Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 14–20

Since the Lord often says “woe” to the scribes and Pharisees, we shall explain the reason for each woe in its proper place; for now we shall explain the reason for this present woe. The reason for the present woe, then, is that they shut the kingdom of heaven before men. By shutting it before others, they themselves did not enter, because of this very thing, that they forbade to enter those who would surely have entered if they had not been shut out by them. And first the present saying must be examined simply, as being about the scribes and Pharisees held in esteem among the Jews. For these, not content that they themselves did not believe in the Lord, also disparaged his teaching, and overturned every prophecy written about him, and blasphemed his every work as false and contrived by the devil, saying, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul”; and they behaved murderously towards those who had believed in Christ, and in every way prevented anyone from coming to Christianity, through which the kingdom of heaven is entered. They shut what had been openly announced and preached in the sight of all and proclaimed aloud among all men. And shutting the kingdom of heaven, they did not enter themselves, for they would not listen to him who said, “If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out and find pasture.” Nor did they let those enter who were entering, that is, those who were able to believe because of the faith declared beforehand about Christ in the law and by the prophets, utterly destroying the beginning of their assent; and with all trembling and savage boldness, as far as lay in them, they themselves prevented all who wished to enter through the door by shutting it. To this simple explanation we shall join this also, concerning those among us who sin: all who by a bad way of life hold out an example of sinning among the people, and who wrong those who are still little ones in Christ and imperfect, disheartening them and causing them to stumble, seem to shut the kingdom of heaven before men; neither do they enter themselves, nor do they let others enter. This sin is found even among lay people, but especially among teachers, who teach men according to the righteousness of the Gospel but do not do it, because they are bad shepherds; and so they do not spare the sheep or care for their salvation, but always look to the gains that come to them from men because they seem to feed the people, though they do not feed them, and they are caught in shameful gains and in desires for vainglory. For these are the wages of hirelings, who shut the kingdom of heaven before men and do not enter it, and will not understand what is said: “Strive to enter through the narrow door”; and that above all contests this is the contest, that one should use force and seize the heavenly kingdom. To such teachers, then, these words are fittingly said: “You neither enter yourselves, nor do you let those who are entering go in”; especially if we see them, by their bad life, pride, abuse, and greed, leading into stumbling, I will not say one of the little ones, but, as far as lay in them, all. Woe, then, to those who shut the kingdom of heaven before men, whether in this way or in another; but blessed are those who open it, by their word or by their good work, like him who said, “A great and evident door has been opened to me,” or as the other apostles opened it. And if anyone is their imitator, he opens the kingdom of heaven before men by his righteousness, truth, chastity, and wisdom; and the more one advances in godliness, the more one opens the kingdom of heaven before men. I think, then, that all who profess to enter the Church either shut the kingdom of heaven before men by their bad ways of life, in so far as they sin, or open it by their good deeds, in so far as they have lived righteously. This is done above all by those who seem more eminent in the Church, such as bishops, presbyters, and deacons. For by living well and teaching well the word of truth they open the kingdom of heaven before men, and while they themselves enter, they stir others to enter. But the bad, who are not shepherds but hirelings, shut the kingdom of heaven before men, and do not listen to what the Apostle says: “But we endure all things, so as not to put an obstacle in the way of the Gospel of Christ.” One can truly see many teachers not allowing those who long to enter the kingdom of heaven to enter, especially when, without judgment and without reason, they excommunicate some, not for the sins they commit, but out of some jealousy and rivalry; and they often prevent from entering people better than themselves. And they themselves are not allowed to enter; but those who are sober in mind and watchful in spirit, overcoming their tyrannies by their patience and long-suffering, enter and inherit the kingdom of heaven, even though they have been forbidden.

Next let us see whether, besides those we have mentioned, it is possible to see others too who shut and open the kingdom of heaven. Those who have been held worthy and fit to expound the Gospel, and who show themselves such that they can say, “Do you seek proof of Christ who speaks in me?”, open the kingdom of heaven before men when they demonstrate, with all clarity and proof, the depth of the divine sayings, which were spoken not from earth but from heaven, and of the mind of the Lord who came to men; so that, as far as lies in them, they wish to lead Gentiles and barbarians, wise and foolish, to the godliness of Christ. But those who, through their lack of learning and their injustice, have with great rashness given themselves to the profession of teaching before learning and knowing the truth, and therefore, imitating vain Jewish fables, hand on the bodily narratives of the Scriptures and not their spiritual sense or intention; and who further disparage those who have risen with Christ and seek the things above in the Scriptures and not on earth, and do not think that the truth lies in the earthly parts of the Scriptures: these, as far as lies in them, shut the kingdom of heaven before men, shutting it by their injustice and drawing to themselves those who, by hearing the more divine and greater teaching and the depth of the truth, could have entered the kingdom of heaven through heavenly teachings and through deeds fitting them. To this explanation what Luke writes is fitting: “Woe to you lawyers, because you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” For those who find fault with allegorical exposition and wish to teach that the divine Scripture is plain and has nothing more than the text shows, nor any more divine sense, whether about circumcision, or the passover, or unleavened bread, or foods and drinks, or feasts, or new moons, or sabbaths, and do not consider that the Jews then served in a pattern and shadow of things to come, are indeed lawyers, yet as far as their word goes they have taken away the key of knowledge, that is, removing every way of the law for understanding its precepts; and therefore they neither entered themselves nor, as far as lay in them, allowed others to enter.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around sea and dry land to make one proselyte; and when he has become one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves.”

These words are fittingly said, since the coming of Christ, to the scribes and Pharisees of Jewish teachings, who diligently go round very many places of the world to persuade newcomers to judaize. For all who judaize after the Saviour are taught to imitate the disposition of those who said at that time: “Crucify, crucify him,” and again, “Away, away from the earth with such a man.” … to accuse him, as the priests then stirred up the common people. And one can see them to this day, when a robber is on trial and a Christian bears witness to the truth, wanting rather that the imitator of Barabbas be released than the disciple of Christ. All of which makes the proselyte a son of Gehenna not simply, but, as it is written, twofold more than the scribes and Pharisees who made him a proselyte. But someone will say at this point: how does the disciple, set before those who are now wretched scribes and Pharisees, become a son of Gehenna not equally with his teachers but twofold? For he ought, they say, to become less a son of Gehenna, or perhaps half as much as the one who made him a proselyte. Or if one were to grant that the disciple is like his teacher, the disciple ought to become a son of Gehenna equally with his teacher. I think, then, that every person who from a Gentile way of life has become a proselyte of the Jews was a son of Gehenna even before he became a proselyte. For a life subject to idolatries is enough to make a man a son of Gehenna. Such a son of Gehenna the word of our Lord Jesus Christ saves and frees through the washing of baptism, giving him power to become a son of God and showing him the way to become a son of God the Father who is in heaven. But the word of the Jews who do not believe in Christ not only does not free the Gentile from Gehenna, but adds to his number of condemnations, so that he becomes a son of Gehenna according to Judaism as well. And so the scribe or Pharisee makes another a son of Gehenna more than himself, not because he himself makes him so twice over, but because when the man has been made a proselyte he becomes doubly a son of Gehenna through the teacher's teaching; and so the one who taught him is the cause of his second error, so that he becomes doubly a son of Gehenna beyond the one who taught him badly. Another explains it differently: those who were brought up from the beginning in the law of Moses are already sons of Gehenna because they did not believe in Christ; but those who left the Gentile life, having once judged that they should leave the idolatry in which they had been brought up, and took up the Jewish life, are worthy of a double punishment, because they did not leave it with inquiry, nor were willing to examine the Jewish teaching and what seems akin to the Jewish teaching, that is, the profession of Christians; nor did they inquire of those able to teach both schools, so as to understand which teaching was truer and rather to be chosen. At the same time we learn from this passage that among those who will be in Gehenna there will be a difference of torments, since one is simply a son of Gehenna and another twofold. But we must also see whether someone may become a son of Gehenna still more abundantly, for instance threefold or manifold, according to the number of his sins; and whether one becomes a son of Gehenna in general, for instance as a Jew, or a Gentile, or a professor of any false doctrine whatever; or also in particular, so that through each kind of sin one becomes a son of Gehenna: for instance, one who commits sexual immorality becomes a son of Gehenna; one who commits adultery, twofold; and one who steals, threefold, according to what is written: “With the measure you measure, it will be measured to you”; so that the righteous man is increased in glory according to the number of his righteous deeds, and the sinner multiplied in Gehenna according to the number of his sins. What this Gehenna is, and in what passage of the Scriptures it is first named, let him who can inquire, especially in the division of the inheritance by Joshua son of Nun, where it is sometimes called the valley of the son of Hinnom and sometimes the valley of Hinnom, which is in Gehenna; for Gehenna is a valley. And let him observe that, just as Jerusalem is the lot of the tribe of Benjamin, along with certain other chosen cities or villages, so also is Gehenna. It follows that one who knows what Jerusalem is in the true division of the inheritance of the sons of Israel should understand the word about Gehenna. And let one who reads Joshua son of Nun carefully see also which villages are recorded there as neighbouring the valley called Gehenna. To hand these things on more fully and plainly with ink, pen, and paper did not seem to me to be safe; lest even these things we are saying should seem to have been said rashly and dangerously!

