Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First is described the forty-day fast of Jesus, and after it the threefold temptation by the devil. Secondly, verse 16, Jesus in Nazareth shows from Isaiah that He is the Messiah. And when, verse 24, He showed that no prophet is accepted in his own country, the people of Nazareth wished to stone Him, but He escaped passing through their midst by divine power. Thirdly, verse 31, He preaches at Capernaum and there cures a demoniac. Fourthly, verse 38, He cures Peter's mother-in-law of fever and heals other sick persons. The first part I have explained at Matthew IV, 1 and following; the third at Mark I, 23; the fourth at Matthew VIII, 14. Therefore only the second remains to be explained here.
Vulgate Text: Luke 4:1-44
1. And Jesus, being full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan; and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, and was tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, He was hungry. 3. And the devil said to Him: If you are the Son of God, say to this stone that it become bread. 4. And Jesus answered him: It is written: That man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. 5. And the devil led Him onto a high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6. and said to Him: To you I will give all this power, and the glory of them: because they have been delivered to me; and to whomsoever I will, I give them. 7. If therefore you will adore before me, all shall be yours. 8. And Jesus answering, said to him: It is written: You shall adore the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. 9. And he led Him into Jerusalem, and set Him upon the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him: If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here. 10. For it is written that He has commanded His angels concerning you, that they should keep you; 11. and that in their hands they shall bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone. 12. And Jesus answering, said to him: It is said: You shall not tempt the Lord your God. 13. And when the whole temptation was ended, the devil departed from Him for a time. 14. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and the fame of Him went out through the whole region. 15. And He taught in their synagogues, and was glorified by all. 16. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up, and entered, according to His custom, on the sabbath day into the synagogue, and stood up to read. 17. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was delivered to Him. And as He unrolled the book, He found the place where it was written: 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me: because of which He has anointed me, to evangelize to the poor He has sent me, to heal the contrite of heart, 19. to preach release to the captives, and sight to the blind, to set the broken at liberty, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of retribution. 20. And when He had folded up the book, He returned it to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. 21. And He began to say to them: Because today this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears. 22. And all bore witness to Him, and wondered at the words of grace that proceeded from His mouth, and they said: Is not this the son of Joseph? 23. And He said to them: Surely you will say to me this proverb: Physician, heal yourself: as great things as we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your own country. 24. And He said: Amen I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country. 25. In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elijah in Israel, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, when there was a great famine in all the land; 26. and to none of them was Elijah sent, except to Sarepta of Sidon, to a widow woman. 27. And there were many lepers in Israel under Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. 28. And all in the synagogue were filled with anger, hearing these things. 29. And they rose up, and cast Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the mountain, on which their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. 30. But He, passing through the midst of them, went on. 31. And He went down into Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and there taught them on the sabbath days. 32. And they were astonished at His doctrine, because His word was with power. 33. And in the synagogue there was a man having an unclean devil, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34. saying: Let us alone, what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. 35. And Jesus rebuked him, saying: Be silent, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him into the midst, he went out of him, and hurt him not at all. 36. And fear fell upon all, and they spoke among themselves, saying: What word is this, for with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out? 37. And the fame of Him spread into every place of the region. 38. And Jesus rising up out of the synagogue, entered into Simon's house. And Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from great fevers: and they besought Him for her. 39. And standing over her, He commanded the fever; and it left her. And immediately rising, she ministered to them. 40. And when the sun was set, all those who had any sick with various diseases, brought them to Him. But He, laying His hands on each one, healed them. 41. And devils also went out from many, crying out and saying: That you are the Son of God: and rebuking them He suffered them not to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ. 42. And when it was day, He went out and went into a desert place, and the crowds sought Him, and came to Him: and they detained Him that He should not depart from them. 43. To whom He said: I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: because for this purpose I have been sent. 44. And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.
Verse 1: And Jesus, Being Full of the Holy Spirit, Returned from the Jordan
1. AND JESUS, BEING FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, RETURNED FROM THE JORDAN, — where a little before He had been baptized by John, and had visibly received the Holy Spirit, the fullness of whom He had previously obtained invisibly in the first instant of His conception.
Verse 2: And Was Tempted by the Devil
2. AND WAS TEMPTED BY THE DEVIL. — In Greek, peirazomenos, that is, suffering or sustaining temptation from the devil; namely throughout the 40 days of His fast, of which it has been said before. See what was said at Matthew IV, 5.
