Interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew, compiled according to the ancient patristic interpretations of the Byzantines, XII century, by the learned monk Euthymius Zigaben

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Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew

carefully compiled by Euthymius Zigaben, mainly on the basis of the interpretation of our Holy Father John Chrysostom, and partly of various other Fathers

The Evangelists in the inscriptions called their narrative the Gospel, as Luke also testifies, saying: "Wherefore many have begun to write the story of the things known in us" (Luke 1:1). They called this narrative the Gospel (gospel), because it proclaims to people good things, namely, the incarnation of God, the Divinity of man, the destruction of demons, the remission of sins, rebirth, adoption and the inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom. The Evangelists are called not only the four famous, but also all together the Apostles, of whom Isaiah generally foretold, saying: "If they are beautiful... the feet of those who preach peace, those who preach good tidings (Isaiah 52:7). But these four are called evangelists in the proper sense, because they preached the gospel and delivered everything in a letter, and all the rest, because they did the same without writing.

How wonderful it would be if we did not need the help of writing, but lived so pure that our hearts would serve us instead of books, and be written by the Holy Spirit like books with ink. But since we have already rejected this grace, oh, if only we would value more and use the writings for what is needed!

To those who were in the Old Testament, Noah, Abraham and his descendants, Job and Moses, God spoke Himself, and not through writing, finding in them a pure mind. But when the entire Jewish people fell into the abyss of wickedness, then tablets and writings appeared to remember the past. In the same way, anyone could see that the same thing happened to those who lived in the New Testament. The Lord did not give anything written to the Apostles, but instead of writings He promised to give them the grace of the Holy Spirit: "To Him... will remember you," he said, "all things" (John 14:26). And so that you may know that this is much better, listen to what He says through the prophet: "I command you a new covenant, that my laws are in their minds, and I will write on their hearts" (Jeremiah 31:31-33), and all your sons have been taught of God (Isaiah 54:13). And Ap. Paul, showing this superiority, says that the law is received not on tables of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart (2 Corinthians 3:3). When, in the course of time, they were broken, either for the sake of learning, or for the sake of life and morals, there again arose the need for remembrance with the help of writing. Consider, then, what a great evil it is for us, who ought to have lived so pure as not to have need of writing, but to present our hearts to the Holy Spirit instead of books, what an evil it is for us, after we have lost this honor and made ourselves so necessary, not to use this second remedy, but to despise the writings, how vainly given and empty. And in order to prevent this from happening, let us pay attention to the Scriptures and carefully examine the power of each of them, in order to extract from it a rich treasure of correct doctrine and collect examples of holy life.

But why, when there were twelve apostles, did only two of them, Matthew and John, write the Gospels? The other two were rather companions, Mark of Peter and Luke of Paul. Because he did nothing for the sake of ambition, but everything was required by necessity. The Jewish believers asked Matthew to leave them in writing the Gospel story, which he had previously handed down to them orally; in the same way Mark was asked by those who had been enlightened by him in Egypt. Luke adds the reason why he wrote the Gospel, saying to Theophilus that he was doing it for confirmation. He says: "That thou mayest understand, of whom thou hast learned words, affirmation" (Luke 1:4). John, having their Gospels at hand, and seeing that all three were occupied primarily with discourse on the Incarnation of the Saviour, and therefore were silent about the teaching concerning His Divinity, — at the instruction of Christ, he began to write the Gospel. Therefore, he first tells about the Divinity of Christ, since for this purpose he compiled the entire book. Wonder, then, that while they did not write at the same time, in the same place, and without communicating anything to one another, all four speak as if with the same mouth, especially in those dogmas which pertain to the affirmation of the faith; namely, that God became man, that He was born of a Virgin, that He performed miracles, that He taught the saving commandments, that He was crucified on the Cross and buried, that He was resurrected and ascended to heaven; that He will judge all, that He is the only-begotten Son, and of equal being, power, and honor with the Father, etc. If it seems that the Evangelists disagree somewhat on something unimportant, then this seeming disagreement serves as the greatest proof of the truth and frees them from all suspicion. If they were in agreement in everything, even to the time, place, and words, no one would believe that they did not agree among themselves to write by common agreement what they only wrote. And this disagreement we now call not a contradiction — since they did not contradict each other even in non-essential matters — but a disagreement. Thus, in some cases, one performed a miracle at one time, another at another, one in one place, another in another, one in this speech, and the other in another. We will speak of all this in its proper place, and we shall clearly show that the Evangelists did not contradict them at all. It is one thing to contradict, and another to say otherwise.

Matthew was the first to write the Gospel, which is now at hand, 8 years after the Ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven. He wrote it for those who believed from among the Jews, as we have said above, using the then usual Hebrew language; later it was translated into Greek.