Commentary on Matthew — Commentariorum Series, Matthew 22:34–46 (§§1–8)
Latin source: the anonymous late-antique Commentariorum Series in Matthaeum (Origen's now-lost Greek commentary in an old-Latin translation), from the public-domain critical text of E. Klostermann & E. Benz, GCS 38 = Origenes Werke XI (Leipzig, 1933). Sections follow Klostermann; Scripture is given in Origen's Old-Latin/Septuagint wording. This English translation is released into the public domain.[§1] Now the Pharisees, hearing that he had imposed silence on the Sadducees, gathered together, and one of them, tempting him, asked him: Master, which is the greater commandment in the law? But he said to him: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like to this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (22, 34—40).
When the Lord, in answer to the questioning of the Sadducees, had by an example drawn from the practice of the law demonstrated to those willing to hear that there is a resurrection, Matthew spoke thus: Jesus imposed silence on the Sadducees, wishing to show that the brightness of truth caused the bitter and harmful voice of falsehood to fall mute. As therefore the Savior by the word of his teaching imposed silence on the Sadducees and confidently refuted the false doctrine (which among them was thought to be truth), so also the imitators of Christ will do by the examples of the Scriptures, by which, according to "sound doctrine," every voice of Pharaoh must be made to fall mute — the voice in which, boasting, he says "the rivers are mine, and I made them," as it is written in Ezekiel. The Sadducees therefore, "who say that there is no resurrection," questioned the Savior concerning the things that are written, supposing that they would impose silence upon him. But neither Jesus nor his beloved disciples are ever stopped up by the impious. For it is proper that silence be imposed on the Sadducees by Christ. For the righteous man indeed keeps silence, knowing "a time to keep silence and a time to speak," yet he does not fall mute. And just as it is proper to the righteous man to keep silence but not to fall mute, so it is proper to the Sadducees, or to all who are teachers of falsehood, to fall mute indeed but not to keep silence; for even if they fall mute as to the matter, they do not on that account keep silence. Therefore the Lord too said not to a man, but to the sea, "be still and fall mute," rebuking it when it was troubled.
Nevertheless the Pharisees, who agree that there is a resurrection, hearing that he had imposed silence on the Sadducees, gathered together — evidently because the doctrine of the resurrection was prevailing — and those were assembled who were not being assembled, so long as silence had not been imposed on the Sadducees. Nonetheless, even though they had assembled because the proof of the resurrection held firm, yet one of them asked — not as though wishing to learn from him the things he was asking, but tempting our Lord. Every man, therefore, who questions any of the teachers about whatever heading, not for the sake of learning but for the sake of tempting, and not out of a simple disposition, we ought to reckon a brother of that Pharisee who tempted the Savior by his questioning. For all things that are done to the saints of Christ, whether by those who lie in wait or by those who love them, he takes upon himself entirely; for according to the things that are written we ought to treat also of the things that are not written. For it is written that, on account of those who hungered and thirsted, he said "I hungered" and "I thirsted"; and on account of the naked and the strangers and the sick and those placed in prison, "I was naked" and "I was a stranger" and "I was in prison" and "I was infirm." According to the logic of the likeness let us also add: I suffered injuries, I was beaten and I was tempted, and all things. And just as in those things which are written the saying of the Lord is true when he says "in as much as you did it to one of these least, you did it to me," so when the righteous man has suffered injury or been blasphemed or suffered some such thing, place Christ among those who did it, saying: inasmuch as "you did it to one of these least," to me you did the injury, me you tempted, me you blasphemed.
[§2] Let us now look at the proposition of the one testing him: Master, he says, which is the greater commandment in the law? The tester was saying Master because he was not uttering this word as a disciple of Christ. This will become clearer from an example we shall give. Consider: a father is the father of his own son, and no one can properly call him father except his son; and a mother is the mother of her own daughter, and no woman can call her mother except her daughter alone. So too a master is the master of his own disciple, and a disciple is the disciple of his own master. Therefore no one can rightly say Master except a disciple. And see whether it is not for this reason — because not all who call him master say it rightly, but only those who have the will to learn from him — that he was saying to his disciples, "You call me master and lord, and you say rightly: for so I am." Rightly, then, do the disciples of Christ call him master, and serving his word they rightly call him lord. Whence the Apostle rightly said, "but for us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him." And consider this also, that he said, "it is enough for the disciple that he become" not simply as the master, but "as his master." If, therefore, anyone learns nothing from the Word and does not hand himself over with his whole soul, so as to become his beloved planting, but says to him Master, he is a brother of the Pharisee who tests Christ and says to him Master. So too is everyone who says "Our Father who art in heaven" yet ought not to have "the spirit of servitude in fear, but the spirit of the adoption of sons." But whoever does not have "the spirit of the adoption of sons" and says "Our Father who art in heaven" lies, since he is not a son of God when he calls God his father.
