{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-6754","native_reference":{"book_number":650,"chapter_from":9,"chapter_to":9,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":15,"verse_to":15},"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>: It was probable that many of those who were more weakly would especially distrust the promises of Christ because He had died. Paul accordingly out of a superabundance introduced this illustration, deriving it from common custom. Of what kind is it? He says, \"indeed, on this very account we ought to be of good courage.\" On what account? Because testaments are established and obtain their force when those who have made them are not living, but dead. \"And for this cause,\" he says, \"He is the Mediator of the New Testament.\" A Testament is made towards the last day, [the day] of death.</p><p>And a testament is of this character: It makes some heirs, and some disinherited. So in this case also: \"I will that where I am,\" Christ says, \"they also may be.\" And again of the disinherited, hear Him saying, \"I pray not for\" all, \"but for them that believe on Me through their word.\" Again, a testament has relation both to the testator, and to the legatees; so that they have some things to receive, and some to do, So also in this case. For after having made promises innumerable, He demands also something from them, saying, \"a new commandment I give unto you.\" Again, a testament ought to have witnesses. Hear Him again saying, \"I am one that bear witness of Myself, and He that sent Me beareth witness of Me.\" And again, \"He shall testify of Me,\" speaking of the Comforter. The twelve Apostles too He sent, saying, \"Bear ye witness before God.\"</p><p>\"And for this cause\" (he says) \"He is the Mediator of the New Testament.\" What is a \"Mediator\"? A mediator is not lord of the thing of which he is mediator, but the thing belongs to one person, and the mediator is another: as for instance, the mediator of a marriage is not the bridegroom, but one who aids him who is about to be married. So then also here: The Son became Mediator between the Father and us. The Father willed not to leave us this inheritance, but was wroth against us, and was displeased [with us] as being estranged [from Him]; He accordingly became Mediator between us and Him, and prevailed with Him.</p><p>And what then? How did He become Mediator? He brought words from [Him] and brought [them to us], conveying over what came from the Father to us, and adding His own death thereto. We had offended: we ought to have died: He died for us and made us worthy of the Testament. By this is the Testament secure, in that henceforward it is not made for the unworthy. At the beginning indeed, He made His dispositions as a father for sons; but after we had become unworthy, there was no longer need of a testament, but of punishment.</p><p>Why then (he would say) dost thou think upon the law? For it placed us in a condition of so great sin, that we could never have been saved, if our Lord had not died for us; the law would not have had power, for it is weak.<br/><i>— Homily on Hebrews 16</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: Since the death of Christ troubled many of the weaker ones (for they said, \"If He died, how will He give what He promised?\"), Paul now, healing this, shows that it is because this remains that His covenant is sure; for He died— for a covenant is not called valid while the one who made it is alive. Therefore, he says, \"He died to cleanse us, and in the covenant He left us forgiveness and the enjoyment of the ancestral goods, becoming a mediator of the Father and us.\" The Father willed that we become heirs of the promises, but we could not, being enemies and having been at war with Him. What then? The Son interceded and reconciled us to the Father. But since it was necessary to also provide retribution for those on earth for what we had transgressed (for God is both loving and just), the Son himself endured this for us and made us worthy of the covenant, and henceforth the covenant became sure through the death of the Son, so that it did not send the inheritance to the unworthy.<br/>\"called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.\"For if the death of Christ did not deliver us from sins, through which we once fought against the Father, how would we receive the heavenly inheritance? But the term \"called\" shows this: that at first, God was related to us as a father to children, and we were called to the inheritance; but afterward, through our sins, we made ourselves unworthy of it.<br/>\"that by means of death,\" for the covenant is confirmed by death. Therefore, Christ died so that His covenant with us might be confirmed. This is set forth, since especially the death of Christ troubled the weak.<br/>\"for the redemption.\" Do you see that the death of Christ has become for our redemption? How then do you think this is weakness, Him who was so powerful as to heal even the transgressions under the law? How then do you run to the law, which is so powerless that it cannot even correct the transgressions against it? Not that it was evil, but that it was weak.<br/><i>— The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"3bed42104c6b6c25854772478ed230158af686858d2d0202f7042ad60b1d2122","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":6754,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"16ae50bc85418d7ce636649bf56eb37f7cfc06e09cb30fcb1549dbc82f4ef05b","translator":null,"work":null}