Bede : If a man sins against a man, etc. Both refer to the sons of Eli. For he sinned against a man when the priest violated the wife of another man under the pretext of religion; but this could be dismissed with appropriate penance by God. Not only this was done, but he sinned even worse against the Lord, when the same priest, contaminated by fornication, approached the holy mysteries of the altar not only unworthily, but completely unworthy. Indeed, the terrible sentence of Eli against such presumptuous persons resounds, but much more terrible is the word of the judge himself, who says: Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the age to come (Matt. XII; Luke XII). — Commentary on Samuel Gregory the Dialogist : 19. For a man to sin against a man is for one human to do perverse things against another human. What then does it mean when he says, "God can be appeased for him," unless that such sins were light in comparison with those which the Jews were planning to commit against the Son of God? For they were sinning against God, because he whom they were plotting to kill had shown himself to be God by the most manifest light of miracles. For the Lord showed this through himself, saying: "If I had not done among them the works that no one else has done, they would have no sin" (John 15:24). And to show the implacability of God the Father, he adds, saying: "But now they have no excuse for their sin, because they have seen and hated both me and my Father" (ibid.). It is therefore as if he were saying: By whose prayer is that sin pardoned which is committed against the very one who pardons? Who beseeches the almighty Father on behalf of the one who condemns the coeternal Only-begotten to death? For he would say nothing more plainly if he were to declare openly, saying: This one whom you persecute as a mere man is also God. The law of reason therefore demands that he who persecutes the Creator be deprived of pardon. But divine mercy surpasses the strictness of reason; for he showed the equity of the law, but did not maintain the force of the pronounced declaration in the execution of the promulgated judgment. For by the rigor of equity it was decreed that no prayer would attain the obtaining of pardon; but for those for whom no prayer of man sufficed, the mercy of the Redeemer did not fail. Every man who might pray for the transgressions is removed; but for those for whom no man was sufficient, God himself became man, a merciful intercessor. For hanging on the cross he prayed, saying: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). God was therefore appeased toward those who had sinned against God, not by another's prayer, but by his own. But God was appeased not toward all, but toward some. For some persecutors of the Lord were converted when the apostles preached, but the rest perished. For Luke mentions these, saying: "Their number came to be five thousand" (Acts 4:4). But concerning the reprobate it is added: (Verse 25) "And they did not listen to the voice of their father, because the Lord willed to kill them." 20. The Lord, declaring through the prophet, says: "I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live" (Ezek. 18:23; and 33:11). How then does it befit Him to wish to kill the sinner, and yet not to desire the death of the sinner? But in the aforementioned testimony there follows that from which the truth may be recognized; for He says: "But that he be converted and live." For He who wishes the sinner to live so that he may be converted, if He knows by divine foreknowledge that this one is inconvertible, kills him. The Lord therefore wishes to kill, but those whom He foreknows will refuse to be converted. For He is declared merciful and just when the Prophet implores: "Lord," he says, "deliver my soul; our God is merciful and just" (Ps. 114:5). Through mercy indeed He awaits the conversion of sinners; through justice He condemns those who have not been converted. Through mercy He wishes sinners to be converted and to live, but through justice He wishes to punish those who have refused to be converted; mercifully He saves no one except the willing; through justice He condemns the unwilling. Therefore, when He is said to wish to kill, the greatest and incorrigible impiety of sinners is shown, which is punished by the voluntary execution of divine justice. So indeed we see the most merciful judges of secular affairs act, who would wish that no one transgressed, so that they themselves would have to punish no one; but when crimes are boldly committed by the wicked, they willingly punish those whom they would have more gladly preferred not to have committed punishable offenses. Against this, however, it is observed in this passage that it does not say: "Because they refused to hear the voice of their correcting father," but: "They did not hear, because the Lord wished to kill them." But whoever rightly considers the equity of divine judgment thinks it makes no difference whether someone is killed, or is left in that crime in which he perishes by eternal reprobation. It is as if it said: So great was the magnitude of their guilt that they both received the admonitions of conversion and were in no way able to rise from the pit of their death; and those who had drunk the ocean of God's wrath had as the culmination of their damnation not only