Commentary on Matthew 1 part 5/6

But the Lord makes their wickedness public, that they had not come to ask in order to be benefited, but out of not possessing it and being gripped by envy; and He teaches that one must not love God in part while in part clinging to earthly things.

And by the words in which the Lord declared this commandment to be more comprehensive than all, the lawyer thought to cast Him into danger, as making Himself God.

Whence, when He did not say this, the lawyer praised Him, as Mark says.

The first commandment, then, teaches every form of godliness.

For to love God with the whole heart is the cause of every good; and the second contains what is just toward men.

And the one prepares the way for the second, while the second is framed together out of the first.

For he who has rightly performed the love toward God evidently also loves his neighbour in all things as himself.

Such a man proves to be a fulfiller of all the commandments.

There came forward one reckoned among them to be greatly learned in the Law, and he asks which commandment is great in the Law, supposing that He would set aside the things of Moses and put forward His own teaching, or say, 'You shall love the Lord your God and me,' yoking His own glory to the glory of the Father, and thus he finds a place to cast Him into danger as making Himself God; or, if He should pass over this in silence, to say:

Therefore I do not receive you as God.

But the Lord, saying nothing new but the things of the Law, and by this stopping the mouths of the Pharisees, Himself also asks them whose son they consider the Christ to be.

Woe therefore to you, O lawyers, that while the Law is confessedly burdensome, you bring the penalty of death upon others who trample it, yet you yourselves do not even touch the Law.

Since those who teach new doctrines may generally be seen to have come into the dignity of teaching out of a love of vainglory and boasting, the Lord removes this suspicion and cuts off the way as leading to destruction.

If therefore, He says, you long for glory and the first places, seek rather the rank of servants and of those who are last, and practise humility.

He calls a son of Gehenna the one who is perishing from unbelief, as having slid down into this from impiety and reached such a measure of lawlessness that he holds an unmediated intimacy with the flame and, one might almost say, a kinship with it, so as unquestionably to bear the torments.

For in heaven are the angels who do His will and ever glorify Him.

But the earth is the footstool of His feet.

For in her he lived and moved among men through the flesh.

Now the foot of God is his holy flesh, and it is called by various names.

You demand, he says, O Pharisees, the tithes—of even the smallest herbs, perhaps—while you neglect the commandments concerning which the transgression is greater.

And what are these commandments? Judgement—that is, to judge rightly and blamelessly—and mercy, that is, sincerity toward God.

For judgement and mercy and faith toward God are better than the tithe and the firstfruits.

Wherefore also the God of all things says through the prophet:

And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God seek from you but to do justice, and to love and to seek mercy, and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God?

For in a heart very ready to follow, one sees preserved the disposition toward genuine faith.

You demand, he says, O Pharisees, the tithes—of even the smallest herbs, perhaps—while you neglect the commandments concerning which the transgression is greater.

And what are these commandments? Judgement—that is, to judge rightly—and mercy, and faith toward God.

For these are better than the tithe and the firstfruits.

Wherefore also the God of all things says through the prophet:

And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God seek from you but to do justice, and to love and to seek mercy, and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God?

By these words he describes the manner of life of the Pharisees, exhorting them not to be moulded merely by outward formalities, but to keep also the inward things pure, those pertaining to mind and heart.

What then does the Saviour say? Let us search it out precisely.

The fathers of the Jews slew, at various times, the holy prophets who conveyed to them the divine word.

Having become their descendants and confessing that the prophets were venerable and honourable, they set around them crowns—that is, they built tombs, rendering to them the honour most befitting the saints; yet these very men, having believed that they were prophets and holy men, thereby became judges of those who slew them.

For by the very means through which they resolved to honour those who had been slain, by these same means they accuse those forefathers as having acted impiously.

But those who had condemned their own fathers for such dreadful bloodguiltiness were about to be convicted of the same evils—nay rather, of still worse ones.

For they slew the Author of life, and they added to their impieties against him yet other bloodshed against his divinely inspired disciples.

For as long as a man examines the wrongdoings of others, judging by natural reasoning, he sees the evil and finds fault; but when he himself is led on into the same passions, he is carried into them as though blind.

In what manner will the penalty for all this blood come upon the last generation of the murderers—and this though God says through the prophet, 'The fathers shall not die for the children,' and indeed the reverse, 'each shall die for his own sin'? What then shall we say? How will those to whom Christ spoke these things be held to account for the bloodshed of others? For will not Cain be punished on Abel's behalf?

