Commentary on Matthew — Commentariorum Series, Matthew 23:1–39 (§§9–28)
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.[§9] Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying: The scribes and the Pharisees have sat upon the seat of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they tell you to do, do. But do not do according to their works; for they say and do not do. They bind together heavy burdens and lay them upon men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them even with their finger. And all their works they do that they may be seen by men; for they enlarge their phylacteries and magnify the fringes of their garments, and they love the first couches at banquets and the first seats in the synagogues and the first greetings in the marketplace, and to be called Rabbi by men. But do not you wish to be called Rabbi; for one is your master, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, who is in the heavens. But he who is greater among you shall be your minister. He therefore who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted (23, 1—12).
Frequently indeed, but most of all in Matthew, it is observed that the disciples of Christ are better than the rest of the crowds. And you find indeed in the churches certain people who hear the divine teachings with love and who approach the word with more affection. Justly therefore are such men called disciples of Christ; but the many others who are not such are called his people. And some things at times he speaks to his disciples alone and not also to the crowds, as those beatitudes written in the Gospel, concerning which Matthew indeed speaks thus: that seeing the crowds he went up into the mountain; and when he had sat down his disciples came to him, and opening his mouth he taught them saying: blessed are the poor in spirit and the rest. But Luke says: lifting up his eyes upon his disciples he said: blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. But other things he announces to the crowds, as the parable of the sower declares. And Matthew writes thus: but while he was speaking to the crowds, behold his mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak with him. To the crowds therefore he was speaking the things that are written before these; but when someone said to him: behold your mother and your brothers stand wishing to see you, answering the one who announced it to him he said: who is my mother, and my brothers? No longer stretching out his hand over the crowds, but over his disciples he said: behold my mother and my brothers. For whoever shall do the will of my Father who is in the heavens, he is to me both mother and brother. And expounding the preceding parables Matthew writes: Jesus, having gone out of the house, was sitting beside the sea; and many crowds were gathered to him, so that going into a boat he sat, and all the people stood on the shore. And he spoke to them many things in parables, saying: behold, the sower went out to sow.
And lest you think that the narrative of the parable of the sower was so placed by chance, because Jesus was speaking it to the crowds, consider the exposition of Mark and Luke, who wrote similarly. Mark indeed thus: he began again to teach beside the sea. And a great people was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat and sat on the sea, and all the people was beside the sea on the land. And he taught them many things in parables, and said to them: the sower went out to sow. But Luke in this manner: when a great people was coming together and going out to him from the several cities, he spoke such a parable: the sower went out to sow his seed. But clearly knowing the difference between the people and the disciples, the evangelists after the parable added that now no longer to the crowds, but to the disciples he was expounding the cause on account of which he spoke to the crowds in parables. Matthew indeed says thus: "the disciples coming said to him: why do you speak to them in parables?" But Luke thus: "his disciples asked him what this parable might be". But Mark: "and when they had come to be apart, the disciples asked him what this parable might be". And see whether you can from the Gospel of John hear and learn that those who only believe and do not desire to ascend in the word are the people of Christ, but those who are zealous for the better gifts and who, which is the first of all graces, study to receive "the word of wisdom" are his disciples. But John says thus: that "Jesus said to those Jews who had believed: if you remain in my word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free". Therefore some things indeed he says to his disciples, some things to the crowds, but other things to the crowds together with the disciples, as also are these very present things concerning which we now speak.
Let us see therefore what he says "to the crowds and to the disciples": the scribes and the Pharisees have sat upon the seat of Moses. Which I judge to be of this sort: those who profess that they interpret the law of Moses and who glory in this, or those who profess to ascend above these things, these sit upon the seat of Moses. Those therefore who do not depart from the letter of the law are called scribes. But those who, professing something greater, separate themselves as if better from the many, according to this are called Pharisees, which is interpreted DIVIDED and SEGREGATED (for Phares is called DIVISION). It is therefore possible to see even now among the Jews scribes and Pharisees sitting upon the seat of Moses. I do not say this as though the scribes and Pharisees alone sat upon the seat of Moses, who said and did not do, and bound heavy burdens and unbearable ones upon the shoulders of men, but they themselves were unwilling to move them even with a finger. For I judge that those who understand and expound Moses according to the spiritual power sit indeed upon the seat of Moses, but are not scribes and Pharisees, but better than these. Such are the beloved disciples of Christ, who both interpret his word through the grace of God, and find those things which signify one thing from another. Therefore before the coming of Christ they indeed sat upon the seat of Moses well who interpreted the sayings of Moses well and according to reason. But after the coming of Christ they sit upon the seat of the Church, which is the seat of Christ and his throne. But just as upon the seat of Moses the scribes and Pharisees sat badly, but those who rightly understood the law and handed it on sat well, so also upon the ecclesiastical seat there sit some who say what each one ought to do but do not themselves do it, and who, binding heavy burdens, lay them upon the shoulders of men, unwilling themselves to move them even with a finger, concerning whom the Savior said: "whoever shall loose one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of God". But others of those sitting do before they say, and speak wisely, moderating the differences of shoulders and laying burdens upon them sparingly. They themselves first move these burdens for the exhortation of the rest who hear, concerning whom the Lord says: "but he who shall do and teach so, he shall be called great in the kingdom of God".
[§10] Moreover, according to the simple sense of this saying where he says: do all things whatsoever they tell you to do, but do not do according to their works, we say that by these words he wishes to show that there are certain persons in the Church who, as far as speech is concerned, are indeed capable of teaching marvelous things and expound them according to reason, but are unwilling to act according to what they say: whose teaching indeed is to be heard, but whose manner of life is not to be imitated. He therefore rebukes teachers of this kind, who not only do not do the things they teach, but also cruelly and without mercy, and not according to the estimation of the strength of each hearer, but greater than their power, impose burdens: for instance, those who forbid to marry and, away from what is expedient, compel people toward an immoderate purity, who also teach abstinence from foods and other things of this kind (to which faithful men ought not at all to be compelled), and who by the word of their exposition bind heavy burdens, contrary to the will of Christ who says: "my yoke is sweet and my burden is light", and lay them, as far as their word goes, upon the shoulders of men, bending them down and making them fall under the weight of grievous commandments — those who are not able to bear them up. And frequently one may see those who teach such things doing the contrary to their own words, and unwilling to move them even with a small strength of soul, which morally is called a finger. For many, teaching chastity, have not kept chastity. Exhorting others to abstain from foods, they themselves (whether for pretense or because they were overcome by their own concupiscences) have taken foods of this kind which they had renounced in words, teaching one thing in public and doing another secretly and covertly, doing all things for the sake of the persons of men and vain glories, as the following saying demonstrates, saying: they do all their works, that they may be seen by men. And for the most part all those are of this sort who love the first couches at banquets and greetings in the marketplace and to be called by men Rabbi, or something that is similar to this Rabbi: for instance, those who wish to be called bishops or presbyters or deacons, whereas each one of them, even if he were so called by someone, ought either to show his own conscience to God, that he does not wish to be named by this name of which he has neither the knowledge nor the practice. And if he does have it, nevertheless he ought not to wish to be called by that name which properly belongs to another. For the bishop, properly, is the Lord Jesus; and the presbyters are Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, as is manifest to those who consider the things written in Genesis concerning their seed, or the others who have been held worthy of this name, such as were the apostles of Christ; but the deacons are the seven archangels of God, to whose mysteries the seven deacons in the Acts have been ordained. The Lord therefore cuts off concupiscences of this kind from our soul through these words which have been set down, and rather exhorts us to be zealous for humility, which is the first occasion of exaltation with God, just as, on the contrary, the occasion of humiliation with God is to love the first seats in the synagogues and the first couches at banquets and the first greetings in the marketplace and to be called Rabbi. And see that upon these things he adds and says: he who is greater among you, let him become a minister, and: he who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Thus from the phylacteries and fringes, made for the display of those who covet vain glories, and from their boastings for the sake of pomp, and from their garments and from their rings and their sandals, it is manifest who they are that love to be called Rabbi by men. If therefore (according to what we have said) the scribes and Pharisees sitting upon the seat of Moses are the teachers of the Jews, teaching the commandments of the law according to the letter, how does the Lord command us in the present words to do according to all things that they say, when all the apostles forbid the faithful to live according to the letter of the law, as the epistle of the apostles in the Acts testifies, which they sent to the Gentiles, that they should observe nothing from the law except what is sacrificed to idols and strangled, and fornication? But those men teach the law according to the letter, not understanding the sense of the law spiritually, just as the apostle says of them: "but the end of the law is charity from a pure heart and faith unfeigned, from which certain men wandering away have turned aside to vain talk, wishing to be teachers of the law, understanding neither the things they speak, nor concerning what they affirm". For those who expound the law of Moses according to the letter, falling away from the love which is "from a pure heart and from faith unfeigned", in which the "spiritual law" is placed, are all vain-talkers. For vain talk is circumcision, the unleavened bread, the passover, and the matter of clean and unclean things according to the letter of the law. These, therefore, who "have turned aside to vain talk and wish to be teachers of the law" and yet are not so according to the truth of the law, do indeed speak the commandments of the law, but do not understand the things they say, nor what the sayings of the law signify "concerning which they affirm".