Now the question itself is of this kind: Which is the great commandment in the law? On this it is fitting that we set out something concerning the difference among commandments. For certain commandments are great, and certain others follow after them; and thus, going in order, one must inquire all the way down to the least commandments. For if he had not answered the Pharisee who tested him and said Which is the greater commandment in the law, we would consequently have supposed that no commandment is greater than another commandment. But now, since in answering he says: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind. This is the great and first commandment, we learn a necessary judgment concerning the commandments — that there is one that is great and there are lesser ones down to the least. And attend further to this also, that the Pharisee indeed asked Which is the great commandment in the law, but the Lord in answering him teaches us that to love the Lord is not only the great commandment but also the first — first, however, not in the order of Scripture but in the dignity of its virtue. And this too must be attended to as fitting to this passage: that, as though many commandments have been established, so now he has called this the great and first commandment, You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind, while the second is like the first, and on account of its likeness great, You shall love your neighbor as yourself; so that in accordance with this we may understand that there is another which is third in magnitude and order, and yet another which is fourth, and so, numbering the commandments of the law in order and receiving wisdom from God, one may set them in order down to the least. And this is the work of no other than Christ alone, who is "the power of God and the wisdom of God." From the times of Moses, therefore, until the coming of the Savior, when the law was read, perhaps it was being asked which was the great commandment in it. For the Pharisee would not have asked this had it not long been sought among them concerning this matter and not found, until Jesus came and taught not only what was great, but also what was first, and what was the second, like the first. His, therefore, is the work of finding both the third and the fourth and the rest.
But you will ask whether there is any commandment not having both — that is, both being first and great — but only one of them. And I think the Apostle says something of this sort to the Ephesians: "Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may be well with you and you shall be long-lived upon the earth." Therefore it is first indeed, but not also great: "Honor your father and mother"; and if there is some commandment that is great indeed but not also first, you will look for it within the difference of the magnitude of the commandments. And because, in comparison with commandments, there are others that are least, it is useful to bring forward as an example what the Lord himself says: "If anyone shall loose one of these little commandments, and shall so teach men, he shall be called least in the kingdom of God." And the Savior indeed, in handing down what was the great and first commandment, in answer to the questioning of the Pharisee who tested him, and adding also the second, like the first, which was You shall love your neighbor as yourself, adds, saying, On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets. The Apostle, however, says to the Romans, "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word: you shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Let us see, then, whether it is one thing for the whole law and the prophets to hang on these two commandments concerning the love of God and of neighbor, and another thing for every commandment to be summed up in this commandment "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" — or whether all the commandments both hang and are summed up in both commandments. Someone, therefore, will say that commandments hang from commandments, and that the second, which is like the first, hangs from the first and great one, and the third from the second, and thus in turn all those that come after the second hang from the ones preceding; and that the Apostle indeed, according to the consideration of the matter, said that every commandment hangs from the commandment "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," whereas the Savior taught that these two commandments hold dominion over all the commandments. But another, examining closely, will ask how that saying was spoken: "You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not steal, and if there is any other commandment in the law, it is summed up in this word: you shall love your neighbor as yourself." He will therefore say: that commandment too — You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind — is summed up in that commandment "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But how could that which he says be true — "and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word" — unless the commandment also which was laid down concerning the love of God is summed up in the second and one like the first? And if the first commandment is summed up in the second, then the second must necessarily be greater than the first. Every commandment, therefore, is summed up. But that first and great one too is summed up in this second, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," since, loving ourselves, if we do anything, we also love God himself, who has become the author of our love, that we may love one another and be loved by one another. For giving thanks in this — that we are rational and have been called to the knowledge of God and obtain his benefits and grace — we sum up the love of God in the second commandment, which is like the first.
