Chapter 8

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

¹ Now of the things spoken the chief point is this: We have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. “Chief point” always denotes the greatest thing; whenever one is about to take up in brief the more principal matters, he says that he makes the discourse “in chief”—just as the head also, being small, is the more principal part of the body. So then the Apostle says now: “Now the chief point of the things spoken”—that is, that I may say the greatest and most comprehensive thing, We have God as High Priest. For the sitting belongs to none other than God. And see how, having said many lowly things—the “high priest,” the “he intercedes,” and all that belongs to the manhood—he ascended to the lofty, that is, to what belongs to the Godhead. And he does this ever, just as his teacher also in the Gospel; that through the lowly things he may lead the hearer by the hand to receive the discourse—for otherwise he does not follow in hearing, unless he ascend little by little—and through the lofty things he may teach that those were a condescension. And by “throne of the Majesty” he means the paternal one; or because the Father might be called his “Majesty”; or because, simply, a “throne of majesty” is the greatest throne.

² A minister of the holy things. Just as the high priests below, entering into the Holy of Holies, ministered, so also this one is a minister of the truly holy things, the true sanctuaries, the heavenly ones. But Paul seems here to contradict himself. For in the opening he said: “To which of the angels said he, Sit? Are they not all ministering spirits?”—as though the minister ought not to sit; but now, having said that he sat down at the right hand of the throne, he again introduces him as a minister. How, then, does he say this, save altogether condescending, and mingling the lowly with the lofty? But some understood “a minister of the holy things” thus, in the sense of, of the men sanctified by him; for he is, he says, our high priest.

³ And of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. Here he rouses up those of the Jews who had believed. For since it was likely that they were at a loss, because we have not such a tabernacle: Behold, he says, a greater tabernacle and a true one—heaven. For the old was a type of this; and that one a man pitched, either Bezaleel or Moses, but this one God. And from this take note, according to the blessed John, that heaven neither moves, nor is spherical; for the “pitched” does away with both.

⁴ For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; whence it is necessary that this one also have something to offer. Since he said that he sits, that you might not think it a deception that he was called a priest, he says that, even if he sits, yet for all that he did not lose the being a high priest; for he has all the things of the high priests, and just as those offer, so also he offered himself. For the sitting belongs to his dignity; but the exercising of the high priesthood, to his great love for mankind. And otherwise too, since one is at a loss for what cause he died, seeing he was Son and eternal, he resolves this, and says that, Since he is a priest, and a priest is not without a sacrifice, it was necessary that this one also have something to offer; and this was nothing other than his own body. Necessarily, then, he died. And between a gift and a sacrifice there is, by the exact account, a difference. For sacrifices are the offerings made through blood and flesh; or, what is yet more exact, all the things offered as incense through fire; for “sacrifice” is properly from the “being sacrificed,” which is, “being made smoke.” But gifts are such as fruits, and whatever other things are bloodless and without fire. Yet they are also found laid down indifferently in the Scripture, as this: God looked upon Abel, and upon his gifts, although they were of the firstborn of the sheep. But upon Cain and upon his sacrifices he did not give heed, although they were of the fruits of the earth. But if anyone should try to smooth this out by frigid solutions, of which we ourselves also are not ignorant, yet I know not how he will release himself from the charge laid against him touching the careful reading of the Scriptures. For in many other places these things lie indifferently, and I would have set down ten thousand upon ten thousand, were not the thing to seem a want of taste. Yet this same apostle will suffice us, who in what follows has simply named “gifts” all the things that are offered. And hear.

⁵ For if he were on earth, he would not even be a priest, there being priests who offer the gifts according to the law. Still he establishes that, even if he has not a tabernacle below, but is above, nevertheless he is not on this account hindered from being a priest. And see his wisdom. From that whence one might rather establish that he is not a priest—I mean, from his not having a place on earth in which he ministered as priest—from this rather he himself establishes that he is a priest; and he says that for this very thing he is a priest, because he had no place on earth: For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest. For there were others, and the thing would have seemed an insurrection. But now, having heaven as his place, and having led up his own body thither, there he intercedes with the Father for us. So that, since he is above, on this account he is rather a priest.

⁶ Who serve unto an example and shadow of the heavenly things. Here he shows the pre-eminence of the priesthood according to Christ, calling the old one an example and shadow, but our things heavenly. For when there is nothing earthly, but all things spiritual accomplished in the mysteries, where there are angelic hymns, where the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and remission of sins, and again bonds, when our citizenship is in the heavens, how are the things that concern us not heavenly? Of these, then, types were and examples—that is, dim representations, and as it were outline-sketches—the things shown to Moses in the Old.

⁷ As Moses was admonished, being about to complete the tabernacle. For See, he says, that you make all things according to the type shown to you on the mountain. Since the things seen by us through the eyes we apprehend rather than the things we learn through hearing, on this account God showed to Moses all things, not only the construction of the tabernacle, but also the things concerning the sacrifices and the rest of the service.

⁸ But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry. Upon that thought these things depend, the “For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest.” But now, not being on earth, he says, but having heaven as his sanctuary, he obtained a more excellent ministry; and his ministry was not such as that of the high priests on earth, but heavenly, inasmuch as it has heaven for the place of its own rite.

⁹ By how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant. Having exalted the priesthood according to Christ, from the place, and the priest, and the sacrifice, so also he sets forth the superiority of the Covenant. And though he said before that the Old was weak and unprofitable, because of the childishness of the hearers, yet perhaps he was even quit of it. But now he dwells upon the discourse concerning it, and shows that the New Covenant is better than that one—that is, the Gospel, of which Christ is mediator and giver; for he himself became for us a minister of the Gospel, having taken the form of a servant, just as Moses was mediator of the law.

¹⁰ Which also was enacted upon better promises. That which especially revived those of the Jews who believed, this he sets down, that our Covenant is upon better promises. For not goods of earth, and a good and numerous offspring, but the kingdom of the heavens has been promised to those who keep the Gospel. Be not, then, faint-hearted; the promises of the Gospel are better; and it is senseless for one who has the better things to grow weary.

¹¹ For if that first one had been faultless, no place would have been sought for a second. See the order. He said that the Covenant according to Christ is better than the Old. And whence is it plain? Because, he says, it was enacted upon better promises. For if the promises and the recompenses are greater, it is quite plain that the Covenant also is better, and the injunctions more divine. Whence is it plain that the promises are better? From these things, he says: that the one was cast out, and the other was introduced in its place. For on this account the New prevails, because it is better and more perfect. For if that one had been faultless—that is, if it made men faultless—a second would not have been introduced. And just as we are wont, in more common speech, to say, The house is not faultless, in the sense of, it has a flaw, a rottenness; so also he means that the Old is not faultless, not as evil, but as not able to make better, such as having been given to infants; not blaming it, but blaming them—that is, the Jews, who were not able to be perfected through the ordinances of the law.

¹² Behold, days come, says the Lord, and I will conclude upon the house of Israel, and upon the house of Judah, a new covenant. More clearly here he shows that the Old has been cast out. For he brings forward God, through Jeremiah, saying that I will conclude another covenant, a new one—that is, wholly new; not as the Hebrews suppose, that Ezra renewed the Scripture. For the Scripture did not become new, but remained old, even if it was set down from memory by him.

¹³ Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day when I took hold of their hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt. That no one might suppose that there comes to pass a casting out of that covenant which was made with Abraham, he added, “In the day when I took hold of their hand.” For the covenant in the Exodus, he says, I am about to cast out, the one given in the mount Sinai to your fathers who made themselves hard-hearted; whereas the covenant with Abraham received its fulfillment in Christ. For in your seed, he says, shall all the nations be blessed—who is Christ.

¹⁴ Because they did not abide in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. Do you see that evils begin first from us? They, he says, did not abide, and on this account I disregarded them. But the good things, and the benefits, begin from him. And as it were making a defense, he sets down the cause for which he forsakes them: that it is because of their own instability.

¹⁵ For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. “After those days”—what days? Some say, those of the Exodus, in which the Mosaic law was given. But to me it seems that he speaks concerning those days of which he spoke above: “Behold, days come.” After, then, those days are passed through, I will make such a covenant as you will hear next.

¹⁶ Putting my laws into their mind, and I will write them upon their hearts. Let the Jew show this, when he received an unwritten law. For indeed after the return from Babylon, it came to be in writing under Ezra; but the apostles received it not written, but received the law of the Spirit in their hearts. Wherefore also Christ said, that The Comforter, when he comes, shall bring all things to your remembrance, and shall teach you all things.

¹⁷ And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. This was accomplished through the Gospel. For those who formerly served idols, now, having recognized the true God, have become his people.

¹⁸ And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying: Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them. Here he speaks of the more laborious teaching. For we see that we do not need many words toward those who are sound in mind, to persuade them to believe in Christ. For the Jewish legislation was shut up in one corner, and few knew it; but the sound of the apostles went out into all the earth. And otherwise too: God having tarried on the earth in the flesh, and having deified our nature by the assumption, the light of the true knowledge of God shone in the souls of all, and a kind of divinity was implanted in human nature by grace, toward the truly knowing God.

¹⁹ Because I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more. Having washed us through baptism from the filth of the foregoing sins, he no longer remembers those that were washed away beforehand.

²⁰ In that he says, new, he has made the first old. He interprets the prophetic saying, and says that this very thing, the naming it at all “new,” is indicative of the first being thereafter accounted old.

²¹ But that which is being made old and is waxing aged is near to vanishing away. Taking occasion of boldness from the prophet, he thereafter lays hold of the law, showing that our things now flourish. From the prophetic saying, then, he procured the putting away of the old; but from himself he added the “of age,” and thereafter necessarily brought in the vanishing away as owed to the law; saying this: Not unseasonably did the new put down the old, but because of its age, because of its oldness—that is, because of its weakness and unprofitableness; as he also says elsewhere: For what was impossible to the law, in that it was weak through the flesh.