ACC ~ Hebrews 11 v13 - 16

STRANGERS AND EXILES. THEODORET OF CYR: The patriarch Abraham spoke in these terms to the Hittites, “I am a stranger and an alien residing among you; give me property among you for a burying place, so that I may bury my dead out of sight.” The one in receipt of the promise of the whole earth did not even own a plot three cubits long. INTERPRETATION OF HEBREWS 11.

WHAT KIND OF PROMISES? CHRYSOSTOM: Of what kind of “promises” is he speaking? Isaac and Jacob received the promises of land, but, as to Noah and Abel and Enoch, what kind of promises did they receive? Either then he is speaking concerning these three, or, if concerning those others also, the promise was not this, that Abel should be admired, or Enoch translated, or Noah preserved. These things came to them for their virtue’s sake and were a sort of foretaste of things to come. For God from the beginning, knowing that the human race needs much condescension, bestows on us not only the things in the world to come but also those here. For instance, Christ said to the disciples, “Whoever has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother shall receive a hundredfold and inherit everlasting life.” And again, “Seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be yours as well.” Do you see that these things are given by him in the way of addition, that we might not faint? Athletes who are engaged in combat have the benefit of careful attention. They live under strict rules. They are not at ease. But after the combat, they enjoy it entirely. So God also does not grant us here to partake of “entire” ease. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 23.3.

WHAT KIND OF GOOD THINGS? CHRYSOSTOM: For what language, what intellect, can represent that blessedness and virtue, that pleasure, that glory, that happiness, that splendor? “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived”(he did not say that they simply surpass what we imagine; but that none has ever conceived) “what God has prepared for those who love him.” For of what kind are those good things likely to be, of which God is the preparer and establisher? For if immediately after God had made us, when we had not yet done anything, God freely bestowed so great favors—paradise, familiar intercourse with God’s own self, immortality, a life happy and free from cares—what will God not bestow on those who have labored and struggled so greatly and endured on God’s behalf? For us God did not spare God’s only begotten. For us when we were enemies God gave up God’s own son to death. Of what will God not count us worthy, having become God’s friends? What will God not impart to us, having reconciled us to God’s own self? ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 23.6.

ALL BUT WRAPPING THEMSELVES IN THE PROMISES. PHOTIUS: So he says that they believed the promises, “having seen them from afar” through hope, because they also rejoiced in them and embraced them, all but wrapping themselves in them. FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 11.13.

THEY CALLED THEMSELVES STRANGERS. CHRYSOSTOM: They called themselves, therefore, “strangers,” but Paul said something much beyond this; for not merely did he call himself a stranger, but he said that he was dead to the world and that the world was dead to him. “For the world,” he says, “has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”But we, both citizens and quite alive, busy ourselves about everything here as citizens. And what righteous people were to the world—“strangers” and “dead”—that we are to heaven. And what they were to heaven—live and acting as citizens—that we are to the world. Therefore we are dead, because we have refused that which is truly life and have chosen this, which is but for a time. Therefore, we have provoked God to wrath, because when the enjoyments of heaven have been set before us, we are not willing to be separated from things on earth, but, like worms, we turn about from the earth to the earth, and again from this to that. And in short [we] are not willing to look up even for a little while or to withdraw ourselves from human affairs, but as if drowned in torpor and sleep and drunkenness, we are stupefied with imaginations. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 24.1.

BELONGING TO THE FAR CITY. CHRYSOSTOM: Did they mean that they were “strangers” from the land that is in Palestine? By no means. They were strangers in relation to the whole world. And with reason, for they saw in it none of the things which they wished for, but everything foreign and strange. They indeed wished to practice virtue, but here there was much wickedness, and things were quite foreign to them. They had no friend, no familiar acquaintance, save only some few. But how were they “strangers”? They had no care for things here. And this they showed not by words but by their deeds. In what way? God said to Abraham, “Leave that which seems your country and come to one that is foreign.” And Abraham did not cleave to his kindred but gave it up as unconcernedly as if he were about to leave a foreign land. God said to him, “Offer up your son,” and he offered him up as if he had no son; as if he had divested himself of his nature, so he offered him up. The wealth that he had acquired was visible to any passers-by, yet this he accounted as nothing. He yielded the first places to others. He threw himself into dangers. He suffered troubles innumerable. He built no splendid houses, he enjoyed no luxuries, he had no care about dress, which all are things of this world; but he lived in all respects as belonging to the city beyond. He showed hospitality, brotherly love, mercifulness, forbearance, contempt for wealth and for present glory, and for all else.

