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

NPNF (V1-14)St. Chrysostom448Ver. 28 . “So Christ was once 3112 offered.” By whom offered? evidently by Himself. Here hesays that He is not Priest only, but Victim also, and what is sacrificed. 3113 On this account are [thewords] “was offered.” “Was once offered” (he says) “to bear 3114 the sins of many.” Why “of many,”and not “of all”? Because not all believed. For He died indeed for all, that is His part: for that deathwas a counterbalance 3115 against the destruction of all men. But He did not bear the sins of all men,because they were not willing.And what is [the meaning of] “He bare the sins”? Just as in the Oblation we bear up our sinsand say, “Whether we have sinned voluntarily or involuntarily, do Thou forgive,” 3116 that is, wemake mention of them first, and then ask for their forgiveness. So also was it done here. Wherehas Christ done this? Hear Himself saying, “And for their sakes I sanctify 3117 Myself.” ( John xvii.19 .) Lo! He bore the sins. He took them from men, and bore them to the Father; not that He mightdetermine anything against them [mankind], but that He might forgive them.“Unto them that look for Him shall He appear” (he says) “the second time without sin untosalvation.” What is “without sin”? it is as much as to say, He sinneth not. For neither did He die asowing the debt of death, nor yet because of sin. But how “shall He appear”? To punish, you say.He did not however say this, but what was cheering; “shall He appear unto them that look for Him,without sin unto salvation.” So that for the time to come they no longer need sacrifices to savethemselves, but to do this by deeds.[5.] ( Chap. x. 1 .) “For” (he says) “the Law having a shadow of the good things to come, notthe very image of the things”; i.e. not the very reality. For as in painting, so long as one [only]draws the outlines, it is a sort of “shadow” but when one has added the bright paints and laid in thecolors, then it becomes “an image.” Something of this kind also was the Law.“For” (he says) “the Law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image ofthe things,” i.e. of the sacrifice, of the remission: “can never by those sacrifices 3118 with 3119 whichthey offered continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” ( Ver. 2–9 ) “For then would theynot have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged, should have had no moreconscience of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore whenHe cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thouprepared Me. In burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo!I come, in the volume of the book it is written of Me, to do Thy will, O God. Above when He said,3112ἅ παξ3113θῦμα καὶ ἱερεῖον3114ἀ νενεγκεῖν . Lit. to bring or bear up: hence to refer to or bring before a person, to present. The word is used in theEpistle to the Hebrews for “ offer ” as a sacrifice; vii. 27; xiii. 15 . [This secondary meaning is brought out in 1 Pet. ii. 24 ,ὃ ς ἁμαρτίας ἡμων αὐτὸς ἀνήνεγκεν ἐν τῷ σώματι αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον , “ Who bore up our sins in His body upon the cross, ”viz. to expiate them. It is a common word in the LXX. for offering sacrifice, both its primary and secondary meaningscorresponding to those of the Hebrew word which it translates.—F.G.]3115ἀ ντίρροπος3116[This occurs, not absolutely verbally in the “ prayer of Trisagion, ” in St. Chrys.’s liturgy. See Dr. Neale’s Liturgies ofMark , &c., p. 121, Hayes, 1859.]3117ἁ γιάζω , “ devote as a Sacrifice. ” See St. Chrys. Homily on the words, John xvii. 19.3118The common editions have κατ̓ ἐνιαυτὸν “ year by year, ” before ταῖς αὐταῖς θυσίαις , as has the old translation ofMutian.; but it is omitted in the best mss.3119αἷς ; ἃς , “ which, ” Ben. Sav.648