The great and first commandment in the law, therefore, is this: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind. But whoever subtracts anything from that whole commandment — that is, either from what it says with your whole heart or with your whole soul or with your whole mind — subtracts from its magnitude and from its primacy. And perhaps all who love their Lord God, unless they also fulfill the parts that follow and love him with their whole heart and with their whole soul and with their whole mind, keep the commandment only in part; but those alone take up its magnitude and primacy within themselves who not only love their Lord God but have also taken up those three — that is, so that with their whole heart they store up within themselves that whole one and his works and his thoughts, and with their whole soul, that is, so that they are ready to lay it down for the piety of God who created all things, when the usefulness of the word demands it, out of the fact that with the whole soul one loves God, in such a way that no part of the soul is torn away toward any thing that is foreign to the faith, and in our whole mind thinking or bringing forth nothing else but "the things that are of God." And see whether you can take heart to mean the intellect, which gazes upon intelligible things and shows the source and beginning of them, which is God, and mind to mean the bringing forth of things (for it is with the mind that we bring forth individual things, and through each thing that is signified we walk about, as it were, with our mind and bring it forth). And if anyone should understand ingeniously the commandment which was laid down concerning love in all those three things that have been named, and should consider in each of the several faithful the love of God, he will perhaps find the whole commandment either in one, or perhaps the second or the third (and this if it should be granted), but in all of them the love of God having less — whether a little or more — either from what it says with your whole heart or from what it says with your whole soul or with your whole mind.
[§3] The second commandment is like it, since it is the love of a human being who was made according to the image of God, and perhaps also according to his likeness. But in the exposition of the commandment which is set down concerning the love of one's neighbor, these things also must be said. For, according to what is said in the tenth Psalm, "he who loves iniquity hates his own soul", and according to what is said in Proverbs, "he who rejects discipline hates himself", it is manifest that no one who loves iniquity loves his neighbor as himself, since he does not even love himself; and no one who rejects discipline loves his neighbor as himself, seeing that he does not love his very self either. And thus it comes about that he who "loves iniquity", and "hates his own soul", cannot keep the second commandment. Likewise also "he who rejects discipline" loves some sin; and therefore he too who rejects any word of God's discipline "hates his own soul".
[§4] After this you will ask how all the law and the prophets hang upon these two commandments. For the text seems to show that everything whatsoever that is written, whether in Exodus or in Leviticus or in Numbers or in Deuteronomy, hangs upon these two commandments. But how does the law that has been laid down concerning lepers, or concerning those who suffer a flow of blood, or concerning menstruating women, hang upon these commandments? And further, how also does the prophecy that has been laid down concerning Jerusalem being taken, or the vision of Egypt in Isaiah and the other prophets, how too the vision of Tyre, or whatever things are prophesied concerning Tyre or concerning the prince of Tyre, how also the vision of the four-footed beasts in the desert in Isaiah, hang upon these two commandments? But what seems to me in this passage is of this kind. He who has fulfilled all the things that are written concerning the love of God and of neighbor is worthy to receive the greatest graces from God, over which is set "the word of wisdom through the Holy Spirit", after which comes "the word of knowledge" which is "according to the Spirit". And having been made worthy of all these gifts, he exults in the wisdom of God, having his heart full of the love of God, and his whole soul illumined with the light of knowledge, and his whole mind with the word of God. And having obtained gifts of this kind from God, he assuredly understands that all the law and the prophets are some part of the whole wisdom and knowledge of God, and he understands that all the law and the prophets hang and cleave from the principle of the love of the Lord God and of neighbor, and that the perfection of piety consists in love.
Sufficient indeed are also these things which we have said; nevertheless, for the demonstration of its greatness it is fitting no less to add also these words: "charity is patient, is kind; charity is not puffed up, does not act perversely, is not ambitious, is not provoked, does not think evil, does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices together with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. Charity never falls away". For no one who is fainthearted possesses charity, nor anyone doing something contrary to kindness, nor anyone envying with the envy which the patriarchs had against Joseph, or Aaron and Miriam against Moses. And no one puffed up has love, nor one doing anything perversely, nor one who is roused into wrath. Likewise no one thinking evil, defiled in his heart, possesses charity. He who has charity never rejoices over any unjust thing, but always rejoices together with the truth. He who has charity endures all the evils that befall him, and does not believe in part but "believes all things", and does not hope in part but "hopes all things", nor is there anything that love does not endure, but "endures all things". And since "charity never falls away", the Apostle, confident that he had taken it up wholly, said: "who shall separate us from the love of God? Tribulation, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: for thy sake we are put to death all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter". For because of love he said: "but in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us". For from charity that never falls away came those words which said: "for I am confident that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". And since the Apostle had the two commandments of love, of God and of neighbor, therefore he had within himself the manifested mysteries of the whole law and the prophets, so that, understanding them, he might say that all the law and the prophets hang upon these two commandments.
[§5] Now when the Pharisees had gathered together, Jesus questioned them, saying: What do you think concerning the Christ? Whose son is he? They say to him: David's. Jesus says to them: How then does David in the spirit call him lord, saying: The Lord said to my lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet? If therefore David calls him lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word. Nor did anyone dare from that hour to ask him anything (22, 41—46).
