In Epistolas Sancti Pauli

ARGUMENT.

He admonishes Titus and instructs him concerning the appointment of a presbyter, and concerning spiritual conduct, and concerning heretics who believe in the Jewish scriptures and are to be avoided.

CHAPTER ONE. Paul, servant of God. He was a servant of God, not of sin. But an apostle of Jesus Christ. He distinguished the apostleship, because not everyone who is a servant is immediately also an apostle. Therefore he is an apostle, because he had been sent by him to preach. According to the faith of the elect and the knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness unto the hope of eternal life. According to that faith which he himself infuses, and makes those who believe, whom he also chose in his foreknowledge, as he says: You did not choose me, but I chose you. Which he promised. You acknowledge the truth, and the truth will set you free, because the truth is Christ. God, who does not lie. If he does not lie, he brings forth nothing other than what he promised, namely to the just and the unjust, although this may seem harsh to men. Or thus: What he promised to Abraham and his seed, he will fulfill in Christ. Before the ages of the world. Before all times, through the Son, to save those who believe, whom he chose before the foundation of the world. But he manifested his word in his own times in preaching, which was entrusted to me. Then he manifested his counsel, when he would bring to faith what he had foreknown he would do, namely the whole world turning aside from righteousness. According to the commandment of our Savior God. To Titus, beloved son. By which he commanded Paul and Barnabas to be set apart to preach to the Gentiles.

According to the common faith: grace and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Savior. According to the common faith, as a son, not by nature. For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might correct the things that are lacking, and appoint presbyters through the cities. Correct what is lacking with a right course; and only then will you be able to ordain presbyters, when all in the Church have been set right. As I also arranged for you. In that order in which I have commanded in the present matter. If anyone is without reproach, the husband of one wife. It must be noted that in a priest even things otherwise permitted are forbidden. Having faithful children, not under accusation of luxury, or not submissive. Lest he be unable boldly to rebuke those who do wrong, or so that from his own household the proof of his teaching may arise through discipline, and he may fear the example of Eli. For a bishop ought to be without reproach. He calls him a bishop whom above he named a presbyter. As a steward of God. For if stewards of human laws are sought to be upright, what sort ought those to be who dispense divine laws? Not proud, not irascible, not given to wine. Not pleasing himself. Not a striker, not greedy of shameful gain. A disciple of Christ ought not to strike him for whom Christ was struck. Likewise in another sense: lest by his evil conduct he strike the conscience of others; he who is commanded not to pursue shameful gain through flattery, who hopes for heavenly things. According to the custom of the Scriptures, he first condemned vices, and so inserted virtues: as it is: Turn away from evil, and do good.

But hospitable, kind—so that he may receive guests with kindness. Sober, chaste—free from every crime. Just, holy—just in judgment, holy in deed through continence. Continent. He says this lest, because he had said "of one wife," he be thought to have given occasion for incontinence. Holding fast to the faithful word which is according to doctrine—so that he may love doctrine and always speak from it, and not pursue vain and idle fables. So that he may be able to exhort. Such a man is to be chosen who can both exhort and refute those who contradict. In sound doctrine, and to refute those who contradict. That doctrine is sound which heals the hearers, so that what a man has by the gift of God does not become a source of harm to him, by ascribing it to himself. For there are many, even disobedient, vain talkers and deceivers. Disobedient to the apostolic doctrine, they speak to no profit. Especially those who are of the circumcision, who must be refuted—who subvert whole households. Who speak human traditions, not the commandments of God. Teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of shameful gain—things which were already superfluous in the times of Christ, namely the ceremonies of the Jews. One of them said—what sort they are, so that they even have such testimony from their own. Their own prophet—Epimenides, or Callimachus. Cretans. A hexameter verse of Epimenides, which stands on its own feet in Greek: Always liars, evil beasts. Lovers of lying, and not as it is wont to be encountered, but always: gluttons also and idle.

They are bellies, and therefore they readily admit feast-days and leisure. This testimony is true. If this alone is true, he says the other things falsely. For which cause rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. Sharply. Not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men. To human traditions, of which they are accused by the Savior, according to Isaiah, honoring God not with the heart but with the lips. Of those turning themselves away from the truth. All things are clean to the clean. Because even according to the law certain things were called unclean. But to the polluted and unbelieving nothing is clean: but both their mind and their conscience are polluted. Both the unbelieving are polluted, who do not believe that Christ, by giving faith, has taken the yoke of the law from the neck of believers: that is, all things that had been given temporally in figure. They confess that they know God, but in deeds they deny him. They say that no one thus knows Christ, to whom he was promised from the law; but in deeds they deny his coming, of those, he says, turning themselves away from his truth, when they think they cannot be justified without the aid of the law. Since they are abominable, and unbelieving, and reprobate to every good work. In this they call themselves more religious, when they do not do the things that are commanded.

CHAPTER II. But you speak the things that become sound doctrine. That is, the things that pertain to the life of Christ. The aged men. Here he calls the elders of the Church aged men, whom it is necessary to offer a pattern to all. That they be sober, modest, prudent, sound in faith, in love, in patience. That they be watchful, lest they give the young an example of drunkenness. The aged women likewise. Who were chosen as an example to others. In holy attire, not slanderers. There is therefore another kind that is not holy. Not enslaved to much wine. But drinking little. Teaching well, that they may teach prudence. He permitted teaching, but to women. The young women. Either because they were continent, or lest the word of God be blasphemed, as if preaching dissension. That they love their husbands. Not others'. That they love their children: prudent, chaste, having care of the household, kind, submissive to their husbands. Lest they grieve their husbands in anything through negligence. That the word of God be not blasphemed. Lest either they themselves blaspheme, if they are Gentiles, or others seeing them made worse. The young men likewise exhort, that they be sober. Take away from the young the cause of luxury by removing drunkenness. In all things show yourself. In all things, either the things that are fitting, or, not only in body but also in mind. An example of good works. Lest by example you destroy the word, or boldly reprove others. In doctrine integrity, gravity: sound speech, irreproachable. That they may know how they should teach. That he who is of the opposite side may turn back, having nothing evil to say of us.

Who can contradict if someone notes such a thing? That servants be subject to their masters, pleasing in all things. In all things which they command justly. Not contradicting, not defrauding. Lest by doing so with murmuring you be both ungrateful to man and not have your reward with God. But in all things showing good faith. Whether in the things that are entrusted to them; or that they show by their work that what they believe is good. That they may adorn the doctrine of our Savior God in all things. And that He may be praised by their works, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father. But the grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, instructing us. Excluding no condition or sex, both by precepts and by example. VI. Denying impiety and worldly desires. Every desire is worldly, and every ambition is temporal. Soberly and justly. For which reason the Savior also says: Take heed, lest your hearts be weighed down with gluttony and drunkenness and the cares of this life. And let us live piously in this world. Let us join piety to justice, lest it be intemperate. Awaiting the blessed hope. He confidently awaits these things who has lived as He said. And the coming of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. He called Christ Himself the great God, of whom the angel said to blessed Mary: This one shall be great, and the rest. Who is also to come with glory to judge the living and the dead. Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.

As Isaiah says: He gave his soul to death, and was reckoned among the wicked, and he himself bore the sins of many. And that he might cleanse for himself a people acceptable, a follower of good works. For this reason he gave himself, that he might cleanse us from all iniquity; let us therefore take care not to make his benefit void and empty. Speak these things and exhort. Let all your speech be in this exhortation. And rebuke with all authority. He rebukes sharply who does not live as he teaches. Let no one despise you. Show yourself such that you cannot be despised: for life gives authority to doctrine.

Admonish them to be subject to princes and powers, to obey what is said, ready for every good work. Not for any evil. To blaspheme no one. Not even those who deserve to be blasphemed. Not to be quarrelsome, but modest, showing all gentleness. But he is quarrelsome who provokes a quarrel by returning the blow. Toward all men. Not only toward the good. For we also were once such. Lest they despair of correction, he sets forth his own example. Whether because we too were such, he says, we ought to bear their foolishness patiently. Once foolish and unbelieving. It must be noted what sort of people Christ found us; and let us not presume on our own merits, nor glory in the good of nature. Erring, serving desires and various pleasures, living in malice and envy: hateful, hating one another. Behold what sort we were before grace through the freedom of the will.

But when the kindness and humanity of our Savior God appeared. Humanity, whether Christ according to the man, or the generosity of God. Not from works of righteousness. It must be noted that we are saved by no merits of our own, but by the mercy of the Redeemer alone: let the overthrowers, rather than the defenders, of free will fall silent. What we have done. What we Jews have done; how much more the Gentiles! But according to his own mercy he saved us. Not according to our diligence or labor, but according to the mercy of him who both goes before us and brings us to completion in every good work. Through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. More than in the former righteous. That, justified by grace, we may be his heirs. It must be observed that we are justified by his grace, not by our own merits. According to the hope of eternal life. Not according to a carnal inheritance. The saying is faithful: and concerning these things I want you to affirm, that those who believe in God should be careful to preside over good works. To preside over the teaching of good works. These things are good and useful to men. These things, not those that follow. But foolish questions and genealogies. He does not wish us to be occupied with superfluous questions and contentions which arise from generations in the law; but always to speak of these things from which the hearers may profit. And avoid contentions and strivings of the law: for they are useless and vain. As it were contrarieties, which heretics seize upon.

Avoid a heretical man after a first and second admonition, knowing that such a one is subverted. Nor does he wish us to be occupied with those who, having been admonished a second time, are not corrected, lest we waste time on empty contempt. And he is in error, since he is condemned by his own judgment. Because after the truth has been heard and known, he perseveres in his obstinacy; for each one is bound by the cords of his own sins. When I send Artemas to you, or Tychicus, hasten to come to me at Neapolis, for there I have decided to winter. Zenas the lawyer and Apollo send on ahead with care, so that nothing may be lacking to them. So that delaying they may lose nothing of the fruit of doctrine. But let them also learn to preside over good works for necessary uses, so that they may not be unfruitful. He repeats the same thing that he had said above. Let those who believe in God take care to preside over good works. All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in the faith. The grace of God be with you all. Amen. Truly, or faithfully. Written from Nicopolis.

THE EPISTLE OF SAINT PAUL TO PHILEMON.

ARGUMENT.

He writes a personal letter to Philemon on behalf of his slave Onesimus; he writes to him from Rome, from prison.

Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy his brother, to Philemon our beloved and fellow worker, and to Appia our most dear sister. He was a fellow worker in the Gospel. But Appia is believed either to be his sister or his wife. And to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the Church which is in your house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Archippus was either a bishop or a deacon; concerning whom he says to the Colossians: Say to Archippus: See to the ministry which you have received, that you fulfill it. I give thanks to my God, always making remembrance of you in my prayers. He prays for them with joy. Hearing of your love and the faith which you have in the Lord Jesus. Which becomes known through good works. And toward all the saints. He who loves the head ought to love all the members. That the communication of your faith may become evident in the knowledge of every good work in you, in Christ Jesus. Whether this I pray, that your works may shine forth in Christ. Otherwise: He loves all the saints to such a degree that all the good among us in Christ may clearly recognize that you are faithful. For I have had great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother. Whom you received with hospitality. For which reason, having much confidence in Christ Jesus.

Since your love has given me the confidence of a cloud to command, yet we preferred to entreat. To command you what pertains to the matter, for the sake of love. What pertains to no one of Christian love. Rather I entreat, since you are such a man, as Paul an old man: now moreover also a prisoner of Jesus Christ I entreat you for my son, whom I begot in chains, Onesimus. In all things like me. Who once was useless to you, but now both to you and to me useful, whom I have sent back to you. When he was carnal. But do you receive him as my own heart. That is, as a son. Whom I would have wished to keep with me, that for you he might minister to me in the chains of the Gospel. From this know what sort of man he is who so pleased me, that I believed he could minister to me for you. But without your counsel I wished to do nothing. He speaks thus, that he sends him back to him, or that his usefulness may be more commended. That your good might not be as it were from necessity, but voluntary: for perhaps for this reason he departed from you for an hour, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave. For he will no longer serve as it were from necessity, but willingly. But instead of a slave, a most dear brother, especially to me: how much more to you both in the flesh and in the Lord! To whom he owes obedience both carnally and according to what he has believed. If therefore you have me as a partner, receive him as myself; but if he has harmed you or owes anything, charge this to me. I Paul have written with my own hand: I will repay, so that I need not say to you, that you also owe yourself to me.

Thus, brother; may I enjoy you in the Lord: refresh my heart in the Lord. Confident of your obedience, I have written to you, knowing that you will do even beyond what I say. If you love me, receive him as you would me: what, then, do I have of him as of myself? At the same time also prepare a lodging for me; for I hope that through your prayers I will be granted to you. Here it is shown that he was sent first from the city. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you; Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my helpers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Written from the city of Rome.

THE EPISTLE OF SAINT PAUL TO THE HEBREWS.

PREFACE.

