Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 1.1–1.5

We ought not to need the help of written words at all, but to offer a life so pure that the grace of the Spirit would take the place of books in our souls, and that as these are written with ink, so our hearts would be written by the Spirit. But since we have thrust this grace away, come, let us at least welcome the second-best voyage. For that the first way was better, God made clear both by what he said and by what he did. With Noah, with Abraham and his descendants, with Job, and with Moses too, he conversed not through writings but himself, by himself, because he found their minds pure. But when the whole people of the Hebrews had fallen into the very pit of wickedness, then at last came writings and tablets, and the reminder that comes through them. And one can see this happen not only with the saints of the Old Testament but also with those of the New. For God gave the apostles nothing in writing; instead of writings he promised to give the grace of the Spirit: “For he,” he says, “will bring all things to your remembrance.” And that you may learn that this was far better, hear what he says through the prophet: “I will make a new covenant with you, putting my laws into their mind, and I will write them on their hearts, and they shall all be taught by God.” Paul too, showing this superiority, said that he had received a law “not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart.” But since, as time went on, they made shipwreck, some in doctrine, others in life and conduct, there was need once more of the reminder that comes through writings. Consider, then, how great an evil it is that we, who ought to live so purely as not to need writings at all but to offer our hearts to the Spirit in place of books, having lost that honor and come to need these, should not even use this second remedy as we ought. For if it is a reproach to have needed writings and not to have drawn down the grace of the Spirit, consider how great a charge it is to refuse to profit even after this help, and to neglect the writings as though they lay there idly and to no purpose, and so to draw down a greater punishment on ourselves. That this may not happen, let us attend carefully to what is written, and learn how the old law was given and how the new covenant.

How, then, was that law given at that time, and when, and where? After the destruction of the Egyptians, in the wilderness, on Mount Sinai, while smoke and fire went up from the mountain, a trumpet sounded, thunder and lightning broke out, and Moses went into the very darkness. In the new covenant it was not so, neither in a wilderness, nor on a mountain, nor with smoke and gloom and darkness and storm; but at the start of the day, in a house, while all sat together, everything happened with great gentleness. For those who were less rational and hard to rein in needed bodily displays, such as a wilderness, a mountain, smoke, the sound of a trumpet, and other such things; but those who were more exalted and obedient, and had risen above thoughts of bodies, needed none of these. And if even in their case there was a sound, it was not for the apostles' sake but for the sake of the Jews who were present, for whose sake also the tongues of fire appeared. For if even after this they said, “They are filled with new wine,” much more would they have said it if they had seen none of these things. And in the Old Testament, when Moses went up, God came down; but here, when our nature has been carried up into heaven, or rather to the royal throne, the Spirit comes down. Yet if the Spirit were less, what happened would not have been greater and more wonderful. For these tablets are far better, and the achievements more splendid. For the apostles did not come down from a mountain carrying stone tablets in their hands like Moses, but carrying the Spirit about in their minds, and pouring out a kind of treasure and fountain of doctrines and gifts and all good things, so they went about everywhere, becoming by grace living books and laws. So they drew in the three thousand, so the five thousand, so the peoples of the world, God speaking through their tongue to all who came near.

From this source Matthew too, filled with the Spirit, wrote what he wrote: Matthew the tax collector, for I am not ashamed to call him by his trade, neither him nor the others. For this above all shows both the grace of the Spirit and their virtue. And he rightly called his work a gospel. For he came announcing to all, to enemies, to the ungrateful, to those sitting in darkness, the removal of punishment, the release from sins, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, adoption, the inheritance of heaven, and kinship with the Son of God. What could ever be equal to this good news? God on earth, man in heaven, and all things mingled together: angels joined in dance with men, men shared in the company of angels and of the other powers above; and one could see the long war ended, God reconciled with our nature, the devil put to shame, demons in flight, death undone, paradise opened, the curse wiped out, sin put out of the way, error driven off, truth returned, the word of godliness sown everywhere and flourishing, the commonwealth of heaven planted on earth, those powers conversing with us without fear, angels continually visiting the earth, and great hope for the things to come. That is why he called the narrative a gospel, since all other things are mere words empty of reality, such as abundance of wealth, greatness of power, offices, glories, honors, and whatever else men count as good; but what the fishermen announced may truly and properly be called good news, not only because these goods are secure and unshakable and beyond our deserving, but also because they were given to us with all ease. For it was not by toiling and sweating, nor by labor and hardship, but only by being loved by God, that we received what we received.

