Chapter LXXV.—Of the Pharisees Who Sit in the Seat of Moses, and Enjoin Things Which They Do Not, and of the Other Words Spoken by the Lord Against These Same Pharisees; Of the Question Whether Matthew’s Narrative Agrees Here with Those Which are Given by the Other Two Evangelists, and in Particular with that of Luke, Who Introduces a Passage Resembling This One, Although It is Brought in Not in This Order, But in Another Connection.

144. Matthew proceeds with his account, observing the following order of narration: “Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to His disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: all, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not;” and so on, down to the words, “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” 679    Matt. xxiii. Luke also mentions a similar discourse which was spoken by the Lord in opposition to the Pharisees and the scribes and the doctors of the law, but reports it as delivered in the house of a certain Pharisee, who had invited Him to a feast. In order to relate that passage, he has made a digression from the order which is followed by Matthew, about the point at which they have both put on record the Lord’s sayings respecting the sign of the three days and nights in the history of Jonas, and the queen of the south, and the unclean spirit that returns and finds the house swept.680    Matt. xii. 39–46. And that paragraph is followed up by Matthew with these words: “While He yet talked to the people, behold, His mother and His brethren stood without, desiring to speak with Him.” But in the version which the third Gospel presents of the discourse then spoken by the Lord, after the recital of certain sayings of the Lord which Matthew has omitted to notice, Luke turns off from the order which he had been observing in concert with Matthew, so that his immediately subsequent narrative runs thus: “And as He spake, a certain Pharisee besought Him to dine with him: and He went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that He had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and platter.”681    Luke xi. 29–39. And after this, Luke reports other utterances which were directed against the said Pharisees and scribes and teachers of the law, which are of a similar tenor to those which Matthew also recounts in this passage which we have taken in hand at present to consider.682    Luke xi. 40–52. Wherefore, although Matthew records these things in a manner which, while it is true indeed that the house of that Pharisee is not mentioned by name, yet does not specify as the scene where the words were spoken any place entirely inconsistent with the idea of His having been in the house referred to; still the facts that the Lord by this time [i.e. according to Matthew’s Gospel] had left Galilee and come into Jerusalem, and that the incidents alluded to above, on to the discourse which is now under review,683    In Matt. xxiii. are so arranged in the context after His arrival as to make it only reasonable to understand them to have taken place in Jerusalem, whereas Luke’s narrative deals with what occurred at the time when the Lord as yet was only journeying towards Jerusalem, are considerations which lead me to the conclusion that these are not the same, but only two similar discourses, of which the former evangelist has reported the one, and the latter the other.

145. This is also a matter which requires some consideration,—namely, the question how it is said here, “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,”684    Matt. xxiii. 39. when, according to this same Matthew, they had already expressed themselves to this effect.685    Matt. xxi. 9. Besides, Luke likewise tells us that a reply containing these very words had previously been returned by the Lord to the persons who had counselled Him to leave their locality, because Herod sought to kill Him. That evangelist represents these self-same terms, which Matthew records here, to have been employed by Him in the declaration which He directed on that occasion against Jerusalem itself. For Luke’s narrative proceeds in the following manner: “The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto Him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. And He said unto them, Go ye and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am perfected. Nevertheless, I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house shall be left unto you desolate: and I say unto you, that ye shall not see me until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”686    Luke xiii. 31–35. There does not seem, however, to be anything contradictory to the narration thus given by Luke in the circumstance that the multitudes said, when the Lord was approaching Jerusalem, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” For, according to the order which is followed by Luke, He had not yet come to the scene in question, and the words had not been uttered. But since he does not tell us that He did actually leave the place at that time, not to return to it until the period came when such words would be spoken by them (for He continues on His journey until he arrives at Jerusalem; and the saying, “Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am perfected,” is to be taken to have been uttered by Him in a mystical and figurative sense: for certainly He did not suffer at a time answering literally to the third day after the present occasion; nay, He immediately goes on to say, “Nevertheless, I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following”), we are indeed constrained also to put a mystical interpretation upon the sentence, “Ye shall not see me henceforth, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” and to understand it to refer to that advent of His in which He is to come in His effulgent brightness;687    In claritate. it being thereby also implied, that what He expressed in the declaration, “I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am perfected,” bears upon His body, which is the Church. For devils are cast out when the nations abandon their ancestral superstitions and believe on Him; and cures are wrought when men renounce the devil and this world, and live in accordance with His commandments, even unto the consummation of the resurrection, in which there shall, as it were, be realized that perfecting on the third day; that is to say, the Church shall be perfected up to the measure of the angelic fulness through the realized immortality of the body as well as the soul. Therefore the order followed by Matthew is by no means to be understood to involve a digression to another connection. But we are rather to suppose, either that Luke has antedated the events which took place in Jerusalem, and has introduced them at this point simply as they were here suggested to his recollection, before his narrative really brings the Lord to Jerusalem; or that the Lord, when drawing near the same city on that occasion, did actually reply to the persons who counselled Him to be on His guard against Herod, in terms resembling those in which Matthew represents Him to have spoken also to the multitudes at a period when He had already arrived in Jerusalem, and when all these events had taken place which have been detailed above.

CAPUT LXXV. De Pharisaeis sedentibus super cathedram Moysi, et dicentibus quae non faciunt, caeterisque in eos dem Pharisaeos a Domino dictis, utrum sermo Matthaei congruat aliis duobus, et maxime Lucae, qui non hoc ordine, sed alibi similem commemorat.

