Commentarii in matthaeum (in catenis) 1 mt 1, 2 abraham was justified through faith and to him, having believed, god said: i will multiply your seed

 Having believed in god, he shone forth those, therefore, who believe in god, even if they come from obscure and lowly origins, are raised up by god a

 Despising the son of a carpenter, they clearly also considered his commandments to be cheap and despised, but for their insolence and contempt toward

 He made them so that they become imitators of him who both rains upon the just and sinners and makes the sun rise on all alike. 22 mt 6, 3 4 let not,

 Being bodiless it neither eats nor drinks, but do not be anxious for the soul about what you might eat or what you might drink for the soul puts fort

 Wanting it ready at hand. for lest someone should say, i have come to judge not wishing to reproach or grieve my brother, but taking thought to clean

 As we understand the gate and the way that leads to eternal life to be called narrow, not even my yoke is easy and my burden is light will contradic

 To them the sins, for which was the sacrifice, they both promised and seemed to accomplish, but a paralyzed man they were in no way strong enough to h

 Of grace, but they fasted according to the old custom. it was therefore unfitting and inappropriate for those appointed as lawgivers and heralds of th

 But they pursue the royal houses. since, therefore, you have supposed no such thing about the man, but you knew him to be a prophet in deeds and words

 To those who have despised wealth and renown and parents as well as children and death itself. but before the teaching of christ and the coming of joh

 You have received, or rather through which you have abundantly enjoyed the benefaction, through those things it was necessary, if you are ungrateful,

 His own creation, being led by good works to the knowledge of both himself and of his own father and of the consubstantial and co-powerful spirit. the

 Made man, and to hear the voice of god united to flesh hypostatically. 61 mt 13, 24 52 the kingdom of the heavens and the kingdom of god is said to be

 Knowledge and comprehension as he says: for this reason every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven, and so forth for through knowled

 For the children considered nothing of their own labors and resources to be their own, but they brought everything to their fathers, fearing lest they

 He awaited an opinion and testimony about him for if he had said: whom do men say that i, the son of god, am, the disciples' response would have been

 The narrative of higher and more wondrous things. but the lord does not offer to the scribes a solution appropriate to the seeming difficulty, showing

 They escaped the civil disturbances. and elijah dwelt on carmel, but john tarried in the desert, and in other respects the similarity between them was

 From there by a mist they were able to perceive none of the things being done, but later, having been freed from that confusion and having come to the

 Of evils) not only does he subtly and wisely exclude wealth from the appellation of 'good,' but also all other things, by his declaration concerning a

 They will convict the disobedient jews, but they themselves will be shining in honor and glory, while the others are in utmost disgrace and dejection.

 Unbearable, but what appeared heavy and unbearable by the judgment of those priests themselves for what they themselves do not move even with a finge

 Seek the rank of deacons and of those who are last, that is, practice humility for through this it is possible to obtain true primacy and inexpressib

 To kill the righteous. therefore you bear witness to your forefathers as impious, desiring to become like them. and you, he says, fill up the measu

 Always having the inflamed passion of avarice, he is indignant everywhere when deprived of profit. therefore the master, looking to their thought and

 Will be preached, not depriving the one reward of the other for each of the sins has found forgiveness and through the deed is preached throughout th

 He says, that before the entire first cockcrowing is completed, you will deny me three times. but when mark says, “before the cock crows twice, you wi

 This has been permitted for security, that we may always be sober, that even if we seem to do any good work, we may always consider it a gift from abo

 For them who are being saved, their commonwealth is on earth, but in heaven is their reward and inheritance. but since, he says, i have received autho