Therefore the Savior says of them: for they say and do not, for instance, they say concerning circumcision, concerning the passover, concerning the unleavened bread, concerning foods, concerning drinks, concerning festivals, concerning new moons, concerning sabbaths and the rest of the commandments of the law, but they do not do according to the will of the law. For they are not circumcised, as is the will of the law (whence the apostle says: "for we are the circumcision, we who serve God in the spirit and do not trust in the flesh"), nor do they sacrifice the passover (being ignorant that "our Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed for us"), nor do they eat the unleavened bread according to the purpose of the law (which the apostle interprets, saying: "let us feast, not in the old leaven nor in the leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth". But neither do they celebrate the passover bodily, since the law commands that in Jerusalem, "the city which the Lord God has chosen", the lamb must be sacrificed, and that "three times in the year every male shall appear in the sight of the Lord God". But we who are disciples of Jesus, understanding those who sit upon the seat of Moses, the scribes and Pharisees, performing circumcisions and the other bodily commandments of the law, but set far off from the spiritual commandments of the law — whatsoever things they say to us out of the law, we, understanding the sense of the law, do and keep, by no means acting according to their works. For the things they speak, they seem indeed to say out of the law, yet they do not do as the law teaches. For they neither receive charity in a pure heart, nor faith unfeigned, in which the sense of the law is placed, nor do they understand that there is a veil over the letter of the law, nor do they hear the prophet who understands this and at the same time asks: "unveil my eyes, and I will consider the marvelous things of your law". And thus they bind heavy burdens and (as Luke says) "unbearable ones", and lay them upon the shoulders of the disciples who listen to them. For the bodily commandments of the law according to the letter are heavy burdens and no light bindings, as Peter testifies in the Acts, saying: "why do you tempt God, and wish to impose a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? But through the grace of God we believe that we are saved". But its spiritual burden is light; therefore the Lord also says to those who were burdened and bound by the bodily commandments of the law: "come to me, you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and see, for my yoke is sweet and my burden is light". And the light burden is the Gospel, which is the spiritual law.
Moreover, the scribes and Pharisees sitting upon the seat of Moses do all their works, that they may be seen by men, receiving the visible circumcision and visibly removing the bodily leaven from their houses and in place of it likewise bringing in bodily unleavened bread, and seeking a Jerusalem visible to men and doing all things likewise to these. For they look upon "the things which are seen and are temporal", and they give alms that they may be glorified by men, and standing in the streets they pray, that they may be seen to be religious. But the true disciples of Christ, who look upon "the things which are not seen and are eternal", pray in their hidden storeroom and give alms in secret and fulfill the law in secret things, as Jews constituted in secret, according to what the apostle says: "for he is not a Jew who is so in the open, nor is that circumcision which is openly in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is so in secret, and circumcision is of the heart, which is in the spirit not the letter". For in secret things and in invisible unleavened bread they feast "of sincerity and truth": they also eat the passover, Christ sacrificed for us, who said: "unless you eat my flesh, you have not eternal life in you". And by this, that they drink his blood, the true drink, they anoint the lintels of the houses of their soul, seeking not (as those men do) glory from men, but from God who sees the secret things.
[§11] After this let us see what it means when he says: they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the fringes of their garments. It must be understood in these matters that it is written in the law concerning the divine words, saying: "bind them upon your hand, and they shall be moving before your eyes". Those, therefore, who do all things in order to be seen by men, the scribes and Pharisees, writing certain sayings of the law on two cut pieces of parchment, bind them, and one indeed they carry on their houses, as it were placing upon their heads as a crown that which is written according to the forehead. But the other upon the arm of their hand; and they call them "phylacteries". Similarly, finding something also about the fringe in Deuteronomy, they suppose that they keep the law by making some fringe on some part of the garments which they wear.
Therefore, reproving these things too in the scribes and Pharisees, in their bodily and visible observances, the Lord says: they do all things in order to be seen by men. For they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the fringes of their garments. But the disciples of Jesus do all their works in order to be seen by God alone; for they bind the law of God upon their hand, spiritually upon their good work, and by meditation on the divine teachings, ever moving them, they make the divine precepts moving before the eyes of their souls, and the fringe full of the virtue of Jesus — in this, that they imitate the Master.
[§12] But what should be said of those who love the first couches at banquets and the first seats in the synagogues and the first greetings in the marketplace and to be called Rabbi by men? Clearly offenses of this kind were found, and are found, not only among the scribes and Pharisees of that time alone, but even in the Church of Christ there are found not only banquets, and those who, undertaking the tables of those who provide them, but also those who love the first seats at them and do many things — first, indeed, that they may become deacons (not such as Scripture describes, but such as are "those who devour the houses of widows, praying at length for a pretext," and who for this reason "shall receive the greater judgment"). And those who wish to become deacons of this sort consequently strive to seize beforehand the visible first seats of those who are called presbyters. Some, however, not content even with these, contrive very many things, so that they may be called bishops by men (which is Rabbi), when they ought to understand that a bishop must become "beyond reproach" and the rest of the things that follow, so that even if he is not said to be a bishop by men, he may nevertheless be one before God. For he who has in himself the things which Paul enumerates concerning a bishop, even if he is not a bishop before men, is a bishop before God — even if he has not come to that rank through the ordination of men. For in this way a man is a physician who has learned the medical discipline and is able to heal as a physician: even if the sick do not entrust their bodies to him, he is a physician. But also a man is a pilot who has learned the pilot's art and is able to use it as is fitting: even if no one has entrusted to him the helm of a ship, he is nevertheless a pilot.
But you will find lovers of new glory who are zealous for glory from men and do not desire it from God; and, as it were, some men are brought before them as before judges and governors; and, if it must be said, through this very thing they make Christ's lightest burden an intolerable burden. But the disciple of Christ bears with it and still intercedes and does all things that he may be seen by God, despising human glory. He, seeing the suppers of the Gospel parables and the heavenly churches and assemblies and fairs of the firstborn, in which was (according to the Song of Songs) the bride, loves indeed at the spiritual suppers the first couches, that he may eat the better portions of the spiritual foods and the first-fruits of the spiritual banquet, and not the leftovers of the rest. He loves also, with the apostles sitting "upon twelve thrones", the first seats, hastening to render himself worthy by good deeds of seats of this kind; and so too the greetings which take place in the fairs, which we explained above. But the just man loves to be called Rabbi neither by men nor by any other, certain that there is one master of all. And all who are under him are, one toward another, brothers. But also he who by a heavenly birth has been born not only "of water" but also "of the Spirit", and has received "the spirit of adoption", so that it may be said of him that he was born not "of flesh" "nor of the will of man but of God", still being the son of none of those who are reckoned on earth and below, does not call anyone father on earth, as one who through every deed accomplished according to God says "our Father, who art in heaven". And if anyone ministers the divine words, he by no means offers himself to be called master, as one knowing that Christ is in him when he has made good progress, whom it behooves to be called master by all who have been benefited, but he professes himself a minister according to the commandment of Christ, who says: he who is greater among you, let him be the minister of all. Since Christ himself also, though he was truly master, professed himself to be a minister, saying: "but I am in the midst of you, not as one who reclines at table, but as one who ministers."
But well, after all the things by which he forbade the desires of vainglory, did he add, saying: he who exalts himself shall be humbled. Would that all indeed heard this, but most of all deacons and presbyters and bishops — most of all those who suppose that these things are not written for them: he who exalts himself shall be humbled. For which reason, as though not knowing that other saying either, he who humbles himself shall be exalted, they do not hear him who said: "learn of me, for I am gentle and humble of heart". But they are puffed up, and through their inflation they fall "into the judgment of the devil", and they do not seek through humility to ascend from the judgment of inflation, when they ought to remember the word of wisdom which says: "the greater you are, the more humble yourself, and before God you will find grace". And this the Lord first fulfilled; for as much as he had been great, so much did he humble himself. For "though" he "was in the form of God, he did not consider it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of man; and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself even unto death, and death of the cross. For which reason God also exalted him above all, and gave him a name which is above every name" and the rest.
