Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

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Matthew 8

1When he came down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.

2Behold, a leper came to him and worshiped him, saying, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.”

3Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be made clean.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

4Jesus said to him, “See that you tell nobody; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

5When he came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him for help,

6saying, “Lord, my servant lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented.”

7Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

8The centurion answered, “Lord, I’m not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

9For I am also a man under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and tell another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and tell my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

10When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed, “Most certainly I tell you, I haven’t found so great a faith, not even in Israel.

11I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven,

12but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

13Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way. Let it be done for you as you have believed.” His servant was healed in that hour.

14When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever.

15He touched her hand, and the fever left her. So she got up and served him.

16When evening came, they brought to him many possessed with demons. He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick,

17that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

18Now when Jesus saw great multitudes around him, he gave the order to depart to the other side.

19A scribe came and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

20Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

21Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.”

22But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

23When he got into a boat, his disciples followed him.

24Behold, a violent storm came up on the sea, so much that the boat was covered with the waves; but he was asleep.

25The disciples came to him and woke him up, saying, “Save us, Lord! We are dying!”

26He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm.

27The men marveled, saying, “What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

28When he came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two people possessed by demons met him there, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that nobody could pass that way.

29Behold, they cried out, saying, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”

30Now there was a herd of many pigs feeding far away from them.

31The demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of pigs.”

32He said to them, “Go!” They came out and went into the herd of pigs; and behold, the whole herd of pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea and died in the water.

33Those who fed them fled and went away into the city and told everything, including what happened to those who were possessed with demons.

34Behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged that he would depart from their borders.

Early Christian texts and source notes

c. 182–188 (historical edition's dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

4. The Demiurge, while ignorant of those things which were higher than himself, was indeed excited by the announcements made [through the prophets], but treated them with contempt, attributing them sometimes to one cause and sometimes to another; either to the prophetic spirit (which itself possesses the power of self-excitement), or to [mere unassisted] man, or that it was simply a crafty device of the lower [and baser order of men]. He remained thus ignorant until the appearing of the Lord. But they relate that when the Saviour came, the Demiurge learned all things from Him, and gladly with all his power joined himself to Him. They maintain that he is the centurion mentioned in the gospel, who addressed the Saviour in these words: "For I also am one having soldiers and servants under my authority; and whatsoever I command they do." They further hold that he will continue administering the affairs of the world as long as that is fitting and needful, and specially that he may exercise a care over the church; while at the same time he is influenced by the knowledge of the reward prepared for him, namely, that he may attain to the habitation of his mother.

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Against Heresies, Book 1, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1867 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Matt. viii. 22.

Editorial footnote · The Instructor, THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / THE INSTRUCTOR. / BOOK III. / CHAPTER XI. A COMPENDIOUS VIEW OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. · Original source

1867 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Matt. viii. 20; Luke ix. 58.

Editorial footnote · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / THE MISCELLANIES. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER III. AGAINST THE SOPHISTS. · Original source

1868 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Matt. viii. 9; Luke vii. 8.

Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 1, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1868 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Matt. viii. 11.

Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Matt. viii. 11, 12.

Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Cf. Matt. viii. 3.

Editorial footnote · Against Celsus, The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2 / ORIGEN CONTRA CELSUM. / ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. BOOK I. / Chapter XLVIII. · Original source

1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Matt. viii. 26; Mark viii. 36; Luke ix. 25.

Editorial footnote · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / BOOK VI. / CHAPTER XIV. DEGREES OF GLORY IN HEAVEN. · Original source

1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Matt. viii. 13.

Editorial footnote · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / BOOK IV. / CHAPTER VI. SOME POINTS IN THE BEATITUDES. · Original source

1871 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Matt. viii. 29.

Editorial footnote · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK TWENTIETH. / ARGUMENT. / 1. That although God is always judging, it is nevertheless reasonable to confine our attention in this book to His last judgment. · Original source

1872 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Matt. viii. 29; Mark i. 24; Luke viii. 28.

Editorial footnote · Answer to the Letters of Petilianus, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK THIRD. / Chapter xxxiv · Original source

1872 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Matt. viii. 21, 22.

Editorial footnote · Answer to the Letters of Petilianus, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK SECOND. / Chapter vii · Original source

Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo

That, therefore, which the whole Church of the true God holds and professes as its creed, that Christ shall come from heaven to judge quick and dead, this we call the last day, or last time, of the divine judgment. For we do not know how many days this judgment may occupy; but no one who reads the Scriptures, however negligently, need be told that in them "day" is customarily used for "time." And when we speak of the day of God's judgment, we add the word last or final for this reason, because even now God judges, and has judged from the beginning of human history, banishing from paradise, and excluding from the tree of life, those first men who perpetrated so great a sin. Yea, He was certainly exercising judgment also when He did not spare the angels who sinned, whose prince, overcome by envy, seduced men after being himself seduced. Neither is it without God's profound and just judgment that the life of demons and men, the one in the air, the other on earth, is filled with misery, calamities, and mistakes. And even though no one had sinned, it could only have been by the good and right judgment of God that the whole rational creation could have been maintained in eternal blessedness by a persevering adherence to its Lord. He judges, too, not only in the mass, condemning the race of devils and the race of men to be miserable on account of the original sin of these races, but He also judges the voluntary and personal acts of individuals. For even the devils pray that they may not be tormented, which proves that without injustice they might either be spared or tormented according to their deserts. And men are punished by God for their sins often visibly, always secretly, either in this life or after death, although no man acts rightly save by the assistance of divine aid; and no man or devil acts unrighteously save by the permission of the divine and most just judgment. For, as the apostle says, "There is no unrighteousness with God;" and as he elsewhere says, "His judgments are inscrutable, and His ways past finding out." In this book, then, I shall speak, as God permits, not of those first judgments, nor of these intervening judgments of God, but of the last judgment, when Christ is to come from heaven to judge the quick and the dead. For that day is properly called the day of judgment, because in it there shall be no room left for the ignorant questioning why this wicked person is happy and that righteous man unhappy. In that day true and full happiness shall be the lot of none but the good, while deserved and supreme misery shall be the portion of the wicked, and of them only.

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK TWENTIETH. / ARGUMENT. / 1. That although God is always judging, it is nevertheless reasonable to confine our attention in this book to His last judgment. · Original source

Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo

Chap. vii.—14. Petilianus said: "And again, 'He who is baptized by one that is dead, his washing profiteth him nothing.' He did not mean that the baptizer was a corpse, a lifeless body, the remains of a man ready for burial, but one lacking the Spirit of God, who is compared to a dead body, as He declares to a disciple in another place, according to the witness of the gospel. For His disciple says, 'Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.' The father of the disciple was not baptized. He declared him as a pagan to belong to the company of pagans; unless he said this of the unbelieving, The dead cannot bury the dead. He was dead, therefore, not as smitten by some death, but as smitten even during life. For he who so lives as to be doomed to eternal death is tortured by a death in life. To be baptized, therefore, by the dead, is to have received not life but death. We must therefore consider and declare how far the traditor is to be accounted dead while yet alive. He is dead who has not deserved to be born again with a true baptism; he is likewise dead who, having been born again with a true baptism, has become involved with a traditor. Both are wanting in the life of baptism,—both he who never had it at all, and he who had it and has lost it. For the Lord Jesus Christ says, 'There shall come to that man seven spirits more wicked than the former one, and the last state of that man shall be worse than the first.'"

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Answer to the Letters of Petilianus, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK SECOND. / Chapter vii · Original source

Date uncertain | Clement of Alexandria

Such ought those who are consecrated to Christ appear, and frame themselves in their whole life, as they fashion themselves in the church for the sake of gravity; and to be, not to seem such—so meek, so pious, so loving. But now I know not how people change their fashions and manners with the place. As they say that polypi, assimilated to the rocks to which they adhere, are in colour such as they; so, laying aside the inspiration of the assembly, after their departure from it, they become like others with whom they associate. Nay, in laying aside the artificial mask of solemnity, they are proved to be what they secretly were. After having paid reverence to the discourse about God, they leave within [the church] what they have heard. And outside they foolishly amuse themselves with impious playing, and amatory quavering, occupied with flute-playing, and dancing, and intoxication, and all kinds of trash. They who sing thus, and sing in response, are those who before hymned immortality,—found at last wicked and wickedly singing this most pernicious palinode, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” But not to-morrow in truth, but already, are these dead to God; burying their dead, that is, sinking themselves down to death. The apostle very firmly assails them: “Be not deceived; neither adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers,” and whatever else he adds to these, “shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The Instructor, THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / THE INSTRUCTOR. / BOOK III. / CHAPTER XI. A COMPENDIOUS VIEW OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. · Original source

Date uncertain | Clement of Alexandria

This, I think, is signified by the utterance of the Saviour, “The foxes have holes, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.” For on the believer alone, who is separated entirely from the rest, who by the Scripture are called wild beasts, rests the head of the universe, the kind and gentle Word, “who taketh the wise in their own craftiness. For the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain;” the Scripture calling those the wise (σοφοὺς) who are skilled in words and arts, sophists (σοφιστὰς). Whence the Greeks also applied the denominative appellation of wise and sophists (σοφοὶ, σοφισταὶ) to those who were versed in anything. Cratinus accordingly, having in the Archilochii enumerated the poets, said:

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / THE MISCELLANIES. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER III. AGAINST THE SOPHISTS. · Original source

Date uncertain | Clement of Alexandria

“I would never part with virtue for unrighteous gain.” But plainly, unrighteous gain is pleasure and pain, toil and fear; and, to speak comprehensively, the passions of the soul, the present of which is delightful, the future vexatious. “For what is the profit,” it is said, “if you gain the world and lose the soul?” It is clear, then, that those who do not perform good actions, do not know what is for their own advantage. And if so, neither are they capable of praying aright, so as to receive from God good things; nor, should they receive them, will they be sensible of the boon; nor, should they enjoy them, will they enjoy worthily what they know not; both from their want of knowledge how to use the good things given them, and from their excessive stupidity, being ignorant of the way to avail themselves of the divine gifts.

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / BOOK VI. / CHAPTER XIV. DEGREES OF GLORY IN HEAVEN. · Original source