Fathers

Hebrews 10

Tap a verse to read the Fathers. Press and hold, then drag, to make a card.

For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. Or else wouldn’t they have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a yearly reminder of sins. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.’ ” Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them” (those which are offered according to the law), then he has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first, that he may establish the second, by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and often offering the same sacrifices which can never take away sins, but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them: ‘After those days,’ says the Lord, ‘I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;’ ” then he says, “I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.” Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a great priest over God’s house, let’s draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water, let’s hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful. Let’s consider how to provoke one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries. A man who disregards Moses’ law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think he will be judged worthy of who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance belongs to me;” says the Lord, “I will repay.” Again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings; partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions; and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so. For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens. Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. “In a very little while, he who comes will come, and will not wait. But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.

About · Privacy · Credits · Support VRSZ

What the Fathers say

Hebrews 10:1

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"For" (he says) "the Law having a shadow of the good things to come not the very image of the things"; i.e. not the very reality. For as in painting, so long as one only draws the outlines, it is a sort of "shadow" but when one has added the bright paints and laid in the colors, then it becomes "an image." Something of this kind also was the Law. "For" (he says) "the Law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things," i.e. …

Homily on Hebrews 17 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

That is, being an image of the future blessings of the New Testament, which Christ bestows upon those who have accepted this Testament. That is, not the very truth. Of what things? Of our sacrifice, of the remission of sins. For the things of the Old Testament, being unclear, resembled a shadowy outline; but those of the New Testament are like an image, that is, the truth, since they appear in brilliance and perfection. So explains St. John Chrysostom. …

Commentary on Hebrews ↗

Oecumenius

"year by year." What then? Do we not always bring forth unbloody sacrifices? But we also make memorials of one death of Christ and we always eat one body of Christ. For now we do not have one Christ, and at another time another, but always the same. The sacrifices of the Jews had various victims, such as sheep, oxen, goats. Therefore, there were many sacrifices. For ours, even if there are many in action, are one in power. "with the same sacrifices."In the same way. For the offerings are various. …

The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews ↗

Western Saints

Bede

The law was indeed given through Moses, and there it was determined by a heavenly rule what was to be done and what was to be avoided, but what it commanded was completed only by the grace of Christ. On the one hand, that law was capable of pointing out sin, teaching justice and showing transgressors what they are charged with. On the other hand, the grace of Christ, poured out in the hearts of the faithful through the spirit of charity, brings it about that what the law commanded may be fulfilled. …

Homilies on the Gospels 1.2 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

479. – Having considered the things done in both testaments to show the superiority of the New Testament over the Old, the Apostle now proves something he had presupposed, namely, that the Old was not able to cleanse sins. This is the last of the five things he had prefaced about Christ. In regard to this he does two things: first, he shows the failure of the Old Testament in regard to abolishing guilt; secondly, on this point he compares the priest of the New Testament with the priest of the Old Testament (v. 11). …

Commentary on Hebrews ↗

Bonaventure

Those Sacraments of the first time, as Hugh says, were like a shadow of the truth, those of the middle time like a figure or image, and those of the last time, namely of grace, like the body, because they contain within themselves the truth and healing grace which they present, and they confer in present reality what they promise. …

Breviloquium, Part 6 ↗