Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews

“For unto Angels He has not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? You made him a little lower than the Angels.”

1. I could have wished to know for certain whether any hear with fitting earnestness the things that are said, whether we are not casting the seeds by the wayside: for in that case I should have made my instructions with more cheerfulness. For we shall speak, though no one hear, for the fear which is laid on us by our Saviour. For, says He, testify to this people; even if they hear not, you shall yourself be guiltless. If however I had been persuaded of your earnestness, I should have spoken not for fear only, but should have done it with pleasure also. For now indeed, even if no man hear, even if my work, so long as I fulfill my own part, brings no danger, still the labor is not altogether pleasant. For what profit is it, when though I be not blamed, yet no one is benefited? But if any would give heed we shall receive advantage not so much from avoiding punishment ourselves as from your progress.

How then shall I know this? Having taken notice of some of you, who are not very attentive, I shall question them privately, when I meet them. And if I find that they retain any of the things that have been spoken (I say not all, for this would not be very easy for you), but even if [they retain] a few things out of many, it is plain I should have no further doubts about the rest. And indeed we ought, without giving notice beforehand, to have attacked you when off your guard. However it will suffice, if even in this way I should be able to attain my purpose. Nay rather, even as it is, I can attack you when you are off your guard. For that I shall question you, I have forewarned you; but when I shall question you I do not as yet make evident. For perhaps it may be today; perhaps tomorrow, perhaps after twenty or thirty days, perhaps after fewer, perhaps after more. Thus has God also made uncertain the day of our death. Nor has He allowed it be clear to us, whether it shall befall us today, or tomorrow, or after a whole year, or after many years; that through the uncertainty of the expectation we may through all time keep ourselves firm in virtue. And that we shall indeed depart, He has said—but when, He has not yet said. Thus too I have said that I shall question you, but I have not added when, wishing you always to be thoughtful.

And let no man say, I heard these things four or five weeks ago, or more, and I cannot retain them. For I wish the hearer so to retain them as to have his recollection perpetual and not apt to fade, nor yet that he should disown what is spoken. For I wish you to retain them, not, in order to tell them to me, but that you may have profit; and this is of most serious interest to me. Let no one then say this.

2. However, I must now begin with what follows in the epistle. What then is set before us to speak on today?

“For not to angels,” he says, “did He put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.” Is he then discoursing concerning some other world? No, but concerning this. Therefore he added “whereof we speak,” that he might not allow the mind to wander away in search of some other. How then does he call it “the world to come”? Exactly as he also says in another place, “Who is the figure of him that was to come,” when he is speaking about Adam and Christ in the Epistle to the Romans; calling Christ according to the flesh “Him that was to come” in respect of the times of Adam, (for [then] He was to come). So now also, since he had said, “but when he brings in the First-Begotten into the world”: that you might not suppose that he is speaking of another world, it is made certain from many considerations and from his saying “to come.” For the world was to come, but the Son of God always was. This world then which was about to come, He put in subjection not to Angels but to Christ. For that this is spoken with reference to the Son (he says) is evident: for surely no one would assert the other alternative, that it had reference to Angels.

Then he brings forward another testimony also and says, “but one in a certain place testified, saying.” Wherefore did he not mention the name of the prophet, but hid it? Yea, and in other testimonies also he does this: as when he says, “but when He brings in again the First-Begotten into the world, He says, And let all the Angels of God worship Him. And again, I will be to Him a Father. And of the Angels He says, Who makes His angels spirits. And, You, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth”:— so also here he says, “but one in a certain place testified, saying.” And this very thing (I conceive) is the act of one that conceals himself, and shows that they were well skilled in the Scriptures; his not setting down him who uttered the testimony, but introducing it as familiar and obvious.