ACC ~ Matthew 19 v1 - 15

OVERVIEW:

Jesus left Galilee, where he had been born, as though the sun were climbing higher in the east. He came to Judea, the place where he was going to die, as though the sun were setting in the west (INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW). There is a great difference between those who follow at a distance like the great multitudes and those who have left everything and followed, giving up all that was formerly theirs (ORIGEN). His miracles accompanied and confirmed his teaching (CHRYSOSTOM).

If a man loves his wife, he does not even think about a law for dissolving marriage. Such a law seems unnecessary (INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW). On this matter, Jesus’ detractors tried to ambush him by trapping him into saying something against the law. Hence the question on divorce took a deceptive form. The motive of his detractors was to stir the crowd of husbands against him (CHRYSOSTOM).

Jesus reminded them of how God had said “male and female,” so that a woman should think that no man has been made in the world except one and a man should think that no woman has been made in the world except one (INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW). Man “puts asunder” when he dismisses the first wife in desire of a second (JEROME). If God had wanted Adam to dismiss this wife and marry another, when he made one man, he would have made many women. But as it is, he shows both by the manner of her creation and the form of the commandment that one man must dwell with one woman continually and never break off from her (CHRYSOSTOM).

Just as faithfully as God relates to the church, so should we relate to our spouse. God will never abandon his people, unless they of their own will fall away into recalcitrant alienation (INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW). God did not simply bring the woman to her husband but ordered her also to leave her father and mother; and he not only ordered the man to go to the woman but also to cling to her, showing by his way of speaking that they should not be separated (CHRYSOSTOM). God, who created humanity in the beginning according to his image, who being in the form of God created the Savior male and the church female, bestowed on both the same humanity according to his image. The Lord, becoming man, left his Father on account of the bride, the church, when he was “in the form of God.” [1] He also left his mother, since he was the son of the heavenly Jerusalem, and became joined to the woman who had fallen down here (ORIGEN). Unless we receive the help of divine grace, we have no power on our own account to avoid inordinate passions. Grace cannot achieve anything without the will, nor can will have any power without grace (CHRYSOSTOM, INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW). The will frequently sins without action. The continence that brings glory is the will of holy intention (JEROME, INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW).

Jesus then laid his hands on the children so as to signify the arming of God’s power. Those qualities that the child has by nature God wishes us to have by choice: simplicity, forgetfulness of wrongs done us, love of our parents (APOLLINARIS). Children are ignorant of wickedness, do not know how to return evil for evil, do not know how to fornicate or to rob. What they hear, they believe. What they are by the gift of nature, we should become by the fear of God, a holy way of life and love of the heavenly kingdom (EPIPHANIUS THE LATIN).

[1] Phil 2:6.

19:1 | Jesus Entered Judea Beyond the Jordan

HE ENTERED JUDEA

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: Therefore, when he had completed these discourses, Jesus shifted his ministry from Galilee to Judea. He thus showed that the Lord of all loves some servants in such a way that he does not despise others. For just as they all owe him glory, as being Lord, so he renders to all of them mercy, as being servants. For if one place were to keep him all the time, he would not now be the possessor of all people but of some. “He went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea.” He left Galilee his homeland, the place where he had been born, as though the sun were climbing higher in the east. He came to Judea, the place where he was going to die, as though the sun were setting in the west, as if reclining in the peace transcending his Passion. He did this so that again from another place he might show us a new sunrise by his resurrection. And so we may say with the apostle: “the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” [1] And many crowds followed him. HOMILY 32. [2]

[1] 2 Cor 5:17.

[2] PG 56:799.

THE BORDERS OF JUDEA

CHRYSOSTOM: He had often before left Judea because of the people’s hostility. Now he returned there at last, as the time of his Passion was near. But he did not go up to Jerusalem yet, but to the borders of Judea. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 62.1. [1]

[1] PG 58:595; NPNF 1 10:381.

