While almost all of the works in this vault use Victorian translations, due to the only English translation of this commentary being in copyright, it was machine-translated (by Claude, 2026) from the public-domain Latin. It has not been checked by a human translator.
Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, written about 353–356, before his exile to the East. Chapter 11: John sends to Jesus from prison, and Jesus speaks to the multitudes about John. Also Jesus’ thanksgiving to the Father.
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Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Does John, held in prison, not know the Lord? Is so great a prophet ignorant of his God? Yet as forerunner he announced Him as coming, as prophet he recognised Him standing before him, as confessor he worshipped Him as He came to him. From where could the error have crept into knowledge so varied and so abundant? But the Lord’s testimony concerning him, which follows, does not allow this to be thought. Nor indeed can it be believed that the glory of the Holy Spirit was wanting to him when he was set in prison, since that Spirit was to supply the light of His power to the apostles when they were set in prison.
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But in the things done in John a wider understanding is offered, and together with the effect of the deed the grace expressed in him is perceived: that the prophet himself should prophesy even by the very kind of his own condition, because in him the form of the Law was set forth. For the Law announced Christ, and preached the remission of sins, and promised the kingdom of heaven: and John fulfilled the whole of this work of the Law. So, the Law now ceasing — the Law which, shut in by the sins of the people and bound by the vices of the nation, so that Christ could not be understood, was held in chains and in prison — the Law sends to look upon the Gospels: so that unbelief may behold the truth of the words in the deeds; and that what is bound within it by the deceit of sins may be loosed by understanding the freedom of the Gospel. By such an example, then, John is concerned for the ignorance, not of himself, but of his disciples: for he himself had preached the One who was to come for the remission of sins. But that they might know that no other had been preached by him, he sent his disciples to look upon His works: so that His works might give authority to John’s words, and no other Christ might be looked for than the one to whom His works had borne testimony.
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And when the Lord had wholly made Himself known by the wonders of His deeds — the sight of the blind, the running of the lame, the healing of the lepers, the hearing of the deaf, the voice of the dumb, the life of the dead, the preaching to the poor — He says, And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. Had anything yet been done in Christ to offend John? Surely not. For He was still in the very course of His teaching and His work. But the force and proper meaning of the saying before it must be considered, what it is that the poor have the gospel preached to them: that is, those who have lost their life, who have taken up their cross and follow, who have become humble in spirit, whose kingdom is being prepared in heaven. So, because the whole of these sufferings was to come together in the Lord, and His cross was to be an offence to many, He declared those blessed to whose faith the cross, death and burial would bring no temptation. And so He showed against what John had taken precautions, calling those blessed who should find nothing in Him to be offended at: because it was for fear of this that John had sent his disciples to hear and to see Christ.
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And that this might not be referred to John, as though he had been offended in any way in Christ, as they departed He spoke to the multitudes about him: What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? The wilderness must be understood as empty of the Holy Spirit, a place in which there is no dwelling of God. For in the reed is shown such a man as is showy with the glory of the world through the emptiness of his life, but in himself is hollow of the fruit of truth; pleasing outwardly, and nothing inwardly; moved by every motion of the winds, that is, by the breath of unclean spirits; with no strength to stand firm, and empty in the marrow of the soul. So when He says, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? He is saying this: Did you go out to see a man empty of the knowledge of God, and blown about by the breath of unclean spirits? For He speaks this in the tone of one rebuking rather than affirming: showing, that is, that what is seen in John is not one who is both empty and unsteady.
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But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. By the garment He signifies the body, which surrounds the soul that is clothed in it, and which grows soft with luxury and wantonness. But they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. Under kings the fallen angels are named: for they are the mighty ones of the world, the lords of this earth. So those clothed in soft raiment are in kings’ houses: that is, those whose bodies are loose and unstrung through luxury are the dwelling of devils, who choose a seat like their own purposes and works.
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But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet, and so on. The Lord shows the whole glory of John, saying that he is beyond a prophet: because to him alone it was given both to prophesy Christ and to see Him. And how can he be believed not to know Christ, who, sent in the power of an angel, prepared the way for Him who was to come, and than whom no greater prophet has arisen among those born of women — except that he who is less than John, that is, He of whom the question is asked, who is not believed, to whom not even His own works give testimony — He is greater in the kingdom of heaven?
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And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. As the nature of things requires, the stronger does the violence, and the one to whom violence is done will be the less. We must consider, then, what it is that takes by force, and what it is that suffers violence. The Lord had noticed the unbelief of John’s disciples; He had understood the opinion of the multitude about John’s message; He felt the great danger to faith in the offence of the cross. He had bidden the apostles go rather to the lost sheep of Israel; it was they who ought to have been set in the kingdom, and kept in the family and kindred of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But all this preaching was bringing profit to publicans and sinners. For from them were now the believers, from them now the apostles, from them (Matthew, for instance) now the kingdom of heaven. For the rest, John is not believed by the people, Christ’s works do not earn Him authority, the cross was to be an offence. Now prophecy ceases, now the Law is fulfilled, now all preaching is shut up, now the spirit of Elias is sent before in the voice of John. Christ is preached to some, and recognised by others; He is born to some, and loved by others. His own reject Him, strangers receive Him; His own kin persecute Him, enemies embrace Him. The adopted seek the inheritance, the family casts it away. The sons repudiate the testament, the servants acknowledge it. And so the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and those who do the violence take it by force: because the glory of Israel, owed by the fathers, announced by the prophets, offered by Christ, is seized and carried off by the faith of the Gentiles.
