Commentary on Matthew 1 part 1/6

The Hebrews called salvation 'Iao,' and he said 'of Christ' (the Anointed) because the kings and priests of old were anointed with oil from the horn.

But our Jesus Christ was named 'Christ' not because he was anointed with the horn, but because he was anointed with the divine Spirit.

For truly and in the proper sense he himself possessed the Holy Spirit.

He makes mention of Abraham, since that man first became a type of the two peoples who were to believe in Christ.

For while he was yet in uncircumcision he believed, and after being circumcised he again remained faithful.

He is called 'Son of Man' by nature, as possessing all that Adam possessed, though he is now God.

Abraham, while in uncircumcision, believed God.

Then, having received the promises and having been circumcised, he kept his faith unblemished.

Reasonably, then, the saying will be raised to some further contemplation concerning the Church of Christ, both that which is from circumcision and that which is from the Gentiles.

For it was, as is likely, a type of the two peoples who have believed in Christ.

But there, uncircumcision came before circumcision.

For uncircumcision is a work of nature, but circumcision is of commandment and of law.

For this reason the former preceded the latter, and afterwards circumcision returns back to it, since nature together with law is also better than their being separated apart from one another.

So too, when Adam had been driven out because of the disobedience in Eden, the second Adam was brought in his stead, that he might restore the first Adam to the ancient order.

Zerubbabel rebuilt the temple that had of old been built by Solomon but had been burned down by the Babylonians.

And the Lord is the true builder of the rational temple that had collapsed through transgressions and had been burned by an alien fire—a fire that we ourselves kindled, not only by causing the intellectual part of the soul to follow the carnal mind slavishly, but also by shamelessly setting ablaze, through our activity, the fuel of the passions.

But Zerubbabel also holds a stone in his hand, adorned with seven eyes.

The Lord too has a stone: faith in him.

And it is 'in the hand,' because the faith of Christ shines forth in the practice of the commandments.

And the hand is plainly a symbol of action.

So the Lord, bearing the stone in his hand, teaches us to have an active faith in him, adorned with the seven energies of the Spirit.

The fact that the evangelist did not perhaps say 'through whom he was born,' but 'from whom,' overturns the heresy of Apollinaris, who says that Christ passed through the Virgin as through a channel and received nothing from her.

For the evangelist does not say that Jesus was born through her, but from her, that is, from her all-pure blood.

Such too is the word of the apostle.

For God, he says, sent his Son, made from a woman, but not through a woman.

The angel called her 'woman,' so as to free the Virgin from all suspicion with regard to another person.

He calls her the woman of one who has had no intimacy with her; therefore neither does the Virgin harbor any thought of suspicion toward anyone else.

If he has a people even before being born of Mary, and saves them, it is clear that he does so as God.

She conceived after the betrothal, that she might seem to have conceived from him, and that Christ might be reckoned in his genealogy, and might have a protector amid the plots.

It was not the voice of the magi that troubled him, but the fact that it was being noised abroad by all who were learned in the law and by those who believed the words of the prophets.

For the magi were seeking a king, but the Jews were reporting that Christ had been born.

Therefore, dismissing the magi and summoning the Jews, he asked where the Christ is born—the one whom you now proclaim, having heard from the magi.

And the enemies of the truth, even unwillingly, speak the truth and interpret the whole prophecy heedlessly.

For they did not add what follows.

He calls the magi 'ambassadors,' since in a certain way they came to the King of Israel to act as envoys, that peace might come to be between them and the Israelites, and that Gentiles and Jews might become one flock, with one shepherd over both.

And what was this—that 'his goings forth are from the beginning'? From the ends of the inhabited world they come to behold the manger.

Jacob was first called Israel when he saw the ladder and the angels ascending and descending upon it by way of it, and wrestled with the one who appeared to him, and heard from him:

'Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel.'

And by this name the whole people of the Jews was called, as being a select and divine name, one distinguishing them from the other nations.

