Commentary on Matthew 12.8–12.16

But I wonder whether the disciples thought, before the saying was made clear to them by Jesus, that their teacher and Lord was forbidding them to guard against a sense-perceptible leaven of the Pharisees or Sadducees, as unclean and therefore forbidden, so that they should not use that leaven because they had not taken loaves. We might inquire into the like in other cases too, but for an example the passage about the Samaritan woman suffices: “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.” For there too, as far as the wording goes, the Samaritan woman will seem to have thought that the Saviour was promising sense-perceptible water when he said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.” Those words, then, must be taken figuratively, and the water of the spring of Jacob from which the Samaritan woman drew must be examined together with the water of Jesus; and here the like must be done; for perhaps there were not even baked loaves, but only some raw leaven, the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. [Heading of the next chapter:] On Jesus’ question at Caesarea, who people say that he is.

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples.” Jesus asks the disciples whom people say him to be, so that we may learn from the apostles’ answer the various opinions about our Saviour that arose among the Jews at that time; and perhaps also so that the disciples of Jesus may be taught always to take an interest in what people say about them; for this will help those who do it, so that, if something bad is said, they may remove the occasions for it in every way, and if something good, they may increase the grounds for it. But observe how, because of the various movements among the Jews about Jesus, some, from unsound opinions, said that he was John the Baptist, like Herod the tetrarch, who said to his servants: “This is John the Baptist; he has been raised from the dead, and for this reason the powers are at work in him”; and others that the one now called Jesus is Elijah, having either undergone a second birth, or having lived in the flesh since then and appeared at the present time. And those who said that Jesus was Jeremiah, and not that Jeremiah was a type of the Christ, were perhaps moved by what is said at the beginning of Jeremiah about Christ, which was not fulfilled in the prophet at that time, but began to be fulfilled in Jesus, whom “God set over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and tear down and destroy and rebuild and plant,” making him a prophet to the nations, to whom he preached the word. And those who said that he was one of the prophets held such opinions about him because of things in the prophets that were spoken as of themselves but were not fulfilled in them. But the Jews, as deserving the veil on their heart, held false opinions about Jesus; Peter, however, as a disciple not of flesh and blood, but as one who had received a revelation from the Father in heaven, confessed that he was the Christ. What Peter said to the Saviour, “You are the Christ,” when the Jews did not know that he was the Christ, was great; but greater still that he knew him to be not only the Christ but also “the Son of the living God,” who said through the prophets, “I live,” and “They have forsaken me, the spring of living water”; and he is also life, as from the Father, the spring of life, he who said, “I am the life.” And consider carefully whether, as the spring of a river is not the same as the river, so the spring of life is not the same as life. And we have added this because to “You are the Christ, the Son of God” there was added “living”; for something exceptional had to be shown in what is said of the God and Father of all, as living beyond both life itself and the things that participate in it. And since we said that those who declared Jesus to be John the Baptist, or one of the others named, said it from unsound opinions, let us establish this too, saying that if they had chanced upon Jesus when he went away to John for baptism, and upon John baptizing Jesus, or had heard it from someone, they would not have said that Jesus was John. And if they had grasped the teaching from which Jesus said, “If you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come,” and had heard what was said as those who have ears, some would not have said that he was Elijah; and those who said that he was Jeremiah, if they had seen that most of the … , would not have said that he was Jeremiah; and likewise the others would not have said that he was one of the prophets.

And perhaps, if we say what Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” as Peter did, flesh and blood not having revealed it to us, but a light from the Father in heaven having shone in our heart, we too become what Peter was, being pronounced blessed as he was, because the grounds of his blessedness have reached us too: flesh and blood did not reveal to us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, but the Father in heaven, from the heavens themselves, so that we may have our citizenship in heaven, revealed to us the revelation that leads up to the heavens those who remove every veil from the heart and receive “the Spirit of the wisdom of God and of revelation.” And if we too have said, like Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” not as though flesh and blood had revealed it to us, but by a light from the Father in heaven shining in our heart, we become a Peter, and to us too it might be said by the Word: “You are Peter,” and so on. For every disciple of Christ is a rock, of whom those drank who drank from “the spiritual rock that followed”; and on every such rock is built every word of the Church and the way of life that accords with it; for in each of the perfect, who have the sum of the words and deeds and thoughts that make up blessedness, is the Church being built by God.

But if you think that the whole Church is built by God on that one Peter alone, what would you say about John, the son of thunder, or each of the apostles? Shall we otherwise dare to say that the gates of Hades will not prevail against Peter in particular, but will prevail against the other apostles and the perfect? Is not the saying already quoted, “The gates of Hades will not prevail against it,” true of all and of each of them? And also “On this rock I will build my Church”? Are the keys of the kingdom of heaven given by the Lord to Peter alone, and will no other of the blessed receive them? But if “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” is common to others too, how are not all the things said before, and those added after, as spoken to Peter, common as well? For here what seems to be said as to Peter is “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,” and so on; but in the Gospel according to John the Saviour, giving the Holy Spirit to the disciples by breathing on them, says: “Receive the Holy Spirit,” and so on. Many, then, will say to the Saviour, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”; but not all who say this will say it to him having learned it not at all from flesh and blood revealing it, but from the Father in heaven himself, who has removed the veil lying on their heart, so that after this, “beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord,” they may speak in the Spirit of God, saying of him, “Lord Jesus,” and to him, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And if anyone says this to him as Peter did, flesh and blood not having revealed it to him, but the Father in heaven, he will obtain what was said—as the letter of the Gospel says, to that Peter, but, as its spirit teaches, to everyone who has become such as that Peter was. For all imitators of Christ take their name from the rock, the spiritual rock that follows those who are being saved, so that they may drink from it the spiritual drink. And these take their name from the rock, as Christ does; but also, being members of Christ, they have been named Christians after him, and Peters after the rock. And taking a starting point from this you will say that the righteous take their name from Christ the righteousness, and the wise from Christ the wisdom; and so with his other names you will make names derived from them for the saints; and to all such the Saviour’s saying might be said: “You are Peter,” and the rest, as far as “will not prevail against it.” But against what is “it”? Is it the rock, on which Christ builds the Church? Or the Church? For the phrase is ambiguous. Or is it as though the rock and the Church were one and the same? This I think to be true; for the gates of Hades will prevail neither against the rock on which Christ builds the Church nor against the Church, just as “the way of a serpent upon a rock,” as is written in Proverbs, could not be found. But if the gates of Hades prevail against anyone, such a one would be neither a rock on which Christ builds the Church nor the Church built by Christ on the rock; for the rock is inaccessible to the serpent, and stronger than the gates of Hades that wrestle against it, so that because of its strength the gates of Hades do not prevail against it; and the Church, as the building of Christ, “who built his house wisely upon the rock,” is not open to the gates of Hades, which prevail against every person outside the rock and the Church, but can do nothing against it.

And when we have understood that each of the sins through which one comes to Hades is a gate of Hades, we shall grasp that the soul “that has spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind,” and because of wickedness is neither holy nor blameless, is neither a rock on which Christ builds, nor a Church, nor part of the Church which Christ builds on the rock. But if anyone wishes to put us to shame on these points because of the great numbers of those thought to believe in the Church’s way, we must say to him not only “Many are called, but few are chosen,” but also what was said by the Saviour to those who came to him, as it is said in the Gospel according to Luke, as follows: “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter through the narrow one and will not be able”; and what is written in the Gospel according to Matthew must also be quoted, thus: “For narrow is the gate and hard the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it.” And attending to “For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able,” you will understand that this refers to those who boast that they belong to the Church but live weakly and contrary to the word. Those among the seekers who are not able to enter, then, will not be able because the gates of Hades prevail against them; but those against whom the gates of Hades do not prevail will be able, when they seek to enter, being able for all things in Christ Jesus who strengthens them. And so each of the fathers of a vicious opinion has become the architect of some gate of Hades; and those who work with the teaching of the architect of such things are assistants and stewards serving a vicious architect’s word of impiety. And though the gates of Hades are many and hard to number, no gate of Hades will prevail against the rock or the Church which Christ builds on it. Yet these gates have some strength, by which they master some who do not resist or struggle against them; but they are conquered by others, who, by not departing from him who said, “I am the door,” have pulled down all the gates of Hades from their own soul. And this too one must know, that as the gates of cities each have their own names, in the same way the gates of Hades might be named according to the kinds of sins, so that one gate of Hades is called sexual immorality, through which those who commit sexual immorality pass; and another denial, through which those who deny God go down to Hades. And indeed each of the heterodox, who have begotten some knowledge “falsely so called,” has built a gate of Hades, Marcion one, Basilides another, and Valentinus …

Here, then, gates of Hades are spoken of; but in the Psalms the prophet gives thanks, saying: “You who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion.” And from this we learn that perhaps no one can declare all the praises of God unless he has been lifted up from the gates of death and has come to be at the gates of Zion. And the gates of Zion might be understood as opposite to the gates of death, so that one gate of death is licentiousness, and a gate of Zion self-control; and so of death unrighteousness, and of Zion righteousness, which the prophet shows, saying, “This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter by it”; and again cowardice is a gate of death, but courage a gate of Zion; and folly a gate of death, but its opposite, prudence, a gate of Zion. And to all the gates of the knowledge falsely so called one gate is opposed, that of knowledge without falsehood. Consider whether, because of “Our wrestling is not against blood and flesh,” and the rest, you can say that each “authority, and world ruler of this darkness, and spiritual force of wickedness in the heavenly places” is a gate of Hades and a gate of death. Then the principalities and authorities against which we wrestle might be called gates of Hades, and the gates of righteousness “the ministering spirits.” And just as in the case of the better things many gates are first spoken of, and after the gates one, in “Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will enter by them and give thanks to the Lord,” and “This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter by it,” so too in the opposite case there are many gates of Hades and of death, each authority, and beyond all these the evil one himself. And let us take heed in each sin, as though we were going down into some gate of Hades if we sin; but being lifted up from the gates of death, let us declare all the praises of the Lord in the gates of the daughter of Zion: for instance, in one gate of the daughter of Zion, called self-control, we shall declare the praises of God by self-control; and in another, righteousness, the praises of God by righteousness; and in a word, in all the praiseworthy things in which we come to be, in these we come to be in some gate of the daughter of Zion, declaring at it some praise of God. We must examine how it is said in one of the Twelve: “They hated the one who reproves in the gates, and abhorred the holy word.” Perhaps, then, the one who reproves in the gates is one who, from the gates of the daughter of Zion, reproves those who are in the sins opposed to that gate, and of the gates of Hades or death. But if you do not so understand “They hated the one who reproves in the gates,” either “in the gates” will have been said superfluously, or you must seek how what is said could be worthy of the prophetic Spirit.

After this let us see how it was said to Peter, and to every Peter: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” And first, I think that “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” is said in consequence of “The gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” For he is worthy to receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven from the same Word who has fortified himself against the gates of Hades, so that they do not prevail against him; receiving the keys of the kingdom of heaven as a prize, as it were, because the gates of Hades could do nothing against him, so that he may open for himself the gates that are shut to those who are conquered by the gates of Hades. And he enters, as self-controlled, through a gate of self-control opened by a key that opens self-control; and through another, as righteous, the gate of righteousness opened by the key of righteousness; and so with the other virtues. For I think that for each virtue certain mysteries of the knowledge of wisdom corresponding to the kind of virtue are opened to one who has lived according to virtue, the Saviour giving to those not mastered by the gates of Hades as many keys as there are virtues, which open an equal number of gates, each corresponding to a virtue in the revelation of the mysteries. And perhaps each virtue is a kingdom of heaven, and all together the kingdom of the heavens; so that by this reckoning one who lives according to the virtues is already in the kingdom of the heavens; so that by this reckoning “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” refers not to a time but to deeds and disposition; for Christ, who is all virtue, has come and speaks, and for this reason “the kingdom of God is within” his disciples, and not “here or there.” And see how much authority the rock has on which the Church is built by Christ, and everyone who says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”: that his judgments remain firm, as though God were judging in him, so that in the very act of judging the gates of Hades do not prevail against him. Against one who judges unjustly, then, and does not bind on earth according to the word of God, nor loose on earth according to his will, the gates of Hades prevail; but one against whom the gates of Hades do not prevail judges justly. Therefore he has the keys of the kingdom of heaven, opening to those loosed on earth, so that they may be loosed and free in heaven too; and shutting to those bound on earth by his just judgment, so that they may be bound and judged in heaven too. But since those who claim the place of the episcopate use this text as Peter did, and, as having received the keys of the kingdom of heaven from the Saviour, teach that what is bound by them, that is, condemned, is bound in heaven too, and what has received forgiveness from them is loosed in heaven too, we must say that they speak soundly if they have the works because of which it was said to that Peter, “You are Peter,” and if they are such that the Church is built on them by Christ, and this might reasonably be applied to them; and the gates of Hades ought not to prevail against the one who wishes to bind and loose. But if he “is held fast in the cords of his sins,” he binds and looses in vain. And perhaps you can say that in the heavens that are in the wise man, the virtues, the wicked man is bound; and again in them the earnest man is loosed, receiving amnesty for the sins he committed before his virtue. And just as God himself would not bind one who has no cords of sins, nor sins compared “to a long rope or the strap of a heifer’s yoke,” so neither would any Peter whatever. But if anyone who is not a Peter, and does not have what is spoken of here, thinks that, like Peter, he will bind on earth so that what is bound is bound in heaven, and loose on earth so that what is loosed is loosed in heaven, he is puffed up, not knowing the intent of the Scriptures, and “being puffed up has fallen into the condemnation of the devil.”

