John Chrysostom, On Matthew

he says. But the crowds suspected this from a sincere opinion; but the Pharisees, wishing to find fault. For since it was confessed that the Christ would come from the village of David, but this man was of the Levitical tribe, they set a trap by their question, so that if he should say any such thing, they might quickly attack him. He showed this at least also from what followed; for when he confessed none of the things they expected, they still find fault, saying; Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ? And that you may learn that the Pharisees came with one intention, and the people with another, hear how the Evangelist showed this also; saying concerning the people, that they came and were baptized by him, confessing their sins; but concerning the Pharisees, not in like manner, but that when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming, he said: Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Oh, the loftiness of mind! How he speaks to men who are always thirsting for prophetic blood, and who are no better disposed than serpents; how both them and their fathers he denounces with much boldness. Yes, he says; but the boldness is great; but the question is, whether this boldness has any reason. For he did not see them sinning, but changing; wherefore he ought not to have reproached them, but rather to have praised and accepted them, because leaving the city and their houses they ran to hear the preaching. What then should we say? That he did not pay attention to present things, nor to what was happening, but he understood the secrets of their mind, God having revealed this. Since therefore they were very proud of their ancestors, and this became the cause of their destruction, and cast them into indolence, he cuts away the root of their pride. For this reason Isaiah also calls them rulers of Sodom, and people of Gomorrah; and another prophet says; Are you not as sons of the Ethiopians? and all of them lead them away from this assumption, emptying their pride, which became the cause of countless evils for them. But the Prophets, he says, reasonably so; for they saw them sinning; but here for what reason and why seeing them obeying him, does he do this? In order that he might make them more tender. But if one were to pay close attention to what is said, he also mixed praise with the rebuke. For admiring them, that at last at some point they were able to do things that seemed almost impossible for them, he said these things. The rebuke, therefore, is rather of one drawing them on, and preparing them to become sober. For when he appears astonished, he both shows their former wickedness was great, and their change wonderful and unexpected. For what has happened, he says, that being children of those men, and having been so badly brought up, they repented? whence has such a great change occurred? who softened the harshness of their disposition? who corrected the incurable? And see how he immediately astonished them from the very beginning, by introducing words about Gehenna. For he did not say the usual things; Who warned you to flee the wars, the barbarian invasions, the captivities, the famines, the plagues? but he proclaimed some other punishment that had never been made manifest to them, saying thus; Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 2. And he rightly called them a brood of vipers 57.194 For that beast, destroying the one in labor, and eating through her womb, is thus said to come into the light; which these men also did, becoming patricides and matricides, and destroying their teachers with their own hands. But he does not stop at the rebuke, but also introduces counsel; For produce, he says, fruits worthy of repentance. For it is not enough to flee from wickedness, but one must also display great virtue. For let me not have the opposite and customary things, that when you restrain yourselves for a short time, you return again to the same wickedness. For we have not come for the same things, as the Prophets before us. For the present things are different. and higher, since now the Judge himself is coming, he himself of the kingdom

