Hebrews 11:40Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The Savior foretold that He would not give them the reward until we came. It is like a child-loving father saying to well-behaved children who have finished their work that he will not give them food until their brothers arrive.

And do you grieve because you have not yet received the reward? What then should Abel do, who conquered before all and remains uncrowned? What should Noah do? What should the others do, who lived in those times and await you and those who will come after you?

Do you see that we have an advantage over them? Therefore the Apostle rightly said: "God having provided something better for us." So that it might not seem that they have an advantage over us by being crowned first, God appointed that all be crowned at one time.

Thus the one who conquered so many years ago will receive the crown together with you. Do you see God's care for us?

And he did not say, "that they should not be crowned apart from us," but, "that they should not be made perfect apart from us." This means that then they too will appear perfect.

They preceded us in struggles, but they will not precede us in receiving crowns. This is not injustice toward them, but honor for us, since they too await their brethren.

If we are all one body, then this body has greater joy when it is crowned as a whole, and not in parts. The righteous are worthy of wonder precisely because they rejoice in the good things of their brethren as in their own.

They themselves desire to be crowned with their other members, because there is great delight in common glorification.

We are all one body. The body has greater joy when it is crowned as a whole. For God is a child-loving Father who has many sons. Some of them, having finished their tasks sooner, returned from the fields. Others still remain there, occupied with labors.

To those who labored first, He granted a certain foretaste, commanding them to await their brethren for the final banquet. Being lovers of mankind, they gladly wait, that they may enjoy the common festal assembly.

Therefore, if some endure this delay from afar only by faith and hope, as the Apostle testifies, having seen and embraced the good things, Heb 11:13, placing the certainty of enjoying what is hoped for in regarding the promise as faithful, what must many of us do? Judged by our lives, perhaps we do not even have hope for what is better.

Thus He honored us, providentially arranging such a postponement for our sake. He did not wrong them, for this is pleasing to them. They greatly desire our progress and perfection, and rejoice to be crowned together with the members close to them.

Why, then, while you are still in the struggle, do you grieve because you do not receive recompense immediately?

The greatest Evangelist John also confirms this in Revelation: "And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Master, holy and true, do You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And white robes were given to each of them, and it was said to them that they should rest yet a little while, until their fellow servants and their brethren, who were to be killed as they were, should be completed" Rev 6:9-11.

From all this it is clear that the saints are not yet in the perfect enjoyment of those good things and of future blessedness. Nor have sinners yet received condemnation or been sent away into torment.

For how could it be that, being imperfect and as it were cut into two parts, and not having the body which they await to receive incorruptible after the resurrection, they have already entered into possession of the perfect rewards?

Therefore the Apostle says: "Christ the firstfruits; afterward those who are Christ's at His coming. Then comes the end" 1 Cor 15:23-24. Then, he says, they will be made manifest. Then they will shine forth. Then they will come to perfection.

And the Lord says in the Gospel: "Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of Heaven" Mt 13:43.

Do they therefore not yet enjoy divine glory and blessedness? They do enjoy them, without doubt, but not in all fullness. Therefore the Apostle did not say that they should not be glorified without us. Rather, he says, "that they should not be made perfect without us," that is, that they should not receive the perfection of God's glory without us.

But why do the saints not yet receive this perfection? First, because they are not united with their bodies, by which they labored in doing good works. Second, because God "has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness," and on that day He "will render to each according to his works" (Acts 17:31; Rom 2:6).

Otherwise, if the saints from the beginning of the world had received God's glory in all perfection before that day of judgment, then sinners would likewise already have received perfect punishment. The universal judgment appointed by God would then be superfluous.

Third, because God's providence has ordered something better for us. Those saints should not have anything greater than we do by receiving perfect glory before us and without us. Rather, all together, as one Body of Christ, we shall be glorified with Him.

We shall receive from Him the promised "crown of righteousness, which He will give on that Day" (2 Tim 4:8). The Prophet David speaks in agreement with this: "The righteous shall wait for me, until Thou recompense me" (Ps 141:7).

But is it not wrong for the righteous to wait so many ages for their perfect recompense? Chrysostom resolves this doubt as follows. God ordained this, not in order to wrong the righteous, but in order to honor us. They themselves joyfully await their brethren.

For if we all make up one Body, then it is far more pleasing for this Body to enjoy blessedness at once in all its members, and not in each separately. The righteous are wondrous also in this, that they rejoice over the blessedness of others as over their own.

In this they fill us with wonder. They desire to be crowned together with their members, for to be glorified together is a great delight. Other holy fathers agree in this with the divine Chrysostom.

Saint Gregory the Theologian even describes how the righteous receive God's glory immediately after death, and how they receive it again after the resurrection from the dead. These are his words:

"Every good and God-loving soul, when it departs from here after being released from the body bound to it, is immediately embraced by the perception and vision of the good awaiting it. It enjoys a wondrous delight, rejoices, and gladly goes to its Master. In imagination, as it were, it already harvests the blessedness set before it. A little later, having received again the flesh akin to it, it inherits with it the glory there."

The divine Paul wrote the words now under consideration to the Hebrews in order to console and strengthen them in persecution and sufferings. If these holy men, he says, completed their contest many ages before this time, yet still await recompense, how much more must we have patience.

For we have not completed the course of virtue, but are still struggling. This can be clearly seen from the words that follow.

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?"