91. Oh, truly divine providence in humility itself! For the lower the humility, the more divine the providence. God reveals Himself in the bitterness of His injuries, and He proves Himself through the use of His remedies, even though He needs no remedies. For what is more divine than to call upon the people so that no one shall refuse the bath of grace, when Christ Himself did not refuse the bath of repentance? Let no one say that he is free from sin, when Christ came as a remedy for sins. If Christ washed for us, rather he washed us in his body, how much more should we wash away our own sins? Therefore, by what work, by what mystery does God prove this more than by this (although God is in all things); when throughout the whole world, where the condition of the human race is spread, through the divisions and regions of separation, in one moment, in one body, God abolished the deceit of the ancient error and poured out the grace of the heavenly kingdom. For one person plunged, but he lifted up everyone: one person descended, so that we all might ascend, one person took on the sins of all, so that in him all sins might die. Therefore, purify yourselves, as the apostle says (James, IV, 8), because he purified himself for us, who had no need of purification. This is about us.
92. Now let us consider the mystery of the Trinity. We say there is one God, but we confess the Father and the Son as God. For it is written: You shall love the Lord your God and serve him alone (Deut. X, 20), and the Son denied that he is alone, saying: But I am not alone, for the Father is with me (John XVI, 32). And now he is not alone; for the Father testifies that he is present. The Holy Spirit is also present; for the Trinity can never be separated from itself. Finally, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove. So how do heretics say that He alone is in heaven, who is not alone on earth? Let us ponder the mystery: why like a dove? Grace requires the simplicity of the dove, so that we may be as simple as doves. Grace requires the peace of the dove, which in ancient times, as a type, brought to that ark alone which was immune to the flood (Gen. VIII, 11). He taught me what kind of dove that was, who has now deigned to come down in the form of a dove. He taught that in that branch, in that ark, there was a type of the peace of the Church, which the Holy Spirit brings fruitful peace to his Church amidst the floods of the world. David also taught, who, perceiving the sacrament of baptism with prophetic spirit, says: Who will give me wings like a dove? (Psalm 54:7)
93. Therefore the Holy Spirit comes, but behold the mystery. He comes to Christ. For everything was made through him... and in him it stands (Colossians 1:16-17). But see the benevolent Lord, who subjected himself to insults alone, sought not grace alone. And where did he build the Church? I will ask, he says, the Father and he will give you another Paraclete, so that he may be with you forever, the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him nor recognize him (John 14:16-17). He has shown himself clearly in his body, since the substance of divinity is not seen.
94. We have seen the Spirit, but in bodily form: let us also see the Father. But because we cannot see him, let us hear him. For God is present, he will not abandon his temple. He wants every soul to be built up: he wants to shape it for salvation: he wants to transfer living stones from earth to heaven. He loves his temple: and let us love him. If we love God, we will keep his commandments. If we love him, let us know him. For whoever says that they know him, but does not keep his commandments, is a liar (1 John 2:4). For how can one love God, who does not love the truth, since God is truth? Let us then listen to the Father; for the Father is invisible: but the Son is also invisible according to his divinity; for no one has ever seen God. Therefore, since the Son is God, yet he is not seen as God the Son; but he desired to show himself in a body: and because the Father did not take on a body, he wanted to prove to us that he is present in the Son, saying: You are my Son, in you I am well pleased. If you want to learn that the Son is always present with the Father, read the voice of the Son saying: If I ascend into heaven, you are there: if I descend into hell, you are there (Psalm 138:8). If you seek the testimony of the Father, you have heard from John. Therefore, believe in him to whom Christ, believing he should be baptized, entrusted himself, to whom the Father entrusted the Son with a heavenly voice, saying: This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:17).
95. Where are the Arians, who do not believe in the Son, in whom the Father is pleased? I do not say this, nor has anyone else spoken; for God does not speak through man, nor through angels, nor through archangels, but the voice sent from heaven by the Father has spoken. Then elsewhere the same Father repeats, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: listen to him (Matthew 17:5), surely listen to him saying: I and the Father are one (John 10:30). Therefore, whoever does not believe in the Son does not believe in the Father. He is a witness about the Son: if there is doubt about the Son, the testimony of the Father is not believed. Then he says: In whom I am well pleased; he praises not something foreign in the Son, but his own. For what does it mean to say: In whom I am well pleased, if not because everything that the Son has, the Father also has: just as what belongs to the Father belongs to the Son? The Son said: Everything that the Father has, belongs to me (John 16:15); for the power of the undivided divinity does not separate between the Father and the Son, but both share one power with the Father and the Son. Let us believe in the Father, whose voice the elements have resounded: let us believe in the Father, to whose voice the elements have shown obedience. The world believed in the elements, let it believe in humans: it believed in lifeless beings, let it believe in the living: it believed in the mute, let it believe in the speaking: it believed in those who lack sense, let it believe in those who, having obtained sense, recognize God.