And why, when the disciples were so many, do only two of the apostles write, and two of their followers? For one, a disciple of Paul, and the other, of Peter, wrote the Gospels along with John and Matthew. Because they did nothing for display, but everything for need. What then? Was not one evangelist enough to say everything? He was enough; but if there are four who write, neither at the same times nor in the same places, nor having met and talked with one another, and yet they speak everything as though from one mouth, this becomes the greatest proof of the truth. “But the opposite happened,” someone says, “for in many places they are convicted of disagreeing.” This very thing is the greatest sign of the truth. For if they had agreed precisely in everything, down to time and place and the very words, none of the enemies would have believed that they had not met and written what they wrote by some human compact; for so great an agreement would not come from simplicity. But as it is, the disagreement that seems to exist in small matters frees them from all suspicion and speaks splendidly in defense of the character of the writers. And if they reported something differently about times or places, this does no harm to the truth of what they said. These things too, as God grants, we shall try to show as we go on, asking you, along with what has been said, to observe that in the main points, those that hold our life together and make up the preaching, none of them is found to disagree even a little anywhere. What are these? For instance: that God became man, that he worked miracles, that he was crucified, that he was buried, that he rose, that he ascended, that he will judge, that he gave saving commandments, that he brought in a law not contrary to the old, that he is Son, that he is only-begotten, that he is genuine, that he is of the same essence as the Father, and all such things; for on these we shall find great agreement among them. And if in the miracles they did not all tell everything, but one told these, another those, let this not trouble you. For if one had told everything, the number of the rest would have been superfluous; and if all had written things altogether different and new to one another, the proof of their agreement would not have appeared. That is why they told many things in common, and each of them also took something of his own and told it, so that he might neither seem superfluous and thrown in for nothing, and might give us an exact test of the truth of what is said.

Luke, then, also states the reason why he comes to write: “that you may have,” he says, “the certainty concerning the things in which you were instructed”; that is, that being continually reminded you may have the certainty and remain in certainty. John himself kept silent about the reason; but, as the account that has come down to us from the beginning and from the fathers says, he too did not come to write without cause. Since the three had been concerned to dwell on the account of the dispensation, and the doctrines of the Godhead were in danger of being passed over in silence, Christ moved him, and so at last he came to write his Gospel. This is clear both from the narrative itself and from the opening of the Gospel. For he does not begin from below like the others, but from above, toward the point he was pressing to reach, and for which he composed the whole book. And not only in the opening, but throughout the whole Gospel he is loftier than the others. It is said too that Matthew, when those of the Jews who had believed came to him and asked him, left them in writing what he had said by word of mouth, and composed the Gospel in the language of the Hebrews; and that Mark in Egypt did this same thing at the request of the disciples. For this reason Matthew, writing to Hebrews, sought to show nothing more than that he was from Abraham and David; but Luke, speaking to all in common, carries the account higher, going as far back as Adam. And the one begins from the genealogy, for nothing so set the Jew at rest as to learn that Christ was a descendant of Abraham and David; but the other does not, but mentions many other things first and then proceeds to the genealogy.

Their agreement we shall establish also from the world that received what they said, and from the very enemies of the truth. For many heresies were born after them, holding opinions contrary to what was said; and some accepted everything that was said, while others cut off parts of what was said from the rest and keep them so among themselves. But if there were any conflict in what was said, neither would those that teach the contrary have accepted all of it, but only the part that seemed to agree with them; nor would those that took a part have been refuted from that part, so that even the fragments do not escape notice but cry out their kinship with the whole body. And just as if you take some part from the side, you will find in that part all the things of which the whole animal is made, nerves, veins, bones, arteries, blood, a sample, one might say, of the whole lump, so also in the Scriptures one can see in each part of what is said the kinship with the whole shining through. But if they disagreed, neither would this have been shown, and the doctrine itself would long ago have dissolved: “For every kingdom,” he says, “divided against itself shall not stand.” But as it is, even in this the strength of the Spirit shines, having persuaded men, occupied with the more necessary and pressing matters, to take no harm from these small things.

What each one wrote while staying where he was, we need not insist on very strongly; but that they did not stand against one another, this we shall try to show through the whole work. You, though, do the same as if, in charging them with disagreement, you required them to use the very same words and turns of phrase. And I do not yet say that even those who boast greatly of rhetoric and philosophy, many of them writing many books on the same subjects, not only disagreed but spoke in contradiction to one another (for it is one thing to speak differently and another to speak in conflict); I say none of this. Far be it from me to build my defense out of their folly; for I do not wish to establish the truth from falsehood. But I would gladly ask this: how were things that disagree believed? How did they prevail? How were men who said contradictory things admired, believed, proclaimed everywhere in the world? Yet the witnesses of what they said were many, and many too were their enemies and foes. For they did not write these things and bury them in one corner, but spread them out everywhere on land and sea in the hearing of all; and they were read in the presence of enemies, just as now; and nothing of what was said gave offense to anyone. And with good reason, for it was a divine power that went through all things and set them right among all. Otherwise, how would the tax collector, the fisherman, the unlettered man have taught such philosophy? For things that those outside could never have imagined even in a dream, these men both announce and persuade others of with great assurance; and not only while living, but even after their death; not two and twenty men, nor a hundred, nor a thousand, nor ten thousand, but cities and nations and peoples, land and sea, Greece and the barbarian world, the inhabited world and the uninhabited; and about things far surpassing our nature. For leaving the earth, they speak entirely of things in heaven, bringing in for us another life and another way of living, wealth and poverty, freedom and slavery, life and death, a world and a commonwealth, all of a different kind.

