Fragments on the Epistle to the Hebrews

1So God, he says, spoke to our ancestors in various ways, each suited to its time, through the prophets who belonged to them—to Abraham, Moses, and those who came after. But now that all time was reaching its completion, he has spoken to us in the Son. That is, he first instructed our race through his own servants by laws suited to each generation for acquiring righteousness and the knowledge of God. Then, when the times had been completed, he announced to us in Christ and in the plan accomplished through him the complete grace of these things. By this he means the restoration of our human nature after the cross, through his resurrection, to an incorruptible and sinless state.

2He calls the Father “glory” in a reverent way, and the Son “radiance,” teaching by this example that the Son is from the Father and coeternal with the Father. For radiance is like that: it comes from the sun and coexists with it. So no one could ever say that the sun is older than its own radiance. And he said this without the syllable “Father,” following the idiom of Scripture.

In place of “Though he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered,” it means that through suffering he had the lesson of obedience and displayed it most perfectly, even though he was Son. We too are accustomed to speak this way.

3At any rate, when someone has delivered a speech extremely well, we often say, “This man truly learned from the words he spoke”—that is, by his message and his phrasing he showed with certainty that he had mastered the learning of those words.

The saying in Hebrews 6:1 is transposed. The phrase “of teaching” has been placed in the middle and assigned to everything lying alongside it, and the arrangement according to its meaning is this: not laying down again a foundation of teaching—and then, in sequence, the items set out in the enumeration concerning which the foundation of the teaching exists.

4He wants to say this: for those now first approaching the faith, we lay down beforehand, as it were, a foundation of teaching about these matters. We rightly urge them first to repent from death-dealing works, then, once they have repented, to believe in God; once they believe, to be baptized; once baptized, to submit themselves to the laying on of hands for participation in the Spirit; once they share in this, no longer to doubt the resurrection from the dead; and once they are raised and live again, to know that there will be judgment, and to await the unending and just recompense for how we have lived here.

According to one line of thought, then, I think the lampstand, as has been said, hints at the light from these visible stars, the table hints at the earth, and the bread of the Presence hints at the earth's yielding up of the things suitable for us.