See how he enjoins them to preserve what they had; he does not add other things. He did not say, Be loving as brothers, but Let brotherly love continue. And again, he did not say, Be hospitable, as if they were not, but Do not neglect to show hospitality, for this neglect was likely to happen, due to their afflictions.

Therefore, he says, Some have entertained angels unawares. Do you see how great was the honor, how great the gain!

What is unawares? They entertained them without knowing it. Therefore, the reward also was great, because he entertained them, not knowing that they were angels. If he had known it, it would have been nothing wonderful. Some say that he here alludes to Lot also.

If others have plundered your property, display your hospitality out of such things as you have. What excuse, then, shall we have, when they, even after the spoiling of their goods, were thus admonished? And he did not say, Do not neglect to entertain strangers, but to show hospitality; that is, do not merely entertain strangers, but do it with love for the strangers. Moreover, he did not speak of the recompense that is future and in store for us, lest he should make them more supine, but of that already given. For thereby some, he says have entertained angels unawares.

Sometimes people who commit this sin treat it lightly out of heaven knows what kind of perversity. They hunt about for heaven knows what null and worthless proofs in their support, and say, God does not mind the sins of the flesh. Well, what about what we have heard today, God will judge the immoral and adulterous? So there you are, pay attention, any of you afflicted with this sort of disease. Listen to what God is saying, not to what your own prejudice is saying in favor of your sins, or to your friend, perhaps, chained with the same shackles of wickedness as yourself—though in fact he is more your enemy and his own.

A further interpretation of he knew her not until she had borne a son^[1] is that this holiness was of necessity, even though they both willingly shared in it. But the holiness they observed after the birth of our Lord was of their own free will.

The Evangelist defined the nature of this necessity and showed us concerning its limit, that it was until. . . . Should it be deduced from this therefore that he did not live with her chastely after she had given birth, since it is indicated until? But until is not the end limit. For he said, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.^[2] Therefore, when his enemies were put beneath his feet, did he stand up? Another interpretation of he knew her not follows. Is not marriage pure, according to the testimony of the apostle, The fruit of their womb is pure? But, if one were to say, See, the brothers of our Lord are named in the Gospel, I would reply, Because our Lord entrusted his mother Mary to John,^[3] it is clear that these are not her sons, nor is Joseph her husband. For how could he who said, Honor your father and your mother,^[4] have separated Mary from her sons and entrusted her to John instead?

According to the laws of the new covenant, the producing of children is certainly not forbidden, but the provisions are similar to those followed by the ancient men of God. Now a bishop, says the Scripture, must be the husband of one wife.^[1] Yet it is fitting that those in the priesthood and occupied in the service of God should abstain after ordination from the intercourse of marriage. To all who have not undertaken this wondrous priesthood, Scripture almost completely gives way, when it says, Let marriage be held in honor, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the immoral and adulterous.

He forbade not possessions but the love of money, from which greed springs.

And having first set down, Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, he shows that he rightly added what follows. For if marriage has been conceded, justly is the fornicator punished, justly does the adulterer suffer recompense. . . .

He did not say again, Let no one be a fornicator; but, having said it once for all, he then went on as with a general exhortation, and not as directing himself against them. Be content with what you have, he says. He did not say, Possess nothing, but be content with what you have; that is, let it show forth the philosophical character of your mind. And it will show it, if we do not seek superfluities, if we keep only to what is necessary. For he says above also, you joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods.^[1] He gives these exhortations that they might not be covetous.

So keep a moderate amount of money for temporal uses; treat it as journey money, with the end in view stated in the text. Notice above all what he put first: Free from love of money, he says, put your hand in the purse in such a way that you release your heart from it.

We must join in disciplining ourselves to beware of all that is subject to the passions. We must, like true philosophers, escape from any foods that arouse sexual desire, from a dissolute relaxation in bed, from luxury and all the passions that make for luxury. We realize that others find this a grievous struggle. It is no longer so for us, since self-discipline is God’s greatest gift. He has said, I will never forsake you or abandon you,^[1] who have judged you worthy by a decision that is wholly genuine. In this way, as we carefully strive to go to him, the Lord’s easy yoke^[2] will receive us. . . . There is, according to Hippocrates of Cos, a discipline of the soul as well as of the body, a state of health which does not shrink from hardship and cannot have enough nourishment.

