Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 13:10-17

"And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered and said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And unto them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise understand; And seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive: For this people`s heart is waxed gross, And their ears are dull of hearing, And their eyes they have closed; Lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And should turn again, And I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not." — Matthew 13:10-17 (ASV)

Glossa Ordinaria: The disciples, understanding that what the Lord said to the people was obscure, wanted to suggest to Him that He should not speak to them in parables. And his disciples came to him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”¹

St. John Chrysostom: Here, it is admirable that the disciples who desired to learn from Him knew when they should ask Him, for they did not do this in front of the crowd. Matthew declares this when he says, And they came to him; and Mark says more explicitly that they came to him when he was alone (Mark 4:10).²

St. Jerome: We must ask how they could come to Him at that time when Jesus was sitting in the boat. We may understand that they had first entered the boat and, standing there, asked Him this question.

Remigius of Auxerre: The Evangelist, therefore, says they came to him to express that they eagerly questioned Him; or they could have indeed approached Him physically, even though the space between them was small.

St. John Chrysostom: Moreover, observe their goodness and how great their concern is for others, that they ask about what concerns others before what relates to themselves. For they do not say, “Why do you speak to us in parables?” but “to them.” And he answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven.”

Remigius of Auxerre: To you, I say, who hold fast to Me and believe in Me. By the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, He means the Gospel doctrine. “To them”—that is, to those who are outside and who would not believe in Him, namely, the Scribes and Pharisees, and to the rest who continue in unbelief—it is not given. Let us then, with the disciples, come to the Lord with a pure heart, that He may consider us worthy to have the Gospel teaching interpreted for us, according to the scripture: They who draw near to his feet shall receive of his doctrine (Deuteronomy 33:3).

St. John Chrysostom: In saying this, He does not imply any necessity or fate. Instead, He at once shows that those to whom it is not given are the cause of their own miseries, and yet that the knowledge of the divine mysteries is the gift of God and a grace given from above.

Yet this does not destroy free will, as is clear from what follows. To prevent one group from despairing or the other from becoming lazy when they hear that to you it is given, He shows that the beginning of it all lies with ourselves. He then adds, For whoso hath, to him shall be given, and he shall abound; and whoso hath not, from him shall be taken what he hath.

This is as much as to say: Whoever has the desire and the zeal, to him will be given all those things that are from God. But whoever lacks these and does not contribute his own part, to him the things of God are not given; rather, even those things that he has are taken from him. This is not because God takes them away, but because he has made himself unworthy of what he has.

Therefore, if we see someone listening carelessly, and after we have exhorted him to pay attention he still does not heed us, we should be silent. For if we persist in urging him, his laziness will be all the more charged against him.

But we draw onward the one who is zealous to learn, pouring out many things for him. And He said well, according to another Evangelist, That which he seemeth to have (Luke 8:18); for, in truth, he does not have even that which he has.

Remigius of Auxerre: The one who has a desire to read will be given the power to understand. But for whoever does not have the desire to read, even the understanding that he seems to have by nature’s bounty will be taken from him. Alternatively, whoever has charity, to him will the other virtues also be given; and from him who does not have charity, the other virtues will likewise be taken away, for without charity there can be nothing good.

St. Jerome: Alternatively, to the Apostles who believe in Christ, knowledge is given; but from the Jews who did not believe in the Son of God, even whatever good they might seem to have by nature is taken away. For they cannot understand anything with wisdom, since they do not have the head of wisdom.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Because the Jews lacked faith, they also lost the Law that they had. Gospel faith, however, offers the perfect gift; because if it is received, it enriches a person with new fruit, but if it is rejected, it takes away from the riches of their ancient possession.

St. John Chrysostom: So that what He had said might be made clearer, He adds, “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” Had this been a natural blindness, He ought to have opened their eyes; but since it is voluntary, He did not say simply, they see not, but, seeing they see not. For they had seen demons going out, and they said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub.” They heard that He drew all people to God, and they said, This man is not of God (John 9:16).

Therefore, because they spoke the very opposite of what they saw and heard, the ability to see and hear is taken from them, for they gain nothing from it but rather fall under judgment. For this reason, He spoke to them at first not in parables but with great clarity; but because they perverted all they saw and heard, He now speaks in parables.

Remigius of Auxerre: It should be noted that not only what He spoke, but also what He did, were parables—that is, signs of spiritual things. He clearly shows this when He says, That seeing they may not see; for words are heard, not seen.

St. Jerome: He says this about those who were standing on the shore, separated from Jesus, and who, because of the crashing of the waves, did not distinctly hear what was said.

St. John Chrysostom: And so that they could not say, “He slanders us as an enemy,” He brings forth the Prophet declaring the same opinion, as it follows: That there might be fulfilled in them the prophecy of Isaiah, who said, “With the hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not behold” (Isaiah 6:9).

Glossa Ordinaria: That is, with your hearing you will hear words but will not understand the hidden meaning of those words; seeing, you will see My flesh indeed, but will not discern the divinity.³

St. John Chrysostom: He said this because they had taken away their own sight and hearing by shutting their eyes and hardening their hearts. For not only did they not hear at all, but they heard with dullness, as it follows: The heart of this people is waxed gross, and they have heard hardly with their ears.

Rabanus Maurus: The heart of the Jews is made gross with the grossness of wickedness, and through the abundance of their sins they hear the Lord's words with difficulty, because they have received them ungratefully.

St. Jerome: And so that we do not suppose that this grossness of the heart and heaviness of the ears comes from nature and not from choice, He adds the fruit of their own willfulness: For they have shut their eyes.