I have slain a man for wounding me, and a young man for hurting me.

Since, then, each is weighed down by his own evils, how shall the wretched ones undergo the penalty on behalf of all? For God is not unjust, but is 'a righteous judge, strong and long-suffering,' according to that which is written.

We say, then, that some such meaning as follows befits what has been said.

Let us then suppose some such case as this:

There arose, let us say, robbers in a certain land.

These were plundering the villages round about and putting to death those who dwelt in them.

But the governor of the province did not at once bare against them the ruler's sword; rather, by threats he was eager that these men should be brought to a change of mind.

But they were no less savage.

But in order that the evil might at length be checked, when some were caught he did not spare them, but subjecting them to the cruellest tortures he imposed upon them the uttermost peril—not indeed being angry at those alone, but far more, since his forbearance had been abused even by the savagery of the earlier ones.

But someone, I suppose, of those last ones who were savagely punished will say that they received upon themselves the sins of all, because the wrath of the judge came to rest upon them. Some such thing you will understand also concerning God.

For having borne with them long-sufferingly in the times that went before, up to these he reckoned that he must set a limit to his forbearance.

For it was necessary that upon these the divine wrath should burst forth.

For the former sinned against men and fellow-servants, but these slew the Lord of all things.

It is not, therefore, because he punishes the last ones that he is on this account harsh, but because he endured patiently up to the present he is worthy of admiration.

If anyone should wish, on account of the Lord's saying 'this generation,' to signify not those alone to whom the word was addressed, but as it were the whole race of murderers, he departs from what is correct.

For we find that Holy Scripture names, as it were, likenesses of manner and identity of purpose as a 'race.'

Therefore we say that this 'generation,' even if it be spoken demonstratively, signifies not only, perhaps, those then present and listening, but every murderer and everyone falling under the same race of impiety.

For like will be reckoned together with like, as a brother and one of the same race.

Having said this, he shows his own God-befitting nature, even while being in human form.

For concerning God, Moses also said:

Spreading out his wings he received them.

And the sons of men shall hope under the shelter of your wings.

It has a spiritual contemplation, that which comes through faith.

For when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in and they shall have believed in Christ, then the Jews who afterward believe behold the beauty of Christ's Godhead, contemplating that the Father is in the Son, and saying that he himself is the Redeemer proclaimed through the prophets, concerning whom the prophet foretold that he comes in the name of the Lord.

For the other prophets did not come in the name of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord; and, I am the servant of the Lord, and I worship the God of heaven.

Having said 'your house is left to you,' he does a thing consequent upon this, going out from the temple and departing, and thereby showing the falling away of divine grace from the race of the Jews, as it passes over to others.

He used these words hyperbolically; nevertheless it came to pass even in deed, the sacred precinct being utterly cast down in ruin.

Certain men were pointing out to Christ the magnificent works in the temple and the adornment of the votive offerings.

For they supposed that he would marvel together with them at the things seen—and this though he was God and had heaven for his throne.

But he lets pass the discourse concerning them, and foretold that it would fall from its foundations in due time, when the Roman army should bring it down to this, and all Jerusalem should exact from Israel the penalties for the slaying of the Lord.

For after the Saviour's cross these things befell them to suffer; but they did not understand the force of what was said.

And they supposed that he was weaving together words concerning the consummation of the age.

So they asked when these things would be, and what would be the sign when it was about to come to pass.

The Lord follows the aim of those who put the question, and speaks for the moment concerning the consummation of the present age.

For before his descent from the heavens comes to pass, certain forerunners will appear, false christs and false prophets fastening his own countenance upon themselves; but do not follow them, he says.

Perhaps the saying also contains an enigma, so that we should pray neither to depart from the body, nor to be in idleness of a good work—which the sabbath signifies—nor in unfruitfulness, which winter denotes.

For it should be noted that God did not make a winter of evils; yet we are in winter whenever the passions of the flesh hold sway in us.

This Christ hints at: that we should pray not to be in departure from the body, nor in idleness from the works of virtue—which the sabbath signifies—nor troubled amid the tumults and disturbances of this life, which winter makes plain.

Just as, when a dead body lies there, the flesh-eating birds run together to it, so, when the Son of Man shall come, then indeed all the eagles—that is, those who soar to the heights and to the uttermost places, and who have been lifted up above earthly and worldly things—shall run together to him.