Verse 5: In a Moment of Time
5. IN A MOMENT OF TIME. — Why? Hear St. Ambrose: "Not so much is the swiftness of the gaze indicated, as the perishable frailty of power expressed. For in a moment all those things pass away. And often worldly honor has departed before it has come. For what of the world can be lasting, since the ages themselves are not lasting?"
Verse 14: And Jesus Returned in the Power of the Spirit into Galilee
14. AND JESUS RETURNED IN THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT INTO GALILEE. — In Greek en dynamei, that is in might, strength, force of the Spirit, as if to say: Jesus, after His baptism, returned to Galilee by the powerful impulse of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit was rousing Him, and forcefully impelling Him to bring forth the strength of the Spirit, which He had received from the beginning of His conception, but had until now kept enclosed and hidden within Himself, and to begin His office of preaching with great ardor and spirit in Galilee, and to confirm it with admirable holiness of life and stupendous miracles. Hence Theophylact translates it enthousiasmo, that is, acted upon and impelled by enthusiasm and the divine breath of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 16: And He Came to Nazareth
16. AND HE CAME TO NAZARETH. — Note that Christ, when here at verse 14 He is said to have gone into Galilee, did not enter Nazareth situated there, as Matthew has it in chapter IV, 13, but Capernaum, and there and in places near it He preached, and did those things which Matthew narrates from chapter IV to chapter XIII: all of which Luke here passes over; and afterwards much later He came to Nazareth, as Luke has it here and Matthew in chapter XIII, 54. To wit, Luke wanted to set forth at once at the beginning the reason why Christ refused to teach in Nazareth His own country, namely because He was despised by the people of Nazareth His fellow citizens, as the son of a carpenter: which cause although it occurred later, Christ nevertheless foresaw that it would happen, and therefore from the beginning He turned aside from Nazareth, and went to Capernaum, and there fixed the seat of His preaching, as Matthew IV, 13 has it.
AND HE STOOD UP TO READ. — It was the custom (and still is) among the Jews, that on the sabbath day in the synagogue each one would read the Hebrew books of holy Scripture, both that he might learn from it the law of God, and that through it he might be roused to the worship, love, and obedience of God. But to Rabbis and teachers, such as Jesus was, it belonged to read the holy Scripture publicly, and to interpret, explain, teach and preach upon it. Jesus therefore "stood up to read," that is, He rose up to read some book of holy Scripture, and to explain and preach upon it.
Verse 17: And There Was Delivered to Him the Book of the Prophet Isaiah
17. AND THERE WAS DELIVERED TO HIM (by the minister) THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. — By God's counsel and direction this was done, so that Jesus might show from Isaiah that He was the Messiah depicted by Isaiah.
AND WHEN HE HAD UNROLLED THE BOOK, HE FOUND THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS WRITTEN. — Isaiah LXI, 1. The Syriac and Arabic versions read: when He had opened the book. For Christ seems to have opened the book in such a way that not by searching and turning the leaves of the book (lest the matter seem suspect to the Jews), but by opening the book He immediately fell upon this passage of Isaiah, by God's nod and direction. Better does our version translate it "or He unrolled the book;" and Vatablus, "when He had unfolded;" others, "when He had spread out the book," for this is the Greek anaptyxas: for the books of the Hebrews were not like ours, divided into and bound by leaves, but a single book was one long and continuous membrane, which was rolled around a cylinder from beginning to end (as our geographical maps are rolled), which had to be unrolled, and so unfolded and spread out, so that it could be read. Hence in verse 20 it is said: "And when He had folded up the book." Christ therefore by slightly unrolling the book or membrane of Isaiah, immediately fell upon this passage prophesying about Himself. For this passage is at the end of Isaiah, namely chapter LXI. Christ then seized and explained it as the first thing that came to hand.
Verse 18: The Spirit of the Lord Is upon Me
18. THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME: BECAUSE OF WHICH HE HAS ANOINTED ME (as if to say: The Holy Spirit who from the beginning was in Me, here in the baptism which I recently received from John the Baptist, descending visibly upon Me in the form of a dove, while the voice of God the Father thundered: "This is My beloved Son, hear Him;" by this sign as by a visible anointing publicly declared Me, authorized Me, and as it were consecrated Me as the doctor, prophet, savior, and lawgiver of the world, and especially of the Jews, to whom I was promised, and therefore), HE HAS SENT ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. — For the rich Scribes and Pharisees despise My humility and poverty.
