Commentary on Matthew 12.31–12.40

“Truly I tell you, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death.” Some refer these words to the ascent, after six days or, as Luke says, eight, of the three apostles with Jesus to the high mountain apart; and those who explain it so say that Peter and the other two did not taste death before seeing “the Son of Man coming in his kingdom,” in his glory. For seeing Jesus transfigured before them, so that his face shone, and so on, they saw “the kingdom of God come in power.” For as certain bodyguards stand around a king, so “Moses and Elijah appeared” to those who had gone up the mountain with Jesus, “talking with him.” And it is worth considering whether sitting at the right and left of the Saviour in his kingdom refers to these, so that “but for those for whom it has been prepared” was said on their account. This explanation, that the three apostles would not taste death until they saw Jesus transfigured, suits those who have become, as Peter called them, “as newborn infants, longing for the rational, pure milk,” to whom Paul says, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food,” and so on. And every explanation that, keeping to the letter, can build up those who cannot receive greater things might reasonably be called milk, flowing from the holy land of the Scriptures, which flows with milk and honey. But one who, like Isaac, has been weaned, worthy of the feast and reception that Abraham made at the weaning of his son, would seek in these words and in all Scripture the food that is solid—different, I think, from what is food indeed but not solid nourishment, and from what are figuratively called vegetables, which are food for one who has been weaned but is not strong, but weak, according to the saying, “The weak eats vegetables.” Likewise one who, like Samuel, has been weaned and dedicated by his mother to God—she was Hannah, which is interpreted “grace”—and would be a son of grace, seeks, as one nourished in the temple, the meat of God, the holy food of those who are at once perfect and priests.

What we see on the passage before us for the present is this. There were some standing where Jesus was, having the foundations of their soul firmly planted beside Jesus, and the standing of their feet was akin to the standing of which Moses said, “And I stood on the mountain forty days and forty nights,” who was also thought worthy of “But you, stand here with me,” said to him by God, who thought him worthy to stand beside him. These, then, who stand beside Jesus, that is, beside the Word of God, do not all stand equally; for there is a difference among those standing beside Jesus. Therefore not all who stand beside the Saviour, but some of them, as standing better, do not taste death until they see the Word who came to dwell among human beings, and is for this reason called Son of Man, coming in his own kingdom; for it is not always, when Jesus comes, that he comes in his kingdom, since to beginners he is such that they would say, seeing him not glorious nor great, but a word inferior to many among them: “We saw him, and he had no form or beauty; but his form was without honour, failing beside all the sons of men.” And those who have seen his glory will say this of their own former times, when at the beginning the Word as understood in the synagogue had no form or beauty for them. There is, then, a royal dignity manifested of the Word who has most manifestly taken up the rule over all words, seen by some of those standing beside Jesus, when they are able to follow him as he goes before them and goes up to the high mountain of his manifestation. Of this some of those standing beside Jesus are thought worthy, if they are either a Peter, against whom the gates of Hades do not prevail, or the sons of thunder, begotten of the great voice of God as he thunders and cries great things from heaven to those who have ears and are wise. Such, at any rate, do not taste death.

And what tasting death is must be considered. Life is he who said, “I am the life”; and this life “is hidden with Christ in God”; and “when Christ, our life, appears,” then with him will appear those worthy to appear with him “in glory.” And the enemy of this life, who is also the last of all his enemies to be abolished, is death, which the sinning soul dies, being disposed in the opposite way to what happens to the soul that does right and lives from doing right. And when it is said in the law, “I have set life before your face,” Scripture says this about him who said, “I am the life,” and about his enemy, death; one of which each of us always chooses by what he does. And when we sin though life is before our face, the curse is fulfilled upon us which says, “And your life shall hang before you,” and so on, as far as “and from the sights of your eyes which you will see.” As, then, the life is also the living bread “that came down from heaven and gives life to the world,” so his enemy, death, is dead bread. And every rational soul is fed either with living bread or with dead, through the doctrines, good or bad, that it accepts. Then, just as with more ordinary foods one sometimes only tastes them and sometimes eats more of them, so too with these loaves one person eats rather sparingly, only tasting them, while another is filled—if he is good, or on the way to being good, with the living bread that came down from heaven; if wicked, with the dead bread, which is death. And perhaps those who sin rarely and little only taste death; but those who have taken up virtue do not even taste it, but are always fed on living bread. It was consistent, then, for Peter, against whom the gates of Hades will not prevail, not even to taste death, since one tastes death and eats death when the gates of Hades prevail against him; and he eats or tastes death in proportion as more or fewer gates of Hades prevail over him to a greater or lesser degree. And for the sons of thunder too, begotten of heavenly thunder, it was impossible to taste death, which is very far from their mother, the thunder. These things the Word prophesies to those who will be perfected and who, from standing beside the Word, have advanced so far that they do not even taste death until they see the manifestation, the glory, the kingdom, and the pre-eminence of the Word of God, by which he excels every word that, with an appearance of truth, distracts and drags away those who cannot break the bonds of distraction and go up to the height of the pre-eminence of the Word of truth.