At the beginning of this epistle it must be said what cause existed why the apostle Paul did not keep his custom in this epistle: namely, that he set forth either the title of his name or the dignity of his rank. This, then, was the cause why he did not entitle it with his name: because he was writing to the Jews, his brothers, to whom he was hateful, for the reason that he taught that circumcision, and the sabbath, and the other sacrifices which the law commanded to be observed, ought not to be observed carnally after the Lord's passion. For those Jews who had believed contended that both should be held: namely, to be baptized according to the grace of the Gospel, and to be circumcised, and also to observe the sabbath according to the precept of the law.

Wherefore, if the Apostle had placed his name in the opening of this Epistle, it could have happened that his rivals, reading his name on the very front, would disdain to receive it, and so the usefulness of the reading would be postponed. But he did not put the name of his apostleship for this reason: because he himself, appointed apostle of the Gentiles, if he had prefixed the letter sent to them with the name of his apostleship, calling himself an apostle, would perhaps seem to them to wish to set himself before the apostle Peter, who was ordained by the Lord as their chief, just as that distinguished preacher says in another place: "He who worked," he says, "in Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision, worked also in me among the Gentiles." Perhaps they would even say: "What is this, that Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles, sets himself before our apostles Peter and James? Let him write to those to whom he was ordained an apostle; for the writings of our apostles can teach us abundantly." By doing this he showed that he was not ignorant of their pride, and at the same time displayed his own humility. In like manner also the apostle John, for the sake of humility and for that reason, omitted his name in his epistle. Or certainly some say that for this reason, because he was about to name Christ in the epistle as Apostle, saying, "We have a High Priest and Apostle of our confession, Jesus the Just," he was unwilling to place the name of his apostleship in the beginning of this epistle.

For he did not consider it fitting that, where he was about to speak of Christ as Apostle, he should there also name himself an apostle, and especially in the title; lest he should seem to anyone to place himself before Christ. Now some say this Epistle is Barnabas's, some Luke's, some Clement's, saying that if it were Paul's, he would certainly, in his usual manner, as in the others, so also in this one have placed his name at the beginning; but if it will not be Paul's, because it is not titled with his name: therefore it will be neither Barnabas's, nor Luke's, nor Clement's, nor anyone's, since it is titled with no one's name. To which of these, then, is it to be ascribed? Certainly to the eminent preacher; for it is proved to be his from his lucid sense and his manner of speech, although it is composed in a subtler and more open style than all the Epistles; for it is reported that this one was sent to the Hebrews, and that he wrote it in the Hebrew tongue, in which he himself was most skilled, since he wrote the rest in the Greek tongue. But after the apostle's departure, Luke the evangelist set it forth in the Greek tongue; from which it was afterwards translated into the Latin language, as were the rest also.

CHAPTER ONE. At many times and in many ways, God, speaking in times past to the fathers in the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us in his Son. The whole purpose of the blessed Apostle in this Epistle is to bring his kinsmen the Jews (who are also called Hebrews, from Heber, in whom they were taken up) to pass from the law of Moses to the grace of the Gospel, from carnal observance to spiritual, and he distinguishes the great excellence of the grace which was given to the faithful through the Son from the legal shadows, which were displayed through the ministries of angels. Hence here he first sets forth that the prophets spoke to the fathers in diverse ways and various utterances, saying: At many times, that is, in many utterances. And in many ways, that is, in many qualities. In times past, namely in a former time. God the Father speaking through the prophets to our fathers. Then, to show how great a difference there was between the grace of those men and their fathers, he added: In these last days, of the final age, he has spoken to us through his Son. But by saying: He spoke in the prophets, and in the Son, it is as much as if he said through the prophets and through the Son; because one preposition is often taken for another, just as in many places of the Epistle he is found to use these prepositions indifferently. Let us consider, therefore, in how many utterances and in how many qualities God the Father spoke to the fathers of the Testament.

He spoke to them in many utterances and many manners, because he did not always reveal his secrets to them in a uniform way. For at times he spoke to them openly, and through an angel: as to Abraham, to whom he said: According to this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. And to Moses, by giving the precepts of the law: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; and other things of this kind. And to Lot also, by leading him out of Sodom, and to very many others. But at times obscurely, and through riddles, as to Moses, to whom he said: I am who I am: Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: He who is has sent me to you; at times in the appearance of a soldier, as to Joshua; at times in the heart, as to David, who said: I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me; and to the other prophets. At times through a dream, as to Daniel. For as great as is the distance between the grace of the Gospel, which was given through the Son, and the law, which was administered through a servant, so great is the difference between the ministers and helpers of the law: since servants were sent to servants; and between the promise and the grace, which was given through the Son to the sons, and afterwards is administered through the sons to the sons. Whom he appointed heir of all things. An heir is so called from heros, that is, lord: because he rules over the inheritance with free power.

God the Father therefore appointed his Son heir of all things, that is, of the whole world, or of all creatures: not, however, according to his divinity, by which he is coeternal with the Father and coequal with him in the omnipotence of the Godhead, and by which he eternally possesses all things together with the Father; but rather according to the humanity assumed by the Word, that Lord and heir was appointed over every creature: just as God the Father promised him, saying: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession. And the Son himself, rising from the dead, speaks thus in the person of his humanity: All power has been given to me, he says, in heaven and on earth. Let us not, then, divide the persons, but let us distinguish the natures. Hence it must be carefully noted that the Apostle in this Epistle now speaks of the substance of the humanity, and now of the substance of the Godhead: for in saying that he was appointed by God the Father heir of all creatures, he referred this to his humanity; but wishing to make a distinction between the nature of his divinity and that of his humanity, and to show what properly belongs to each nature, he added, saying: Through whom he also made the ages. Ages are so called from following, because they follow, returning and reverting into themselves: but here by ages we ought to understand all things that were made in time.

Therefore, to show that the Apostle had come into the world in these last days, and had received the inheritance in time—he who was with the Father before all ages—he said: Through whom God the Father made all things that were made in time. For what the evangelist John said: All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing—this the Apostle signified by saying: Through whom he also made the ages, referring this to his divinity. Then indeed, using certain steps of ascents elegantly, he came to that which is greater than all these, and declared, saying: Who since he is the splendor of glory, and the figure of his substance. God the Father is light, as the same Apostle says, speaking of the Son: Who dwells, he says, in inaccessible light; and the Son is light, and the Holy Spirit is light. Likewise the Father is splendor, and the Son is splendor; and how splendor proceeds from splendor cannot be defined. For this reason, then, the Son is called the splendor of the Father, because just as in fire there are three inseparable things—namely fire, heat, and splendor—and yet by splendor fire and heat are shown to us (though human things are not to be compared with divine things)—so the nature of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, inseparably joined and united, deigned to show itself through its Word, as it were through splendor, and moreover the mystery of the holy Trinity, the Son himself saying: I and the Father are one, and: Go, baptize all nations, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

In a wonderful way, therefore, the Apostle shows the whole substance of the deity of the Father and the Son, so as to reveal two persons in glory and splendor. For by “splendor” he declared the unity of essence with God the Father; in the name of “glory,” however, he expressed the person of God the Father; in “splendor,” the person of the Son; and thus the Son is splendor from splendor, as light from light, God from God, lumen from lumen, principle from principle. It follows: And the figure of his substance. As far as pertains to men, figure is one thing and substance another, because when the image and figure of some man is painted on a wall, that is not the figure which is the substance. But the Apostle in this place put “figure” for the very substance and equality of essence; and what he called “figure” here, elsewhere he called “form,” saying: Who, when he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. For “form” there and “figure” here declare one quality of essence. Christ, therefore, is the splendor of the Father and the figure of his substance, because through him the Father has been made manifest, as he himself said: Father, I have manifested your name to men; and he is equal to him in the substance of deity. It follows: ...and upholding all things by the word of his power. By saying “upholding,” he wished to express the ease of containing all things; and he put “upholding” for what is “governing and ruling.

Therefore the Word of God the Father bears all things that he has made by the word of his power: that is, by the might of his power, and by the word of his command he governs and rules all things. For it is no less to govern the world than to create it; for in creating, the substances of things were brought forth out of nothing: but in governing, those things that have been made are held together, lest they return to nothing. Therefore while all these things are ruled, and things that strive against one another are fitted together, the great and wonderful judgment of the power of God is declared. After so great a clarity of the divine majesty in the Son, he descends to the lowly things of his incarnation: and at the same time he distinguishes the nature of divinity and of humanity, saying: Making purification of sins. For what he said: Bearing all things by his governance and the rule of his power, he referred to the divinity. But what he added: Making purification of sins, belongs properly to his humanity: whether certainly through the redemption of his passion and the water of baptism: just as John says in his Apocalypse: He washed us from our sins in his blood. He sits at the right hand of his majesty on high. The order of the words must be considered: for first he declared that the Lord procured purification for us by his passion; and then he said that he sits at the right hand of majesty on high: for Christ first redeemed us by the blood of his passion, and so afterward penetrated the height of the heavens, where he now sits at the right hand of the Father.

But "to sit" is used in this place for "to dwell" and "to be," just as "right hand" is used for honor and the highest dignity. For it must not be thought that the omnipotent Father, who is an uncircumscribed spirit, filling all things, has a right hand or a left hand as we do; or that his Son sits at his right hand in such a way as sons of kings sit beside their father with a throne set next to him; but as we say, "right hand" is taken for glory and the honor of dignity; indeed, the Father is also written to be at the right hand of Christ, as is found in the psalm: The Lord at your right hand has shattered kings in the day of his wrath. Both, therefore, are at the right hand, because there is nothing sinister in the Godhead; because the man assumed by the Word is now one with God in glory, and on the fortieth day was exalted to heavenly things. What is it, then, "he sits at the right hand of majesty," except that it be said, he dwells in the fullness of the Father's majesty? And when he said "on high," he showed that that man has been exalted above every angelic and human creature; whence also it follows: Having become so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. Here "made" or "become" we ought to take for "received"; as if he were saying: He has inherited a more excellent and surpassing name of sonship than they; for as great as is the distance between the name of son and of servant, so much greater in dignity is he than the angels: since the one is creator (I speak according to divinity), the other creature.

That man himself is also greater in this respect than all the angels and every creature: because the power that was in every word before all ages rested in that man assumed by the Word from the time of conception. Therefore they are his ministers and servants, as was declared in his humiliation and passion, and also in his resurrection and ascension. But he exists as the proper Son and heir; and the Apostle indicates this to us when he adds: For to which of the angels did he ever say, You are my Son, today I have begotten you? Understand: this was said to none of the angels. This must be understood of the Word of God, which is eternal and consubstantial with the Father, not of any creature; although we read in the book of Job that angels were called sons of God. In Genesis too, sons; but whenever this happens, it happens by an improper use of the term. When, then, did he say to him: You are my Son? At the time of baptism, and on the mountain the Father's voice thundered from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son. And in this, that he said, You are my Son, he shows that he was begotten from his very own essence. And it must be noted that he did not say: Before all ages I begot you, or in the past tense; but, he says, today I have begotten you, which is an adverb of the present tense: for in God neither past things pass away nor future things succeed; but all times are joined together to him at once, because he has all things present.

And this is the meaning: Just as I am always eternal, having neither beginning nor end, so I always have you co-eternal with me. Such also is that which he said elsewhere: Before the morning star I begot you, that is, before the angelic creation, and before all the ages. And again, I will be to him a Father, and he will be to me a son. Do you see how he distinguished the twofold nature in Christ? For what he said a little above, Today I have begotten you, refers to the divinity of eternity; but what he added, I will be to him a Father, refers without any doubt to the essence of humanity. Hence he fittingly used a word of future tense, saying: I will be. For when God the Father said to David: When you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed, which will come forth from your loins; and I will establish his throne above your throne: and he himself will be to me a son, and I will be to him a Father, it was still to come that the Word of God the Father would assume a man in the virgin's womb, in the unity of his person: or because the Son of God would be in truth, not adopted, but his own. But this sentence can also look back to the preceding words, so that it is read as a question: Again, to which of the angels did he say: I will be to him a Father? And you understand, To none; or certainly absolutely and affirmatively, in this way: Again concerning him God the Father says: I will be a Father. And when he again brought the firstborn into the world, he said: And let all the angels of God worship him.

Every only-begotten son can be called firstborn, in that he is the first to open his mother's womb; yet not every firstborn is only-begotten, since he has other brothers who follow. But the Lord Jesus, both according to his divinity and according to his humanity, can be called both only-begotten and firstborn. He is only-begotten according to his divinity, because in the nature of the Godhead he has no brothers who follow; according to his humanity too he is the only-begotten of blessed Mary, who after him bore no others—as Helvidius slanders. Then he is firstborn according to the essence of the Godhead, as is attested through Solomon, saying: I, Wisdom, came forth from the mouth of the Most High, the firstborn before every creature. According to his humanity he is firstborn among many adoptive brothers; of these he himself said to Mary: Go to my brothers, and tell them. But as for what the Apostle says: When God the Father again brought his firstborn Son into the world, these words seem to sound as though he had already been brought in a second time. But how this is to be understood, the Evangelist John openly makes manifest, saying: He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. The Word, therefore, of God the Father, through whom all things were made, existing of one essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is everywhere and fills all things. For by encompassing he fills all things, and by filling he encompasses all things to be filled: by governing he presides, by presiding he governs.