And 'Israel' means 'a mind that sees God.'

Therefore the Church from the Gentiles too was named Israel, not according to the flesh, but according to divine grace.

Did the magi come upon and behold Christ in swaddling clothes as soon as he was born, or seated in a house with his mother? I think the truer view is 'in swaddling clothes.'

Therefore also, as we said above, the star appeared before the Lord's birth.

And from this it is clear that it also preceded the arrival of the magi.

The star stood as one immovable fixture, so that the magi might advance no further.

Yet it did not come down from heaven and stand upon the earth, nor did it fix itself above the house; for it was accustomed to make its journey not according to the movement of the other stars, but pursuing some strange course and appearing now in one region and now in another, and only then did it stand immovable.

The star was immovable and standing still, but it did not leave heaven and travel near the earth, nor was it fixed above the house.

For it did not make the same movement as the rest of the stars, but some strange and unnatural one.

He no longer says 'flee,' but 'go,' hinting at relief after the trial.

And by speaking of 'the soul of the child,' he overturns the opinion of Apollinaris, who says that the Lord took flesh without mind and without soul.

In the dispensational descent of Christ into Egypt and his return again from there into Judea, God recapitulates the captivity of the people and redeems it from the plot, leading it back again to its own land.

Nevertheless it is worth noting that Nazareth lay within the borders of Judea; and Christ, by settling there, shows that because of the murderousness of the Jews he was about to leave Judea and pass over to the Gentiles, so as to give to those who love learning an occasion for faith in Christ.

Nazareth lay in the farthest parts of Judea.

And Christ, by leaving Judea and going away to Nazareth, showed most plainly that he would forsake the Jews and transfer worship to the Gentiles.

And at the same time he would give to those who love learning a cause for believing in him.

'Flower'—this name is found among many peoples.

'a rod from the root of Jesse and a flower from it'; and the Lord himself says concerning himself in the Song of Songs:

'I am the flower of the field, the lily of the valleys.'

The kingdom of heaven is justification through faith and sanctification through the Spirit.

'The kingdom of heaven is within you.'

John's baptism did not grant forgiveness of sins, but taught people to run to baptism because of their sins.

As being more learned in the law than the rest, they came later to John, whom he calls 'offspring of vipers' because of their like manner.

For just as those creatures, when they are about to come forth into the light, tear apart the mother's womb and depart, leaving her dead, in the same way these too left their own mother, Jerusalem, as though she were dead, and were saved from the Christ-slaying, on account of which they meanwhile endured incurable evils at the hands of the Romans—which he calls 'the wrath to come.'

One might say that the fruits of repentance are, first and foremost, faith in Christ, and besides this the evangelical manner of life which is in newness of life and delivered from the grossness of the letter.

'Do not, then,' he says, 'put forward the customary excuses'—for God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham—he went on to add.

For just as he turned Lot's wife to stone, so it is possible for him also to make human beings from stones, just as formerly he made Adam from the earth.

He calls Christ 'the axe,' sharper than a two-edged sword, who is about to cut off the unbelieving Jews and estrange them from the honor and fellowship of the patriarchs—those whom he also called 'root,' who remained: the fathers of old who pleased God, those around Abraham and all who were holy in former times.

For the unbelievers among them were cut off as unfruitful branches, but the root remained, upon which those from the Gentiles were grafted.

But Irenaeus says that the axe is the Word of God, just as Jeremiah also says:

'The word of the Lord is like an axe that cuts a rock.'

For what do I mean, he says, when I declare that you are about to fall away? For this very reason he has not yet withdrawn the axe from the root.

By the axe he likens the word of God;

for Jeremiah also speaks thus:

'The word of the Lord is like an axe that cleaves the rock.'

So it lies against the root, that by fear it may make you better and prepare you to bear fruit.

What axe does he mean? Nothing other than that which is about to cut off from among the patriarchs those who boast in vain and have wrought no good thing;

for those descended from such fathers who have become fruitless must be cut down and cast into the fire.

The blessed Baptist joined together, with the signification of the Spirit, the working and signification of fire—not saying that we shall in any way be baptized in literal fire through Christ, but signifying the life-giving working of the Spirit by means of the signification of fire.

The righteous he snatches up into the city above, but the sinners into the burning.

The men of old, even before Christ, kept those baptized by them in the water until they had confessed their own sins; but Christ, being without sin, straightway came up;

for he was not baptized as one repenting, but as one cleansing sins and sanctifying the waters.

He was led by the devil according to permission.

Christ did not obey the devil so as to make the stones into bread, because it was not for his benefit;

for the devil was unrepentant, but sought to draw Christ into vainglory.

Knowing this, the Saviour did not obey him.

Wishing to draw Christ into the passion of love of glory, Satan did not say to him, 'Eat,' but 'Perform a sign.'

This he did, not that Christ might be benefited, but that, as I said, he might draw him into vainglory;

and knowing this, Christ did not obey him.

With this same intent he did not consent to the Pharisees, who wished to see a sign from him;

for they did not come to him with an undoubting heart as to God, but tempted him as a man.

Let this, then, be for the saints an unfailing rule against unbelievers or temptations: not to seek glory in anything that is unprofitable.

The passage teaches plainly that no one ought to come to the office of teaching unless he has first been baptized, received the Holy Spirit, fasted completely, and overcome every kind of temptation—just as the pattern of the truth began in Christ and comes to pass through Christ.

He withdrew, not out of cowardice, but by what he did teaching us to withdraw from those who persecute us.

He withdraws from Judea to the Gentiles, showing that not only when the Jews insult God himself does he depart from them, but also when they sin against the holy prophets.

And the great light is Christ our Lord and the radiance of the gospel proclamation—not, indeed, the Law, which was likened to a lamp.

Therefore a lamp was always kept burning in the tabernacle, because of the smallness of the Law's radiance, which had power to send forth its own light only as far as the bounds of the Jews.

The Gentiles, therefore, were in darkness, since they did not even possess the light of the lamp.

In some copies the word 'repent' does not stand.

But if the Saviour says the same things as John, one is the God who sent them both.

And perhaps John, as one preparing what has been made ready for God, is the first to say 'Repent'; but Jesus, receiving what has been prepared and no longer in need of repentance, does not say 'Repent.'

Not preaching against the Law and the Prophets, but, when John had fulfilled the old, he began to proclaim the new, himself becoming its beginning.

Therefore concerning John it is not written 'he began';

and because the one preaches in the wilderness, but the other among the people.

But the kingdom of heaven is not in a place, but in a disposition;

and consider whether John proclaims the kingdom of heaven as drawing near—the kingdom of which Christ is King, and which he will deliver to God the Father.

But if anyone should ask what is the difference between disease and infirmity, we answer that infirmity is a temporary disorder of the body, while disease is a want of proportion among the elements within the body.

It should also be noted that the allotted inheritance of the tribe of Zebulun and Naphtali extended as far as Sidon, a Gentile city, and that the Jews were now dwelling intermingled with the Gentiles.

Zebulun is interpreted 'good journey' and 'blessing,' while Naphtali means 'a stem sent forth,' or a plant that stretches out.

And these things came to pass in those who believed in Christ;

for journeying prosperously they were counted worthy of the divine blessing and abounded in all good things—those who formerly were in Galilee, which is interpreted 'rolling down,' that is, those who were rolling down into the pits of destruction.

A peacemaker is he who demonstrates that the conflict of the Scriptures which appears to others to be a battle is in fact a harmony—of the old with the new, of the legal with the prophetic, of the gospels with the gospels.

Therefore, having imitated the Son of God, he shall be called a son, having received in deed the Spirit of adoption.

Blessed are such as these, since they have imitated the Son of God;

for they shall be called sons, having partaken of immortality; or rather, they shall reign together with Christ at his second coming.

Peacemakers are also those who persuade the unbelieving to believe, thereby making peace between them and God—those who were formerly the enemies of God.

Peacemakers are also called those who persuade the unbelieving to believe in God.

By salt he means prudence, of which the apostolic word is full, which, being sown in our souls, makes to dwell within us the word of wisdom, and which for its savour and pleasantness is likened to this;

for just as without salt neither bread nor relish is fit to eat, so without apostolic understanding and teaching every soul is both foolish and savourless and unpleasing in the sight of God.

Those who are established upon the faith, as upon a high mountain, ought not to speak the word secretly or with timidity.

And having themselves become light by participation, when you live it is no longer you, but the light lives in you—Christ, who through the word is able to enlighten the whole world.

In place of the fleshly worship the Lord introduced worship in spirit and in truth;

and perhaps the very things which the Jews did not even do in a fleshly manner, these now the disciples of Christ do spiritually.

'Not one iota or one tittle shall pass away from the Law, until all things come to pass.'

It is clear that the Jews did not do all things, or, even if they did do them, they ceased from doing them, being no longer permitted to perform them—partly through fear of the kings, and partly because the temple, in which alone the sacrifices had to be accomplished, had been destroyed.

He shall be called a fighter against God, he says, who sets aside the least of the commandments in the Law.

Therefore he too is set aside by God, as one who resists him and legislates against him.

He who sets aside one of the commandments of the Law is set aside by God as a fighter against God, one who legislates against God.

And now he receives from the gospel law the punishment which the Law of old had not appointed.

Therefore Christ says accordingly that 'I came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it.'

For what was lacking there, he supplied here—as, for instance, it was said in the Law:

'You shall rise up before the grey-haired,' and 'If you see the beast of your enemy fallen under its burden, help him to raise it up with him.'

If anyone transgressed these, there was no punishment appointed by the Law.

Fulfilling this, Christ says that in the kingdom of God such a one shall be counted as nothing.

This, then, he calls the least commandment, upon which no chastisement was brought for its transgression.

And I think that the cloven hoof in the Law signifies this: that we should walk by word and deed, and neither act irrationally nor hold a word apart from deed.

But if one wishes some one of these to stand alone, let it henceforth be deed and not word;

for an unbridled word has often thrust its possessors over the precipices, but deed never.

The saying 'If you offer your gift,' and what follows, makes clear that God devised repentance as a way of salvation and an escape from punishment for those who sin, and he declares that the healing of the one who has been grieved shall be the overturning of punishment.

Since he who does not love his brother does not love the Lord, fittingly he does not receive the one who is in a state of grief with his brother, as not truly coming to him.

The repentance, therefore, over our sins, and the entreaty toward the one grieved by us, and the request for forgiveness of the offence, heals both the brother and God.

The farthing (kodrantes), however, signifies the fourth part of the measure called the 'in'.

which Luke, making it plain, called a mite (lepton).

Let us then be delivered both from the enemy and avenger, that is, from the devil, while we are yet in this way, and from the passions of dishonour, which are our adversaries;

for none other is our adversary, unless we ourselves become our own adversaries through these things, and unless our conscience condemn us as despising its admonition, lest we be handed over to God, the Judge of all, being convicted by conscience;

and He will hand us over to the exactors, that is, to the punishing angels, and we shall be required to pay the penalties for every transgression, both small and great.

Advisedly, then, the Lord here calls 'adversary' the one who attempts to take away anything that belongs to us.

And we show him goodwill if we keep the command of the Lord, who said: To him who would go to law with you and take your tunic, leave him your cloak also; and likewise in every such matter.

since even if you are accused and imprisoned, you are not released until you have paid to the last obol;

for this is what the farthing (kodrantes) denotes.

But what He says is of this sort:

for He exhorts us to be reasonable and not to be over-confident about the trial;

for if anything should happen contrary to expectation and you are detained by the judge, you will not be released until you have paid the last obol;

for this is called a farthing (kodrantes).

Suppose, He says, that someone, before one of those appointed to office, has laid certain charges against you, and then, pointing you out to those who lead men off to the court, causes you to be carried away;

so then, He says, while you are with him on the way—that is, before you arrive before the judge—make an effort (that is, do not hesitate to apply all diligence) that you may be delivered from him.

But if this does not come about, he will hand you over to the judge.

Then, when you are found liable for the debts, you will be handed over to the exactor—that is, to the collectors—and they, shutting you up, will demand from you even the last mite.

We are therefore all of us who are upon the earth liable to transgressions;

and of each one Satan is the adversary and accuser;

for he is an enemy and an avenger.

So then, while we are on the way—that is, while we have not yet come to the end of this present life—let us be delivered from him, let us loose the charges laid against us, let us lay hold of the grace that is through Christ, which frees us from every debt and penalty, setting us beyond punishment and fear, lest perhaps, still having the defilement unwashed, we be carried off to the Judge and be handed over to the exactors, that is, to the tormentors, whose severity none could escape.

And we shall rather be required to pay the penalties for every transgression, both small and great.

Far from these will be those who discern the season of Christ's coming and are not ignorant of the mystery concerning Him.

Perhaps there are some who have received such a gift of grace that they do not lust at all.

Nevertheless Christ, having strengthened human nature, enjoins even the things that are beyond the Law as now within our power;

for even if this was impossible for those before Christ, yet for the faithful it is readily achievable to cut off the lusts.

He who looks upon a woman and lusts is then judged, when the flesh of the woman appears beautiful to him unto desire, and he beholds her carnally and sinfully;

for he who, out of love for what is pure, beholds beauty, deems not the flesh beautiful, but the soul.

When He said, If your eye causes you to stumble, and what follows, by 'eye' He means the reasoning of lust, which He bids to be cut off.

By 'eye' and 'hand' the friend is understood.

For if you love someone so much as to hold him in the place of a right eye, and reckon him useful as in the place of a right hand, and yet he harms your soul, cut these off from you and separate yourself far from them;

for when you do not save one another, but rather both perish together by being together, it is profitable that, being separated, at least the one should be saved.

He who casts out a chaste wife gives her occasion to be married to another, which is a kind of adultery, as though the marriage bond were not dissolved;

for in God's sight it is not the certificates of divorce that dissolve the marriage, but the unlawful deed.

The 'You shall not swear falsely' and what follows.

If some shameless person imposes an oath upon the saints, in place of the oath let there be to them the yes and the no.

For those who swear, he says, swear by that which is greater, as the Apostle said.

And He forbids also the oath by Jerusalem, since the earthly Jerusalem is a type of the Jerusalem above, and God swears by Himself alone, which is by His own glory.

Wherefore, since the likeness surpasses us, we ought not to swear by ourselves, that is, by our own glory;

for we are not free as God is, but are under the authority of God.

Be ready, says Christ, not to receive, but to give;

for the one separates us from God, but the other is by nature apt to unite us, and especially so when the one who asks is worthy and the request is just.

We love our enemies not in that they are adulterers or murderers, but in that they are human beings;

for to sin belongs to activity, not to essence;

wherefore neither is sin a work of God.

Perhaps someone might say: How is it that the blessed Paul curses Alexander the coppersmith? To him we say that he cursed him not as his own private enemy, but as an enemy of the gospel, teaching that one must ever wage war against the enemies of God.

But perhaps someone, bringing forward the blessed Paul as cursing Alexander the coppersmith, might persuade us not to love our enemies;

to whom it may be said that Paul curses him not as his own private enemy, but as an enemy of Christ and of the gospel, teaching that against such ones we must ever wage war.

He who does good for the sake of the good itself has a boast that is above the world—a supramundane virtue.

