782 HOMILIES OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM,

1 782 HOMILIES OF ST. JOHNCHRYSOSTOM,ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, ON THEEPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS,PUBLISHED AFTER HIS FALLING ASLEEP, FROM NOTES BYCONSTANTINE, PRESBYTER OF SUMMARY OF THE EPISTLE[1.]THEblessed Paul, writing to the Romans, says, Inasmuch then as Iam the Apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: if by any means Imay provoke to emulation them that are my flesh : and again, in anotherplace, For He that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of thecircumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles. If thereforehe were the Apostle of the Gentiles, (for also in the Acts, God said to him, Depart; for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles, ) what had he todo with the Hebrews?

2 And why did he also write an Epistle to them?And especially as besides, they were ill-disposed towards him, and this isto be seen from many places. For hear what James says to him, Thouseest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which andthese all have been informed of thee that thou teachest men to forsake thelaw. And oftentimes he had many disputings concerning therefore, one might ask, as he was so learned in the law (for he wasinstructed in the law at the feet of Gamaliel, and had great zeal in thematter, and was especially able to confound them in this respect) whydid not God send him to the Jews?

3 Because on this very account theywere more vehement in their enmity against him. For they will not endure783thee, God says unto him; But depart far hence to the Gentiles, for theywill not receive thy testimony concerning me. Whereupon he says, Yea,Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them thatbelieved on thee; and when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, Ialso was standing by and consenting unto his death, and kept the raimentof them that slew him. And this he says is a sign and proof of their not believing him. For thus itis: when a man goes away from any people, if he be one of the least and ofthose who are nothing worth, he does not much vex those from whom hewent; but if he be among the distinguished and earnest partisans and thosewho care for these things, he exceedingly grieves and vexes them beyondmeasure, in that he especially overthrows their system with the besides this, there was something else.

4 What now might this be? Thatthey who were about Peter were also with Christ, and saw signs andwonders; but he [Paul] having had the benefit of none of these, but beingwith Jews, suddenly deserted and became one of them. This especiallypromoted our cause. For while they indeed, seemed to testify even fromgratitude, and one might have said that they bore witness to those things inlove for their Master; he, on the other hand, who testifies to theresurrection, this man was rather one who heard a voice only. For thiscause thou seest them waging war passionately with him, and doing allthings for this purpose, that they might slay him, and raising seditionsThe unbelievers, then, were hostile to him for this reason; but why werethe believers?

5 Because in preaching to the Gentiles he was constrained topreach Christianity purely; and if haply even in Judaea he were found[doing so], he cared not. For Peter and they that were with him, becausethey preached in Jerusalem, when there was great fierceness, of necessityenjoined the observance of the law; but this man was quite at liberty. The[converts] too from the Gentiles were more than the Jews because theywere without. And this enfeebled the law, and they had no such greatreverence for it, although he preached all things purely. Doubtless in thismatter they think to shame him by numbers, saying, Thou seest, brother,how many ten thousands of Jews there are which are come together.

6 Onthis account they hated him and turned away from him, because They areinformed of thee, he says, that thou teachest men to forsake the law. 784[2.]Why, then, not being a teacher of the Jews, does he send an Epistle tothem? And where were those to whom he sent it? It seems to me inJerusalem and Palestine. How then does he send them an Epistle? Just ashe baptized, though he was not commanded to baptize. For, he says, Iwas not sent to baptize : not, however, that he was forbidden, but he doesit as a subordinate matter. And how could he fail to write to those, forwhom he was willing even to become accursed?

7 Accordingly he said, Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if hecome shortly, I will see you. For as yet he was not arrested. Two years then he passed bound, in Rome;then he was set free; then, having gone into Spain, he saw Jews also in likemanner; and then he returned to Rome, where also he was slain by Epistle to Timothy then was later than this Epistle. For there he says, For I am now ready to be offered ; there also he says, In my firstanswer no man stood with me. In many places they [the HebrewChristians] had to contend with persecution, as also he says, writing to theThessalonians, Ye became followers of the churches of Judaea : andwriting to these very persons he says, Ye took joyfully the spoiling ofyour goods.

8 Dost thou see them contending? And if men had thus treatedthe Apostles, not only in Judaea, but also wherever they were among theGentiles, what would they not have done to the believers? On thisaccount, thou seest, he was very careful for them. For when he says, I gounto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints ; and again, when he exhorts theCorinthians to beneficence, and says that the Macedonians had alreadymade their contribution, and says, If it be meet that I go also, hemeans this. And when he says, Only that we should remember the poor;the same which I also was forward to do, he declares this.

9 And whenhe says, They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship;that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision, hedeclares this was not for the sake of the poor who were there, but that by thiswe might be partakers in the beneficence. For not as the preaching did weapportion the care for the poor to each other (we indeed to the Gentiles,but they to the circumcision). And everywhere thou seest him using greatcare for them: as was the other nations indeed, when there were both Jews and Greeks,such was not the case; but then, while they still seemed to have authorityand independence and to order many things by their own laws, thegovernment not being yet established nor brought perfectly under theRomans, they naturally exercised great tyranny.

10 For if in other cities, as inCorinth, they beat the Ruler of the synagogue before the Deputy sjudgment seat, and Gallio cared for none of these things, but it was notso in Judaea. Thou seest indeed, that while in other cities they bring themto the magistrates, and need help from them. and from the Gentiles, herethey took no thought of this, but assemble a Sanhedrim themselves andslay whom they please. Thus in fact they put Stephen to death, thus theybeat the Apostles, not taking them before rulers. Thus also they wereabout to put Paul to death, had not the chief captain thrown himself [uponthem].