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But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, and the rest. This whole discourse is a reproach of unbelief, and comes down from the feeling of the complaint before it: that the insolent people had not been taught by the various kinds of preaching. By the children He signifies the prophets, who in the midst of the synagogue, as in the public gathering of the market-place, reproach the people because they did not answer their singing with the service of the body, that is, did not obey their words. For the movements of those who dance are fitted to the measure of those who sing. In simplicity of mind, as children, they preached, and called them to confess God in psalms, as is contained in the song of Moses, of Esaias, of David, and of the other prophets; and again, not even John’s preaching bent them to repentance for their sins, and to grief and mourning for their old offences. To them the Law seemed both heavy and difficult and burdensome with its rules for drink and food, having sin in it, which He calls a devil: because through the difficulty of keeping it they were bound to sin under the Law. And again in Christ the preaching of the Gospel does not please them by the freedom of life through which the difficulties and burdens of the Law have been loosened, and publicans and sinners have now believed. And so, so many and such great kinds of warning having been tried in vain, they are neither justified by grace, and they are disinherited by the Law.
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But wisdom is justified of her children: by those, that is, who, doing violence to the kingdom of heaven, take it by force through the justification of faith; confessing that the work of Wisdom is just, because she has transferred her gift from the stubborn and unbelieving to the faithful and obedient. And it is not idle in this place to consider the force of the saying. In And wisdom is justified He certainly spoke of Himself. For He Himself is Wisdom, not from what He effects but by nature: for He has power over everything. But every business is the effect of power, and the work of a power is not the same as the power, and the maker is distinguished from what is made. For many are wont to evade the apostle’s saying, in which he says that Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God, in these ways: that the wisdom and power of God showed itself effective in Him in His being created from the virgin, and that the work of the divine prudence and might is understood in His birth; and that in Him there is the working of wisdom rather than its nature. So that nothing of theirs of this kind might be understood, He named Himself Wisdom, showing it to be in Himself, not the things that are its own. For the work of Wisdom is faith, hope, charity, chastity, fasting, continence, humility, kindness: but these are the works of a nature, not the nature itself; and the thing itself which makes does not consist in the things that are made. Would the Apostle have called Him the power of God and the wisdom of God because a created wisdom came from that Wisdom which was?
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Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, and the rest. The curse of disobedience is decreed together with the blessing of obedience. For it was needful that the Jews should be preached to first; but by the privilege of the preaching the odium of their unbelief is heaped up, since they are convicted by the example of those who believe, whose whole salvation is by faith, with no wonder of deeds set before them. For in Bethsaida and Capernaum the dumb praise the Lord, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame run about, the dead come to feeling; and wonder at such great things moved none to the will to believe, when the mere hearing of the deeds ought to have called them to fear and swept them on to faith. But they make light not only the sins of Tyre and Sidon, but those of Sodom and Gomorrha themselves: because those might perhaps have had the disposition to believe, had the sight of such mighty works fallen to them.
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At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, and the rest. Fittingly is such a thanksgiving joined to what was said before. For although the salvation of Israel was to be desired, yet the faith of the Gentiles, preached long before, was not outside the Lord’s joy. For the secrets and powers of the heavenly words are hidden from the wise and revealed to babes: to those who are babes in malice, not in understanding; and from those who are wise in the presumption of their folly, not for reasons of prudence. And the Lord confirms the justice of this deed by the judgment of the Father’s will: so that those who disdain to become babes in God may thereafter become fools in their own wisdom.
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And that nothing less might be thought to be in Him than is in God, He says that all things have been delivered to Him by the Father, and that He is known to the Father alone, and the Father known to Him alone, or to him to whom He wills to reveal Him: and He will reveal Him to the one by whom He is prayed to will to reveal. By this revelation He teaches that the substance of both is the same in their mutual knowledge, since he who knows the Son would know the Father also in the Son: because all things have been delivered to Him by the Father. And the things delivered are no other than those which in the Son are known to the Father alone; and the things known to the Son alone are those which are the Father’s. And so in this secret of mutual knowledge it is understood that there is nothing in the Son other than what is unknowable in the Father.
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Then He calls to Himself those who labour under the difficulties of the Law and are laden with the sins of the world, and promises to take away their labour and their burden, if only they will take His yoke upon them, that is, take up the precepts of His commandments and come to Him by the mystery of the cross: because He is meek and lowly in heart, and in these things they will find rest for their souls. He sets before them the allurements of an easy yoke and a light burden, that He may give to believers the knowledge of that good which He alone knows in the Father. And what is more pleasant than His yoke, what lighter than His burden: to become worthy of approval, to abstain from wickedness, to will the good, to refuse the evil, to love all, to hate none, to attain eternal things, not to be taken with present things, not to wish to inflict on another what it would be grievous for oneself to suffer?