Note: the phrase "He has anointed Me." For the Hebrew Messiah and the Greek Christ is the same as "anointed." This anointing of Christ was done secretly at the Incarnation. First, by reason of the hypostatic union which made Him supremely anointed, holy and divine, indeed God; secondly, through the fullness of graces flowing from this union. For other Saints are said to be anointed with grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but Christ was anointed with the Holy Spirit Himself, as with the fountain and fullness of all graces, so that Christ as man might become a most abundant fountain pouring out His grace into all the Apostles, Martyrs, Virgins, and Confessors. So Basil, in the book On the Holy Spirit, chapter XXVI. But Christ was publicly anointed at His baptism, when through the Holy Spirit He was declared to be the doctor and redeemer of the world, as I have said.
I have explained the remainder of this passage at length at Isaiah LXI, 1; therefore I shall touch on them only in passing here.
TO HEAL THE CONTRITE OF HEART. — Namely that I may heal and console those who, on account of their sins and the burden of the Mosaic law, and ignorance of divine things, are afflicted in soul, and pant after the knowledge of God, pardon, grace and salvation, and therefore await the Messiah. Hence Symmachus and Theodotion translate it "to bind up the wounds of sinners," as St. Jerome attests on chapter LXI of Isaiah.
Verse 19: To Preach Redemption to the Captives
19. TO PREACH REDEMPTION TO THE CAPTIVES. — Namely that to sinners, who are held captive by sin and the devil, I may preach, announce, and bring liberation through repentance and My grace.
AND SIGHT TO THE BLIND. — The Hebrew and Chaldaic of Isaiah LXI, 1 have, "and to those bound, an opening," namely of the prison, that is, as Symmachus translates, "and to those bound, release." But the Septuagint, and from there Luke here, translates it "and sight to the blind;" in Greek anablepsin, that is, "looking again," so that they may see once more. For the Hebrews call those bound or shut in "blind," according to that saying: "Captured in the eyes like moles;" and consequently they call "opening" the illumination by which the eyes of the blind are opened: otherwise this clause would not be distinguished from the preceding, which has "redemption to captives." The sense therefore is, as if to say: Christ will both give bodily sight to the blind, and will spiritually enlighten the blind, that is, those ignorant of God and the way of salvation, and will teach them the knowledge of God and the way to save the soul. This is what Isaiah clearly foretold the Messiah would do, in chapter XLII, 7: "I have given you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, that you might open the eyes of the blind."
Hence it is clear that Isaiah, chapter LXI, 1, does not literally speak of the loosing of the Babylonian captivity accomplished by Cyrus, as Toletus would have it, but of the loosing of the captivity of sin and the devil accomplished by Christ, because Cyrus restored sight to no one, but Christ to many. Yet I confess that there is an allusion to Cyrus: for Cyrus was a type of Christ. Hence to the very Hebrews "bound" in Babylon He gave "opening and release," as the Hebrew has it, when He freed them from captivity and sent them back into Judea.
TO SET AT LIBERTY THOSE WHO ARE BRUISED, — that is, into liberty and health. The Arabic has "and to send the bound into release;" Pagninus, "that I may send forth the bruised through release." So also Vatablus. These words are not in Isaiah, chapter LXI, 1, in the Hebrew, Greek or Latin; therefore they were added by St. Luke or his interpreter as a paraphrase, and so this seems to be another explanation of what he said: "that I might heal the contrite of heart;" for the contrite and the bruised are the same. So Forerius, on chapter LXI of Isaiah; and Francisco Lucas here. Hence Origen here omits the phrase "that I might heal the contrite of heart," and in its place reads: "to send forth the bruised into liberty." And he adds: "What was so broken and crushed as man, who, being dismissed by Jesus, has been healed?" So also the phrase "that I might heal the contrite of heart" is omitted by Eusebius, book IX of the Demonstration, chapter X; St. Augustine, book II On the Harmony of the Gospels, chapter XLII; Bede and several manuscripts, which Francisco Lucas cites in his notes. On the other hand Theophylact reads "that I might heal the contrite of heart," and omits "to set at liberty those who are bruised." Furthermore St. Jerome, in his Commentary on Isaiah, chapter LXI, citing this passage of Luke, reads both, namely "to heal the contrite of heart" and "to send the bruised into liberty."