[§13] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven before men; for you yourselves do not enter, nor do you allow those entering to enter (23, 13).
Those who dare to call God not good on account of the curses which God set down against sinners in his law — let them hear how, as truly the Son of that God who gave the law, in likeness indeed of the blessings which are set down in the law, he too pronounces the beatitudes of those who are saved, but in likeness of the curses set down in the law he sets woe against sinners, saying: woe to you and to you. And let those who bring a charge against the God of the law, hearing these things, not understanding that those things too were spoken by a kindly God, say what we ought to understand concerning Jesus when he says: woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. Those who confess that it belongs to goodness to pronounce such things against sinners — let them understand that the purpose of God is the same in bringing forth the curses of the law within the law. But whether it be that curse or this pronounced woe — it befalls each sinner not from the pronouncement of the one pronouncing, but from the sins of the sinner himself, who offers himself worthy for the reception either of those curses or of these woes, which God pronounced for the sake of discipline against those men, that he might turn them to the good. For a father too, rebuking his son, frequently brings forth for his amendment certain words which seem to be curses, and yet he does not wish him to become worthy of those curses, but rather desires to turn him away from them.
We have said these things in order to show that the Gospels are in agreement with the law. So too now, when he says woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, because you shut the kingdom of heaven, he terrified the scribes and Pharisees, that they might not mock the kingdom of heaven before men. But the scribes and Pharisees shutting the kingdom of heaven offend in two ways at once: in one indeed that they themselves do not enter into the kingdom of heaven, and secondly that those entering they do not allow to enter. These two sins are by nature inseparable from one another. For whoever sins in one of these cannot abstain from the other. Likewise, conversely, whoever abstains from the one, it is impossible that he should not also abstain from the other; for instance, no one is found who, himself entering into the kingdom of heaven, does not permit others to enter, since for him who forbids others to enter into the kingdom this very thing — that he does not permit others to enter — suffices for his own expulsion, so that he does not enter into the kingdom of heaven; for whoever "shall scandalize one of the little ones" of the Church, forbidding anyone to enter into the kingdom of heaven, will suffer what is written in the Gospel, woe. Likewise, conversely, whoever is able to make someone enter into the kingdom of heaven — if indeed it is within his power both to permit and to forbid — much more will he himself enter into the kingdom of heaven. [§14] Since the Lord frequently says woe to the scribes and Pharisees, we will set out the cause of each woe in its proper place. But now let us set out the cause of this present woe. The cause, then, of the present woe is that they were shutting up the kingdom of heaven before men; and in shutting it before others, they themselves did not enter, precisely because they forbade to enter those who would surely have entered, if they had not been shut out by these men. And first, indeed, the present passage is to be expounded simply, as of the scribes and Pharisees who are found among the Jews. For these men, not content that they themselves did not believe the Lord, went still further and disparaged his teaching and overthrew every prophecy written concerning him and blasphemed his every work as false and feigned by the devil, saying, "this man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul", and showed themselves murderous toward those who had believed in Christ, and in every way forbade anyone to come to Christianity, through which one enters into the kingdom of heaven. They were shutting up that which had been openly announced and preached in the sight of all and proclaimed aloud among all men. And in shutting up the kingdom of heaven they themselves did not enter (for neither did they wish to hear him who said: "if anyone enters through me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out and find pasture"); and those entering (that is, those who could believe on account of the faith which "from the law and the prophets" had earlier been declared concerning Christ) they did not permit to enter. Utterly breaking up the very beginning of their assent, and with all terror and savage boldness, as far as lay in them, they themselves, by shutting the door, forbade all who wished to enter through the door.
To this simple exposition we will join also this, concerning those who sin among us. For all who by an evil manner of life urge on an example of sinning among the people, and who do injury to those who are still little ones in Christ and imperfect, disheartening and scandalizing them, seem to shut the kingdom of heaven before men, and neither do they themselves enter nor do they permit others to enter. And this sin is found indeed even among the common people, but most of all among the teachers, who indeed teach men according to the justice of the Gospel, but do not do what they teach, because they are evil shepherds and therefore do not spare the sheep nor care for their salvation, but always look to the gains coming to them from men in return for the fact that they seem to feed the people when they do not feed them, and are caught in filthy gains and in the lusts of empty glory. For these are the wages of the hirelings, who shut the kingdom of heaven before men and do not enter into it, nor do they wish to understand what is said: "strive to enter through the narrow door". And since above all contests this is the contest, that one should be doing violence and seizing the heavenly kingdom, to such teachers, then, these words are fittingly said, neither do you enter, nor do you permit those entering to enter, especially if we see them, by their evil life and pride and revilings and avarice, leading into scandal not, I will say, one of the little ones, but even, as far as lies in them, all. Woe, then, to those who shut the kingdom of heaven before men, either in this way or in another; but blessed are those who open it either by their word or by their good work, like him who said: "a great and evident door has been opened to me", or as the rest of the apostles opened it. And if anyone becomes an imitator of them, he opens the kingdom of heaven before men by his justice and virtue and chastity and wisdom. And the more one advances in piety, the more he opens the kingdom of heaven before men.
I think, therefore, that all who profess that they enter into the church, altogether either shut the kingdom of heaven before men by their evil manners of life insofar as they themselves sin, or open it by their good acts insofar as they have conducted themselves justly. Most of all do this those who seem to be more illustrious in the church, such as bishops, presbyters, deacons. For by living well and teaching well the word of truth they open the kingdom of heaven before men and, while they themselves enter, they provoke others to enter; but the evil ones, who are not shepherds but hirelings, shut the kingdom of heaven before men and do not hear what the Apostle says: "but we endure all things, that we may give no offense to the Gospel of Christ". Indeed one may see many teachers not permitting to enter into the kingdom of heaven those who desire to enter — especially when, without judgment and without reason, not on account of the sins which they commit, they excommunicate certain persons, but on account of some jealousy and contentiousness they frequently forbid to en- ter even those who are better than they themselves are. And they indeed are not permitted to enter, but those others, who are sober in mind and watchful in spirit, overcoming by their patience and long-suffering the tyrannies of these men, though forbidden nevertheless enter and inherit the kingdom of heaven.
[§15] Next let us see whether, beyond those we have spoken of, it is possible to see also others who shut and open the kingdom of heaven. For those who have been counted worthy and fit to expound the Gospel, and who show themselves such that they can truly say "Do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?", open the kingdom of heaven before men, when they demonstrate, with all clarity and proof, the loftiness of the divine words — words which were not spoken about earthly things but about heaven and about the mind of the Lord, who came to men — so that, so far as it lies in them, they would lead "Gentiles and barbarians, wise and unwise" to the piety of Christ. But those who, through their unteachableness and unrighteousness, with much rashness gave themselves over to the profession of teaching before they had learned and come to know the truth, and who therefore, in imitation of vain Jewish fables, hand down the bodily narratives of the Scriptures and not their spiritual sense or intention, and who moreover disparage those "who have risen with Christ and seek the things that are above" in the Scriptures "and not upon the earth," nor reckon that the truth set forth in the Scriptures lies in earthly things: these, so far as it lies in them, shut the kingdom of heaven before men, shutting it by their unrighteousness and drawing to themselves those who were able — by hearing the more divine and greater teaching and the loftiness of the truth — to enter into the kingdom of heaven through the heavenly doctrines and through the deeds befitting them. To this exposition it is fitting what Luke writes: "Woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves have not entered in, and you have hindered those who were entering." For those who accuse the allegorical exposition and want to teach that the divine Scripture is plain and has nothing more than the text shows, and who do not admit any more divine sense concerning circumcision or the Passover or the unleavened bread or foods and drinks or the feasts or the new moons or the sabbaths, and do not accept that the Jews then served "in the display and shadow of things to come" — these indeed are lawyers, yet they have taken away "the key of knowledge," so far as their teaching goes, that is, taking away every way of the law for understanding its ordinances; and therefore neither did they themselves enter in nor, so far as it lay in them, did they permit others to enter.