How shall they not shudder? For when heaven and earth are being transformed into new elements according to what seems good to God (for it is not possible to speak anything precise in such matters), the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall fall like flowers, while the Creator who made them transforms them anew according as he wills; and the very elements shall be thrown into confusion.

For when humanity is renewed, the creation also that was made for the sake of man is recapitulated and created anew together with him.

Since the disciples wished to learn things beyond themselves, he finds occasion to restrain them from such things by not knowing, in so far as he was man, and says that not even the holy angels in heaven are able to know these things.

To grant the narration and to endeavour, as much as possible, to make it precise in fine detail.

But if ever they should wish to learn superfluously any of the things beyond the measure that pertains to themselves, gently to check them, and thoroughly to persuade them rather to choose the more fitting things, and to do in these matters those things by which they might become conspicuous and possess before God the most excellent brightness that comes from good works.

Therefore, when they had chosen—somehow or other—to ask about and to learn things beyond a servant's measure, he persuades them to be still, entreating them with necessary reasonings, that the Father revealed it neither to angels nor makes it known even to the Son himself, if indeed he were some mere man like themselves upon earth and did not have by nature the being of God.

It was the custom of Christ the Saviour to do some such thing especially in the case of the holy disciples: if they were to inquire about any of those matters that had the appearance of a love of learning but were nevertheless free from a loftier inquiry, to grant the narration and to endeavour, as much as possible, to make it precise in fine detail.

But if ever they should wish to learn superfluously any of the things beyond the measure that pertains to themselves, gently to shield them and thoroughly to persuade them rather to choose the more fitting things than to be over-curious.

Since, then, the disciples wished to learn things that were beyond them, He profitably feigns not to know, insofar as He is man, and says that not even the holy angels in heaven know these things, so that they might not be grieved as though they had not been trusted with even a measure of it.

And see how He persuades them to be at rest by fitting reasonings and shames them into acquiescence, in that the Father revealed it neither to the angels, nor did it become known even to the Son Himself.

For if the consummation were manifest, what would they not have done? But if the Son is the Wisdom of the Father, and if the Wisdom does not know what He (the Father) knows, then again the Son is found to be ignorant; or else it must be said that His nature is superior to His own Wisdom, and the simple God is found to be composite and unlike Himself.

Yet neither ignorance nor knowledge produces a difference of essence, just as it does not among men either; rather, ignorance is a passion, which the Son does not have; but He is God by nature and, even according to the heretics, incapable of passion.

But if all that is the Son's is the Father's, and all that is the Father's is the Son's, then either both are ignorant, or the Father knows and the Son knows as well, since He possesses by nature all that belongs to the Father.

For He does not say this concerning the lordship over created things.

But whenever Scripture names the Father, it signifies the whole of the Godhead which is contemplated and worshipped in the Holy Trinity.

See how the word divides men into two orders, into those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

And He says that those being saved are taken, but those perishing are left behind, that is, rejected.

Here the field is to be understood as the world, in which he who sows to the spirit reaps eternal life, but he who sows to the flesh reaps corruption.

And He likens the teachers to the women grinding at the mill, who in a certain manner refine the meanings of Scripture and set forth the divine oracles as easy to receive and easy to understand for men.

For the law also, which commands that a millstone or an upper millstone not be taken in pledge, lest one who takes the instruments of nourishment should hinder those who are fed by them, enigmatically hints at the teachers.

The Lord divides men into two orders, into that of those being saved and that of those perishing.

And He says that the company of those being saved is taken, but the ungodly are left behind, which is to be rejected.

And He likens the teachers to the women grinding, as those who refine the Scriptures and make them easy to receive and easy to understand for men.

For the law forbids a millstone or an upper millstone to be taken in pledge, so that no one who takes the instruments of nourishment might become a hindrance to those who are fed.

Wherefore the Saviour also enigmatically hints at the teachers.

Faithful in teaching, prudent in deed, and a most gentle steward of his fellow-servants.

For such a one is a partaker of the whole kingdom of the Master.

For this is what is signified by the words, 'He will set him over all his possessions.'

He does not say who this is, but speaks indefinitely, in order to show how rare and how precious right teachers are.

And it is well to require both; but if either one is lacking, the other limps.

For the word is directed against those leaders who devote their leisure to luxuries.

For He called the negligent teacher an evil and wicked servant, who, because the judge is absent and is not seen on account of His long-suffering, bitterly beats those under his hand and mingles himself with the lovers of the flesh.

For those who sin, sin as though the judge were not present, and as those who take no account of judgment.