For "broken" the Greek is tetrausmenous, which Vatablus and others translate "wounded." Therefore He calls "broken" those who, bound by the prison and slavery of the devil and of sin, were wounded, shattered and as it were crushed, whom Christ made dismissed and free and restored to their integrity; and He did this both spiritually and bodily, when of course He cured and freed the sick and demoniacs from various diseases and from devils. So Maldonatus, Jansenius, Toletus, Barradius, Francisco Lucas and others. "To dismiss" therefore here and elsewhere means to free and to heal, and "dismission" or "remission" is liberty and health: for just as one is freed from chains and "dismissed" free, so from diseases and wounds one is "dismissed" healed. Hence the Hebrew rapha means to remit, to soften, to soothe, to heal: for he who remits and mitigates a disease, he cures and heals it: whence marpe is gentleness, cure, medicine, health: hence Raphael is the same as "physician of God." For this reason "to dismiss" or "to remit" in Scripture often means the same as to cure and to heal, as Luke XIII, 12: "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity;" Psalm XXXVIII, 14: "Remit to me that I may be refreshed," and elsewhere.
TO PREACH THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD, — that is, the pleasing, agreeable and joyful year; Hebrew shenat ratson; Septuagint eniauton eudokias, that is, as St. Jerome has it, "a year of placability," or as others translate more properly, "the year of good pleasure," namely of divine benevolence and liberality, such as was the year of jubilee, to which He here alludes. For the year of jubilee was a type and figure of this Evangelical year which Christ brought. Therefore the whole time of Christ's preaching and afterwards, namely the whole time of the new law, or of Christianity, is for those obeying Christ and accepting His liberality the year of jubilee, that is, the year of grace, mercy, peace, remission, liberality, salvation, in which after the long anger of God against us we are restored to His grace, acceptance, benevolence, inheritance, glory and all the original goods which we had in paradise in the state of innocence. This is what Paul says: "Behold now is the acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation," 2 Corinthians VI, 2.
AND THE DAY OF RETRIBUTION. — yom nakam, that is the day of vengeance, as if to say: The year of jubilee, that is the time of Christianity, or of the law of grace, will for the enemies of Christ be a day, that is a time of vengeance, in which namely God will avenge the human race on His enemies and tyrants, namely the demons oppressing it, because Christ will free men from demons and will drive and cast them down from their tyranny, according to the words of Isaiah, chapter XXXV, 4: "Say to the fainthearted: Be strengthened and fear not: behold your God will bring the vengeance of recompense. God Himself will come and will save you." Hence Christ in John XII, 31 says: "Now is the judgment of the world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." And Paul, Colossians II, 15: "Despoiling the principalities and powers, He has led them away confidently, openly triumphing over them in Himself."
Verse 20: And When He Had Folded Up the Book
20. AND WHEN HE HAD FOLDED UP (rolled up into the cylinder, as I said at verse 17) THE BOOK, HE GAVE IT BACK TO THE MINISTER, AND SAT DOWN. AND THE EYES OF ALL IN THE SYNAGOGUE WERE FIXED UPON HIM, — "or that they might hear how He would interpret what He had read," says Euthymius. For already from His words and deeds in Capernaum His fame had spread everywhere, and many supposed Him to be the Messiah; and this above all they desired to hear from Christ. For they knew that the passage of Isaiah read by Him was an oracle concerning the Messiah: hence as He was explaining it they listened to Him with eager ears.
Verse 21: Today This Scripture Has Been Fulfilled in Your Ears
21. AND HE BEGAN TO SAY TO THEM: BECAUSE (that) TODAY THIS SCRIPTURE HAS BEEN FULFILLED (which sounded, says Euthymius and the Syriac) IN YOUR EARS. — as if to say: Today, in your hearing, this prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled, while you hear Me preaching the gospel to you and to the rest of the poor Galileans the year of full remission, and ready to perform (indeed, in Capernaum already having performed) all the things which Isaiah here foretold: for I am the Messiah of whom Isaiah there prophesies, whom you, from the oracle of Jacob and Daniel, eagerly await as already imminent. For although Jesus does not clearly express that He is the Messiah, nevertheless He tacitly signifies the same thing.
Verse 22: And All Bore Witness to Him
22. AND ALL BORE WITNESS TO HIM, AND WONDERED AT THE WORDS OF GRACE WHICH PROCEEDED FROM HIS MOUTH, AND THEY SAID: IS NOT THIS THE SON OF JOSEPH? — He calls "words of grace," first, gracious, charming, sweet, pleasant words; secondly, words full of grace and spirit; thirdly, efficacious to move and persuade; fourthly, full of wisdom and eloquence, such that they convinced their hearers. For Christ spoke with a more than human tongue, indeed angelic as an angel, or rather divine as a God-man, according to that saying: "For He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the Scribes," Matthew VII, 29; see what was said there. The rest is more fully narrated by Matthew, chapter XIII, 55, where I have explained these things.