[§16] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who go about the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and when he has been made, you make him a son of gehenna twice as much as you yourselves are (23, 15).
These things are fittingly said, after the coming of Christ, to the scribes and Pharisees of Jewish words, who diligently go about very many places of the world in order to persuade newcomers to Judaize. For whoever Judaize after the Savior are taught to imitate the disposition of those who said at that time: "Crucify, crucify him", and again "Away with such a one from the earth"; and they are taught also to accuse him, just as then the priests of the people used to accuse him. And it is possible to see them even now, when a robber is being judged and a Christian bears witness to the truth, wishing rather that the imitator of Barabbas be acquitted than the disciple of Christ. All of which things make the proselyte a son of gehenna not simply, but, as it is written, twofold beyond the scribes and Pharisees who made him a proselyte.
But someone will say in this place: how is the disciple, a proselyte to those who are now the wretchedly constituted scribes and Pharisees, not made a son of gehenna equally with his teachers, but twofold? For he will say that he ought to become a son of gehenna less, and, if anything, by half, than the one who made him a proselyte. Or, if one should even grant that the disciple be "as his master", the disciple ought to become a son of gehenna equally with his master. I think, therefore, that every man who from the Gentile manner of life has been made a proselyte of the Jews was a son of gehenna even before he becomes a proselyte. For a life subjected to idolatries is sufficient of itself to make a man a son of gehenna. Such a son of gehenna, therefore, the word of our Lord Jesus Christ does indeed save and set free through the "washing of baptism", giving him the power to become a son of God and showing him the way, so that he may become a son of God the Father who is in heaven. But the word of the Jews who do not believe in Christ not only does not release the Gentile from gehenna, but still adds to him a further count of damnation, so that according to Judaism too he becomes a son of gehenna. And thus the scribe or Pharisee makes another a son of gehenna more than himself, not because he himself makes him twofold, but because, when the man has been made …, he is made twofold a son of gehenna through the teaching of his teacher. And thus the one who taught becomes the cause of that man's second error, so that he becomes twofold a son of gehenna above the one who taught him ill. But another will say in another way, that those who from the beginning were nurtured in the law of Moses are already sons of gehenna, because they did not believe in Christ. But those who have left the Gentile life, once judging to abandon the idolatry in which they had been nurtured, and have taken hold of the Jewish life, are worthy of a double punishment, because they did not abandon it with inquiry, nor were they willing to examine the Jewish word and that which seems to be akin to the Jewish word, that is, the profession of Christians, nor did they investigate through those who are competent to teach both sects, so that they might understand which word was the truer and rather to be chosen. At the same time we learn from this place that among those also who are to be in gehenna there will be a difference of torments, since the one is simply a son of gehenna, while the other is twofold.
But this too we must consider: whether someone becomes a son of gehenna still more abundantly, for instance threefold or manifold according to the multitude of his sins; and whether it is generally the case that someone becomes a son of gehenna, for instance a Jew or a Gentile or the professor of any false doctrine whatsoever, or also specially, so that through the individual kinds of sins one becomes a son of gehenna: for instance, he who fornicates becomes a son of gehenna, but he who also commits adultery becomes so twofold, while he who also commits theft becomes so still threefold (according to what is written: "with what measure you have measured, with the same measure it shall be measured to you"), so that the righteous man indeed is increased in glory according to the number of his righteous deeds, but the sinner is multiplied in gehenna according to the number of his sins. But what this gehenna is, and in what place of the scriptures it was first named, let him who is able inquire, especially in the division of the inheritance of Joshua the son of Nun, where sometimes it is called the valley of the son of Hinnom, but sometimes the valley of Hinnom, which is Gehenna (for Ge is a VALLEY), and let him observe that, just as Jerusalem is the portion of the tribe of Benjamin and certain other chosen cities or villages, so also is Gehenna. And it is consequent for him who knows what Jerusalem is in the division of the true inheritance of the sons of Israel, that he should understand the discourse about gehenna. But he who reads Joshua the son of Nun diligently, let him see also which villages are there reported to neighbor the valley that is called Gehenna. It has seemed to me not to be safe to hand these things down at greater length and more openly through ink and pen and paper; would that these very things which we do say may not seem to have been said rashly and perilously!
[§17] Woe to you, guides of the blind, who say: whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, is bound. Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And: whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is upon it, is bound. Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? He therefore who swears by the altar swears by it and by all things that are upon it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it (23, 16—22).
By this saying too he censures the traditions of the Pharisees, as being not upright. He does this also in that passage where he reproaches the traditions of the Pharisees made against the commandment of God, which had been laid down concerning the honor of father or mother, when the Pharisees said: "whoever shall say to his father or mother: a gift, whatever from me may profit you, he shall not honor his father". After which he adds and says: "you have made void the commandment of God, that you may establish your own tradition", and he brings forward the example of Isaiah, saying: "this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; and in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men". One, then, of the Pharisaic traditions was such, concerning those who swear, since some indeed swore by the temple, but others by the gold of the temple, likewise others by the altar, others by the gift of the altar; and they said that he was a debtor who swore by the gold of the temple or by the gift of the altar, but that he was in no respect liable who swore by the temple or by the altar.
Therefore, speaking against traditions of this kind to the Jews, and wishing to correct them from human traditions to the divine commandments, the Savior says that they are blind and foolish who hand down such things, not seeing that everything which is placed in the temple is not sanctified through itself, but through the temple. So too what is placed upon the altar is judged to be already God's gift from the fact that it has been received upon the altar. If, then, the cause of sanctifying the gold is the temple, and of sanctifying the gift the altar, how would it not seem foolish that the one who swears by that which sanctifies is not guilty, while the one who swears by that which is sanctified seems to be guilty, as though that which is sanctified were better than that which sanctifies? So, since the Jews have the custom of swearing also by heaven, to the foregoing he added this too for the reproof of those who swore more readily by heaven than by God, since he acts equally irrationally who swears by heaven, just as he who swears by the temple or by the altar; for he who swears by heaven is seen also to swear by him who sits upon it, and does not (as he supposes) escape the danger from the fact that he swears not by God himself, but by the throne of God. And these things he says to the Jews, forbidding men to give heed to the traditions of the Pharisees. For otherwise, above, he plainly forbade to swear "at all".
[§18] But if it is necessary to bring somewhat more deeply to light, at least in part, the meaning of Scripture that lies hidden as it were in such fields of the Gospel and is not comprehensible to just anyone, it must be said: every oath is a binding and a confirmation of the word about which one swears. Therefore an oath is to be understood as every testimony of the Scriptures that is brought forward for the confirmation and binding of our word which we speak, so that "all Scripture divinely inspired" is indeed the temple of the glory of God, and the meaning placed within it is the gold. Therefore, in support of all the words that we bring forward in teaching, we ought to bring forward the meaning of Scripture as though confirming the meaning that we set forth. For just as all gold that is outside the temple is not sanctified, so every meaning that is outside the divine Scripture (however admirable it may seem to some) is not holy, because it is not contained by the meaning of Scripture, which is accustomed to sanctify only that meaning which it has within itself, as the temple sanctifies its own proper gold. We ought not, therefore, in order to confirm our teaching, to swear by our own private understandings and take them as testimonies, those things which each one of us understands and reckons to be according to truth, unless he has shown them to be holy, from the fact that they are contained in the divine Scriptures as though in certain temples of God. Fools therefore and blind are all those who do not recognize that the temple, that is, the reading of the Scriptures, makes a meaning great and venerable, as it does the consecrated gold.
But consider further whether perhaps, according to the likeness of the temple and the gold placed in the temple, we ought to understand the altar and the gift which is placed upon the altar. The altar, then, which sanctifies the offering, is the heart of man, which is held to be the principal thing in man; and the offerings and gifts which are placed upon the altar are everything that is placed upon the heart. For instance, you propose to pray: you have placed the offering of prayer upon your heart, as upon a certain altar, in order to offer prayer to God. You have proposed to sing psalms: you have placed the offering of psalms upon your heart, as upon a certain altar, in order to offer to God the offering of psalms. You have proposed to give alms: you have placed the offering of almsgiving upon your heart, as upon a certain altar, in order to offer the offering of almsgiving to God. You have proposed to fast: you have placed the offering of fasting upon your heart, as upon a certain altar …. Therefore the heart of man, from which the offering is offered to God, makes every offering venerable and holy. For this reason the offering cannot be more honorable than the heart of man, from which the offering is transmitted. Blind, therefore, is every man who sees either someone's great almsgivings or psalms or great prayers or fastings, and without judgment pronounces them blessed, and does not consider from what sort of heart the almsgivings are offered, or the psalms, or the prayers, or the fastings. For the altar is the heart which sanctifies the offering of him who is pure of heart. For if the heart and conscience of a man "does not prick him, he has confidence toward God". Not on account of his gifts, nor the words of prayer or psalm, however well composed they may seem and selected from the Scriptures, but because (so to speak) he has well built the altar of his heart. He, therefore, who takes the altar, that is, the principal heart and the conscience, as witness, swears by the altar, embracing everything that is contained in it. And he who swears, according to what we have handed down, by the temple, that is by Scripture, is seen to swear by Scripture and by the word and meaning of God which is contained in it.
