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 13: Jesus, sitting in a ship, speaks to the multitudes in parables: of the sower of good seed, of the tares and the wheat, of the grain of mustard seed, of the leaven hidden in the meal, and the explanation of the tares; of the treasure in the field, of the goodly pearl, and of the net cast into the sea.
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The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship. That the Lord sat in the ship and the multitudes stood outside has its reason in what follows. For He was about to speak in parables; and by the manner of this deed He signifies that those who are set outside the Church can take in no understanding of the divine word. For the ship bears the figure of the Church: and the word of life, set and preached within it, cannot be understood by those who are outside and lie beside it, barren and useless like sand. But it is idle to speak of the parables which the Lord Himself has already explained.
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For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. It is faith that grasps the mysteries of the kingdom. In those in whom it is found, it will make progress, and will abound with the increase of its progress; but in those in whom it is not, even what they have will be taken from them. He declares, that is, the loss of the Law through want of faith: the Jews, not having this faith, lost also the Law which they had had. And so the faith of the Gospel has a perfect gift: because, when it is received, it enriches with new fruits, but when it is rejected, it takes away even the wealth of the old substance.
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But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. He teaches the blessedness of the apostolic age, to whose eyes and ears it fell to see and hear the Salvation of God: while the prophets and righteous men desired to see and hear in the fulness of the appointed times, and the joy of this expectation was kept for the apostles.
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The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, and the rest. The Lord compared Himself to a grain of mustard seed, which is very sharp and the least of all seeds, and whose strength and power is kindled by crushing and pressing. This grain, then, after it has been sown in the field — that is, when, seized by the people and delivered to death, He was buried with His body as by a kind of sowing, as in a field — grows beyond the measure of all herbs, and exceeds the whole glory of the prophets. For the preaching of the prophets was given to Israel as herbs are given to a sick man. But now the birds of the air dwell in the branches of the tree, lifted up from the ground on high. By the branches we shall understand the apostles, both stretched out by the power of Christ and overshadowing the world: to whom the Gentiles will fly in the hope of life, and, harassed by the whirlwind of the breezes, that is, by the spirit and blast of the devil, will rest as in the branches of a tree.
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The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Leaven is from meal, and gives back the strength it has received to a heap of its own kind. The Lord compared Himself to this: the woman, that is, the synagogue, took it and hid it through the sentence of death, alleging that the Law and the prophets were being dissolved by the Gospels. But this leaven, covered over equally by the three measures of meal, that is, of the Law, the prophets and the Gospels, makes them all one: so that what the Law ordained and the prophets announced is itself fulfilled by the advances of the Gospels. And all things are made, through the Spirit of God, of the same power and meaning; and nothing will be found leavened in equal measures that disagrees with another.
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Although I remember that many have thought that the three measures of meal are to be referred to the mystery of the faith, that is, to the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and also to the threefold calling of the Gentiles, from Sem, Cham and Japheth. But I do not know whether reason allows us to think so: since, although the calling of all nations is equal, yet in them Christ was not hidden but shown; and in so great a multitude of unbelievers the whole has not been leavened: whereas in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit all things are one in Christ, with no need of a leaven mixed in from outside.
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Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field, and the rest. By the likeness of a treasure in a field He shows the riches of our hope set within Himself: because God has been found in man, and for His price all the possessions of the world are to be sold, so that with clothing, food and drink for those in need we may buy the eternal riches of the heavenly treasure. But we must consider that the treasure was both found and hidden: whereas he who found it could surely have carried it off, in secret and at the time when he hid it, and by carrying it off would have had no need to buy. But as the meaning of the thing, so also the meaning of the saying is to be unfolded. For the treasure was hidden for this reason, that the field too had to be bought. For the treasure in the field, as we have said, is understood as Christ in the flesh, whom to have found is free. For the preaching of the Gospels is open to all; but the power of using and possessing this treasure together with the field cannot be without price: because the heavenly riches are not possessed except at the cost of the world.
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And the reasoning about the pearl is the same. But this saying goes on to the merchant long engaged in the Law, who by long and lasting labour has come to the knowledge of the pearl, and leaves behind the things he gained under the burden of the Law. For he has long traded, and at last found such a pearl as he desired: and the price of this one longed-for stone is to be bought with the loss of all his other labour.
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Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and the rest. Rightly did He compare His preaching to a net: which, coming into the world, has gathered those who dwell within the world without loss to the world, after the manner of a net, which, going through the sea, is so drawn from the depth that, passing through the whole body of that element, it brings out those shut within its compass, and leads us out of the world into the light of the true Sun: showing, in the choosing of the good and the casting away of the bad, the trial of the judgment to come.