ACC ~ Matthew 15 v9

IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME

CHRYSOSTOM: Did you notice that prophecy agrees exactly with what was said here and that it long ago predicted their evil? For this very thing with which the Messiah now indicts them was also said long ago by Isaiah. Isaiah said that they despise the things of God: “They worship me in vain.” [1] But Isaiah also said that they place great value on their own concerns: “They teach as commandments the teachings of human beings.” [2] Therefore, it was on reasonable grounds that the disciples did not keep these teachings. Jesus thus strikes them with a mortal blow. He does this on the basis of the circumstances, on the basis of their own covenant to which they had consented, and on the basis of the prophet who had intensified the grounds of the accusation. He does not talk with the scribes at all because they had ceased to accept any more correction. Instead, he directed his message to the crowds so that he could introduce doctrine that is high and great and full of philosophical insight. He took this as his starting point and finally wove in that which was greater, even throwing out the observance of kinds of food. But note when in the sequence of events this happens. When he has cleansed the leper; when he has nullified the Sabbath; when he has displayed himself as king of land and sea; when he has instituted laws; when he has forgiven sins; when he has raised dead people; when he has supplied them with many examples of his deity. It is then that he talks with them about food laws. For all of Judaism is held together by this; and if you take this away, you also have taken away the whole thing. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 51.2-3. [3]

[1] Jesus quoted Is 29:13 in Mt 15:8-9. But the full significance of this quotation can best be understood by referring to the entire context of the verse from Isaiah rather than just the verse itself.

[2] Chrysostom follows a word order with a slightly different meaning from what is found in either Mt 15:9 or Is 29:13.

[3] PG 58:512-13; NPNF 1 10:316. This quotation from Chrysostom is highly instructive because it epitomizes a number of key points that early developed into what later became “Christian” anti-Semitism (a phrase that should have been an oxymoron): a claim that the Israelite prophets foretold the demise of Jewish tradition; the transformation of the internal Jewish debate between Jesus and his opponents into a debate between Gentile Christians and Judaism as a whole; the image of a non-Jewish Jesus who rejects Judaism and Jewish tradition; the notion that Jews were so incorrigible that they and their belief system had to be eliminated and replaced; the legitimation of vituperation and hostility toward Jews.