But there is a third point, that we may say that above the temple, that is, above all Scripture, and above the altar, that is, above every heart, there is a certain understanding above the understanding of all the Scriptures and above every heart, "which has not yet ascended into the heart of man", which morally is called heaven, a throne now not "of the glory of God", as the temple is, but of God himself. For the temple is the temple of the glory of God, in which "we see through a mirror in an enigma"; but heaven, which is above the temple of God himself, in which is the throne of God, in which it is possible to behold "with unveiled face", "when that which is perfect shall have come", the face of the mysteries of the truth that sit in a heaven of this kind.
[§19] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and you have left behind the weightier things of the law, judgment and mercy and faith; but these things it was necessary to do, and not to omit those. Blind guides, straining out a gnat, but swallowing a camel (23, 23. 24).
This word must be spoken at a fitting time to those who indeed display religion toward God in the smallest matters, but in matters great and necessary hold in contempt the commandment and God himself who commanded them. Such things happened even among the Jews, who supposed themselves to be keeping the law of Moses, who prescribed that from all fruits tithes be given to the Levites and the priests. And so, since it was easy to fulfill the law in the smallest matters, they tithed indeed mint and dill and cumin, and all (so to speak) the smallest things and those that were light in the law, but its weighty things they did not observe, that is, judgment and mercy and faith: judgment indeed, that each one should judge concerning all things with a just judgment and not concerning only some, and should assent to him who said: "I desire mercy, rather than sacrifice", so that he might offer to God the sacrifices of acts of mercy, so that, examining those things which are of faith, he might be faithful. But since it was fitting that certain of those hearing the Lord speak these things about tithing the smallest matters might come to despise the tithing of the smallest things, the Lord wisely added, saying: and these it was necessary to do (that is, judgment and mercy and faith) and not to omit those (that is, the tithing of mint and dill and cumin). And he says that those who do such things, the scribes and Pharisees, who omit the weightier things of the law and tithe the contemptible things among the fruits, are blind guides. And he wisely says that such men strain out (that is, expel from themselves) the smallest faults, which he named gnats, but "swallow" (that is, commit) the greatest faults, which he named camels, animals evidently twisted and huge. According to these words, therefore, every man who omits the weightier things of the law (especially judgment and mercy and faith) swallows a camel. And not only among the Jews, but also among us, one may find many sinning sins of this kind and swallowing camels, in that they commit the greatest faults; and one may frequently observe men of this kind, how in the smallest matters they display their religion. And he rightly calls them hypocrites; for wishing to acquire religiosity "before men", they are unwilling to take up that religiosity which God has justified. We must therefore flee such pretenses of the scribes and Pharisees, lest that woe befall us also, just as it befell them.
[§20] But I judge that, morally, all are called scribes who suppose nothing more to be set down in the Scriptures than what the plain wording of the Scripture shows, but who moreover despise those who "search out the depth of God". Likewise all are Pharisees who justify themselves and separate themselves from the rest, "saying: Do not draw near to me, for I am clean". Now the Pharisees are interpreted, according to the name Phares, as THE DIVIDED, who divided themselves from the rest; for Phares in the Hebrew tongue means DIVISION. But if in words of the Gospel of this kind one must also take up a moral understanding, it must be known that, just as mint and dill and cumin are seasonings of foods and not themselves the principal foods, so in our ways of life there are certain things that are indeed principal and necessary for the justification of our souls — such as these weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and faith — but others that are, as it were, seasonings of our acts, commending them and making them more pleasant, such as abstaining from laughter and fasting, the bending of the knees, perseverance in the assemblies, assiduity in the communion, and other things like these, which are not themselves the justices, but are held to be the seasonings of the justices. But the spiritual things that are justices of themselves are called judgment and mercy and faith. It is disgraceful, therefore, to observe these least things (which is to tithe), yet not to offer to God the observances of the necessary things (that is, not to tithe). And those who do and teach these things, like the former ones, are blind guides. And how should they not be reckoned blind, from whom the greatness and the twistedness of camels — that is, of perverse acts — lies hidden, and who do not see that it profits nothing to strain out and to be scrupulous as an examiner in the least matters, while the principal things and those that truly pertain to the glory of God are neglected? Since, therefore, there are many even among us who suppose they are living carefully with regard to trivial matters, but with regard to the necessary matters despise themselves, the present discourse confounds men of this sort — not indeed forbidding them to observe those trivial things, but commanding them to guard more carefully the principal and more salutary things. He, therefore, strains out all things who, in all things whatsoever he does or speaks or thinks, separates what is sordid and earthly and not adorned with divine reasonings from those things that are by nature bright and sincere and just, according to him who teaches: "let us keep the feast not in the leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth". But you will find many who are reckoned to believe, yet do not have their words and acts and thoughts strained out. Therefore "as hay" shall "the fire consume" their carnal acts, torturing the soul also together with the body on account of the bodily faults grown fast to it. For just as it is not possible to cut away the superfluities grown upon bodies without great pain and torment for those who suffer them, so neither the carnal deeds from those who (so to speak) have made their souls flesh; wherefore it was said concerning such souls: "my spirit shall not remain in these men, for they are flesh". [§21] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you clean what is outside of the cup and the dish, but within you are full of plunder and intemperance and deceit. Blind Pharisee, clean first what is inside the cup and the dish, so that what is outside may become clean (23, 25, 26).
This saying instructs us to be eager to be just, not to appear just. For whoever is intent on appearing just cleans the things that are outside and attends to what is seen, but neglects his own heart and conscience — not considering that the one who is intent on the things that are within and is eager to clean his own thoughts, consequently is also eager to make clean the things that are outside. But if anyone is eager for the things that are seen and yet neglects the interior things of his soul, it is necessary that such a man be filled from within with avarice, wantonness, malice, and very many other evils. For everyone who is anxious about his own salvation (which is from within) is also anxious about his reputation (which is from outside); but not everyone who is anxious about his reputation from outside is also anxious about his own salvation from within. For example, it is written: "whoever looks at a woman to desire her has committed adultery in his heart". This man, then, who abstains from the deed of fornication but fornicates in the desire of his heart, has cleaned what is outside of the cup and the dish or the platter, but is within full of intemperance. But also the one who gives alms in order to obtain glory from men seems indeed to clean what is outside of the cup and the dish, giving alms "before men", but is within full of the lust for empty glory and intemperance. And whatever good a man does not from a clean conscience for the sake of God, he seems indeed clean on the outside, but on the inside he is full of evils. But also all the professors of false doctrine are cups cleaned as it were on the outside because of the appearance of religion which they feign, but within they are full of plunder and seduction, by which they carry off men into error. And they are "ravenous wolves" lurking under "sheep's clothing" and devouring simple souls, who are not able to see that they are ravenous wolves because of the covering of the sheep's skins. [§22] But if we must consider everything in the Gospel discourses morally, we must see why in Matthew the scribes and Pharisees are said to cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, whereas in Luke mention is made of the cup and the platter. Both, then, set down vessels of food and drink; and both name the cup (which is for drinking), but not both the dish: the one names the platter, the other the dish (yet each is held to be a vessel for food). Therefore, according to each evangelist, there is a certain spiritual drink and spiritual food, which we take in the discourses of the Scriptures of the Law or of the Prophets. And so every discourse by which we are given spiritual drink, or every narrative by which we are nourished, are vessels of drink and of food. We are admonished, therefore, not to have care for the discourses or narratives that are on the outside, but for those that are within, so that our heart may be filled with pure senses of drink and of nourishment, and not with words nor with their ornate compositions — because "the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power". For instance, one who is eager to bring forth a polished discourse in words rather than one filled with saving sense, the cup of his narrative is cleansed on the outside, but within it is filled with the filth of vanity. Hence Paul, who was not accustomed to cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish but the inside, confesses himself unskilled "in speech but not in knowledge"; and his speech was indeed rustic, yet clean because of the cleanness of its knowledge. But those who spoke "in the wisdom of word" and through this made void the cross of Christ, presented their discourses clean indeed on the outside, but within full of unclean knowledge, and of plunder and intemperance of life. Likewise, whoever, hearing the word or some Scripture of the Law, is delighted by its outward and common compositions rather than by its inner and saving senses, loves the cup or the dish cleansed on the outside, but within filthy.