but they pursue the royal houses. Since, therefore, you have supposed no such thing about the man, but you knew him to be a prophet in deeds and words, do not think that his opinion has now changed because of the question, but that he made it for the benefit and full assurance of others; for he is not only a prophet, but even more than a prophet. Many were scandalized by the question of John's disciples, which they brought to Christ. He therefore resolves the doubt from no other source than by using the questioners themselves as witnesses. This was from their seeing the miracles and returning to John and reporting to him what they had seen. For this reason the Savior says to John's disciples: see the miracles and report, so that he might resolve the scandal by which the Jews were scandalized on account of John's question, using those very disciples of John as witnesses, saying to them: "You know precisely John's testimony concerning me, knowing what sort of man he is, and having been baptized by him in the Jordan." 45 Mt 11, 12 is taken by violence, and the violent take it by force; as if from the days of John the Baptist it is given and handed over, not to ordinary people, but to the violent, to those who approach from the heart, by them the kingdom of heaven is seized and is permitted to become a possession. He fittingly says that it is violent and seized by the violent, because it is a gift of the Lord's beneficence, but it is not worthy to be set before those who are indolent and have given themselves over to ease, but those must enjoy the gift who have themselves expended much zeal and toil and struggle to be deemed worthy of so great a gift. Yet even if one should show countless toils and unspeakable force, the gift nevertheless remains, keeping its own worth, and by the greatness of its beneficence preparing and strengthening all who receive it to bear it lightly. But before the teaching and promise of Christ, that is, before John's coming to the baptism and his manifestation in Israel, the promise of the kingdom was not yet clear and brilliant to all, but the promises were of more physical goods: of land and increase of offspring and power over enemies and such things. 46 Mt 11, 12-13 But from the time John came to the baptism and preached the word of repentance and baptized the common Lord and the Spirit testified to the genuine and consubstantial Son of the Father, and the Lord himself began to preach the kingdom of heaven, from then on the kingdom of heaven began to be an object of desire for people, from then on it began to be sought and taken by violence and seized by the violent. For even if the kingdom of heaven is a gift (for what could anyone give in exchange for it?), yet it is not given freely nor to ordinary people, but to those who knock, to those who ask, to those who persist, to those who use violence; to these it is given, by these it is seized. And just as one who seeks something with great and unspeakable eagerness, when he is permitted to take what he desires, seizes it, so also to those who, from vehement and immeasurable desire, seek as it were to seize the kingdom of heaven, it is given and is seized. But before John began the baptism and the Lord began the preaching, the kingdom of heaven was not so manifest to people, nor were they so much its lovers and its violent pursuers, since it was not so openly and continuously preached; for the prophets and the law, who prophesied until John, that is, until the beginning of the Lord's preaching, and who tutored the people under them, did not so much promise a kingdom of heaven, but a land flowing with milk and honey, and the good things of the earth, and fruitfulness in children, and power over enemies for those who did right, just as a consuming sword for the disobedient, and captivity, and sojourning beyond the borders, and similar things. He called the kingdom of heaven violent and said that the violent seize it, and that from the days of John such a seizure has taken place, not by ordinary people, but by those who