And because he was in the world, where he took on flesh, and since he was inaccessible to our sight because he was not seen, he calls that very taking on of flesh another entrance; for while he who was invisible to human sight, having taken on flesh, showed himself visible, he was, as it were, brought in again. And it must be noted that what the Apostle calls an entrance, the Truth itself in the Gospel calls an exit, saying: I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world. Worthily, therefore, does he call the taking on and manifestation of his incarnation an exit, because we were outside, driven away from God, outside the courtyard of paradise, the palace of the eternal King: placed in the prison of this world and banished into exile.

For example, just as those who have incurred the king's offense are shut out from the royal court and are sentenced to exile and locked in prison; but just as a good mediator, wishing to obtain pardon for them, does not first bring them into the king's court, but himself goes out and there engages in conversation with them, and so, once they have been corrected and chastened, brings them into the king's presence—so the Lord Jesus presented himself. For he went out to us from the presence of the Father's majesty by taking on flesh and showing himself visible, and he spoke with us the precepts of the eternal King; and so, once we had been corrected and chastened by his preaching and miracles, confirmed by faith in him, and cleansed from sins by his passion, he brought us into the court, into the presence of the Father's majesty, when, ascending to the heavens, he opened for us the entrance to the heavenly kingdom. But by saying that he was brought into the world, this is signified: when he entrusts the world to him, he makes manifest that he is the Lord of the whole world. For then he will possess the world, when he has been acknowledged by all as the Lord of the whole world. But take this as said not of the substance of the Word, but of the essence of the man. And what follows: And let all the angels of God adore him, is as if he were saying: All my angels, and his: because through him they were made.

At that time, therefore, they worshipped him when they announced his birth, and when they came to him as he hungered and ministered to him; or when they guarded his tomb. And every day they also worship him, because they obey his vision. But did God the Father command only the angels to worship him? No—rather, every creature. And indeed to the angels he says: "Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." What he says—and God the Father, or divine Scripture, says it even to the angels—is as if he were saying "concerning the angels," putting "to" in place of "concerning"; for the Apostle does not preserve the order or sense of prepositions. And the sense is: He whom the angels are commanded to worship—from those very spirits of his, as often as he wills, he makes angels; he also makes his ministers a flame of fire, because those who stand in his sight he renders burning and inflamed in his love, according to what is said elsewhere: "Whom the angels desire to look upon." For in saying "Who makes his angels spirits," he brought it out in reversed order; for he ought to have said "Who makes his spirits angels." But it must be known that "angel" is the name of an office, not of a nature; for they are indeed always spirits, but they are by no means always called angels, except when they are sent: for "angel" is from the Greek.

By the Latin word he is called a messenger; if you ask what his nature is, he is a spirit: from the fact that he is sent, he is an angel—for example, just as "man" is the name of a nature, but "soldier" is the name of an office. It is said also in another way: the priests and prelates of the Church are ministers of almighty God, according to what Malachi said: The lips of the priest guard knowledge, and they seek the law from his mouth, because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts. The priests of the Church, therefore, are angels when they announce the joys of the heavenly fatherland to their hearers, saying: Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near. And: The just shall shine like the sun, and they shall be like the angels of God in heaven. But they are a flame of fire when they threaten their hearers with the terror of the fire of hell, saying: Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. But to the Son—that is, the Psalmist speaks—your throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a rod of equity is the rod of your kingdom. Consider how, and with what great clarity, he distinguishes the angelic creature from the Son, who created all things. "Thronus" in Greek is called in Latin a royal seat, as also "solium." By "throne," however, in one way we can understand the kingdom; by "scepter," which is the golden rod, the power of the kingdom is understood. The Psalmist says, therefore, speaking to the Son of God: O God, your kingdom and the power of your rule will endure for ever and ever.

Gabriel says something of this sort to Mary: He will reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. This is the kingdom of which the crowds cried out: Blessed is he who comes, the kingdom of our father David; of which the Lord himself said to Pilate: My kingdom is not of this world. Otherwise: by "throne" as the seat of those who judge, we can not unfittingly understand the judgment that proceeds from the seat. This is the judgment of which the Son of Man says: The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son; and of which the Psalmist says: O God, give your judgment to the king, and your justice to the son of the king, that is, to Christ. Therefore the throne of God will endure forever and ever, because the final judgment, which he will give to the elect, saying: Come, you blessed of my Father. And to the reprobate: Go into eternal fire: it will stand by an eternal separation between both, as the Gospel testifies and says: Then these will go into eternal punishment; but the just into eternal life. And what follows: A rod of equity, a rod of your kingdom. By the "rod of equity" is understood the rectitude of his sentence and judgment, or the just power of his kingdom: which rod rules the just by justice, and strikes the impious justly and rightly, governing and judging all things without any respect of persons. You have loved justice, and hated iniquity. This rod causes both that justice be loved and that iniquity be held in hatred: for no one can perfectly love justice unless he has held iniquity in hatred.

But iniquity, which is also named, is understood as whatever is done against the divine law: for the lover of truth is the hatred of falsehood. And because the Lord loved righteousness, because he did not sin, and hated iniquity, he explains what he first deserved to receive, saying: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. The Psalmist addresses the Son of God and says: God, God your Father has anointed you with the oil of exultation, because you hated iniquity and loved righteousness. It is not therefore to be understood that the Son of God according to the nature of divinity, in which he is equal to the Father, can have a God: because he himself with the Father is true God. But according to what he is man, he has God the Father: because he was made by him; and therefore the Psalmist says: God, your God, has anointed you. He was anointed, not with visible oil, but with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, who from the day of his baptism rested upon him in the form of a dove: nor did the fullness of the Holy Spirit remain in him only from the time of baptism, but rather from the time of conception: according to what Isaiah testifies, saying: The Spirit of the Lord rests upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, etc. But he says that he was anointed with the oil of exultation or gladness, because Christ never sinned, never had sadness from the remembrance of sin. For what is it to be anointed with the oil of gladness, except to have no stain of sin?

For the conscience of the saints then rejoices more and more, and bursts forth into gladness, when it is not bitten by the recollection of any graver sin. Indeed, the Holy Spirit, who rested upon Christ, guarded him so that he was conceived without sin, born without sin, and passed from this world without the stain of sin, according to what is written of him: He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. But what is it that the Psalmist said: God has anointed you before your fellows? Who, then, are his fellows? In the Old Testament, certainly, the patriarchs were fellows of Christ in this anointing, according to what is read in the psalm, where the Lord says of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to Abimelech and to the other kings of the Philistines: Do not touch my anointed ones. Kings, priests, and prophets were also fellows of him, because the anointing belonged to them especially, through which they merited to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For we read that Saul was anointed, and Samuel, and David; Solomon also was anointed at Gihon. Priests were anointed, as Aaron was anointed by Moses, when the Lord said to him: You shall anoint Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests by perpetual right. Prophets were likewise anointed, as Elisha was anointed by Elijah, to whom the Lord said: You shall anoint Elisha as prophet in your place. These three orders prefigured the Lord, who is the true King, Priest, and Prophet.

In the New Testament, however, its partakers are the apostles, martyrs, confessors, and all who, washed by the grace of baptism, obtain the gift of the Holy Spirit; and by Christ they are called Christians. Christ, therefore, is anointed with the oil of gladness before all his partakers, because all receive the Holy Spirit by measure; but he does not receive by measure, but through fullness, according to that saying: For God the Father does not give the Spirit to his Son by measure; but in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And then: In the beginning, O Lord, you founded the earth, and the works of your hands are the heavens. After the humanity of the Son of God, which is excellent, he turns himself again to the eternity of his divinity, saying: You, he says, O Lord, in the beginning of created things founded the earth. Where did he found the earth? If we weigh it rightly, we shall see that it subsists by the nod and disposition of God, founded upon nothing except in itself. And what he said: The works of your hands are the heavens, it is not to be thought that the Word of God the Father, which is incorporeal, works with hands, because there are no bodily lineaments in the nature of divinity such as we have. The works of his hands, therefore, we ought to understand as the power of his command: how by the word and power of his command he works whatever he wills: according to what the psalm says: He spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created.

By the power of the Word of God, therefore, heaven and earth subsist, because by the power of His command all things were made, and without Him was nothing made. But since Moses in the beginning of Genesis said that heaven was made first, and then the earth, saying thus: In the beginning God made heaven and earth: a question arises as to why the Psalmist sets down earth, and then heaven, as though earth had been made before heaven. This is resolved thus: what the former set heaven before earth, the latter set it after; therefore it came about that it might be shown that the two were made at the same time; but what the divine majesty made at the same time, human speech could not utter at the same time; wherefore it was necessary to say one before the other. They shall perish, but thou shalt remain. Here the plural number is set in place of the singular, as in many other places of divine Scripture; for this is not to be understood of that firmament where the stars are contained, nor of the ethereal heaven through which the courses of the seven planets are driven; but it is rather to be taken of this airy heaven, from which also the birds of heaven are named. On the day of judgment, therefore, this airy heaven shall perish, from which we draw breath and release it: not that it ceases entirely to be according to its nature, but it shall be changed from this form into a better, and from this density into the subtlety and brightness of the ether; whence the Apostle said in another place: The fashion of this world passeth away.

If the figure passes away, the substance will remain. For whatever extent of space the water occupied in the time of the flood—so that it was fifteen cubits higher than all the mountains under the whole heaven, and, as some say, reaching even to the circle of the moon—the fire will hold that much space on the day of judgment, accompanying the Lord's advent, according to what the Psalmist says: Fire shall go before him, because it will consume all the clouds and all the density of this air; and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth. Concerning this change the Lord also speaks in the Gospel, saying: Heaven and earth shall pass away—they shall indeed pass from this figure and appearance into something better through renewal, and they shall remain in their own substance. And all things shall grow old like a garment. By garment here we must understand the human body, which is consumed by length of time and by the pain of sickness, and is reduced to dust. Just as, therefore, the human body indeed grows old and is reduced to dust, but on the day of judgment will be renewed through the resurrection, so this airy heaven, on account of its excessive age, is in a manner already growing old, but on the day of judgment it will be renewed through the burning of fire. And as a cloak you shall change them, and they shall be changed.

It is called a garment (amictus) from "amicieodo," that is, from "surrounding": rightly, then, is heaven compared to a garment, with which we are surrounded, since just as a garment girds the human body on every side, so heaven girds the earth on every side, poised in equal balance; whence also it is compared elsewhere to the skin of a living creature, as the Psalmist says: "Stretching out heaven like a skin." "You will change" (he says) "heaven like a garment": as if he were saying, Just as a garment is easily folded if it has been spread out, and again when folded is lightly spread out; and if it has been stained with filth, it can easily be cleansed: so heaven, spread out and arranged by you; and so with incomprehensible ease on the day of judgment it will be changed from this figure and appearance into a better one, and to show that the works of the Lord are now to remain under eternity, he added: "And they will be changed"; as if he were saying: After they have been changed, they will remain in that newness; never to return to this corruptible state. But you are the same, and your years will not fail.

Behold the difference between a creature made in time and the Creator abiding equally in his eternity: for into almighty God there falls neither past nor future, nor any mutability; but all things are present to him, and he is always immutable. Hence the Psalmist, weighing by subtle consideration the eternity and immutability of the Word of God, used a substantive verb of the present tense, speaking of him: Heaven, he says, and earth shall be changed; but thou art the same: he who was before all ages. And thy years, that is, thy eternity, shall not fail. He, therefore, who always has being, says of himself to Moses: I am who I am. Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: He who is has sent me to you. Wherefore every rational creature, which is in itself mutable or temporal, ought to strive with the utmost effort that it may be able to be joined and cleave to him who always remains the same. But to which of the angels did he ever say: Sit at my right hand, until I make thy enemies the footstool of thy feet? After he has shown that the majesty of divine eternity is in the Son, the blessed Apostle again turns his discourse to the glorification of his humility, saying: To which of the angels did he ever say: Sit at my right hand?

you supply: None; for to none of the archangels, to none of the dominions or virtues or principalities did God the Father grant this glory, that he should say to him: Sit at my right hand, that is, dwell with me and rest in the fullness of my majesty. But to the victorious Son, and the triumpher over the whole world through the dispensation of his incarnation, after the glory of his resurrection on the fortieth day, he says: You have labored in passion, you have labored in the redemption of the human race; rest with me in glory, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Until, or donec, does not signify the end of any time in this place, but is set for the infinite and eternal; as if he were saying in other words: Do you always dwell in the fullness of my majesty, because I will always subject your enemies, the Jews and other unbelievers, to your eternity. For the feet of the Lord designate the stability of eternity, where he stands as it were on firm footsteps by the power of his omnipotence. We can also not incongruously understand the feet as the mystery of his incarnation in two ways: daily his enemies are subjected to him, namely when, having abandoned the opposition of vices and unbelief, they submit themselves to him willingly for salvation, so that they may be protected under him; or certainly when they are unwilling to believe in him, they are compelled and subjected to him, and are trampled by the dominion of his power. Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those who inherit salvation?

If all spirits of the heavenly powers are sent for the salvation of believers, what is it that Daniel said: "Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before him"? For how are all sent, if ten thousand times a hundred thousand stand before him? It must therefore be understood that almighty God, who is an uncircumscribed spirit, fills all things and is wholly everywhere; wherefore the angelic spirit, which is circumscribed, wherever it is sent, runs within the Lord and always has the Lord present to it; and for this reason those very beings who are sent also stand before him. Or certainly for this reason all are said to be sent, because, as the Greek Didymus says in his book On the Holy Spirit, messengers are sent from all the orders of the heavenly dignities; just as we read that the archangels Gabriel and Michael were sent in the book of Daniel, and Raphael to Tobit; one also of the seraphim is read to have been sent to Isaiah, when he touched his lips with a coal, and as angels are frequently read to have been sent to the saints. Generally, however, as the teachers say, to each of the faithful from the beginning of his birth, or rather from the time of baptism, an angel is given by God for his protection, and to persuade him to do good; whence the Apostle says here: They are sent for the ministry of salvation, for the sake of those who are to receive the inheritance of the heavenly fatherland.

In this place, then, as we have said, all are sent, because they are sent from all the orders; and those who are sent are of the same dignity as those who stand by, or certainly, because all are of the same will, and while those who always stand by agree with those who are sent, in a certain manner all come in them, and all are sent. And the sense is: What wonder is it if the angels render their ministry to the only-begotten Son of God, when it is established that they have been made ministers of our salvation? Wherefore he said to none of them: Sit at my right hand.

CHAPTER II. Therefore it is more abundantly necessary that we observe those things which we have heard, lest perhaps we drift away. Therefore, what wonder is it that the Son of God is more excellent than all the angels, who gave his Gospel? Or certainly, because the angels minister to us, who always report our works to God, although he himself is everywhere, it is more abundantly and more fully necessary that we observe those things which we have heard from Christ in the Gospel, and from his Apostles, than we were accustomed to do in the Law, which was given through a servant. And why more abundantly? Lest perhaps we drift away: that is, lest perhaps we perish, and fall away from salvation. Or, lest perhaps we vanish away, passing into perdition like a river running into the sea, while our thoughts run about through empty things. Moreover, he joins his own person to them, acting in his usual manner.

And he gives the reason why he said "more abundantly," when he explains it in the following words, saying: For if the word spoken through angels was made firm, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward: how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? The word of the law and the prophets was spoken through angels to our fathers, because he spoke to Moses and the prophets through a subject creation, according to what the blessed Stephen also shows concerning Moses in his disputation: This is Moses, who was with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai. And it was made firm, that is, true, the same word spoken through an angel, since just as it was foretold there, so all things came to pass, whether good or evil. Every transgression or violation of the law, and disobedience, committed against that word, received a just recompense of reward, namely the judgment of eternal damnation; thus it happened to those who murmured. But it should be noted that, although "reward" is most especially taken in a good sense, here the Apostle has set it down for evil, according to his custom, not caring about the proprieties of words, but placing one indifferently for the other: as here "reward" for evil, and elsewhere "captivity" in a good sense, where he said: Bring every thought into captivity, to obey Christ.

The Apostle therefore makes a comparison between the word of the law, which was spoken through an angel, and the grace of the Gospel given through the Son, and says: For if the word of the law spoken through angels was made true in all the good things it promised, or the evils it threatened, how much more will the word of the Gospel be firm, given through the Son! And if those who were disobedient to the law had condemnation, and could not escape judgment, how shall we escape the vengeance of God if we have neglected so great a salvation—namely, the faith of the Gospel and eternal life, so great as being both announced and promised to us through the Son? Understand: in no way. By these words the Apostle shows that the salvation in the law was not as great as that in the Gospel; for the law promised earth, saying: If you are willing and hear me, you shall eat the good things of the earth. The Gospel promised the kingdom of heaven, saying: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near. The former provided vengeance upon earthly enemies; let the latter provide it upon spiritual enemies. The former held out long-lived temporal life; the Gospel grants life that will endure without end. Which—understand: salvation. When it had received its beginning to be declared through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard. The salvation therefore that is contained in the Gospel received from God its beginning to be declared: he who first announced it himself through himself, saying: Repent, etc., and: He who has believed and been baptized will be saved.

Then it was truly confirmed, that is, it was believed by those who heard him—namely by the apostles, who were with him, and by their successors; or, certainly, it was confirmed, that is, it was consolidated and made perfect in us by those who received it from the Lord himself; because the salvation which was given to us through the Holy Spirit remains forever. For the sake of humility he joins his own person with them, saying: It was confirmed in us by those who heard. At this someone could say: How was it confirmed by them? To whom he replies: God bearing witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and distributions of the Holy Spirit according to his will. It was confirmed, he says, in us by those who heard, with God bearing witness, that is, at the same time giving testimony to their teaching and preaching, not by voice but by power and the display of miracles and the variety of tongues; for, as one of the apostles would say to a dead or sick man, "Arise, be alive or whole," he would immediately rise up sound. But signs and wonders and miracles are here taken as one. And what he adds, distributions of the Holy Spirit, signifies the abundance of graces, which the Fathers of the Old Testament did not have, which was given after Jesus was glorified, as the Gospel testifies, which says: For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

These are the distributions, or divisions, which the Apostle mentions in another place, saying: To one is given through the Spirit the word of knowledge, and the rest which he enumerates in what follows, until he adds: But one and the same Spirit works all these things, dividing to each one as he wills. Hence he also says here: According to his own will: for to the divine will and counsel he apportions all things, lest anyone should trust in his own merits. For the Holy Spirit himself knows what is beneficial to each, or what is advantageous to each. For God did not subject the coming world, of which we speak, to angels. He refers to what he said above, that God the Father said: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool, but he handed it over to his Son, to whom he himself said in the psalm: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. Hence the Son himself also, rejoicing that the world handed over to him would believe, says: But I have been established as king by him, that is, by God the Father. But someone testified in a certain place, saying. He keeps silent in this epistle about the names of the prophets, whose testimony he knows; he does this not out of envy or with the intent of concealing it, but with the desire of honoring them and showing that the Hebrews had great knowledge of the divine Scriptures, to whom he was writing these things, so much so that he had no need even to set down the name of the one speaking. This testimony, then, is taken from the Psalter of David: how he speaks to God the Father: What is man.

It must be uttered in a subdued tone and with contempt. What is man? Understand: fragile, mortal, fallen, and one who from Adam has been conquered by the general depravity of the old sin. That you are mindful of him. Understand: thus he also bestows the gifts of his mercy. It follows: Or the son of man. Understand, what is he? The teachers refer this same thing to Christ, who in the Gospel very often calls himself the Son of man, that is, the son of Mary; and therefore the voice must be raised in the form of a question: and the sense is: What did that man, assumed by the Word, merit, that he should become the Son of God? And what follows: That you visit him? They refer to the human race, concerning which a little above, under the name of man, it was said: What is man? And the sense is: That you visit the human race through your Son, and bestow perpetual benefits, is not its merit, but your grace: and therefore it subsists, because it is visited by you. Visitation pertains to the physician and to the sick; for the office of visitation is said to be fulfilled by a physician when he enters in to the infirm; and God the Father then visited the human race, which was infirm and languid, when he sent his Son, who was made flesh and dwelt among us. Concerning this visitation Zacharias also, the father of blessed John, says: The Dayspring from on high has visited us. Some teachers take this which he says: What is man, that you are mindful of him; or the son of man, that is, that you visit him?

They refer the whole to the human race; but what follows they refer in agreement to Christ. You have made him a little lower than the angels. By the death of the body and the reproaches of the passion, God the Father made his Son lower than the angels—he who according to divinity was equal to him in omnipotence—because the angels exist immortal and impassible; but he was made lower, not by necessity, but by spontaneous loving-kindness, as the same apostle says elsewhere: Who, though he was in the form of God, emptied himself, taking the form of a servant; and he became obedient to the Father unto death: even death on a cross. For in that respect in which he could die, the creator of the angels was made lower than the angels. Well, moreover, did he say: A little lower: because although he assumed a mortal body, he nevertheless had no stain of sin. You have crowned him with glory and honor. The psalmist speaks to God the Father concerning the humility and exaltation of the Son, saying: You have made (he says) your Son a little lower than the angels, when you created him mortal: but because he was obedient to you unto death, you have crowned him with glory and honor. Such also is that which the Apostle says in another place: For this reason also God exalted him, and gave him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. With glory, therefore, God the Father crowned him in the resurrection, and with honor in the ascension, when on the fortieth day of his resurrection he exalted him above every creature.

Otherwise: He is crowned with glory in the multitude of believers; namely, when after the triumph of the resurrection he received the inheritance of the whole world in that he is man; but with honor, in the confession of eternal majesty, that is, in that he dwells in the fullness of the Father's glory. And you have set him over the works of your hands. By this that he was made man, he was set by God the Father over the works of vision: over heavenly things, namely, and earthly, and infernal; who according to the power of his divinity, just as with God the Father he had created all things, so with him he possessed all things. For by saying: You have set him over the works of your hands, every creature is shown to be subject to him; because just as by the Word all things were created, so that man assumed by the Word possesses all things with the Word, You have subjected all things under his feet. That is, to his eternity and power, so that every creature may adore him. And this is what he himself, appearing after the glory of the resurrection, said to them: All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth. For in that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing not subject to him. In that, that is, in this gift, or deed, that he subjected all things to him, he does not seem to have excepted either heavenly or earthly things: so as to say, after the angelic creature; but thus he concluded, saying: He subjected all things to him. But now we do not yet see all things subject to him. For what is it that the blessed Apostle says?

For when he had said, all things are subject to Christ, he immediately added, saying: But now we do not yet see all things subject to him. If all things are subject to him, how are they not subject? It must therefore be understood in this way, as above, where he said: He left nothing not subject to him, that we understand a universal subjection, both voluntary, namely through faith, and necessary, by which every creature is compelled to be subject to its Creator. But here, where he said: We do not yet see all things subject to him: we ought to take it only of the voluntary subjection, which consists in faith: by which they are unwilling to believe in him. For since at that time, when the Apostle was saying these things, the gospel preaching had not yet been spread through the whole world, and not yet all who were predestined to life believed, he rightly says now: All things are not yet subject to him: and not only then, but even now all the predestined do not believe. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death. Here he openly shows that the glory and honor of Christ was his cross, for which he was made a little lower than the angels, by dying for our salvation: whence also the Apostle elsewhere, when he had said: He became obedient to the Father unto death, even death on a cross, immediately added, saying: Therefore God also exalted him, and gave him a name which is above every name: so also the Lord himself was provoking it, saying: That the Son of man may be glorified.

If he who is Lord calls glory the things he suffered on behalf of servants, much more should you, a man, not doubt that the things you suffer on behalf of God pertain to you unto eternal glory. Him, I say—that is, Jesus—we see crowned, not with bodily eyes but with the eyes of the mind, as he sits in the fullness of the Father's majesty. That by the grace of God he might taste death for all. He is called the grace of God the Father because he was freely given to us by God the Father, and because he freely endured death for us; for it was not owed to us by our own merit that the Son of God should taste death for us, but he did this by ineffable grace. Now, as to what he says—that he tasted death for all—certain teachers understand it so absolutely, that it is said to be for all those for whom he tasted it, that is, for the elect, predestined to eternal life. But others take it so generally, that it is said he died for all, although not all are saved. And what if not all believe? He nevertheless did what was his part. Hence the blessed Prosper offers this comparison: There is a certain most skilled physician who, coming into a populous city where many sick are found, compounds a potion against all kinds of diseases, and calls everyone together, saying: Come, all you peoples who labor under various diseases, and drink of this potion which I have prepared for the sake of your health; I promise you with an oath that whoever drinks of it will immediately deserve to obtain healing.

Those who believe his words draw near, drink, and are healed; but those who refuse to drink are not healed, but waste away in their own weakness. Therefore, as far as the physician's devotion is concerned, he prepared a draught for the health of all of them, although it benefits only those who have drunk from it. So too Christ, as far as was in him, died for all, although his passion benefits only those who are willing to believe in him. And at the same time it must be noted that the Apostle did not say, "He was subjected to death," but properly, "He swallowed up death," by which he wished to show the swiftness of the resurrection; for he could be held by death for a short time, and once it was conquered he immediately rose victorious. For it was fitting that he, for whose sake all things exist and through whom all things exist, who had brought many sons into glory, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. He was saying, he says, that he—namely the author and their salvation—should be made perfect through suffering, that is, that he should accomplish the salvation of all through the passion of Christ, who is the author of salvation for all who believe, and who before his passion had brought many adopted sons into the glory of faith, hope, and charity; who had a sure hope that they could attain the joys of the heavenly fatherland and the inheritance of the eternal King; or indeed, it was fitting that through his passion he should accomplish all things that had been foretold concerning him. Hence he himself said while hanging on the cross: "It is consummated.