St. John Chrysostom: Here He points out how extreme their wickedness and how determined their aversion is. Again, to draw them toward Him, He adds, And be converted, and I should heal them. This shows that if they would convert, they would be healed. It is as if someone were to say, “If he would ask me, I would immediately forgive him,” which would point out how he might be reconciled. So here, when He says, Lest they should be converted and I should heal them, He shows that it was possible for them to convert and, after repenting, be saved.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Alternatively, when the text says, They have shut their eyes lest they should see with their eyes, this means they themselves were the cause that God shut their eyes. For another Evangelist says, He hath blinded their eyes. But is this so that they should never see? Or is it so that they would not see, so that by becoming discontent with their own blindness and lamenting it, they would be humbled and moved to confess their sins and piously seek God? For Mark expresses the same thing this way: Lest they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. From this we learn that by their sins they deserved not to understand, and yet this was permitted to them in mercy so that they might confess their sins, turn, and so merit forgiveness.⁴

However, when John relates this, he expresses it this way: Therefore they could not believe because Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them (John 12:39). This seems to oppose the first interpretation and compels us to take the phrase lest they should see with their eyes to mean not that they might eventually see in this way, but that they should never see at all. For John says it plainly: that they should not see with their eyes.

And his statement, Therefore they could not believe, sufficiently shows that the blindness was not inflicted so that, moved by it and grieving that they did not understand, they would be converted through repentance. For they could not do so unless they had first believed, and by believing been converted, and by conversion been healed, and by being healed, understood. Rather, it shows that they were blinded so that they would not believe. For he speaks most clearly: Therefore they could not believe.

But if this is so, who would not rise up in defense of the Jews and declare them free from all blame for their unbelief? For, Therefore they could not believe, because he hath blinded their eyes. But since we must believe God to be without fault, we are driven to confess that they had deserved to be blinded by some other sins, and that this blinding did indeed prevent them from believing. For the words of John are these: They could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes.

It is in vain, then, to try to understand it as if they were blinded so that they might be converted, since they could not be converted because they did not believe, and they could not believe because they were blinded. Or perhaps we might say this: some of the Jews were capable of being healed, but being puffed up with such great pride, it was good for them at first not to believe. They were meant to hear the Lord speaking in parables, which, if they did not understand, they would not believe. Thus, not believing in Him, they, along with the rest who were beyond hope, crucified Him. At length, after His resurrection, they were converted. Humbled by the guilt of His death, they loved Him all the more because of the heavy guilt that had been forgiven them. For their great pride needed such a humiliation to overcome it.

This might seem like an inconsistent explanation if we did not plainly read in the Acts of the Apostlesⁱ that this is how it happened. Therefore, what John says—Therefore they could not believe, because he hath blinded their eyes that they should not see—is not opposed to our view that they were blinded so that they might be converted. That is to say, the Lord’s meaning was purposely clothed in the obscurity of parables so that after His resurrection, they might turn to wisdom with a healthier repentance. Because of the darkness of His discourse, they, being blinded, did not understand the Lord's sayings. Not understanding them, they did not believe in Him; and not believing in Him, they crucified Him. Thus, after His resurrection, terrified by the miracles performed in His name, they felt greater remorse for their great sin and were more prostrate in repentance. Accordingly, after receiving pardon, they turned to obedience with a more ardent affection. Nevertheless, there were some for whom this blinding did not lead to conversion.

Remigius of Auxerre: In all these clauses, the word “not” must be understood, as follows: That they should not see with their eyes, and should not hear with their ears, and should not understand with their heart, and should not be converted, and I should heal them.

Glossa Ordinaria: So then, the eyes of those who see and will not believe are miserable, but your eyes are blessed, from which it follows: Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.⁵

St. Jerome: If we had not read above the Savior’s invitation for his hearers to understand when He said, He that hath ears to hear let him hear, we might suppose here that the eyes and ears that are now blessed are those of the body. But I think those eyes are blessed that can discern Christ's sacraments, and those ears are the ones of which Isaiah speaks: The Lord hath given me an ear (Isaiah 50:4).

Glossa Ordinaria: The mind is called an eye because it is intently directed upon what is set before it to understand it, and an ear because it learns from the teaching of another.⁶

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Alternatively, He is speaking of the blessedness of the Apostolic times, for their eyes and ears were permitted to see and hear the salvation of God. Many prophets and just men had desired to see and hear that which was destined to appear in the fullness of time, from which it follows: Verily I say unto you, that many Prophets and just men have desired to see the things that ye see, and to hear the things that ye hear, and have not heard them.

St. Jerome: This passage seems to be contradicted by what is said elsewhere: Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad (John 8:56).

Rabanus Maurus: Also, Isaiah and Micah, and many other prophets, saw the glory of the Lord and for that reason were called “seers.”

St. Jerome: But He did not say, “The Prophets and the just men,” but “many,” for out of the whole number, it may be that some saw and others did not. But as this is a dangerous interpretation, because it would seem that we are making a distinction between the merits of the saints regarding the degree of their faith in Christ, we may therefore suppose that Abraham saw as an enigma, and not in substance. But you truly have your Lord present with you, holding Him, questioning Him as you please, and eating with Him.ⁱ

St. John Chrysostom: These things, then, that the Apostles saw and heard were His presence, His voice, and His teaching. And in this, He places them ahead of not only the evil but even the good, pronouncing them more blessed than even the righteous men of old. For they saw not only what the Jews did not see, but also what the righteous men and prophets desired to see and had not seen.

For the prophets had seen these things only by faith, but the Apostles saw them by sight, and even more clearly. You see how He identifies the Old Testament with the New, for if the prophets had been the servants of any strange or hostile Deity, they would not have desired to see Christ.

1. ap. Anselm
2. Hom. xiv
3. non occ.
4. Quaest. in Matt., q. 14
5. ap. Anselm
6. ord.