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 3:5

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"For a testimony of those things which shall be spoken." What meanest thou? Doth God receive the witness of man? Yes, certainly. For if He call to witness heaven and earth and hills (saying by the prophet, "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken" - and "Hear ye ravines, foundations of the earth, for the Lord hath a controversy with His people"), much more men; that is, that they may be witnesses, when themselves the Jews are shameless.

Homily on Hebrews 5 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Behold, he shows yet another superiority: Moses was faithful as a servant, appointed to convey the Lord's commands to the other servants and to be a witness before God at the judgment concerning what was told to them. For if he calls heaven and earth as witnesses, as for example: "Give ear, O heavens, and hear, O earth" (Deut. 32:1; cf. Isa. 1:2), and the valleys, as for example: "Hear, O strong foundations of the earth" (Mic. 6:2), then how much more a man.

Commentary on Hebrews ↗

Oecumenius

"And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house." Then Paul speaks of another distinction between Christ and Moses, that Moses was faithful as a servant, while the Christ was a genuine Son and of the same essence. For since he called Christ faithful above, and also Moses faithful, he explains the distinction of the faithful. "for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken." To be a witness of the things spoken by God to the Jews, so that they may not be caught in the time of judgment. …

The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews ↗

Western Saints

Thomas Aquinas

165. – Then (v. 5) he prefers Christ to Moses in regard to their state. In regard to this he does two things: first, he states his reason; secondly, he explains it (v. 6b). 166. – His reasoning is this: It is obvious that the master is of more value in his own house than a servant in the master's house. But Moses was faithful as a servant in the house of his master, but Christ as the master in His own house, therefore, etc. …

Commentary on Hebrews ↗