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say: Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is bound. Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it is bound. Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by all that is on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it.”

By this word too he finds fault with the traditions of the Pharisees as not right. He does this also in the place where he blames the traditions of the Pharisees made against the commandment of God laid down about honouring father and mother. For the Pharisees said: “Whoever says to father or mother, Whatever gift is from me will benefit you, shall not honour his father.” After which he goes on to say: “You have made void the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.” And he brings forward the example of Isaiah, saying: “This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain they worship me, teaching the doctrines and commandments of men.” One of the Pharisaic traditions about those who swear was of this kind: some swore by the temple, others by the gold of the temple; again some by the altar, others by the gift on the altar; and they said that one who swore by the gold of the temple or by the gift on the altar was a debtor, but that one who swore by the temple or by the altar was not liable in anything. Therefore the Saviour, speaking to the Jews against traditions of this kind and wishing to correct them from human traditions to the divine commandments, says that those who hand on such things are blind and foolish, not seeing that everything placed in the temple is sanctified not by itself but by the temple. So also what is placed on the altar is judged to be already a gift of God from its having been received on the altar. If, then, the temple is the cause of the gold's being sanctified, and the altar of the gift's being sanctified, how would it not seem foolish that one who swears by what sanctifies is not guilty, while one who swears by what is sanctified is held guilty, as though what is sanctified were better than what sanctifies? And since the Jews had the custom of swearing also by heaven, he added this too to what preceded, to rebuke those who swore by heaven more readily than by God, since one who swears by heaven acts just as unreasonably as one who swears by the temple or the altar; for one who swears by heaven is seen to swear also by him who sits on it, and does not, as he supposes, escape danger by not swearing by God himself but by God's throne. And he says this to the Jews, forbidding people to attend to the traditions of the Pharisees; otherwise he had plainly forbidden swearing altogether earlier.

But if one ought to make public, at least in part and at a higher level, a sense of Scripture hidden as it were in such fields of the Gospel and not graspable by just anyone, it must be said: every oath is a binding and confirmation of the word about which one swears. By an oath, then, must be understood every testimony of the Scriptures brought forward for the confirmation and binding of the word we speak; so that the temple of God's glory is every Scripture divinely inspired, and the gold is the sense placed in it. In support of all the words we bring forward in teaching, then, we ought to bring forward the sense of Scripture, as confirming the sense we are expounding. For just as all gold that is outside the temple is not sanctified, so every sense that is outside the divine Scripture, however admirable it may seem to some, is not holy, because it is not contained by the sense of Scripture, which customarily sanctifies only the sense it holds within itself, as the temple sanctifies its own gold. We ought not, then, to confirm our teaching by swearing by our own understandings, nor to take as testimonies the ideas that each of us understands and thinks to be according to the truth, unless he shows that they are holy because they are contained in the divine Scriptures, as in certain temples of God. Fools and blind, then, are all who do not know that the temple, that is, the reading of the Scriptures, makes the sense great and venerable, like consecrated gold. Further, see whether, after the likeness of the temple and of the gold placed in the temple, we should not understand the altar and the gift placed on the altar. The altar, which signifies the vow, is the heart of man, which is held to be the ruling part in man; and the vows and gifts placed on the altar are everything placed upon the heart. For example, you have resolved to pray: you have placed the vow of prayer on your heart as on an altar, to offer the prayer to God. You have resolved to sing psalms: you have placed the vow of psalms on your heart as on an altar, to offer to God the vow of psalms. You have resolved to give alms: you have placed the vow of alms on your heart as on an altar, to offer the vow of alms to God. You have resolved to fast: you have placed the vow of fasting on your heart as on an altar. So a man's heart, from which the vow is offered to God, makes every vow venerable and holy. Therefore a vow cannot be more honourable than the heart of the man from which the vow is sent. Blind, then, is every man who sees someone's great alms, or psalms, or great prayers, or fasts, and without judgment calls them blessed, and does not consider from what kind of heart the alms, or psalms, or prayers, or fasts are offered. For the altar is the heart, which sanctifies the vow of one who is pure of heart. For if a man's heart and conscience do not sting him, he has confidence towards God, not because of his gifts, nor the words of his prayer or psalm, however well composed and chosen from the Scriptures they seem, but because he has, so to speak, built the altar of his heart well. One, then, who takes the altar, that is, the ruling heart and the conscience, as witness swears by the altar, embracing all that is contained in it. And one who swears by the temple, in the sense we have given, is seen to swear by Scripture, and by the word and sense of God contained in it. The third thing for us to say is that above the temple, that is, above all Scripture, and above the altar, that is, above every heart, there is a certain understanding above the understanding of all the Scriptures and above every heart, which has not yet ascended into the heart of man, which is figuratively called heaven, and the throne no longer of God's glory, like the temple, but of God himself. For the temple of God's glory is the temple in which we see through a mirror in an enigma; but heaven, which is above the temple, is of God himself, in which is God's throne, in which, when the perfect has come, one may contemplate with unveiled face the face of the mysteries of truth that sit in such a heaven.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have left aside the weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, and not to have omitted those. Blind guides, straining out the gnat but swallowing the camel!”

This saying must be spoken at the right time to those who show religious care towards God about the smallest things, but in great and necessary things despise the commandment and God himself who commanded them. Such things were done among the Jews, who thought they kept the law of Moses, which commands that tithes of all fruits be given to the Levites and priests. And so, because it was easy to fulfil the law in the smallest things, they tithed mint and dill and cummin and, so to speak, all the smallest and lighter things of the law, but did not observe its weighty things, that is, judgment and mercy and faith: judgment, that each one should judge about all things, not only about some, with just judgment, and should assent to him who said, “I desire mercy rather than sacrifice,” so as to offer to God sacrifices of mercy, and, by examining the things of faith, to be faithful. But since it would have been natural for some, on hearing the Lord say these things about tithing the smallest things, to despise the tithing of the smallest things, the Lord wisely added: “These you ought to have done,” that is, judgment and mercy and faith, “and not to have omitted those,” that is, the tithing of mint and dill and cummin. And he says that those who act so, the scribes and Pharisees, who omit the weightier matters of the law and tithe the paltry fruits, are blind guides. And he wisely says that such people strain out, that is, expel from themselves, the smallest faults, which he called gnats, but swallow, that is, commit, the greatest faults, which he called camels, plainly crooked and huge animals. According to these words, then, every person who omits the weightier matters of the law, above all judgment and mercy and faith, swallows a camel. And not only among the Jews, but among us too, one can find many who commit sins of this kind and swallow camels by committing the greatest faults; and such people ought often to consider how they show their religion in the smallest things. And he rightly calls them hypocrites; for, wishing to acquire a reputation for religion before men, they are unwilling to take up that religion which God has justified. We must flee, then, such pretences of the scribes and Pharisees, lest that “woe” befall us as it befell them.

