propitiatory sacrifice, which by the work performed "ex opere operato" obtains prevenient grace, by which we are stirred up to faith, repentance, and the Sacraments, by which we are justified, to be received. And for this reason the Apostle so often repeats and inculcates here, that Christ stands by God and appears before His face on our behalf, that He is an eternal priest, that He intercedes for us, that He offers His gifts and victims, which indeed are now no other than the sacrifices of the Mass, which He Himself daily offers through priests instituted by Him, as all the Fathers and the Council of Trent in the cited place teach.
Here note: It belongs to the Sacraments to justify, but to a sacrifice to propitiate, that is, to render God propitious; namely, that He may begin to have mercy on sinners, and bestow on them prevenient and exciting grace. The Eucharist therefore, or the Mass, inasmuch as it is a sacrifice, obtains for us this prevenient grace, and at the same time obtains the remission of the punishment due to sins, and further of venial guilt: but mortal guilt of itself it does not take away or abolish, except in him who in good faith, not knowing himself to be in mortal guilt, would celebrate Mass; for to such a one the Eucharist remits mortal guilt and confers first grace and justice; but it does this not as a sacrifice, but as a Sacrament. Hence a lay sinner ignorant of his sin, and in good faith receiving the Eucharist, in like manner obtains from it the remission of sin and first grace and justice.
Verse 19: Having Therefore, Brethren, Confidence in the Entrance of the Holy Place by the Blood of Christ
That is, through the blood of Christ, and not through the blood of goats and calves of the old law. Here begins the second part of the Epistle, in which the Apostle, after his manner, passes from doctrines to the moral formation of the Hebrews. For thus far he has taught them that true faith, justice, and salvation are to be sought from Christ, not from the Law: now he exhorts them to constancy in the same faith and Christian piety, lest namely on account of the Jews' persecutions, hatreds, and plundering of their goods, they should fall away from it. So Theophylact.
Note: "Confidence in the entrance," or, as the Greek has it, "eis tēn eisodon," that is, "into the entrance of the holy places," the Apostle calls the hope of entering into the Holy of Holies, that is, into heaven. So Theophylact.
Secondly, it could be explained with some, as if to say: In the very entrance of Christ into the Holy of Holies, that is into heaven, we have hope that we too shall enter into it.
Verse 20: A New and Living Way Which He Hath Dedicated for Us Through the Veil, That Is to Say, His Flesh
The pronoun "which" agrees with "new way," and refers to the entrance of the holy places. Hence some, more clearly from the Greek, here translate and read "which" (masculine), namely the entrance; but in Latin syntax the meaning and sense is the same, whether you render "which" (feminine) or "which" (masculine). For this entrance is nothing other than the way to heaven. For the way to heaven is the beginning of the entrance into heaven, and the entrance into heaven is the completion of the way to heaven.
Secondly, Vatablus, in the word "ton," that is "crass," supplying "kata," translates a little more clearly thus: "since we have liberty to enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by that way which He has dedicated for us."
Thirdly, the Syriac transposes thus: "We have confidence in the entrance of the holy house, and the way of life" (that is, to eternal life and salvation) "through the blood of Jeshua, which He has initiated for us." But although these versions are clear in themselves, they invert and distort the Greek words: hence our Latin version is most plain, and corresponds word for word to the Greek, according to the explanation already given.
Initiated — "enekainisen," that is, He renewed, first trod and entered upon, or also dedicated and made common to others, as Vatablus translates; whence the days of dedication are called Encaenia. Christ therefore first initiated the way into heaven, because He first entered upon it, and so out of an unpassable way He made a way, and paved and leveled it for us. For Paul alludes to those who, on account of snow or some similar cause, first enter upon impassable ways, tread them, and make them passable for those who follow, as the inhabitants do in the Alps: which in French we say, "Il nous a frayé le chemin"; and in Flemish, "Hy heeft ons den wegh ghebaent." For this is to initiate a way, and by initiating to level it, and to make it common and passable to others.
A new way. — For "new" the Greek has "prosphaton," that is, recent, new, hitherto trodden by no foot.
And living, — that is, abiding, or of perpetual efficacy, always vigorous and flourishing.
Secondly, "living," that is, which leads to eternal life. Hence the Syriac translates, "urecha dechaie," that is, the way of life.
Thirdly and best, "living," because this way, living and animate, is the flesh of Christ, and Christ Himself, who says: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." For through the veil was the way into the Holy of Holies; and this veil signified the flesh of Christ, as the Apostle adds. Just as therefore through the veil rent or divided, as through an open and revealed way, one entered into the Holy of Holies: so through the flesh of Christ rent on the cross, as through a way, we go into heaven. Therefore as the way of the Alps is called the way through the Alps, so the way of the veil is called the way through the veil, that is, through the flesh of Christ. Wherefore the way to heaven is the flesh of Christ in His passion, or Christ Himself in His passion, which by faith and hope, as by two feet, we walk and tread, while we believe and hope through the passion of Christ to come to remission of sins, justice, sanctity, and salvation; and so by this way we proceed straight and tend to heaven. Excellently does St. Ambrose in Psalm cxviii, sermon 5: "Christ was created," he says, "according to the assumption of the flesh, that He might redeem creatures. Created, that He might show me the eternal ways, by which man can return to the kingdom of God. Therefore since He is the beginning of the ways of God, let us follow this beginning. He first entered the way of the New Testament, that He might pave it for us. If we fast, He fasted before us. If for His name we endure injuries, He endured first for our redemption: He laid His back to scourges, His cheeks to blows; He ascended the cross, that He might teach us that death is not to be feared. Finally, as one going before, He says to Peter: Follow Me; and therefore Peter completed his course, because he followed Christ," etc.
Through the veil, that is, His flesh. — Hence it is clear that the veil, which was before the Holy of Holies and veiled it, signified allegorically the flesh of Christ, and that fittingly. First, because by the flesh of Christ His divinity was veiled, just as by this veil was veiled God seated upon the Cherubim in the Holy of Holies. So Anselm and other Fathers.
Secondly, because through the flesh of Christ heaven was opened, just as through the veil lifted up on high the Holy of Holies was opened: as a type of which thing this veil rent in the passion of Christ opened the Holy of Holies, that it might be signified through the flesh of Christ rent in the passion that the way and entrance into heaven has been unbarred for us, as I have already said. So Chrysostom.
Verse 21: And a High Priest Over the House of God
Repeat and supply "having." "House of God" he calls heaven, as Theophylact will have it, or rather the Church, both militant and triumphant. For Christ presides over and rules both.
