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Homily 6
24 complete historical source paragraphs and 9 editorial footnotes. Author and edition credits are shown for each record; original wording is retained.
English translation and editorial credits: Thomas Keble, John Keble, Dr. Barrow, Frederic Gardiner.
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ἀ ρχὴν τῆς ὑποστάσεως. St. Chrys. understands ὑ πόστασις in its prior sense, as “subsistence,” “subsisting,” “being brought into real existence.”
Editorial footnote · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, editorial note cite_note-5 · Original source
“If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence [or, the principle of our subsistence] steadfast unto the end.” What is “the principle of our subsistence”? The faith by which we stand, and have been brought into being and were made to exist, as one may say.
συγκεκραμένους. Sav. and Ben. have συγκεκραμένης (i.e. ἀ κοῆς). The received text of the New Testament has συγκεκραμένος, “the word not being mixed.” [This is also given in the margin of W. H. and of the Revisers.] Lachmann [and Tisch., W. H., and the Revisers] read συγκεκερασμένους, which is the reading of some mss. of St. Chrys.
Editorial footnote · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, editorial note cite_note-10 · Original source
Then [he adds] “but the word of hearing did not profit them, as they were not mixed by faith with them that heard.” How did it not profit? Then wishing to alarm them, he shows the same thing by what he says:
αἰνίττεσθαι. That is, is indirectly condemned, by the contrast of the conduct of Caleb and Joshua. St. Chrys. reverses the expression of the Epistle, and says, “Caleb and Joshua were not mixed with the unbelievers,” when the Apostle had said, “the unbelievers were not mixed with them.”
Editorial footnote · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, editorial note cite_note-12 · Original source
Caleb then and Joshua, because they agreed not with those who did not believe, escaped the vengeance that was sent forth against them. And see how admirably he said, not, They did not agree, but, “they were not mixed”—that is, they stood apart, but not factiously when all the others had one and the same mind. Here it seems to me that a faction too is hinted at.
St. Chrys. returns here to c. iii. 13 , connecting the “To-day if ye hear His voice, harden not your heart,” with “Exhort one another daily while it is called To-day” : as he had said, “to-day is at every time.”
Editorial footnote · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, editorial note cite_note-15 · Original source
[8.] And [he said] “To-day,” that they might never be without hope. “Exhort one another daily,” he says, [“while it is called today,”] that is, even if a man have sinned, as long as it is “To-day,” he has hope: let no man then despair so long as he lives. Above all things indeed, he says, “let there not be an evil heart of unbelief.” ( c. iii. 12.) But even suppose there should be, let no man despair, but let him recover himself; for as long as we are in this world, the “To-day” is in season. But here he means not unbelief only, but also murmurings: “whose carcasses,” he says, “fell’ in the wilderness.”
The words of the Apostle, c. iii. 17 , are those of Num. xiv. 29 , &c., where murmuring is the sin specified.
Editorial footnote · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, editorial note cite_note-16 · Original source
[8.] And [he said] “To-day,” that they might never be without hope. “Exhort one another daily,” he says, [“while it is called today,”] that is, even if a man have sinned, as long as it is “To-day,” he has hope: let no man then despair so long as he lives. Above all things indeed, he says, “let there not be an evil heart of unbelief.” ( c. iii. 12.) But even suppose there should be, let no man despair, but let him recover himself; for as long as we are in this world, the “To-day” is in season. But here he means not unbelief only, but also murmurings: “whose carcasses,” he says, “fell’ in the wilderness.”
παρακαλεῖτε. The word includes the idea of comforting and encouraging as well as of exhorting.
Editorial footnote · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, editorial note cite_note-17 · Original source
( Ch. iii. 13.) “But exhort one another.” Observe the gentleness and mildness [of the expression]: he said not “Rebuke,” but “Exhort.” Thus we are required to bear ourselves towards those who are straightened by affliction. This he says also in writing to the Thessalonians, “Warn them that are unruly” ( 1 Thess. v. 14 ), but in speaking of the feeble-minded, not so, but what? “Comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men”; that is, do not cease to hope; do not despair. For he that does not encourage one who is straightened by affliction, makes him more hardened.
[The insatiate yet satisfied; The full yet craving still. Rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix , translated by Dr. Neale, p. 15.]
Editorial footnote · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, editorial note cite_note-18 · Original source
[10.] For that is indeed rest, where “pain, sorrow and sighing are fled away” ( Isa. xxxv. 10 ): where there are neither cares, nor labors, nor struggle, nor fear stunning and shaking the soul; but only that fear of God which is full of delight. There is not, “In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread,” nor “thorns and thistles” ( Gen. iii. 19, 18 ); no longer, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and to thy husband shall be thy desire and he shall rule over thee.” ( Gen. iii. 16.) All is peace, joy, gladness, pleasure, goodness, gentleness. There is no jealousy, nor envy, no sickness, no death whether of the body, or that of the soul. There is no darkness nor night; all [is] day, all light, all things are bright. It is not possible to be weary, it is not possible to be satiated: we shall always persevere in the desire of good things.
