ACC ~ Matthew 16 v1 - 12

OVERVIEW:

Jesus exposed the rashness of the questions of the scribes (THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA), who though doctors of the law, were without discernment (JEROME). Had they come with any readiness to believe, he would have given such a sign. His coming in this present time is different from the way he will come in the future. Now Jesus comes as a physician to heal, but then he shall come as a judge to call accounts (CHRYSOSTOM). As for the sign of Jonah, just as that whale was not able to digest Jonah, so too voracious Death assuredly received the Lord but was unable to devour him, regurgitating him on the third day (CHROMATIUS). He did not immediately admonish the disciples for forgetting to bring bread, but rather he took their own thoughtlessness as the occasion for teaching them (CHRYSOSTOM). They are warned not to involve themselves in the disputes of the Jews. The works of the law are now to be viewed in the light of faith (HILARY OF POITIERS). Leaven, if mixed with flour, will grow into something larger and draw to its own essence the whole loaf. So too heretical doctrine, if it ignites even a tiny spark in one heart, in a short time grows into a huge flame and draws to itself the whole person (JEROME). Leniency is not always a good thing. As Jesus sometimes allows his followers freedom for their opinions, at other times he reproves them. By this variable nurturing he provides for their salvation (CHRYSOSTOM).

16:1 | Asking for a Sign from Heaven

THEY CAME TO TEST HIM

CHRYSOSTOM: Their inquiry was rightly deserving of anger and great displeasure. Yet the benevolent and provident one is not angry. He pities them even as they tempt him. He laments them as incurably diseased after so full a demonstration of his power.

They did not seek him out in order to believe but to lay hold of him. Had they come with any readiness to believe, he would have given such a sign. For he who said to the woman, “It is not fair,” [1] and afterwards gave, much more would he have shown his bounty to these officials.

But since they did not seek to believe, he therefore calls them hypocrites, because in another place they said one thing and meant another. If they had believed, they would not even have asked. It is evident that they did not believe, since when reproved and exposed, they did not remain with him, nor did they admit “We are ignorant and seek to learn.”

But for what sign from heaven were they asking? Either that he should stay the sun, or curb the moon, or bring down thunderbolts, or work a change in the air, or some other such thing. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 53.3. [2]

[1] Mt 15:26.

[2] PG 58:529; NPNF 1 10:328.

16:2 | Predicting the Weather

THE DOCTORS OF LAW CANNOT FORECAST THE SAVIOR

JEROME: This is not found in many codices. [1] The meaning is clear from the order and harmony of the elements. Both fair and rainy days can be forecast. But the scribes and Pharisees, who were viewed as doctors of the law, could not discern the coming of the Savior from what the prophets had predicted. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 2.16.3. [2]

[1] Verses 2 (from “when it is evening”) and 3 are lacking in part of the tradition; modern editors generally consider them to be interpolations.

[2] CCL 77:136-37.

THE RASHNESS OF THEIR QUESTION

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: He exposes the rashness of their question, saying, “You regard the air as moving according to a certain order, so that by means of signs you are able to predict when the weather will be fair and when stormy. But in the case of miracles you recognize no order at all. You do not recognize any occasions on which doing or not doing wonders is appropriate. You assume that such a thing happens completely without order and without any reason.” FRAGMENT 89. [1]

[1] MKGK 128.

16:3 | Not Understanding Signs of the Times

YOU CANNOT INTERPRET THE SIGNS

CHRYSOSTOM: What then does he say to all this? “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” Observe Christ’s meekness and moderation.

Even earlier he did not just refuse and say “no sign shall be given.” And so now he goes further and states the reason why he gives them no sign, even though they were not asking for information.

What then was the cause? It is much as in the sky, he says, where one thing is a sign of a storm and another of fair weather. No one when he saw the sign of foul weather would expect a calm, nor in calm and fair weather would one expect a storm. So you would do well also to think with regard to me. My coming in this present time is different from the way in which I shall come in the future. Now there is need of these signs which are on the earth. But those in heaven are stored up against that time. Now as a physician I have come to heal. Then I shall come as a judge. Now I am seeking out those who have gone astray. Then I will demand an account. Now I have come in a hidden manner. Then I will come much more publicly, folding up the heaven, hiding the sun, not permitting the moon to give its light. Then “the very powers of the heavens shall be shaken,” [1] and the manifestation of my coming shall imitate lightning that appears suddenly. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 53.3. [2]

[1] Mt 24:29.

[2] PG 58:529; NPNF 1 10:328-29.

16:4 | Seeking a Sign

EVIL AND ADULTEROUS

ORIGEN: Now he called them evil because their wicked deeds had made them evil people (evil because of deliberate wickedness) and adulterous because when the Pharisees and Sadducees left their metaphoric spouse, the true word, they committed adultery, with falsehood and the law of sin. [1]

Assume there are two laws: the law of our bodies, which is in conflict with the law of our mind. We might say then that the law of the mind (that is, the law of the Spirit) is the husband to whom the soul was betrothed by God as wife according to the Scripture; a wife is married to a man by God. [2] But the other law is a seducer of the soul and as such is called “adulterous.” COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.4. [3]

[1] Origen explains in which sense Jesus refers to the Pharisees and the Sadduccees as adulterers and then generalizes the explanation: The soul is the bride of moral law and becomes an adulteress if it follows the inclination to sin.