Book Three
(Vers. 23.)
(Verse 23) And Jesus himself was about thirty years old, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph.
1. In speaking about the generations, some of which we see in the Gospel according to Matthew, or in this interpretation that we have in our hands, there is a difference; because it is not credible that holy men who oppose each other could have said, especially about the deeds of the Lord and Savior, with as much effort as possible, without showing any discrepancies.
And first of all, no one should be moved by the fact that it is written thus: Who was supposed to be the son of Joseph. For he was rightly supposed, not by nature, but because Mary, who was betrothed to her husband Joseph, had given birth to him; thus you have: Is not this the son of Joseph the carpenter (Matt. XIII, 55)? We have already said by what means through a virgin; we have also said by what means through a betrothed woman, and why the Lord Savior chose to be born at the time of the census; it does not seem out of place to explain by what means he had a carpenter as his father. For this reason, by means of this type, the Father who is the creator of all things demonstrates that he himself is the Father, according to what is written: 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth' (Gen. 1:1). For although human things cannot be compared to divine things, nevertheless the type is complete in that the Father of Christ works with fire and the Spirit, and like a good craftsman, he surrounds our vices, quickly bringing the axe to bear on unfruitful trees, skillfully pruning the insignificant, preserving lofty things at the summit, softening the rigid spirit of the mind with fire, and forming the entire human race into various uses with the diverse quality of ministries.
But why is the genealogy of Joseph described rather than Mary's, when Mary gave birth to Christ by the Holy Spirit, and Joseph seems to be unrelated to the lineage of the Lord? We might doubt this, unless the custom of Scripture, which always seeks the origin of men, instructs us. For you have this: Perez was the son of Judah, the prince of the Tribe. He begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Aram, and Aram begot Amminadab, and Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon, and Salmon begot Boaz, and Boaz begot Obed, and Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David (Matt. 1:3 et seq.). For indeed the person of a man is sought after, who also asserts the dignity of his kind in the Senate and the other assemblies of the states. But how ugly it would be if, the origin of man being left behind, the origin of woman were sought after, so that he who did not have a father would be proclaimed to all the peoples of the world?
4. But also elsewhere let us show that the course of generation is different; so that here too the Evangelists may not seem to disagree, who have followed the old order. For you have it thus: There was a certain man of Arath, and his name was Elcana, the son of Hieremiel, the son of Heli, the son of Ozi, from Mount Ephraim (1 Samuel 1:1). You see both the description of origin from fathers to sons, and from sons to fathers, connected in the old way. You see everywhere that family is traced through the generations of men. Do not be surprised that Matthew traces the genealogy from Abraham to Joseph, and Luke from Joseph to Adam, and follows the order of generations to God. Do not be surprised that the origin of Joseph is described. For being born according to the flesh, he had to follow the custom of the flesh, and whoever comes into the world must be described according to the customs of the world; especially since in the origin of Joseph is also the origin of Mary. For when Joseph was a righteous man, he certainly took a wife from his own tribe and country: and as a righteous man, he could not do anything contrary to what was prescribed by the Law. For it is thus, that each one of the sons of Israel will cling to the inheritance of their tribe, and they will not pass from tribe to tribe. And every daughter who has an inheritance among the tribes of the sons of Israel, will be a wife to one of the people, and from the tribe of her father, from the people of her tribe (Num. XXXVI, 6-8). Therefore, Joseph also went up from the house and country of David (Luke II, 4 and 5), in order to be registered with Mary, his wife. She belongs to the same house and country, and she brings forth the profession from the same tribe and country, certainly designating herself to be of the same tribe and country.
5. Elizabeth is also related to Mary (Luke 1:36): first, because all Jews are related, as the Apostle taught, saying, For I could wish that I myself were accursed . . . for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites (Romans 9:3-4). Therefore, they are related because both of them were Israelites; they are also related because both of them were from the tribe of Judah. You have learned about Mary from the tribe of Judah, now learn about Elizabeth as well. But when Mary rose in those days, she went with haste into the hill country, to a town of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah (Luke 1:39-40). For just as Moses commanded each tribe to dwell in its own area (Numbers 2:2), surely Mary, when she stayed in the town of Judah, was also in the tribe of Judah; especially since Elizabeth and Zechariah were from the lineage of priests, whose portion is God. How beautiful it is that, while Mary proclaimed the coming of Christ, she herself gave birth to Christ, and the other, filled with the Holy Spirit, conceived by the Holy Spirit, prophesied. According to the flesh, they seem to have been relatives, who in the spiritual bond were not lacking according to God. But if the man is the head of the woman according to the holy Apostle (Ephesians 5:23), and they are two in one flesh according to divine law (Genesis 2:24): surely those who were one flesh and one spirit, how could it have happened that they appeared to have a divided homeland and tribe? Also, it is added that even the Angel Gabriel had foretold about the Lord that God would give Him the throne of David His father (Luke 1:32). Therefore, it is certain that Mary also descended from David's lineage. At the same time, we also learn that it does not matter in which order the series of generations is expressed, since the path is accessible from here and there.
