Hebrews 10:29Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

How does anyone trample the Son of God? If, while communing of Him in the Mysteries, he commits sins, tell me, does he not trample Him? Does he not despise Him? Just as we treat trampled people as nothing, so sinners treat Christ as nothing, and therefore they sin.

You have become the body of Christ, and do you hand yourself over to the devil so that he may trample you?

"And regards as unholy the blood of the covenant," he says, "by which he was sanctified." What does "unholy" mean? Unclean, or no better at all than anything else.

"Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be counted worthy who tramples the Son of God and regards the blood of the covenant as unholy?" He leaves judgment to them, as we usually do in matters firmly acknowledged by all, making the hearers judges.

What does "tramples" mean? It means he despises. Just as we treat despised people as nothing, so, when we treat Christ as nothing, we come thereby to sin.

"And regards the blood of the covenant as unholy," that is, he considers it no better than anything else. It is called "of the covenant" because by it the covenant was established with us, granting us the inheritance of good things, as we said above.

how much more, we think, will he be worthy of worse punishments who tramples underfoot not the Law of Moses, but the Son of God, and counts the Blood of His New Covenant as common. That is, he considers it the same as the blood of the heifer sprinkled upon the covenant of Moses. Yet the Blood of the New Covenant is immeasurably superior to that Old Testament blood, since "through it we have been sanctified" in Baptism from sin and lawlessness. How much more will he be punished who insults the Spirit of grace sprinkled within us? These are those who regard the Gospel as the same as the Law of Moses.

If one who transgresses the Law of Moses is convicted and handed over to death, then see how many deaths are deserved by the one who dishonors the very God of Moses, treats the precious Blood as common, and mocks the very grace of the Spirit. Again, in the form of exhortation, the Apostle showed the difference. The one is the Son, the other a servant. Those sacrifices were irrational victims, but this one is rational and all-holy. Against the Law he set not another law, but the "Blood" and the "Spirit," because through them salvation is given to us. The Apostle confirms the threat by testimonies from Scripture.

"Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be counted worthy who has trampled the Son of God," that is, who has dishonored Him by contempt. The dishonor is the same in trampling as in contempt.

Everyone who sins knowingly sins by contempt for Christ's commandments, and in this way dishonors Him.

"And has regarded the blood of the covenant as unholy." That is, he regards as unholy the blood of Christ which established His New Covenant. For the death of testators gives force to their testaments, as was said above in the explanation of Heb 9:15.

He regards it as unclean, like the blood of a sinner, or as in no way different from the blood of other men, like the blood of an ordinary man. Those who despise Him consider it such.

Chapter 6. One who does not believe in the blood of Christ will be judged, even if he is an angel. Heretics do not have even the Christian virtues.

Let no one be deceived. The heavenly beings, the glory of the angels, and the visible and invisible powers are subject to judgment if they do not believe in the blood of Christ. "He who is able to receive this, let him receive it" (Mt 19:12).

Let no one be puffed up by a high place. All perfection is in faith and love, and nothing is higher than these.

When the law punished without mercy those who sinned inexcusably, grace came down and by baptism put to death the mortal and passionate life. At once, as by some miracle, it regenerated another life through rebirth and commanded that bodily passions be weakened, or rather put to death, by a valiant life.

But those who sinned and did not repent it punished more severely than the law itself and threatened them with punishments. Those counted worthy of so great a gift, raised to royal dignity, and made partakers of divine Mysteries and gifts, yet afterward yielding to negligence, deserve greater punishment.

If Christ the Lord did not leave unpunished those who speak an idle word, will He not much more condemn the one who makes so great a mystery fruitless, or idle, in himself?

Whoever communes of the Body and blood of Christ in remembrance of Christ the Lord, that He died and rose for our salvation, must not only be clean from every defilement of flesh and spirit. Otherwise he eats the Body and drinks the blood of the Lord to his own condemnation. He must also show in deed that he truly remembers Christ the Lord, Who died and rose for us. He does this by showing himself dead to sin, to the world, and to himself, and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

"He will be counted worthy of worse punishment." By presenting proof from the Old Testament, showing how the Law of Moses punished bold apostasy from it by death, the Apostle wishes to present the full gravity and criminality of falling away from the faith in the New Covenant. This is because such an unfortunate man insults the Son of God Himself and tramples upon His Blood, in which He established the covenant with mankind. Elsewhere the Apostle calls this a second Crucifixion.

The Apostle explains this thought further by referring to the Mosaic law. For idolatry, that is, for renunciation of the covenant with God, the law in fact appointed the death penalty (Deut 17:2-7), provided that two or three Israelites testified to this renunciation.

If now a man falls away from the faith, he treats the Son of God as something unnecessary and of no significance. This is καταπατεῖν, cf. Mt 5:13; 7:6. If a man regards Christ's blood as the blood of an ordinary man, κοινόν, and mocks, ἐνυβρίσας, the Spirit Who gave him grace, what punishment will overtake him!