Here Paul notes three goods given to Christians through Christ: first, confidence in approaching God; second, the way paved to heaven; third, Christ Himself as pontiff and advocate. For lest anyone more timid should say: I confess that the path is paved, but how shall I undergo the terrible sight of the angry Father, against whom I have sinned? Paul meets him: Fear not, he says, you have Christ as pontiff, who will lead you in, and will make the Father propitious to you. Hence he infers, saying: "Let us draw near with a true heart," etc.
Verse 22: Let Us Draw Near with a True Heart, in Fulness of Faith, Having Our Hearts Sprinkled from an Evil Conscience, and Our Bodies Washed with Clean Water
Note: He calls a true heart a sincere heart, not feigned, which the Hebrews call "neeman," that is, faithful, true, sincere.
In fulness of faith. — That is, with full faith; in Greek, "en plērophoria pisteōs." Which secondly, with Vatablus can be rendered, with full persuasion, certainty, and firmness of faith, as I said on Romans xiv, 5. Thirdly, the Syriac translates, "betuchelana dehaimanuta," that is, with the confidence of faith, that is, with faithful confidence, or such as is born of right, full, and certain faith.
Having our hearts sprinkled (that is, in our hearts and minds with the lustral blood of Christ, and thereby cleansed) from an evil conscience. — That is, from sins which make the conscience evil and vicious. As if to say: With pure hearts let us approach God. For metonymically sprinkling is put for the purgation and purity which is effected by sprinkling. He alludes to the sprinkling of blood by which legal expiation was made, as I said on chap. ix, v. 13. For in like manner the inner expiation of the soul is made through sprinkling, that is, the application of Christ's blood in baptism. For that the Apostle is speaking of the sprinkling and cleansing of baptism is clear from what follows.
And our body washed with clean water. — He calls the water of baptism clean, that is, purging and cleansing. So Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Anselm. Not well therefore do some deny this: for the water which now cleanses the body is no other than the water of baptism. He alludes to the water of expiation, made from the ashes of the red heifer: for unclean Jews, if they washed the body with it, were legally cleansed and were considered clean. As if to say: As the unclean Jews, sprinkled with the water of expiation and thereby cleansed, used to approach cleanly, religiously, and confidently to God dwelling in His tabernacle and temple: so much more we, who through baptism have been washed not only in body but also in soul, and that through the application of the blood of Christ which baptism makes, with now pure heart and body let us approach God in holiness and eagerness.
Verse 23: Let Us Hold Fast the Confession of Our Hope Without Wavering
By "the confession of hope" he means faith, and the profession of faith, by which the Hebrews about to receive baptism, reciting the Creed according to custom, professed themselves to believe in Christ, and through Christ to believe and hope for the resurrection of the flesh and eternal life in heaven. See what was said on chap. iii, v. 1. The Gospel therefore is our confession. In like manner Mahomet called his faith and law in Arabic "alcoran," that is confession, from the root "karrar," that is, he confessed: in that he described in the Alcoran the faith and law which all Mahometans must confess and profess.
This faith therefore and confession of faith, which arouses and sharpens the hope already spoken of, the Apostle wills to be kept "unwavering," that is, firm and unshaken; which neither totters, nor sways here and there, nor turns aside from the right and from right faith, even under pressing and driving persecutions.
Secondly, as Anselm says, "unwavering," that is, which inclines not downward, so as to be depressed and bend toward the desire of wealth and earthly things; but always, as is the way of fire, leans upward and rises, and tends to the desire and pursuit of heavenly and eternal goods, which are the object of this faith, confession, and hope. Hence the Apostle adds:
For He is faithful that hath promised. — God, namely, who, as He promised these heavenly goods, so will faithfully confer and bestow them on you, if you in turn persevere faithful to Him and constant in the faith of Christ, and for it despise earthly goods, and, if need be, lose and pour them out.
Verse 24: And Let Us Consider One Another, to Provoke Unto Charity and Good Works
For "unto provocation," the Greek is "eis paroxysmon," that is, unto stimulation, as if to say: Vicious men consider the vicious examples of others, that they may imitate them; but you, O Hebrew Christians, consider one another's examples of Christian charity and other good works, which may provoke and stir you not to envy, but to imitation, namely that in place of all your busy, bodily, and empty legal observances, you should observe and exercise the duties and acts of charity and of other virtues, as you see other Christians do. For just as iron is sharpened by iron, and stone struck against stone elicits fire: so soul dwelling with soul rouses it to the same, that it may burn with charity, as itself burns, as Chrysostom and Theophylact note: so great is the power of example. And who would doubt that in that fervor of the nascent Christian Church there was a most fervent emulation of virtues?
Verse 25: Not Forsaking Our Assembly, as the Manner of Some Is
For "assembly" the Greek is "episynagōgēn," that is, aggregation, as Vatablus and Erasmus translate. By this aggregation and assembly the Apostle first understands the Church, as if to say: Do not forsake, O Hebrews, by apostasy or heresy the Christian Church, into which you have been gathered, and in which you have been collected and compacted, as into one and the same mystical body of Christ. For the Apostle feared lest the Hebrews, through fear and the persecution of the Jews, should fall away from the Church to the Synagogue and Judaism: hence to confirm them in the faith and Church of Christ he repeatedly exhorts them to constancy, and this, as I said at the beginning of the Epistle, is the end and aim of the whole Epistle. Hence he also adds: "For if we sin willingly" (apostatize) "after having received the knowledge of the truth, there is now no longer left a sacrifice for sin."
Secondly, by this aggregation and assembly the Apostle understands the gatherings of the Church and the meetings of the faithful for the sacred synaxis, and for the word of God and public prayers: these meetings therefore the Apostle wishes to be diligently frequented by Christians, both that they may publicly profess their faith, worship God, and render Him public praises and thanksgivings; and that they may stir up and provoke one another to charity and good works, and especially to constancy in the faith, with persecution at hand. For those public and mutual gatherings wonderfully foster faith and charity, which in withdrawal and prolonged separation languish. For so St. Ignatius, in his epistles a follower and disciple of St. Paul, a little after Paul's times, exhorts the Ephesians and Smyrnaeans to frequent these Ecclesiastical assemblies, and gives the reason: "Because," he says, "they will confirm you"; and he threatens that if they withdraw themselves from them, they will fall away from faith and charity. So also explain St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Œcumenius. This sense is connected with and subordinate to the prior: for those who neglect and forsake the assemblies of the Church easily, when persecution presses, also forsake and deny the Church itself and the faith of Christ.
