And others had trial of mockeries and stripes: moreover also of bands and prisons.
ετεροι δε εμπαιγμων και μαστιγων πειραν ελαβον ετι δε δεσμων και φυλακης
8 Church Fathers comment on this verse
He ends with what is closer to the hearers. Special consolation is gained when grief arising from the same cause is set before them. If you speak, even very powerfully, about grief that did not arise from the same cause, you will accomplish nothing. Therefore he ends his discourse by pointing to chains, prisons, and scourgings.
Others endured mockings. For example, Elisha became an object of mockery to the youths (2 Kgs 2:23), or Samson to the foreigners after his eyes had been put out (Judg 16:25). They also endured beatings. Many of the prophets did so, and later Peter and John (Acts 5:40-41). They also endured chains and prison. Examples are Jeremiah (Jer 33:1), Micaiah (1 Kgs 22:26), and later the Apostles, such as Peter and John (Acts 5:18 and elsewhere).
Others endured mockery, such as Samson (Judg 16:21) and the prophet Elisha (2 Kgs 2). They endured beatings, such as all the Hebrews in Egypt (Ex 5), and the prophet Jeremiah from the Jews (Jer 20:2). They also endured chains and prison, as Joseph did in Egypt (Gen 39:20), and Jeremiah (Jer 20:2; 37:15-21).
Others were subjected to mockings and beatings, as Elisha was (2 Kgs 2:23), and to prisons and chains, as Jeremiah and Micaiah were (Jer 20:2; Jer 33:1; 1 Kgs 22:26-27). Let one who labors in a monastery not shrink even from cleaning latrines, for it is in no way shameful to endure this for the sake of the pious. Do not fear labor, and do not say, "May I not grow faint." Rather, hold in your mind that all the saints pleased God through sufferings. A lazy monk is useful neither to himself nor to his neighbor, while the diligent one stirs the negligent toward virtue.
Who, hearing that some of the saints died under cruel beatings in order to obtain eternal life, while others bravely endured mockeries, scourging, bonds, prisons, stonings, sawing asunder, manifold temptations, and death by the sword. And that they also wandered everywhere clothed in sheepskins and goatskins, suffering want, various afflictions, and every hardship, fleeing like wanderers through deserts and mountains, through caves and fissures of the earth; who, hearing this and considering that they were men like ourselves, does not from this become ready to endure some small hardship for virtue, in order to obtain the eternal Kingdom?
If the mere reading of these examples enlightens and instructs, how much more their interpretation, by which the thoughts contained in them are explained and made plain.
When Elisha was going up to Bethel, little children who had come out of the city mocked him, crying, "Go up, baldhead! Go up!" 4 Kings 2:23. Pashhur the priest, son of Immer, beat Jeremiah and put him in prison, Jer 20:1-2. The false prophet Zedekiah struck Micaiah on the face, 3 Kings 22:24, 27, and Ahab put him in prison.
"They underwent trial by mockings and wounds, and also by chains and prison." Joseph suffered from the Egyptian woman, Naboth from Jezebel, Micaiah and Elijah from Ahab, and Jeremiah from Zedekiah.
"They were stoned." Such was the priest Zechariah, son of Jehoiada.
"They were sawn asunder." It is said that the prophet Isaiah suffered this.
"They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes of the earth" Heb 11:37.
"So was the great Elijah. So was Elisha, the great heir of his grace. So were the greater part of the prophets, who had no houses, but cut wood and built huts for themselves" (Theodoret).
"And all these, having obtained testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us" Heb 11:39-40.
For what purpose does the Apostle make this concluding remark? Having said that the Old Testament ascetics of faith, as it were, still do not receive their full reward because of us, the Apostle wishes to instruct the impatient and fainthearted Hebrews of Palestine, and with them all of us.
They had not yet finished the Christian contest, yet already wished to see the fulfillment of Christian hopes. Instead of crowns they saw only afflictions and trials. Because of this they began to waver in patience, and even to doubt the truth of Christian hope.
Speaking in the name of the Apostle Paul, Chrysostom cries out to the fainthearted: "So much time has already passed since they remained victors, and they have still not received the reward. Yet you, still in the struggle, are grieving? What then should Abel do, who conquered before all others and remains uncrowned? What should Noah do? What should the others do, who lived in those times and are waiting for you and for those who will come after you?"
But in what sense should we understand the Apostle's words, that the Old Testament righteous, though testified to in faith, have not yet received what was promised? Where is the limit of their expectation?
The promise of God must here be understood in its loftiest object, which is the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet this Kingdom must be taken in the full breadth of the concept, and through the whole extent of its duration, from its beginning in this world to its final completion on the day of the resurrection of the dead and the Last Judgment.
Only then will the redemption of the body take place, according to the expression of the holy fathers, Augustine, Jerome, and Chrysostom.
The Apostle had already noted above, Heb 9:8, that as long as the former tabernacle stood, that is, as long as the Old Covenant existed, heaven was closed to men. This means that, for the sake of Christ's future sacrifice, the ancient patriarchs received justification, but had not yet received the fruits of justification.
They had to await the actual offering of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, so that they might have the possibility of entering heaven with Him. Even now, however, the Kingdom of glory has not yet been opened to them. It will not be opened until the New Testament times are fulfilled.
"They preceded us in struggles," says Chrysostom, "but they will not precede us in receiving crowns. This is not injustice toward them, but honor for us, for they are waiting for their brethren. The righteous are worthy of wonder precisely because they rejoice in the good things of their brethren as in their own. God has appointed that all be crowned at one time. Do you see God's care for us?"
After this, in listing facts and results of firm faith, by which faith showed itself victorious over death, over the fear of death, or over the crushing force of this life's calamities, the Apostle probably has in mind the widow of Zarephath and the Shunammite. Believing that God could raise their children, they prayed to Him, εξ άναατάαεως; see Rom 1:4.
By those who were stretched upon special instruments of torture, τό τύμπανον; cf. 2 Macc 6:19, 28, and who would not accept the deliverance offered them in exchange for denial of the faith, the Apostle surely means the ninety-year-old Eleazar and the seven brothers with their mother.
Besides this, the Apostle also mentions other torments and forms of death.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 12 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS