Theodoret of Cyrus — Commentary on Scripture

Hebrews 12:7-10

Fathers are in the habit of disciplining their true children, and if they see them caned by the teachers, they do not worry; they see the fruit coming from the discipline. But they despise illegitimate children and do not accord them equal attention. So if you also avoid discipline, you are of the number of the illegitimate.

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Hebrews 12:14

By “holiness” he referred to self-control. It is possible even for those in wedlock to achieve it.

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Hebrews 12:16-17

Esau wept but did not repent; instead he envied his brother’s prosperity.… The divine apostle also suggested this in what he said: “for he found no chance to repent,” that is, he did not take the way to repentance, nor did he lament his evil intentions; instead, he grieved not for his sin but for Jacob’s success.… It was not without purpose that the divine apostle cited the story of Esau: it was to emphasize that, although the firstborn, he was stripped of the blessing for gluttony and depravity. Jews too, by honoring the firstborn and being enslaved to the obsolete requirements of the law through gluttony, lost their claim to salvation, whereas the Gentiles, the new people, of whom Jacob was a type, gained the privileges of the firstborn. So he urges the believers from Jews not to imitate the lawlessness of the firstborn but to participate in the blessing of the newer people.

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Hebrews 12:18-21

While he brought out the fearsome things, he did not reveal the fruit springing from them. He did not say he “appeared,” because what they saw was not the God of all in person but some impression of the divine coming.

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Hebrews 12:22-24

There you find dread, he is saying, here on the contrary festival and assembly. The former happens on earth, the latter in heaven; there thousands of people, here tens of thousands of angels. There unbelievers and lawbreakers, here church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven and spirits of the just who have been made perfect; there an old covenant, here a new one; there a slave as mediator, here a Son; there blood of brute beasts, here blood of a rational lamb. The phrase “speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel” means communicating through deeds and betraying its own activity: while the blood of Abel is celebrated, this blood is responsible for the salvation of human beings.

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Hebrews 13:5

He forbade not possessions but the love of money, from which greed springs.

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Hebrews 13:7

He referred to the saints long dead—Stephen the protomartyr, James the brother of John, James called Just; many others as well were done away with by the Jews’ fury. By having an eye to them, he is saying, and acquainting yourselves with their praiseworthy lifestyle, emulate their faith.

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Hebrews 13:8

This, too, he does not simply put down, but he fits it to the argument that has been interrupted, teaching that he was crucified by the Jews. And he also demonstrates his eternal existence, for he calls the human nature “yesterday and today” and names the divinity “forever.” And he says that the two are the same, since the only begotten and the firstborn are one and the same Son.

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Hebrews 13:9

By “strange teachings” he referred to what was at variance with the evangelical teachings. So he bids them persevere in the teaching of grace and abandon the observances of the law: No one reaped any benefit from them.

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Hebrews 13:11-14

So let us despise things of this life and look forward to those that are stable and permanent.

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Hebrews 13:11-14

Look at the type, compare it with the reality and perceive the similarity. The law required a red heifer to be sacrificed, and the high priest to take some of its blood and sprinkle the mercy seat seven times with his finger. Burning the heifer itself outside the camp, they took the ashes and with them purified those people called impure. This acted as a type of the saving passion. The word red here means the body from Adam in the Hebrew language. He was fixed to the cross outside the gate. His blood purifies our souls; in place of the dust we have the life giving body.

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Hebrews 13:11-14

“Outside the camp” means, Let our way of life be beyond the law, and let us bear the reproaches for the one who saved us.

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Hebrews 13:15-16

He brought out the sacrifice of praise that is pleasing to God. To it he linked also that of doing good, which he was right to refer to as sharing.… Elsewhere the divine apostle says, “Our abundance supplies for their need so that their abundance may be for your need for a balance to be achieved.” Sharing, then, is also repayment: one person gives money, another returns a blessing, and the person in need is in the stronger position.

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Hebrews 13:15-16

Hymn singing offered to God is of no benefit to us apart from faith in the Son. Since it was to the Hebrews he wrote, who were in the habit of honoring the Father alone, he felt he had to add “through him.”

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Hebrews 13:18

Paul had been misrepresented to them as preaching the opposite of the law; so he impresses on them that he acted for no other reason than obedience to the divine word—hence his calling his conscience to witness.

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Hebrews 13:25

He appended the usual conclusion, invoking on them a share in grace. As for us, let us sing the praises of the giver of old laws and new. And let us pray to receive grace from him so that by observing the divine laws we may attain the promised goods, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom with the Father and the all-holy Spirit be glory, now and forever, for ages of ages. Amen.

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