I think that, figuratively, all are called scribes who think that nothing more is set down in the Scriptures than the plain word of Scripture shows, and who even despise those who search out the depths of God. Likewise all are Pharisees who justify themselves and divide themselves from the rest, saying, “Do not come near me, for I am clean.” For “Pharisees,” from the name phares, means “divided,” those who have divided themselves from the rest; and in the Hebrew language phares means division. And if in such words of the Gospel we ought also to take up a figurative understanding, it must be known that, as mint and dill and cummin are seasonings of food and not themselves the main foods, so in our ways of life some things are principal and necessary for the justification of our souls, such as these weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and faith; while others are like seasonings of our actions, commending them and making them more pleasing: for example, refraining from laughter, fasting, bending the knees, persevering in the assemblies, frequency of communion, and other things like these, which are not themselves righteous deeds but are held to be the seasonings of righteous deeds. But the spiritual things that are righteousness in themselves are called judgment and mercy and faith. It is shameful, then, to be observant in these smallest things, which is tithing, and not to offer God the observance of necessary things, that is, not to tithe them. Those who do and teach such things, like those before, are blind guides. And how should they not be thought blind, who fail to notice the size and crookedness of the camels, that is, of perverse deeds, and do not see that it is no use to strain and be a careful examiner in the smallest things when what is principal and truly belongs to the glory of God is neglected? Since, then, there are many among us too who are thought to live carefully in light matters but are careless of themselves in necessary ones, the present saying confounds such people, not forbidding them to observe those light things, but commanding them to guard more carefully what is principal and more salutary. He, then, strains everything who, in all that he does or says or thinks, separates what is filthy and earthly and not adorned with divine reasons from what is by nature bright and sincere and just, according to him who teaches: “Let us keep the feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” But you will find many who are thought to believe whose words, deeds, and thoughts have not been strained. Therefore fire will consume their fleshly deeds like hay, tormenting the soul too together with the body because of the bodily faults that have grown together with it. For just as it is not possible to cut away excrescences that have grown in bodies without great pain and torment to those who suffer them, so neither can fleshly offences be cut away from those who, so to speak, have made their souls flesh; that is why it was said of such souls: “My spirit shall not remain in these men, for they are flesh.”

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of plunder and intemperance and deceit. Pharisee, clean first the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside may become clean.” This saying teaches us to be eager to be righteous, not to appear so. For one who strives to appear righteous cleans the outside and takes care of what is seen, but neglects his heart and conscience, not considering that one who strives to clean the inner things and his thoughts will consequently strive to make the outer things clean as well. But if someone cares for what is seen and neglects the inner parts of his soul, such a man must be filled within with greed, lust, malice, and very many other evils. For everyone who is concerned for his salvation, which is within, is also concerned for his reputation, which is outside; but not everyone who is concerned for his reputation outside is also concerned for his salvation within. For example, it is written: “Whoever looks at a woman so as to desire her has committed adultery in his heart.” So one who abstains from the act of sexual immorality but commits sexual immorality in the desire of his heart has cleaned the outside of the cup and of the dish or bowl, but within he is full of intemperance. And one who gives alms to obtain glory from men seems to clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, giving alms before men, but within he is full of the desire for glory. And whatever good a man does not from a clean conscience for God's sake, he seems clean outwardly but within is full of evils. And all professors of false doctrine are cups cleaned as it were on the outside because of the appearance of religion that they feign, but within they are full of plunder and seduction, by which they carry men off into error; they are ravening wolves to all, lurking and devouring simple souls, who cannot see that they are ravening wolves because of the covering of sheepskins.