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

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 and I will give you the land and in you all the tribes will be blessed . If therefore God speaks truth and only the Jews happen to be the seed of Abraham, but these have neither ever possessed the land nor do they possess it, where is the truth of God that was spoken to Abraham? But since it is impossible for God to lie, it is clear that God called the church of the gentiles the seed of Abraham . And this came to be through Christ who was to be born from him, in whom the gentiles, having believed, were called the seed of Abraham, not by the law of nature, but by grace. 2 Mt 1, 19 When Joseph came into a perplexity of thoughts, then the angel appeared, resolving the conflict of his thoughts; for that he was perplexed is clear from what he was considering. For he wished, it says, to divorce her secretly; he would not have wished to send her away either secretly or at all, if he had been persuaded that the swelling of her womb was from illegitimate offspring; but being just, he would rather have handed her over to the law and to punishment; but he was not persuaded of this; nor again did he know that the conception was from divine agency; for the work was beyond human conception. Therefore he was tossed about by his thoughts and did not know what he should do to seem pleasing to God. When he was shaken by these reasonings, then the angel came most appropriately, steadying his mind on what was needed and says: Do not be afraid, and so on. Having come into perplexity concerning the virgin, Joseph did not know for certain what he should do. And to him, being perplexed, the angel appeared, resolving his helplessness and moreover guiding him to the truth; for if he had known the conception to be from an illicit union, being a just man, he would have wished to divorce her neither secretly nor openly, but to do all that the law commanded; for this reason Joseph was perplexed and the angel appeared to resolve his perplexity. 3 Mt 1, 20 To those who say, "how is the conception from the Holy Spirit, for Christ is not the son of the Spirit, but of the Father," it is possible to say, that the entire Godhead is called spirit, as the Savior says: God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth . But the Holy Spirit is also spoken of in a particular sense, that is, the one hypostasis; therefore it is also possible to understand Holy Spirit as the power of the Son; for the Son is also called spirit, inasmuch as he is God. But one must not be amazed; for to the one who brought forth a woman from a man alone, it is also possible to bring forth a child from a woman alone. 