Isaac of Nineveh

In his own words on Hebrews

• Hebrews 1:14

  Whenever the perception of the revelation of a mystery descends into the intellects of the saints, this is also from the angels. When it is permitted by God, a mystery is revealed from a higher angelic order to a lower one [even unto the lowest]; and in the same manner, when it is permitted by the Divine nod that a mystery should come even to human nature, it is transmitted by those [angels] who are wholly worthy of it. For by their intermediary the saints receive the light of divine vision, [leading] even to the glorious Eternal Being, the mystery which cannot be taught; and the angels receive from one another, "for they are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" [through the awareness of true intuitions that are proper to them]. In the future age, however, this order of things will be abolished. For then one will not receive from another the revelation of God's glory unto the gladness and joy of his soul; but to each by himself the Master will give according to the measure of his excellence and his worthiness, and he will not receive the gift from his comrade as he does here. Then there will be no teacher and no pupil, nor one whose deficiency must be filled up by another. For one is the Giver there, Who gives without mediation to those who receive; and those who win joy, procure it from Him. [[For they do not perceive Him through diverse intellections, but by [direct] revelation of Him, without departing from Him through thoughts.]] There the order of those who teach and those who learn ceases, and on One alone hangs the ardent love of all.

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• Hebrews 4:10

  I am speaking of that order of tears which belongs to those who shed tears unceasingly both night and day. Whoever has found the reality of these things truly and accurately has found it in stillness. The eyes of such a man become like fountains of water for two years' time or even more, that is, during the time of transition: I mean, of mystical transition. But afterwards you enter into peace of thought; and from this peace of thought you enter into the rest of which St. Paul has spoken, but only in part and to the extent that nature can contain it. From that peaceful rest his intellect begins to behold mysteries. And thereupon the Holy Spirit begins to reveal heavenly things to you, and God dwells within him and raises up the fruit of the Spirit in you. And from this he perceive dimly … the change nature is going to undergo at the renewal of all things.… When you enter into that region which is peace of the thought, then the multitude of tears is taken away from you, and afterwards tears come to you in due measure and at the appropriate time. This is, in all exactness, the truth of the matter as told in brief, and it is believed by the whole church.

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• Hebrews 10:20

  But now, when He has poured out his grace upon the world through His own Coming, He has descended not in an earthquake, not in a fire, not in a terrible and mighty sound, but "as the rain upon a fleece, and rain-drops that fall upon the earth" softly, and He was seen conversing with us after another fashion. This came to pass when, as though in a treasury, He concealed His majesty with the veil of His flesh and among us spoke with us in that body which His own bidding wrought for Him out of the womb of the Virgin, even Mary the Theotokos. All this He did so that, on beholding Him Who was of our race conversing with us, we should not be smitten with terror by the vision of Him.Wherefore every man has put on Christ when he is clothed with the raiment wherein the Creator was seen through the body that He put on. For the likeness in which He was seen by His own creation and in which He kept company with it, He willed to put on in His inner man, and to be seen therein by His fellow-servants. Instead of a robe of honour and outward glory, He was arrayed in this. When rational and irrational creation beholds any man clad in this likeness, it worships him as master, for the sake of its own Master's honour, Whom it beheld clad and walking therein. For what creature does not feel reverence at the spectacle of a humble man? And yet until the glory of humility was revealed to all, this vision which is filled with holiness was held in disdain. But now its majesty has dawned on the eyes of the world, and every person honours this likeness in every place where it is seen. In this mediator, creation has been counted worthy of receiving the vision of its Creator and Maker. Wherefore not even by the enemies of the truth is it despised; and even if he who has acquired it is the most impoverished of all creation, yet by it he is honoured as though by the diadem and the purple.

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• Hebrews 13:13

  The Lord Redeemer very rightly commanded whoever would follow Him to strip himself and leave the world; for a man ought first to cast off from himself the causes of slackness, and then approach the work. When the Lord Himself began to wage war with the devil, He fought him in the arid desert. Paul also exhorts those who take up the cross of Christ to go forth from the city, saying: "Let us go forth unto Him without the city and take up His reproach, for He suffered without the city." For by setting himself apart from the world and what pertains to it, a man speedily forgets his former habits and his mode of life and he will not struggle long with these. But if he should draw near to the world and its possessions, he will speedily enfeeble the strength of his mind. Wherefore one must know that separation from the world greatly aids a man and guides him on the way of progress in the fierce and saving struggle. It is proper, then, and helpful in this struggle if a monk's cell be in a poor and mean condition, and if his cell be empty and devoid of everything that could incite in him the desire of ease. For when the causes of slackness are distant from a man, he is not endangered by the twofold warfare, that is, the one which is both inward and outward. See how much easier is the struggle when a man desires things that are afar off than when the very things themselves are close at hand and by their sight inflame the thoughts; for the struggle in the latter case is twofold.

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