19:2 | Large Crowds Followed

LARGE CROWDS

CHRYSOSTOM: Entering Judea, “large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.” And he did not spend all his time either teaching or performing miracles, but at one time taught, at another time healed. Thus Jesus worked for the salvation of those remaining close by him and following him, so as through the miracles to appear, in what he said, a teacher worthy of belief, and to add the gain coming from the miracles to the teaching of his words. In this way he was leading them by the hand to the knowledge of God. But look at this with me. See how the disciples treat briefly whole multitudes in one word, not recording by name all the individuals who were healed. For they did not say “so and so, and so and so” but “many,” teaching us not to be boastful. Christ healed them, benefiting them and through them many others. For the healing of their sickness becomes for others the moment of recognition of God. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 62.1. [1]

[1] PG 58:595; NPNF 1 10:381.

THEY FOLLOWED HIM

ORIGEN: Note that there is a distinction here between the crowds who simply followed and Peter and the others who “left everything and followed” and Matthew, who arose and followed him—he did not simply follow but “having arisen”; for “having arisen” is an important addition. There are always those, then, who follow at a distance like the great multitudes yet who have not arisen that they may follow, nor have they given up all that was theirs formerly. But they are few who have arisen and followed, who also, in the regeneration, shall sit on twelve thrones. [1] Only, if one wishes to be healed, let him follow Jesus. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.15. [2]

[1] Mt 19:28.

[2] GCS 40:317-18; ANF 9:505.

19:3 | The Pharisees’ Question About Divorce

WHY ASK ABOUT DIVORCE?

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: To one who is chaste, marriage is good. Love that is wholesome and complete does not even perceive vices. If a man loves his wife, he does not even think about a law for dissolving marriages. Such a law seems unnecessary.

But when someone begins inquiring about law aimed at dissolving marriage, there is already some sense of alienation present. Where alienation is found, fornication is lurking in the wings. Suppose you see someone who is searching out physicians. You probably would conjecture that he is sick. In the same way also, when you see either man or woman searching out information on the laws of dissolving marriages, you might not be far from wrong in conjecturing that some alienation has occurred between them and that one or the other may be wanton.

So does the question of this passage arise out of alienation. HOMILY 32. [1]

[1] PG 56:799.

THEY TESTED HIM BY ASKING

CHRYSOSTOM: Note their craftiness from the very form of their questioning. They did not say to him, “You told him not to dismiss his wife,” for he had already spoken about this law. [1] They did not mention those words but started off from that point. Thinking to make the ambush greater and wanting to trap him into saying something against the law, they did not say, “Why did you command such and such?” But, as if nothing had been said, they asked, “Is it lawful?” expecting that he would have forgotten what he had said. And they were ready if … he said, “It is lawful to put away,” to bring against him the things he himself had spoken and to say, “Why did you say the opposite?” And if he repeated what he had earlier said, they were ready to challenge him with the words of Moses. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 62.1. [2]

[1] Mt 5:31-32.

[2] PG 58:596-97; NPNF 1 10:381-82.

19:4 | God Made Male and Female

GOD MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: “Male and female.” Not male and many females, so that a man is allowed to possess many wives, nor males and a female, so that one woman is allowed to have many husbands. No, he said male and female, so that a woman should think that no man has been made in the world except one, and a man should think that no woman has been made in the world except one. For it was not two or three ribs that he took from the side of man; and he did not make two or three women. When, therefore, a second or a third wife stands before your face, as then Eve stood before Adam, how could you say to them, “This is bone from my bones”? For even if that woman is truly a rib, it is still not yours. If you have not said this to her, you do not affirm that she is your wife; but if you have said it, you lie. HOMILY 32. [1]

[1] HE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST | MATTHEW 14:1-12

FROM THE BEGINNING

CHRYSOSTOM: Look carefully at the wisdom of the teacher. For being asked, “Is it allowed?” he does not immediately say, “It is not allowed,” lest they should be disturbed and break out in an uproar. Before Jesus made his own statement he made it clear through his opening remarks that what he had to say came from his Father’s commandment. In commanding this he was not in opposition to Moses but fully in agreement with him. Notice how he validates covenant sexuality not from the creation alone but from God’s commandment. For he did not say that God had made only one man and one woman but that God had also commanded that the one man should be joined to the one woman.

