Chapter 3

Theophylact of Ohrid, Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews — Chapter Three

¹ Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling. “Wherefore,” that is, since I said that he is such a High Priest—faithful, and making propitiation for our sins, and able to help—consider, and you will find this altogether to be so. And “partakers,” he says, “of a heavenly calling”; that is, we have been called yonder; let us seek nothing here; yonder is the reward, yonder the recompense.

² Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus Christ. On account of the flesh, all [these] lowly [titles], as has often been said. He is “Apostle,” from his having been sent to the sheep of the house of Israel. And “High Priest of our confession,” that is, of our faith; for he is not High Priest of the priesthood according to the Law, but of our faith.

³ Being faithful to him who made him, as Moses also was in all his house. Being about to set Christ before Moses, he brought into the midst the high-priesthood, and says that, Both this one and that one were entrusted with a people, but unlike is the commission of the one [and the other]. Yet for the present, at the outset, he does not show the preeminence, lest they start away; for even though they were faithful, still they were somewhat attached to Moses; but for now he sets the Lord on a level with him, and says that, This one too is faithful to the Father who made him High Priest and Apostle. For the discourse here is not concerning the bringing into being [of his essence], but concerning the appointment. “Faithful,” then, that is, well-disposed, presiding over the things of the Father, and not suffering them to be corrupted, but procuring salvation for them. “As Moses also in all his house,” that is, among the people. For he calls the people a “house,” as we too are wont to say, “So-and-so is of such a house.” And “his,” whether of God, or of Moses. For the people was called Moses’ also, as in the [saying], Your people has sinned. As a steward, he says, and manager of a house, so was Moses to the people.

⁴ For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as he who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God. Behold, here too the preeminence which the Lord has over Moses. He says, then, that, Faithful indeed was that one too in all the house, that is, among the people; yet he himself too was one of the house; for he too was a man, as also the rest; even if holy, yet a fellow-servant with them; as in households the stewards too, even if they take precedence of the rest, yet are fellow-servants with the others. Since, then, he too was a part of the house, he too was created by someone, and the one who created him surely surpasses him. And it was the Son of God who created him—he who took flesh, and was named High Priest on his account; and he therefore surpasses him. See, then, how he began the comparison from the flesh, but ascended to the Godhead, and showed that the Maker incomparably surpasses the thing made.

⁵ And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of the things that were to be spoken; but Christ as a Son. Behold, he shows another preeminence as well: that Moses was faithful as a servant, appointed for this, that he might speak the things of the Master to the rest of the house, and be a witness to God in the judgment of the things spoken. For if he calls heaven and earth a witness, as in the [saying], Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth; and the valleys, as in Hear, O valleys, the foundations of the earth; much more a man. But Christ is faithful as a genuine Son and heir, administering the things of the Father according to the will of the Father. And exceedingly great and incomparable is the interval between such a Master and a servant.

⁶ Over his house; whose house we are, if indeed we hold fast the boldness and the boasting of the hope firm unto the end. The people was Moses’ house, of which he too was a part. Christ too has a house, [namely] us; but [we are his house] if we stand firm unto the end and do not fall away. For here he exhorts them to be patient in their afflictions and not to grow slack; for thus we shall be the house of God, even as Moses was. And he praises them, showing that they have begun, but that one must add the end also. And he well said “boldness and boasting of hope.” For he who hopes firmly that there will be a recompense boasts even now already, as though the things hoped for had already come to pass, and does not sink down, but rather has boldness, whenever he is afflicted for the sake of Christ whom he loves.

⁷ Wherefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness; where your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said: They always go astray in heart; but they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. He discoursed concerning hope, and that one must firmly expect some reward yonder, and rest in exchange for the labors here; and he shows this from the prophet, who says that The believers are about to enter into rest, while those who disbelieve shall not enter, just as neither did those of old. For after the Hebrews had crossed the Red Sea, and received in the wilderness countless proofs of God’s care for them and of his power, they resolved to send spies to examine the nature of the land into which they were about to enter. And these, when they had gone and returned, marveled indeed at the nature of the land, yet said that men unconquerable in war dwelt in it. They, then, who ought to have reckoned on the unconquerable power of God, being terrified by these words, murmured, and thought they ought to turn back to Egypt. God, therefore, being angry, because they so quickly thrust away the memory of so many marvels, swore that that generation which had murmured should not enter into the land of promise; and indeed all perished in the wilderness, save Caleb and Joshua. Since, then, after that generation David, discoursing, said that “Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” that you suffer not the same things as your forefathers, and be deprived of the rest; it is plain that he says these things as though there were some other rest which we ought to obtain. For if they had truly received the rest, for what reason does he say, “Today harden not your hearts, as the fathers, and you shall not enter into the rest”? What, then, is the other rest, but the kingdom of heaven, of which both the Sabbath is an image, and the entry, figuratively accomplished, into Palestine of the children of the generation that disbelieved? For there are three rests: that of the Sabbath, on which God rested from his works, concerning which David does not seem now to speak, inasmuch as it came to pass of old; and the entry into the land of promise, into which the Jews having entered were to rest from wars and wandering. Neither does he now speak concerning this; for Palestine was at that time held by the Hebrews in the days of David. How then does he speak of this, as though it were yet to come? It seems, then, that there is some other rest, into which Joshua the son of Nun was unable to bring the people. And what would this be, but the [rest] in the heavens? Be earnest, then, that you fall not away from it through unbelief, as your forefathers also did. This, then, is the sense of the whole passage, running through a great extent; but we must go through the particulars as well. And consider that one must not demand a reckoning of God, but, whether he presides [over us] or not, believe in him. For this too he charges against them, that they tempted him who is able to do all things.