6. However, why the holy Matthew started enumerating the genealogy of Christ from Abraham, while the holy Luke traced it from Christ up to God, seems to be in need of explanation. But first, why the holy Matthew, when he started with Abraham, placed the title 'The book of the genealogy of Abraham,’ and why he specifically mentioned these two, David and Abraham, I believe should not be overlooked. For indeed, the most faithful authors of the race are not chosen in vain; so that we may understand that in the very generation of the flesh, a spiritual succession is required more. For these two men are the ones to whom the divine promises have flowed.
7. Prior to Moses' law and before the Jewish people, Abraham, leaving behind his own possessions and knowing God, earned the testimony of faith; for he believed in God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness (Gen. XV, 6): who also received an oracle from God, saying to him: Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house, and go to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen. XII, 1-3). Therefore, you see that the gatherings of the nations and the sacred assembly of the Church are first promised by divine oracle. And for this reason, the author of the race had to be designated, who first deserved the covenant of restoring the Church.
8. David also is rightly declared the author of the race; for when he received the answer by an oath, that of his body Christ was to be born, he said, as it is written, 'The Lord swore unto David truth and it will not repent Him: of the fruit of your body will I set upon your throne' (Ps. CXXXI, 11). And elsewhere: 'Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David; his seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me' (Ps. LXXXVIII, 36-38). And in Chronicles: And when your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you (1 Chronicles 17:11-13). Also, the Lord God revealed the generation of the Lord through Isaiah, saying: A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding (Isaiah 11:1-2). And below: And there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise up to rule the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope (Ibid., 10). And elsewhere: For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace. His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom (Isaiah 9:6). In which, according to the interpretation of Aquila, we have seen the promise fulfilled, not as regarding a man, but as regarding one who would transcend man. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom.
9. All things come together concerning Christ, evidenced by clear oracles, and the fruit of divine power cannot be derived from the favor of Solomon, who was the son of David, whose end is undoubtedly known. For the end of Solomon's kingdom and peace is demonstrated by the readings of the Kingdoms. Christ is one, whose kingdom has no end. Furthermore, Solomon ruled over no nations, but Christ gathered the Church from all nations. Lastly, while David was still alive, Solomon was born and attained the kingdom. But the one who is promised is shown to rise after the death of David, as you have: 'When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for Me, and I will establish his throne forever' (1 Chronicles 17:11-12). Did Solomon reign forever, who only reigned for forty years? I will be, he says, a father to him, and he will be to me a son (Ibid., 13). Who is this proper Son of God, except the one to whom it is said: You are my Son, this day I have begotten you (Psalm 2:7)? And, I will not scatter my mercy away from him... and I will keep him faithful in my house, and in his kingdom forever (Paradise 17:13-14). But indeed, we know from the series of divine readings that Solomon perhaps erred so gravely in order to prevent humans from erring, and that the promised future would be believed to have come to him. For he built a temple for the idol of Astarte because of his love for a woman, and the Lord was angry with Solomon (3 Kings 11:4 et seq.). Therefore, if Solomon began to reign while David was still alive (for when it was reported to David that Solomon was reigning, King David worshipped in his bedchamber and said: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who has given me today one sitting on my throne, and my eyes see) - if he erred, if he offended, you see that the promised succession established Christ.
10. And for this reason the evangelist selected these two authors of the genealogy: one who received the promise from the congregation of peoples, and another who obtained the oracle concerning the generation of Christ. And for this reason, although he is later in the order of succession, he is described as prior to Abraham in the generation of the Lord, because it is greater to have received the promise from Christ than from the Church, since the Church itself is through Christ. Therefore, one is the prince of the generation according to the flesh, the other is the prince of the generation according to the spirit: one according to the grace of the seed, the other according to the faith of the peoples; for the one who saves is more powerful than the one who is saved. And therefore David is called the son: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David (Matthew 1:1). For in the first place, the son should be called to whom a son was promised; although the Apostle also says that Christ was promised to Abraham: For the promises were made to Abraham and his seed. It does not say: And to seeds, as if in many, but as in one: And to your seed, which is Christ (Galatians 3:16); so that to one the property of generation may be attributed and to the other the principality. He was announced, that Jesus would be called his son: to this one, as though a chief, the prerogative of the family and of the nations is preserved; so that from Abraham the beginning of the Lord's generation might flow forth. For he who is the author of faith ought also to assert the author of the divine generation in Scripture.
