'When you shall sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed, which shall come forth from your loins, and I will establish his throne above your throne.' And elsewhere: 'Of the fruit of your womb will I set upon my seat.' And with an oath: 'Once,' He says, 'have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie to David; his seed shall abide forever.' They stopped the mouths of lions. As Samson, David, and Daniel twice cast into the den. They quenched the violence of fire. As the three companions of Daniel, at the command of Nebuchadnezzar, when Chaldean madness urged him on, were cast into the furnace of burning fire, to whom it did no harm. They put to flight the edge of the sword. That is, they repelled the might of the enemies from themselves by fighting valiantly, as Joshua, Gideon, David, and the other princes and kings of the Jews.
They recovered from weakness. As Job and Hezekiah, who, when they had been sick unto death, being made propitious by the Lord, were restored to their former health—Hezekiah for the space of fifteen years: we may also understand by the name of 'weakness' the evil of captivity, from which they were delivered by the Lord's will, at Cyrus's command, by the care of Ezra and Nehemiah. They were made strong in war. As Joshua the son of Nun, the successor of Moses; Samson, who with the jawbone of an ass slew many of the Philistines; David too the king; Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, in whose times even six thousand Jews slew a hundred thousand of the enemy; and three thousand sent to Antioch to the aid of Demetrius slew a hundred and twenty thousand. They turned to flight the armies of foreigners. That is, they often forced them into flight.
'Camps' (castra) are so called from 'castrating' (castrando), because there lust is curbed: for it is not the custom of soldiers, when going into battle, to bring their wives or other women with them. Two princes of the earth once went to war with a train of wives: namely Darius and Antony; but each of them fell there. Darius indeed was overcome by Alexander, and Antony by Octavian Augustus. Women received their dead by resurrection. He speaks of those women whose sons were raised by Elijah and Elisha, whom they received after the resurrection—not to have them as husbands, but that those whom they had lost in death, they received alive. But others were stretched out, not accepting deliverance, that they might find a better resurrection.
Very many of the saints were stretched out, that is, extended on a cross, bound with cords, as blessed Andrew; or stretched out, that is, tied to the tops of two trees and torn asunder; or even destroyed by being bound to the limbs of untamed horses and torn apart by them; or indeed stretched out, that is, beheaded: all of which are seen to have been fulfilled in the holy martyrs. They did not accept deliverance, that is, liberation in the present, to the end that they might be saved from torments, so that they might find a better and more glorious resurrection in the future; for the more torments anyone endures for God in the present, the more glorious he will appear in the resurrection. Others indeed experienced mockings and scourgings, moreover also bonds and prisons.
'Mockings' (ludibria) are so called from 'play' (ludo), that is, from derision: for first the holy martyrs were played with by mockings and derisions, then they were afflicted with scourgings; and thus, bound with chains, they were put in prison; but at the last they were slain with diverse and exquisite torments. They were stoned. As Naboth; Jeremiah in Egypt, by the remnant of those who had migrated; Ezekiel in Babylon; and very many others in the New Testament. They were sawn asunder. Here the plural number is put for the singular: for we read of no one of the saints in the Old Testament sawn asunder except the prophet Isaiah, whom King Manasseh, who had his daughter to wife, caused to be sawn with a wooden saw. They were tempted.
As Abraham and many others—not unto deception, but rather unto proving; that is, by that temptation of which it is said, 'The Lord your God tempts you,' that is, proves you: for God is not a tempter to evil. They died by the slaughter of the sword. As Uriah, and Josiah, and many others. They wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, distressed, afflicted. In this passage we ought to understand Elijah, and others who acted in like manner; and those who, afflicted on every side by wants and tribulations, distressed, endured all things in faith, that they might be able to attain to the desire of things above. And every want and destitution is called 'distress' (angustia); because a man is straitened (angustiatur), that is, afflicted, either by hunger or by some other lack.