But since someone might think that the Saviour’s promise limits not tasting death to a time—that they will not taste death “until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom,” but after this will taste it—let us show from a certain usage of Scripture that “until” indicates the time that is pressing as regards the thing indicated, not a limit, so that after the “until” the opposite of what is indicated must certainly happen. The Saviour says to the eleven disciples, when he had risen from the dead, among other things: “Behold, I am with you all the days, until the consummation of the age.” Did he, then, in saying this, promise that he would be with them until the consummation of the age, but that after the consummation of the age, when the other age, called the coming one, sets in, he would no longer be with them? So that by this reckoning the state of the disciples until the consummation of the age would be better than their state at the consummation of the age? But I do not think anyone would dare to say that after the consummation of the age the Son of God will no longer be with the disciples, because the wording says that he will be with them so long, until the consummation of the age sets in. For it is clear that what was in question was whether, before the coming age and the hoped-for promises of God in reward, the Son of God would already be with the disciples. And it might have been asked, granted that he would be with them, whether he was sometimes with them and sometimes not; therefore, freeing us from the suspicion of doubt, he declared that already, and on all the days, he would be with the disciples, not leaving those who had become his disciples until the consummation of the age—not, however, that during the nights, when the sun had set, he was not with them. If such is the sense of “until the consummation of the age,” clearly we shall not be compelled to admit that those who saw the Son of Man coming in his kingdom tasted death after being thought worthy to see him so; but, as in the text we adduced the pressing point was for us to learn that until the consummation of the age he will not leave us but will be with us all the days, so in this case too it is clear, I think, to those who know how to see the sequence of things, that one who has once seen “the Son of Man coming in his kingdom,” and seen him “in his glory,” and seen “the kingdom of God come in power,” would not taste death after the contemplation of such great goods. But apart from the word of Jesus’ promise, we might not unreasonably have supposed that we taste death so long as we have not yet been thought worthy to see the kingdom of God come in power, and the Son of Man coming in his glory and in his kingdom.

And since here the three evangelists have written “will not taste death,” while elsewhere various things are said about death, it is not out of place to set those beside it too and examine them together with “taste.” In the Psalms, then, it is said, “Who is the man who will live and not see death?”; and again in another place, “Let death come upon them, and let them go down to Hades alive”; and in one of the prophets, “Death, having prevailed, swallowed up”; and in the Revelation, “Death and Hades follow” some. In these it seems to me that tasting death is one thing, seeing it another, its coming upon some another; a fourth thing besides these is signified by “Death, having prevailed, swallowed up,” and a fifth besides these by “Death and Hades follow them.” And you too, on reading, might perhaps find other differences besides those we have mentioned; and by setting them beside one another and searching rightly you would find the things signified in each passage. And I ask whether among these seeing death is a lesser evil, tasting it a greater one, and worse still death following someone, and not only following, but also already coming upon him and overtaking the one whom it followed before; and being swallowed up seems to me heavier than all those mentioned. Attending to what has been said and to the difference of sins, you will not hesitate to accept that something of this kind was intended by the Spirit who caused these things to be written in the oracles of God. And if, beyond what has been said, we must set out more clearly what is shown in seeing the Son of Man coming in his kingdom, or in his glory, and what is signified in seeing the kingdom of God come in power, we shall set out what either shines in our hearts, or is found as we search, or occurs to our thoughts (let each judge as he will). One who contemplates and grasps the pre-eminence of the Word, as he refutes and exposes all the plausibilities that support falsehoods while professing truth, sees the Son of Man—according to John’s way of speaking, the Word of God—coming in his own kingdom; and if such a one should see the Word not only refuting all the plausibility of opponents, but also setting forth his own teachings most clearly, he would see, besides the kingdom, his glory too. And such a one would see in himself the kingdom of God come in power; and he would see this as one no longer at all ruled by sin reigning in the mortal body of those who sin, but always ranked under the King, the God of all, whose kingdom is within us potentially, but actually—and, as Mark called it, “in power,” and not at all in weakness—within the perfect alone. These things, then, Jesus promised prophetically to the disciples standing there, not about all of them but about some. [Heading of the next chapter:] On the transfiguration of the Saviour.