ἀλλὰ τὰς βασιλικὰς οἰκίας καταδιώκουσιν. ἐπεὶ οὖν ὑμεῖς οὐδὲν τοιοῦτον περὶ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ὑπειλήφατε, ἀλλὰ προφήτην ἔργοις καὶ λόγοις αὐτὸν εἶναι ἠπιστήθητε, μὴ νομίσητε νῦν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐρωτήσεως μεταβεβλῆσθαι αὐτοῦ τὴν γνώμην, ἀλλ' ἑτέρων ἕνεκα ὠφελείας καὶ πληροφορίας ταύτην ποιήσασθαι· οὐ γάρ ἐστι προφήτης μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ προφήτου περισσότερος. Πολλοὶ ἐσκανδαλίζοντο διὰ τὴν τῶν μαθητῶν τοῦ Ἰωάννου ἐρώτησιν, ἣν προσήνεγκαν τῷ Χριστῷ. οὐκ ἄλλοθεν οὖν λύει τὴν ἀμφιβολίαν εἰ μὴ ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν ἐρωτησάντων μάρτυσιν αὐτοῖς χρώμενος. τοῦτο δ' ἦν ἐκ τοῦ θεάσασθαι αὐτοὺς τὰ θαύματα καὶ ὑποστρέφειν πρὸς Ἰωάννην καὶ ἀπαγγεῖλαι αὐτῷ ἃ ἐθεάσαντο. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς Ἰωάννου φησὶν ὁ σωτήρ· βλέπετε τὰ θαύματα καὶ ἀπαγγείλατε, ἵνα λύσῃ τὸ σκάνδαλον ὃ ἐσκανδαλίσθησαν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι διὰ τὴν τοῦ Ἰωάννου ἐρώτησιν αὐτοῖς ἐκείνοις τοῖς τοῦ Ἰωάννου μαθηταῖς χρώμενος μάρτυσι λέγων πρὸς αὐτούς· ὑμεῖς ἐπίστασθε ἀκριβῶς τὴν τοῦ Ἰωάννου περὶ ἐμοῦ μαρτυρίαν τὸν ἄνδρα ὁποῖός ἐστι γινώσκοντες καὶ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ βαπτισθέντες ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ. 45 Mt 11, 12 Βιάζεται καὶ βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν· ὡσανεὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ἡμερῶν Ἰωάννου τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ δίδοται καὶ ἐγχειρίζεται, οὐ τοῖς τυχοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς βιασταῖς, τοῖς ἐκ καρδίας προσιοῦσιν, ἐκείνοις ἁρπάζεται καὶ κτῆμα γενέσθαι συγχωρεῖται ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. βιαστὴν δὲ αὐτὴν καὶ βιασταῖς ἁρπαζομένην εἰκότως λέγει, ὅτι καὶ τῆς δεσποτικῆς εὐεργεσίας ἐστὶ δῶρον, ἀλλ' οὐχὶ τοῖς ἀναπεπτωκόσι καὶ ῥᾳστώναις ἑαυτοὺς ἐκδεδωκόσιν ἀξία ἐστὶν παρατεθῆναι, ἀλλ' ἐκείνους ἀπολαῦσαι δεῖ τοῦ δώρου, οἳ καὶ αὐτοὶ πολλὴν σπουδὴν καὶ πόνον καὶ ἀγῶνα κατεβάλλοντο τῆς τηλικαύτης δωρεᾶς ἀξιωθῆναι. πλὴν εἰ καὶ μυρίους τις πόνους καὶ ἄφατον βίαν ἐπιδείξαιτο, ἀλλ' οὐδὲν ἧττον μένει τὸ δῶρον τὴν οἰκείαν φύλαττον ἀξίαν καὶ τῷ μεγέθει τῆς εὐεργεσίας κούφως φέρειν ἅπαντας τοὺς δεχομένους αὐτὸ παρασκευάζον καὶ δυναμούμενον. πρὸ δὲ τῆς διδασκαλίας καὶ ἐπαγγελίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἤτοι πρὸ τῆς Ἰωάννου ἐπὶ τὸ βάπτισμα παρουσίας καὶ ἀναδείξεως αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ Ἰσραὴλ οὔπω ἦν ἡ τῆς βασιλείας ἐπαγγελία πᾶσι σαφὴς καὶ λαμπρά, ἀλλ' αἱ ἐπαγγελίαι σωματικώτερα ἦσαν ἀγαθά, γῆς καὶ γένους πληθυσμὸς καὶ κράτος ἐχθρῶν καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα. 46 Mt 11, 12 13 Ἀφ' οὗ δὲ Ἰωάννης τῷ βαπτίσματι ἐπέστη καὶ τὸν τῆς μετα νοίας ἐκήρυξε λόγον καὶ τὸν κοινὸν ἐβαπτίσατο δεσπότην καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα ἐμαρτύρησε τὸν τοῦ πατρὸς γνήσιον καὶ ὁμοφυῆ παῖδα καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ δεσπότης ἤρξατο κηρύσσειν τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν , ἀπὸ τότε ἤρξατο ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ γίνεσθαι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἀπὸ τότε ἤρξατο ζητεῖσθαι καὶ βιάζεσθαι καὶ ἁρπάζεσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν βιαστῶν. εἰ γὰρ καὶ δῶρόν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν (τί γὰρ ἄν τις καὶ ἀντιδοίη ταύτης;), ἀλλ' οὖν οὐ προῖκα δίδοται οὐδὲ τοῖς τυχοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς κρούουσιν, τοῖς αἰτοῦσιν, τοῖς ἐπιμένουσιν, τοῖς βιαζομένοις, τούτοις δίδοται, τούτοις ἁρπάζεται. ὥσπερ δὲ ὁ μετὰ πολλῆς καὶ ἀφάτου τῆς προθυμίας ἐπιζητῶν τι, ἐπειδὰν συγχωρηθῇ λαβεῖν τὸ ποθούμενον, ἁρπάζει αὐτό, οὕτως καὶ τοῖς ὑπὸ σφοδρᾶς καὶ ἀμέτρου τῆς ἐπιθυμίας οἷον ἁρπάσαι ζητοῦσιν τὴν τῶν οὐρανῶν βασιλείαν δίδοται αὐτὴ καὶ ἁρπάζεται. πρὶν ἢ δὲ Ἰωάννην ἄρξαι τοῦ βαπτίσματος καὶ τὸν δεσπότην ἄρξαι τοῦ κηρύγματος, οὐκ ἦν ἡ τῶν οὐρανῶν βασιλεία τοῖς ἀνθρώποις οὕτως ἐπίδηλος οὐδὲ οὕτως αὐτῆς ἐρασταὶ καὶ βιασταὶ ἐχρημάτιζον ἅτε μηδὲ περιφανῶς οὕτω καὶ συνεχῶς κηρυττομένης· οἱ γὰρ προφῆται καὶ ὁ νόμος, οἱ ἕως Ἰωάννου ἤτοι τῆς ἀρχῆς τοῦ δεσποτικοῦ κηρύγματος προφητεύσαντες καὶ τὸν ὑπ' αὐτοὺς λαὸν παιδαγωγήσαντες οὐ βασιλείαν μᾶλλον ἐπήγγελλον οὐρανῶν, ἀλλὰ γῆν ῥέουσαν μέλι καὶ γάλας καὶ γῆς ἀγαθὰ καὶ εὐτεκνίαν καὶ πολεμίων κράτος τοῖς κατορθοῦσιν ὥσπερ μάχαιράν τε κατεσθίουσαν τοῖς ἀπειθοῦσιν καὶ αἰχμαλωσίαν καὶ ὑπερόριον παροικίαν καὶ τὰ ὅμοια. Βιαστὴν εἶπε τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν καὶ βιαστὰς ἁρπά ζειν αὐτὴν καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ἡμερῶν Ἰωάννου ἡ τοιαύτη γέγονεν ἁρπαγὴ οὐ τοῖς τυχοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς