---
title: "Catena Aurea: The Four Gospels"
author: "Thomas Aquinas"
translator: "John Henry Newman (ed.)"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 94 of 394
url: https://scriptura.si/works/thomas-aquinas-catena-aurea-the-four-gospels/94/
cite: "Thomas Aquinas, tr. John Henry Newman (ed.), Catena Aurea: The Four Gospels, section 94. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/thomas-aquinas-catena-aurea-the-four-gospels/94/"
---

# Catena Aurea: The Four Gospels

*Thomas Aquinas, tr. John Henry Newman (ed.)*

The four Gospels read through chains of quotations from the Church Fathers.

## 94. Matthew 17 · 2 of 4

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/thomas-aquinas-catena-aurea-the-four-gospels/94/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/thomas-aquinas-catena-aurea-the-four-gospels/94/#p-N

[¶0] Chrysostom: But when before in Christ’s baptism, such a voice came from heaven, yet none of the multitude then present suffered any thing of this kind, how is it that the disciples on the mount fell prostrate? Because in sooth their solicitude was much, the height and loneliness of the spot great, and the transfiguration itself attended with terrors, the clear light and the spreading cloud; all these things together wrought to terrify them.

[¶1] Jerome: And whereas they were laid down, and could not raise themselves again, He approaches them, touches them gently, that by His touch their fear might be banished, and their unnerved limbs gain strength; "And Jesus drew near, and touched them." But He further added His word to His hand, "And said unto them, Arise, fear not." He first banishes their fear, that He may after impart teaching.

[¶2] It follows, "And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only;" which was done with good reason; for had Moses and Elias continued with the Lord, it might have seemed uncertain to which in particular the witness of the Father was borne. Also they see Jesus standing after the cloud has been removed, and Moses and Elias disappeared, because after the shadow of the Law and Prophets has departed, both are found in the Gospel.

[¶3] It follows; "And as they came down from the mount, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell no man this vision, until the Son of Man shall rise from the dead." He will not be preached among the people, lest the marvel of the thing should seem incredible, and lest the cross following after so great glory should cause offence.

[¶4] Remigius: Or, because if His majesty should be published among the people, they should hinder the dispensation of His passion, by resistance to the chief Priests; and thus the redemption of the human race should suffer impediment.

[¶5] Hilary: He enjoins silence respecting what they had seen, for this reason, that when they should be filled with the Holy Spirit, they should then become witnesses of these spiritual deeds.

[¶6] Ver. 10. And his disciples asked him, saying, "Why then say the Scribes that Elias must first come?"11. And Jesus answered and said unto them, "Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.12. But I say unto you, That, Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them."13. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

[¶7] Jerome: It was a tradition of the Pharisees following the Prophet Malachi, that Elias should come before the coming of the Saviour, and bring back the heart of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, and restore all things to their ancient state. The disciples then consider that this transformation which they had seen in the mount was His coming in glory, and therefore it is said, "And his disciples asked him, saying, How then say the Scribes that Elias must first come? As though they had said, If you have already come in glory, how is it that your forerunner appears not yet? And this they say chiefly because they see that Elias is departed again

[¶8] Chrys., Hom., lvii: The disciples knew not of the coming of Elias out of the Scriptures; but the Scribes made it known to them; and this report was current among the ignorant multitude, as was that concerning Christ. Yet the Scribes did not explain the coming of Christ and of Elias, as they ought to have done. For the Scriptures speak of two comings of Christ; that which has taken place, and that which is yet to be. But the Scribes, blinding the people, spake to them only of His second coming, and said, If this be the Christ, then should Elias have come before Him. Christ thus resolves the difficulty, He answered and said, "Elias truly shall come, and restore all things; but I say unto you, that Elias has already come."

[¶9] Think not that here is a contradiction in His speech, if He first say that Elias shall come, and then that he is come. For when He says that Elias shall come and restore all things, He speaks of Elias himself in his own proper person, who indeed shall restore all things, in that he shall correct the unbelief of the Jews, who shall then be to be found; and that is the turning the hearts of the fathers to the children, that is, the hearts of the Jews to the Apostles

[¶10] Aug., Quaest Ev., i, 21: Or; "He shall restore all things," that is those whom the persecution of Antichrist shall have overthrown; as He Himself should restore by His death those whore He ought.

[¶11] Chrysostom: But if there shall so much good arise out of the presence of Elias, why did He not send him at that time? We shall say, Because they then held Christ to be Elias, and yet believed not on Him. But they shall hereafter believe Elias, because when he shall come after so great expectation announcing Jesus, they will more readily receive what shall be taught by Him. But when He says that Elias is come already, He calls John the Baptist Elias from the resemblance of their ministry; for as Elias shall be the forerunner of His second coming, so was John the forerunner of His first. And He calls John Elias, to shew that His first coming was agreeable to the Old Testament, and to prophecy.

[¶12] Jerome: He then who at the Saviour’s second coming should come in the truth of His body, come now in John in power and spirit.

[¶13] It followers, "And they knew him not, but did unto him whatsoever they would," that is, despised and beheaded him.

[¶14] Hilary: As he announced the Lord’s coming, so he was also to foreshew His passion by the example of his own suffering and wrong; whence it follows, "So also shall the Son of Man suffer of them."

[¶15] Chrysostom: He takes the opportunity from the passion of John to refer to His own passion, thus giving them much comfort.

[¶16] Jerome: It is enquired how, seeing that Herod and Herodias were they that killed John, it can be said that Jesus also was crucified by them, when we read that He was put to death by the Scribes and Pharisees! It must be answered briefly, that the party of the Pharisees consented to the death of John, and that in the Lord’s crucifixion Herod united his approval, when having mocked and set Him at nought, he sent Him back to Pilate, that he should crucify Him.

[¶17] Rabanus: From the mention of His own passion which the Lord had often foretold to them, and from that of His forerunner, which they beheld already accomplished, the disciples perceived that John was set forth to them under the name of Elias; whence it follows; "Then understood the disciples that he spake to them of John the Baptist."

[¶18] Origen: That He says of John, "Elias is already come," is not to be understood of the soul of Elias, that we fall not into the doctrine of metempsychosis, which is foreign to the truth of Church doctrine, but, as the Angel had foretold, he came "in the spirit and spirit of Elias."

[¶19] Ver. 14. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,15. "Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.16. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him."17. Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me."18. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

[¶20] Origen: Peter, anxious for such desirable life, and preferring his own benefit to that of many, had said, "It is good for us to be here." But since charity seeks not her own, Jesus did not this which seemed good to Peter, but descended to the multitude, as it were from the high mount of His divinity, that He might be of use to such as could not ascend because of the weakness of their souls; whence it is said, "And when he was come to the multitude;" for if He had not gone to the multitude with His elect disciples, there would not have come near to Him the man of whom it is added, "There came to him a man kneeling down, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son."

[¶21] Consider here, that sometimes those that are themselves the sufferers believe and entreat for their own healing, sometimes others for them, as he who kneels before Him praying for his son, and sometimes the Saviour heals of Himself unasked by any.

[¶22] First, let us see what this means that follows, "For he is lunatic, and sore vexed." Let the physicians talk as they list; for they think it no unclean spirit, but some bodily disorder, and say, that the humours in the head are governed in their motions by sympathy with the phases of the moon, whose light is of the nature of humours. But we who believe the Gospel say that it is an unclean spirit that works such disorders in men. The spirit observes the moon’s changes, that it may cheat men into the belief that the moon is the cause of their sufferings, and so prove God’s creation to be evil; as other daemons lay wait for men following the times and courses of the stars, that they may speak wickedness in high places, calling some stars malignant, others benign; whereas no star was made by God that it should produce evil.

[¶23] In this that is added, "For ofttimes he falls into the fire, and oft into the water,"

[¶24] Chrysostom: is to be noted, that were not man fortified here by Providence, he would long since have perished; for the daemon who cast him into the fire, and into the water, would have killed him outright, had God not restrained him.

[¶25] Jerome: In saying, "And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not heal him," he covertly accuses the Apostles, whereas that a cure is impossible is sometimes the effect not of want of power in those that undertake it, but of want of faith in those that are to be healed.

[¶26] Chrysostom: See herein also his folly, in that before the multitude he appeals to Jesus against His disciples. But He clears them from shame, imputing their failure to the patient himself; for many things shew that he was weak in faith. But He addresses His reproof not to the man singly, that He may not trouble him, but to the Jews in general. For many of those present, it is likely, had improper thoughts concerning the disciples, and therefore it follows, "Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you?"