“And after six days,” according to Matthew and Mark, “he takes Peter and James and John his brother, and leads them up a high mountain apart; and he was transfigured before them.” And before the explanation of these things that occurs to us, let it be granted that this took place long ago, and according to the letter. But it seems to me that those who are led up by Jesus to the high mountain, and thought worthy to see his transfiguration apart, are led up not without purpose six days after the words spoken before. For since in six days, a perfect number, the whole world, this perfect work of creation, was made, for this reason, I think, the one who goes beyond all the things of the world, in that he looks no longer at the things that are seen—for these are temporary—but now at the things that are not seen, and at those alone, because they are eternal, is indicated in “After six days Jesus takes” certain persons. If, then, any of us wishes, when Jesus takes him, to be led up by him to the high mountain and to be thought worthy to see his transfiguration apart, let him go beyond the six days, by no longer looking at the things that are seen, nor loving the world any longer, nor the things in the world, nor desiring any worldly desire, which is the desire of bodies, and of the wealth that is in the body, and of glory according to the flesh, and of all that by nature distracts the soul and drags it away from better and more divine things, brings it down, and fixes it in the deceit of this age, in wealth and glory and the other desires that are hostile to truth. For when he has passed through the six days, as we have said, he will keep a new sabbath, rejoicing on the high mountain at seeing Jesus transfigured before him; for the Word has different forms, appearing to each as is profitable for the one who sees, and being manifested to no one beyond what the one who sees can receive.

You will ask whether, when he was transfigured before those whom he led up the high mountain, he appeared to them in the form of God in which he existed of old; so that for those below he had the form of a servant, but for those who followed him after six days to the high mountain, not that form but the form of God. But hear these things, if you can, attending spiritually at the same time: it is not said simply, “He was transfigured,” but with a necessary addition, which Matthew and Mark recorded; for according to both, “He was transfigured before them.” And by this you will say that it is possible for Jesus to be transfigured with this transfiguration before some, and at the same time not to be transfigured before others. And if you wish to see the transfiguration of Jesus before those who went up the high mountain apart with him, see, I pray, the Jesus in the Gospels, understood more simply, and, as one might say, known according to the flesh by those who do not go up, through elevated works and words, to the high mountain of wisdom; but no longer known according to the flesh, but spoken of as God throughout the Gospels, and contemplated in the form of God according to the knowledge of those who do go up; for before these Jesus is transfigured, and before none of those below. And when he is transfigured, his face too shines like the sun, so that he may be manifested to the children of light, who have put off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light, and are no longer children of darkness or night, but have become sons of the day, and walk decently as in the day; and being manifested he will shine on them, not simply as the sun, but showing them that he is the sun of righteousness.

And not only is he himself transfigured before such disciples, nor does he add to the transfiguration only the shining of his face like the sun; but his garments too appear white as the light to those whom he led up the high mountain apart. And the garments of Jesus are the expressions and letters of the Gospels with which he clothed himself. And I think that the words in the apostles that make known the things about him are also garments of Jesus, which become white to those who go up the high mountain with Jesus. But since there are differences among white things too, his garments become white like that which is brightest and purest of all white things, and this is the light. When, then, you see someone not only exact in the theology about Jesus but also making clear the whole wording of the Gospels, do not hesitate to say that for such a one the garments of Jesus have become white as the light. And when the Son of God is so understood and contemplated as transfigured, so that his face is a sun and his garments white as the light, at once there would be seen, by one who has seen Jesus so, Moses—the law—and Elijah—by synecdoche not one only but all the prophets—conversing with Jesus; for such is what is shown in “talking with him”; and according to Luke, “Moses and Elijah, appearing in glory,” and so on, as far as “in Jerusalem.” And if anyone has seen the glory of Moses, having understood the spiritual law as a discourse in harmony with Jesus, and the wisdom hidden in mystery in the prophets, he has seen Moses and Elijah in glory, when he saw them with Jesus.