If God had wanted Adam to dismiss this wife and marry another, when he made one man, he would have made many women. But as it is, he shows both by the manner of her creation and the form of the commandment that one man must dwell with one woman continually and never break off from her. And see how he says, “He who made them at the beginning made them male and female,” that is, they sprang from one root and came together as one body, “or the two shall be one flesh.” THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 62.1. [1]

[1] PG 58:597; NPNF 1 10:382.

19:5-6 | Two Becoming One Flesh

WHAT GOD HAS JOINED

CHRYSOSTOM: Then he showed that it is a fearful thing to tamper with this law. When establishing this law, he did not say, “Therefore, do not sever or separate” but “What God has joined together, let man not separate.” If you quote Moses, I will quote the God of Moses, and with him I am always strong. For God from the beginning made them male and female. This law is very old, even if it appears human beings have recently discovered it. It is firmly fixed. And God did not simply bring the woman to her husband but ordered her also to leave her father and mother. And he not only ordered the man to go to the woman but also to cling to her, showing by his way of speaking that they could not be separated. And not even with this was God satisfied, but he sought also for another greater union: “for the two shall be one flesh.” THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 62.1. [1]

[1] PG 58:597; NPNF 1 10:382.

LET NOT MAN PUT ASUNDER

JEROME: “What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” God “has joined” in making one flesh of man and woman; this no man can put asunder, unless perhaps God alone. Man “puts asunder” when we dismiss our first wife in desire of a second; God, who also had joined together, puts asunder, when by consent for God’s service, we so have our wives as though not having them. [1] COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 1.19.6. [2]

[1] 1 Cor 7:29.

[2] CCL 77:166.

THE UNION OF CHRIST AND THE CHURCH

ORIGEN: The apostle understands “the two shall become one flesh,” as referring to Christ and the church. So we must say that Christ did not dismiss the former (so to speak) wife, that is, the former synagogue, for any other cause than that the wife committed fornication, being made an adulteress by the evil one. Along with him she plotted against her husband and gave him over to death, saying, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, crucify him, crucify him.” [1]

It was she, the synagogue, therefore who left him, rather than that her husband divorced her and sent her away. Therefore it says in Isaiah, rebuking her for this divorce: “Where is your mother’s bill of divorce, with which I put her away?” [2] COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.17. [3]

[1] Jn 19:15.

[2] Is 50:1.

[3] GCS 40:325-26; ANF 9:506.

19:7 | A Certificate of Divorce

THE COMMAND OF MOSES

ORIGEN: Now, keeping in mind what we said above in regard to the passage from Isaiah about the bill of divorce, we will say that the mother of the people separated herself from Christ, her husband, [1] without having received the bill of divorce.

Afterward, however, when an unseemly thing was found in her, she did not find favor in his sight, and the bill of divorce was written out for her. When the new covenant called those of the Gentiles to the house of him who had cast away his former wife, it virtually gave the bill of divorce to her who formerly separated from her husband—the law and the Word. Therefore, he also having separated from her, married, so to speak, another, having given into the hands of the former wife the bill of divorce. So they can no longer do what was ordered to them under the law because of the certificate of divorce. And a sign that she has received the bill of divorce is that Jerusalem was destroyed along with what they called the sanctuary of the things in it which were believed to be holy, the altar of burnt offerings and all the rites contained in it. And a further sign of the bill of divorce is this, that they cannot keep their feasts, even though the letter of the law specifically commanded them [to be celebrated] in the place that the Lord God appointed for keeping feasts. At present the whole synagogue cannot stone those who have committed such and such sins; and thousands of other instructions are proof of the certificate of divorce. Add to this the fact that “there is no longer any prophet” and that they say, “We do not see any signs.” [2] COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 14.19. [3]

[1] Extending to divorce the allegorical interpretation of marriage, Origen sees the Jewish people as the repudiated wife; the divorce decree is indicated by the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Romans, which signified that the Jewish religion, since it had denied Christ, had by now completed its mission.

