Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 3.1–4.1

“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

See, this is the third discourse, and we have not yet finished with what lies in the opening. So I was not speaking idly when I said that the nature of these thoughts has great depth. Come, then, let us say today what remains. What, then, is the present question? Why is the genealogy of Joseph given, when he contributed nothing to the birth? One reason we have already given; but we must give the other too, more mystical and more secret than that one. What is it? He did not wish it to be manifest to the Jews at the time of the birth that Christ was born of a virgin. But do not be disturbed at the strangeness of what is said. For the saying is not mine, but our fathers', wonderful and distinguished men. For if from the beginning he veiled many things, calling himself Son of Man, and did not everywhere clearly reveal to us even his equality with the Father, why do you wonder if for a time he veiled this too, arranging something wonderful and great? “And what wonderful thing?” someone says. That the virgin should be kept safe and freed from an evil suspicion. For if this had been made plain to the Jews from the beginning, they would have stoned the virgin, twisting what was said with malice, and would have condemned her for adultery. For if in other matters, of which they often had examples in the Old Testament, they were shameless openly (for when he cast out demons they called him possessed, and when he healed on the Sabbath they thought him an enemy of God, although the Sabbath had often been broken before), what would they not have said if this had been said? For they had all the time before this as their ally, which had never produced anything of the kind. For if after so many signs they still called him the son of Joseph, how would they have believed before the signs that he was of a virgin? For this reason, then, his genealogy is given and he is betrothed to the virgin. For when Joseph, a righteous and wonderful man, needed many things in order to accept what had happened, an angel, a vision in dreams, and the testimony of the prophets, how would the Jews, perverse and corrupt as they were and so hostile to him, have admitted this idea? For the strange and new thing, and the fact that nothing of the kind had ever been heard of, even by report, as having happened among their ancestors, would greatly have disturbed them. For one who had once been persuaded that he is the Son of God would have no further ground to dispute about this; but one who thought him a deceiver and an enemy of God, how would he not have been offended still more by this and been led to that suspicion? That is why the apostles too do not say this at once at the beginning; but about the resurrection they speak much and often, since there were examples of it in former times, even if not of this kind; but that he was born of a virgin they do not say continually. Not even his mother herself dared to bring this out. See, at any rate, what the virgin says even to him: “Behold, I and your father were seeking you.” For if this had been suspected, he would no longer have been thought the son of David; and if he had not been thought so, many other evils would have been born. That is why the angels too do not tell these things to all, but to Mary alone and to Joseph; and when they announced the good news of what had happened to the shepherds, they did not add this.

But why, having mentioned Abraham and said that he “begot Isaac, and Isaac Jacob,” and not mentioned Isaac's brother, when he came to Jacob does he mention Judah and his brothers? Some

say it was because of the perverseness of Esau and of the others before. But I would not say this. For if that were so, how does he mention such women a little later? For here his glory comes from the opposite: not from having great ancestors, but from having small and mean ones. For to the exalted it is great glory to be able to humble himself exceedingly. Why then did he not mention them? Because the Saracens, the Ishmaelites, the Arabs, and all who came from those ancestors had nothing in common with the race of the Israelites. For this reason he passed over them in silence and hastens to his own ancestors and those of the Jewish people. That is why he says, “And Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.” For here at last the race of the Jews is marked out.

“And Judah begot Perez and Zerah of Tamar.” What are you doing, man, reminding us of a story that involves an unlawful union? “And what of it?” he says. If we were listing the descent of a mere man, one might reasonably have kept silent about these things; but since it is God incarnate, not only should we not keep silent, but we should even display them openly, showing his care and his power. For he came for this reason, not to flee our disgraces but to take them away. As, then, he is more wondered at not because he died but because he was even crucified (though the thing is a disgrace, yet the more disgraceful it is, the more it shows his love for mankind), so one can say of the birth too: it is right to wonder at him not only because he took flesh and became man, but because he deigned to have such kinsfolk, nowhere ashamed of our evils. And he proclaimed this from the very opening of the birth, that he is ashamed of nothing of ours, teaching us also by this never to hide our faces at the wickedness of our ancestors, but to seek one thing only, virtue. For such a person, even if he has a foreign ancestor, or one who played the harlot, or one who was anything else, can suffer no harm. For if the former life does not shame the fornicator himself once he has changed, much less can the wickedness of his ancestors shame the virtuous man born of a harlot or an adulteress. And he did this not only to teach us, but also to bring down the pride of the Jews. For since they, neglecting virtue of soul, kept parading Abraham up and down, thinking they had the virtue of their ancestors as a defense, he shows from the very opening that one must not boast in these things but in one's own achievements. Besides this he establishes something else too: to show that all were liable for sins, even the ancestors themselves. At any rate their patriarch, from whom they take their name, is seen to have sinned not slightly; for Tamar stands accusing him of sexual immorality; and David had Solomon by the woman with whom he had committed adultery. And if the law was not fulfilled by the great, much less by the lesser; and if it was not fulfilled, all sinned, and the coming of Christ became necessary.

That is why he also mentioned the twelve patriarchs, here again pulling down the pride in noble ancestry. For many of them were born of slave women; yet the difference in the parents made no difference in the children. For all alike were both patriarchs and heads of tribes. For this is the prerogative of the church; this is the preeminence of our nobility, which took its pattern from of old. So whether you are a slave or free, you have nothing more nor less from this; one thing only is sought, the will and the character of the soul.

There is also another reason, besides those given, for which he mentioned this story; for Zerah is not thrown in idly beside Perez. Indeed it would have been superfluous and redundant, having mentioned Perez, from whom he was going to trace Christ's descent, to mention Zerah as well. Why then did he mention him? When Tamar was about to give birth to them and the pains had come, Zerah put out his hand first; then the midwife, seeing this, so that the first might be known, tied his hand with scarlet thread; and when it was tied, the child drew his hand back, and when he had drawn it back, Perez came out, and then Zerah. Seeing this, the midwife says, “Why has the fence been broken through on your account?” Do you see the riddles of mysteries? For these things have not been recorded for us idly; for it was not worth a narrative to learn what the midwife said, nor worth telling that the one who came out second put out his hand first. What then is the riddle? First, from the name of the child we learn what we are seeking; for Perez means division and breaking through. Then from the event itself: for it was not in the natural order for one who had put out his hand to draw it back again after it was tied; for these things were not the doing of a rational movement, nor did they happen in the natural course. That when a hand has come out first, another should come out first may perhaps be natural; but that the child should draw this hand back and give way to the other is no longer according to the law of births. But the grace of God was present with the children, arranging these things and sketching through them an image of what was to come.

What then? Some of those who have examined these things closely say that these children are a type of the two peoples. Then, that you may learn that the way of life of the second people shone forth before the birth of the first, the child that stretched out its hand does not show itself whole, but draws even that hand back again; and after his brother has slipped out whole, then he too appears whole. This is what happened with both peoples. For when the church's way of life had appeared in the times of Abraham and then had been drawn back in the middle, the Jewish people came, and the way of life under the law, and then the new people appeared whole with its own laws. That is why the midwife says, “Why has the fence been broken through on your account?” because the law, coming in, broke through the freedom of that way of life. For Scripture is always accustomed to call the law a fence; as the prophet too says, “You have broken down its fence, and all who pass along the way pluck it,” and, “I put a fence around it”; and Paul, “having broken down the dividing wall of the fence.”

Others say that “Why has the fence been broken through on your account?” was said of the new people; for this people, when it came, abolished the law. Do you see that it was for no few or small reasons that he mentioned the whole story about Judah? For this reason he mentions Ruth and Rahab too, the one a foreigner, the other a harlot, that you may learn that he came to undo all our evils. For he came as a physician, not as a judge. As, then, these men took harlots as wives, so God too joined to himself the nature that had played the harlot; which the prophets also foretold long ago had happened with the synagogue. But she was ungrateful toward the one who had married her; while the church, once freed from her ancestral evils, remained embracing the Bridegroom. See, at any rate, how what happened with Ruth resembles what concerns us. She was a foreigner and had been brought down to the utmost poverty; yet Boaz, seeing her, neither despised her poverty nor loathed her low birth; just as Christ too, receiving the church, foreign and in great poverty, made her a partner in the great good things. But as she, had she not first left her father and disregarded house and race and country and kindred, would not have obtained this marriage alliance, so also the church, having abandoned her ancestral customs, then became lovely to the Bridegroom. This is what the prophet too says, addressing her: “Forget your people and your father's house, and the King will desire your beauty.” This Ruth too did. That is why she became the mother of kings, as the church also did; for David is from her. Through all these things, then, shaming them and persuading them not to be proud, he composed the genealogy and brought these women forward. For she bore the great king through those in between, and David is not ashamed of them. For it is not possible, it is not possible, to be worthy or worthless, obscure or illustrious, from the virtue or the wickedness of one's ancestors; but if one must say something paradoxical, that man shines the more who is not of good ancestors and yet has become good.