Then, since according to Mark we shall need to explain “And as he was praying he was transfigured before them,” we must say that perhaps it is most possible to see the Word transfigured before us if we do the things said before, and go up the mountain, and see the Word himself conversing with the Father and praying to him for what the true high priest would pray to the only true God. And so that he may thus converse with God and pray to the Father, he goes up the mountain; and then, according to Mark, “his garments become white and glistening like light, such as no fuller on earth can whiten them.” And perhaps the fullers on earth are the wise of this age, who take pains over a diction that they think bright and pure, so that even shameful thoughts and false doctrines seem to be adorned by their fulling, if I may so call it; but the one who shows his garments glistening to those who have gone up further, and brighter than their fulling can make them, is the Word, who displays, in the wording of the Scriptures despised by many, the glistening of the thoughts, when “the clothing of Jesus,” according to Luke, becomes “white and dazzling.”

Let us see after this what Peter had in mind when he answered and said to Jesus: “Lord, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tents,” and so on. These things must be inquired into especially for this reason, that Mark added to them, as in his own person, “For he did not know what to answer,” and Luke says, “not knowing what he was saying.” You will consider, then, whether he spoke these things in ecstasy, filled with the spirit that moved him to say them, which cannot have been holy; for John taught in his Gospel that before the Saviour’s resurrection no one had had the Holy Spirit, saying: “For the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” And if the Spirit was not yet, and the one who did not know what he was saying spoke moved by some spirit, the one causing these things to be said was one of the spirits that had not yet been triumphed over on the tree, nor made a public example of with those of whom it is written: “Having stripped the principalities and authorities, he made a public example of them, triumphing over them boldly on the tree.” And this was perhaps what was called a stumbling block by Jesus, and the Satan spoken of in “Get behind me, Satan; you are a stumbling block to me.” I know well that such things will offend many readers, who think it unreasonable to speak ill of one who shortly before had been pronounced blessed by Jesus because the Father in heaven had revealed to him the truth about the Saviour, that he is Jesus, and the Christ, and the Son of the living God. But let such a one attend closely to Peter and the other apostles, and to their having needs as well, as being still strangers to him who would redeem them from the enemy and buy them with his precious blood; or let those who will have it that the apostles became perfect even before Jesus’ passion tell us how it was that “Peter and those with him,” at the time of Jesus’ transfiguration, “were weighed down with sleep.” And, taking in advance something of what follows for the matter in hand, I would raise this question: is it possible to be made to stumble in Jesus without the working of the devil who causes stumbling? And is it possible to deny Jesus, and that before a slave girl and a doorkeeper and the meanest of people, without there being with the one who denies a spirit hostile to the Spirit, and to the wisdom, that are given to those helped by God to confess according to some worth of theirs? But one who has learned to trace the roots of sins back to the father of sin, the devil, will not say that without him either the apostles were made to stumble or Peter denied three times before that cock-crow. And if this is so, perhaps the one who, in order to make Jesus stumble as far as lay in him, and to turn him from the saving dispensation through the passion that he undertook for human beings with great eagerness, worked what seemed to lead to this, here too wished as it were deceitfully to draw Jesus away, as calling on him no longer to come down to human beings, and come to them, and accept death for them, but to stay on the high mountain with Moses and Elijah. And he promised also to make three tents, one apart for Jesus, another for Moses, and another for Elijah, as though, if they had to be in tents even on the high mountain, one tent could not hold the three. And perhaps in this too the one working in him who “did not know what he was saying” acted maliciously, not wishing Jesus and Moses and Elijah to be together, but to separate them from one another, on the pretext of those three tents. And “It is good for us to be here” was also a falsehood; for if it was good, they would have stayed there. And if it was a falsehood, you will ask who caused the falsehood to be spoken; especially since, according to John, “When he speaks the lie, he speaks from his own, for he is a liar and its father”; and as there is no truth without the working of him who said, “I am the truth,” so there is no falsehood without the enemy of the truth. There were, then, still opposites in Peter, truth and falsehood; and from truth he said, “You are the Christ, the Son of God,” but from falsehood, “God be merciful to you, Lord; this shall never happen to you,” and also, “It is good for us to be here.” But one who will not have Peter say these things from some worse working, but holds his words to be of his bare choice, when asked how he would explain “not knowing what he was saying” and “For he did not know what to answer,” will say that there he held it blasphemous and unworthy of Jesus to accept that the Son of the living God, the Christ, whom the Father had already revealed to him, should be killed; and here, having seen the two forms of Jesus, and the one in the transfiguration far superior, being well pleased with it, he said it was good to spend their time on that mountain, so that he and those with him might rejoice in contemplating the transfiguration of Jesus, his face shining like the sun, and his garments white as the light, and besides these might always contemplate in glory Moses and Elijah, who had once been seen in glory; and might rejoice at whatever they should hear from them as they talked and conversed with one another, Moses and Elijah with Jesus, and Jesus with them.