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

NPNF (V1-14)St. Chrysostomwere obedient to the faith” ( Acts vi. 7 ), Barnabas, as one of their attending Levites, was influencedby their example and with them accepted the faith of Christ.The only important objection urged against the authorship of Barnabas is, that since the timeof Tertullian until recently, there has never been any considerable weight of opinion in its favor.But this is accounted for by the almost universal acceptance in the meantime of the spurious Epistleof Barnabas as his genuine work. The two certainly could not have been written by the same person.The fact, however, that the spurious Epistle was attributed to him may be an indication of a beliefthat he had left to the Church some legacy of written teaching. Since that Epistle has been foundnot to be his, and is probably of a somewhat later day, there remains nothing to hinder the beliefthat the devout Levite of Cyprus, the early convert to Christianity while still in strong sympathywith the Christian Jews, the man of benevolence and wealth, and therefore probably of education,by birth the appointed servant of the temple, the man of independence and dignity, and yet of suchtender sympathy as to be surnamed “Son of consolation,” the long and intimate companion of St.Paul, and for years in the position of his superior,—there is nothing to hinder the acceptance of theearly ecclesiastical statement that he was also the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews.Frederic Gardiner.363HOMILIES OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM,ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE,ON THEEPISTLE TO THE HEBREWSPublished after his Falling Asleep, from Notes by Constantine, Presbyter of Antioch.————————————of the proportion because of the large number of historical allusions which can hardly be reckoned as quotations, and alsobecause the New Testament writers often clothe their thoughts in the familiar words of the Old Testament, apparently withoutany conscious quotation. This matter, however, which cannot be tabulated, is quite in accord with the rest, and the wholeEpistle is saturated with the language and the historical allusions of the Psalms. Taking only what may fairly be consideredas designed quotations, the relative numbers taken from the Psalms are: Hebrews, 200; St. Luke, 25; St. Paul, 39; all others,25. The Apocalypse is omitted from the calculation. In the comparatively few quotations in St. Luke less than one-third (17out of 55) are from the Psalms, and every one of these in recording the words of others; less than one-fifth in St. Paul (16 outof 89); and in the others 22 out of 116. In Hebrews almost exactly one-half.523