Some say that the melota is a kind of garment made of goatskins, hanging down from one side, which kind of garment, on account of its roughness, the monks in Egypt are said to use. Elijah too is read to have used it; and in Greek 'melon' means a sheep, or any four-footed animal: whence 'sheepskin.' But some say that it is a kind of garment made of badger skins: for there is an animal called the badger (taxus), which lives alone in caverns of the earth, whose skin is said to be shaggy, from which name the word for this garment is derived, that is, 'melota' from 'melo' (the badger). Of whom the world was not worthy.
By the name 'world' here we may under one signification understand the lovers of the world, who, coveting only earthly things, were far removed from the love of their Creator, and therefore were not worthy to have as companions such men as those whose great deeds the Apostle has described above. Or by the name 'world' may be taken all things that are contained between heaven and earth—namely gold, silver, gems, and all precious things; and moreover the reprobate themselves, deceived by love of worldly things. To these saints, therefore, the world was not worthy, that is: if the whole world were reduced to a price, it could not rightly be compared to one of them; nor even if all those things could be given as a price, could they purchase such a man.
That we may therefore make mention of a few out of many: how could such and so great a man be equalled as Moses was? who, when he willed, divided the sea; when he willed, brought back its waters; when he willed, made manna descend from heaven, drew water from the rock, and did countless other things. Or how could so great a man be compared as was Joshua his successor, who, when he willed, made the sun and moon, those two greatest lights, stand still in one place, saying: 'Sun, do not move against Gibeon; and moon, against the valley of Aijalon.' Yet perhaps someone will say that they could not be bought for this reason, that they could not be found. Truly it is so, because their like could not be found in the whole world;
and if they could have been equalled, how is it that what the whole world could not accomplish, one of them did by a word? For when the whole world in the days of Elijah had toiled for three years and six months in drought, and could not obtain rain, at the word of Elijah the floodgates of heaven were opened, and rain came upon the face of the earth. Wandering in deserts, and in mountains, and in caves, and in the caverns of the earth. Here he wishes Elijah, the most excellent of the prophets, to be understood, and the sons of the prophets, who in the days of Ahab and Jezebel were put to flight, because Jezebel wished to kill them too: at that time Obadiah fed them by fifties in caves and in the caverns of the earth; whence he also merited the gift of prophecy, according to what the Lord says in the Gospel:
'He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward.' And all these, being approved by the testimony of faith, were found; they did not receive the promise, God providing something better for us, that they should not be made perfect without us. Who are all these approved by the testimony of faith, but all those mentioned above? whose so illustrious and praiseworthy faith has been commemorated—men who are stars, as it were, and the earthly firmament, and heavenly angels: living stones and splendid pearls, whose works which they wrought confirm their faith, since without faith it is impossible to please God; therefore by the testimony of faith they were approved, that is, by holy operation which worked through faith, they were found worthy of praise.
For their faith was declared by their pure works; but though they were perfect, they did not receive the promise. Someone therefore says: What did it profit them to have served God, if they remain thus far without reward? Far be this from the hearts of the faithful, that we should believe them to remain without reward; for while still surrounded by mortal flesh they received a great reward, namely of living, of knowing God, and of performing many wonders; but now they rest in soul, in the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom, enjoying unspeakable gladness. But let us see what John says of them in his Apocalypse, and thus it will be made manifest to us what promise they did not receive:
'I saw' (says John) 'under the altar of God the souls of those slain for the Word of God which they held, and they cried with a loud voice, saying: How long, O Lord, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And there were given to them individual white robes; and it was said to them that they should rest for yet a little time, until the number of their fellow-servants and their brethren should be fulfilled.' The souls of the saints now have single robes, rejoicing in their immortality and exulting in the felicity which they enjoy. But they shall have double robes when, in the general resurrection, they shall have received immortality and incorruption in the body, which they now have only in the soul.
This promise, therefore, they have not yet received, of which Isaiah says: 'In their own land they shall possess double,' after the general resurrection. And truly it is fitting that those who served God in body and soul should receive their reward alike in body and soul; and as for what follows—'God providing something better for us, that they should not be made perfect without us'—that is, that they should attain perfection. It is expressed after the human manner, for example: just as certain sons returning from the field say to their father, 'Father, we have toiled today, we have borne the heat of the sun: it is time that you grant us refreshment'; and he answers them:
'Wait a little while, my sons, until your brothers come, who likewise are toiling, and then you shall feast most fully together with them'; so in a certain way Almighty God has acted, in that He did not give the elect immortality in the body, so that there might be greater glory and greater desire, when all together on the day of judgment shall have received the double robes. And this is what he says: that they should not without us—who still sojourn here—attain perfection in the resurrection of the body. Chapter XII. Therefore let us also, having so great a cloud of witnesses set upon us, laying aside every weight and the sin that surrounds us, run with patience the contest set before us.