144. Sequitur Mathaeus, ita narrationis ordinem tenens: Tunc Jesus locutus est ad turbas et ad discipulos suos, dicens: Super cathedram Moysi sederunt Scribae et Pharisaei: omnia ergo quaecumque dixerint 1148 vobis, servate et facite; secundum vero opera eorum nolite facere. Dicunt enim et non faciunt, etc., usque ad illud ubi ait, Non me videbitis amodo donec dicatis, Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini (Matth. XXIII). Similem sermonem habuisse Dominum adversus Pharisaeos et Scribas Legisque doctores, Lucas quoque commemorat, sed in domo cujusdam Pharisaei, qui eum vocaverat ad convivium. Quod ut narraret, digressus erat a Matthaeo, circa illum locum, ubi ambo commemoraverant quod dictum est a Domino, de signo Jonae trium dierum et noctium, et de regina Austri, et de Ninivitis, et de spiritu immundo qui redit et invenit mundatam domum: post quem sermonem dicit Matthaeus, Adhuc eo loquente ad turbas, ecce mater ejus, et fratres stabant foris, quaerentes loqui ei (Id. XII, 39-46); Lucas autem in eo sermone Domini, commemoratis etiam quibusdam quae Matthaeus dixisse Dominum praetermisit, ab ordine quem cum Matthaeo tenuerat ita digreditur: Et cum loqueretur, inquit, rogavit illum quidam Pharisaeus ut pranderet apud se; et ingressus recubuit. Pharisaeus autem coepit intra se reputans dicere, quare non baptizatus esset ante prandium. Et ait Dominus ad illum: Nunc vos, Pharisaei, quod de foris est calicis et catini, mundatis. Atque hinc jam caetera in eosdem Pharisaeos et Scribas et Legis doctores talia dicit, qualia Matthaeus hoc loco, quem nunc considerandum suscepimus (Luc. XI, 29-52). Quanquam ergo ita ista Matthaeus commemoret, ut quamvis domum illius Pharisaei non nominet, non tamen locum exprimat ubi dicta sint, quo repugnet aliquid illi domui: tamen quia jam venerat Dominus in Jerusalem a Galilaea, et post ejus adventum ita superiora usque ad hunc sermonem contexuntur, ut probabiliter accipiantur in Jerusalem gesta, Lucas autem illud narrat, cum adhuc Dominus iter ageret in Jerusalem; videntur mihi similes duo esse sermones, quorum ille alterum, alterum iste narravit.

145. Sane considerandum est quomodo hic dictum sit, Non me videbitis amodo donec dicatis, Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini; cum secundum eumdem Matthaeum jam hoc dixerint (Matth. XXI, 9). Et Lucas enim dicit hoc esse responsum a Domino illis qui eum monuerant ut inde iret, quoniam vellet eum Herodes occidere. Ibi etiam adversus ipsam Jerusalem ea prorsus verba ab illo esse dicta commemorat, quae hic Matthaeus. Sic enim narratur secundum Lucam: In ipsa die accesserunt quidam Pharisaeorum, dicentes illi: Exi, et vade hinc; quia Herodes vult te occidere. Et ait illis: Ite, dicite vulpi illi, Ecce ejicio daemonia, et sanitates perficio hodie et cras, et tertia consummor : verumtamen oportet me hodie et cras et sequenti ambulare, quia non capit prophetam perire extra Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, quae occidis Prophetas, et lapidas eos qui mittuntur ad te, quoties volui congregare filios tuos quemadmodum avis nidum suum sub pennis, et noluisti? Ecce relinquetur vobis domus vestra deserta. Dico autem vobis, quia non videbitis me, donec veniat 1149 cum dicetis, Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini (Luc. XIII, 31-35). Narrationi quidem huic Lucae non videtur adversari, quod turbae dixerunt, Domino veniente ad Jerusalem, Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini: secundum quippe Lucae ordinem nondum illuc venerat, et nondum dictum erat. Sed quia non dicit quod inde tunc abseesserit, ut non veniret nisi eo tempore quo jam illud diceretur (perseverat quippe in itinere suo, donec veniat Jerusalem, atque illud quod ait, Ecce ejicio daemonia, et sanitates perficio hodie et cras, et tertia consummor, mystice ab illo et figurate dicta intelliguntur; neque enim eo die passus est, qui est ab hoc die tertius, eum continuo dicat, Oportet me hodie et cras et sequenti ambulare), cogit profecto etiam illud mystice intelligi quod ait, Non videbitis me, donec veniat cum dicetis, Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini, de illo suo adventu, quo in claritate venturus est, hoc signifians, ut illud quod ait, Ejicio daemonia, et sanitates perficio hodie et cras, et tertia consummor, referatur ad corpus ejus, quod est Ecclesia. Expelluntur enim daemonia, cum relictis paternis superstitionibus credunt in eum gentes: et perficiuntur sanitates, cum secundum ejus praecepta vivitur, posteaquam fuerit diabolo et huic saeculo renuntiatum, usque in finem resurrectionis, qua tanquam tertia consummabitur, hoc est ad plenitudinem angelicam per corporis etiam immortalitatem perficietur Ecclesia. Quapropter ordo iste Matthaei nequaquam putandus est in aliquid aliud esse digressus: sed Lucas magis intelligendus est, vel praeoccupasse quae gesta sunt in Jerusalem, et recordando interposuisse, antequam ejus narratio Dominum perduceret Jerusalem; aut eidem civitati jam propinquantem talia respondisse monentibus ut caveret Herodem, qualia Matthaeus eum dicit etiam turbis locutum, cum jam pervenisset in Jerusalem, atque illa omnia peracta essent quae supra narrata sunt.