My child, day and night you should remember him who preaches God’s word to you, and honor him as you would the Lord. For where the Lord’s nature is discussed, there the Lord is. Every day you should seek the company of saints to enjoy their refreshing conversation. You must not start a schism but reconcile those at strife.

By faith he means steadfastness. How so? Because they believe in the things to come. For they would not have shown forth a pure life if they were troubled with questions about the things to come, if they had doubted.

He referred to the saints long dead—Stephen the protomartyr, James the brother of John, James called Just; many others as well were done away with by the Jews’ fury. By having an eye to them, he is saying, and acquainting yourselves with their praiseworthy lifestyle, emulate their faith.

The leaders are those who have proclaimed the word of godliness among them and were killed by the Jews on the spot. And there were many, not only Stephen^[1] and James who was killed by the sword,^[2] but also James, brother of our Lord, and very many others handed over in silence.

This, too, he does not simply put down, but he fits it to the argument that has been interrupted, teaching that he was crucified by the Jews. And he also demonstrates his eternal existence, for he calls the human nature yesterday and today and names the divinity forever. And he says that the two are the same, since the only begotten and the firstborn are one and the same Son.

The natural properties of the Word who came forth from the Father were maintained even when he became flesh. It is foolish therefore to dare to introduce a breach. For the Lord Jesus Christ is one^[1] and through him the Father created all things.^[2] He is composed of human properties and of others that are above the human, yielding a kind of middle term. He is, in fact, a mediator between God and humankind, according to the Scriptures,^[3] God by nature even when incarnate, truly, not purely man like us, remaining what he was even when he had become flesh. For it is written, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

How then could he be the same in the past when he had not yet assumed generation according to the flesh? . . . It is of Jesus Christ and not just of the Word that the text affirms that he is the same today, yesterday and forever, but how could the human nature possess immutability and unaltered identity when it is subject to movement and, above all, to that movement that made it pass from nothingness to being and to life? . . . In virtue of the union with flesh that is proper to him, it is still he himself who is described as existing yesterday and as preexistent.

The Son of God, assuming our likeness and becoming human,^[1] not taking up what he was but taking on what he was [i.e., the divine condition] effects our salvation. For he remains, as Paul put it, the same yesterday and today and forever, without undergoing any change in his divinity by reason of his incarnation, but remaining what he was and will always be.

These names—righteousness, sanctification, redemption, resurrection . . . are still common to the one who is above us and to the one who came for our sake. But others are peculiarly our own and belong to that nature which he assumed. So he is called man, not only that through his body he may be apprehended by embodied creatures, whereas otherwise this would be impossible because of his incomprehensible nature; but also that by himself he may sanctify humanity and be, as it were, a leaven to the whole lump. Then, by uniting to himself that which was condemned, he may release it from all condemnation, becoming for all people all things that we are, except sin—body, soul, mind, and all through which death reaches. Thus he became man, who is the combination of all these; God in visible form, because he retained that which is perceived by mind alone. He is son of man both on account of Adam and of the Virgin from whom he came, from the one as a forefather, from the other as his mother, both in accordance with the law of generation and apart from it. He is Christ because of his Godhead. For this is the anointing of his manhood and does not, as is the case with all other anointed ones, sanctify by its action but by the presence in his fullness of the anointing one; the effect of which is that that which anoints is called human and makes that which is anointed God. He is the way, because he leads us through himself; the door as letting us in; the shepherd, as making us dwell in a place of green pastures and bringing us up by waters of rest, and leading us there and protecting us from wild beasts, converting the erring, bringing back that which was lost, binding up that which was broken, guarding the strong, and bringing them together in the fold beyond, with words of pastoral knowledge. The sheep, as the victim; the lamb, as being perfect; the high priest as the offerer; Melchizedek, as without mother in that nature which is above us and without father in ours; and without genealogy above for who, it says, shall declare his generation?^[1] and, moreover, as king of Salem, which means peace, and king of righteousness, and as receiving tithes from patriarchs, when they prevail over powers of evil.^[2] They are the titles of the Son. Walk through them, those that are lofty in a godlike manner; those that belong to the body in a manner suitable to them; or rather, altogether in a godlike manner, that you may become a god, ascending from below, for his sake who came down from on high for ours. In all and above all keep to this, and you shall never err, either in the loftier or the lowlier names. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today in the incarnation, and in the Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

The today signifies this life; for it says, Jesus Christ yesterday and today and forever and again while it is called today.