[§23] But if it is also fitting to add a third exposition, kindred to the earlier ones, we say that the letters of the law and the prophets are the cups of spiritual drinks of the soul and the dishes of necessary foods of faithful men, or the bowls of foods wisely seasoned. Of these cups and dishes and bowls of the law or of the prophets, the scribes and Pharisees are indeed eager for the outward and common sense, and they hasten to demonstrate that this is clean and holy; but the disciples of Christ hasten to cleanse and sanctify the inner and spiritual sense by knowledge and by probable demonstration, so that they may eat and drink the law and the prophets cleansed from within, desiring to hear and receive the inner and mystical sense, and passing beyond the outward senses of the words. It is good, therefore, to cleanse carefully from within the cup or the dish or the bowl, because for him who has cleansed first that which is within the cup, those things also which are outside become truly cleansed; and then the vessels of words are found clean, when their true and spiritual senses have been made manifest.
[§24] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly indeed appear beautiful, but within are full of the bones of the dead and of every foulness. So you also outwardly indeed appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity (23, 27. 28).
For just as above "within they are full of plunder and intemperance," so likewise here also they are full of hypocrisy and iniquity, which are compared to the bones of the dead and to every uncleanness. For hypocrisy, since it is a certain pretense of good, has indeed nothing living from that good which it feigns, but has (so to speak) the bone of that virtue which it feigns. … the righteousness or chastity is dead. For if we hear wisely what the present discourse wishes to show, we understand that all feigned righteousness is dead righteousness, or rather is not even righteousness at all. Just as a dead man is indeed seen to be a man but is not a man, so also dead chastity is not chastity either; and it is dead which is done not for the sake of God but in pretense for the sake of men. And just as it is with mimes, who take up the persons of certain others and are not themselves the ones they feign but only seem to be, so he who feigns righteousness — his feigned righteousness is not righteousness but only seems to be; for it is not righteousness, but a figment of righteousness. So also in seduction feigned chastity is not chastity, but only seems to be. On which account men of this kind are well likened to whitened tombs, outwardly indeed appearing beautiful, for they too outwardly are seen to be righteous in the sight of those who do not know how to consider the inner things, but within they are full of the bones of the dead.
There are as many bones in them and uncleannesses as there are good works they feign out of an evil disposition: and outwardly they are seen righteous "before men," not before those whom Scripture calls "gods," to whom the word of God came, but before those who die "like men." And it would indeed be evil to have even a single bone of a dead man within oneself, or even some single uncleanness. But now behold the emphatic exaggeration of Scripture concerning the wickedness of hypocrites. For just as tombs are full of bones and of every uncleanness, so also those men are full of hypocrisy and iniquity, feigning not in some one matter nor in the sight of one person in all their life, or of two or three (although even this would be a most grievous evil), but they live in pretenses all the days of their life, and they are one thing while they are thought to be another. Some are lascivious within, but outwardly they show themselves to be chaste, pretenders of chastity and forgers of virginity; and others are pretenders of righteousness, while within they are wicked, and others exist as pretenders of other virtues, while within they are full of the contrary vices. There are also some who are pretenders of martyrdom, and some of the episcopate or the presbyterate or the diaconate or of ecclesiastical knowledge or of teaching, having only the masks and the outward show of virtues, but in truth being enemies of those very virtues which they feign.
[§25] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the just, and you say: if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been their partners in the blood of the prophets. therefore you bear witness to yourselves that you are the sons of those who killed the prophets. And you, fill up the measure of your fathers. Serpents, brood of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of Gehenna? therefore, behold, I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and you will persecute them from city to city, that upon you may come all the just blood which is poured out upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Amen, I say to you: all these things will come upon this generation (23, 29—36).
As far as the surface of the text is concerned, he does not seem to threaten with sufficient reason against those who build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the just. For as far as this alone goes, they were doing something praiseworthy, in that they built the tombs of the prophets and adorned the monuments of the just. They did not consent to the works of their fathers, by which those had dared to act against the prophets and the saints, especially in that they say: if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been their partners in the blood of the prophets. How then were they worthy to incur the woe? But if someone speaks thus: as far indeed as that deed and the profession of their words go, they were not guilty, but they were culpable on account of this, that they bore witness to themselves that they were the sons of those who killed the prophets — this too is not true. For in a matter which does not fall under a man's choice, how can a man become guilty? For it is not within the choice of each individual man whose son he is, of a good man or of a bad man.
Therefore neither because they built the tombs of the prophets and said: if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been guilty, were they either guilty or innocent; but because by the very facts and by the likeness of their crimes they bore witness to themselves that they were the sons of those who killed the prophets, filling up the measure of their fathers and adding still what had been lacking, supplying by the killing of Christ the Son of God the killing of the prophets and the just. On account of which it was not possible for those who were held liable by such a deed to flee from the judgment of Gehenna: for whom not even the blood of Christ was enough, but they still killed and crucified those prophets or scribes who had been sent by Christ, and scourged them in their synagogues and persecuted them from city to city. For all which murderous deeds committed it was just that they should suffer the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people, since the patience of God no longer bore the greatness and the multitude of their crimes. But there came upon their generation, who had filled up the measure of their fathers and had heaped upon them the prophets and wise men and scribes of Jesus Christ, all the just blood which is poured out upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whose killing he imputes to the scribes and Pharisees, as though he had not been killed by their fathers but by those very men; for so it is written: whom you killed between the temple and the altar.
But those who are reproached by Christ cannot have killed Zechariah son of Barachiah from among the twelve prophets, whose writings we have in our hands: rather, he means Zechariah the father of John, concerning whom, indeed, we cannot show through the canonical scriptures either that he was the son of Barachiah or that the scribes and Pharisees killed him between the temple and the altar. But there has come to us a certain tradition of this sort: that there is a certain place in the temple where indeed it is permitted for virgins to stand and pray to God, but women who had had experience of the marriage bed were not permitted to stand in it. Now Mary, after she had borne the Savior, entering to worship stood in that place of the virgins; and when those who knew that she had already borne a son were forbidding her, Zechariah stood and said to those forbidding her that she was worthy of the place of the virgins, since she was still a virgin. Therefore, as though most manifestly Zechariah were acting against the law and permitting a woman to stand in the place of the virgins, the men of that generation killed him between the temple and the altar.
Yet from those who do not believe a tradition of this sort, let us demand a reason, how
Jesus reproaches them on account of Zechariah not as sons of those who killed, besides the prophets, Zechariah also, but as those who themselves killed Zechariah between the temple and the altar.
If, therefore, the word of Christ is true which he speaks to the Pharisees and scribes then present: whom you killed between the temple and the altar, it is not possible that he be understood to be that Zechariah who is one of the twelve.
Nor yet is it any wonder if it happened that both "Zechariah" and their fathers were of the same name.
The discourse which Christ speaks wishes to say something of this sort: that you who excuse yourselves from the blood of the prophets and say: if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been their partners in the blood of the prophets, and build the tombs of the prophets who were killed, by these very things which you have dared against me, bear witness to yourselves that you are the sons of your murderous fathers, filling up by my blood and the blood of my prophets what had been lacking to their iniquities. For they did not crucify Christ, but you have crucified him, filling it up and having become the offspring of those vipers who killed the prophets, worst serpents, shutting off from yourselves the way of flight from the judgment of Gehenna on account of the greatness of the crimes which you have committed against Christ and against his wise men and against his prophets and against his scribes, and yet you have dared to sever yourselves from the fellowship of your fathers and to excuse yourselves from the blood of the prophets.