[2] Prov 19:14.

[3] GCS 40:73-74; ANF 9:451.

THE SIGN OF JONAH

CHROMATIUS: Just as that whale was not able to digest Jonah nor was able to keep him alive inside himself for long, so too voracious Death assuredly received the Lord. But since he was not able to keep him alive and in custody inside himself, Death regurgitated him on the third day, just as the whale had regurgitated Jonah. For Death, though accustomed always to eat and digest the dead, was nauseated and vomited out the Lord alive. Truly he was not able to digest him, for he was a rock—as the apostle says: “Moreover, Christ was a rock.” [1] And indeed the whale gulped and expelled only Jonah. But Death in ingesting the Lord cast out not that very one alone but many with him. For we read that many corpses of the holy had risen up with the Lord. TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 54.3. [2]

[1] 1 Cor 10:4.

[2] CCL 9a:470.

NO SIGN FOR AN ADULTEROUS GENERATION

HILARY OF POITIERS: But he descended from the sky and established for these an earthly sign that he might preserve among them a conviction of bodily humility, saying that the sign was to be given by Jonah. The Lord compares himself by means of like appearance with this one whom he had dispatched to Nineveh to accomplish the coming suffering for the proclamation of repentance. Indeed, Jonah was thrown from the ship by furiously raging winds and was devoured by the whale. After the space of three days he was cast out alive, not retained by the monster. He was not digested as food, but contrary to the nature of the human body, he escaped whole and unharmed into the open air. He prefigured the Lord. Therefore Jesus demonstrated that this sign of his own power had been divinely constituted, thus proclaiming in himself the forgiveness of sins through repentance. For he was soon to be cast out of Jerusalem and the synagogue by the blast of unclean spirits and by the power of Pontius Pilate. ON MATTHEW 16.2-3. [1]

[1] SC 258:48-50.

16:5 | The Disciples Lack Bread

CROSSING TO THE OTHER SIDE

ORIGEN: The bread that they had before they crossed the lake was no longer of any use to them when they reached the other side. They needed one kind of bread [1] before they crossed and a different kind afterward. They forgot to take any loaves with them because they were careless about carrying bread. The disciples of Jesus had also crossed to another side. They had passed from the material to the spiritual, from the sensory to the intellectual. This is why Jesus said to them after the crossing, be careful and be on your guard.

The Pharisees and Sadducees offered a different dough of teaching, a truly ancient yeast restricted to the bare letter [2] and therefore not free from evil. Jesus does not want his disciples to eat of it any longer. Instead, he mixed a new spiritual dough when he himself offered to any who would abandon the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees and come to him, the living bread which came down from heaven and gives life to the world. [3] Anyone intending no longer to use the yeast and dough of the Pharisees and Sadducees’ teaching must first “be careful.” He must “be on guard” that he will not use the old leaven either accidentally or due to shortages. So Jesus tells his disciples first, “be careful,” and second, “be on your guard.” COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.5. [4]

[1] To pass beyond the sea signifies progressing spiritually and thus having no further need of the nutrition of the past.

[2] The bad leaven of the Pharisees signifies for Origen only the literal interpretation of the Scriptures.

[3] Jn 6:51.

[4] GCS 40:75-76; ANF 9:452.

THE DISCIPLES HAD FORGOTTEN TO BRING ANY BREAD

CHRYSOSTOM: Why did he not say plainly, “Beware of their teaching?” His purpose is rather to remind them of what had just been done—the feeding of the multitude—for he knew they had already forgotten its significance. But Christ did not immediately admonish them. Rather, he took their own thoughtlessness as the occasion for reproof. Remember that he had not reproved them when they had earlier said, “Where are we to get bread enough in the desert to feed so great a crowd?” [1] It seemed better now to say to them what he says here. He did not want to rush hastily on to another miracle. He did not admonish them before the multitude, nor did he seek to elevate himself in their eyes. He might have been much harsher with them after their forgetfulness following the miracle of the loaves. All of these considerations gave his reproof a greater meaning. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 53.4. [2]

[1] Mt 15:33.

[2] PG 58:529; NPNF 1 10:329.

16:6 | The Leaven of the Sadducees

TAKE HEED

HILARY OF POITIERS: The apostles are ordered to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They are warned not to be involved in the disputes of the Jews. The works of the law are now to be viewed in the light of faith. They are forewarned that they, into whose time and age the truth had appeared incarnate, should judge nothing except which lies within the position of hope in likeness of the truth that is revealed. They are warned against allowing the doctrine of the Pharisees, who are unaware of Christ, to corrupt the effectiveness of the truth of the gospel. ON MATTHEW 16.3. [1]

[1] SC 258:50.