And his son too was such as himself. When he was driven away, when war was made on him, he yielded and gave way, as being in a foreign land. For foreigners, whatever they suffer, endure it, as not being in their own country. Even when his wife was taken from him, he endured this also as being in a strange land and lived in all respects as one whose home was above, showing sober-mindedness and a well-ordered life. For after he had begotten a son, he had no more intercourse with his wife; and it was when the flower of his youth had passed that he married her, showing that he did it not from passion but in subservience to the promise of God. And what did Jacob do? Did he not seek bread only and raiment, which are asked for by those who are truly strangers, by those that have come to great poverty? When he was driven out, did he not as a stranger give place? Did he not serve for hire? Did he not suffer afflictions innumerable, everywhere, as a stranger?

And in all these things, he says, they were “seeking” their “own country.” Ah, how great is the difference! They indeed were in travail pains each day, wishing to be released from this world and to return to their country. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 24.4-5.

GOD WAS NOT ASHAMED TO BE CALLED THEIR GOD. CHRYSOSTOM: What sort of “country” was this? Was it that which they had left? By no means. For what hindered them if they wished, from returning again and becoming citizens? But they sought that which is in heaven. Thus they desired their departure, and so they pleased God, for “God was not ashamed to be called their God.”

Ah! How great a dignity! God was willing “to be called their God.” What do you say? We are speaking of the God of the earth and the God of heaven. Mark it as a great thing that “God is not ashamed to be called their God”? How great and truly great this is. It is a proof of exceeding blessedness. How? Because God is called God of earth and of heaven as of the Gentiles, in that God created and formed them; but God of those holy men, not in this sense, but as some true friend.

And I will make it plain to you by an example. As in the case of slaves in large households, when any of those placed over the household are very highly esteemed and manage everything themselves and can use great freedom toward their masters, the master is called after them, and one may find many so called. But what do I say? As we might say the God, not of the Gentiles but of the world, so we might say “the God of Abraham.” But you do not know how great a dignity this is! We do not attain to it. Now God is called the Lord of all Christians, and yet the name goes beyond our deserving. Consider the greatness if God were called the God of one person! He who is called the God of the whole world is “not ashamed to be called” the God of three people, and with good reason. For the saints would turn the scale, I do not say against the world, but against ten thousand worlds. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 24.5-6.

THE SAINTS WHO PRECEDED JESUS’ BODILY SOJOURN. ORIGEN: The saints who preceded Jesus’ bodily sojourn, who had a somewhat greater mental grasp than the majority of believers, perceived the mysteries of divinity because the word of God was teaching them even before he became flesh, for he was always working, being an imitator of his Father of whom he says, “My Father is working still.”

He says, perhaps to the Sadducees who do not believe in the doctrine of the resurrection, “Have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” If, therefore, God “is not ashamed to be called the God” of these people, and they are numbered among the living by Christ, and all the believers are sons of Abraham, since all the nations are blessed in the faithful Abrahamwhom God appointed father of the nations, are we hesitant to accept that the living have known the lessons of the living, since they were instructed by Christ, who has existed before the morning star, before he became flesh? COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 6.17-18.

CHANGE BEHAVIOR FROM VIRTUE TO VIRTUE. CHRYSOSTOM: What shall we then do that we may be saved? Let us begin the practice of virtue, as we have opportunity. Let us portion out the virtues to ourselves, as laborers do their husbandry. In this month let us master evil speaking, injuriousness, unjust anger. And let us lay down a law for ourselves and say, “Today let us set this right.” Again, in this month let us school ourselves in forbearance, and in another, in some other virtue. And when we have got into the habit of this virtue let us go to another, just as in the things we learn at school, guarding what is already gained, and acquiring others.

After this let us proceed to contempt for riches. First let us restrain our hands from grasping, and then let us give alms. Let us not simply confound everything, with the same hands both slaying and showing mercy. After this, let us go to some other virtue, and from that, to another. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 24.9.

HE IS NOT ASHAMED. THEODORET OF CYR: It was opportune of him to use the phrase “he is not ashamed.” The Lord of the powers, Master of the angels and Maker of heaven and earth when asked, “What is your name?” passed over all others and said, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. This is my name forever, and how I am to be remembered by generations of generations.” INTERPRETATION OF HEBREWS 11.

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