[§26] But it follows consequently that someone who understands the scriptures according to the simple history might raise an objection and inquire why he did not say "as far as the blood of John the son of Zechariah," especially since "the law and the prophets prophesied until John." To him we shall say that the matter is manifest: that it was not the scribes and Pharisees who killed John, but Herod. For even though the scribes and Pharisees did not believe John (as it is written: "if we say, from heaven, he will say to us: why then did you not believe him?"), nevertheless they still had a certain reverence for his name, not daring to say, in response to Christ's question about his baptism, that it was from men; for they feared the people, who believed that "John was truly a prophet." How then would he reproach, as though they were his murderers, those who did not kill John? But he reproached them as the murderers of Zechariah, saying: whom you killed between the temple and the altar.
Further, regarding the text, it must be said that the generation of sinners is not punished immediately, as soon as the sin has been committed, but when the following generation, which ought to correct in itself the sin of its fathers, has instead added worse things to the sins of its fathers; and thus, if many generations have sinned in some nation or in a city, the nation is punished or the city is destroyed. So therefore also the nation of the Jews, inflicting many evils upon the prophets, was not to be punished immediately, as it began the murder against them, but after the patience of God, after they had added to the blood of the prophets the blood of Christ and had filled up the measure of their fathers. Then they were more deservedly punished. For it was not the sin which Cain sinned in killing his brother, nor the sin of those who killed the prophets, that this generation of the Jews which existed in the time of Christ took upon itself; but it was necessary that the patience of God, which was shown toward the nation of the Jews, should be brought to an end by the measures being filled, so that after the many outpourings of the blood of the prophets and of the righteous, Jerusalem and Judea, not desolated earlier, should suffer this afterward in the blood of Christ; and on account of this, God acting magnanimously, so that the scribes and Pharisees, with the people consenting, might receive the blood of the prophets of Christ and — according to the Gospel — of the wise men and scribes, whom they killed and crucified and chastised in their synagogues and persecuted from city to city: so that, with all cast out of Judea, the place, emptied of all the saints, might be made desolate and suffer whatever things they suffered from Vespasian and Titus. These things we have expounded corporeally.
[§27] But if we must also expound these very things morally, we shall say such things in their place. I think that just as Christ came concealed in a body, so that by carnal men, who look at the appearance of His body and do not consider His powers, He was seen as a man, but by spiritual men, who do not attend to the appearance of His body but consider the works of His powers, He is understood to be God — so also is all divine Scripture embodied, but most especially that of the Old Testament. For the spiritual and prophetic sense of Scripture is concealed within the history of the matter set forth, so that all Scripture is understood by ordinary people according to the history, but by the spiritual and perfect according to the spiritual mystery.
Having set down this preface, let us return to the text. For just as, in the prophets themselves when they departed from this life, their bodies indeed were in the tombs, but their souls and spirits were "in the region of the living", so also in the prophetic sayings it must be observed that their narrative according to the simple history is the body, while the spiritual sense and the very inmost truth of the Scriptures is the soul and spirit, which dwells within the simpler narratives according to the history. And the tombs of the prophets we can not inappropriately reckon to be the very letters of the Scriptures and the books, in which the narrative, once placed there, remains as it were a body laid in tombs. Those, therefore, who understand and receive the spiritual things of the Scriptures and their truth concealed within, have in themselves the souls and spirits of the prophets, being themselves made as it were the region of the living prophets. But those who neither grasp nor seek those things, but attend only to the simple narrative and the history of the matter, honor the bodies of the prophets set down in the letters and in the books as in certain tombs: such as were also the Pharisees, who are rightly called Pharisees (that is, THE SEVERED), who severed the spiritual things of the prophets from the corporeal history, as it were driving the soul of the prophets out from the body and slaying the prophecies themselves and making them lifeless, as though they had nothing spiritual. And they are truly hypocrites, building and adorning only the tombs of the prophets which contain the corporeal history — that is, giving zealous study to the very Scriptures and books of the prophets. Not understanding that, in honoring dead bodies (that is, the historical narratives), they seem indeed to act piously concerning the memory of the prophets, but are impious; and by this very thing they wish to defend that they are not associates of those who killed the prophets, yet they are convicted of adding to the crimes of those who killed the prophets and filling up the measure of their iniquity by this very thing — that they do not believe in Christ, whom not the simple histories of the prophets but their spiritual sense proclaims.
But know without doubt that everywhere the cause of the unbelief of the Jews was this: that they did not understand Jesus as the "Christ of God", because they always gave their mind to the corporeal histories, unwilling to believe anything spiritual in them. For example, we introduce for the sake of illustration what is prophesied and said in Zechariah, that as it were "upon an ass and a colt He would enter into Jerusalem and would destroy the "chariots out of Ephraim and the horse out of Jerusalem". If anyone wishes to understand this of Christ according to the history of the letter, it does not fit; for Christ is nowhere expounded to have destroyed out of Ephraim corporeal and perceptible chariots, nor a corporeal horse from a corporeal Jerusalem. But if you see among the heretics the assemblies of falsehood itself coupled together as by a certain yoke and in evil concord among themselves, which the word of truth is wont to destroy, you will see how Christ, the Word of God, destroys the spiritual chariots out of the spiritual Ephraim; for Ephraim is always set as a figure of the heresies, which have separated themselves from the Church of Christ, just as Ephraim from the tribe of Judah. For just as the divine word spiritually "cast into the sea" the horse and rider of the Egyptians, that is, the impious man together with the devil as his rider and yoke-fellow, so also it destroyed the horse from Jerusalem — whoever is subject to the devil as his rider and not to Christ, as are those horses acceptable to Christ, of whom Habakkuk says: "because you will mount upon your horses, and your cavalry is salvation", that is, upon the apostles and the other saints in whom Christ dwells. Therefore we say: "these in chariots" (pointing to Ephraim) "and these on horses" (pointing to the adversaries of Jerusalem), "but we shall be magnified in the name of our God. They are bound and have fallen, but we have risen and are set upright". These bear witness to themselves that they are sons of those who killed the prophets by this very thing, that they fill up the measure of their fathers, adding to the unbelief of those men their unbelief in Jesus, which comes from no other source than that they are occupied with nothing else except the buildings of the prophetic tombs — that is, with diligent attention to the prophetic letters and books only.
For the scribes of the law are one thing — the unhappy ones — but the scribes who are sent by Christ according to the Gospel are another, whose spirit gives life and whose letter does not kill, as does the letter of the law; because those who follow the letter of the law run into unbelief and into empty superstitions, but those who follow the letter of the Gospel (that is, its simple narrative) are saved, since even the simple narrative of the Gospel alone suffices for the simpler sort unto salvation. And if you see the scribes of the law and the Pharisees acting not only against the wise men of the Gospel and those prophesying the things that are Christ's, but even against the scribes of the new testament, you will see how (as far as lies in them) they kill the prophets of Christ and crucify the scribes through the disparagement of their words, and scourge them in their synagogues. Frequently, therefore, it may be heard among the heresies, who are the spiritual Pharisees, how with their tongues, as with certain lashes of their evil speech, they scourge and persecute Christians from city to city. Sometimes indeed even corporeally, but sometimes spiritually, wishing to drive them out as it were from their own city of the law and the prophets and the Gospel and the apostles, and into another and foreign city of some other gospel, they drive them by their lying persuasions as by persecutions. According to which the apostle also said, on account of the false apostles: "I marvel that you are so quickly transferred from the grace of God, who called you, to another gospel, which is not another; unless there are certain persons who trouble you". On account of which there shall come upon them all the just blood, which they pour out by this very thing, that they wish to overthrow the truth of the Scriptures, which is rightly called the blood and life of the Scriptures, because all Scripture, unless it be understood according to the truth, is dead. They pour out, therefore, the truth of the Scriptures as their blood, just as the blood of Abel was poured out.
And not only then did the voice of Abel's blood cry out to God, but also always the truth of the Scriptures, poured out by the impious according to what we have said (beginning from the blood of Christ, that is, from the truth of the Gospel), through all the Scriptures pleads to God against those who wish to overthrow it; and the "blood of the testament", that is, the truth of the prophetic Scriptures, pleads against those who reckoned it unclean and were unwilling to be sanctified in it as in living and sanctifying blood. Thus they pour out also the blood of Zechariah, which is interpreted "the memory of God." For everyone who hastens to destroy the memory of God in those whom he scandalizes seems to pour out the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, which itself is interpreted THE BLESSING OF GOD. For through the blessing of God we are mindful of God. And if we ought not to leave even the name Abel undiscussed, we say that Abel is interpreted MOURNING. He, therefore, who receives what is written: "blessed are they that mourn", saves Abel; but he who does not receive it pours out the blood of Abel, that is, the truth of saving mourning. Therefore there shall be fulfilled upon him what is written: "woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep". Between the temple and the altar the memory of God is slain by the impious. When both the temple of God is corrupted by the wanton, and His altar is defiled through the negligence of sordid prayers. When even someone's prayer becomes unto his own sin, as also is said concerning the prayer of Judas: "and let his prayer become unto his sin".