[1.] Paul, having treated of hope, and having said that “We are His house, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” ( c. iii. ver. 6 ); next shows that we ought to look forward with firmness, and he proves this from the Scriptures. But be attentive, because he has expressed this in a manner somewhat difficult and not readily to be comprehended. And therefore we must first make our own statements, and after we have briefly explained the whole argument, then make clear the words of the Epistle. For you will no longer need us, if you have understood the scope of the Apostle.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 4 · Original source
His discourse was concerning Hope, and that it behooves us to hope for the things to come, and that for those who have toiled here there will assuredly be some reward and fruit and refreshment. This then he shows from the prophet; and what says he? “Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, they do alway err in their heart, and they have not known My ways. So I sware in My wrath, they shall not enter into My rest.”
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 5 · Original source
He says that there are “three” rests: one, that of the Sabbath, in which God rested from His works; the second, that of Palestine, into which when the Jews had entered they would be at rest from their hardships and labors; the third, that which is Rest indeed, the kingdom of Heaven; which those who obtain, do indeed rest from their labors and troubles. Of these three then he makes mention here.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 6 · Original source
And why did he mention the three, when he is treating of the one only? That he might show that the prophet is speaking concerning this one. For he did not speak (he says) concerning the first. For how could he, when that had taken place long before? Nor yet again concerning the second, that in Palestine. For how could he? For he says, “They shall not enter into My rest.” It remains therefore that it is this third.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 7 · Original source
[3.] Next having set down the whole testimony (and this is, “To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart, and they have not known My ways. So I sware in My wrath, they shall not enter into My rest”), he then adds:
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 9 · Original source
Ver. 12. “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.” For from hardness unbelief ariseth: and as in bodies, the parts that have become callous and hard do not yield to the hands of the physicians, so also souls that are hardened yield not to the word of God. For it is probable besides that some even disbelieved as though the things which had been done were not true.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 10 · Original source
Therefore he says, “Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.” For since the argument from the future is not so persuasive as from the past, he reminds them of the history, in which they had wanted faith. For if your fathers (he says) because they did not hope as they ought to have hoped, suffered these things, much more will you. Since to them also is this word addressed: for, “To-day” (he says) is “ever,” so long as the world lasts.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 11 · Original source
[5.] Then he adds ( ver. 15 ), “When it is said, To-day if ye hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” This is a transposition, “when it is said, To-day if ye hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” [It must be read thus:]
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 15 · Original source
( Ch. iv. 1, 2.) “Let us fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it; for to us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them when it is said, To-day if ye hear His voice” (for “To-day” is “at every time”).
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 16 · Original source
( Ch. iii. 16–19.) “For some when they had heard did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses: And with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see, that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” After again repeating the testimony, he adds also the question, which makes the argument clear. For he said (he repeats), “To-day if ye hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” Of whom does he speak (he says) [as] having been hardened? Of whom [as] not believing? Is it not of the Jews?
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 18 · Original source
Now what he says is to this effect. They also heard, as we hear: but no profit came to them. Do not suppose then that by “hearing” what is proclaimed ye will be profited; seeing that they also heard, but derived no benefit because they did not believe.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 19 · Original source
[6.] ( Ch. iv. 3.) For “we who have believed,” he says, “do enter into rest.” From what this is evident, he adds: “as He said, as I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” This indeed, is not evidence that we shall enter in, but that they did not enter in. What then? Thus far he aims to show that as that rest does not hinder the speaking of another rest, so neither does this [exclude] that of Heaven. Up to this point then, he wishes to show that they [the Israelites] did not attain to the rest. For because he means this, he says ( ver. 4, 5 ), “For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into My rest.” Thou seest how that doth not hinder this from being a rest?
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 21 · Original source
[7.] Ver. 9. “There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.” Whence [does this appear]? From the exhortation, “Harden not your hearts”: for if there were no rest, these exhortations would not have been given. Neither would they have been exhorted not to do the same things [with the Jews] lest they should suffer the same things, unless they were about to suffer the same. But how were they who were in possession of Palestine about to suffer the same things [i.e. exclusion from the rest] unless there were some other rest?
