Fragments on Matthew (complete)

Here the evangelist speaks of the “birth,” but at the beginning of the Gospel of the “genesis.” For here he says, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was thus,” but there, “The book of the genesis of Jesus Christ.” What, then, is the difference between birth and genesis? And how are both taken of Christ? Just as this spoken word is by its own nature intangible and invisible, but when it is written in a book and, as it were, given a body, then it is both seen and touched, so also the Word of God, without flesh and without body, neither seen nor written according to his deity, is both seen and written because he became flesh. For this reason, as one who became flesh, there is also a book of his genesis. But what is asked here is not why he said “book” and did not say “vision” or “word,” but what birth is and what genesis is. Genesis and birth differ. For genesis is the first fashioning by God, but birth is the succession from one another that comes from the sentence of death because of the transgression. And again, genesis has incorruptibility and sinlessness, but birth has passibility and sinfulness. The Lord, then, taking from genesis its sinlessness by nature, did not take on its incorruptibility; and having taken from birth its passibility, he did not take on its sinfulness, bearing the first Adam undiminished in both respects. So in Christ genesis would be, not a coming forth from non-being into being, but a road from existing in the form of God to taking up the form of a slave; and his birth was twofold, like us and beyond us. For to be born of a woman is like us; but to be born not of the will of the flesh or of a man but of the Holy Spirit is beyond us. …

“… and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” So that the disciples may not be ignorant who among their hearers are dogs or swine, seek persistently from God, he says, and everything will be revealed to you. For the beginning of virtue is to know the good through prayer; next, to know how one must travel the road of virtue; third, to knock through works so that the door may be opened to oneself. For in this way the truth of the saving doctrines is grasped: by diligent prayer, by the settled state of the mind's ruling part in seeking divine things, and, so as to find with full awareness the depth of the sure meaning of the hidden Scriptures, by careful inquiry. For in this way, he says, the Scriptures are opened.

… to him? But see whether … knowledge is food, without which it is not possible to be saved, such as the precise teaching on how one must eat. A fish, and as it were a relish for one eager to learn, is to know the constitution of the world, the working of the elements, beginning and end and middle, and all that Wisdom goes on to say. Neither does God give a stone instead of bread, the stone that the devil wanted Jesus to eat; nor a serpent instead of a fish, the serpent that the Ethiopians eat, who are unworthy to eat fish. But how did he call the disciples evil? For even if they followed him by their own choice, still they had the changeableness of what is human. Only the Son of God was unchangeable, both in deity and in humanity. By “good gifts” he means the spiritual gifts. Luke said “Holy Spirit” instead of saying “good things,” and there is no difference. For the Holy Spirit is himself the good light; therefore he gives good things to those who share in him. But for the exceedingly wicked, through sinning without relenting, wickedness becomes in a way a nature, as it is for Satan and the demons. For one can call these too evil by nature, although they were not created evil by nature, but from their own choice …

“… will come and recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” If the road is narrow and hard and those who find it are few, by which road will the many enter? For it is of the broad and spacious road that he says that many will enter by it. And we say that the Saviour's saying was spoken because few … were being saved from Israel; for not many believed in him. Therefore he also said, “Do not fear, little flock, for God has been pleased with you.” But “many will come” was said prophetically, of those from the nations who would believe in him. “Many,” he says, in comparison with those who did not believe after his coming: those from the nations who will recline with Abraham and those descended from him in the kingdom of heaven; and in number these are many times more than those from Israel who confess Jesus Christ.

“… the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent seize it.” We say that he calls Christ himself “the lesser,” lesser in the opinion of those who heard him. And “in the kingdom of heaven” shows that in spiritual things, and in all heavenly and divine things, Christ is greater than John. We shall read it thus: “The lesser”; then, after a short pause, we shall add, “in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” And the kingdom of heaven is Christ himself, urging all to repentance and drawing them to himself through grace.

“… going out, took counsel against him, how they might destroy him.” So long as someone is near to Jesus, he does not take such counsel. For the counsel of the wicked does not come near to Jesus. But when someone goes outside Jesus, he takes counsel to destroy the light, the good way, the life, the treasure, the one who bore witness, love, peace. Whoever destroys him is called a son of destruction.

For he was not to remain with the sons of destruction. They lost him; we, who did not seek him, found him. For “I was found,” he says, “by those who did not seek me; I became manifest to those who did not ask for me.” For he came to the lost sheep, but they forgot their own shepherd. He withdraws, not because he fears the plot but to check their wickedness; and lest anyone think he withdrew from cowardice, he healed them all, showing his almighty power. Yet he forbids it to be made public, because he is gentle and free of vainglory.

“… like treasure hidden in a field,” and so on. According to another interpretation the field would be … and in the scriptural and historical writings; and the treasure is the various meanings in them, both manifest and hidden, and Christ, the precious treasure of Scripture. Or the field is Christ, in whom, Paul says, are hidden the secret treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God. The heavenly realities, then, and the kingdom of heaven are written as in an image in the Scriptures, which are the kingdom of heaven; and the kingdom is Christ himself, the knowledge of whom is in us according to our capacity; it is found through faith and bought through the virtues. Having found this treasure in the Scriptures, then, one hides it, knowing that it is not without danger to share secret things with chance comers. And having hidden it, he goes off to buy the field at whatever price he must: the field with which the Hebrews were entrusted before, from whom he receives it, and which in another parable is a vineyard; he makes it his own possession, having sold all that he has. And these things were wickedness, so that by no longer living for them he is made dead to the whole world and to its desires. Those who have written about pearls say that there are six kinds of them, of which the best are those formed in India in shells from the heavenly dew. The lesser pearls, then, are the inquiries of the law and of the prophets and of the rest of Scripture; and whoever seeks them laboriously, giving them up in trade, seeks Christ, the pearl better than all of these, counting all these things, though they are present and good, as loss and refuse for the knowledge of Christ. Again, the net is the weaving of the old words of Scripture, which seemed incomplete, and which Christ completed at his coming. Cast into the sea of this life, it gathers not different natures but free wills and choices, including those who are blameworthy in their leanings toward the forms of the virtues or of the vices. Besides, what is gathered “of every kind” can signify the calling from every race. And the angels will not draw the net up onto the shore, that is, to the realities outside this life, until it is filled with the fullness of the nations; but when it is filled they will draw it up, and they will restore each of the good ones under the net to his own rank, according to what are here called their vessels; but the rotten they will throw outside. And “outside” is the furnace of fire, as the Saviour says in what follows; for bad fish are thrown outside, but bad people into the furnace of fire. [Verse 47.] “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea.” The intelligible weaving of the net is the Old and New Scripture, made of varied meanings; the sea, the wave-tossed life of human beings; “every kind,” the variety of choices among human beings, the … calling of all nations; the workers of the net, the Lord and the angels who came to serve him; the vessels, the different dwelling places. The net is not drawn up until the fullness of the nations has come in. Or thus: the net is the apostolic teaching, which takes in Jews and Greeks, barbarians, Scythians, slaves, free, wicked and good, without distinction. The sea is human life; the shore, its end. And at the consummation, when the net is drawn up, the good are separated from the bad, the one honoured, the other punished. For the way of life of all the faithful is not alike. And lest anyone think that the unbelieving and wicked are only thrown outside, he indicated that they are sent on to everlasting punishment: “And they will throw them into the furnace of fire,” and so on.