4 Mt 1, 22 Is "all this has happened" from the voice of an angel or from the wise thought of the evangelist? For the existing interpretation unfolds the saying as the voice of an angel, but the sequence of the account requires the explanation to be the author's. The saying that states "all this has happened," whose would it be, the angel's or the evangelist's? In appearance it seems to be the angel's, as some of the interpreters say, but in truth it is the author's. 5 Mt 1, 24 His wife, who had not even cast an eye upon another man, preserving for him the status of wife whole and unviolated and having dissolved nothing of the betrothal. Scripture calls the virgin the wife of Joseph as having kept all things befitting a modest wife toward her own spouse. 6 Mt 2, 13 Christ flees into Egypt, so that he might sanctify it also, just as he sanctified Babylon through the magi who came to worship him. 7 Mt 2, 15 Balaam says in Numbers: God led him out of Egypt, as the glory of a unicorn is to him . 8 Mt 3, 9 From these stones, from everything dishonored and of no account, God is able to raise up to honor and greatness those lying low in ancestral lowliness and to show them to be illustrious and distinguished, if only they themselves would choose to follow his commands, just as he made Abraham distinguished, who had abandoned his ancestral superstition; for not by the glory of a father, but by the eminence of his own virtue

Commentarii in Matthaeum (in catenis) 1 Mt 1, 2 Ἀβραὰμ διὰ πίστεως ἐδικαιώθη· τούτῳ δὲ πιστεύσαντι εἶπεν ὁ θεός· πληθυνῶ τὸ σπέρμα σου καὶ δώσω σοι τὴν γῆν καὶ ἔν σοι ἐνευλογηθήσονται πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαί . εἰ οὖν ἀληθῆ φθέγγεται ὁ θεὸς καὶ σπέρμα Ἀβραὰμ οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι μόνοι τυγχάνουσιν, οὗτοι δὲ οὔτε τῆς γῆς ἐκράτησαν πώποτε οὔτε κρατοῦσιν, ποῦ ἐστι τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀληθὲς τὸ πρὸς Ἀβραὰμ εἰρημένον; ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ ἀδύνατον ψεύσασθαι θεόν, φανερόν ἐστιν, ὅτι τὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐκκλησίαν σπέρμα ἐκάλεσεν ὁ θεὸς τοῦ Ἀβραάμ . τοῦτο δὲ γέγονε διὰ τοῦ ἐξ αὐτοῦ μέλλοντος γεννηθῆναι Χριστοῦ, εἰς ὃν πιστεύσαντα τὰ ἔθνη σπέρμα Ἀβραὰμ ἐκλήθησαν, οὐ νόμῳ φύσεως, ἀλλὰ χάριτι. 2 Mt 1, 19 Ὅτε εἰς ἀπορίαν λογισμῶν κατέστη ὁ Ἰωσήφ, τότε ὁ ἄγγελος ἐπέστη λύων τὴν ἔριν τῶν λογισμῶν· ὅτι γὰρ διηπορεῖτο, ἐξ ὧν διενοεῖτο δῆλον. ἐβουλήθη γάρ, φησίν, αὐτὴν ἀπολῦσαι λάθρᾳ· οὐκ ἂν οὔτε λάθρᾳ οὔτε ὅλως ἐκπέμψαι βουληθείς, εἰ νόθου γονῆς τὸν ὄγκον ἐπέπειστο τῆς γαστρός· ἀλλὰ καὶ νόμῳ καὶ τιμωρίᾳ δίκαιος ὢν μάλιστα παρεδίδου ἄν· ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν οὐκ ἐπέπειστο· οὐδ' ἐκεῖνο πάλιν ᾔδει θείας ἐνεργείας τὴν κύησιν εἶναι· ὑπὲρ ἔννοιαν γὰρ ἀνθρω πίνην τὸ ἔργον ἦν. διὸ τοῖς λογισμοῖς ἐκυμαίνετο καὶ ἠγνόει, ὅπερ ἂν διαπραξάμενος εὐάρεστος δόξῃ τῷ θεῷ. ὅτε ἐν τούτοις ἐκλονεῖτο τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς, τότε λίαν ἁρμοδίως ἧκεν ὁ ἄγγελος στηρίζων αὐτοῦ ἐφ' ᾧπερ ἔδει τὸν νοῦν καί φησιν· μὴ φοβηθῇς καὶ ἑξῆς. Εἰς ἀπορίαν καταστὰς ὁ Ἰωσὴφ περὶ τῆς παρθένου οὐκ ἠπίστατο ἀσφαλῶς τί δεῖ καὶ διαπράξασθαι. ἀποροῦντι δὲ αὐτῷ ὤφθη ὁ ἄγγελος λύων αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀμηχανίαν καὶ ἔτι πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ὁδηγῶν· εἰ γὰρ ἐγίνωσκε παρανόμου μίξεως εἶναι τὴν κύησιν, οὔτε λάθρᾳ ἂν ἐβουλήθη ἀπολῦσαι οὔτε φανερῶς δίκαιος ὤν, ἀλλὰ πάντα ποιῆσαι, ὅσα ὁ νόμος ἐκέλευεν· διὰ γὰρ ταύτην τὴν αἰτίαν ἠπόρει ὁ Ἰωσὴφ καὶ ὤφθη ὁ ἄγγελος λύσων αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀπορίαν. 3 Mt 1, 20 Πρὸς τοὺς λέγοντας πῶς ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου ἡ κύησις οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς υἱὸς τοῦ πνεύματος, ἀλλὰ τοῦ πατρός ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, ὅτι λέγεται πνεῦμα πᾶσα ἡ θεότης, ὥς φησιν ὁ σωτήρ· πνεῦμα ὁ θεός, καὶ τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας αὐτὸν ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθείᾳ δεῖ προσκυνεῖν . λέγεται δὲ ἰδίως καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, τοῦτ' ἔστιν ἡ μία ὑπόστασις· οὐκοῦν καὶ πνεῦμα ἅγιόν ἐστι νοῆσαι καὶ τὴν τοῦ υἱοῦ δύναμιν· καὶ γὰρ καὶ ὁ υἱὸς πνεῦμα καλεῖται καθὸ θεός. οὐ δεῖ δὲ θαυμάσαι· τῷ γὰρ ἐκ μόνου τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἐξαγαγόντι γυναῖκα δυνατόν ἐστι καὶ ἐκ μόνης γυναικὸς παῖδα ἐξαγαγεῖν. 4 Mt 1, 22 Ἆρα ἀγγέλου φωνῆς ἐστι τὸ τοῦτο δὲ ὅλον γέγονεν ἢ τῆς τοῦ εὐαγγελιστοῦ σοφῆς διανοίας; ἡ μὲν γὰρ γεγενημένη ἑρμηνεία ὡς φωνὴν ἀγγέλου τὸ ῥητὸν ἀναπτύσσει, ἡ δὲ τοῦ λόγου ἀκολουθία τοῦ συγγραφέως εἶναι ἀπαιτεῖ τὴν αἰτιολογίαν. Τὸ ῥητὸν τὸ λέγον τοῦτο δὲ ὅλον γέγονεν τίνος ἂν εἴη, τοῦ ἀγγέλου ἢ τοῦ εὐαγγελιστοῦ; τῷ μὲν δοκεῖν τοῦ ἀγγέλου, ὥς φασί τινες τῶν ἑρμηνευτῶν, τῇ δὲ ἀληθείᾳ τοῦ συγγραφέως. 5 Mt 1, 24 Τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ, τὴν ὅσον πρὸς ἕτερον ἄνδρα μηδὲ τὸ ὄμμα ἐπι βαλοῦσαν, τὴν τῆς γυναικὸς τάξιν σώαν αὐτῷ καὶ ἀκαινοτόμητον συντηροῦσαν καὶ μηδὲν παραλύσασαν τῆς μνηστείας. Γυναῖκα τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ καλεῖ ἡ γραφὴ τὴν παρθένον ὡς φυλάξασαν πάντα τὰ τῇ σώφρονι γυναικὶ πρέποντα πρὸς τὸν ἑαυτῆς σύζυγον. 6 Mt 2, 13 Εἰς Αἴγυπτον φεύγει ὁ Χριστός, ἵνα καὶ ταύτην ἁγιάσῃ ὥσπερ τὴν Βαβυλῶνα διὰ τῶν μάγων ἡγίασεν ἐλθόντων εἰς προσκύνησιν αὐτοῦ. 7 Mt 2, 15 Φησὶ Βαλαὰμ ἐν τοῖς Ἀριθμοῖς· ὁ θεὸς ὡδήγησεν αὐτὸν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου, ὡς δόξα μονοκέρωτος αὐτῷ . 8 Mt 3, 9 Ἐκ τῶν λίθων τούτων, ἐκ παντὸς ἠτιμωμένου καὶ εὐτελοῦς δύναται ὁ θεὸς ἐπιδόξους καὶ μεγάλους ἐγεῖραι τοὺς κάτω κειμένους ἐν εὐτελείᾳ προγονικῇ καὶ περιφανεῖς καὶ ἐπισήμους ἐπιδεῖξαι, ἂν αὐτοὶ μόνον ἀκολουθεῖν αὐτοῦ τοῖς προστάγμασιν ἕλοιντο, ὥσπερ ἐπίσημον καὶ τὸν Ἀβραὰμ καταλιπόντα τὴν πατρῴαν δεισιδαιμονίαν ἀπειργάσατο· οὐ γὰρ πατρὸς δόξῃ, ἀλλ' ἀρετῆς οἰκείας περιφανείᾳ