By 'cloud of witnesses' he calls the multitude of patriarchs and prophets, and of the other faithful, who were witnesses of perfect faith; witnesses also of the Son of God, whom they foretold would come into the world; who are well called clouds, on account of the height and multitude of their merits: for just as a cloud is illumined by the sun and is suffused with its heat, and thus afterward warms the earth, and often waters it, and often sends forth flashes of lightning; so those holy fathers, warmed and illumined by the true Sun, warm and illumine the hearts of men by their example, and in their time sent forth rain by their words, and flashed forth by their miracles.
So great a cloud of witnesses, therefore, has been set before us as an example, that we may strive to imitate their faith and works: wherefore let us be laying aside every weight of vices through penitence, and also the sleep of sloth and feeble thoughts. And by what he added—'and the sin that surrounds us, let us be laying aside'—he shows that the Jews are on every side tempted by the devil, given over to carnal desires, and abounding in many sins. Let us run with patience the contest set before us, that as they patiently endured the adversities of this world, so we too may endure them. He did not say, 'let us add something to our course,' but, remaining in the same course, 'let us run the contest appointed for us,' according to what the Psalmist says:
'I have run the way of thy commandments.' For in the present age we are set in a contest against the vices of the flesh, against demons, against false brethren; and it is needful that we run with patience and complete this contest, so that we may attain to the promised reward of the struggle. 'Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.' Thus do sons regard their parents, and disciples their master, in the zeal of their work and in their contests, forming their mind after the example of their teachers and taking from them certain rules by observation. So too we, if we wish to run and to learn to run well, let us look to Christ the author and finisher, who said to us:
'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart;' and elsewhere: 'If they have persecuted me,' he says, 'they will also persecute you;' and, 'If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household?' Let us therefore look unto Christ and receive in him the example of patience, who said: 'He that shall persevere unto the end, the same shall be saved.' For he himself is the author and finisher of faith. He is the author of faith to us, because he himself pours faith into us; for we cannot believe unless we are first prevented by him: whence he himself says to the faithful: 'You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.' He is himself the finisher or perfecter of faith, because he grants us the completion or perfection, in this, that we persevere in faith.
Or he is the perfecter of faith in this, that he gives the will and the power of accomplishing the good by which faith itself is adorned: for faith without works is not perfect, but dead. For in him we all have perfection, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. The Son of God himself, setting before himself—that is, establishing in the present—the joy of his resurrection and ascension into heaven, and of all the glory which he received after the resurrection, endured the cross because of that which in the end he saw would profit him. 'Despising the shame,' that is, counting the disgrace as nothing, since without blushing and without embarrassment he bore that reproach.
For it was the greatest joy to him that he suffered for us, so as to fulfil the will of God the Father, by which he afterward received power over every creature: whence he himself says: 'With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you.' If therefore he, who had no necessity to be crucified, was crucified for us, how much more is it just for us to bear all things bravely? For to this end the Lord appeared in the flesh: that by admonishing he might rouse human life, that by giving examples he might kindle it, that by dying he might redeem it, that by rising again he might restore it; for he was dying that he might teach us to esteem as nothing the glory that is conferred by men. 'And sitteth at the right hand of the throne of God.'