For whom all things, that is, through his death all things in heaven and on earth were restored: namely, man redeemed and the number of the angels restored. Through whom all things: understand, were made: according to what John says: All things were made through him. You see how he is in our midst, and joined to us: he is the Son, and we are sons: he is the proper Son, we the adopted; but he saves, and we are saved. You see how he joins us and distinguishes us; for when he says: He had brought many sons to glory, here he joins them. But when he adds: The author of their salvation, here he distinguishes. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one. Who is he who sanctifies? Christ, through the faith of his passion and through the gift of baptism. Who are those who are sanctified? All who believe, who are sanctified by the faith of Christ's passion and the grace of baptism. But Christ who sanctifies, and we who are sanctified, are from one God the Father, because from him all things received their origin: for there is one God, from whom all things. But he is one way, we another. He, as the proper Son, can sanctify; we, as adopted sons, are sanctified by him: yet we have one Father in heaven. He the proper Son, we the adopted. For which cause. Understand, because both he and we are from one God the Father, though distinctly. He is not ashamed to call them brothers. These are the adopted sons.

Saying: I will proclaim your name to my brothers, he is not ashamed to call them brothers, showing that this is not the same brotherhood as our humanity, but [it is] in his great mercy and greatest humility that he chose us as brothers. He confirms this also by prophetic testimony, lest it be thought something new and not long foretold: for he says: I will proclaim your name to my brothers: that is, he promises that by his sacred passion and glorious resurrection he will make known the glory of the Father's divinity, and also his name, by which he was called Father. I will proclaim, he says: that is, I will cause it to be announced by my preachers, so that you may believe me; for rising from the dead he says to the women: Go and announce to my brothers. And to Mary: Go to my brothers. But they are called brothers both who love and who are loved. He added indeed: In the midst of the Church I will praise you. In the midst of the Church, that is, in the assembly of the faithful. The Son praised the Lord Father when, after the apostles returned from preaching, he said: I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that is, I praise you and glorify you: because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones. He also himself in the midst of the Church praises God the Father, while all the faithful, redeemed by his passion and washed by his baptism, render unceasing praises to God the Father in heart and deed. But God is to be praised in these three ways. And again: I will be trusting in him. That is, in God the Father.

This is the voice of the Son of God speaking to God the Father concerning his humanity; for the man assumed by the Word had placed his whole confidence in God the Father. Hence he said: Father, glorify your name. And praying for his faithful, he said: Father, I will that where I am, these also may be with me. And exhorting them also to have confidence, he commanded: Have confidence, I have overcome the world. And again: Behold, I and the children whom God has given me. These two testimonies are taken from the oracle of the prophet Isaiah, speaking in the person of the Son of God. These, moreover, are the saints, namely the apostles, to whom the Lord said: Children, do you have anything to eat? They are rightly called children, on account of their innocence and humility, of whom Truth itself says: Suffer the little children to come to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, because the children shared in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same. This was said of the apostles and all the faithful, that through this they were brothers of the Lord, because he had a true body and blood, just as they had.

In this passage Marcion is plainly confounded together with his followers, since he dared to say that our Lord did not have a true body, whereas the Apostle says that by taking on flesh he became a partaker of those children: for just as those children and we consist of flesh and blood, so Christ also partook of flesh and blood, being made man; and just as Christ shared in our substance through the assumption of a man, so too we are partakers of him through the assumption of his body and blood. But why Christ shared in flesh and blood he makes clear in what follows, when he adds: That through death he might destroy him who held the empire of death, that is, the devil; and might free those who through fear of death were throughout their whole life subject to slavery. Here the Apostle shows something wonderful, demonstrating that the devil was conquered by Christ through that very means by which he held power in the world: the weapon that was once strong for him against the world—that is, death—by it Christ struck him; just as David, drawing the sword of Goliath, cut off that man's head with the very sword by which that former victor was accustomed to prevail. Since, therefore, the devil had presumed a principality in the world through the death of man, through the temporal death of Christ he was vanquished.

Wherefore Christ partook of flesh and blood, so that he might be able to die for a time; and thus, when he died, he who had committed no sin destroyed the devil and death; because he always died to sin, in that he did not sin. But when the devil's dominion was destroyed, he freed his elect, who through fear of death throughout their whole life, which they lived in this world, were subject, that is, bound and enslaved to the weak servitude of death and of the devil. For in this they feared death, because they were servants of death, since all were subject to death. For nowhere did he take hold of angels, but he took hold of the seed of Abraham. What he had said above—that the children shared in flesh and blood, and that Christ partook of it—he now carries out further, wishing to show from what source he partook of them, and he says: Nowhere, that is, in no place, neither in heaven nor on earth, did he assume the angelic creation; but he assumed a human body from the seed of Abraham. By these words he favors them by coaxing them: for which of them did he assume? Because therefore man was to be held back by the death of the Son of God, for that reason he did not assume the angelic nature, which cannot suffer death, but the human nature, in which he could die. Nor was such dignity conferred on the angels, that the Son of God should be joined in one person to their nature; which dignity and honor divine grace bestowed on human nature, so that God and man should be one person. And why did he say: He took hold, which pertains to one fleeing?

Because he pursued us as though we were withdrawing from him and fleeing far away, and he apprehended us. Hence he had to be made like his brothers in all things. For this reason (he says) — namely, that he did not assume the angelic nature, but the human nature from the seed of Abraham — he had to be made like his brothers in all things. What is "in all things"? That is, he was brought up and grew, he hungered, he suffered, and he died: in all these things he is like his brothers, because they are subject to the same condition. But perhaps someone asks: Why was man restored rather than the fallen angel? To which it must be answered that man did not offend as greatly as the devil; for the latter sinned at the devil's persuasion, but the devil fell by no one's persuasion, but by his own pride. Man also, because he had a body, needed to eat; but the devil, because he is a spirit, is wholly without excuse. There was also a third reason: namely, man had not yet come to the place where he was to reign eternally with God, but was dwelling in the earthly paradise, from which he was to be transferred to heaven, once the number of the elect was complete; but the devil was already established in heaven. That he might become a merciful and faithful high priest before God, and that he might make propitiation for the sins of the people. He is called merciful from "miserable heart," namely one who takes up mercy and knows how to show mercy through experience.

Therefore there was no other reason for him to be made like his brothers in all things, except that he might show us mercy by redeeming us, and become a faithful, true, and powerful high priest, interceding with God the Father on our behalf and propitiating him for our sins. But this was the cause of this merciful dispensation: he saw, indeed, the human race intent upon death, bound by the chains of sins, and he had compassion on it, as a faithful high priest, reconciling us to God the Father, and by reconciling, purifying us. For it is the office of a priest and high priest to be faithful, so that he may be able to free from sins those whose priest he is. He is called high priest (pontifex) because he provides a bridge (pons), that is, a way, for those who follow him by his good example. So too the Lord made a bridge for us, that is, he showed us the way of life, when he said: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. He also made a bridge for us, since he opened for us the door of the heavenly fatherland, where he now stands interceding with God the Father on our behalf. For in that in which he himself suffered and was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. In that, he says, that is, in the man. In which he himself was tempted. But not despised and suffered by his ministers: he is able to free the bound and to help the tempted so that they are not overcome, because he knew temptations not only as God, but also as man he proved them by experience.

And for this reason he can show us mercy not only through what he is as God, but also through what he is as man, since the man assumed by the Word is of the same power as the Word himself.

CHAPTER III. Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus, who is faithful to him who made him, as also Moses was in all his house. He calls them brothers both in flesh and in spirit, who were of the same stock and held the same faith; holy, because they had been sanctified by faith in the passion of Christ and by the water of baptism, since they were partakers of the heavenly calling, that is, of the heavenly homeland, to which he called all, saying, Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Consider, he says, the Apostle and High Priest of our faith, Jesus. "Apostle" in Greek is "sent" in Latin; and the Lord Jesus was an apostle, because he was freely sent by God the Father, as he himself testifies, saying: I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And: As the Father sent me, I also send you. Hence he is proclaimed excellent elsewhere, where it says: God sent his Son, made of a woman. He is the High Priest of our confession, because he presents the confession of our faith before God the Father, who is faithful to the same God the Father who made him; according to what is said elsewhere: Who was made for him from the seed of David according to the flesh.

But this was not said only of the essence of his humanity, in which he himself was faithful, obedient to God the Father even unto death. Was he not faithful to God the Father, when he reckoned all that he did not to his own glory but to the Father's? saying: The Father who dwells in me, he does the works. As also Moses, he says, was faithful, or proved faithful, in all his house. By house of God here we must understand the people of God, namely the Israelite people, over whom Moses was appointed by God, of which house Isaiah says: The vineyard of Sabaoth, the house is Israel. And again, exhorting: House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. In which house Moses was faithful, that is, devoted and of good will, bringing forward the things that were God's, and not usurping to himself the glory of God. For this one was accounted worthy of greater glory than Moses: by how much greater honor the Lord has who built it. But in this place there will be an hypallage in the sense, or a quite necessary subaudition, supplied in this way: Christ was found worthy of so much greater glory than Moses, by how much greater honor he has; understand, the Lord of the house, who built the same house. Or: Christ was found worthy of so much greater glory than Moses, by how much greater honor the builder has than the house which he himself built. And he gives the reason why the Lord is of greater glory than the house built by him. For every house is built by someone: but he who created all things is God.

Here he distinguishes the maker from the thing made, wishing it to be understood that God is the author of both houses—that is, of the people as well. And Moses indeed was faithful. That is, devoted and of good will. In all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things. Understand: of the words. Which were to be spoken. But Christ as a son, in his own house. He dwells in it, ordering and disposing it. As great as is the difference between a servant, whom the head of the household sets over his house, and a son, whom he leaves as heir, so great is the difference and distance between Moses and Christ. But Moses was a faithful and devoted servant in the house of God almighty, that is, in the Israelite people, for a testimony of those words which were to be spoken through him to the people, since he was the interpreter of the words of God to the people, and again of the people to God. But Christ freely orders his own house, as a son orders his father's inheritance, of which the Apostle now adds, saying: Which house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the glory of hope firm unto the end. Again the Apostle exhorts the Hebrews to stand bravely in the faith and to persevere in good work, joining himself to them in his usual manner. We are, he says, the house of God, if we hold fast the confidence—that is, right faith—and the glory of our hope firm unto the end of our death, or unto the day of judgment. The glory of our hope is that by which we glory that we are already in hope sons of God, and, as we hold it in hope, we believe that we shall possess it in reality.

For the good things that have been promised to us, we can by no means possess in this penal life; therefore, holding a steadfast faith, let us patiently await with certain hope the rewards promised to us by the Lord. It follows: Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, and the rest, up to: If they shall enter into my rest. The blessed Apostle had spoken a little above concerning hope—that we ought to hope for the things that are to come—and then he subjoined the prophetic testimony by way of comparison: how those perished who despaired of the power of almighty God, and what the few merited who believed the promises of God with certain hope. Therefore, since the Apostle has spoken obscurely, it is necessary to recount the history of the Old Testament so that the discourse may become clearer. The people of Israel, led out of Egyptian slavery amid the signs and wonders of the Lord, after they had traversed a long way through the desert, fed by the Lord with manna, given drink from the rock, and protected by his guardianship, took counsel to send from each tribe leaders as scouts, who were to spy out and consider the land granted to them by the Lord. These men traversed the land among the nations, and after the space of forty days returned to the multitude, reporting that the land was most fertile and the producer of great fruits, but that it had impregnable cities and that there were very strong men in it, as being of the stock of Enac, that is, of the giants.

But the Israelites were ungrateful and foolish; they ought to have remembered such great benefits of God—how he had delivered them when they were shut in by so great a multitude of the Egyptian army, how he had also given them springs from the rock without fail amid the perils of rivers, how he had bestowed manna and conferred countless other benefits on them—yet they did not believe, despairing of his power, and they did not call any of these things to mind; but terrified by a hopeless fear, they said with murmuring: Would that the Lord had not brought us into that land! Let us return to Egypt. God therefore, angry that they had so quickly forgotten his works and wonders, swore that that generation would not enter into the rest and the fatherland once promised to their fathers, and so those six hundred thousand who had gone out from Egypt perished, except only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun, who tried to restrain the sedition of the people, trusting in the promise of the Lord.

But it must be noted that three rests are mentioned by the Apostle in this epistle: one of the sabbath, on which God rested from his works; the second of Palestine, into which the Israelites entered, to rest from misery and many labors; the third also, which is the true rest, namely the kingdom of heaven, on reaching which those who attain it will most plainly rest from the labors and hardships of this world. Of this the Apostle here speaks spiritually, prophesying, saying: Wherefore—understand, because we are the house of God, if we retain right faith and a firm hope of glory—do not harden your hearts, lest you suffer the like of what your forefathers suffered, being deprived of the promised rest. By these words the Apostle exhorts the Hebrews not to be faithless and unbelieving and to lose the eternal rest promised to them by the Lord, as their fathers lost the temporal rest. Do not, he says, harden your hearts, as your fathers hardened them. In the provocation—that is, in the embittering, when they provoked me to bitterness. According to the day of their testing in the desert, where your fathers tested me. In many ways, saying: Can God prepare a table in the desert? And: Can he bring us into the land promised to our fathers?