16:7-8 | Men of Little Faith

NO NEED FOR THE YEAST OF THE PHARISEES

ORIGEN: After Jesus said this, the disciples thought to themselves (not aloud but in their hearts), “We did not bring bread.” Then they said something else, like “If we had bread, then we wouldn’t need the yeast from the Pharisees and Sadducees, but since we don’t have bread, we are at risk of taking their yeast. The Savior does not want us to return to their tutelage, so he told us ‘be careful and be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ ” Or they reasoned similar things.

But Jesus, seeing into their hearts and hearing their inner arguments, reproves them as the Shepherd of the heart because they did not understand nor remember the bread which they had received from him. Because of what they had received, even when they appeared to lack bread, they did not need the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12:5. [1]

[1] GCS 40:76; ANF 9:453.

O MEN OF LITTLE FAITH! CHRYSOSTOM: Note how intense is his displeasure. Nowhere else does he appear to have rebuked them so much. How does he do this? He is challenging their prejudices about food laws. Already he had said, “Are you still without understanding?” [1] Now in this place, with a strong rebuke he says, “O men of little faith.” THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 53.4. [2]

[1] Mt 15:16.

[2] PG 58:529; NPNF 1 10:329.

16:9-10 | Not Yet Perceiving

THE SUBTLETY OF THE ADMONITION

CHRYSOSTOM: Leniency is not always a good thing. Christ sometimes allows the disciples freedom for their opinions. At other times he reproves them. By this variable nurturing he provides for their salvation. Note how at the same time his reproof is strong and yet mild. For all but excusing himself to them for his severe reproofs to them, he says, “Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?” He specifies the numbers and the fragments, so as to bring them to a clear recollection of what had just happened and making them more attentive to the future.

And to teach you how great is the power of his reproof, and how it roused up their slumbering mind, hear what the Evangelist says. For Jesus having reproved them said no more but added this only: How is it that you fail to perceive that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

See how much good his admonition conveyed. For it both led them away from the Jewish food observances and, when they were remiss, made them more attentive and delivered them from the neglect of faith. So they were not afraid nor in alarm about having no food or about starving. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 53.4. [1]

[1] PG 58:529-30; NPNF 1 10:329-30.

16:11 | Not Bread but Teaching

TEACHING IS LEAVEN

ORIGEN: Some were distracted by the use of bread and yeast. In order to clarify and enlighten them in a still symbolic way that he was not speaking about literal bread but about yeast as representing teaching, Jesus adds, “How is it that you do not understand that I was not talking to you about bread? Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Even though he still had not exposed the literal meaning of his words but continued as before, the disciples would have understood the Savior as referring to the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees as leaven.

When Jesus said “beware of the yeast,” the disciples understood that he did not tell them to watch out for bread but instead for the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. You, of course, are aware that whenever yeast is used in the law or in the Scripture which follows the law, it refers to teaching. Perhaps then yeast should not be burnt on an altar. Prayers should not have the form of teachings but should be only supplications for good things from God.

Now, someone might ask, based on what has been said about the disciples crossing over to the other side, how can anyone who has reached the other side be rebuked as a person with little faith, not yet understanding or remembering what Jesus did? It is not difficult, I think, to answer this. That which has only a part will be done away with before that which is perfect. Little faith is all the faith we can have. Accordingly, we who know in part do not yet fully understand or remember. [1] Therefore we are not able to achieve a mind sufficient and capable of attaining the magnitude and nature of such speculations. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12.6. [2]

[1] Cf. 1 Cor 13:12.

[2] GCS 40:77-78; ANF 9:453.

16:12 | Then They Understood

BEWARE OF FALSE TEACHING

JEROME: This was a favorable opportunity for instruction which was ordered by the Savior. He said, “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.” He taught them what the five loaves and seven that had nourished five thousand and four thousand men in the desert signified. He showed that there is a spiritual understanding underlying these events, even if the import of the sign is clear. For if the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees indicated not physical bread but twisted narratives and heretical teaching, then might not also the food by which the people of God were nourished signify the true and complete doctrine?

Someone might inquire, “How is it that they do not have the loaves? For they immediately boarded the boat after the seven baskets had been filled.” But the Scripture testifies to the fact that they had forgotten to take food with them.

Remember the leaven about which even the apostle speaks when he writes, “A little leaven spoils the whole dough.” [1] The sort of leaven of which he speaks is something like the kind that Marcion and Valentinus [2] and all heretics exhibited. It is to be avoided by all means.

Leaven has this power, that, if mixed with flour, that which seemed small would grow into something larger and draw to its own essence the whole loaf. So too with heretical doctrine, if it tosses even a tiny spark into your heart, in a short time a huge flame grows beneath and draws to itself a person’s entire substance. It was then that they finally understood that he had not meant them to beware simply of the leaven of bread but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 2.16.6-12. [3]

[1] Cf. 1 Cor 5:6; Gal 5:9.

[2] Marcion and Valentinus were heretics of the second century. Valentinus was the most important Gnostic teacher; Marcion originated the heresy that took his name.

[3] CCL 77:137-38.