φησίν. Ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν ὄχλοι ἀπὸ γνώμης ἀπλάστου τοῦτο ὑπώπτευον· οἱ δὲ Φαρισαῖοι, ἐπιλαβέσθαι βουλόμενοι. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὡμολόγητο ἀπὸ τῆς κώμης τοῦ ∆αυῒδ ἔρχεσθαι τὸν Χριστὸν, οὗτος δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς Λευϊτικῆς φυλῆς ἦν, ἔνεδρα ἐτίθεσαν ἐκ τῆς ἐρωτήσεως, ἵνα εἴ τι τοιοῦτον εἴποι, ταχέως ἐπιθῶνται. Τοῦτο γοῦν καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἑξῆς ἐδήλωσε· μηδὲν γὰρ ὧν προσεδόκησαν ὁμολογήσαντος, καὶ οὕτως ἐπιλαμβάνονται λέγοντες· Τί οὖν βαπτίζεις, εἰ σὺ οὐκ εἶ ὁ Χριστός; Καὶ ἵνα μάθῃς ὅτι ἑτέρᾳ μὲν οἱ Φαρισαῖοι, ἑτέρᾳ δὲ ὁ δῆμος παρεγένοντο γνώμῃ, ἄκουσον πῶς ὁ Εὐαγγελιστὴς καὶ τοῦτο ἐδήλωσε· περὶ μὲν τοῦ δήμου λέγων, ὅτι Παρεγίνοντο καὶ ἐβαπτίζοντο ὑπ' αὐτοῦ, ἐξομολογούμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν· περὶ δὲ τῶν Φαρισαίων οὐκέτι ὁμοίως, ἀλλ' ὅτι Ἰδὼν πολλοὺς τῶν Φαρισαίων καὶ Σαδδουκαίων ἐρχομένους, ἔλεγε· Γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν, τίς ὑπέδειξεν ὑμῖν φυγεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς μελλούσης ὀργῆς; Βαβαὶ τῆς μεγαλονοίας! Πῶς διαλέγεται πρὸς ἀνθρώπους αἱμάτων ἀεὶ διψῶντας προφητικῶν, καὶ ὄφεων οὐδὲν ἄμεινον διακειμένους· πῶς καὶ αὐτοὺς, καὶ τοὺς γεγεννηκότας μετὰ πολλῆς διαβάλλει τῆς παῤῥησίας. Ναὶ, φησίν· ἀλλ' ἡ μὲν παῤῥησία πολλή· τὸ δὲ ζητούμενον, εἰ λόγον ἔχει τινὰ ἡ παῤῥησία αὕτη. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἁμαρτάνοντας εἶδεν, ἀλλὰ μεταβαλλομένους· διόπερ οὐδὲ ἐγκαλέσαι ἐχρῆν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπαινέσαι καὶ ἀποδέξασθαι, ὅτι πόλιν ἀφέντες καὶ οἰκίας ἔδραμον ἀκουσόμενοι τοῦ κηρύγματος. Τί οὖν ἂν εἴποιμεν; Ὅτι οὐ τοῖς παροῦσιν, οὐδὲ τοῖς γινομένοις προσεῖχεν, ἀλλὰ τὰ ἀπόῤῥητα τῆς διανοίας αὐτῶν ἠπίστατο, τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦτο ἐκκαλύψαντος. Ἐπεὶ οὖν μέγα ἐφρόνουν ἐπὶ τοῖς προγόνοις, καὶ τοῦτο αἴτιον αὐτοῖς τῆς ἀπωλείας ἐγίνετο, καὶ εἰς ῥᾳθυμίαν ἐνέβαλλε, τὴν ῥίζαν τῆς ἀπονοίας περικόπτει. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ὁ Ἡσαΐας ἄρχοντας Σοδόμων καλεῖ, καὶ λαὸν Γομόῤῥας· καὶ ἕτερος προφήτης φησίν· Οὐχ ὡς υἱοὶ Αἰθιόπων ὑμεῖς ἐστε; καὶ πάντες αὐτοὺς ταύτης ἀπάγουσι τῆς ὑπολήψεως, τὸ φύσημα αὐτῶν κενοῦντες, τὸ μυρίων αὐτοῖς αἴτιον γενόμενον κακῶν. Ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν Προφῆται, φησὶν, εἰκότως· ἁμαρτάνοντας γὰρ ἑώρων· ἐνταῦθα δὲ τίνος ἕνεκεν καὶ διὰ τί πειθομένους ὁρῶν αὐτῷ, τοῦτο ποιεῖ; Ἵνα ἁπαλωτέρους ἐργάσηται. Εἰ δέ τις μετὰ ἀκριβείας προσέχοι τοῖς λεγομένοις, καὶ ἐγκωμίῳ τὴν ἐπιτίμησιν ἐκέρασε. Θαυμάζων γὰρ αὐτοὺς, ὅτι ὀψὲ γοῦν ποτε τὰ ἀδύνατα αὐτοῖς σχεδὸν εἶναι δοκοῦντα ἠδυνήθησαν, ταῦτα ἔλεγεν. Ἐφελκομένου τοίνυν αὐτοὺς μᾶλλόν ἐστιν ἡ ἐπιτίμησις, καὶ παρασκευάζοντος ἀνανῆψαι. Ὅταν γὰρ φαίνηται ἐκπληττόμενος, καὶ τὴν ἔμπροσθεν δείκνυσιν αὐτῶν πονηρίαν πολλὴν οὖσαν, καὶ τὴν μεταβολὴν θαυμαστὴν καὶ παράδοξον. Τί γὰρ γέγονε, φησὶν, ὅτι παῖδες ὄντες ἐκείνων, καὶ οὕτω τραφέντες κακῶς, μετενόησαν; πόθεν ἡ τοσαύτη γέγονε μεταβολή; τίς τὸ τραχὺ τῆς γνώμης αὐτῶν κατεμάλαξε; τίς διώρθωσε τὸ ἀνίατον; Καὶ ὅρα πῶς αὐτοὺς εὐθέως ἀπὸ τῶν προοιμίων ἐξέπληξε, τοὺς περὶ τῆς γεέννης προκαταβαλλόμενος λόγους. Οὐ γὰρ εἶπε τὰ εἰωθότα· Τίς ὑπέδειξεν ὑμῖν φυγεῖν τοὺς πολέμους, τὰς τῶν βαρβάρων ἐφόδους, τὰς αἰχμαλωσίας, τοὺς λιμοὺς, τοὺς λοιμούς; ἀλλ' ἄλλην τινὰ κόλασιν προανεκρούετο μηδέποτε αὐτοῖς φανερὰν γεγενημένην, οὕτω λέγων· Τίς ὑπέδειξεν ὑμῖν φυγεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς μελλούσης ὀργῆς; βʹ. Καλῶς δὲ αὐτοὺς καὶ γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν ἐκάλεσε 57.194 Καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνο τὸ θηρίον διαφθεῖρον τὴν ὠδίνουσαν, καὶ διατρῶγον τὴν γαστέρα αὐτῆς, οὕτω λέγεται προϊέναι εἰς φῶς· ὅπερ καὶ οὗτοι ἐποίουν, πατραλοῖαι καὶ μητραλοῖαι γινόμενοι, καὶ τοὺς διδασκάλους ταῖς ἑαυτῶν διαφθείροντες χερσίν. Ἀλλ' οὐχ ἵσταται μέχρι τῆς ἐπιτιμήσεως, ἀλλὰ καὶ συμβουλὴν εἰσάγει· Ποιήσατε γὰρ, φησὶ, καρποὺς ἀξίους τῆς μετανοίας. Οὐ γὰρ ἀρκεῖ τὸ φυγεῖν τὴν πονηρίαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀρετὴν δεῖ πολλὴν ἐπιδείξασθαι. Μὴ γάρ μοι τὰ ἐναντία καὶ συνήθη, ὅτε πρὸς ὀλίγον συστελλόμενοι χρόνον, πρὸς τὴν αὐτὴν ἐπανῇτε πάλιν πονηρίαν. Οὐ γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῖς αὐτοῖς παραγεγόναμεν, ὡς καὶ οἱ ἔμπροσθεν Προφῆται. Ἐξηλλαγμένα γὰρ τὰ παρόντα. καὶ ὑψηλότερα, ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτὸς παραγίνεται λοιπὸν ὁ Κριτὴς, αὐτὸς ὁ τῆς βασιλείας