THEY BORE WITNESS TO HIM, — that He spoke well and beautifully and graciously, not however that He was the Messiah. Hence they call Him "the son of Joseph:" for a little later, when they were rebuked by Him, they despised Him and wanted to cast Him down headlong, as follows. So today many praise a preacher, as long as he says pleasing and elegant things to them; but when he attacks their vices, they revile and persecute him. This is the way and custom of the fickle crowd, which loves itself and its own desires.
Bede however takes this testimony as referring to the Messiah, namely that they were testifying that He was the Messiah, of whom Isaiah had sung these things. Whence Bede adds: "Great blindness, when those whom they recognize by His words and deeds to be the Christ, they despise on account only of knowledge of His family, because they had seen Him brought up among them, and growing up through the periods of His age."
Verse 23: Physician, Heal Yourself
23. AND HE SAID (Jesus, as the Syriac adds) TO THEM: SURELY YOU WILL SAY TO ME THIS SIMILITUDE (Greek parabolen, that is parable, that is a common proverb or adage): PHYSICIAN, HEAL YOURSELF, — that is, take care of your own people and your country, which ought to be as dear to you as you are to yourself: take care of your fellow-citizens of Nazareth, as you have taken care of, or are said to have taken care of, the foreign Capernaites. For so Christ shortly explains, who by the divine spirit saw the hidden thoughts of the Nazarenes; namely that they were rolling this in their minds which He here pronounces. Hence He meets and answers their hidden thought and objection by anticipating it. Furthermore "it was a worn and customary saying among the Jews, says Titus, that they would receive doctors who had fallen into sickness with this trite and witty saying: Physician, heal yourself." For so the common sense of men holds, which reason itself favors, that he who cannot or neglects to heal himself, likewise cannot or neglects to heal others. Although in fact experience often shows that doctors who heal others often cannot heal themselves, but commit themselves to be healed by other doctors, because appetite often blinds reason, and disease clouds knowledge. Hence we judge better and more sincerely of others' diseases than of our own. For self-love often perverts judgment. Whence Solomon warns and says: "Do not lean on your own prudence," Proverbs III, 5.
Tropologically, St. Anthony expounded this adage "Physician, heal yourself" thus, as if to say: He who wishes to cure the vices of others, let him first cure his own: for those who wish to help others before they have healed themselves, fall back into their own vices. But hear St. Anthony himself, in the Lives of the Holy Fathers, book VII, chapter III: "The fathers of Zatzqui went out into the desert, and they themselves, being made whole, became physicians, and on returning healed others: but among us if anyone happens to go out into the desert, before we ourselves are healed, we apply care to others, and our infirmity returns to us, and our last state becomes worse than the first; on which account it is said to us: O physician, first attend to your own care." Indeed experience teaches that those who heal some vice in themselves easily heal the same in others. Like this proverb is that of Plutarch, in his book On Discerning a Flatterer from a Friend: "He heals others, while himself teeming with ulcers," which is cast at those who are wise for others, not for themselves; sharp-eyed and cautious for others, not for themselves; who know how to console and encourage others, when they themselves bear their own ills with an unjust spirit. For, as the same Plutarch writes to Apollonius: "For a sick soul speech, sweet and soothing, is the physician," not life, not virtue. It is therefore easy to console others in their afflictions, but difficult to console oneself.
AS GREAT THINGS AS WE HAVE HEARD DONE IN CAPERNAUM, DO ALSO HERE IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY. — Hence it is clear that these things happened in Nazareth, after Jesus had preached and performed many miracles in the city of Capernaum, as I said at verse 16, and as St. Augustine notes, book II On the Harmony of the Gospels, chapter XLII; as if to say (the Gloss says): "We do not believe what uncertain rumor has spread abroad, since you have done nothing of the kind among us, to whom it would have been more fitting to bestow such benefits." For here in Nazareth your country, which conceived you, nourished you, and brought you up to manhood, you have brothers, sisters, kinsmen, neighbors, some poor, some sick, others otherwise afflicted: why then do you not by miracle help these your own, to whom kinship, love of country and the very charity of nature more strongly bind you?
