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 25: On the building of the temple, when the disciples asked about it; on those on the housetop, that they should not come down to take anything out of the house; on those in the field, that they should not return to take their coat; and on those that are with child and those that give suck.
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And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. After the threat that Jerusalem would be deserted, the magnificence of the building is shown to Him, as though He might be moved by the splendour of the temple. He says that all things are to be destroyed, and thrown down, the stones of the whole foundation scattered. For an eternal temple was being consecrated for the dwelling of the Holy Spirit: that is, man, made worthy to be a dwelling for God through the knowledge of the Son, the confession of the Father, and obedience to the commandments.
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And as he sat upon the mount, the disciples, coming to Him privately, ask when these things should be, and what sign they should know of His coming and of the end of the world. And because these three things were asked together, they are separated by distinct indications of time and of meaning. First, then, the answer is about the fall of the city; and they are strengthened by the truth of the teaching, so that no deceiver might creep upon the ignorant. For there would come, even in their time, those who would call themselves Christ. So, so that faith might be drawn away from a deadly lie, the warning went before. For Simon the Samaritan came, furnished with devilish works and words, and led many astray by the wonders of his deeds. And because this fell within the times of the apostles, He says, the end is not yet. But not even then will the end be, when nations and kingdoms clash with one another, and there will be famines and earthquakes: because in these is not the dissolution of this universe, but the beginning of sorrows, all evils beginning thenceforth. He strengthens them, then, to the endurance of sufferings, of flight, scourging and death, and of the public hatred of the nations against them for His name’s sake. And by these persecutions many will be troubled, and, as such great evils rise up, will be offended, and stirred up even to mutual hatred. And there will be false prophets — as Nicolas, one of the seven deacons, was — and they will pervert many by counterfeiting the truth; and because iniquity abounds, charity will grow cold. But salvation is kept for those who persevere to the end: and then, apostolic men being scattered through all parts of the world, the truth of the Gospel will be preached. And when the knowledge of the heavenly mystery has been brought to all, then the fall and end of Jerusalem will fall upon her: so that the punishment of unbelievers and the dread of the overthrown city may follow the truth of the preaching. These things, then, were accomplished against her as they had been foretold: and, the apostles having been stoned, driven out and slain, she was consumed by famine, war and captivity. And then she deserved not to be, when, having cast out the preachers of Christ, she showed herself unworthy of the preaching of God.
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Then follows the sign of the coming that is to be: that when they see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, they are to understand then the return of His glory. And of this, since the most blessed Daniel and Paul have proclaimed it, I think any discourse of ours superfluous: for He spoke these things of the times of Antichrist. He is called the abomination because, coming against God, he will claim for himself the honour of God; and the abomination of desolation because he will lay the earth desolate with wars and slaughters, in guilt. And for this reason, received by the Jews, he will stand in the place of sanctification: so that where God was called upon by the prayers of the saints, there, received by unbelievers, he may be worshipped with the honour of God.
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And because this error will be peculiar to the Jews, that those who rejected the truth will take up falsehood, He warns that Judaea be left, and that men flee to the mountains; lest, by mingling with that people which will believe Antichrist, violence or infection be brought upon them; but that for all who are then faithful the wilds of the mountains may be safer than the crowds of Judaea.
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And as for His saying, Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: this precept, by human understanding, admits no reason in word or deed. For he who is on the housetop, and is about to leave Judaea, will not be able to go away unless he comes down from it. Or what use is there in staying on the housetop and not remaining in the house? But we have often pointed out that the proper meanings of the words and places are to be looked at, so that we may attain the force of the heavenly precepts. The housetop is the summit of the house, and the lofty completion of the whole dwelling. For no house could be called a house, or be one, without a roof. He, then, who stands in the completion of his house, that is, in the perfection of his body — new by regeneration, lofty in spirit, and made perfect by the fulfilment of the divine gift — must not come down to lower things through desire of worldly goods, nor, provoked by the lower allurements of the body, come down from the height of his roof. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes: that is, set in the doing of the commandment, let him not go back to his former cares; nor let him long for any garments of the body, going back for which he will bring back thereafter the coat of his old sins, with which he was formerly covered.
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And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! This can indeed be taken simply of the delay in flight: because, hindered by the burden of the womb, it would be hard for them to escape the ruin of the times that threatens. But what has the condition, the sex, and the order of begetting deserved? Unless perhaps that age of women which falls in those times is to be cursed in particular. But far be it that there should be anything that becomes an evil to man except by his own fault. It is not to be believed, then, that the Lord gave warning about the burden of pregnant women when He says, Woe unto them that are with child; but that He showed the heaviness of souls filled with sins, which can escape the storm of the wrath laid up neither when set on the housetop nor when staying in the field. For pain follows pregnant women by nature, and birth is not brought forth without the distress of the whole body. Such souls, then, as are found so, will be held fast in their own burden and pain. And woe also to those who are suckled. And an infant weaned from the milk is no less useless for flight than one still fed with milk. And how is it woe to one who is suckled, when there is no difference of age or time between being fed with milk and having been weaned? But here too He shows in the same way the weakness of souls which are still fed, as with milk, towards the knowledge of God: which, lacking the strength of solid food, are imbued only with a slight and weak taste of divine knowledge. And therefore woe will be to them: because, heavy for escaping Antichrist and unskilled for withstanding him, they will neither have escaped their sins nor received the food of the true bread.
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And therefore we are warned to pray that our flight be not in the winter nor on the sabbath: that is, that we be not found either in the cold of sins or in idleness from good works: because a heavy persecution will fall upon all, past bearing, except that for the sake of God’s elect a shortening is to be brought to those days, so that the time of raging, cut short, may overcome the force of the evils that press upon them.
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And because, to those set in great distress, the false prophets will point to help present in Christ, and will lie that Christ is and is to be found in many places, so as to lead them, crushed and harassed, into the service of Antichrist — now saying He is in the desert, to lead them astray by error; now declaring Him to be in the secret chambers, to shut them in under the power of a master — the Lord declares that He is not to be hidden in a place, nor to be seen by single men; but that He will be present everywhere and in the sight of all, like the lightning, which, lifted up from the east, scatters its light even to the regions of the west, and, flashing from wherever it is, is seen everywhere. And that we might not be ignorant even of the place where He would be, He says, For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. He has called the saints eagles from the flight of the spiritual body: and He shows that their assembling, the angels gathering them, will be in the place of His Passion. And rightly will the coming of His glory be looked for there, where He wrought for us the glory of eternity by the Passion of His bodily humility.