[2] Ps 74:9 (73:9 LXX).

[3] GCS 40:329-30; ANF 9:507-8.

THE MOTIVE OF JESUS’ DETRACTORS

CHRYSOSTOM: They ought not to have brought this up to him but rather he to them. Nevertheless he does not take advantage of them, nor does he say, “I am not now bound by this,” but he explained this, too. In fact, if he had been alien from the old law, he would not have argued on Moses’ side, nor would he have argued from the original events in the beginning; nor would he have striven to show that his views agreed with the old ones. In fact, Moses gave many other commandments, about foods to eat, about the sabbath. Why do they not challenge Jesus with Moses anywhere else, as they do here? The motive of his detractors was that they wanted the crowd of husbands to be stirred up against him. For divorce was viewed as a matter of considerable indifference among the Jews. Yet when so many things had been said on the mount, they remembered this commandment only now. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 62.2. [1]

[1] PG 58:598; NPNF 1 10:382-83.

19:8 | For Your Hardness of Heart

THE ACCUSERS AT FAULT

CHRYSOSTOM: Nevertheless, with unspeakable wisdom he makes a defense even for these things, saying that “Moses for the hardness of your hearts” had thus made that law. And he does not let Moses remain accused, since it was he himself who had given Moses the law, but he frees him from blame and turns the whole matter onto their heads, as he does everywhere. Just as when they accused the disciples while they were gleaning grain, he showed the accusers themselves to be at fault. [1] When they charged them with eating with unwashed hands, Jesus proved that they themselves were the transgressors; and the same happened over the sabbath. So it happened here too. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 62.2. [2]

[1] Mt 12:1-7.

[2] PG 58:598; NPNF 1 10:383.

19:9 | No Divorce Except for Unchastity

HE COMMITS ADULTERY

APOLLINARIS: To commit adultery is to have relations with a woman who is not one’s proper spouse. A man commits adultery if he brings another woman in, instead of the one to whom he was lawfully bound. The law forbade obvious adultery, which is when another man seduces the woman in the house. But the Savior includes also that adultery that has not become known to everyone or that has not been proven as having occurred physically, because it is still adultery. Moreover, Christ agrees that the unfaithful wife has rebelled because she herself has destroyed the natural yoking and is no longer treated as a wife by her husband. FRAGMENT 94. [1]

[1] MKGK 30.

SEPARATION OF THE WILL

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: In adultery, every thing is destroyed by the very causes through which it is born. For marriage is not made by intercourse but by will. Therefore it is not destroyed by bodily separation but by separation of the will. Thus he who dismisses his wife and does not take another is still a husband. For although he has now been separated in the body, yet he is still joined in will. When he takes another wife, then he fully dismisses the first. So it is not the man who dismisses his wife who is an adulterer but the one who takes another wife. And just as the man who dismisses a chaste wife is cruel and unjust, so he who keeps a prostitute is foolish and unjust. … Therefore we ought to be imitators of God: just as faithfully as God relates to the church, so should we relate to our wife. God will never abandon his people unless they of their own will cross over to the heathen or to heresy. HOMILY 32. [1]

[1] PG 56:802.

19:10 | Not Expedient to Marry

IS IT NOT EXPEDIENT TO MARRY?