But when he says, "Today," the Psalmist is not speaking to those who died in the wilderness by murmuring against God and being unbelieving, but rather to those who lived in the time of the Lord's preaching, and of the apostles, and who will exist even to the end of the world. "Today," he says, that is, in the day of the New Testament, or at all times, whenever "today" is spoken: "do not harden your hearts"; for "today" is used in place of "forever," as long as the world and the present life endure. There follows: "They tested and saw my works for forty years." What he says—"They tested my works and wonders"—is not to be understood in such a way that "they tested" means "they chose" for the sake of giving thanks, but rather this testing must be referred to curiosity and temptation. "They tested," he says, "my works": that is, they inquired into them for the sake of curiosity, testing whether I was almighty. But what happened? They saw those works for forty years, and they remained ungrateful. What he says—"for forty years"—can also be joined to what follows. Now the number forty is held to be mystical in divine Scripture. For the Lord fasted forty days in the wilderness, so that he might triumph over the one on whose account they murmured against God in the wilderness for forty years; and having completed so great a glory of victory in his passion and resurrection, he was with his disciples for forty days before he penetrated the height of the heavens.

So in the first forty days He showed the testing of this pilgrimage, and in the latter forty days the consolation by which they are to be consoled in the fatherland; for His body, that is, the Church, must necessarily suffer testings in the present world, so that afterward it may be able to arrive at the joys of the heavenly fatherland; yet even in the present the Consoler is not absent, who said: "Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age." There follows: "Wherefore." Understand, because they tested Me, and for forty years by the cause of their curiosity they proved My works. "I was offended with this generation." It is more to be called offended, or hostile, than angry; since he who is angry can easily be recalled from anger; but he who is intent, or offended, can scarcely or in no way be appeased. Thus almighty God, being offended, that is, greatly and implacably angry, was with those six hundred thousand who perished in the desert. "And I said." To Moses and Aaron, or even to Joshua. "They always err in heart." In many ways almighty God chastised them; but they always erred in heart, deviating from the way of truth and uprightness; for whoever does not obey the will of God errs from the rectitude of justice. "But they did not know My ways." He says "they did not know," that is, they did not approve Me, nor did they choose My actions and My precepts. Or, "They did not know," because they were unwilling to know them further, so as both to hold and to observe them.

To whom I swore in my anger, "If they shall enter into my rest." "If" is sometimes used for affirmation, sometimes for doubt, sometimes for denial, as in the present passage it stands for "not," and in that psalm where the prophet says, "If I have repaid those who repaid me evil"—that is, "I have not repaid." The order of the words is: "They shall not enter into my rest, as I swore in my anger." For the anger of God is His vengeance; for to speak belongs to God in a great way, but to swear is greatly to be feared, since indeed every word of His ought to be received as an oath, because He is true; yet He is sometimes said to swear to heighten the force of the matter and to strike terror into the hearers. So too He is said to be angry in the human manner, though He Himself always remains the same, so that when we hear that He is angry, we may fear to sin. But what He said—"They shall not enter into my rest"—here, as was said above, we ought to understand a twofold rule: one, namely, of the earthly promise promised to Abraham, which they lost because of their unbelief; the other, truly, eternal life, of which the Apostle speaks spiritually, into which the Jews who remain in unbelief shall not enter. Take heed, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God. Again the Apostle exhorts them by coaxing, calling them brothers and giving counsel as to how they may be able to enter into the rest.

My brothers in the flesh, brothers also in faith, see—that is, beware—and attend with the utmost diligence, lest perhaps there be in any of you a will that is not good, and a heart evil with unbelief, of departing from the living God, as was in those who wandered in the desert by worshiping idols, and you perish as they perished. But exhort one another every day, while it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Because he was writing to those Jews who had already believed, and among whom there were such as could exhort others in faith, hope, and good works, therefore he speaks in this manner: Exhort one another, he says, and correct one another every day, while it is called today—that is, for the whole time of the present life, in which there is space for repentance: if anyone has sinned, let him not despair of pardon as long as he lives; nor let any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin—that is, by despair, sin deceiving through unbelief, as though one could not merit forgiveness through repentance. For he who does not perfectly believe in salvation is generally wont to fall into despair; and he gives the reason why no one ought to despair of pardon, saying: For we have been made partakers of Christ.

What is this—that we have been made partakers of Christ? We partake of Christ and are joined to him, as being one and existing in him. For indeed we partake of him in this, that he is our head and we are his members, co-heirs and con-corporate with him according to the spiritual man, who was created in him. In him also we partake, because we receive his body and blood for our redemption; therefore we must not despair. If only we hold firm to the end the beginning of his substance, as it is said: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Against God through unbelief. Even as in that provocation. Understand: your fathers hardened their hearts. He calls the beginning of substance the faith of Christ, through which we subsist and have been reborn, because he is the foundation of all virtues. And well does he call it substance, because just as the body subsists and is given life by the soul, so the soul subsists in God by faith and lives by this faith, without which it is nothing; whence it is said through the prophet: But my just man lives by faith. And the same distinguished preacher: Without faith it is impossible to please God. But the faith of Christ is called his substance, either because it is given by him, or certainly because he himself dwells through it in the hearts of the faithful, according to what the same apostle says elsewhere, desiring that Christ may dwell through faith in your inner man, in your hearts.

Therefore we are truly partakers of Christ if we have kept our faith in him firm even to the end of our death, or even to the day of judgment—that is, at all times, as long as it is said through the prophet: Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For some who heard provoked him; but not all who went forth from Egypt through Moses. He makes tacit mention of that history, when the spies returned and they said murmuring: Would that the Lord would not bring us into that land. But Joshua and Caleb glorified God, saying to all the multitude: The Lord is powerful in faith. And therefore it profited them nothing that they heard, since they did not deserve to enter it.

CHAPTER IV

After these words of exhortation, subjoining to the Apostle and saying: For we shall enter into his rest, who have believed, just as he said: As I swore in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest. In this place, for the completion of the sense, something must be added. Let us enter, he says, into the rest of the heavenly fatherland promised to us by God, lest perhaps it be said to us, if we have been unbelieving, as it was said to those who did not enter: If they shall enter—that is, they shall not enter into my rest. By these words he exhorts all to enter into the rest of the Lord, lest perhaps on account of unbelief it be said to us what was said to them; for just as it is certain that the unbelieving shall not enter, so it is held certain and fixed that the believing shall enter.

And indeed by works perfected from the foundation of the world—that is, the adornment of the world being completed. For he said in a certain place concerning the seventh day thus: And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. In Genesis God said this through Moses. By these words the Apostle wishes to show that there is another rest to which we have been called than that which was in Palestine, to which the Jews were called. He does not say that we shall enter into that which was in Palestine, but he shows that they did not enter because of the hardness of their heart—neither into Palestine nor into the heavenly rest. He speaks therefore concerning the first rest thus: The Lord rested on the seventh day from all his works. He rested indeed from the creating of new creatures, but he did not rest from the governing of those things which he had made, so as even daily to bring forth from them even now, whence the Truth says in the Gospel to the Jews: My Father works even until now, and I work. For it was not a greater thing for God to create the world out of nothing than to govern it once made. Therefore, having premised the first rest of the seventh day, in which God rested, he subjoined the second, which was promised to the people of God, saying: Concerning that one indeed he spoke thus in a certain place through Moses. And in this—the place is understood. Again he says: If they shall enter into my rest. But the conjunction if, as has already been said above, can be taken as an affirmation, as a doubt, or as a denial; for above it was placed as a denial in two places, where he says that God swore because of their unbelief.

If they shall enter into my rest—that is, they shall not enter—but here it can be taken as an affirmation, in another sense, as John Chrysostom and other doctors expound it, as if he were saying: If they shall enter into my rest, there is understood, they will fare well, and take this concerning the rest that was in Palestine. Hence he immediately adds: Since therefore it remains that some enter into it, and those to whom it was first announced did not enter, because of unbelief. Because few entered into that rest which was in Palestine—that is, only two, Caleb and Joshua, out of all those who came out of Egypt—therefore he says: Since it remains, or is left, that some enter into the rest of the promised land, and these—that is, the six hundred thousand—to whom it was first announced did not enter into it, but their corpses were laid low in the desert. Again he appoints a certain day, Today, in David, saying: after so long a time, as was said above: Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. The order of the words is: after so long a time—which they murmured and died in the desert—he appoints, that is, the Holy Spirit establishes and defines again a certain day, namely the time of the New Testament, saying through David, Today, etc.

Where the Apostle speaks in the person of the prophet: Today if you shall hear his voice—as if he were saying in other words: Jews, my fellow citizens, do not think that this which David said, Today if you shall hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, pertains to that murmuring of theirs in the desert, or that he said it for the sake of the salvation of those who were already dead, since it pertains to another time, namely to the time of the New Testament. For from the day of their murmuring in the desert there is a long time until David, and until us, to whom David was speaking these things; and at the same time the day must be understood as the time of the Lord's coming and of the New Testament. And what he said, In David, is such as, through David, changing the preposition in his usual manner. It can also be understood thus, that what he said, He limits a certain day—that is, the Holy Spirit sets a limit and an end to the past time, which was from the day of their murmuring, and gives a beginning to another time, by saying through David, Today. There follows: For if Jesus, the son of Nave, the leader of the Israelite people, had given them rest—understand, true rest—he would never speak of another day afterward through David. That is, thereafter, after they had obtained it.

Here he shows a certain third rest, of which David spoke, "Today," etc., not signifying that rest into which Jesus the son of Nave led the people, but a certain other rest far more excellent, into which not the typical Jesus but the true Jesus leads daily those who are his. For if Jesus the son of Nave had provided the true rest for the people whom he led, David would by no means have spoken afterward of another rest. It is certain, therefore, that, as it is to be, certain ones will receive the rest which was signified by that rest which was in Palestine. And so—understand: because Jesus the son of Nave did not provide the true rest for the people over whom he presided. It remains—that is, it is reserved for the future. A sabbatismos for the people of God. Truly, it is reserved for the future for those who believe, namely eternal life, which surpasses the sabbath of the law, since in that sabbath only bodies rested, but in this one the souls of the people of God. Hence it also follows: For he who has entered into his rest—of God omnipotent, which is eternal life. He also himself rested from his works—earthly works and all labors—just as God also rested from his. He rested on the seventh day. The rest of God is to be understood as the perfection of his works, namely, when on the sixth day the creation of things in the beginning was finished, on the seventh he ceased from the creation of new natures; but through that rest of God, which is not eternal, he earnestly urges us that for that rest of eternal blessedness, which he calls a sabbatismos, we should pant with all our striving.

Whoever therefore enters into this Sabbath of God rests forever from every labor and work, just as God rests from the creation of new things. Let us therefore hasten to enter into that rest, so that no one may fall into the very example of unbelief. Great indeed and salutary is faith, since without it it is not possible for anyone to be saved, as it is written: Without faith it is impossible to please God. But faith alone is not sufficient for salvation, for it is necessary to work through the faith that acts through love and to live in a manner worthy of God, because faith without works is dead. Considering therefore the faithfulness of eternal life, the Apostle exhorts, saying: Let us hasten with right faith and holy action to enter into that rest of the heavenly fatherland promised to us, lest any one of you fall into that same example of unbelief and despair into which those others fell. Let us hasten, he says, since faith alone is not sufficient, but a life worthy of faith must also be added; for we are sufficiently taught by the example of our fathers, lest, falling into the very thing into which they fell, we suffer such things as they also suffered. For the word of God is living and effective, and more penetrating than any two-edged sword.

As the Apostle says and exhorts, let us hasten to enter into the rest of the heavenly fatherland by faith and by works, so that none of us may fall into that same example of unbelief into which those fell, and such things may not come upon us as came upon those who were laid low in the desert. Those Jews could have answered: Such things will by no means happen to us, because we do not have prophets and judges through whose mouths the Lord speaks to us, as they had, and therefore whatever we do, we shall be excusable. To this the Apostle, wishing to show that we have the same judge whom they had, who condemned them for their unbelief, said: It is not so, for the word of God is living and effective. The word of God the Father and the Word is the Son, who by his power killed those six hundred thousand in the desert because of their unbelief, and because they were unwilling to believe him. This is the word that never dies, but always remains the same, according to what the Psalmist says: But you are the same, and your years shall not fail. This is the word that says of itself: If anyone keeps my word, he shall not taste death forever. For if those had kept the word of God by believing rightly and living well, they would have lived in temporal and eternal life, and would have entered the land of promise. Similarly, we also, if we keep his word, shall live and enter into the heavenly rest.