⁸ Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. The word is that of one putting them in fear. For it seems that there were certain ones disbelieving, as though the things said concerning the recompense were not true, and on this account wishing to take experience of the power of God, and of his providence toward them, in the temptations which they had. On account of these things, therefore, he makes them secure, reminding them of what those who disbelieved of old suffered. For the fearful things to come do not so restrain the many as the things past, and already become familiar. And observe that from unbelief one comes also to reckon evil things and to do them.

⁹ In departing from the living God. For otherwise unbelief finds no entrance, unless one depart from God. For so long as one cleaves to God and is confident in him as able to do all things, he holds nothing impossible.

¹⁰ But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today. That is, build one another up, and support one another, so as not to fall. And if anyone should fall, set him right while he yet lives; for this is what the “while it is called Today” indicates; for there is hope. Best of all, then, let there be no evil heart in any one; but if such should come to be, let him not fall into despair, but exhort him and take him up again.

¹¹ Lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. That is, lest, out of despair, he come into callousness and remain incurable. For just as bodies that are calloused and hard do not yield to the hands of physicians, so also souls that have been hardened do not yield to the word of God. And he calls “the deceitfulness of sin” either the deceit of the devil—that is, the not hoping that there will be a recompense—or [the deceit of] insensibility. For to say, “Henceforth I have sinned once for all, I have no hopes,” is truly a deceitfulness of sin. For sin, deceiving and drawing [one] to itself, makes [him] reckon such things, according to the [saying]: The ungodly, when he has come into the depth of evils, despises. And he who despises does not even endure to believe. From sin, then, comes unbelief. For they said, he says, that The Lord will not see, neither will the God of Jacob understand. And again: For he said in his heart, He will not require it; and, God has forgotten; and whatever follows upon the same.

¹² For we have become partakers of Christ. That is, we and he have become one; and so we partake of him, as the body of the head. And here he instills hopes in them, as though saying this: He who so loved us as even to make [us] his body, will not suffer us to be torn away from him, if only we ourselves are willing. And at the same time he hints also at that which has been said elsewhere: If we endure, we shall also reign with him. For partaking now of the same things as Christ—the afflictions, that is—let us be earnest then also to partake of the glory.

¹³ If indeed we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end. That is, the faith; for through it we were given subsistence, and were brought into being unto the divine and spiritual being and regeneration. Yea, here too he requires that we stand firm unto the end in the faith.

¹⁴ In that it is said: “Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” as in the provocation. He establishes how he said “unto the end”; and he says that this is shown in the saying, “Today.” For the “Today” is always; even as above too he said: Exhort one another, while it is called Today. Or—which is rather to be preferred, as having been said by John, [numbered] among the saints—it is by way of transposition: “In that it is said, Today, if you hear his voice,” and what follows, “let us fear lest, a promise being left,” and what follows.

¹⁵ For some, when they had heard, provoked. Having heard, he says, the promise of God, that “I will give you the land of the Canaanites,” they disbelieved, and provoked God through their unbelief. Take heed, then, lest you too disbelieve the things promised. For the mere hearing will not profit you, unless you also believe. Just as neither did the hearing profit those; and [you would be guilty] with the more justice, in that you disbelieved the words of God.

¹⁶ But not all who came out of Egypt through Moses. For Caleb and Joshua did not disbelieve. Wherefore they also obtained the promise, and entered into Palestine.

¹⁷ And with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose limbs fell in the wilderness? He makes the discourse by way of question, for the sake of greater clarity and irrefutability. For things [put] by way of question are set down concerning matters acknowledged. And he set forth the punishment besides. For their limbs fell, he says, in the wilderness, that is, their great thigh-bones. And from the part he indicated the whole bodies.

¹⁸ And to whom did he swear that they should not enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? And it is plain that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief. Above he said “those who had sinned”; now, “those who were disobedient.” He seems, then, to be hinting to these believers from among the Hebrews, that they too were halting into other sins as well, along with being faint-hearted and disbelieving the things to come. Those, then, who were disobedient, we see that they did not enter; that is, the penalty of sin is before our eyes and acknowledged.