Fathers

Hebrews 12

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

Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls. You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin. You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children. Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord, looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it, lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears. For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm, the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them, for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned”. So fearful was the appearance that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.” But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel. See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven, whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more” signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let’s have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

About · Privacy · Credits · Support VRSZ

What the Fathers say

Hebrews 12:16

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"Lest there be any fornicator: or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." And wherein was Esau a "fornicator"? He does not say that Esau was a fornicator. "Lest there be any fornicator," he says, then, "follow after holiness: lest there be any, as Esau, profane": that is, gluttonous, without self-control, worldly, selling away things spiritual. …

Homily on Hebrews 31 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

He does not say that Esau was a fornicator, but stop here: "lest there be any fornicator among you." For although he hints that some among them were vile, he does not wish to expose them, but feigns ignorance so that they might be corrected. Then again he said: "or profane person,... like Esau," that is, insatiable, worldly, one who defiles and tramples upon what is spiritual; for he gave away, and moreover for "one morsel of food," the privilege of the birthright given to him by God (Gen. 25). …

Commentary on Hebrews ↗

Oecumenius

"that no one is sexually immoral." He did not say sexually immoral, referring to Esau, but it is placed in opposition to what preceded, "Pursue holiness." The defiled is indeed placed as if it refers to Esau; however, he called him a glutton, because he had sold away God's gift, namely the birthright, for a single meal. For it is written in the book of Genesis: "And the boys grew; and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field: but Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. …

The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

692. – Then when he says, Lest there be any one immoral [fornicator] or profane, as Esau, he warns them to avoid sins contrary to holiness, to which are specifically opposed carnal sins, such as gluttony and lust, which are completed in carnal delight, by which the mind is defiled. Therefore, they defile the mind and the flesh. …

Commentary on Hebrews ↗

Bonaventure

The tenth plague was the death of the firstborn, by which the carnal are struck, like Esau. For the Apostle says: "Lest anyone among you be a fornicator, like Esau, and lose his birthright." Carnal concupiscence took from us our noble generation, by which we would all be born innocent and heirs of paradise, and it makes us be born in death and guilt and the loss of the birthright.

Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 7 ↗