Not like Plato, who composed that ridiculous Republic, and Zeno, and anyone else who wrote a republic or composed laws. For from the start all these men were shown to be people into whose souls an evil spirit had sounded, some savage demon warring against our nature, an enemy of chastity and a foe of good order, turning everything upside down. For when they make women common to all, and strip virgins and lead them into the wrestling school for men to look at, and arrange secret marriages, mixing and confounding everything together and overturning the bounds of nature, what else can one say? That all these are inventions of demons and that what they say is against nature, nature herself would bear us witness, since she does not endure what they say; and this although they wrote not under persecution, not amid dangers, not amid wars, but in complete security and freedom, adorning it from many sources. But the words of the fishermen, though they were driven out, scourged, and in danger, were received with all goodwill by unlearned and wise, slaves and free, kings and soldiers, barbarians and Greeks.

Nor could you say that they were readily accepted by all because these things were small and low; for they are far loftier than those. Of virginity those men never imagined even the name, not even in a dream, nor of voluntary poverty, nor of fasting, nor of any other lofty thing. But those among us not only banish lust, nor do they punish only the act, but also an unchaste look, insulting words, disorderly laughter, bearing, gait, and shouting; they carry their strictness down to the smallest things, and they have filled the whole world with the plant of virginity. And about God and the things in heaven they persuade men to hold such philosophy as none of those men was ever able even to conceive. How could they, who made gods of images of things more contemptible? And yet these lofty doctrines were received and believed, and they flower and grow every day; but theirs are gone and have perished, vanishing more easily than spiders' webs. And with good reason, for it was demons who uttered those things; that is why, along with their licentiousness, they have much darkness and more toil. For what could be more ridiculous than that Republic, in which, besides what has been said, the philosopher spent countless lines in order to be able to show what justice is, and filled what he said with long-windedness and much obscurity? Even if it had anything useful, it would have been quite useless for human life. For if the farmer, the coppersmith, the builder, the helmsman, and everyone who lives by the work of his hands were to leave his craft and his honest labors and spend so many years learning what justice is, he would often perish of hunger before learning it, and would die because of this “justice,” having learned nothing else useful, and end his life by a violent death.

But ours is not like this. Christ taught us justice, propriety, expediency, and all virtue simply, gathering it in brief and clear words: at one time saying, “On two commandments hang the law and the prophets,” that is, on the love of God and of one's neighbor; at another saying, “Whatever you wish that men should do to you, do you also to them; for this is the law and the prophets.” All this is easy to grasp and easy to learn for the farmer, the house-servant, the widow, the child himself, and the one who seems quite foolish. For such is the character of the truth, and the outcome of events bears witness. All, at least, learned what must be done, and not only learned but also emulated it; and not only in the cities, nor in the midst of the marketplaces, but also on the tops of the mountains. For there you will see much philosophy, and choirs of angels shining in human bodies, and the commonwealth of heaven appearing here. For the fishermen wrote a commonwealth for us, not ordering that it be taken up from childhood, as those men did, nor legislating that the virtuous man must be of such and such an age, but simply addressing every age. For those things are children's toys, but these are the truth of reality. And they assigned heaven as the place of this commonwealth, and brought in God as its maker and as lawgiver of the laws laid down there, as was right. And the prizes of this commonwealth are not laurel leaves, nor olive wreaths, nor meals in the town hall, nor bronze statues, those cold and cheap things, but life without end, becoming children of God, dancing with angels, standing beside the royal throne, and being with Christ forever. And the leaders of this commonwealth are tax collectors, fishermen, and tentmakers, who did not live for a short time but live forever. That is why even after their death they could greatly benefit those who live under this commonwealth. This commonwealth has war not against men but against demons and those bodiless powers. That is why their general is no man, nor any angel, but God himself. And the weapons of these soldiers match the nature of the war, for they are made not of leather and iron but of truth and righteousness and faith and all philosophy.