That is, in the prosperity of eternal life and in the fulness of the paternal majesty: if there were no other promise and exhortation, this one example alone ought to have sufficed—the example which in this place the Apostle sets forth concerning Christ—to persuade us to bear all adversities patiently, that we may deserve to sit down together with Christ. 'For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds.' All the adversities which Christ endured from the Jews—namely the stripes, the mockeries, the spittle, the buffetings, the slaps, the blasphemies, and death itself—the Apostle wished to signify by the single word 'contradiction':
'Remember,' he says, 'Christ, who endured such and so great things against himself for sinners, who had done no sin, that you who are known to be transgressors and sinners may not, fainting, be wearied in your minds, but by imitating him may bear the like things patiently.' Christ endured contradiction against himself, that is, he permitted them to do against him according to what they willed, contradicting them in nothing. And he exhorts them not to faint in tribulations, since they had not yet come to martyrdom and the shedding of blood: whence he also adds: 'For you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.' As if he said:
Though you have lost your earthly goods, despoiled by your fellow countrymen, yet you have not undergone death; for you still remain alive. He resists unto blood, fighting against sin, who fights for the truth of the faith against unbelievers even unto death: as the apostles and their successors did; for unbelief is the greatest sin. And when one wishes—whether by flatteries or by terrors—to deceive, fighting for the faith against the unbeliever, he certainly resists against sin. It can also be understood of every sin, namely of evil suggestion and depraved will and unclean desire: he who resists these by not consenting to them, fights against sin.
'And you have forgotten the consolation, which speaketh to you, as unto children, saying: My son, neglect not the discipline of the Lord; neither be thou wearied whilst thou art rebuked by him.' The Wisdom of God the Father, which spoke through Solomon, among other things also uttered this by his mouth: which the blessed Apostle now takes up as an example, exhorting the Jews not to faint in tribulation, who are rebuked by the Lord for the sake of proving. He says therefore: 'My son, neglect not,' or hold not negligently, 'the discipline of the Lord.' Discipline is so called from learning: which by another name may be called correction of morals: for when one is afflicted with straits and tribulations he ought not to be wearied, nor to faint;
but rather bear it patiently, reflecting that he is being chastened by the Lord. 'For whom the Lord loveth he chastiseth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.' Therefore the Apostle sets forth these testimonies, so that, just as sons are scourged by their fathers, that they may be worthy to come to the paternal inheritance—whence also they are often commanded to stand all night in the cold, and are exercised in various ways—so likewise these should endure with a ready spirit the corrections from God, that they may be fit to attain to the true inheritance of the eternal fatherland. For there are many who serve the Lord in prosperity, but nevertheless go astray in adversity: such as these are not yet perfectly proved for laying hold of the inheritance.
Whence the Apostle exhorts the man whom he taught to live well in prosperity, that he faint not under correction: since the Lord chastises with various and diverse means the son whom he loves, in order to establish him as heir of the kingdom of heaven; and he scourges, whether by sickness, or by poverty, or by persecution, or by torments, every son whom he receives to himself into glory. Now it is to be noted that not everyone who is scourged is a son: but everyone who is a son is scourged. Which of the saints, then, do we read to have passed from this age to the heavenly inheritance without divine scourging? Wherefore we ought so much the less to murmur about the scourge by which we are chastened, the more closely we feel in it the affection of paternal love: whence he himself says:
'As for me, those whom I love I rebuke and chastise.' But indeed many are scourged, like Antiochus and Herod, not that they may be received into the inheritance, but that here may be shown in part what evils they are to suffer after death. 'Persevere under discipline.' 'As unto sons.' Most dear ones. 'God offereth himself to you.' Understand: the inheritance of the heavenly fatherland; as if he said: It is better for you to pass through discipline and correction, which is done with paternal affection, to the heavenly inheritance, than to be outside discipline and so to descend to punishments: for you think that God hates you and has forsaken you through these things which you have suffered: for if you did not suffer these things, then it would rather befit you to think this;
for if he scourges every son whom he receives, then he who is not scourged is without doubt not in the number of the sons. By these words he shows them that from the very thing whereby they thought themselves forsaken, they could all the more believe themselves to be loved by him. 'For what son is there, whom the father doth not correct?' Sometimes a householder is wont to neglect the sons of others, but to chastise and correct his own, lest negligence should ruin them. There is no wise father who does not correct his delinquent sons: and sometimes he rebukes them even when they do well, that they may be kindled toward better things. Whence also Eli, because he did not correct his sons, did not deserve to leave them as heirs of the priesthood after him. 'But if you be without' 'that discipline,' 'whereof all are made partakers.'