[§28] Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you, how often have I wished to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not? behold, now your house shall be left to you desolate. For I say to you, that from now on you shall not see me until you say: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (23, 37—39).
It is worth inquiring how the Savior, speaking before hearers among whom were scribes and Pharisees who prided themselves on knowing carefully the things of the law and the prophets, on what ground he said that Jerusalem had killed the prophets and had stoned those sent to her, since no such account is much prophesied in the ancient scriptures that were read in their synagogues. We do read that Jeremiah was cast into a pit of mud, yet not that he was killed in Jerusalem. But neither of Isaiah nor of Ezekiel nor of any of the prophets do we read that he suffered any such thing, so far as my memory suggests. But searching in the second book of Chronicles, where many things are written about the famous prophets, I find that Asa, angered at Hanani the prophet who rebuked him, did indeed put him in prison, yet did nothing more to him. And Ahab too ordered Micaiah, who prophesied against him, to go into the prison house and to eat the bread of tribulation, yet did not kill him. But we read of one who was stoned, "Azariah the son of Jehoiada the priest," who was rebuking the people. Therefore we do not find, beyond what I have said, that in Jerusalem prophets were killed, or that those sent to Jerusalem were stoned.
For this reason it must be considered whether perhaps it is necessary to demonstrate the word of Christ from the more secret books which are current among the Jews — and not only the word of Christ but also of his disciples, of Stephen the first martyr and of Paul the apostle. For Stephen speaks thus: "O stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you have always resisted the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so also you. For which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers"; and after this: "they drove him outside the city, and they stoned Stephen crying out and saying." And Paul, in the first letter to the Thessalonians, says such things concerning the killing of the prophets: "you became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus, since you too suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and persecuted us, and do not please God." And to the Hebrews thus: "they were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they died by the sword, they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being in want, distressed, afflicted with sufferings — of whom the world was not worthy — wandering in deserts and in mountains and caves and holes of the earth." It is reported, then, in the scriptures that are not manifest, that Isaiah was sawn in two, and Zechariah killed, and Ezekiel. And I suppose that Elijah, who wandered in the desert and in the mountains, is the one who went about in sheepskins and goatskins. But suppose someone rejects the letter to the Hebrews as not being Paul's, and likewise casts away the secret book of Isaiah: yet what will he do with the words of Stephen, or of Paul to the Thessalonians, brought forward about the prophets killed, or with those of our Lord himself? Or how will he reject that which Paul brought forward to Timothy, saying: "as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth"? For we do not know in the canonical books the account of Jannes and Jambres resisting Moses. And if he also looks at what is set down in the first letter to the Corinthians, "what eye has not seen nor ear heard," can anyone possibly reject all these things?
All these things we have said in examining the passage, not being ignorant that many of the secret writings have been fabricated by the impious and by those who speak "iniquity on high." And the followers of Hypythianus use certain fabricated writings, and others those of Basilides. It is necessary, therefore, to consider carefully, so that we neither accept all the secret writings that are circulated in the name of the saints — on account of the Jews, who perhaps have fabricated certain things to the destruction of the truth of our scriptures, establishing false doctrines — nor reject all that pertain to the demonstration of our scriptures. It belongs, then, to a great man to hear and fulfill what has been said: "test all things, hold fast what is good." Yet on account of those who cannot, like money-changers, discern among words whether they are to be held true or false, and who cannot keep themselves carefully, so as to hold what is true with them but "abstain from every evil appearance," no one ought to use, for the confirmation of doctrines, books that are outside the canonical scriptures. Nevertheless, if anyone accepts the letter to the Hebrews as Paul's, he will say that we ought not refer plurals altogether to many. For not many were sawn in two, but Isaiah alone; nor were many stoned except Azariah only, the son of Jehoiada; nor was anyone killed by the sword except Zechariah the son of Barachiah; so too in sheepskins and in goatskin, Elijah, and other like cases. And further let us inquire into what is written in Luke, the Lord saying: "because it cannot be that a prophet perish outside Jerusalem." If, then, "it cannot be that a prophet perish outside Jerusalem," that is, be killed, you will ask whether after the destruction of Jerusalem there is now no prophet, lest perhaps the one who is killed "outside Jerusalem" should, being a prophet, prove the word of Christ false. But if the scriptures compel us — on account of Agabus and the daughters of Philip the evangelist (not on account of the false prophets of Phrygia) — let us inquire whether perhaps every righteous person is in Jerusalem and not "outside Jerusalem," since "it cannot be" that the one who is outside Jerusalem be afflicted with sufferings for the sake of the word.
But how Jerusalem killed the prophets must be considered. And I judge that, as people are accustomed to say in common speech — the city cried out, as if it were said, those who are in the city; likewise, the city went out to meet him, that is, those who are in the city — so: Jerusalem killed the prophets, that is, those who were in Jerusalem, on whose account it was said that Jerusalem killed the prophets. And if the citizens are put for the city, again a question arises: who are to be called the children of Jerusalem, concerning whom it was said: how often have I wished to gather your children? But we say that the successors of the citizens are always called the children of those who preceded them. But that Jerusalem which is free from the servitude of sin, which is above in its manner of life, "which is our mother," does not kill the prophets nor stone those who are sent to her. It is another matter that, after the likeness of that Jerusalem which killed and stoned the prophets, frequently there are certain persons set up in this Jerusalem, unskilled and not fearing God, who (as far as in them lies) kill and stone, with words uttered without judgment, men advanced in word and in life — men who indeed do not abandon the canon of the churches, but on account of the profundity of their doctrines are held suspect by those who are accustomed to say certain novel things and do not attend to the "sound word" of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord, therefore, says to Jerusalem the killer and stoner of the prophets: how often have I wished to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not? How is it that here the Lord Jesus, as one who often wished to gather the Jews but did not gather them on account of the obstinacy of those unwilling to believe, says thus: how often have I wished, when it is plain that he taught the Jews in the body only once? But not only in his presence, but also substantially, Christ was always present both in Moses and in the prophets, and still more in the angels ministering to human salvation through the individual generations; and thus is fulfilled what he says: how often have I wished. For through the individual generations he always wished and hastened to accomplish the will of the Father in them, and though not established in the body, as now at the end of the ages, yet he always hastened to gather the children of Jerusalem. For the very words of him wishing to gather the children of Jerusalem are found in the law and in the prophets, and of him it is written: "spreading out his wings he received them, and took them up upon his shoulders"; and it is the daily work of Christ to gather the children of Jerusalem (concerning whom many things are said both in Isaiah and in the rest of the prophets), and daily the Son of God gathers the scattered children of God, as a hen her chicks under her wings. But if anyone has not been gathered by him, he will be judged as one who was unwilling to be gathered by him. "For the Son of Man came to seek what had perished, and to save," and he died "not for the nation alone, but that he might gather into one the scattered children of God." And to the Jews indeed (who were the children of that Jerusalem which was below) he threatened, as they were unwilling to be gathered under his wings, saying: behold, now your house shall be left to you desolate. And always to those who are unwilling to be gathered under his wings Christ seems to threaten and to say: behold, now your house shall be left to you desolate, that is, your soul and body. For not only the body, but also the soul of those who sin, is left desolate, and (as in a desert) foxes make lairs in them, and serpents, the brood of vipers, their resting-places.
But he says to those unwilling to be gathered to him: that you shall not see me from now on until you say: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
And not even then did the Jews see Christ, for he was not seen by them rising from the dead as before, but by judgment and grace only by the fathers who were worthy.
And until, understanding their own desolation, they say in penitence: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, they will not see the Son of God, nor will they see his word, nor will they consider the beauty of the wisdom of God. But even if any of us should wish to be gathered under the wings of Christ, yet by evil works should refuse to be gathered under his wings, he will now not see the word of God — especially from that time from which he flees the one who gathers him, day by day, by his action rather than by his body. And so long he will not see the beauty of the word, that is, Christ himself, until, converted and repentant from his evil purpose, he says: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. For then the blessed word of God and the blessed wisdom of God, coming, comes in the name of God and of the Father upon the heart of man, when someone has been converted to him.