And if today means the whole present age, yesterday is probably the bygone age. This what I have understood to be the meaning in the psalm and in Paul’s epistle to Hebrews. In the psalm it says: A thousand years are in your eyes as a yesterday that has passed.^[1] Whatever the much talked of millennium means, it is likened to yesterday as opposed to today. And in the apostle writes, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. No wonder that the whole of an age counts with God as the space of a single day with us, and I think even less.

In these words, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever, yesterday means all the time that is past; today, the present; forever, the endless which is to come. That is to say, You have heard of a high priest, but not a high priest who fails. He is always the same. As though there were some who said, He is not, another will come, he says this, that he who was yesterday and today, is the same also forever.

The words of Scripture include all days in two days, yesterday and today, as in the words, Imitate their faith in Jesus Christ; he is the same yesterday and today and forever. The promise is made the first day; the following day it is fulfilled.

Not with strange teachings only, but neither with diverse ones. For it is well that the heart be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited their adherents. Here he gently hints at those who introduce the observance of foods. For by faith all things are pure. There is need then of faith, not of foods.

That is, the doctrines of the [levitical] priests and their offerings. It is well that the heart is strengthened by grace, that is, is made firm by the new gospel, not by the restrictions of the priests about food. Those who practiced this way of life obtained no profit in these rules; that is, those who observed them were not purified nor had eternal life in them.

Who . . . can preserve grace by prideful conduct? How then will grace, that is, good pleasure or the energy of the spirit, be with you, unless you embrace it by good deeds? Indeed, the very cause of all good things is our constant abiding in the grace of the Spirit, for he guides us to everything.

By strange teachings he referred to what was at variance with the evangelical teachings. So he bids them persevere in the teaching of grace and abandon the observances of the law: No one reaped any benefit from them.

This is spoken to those who would still be at a loss, asking, How do you say, ‘you have an altar’? For what was offered on it? It is Christ himself whom you neglect above and below and fail to see that he was sacrificed, since his sacrifice and offering took place for the world, although he himself has not been sacrificed on your altar. For it is manifest that he suffered outside the city of Jerusalem. Therefore he says to them, Yes, he suffered outside, but through this very fact it has rather been accomplished that ‘we have an altar.’ For even among you ‘the bodies’ of the sacrificial victims ‘are burned’ not on the altars themselves, but ‘outside the camp.’ And still for this reason ‘he suffered outside the gate,’ so that he might sanctify all and not merely the priests. And if the sacrifice took place for all, how could it not have been an altar? But the statement in order to sanctify the people gives a different interpretation. He says, I said that ‘those serving the temple do not have authority to eat’ from our altar, not because this is impossible for them, but because in their opinion they reject themselves as unworthy, since—due to the mercy of Christ—not only is it not forbidden, but for this very reason he once suffered. He says, ‘He suffered outside the gate to sanctify the people,’ not this people or that one but all the people and to grant them to have the authority to eat also from this altar.

Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed,^[1] as the apostle says. Offering himself to the Father as a new and real sacrifice of reconciliation, he was crucified—not in the temple whose due worship is now completed, nor within the enclosure of the city which was to be destroyed because of its crime, but outside the camp. That way, as the mystery of the ancient sacrifices was ceasing, a new victim would be put on a new altar, and the cross of Christ would be the altar not of the temple, but of the world.

Outside the camp means, Let our way of life be beyond the law, and let us bear the reproaches for the one who saved us.

The Lord Redeemer very rightly commanded whoever would follow Him to strip himself and leave the world; for a man ought first to cast off from himself the causes of slackness, and then approach the work. When the Lord Himself began to wage war with the devil, He fought him in the arid desert. Paul also exhorts those who take up the cross of Christ to go forth from the city, saying: Let us go forth unto Him without the city and take up His reproach, for He suffered without the city. For by setting himself apart from the world and what pertains to it, a man speedily forgets his former habits and his mode of life and he will not struggle long with these. But if he should draw near to the world and its possessions, he will speedily enfeeble the strength of his mind. Wherefore one must know that separation from the world greatly aids a man and guides him on the way of progress in the fierce and saving struggle. It is proper, then, and helpful in this struggle if a monk’s cell be in a poor and mean condition, and if his cell be empty and devoid of everything that could incite in him the desire of ease. For when the causes of slackness are distant from a man, he is not endangered by the twofold warfare, that is, the one which is both inward and outward. See how much easier is the struggle when a man desires things that are afar off than when the very things themselves are close at hand and by their sight inflame the thoughts; for the struggle in the latter case is twofold.