Let no one, then, be proud of these things; but considering the Master's ancestors, let him empty out all his pride, and be proud of achievements, or rather not even of these. For so the Pharisee fell behind the tax collector. For if you wish to show the achievement great, do not be proud, and then you have shown it greater; do not think you have done anything, and you have done everything. For if, when we are sinners, we become righteous by thinking ourselves what we are, as the tax collector did, how much more when, being righteous, we think ourselves sinners? For if humility makes sinners righteous (although that was not even humility but candor), if then candor can do so much in sinners, consider what humility will not do in the righteous? Do not, then, ruin your labors, nor cut short your sweat, nor run in vain, emptying out all your toil after countless laps. For the Master knows your achievements better than you do. Even if you give a cup of cold water, he does not overlook it; even if you put down an obol, even if you only groan, he receives everything with great goodwill and remembers it, and appoints great rewards for them. Why do you examine your own deeds and keep bringing them before us? Do you not know that if you praise yourself, God will no longer praise you? just as, if you count yourself wretched, he will not cease proclaiming you before all. For he does not wish your labors to be diminished. Why do I say diminished? Rather, he does and contrives everything so as to crown you even for small things, and goes about seeking pretexts by which you may be freed from hell. That is why, even if you work at the eleventh hour of the day, he gives the whole wage; and even if you have no ground for salvation, “I act for my own sake,” he says, “so that my name may not be profaned”; even if you only groan, even if you weep, he himself quickly seizes all these as a ground for your salvation. Let us not, then, be lifted up, but call ourselves unprofitable, that we may become profitable. For if you call yourself esteemed, you have become useless, even if you were esteemed; but if you call yourself unprofitable, you have become profitable, even if you were worthless. That is why it is necessary to forget our achievements. “And how is it possible,” someone says, “not to know what we know?” What are you saying? You continually offend your Master, and live in luxury and laugh, and do not even know that you have sinned, handing everything over to forgetfulness; and you cannot cast out the memory of your achievements? And yet fear is stronger. But we do the opposite: offending every day, we do not even take it to heart; but if we give a little silver to a poor man, we turn it over this way and that; which is the height of folly and the greatest loss to the one who gathers. For the safe storehouse of achievements is forgetting achievements. And as with clothes and gold, when we display them in the marketplace we draw many plotters, but if we put them away at home and hide them, we shall store everything in safety, so too with achievements: if we continually carry them in our memory, we provoke the Master, we arm the enemy, we invite him to theft; but if no one knows them except the one who alone ought to know them, they will lie in safety. Do not, then, keep turning them over, lest someone take them away; which is what the Pharisee suffered, carrying them about on his tongue; that is why the devil snatched them away; and yet he mentioned them with thanksgiving and ascribed the whole to God. But not even this sufficed him. For it is not thanksgiving to reproach others, to make a display before many, to rise up against those who have offended. For if you give thanks to God, be content with him alone, and do not carry it out to men, nor condemn your neighbor; for this is not thanksgiving. Do you wish to learn words of thanksgiving? Hear the three children saying: “We have sinned, we have transgressed the law; you are righteous, O Lord, in all that you have done to us, for in true judgment you have brought all things upon us.” For to confess one's own sins, this is to give thanks to God, confessing what shows that he is liable for countless things and is not required to pay the penalty he deserves; this man above all is the one who gives thanks.