The good sons, or the holy fathers, mentioned above. 'Then are you bastards, and not sons.' Whosoever remains outside that discipline of the Lord, of which all the good sons belonging to the heavenly inheritance are made partakers, is a bastard son, and does not belong to the paternal inheritance: because he is not a free-born son. Beware lest you be bastard sons, for all the unbelieving and negligent, and those who despise the discipline of the Lord, are reckoned bastards, and not sons. 'Moreover we have had fathers of our flesh for instructors, and we reverenced them: shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live?' Understand further: we ought to consider that we had fathers as instructors, and we feared them:
shall we not much more obey God the Father of spirits, and live in eternal glory? The Father of spirits, that is, the creator of souls, is God almighty, who first created good things out of nothing, and then indeed formed the bodies of men and of other animals out of the elements. But the soul of man he created out of nothing, and still creates: for it is not to be thought that the soul is a part of the Deity, since the Deity is uncreated, but the soul is a creature. And for this reason he calls almighty God the creator of souls, not of bodies, although he is the creator of all things: because our body is fashioned from the paternal and maternal seed, but the soul is always created by God out of nothing.
If, he says, we feared our carnal fathers, by whom we were instructed for a time, that we might deserve to become their heirs: how much more ought we to obey and submit to the creator of souls, that we may live with him in the glory of eternal blessedness? Nor is there only a difference between them by reason of the distinction of persons—because these are earthly, but he is heavenly—but also in the very cause of the discipline and instruction. For they do not instruct for the same end nor unto spiritual things, but according to what seems good to them, as the Apostle shows, saying: 'And they indeed'—the fathers, from whose seed we took our bodies—'for a few days, according to their own will, instructed us: but he'—namely the Father of spirits.
'Instructs us unto that which is profitable,' that is, unto the salvation and profit of our soul. 'In receiving of his sanctification.' Those carnal fathers indeed instruct us to this end, that we may be useful to them according to their own will, which is not in all things profitable: but almighty God trains us unto all things profitable, that we may attain the salvation of our soul, and receive his sanctification: namely, that we may be holy, as he also is, according to a certain manner, according to what he himself says: 'Be ye holy, because I also am holy.' To this end (I say) he instructs and chastises us, that he may make us worthy of his gifts. For every nation instructs its sons according to its own will:
as it was the custom of the Romans to train their sons in warfare, and of the Greeks to instruct theirs in letters. 'Now all discipline for the present indeed seemeth not to be of joy, but of sorrow. But afterwards it will render to them that are exercised by it the most peaceable fruit of justice.' All discipline, he says, both human and divine, at the time when it is being learned, seems to be a discipline not of joy but of sorrow. He called all this both divine and human discipline, because whatever is learned is called discipline. And therefore for the present it seems to be a discipline not of joy but of sorrow: because he who is scourged is very often bound fast, he over whom it is exercised endures hunger, suffers cold and every labour;
but when he has come to perfection, he rejoices and is glad, and receives a most welcome reward, as the Apostle says: 'Afterwards' (he means, when he has come to the summit of perfection), 'the same discipline will render the most peaceable fruit of justice to them that are exercised by it': that is, to those proved and perfected through that same discipline. And he calls it the most peaceable fruit—that is, the most welcome and most acceptable recompense which those receive who are exercised and proved through that same discipline; for example: the Roman recruits, who are exercised in the discipline of warfare, first enduring many hardships, afterwards rejoiced, possessing the sole rule of the whole world.
Similarly is it to be understood of those who are afflicted under discipline, who are to receive eternal rewards: like the holy apostles, the martyrs and the doctors of the Church. 'Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the loosened knees, and make straight steps with your feet, that no one halting may go astray, but rather be healed.' 'Wherefore'—because for the sake of discipline the reward of recompense is rendered, and joy follows after; or, therefore, that you may be able to receive the supreme inheritance with the good sons. 'The hands which hang down'—from good work, and grown numb through the sloth of idleness. 'And the loosened knees lift up,' for the doing of good works. Now by the feet and the knees we ought to understand works, as also by the hands: but by the steps, understanding and the intention of the mind;