The body of the beasts was an example for our Lord, and our Lord is an example for us, so that we may go forth outside the camp, that is, go out and become evangelists of his preaching, and bear the abuse he endured.

Look at the type, compare it with the reality and perceive the similarity. The law required a red heifer to be sacrificed, and the high priest to take some of its blood and sprinkle the mercy seat seven times with his finger. Burning the heifer itself outside the camp, they took the ashes and with them purified those people called impure. This acted as a type of the saving passion. The word red here means the body from Adam in the Hebrew language.^[1] He was fixed to the cross outside the gate. His blood purifies our souls; in place of the dust we have the life giving body.

So let us despise things of this life and look forward to those that are stable and permanent.

Let us bear all things thankfully, be it poverty, be it disease, be it anything else whatever, for God alone knows the things expedient for us, for we do not know how to pray as we ought.^[1] We, then, who do not know even how to ask for what is fitting unless we have received of the Spirit, let us take care to offer up thanksgiving for all things, and let us bear all things nobly. Are we in poverty? Let us give thanks. Are we in sickness? Let us give thanks. Are we falsely accused? Let us give thanks. When we suffer affliction, let us give thanks. This brings us near to God.

He calls it doing good in order to praise what takes place and fellowship^[1] because they are concerned about their fellow believers . . . and so with zeal they seek to meet their needs.

In the words of the prophet Micah, a distinction is clearly drawn between the fact that God does not require sacrifices as they are in themselves and the fact that God does desire the offerings that are symbolized by these sacrifices.^[1] . . . That is why the words For I desire mercy and not sacrifice^[2] must be understood to mean that one sacrifice is to be preferred to another, since what is commonly called a sacrifice is merely a symbol of the true sacrifice. For, mercy is the true sacrifice. Hence, such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Hymn singing offered to God is of no benefit to us apart from faith in the Son. Since it was to the Hebrews he wrote, who were in the habit of honoring the Father alone, he felt he had to add through him.

He brought out the sacrifice of praise that is pleasing to God. To it he linked also that of doing good, which he was right to refer to as sharing.. . . Elsewhere the divine apostle says, Our abundance supplies for their need so that their abundance may be for your need for a balance to be achieved.^[1] Sharing, then, is also repayment: one person gives money, another returns a blessing, and the person in need is in the stronger position.

Anarchy is an evil and the occasion of many calamities and the source of disorder and confusion. For as, if you take away the leader from a chorus, the chorus will not be in tune and in order. If from a phalanx of an army you remove the commander, the evolutions will no longer be made in time and order. If from a ship you take away the helmsman, you will sink the vessel. So too, if from a flock you remove the shepherd, you have overthrown and destroyed all.

Anarchy, then, is an evil and a cause of ruin. But no less an evil is disobedience of rulers, for it comes again to the same. For a people not obeying a ruler is like one which has none, and perhaps even worse. For, in the former case, they have at least an excuse for disorder but no longer in the latter, but are punished.

But perhaps someone will say that there is also a third evil, when the ruler is bad. I myself know it, and no small evil it is, but even a far worse evil than anarchy. It is better to be led by no one than to be led by one who is evil, for the former indeed are sometimes saved and sometimes in peril, but the latter will be altogether in peril, being led into the pit of destruction. . . .

What then, you say, when he is wicked—should we obey? Wicked? In what sense? If in regard to faith, flee and avoid him, whether he is a man or an angel come down from heaven. But if in regard to life, be not overcurious. And this instance I do not allege from my own mind but from the divine Scripture, for hear Christ saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.^[1] Having previously spoken many fearful things concerning them, he then says, So practice and observe whatever they tell you but not what they do.^[2] They have, he means, the dignity of office but are of unclean life. Attend not to their life but to their words. For as regards their characters, no one thus would be harmed. How is this? Both because their characters are manifest to all, and also because, though a ruler were ten thousand times as wicked, he would not be teaching wickedness. But in matters of faith if the wicked ruler is teaching evil, the evil is harder to recognize.