And by some of them being beaten He indicates those who are harmed in soul by the luxury of the leaders, even as He says:

thus sinning against the brethren and wounding their weak conscience.

He therefore threatens those who live in luxury that they will suffer the uttermost things.

For by His own living word He tears him away and, with pains, separates from him the Spirit which had been united to him in this age—that is, the divine gift of grace.

For those who pretend to hold right opinions but do not think as they ought, and merely clothe themselves outwardly with virtue in mere appearance, shall be cut in two on the fearful day of judgment, which is a perpetual estrangement from the Spirit.

For now, even though the Spirit is not commingled with the unworthy, yet He seems in a way to be present to those once sealed, awaiting the salvation that would come from their conversion.

But then He will be wholly cut off from the soul that has profaned His grace, and that man's portion will be appointed with the hypocrites.

By hypocrites He means those who attempt to teach right things, but by the things they do harm their disciples all the more.

Concerning, then, He says, those who in the present life do not use, as they ought, the ministry entrusted to them by the Lord: He will not only not add another to them, but taking away also the participation in the Spirit already implanted in them, which they obtained when appointed to ecclesiastical ministry, He will thus hand them over to punishment.

For it is not possible for anyone to be handed over to punishment together with the Spirit.

For He does not hint at a bodily cutting, but at the stripping away of the adoption which comes through the Spirit.

They are therefore punished in return for the things at which they once laughed, and they will gnash their teeth, reckoning the finality of their toil and the excess of the punishment.

Let us examine what it is to be cut in two.

When Adam came into being in the beginning, God, bestowing upon his nature the most perfect beauty, made him a partaker of His own Spirit.

For He breathed into his face the breath of life.

For that which truly gives life is the Spirit of life, that is, of Christ.

But when he slipped, through deceit, into sin, the Spirit was withdrawn.

But when God the Father was pleased to sum up all things in Christ and to restore the nature of men to its ancient beauty, we received back through grace that of which the incursion of sin had deprived us.

For Christ breathed upon us after the resurrection, renewing us unto the ancient beauty.

The Spirit, therefore, is united to us.

For he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

If, therefore, we are found engaged in the pursuits of piety, we shall receive the fullness at the end, since we now have the Spirit as an earnest; but if we are accused in sins, we forfeit the very earnest of the Spirit.

For it is cut off and departs, as it were, at the time of judgment.

And this, we say, is the cutting-in-two which He here mentions.

For it is not possible for anyone to be given over to punishment together with the Spirit.

At the time of the consummation the Holy Spirit is taken away.

For it is not possible for anyone to be given over to punishment together with the Spirit.

He likens the leaders of the peoples to virgins.

The minister of holy things must be spotless in both soul and body, as Paul also says, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.

Since it is the custom of Scripture to divide the whole of life into five, He assigns to each age both holy and foolish souls, since each age has its wise and its simple, its righteous and its unrighteous.

And in that all went forth with their lamps, He shows that all souls were enlightened by God with natural and inborn laws, and indeed also with the written laws given through Moses.

And that all went out to meet the bridegroom means that all purposed to please God and to be joined spiritually to the bridegroom, who sows in the hearts of the faithful every kind of virtue; wherefore He is also called the bridegroom.

But some, without discernment, although possessing the illumination from God, did not endure to live virtuously—which is what the intelligent souls did, by good works causing the illuminating grace inwardly given them from God to shine forth the more, and benefiting both themselves and others unto the glory of God.

The oil is to be understood as good love of labour, which the idle do not have; and when it is absent, the divine illumination within us passes over into something less beautiful.

And He likens to sleep, and calls slumber, the death of the flesh, which of necessity comes upon both the prudent and the foolish, whom the trumpet of the angels raises up at the time of Christ's coming.

For all rise, death having been abolished, both the good and the bad, and all make themselves ready for their defence before the judge—which is to trim the lamps, each one reckoning up his own life.

But when the wicked bring nothing with them, the soul begins to grow gloomy and, as it were, to be extinguished and to pass into derangement, so that they imagine they may obtain mercy through the virtue of others.

Wherefore they are rejected, those others saying, 'Lest there be not enough for us and for you.'

For each one's virtue will scarcely suffice for the salvation of his own soul, because even the exceedingly virtuous stumble in many things.

'But go to those who sell'—who are the prophets, apostles, and evangelists, through whom one learns to work virtue, and the right teachers of right doctrines.

But though they went off readily, the time did not permit them, since it makes examination of the life already lived and grants no fresh beginning of labour.

