{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-6698","native_reference":{"book_number":650,"chapter_from":6,"chapter_to":6,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":20,"verse_to":20},"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>: I speak of those heavens from which we expect the Lord will come, who will transform us from corruption to incorruption, and take us up where He himself has entered before us. For this also he says elsewhere: The forerunner himself hath for us entered.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 7</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Then after this he led on to Faith also, that there might not only be hope, but a very true hope. For after the oath he lays down another thing too, even proof by facts, because \"the forerunner is for us entered in, even Jesus.\" But a forerunner is a forerunner of some one, as John was of Christ.</p><p>Now he did not simply say, \"He is entered in,\" but \"where He is entered in a forerunner for us,\" as though we also ought to attain. For there is no great interval between the forerunner and those who follow: otherwise he would not be a forerunner; for the forerunner and those who follow ought to be in the same road, and to arrive after each other.</p><p>\"Being made an High Priest forever after the order,\" he says, \"of Melchisedec.\" Here is also another consolation, if our High Priest is on high, and far better than those among the Jews, not in the kind of Priesthood only, but also in the place, and the tabernacle, and the covenant, and the person. And this also is spoken according to the flesh.</p><p>Those then, whose High Priest He is, ought to be greatly superior. And as great as the difference is between Aaron and Christ, so great should it be between us and the Jews. For see, we have our victim on high, our priest on high, our sacrifice on high: let us bring such sacrifices as can be offered on that altar, no longer sheep and oxen, no longer blood and fat. All these things have been done away; and there has been brought in their stead \"the reasonable service.\" But what is \"the reasonable service\"? The offerings made through the soul; those made through the spirit. (\"God,\" it is said, \"is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth\"); things which have no need of a body, no need of instruments, nor of special places, whereof each one is himself the Priest, such as, moderation, temperance, mercifulness, enduring ill-treatment, long-suffering, humbleness of mind.<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 11</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"where Jesus has entered as a forerunner on our behalf.\" Having said that our hope enters into heaven, he confirms what has been said, trusting this by the facts. For Christ himself entered there; and not only did he enter, but he entered on our behalf. And where our forerunner has entered, there it is necessary for us also to enter. For the forerunner is the forerunner of those who follow; and the difference between the forerunner and those who follow is not very great, just as between John and Christ. Do not be disturbed, then; as long as we have not yet entered, we will enter where our forerunner is. The \"on our behalf\" is extended so that he may be called our forerunner. The fact that he entered in the flesh is on our behalf, so that we also, having flesh, may obtain entrance.<br/>\"Having become a high priest.\" And this is a great encouragement, if indeed our high priest is above and much better than those among the Jews; first, in manner; for he is not according to their order, but according to the order of Melchizedek; then, in place and tabernacle; for he is above and in heaven; third, in the covenant; for it is upon greater and more perfect promises; likewise, in permanence; for he is eternal, and not temporary; lastly, in person; for he is the Son of God. Therefore, do not lose heart. And well is the term \"having become,\" because it was according to the flesh that he became a high priest.<br/><i>— The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews</i></p><p><b>Theodore of Mopsuestia</b>: Paul added that \"Christ\" has become \"an eternal high priest\" for us, in that Christ leads all those believing through him in each generation to God based on the hope of the resurrection.<br/><i>— FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE Hebrews 6.20</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: He augmented their confidence with the name forerunner: if he is our forerunner and has gone up for us, we too must follow and be granted ascent.<br/><i>— INTERPRETATION OF Hebrews 6</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: He is a high priest forever, not in offering sacrifices (having offered his own body once), but in being a mediator leading the believers to the Father; through him (he says, remember) we both have had access to the Father. The Lord himself says in the sacred Gospels, \"No one comes to the Father except through me.\" We must be aware, of course, that the divine apostle made mention of the oaths sworn to Abraham so that the unchanging character of the divine will should be brought out; it endures in advance the stability of high priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek, the oath being linked to the word at this place.<br/><i>— INTERPRETATION OF Hebrews 6</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"d73b97fd4c3cf15d8defc693fbf6e28141e0506a2515f86da14a828dbe33911d","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":6698,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"a4a8b776c1610cb5bcf4140689ec965c1d869566c388a7a51244788e98c8cf44","translator":null,"work":null}