Commentary on Matthew

Contents

Reading pages: 1–3 · 4 · 5–6 · 7–9 · 10 · 11–12 · 13–14 · 15–17 · 18–19 · 20–21 · 22–24 · 25–30 · 31–33

1. 1Hilary reconciles the genealogies, explains the omitted kings, defends Mary’s perpetual virginity, and interprets the Magi, the flight to Egypt, and the slaughter of the innocents.
2. 2Hilary reads Joseph’s return as a figure of the apostles turning to the Gentiles, interprets John the Baptist’s desert, clothing, food, and preaching, and explains Christ’s baptism as the pattern of ours.
3. 3Hilary interprets Christ’s temptation: the devil, unsure of who he was, was defeated by the flesh he could see; then the call of the four fishermen and the Galilean ministry.
4. 4Hilary expounds the Sermon on the Mount from the Beatitudes to almsgiving: the apostles as salt and light, Christ fulfilling the law, and the Gospel’s stricter precepts on anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and love of enemies.
5. 5Hilary treats secret prayer, fasting, treasure in heaven, the eye as lamp, the two masters, freedom from anxiety (applied to the resurrection body), the lilies as angels, the grass as the nations destined for fire, and judging and the beam in the eye.
6. 6Holy things are not to be given to dogs (pagans) or pigs (heretics); Hilary treats asking and receiving, the golden rule, the narrow gate, false prophets known by fruits, and the houses on rock and sand.
7. 7The leper, the tribune’s servant, Peter’s mother-in-law, the evening healings, the scribe, and the disciple who would bury his father are read as figures of the believing crowd, the nations, unbelief healed, and the church as Christ’s ship.
8. 8The calming of the storm shows Christ watching over the church; the Gadarene demoniacs and the pigs figure the nations freed and the heretical Sadducees; the healing of the paralytic shows Christ as God forgiving sins and promising resurrection.
9. 9Matthew’s call and banquet, the question about fasting, the patches and wineskins, the ruler’s daughter and the woman with the flow of blood, the two blind men, and the mute demoniac are read as figures of grace to sinners, the law, and the nations.
10. 10Hilary expounds the mission discourse: the harvest of the Spirit, the apostles’ equipment, the worthy house as the catholic church, peace given or withheld, the serpent’s prudence, persecution, the sparrows, the sword dividing the five in one house (body, soul, will, sin, unbelief), taking up the cross, and receiving Christ’s messengers.
11. 11John’s question from prison is for his disciples; Jesus praises John, rebukes the unbelieving generation, affirms that he is Wisdom by nature, reproaches the unrepentant cities, and reveals the Father in mutual knowledge, offering his easy yoke.
12. 12The grain fields, David’s loaves, the withered hand, Isaiah’s servant, the Beelzebub charge, blasphemy against the Spirit, the good and bad tree, the returning unclean spirit, and Jesus’ true family are expounded as figures of the apostles’ mission, Christ’s divinity, and Israel’s unbelief.
13. 13Hilary expounds the parables of Matthew 13: Christ in the boat as the church, the mustard seed, the leaven in three measures (law, prophets, Gospels), the hidden treasure, the pearl, and the net.
14. 14Hilary treats the scribe of the kingdom, Jesus rejected at Nazareth, John’s death as the law silenced by Israel’s pleasure and unbelief, the feeding of the five thousand as the law and prophets turned into gospel food, and the walking on the water as Christ’s return to the storm-tossed church, with Peter’s faith and fall.
15. 15After rebuking the Pharisees’ traditions, Jesus heals the Canaanite woman’s daughter, a figure of the proselytes and the nations; the feeding of the four thousand with seven loaves signifies the nations nourished by the sevenfold Spirit.
16. 16Jesus refuses a sign except that of Jonah, warns against the Pharisees’ leaven, receives Peter’s confession (with Hilary’s statement of the Son’s eternal generation and incarnation and his praise of Peter as foundation and doorkeeper), rebukes the devil’s suggestion through Peter, and calls disciples to take up the cross.
17. 17Hilary expounds the transfiguration (six days as six thousand years, Moses and Elijah as law and prophets), Elijah and John, the epileptic boy and the mustard-seed faith, the second passion prediction, and the temple tax as a figure of Stephen, the first martyr.