This word of God the Father, which always lives with God the Father, and through which the Father judges all things, is effectual, that is, easy for working, because it works without difficulty; for He Himself spoke, and they were made, and all things whatsoever He willed He did. It is also more penetrating than any two-edged sword, that is, sharp on both sides, because a material sword, sharp on both sides, can divide the members from the body and penetrate the hidden parts of the flesh, so far as to make the soul depart from the body and reduce the body itself to death, yet it cannot divide the soul itself into minute pieces, nor penetrate its secrets; whence the Lord says: Do not fear those who kill the body, because they cannot kill the soul. It follows: And reaching through. The same word of God. Even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrows, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. By the soul we live, by the spirit we understand rationally; the carnal life is common to us with beasts, the spiritual reason with angels. And there are certain sins that pertain more especially to the body, such as hatred, anger, deceit, envy, and other such things, which do not consist without the act of the body; and because the body is given life by the soul, not unfittingly through the soul we can understand bodily sins, but through the spirit spiritual sins, which are turned over in the secret of the mind.

Again, by “joints” we must understand thoughts, which are joined to one another, as one follows another; but by “marrow,” subtle intentions. And this is what he adds: “A discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Therefore the word of God the Father is so effectual and more piercing than every two-edged sword that it discerns between the works of the flesh and the works of the spirit, between carnal sins and spiritual ones, and between good and evil thoughts, and good and evil intentions. For a thought can be good in some respect, and the intention evil—for example, to speak by way of comparison: there is a certain widow whose hereditary possession is being seized by a stronger party; coming to a judge and doctor of the law, she entreats him to take up her case and to be a help to her, so that she may be able to obtain the inheritance taken from her, promising him either a hundred solidi or even no small portion of that same inheritance. He, entering the church of God, prostrates himself on his face, praying and saying: “Eternal God, since you judge all things justly, and you have said, ‘Judge the people, defend the widow,’ grant me help today, so that I may be able to win the case of this widow.” In saying this, the thought and the words are indeed good, but the intention is wicked, since unless the widow had promised him something which he hoped to receive, he would by no means have taken up her case.

This subtlety of thoughts and intentions of the heart the word of God discerns and judges, considering with what mind or with what desire each person serves in his heart; so penetrating is his insight that all things we do or think are known by him more certainly than by ourselves. Let us therefore hold him as a witness of our actions, thoughts, and intentions; let us fear the presence of him whom we shall have as judge, whose knowledge we can by no means escape. Hence it follows: And no creature is invisible in his sight, but all things are naked and open to his eyes. That is, to his presence. How then can anything be unknown to him by whom all things were made? Nor is it surprising if he who is wholly everywhere knows his whole creation; and on this point especially the Apostle terrified the Jews, saying: But all things are naked and open to his eyes. To whom our word is addressed. To whom? To the Son. Is it not because we ourselves shall render an account of our actions, and at the same time of our thoughts and intentions? Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession of hope. That is, the faith of his name. A little above, speaking of the divinity of the Son of God, he said: All things are naked and open to his eyes. But is it not because he speaks of the flesh, and disputes concerning the high priesthood of him who offered himself on the altar of the cross for the sake of our salvation?

For he himself is both high priest, or priest, and himself also the sacrifice. For he is called high priest because he provides a bridge and a way for the people, and the Lord himself has shown us the way of uprightness, by which we must walk, saying: Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. And he provided a bridge for reaching the heavenly fatherland by the blood of his passion together with the water of baptism, or because he himself first penetrated the heavens. Therefore Moses, the leader of the people, to whom a transitory rest was promised, did not enter into the rest promised to the people entrusted to him; whence he also calls him a great high priest, who has an eternal priesthood, always living to intercede for us; for thus the angel said of him to Mary: This one will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, showing that he is the Son of God; he said Jesus the Son of God, which he nowhere wished to say of Moses, but rather called him his servant. It follows: For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize, or grieve with us, in our weaknesses. This is to say, he does not ignore what belongs to us, for he came through the way of the human condition in all things without sin; wherefore not only because he is God and knows all things does he know the weakness of our frailty and can have mercy, but also through this, that he was made a partaker of the frailty of the flesh without sin, he both knows and is able to forgive.

Many high priests do not know those who are placed in tribulation, nor do they know what tribulation is in anyone; it is impossible for one who has not experienced affliction and has not endured all things perceptibly to know the afflictions of the afflicted. But our high priest fittingly endured all things that were brought upon human misery after the sin of the first man, and then ascended into the inner sanctuary, to the throne of the Father's majesty; hence it follows: Tested. Understand, we have a high priest. Through all things. Temptations. In the likeness of the flesh of sin, without sin. Christ was tempted in many ways through all temptations, but he was not overcome by the temptations; rather, he came forth as a proven victor. Now the temptations by which he was tempted were these: hunger, thirst, the temptation of the devil, the persecution of the Jews, spittings, accusations, slanders, rejection by his own people, and finally crucifixion and death. He was indeed tempted in these ways in the likeness of the flesh without sin; but since Christ in truth had true flesh, why does he say that he was tempted in the likeness of the flesh? For in this, that he was made man, he had true flesh; but in this, that he did not have the flesh of sin, but was without sin, he had the likeness of our flesh—that is, of the flesh of sin; for he had no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth.

But if he could have had sin, he would surely have had not a likeness of sinful flesh, but truly flesh of sin; for our flesh is flesh of sin, because we are conceived with sin and born with sin. His flesh, however, was not of sin, but of purity, chastity, and innocence; and therefore he was not tempted in the flesh of sin, so as to commit sin, but in the likeness of sinful flesh, so as to remain without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace in timely help. Because we have a high priest who knows how to sympathize with our weaknesses, in that he endured all things in like manner, and can help, in that he is God, who has already by his own power penetrated the height of the heavens, the Apostle exhorts us to approach his throne with confidence, and says: Let us draw near, in mind and contemplation, and also through faith adorned with good works, to the throne of grace, that is, to the faith of the Son of God, who was given to us by God the Father; and who, seated in the fullness of the Father's majesty, can freely forgive us our sins: for the Son of God is called the grace of God, given to us freely. According to what the same Apostle clearly says in this very Epistle: That by the grace of God he should taste death for all.

And why we ought to approach his throne in faith and devotion, he adds, saying: That we may obtain mercy, that is, the remission of sins, and find grace of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or indulgence, in opportune help, that is, in the present age; for now is the opportune time of his help and mercy, of which the Apostle says elsewhere: Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation. And of which the prophet says: In an acceptable time I heard you. For since in the present age he has bestowed his mercy by forgiving him his sins, and by the grace of spiritual gifts he will receive him, he surely permits him to reign with him in the future kingdom, and because he is our high priest, sitting on the throne of the Father's glory, he grants all things which it is most certain come to us for salvation.

CHAPTER V.

For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in those things that pertain to God, that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins, one who can have compassion on those who are ignorant and go astray, since he himself also is surrounded with infirmity, and for this reason he ought, just as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. In these words the Apostle sets forth certain things common to Christ and to the priests of the true law; for what he says, Every high priest taken from among men, as Aaron, and Christ is appointed for men in those offices that pertain to God, by praying for their salvation—this is common to Christ and to those priests; for it is the office of the high priest to stand between God and the people, to entreat God for the people's sins. This Christ did, in that he is both man and God, offering himself for our sins, ever living to intercede with God the Father for us. Once indeed taken from among men, he ever intercedes for all.

Again, what he says: "That he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins," is partly common and partly not at all, and dissimilar: for in this, that Christ offered a sacrifice for the people's sins, which they also did, there is a commonality; but in this, that he did not offer for himself, as they were offering sacrifices for their own sins—namely, oxen, rams, goats, and other such things—while Christ offered a rational animal for the salvation of the whole world, that is, himself, who is the Lamb, according to what John says: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," and the rest that follows—these are no longer common. For what he says: "Who can have compassion on those who are ignorant and go astray, since he himself is also surrounded with the infirmity of the flesh," in which he could be tempted in all things by a likeness of the flesh of sin without sin—here already is the excellence that pertains to Christ, about which we have discoursed more fully a little above; for by this, that he suffered similar things, he can have compassion, and by this, that he is God in both substances, he is able to show mercy. But what he added: "And therefore he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins," this pertains to the legal priests, or rather to those of our own time, more than to Christ, who did not commit sin.

That which he said, "Since he is also surrounded with infirmity," can also be referred to the priests of the law, or to our own; so that infirmity is taken for sin, and because they themselves are surrounded with the infirmity of the flesh, that is, with sin, they need to offer for the people, and likewise for themselves. But by these things the Apostle wished to show what that high priest is, and to demonstrate what things pertain to a high priest, and what his ministry is, and what are the marks of the high priesthood—namely, that he offer gifts and sacrifices for sins, knowing how to grieve with those who err ignorantly; and then he began to dispute how one ought to approach the priesthood, saying: "Nor does anyone take this honor upon himself." Of the priesthood. But he who is called by God, as Aaron was. Understand: he was called by the sign of the flowering rod, or by the sign of the fire of those who, not seeing the dignity of his high priesthood, were attempting to invade it by aspiring to the honor of the priesthood. For by these two signs having been shown, the priest chosen by God was demonstrated. But the blessed Apostle confounds and strikes those priests who are desirous of honor and greedy for the priesthood, who thrust themselves in and intrude upon the priestly ministry of their own accord, not by God's calling or will, but rather through the intervention of gifts, because they do this not for the people's salvation, but for the ambition of the world. Thus also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but he who spoke to him: "You are my Son, today I have begotten you.

To glorify, to honor, to make clear—these are indeed three words having one meaning, which in Greek is rendered by a single term corresponding to the Latin. For what the evangelist in the Gospel said the Lord had spoken: "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing," here the Apostle called glorification. Christ, therefore, did not glorify or make clear himself, so as to become high priest from himself and have the honor of the high priesthood, because he was not from himself; and this is what the Lord himself says in the Gospel: "I did not come from myself, but he sent me." And again: "I do not seek my own glory"; and: "It is my Father who glorifies me." Just as, therefore, he did not come from himself because he was not from himself, and did not seek his own glory, so he did not make clear himself, so as to have the honor of the high priesthood from himself, but he was made clear by the Father, who said to him on the day of his baptism: "This is my beloved Son." And this glorification or making clear was foretold long before through the prophet, with the Holy Spirit inspiring, speaking in the person of the Son of God and saying: "The Lord said to me, You are my Son, today I have begotten you." And because for almighty God all future things are as if already past or present, what was to be said to him after baptism he already had as said; wherefore he used the past tense, saying: "The Lord said to me.

By the name of the Lord, however, we must understand God the Father, and that we should believe there is one person in Christ; he added: I have begotten you today—that is to say, what properly belongs to God. There follows: As also in another place he says, You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. These words depend on the preceding verse, where the Apostle says: Because Christ did not glorify himself to be made high priest, but God the Father, who spoke to him, You are my Son, he glorified him. As also in another place of the psalm it is said to the Son: You are a priest forever, etc. But it must be considered that Christ is not a priest according to that by which he was begotten by God the Father before all ages, coeternal with the one who begot him and of the same substance, remaining true God with the Father, but according to that by which he was born from the virginal womb, made man at the end of the ages—not on account of the victim which he offered for us, namely his flesh and blood received from us. But why he is said to exist as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, and not according to the order of Aaron, there are various reasons, and the first indeed is that Melchizedek was not a priest according to the legal commandments, but according to the dignity of a certain singular priesthood, offering bread to God, not the blood of brute animals; in whose order of priesthood Christ was made a priest, not temporal but eternal; nor off...

offering legal victims, but in the likeness of that one, bread and wine—that is, his own flesh and blood—where he said: My flesh (he says) is truly food, and my blood is truly drink. These two gifts also, namely bread and wine, he entrusted to his Church to be offered in memory of him; from this it is clear that the sacrifice of animals, which belonged to the order of Aaron, has passed away, and that rather that sacrifice remains which belonged to the order of Melchizedek, because Christ confirmed it and taught the Church to hold it. The second reason is that Melchizedek was both king and priest, and he was anointed not with visible oil, as the priests of the law were, but with the oil of the Holy Spirit, and Christ remains distinguished by this twin dignity; for that he possesses royal dignity, he himself declares openly: But I have been established as king by him, that is, by God the Father. And after his resurrection he says: All power (he says) has been given to me in heaven and on earth. The Psalmist also says to God the Father: O God, give your judgment to the king. But that he exists as a priest is sufficiently clear, since he offered himself on the altar of the cross for us, and now intercedes with God the Father for our salvation; and that he was also anointed, not with visible oil, but with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the Psalmist indicates to us, saying to him: O God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions: that is, with the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

There is also a third reason why Christ is called a priest according to the order of Melchisedech and not according to Aaron: namely, because just as it is read once in the divine Scripture concerning Melchisedech and concerning his priesthood, so Christ offered himself once to be sacrificed for us. It follows: Who in the days of his flesh, offering up prayers and supplications to him who was able to save him from death, with a strong cry and tears. To God, that is, to God the Father. The days of the flesh of our Lord are the days in which he took flesh, in which he was born and suffered, and in which he inhabited a mortal body: but all things that he himself did in the flesh were prayers and supplications for the sins of the human race: but the sacred shedding of his blood was a strong cry: in which he was heard by God the Father. For his reverence. That is, because of his voluntary obedience and most perfect charity. Was he not pouring out prayers with tears when he said: My soul is sorrowful even unto death; and, Father, transfer this cup from me? And because he was voluntarily obedient to God the Father even unto death, he heard him, raising him on the third day: according to what the psalmist says: You will not give your holy one to see corruption.

