Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 10:29-31

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father: but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows." — Matthew 10:29-31 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: Having set aside the fear of death, so that the Apostles would not think they were deserted by God if they were put to death, He turns to the topic of God's providence, saying, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them does not fall to the ground without your Father."

St. Jerome: If these small creatures do not fall without God's superintendence and providence, and if things made to perish do not perish without God's will, you who are immortal should not fear that you live without His providence.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Figuratively, what is sold is our soul and body, and what it is sold to is sin. Therefore, those who sell two sparrows for a farthing are those who sell themselves for the smallest sin, though they were born for flight and for reaching heaven with spiritual wings.ⁱ Caught by the bait of present pleasures and sold to the enjoyment of the world, they barter away their whole selves in such a market. It is God's will that one of them should instead soar aloft, but the law, which proceeds from God's appointment, decrees that one of them should fall. Just as they would become one spiritual body if they soared aloft, so also when sold under sin, the soul gathers earthly matter from the pollution of vice, and from them is made one body that is committed to the earth.

St. Jerome: That He says, "The hairs of your head are all numbered," shows the boundless providence of God toward humanity, and an unspeakable care that ensures nothing of ours is hidden from God.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: For when anything is numbered, it is carefully watched over.

St. John Chrysostom: This does not mean that God literally counts our hairs, but is said to show His diligent knowledge and great care for us.

St. Jerome: Those who deny the resurrection of the flesh ridicule the Church's interpretation of this passage, as if we were affirming that every hair ever cut off by a razor rises again. The Savior says, "Every hair of your head"—He does not say is saved, but—"is numbered." Where there is a number, knowledge of that number is implied, but not the preservation of the very same hairs.

St. Augustine of Hippo: We may fairly inquire about our hair, wondering whether all that has ever been shorn from us will return—for who would not dread such a disfigurement? Once it is understood that nothing of our body will be lost, so that the form and perfection of all its parts will be preserved, we can also understand that anything that would have disfigured our body will be absorbed into the whole mass, not reattached to particular parts in a way that would destroy the body's structure.

Just as when a clay vessel is broken down and reformed, it is not necessary that the portion of clay that formed the handle must again form the handle, or that the portion that composed the bottom must again form the bottom. All that matters is that the whole is remolded into the whole—the whole clay into the whole vessel—with no part being lost.¹

Therefore, if the hair so often cut away would be a deformity if restored to the place from which it was taken, it will not be restored to that place. Instead, all the materials of the old body will be revived in the new, placed wherever necessary to preserve the proper harmony of the parts. Although what is said in Luke, "Not a hair of your head shall fall to the ground" (Luke 21:18), can be understood to refer to the number of hairs, not their length, just as it is also said here, "The hairs of your head are all numbered."

St. Hilary of Poitiers: For it is an unworthy task to number things that are destined to perish. Therefore, so that we may know that nothing of us will perish, we are told that our very hairs are numbered. No accident, then, that can befall our bodies should be feared.

Thus He adds, "Fear not; you are better than many sparrows."

St. Jerome: This expresses even more clearly the meaning explained above: that they should not fear those who can kill the body. For if the smallest animal does not fall without God's knowledge, how much less a man dignified with the rank of an Apostle?

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Alternatively, the phrase "you are better than many sparrows" teaches that the elect faithful are better than the multitude of unbelievers, for the unbelievers fall to the earth, while the faithful fly to heaven.

Remigius of Auxerre: Figuratively, Christ is the head and the Apostles are the hairs. They are rightly said to be numbered because the names of the saints are written in heaven.

1. City of God, book xxii, ch. 19