Since it is the custom of Scripture to divide the whole of life into five, He assigns to each age both holy and foolish souls.

And in that all went forth with their lamps, He shows that all souls were enlightened by God through the natural and the written law.

But some did not endure to live virtuously with the illumination from God, while others, by good works, cause the illuminating grace given them from God to shine forth the more, and benefit both themselves and others unto the glory of God.

And the oil is to be understood as good love of labour, and when it is absent, the divine illumination within us passes over into something less beautiful.

By sleep and slumber He likens the death of the flesh, which of necessity comes upon all; and them the trumpet of the angels raises up, when death has been abolished, and all are made ready to give their account.

For this is what it means to trim the lamps, when each one reckons up his own manner of life.

But the soul of the wicked begins to grow gloomy and, as it were, to pass into distraction, so that they suppose they may obtain mercy through the virtue of others.

For each man's own virtue will scarcely suffice for salvation, since even the exceedingly upright stumble in many things.

The sellers are the teachers of sound doctrines, through whom one learns virtue.

But the time did not permit them to buy, that is, to be taught, since it was making inquiry into the things that had been done in life, and was not granting a new beginning of labour.

The present time is for labour, but the time to come is for recompense.

Souls that neglect virtue wither and are, as it were, quenched, and pass into distraction, supposing that at the second coming of the Saviour they can be saved without the working of the virtues.

Wherefore they are rejected also by the prudent, who say to them:

'Lest there be not enough for us and for you.'

For this is what is intimated here, that one can scarcely ever be saved through his own virtue, and certainly not through that of others.

For it is foolish that one who does no work should receive the wages of work.

And He does not open, because in due season they took no care for themselves.

And this is the meaning of 'I know you not.'

For He knows those who not only display faith, but also have works.

But those who have ordered their conduct by the one alone were never even in acquaintance with the Bridegroom.

The man who is master of the house is the Maker and Lord of this whole universe.

By the journey abroad in the parable the passage signifies either the ascension of Christ into the heavens, or the invisible and unbeholdable character of the divine nature.

And by His goods we must understand those who in every land and city have believed in Him.

And He calls His servants those whom Christ from time to time crowns with the honour of the priesthood;

for the inspired Paul writes:

'No one takes the honour to himself, but he who is called by God.'

To these He delivers those who have come to be under Him, giving to each a spiritual gift according as he has of judgement and fitness.

This, we say, is the distribution of the talents, which are not supplied in equal measure to the household servants, because of the difference of their understanding.

'And immediately they departed and traded,' it says; the 'immediately' here signifying to us that the things of God ought to be worked at without any delay.

But those who are held fast by sloth and idleness shall be in the uttermost evils.

For 'he buried,' it says, 'the talent given to him in the earth,' that is, he kept the gift in himself unemployed and useless to others.

Therefore the talent is taken away from him and shall be given to him who is rich.

For the Spirit and the bestowal of the divine gifts shall depart from such men, but to those who have laboured diligently there shall be a richer imparting of gifts.

The master of the house here is the Lord Christ, as Maker and Lord of all things.

And His journey abroad is His ascension into the heavens.

But it is possible to speak of it also in another way:

for inasmuch as He is invisible to the creation and, when we sin, is not seen by us, He is said in Scripture to be journeying abroad.

And His goods are the faithful in every land.

That the betrayer might not, before the feast of the Passover, deliver Him up to those who would slay Him, the Saviour did not disclose either the house or the man with whom He fulfilled the Passover.

By saying 'such a one' He does not indicate a name specifically, but indirectly signifies one of the saints;

for the saying fits every saint also, who first receives the disciples of the Lord, the evangelists, the apostles, who first prepare and smooth his soul, and then in this manner receives Christ Himself, who, uncalled but of His own accord, will come with the Holy Spirit and dwell with him, with whom He sees holy baptism;

for this is what is signified by the man carrying the pitcher of water, as Mark and Luke say.

We must by no means understand from this that none of the other disciples, but Judas alone, dipped the morsel in the dish with Him.

But for my part I think that what is said has this meaning:

for He wishes to say, according to what is likely, that the betrayer will be he who has dipped his hand with Me in the dish, that is, the fellow-diner and companion at table, the partaker and sharer of the table and of the salt;

'But thou, a man mine equal, who together with me didst make sweet my food;

he that ate my bread hath magnified his heel against me.'

And this very thing John made clearer;

for he said that the Lord had said, 'It is he to whom I, having dipped the morsel, shall give it.'