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 3:17

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

But here he means not unbelief only, but also murmurings: "whose carcasses," he says, "fell in the wilderness." "They proved Me," He says, "and saw My works forty years." Seest thou that it is not right to call God to account, but whether He defend our cause or not, to trust Him? For against those of old he now brings this charge, that "they tempted God." For he that will have proof either of His power, or of His providence, or of His tender care, does not yet believe, either that He is powerful or kind to man. …

Homily on Hebrews 6 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

He concludes his speech with a question for greater clarity and less contradiction. Questions are posed to those who are confessing. He also proposes the punishment. Their bones fell in the wilderness, he says, that is, the large thighbones. Through a part he indicated the whole bodies.

Commentary on Hebrews ↗

Oecumenius

"To whom was he angry?" This is according to the question for clarity and to avoid contradiction; for things posed as questions are based on what is agreed upon. Against whom, he says, did he bear resentment? He also adds the punishment. For, he says, their limbs fell in the desert, those large and thigh-like parts; and by parts, he showed the whole bodies.

The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

192. – Then (v. 17) he explains what he had said about the punishment. 193. – He says, therefore: With whom was he provoked forty years? Was it not with them that sinned? From this it is clear that forty years refers to the statement, I was provoked. Hence, he says that he was offended through those forty years. Here it should be noted that all who left Egypt died in the desert, as it is stated in Jos. (5:4), but not all were laid low, but only some: either by God, as when the earth opened and swallowed Dathan and Abiram (Ps. …

Commentary on Hebrews ↗