Commentary on Matthew, Chapter 14

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 14: On the scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, on the brethren and sisters of the Lord, on John’s head in a charger, on the five loaves and two fishes, where He walks upon the sea and lifts up Peter when he was sinking.

1. Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord. Then said he unto them, Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, and so on. He spoke not to the multitudes but to the disciples; and He gives a fitting testimony to those who understand the parables, likening them to Himself under the name of a householder, because they have obtained teaching of things new and old out of His treasure: and He calls them scribes because of their knowledge, since they understood what He brought forth, new and old, that is, in the Gospels and in the Law; both belonging to the same householder and to one treasure.

2. And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence. And when he was come into his own country, and the rest. The Lord is dishonoured by His own. Although both His wisdom in teaching and His power in working stirred their wonder, yet their unbelief does not receive the truth of their own judgment. For they do not believe that God does these things in a man: indeed they name His father, His mother and His brethren, and they attack Him with a kind of reproach of His father’s trade. But plainly He was the son of a smith: of one who masters iron with fire, who smelts down all the strength of the world in judgment, and forms the mass into every work useful to man: that is, who shapes the formless matter of our bodies into the various services of the members, and for all the works of eternal life. In these things, then, they were all offended: and amid so many and such magnificent things as He did, they were disturbed by the sight of His body. To them the Lord answered that a prophet is without honour in his own country: because in Judaea He was to be despised even to the sentence of the cross. And because the power of God is with the faithful alone, He abstained, because of their unbelief, from all the works of divine power.

3. At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, and said unto his servants, and the rest. We have often warned that all diligence must be brought to the reading of the Gospels: because in the deeds that are related an underlying meaning of inward understanding is found. For the account of all the works has its own order; but in the working out of the deeds the likeness of an underlying meaning is foreshadowed, as is understood in Herod and John. For Herod was the ruler of the people, and by the right of his power had taken to wife Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. And this Herodias had a daughter, who on his birthday, when she pleased him by dancing, received by the oath of the one who swore it the power of whatever reward she wished; and at her mother’s prompting the girl asked that the head of John, long held in prison, be brought her in a charger. And Herod, though sorry, kept faith with his oath, and the girl presented the gift to her mother; and when John had been buried his disciples passed over to the Lord.

4. And having heard this, the Lord withdrew in a ship into desert places, and had compassion on the distress of the multitudes that followed Him; and the apostles advise that they be sent away into the villages to buy food. And the Lord answers that they have no need to go back there, and commands that food be given them. And they plead that they have only five loaves and two fishes. And He bade these be brought to Him, and the multitude sit down on the grass spread beneath them. And He blessed what was brought, and broke it for the multitude to eat, and gave it to the disciples to set before them; and when all were filled, there remained twelve baskets over, though, besides the number of women and children, five thousand men had been filled.

5. And He bids the disciples go up into the ship and go before Him to the other side; and having sent the multitude away, He went up into a mountain alone to pray; and when the evening was come He was alone; and the ship in the midst of the sea was tossed with waves, the wind being contrary. And in the fourth watch the Lord came walking on the sea; and when they saw Him they were troubled, and, thinking it an empty apparition, a phantom, they cried out for fear. And straightway the Lord spoke to them and bade them be of good cheer. And out of them all Peter answered and asked that he might come to the Lord upon the waters. And coming down from the ship and going a little way, as the wind grew strong he began both to be afraid and to sink. And the Lord caught hold of him and rebuked him for being of little faith; and, going into the ship, He brought back calm, the wind and the sea being stilled.

6. These things, then, were done as we have related them. But with all these persons, events, causes and numbers there goes a manner of meaning, so that what they did — apart from the doing of it, and the impulse which each took from his own nature — they did, all of it, as an example from outside themselves: and with the greater reverence we may think so, if one and the same understanding follows the working of such different causes. The discourse, then, must be taken back to the beginning of what was set out.

7. John, as we have often pointed out, bore the figure of the Law: because the Law preached Christ, and John came forth from the Law, foretelling Christ from the Law. And Herod is the ruler of the people: and the ruler of a people embraces the name and the cause of the whole body subject to him. John, then, warned Herod not to join his brother’s wife to himself. For there are, and were, two peoples, of the circumcision and of the Gentiles. And the Law warned Israel not to join to itself the works and the unbelief of the Gentiles. For unbelief is the consort of the Gentiles, joined to them as by the bond of married love. And these are brothers, from the same parent of the human race. Because of the truth of this harsh warning, then, John, as the Law, was held in prison. But on the birthday, that is, in the joys of bodily things, the daughter of Herodias danced: for pleasure, sprung as it were from unbelief, was carried along through all the joys of Israel in all the courses of its allurement. And to her the people bound itself over as up for sale, even by an oath: for under sins and the pleasures of the world the Israelites sold the gifts of eternal life. She, at the prompting of her mother, that is, of unbelief, asked that the head of John, that is, the glory of the Law, be brought to her: because the Law, by the authority of the divine commandments, convicted Israel of incest.

8. But above Herod was said to want to kill John, and to be held back by fear of the people, because they counted him as a prophet. But now, when his death has been asked for, and especially when he was bound by the religion of an oath, how does he become sorry? It is plainly contradictory that he wished it then and is unwilling now; and his present distress does not fit his earlier will. But in what went before there is the order of the event; in this now the likeness of the meaning that follows is set out. Pleasure sprung from unbelief seized the glory of the Law. But the people, aware of the good that was in the Law, consents to the terms of pleasure not without some grief at its own certain danger. And it knows that it ought not to have given up such a glory of commandments: but, forced by its sins as by an oath, and corrupted and overcome by the fear and example of the princes about it, it obeys the allurements of pleasure even while sorrowful. So among the other joys of a dissolute people John’s head is brought in a charger: that is, by the loss of the Law the pleasure of bodies and the luxury of the world are increased; and so it is carried through the girl to the mother. And thus shameful Israel made over the glory of the Law to pleasure and to unbelief, its household, formerly that of the Gentiles. So, the times of the Law being finished and buried with John, his disciples tell the Lord what had been done: coming over, that is, from the Law to the Gospels.

9. So the Word of God, the Law being finished, going up into the ship, comes to the Church and withdraws into the desert: leaving, that is, His dwelling with Israel, to pass over into hearts empty of the knowledge of God. The multitude, hearing this, follows the Lord on foot from the city into the desert: that is, it passes over from the Synagogue to the Church. And seeing it He had compassion, and heals all its sickness and infirmity: that is, He cleanses minds and bodies beset by the old sickness of unbelief, for the understanding of the new preaching.

10. And when the disciples advised that the multitudes be sent away into the nearest villages to buy food, He answered, They need not depart: showing that those whom He was healing had no need of the food of the Law’s teaching, nor need to go back to Judaea and buy food; and He bids the apostles give them to eat. Did He not know that there was nothing that could be given; and, seeing into the inmost parts of men’s minds, did He not know how much food the apostles had laid by? But the whole figurative meaning had to be unfolded. For it had not yet been granted to the apostles to make and minister the heavenly bread for the food of eternal life. And their answer leads to the order of the spiritual meaning. For they answered that they had only five loaves and two fishes: because they were still held under five loaves, that is, the five books of the Law, and were nourished by two fishes, that is, by the preachings of the prophets and of John. For in the works of the Law life was as from bread; and the preaching of John and the prophets cherished the hope of human life in the power of water. These, then, the apostles offered first, because they were still in them; but the preaching of the Gospels is shown to have proceeded from them, and, drawn from these beginnings, it grows into a greater abundance of its power.

11. Having taken the loaves and the fishes, then, the Lord looked up to heaven, blessed and broke them, giving thanks to the Father that after the times of the Law and the prophets He was turned into the food of the Gospel. After this the people are bidden to sit down upon the grass: no longer lying on the earth, but upheld by the Law; and each is spread upon the fruits of his own work, as on the grass of the earth. The loaves are given to the apostles too, because through them the gifts of divine grace were to be handed on. Then the people are fed and filled with five loaves and two fishes; and the fragments of bread and fishes, when those sitting at meat were filled, abounded to the fulness of twelve baskets. That is, the multitude is satisfied by the word of God coming from the teaching of the Law and the prophets; and the plenty of divine power, kept back for the people of the Gentiles out of the ministry of the eternal food, overflows to the fulness of the twelve apostles. And the number of those who ate is found to be the same as was to be the number of those who believed. For, as is contained in the book of the Acts, out of the countless people of Israel five thousand men believed. For the wonder of the events reaches even to the measure of the meaning beneath them. And the loaves broken with the fishes, when the people had been filled, are heaped up afterwards to such an increase as was the number appointed both of the believing people and of the apostles who were to be filled with heavenly grace: so that the measure answered to the number and the number to the measure; and the reckoning, shut within its own bounds, was kept by the very governance of the divine power to the condition of the effect that was to follow.