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 23 · Original source
And well did he conclude the argument. For he said not rest but “Sabbath-keeping”; calling the kingdom “Sabbath-keeping,” by the appropriate name, and that which they rejoiced in and were attracted by. For as, on the Sabbath He commands to abstain from all evil things; and that those things only which relate to the Service of God should be done, which things the Priests were wont to accomplish, and whatsoever profits the soul, and nothing else; so also [will it be] then. However it is not he who spoke thus, but what? ( Ver. 10 ), “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from His.” As God ceased from His works, he says, so he that hath entered into His rest [hath ceased]. For since his discourse to them was concerning rest, and they were desirous to hear when this would be, he concluded the argument with this.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 24 · Original source
Then, lest any think that they will simply be deprived of rest only, he adds also the punishment, saying ( c. iv. 12 ), “For the Word of God is quick, and powerful; and sharper than any two-edged sword, and pierceth even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow: and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Here he is speaking of Hell and of punishment. “It pierceth” (he says) into the secrets of our heart, and cutteth asunder the soul. Here it is not the falling of carcasses nor, as there, the being deprived of a country, but of a heavenly kingdom; and being delivered to an everlasting hell, and to undying punishment and vengeance.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 26 · Original source
[9.] “Lest any of you,” he says, “be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” He means either the deceit of the devil (for it is indeed a deceit, not to look for the things to come, to think that we are without responsibility, and that we shall not pay the penalty for our deeds here, neither will there be a resurrection); or in another sense insensibility [or] despairing is deceit. For to say, ‘What is there left? I have sinned once for all, I have no hope of recovering myself,’ is deceit.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 28 · Original source
He urges them on from the good things; “for we are,” he says, “partakers of Christ.” Then, again, from gloomy ones ( c. iv. 1 ), “Let us fear, lest at any time a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” For that is manifest and confessed.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 30 · Original source
( Ch. iii. 9.) “They proved Me,” He says, “and saw My works forty years.” Seest thou that it is not right to call God to account, but whether He defend [our cause] or not, to trust Him? For against those [of old] he now brings this charge, that “they tempted God.” For he that will have proof either of His power, or of His providence, or of His tender care, does not yet believe, either that He is powerful or kind to man. This he hints also in writing to these [Hebrews] who probably already wished, in their trials, to obtain experience and positive evidence of His power and His providential care for them. Thou seest that in all cases the provocation and the angering arises from unbelief.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 31 · Original source
What then does he say? ( c. iv. 9.) “There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.” And see how he has summed up the whole argument. “He sware,” saith he, to those former ones, “that they should not enter into” the “rest,” and they did not enter in. Then long after their time discoursing to the Jews, he says, “Harden not your hearts,” as your fathers, showing that there is another rest. For of Palestine we have not to speak: for they were already in possession of it. Nor can he be speaking of the seventh [day]; for surely he was not discoursing about that which had taken place long before. It follows therefore that he hints at some other, that which is rest indeed.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 32 · Original source
Would you that I should also give you some image of the condition there? It is impossible. But yet, so far as it is possible, I will try to give you some image. Let us look up into the heaven when without any intervening cloud it shows forth its crown [of stars]. Then when we have dwelt long on the beauty of its appearance, let us think that we too shall have a pavement, not indeed such [as this], but as much more beautiful as the gold is than the clay, and [let us think] on the higher roof which is again beyond; then on the Angels, the Archangels, the infinite multitude of unbodied powers, the very palace of God itself, the Throne of the Father.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 34 · Original source
But language is too weak (as I said) to set forth the whole. Experience is necessary, and the knowledge which [cometh] by experience. Tell me, how was it (think you) with Adam in Paradise? This course of life is far better than that, as much as heaven [is better] than earth.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 35 · Original source
[11.] But however let us search after another image still. If it happened that he who now reigns was master of the whole world, and then was troubled neither by wars nor by cares, but was honored only and lived delicately; and had large tributes, and on every side gold flowed in to him, and he was looked up to, what feelings do you think he would have, if he saw that all the wars in all parts of the world had ceased? Something such as this will it be. But rather I have not even yet arrived at that image [which I seek]; therefore I must search after another too.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 36 · Original source
Consider then, I pray you: for as some royal child, so long as he is in the womb, has no sense of anything, but should it happen that he suddenly came forth from thence, and ascended the royal throne, not gradually, but all at once received possession of all things; so is it as regards this [present] and that [future] state. Or, if some captive, having suffered innumerable evils, should be caught up at once to the royal throne.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 37 · Original source
But not even thus have I attained to the image exactly. For here indeed whatever good things a person may obtain, even shouldst thou say the kingdom itself, during the first day indeed his desires are in full vigor, and for the second too, and the third, but as time goes on, he continues indeed to have pleasure, but not so great. For whatever it be, it always ceases from familiarity with it. But yonder it not only does not diminish, but even increases. For consider how great a thing it is, that a soul after departing thither, should no longer look for an end of those good things, nor yet change, but increase, and life that has no end, and life set free from all danger, and from all despondency and care, full of cheerfulness and blessings innumerable.
Complete source paragraph · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, source paragraph 38 · Original source
That is, these words are addressed to us as well as to them.
Editorial footnote · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, editorial note cite_note-8 · Original source
( Ch. iv. 1, 2.) “Let us fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it; for to us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them when it is said, To-day if ye hear His voice” (for “To-day” is “at every time”).
ἐ ν τῷ λέγεσθαι, “in its being said.”
Editorial footnote · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 6, editorial note cite_note-6 · Original source
[5.] Then he adds ( ver. 15 ), “When it is said, To-day if ye hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” This is a transposition, “when it is said, To-day if ye hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” [It must be read thus:]