Fathers

Hebrews 3

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Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: Jesus, who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also Moses was in all his house. For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, because he who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God. Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house. We are his house, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end. Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me and tried me, and saw my deeds for forty years. Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’ ” Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God; but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end, while it is said, “Today if you will hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.” For who, when they heard, rebelled? Wasn’t it all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient? We see that they weren’t able to enter in because of unbelief.

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What the Fathers say

Hebrews 3:16

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"For some when they had heard did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses: And with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see, that they could not enter in because of unbelief." After again repeating the testimony, he adds also the question, which makes the argument clear. …

Homily on Hebrews 6 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Having heard, he says, God's promise — "I will give you the land of Canaan" — they did not believe, and by their unbelief they provoked God to anger. See to it, then, that you also do not be unbelieving in the promises. For hearing alone will not benefit you if you do not also believe. Just as hearing did not benefit them either, but on the contrary, they perished with complete justice precisely because they did not believe the words of God. …

Commentary on Hebrews ↗

Oecumenius

For some, having heard the promises of God, just as we hear them, provoked God to anger through unbelief. For He desires to save them just as He saves those who have heard, and they are of no benefit from merely hearing the promise. Thus, he says, you also will not be fulfilled if you have only heard the preaching, unless you also believe. And that there is a need for faith, from those who heard long ago, but because they did not believe, they perished, is confirmed by the word. …

The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

191. – Then when he says, who were they that heard, he explains what he had said about their sin. As if to say: You are made partakers of Christ, if you do not harden your hearts, as they who have heard and yet were rebellious. Was it not all? No, not all; for two, namely, Caleb and Joshua remained and consoled the others. …

Commentary on Hebrews ↗