11. And so Luke thought that the origin of Christ should be referred to God; that the true generator of Christ is God, either according to true generation as Father, or according to the regeneration of the mystical offering as author. And therefore, he did not begin to describe his generation from the beginning, but later he explained his baptism, desiring to demonstrate that God is the author of all through baptism, and he also affirmed that Christ originated from God in the order of succession: weaving together everything, he showed that the Son of God is demonstrated both according to nature, grace, and flesh. But what clearer sign of the divine generation than that, when about to speak of the generation itself, he prefaces the speaking of the Father himself: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Luke 3:22).
12. Here too some people like to insert questions, because Matthew enumerated forty-two generations from Abraham to Christ, while Luke enumerated fifty; and because Matthew described the descent of the generation through other individuals, and Luke through others. In this you can now prove what we have said, that although Matthew wove in other ancestors of the Lord's lineage, and Luke wove in others in the order of the generation, both of them indicated Abraham and David as the remaining authors of the lineage.
13. But in truth, while Matthew thought the lineage was to be traced through Solomon, Luke seems to show the royal and priestly family of Christ through Nathan. This does not mean that one is truer than the other, but rather that both harmonize with equal faith and truth. For Christ's family was truly both royal and priestly according to the flesh: a king from kings, a priest from priests, although the oracle is not spoken of physical things but of heavenly things; for the king rejoices in the power of God, to whom judgment is given by the Father of kings, and the priest is forever, according to what is written: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Psalm 110:4). Therefore both of them held true; so that Matthew would prove the lineage traced through kings, and Luke by tracing the series of the divine lineage passed down to Christ through priests, would declare the holiness of that lineage itself. At the same time, in this also the figure of a calf is signified, because it believes that the priestly mystery should be preserved everywhere.
14. And do not be surprised if there are more successions from Abraham to Christ according to Luke, but fewer according to Matthew; for you admit that the generation has passed through other individuals: for it is possible that some may have lived a long life, while men of another generation may have died at a young age; for we see many old men living with their grandsons, while other men die immediately after having sons.
15. We also note that St. Matthew records that Jacob, who was the father of Joseph, mentioned that his son was Mathan (Matt. 1:15), while Luke describes Joseph, to whom Mary was betrothed, as the son of Heli, and Heli as the son of Melchi (Luke 3:24). How can one person have two fathers, namely Heli and Jacob? How can there also be two paternal grandfathers, Mathan and Melchi? But if you truly inquire, you will find that according to the prescription of the old law, two brothers had different sons by one wife who was a uterine sister (Deut. 25:5) (Euseb. Caes. Eccl. hist. lib. I, c. 7). For it is reported that Mathan, who married into the family of Solomon, begot Jacob as his son, and after his wife's death, he married Melchi's wife, from whom was begotten Heli. Again, when Heli died without children, he married his brother's wife and begot Joseph, who is called the son of Jacob according to the Law; for according to the ancient custom of the Law, a brother would raise up offspring for his deceased brother. Thus, he was called the son of two, not begotten by both, but because according to his genealogy he belonged to one, and according to the Law he was made the son of the other. The people of the Jews did not understand in what way, with this law, the perpetuity of the death of the seed was promised to us: but, taking it according to the letter, they corrupted the grace of the oracle. For there was another brother who would raise up the seed of the dead brothers, not a brother according to the carnal birth, but according to the purity of grace. And therefore perhaps, the Brother does not redeem, a man will redeem (Psalm 48:8); because that brother was not a blood brother, but the Lord and mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus, propagated the grace of resurrection. Although there may be another interpretation of this verse, which we will mention later (Enarr. in Psal. XLVIII).
16. However, it does not seem absurd that Saint Matthew thought that the holy generations, to be divided into fourteen, were to be divided into twice the mystical number, from Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonian exile, from the Babylonian exile to Christ, in which he also clearly indicated the cycle of changes. For from Abraham until David the Hebrew people existed without kings; for the just kingdom began with David. Then the whole lineage of the Hebrews was led by kings until the exile, and the kingdom remained intact until their exile. But after the transmigration towards the setting sun, the fallen nobility withered away. However, the mystical numbers are evident in the fifty successions that Abraham believed should be woven together by Lucas. For both the tenth and the seventh are mystical numbers, and both repeated three times signify a mystery. And Pentecost, followed by Lucas, and Tesseracost, followed by Matthew, revealed more than enough of the mystical number.
17. Many people also wonder why Matthew thought it necessary to include the mention of the notorious woman Thamar in the genealogy of Jesus. Why did Ruth, and also the woman who was Uriah's wife and went on to marry David after he had killed her husband, why did they both get mentioned, when there is no mention of the holy women Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel. It goes like this: Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers. Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar (Matthew 1:2-3). Therefore, it seems necessary to mention the name of this woman evangelist, about whom it appears we must now discuss separately.