12. But the work of the deed surpasses human understanding: and though there are often things which, conceived by the mind, speech cannot unfold, yet in these the very fineness of the mind grows heavy, and is struck dumb before the contemplation of the thing, through the difficulty of a business so invisible. For having taken the five loaves, the Lord looked up to heaven, Himself acknowledging the honour of Him from whom He was: not that there was any need to look upon the Father with the eyes of the flesh, but that those present might understand from whom He had received the working of so great a power. Then He gives the loaves to the disciples. Five are not multiplied into many, but fragments follow upon fragments, and always outrun those who break them, broken already before they break them. Then the matter grows: I do not know whether in the place of the tables, or in the hands of those who take it, or in the mouths of those who eat. Do not wonder that springs flow, that grapes grow on vines, that wine pours from grapes, and that all the riches of the world flow down in an unwearied yearly course: for so great an increase of the loaves shows the Author of this universe, by whom such growth was added to the measure of the matter handled. For an invisible working is carried out in a visible work, and the Lord of heavenly secrets works the secret of the present business. The power of the One who works surpasses all nature, and the reason of the power goes beyond understanding of the deed, and only wonder at the power is left. And the order of causes and works also follows.

13. After this He commanded the disciples to go up into the ship, while He sent the multitudes away; and, having sent the multitude away, He went up into a mountain to pray, and when the evening was come He was alone. The meaning of these things must be marked off by times. His being alone in the evening shows His loneliness at the time of the Passion, when the rest had fled in fear. But His bidding the disciples go up into the ship and cross the sea, while He sends the multitudes away, and His going up into the mountain when He had sent the multitudes away, means that they are to be within the Church and to be carried across the sea, that is, through the world, until that time when, returning in the coming of His glory, He Himself will give salvation to all the people that shall be left of Israel and forgive their sins; and, having sent it away, or rather admitted it into the heavenly kingdom, giving thanks to God the Father, He will abide in His glory and majesty.

14. But meanwhile the disciples are driven about by wind and sea, and tossed by all the commotions of the world, the unclean spirit opposing them. But in the fourth watch the Lord comes: for it is then, the fourth time, that He will return to His wandering and shipwrecked Church. For in the fourth watch of the night the number of His solicitudes is found to be as many. For the first watch was of the Law, the second of the prophets, the third of His bodily coming, and the fourth in the return of His glory. But He will find her weary, and driven about by the spirit of Antichrist and by all the commotions of the world. For He will come to them when they are most anxious and harassed. And because, from their experience of Antichrist, they will be uneasy at every new kind of temptation, they will be terrified even at the Lord’s coming, fearing false images of things and phantoms creeping upon their eyes. But the good Lord will speak at once and drive away their fear, and say, It is I, driving away the fear of the shipwreck that threatens by faith in His coming.

15. And as for Peter alone, out of the whole number of those in the ship, daring to answer, and praying to be bidden come to the Lord upon the waters: he signifies the disposition of his will at the time of the Passion, when he alone, coming after Him and clinging to the Lord’s footsteps, despising the commotions of the world as those of the sea, went with Him with a like courage to despise death. But his fearfulness shows the weakness of the temptation to come. For though he had dared to walk, yet he began to sink: for through the weakness of the flesh and the fear of death he was driven even to the necessity of denying. But he cries out and begs salvation from the Lord. That cry is the groan of his repentance. For he turned back to confession before the Lord had suffered, and obtained pardon for his denial in time, Christ being afterwards to suffer for the redemption of all.

16. And this is the reason why the Lord granted him, in his fear, not the power to reach Him, but stretched out His hand and caught and held him. Peter was not indeed unworthy of drawing near to his Lord, for he even tried to draw near; but the figurative order was kept in him too. For no one could share in the Passion with the Lord who treads underfoot the commotions and storms of the world; for He alone, about to suffer for all, was loosing the sins of all: nor does He admit a partner in what is done for all by One. So, since He Himself was the redemption of all, Peter too had first to be redeemed, being kept then for faith in that redemption, to be a martyr of Christ.

17. And this too must be considered in Peter, that he went before the rest in faith: for while the others did not know, he first answered, Thou art the Son of the living God. He first, thinking it an evil, abhorred the Passion. He first promised both that he would die and that he would not deny. He first forbade his feet to be washed. He also drew a sword against those who were seizing the Lord.

18. And at His going up into the ship the wind and the sea were stilled: by this the eternal peace and calm of the Church after the return of His glory is signified. And because then He will come openly, rightly all of them in wonder said, Of a truth thou art the Son of God. For then the confession of all will be both complete and public, that the Son of God, no longer in bodily lowliness but in heavenly glory, has given back peace to the Church.

19. And when they were gone over, they came into the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they worshipped Him. Many things have fallen between, which have held us back, after the gathering and filling of the five thousand men, in our care to give an account of them; but the sense is the same up to this place. For the times of the Law being finished, and five thousand men out of Israel having been set within the Church, now the people of believing Israelites comes to meet Him: being now itself saved out of the Law through faith, it brings to the Lord those of its own who were left sick and ill, and when they were brought, they wished to touch the hem of His garments, to be made whole through faith. But as the hem from the whole garment, so the power of the Holy Spirit went forth from our Lord Jesus Christ: and, given to the apostles, who also go forth as it were from the same body, it ministers salvation to those who desire to touch it.