They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
All Commentaries on Hebrews 11:37 Go To Hebrews 11
John Chrysostom
AD 407
At all times indeed, but especially then when I reflect upon the achievements of the saints, it comes over me to feel despondency concerning my own condition, because we have not even in dreams experienced the things among which those men spent their whole lives, not paying the penalty of sins, but always doing rightly and yet always afflicted.
For consider, I beseech you, Elijah, to whom our discourse has come round today, for he speaks of him in this passage, and in him his examples end: which [example] was appropriate to their case. And having spoken of what befell the Apostles, that they were slain with the sword, were stoned, he goes back again to Elijah, who suffered the same things with them. See 2 Kings 1:8 For since it was probable that they would not as yet hold the Apostles in so great estimation, he brings his exhortation and consolation from him who had been taken up [into Heaven] and who was held in special admiration.
They had not even raiment, he says, through the excess of affliction, no city, no house, no lodging-place; the same which Christ said, but the Son of Man has not where to lay His head. Matthew 8:20 Why do I say no lodging-place? No standing-place: for not even when they had gained the wilderness, were they at rest. For he said not, They sat down in the wilderness, but even when they were there, they fled, and were driven thence, not out of the inhabited world only, but even out of that which was uninhabitable. And he reminds them of the places where they were set, and of things which there befell [them].
Then next, he says, they bring accusations against you for Christ's sake. What accusation had they against Elijah, when they drove him out, and persecuted him, and compelled him to struggle with famine? Which these [Hebrews] were then suffering. At least, the brethren, it is said, decided to send [relief] to those of the disciples who were afflicted. Every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren that dwelt in Judea Acts 11:29, which was [the case] of these also.