Let us beware, then, of saying anything about ourselves; for this makes us hated among men and abominable before God. Therefore the greater our achievements, the smaller the things we should say about ourselves; for so we shall reap the greatest glory, both with men and with God; or rather not only glory with God, but also a wage and great recompense. Do not, then, demand a wage, that you may receive a wage. Confess that you are saved by grace, that he may confess himself your debtor, not only for your achievements but also for such candor. For when we do well, we have him as debtor only for the achievements; but when we do not even think we have done anything, then also for this very disposition, and more than for those; so that this weighs as much as the achievements. For if this is not present, not even those will appear great. For we too, when we have servants, accept them most when, having served in everything with goodwill, they think they have done nothing great. So if you wish to make your achievements great, do not think them great, and then they will be great. So the centurion too said, “I am not worthy that you should come under my roof”; that is why he became worthy and was admired above all the Jews. So Paul too says, “I am not worthy to be called an apostle”; that is why he became first of all. So John: “I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal”; that is why he was the friend of the Bridegroom, and the hand which he said was unworthy of the sandals, Christ drew onto his own head. So Peter too said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man”; that is why he became the foundation of the church. For nothing is so dear to God as counting oneself among the last. This is the beginning of all philosophy. For the one who is humbled and broken will not be vainglorious, will not be angry, will not envy his neighbor, will not admit any other passion. For a broken hand, even if we strive ten thousand times, we shall not be able to raise on high. If, then, we so break the soul too, even if ten thousand passions puff it up and lift it, it will not be able to be raised even a little. For if someone mourning over worldly matters banishes all the diseases of the soul, much more will one who does this for his sins enjoy philosophy. “And who will be able so to break his own heart?” someone says. Hear David, who shone above all for this, and see the brokenness of his soul. For after countless achievements, when he was about to lose country and house and life itself, at the very moment of calamity, seeing a mean and outcast soldier trampling on his misfortune and reviling him, he not only did not revile him in return, but even prevented one of his generals who wished to kill him, saying: “Let him alone, for the Lord has bidden him.” And again, when the priests asked to carry the ark about with him, he did not accept; but what does he say? “Let it sit in the temple; and if God delivers me from the dangers at hand, I shall see its beauty; but if he says to me, I have no pleasure in you, here I am; let him do to me what seems good in his sight.” And what happened with Saul, once and twice and many times, what excess of philosophy does it not display? For he went beyond the old law and came near the apostolic commandments. That is why he was content with everything from the Master, not passing judgment on what happened, but eager for one thing only, to obey everywhere and follow the laws he had laid down. And seeing, after so many achievements of his own, the tyrant, the parricide, the fratricide, the insolent, the madman holding his kingdom in his place, not even so was he offended; but “if this seems good to God,” he says, “that I should be driven out and wander and flee, and he be in honor, I am content and accept it, and I give thanks for the countless ills he sends.” Not like many shameless and reckless people, who, achieving not the smallest part of what he achieved, if they see some people in prosperity while they themselves have endured a little despondency, destroy their own souls with countless blasphemies. But David was not such; he showed all gentleness. That is why God said, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart.”

Let us too acquire such a soul, and whatever we suffer we shall bear easily, and even before the kingdom we shall reap here the revenue of humility. “For learn from me,” he says, “for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” That we may enjoy rest, then, both here and there, let us with great zeal plant in our souls the mother of all good things, I mean humility. For so we shall be able to cross the sea of this life without waves, and to sail into that calm harbor, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might to the ages of ages. Amen.

“So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon until the Christ, fourteen generations.”

He divided all the generations into three parts, showing that not even when their forms of government changed did they become better; but whether ruled by aristocracy, by kings, or by oligarchy, they were in the same evils; and whether leaders of the people, or priests, or kings governed them, they gained nothing in the matter of virtue. But why in the middle part did he pass over three kings, and in the last, having set down twelve generations, say that they are fourteen? The first I leave to you to seek; for it is not necessary to solve everything for you, lest you grow slack; the second we shall explain. To me he seems here to count the time of the captivity in the rank of a generation, and Christ himself as well, joining him to us on every side. And he does well to remind them of that captivity, showing that not even when they had gone down there did they become more sober-minded; so that from every side his coming appears necessary.

“Why then,” someone says, “does Mark not do this, nor give Christ's genealogy, but say everything briefly?” It seems to me that Matthew began the work before the others; that is why he sets down the genealogy exactly and dwells on the pressing points; but Mark came after him, and so took the short road, as handling what had already been said and become plain. How then does Luke both give a genealogy and do it at greater length? Since Matthew had prepared the way, he wishes to teach us something more than what had been said. And each of them likewise imitated his teacher, the one Paul, flowing fuller than rivers, the other Peter, who was concerned with brevity.

And why did he not say at the beginning, as the prophet does, “The vision which I saw,” and “The word that came to me”? Because he was writing to well-disposed people who paid him great attention. For the miracles that had happened cried aloud, and those who received them were very faithful. But in the time of the prophets there were not so many miracles proclaiming them, and the tribe of false prophets reveled in great numbers, to whom the people of the Jews paid more attention. That is why this manner of opening was necessary with them. And if signs ever happened then, they happened for the sake of the barbarians, so that the proselytes might be many, and to display God's power whenever their enemies, having captured them, thought they had prevailed because their own gods were strong: as in Egypt, from which a great mixed multitude also went up, and afterward in Babylon, what happened with the furnace and the dreams. Signs happened also when they were by themselves in the wilderness, just as with us; for with us too, when we were coming out of error, many miracles were shown; but after that they ceased, once godliness had been planted everywhere. And if any happened after that, they were few and scattered; as when the sun stood still in its course, and again turned back. And one could see this happen in our time too. For in our own generation, under Julian, who surpassed all in ungodliness, many marvelous things happened. For when the Jews undertook to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, fire leaping out of the foundations stopped them all; and when they showed his drunken insolence toward the sacred vessels, both the treasurer and his uncle, who bore the same name, the one died eaten by worms, the other burst asunder in the middle; and that the springs failed when sacrifices were offered there, and that famine fell upon the cities together with the emperor himself, was a very great sign.