He is said to have poured out prayers and supplications, not from fear of death, which he was undertaking willingly, but rather for the sake of our salvation he set the will of the Father's dispensation before the will of his own flesh, so that he might show in himself the true nature of our humanity. It should be noted, however, that "reverence," according to the judgment of Cassiodorus, is sometimes taken for love, sometimes for fear; but here it is put for the highest charity, with which the Son of God loved us, and for the highest obedience, by which he was obedient to the Father unto death. And indeed, although he was the Son of God, he learned obedience from the things he suffered, and being made perfect he became for all who obey him the cause of eternal salvation, being called by God a high priest according to the order of Melchisedech. "Although," he says, "he was a son in truth," he gave obedience from those reproaches and torments which he suffered—that is, he offered voluntary obedience to the Father on the part of his humanity. That this obedience, which the Apostle says the Son of God gave here—that is, willingly undertook—he shows in another place, where he says: "Although he was in the form of God, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and was made obedient to the Father unto death." But in what he says, "And being made perfect"—that is, made perfect in the priesthood and in all obedience—"he became for all who obey him the cause of eternal salvation": he shows how great is the gain of his passion and his obedience, which suffices for all who believe unto eternal life. It follows: "Of whom.

Not about Melchizedek, but about Christ. For us the discourse is weighty and hard to interpret in the speaking. It is not the fault of the incarnation, since the mysteries hidden from the ages have been revealed, but rather of their slowness, because they are weak—that is, infirm in faith—and fragile in understanding for grasping the deep mysteries, who even by this time ought to have been teachers; whence he himself also gives the reason, saying: Because you have become weak to hear. And then he adds: For although by this time you ought to be teachers. Under which you have had the law and the prophets almost from the beginning. Again you need to be taught. By me and the other apostles. What are the elements of the beginning of the words of God: and you have become those who need milk, not solid food. He speaks to those who, lingering long in the law, ought to have had their understanding exercised concerning the coming of Christ through the sayings of the law and the prophets, and also through the grace which was brought to believers through him. Who certainly, when they ought to have been teachers of the Gentiles, because of the past time in which they had all the things mentioned above, again needed to be taught by him and the other apostles what are the elements of the beginning of the words of God. Elements are so called as it were elevations, because from them the rest take their origin—that is, the beginnings and foundations of created things. By some also the elements are said to be sought, as it were fabrications, from the word elimo, elimas, as though all things were fabricated from them.

But here we can understand "elements," or "rudiments," in two ways: namely, either the very characters and pronunciations of letters, from which speeches take their beginning, or certainly the very beginnings and foundations of the faith—as if he were saying, You need this, that you be taught what are the elements of letters or the beginnings of the faith, when you ought to search out the depth of the mysteries by understanding, and to be perfect in faith. You have become (he says) like infants who have need of milk, that is, of simple doctrine, not of solid food, that is, of perfect doctrine and deep mysteries. For the blessed Apostle has the custom of designating simple doctrine by the name of milk, but perfect doctrine he calls solid food; whence he says to the less perfect Corinthians: I gave you milk to drink, not meat, because you cannot yet bear it. Milk, therefore, is [the doctrine] of simple teaching: the incarnation of the Son of God, his passion, his resurrection, his ascension to the heavens. But solid food is the perfect discourse's mystery of the Trinity—how there are three in persons, and one in the substance of the Godhead. But one who cannot understand what the Evangelist says, The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, how will he be able to reach its height where it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word? It follows. For everyone who is a partaker of milk, that is, of simple doctrine only, is unskilled in the word of righteousness.

That is, he is alien to the discernment of perfect righteousness, because he cannot yet penetrate the hidden depths of the mysteries, nor does he know how to make the discernment between good and evil as is fitting. And he gives the reason why. For he is a little child, he says, in sense and understanding. But solid food is for the perfect, for men. That is, for those who have their senses stretched out. To them are disclosed the deep and obscure mysteries concerning the divinity of almighty God; whence it also follows: I say that solid food is for those who, according to the habit of their election, have their senses exercised. That is, stretched out by the study of letters. For discernment of good and evil, not for discernment of heretical depravity. Just as a little child does not know how to distinguish between one food and another, and often is endangered in taking harmful foods, if he is not restrained by an elder, so any unlearned person who does not know the discernment of teachings is easily deceived and endangered in error. Therefore he says: Because everyone who partakes of milk is a stranger to the word of righteousness; for what milk and solid food are, this is what the unlearned and the wise differ in. Just as milk is suitable for a little child, and solid food for those perfect in age, so humble speech is suitable for the unlearned, and for the wise it is fitting to know the hidden mystery, who have their senses exercised by the study of reading. For indeed from the use of reading, by frequent meditation on the divine Scriptures, our senses are made exercised and stretched out to understand greater things.

Hence the Psalmist says that the man is blessed who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night.

CHAPTER VI. Therefore, leaving behind the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be carried on to perfection. Therefore, since it is fitting that we have our senses exercised in the law of the Lord, leaving behind the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be led to the deep and lofty mysteries of his divinity. He calls the beginning of faith the word of the beginning of Christ—that is, instruction concerning the human birth of Christ, his passion, resurrection, ascension, and the grace of baptism. For just as one who is to be imbued with letters must first hear the elements of letters, so too the Christian must first of all be instructed in these things, and afterwards come to the mysteries of divinity. Not again laying the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.

He calls it the foundation of repentance, from which the one who is to be baptized must first be instructed, if indeed he has reached an age of understanding: that is, that he believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was begotten of God the Father before all ages, born of the Virgin at the end of the times for the salvation of the human race without the seed of a man, suffered, died, rose again on the third day, ascended into the heavens, will come to judgment, to render to each according to his works, the resurrection of bodies, the immutability of souls: that the good remain in glory, the wicked in punishment: that the almighty God is a Trinity in persons, a unity in substance. After he has confessed that he believes all these things, he must confess his sins, and so penance is to be imposed on him, either of forty, or twenty, or even seven days, as we read in the passions of the saints; and then he must be baptized, renouncing the devil and all his pomps and all his works. But once baptized, he must be more fully instructed concerning the divinity, so that he believe the Father unbegotten, the Son begotten, the Holy Spirit neither begotten nor unbegotten, but proceeding from both; and also the rule of living according to the evangelical and apostolic teaching, which things he ought to do as good and which to avoid as evil.

Therefore, since the Jews to whom the Apostle was writing these things had already been baptized and had already received the foundation described above, he exhorts them to press on to these greater things, and that there is no need for them to repeat that foundation of repentance, which is called such for the reason that, as has been said, repentance was first enjoined upon those being baptized. Hence in the Acts of the Apostles Paul says to the Jews who were running together to the faith: Repent, and let each one of you be baptized. There ought not, he says, to be a need for us to lay again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and the foundation of faith through which one is brought to God, which was laid in you before you came to the grace of baptism. To perform repentance from dead works is to destroy through repentance those very evil works which were putting the soul to death; for sins are works of death. For just as the soul is given life by faith and the other virtues, so it dies by unbelief and sins. It follows: not laying again the foundation. Of the doctrine of baptisms. The foundation of the doctrine of baptisms is the institution and teaching of baptism, namely what baptism contains in itself and what it confers upon those who come to the faith. But in saying "foundation of baptisms" in the plural number, he used it with regard to the variety of those receiving it, not that multiple baptisms ought to be understood, but one; because just as there is one God and one faith, so also there is one baptism. And of the laying on of hands. We ought not to lay the foundation again.

He calls it the imposition of hands, through which it is most fully believed that the gift of the Holy Spirit is received, which after baptism is customarily done by the bishops in the Church for the confirmation of unity. Therefore, once these things have been received in the Church, faith in the resurrection and the future judgment must be held. Hence the Apostle adds, saying: And of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. You ought not to lay the foundation again, so as to be instructed again concerning the faith of the general resurrection and of eternal judgment, which will be given to the just and equally to the unjust: as if you were not already instructed concerning these things. And it must be noted that in all these things "no more" must always be understood. And this we will do, if indeed God permits. That is, we will lead you on to greater things, and we will teach you most fully concerning all these things which we have enumerated, so that it may not be necessary again to lay the foundation entirely and from the beginning. But lest anyone should suppose that baptism can in any way be given a second or third time after sins, he immediately added, saying: For it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened. By the light of the Holy Spirit in the baptism of faith. They have also tasted the heavenly gift. That is, they have received remission in baptism, or have partaken of the body and blood of the Lord after baptism. And have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit. Namely, in the distributions of gifts. They have likewise tasted the good word of God. That is, they have understood the evangelical teaching. And the powers of the world to come.

This is glorification, resurrection, and future life. And they have fallen away—from faith in Christ, by denying him, or even fallen away into criminal sins. To be renewed again unto repentance—that is, to become new through repentance (the phrase "from the former things" is understood)—is impossible. "It is impossible," he says, for them to be renewed again through repentance and through baptism, who after they have received all the things mentioned above, have fallen away into the uncleanness of criminal sins, or even into unbelief. He did not say, "It is difficult," but "impossible." For what is difficult can be accomplished in some way; but that is impossible which can in no way be done. What then? Is repentance after baptism excluded, and pardon for sins? Far be it. For there are two kinds of repentance: one indeed before baptism, which can be called the entreaty for baptism, of which we spoke above, because it is enjoined on those who are being instructed before they come to baptism; and this the blessed Apostle excludes here, saying that they cannot be renewed again through repentance, in the sense that once repentance has been performed they might be baptized again. The other kind of repentance is that through which sins are blotted out after baptism; and this the blessed Apostle does not exclude. He therefore terrifies all, so that they may fear to entangle themselves after the knowledge of baptism in graver sins, because a second renewal through the washing of baptism cannot take place.

For just as Christ died once and rose once and now dies no more, so the grace of baptism must be administered once, and it cannot be repeated—unless it is doubtful whether someone who was captured by enemies was baptized. But he said "to be renewed" meaning "to become new"; and to make a person new belongs to holy baptism, of which the Prophet says: "Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's." It is impossible, I say, for anyone to be renewed again through repentance—which is accomplished through baptism—so as to be baptized a second time once repentance has been completed, because they have perceived the things mentioned above, they have tasted the powers of the world to come. What he said—"They have tasted the powers of the world to come"—is as if he were saying: If they have known that in the resurrection the elect will be like the angels of God in heaven, and that the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, they can in no way be made new again through repentance and a repeated baptism, if they have committed a criminal sin, as in the first baptism we were made new. For there were those who wanted to repeat baptism, saying: "Whatever I have sinned, I have no concern, because I will arrange to be baptized again, and I will be wholly renewed, as before." The Apostle utterly denies that this can be done in any way, and because the power of baptism consists chiefly in the cross and burial of Christ, he therefore added: "Crucifying again for themselves the Son of God, and holding him up to contempt.

Nevertheless, penitence is not for that reason denied, because although they are not renewed again in baptism, they will yet see that they receive indulgence through the confession of sins, through humility, through penitence, through almsgiving, if there is the means, and if they have forgiven their brethren who sin against them. That is, those who wish to be baptized again and to hold it as a mockery—for this is what it means to hold it as a show—but it cannot be done, since just as Christ died once in the flesh on the cross, so we too can die once in baptism for sin. For the earth, often drinking the rain that falls upon it and producing useful grass for those by whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. By this figure he convicts the Jews, who often drank the rain of heavenly teaching, but never brought forth the shoots of faith and good works. He sets forth first the comparison of the good earth, and then of the bad: The earth, he says, drinking the rain—that is, the soul of good will receiving the grace of the Holy Spirit and the rain of divine utterances, and producing useful grass, that is, bringing forth virtues and perfect faith—to its preachers, by whom it is cultivated, or to itself, it receives the blessing of eternal life, or an abundance of virtues, so that it may bear fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and likewise a hundredfold; for nothing is more useful than perfect faith in the Son of God together with the best life.

Therefore the Apostle, bringing forward this example concerning a soul flourishing in virtues and worthy of God's blessing, immediately added another paradigm concerning that soul which neglects its own salvation, though it could frequently receive the rain of heavenly teaching. But bringing forth thorns and thistles, it is reprobate and near to a curse. By thorns and thistles we can understand the stings of sins, by which the soul is pricked; concerning which the Lord said to Adam: Your earth will sprout thorns and thistles for you, that is, your flesh will bring forth for you the stings of sins and the goads of vices. Or we ought to take thorns and thistles as superfluous cares and the anxieties of this age; concerning which the Lord says in the Gospel: Therefore the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches—the earth is reprobate, that is, unworthy of praise, and near to a curse. And it must be noted that he did not say, It is cursed, but, Near to a curse; for as long as it is reserved for penitence, it is, as it were, not cursed; but if it refuses to do penitence, then it will be cursed. Whence it follows: Whose consummation, that is, the end of that soul in a depraved work and evil perseverance even to the departure of life. Into burning, understand, of eternal fire it will be.