Wrongly therefore do innovators twist this passage against the eremitic life. For the Apostle speaks of those who neglect or forsake the Church, either through fear or through sloth; he does not speak of those who flee the throng of the world and worldly conversation through zeal for piety, purity, and contemplation. Add that hermits of every age have been wont on Sundays and feast days to come together for the sacred synaxes, prayers, and spiritual gatherings in the Church, and the things they had heard there, returning to the desert, to meditate and practice through the week.
As the manner of some is. — The Apostle hints that some, lukewarm and more sluggish, had fallen away from the faith and Church of Christ through fear of the Jews, as Theodoret notes; and therefore, fearing the same apostasy for the rest, he encourages and strengthens them through the whole epistle to constancy.
But consoling one another. — In Greek "parakalountes," that is consoling, or also exhorting, namely individually, not only themselves but others, that one may comfort, exhort, and urge another in persecution both to constancy in the faith and Church of Christ, and to frequenting Ecclesiastical meetings and gatherings of the faithful: by which we are nourished and fortified in the faith and Church of Christ; for at that time, as persecution raged or was calmed, meetings and synaxes were held here and there. The Apostle therefore wishes that each indicate and remind his neighbor of the hour and place of the meeting, and exhort and rouse him to it. This is what the thread of Paul's discourse demands, and is gathered from St. Ignatius and Chrysostom already cited. That the Martyrs did this in the first three hundred years of the Church is clear everywhere from their Acts. The Apostle wishes that one rouse another to this, by proposing both other things and chiefly the hope of glory and eternal reward soon to be obtained. For this is what he adds:
And so much the more as you see the day approaching. — In Greek "tēn hēmeran," that is, that day, namely of the judgment and destruction both of the world and of the city of Jerusalem under Titus and Vespasian: which by antonomasia is called "the day," in which extreme vengeance awaits your enemies the Jews, but for you a full reward and retribution of all labors and afflictions. For from the harshness of the persecutions, wars, tumults, and especially from the abomination of desolation, which you will shortly see, and other signs predicted by Christ, Matt. xxiv, you can see the end, O Hebrews, gradually approaching, nay rather standing at hand, this day of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. Come then, endure a little in persecution, since your redemption draws near.
Note: Paul alludes to the words of Christ, Matt. chap. xxiv, v. 33, and Luke xxi, 28: and therefore, just as Christ, he speaks confusedly and mixedly of the day of judgment and the destruction both of the world and of the city, because the Apostles, and after them other Christians, thought that at the same time the destruction of the city and of the world would occur. For they thought that Jerusalem with the temple would be destroyed at the glorious coming of Christ and His reign, which will be at the end of the world and the destruction of the world. They seemed to gather this for themselves from the words of Christ, Matt. xxii, 7 and 8, and Matt. chap. xxiii, vv. last and second-to-last, but not correctly, as I said there. Yet Christ and Paul, in order to keep them in fear and hope, leave them in this error.
Verse 26: For If We Sin Willfully After Having Received the Knowledge of the Truth, There Is Now Left No Sacrifice for Sins
Galenus, from Clement of Alexandria, book II of the Stromata, thinks that the Apostle is speaking of any sin which is committed willingly and from sure knowledge, and asserts that every such sin is hardly remitted. But from the circumstances it is clear that the Apostle is only speaking of the sin of apostasy: for here he gives the reason why he said in the preceding verse that our assembly is not to be forsaken, namely, because if we do this, no sacrifice that expiates this sin will be left to us: therefore by "those who sin willingly" he understands those who forsake the assembly, that is, the gatherings of the Church, and the Church itself. Hence for "sinning," the Greek is "hamartanontōn," which with Ribera can be rendered "falling away" or "defecting," namely from the Church and faith which they had voluntarily embraced. For the Hebrews sometimes call sin "ascam," that is, a leaving off or defection.
Secondly, this is clear from what he says: "sinning after having received the knowledge of truth," as if to say: They sin because they forsake the faith they have acknowledged. For as in the Old Testament apostasy to idols, so in the New Testament apostasy from the faith to Judaism or infidelity by antonomasia is and is called sin.
Thirdly, this is clear from v. 29, where he says that these sinners trample upon the Son of God, and esteem the blood of the testament unclean, and offer insult to the Spirit of grace; namely, because they deny the redemption of Christ and Christ Himself, and so are ungrateful and insulting both to Christ and to the Holy Spirit.
Fourthly, because in v. 32 and following he exhorts them to constancy in the faith and Christian Church. The sense of the Apostle therefore is, as if to say: "To those sinning willfully," namely with the sin of apostasy, or willingly defecting from Christ and our assembly, that is the Church, "there is not left," that is, with difficulty and scarcely is there left, "a sacrifice for sin," by which they may expiate that sin, both because such apostates are plainly unworthy of pardon, and because by their certain malice and infidelity they shut up the fountains of divine mercy.
Add that, properly and strictly, to Hebrews apostatizing from Christ to Judaism no sacrifice or hope of pardon was left: because for such, while remaining in such a state, neither Christ, whom they deny, nor another Messiah to come, since there is none, nor the sacrifices of the Law, since these are weak and now abolished, could be of any help. For such Hebrews therefore (of which kind the Apostle speaks here) no sacrifice, no pardon, but only the terrible vengeance of God awaits.
Note: Chrysostom, Ambrose, Anselm, and Theophylact, by "sacrifice for sin" understand baptism; because baptism is the figure of the death of Christ, who was a sacrifice for sin, as if to say: Those sinning willfully after baptism can no longer be expiated by any baptism. But this is too harsh and forced, and is beside the mind of the Apostle. For the Apostle says that to such sinners no sacrifice is left, but only a terrible vengeance of God. Now if by "sacrifice" he had understood baptism, someone could except by saying that to such sinners baptism is not indeed left, yet not for that are they reserved to the judgment and vengeance of God, because some intermediate thing is left to them, namely the Sacrament of penance, which is as it were a second plank after shipwreck.
Hence it is clear that Novatus wrongly abused this place, when he taught that penance and pardon were to be denied to the lapsed; especially since he himself was not so much denying penance before God, and that the lapsed, if they repented, could be reconciled to God, as contending that they were not to be admitted by the Church, even if they repented, to communion and the common fellowship of the Church.
Verse 27: But a Certain Fearful Expectation of Judgment (Repeat, "Is Left to Those Sinning Willfully" and Apostatizing), and the Fierceness of Fire, Which Shall Consume the Adversaries
In Greek it is "pyros zēlos," that is, the zeal and emulation of fire.