Verse 24: No Prophet Is Accepted in His Own Country
24. AND HE SAID: AMEN (that is, truly, or in truth) I SAY TO YOU, THAT NO PROPHET IS ACCEPTED IN HIS OWN COUNTRY, — for the reasons which I have set forth at Matthew XIII, 57, as if to say: You, O Nazarenes, despise Me as your fellow-citizen and the son of a carpenter: hence you are unworthy that I should bestow My benefits upon you. Therefore, says the Interlinear Gloss, I do not work among you, because you are unbelieving, not because I hate My country. St. Cyril adds, because a citizen is always at hand to his fellow citizens, hence due reverence is taken from him by acquaintances. Thirdly St. Chrysostom: Christ, he says, abstained from miracles among His own Nazarenes, lest He provoke them to envy; for, as St. Ambrose says, God is the despiser of the envious: because, as the Gloss says, it is almost natural for citizens to envy citizens, and they do not consider virtue, but recall fragile infancy.
Truly Chrysologus says in sermon 48, at the end: "To have power among one's own," he says, "is biting, is burning; among fellow-citizens to surpass one's neighbors burns the glory of those neighbors: if neighbors owe a neighbor honor, they reckon it as servitude." There is a witty fable on this subject about the parrot. A parrot, brought from the East to the West, where birds of this kind were not accustomed to be born, marvels that it is held in greater value and honor than it had been accustomed to in its native place; for it inhabited an ivory cage woven with silver bars, and was fed with the most delicious foods, which did not happen to other Western birds, which were not inferior either in form or in the production of human voices. Then the turtledove shut up in the same cage said: "This is no wonder at all, for no one is wont to receive deserved honor in his own country."
Tropologically: here Christ teaches the faithful, especially Religious and Apostolic men, that they ought to moderate or put off excessive affection for their country and parents, that they may benefit the whole world, according to that verse: "Every soil is to the brave man a country, as the sea is to fish." Hence Socrates, condemned to death by his fellow Athenians, said that he was a Cosmopolite, that is, a citizen of the world. And the Comic Poet says: "The best men, like horses, are to be sought outside one's country." The common country of all is Rome. So for Hercules every land was a country, says Plutarch, in the treatise On Exile. St. Gregory Nazianzen excellently says, in oration 18: "One country there is for great and lofty men, namely that Jerusalem which is perceived by the mind, not those which we see here circumscribed by narrow boundaries, and inhabited successively by different men." The same, in oration 25: "These earthly countries," he says, "and these distinctions of races, are scenes and games of this brief and fleeting life of ours. For whatever land each one has previously occupied, whether through tyranny or through calamity, that is called his country, of which we are all equally guests and strangers, however much we may play with the names of words." Such was St. Basil, of whom St. Gregory of Nyssa writes thus in his Life: "Free from the fear of exile was Basil the Great, because he held that the one country of men is paradise, and looked on every land as the common exile of nature."
Such also was Paulus Orosius, a friend of St. Augustine, who in book V of Against the Pagans writes thus of himself: "Among Romans a Roman, among Christians a Christian, among men a man, by laws I appeal to the commonwealth, by religion to conscience, by communion to nature. I use every land temporarily as a country, because that which is true, and the country which I love, is not in this earth at all. I have lost nothing where I have loved nothing; and I have all things, when He whom I love is with me: especially because among all He is the same who makes me not only known to all, but also a neighbor to all; nor does He desert me when in want, because His is the earth and the fullness thereof, from which He has commanded that all things should be common to all."
Verse 25: There Were Many Widows in the Days of Elijah
25. IN TRUTH I SAY TO YOU, THERE WERE MANY WIDOWS IN THE DAYS OF ELIJAH IN ISRAEL, WHEN HEAVEN WAS SHUT UP FOR THREE YEARS AND SIX MONTHS, WHEN THERE WAS A GREAT FAMINE IN ALL THE LAND: 26. AND TO NONE OF THEM WAS ELIJAH SENT, EXCEPT TO SAREPTA OF SIDON, TO A WIDOW WOMAN. WHEN HEAVEN WAS SHUT UP, — that is, when heaven did not rain upon the earth; for rain opens heaven, that is the air, as if shut, and divides it with its drops.
FOR THREE YEARS AND SIX MONTHS. — This is not in the Old Testament Scripture, but Jesus knew it, as God, and revealed the same to St. James, chapter V of his Epistle, verse 17; for what is said in 3 Kings XVIII, 1: "The word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying: Go and show yourself to Ahab, that I may give rain upon the face of the earth;" that third year is to be reckoned not from the beginning of the drought, but from Elijah's stay in Sarepta.