Since, then, this book too was written about this commonwealth, and it lies before us now to speak of it, let us attend carefully to Matthew, who speaks of it plainly; for what is said is not his, but all of it belongs to Christ, who laid down the laws of this commonwealth. Let us attend, so that we may be enrolled in it and shine with those who have already lived in it and await those unfading crowns. Many think this book is easy, and that the prophets are what is difficult. But this too belongs to people who do not know the depth of the thoughts stored in it. So I urge you to follow us with great zeal, so as to enter the very sea of what is written, with Christ leading us on this entry. And so that the discourse may be easier to learn, we ask and urge you, as we have done with the other Scriptures, to read beforehand the passage of Scripture that we are about to explain, so that the reading may prepare the way for understanding (as happened in the case of the eunuch) and give us great ease. For the questions are many and follow one upon another. See, at any rate, right at the opening of his Gospel how many things one might raise. First, why is Joseph's genealogy given, when he was not the father of Christ? Second, how will it be clear to us that he descends from David, when the ancestors of Mary, from whom he was born, are unknown, since the virgin's genealogy was not given? Third, why is Joseph, who contributed nothing to the birth, given a genealogy, while the virgin, who became the mother, is not shown to be of what fathers and grandfathers and forebears? Besides these it is worth asking also why, though he carries the genealogy through the men, he mentioned women too; and since he decided to do so, why he did not set down all the women, but passing over the women of good report, such as Sarah, Rebekah, and others like them, he brought forward only those notorious for wickedness, such as one who was a harlot or an adulteress, one from an unlawful union, one a foreigner and barbarian. For he mentioned the wife of Uriah, Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth: of whom one was of another race, one a harlot, one was defiled by her father-in-law, and not by the law of marriage but by stealing the union and putting on the mask of a harlot; and the wife of Uriah no one is ignorant of, because of the notoriety of the outrage. Yet the evangelist, passing over all the others, put only these into the genealogy. And yet if women had to be mentioned, all should have been; and if not all, then some of those renowned for virtue, not of those notorious for sins. Do you see how much attention we need right at the opening? And yet the opening seems clearer than the rest, and to many perhaps even superfluous, since it is only a list of names.

After this it is worth asking also why he passed over three kings. For if he kept silent about their names because they were extremely ungodly, he ought not to have mentioned the others of the same kind either. And this is another question: having said fourteen generations, he did not keep the number in the third division. And why did Luke mention other names, and not only not all the same ones, but even many more, while Matthew gave both fewer and different ones, although he too ended with Joseph, with whom Luke also concluded? You see how much wakefulness we need, not only to solve, but even to learn what needs solving. For this is no small thing either, to be able to find the difficulties. For there is this difficulty too: how Elizabeth, being of the tribe of Levi, was a kinswoman of Mary. But so as not to bury your memory by stringing many things together, let us stop the discourse here for now. It is enough for you to be roused and to learn only the questions. If you long for the solution too, that also is in your power before our words. For if I see you roused and eager to learn, I shall try to bring the solution as well; but if yawning and inattentive, I shall hide both the questions and the solution, obeying the divine law: “Do not give,” he says, “what is holy to the dogs, nor throw your pearls before the swine, lest they trample them under their feet.” And who is it that tramples? The one who does not count these things precious and holy. “And who is so wretched,” someone says, “as not to count these things holy and more precious than all?” The one who does not give them even as much leisure as he gives to harlots in the satanic theaters. For there most people spend whole days, and neglect much of their household business for this untimely occupation, and they retain exactly whatever they hear, keeping it to the ruin of their own soul. But here, when God speaks, they cannot bear to stay even a little while. That is why we have nothing in common with heaven, but our citizenship goes no further than words. And yet God threatened hell for this reason, not to cast us into it, but to persuade us to flee this cruel tyranny. But we do the opposite, and every day we run on the road that leads there; and while God commands us not only to hear but also to do what is said, we cannot even bear to hear. When then, tell me, shall we do what is commanded and take up the works, when we cannot even bear to hear the words about them, but are vexed and restless at the time spent here, though it is very short? Then, when we talk about trivial things, if we see those sitting with us not paying attention, we call it an insult; but we do not think we provoke God when, while he speaks about such great things, we despise what is said and look elsewhere? A man who has grown old and traveled over much land will tell us with all exactness the number of stades, the positions of cities, their shapes, harbors, and marketplaces; but we ourselves do not even know how far we are from the city in heaven. Surely we would have been eager to cut short the length, if we had known the distance. For that city is not as far from us as the space between heaven and earth, but even much farther, if we are careless; just as, if we are zealous, we shall reach its gates in an instant. For these distances are determined not by length of places but by disposition of character.