Where note the prosopopoeia: for as if the fire both of the conflagration of the world and of hell were animate, and were as it were a beast, say a lioness irritated and provoked, raging for its own vengeance, so Paul attributes to it sense and zeal for avenging the sins committed against the common God. By "the zeal of fire" therefore he means the vehemence and impulse of the fire to take vengeance, by which this fire, as if kindled by a kind of natural zeal for the glory of God, will most fiercely avenge and punish the sins and injuries committed against God, its Lord and Creator. So Chrysostom and Theophylact. By a similar prosopopoeia the Wise Man, Wisd. v, 21: "The whole world," he says, "shall fight with Him against the unwise. The shafts of lightning shall go directly, and as from a well-bent bow of the clouds they shall be shot off" (that is, sent forth and cast out, namely these missiles of lightning against the impious), "and shall fly to the mark, and from a wrathful storm of stones" (in Greek "ek petrobolou orgēs," that is, from a stone-throwing or stone-hurling wrath) "full hails shall be cast" (that is, shall be hurled. He alludes to the ancient catapult, by which stones were wont to be cast either against walls or against enemies): "the water of the sea shall rage against them" (see here the zeal of the sea), "and the rivers shall run together harshly: against them shall stand the spirit of power" (a most violent wind), "and as a whirlwind of wind shall divide" ("ekrhipisei," that is, shall winnow) "them: and the iniquity of them shall lead all the earth to a desert" ("erēmōsei," that is, shall desolate, shall make desolate).
Where note that the things which the Wise Man here threatens to the impious will befall them, first, a little before the universal judgment: for then all creatures will afflict the impious followers and forerunners of Antichrist, as is plain throughout chap. viii and xvi of the Apocalypse, and chap. ix, 4.
Secondly, immediately after the judgment. For of this time the Wise Man properly speaks in vv. 16 and 17, which immediately precede, and in v. 1. The Wise Man therefore seems to say here that, the sentence of damnation having been given and pronounced by Christ upon the reprobate, soon all the elements will rise up for their vengeance, as it were lictors and ministers of Christ their Lord and Creator, namely heaven, fire, and air, hurling against them fire, lightnings, winds, hails, the sea, boiling up and overflowing, that with the earth it may absorb and overwhelm them; the earth, gaping under their feet, that it may swallow up their bodies and souls and cast them down into hell. See how great is the zeal here of fire and of all creatures fighting for God their Creator and Lord, and avenging His offenses and injuries.
Verse 28: A Man Making Void ("athetēsas," That Is, When One Has Despised, Violated, and, as the Syriac, "daaber," That Is, Who Has Transgressed) the Law of Moses, Without Any Mercy Dies Upon the Word of Two or Three Witnesses (Convicted)
He proves by an argument from the lesser to the greater, namely from the penalty of death proposed to those who had repudiated and transgressed one precept of Moses, that those who have cast away the whole law of Christ and apostatized from it are to be most grievously punished.
Verse 29: How Much More, Do You Think, He Deserves Worse Punishments, Who Has Trodden Underfoot the Son of God, and Has Esteemed the Blood of the Testament Unclean, by Which He Was Sanctified
Ambrose and Theophylact think these things are said of those who unworthily receive the Sacraments.
Secondly, Galenus and others think these things are said of any mortal sin which the faithful commit: for by this implicitly and interpretatively they despise and as it were trample upon the grace, redemption, death, and blood of Christ. But, as I proved at v. 26, the Apostle properly speaks of those who apostatize from Christ and from the faith of Christ and the assembly, that is the Church. For these properly trample upon and esteem unclean Christ the Son of God, and His blood, by which the new covenant and testament between God and men concerning the eternal inheritance to be given them was sanctioned, and by which in baptism they were washed and sanctified, while they despise, deny, and cast it away as if it were a useless thing, profane, and of no moment, indeed false and feigned: and by this very thing they offer insult to the Spirit of grace, that is, to the Holy Spirit, who is the author of the grace received in Christ's baptism, which made them pleasing to God, holy, friends and sons of God.
Note: For "polluted" the Greek is "koinon," that is common. Now "common" in the Hebrew phrase is the same as unclean and polluted. For such were those things which were common to the Gentiles, or which uncircumcised and unclean Gentiles commonly used, as I said on Rom. xiv, 14. So Chrysostom.
Secondly, however, "common" here can properly be taken, as if to say: Such apostates esteem the blood of Christ as common blood, which does not differ from the blood of goats, bulls, or of other men. Hence the Syriac translates, "and shall have esteemed the blood of the testament 'ach deculnas,' that is, as that of any other," namely of a man.
Verse 30: For We Know Him That Said: Vengeance Is Mine, and I Will Repay
As if to say: That you may know that such apostates are to be most grievously punished, know and consider that God is terrible; namely, who said in Deut. xxxii: "Vengeance is mine," that is, belongs to Me. See what was said on Rom. chap. xii, v. 19.
For He will judge. — Beza translates, "He will govern"; but wrongly: for here the matter is of vengeance, not of government. "He will judge," therefore, that is, He will punish and chastise: so also elsewhere it is often taken by metonymy.
Verse 31: It Is a Fearful Thing to Fall into the Hands of the Living God
There is an emphasis in the epithet "living," as if to say: Our God is not a stone, not an idol, as are the gods of the Gentiles, who have eyes, ears, and hands, but of stone, by which they perceive nothing: for our God is living, and consequently is touched, and feels apostasy from Him, and the injuries of apostates against Him, and is angered by them, and avenges and crushes them.
Secondly, God is living, because being immortal and eternal, He lives and flourishes forever, so that you can never escape His eyes, memory, or hands. So Theophylact.
Verse 32: Call to Mind the Former Days, Wherein, Being Illuminated, You Endured a Great Fight of Afflictions
Thus far the Apostle has stirred up the Hebrews to constancy in the faith by the terror of judgment and gehenna; now as it were a wise orator, as Theophylact notes, he tempers this terror; and that he may more sweetly flow into their minds and persuade, he urges them with another argument, drawn from the praises of the Hebrews and from their first constancy in the faith, as if to say: Thus far you have stood firm in persecution; continue, imitate not others but yourselves, look upon your first constancy: you have run well, you have reached the middle of the stadium, a little of the contest remains; the palm is before your eyes, it is almost in your hands, do not by apostatizing cast it away or squander it. For this would be not only shameful, but also foolish and senseless.