CHRYSOSTOM: What then was Christ saying? He did not say, “Yes, marriage would be easier; that is what you must do.” He did not want the disciples to consider this as a commandment. So he added, “Not all receive this word but only those to whom it is given.” He raises up the matter of marriage and shows that it is important, both drawing them toward chastity and encouraging them. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 62.3. [1]

[1] PG 58:599; NPNF 1 10:383.

19:11 | Few Can Receive This Saying

NOT ALL WILLING TO RECEIVE THIS SAYING

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: Then the Lord did not say that it was expedient, but instead he agreed that it was not expedient. But looking to the weakness of the flesh he said, “Not all men can receive this precept but only those to whom it is given.” The meaning is that not all men in fact do receive this, even if they are able to. All can indeed receive it, but not all are willing to receive it.

The prize of glory has been laid out. Anyone who desires glory does not think about the toil. No one would win if all were afraid of the danger of the battle. Some are unable and fall from the goal of continence, but we ought not for that reason to become less earnest about the virtue of chastity. For if some who fall in the fight do not dispirit the others but say to them that that is their given lot, they do not apply the matter to the fight but to the person. All the more ought we to impute their fall to the negligence of the fallen and not to the difficulty of virginity.

But he says, “To whom it is given.” By this he does not mean that to some it is given and to some it is not given. Rather, Jesus shows that unless we receive the help of divine grace, we have no power on our own account. But since grace is not denied to those who are willing, the Lord says in the Sermon on the Mount: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks, receives, and every one who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” [1] We must first will to ask, and then grace follows. For grace cannot achieve anything without will, nor can will have any power without grace. The earth too does not germinate unless it receives rain, nor does rain bring forth fruit without the earth. HOMILY 32. [2]

[1] Mt 7:7-8.

[2] PG 56:803.

19:12 | Eunuchs for the Sake of the Kingdom

THE GRACE TO LIVE A CHASTE LIFE

JEROME: There are three kinds of eunuchs, two carnal and the third spiritual. One group are those who are born this way. Another are those who are made into eunuchs by captivity or for pleasuring older women. The third are those who “have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven” and who become eunuchs for Christ though they could be whole men. The last group are promised the reward. The other two, for whom chastity is not a matter of willing but necessity, are due nothing at all. We can put it another way. There are eunuchs from birth who are of a rather frigid nature and not inclined to lust. There are others who are made eunuchs by men, those who are made so by philosophers, others who are made weak toward sex from their worship of idols, and still others who by heretical persuasion feign chastity so as to falsely claim the truth of religion. None of the above is receptive to the kingdom of heaven. Only the person who for Christ seeks chastity wholeheartedly and cuts off sexual impurity altogether [is the genuine eunuch]. So he adds, “He who is able to receive this, let him receive it,” so that each of us should look to his own strength as to whether he can carry out the commands of virginity and chastity. Chastity in itself is agreeable and alluring; but one must look to one’s strength so that “he who is able to receive this may receive it.” It is as if the Lord with his words were urging on his soldiers to the reward of chastity with these words: He who is able to receive this let him receive it; he who is able to fight, let him fight and conquer. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 3.19.12. [1]

[1] CCL 77:168-69.

WILLING AND ACTING CHASTELY

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: As if someone should say, “What are you saying, Lord? If for whatever reason a man happened not to have a wife, will he receive the reward of chastity?” Not always. For just as without will an action cannot cause sin, so justice is not achieved merely by the action unless there is the will. For many try to be chaste in body but commit adultery in their will. If fornication were not committed through the will alone, the Lord never would have said, “Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” [1] Therefore the will frequently sins without action. The continence that brings glory is not the continence that a weakness in our bodies compels us to keep; rather it is the one which we embrace with the will of our holy intention. Therefore he says, “There are eunuchs who have been so from birth; there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men.” These are kept chaste by necessity, but the third group, those “who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven,” are crowned by their willing it. HOMILY 32. [2]

[1] Mt 5:28.

[2] PG 56:803-4.