Leave behind the rules which belong to the law, and respect those which belong to Christ. They will give account and a reply to God if they fail to guide you. Therefore, obey them, so that they may give account with joy and not with afflictions and tears.

In all my sermons I am presenting you with a mirror. These are not my sermons, anyway; I only speak at the Lord’s command. It is only dread of him that stops me from keeping quiet. I mean to say, who would not much rather keep quiet and not have to give an account of you? But it is quite a time since I accepted this burden, and now I neither can nor should shrug it off my shoulders. You heard, my brothers and sisters, when the letter to the Hebrews was being read.

Paul had been misrepresented to them as preaching the opposite of the law; so he impresses on them that he acted for no other reason than obedience to the divine word—hence his calling his conscience to witness.

We have mutual need of one another’s prayers, for those reciprocal prayers are enkindled by charity and—like a sacrifice offered on the altar of piety—are fragrant and pleasing to the Lord. If the apostles used to ask for prayers on their own behalf, how much more does it behoove me to do so?

And so we are confident that you will have a good conscience, that is, a perfect opinion on everything. We must live righteously in everything which concerns us. But I invite you to do more, that is, to encourage us to this task.

[C]ease not both to pray and to plead for me when you draw down the Word by your word, when with a bloodless cutting you sever the body and blood of the Lord, using your voice for the sword.

We saw the prince of priests coming to us, we saw and heard him offering his blood for us. We follow, because we are able, being priests, and we offer the sacrifice on behalf of the people. Even if we are of but little merit, still, in the sacrifice, we are honorable. Even if Christ is not now seen as the one who offers the sacrifice, nevertheless it is he himself who is offered in sacrifice here on earth when the body of Christ is offered. Indeed, to offer himself he is made visible in us, he whose word makes holy the sacrifice that is offered.

What then? Do not we offer every day? We offer indeed, but making a remembrance of his death, and this [remembrance] is one and not many. How is it one and not many? Because that [sacrifice] was once for all offered, [and] carried into the holy of holies. This is a figure of that [sacrifice] and a remembrance. For we always offer the same, not one sheep now and tomorrow another, but always the same thing: so that the sacrifice is one. And yet by this reasoning, since the offering is made in many places, are there many Christs? But Christ is one everywhere, being complete here and complete there also, one body. Even while offered in many places, he is one body and not many bodies; so also [he is] one sacrifice.

For when he says in another book, which is called Ecclesiastes, “There is no good for a man except that he should eat and drink” [Qo 2:24], what can he be more credibly understood to say [prophetically] than what belongs to the participation of this table, which the mediator of the New Testament himself, the priest after the order of Melchizedek, furnishes with his own body and blood? For that sacrifice has succeeded all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain as a shadow of what was to come. . . . Because, instead of all these sacrifices and oblations, his body is offered and is served up to the partakers of it.

The blood of the eternal covenant, not through that which passes away but through the one which remains forever, that is, Jesus Christ our Lord. He will equip you with everything good, and away from the covenant of the law, which you have now, that you may do his will in everything and not in accordance with the weak observations of the law. I appeal to you, brethren, bear with my words of exhortation—I wrote and proved that all those traditional customs on which you pride yourselves are only traces of this new gospel which was preached to you through Christ. I have written to you briefly, in accordance with your strength; if you are just adequate to your task, I will write to you more, but if you have reached perfection, you do not need any of these words.

Do you see how he shows that virtue is born neither wholly from God nor yet from ourselves alone? First, by saying, make you perfect in every good work, he means you have virtue indeed but need to be made complete. What is good work and word?^[1] So as to have both life and doctrines right, according to his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight.

Therefore, having first asked their prayers, he then himself also prays for all good things on them: Now may the God of peace, he says; do not therefore be at variance one with another. Who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep. This is said concerning the resurrection. . . . Again he confirms to them even to the end, his discourse concerning the resurrection: by the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ. Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight. Again he bears high testimony to them, for that is made perfect which, having a beginning, is afterwards completed. And he prays for them, which is the act of one who yearns for them. And, while in the other epistles he prays in the prefaces, here he does it at the end. Working in you, he says, that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

He appended the usual conclusion, invoking on them a share in grace. As for us, let us sing the praises of the giver of old laws and new. And let us pray to receive grace from him so that by observing the divine laws we may attain the promised goods, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom with the Father and the all-holy Spirit be glory, now and forever, for ages of ages. Amen.