IN ALL THE LAND — of Israel and the region neighboring it, such as were Sidon and Sarepta, in which was this widow. The sense is, as if to say: Just as Elijah in the time of famine procured bread and food for no Israelite, but only for the widow of Sarepta, who was a Sidonian, that is a Gentile and a foreigner, because she greatly esteemed Elijah, and believed his prophecy that God would provide for his hunger, and therefore gave the little oil and flour that she had as food to Elijah, preferring him to her own and her children's necessity; which was the remarkable faith of the widow, equally with her charity, on account of which she deserved to be preferred to the Israelites. So I also prefer the Capernaites to you, O Nazarenes my fellow-citizens, because they hear, honor and obey Me as a teacher sent from heaven; but you despise Me as your fellow-citizen and a carpenter: therefore I impart to them the spiritual bread of heavenly doctrine and of miracles, but I leave you in spiritual famine, that is in want of the saving doctrine. For Elijah was a type and forerunner of Christ, the widow of Sarepta was a type and the firstfruits of the Gentiles, whom Christ preferred to the Jews His fellow-citizens. For, as Bede says, "Sidon" in Hebrew is the same as "useless hunting;" "Sarepta," a burning or distress, namely of bread, that is, the Gentile world serving the affairs of the age and suffering the burning of carnal desires and the distress of spiritual bread. Elijah is the prophetic word, which when received feeds the hearts of believers.
Tropologically, St. Basil in the Catena says: The widow is the soul widowed of virtue and divine knowledge, which Elijah, that is the divine word received in the mind, nourishes with the breads of virtues.
Verse 27: And There Were Many Lepers in Israel under Elisha
27. AND THERE WERE MANY LEPERS IN ISRAEL UNDER ELISHA THE PROPHET: AND NONE OF THEM WAS CLEANSED EXCEPT NAAMAN THE SYRIAN, — and therefore a foreigner and a Gentile, not a Jew. He proves the same thing by another example and type from Elisha, as if to say: Just as Elisha, following his master Elijah, did not prophesy to his fellow Jews but to foreigners, and therefore cleansed from leprosy not the lepers who were in Judea, but Naaman the Syrian and Gentile, because of His faith and their unbelief. For Naaman from Syria came by a long journey and at great expense into Judaea to Elisha, believing that he would be cured of leprosy by him, and he honored him and offered him great gifts, and in all things obeyed him as a heavenly Prophet, so that when he humbly bade him — not through himself, but through a messenger — to wash seven times in the Jordan, he obeyed, and was therefore cleansed of that leprosy: all of which the lepers who were in Israel certainly would not have done for Elisha. So I too, Christ, preach and work miracles among the foreign Capharnaites, because of their faith, reverence, and benevolence toward Me: but you, O Nazarenes, on account of your unbelief, irreverence, and contempt of Me, I forsake. For Elisha, just like Elijah, was a type and forerunner of Christ; Naaman the Gentile was a type of the Gentiles, to whom Christ, leaving the Jews behind, was about to transfer His faith, Church, and grace through the Apostles. So Bede, Titus, Theophylact, Euthymius, Jansenius, Toletus, and others.
Verse 28: And All in the Synagogue Were Filled with Wrath
28. AND ALL IN THE SYNAGOGUE WERE FILLED WITH WRATH, HEARING THESE THINGS. — Both because they knew that by these two examples of the widow and Naaman they were being stung as unbelievers and reproached as unworthy of Jesus' miracles; and because they were indignant that Jesus, who was their fellow citizen and equal, was setting Himself before them and comparing Himself with Elijah and Elisha, indeed making Himself the Messiah out of Isaiah's oracle; and because Christ tacitly signified that He would transfer His gifts from the Jews to the Gentiles. So St. Thomas, Toletus, Franciscus Lucas, and others.
Verse 29: And They Brought Him to the Brow of the Hill
29. AND THEY ROSE UP AND CAST HIM OUT OF THE CITY, AND BROUGHT HIM TO THE BROW OF THE HILL UPON WHICH THEIR CITY WAS BUILT, THAT THEY MIGHT THROW HIM DOWN HEADLONG. — "They led Him" — rather, they dragged Him by force, unwillingly as it seemed to them, but in truth Christ allowed Himself to be drawn and led of His own will. "To the brow," to the summit, to the top, "of the hill upon which their city (Nazareth) was built." For cities adjacent to a mountain are usually built not at the bottom, nor at the top, but in the middle of the mountain (as we see Florence in the middle of the Apennines): both because at the bottom the air is thick and earthy, at the top too sharp and thin, but in the middle the air is temperate and moderate, neither too thick nor too thin; and because at the top winds, lightning, and storms rage, according to that saying:
The winds blow through the highest places,
and that other:
and thunderbolts
strike the highest mountains.
