{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-6763","native_reference":{"book_number":650,"chapter_from":9,"chapter_to":9,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":24,"verse_to":24},"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>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: We have neither devised fictions of our own nor invented new fables; but from revelation and from what God who created the world has ordained, have beheld the pattern of the whole world—namely the Tabernacle prepared by Moses, which the New Testament consistently with this view has pronounced to be an image of the whole world; and which also by means of the vail Moses divided, and so made one tabernacle into two, just as God also in the beginning divided what was one region, extending from the earth to the highest heaven, into two regions, by means of the firmament; and just as in the tabernacle there was an outer and an inner place, so here there was a lower and an upper. Now the lower is this world, and the upper is the world to come, into which also the Lord Christ, after having risen according to the flesh from the dead, ascended the first of all, and into which the righteous shall in their turn afterwards ascend. And since from Adam to Moses, and from Moses to John, and from John all the Apostles and Evangelists, have each and all in harmony, and both by words and types spoken of these two states; and since not one of them has uttered a discordant note, either saying that there was a state before the first, or supposing that there is a third after the second; but all of them, as if inspired by the Holy Ghost, have proclaimed that there are but two states only, we, therefore, putting our confidence in the scriptures, which are truly divine, have not only sketched the figures of the whole world, but also of those very places by which you will find the Israelites made their exodus, also the mountain on which they received the law in writing, and were instructed in the knowledge of writing; also the delineation of the Tabernacle and the settlement in the Land of Promise; until he who was expected to arise from among them, and who was predicted by all the men of old and by the Prophets, did actually appear, proclaiming the future second state, which on his coming he showed in himself to us all, having entered into the inner Tabernacle, into the upper celestial region, into which at his second coming he shall call the righteous, saying: Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 1</i></p><p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: for Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. In this last passage he says that heaven is the true tabernacle, while the things which were prepared by Moses are antitypes. He therefore calls the things of Moses things made by hands, but the real things not made with hands.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 5</i></p><p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes ((quoting Theophilus of Alexandria, First Festal Epistle))</b>: In order that, having again drawn back the veil of the word, we may with unveiled face behold the festival of the divine Passover, appealing thus to Jesus: Where wilt thou that we prepare to eat the Passover with thee? On receiving his reply that this feast was to be celebrated in an upper chamber, a chamber, that is, of second things, the disciples with alacrity of heart betook themselves with all speed to enter the Holy of Holies, into which Christ Himself hath entered for us, and hath done away with any further need of the typical High Priest, having obtained eternal redemption for us, and on our behalf presenting Himself before the face of God. Formerly indeed the High Priest alone once a year entered into the Holy of Holies, the people remaining without by reason of the littleness of their power. But the Saviour having entered in, has given full liberty of access to all who wish.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 10</i></p><p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands like in pattern to the true, but into heaven itself; calling heaven the true holy place, and the inner tabernacle its antitype.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 7</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"For Christ is not entered into the Holy Places made with hands\" (he says) \"which are the figures of the True.\" (These then are true; and those are figures, for the temple too has been so arranged, as the Heaven of Heavens.)</p><p>What sayest thou? He who is everywhere present, and who filleth all things, doth not He \"appear\" unless He enter into Heaven? Thou seest that all these things pertain to the flesh.</p><p>\"To appear,\" he says, \"in the presence of God for us.\" What is \"for us\"? He went up (he means) with a sacrifice which had power to propitiate the Father. Wherefore (tell me)? Was He an enemy? The angels were enemies, He was not an enemy. For that the Angels were enemies, hear what he says, \"He made peace as to things on earth and things in Heaven.\" (Col. i. 20.) So that He also \"entered into Heaven, now to appear in the presence of God for us.\" He \"now appeareth,\" but \"for us.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 17</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: The Jews greatly prided themselves on the temple and the tabernacle. Wherefore they said, \"The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord.\" (Jer. vii.4.) For nowhere else in the earth was such a temple constructed as this, either for costliness, or beauty, or anything else. For God who ordained it, commanded that it should be made with great magnificence, because they also were more attracted and urged on by material things. For it had bricks of gold in the walls; and any one who wishes may learn this in the second [book] of Kings, and in Ezekiel, and how many talents of gold were then expended.