Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews

NPNF (V1-14)St. Chrysostom352μ and .. 208................... 16................... 57................... 9μ , μ , μ .. 104................... 11................... 33................... 8—— —— —— ——Together........... 381........... 47........... 190........... 27It is plain that while the author of Hebrews dwelt much more upon the brightness of the futurethan any other writer, he preferred to speak of it in the light of promise and of inheritance , whileit rested in St. Paul’s mind more as a hope . This is the more noteworthy because the ideas of sonshipand of adoption are very common in St. Paul. He alone uses the word five times.The words μ and μ are curiously infrequent in a writer of the present urgency of St. Paul,and are relatively most common in St. Luke and Hebrews, but most so in the last. In proportion thenumbers are: Hebrews, 278; St. Luke, 207; St. Paul, 100; all others, 153. That is, Hebrews usesthem nearly three times as often as St. Paul.The names for God and for our Lord are used by the various writers with much difference, andwith an evident preference in each of them for his own accustomed word. The proportionate numbers(which can take no note of periphrases) are as follows:—Hebrews. St. Luke. St. Paul. All Others.................. 774................. 463............... 1016............... 419............. 185................. 335................. 524............... 213.......... 150................. 255................. 405............... 519......... 150................... 69................. 562............... 102In all cases St. Paul uses these words most freely (about twice as often as anybody else), exceptthat in the case of he is exceeded by “other writers” as a result of the large amount of narrativecontained in them. is used in Hebrews next in frequency to St. Paul, but with a long intervalbetween them, and very much more often than elsewhere. is used least frequently in Hebrews,while and are employed there, one with exactly the same frequency as the other, thoughSt. Luke, St. Paul, and the other writers employ them very unequally, one preferring one and anotherthe other. The use of these words is so much a matter of habit, habit alike of writing and of modeof thinking, that these go far to differentiate the writers.μ , , and are none of them ever used in Hebrews. For the others proportionatenumbers are: St. Luke, 27 times; St. Paul, 35; all others, 20.The group μ , μ , and is almost exclusively Pauline, occurring in his writings 58times, while it is nearly absent from Hebrews, only μ being used, and that but once. These wordsdo not occur in the other New Testament writers except three times in James. So also μ andμ μ are especially Pauline. They each occur only once in Hebrews. The first is found twice,the second not at all in St. Luke; butwhile μμ occurs 34 times in St. Paul, four times in other writers,μ is used by St. Paul ten times, and only three times elsewhere.is used 16 times by St. Paul, only once each by Hebrews and St. Luke, and seven timeselsewhere. and are much more frequent in St. Paul’s writings than elsewhere, but inthis case he is more nearly approached by Hebrews than by others—yet with a great difference.Proportionate numbers are: Hebrews, 81; St. Luke, 54; St. Paul, 137; all others, 22. The wordoccurs in Hebrews but once, and μ not at all. This is a noteworthy omission in our epistle,although it is also true that they are not used by St. John, except three times in Revelation.The two words are found in St. Luke and St. Paul each 33 times, and in the other writers 43 times.516