Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 27:39-44

"And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself: if thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross. In like manner also the chief priests mocking [him], with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. He is the King of Israel; let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe on him. He trusteth on God; let him deliver him now, if he desireth him: for he said, I am the Son of God. And the robbers also that were crucified with him cast upon him the same reproach." — Matthew 27:39-44 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: Having stripped and crucified Christ, they go even further, and seeing Him on the cross, they revile Him.

St. Jerome: "They revile him" because they passed by that way and would not walk in the true way of the Scriptures. "They wagged their heads" because they had just shifted their feet and did not stand upon a rock. The foolish rabble cast the same taunt against Him that the false witnesses had invented: "Aha! You who destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days."

Remigius of Auxerre: "Aha!" is an interjection of taunt and mockery.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: What forgiveness, then, is there for them, when by the resurrection of His body they will see the temple of God rebuilt within three days?

St. John Chrysostom: And as if to downplay His former miracles, they add, "Save yourself; if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."

He, on the contrary, does not come down from the cross precisely because He is the Son of God, for He came for this very reason: to be crucified for us.¹

St. Jerome: Even the Scribes and Pharisees reluctantly confess, "He saved others." Your own judgment, then, condemns you, for since He saved others, He could have saved Himself if He had wanted to.

Pseudo-Chrysostom:ⁱBut pay attention to this speech of these children of the devil, how they imitate their father's speech. The devil said, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down (Matthew 4:6); and they say now, "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."

St. Leo the Great: From what source of error, O Jews, have you drunk in the poison of such blasphemies? What teacher delivered this to you? What teaching moved you to think that the true King of Israel, the veritable Son of God, would be one who would not suffer Himself to be crucified and would free His body from the fastening of the nails?

This did not come from the hidden meaning of the Law, nor from the mouths of the prophets. Have you indeed ever read, I hid not my face from the shame of spitting (Isaiah 50:6)? Or that other passage: They pierced my hands and my feet; they told all my bones (Psalm 22:16)?

Where have you ever read that the Lord came down from the cross? But you have read, The Lord hath reigned from the tree.ⁱ²

Rabanus Maurus: Had He been persuaded by their taunts to leave the cross, He would not have proved to us the power of endurance. Instead, He waited, enduring their mockery; and He who would not come down from the cross, rose again from the tomb.

St. Jerome: But that promise, "And we will believe him," is not credible. For which is greater: to come down from the cross while still alive, or to rise from the tomb when dead? He did the latter, and you did not believe; therefore, you would not have believed if He had come down from the cross either.

It seems to me that this was a suggestion of the demons. For as soon as the Lord was crucified, they felt the power of the cross and perceived that their strength was broken. Therefore, they contrived this plan to move Him to come down from the cross. But the Lord, aware of His enemies' designs, remains on the cross so that He may destroy the devil.

St. John Chrysostom: They taunted, "He trusted in God; let Him deliver him now, if He will have him." O most foul! Were the prophets and righteous men not truly who they were, simply because God did not deliver them from their perils?

If God was unwilling to interfere with the glory that they gained from the very perils you brought upon them, how much more should you not be offended by what this man suffers. Everything He has ever said should remove any such suspicion.

When they add, "for he said, 'I am the Son of God,'" they mean to imply that He suffered as an impostor and a seducer who made high and false claims. And it was not only the Jews and the soldiers from below, but also those from above: The thieves, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.

St. Augustine of Hippo: It may seem that Luke contradicts this when he describes one of the robbers as reviling Him and then being rebuked by the other. But we may suppose that Matthew, briefly alluding to the event, used the plural for the singular, just as in the Epistle to the Hebrews we read, have stopped the mouths of lions (Hebrews 11:33), when only Daniel is being discussed.

What is more common than for someone to say, "The townspeople are insulting me," when only one person has done so? If Matthew had indeed said that both thieves had reviled the Lord, there would be a discrepancy. But since he says merely "the thieves," without adding "both," we must consider it a common figure of speech in which the plural is used to represent the singular.³

St. Jerome: Or, it may be said that at first both reviled Him. But when the sun had withdrawn, the earth was shaken, the rocks were split, and the darkness increased, one believed in Jesus and atoned for his former reviling with a subsequent confession.

St. John Chrysostom: At first both reviled Him, but not afterward. So that you would not suppose the matter was arranged by some collusion, or that the thief was not really a thief, the Gospel shows you by his wanton reproaches that even after being crucified he was still a thief and an enemy, but was afterward totally changed.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: The fact that both thieves mocked the nature of His Passion shows that the cross was meant to be an offense to all humankind, even to the faithful.

St. Jerome: Or, the two thieves represent both nations, Jews and Gentiles, who at first blasphemed the Lord. Afterward, the latter group (the Gentiles), terrified by the multitude of signs, repented, and in so doing rebukes the Jews, who continue to blaspheme to this day.

Origen of Alexandria: The thief who was saved can be a symbol of those who, after committing many sins, have believed in Christ.

1. Hom. de Cruc. et Latr. ii
2. Serm. 55, 2
3. de Cons. Ev., iii, 16