[¶27] His "How long shall I be with you?" shews that death was desired by Him, and that He longed for His withdrawal.

[¶28] Remigius: It may be known also, that not now for the first time, but of a long time, the Lord had borne the Jews’ stubbornness, whence He says, "How long shall I suffer you?" because I have now a long while endured your iniquities, and ye are unworthy of My presence.

[¶29] Origen: Or; Because the disciples could not heal him as being weak in faith, He said to them, "O faithless generation," adding "perverse," to shew that their perverseness had introduced evil beyond their nature. But I suppose, that because of the perverseness of the whole human race, as it were oppressed with their evil nature, He said, "How long shall I be with you?"

[¶30] Jerome: Not that we must think that He was overcome by weariness of them, and that The meek and gentle broke out into words of wrath, but as a physician who might see the sick man acting against his injunctions, would say, How long shall I frequent your chamber? How long throw away the exercise of my skill, while I prescribe one thing, and you do another? That it is the sin, and not the man with whom He is angry, and that in the person of this one man He convicts the Jews of unbelief, is clear from what He adds, "Bring him to me."

[¶31] Chrysostom: When He had vindicated His disciples, He leads the boy’s father to a cheering hope of believing that he shall be delivered out of this evil; and that the father might be led to believe the miracle that was coming, seeing the daemon was disturbed even when the child was only called;

[¶32] Jerome: He rebuked him, that is, not the sufferer, but the daemon.

[¶33] Remigius: In which deed He left an example to preachers to attack sins, but to assist men.

[¶34] Jerome: Or, His reproof was to the child, because for his sins he had been seized on by the daemon.

[¶35] Rabanus: The lunatic is figuratively one who is hurried into fresh vices every hour, one while is cast into the fire, with which the hearts of the adulterers burn [[Hos 7:4], [Hos 7:6]]; or again into the waters of pleasures or lusts, which yet have not strength to quench love.

[¶36] Aug., Quaest Ev., i, 22: Or the fire pertains to anger, which aims upwards, water to the lusts of the flesh.

[¶37] Origen: Of the changefulness of the sinner it is said, "The fool changes as the moon." [[Ecc 27:12]] We may see sometimes that an impulse towards good works comes over such, when, lo! again as by a sudden seizure of a spirit they are laid hold of by their passions, and fall from that good state in which they were supposed to stand. Perhaps his father stands for the Angel to whom was allotted the care of this lunatic, praying the Physician of souls, that He would set free his son, who could not be delivered from his suffering by the simple word of Christ’s disciples, because as a deaf person he cannot receive their instruction, and therefore he needs Christ’s word, that henceforth he may not act without reason.

[¶38] Ver. 19. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, "Why could not we cast him out?"20. And Jesus said unto them, "Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.21. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."

[¶39] Chrysostom: The disciples had received from the Lord the power over unclean spirits, and when they could not heal the daemoniac thus brought to them, they seem to have had misgivings lest they had forfeited the grace once given to them; hence their question. And they ask it apart, not out of shame, but because of the unspeakable matter of which they were to ask. "Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief."

[¶40] Hilary: The Apostles had believed, yet their faith was imperfect; while the Lord tarried in the mount, and they abode below with the multitude, their faith had become stagnant.

[¶41] Chrysostom: Whence it is plain that the disciples’ faith was grown weak, yet not all, for those pillars were there, Peter, and James, and John.

[¶42] Jerome: This is what the Lord says in another place, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name believing, ye shall receive." [[Mat 21:22], [Joh 16:23]] Therefore when we receive not, it is not the weakness of Him that gives, but the fault of them that ask.

[¶43] Chrysostom: But it is to be known, that, as ofttimes the faith of him that draweth near to receive supplies the miraculous virtue, so ofttimes the power of those that work the miracle is sufficient even without the faith of those who sought to receive. Cornelius and his household, by their faith, attracted to them the grace of the Holy Spirit [[Act 10:4]]; but the dead man who was cast into the sepulchre was revived solely by virtue of the holy body. [[2Ki 13:13]]

[¶44] It happened that the disciples were then weak in faith; for indeed they were but in an imperfect condition before the cross; wherefore He here tells them, that faith is the mean of miracles, "Verily I say unto you, if ye shall have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say to this mountain, Remove hence, and it shall remove."