the punishment for the crime committed, but also the added vengeance for the preaching they had despised. But why do we marvel at this concerning the past, when we perceive it happening even now: namely, sons despising the admonishing Eli, and the Lord wishing to kill? For what else does Sacred Scripture daily suggest to the Jews other than the darkness of their error? It does not indeed so preach the Redeemer through hidden and spiritual meanings that it does not openly show His incarnation, nativity, passion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. Nor are they so irrational that they cannot see that such excellent goods befit the Redeemer; but nevertheless they are blind, so that they hear that the signs promised to their fathers have shone forth in the Redeemer, and do not believe. They are therefore blind not only in seeing what was promised, but in not believing what has been fulfilled. Why do they not hear the voice of Scripture admonishing them, unless because the Lord wishes to kill them? Nor is it surprising, however, if they perish by the judgment of Him whose Only-Begotten they killed. For it is by the strictness of innermost equity that it is dealt with the Jewish people, that they hear the admonitions of life daily as the Scriptures speak, and yet they in no way believe the Scriptures that admonish them.... — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 2, Chapter 2 Gregory the Dialogist : For a man to sin against a man is for people to harm one another in matters of passing things. But to sin against God is to take away from Him those things which He established for eternity. Therefore whoever draws either his own or another faithful person's soul into sinning is convicted of sinning against God, because he strives to take away from Him what is properly His. This is shown to be a sin all the more grave, inasmuch as one who might stand as a worthy intercessor for its absolution is more rarely found. For under the question "Who will pray for him?" it is not said that the remedies of repentance are denied even to such persons, but that the deeper wounds of sins are healed with greater difficulty. However, this can be understood to have been said because the priests are being rebuked. For a man sins against a man when he offends whose fault looks to the judgment of a superior person for correction. Therefore, since the sins of the subject people, which pertain to the priests, are wiped away by the prayers of those same priests, when the priest falls into fault, there is no superior person by whose prayers he may be expiated. And the Truth Himself intimates this, saying: "If the salt has lost its savor, with what shall it be salted?" (Matt. 5:13). Let him therefore say: "Who will pray for him?" As if to say, who remains as intercessor for him, when the one who was ordained to intercede for others casts himself down by transgressing? By this indeed the magnitude of the guilt is shown, because many of them are cast by the Lord into the darkness of an impenitent heart, and they do not come to their senses by any human exhortation.... — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 2, Chapter 3 Nicetas of Remesiana : The sin of one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit is unpardonable. Compare with this judgment what is said in the book of Kings [Samuel]: "If one man shall sin against the Lord, who shall pray for him?" Thus, it is one and the same sin whether we blaspheme against the Holy Spirit or against God, and it is inexpiable. Hence, the nature of the Holy Spirit begins to dawn in our minds. — THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 17 Origen of Alexandria : The law prohibits priests in the case of certain sins from offering a sacrifice to gain people forgiveness for the transgressions for which sacrifices are made. For though the priest has authority to make an offering for certain inadvertent sins or transgressions, nevertheless he does not offer a burnt offering and a sin offering for adultery, deliberate murder, or any other graver fault. Therefore, it is in the same way that the apostles and those like the apostles, since they are priests according to the great High Priest, have received knowledge of God's healing and know, since they are taught by the Spirit, for what sins sacrifice must be offered and when and how; and they know for what sins it is wrong to do this. Thus, Eli the priest, when he knew that his sons Hophni and Phinehas were sinning, realizing he could in no way contribute to the forgiveness of their sins, acknowledged it as a hopeless case and said, "If a man sins against a man, they will pray for him; but if he sins against he Lord, who will pray for him?" — ON PRAYER 28.9 Pacian of Barcelona : "Eli the priest," thou sayest, "speaketh, saying, If one man sin against another, they shall pray for him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him? In like manner John, If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that thou shall pray for it." Thou seest that all this has reference to sins still remaining, not to those persons who have at any time sinned, and begun to repent before any one asketh for them. It were a long task to unfold the instances. Remark all the sins which God threatens, thou wilt at once see that they are present sins. — LETTER 3.16.2