ACC ~ Hebrews 8 v1 - 2

IT IS FITTING FOR THIS MINISTER TO SIT. PHOTIUS: When he serves and ministers, it is for this purpose: to cleanse humans from their sins and to make them holy. For it is fitting for the minister and creator of the saints to sit at the right hand of the Father as true God and his Son. FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 8.1.

HIS MINISTRY IS SALVATION OF HUMAN BEINGS. THEODORET OF CYR: He left till last the greatest honor, presenting him seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty. Aaron, the forebear of priests, remember, who was the first to receive the role of high priesthood, entered the divine sanctuary with fear and trembling, whereas this person has a seat at the right hand. He included the word minister, of course, because he is speaking of a high priest. What ministry does he discharge after offering him-self once and for all, and no longer offering a further sacrifice? How is it possible for him at one and the same time to be seated and to minister? Only if you were to say the ministry is the salvation of human beings, which he procures in lordly fashion. INTERPRETATION OF HEBREWS 8.

SERVANT OF THE SAINTS. EPHREM THE SYRIAN: “The point in what we are saying,” that is, the discussion which we have undertaken with regard to priesthood and the law, is now presented to you according to what I have said above. “We have such a high priest” of the high priests, who does not stand before the ark of alliance but “who,” by ascending, “is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.”

Moreover, he, who was so entirely praised, was “a minister in the sanctuary” in the very tabernacle of truth—that is, either in the kingdom of heaven, as he promised, or in this world, as he actually did by washing the feet of his disciples. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.

THE FLESH OF THE LORD IS THE TRUE TENT. ARETHAS OF CAESAREA: He calls the heavens “the tent” in this passage. In my opinion he seems to then call the flesh of the Lord “the true tent,” which also the Lord himself fashioned when he was not yet man, considering that immaculate flesh did not come into existence by human coupling but by the Holy Spirit. FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 8.2.

TENT AS HEAVEN. THEODORET OF CYR: By “tent” he referred to heaven, where the apostle said he was ministering as man, though being its creator. INTERPRETATION OF HEBREWS 8.

SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND INDICATES HONOR. BASIL THE GREAT: If one assigns to the Father the upper place by way of precedence and asserts that the only begotten Son sits below, he will find that all the consequent conditions of body attach to the creature of his imagination. And if these are the imaginations of drunken delusion and frenzied insanity, can it be consistent with true religion for people taught by the Lord himself that “he that honors not the Son honors not the Father” to refuse to worship and glorify with the Father him who in nature, in glory and in dignity is conjoined with him? What shall we say? What just defense shall we have in the day of the awful universal judgment of all creation, if, when the Lord clearly announces that he will come “in the glory of his Father”; when Stephen beheld Jesus standing at the right hand of God; when Paul testified in the Spirit concerning Christ “that he is at the right hand of God”;when the Father says, “Sit at my right hand”; when the Holy Spirit bears witness that he has sat down on “the right hand of the majesty” of God—what defense shall we have when we attempt to degrade him, who shares the honor and the throne, from his condition of equality to a lower state? Standing and sitting, I apprehend, indicate the permanence and entire stability of the nature, as Baruch, when he wishes to exhibit the immutability and immobility of the divine mode of existence, says, “For you sit forever and we perish utterly.” Moreover, the place on the right hand indicates, in my judgment, equality of honor. It is rash, then, to attempt to deprive the Son of participation in the doxology, as though worthy only to be ranked in a lower place of honor. ON THE SPIRIT 6.15.

CHRIST SENT TO FOUND A NEW TEMPLE. LACTANTIUS: Let people therefore learn and understand why the Most High God willed that he should be clothed with mortal flesh, afflicted with torture and sentenced to death when he sent his ambassador and messenger to instruct mortals with the precepts of his righteousness. For since there was no righteousness on earth, he sent a teacher, as it were, a living law to found a new name and temple so that, by his words and example, he might spread throughout the earth a true and holy worship. However, in order that people might know for sure that he was sent by God, it was fitting that he should not be born as human beings are born, composed of a mortal on both sides. Rather, so that it might appear that he was heavenly even in the form of man, he was born without the office of a father. For he had a spiritual Father—God. And, as God was the Father of his spirit without a mother, so a virgin was the mother of his body without a father. He was therefore both God and man, being placed in the middle between God and man. From which the Greeks call him Mesitēs,that he might be able to lead humankind to God—that is, to immortality. For if he had been God only (as we have before said), he would not have been able to afford to people examples of goodness; if he had been man only, he would not have been able to compel people to righteousness, unless there had been added an authority and virtue greater than that of man. DIVINE INSTITUTES 4.25.

Heb