</p><p>But the second [temple] was a more glorious building, both on account of its beauty, and in all other respects. Nor was it reverenced for this reason only, but also from its being One. For they were wont to resort thither from the uttermost parts of the earth, whether from Babylon or from Ethiopia. And Luke shows this when he says in the Acts: \"There were dwelling\" there \"Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene.\" (Acts ii. 5, Acts ii. 9, Acts ii. 10.) They then who lived in all parts of the world assembled there, and the fame of the temple was great.</p><p>What then does Paul do? What [he did] in regard to the sacrifices, that also he does here. For as there he set against [them] the death of Christ, so here also he sets the whole heaven against the temple.</p><p>And not by this alone did he point out the difference, but also by adding that The Priest is nearer to God: for he says, \"to appear in the presence of God.\" So that he made the matter august, not only by the [consideration of] heaven, but also by [that of Christ's] entering in [there]. For not merely through symbols as here, but He sees God Himself there.</p><p>Seest thou that condescension through the lowly things have been said throughout? Why dost thou then any longer wonder that He intercedes there, where He places Himself as a High Priest?<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 17</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: Since the Jews were greatly concerned about the temple, see how it is diminished in comparison to heaven. \"a mere copy of the true one.\" For the temple was handmade and was constructed as a type of heaven.<br/><i>— The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"but he entered into heaven itself.\" The phrase, \"he entered into heaven,\" should be understood from a common perspective, as if to say, Nor does he frequently offer himself, for he has entered into heaven. For indeed, frequently to offer sacrifices through blood belongs to those who enter into the copies of the true one, but not to him who has entered into heaven itself.<br/><i>— The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: Paul, writing to the Hebrews—those, of course, who were indeed reading the law and had meditated on these things and were examining them well but lacked understanding as to how the sacrifices should be understood—says, \"For Christ has entered not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.\" And again he says about the offerings, \"He did this once for all when he offered up himself.\" But why do we seek testimonies from these one by one? If anyone examines the entire epistle written to the Hebrews—and especially this place, where he compares the high priest of the law with the high priest of the promise, of whom it is written, \"You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek\"—he will find how this entire passage of the apostle shows that those things which were written in the law are \"copies\" and \"forms\" of living and true things.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Leviticus 9.2</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: If the ancient custom of sacrifices is clear to you, let us see what these things also contain according to the mystical understanding. You heard that there were two sanctuaries: one, as it were, visible and open to the priests; the other, as it were, invisible and inaccessible. With the exception of the high priest alone, the others were outside. I think this first sanctuary can be understood as this church in which we are now placed in the flesh, in which the priests minister \"at the altar of the whole burnt offerings\" with that fire kindled about which Jesus said, \"I came to cast fire upon the earth, and would that it were already kindled.\" And I do not want you to marvel that this sanctuary is open only to the priests. For all who have been anointed with the chrism of the sacred anointing have become priests, just as Peter says to all the church, \"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.\" Therefore you are a priestly race, and because of this you approach the sanctuary.… Therefore the priesthood is exercised in this way in the first sanctuary and the offerings are offered. And from this sanctuary the high priest, dressed in the sanctified garments, proceeds and enters into the interior of the veil just as we already pointed out above in citing the words of Paul, \"Christ has entered not into a sanctuary made with hands but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.\" Therefore, the place of heaven and the throne itself of God are designated by the figure and the image of the interior sanctuary.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Leviticus 9.9.3-5</i></p><p><b>Pseudo-Clement</b>: The church being spiritual, was made manifest in the flesh of Christ, signifying to us that if any one of us shall preserve it in the flesh and corrupt it not, he shall receive it in the Holy Spirit. For this flesh is the type of the spirit; no one, therefore, having corrupted the type, will receive afterwards the antitype. Therefore is it, then, that He says, brethren, \"Preserve the flesh, that you may become partakers of the spirit.\" If we say that the flesh is the church and the spirit Christ, then it follows that he who shall offer outrage to the flesh is guilty of outrage on the church. Such an one, therefore, will not partake of the spirit, which is Christ.<br/><i>— Second Epistle To The Corinthians (Pseudo-Clement)</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"fdda961832b7c8da866028f845e54e1942a8dbf2d17e4f127949473acebf0f88","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":6763,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"67ab74956b71d0d4633fd2c862739f7e75d67ca5a2b667f9b134aa1ab39f5771","translator":null,"work":null}