18. 18Hilary treats becoming like children, the millstone and stumbling blocks (applied to the Jews’ rejection of Christ), the angels of the little ones, the lost sheep as humanity and the ninety-nine as the angels, correction of a brother, binding and loosing, and unlimited forgiveness.
19. 19Hilary leaves the question of divorce untouched (referring readers to the words of Jesus, the disciples, and Paul), explains the three kinds of eunuchs, reads the children as the nations, and the rich young man as Israel trusting in the law, with the camel through the needle as the nations entering by the gospel.
20. 20Hilary expounds the disciples’ fear and the apostles’ thrones in the regeneration, the laborers in the vineyard (hours as covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and the incarnation), the request of the sons of Zebedee (with Moses and Elijah as the two witnesses), humility in leadership, and the two blind men of Jericho as the nations.
21. 21Hilary expounds the triumphal entry (the donkey and colt as Samaritans and nations), the cleansing of the temple (sellers of doves as those who sell the Spirit’s gift), the children’s praise, the cursed fig tree as the synagogue, the question about John’s baptism, and the two sons.
22. 22Hilary expounds the wicked tenants (vineyard as Israel, winepresses as prophets, tower as law, the son as Christ cast out) and the wedding feast (the resurrection, the bulls as martyrs, the guests as Israel then the nations, the wedding garment as the Spirit’s glory).
23. 23Hilary treats the tribute to Caesar (we owe God body, soul, and will), the Sadducees’ question (in the resurrection women will be like angels; God of the living), the great commandment (the neighbor is Christ; love of Father and Son equal), and David’s Lord as showing unity of substance.
24. 24Hilary expounds the woes against the scribes and Pharisees: obey the law they teach but not their deeds, the shut kingdom, the proselyte made a son of Gehenna, oaths by the temple, tithing herbs, the whitewashed tombs, the killing of the prophets, and the lament over Jerusalem, with Christ as a hen gathering her chicks.
25. 25Hilary expounds Matthew 24:1–28: the temple’s destruction, false Christs (Simon Magus) and false prophets (Nicolaus), the fall of Jerusalem after the gospel is preached, the abomination of desolation as Antichrist, and the flight, housetop, pregnant women, and winter flight read as figures of the soul, with the eagles gathered at the place of the passion.
26. 26Hilary expounds Christ’s coming in glory (Matt 24:29–44): the fig tree’s branch as Antichrist, the passing of heaven and earth, the Son’s “ignorance” of the day as a merciful silence, the two in the field, at the mill, and in the bed (believers and unbelievers, believing and unbelieving Jews, catholics and heretics), and the call to watch.
27. 27Hilary applies the faithful and unfaithful servant to bishops, interprets the ten virgins (bridegroom and bride as the divine Spirit and the flesh in Christ, lamps as souls shining from baptism, oil as good works), and, after a gap in the text, the servant who hid his talent as the people of the law.
28. 28In the judgment of the sheep and goats, Christ is fed, clothed, and visited in his least ones; then he foretells his passion as the Jews plot his death.
29. 29The woman anointing Jesus at Bethany prefigures the nations glorifying God in Christ’s passion and buried with him in baptism, while Israel, in Judas, is roused to hatred.
30. 30Hilary treats the preparation of the Passover with an unnamed host (the future Christian), says Judas left before the Eucharist and did not share in it, and expounds the hymn, the prediction of the scattering, and Peter’s protest.
31. 31In Gethsemane, Hilary argues against those (who deny the Son’s eternity) who say Christ feared death: his sorrow “even to death” was for the disciples, lest they deny his divinity, and his prayer that the cup pass from him asks that his strength in suffering pass to them.
32. 32Hilary treats Judas’s kiss (love of enemies), the sword and the servant’s ear, the trial before the high priest, Peter’s denials, Judas’s remorse and the potter’s field as the world bought by Christ’s blood for strangers, and Jesus’ answers to the priest and to Pilate.
33. 33Hilary expounds the passion and resurrection: Pilate’s wife as the believing nations, Barabbas as Antichrist, the mocking robes as martyrs and prophets, the cross at the center of the earth, the cry of dereliction as the voice of the body, the vinegar as Adam’s soured immortality, the burial as Christ entering the hearts of the nations, and the women as first witnesses of the resurrection.