“Then he strictly charged his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.” Above it is written that Jesus sent out these twelve, saying to them, “Do not go on the road of the Gentiles,” and all that is recorded next as said to them when he sent them on their mission. Did he, then, wish them, when they were already doing the work of apostles, to proclaim that he was the Christ? For if he wished it, it is worth asking why he now charges the disciples not to say that he was the Christ; and if he did not wish it, how can what concerns their mission be maintained? And one might also ask this in the passage: whether, when he sent out the twelve, he did not send them out believing that he was the Christ; and if the twelve believed this, clearly Peter did too; how then is he now pronounced blessed? For the wording here shows that Peter now for the first time confessed him as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Matthew, then, according to some of the copies, wrote: “Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ”; but Mark says, “He rebuked them, to speak to no one about him”; and Luke says, “Rebuking them, he commanded them to tell this to no one.” But what is “this”? That, according to him too, Peter answered the question “Who do you say that I am?” with “The Christ of God.” It must be known, however, that some copies of the Gospel according to Matthew have “he rebuked.” Now the difficulty raised seems to me a most genuine one; let an unanswerable solution of it be sought, and let whoever finds it bring it forward, if it is more convincing than what we shall say, which is of modest worth. Consider, then, whether you can say that believing that Jesus is the Christ is less than knowing what is believed; and perhaps there is also a difference in knowing that Jesus is the Christ, since not everyone who knows him knows him alike. That believing without knowledge is less than knowing is clear from what is in John: “If you abide in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”; and that there is a difference also in knowing that Jesus is the Christ, since not all who know him know him equally, the very evidence of the matter shows to anyone who considers it even a little. For who would not admit that, for instance, Timothy, though he knew that Jesus was the Christ, had not been enlightened to the knowledge of him as far as the apostle Paul had been? And who would not also accept this, that even if many say truthfully of God, “He has given me unerring knowledge of the things that are,” they will not say it with equal clarity and grasp of what is known, nor knowing as many things in number? And those who know do not know alike not only by the difference in knowing, but also by what imparted the knowledge; so that, by this reckoning, one who has come to know the Son by the Father’s revelation, as Peter is attested to have known him, has the highest blessedness. If what we have said is sound, you will consider whether the twelve first believed but did not know; and next, after believing, they had the beginnings of knowing too, and knew rather few things about him; and later they advanced in knowing, so as to be able to receive the knowledge from the Father who reveals the Son, the state in which Peter was when he was pronounced blessed. For he is pronounced blessed not for having said “You are the Christ” only, but with the addition “the Son of the living God.” At any rate, Mark and Luke, who recorded that Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ,” without adding what stands in Matthew, did not record the blessing upon what was said, nor the benediction that followed the blessing, which says …

But first we must also examine this: that they were proclaiming other things about him as great and wonderful, but were not yet proclaiming that he was the Christ, so that the Saviour might not seem to be taking from them the authority to proclaim him as the Christ which he had given them before. And perhaps someone will support such an argument by saying that the Jews were taught by the apostles the glorious things about Jesus by way of introduction, so that in due time the truth that he was the Christ might be built on them; and perhaps many of the things said to them were said in effect to all who believe. For “You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles” did not apply to the apostles alone; and perhaps “Brother will deliver brother to death,” and so on, was said not to the apostles at all, but to all who would believe; and also “So everyone who confesses me,” and so on, was said not specially to the apostles but to all who believe. In this sense, then, there is a preliminary outline of teaching in what was said to the apostles, later both for them and for every teacher …