Illuminated, — that is, baptized: for the effect of baptism is to illuminate the mind by the faith, knowledge, and grace of Christ. Hence St. Dionysius and the Greek fathers call baptism "phōtismon," that is, illumination. See what was said on chap. vi, v. 4. As if Paul were saying: At the beginning of your baptism and conversion, O Hebrew Christians, you bore generously from the Jews vexations, mockings, despoilings, and exiles: as recruits you accomplished so much, what therefore befits you now as men and soldiers, exercised so many years in the warfare of Christ, to do and accomplish?
Verse 33: And on the One Hand Indeed, by Reproaches and Tribulations, Being Made a Spectacle
"On the one hand," that is, in the one part, that is, partly. The Greek "touto" corresponds to the Hebrew "ze," which is often put for "baze," that is, in this, that is, in this part.
Secondly, "to touto" could be referred to "pathēmatōn" which preceded, so as to understand "to kata," as if to say: "kata touto pathēmatōn," that is, according to this passion, that is, according to this kind of passion, now you have endured reproaches; according to another kind of passion, you have suffered with others suffering such things.
Made a spectacle. — That is, publicly defamed, and as defendants to be punished led through the theater, publicly mocked by all as in a theater: for this is what the Greek "theatrizomenoi" means. For it is the same as "en theatrois deiknymenoi," that is, you have been made a theater, or spectacle, as defendants condemned to lions, beasts, fires, and other punishments are watched in a public theater. For in this sense in 1 Cor. iv, 9, the Apostle says we are made a spectacle, in Greek "theatron," that is, a theater.
And on the other (that is, partly) being made companions of those who lived in such manner (suffering such reproaches and tribulations), — as if to say: You, O Hebrew Christians, have suffered many things from the Jews for the faith of Christ, and at the same time as it were companions you have favored in spirit and have suffered with them, and in deed, by counsel and work you have helped other Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, who for the same faith of Christ, whether in Palestine or outside it, both from Gentiles and from Jews, have suffered reproaches, tribulations, and bonds: and so in them you have suffered, because by your compassion you have made their hardships and sufferings your own, and so you felt them, as if they had touched you yourselves. Come then, continue and persist in this your patience, fortitude, and constancy.
Verse 34: For You Also Had Compassion on Those Who Were in Bonds, and You Took with Joy the Plunder of Your Goods
Ours with the Syriac reads "desmiois," that is, to those in bonds. Now they read "desmois mou," that is, to my bonds, in which I Paul was bound at Rome by Nero, you had compassion. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Œcumenius. This compassion was not merely verbal or mental, but real. For thus merciful rich men have compassion on the poor, when by giving alms they relieve their misery.
Wonderful was the charity and beneficence of Christians toward the martyrs bound for Christ's cause, as is plain not only from Tertullian and Cyprian, but also from Lucian himself in his Peregrinus, where he narrates that this Peregrinus, although he was an infidel and a hypocrite, for this reason feigned himself a Christian and offered himself to prison for the faith of Christ, that he might enjoy the so generous alms of the faithful.
Thus Clement, book V of the Apostolic Constitutions, chap. 1, commands that the faithful should aid the martyrs and those bound for Christ with their wealth. "But if," he says, "anyone does not have it, let him fast, and apportion the food of that day for the saints. But if he can, having sold all his goods, snatch them out of custody, he will be blessed and a friend of Christ." And shortly: "But if these" (those bound for Christ) "are such that Christ bears testimony to them before the Father, you ought not to be ashamed to go to their prisons: for if you do this, it shall be reckoned to you in place of martyrdom; because they indeed underwent martyrdom in fact by experience, but you otherwise, namely by ready will, as having been made companions of their contest. For to such the Lord says: Come, blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you, etc. For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was in prison, and you came to Me."
And you took with joy the plunder of your goods. — Namely, when your goods were assigned to the treasury by the public edict of the Jewish magistrate, because you were Christians.
Thus two Vandals under Genseric the Arian king, often as confessors, accompanied by their mother, despising all riches, set out with the Clergy to exile, to which Huneric was sending them.
Thus the deacon Muritta and five hundred Clergy of the Carthaginian Church, despoiled of their goods by Huneric and thrust into exile, when, at the suggestion of the Arian Bishops, the leaders or torturers took from them what the Christians had bestowed for their food, each of them eagerly sang: "Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, naked must I go to exile: for the Lord knows how to give food to the hungry, and to clothe in the desert." So Victor Vitensis, book III on the Vandals.
There he also mentions others, who, despoiled of their goods and driven into exile, sang with joy: "This is glory to all His saints." So one goes to the stars. Let us hasten to the crowns prepared for us by God in heaven.
Among others memorable was Saturus, to whom, when Huneric, after many promises, threatened that, unless he became an Arian, he would tear apart his house, substance, sons, and household, and would hand his wife in marriage to a camel-driver in his very presence; and when his wife, hearing these things, with garments rent and hair loosed, with her sons and the infant daughter she was nursing, fell at her husband's knees, and said: "Have mercy on me and on yourself, have mercy on our common children, sweetest spouse. Let not those whom the lineage of our family has rendered noble be subjected to servile condition. Let me not be subjected to a camel-driver, I who among my contemporaries always boasted of my Saturus." Saturus answered as another Job: "You speak as one of the foolish women. I would fear, woman, if the bitter sweetness of this life were the only thing. If you loved your husband, you would never draw your own husband to a second death. Let them tear apart the children, separate the wife, take away the substance, I, secure of my Lord's promises, will hold to the words: If anyone shall not have left wife, children, fields, or house, he cannot be My disciple." What more? With the woman departing with the children rejected, Saturus is strengthened toward the crown, is shaken, despoiled, ground down with punishments, dismissed a beggar. Though they took everything from him, the access by which he had come, they nevertheless could not take away the robe of baptism, says Victor, book 1 on the Vandals.