This is said by a metaphor drawn from the trumpet used in armies;

for they, when they wish to gather the army together, sound the recall; but the hypocrites do not wish to gather men together, but to make a show of themselves before the many.

And He commands us to ask of God soberly and swiftly the things we seek, not announcing all that we wish;

for this is the height of madness;

for God knows, even before we ask, of what things we have need.

Vain repetition (battologia) is the name given to much speaking, from a certain Battus, a Greek, who composed long and many-versed hymns to the idols, hymns containing tautology.

Vain repetition is that which is outside of what is good.

The ancients call much speaking 'vain repetition' (battologia), from a certain man so named who composed many-versed prayers to the idols and spoke the same words through one expression and another.

By dispensation, as man, Christ is called King, although by nature He is God.

The faithful therefore pray that He may dwell also in the unbelievers, so that, having believed in Christ, they may call upon Him as their own, through whom they shall partake of the perfect good things, now having only the pledge and the good that is in part;

for then the passions will no longer be active, when impassibility is present; death will be gone, corruption will vanish, when in us life shall reign and incorruption shall hold the power.

Christ, being by nature God and by nature man, is by dispensation called King, that is, as man.

For this reason the righteous pray that this may be theirs, and moreover also the unbelievers', so that, seeing and believing in Him, they may have Him as their own King.

One must therefore not appear gloomy, nor bear any charge of vainglory,

but must wash it away as though it were a defilement of the soul.

What one has purposed, this he also both conceives and works out most readily, and is zealous to accomplish;

which is found more clearly in the heart, He leading the discourse from intelligible things to sensible things and saying:

A good master is the disposition free from love of money, but an evil one is that which loves riches;

for it is not possible to please the two, being of a different and contrary disposition.

Since the soul and the body are more precious than food and clothing, both the lesser things are to be despised, and care is to be taken also for the more precious, I mean the soul and the body.

The soul is more precious than the substance of the body, as being the image of God and His inbreathing, while the body is its instrument and fellow-worker toward the noblest things.

We ought therefore to take thought for both together, the body and the soul alike; for the body only so far as is sufficient for it and does not impede the soul.

But to the soul we must always render what is proper to it, care for it in every way, and lead it up through the virtues to its Cause, the Creator.

To those who seek the things of the soul, God gives also the necessities for their bodies, so that we, taking thought for such things beyond what is needful, may not be hindered from the noblest pursuits.

Those who are trained toward reverence set upon their tongue the bridle of good prudence, permitting it to speak only those things which cause no harm.

Teaching us this, one of the wise men said:

'Child, if there is in you a word of understanding, give answer;'

'but if not, let your hand be upon your mouth.'

'For death and life are in the power of the tongue' — that is, in its authority — 'and they that rule over it shall eat the fruits thereof.'

But since to master the tongue is by no means easy, the psalmist too teaches us this from on high, saying:

'Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth.'

Let us therefore neither speak evil of one another nor condemn our brethren;

for he who is guided by understanding does not look upon the sins of others, but, fixing his gaze upon his own evils, sheds over them a good tear, that he may receive forgiveness from God.

For it is impossible that men, being so weak, should not by all means fall into at least a few faults.

But to fall into none at all belongs by nature to God alone.

It is necessary, then, for us who are in sins not to take delight in the evils of others, but to take thought how we ourselves may become free of base things.

'First cast out the beam from your own eye' — that is, show yourself pure of great sins — and then you shall be a counselor to him who stumbles in a small matter.

But if you do not cast out the beam, and yet condemn him who has the mote, you will with reason hear the apostolic word:

'You who say, Do not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who say, Do not steal, do you steal?'

Therefore the wise man will be a teacher to himself, but will not condemn another.

For this the Law also commands through Moses, saying:

And the word 'take heed' means 'overlook the things concerning your neighbor' — look rather to your own affairs.

The prudent man, then, will so school himself, not looking to the faults of others, but scrutinizing his own and repenting of them.