These very words are indeed set down in Psalm one hundred and nine [110]: "The Lord said to my lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet". And, as though the Pharisees were confessing that the one who spoke is indeed the Lord God, but that the one to whom he spoke is a second lord, the Christ, the Savior questions them, saying: What do you think concerning the Christ? Whose son is he? And to the answer of those who said: David's, he adds, saying: If David calls him lord, how is he his son? It is therefore a matter worthy that we should see what the Savior intends in setting before the Pharisees the question concerning the Christ, so that they might answer what they thought, and what was the cause that the Pharisees were unable to give an answer. And some simpler person among those who examine these things will say that this was the will of the Savior, namely, to restrain the audacity of the Pharisees, who were setting many propositions before him, and likewise of the Sadducees, who had set before him the matter of the seven brothers and their one wife. Since, therefore, the Pharisees and Sadducees, in setting forth many things, seemed to be saying something, and in doing this were not desiring to learn as disciples but were tempting Christ, and seemed to be teachers of the law when they were not, therefore it was necessary that the Lord too should set a question before them, who professed that they had the knowledge of the law, so that before the people he might convict them, since they gave no answer to the things asked, while he himself answered all things; for he indeed was competent, according to the profession befitting teachers, to make manifest and hand down the divine doctrine, whereas they did not know even the very prophet who was the summit of the prophets. And further, one to whom this exposition is pleasing will add, saying: for this reason the scripture of the Gospel adds thus, saying And no one was able to answer him a word, nor did anyone dare from that hour to ask him a word. And the cause why they did not dare to ask him thereafter a word was this: that, when questioned, they could not answer him. For if their questioning had been out of a will to learn, he would never have set before them such things that thereafter they would not dare to ask. But they were questioning to tempt, and therefore he willed to shut their mouths by his questioning, so that, blushing, they might rest from their audacity and thereafter ask him nothing. These things we have spoken according to the understanding of the simple interpreter.
[§6] But we say that our Savior and Lord knew himself to have been made indeed "of the seed of David according to the flesh, but predestined Son of God in power", and that he was all those things which he himself, teaching about himself, was saying: "I am the truth and the way and the life", "I am the door", "I am the resurrection", "I am the living bread who came down from heaven", and knowing that he existed even before the birth of Abraham himself (on account of which he also said: "before Abraham was, I am"), and knowing that he was wisdom and the living word (wisdom indeed, which "God created as the beginning of his ways for his works", but the word which "was in the beginning with God, the Word was God"). Knowing all these things about himself and seeing the Pharisees—that they knew from the divine Scriptures that which pertained to the human dispensation and was for the sake of men, so that they might be able to grasp him, namely that he was "of the seed of David according to the flesh", and perhaps also that they altogether supposed him to be the son of David, but seeing that they were far from the understanding of his divinity, according to which he was the beginning of the whole creation, established the son of no one except "of God who is over all things"—wishing to expose their wavering estimation about him and to provoke them by his words, so that they might be willing to ascend by the word and to see according to which he was God the Word, who "was in the beginning with God", in the first place he said: What do you think concerning the Christ? Whose son is he? When they answered thus and said: David's, he again answered them, making manifest the sublimity of his divinity, which was shown in the very beginning of the Psalm, saying: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a footstool for your feet, so that, even if at that time they could not answer him, nevertheless they might take occasion from his words, so that, considering the whole Psalm, they might perceive something greater concerning the Christ, who was not only surpassing human nature, but also the other begotten natures, according to what it says: "in the splendors of the saints, from the womb before the morning star I begot you". For it did not designate specifically in the splendors of which saints, but generally concerning all the saints, that is not only of men but also of angels, saying: "in the splendors of the saints, from the womb before the morning star I begot you". And if indeed they had wisely considered also that: "the Lord has sworn and he will not repent: you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek", they would surely have subjected themselves like disciples to such a Savior of ours, who had been sent from God as a teacher and priest. But the reason on account of which the Pharisees could not answer the words of Christ was this: that they perceived nothing great about Christ set down in the holy Scriptures, but only concerning his human dispensation, and not even that itself worthily of the divine dispensation. For I think that they did not even know that which it said: "behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb, and they shall call his name Emmanuel", nor that: "behold, a star shall arise out of Jacob", namely concerning the birth of Christ.
[§7] Now this very thing which he says in the Psalm: "the Lord said to my lord: sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet", someone will indeed expound more fittingly when he has set himself to expound that Psalm itself. Yet for now let us lightly taste its sense. Do not depict for yourself perceptible seatings and two thrones, and the Father and the Son sitting upon them in human fashion; but understand that these things are said morally of the kingdom of God and of the kingdom of the Son, which has been established by the Father and is always at the Father's right hand. But if anyone does not wish these things to be understood morally, let him explain how this too is true which says the Lord said to my lord: sit at my right hand and that which he says elsewhere: "but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give, but for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father". He therefore who does not wish to understand these things worthily, according to the greatness of the mind of Christ, must be compelled to say that at one time indeed he sits at the Father's right hand, but at another time (relinquishing a dignity of this kind, of sitting at the Father's right hand) he sits privately with those for whom the Father has prepared that they should sit at his right hand or at his left. Likewise he must still further be compelled to say that, while sitting at the Father's right hand, he still has enemies; for he sits beside him just so long, until they are placed by the Father as the footstool of the feet of Christ. But when he shall have ceased to sit at the Father's right hand, then he will no longer have enemies, when those who previously had been his own footstool of the feet shall have begun to sit at his right hand or at his left according to the Father's ordinance. And so it comes about that some of those who sit, sit in the Father's former place. But what can be more ridiculous than these things? Then, wishing to understand the seating bodily, you will find in the same Psalm that both the Son sits at the Father's right hand, according to what it says: "the Lord said to my lord: sit at my right hand", and the Father sits at the Son's right hand, according to what is declared in what follows, saying: "the Lord at your right hand has shattered kings in the day of his wrath". But we say: it is not necessary to introduce bodily consideration into these things which are to be understood spiritually; for morally both the Son is at the Father's right hand, and the Father is always at the Son's right hand.
[§8] In what way the Savior's enemies also are set by the Father as a footstool for his feet, it is fitting to see worthily, according to the kindness of the God who sets his enemies as a footstool for his feet. For it must not be supposed that God sets the enemies of Christ as a footstool for his feet in the same way as the enemies of earthly kings, who exterminate their own enemies, are set under their feet. Do not such kings trample down their own adversaries without mercy? But God does not set the enemies of Christ as a footstool for his feet unto their destruction, but unto their salvation, as we shall bring forward examples of the holy Scriptures signifying this very thing. For it is written in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, in the second Aleph: "How has the Lord darkened the daughter of Zion in his anger, cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and was not mindful of the footstool of his feet?" And see that, inasmuch as Israel was the footstool of God's feet, it was glorious in heaven; but after it was cast down, so as not to be the footstool of his feet, it also ceased to be in heaven. For attend diligently to what he says: "He cast down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and was not mindful of the footstool of his feet". Likewise also that saying: "Heaven is my seat, but the earth is the footstool of my feet" signifies not the dishonor but the glory of the earth, which understands concerning God some small and last part, which is morally called his feet. So also the Church upon earth, in the beginnings indeed of the worship of God and the knowledge of Christ, is the footstool of his feet; just as that "sinful woman" doing penance was at the feet of Jesus in the beginnings of her penance, for she was not yet able to pour out the ointment of the fragrance of her good deeds upon the head of Christ. For it was desirable for her even to stand beside the Lord's feet and anoint them. And each one of us, understanding himself to be what the Apostle says, "we too were once without understanding, unbelieving, wandering, and serving diverse desires and pleasures", will see how, inasmuch as he was such before he was washed from those things, he had been an enemy of Christ, an enemy of righteousness, of truth, of wisdom, of peace; "but after the kindness of our God the Savior appeared", he first became a footstool for the feet of Christ. And I, being confident that this is the meaning of the Scripture, do not hesitate to affirm that the Father thus says to the Son: Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet. And the Apostle in the first Epistle to the Corinthians introduces such a meaning of the Scripture, that we should understand it of the subjection of those who were once enemies, that they become a footstool for the feet of Christ, speaking in this manner: "But now Christ is risen from the dead, he has become the firstfruits of them that sleep. For since by man came death, by man also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: in the beginning Christ, then those who are Christ's, who believed at his coming; then the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, when he shall have made void all rule and power and might. For he must reign, until he sets all his enemies under his feet. But the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed. For he has subjected all things under his feet. But when he says that all things are subjected to him, manifestly it is except him who subjected all things to him. But when all things shall have been subjected to him, then the Son himself also shall be subjected to him who subjected all things to himself, that God may be all in all". Of all these things indeed we have made a full explanation in its proper place. See, however, how in all these passages the word of subjection is set down unto the salvation of those subjected.