{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-6732","native_reference":{"book_number":650,"chapter_from":8,"chapter_to":8,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":6,"verse_to":6},"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>Athanasius of Alexandria</b>: \"It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.\" Both in the verse before us, then, and throughout, does he ascribe the word better to the Lord, who is better and other than originated things. For better is the sacrifice through him, better the hope in him and also the promises through him, not merely as great compared with small, but the one differing from the other in nature, because he who conducts this economy, is better than things originated.<br/><i>— Discourses Against the Arians 1.13. [59]</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator of a better covenant.\" Thou seest (he means) how much better is the one ministration than the other, if one be an example and type, and the other truth. But this did not profit the hearers, nor cheer them. Therefore he says what especially cheered them: \"Which was established upon better promises.\" Having raised them up by speaking of the place, and the priest, and the sacrifice, he then sets forth also the wide difference of the covenant, having also said before that it was \"weak and unprofitable.\" (See Heb. vii. 18.)</p><p>And observe what safeguards he lays down, when intending to find fault with it. For in the former place after saying, \"according to the power of an endless life\" (Heb. vii. 16), he then said that \"there is a disannulling of the commandment going before\" (Heb. vii. 18); and then after that, he set forth something great, saying, \"by which we draw nigh unto God.\" (Heb. vii. 19.) And in this place, after leading us up into Heaven, and showing that instead of the temple, we have Heaven, and that those things were types of ours, and having by these means exalted the Ministration of the New Covenant, he then proceeds suitably to exalt the priesthood.</p><p>But (as I said) he sets down that which especially cheers them, in the words, \"Which was established upon better promises.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 14</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry.\" Now, he says, since it is not on earth, but in heaven, a better ministry has been attained, that is, the high priest is for a better ministry. See how he engages with the humble because of the weakness of those who are listening. But if he were to say something awe-inspiring, he would immediately be dismissed, fearing that it would not be accepted.<br/>\"inasmuch as he is also the mediator of a better covenant.\" Thus, he says, the ministry is better than the old, as the new covenant, of which Christ is the mediator, is new, I say, the covenant of faith in Him, in which He mediated for Himself and for the Father,<br/>\"which was established on better promises.\" This covenant, he says, was enacted on better promises. For the old promised the good things of the earth; but the new, the kingdom of heaven. And thus the promises from this are better, because the former has been abolished. Therefore, the new triumphs, because it is better, and is given on better promises. And the better one has the promises, for it is better, is evident everywhere.<br/><i>— The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: He concisely brought out the superiority: whereas the Old Covenant had corporeal promises associated with it—a land flowing with milk and honey, olive groves and vineyards, big families and suchlike things—the New had an eternal and heavenly kingdom.<br/><i>— INTERPRETATION OF Hebrews 8</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"e99c2275e4a4ec5ff7cc73c77878ae965cf7cf549c452309e1c8eb2f4da425ec","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":6732,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"5c66142960a7d9db50ac767a953e262c66bbaf952b5e90210395658f2b784a8e","translator":null,"work":null}