{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-6632","native_reference":{"book_number":650,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":18,"verse_to":18},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"For,\" he says, \"in that He hath suffered Himself being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.\" This is altogether low and mean, and unworthy of God. \"For in that He hath suffered Himself,\" he says. It is of Him who was made flesh that he here speaks, and it was said for the full assurance of the hearers, and on account of their weakness. That is (he would say) He went through the very experience of the things which we have suffered; now He is not ignorant of our sufferings; not only does He know them as God, but as man also He has known them, by the trial wherewith He was tried; He suffered much, He knows how to sympathize. And yet God is incapable of suffering: but he describes here what belongs to the Incarnation, as if he had said, Even the very flesh of Christ suffered many terrible things. He knows what tribulation is; He knows what temptation is, not less than we who have suffered, for He Himself also has suffered.</p><p>What then is this, \"He is able to succor them that are tempted\"? It is as if one should say, He will stretch forth His hand with great eagerness, He will be sympathizing.<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 5</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: And be not astonished, that the words \"Himself being tempted\" are spoken more after the manner of men. For if the Scripture says of the Father, who was not made flesh, \"The Lord looked down from heaven, and beheld all the sons of men,\" that is, accurately acquainted Himself with all things; and again, \"I will go down, and see whether they do altogether according to the cry of them\"; and again, \"God cannot endure the evil ways of men,\" the divine Scripture shows forth the greatness of His wrath: much more, who even suffered in the flesh, these things are said of Christ. For since many men consider experience the most reliable means of knowledge, he wishes to show that He that has suffered knows what human nature suffers.<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 5</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"For because he himself has suffered and been tempted.\" The statement is humble and not outside the measures of emptiness. Furthermore, it was said also because of the infancy of those who hear. For what does he say?<br/>For because he himself has suffered, that is, since he himself has been tempted in his own body, he will more willingly help those who are being tempted. As he said: Having learned by experience what it is to fall into temptations, not only as God, but also as a man, having learned by experience the passion (he is able, that is, he will more willingly reach out his hand to those who are being tempted).<br/><i>— The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: He can help those who are being tempted, thus it must be understood. For when, he says, the Evil One attacked the sinless body of the Lord and attempted to surround it with temptations (Matt. 4:1-11); (for he attacked, tempting for his own sake; and he was the one inciting the Jews to murder against the Lord) therefore, since he was tempted and suffered while having a sinless body, he possesses righteous and reasonable strength against the Evil One, and is able to rescue those who are being led by sin from the temptations coming from there, and to become a helper to those who are being tempted. For the boldness of the Evil One against the sinless body provided just and reasonable strength to the Lord, to rescue those under sin from the temptations coming from there, and to be found a helper to those who are being tempted.<br/><i>— The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews</i></p><p><b>Photios I of Constantinople</b>: \"He is able to help those who are tempted\" … should be interpreted as follows. As the sinless body of the Lord was subjected to the evil and the temptations of suffering befell it … therefore, having the sinless body, having been tried and having suffered, he has the just and blessed power over evil, can deliver humans who are dying under sin from the temptations that fall on them, and he can defend from the temptations. If the Lord had righteous and blessed power over the audacious evil that tempted his sinless body, he also is able to release those who are subject to sin and temptations and to be the helper of those who are tempted.<br/><i>— FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE Hebrews 2.18</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: He presented his saving death as an offering: the body he had assumed he offered for the whole of creation. He included something else as well for their consolation: having learned by experience the weakness of human nature in living under the law and under grace, he extends assistance to those under attack. This is said in respect of humanity: he is our high priest not as God but as human; he suffered not as God but as human; it was not as God that he learned our condition, but as God and creator he has a clear grasp of everything.<br/><i>— INTERPRETATION OF Hebrews 2</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"f0c23d43cbbcd63158ae9f0c3d2c53a5f4c0bbe8297eda3f672df2460f06b96b","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":6632,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"63495da84f5888bfc816055db684f11dc3c4aa70df8fd5c99f17801e23127664","translator":null,"work":null}