These were the crowns of the ancients; hear now the equals of our own age: in the year 1613, in Japan a grave wrath and persecution of the king and princes burned against the Christians. Very many Christians, even from the highest nobility, were stripped of all their goods and driven into exile. So far were they from shrinking from this penalty, that exulting they yielded their goods, nay even of their own accord brought their names to the Governor and professed themselves to be Christians. The king, although indignant against them on account of the faith of Christ, nevertheless praised and admired their constancy: indeed, looking sternly upon a certain captain who, fearing for his goods, had yielded to the king and renounced the faith, and rebuking his base and abject spirit, he stripped him of his office and military belt, and deprived him of his goods. The Christians, in order to arm themselves more, instituted a Society of Martyrs, to which soon three thousand persons joined themselves. Its first law is: "If goods be taken away for the faith of Christ, let this spoiling be borne with a brave and willing spirit." The second: "With equal constancy and spirit accept exile and death for Christianity." Wherefore many of them performed in deed what they had professed in word. The petty king of Arima had erected a tribunal for the slaughter of Christians and appointed a day: presently up to twenty thousand Christians of their own accord presented themselves at Arima to profess themselves Christians and either to witness martyrdom or to undergo it. The tyrant, terrified, gave way and satisfied his fury with the death of a few. Of these he ordered eight to be burned alive, among whom were a father and mother with their son and Elias. The daughter, by name Magdalena, a virgin of twenty years, exulting in the midst of the flames, placed burning coals upon her head (which among the Japanese is a sign of great reverence) so that she might crown herself with those embers as with crimson roses or with glowing carbuncles; her brother Jacob, twelve years old, his bonds loosed by the fire, hastily trampling the embers he had conquered, ran to his mother who was likewise burning with congratulations, and three times calling out the most holy names of Jesus and Mary in a louder voice, heaping up the joys of his blessed mother, fell extinct beside her.
Hear now the English examples, which I have received partly from Diego de Yepes, Bishop of Tarragona, book II of the History of the English Persecution, partly from men worthy of trust as eyewitnesses.
Two of the three parts of the goods of a noble widow, because she would not frequent the temples of the heretics, the heretics adjudged to the treasury: and when she, helped by friends, leased back from the treasury her own house and fields two and three times and was little by little growing rich, she was again two and three times stripped of two parts of her goods, which she bore with marvellous joy and gladness.
Another man had deposited with a Catholic friend a great sum of money, which alone remained for sustaining life, which the officers (whom the English call Pursuivants) discovered and carried off. He, being made aware of the robbery, with hands lifted to heaven gave great thanks to God that from that hour He had taken him into His own patronage, care, and providence, and he only grieved that the amount of money lost had not been greater.
Another foremost woman, the wife of William Lacey, afterwards a glorious martyr, who joyfully had lost all his goods and his chief offices because he would not go to the temples of the heretics, after the plundering of his goods led a most poor and needy life, with such great joy that she affirmed she could not give worthy thanks to God for so great a benefit, because together with her goods He had taken from her superfluous cares, anxieties and worldly obligations, and by this means had granted her free time for procuring the eternal salvation of her soul; and although on account of continual persecutions she was often forced to change dwellings and lands, yet she enjoyed such great joy and consolation that she earnestly besought God not to recompense her slight afflictions in this life, but rather to deign to send some pain or bodily infirmity to temper her great spiritual joy and to purge her sins while she lived, which was divinely granted to her: for six or seven years before her death she was exercised with continual and most grievous pains and infirmities, which she bore with the greatest equanimity and alacrity of spirit.
Sir Francis Tregian, of an ancient and most noble family, because he had received in his hospitality the Reverend Cuthbert Mayne, priest of the seminary of Douai and protomartyr of all the seminarists, was stripped of a most ample patrimony, and lived twenty-five years a captive. They report that, when sentence of forfeiture of goods and perpetual imprisonment was about to be delivered against him, he appeared clothed in white linen, and after the sentence had been pronounced said: "Let the goods perish, which, if they had not perished, perhaps would have destroyed their lord."
The most excellent Earl of Arundel, Philip Howard, son and heir of the Duke of Norfolk, while preparing to flee to France for the sake of the Catholic religion, was captured, cast into the Tower of London, and at last brought to trial and condemned: after about twelve years of captivity, he died in chains a glorious confessor, indeed a martyr. This man, the highest Earl in England and of a most noble family, it is wonderful to say how much he lost, and with what equanimity of soul he bore the surges of step-motherly fortune; for captive in prison he was to all Catholics not only an example but also a singular consolation; no one ever heard him complain of the plundering of his goods, no one heard him grieve over the inconveniences of prison or the denied liberty; nay, he was wont now by words to encourage, now by the wondrous courtesy in which he excelled, to console others who were complaining and grieving. To him nothing was savoury except God and the contemplation of heavenly things; the moneys which the Queen granted him for his maintenance (for in the Tower more or less is assigned to captives according to the degree of their dignity), content himself with thin and sparing food, he distributed among the poor; many other things the most illustrious Earl said, did, and endured, which equal or surpass the deeds of the ancient heroes of the primitive Church, and are most worthy to be consecrated to eternity. These few out of many.
Take courage, O Orthodox English, emulators of the first Christians and Martyrs. This is your felicity, that in this age stormy with persecutions, born in England, you almost alone hope for, alone seek martyrdom, whether it be given briefly or long and slow through continual robberies and vexations. So continue constant. This is the glory of the English Church, which no age, no centuries will obliterate. Therefore receive the plundering of your goods with joy. Behold, the angels display to you from the ether heavenly riches and immense wealth. Endure bravely for a little while the prisons, scourgings, reproaches, gibbets, fires, crosses for Christ crucified out of love for you. Behold, eternal laurels, behold, divine crowns from heaven Christ, your love and ours, displays and adorns for you. The pseudo-bishops envy you the glorious martyrdom of blood: but they display it the more gloriously in your fortunes, the more harshly and slowly. Be certain that in this plundering a noble laurel of martyrdom is given to you. For this plundering snatches away not just any life, but a noble life worthy of your rank, not from you alone but from your whole family and posterity, and so this is not a single and simple, nor of one person, but a manifold martyrdom of many.
Knowing that you have a better and enduring substance. — For "you," the Greek has "heautous," that is, for yourselves; but it seems should be corrected to "heautous," that is, you, as some copies have, and so our Interpreter reads; and the sense itself demands it. Again, to "substance," the Greek adds "en ouranois," that is, in heaven. For it is certain that the Apostle is speaking of heavenly substance and riches, as if to say: When you were being despoiled of your goods for the faith of Christ, you rejoiced, because you considered that, although on earth you were being reduced to poverty, yet by this you were made rich in heaven with God, who will give back the goods snatched from you with interest a hundredfold.
It is a metonymy in which the act is put for its object, namely confidence for the riches which one trusts he will obtain, as if to say: You have great hopes, great riches laid up with God in heaven: do not throw them away and squander them through faintheartedness, impatience and apostasy; but persevere in your faith, hope and patience. Thus it will come to pass that you will receive a great reward and great prizes for these riches and these merits.