19:13 | Children Brought to Jesus

THE CHILDREN PREFIGURE THE GENTILES

HILARY OF POITIERS: The children prefigure the Gentiles, to whom salvation is given through faith and the simple word. But since the goal was first to save Israel, they were at first prevented by the disciples from approaching. The action of the apostles is not about their personal desires but rather their serving as a type or prefiguring of the future proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles. The Lord says that the children should not be prevented because “theirs is the kingdom of heaven”; for the grace and gift of the Holy Spirit was going to be bestowed on the Gentiles by the laying on of hands, when the work of the law ceased. ON MATTHEW 19.3. [1]

[1] SC 258:90-92.

CHILDREN WERE BROUGHT TO HIM

INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW: “Then”—that is, when the Lord was preaching about chastity and saying that eunuchs were blessed. For when the Lord was speaking about the glory of chastity and saying, “There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven,” [1] some of those listening offered him their infants, boys of the purest chastity. For they thought that the Lord was praising those who were pure in body only, not those also pure in will. They did not know that the Lord did not call blessed those eunuchs made chaste by the necessity of youth but those made chaste by the virtue of continence. “But the disciples rebuked the people.” O flesh, friend of wickedness and not of goodness! Because it does not delight in the good, it easily forgets the good. [2] But whatever evil it hears, it retains forever as though naturally planted in the heart. For a man can never forget what he loves nor remember what he hates.

Only a little before, when receiving a child, Christ had said, “Unless you become like this child here, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” But now look at how the disciples had immediately forgotten the innocence of children and had kept them back as though they were not worthy to come to Christ, even though the disciples themselves had been invited to be like children. [3] Who would merit to approach Christ if innocent children are kept back from him? The disciples thought they were doing honor to Christ, while actually they were diminishing his glory. For just as it is a loss to a physician if the sick are kept away from him, so it is a loss to Christ not to have those he may save. HOMILY 32. [4]

[1] Mt 19:12.

[2] The disciples rebuked the people for overvaluing the goodness of creation. Jesus rebuked the disciples for failing to value the goodness of creation.

[3] Mt 18:4.

[4] PG 56:804.

19:14 | Let the Children Come to Me

TO SUCH BELONGS THE KINGDOM

EPIPHANIUS THE LATIN: Why did the disciples keep the children back? Not because of the children’s wickedness but because it was not the right time. They did not want the Lord to be tired by the great crowd. To them he said, “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” For children are ignorant of wickedness. They do not know how to return evil for evil or how to do someone an injury. They do not know how to be lustful or to fornicate or to rob. What they hear, they believe. They love their parents with complete affection. Therefore, beloved, the Lord instructs us that what they are by the gift of nature, we should become by the fear of God, a holy way of life and love of the heavenly kingdom; for unless we are alien to all sin just like children, we cannot come to the Savior. INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPELS 25. [1]

[1] PL Supp 3:862.

19:15 | He Laid His Hands on Them

CHILDLIKE QUALITIES

APOLLINARIS: Only the wickedness and corruption of the creature stands in the way of our approaching the Creator. Lack of wisdom should not prevent it. He seeks completeness, and your approach is welcome to him for this completeness. Therefore the words “For to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” are accurate. He did not say “of these” but “to such,” since lack of wisdom is a property of children. For the same reason the apostle said, “Do not be children in your thinking; be babes in evil.” [1] And Mark also examines the cause, speaking and interpreting as follows: “To such belongs the kingdom of heaven” and “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” [2] Luke also said the same as Matthew above: “Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” [3] For those qualities which the child has by nature, God wishes us to have by choice: simplicity, forgetfulness of wrongs done to us, love of our parents, even if struck by them. He laid his hands on the children because the laying on of hands signifies the arming of God’s power. FRAGMENT 96. [4]

[1] 1 Cor 14:20.

[2] Mk 10:14.

[3] Mt 18:4.

[4] MKGK 31-32.