THAT THEY MIGHT THROW HIM DOWN HEADLONG — from the top to the bottom, and so kill Him, as one who had defamed his own homeland and afflicted it with great injury and disgrace; and so they led Him outside the city as though unworthy of it, to the summit of the mountain, that, as an impious man toward his country, He might be hurled down from it onto the rocks, dashed to pieces and shattered in His whole body. Great was this injury and violence of the Nazarenes against Christ, their fellow citizen; and so they confirmed in fact what Christ had said to them, says Euthymius — namely, that a Prophet is not held in honor in his own country, but is dishonored in it, indeed killed; and therefore the Nazarenes are unworthy of the preaching and miracles of Christ.
St. Bonaventure, Toletus, and others add that they led Jesus outside the city to the top of the mountain in order to kill Him as a blasphemer, since He had made Himself the Messiah. For granted that a blasphemer was to be stoned by the law, yet they wished to throw Christ down upon the rocks and stones, because this is just the same as if they had stoned Him. For it is the same whether you cast stones at a man or cast a man down upon stones — indeed, the latter is fiercer and more terrible than the former. So they cast St. Stephen out of Jerusalem and stoned him as a blasphemer. So likewise they cast down St. James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, from the pinnacle of the temple as a blasphemer, because he taught that Jesus is the Messiah.
Furthermore, St. Ambrose shows that they were worse than the devil; for he, having set Christ on the pinnacle of the temple, only said: "Cast Yourself down"; but these men strove to hurl Him down by force. Hear St. Ambrose: "The inheritance of the disciples is worse than that of the master: he tempts the Lord by word, these by deed; he says, Cast Yourself down; they rush upon Him to cast Him down."
Verse 30: But He, Passing through the Midst of Them, Went His Way
30. BUT HE, PASSING THROUGH THE MIDST OF THEM, WENT HIS WAY. — Maldonatus thinks that Christ here made Himself invisible; St. Ambrose and Bede think that Christ changed the will of the Nazarenes, so that they wished to let Him go. Others, more correctly, hold that Christ either turned aside their imagination or their eyes, or astonished them, and held back their feet and hands, so that, as though stupefied, though they saw Christ, they could not lay hold of Him, or did not dare to. Therefore Christ here shows His divinity, and that He is God. Hence St. Ambrose: "Behold," he says, "through the midst of them, the minds of the raging men suddenly changed or stupefied, He went down." And he adds the reason: "For when He wills, He is taken; when He wills, He escapes; when He wills, He is killed: because His hour had not yet come," John VII, 30. For He still had to preach, and finally, by the Father's decree, to be crucified at Jerusalem, not thrown down at Nazareth. So Bede, St. Chrysostom, Euthymius, and others.
Brocardus, in his Description of the Holy Land, hands down that Christ, having slipped from the hands of the Jews, suddenly appeared on the opposite side of the mountain, and that for this reason that place is called "the Leap of the Lord." Lyranus adds that the rock on which Christ stood gave way and, like wax, received the impressed footprints of Christ, just as Christ, ascending into heaven from the Mount of Olives, left there the imprints of His feet. Hear also Adrichomius, in his Description of the Holy Land, on the phrase "the Leap of the Lord": They relate that Christ fled to a high mountain, which is therefore called the Leap of the Lord, and that suddenly, at the touch of His garment, the rock gave way underneath and, like wax melted and dissolved, formed a certain hollow in which the Lord's body was enclosed and received — of just such capacity as the Lord's body itself was in size. In which to this day all the lineaments and folds of the garment that were behind the Lord, and the imprints of His feet, are preserved as if expressed by a sculptor's hand. But these things do not have certain credibility.
Verse 32: And They Were Astonished at His Doctrine
32. AND THEY WERE ASTONISHED AT HIS DOCTRINE, BECAUSE HIS WORD WAS WITH POWER. — In Greek en exousia, that is, in liberty, authority, power, force, and efficacy, for He taught "as one having power," Matthew XIII, 52. See what is said there.
Verse 33: And in the Synagogue There Was a Man Having an Unclean Devil
33. AND IN THE SYNAGOGUE THERE WAS A MAN HAVING AN UNCLEAN DEVIL. — We have heard this story at Mark I, 23, where I have explained it.
Verse 38: Now Simon's Mother-in-Law Was Held by Great Fevers
38. NOW SIMON'S MOTHER-IN-LAW WAS HELD BY GREAT FEVERS. — We have heard her cure at Matthew VIII, 14. See what is said there.