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

NPNF (V1-14)St. Chrysostom379tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled rest.” ( 2 Thess. i. 6, 7 .) Thatis, justice was not violated, but God went forth against them, and caused the penalty to come roundon the sinners, though not all their sins are made manifest, but only where the express ordinanceswere transgressed.“How then shall we,” he saith, “escape if we neglect so great salvation?” Hereby he signified,that other salvation was no great thing. Well too did he add the “So great.” For not from wars (hesaith) will He now rescue us, nor bestow on us the earth and the good things that are in the earth,but it will be the dissolution of death, the destruction of the devil, the kingdom of Heaven, everlastinglife. For all these things he hath briefly expressed, by saying, “if we neglect so great salvation.”[7.] Then he subjoins what makes this worthy of belief. “Which at the first began to be spokenby the Lord”: that is, had its beginning from the fountain itself. It was not a man who brought itover 2773 into the earth, nor any created power, but the Only-Begotten Himself.“And was confirmed unto us by them that heard [Him].” What is “confirmed”? It was believed,2774or, it came to pass. For (he saith) we have the earnest; 2775 that is, it hath not been extinguished,it hath not ceased, but it is strong and prevaileth. And the cause is, the Divine power works therein.It means they who heard from the Lord, themselves confirmed us. This is a great thing andtrustworthy: which also Luke saith in the beginning of his Gospel, “As they delivered unto us,which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word.” ( Luke i. 2 .)How then was it confirmed? What if those that heard were forgers? saith some one. This objectionthen he overthrows, and shows that the grace was not human. If they had gone astray, God wouldnot have borne witness to them; for he subjoined ( ver. 4 ), “God also bearing witness with them.”Both they indeed bear witness, and God beareth witness too. How doth He bear witness? not byword or by voice, (though this also would have been worthy of belief): but how? “By signs, andwonders, and divers miracles.” (Well said he, “divers miracles,” declaring the abundance of thegifts: which was not so in the former dispensation, neither so great signs and so various.) That is,we did not believe them simply, but through signs and wonders: wherefore we believe not them,but God Himself.“And by gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will.”What then, if wizards also do signs, and the Jews said that He “cast out devils throughBeelzebub”? ( Luke xi. 15 .) But they do not such kind of signs: therefore said he “divers miracles”:for those others were not miracles, [or powers, 2776 ] but weakness and fancy, and things altogethervain. Wherefore he said, “by gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His own will.”[8.] Here he seems to me to intimate something further. For it is not likely there were manythere who had gifts, but that these had failed, upon their becoming more slothful. In order then that2773lit. ferried it over: διεπόρθμευσεν , the word is specially applied to messages between earth and heaven, byPseudo-Dionys. Areop. de Celesti Hierarchia , c. xv. 6. “ The Angels are called Winds, to express their rapid power of makingthings, how it reaches almost to all things without time; and their motion in the manner of those who ferry over, from abovedownwards, and again from the lower parts up the steep, both drawing out the things of secondary order towards that loftierheight, and moving those of the first order to come forth in the way of sympathy and care for their inferiors. ”2774ἐ πιστεύθη . Dunæus suggested ἐ πιστώθη , “ it was accredited, ” but there is no ms. authority for the change.2775St. Chrys. seems to have had in view 2 Cor. i. 21, 22 , where “ confirming ” is connected with the earnest of “ theSpirit. ” [The passage is, “ how he which stablishes us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealedus, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. ” —F.G.]2776δυνάμεις547