Hebrews 10:28
A man making void the law of Moses, dieth without any mercy under two or three witnesses:
Open Hebrews 10:28 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Irritam quis faciens legem Moysi, sine ulla miseratione duobus vel tribus testibus moritur :
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- ἀθετήσας τις νόμον Μωϋσέως χωρὶς οἰκτιρμῶν ἐπὶ δυσὶν ἢ τρισὶν μάρτυσιν ἀποθνῄσκει·
Haydock's commentary
On verses 28 to 29
A man making void, &c. He brings this comparison from the manner that transgressors were dealt with under the law of Moses, to shew how much greater punishments Christians deserve when they are ungrateful to Christ after much greater benefits, when they may be said to have trodden under foot the Son of God by despising him, who was the author of their salvation, by shedding his blood upon the cross. (Witham)
What is here said of the crime of apostacy, may in some measure be applied to every deadly sin committed after baptism or the sacrament of penance; for a Christian by returning to sin, treads under foot the Son of God, despises the adorable blood by which he was sanctified, and offers a henious[heinous?] affront to the spirit of grace. Apostacy, though enormous, like all other sins can be forgiven by true repentance; but the apostle declares, there is no victim for the guilt of a person who perseveres and dies in apostacy.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily I on Acts i. 1, 2
As if then we were banquetting with Christ Himself, and partaking of His table, let us do nothing at random, but let us pass our time in fastings, and prayers, and much sobriety of mind. For if a man who is destined to enter upon some temporal government, prepares himself all his life long, and that he may obtain some dignity, lays out his money, spends his time, and submits to endless troubles; what shall we deserve, who draw near to the kingdom of heaven with such negligence, and both show no earnestness before we have received, and after having received are again negligent? Nay, this is the very reason why we are negligent after having received, that we did not watch before we had received. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Homily XI on Rom. vi. 5
Let us then continue living this life; for many of those who seem to breathe and to walk about are in a more wretched plight than the dead. For there are different kinds of deadness; and one there is of the body, according to which Abraham was dead, and still was not dead. For “God,” He says, “is not a God of the dead, but of the living.” ( Matt. xxii. 32 .) Another is of the soul which Christ alludes to when He says, “Let the dead bury their dead.” ( ib. viii. 22 .) Another, which is even the subject of praise, which is brought about by religion ( φιλοσοφίας ), of which Paul saith, “Mortify your members which are upon the earth.” ( Col. iii. 5 .) Another, which is the cause even of this, the one which takes place in baptism. “For our old man,” he says, “has been crucified” ( ver. 6 ), that is, has been deadened. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John, John 3.17
“How and in what way?” Because when we had committed many and grievous sins, and had not ceased from youth to extreme old age to defile our souls with ten thousand evil deeds, for none of these sins did He demand from us a reckoning, but granted us remission of them by the washing of Regeneration, and freely gave us Righteousness and Sanctification. “What then,” says one, “if a man who from his earliest age has been deemed worthy of the mysteries, after this commits ten thousand sins?” Such an one deserves a severer punishment. For we do not pay the same penalties for the same sins, if we do wrong after Initiation. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews 10.26,27
For, he says, ( ver. 28 ) “He that hath despised Moses’ law dies without mercy, under two or three witnesses.” “Without mercy,” he says; so that there is no pardon, no pity there although the law is of Moses; for he ordained the most of it.