Verse 36: For You Have Need of Patience, That, Doing the Will of God, You May Receive the Promise
For "patience" the Greek has "hypomonē," that is, endurance, long-suffering and patient expectation of deliverance and reward, by which we hold out in persecutions, hardships and adversities, and longanimously await a better lot. Hence he adds: Yet for a little while endure, for He that is to come will come, and will not delay, to deliver you from this persecution. This endurance is necessary for this: that the confidence already spoken of be retained; for whoever loses this endurance also loses confidence, and consequently the promises and the better substance which he was confident he would obtain in heaven — as Paul (as Chrysostom explains) says: "One thing only is lacking to you, O Hebrews, namely that you persevere and await the things to come, not that you contend again: you have already been brought close to the very crown itself: you have endured all the contests, chains, tribulations; your substance has been plundered. What therefore remains? Stand that you may be crowned: do this one thing only, that you await the coming of the crown." In like manner St. James in chap. v, ver. 7 exhorts the faithful to patience, that is, to the patient expectation of deliverance and reward: "Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, patiently bearing it until he receives the early and the latter rain: be you also patient, and strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand." Where for "patiently bearing" the Greek is "makrothymōn," that is, longanimously waiting; and for "be patient," the Greek is "makrothymēsate," that is, longanimously wait and endure, namely the coming of the Lord, who will shortly be present as judge to crown you, the godly and just, but to condemn your persecutors, the impious and unjust. Hence again St. Chrysostom, homily 35 on the first epistle to the Corinthians: "The patient man, he says, is called long-suffering, because he has a long and great soul." And Gregory, homily 35 on the Gospels: "Patience, he says, is martyrdom in hidden thought." Wherefore St. Jerome, in the Epitaph of Paula to Eustochium: "Your mother, he says, has been crowned with a long martyrdom. For not only is the shedding of blood in confession reckoned, but also the unspotted servitude of a devout mind is a daily martyrdom." To this pertains that saying of St. Bernard in the Octave of Easter, sermon 1: "There is, he says, a kind of martyrdom, a certain shedding of blood in the daily affliction of the body. There is also a kind of baptism in compunction of heart and assiduity of tears. For so for the weak and small of heart it is necessary, that those who are not sufficient to lay it down once for Christ, may at least pour out their blood by a milder, but more long-lasting martyrdom."
The Gentiles likewise taught that patience is necessary for man. Bion used to say, "it is a great evil to be unable to bear evil: for without this, life can be sweet to no one." Witness Laertius, book IV, chap. VII.
Antisthenes used to say, "that virtue suffices for itself for happiness, and needs nothing but Socratic strength."
Socrates, moreover, had hardened himself to patience in all things. Witness Laertius, book VI, chap. I.
When Agesilaus was burning with the pains of gout, and Carneades had visited him and gone out sad: "Stay, he says, Carneades, for nothing from there" (pointing to his gouty feet) "reaches here" (pointing to his breast): meaning that his feet indeed were pained, but his mind was free from pain. Witness Plutarch in his Laconian Sayings.
When someone asked Zeno how he was affected by insults: "Just, he said, as if a legate were dismissed without an answer." What then should the Christian do, to whom such great rewards and crowns of patience are displayed from heaven?
Tertullian notes, in his book On Patience, chap. XV, that patience is so necessary to the Christian that it ought to intervene and be intermingled in all the acts of man and the commandments of God. "Patience, he says, fortifies faith, governs peace, helps love, instructs humility, awaits penance, assigns confession, rules the flesh, preserves the spirit, bridles the tongue, restrains the hand, inculcates against temptations, drives away scandals, consummates martyrdoms; consoles the poor, tempers the rich; does not stretch the weak, does not consume the strong; delights the faithful, invites the Gentile; commends the servant to his master, the master to God; adorns the woman, approves the man; is loved in the boy, praised in the youth, looked up to in the old; in every sex, in every age she is fair." Then he depicts the image and bearing of patience thus: "Her countenance, he says, is tranquil and placid, her brow pure, contracted by no wrinkle of grief or anger: her eyebrows equally relaxed in a cheerful manner: her eyes cast down by humility, not by misfortune: her mouth marked with the honour of taciturnity: her colour such as belongs to the carefree and innocent: a frequent shaking of the head against the devil, and a threatening laugh: her clothing white about the breast and impressed upon her body, as one who is neither puffed up nor disturbed. For she sits on the throne of that gentlest Spirit, who is not gathered in a whirlwind, nor lowers in a cloud, but is of earthly serenity, open and simple, whom Elias saw the third time. Let wickedness then be wearied by your patience: for if I lie upon patience, I shall not grieve; if I shall not grieve, I shall not desire to take vengeance."
That, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise. — For "doing" the Greek has "poiēsantes," that is, that, when you have done and fulfilled to the end the will of God, which is that you persevere and grow in Christian faith, patience and charity, then you may receive the substance and riches in heaven promised to you.
Verse 37: For Yet a Little While, and He That Is to Come Will Come and Will Not Delay
In Greek "mikron hoson hoson," that is, a little so much so much, that is, a tiny bit, very little, modicum and a little. For the Hebrews by gemination signify the superlative, as when they say "figs good good very much" they mean the best figs: so "little little" means least; "so much so much" means a tiny bit.
Note: Paul cites Habakkuk the prophet, who, when in chap. I he had grievously complained that the impious Chaldeans were ruling over the pious Jews, and that God seemed to neglect them and human affairs, God answers him in chap. II that Cyrus is to come, who would deliver the Jews from Babylon, and allegorically that Christ would come, who would judge the impious, and console the pious afflicted by them. Christ began to do this in His first coming into the flesh and the world: for then He consoled the poor, humble and mourning in Sion, as Isaiah says in chap. LXI; but the proud and unbelieving Pharisees and Jews He repelled from His faith, grace and Church. But Christ will do this same thing perfectly in His second coming to judgment, when He will overthrow the kingdom of sin, and consign the impious to gehenna, the pious to heaven, as if to say: Christ will shortly come to deliver us, in part from sin and the demon at His first coming into the world, fully from every evil and misery at His second coming to judgment, when He will come as judge, to condemn tyrants and the impious, and to reward and crown the patient, pious and faithful.
Habakkuk therefore in chap. II speaks of both comings of Christ, but more of the second, and Paul here explains him concerning that one, in order that by these words and promises he may rouse the Hebrews to hope, patience, constancy and fortitude in enduring persecutions for the faith of Christ.
Note: Paul cites not so much the words as the sense of Habakkuk. For Habakkuk does not have these words: "Yet a little, a little while"; but: "Wait for him, because he that is coming will come, and he will not delay," that is, after a little time, briefly and quickly he will come.
You will say: How then a little before does Habakkuk say that this vision is afar off, that is, far removed and to come after many times? I answer: It was remote in itself in the time of Habakkuk, especially insofar as it regarded the Messiah, or Christ, and His times; but insofar as it is compared with God and the eternity of God, in which the Prophet was seeing these things, to that extent it was near, and to come after a little time. For "a thousand years before Your eyes are as yesterday which is past," Psalm LXXXIX, verse 4. And thus all present life, pleasure as well as affliction, is a moment, if it be compared with eternity. "Momentary, says the Apostle, and light of our tribulation works for us an eternal weight of glory." Would that we might see through and discern this brief moment!
Who is to come. — That is, Christ: for the name of Christ is "ho erchomenos," that is, the One coming, as is plain in Matt. XI, 3; Apoc. I, 4.
And He will not delay. — That is, He will indeed come at the time set and promised by Him, to free and save His own afflicted godly ones, and you above all, O Hebrews. For he is said to delay not who comes beyond the desire and wish of those waiting, but he who postpones his coming beyond the appointed time and his own pact.
Verse 38: Now My Just Man Lives by Faith
As if to say: In the meantime, until Christ the Liberator comes, the just man by faith in God and Christ will sustain himself in the midst of evils, so as not to throw away hope and confidence, but in his own justice and patience, as he began, so will he continue to live, grow and progress through faith.
Note: Habakkuk, as I said, speaks literally of the faith by which the Jews believed and hoped that God, according to His promises, would send Cyrus to free them from Babylon; but allegorically, as Paul here explains, he speaks of faith in Christ the Redeemer: for by this faith properly the just man lives. See the things said on Rom. I, 17.
Note secondly: Both Habakkuk and Paul speak not only of the beginning of the just and holy life, or of the first justification, but also of its growth and progress; for by the same things by which a thing is first produced, it is conserved and grows. Just as therefore we say that we live by breath, by the soul, by natural heat — that is, we begin, conserve and continue life — so it is here said: "The just man lives by faith," as if to say: He who first receives the faith and begins to believe in God and Christ, by this very thing inchoates the way to justice and to friendship with God. In like manner, he who is already justified, and who retains the faith of Christ, and looks with firm faith and hope to the goods and riches which Christ has promised His faithful in heaven: he will remain in the grace, friendship and justice received, and for it will bravely bear persecutions, and so will obtain the riches and rewards promised by Christ in heaven; but those who have begun to be unbelieving or to distrust Christ, these will sin, and will lose the life of grace, justice and friendship, and consequently of the inheritance and glory of God. Therefore the just man, though he be in captivity and persecution (as were the Jews in the time of Cyrus, and the Hebrews in the time of Christ), though he be tossed about on every side, will yet inwardly in his soul live silent, quiet and joyful in his faith and hope, by which, leaning on his most faithful Lord, friend and father, he certainly believes and hopes that He has him in His care, that he is governed, protected, strengthened by Him, and at last will receive the eternal crown of his faith and constancy in heaven; but he who is incredulous and distrusts, because timid and faint-hearted, and therefore impiously falls away from God and Christ in temptation and persecution, and consequently is unjust, of this man "the soul, as Habakkuk says, will not be upright in himself," but distorted, troubled, agitated between hope and fear, between so many human counsels and supports, to which he continually looks, and consequently will not please God, as the Septuagint translates and Paul following them. Therefore this saying, "The just lives by faith," is general and true, both in Jews and in Christians, both in sinners who are first justified and in just men who remain and progress in justice: for all these live by faith, that is, they begin, conserve and promote by faith the life of the soul, by which the soul lives through grace and justice.
But if he shall withdraw himself (namely through unbelief, distrust, fainthearted spirit, that is, if he shall be unbelieving, as the Hebrew and our Interpreter have, Habakkuk II), he shall not please My soul. — The Hebrew and our Interpreter, Habakkuk II: "His soul shall not be upright within him." For a soul which is not upright does not please God, as if to say: If anyone, overcome by weariness or broken in spirit in persecution or any other adversity, breaks off patience, withdraws his neck and shoulders from the burden; if pressed by evils and overcome by delay, despairs in spirit, falls away from the faith, and casts off faith, hope, justice: this man shall not please My soul. God speaks in a human manner, as Galen notes, as if to say: I will not embrace the apostate, nor kiss him with My good pleasure; as I am wont to embrace those who are joined to Me in friendly and faithful intimacy. For God, as it were with arms thrown out, leans from His neck toward men acting bravely for Christ; but where they cease to be grateful, and with contention slackened are reported to relax their labour, He Himself also omits the embrace: and thus deserted, by their inconstancy, obstinacy, and all evils and hardships he collapses. Again, such an apostate shall not please, that is, will displease (for it is meiosis) My soul, and shall incur My wrath and indignation.
Verse 39: But We Are Not the Children of Withdrawal Unto Perdition, but of Faith Unto the Gaining of the Soul
"Children of withdrawal," that is, of unbelief, and, as Anselm says, of apostasy. For this Paul here, following the Septuagint of Habakkuk II, calls "withdrawal." For he opposes it to "faith," saying: "We are not children of withdrawal, but of faith," as if to say: We are not men withdrawing ourselves, who namely withdraw and fall away from the faith and obedience of Christ through unfaithfulness. Hence Erasmus translates: we are not withdrawers and shirkers of obedience. For the Apostle opposes "hypostolēn," that is, withdrawal, to "tē hypomonē," that is, to endurance and perseverance in the yoke and obedience of Christ. "Children" therefore "of withdrawal" are the sons of Belial, that is, without a yoke, who withdraw and remove themselves from the yoke of faith and obedience.
Unto perdition. — As if to say: If we withdraw ourselves from the faith of Christ, we go into perdition and gehenna.
But of faith. — Supply: we are children, that is, we are faithful, believing and hoping in Christ.
Unto the gaining of the soul. — Namely, that by this faith we may free the soul from perdition and death, both present and spiritual death of sin, and eternal death in hell; lest there should be made an acquisition, that is, a possession of the demons; but that we may gain and acquire it both for Christ and for ourselves, that namely our soul may become the possession and peculiar property of Christ, and that we ourselves may possess our soul in this life inchoately through patience, but in the life to come most fully and most happily through glory in eternal beatitude. So Anselm.