For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help them that are tempted.
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John Chrysostom
AD 407
For, he says, in that He has suffered Himself being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted. This is altogether low and mean, and unworthy of God. For in that He has suffered Himself, he says. It is of Him who was made flesh that he here speaks, and it was said for the full assurance of the hearers, and on account of their weakness. That is (he would say) He went through the very experience of the things which we have suffered; now He is not ignorant of our sufferings; not only does He know them as God, but as man also He has known them, by the trial wherewith He was tried; He suffered much, He knows how to sympathize. And yet God is incapable of suffering: but he describes here what belongs to the Incarnation, as if he had said, Even the very flesh of Christ suffered many terrible things. He knows what tribulation is; He knows what temptation is, not less than we who have suffered, for He Himself also has suffered.
(What then is this, He is able to succor them that are ...
136. – Having shown the suitableness of Christ’s death from the standpoint of the Father causing it, the Apostle now shows the same thing from the standpoint of Christ enduring it. Therefore, he intends to show how He was made the author of salvation by his Passion: first, he shows the condition of the nature through which He could suffer and die; secondly, the benefits He obtained by dying (v. 14b); thirdly, he proves what he had proposed (v. 16).
137. – He says, therefore, I have said that He and the children have all one origin and that He called them brethren. Consequently, it was fitting that He be like them, not only because He confers on them a participation in the divine nature, which is from grace, but also because He assumed their nature. Hence, he says, therefore, because the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature.
138. – Here it should be noted that by the name flesh and blood is sometimes understood the nature of flesh and b...
