Theodore of Heraclea

In his own words on Matthew

• Matthew 3:5

  When the crowds heard of his manner of life, far surpassing normal human life, they longed to see him. For this reason, when they heard that John was nearby, they all simultaneously ran to him, as to "a man sent from God." They confessed their sins in his presence so that, like a priest, he might offer up sacrifices on their behalf.

  FRAGMENT 13.28

• Matthew 3:9

  If from "stones children are given to Abraham," this is not by their possessing his flesh and spirit but by their sharing his virtue. Therefore the people of God are able to call Abraham "father." How so? Consider the following: Stones are employed by the Gentiles not only for building but also for idolatry. Besides this, remember this: the heart of the dragon is said to be as hard as a stone.

  FRAGMENTS 15-16

• Matthew 3:11

  The words "behind me" are used in the sense of "after me." "He who is coming" is said rather than "he who shall be revealed." The souls of the saints, in order to receive the mystery of revelation, are said to be baptized purely "in fire." This is because the Spirit first came down upon the disciples in tongues of fire, by which they were baptized and their souls made perfect. Or because, in the age to come, all will be baptized with fire, for "everyone will be salted with fire," so that "the fire may test everyone's work, of what sort it is." Fire is appointed for the material element, which in itself is neither wicked nor evil but powerful and able to purify from evil. For the power of fire is deemed to be beneficial and strong, destructive of evil things and preservative of what is better. This is why fire is associated with wisdom by the prophets. For this reason also, when God is called "a consuming fire," this is to be understood as a term and symbol not for evil but for power. As fire is the strongest of the elements and conquers everything else, in the same way God is all-powerful and almighty, able to conquer, to create, to make, to nourish, to multiply, to save, possessing authority over both body and soul. Just as fire outperforms all the elements, so too all gods, powers and rulers are no match for the Almighty.Fire has a twofold potency. On the one hand, it is suitable for the formation and ripening of fruits and for the birth and sustenance of animals. The sun is the primary image of this power. On the other hand, fire is fit for destroying and consuming, as is the case with earthly fire. When God therefore is called a "consuming fire," able to destroy, he is being called a mighty and irresistible power. To God nothing is impossible. Concerning such a power the Savior also says, "I came to cast fire upon the earth." This is a power that purifies the saints, causes material things to disappear and, we might say, educates. Fire induces fear. Its light spreads outward.

  FRAGMENT 18.51

• Matthew 3:15

  When he who is perfect according to the law was baptized with the baptism of John, he became the first to achieve the perfection of the law. For this reason even Christ, who was perfect in the law, was baptized with the baptism of John. For this reason he says, "For thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."

  FRAGMENT 21

• Matthew 4:4

  The first Adam sinned by eating. Christ prevailed by self-control. He thus teaches that there is no need for us to stay far away from God, even if we are famishing. This is also a pledge of our future state, which Christ in fact inaugurated, that in the future human beings will live even without food.

  FRAGMENT 22

• Matthew 5:22

  He has said two things: "Whoever says, 'Raca,' and whoever says, 'You fool,' " referring foolishness to the soul, and "despicable" to things of the body. By this he describes one who assumes an air of superiority, exalts himself over his brothers in the faith. Such a one hates them and turns away from them or looks down upon them with disgust or, frequently, passes them by as not worthy of a single look. He derives this sense of superiority from advantages of either body or soul and, on this account, looks down on his brothers as inferior to him. Such a person, Jesus says, is not considered by me as immune from condemnation. For the one who hates is akin to a murderer; such a person ought especially to have had love for these others on account of their shared faith, even though their common human nature should have been reason enough to unite them in friendship.

  FRAGMENT 27

• Matthew 5:32

  Through these things he clearly teaches that it is not unreasonable divorce which dissolves a marriage in God's sight. Rather, irresponsible action dissolves a marriage, even if the divorce is legal. For the whole teaching of Christ judges things according to one's disposition.

  FRAGMENT 34.30

• Matthew 5:42

  In giving us these directives so that their sense might be diligently examined, he did not intend us to take them according to the bare sound of the words. For he does not command to give to everyone who asks without exception, even if one has nothing to give, for that is impossible. Nor does he instruct us, if we have plenty, to give to someone who asks with a bad motive. For the donation then goes for evil things, as when someone asks for the sake of lust and intemperance and not for real need, and the person who gives merely provides fuel for such intemperance. For why is it said concerning the apostles that "distribution was made to each as any had need"? This tells us that they gave not so much to those who simply asked but that they provided for others on the basis of need. And do not forget about the verse that says, "A man is acceptable according to what he has, not according to what he does not have," and "not so that others should be relieved and you burdened."

  FRAGMENT 37.34

• Matthew 5:43

  Whether, he says, it be a friend or an enemy, a believer or an unbeliever, do good to the person in need. Do not follow the Jewish law that focuses repayment primarily on friends. For this reason, when they were urging the Lord to heal the son of the royal officer, they said to him, "He is worthy to have you do this for him," because "he has even built us our synagogue."

  FRAGMENT 38.37

• Matthew 5:44

  The law of the Lord transcends both the law of nature and the law revealed to Moses. For the things that are impossible with humans are possible with God. But Christ does not legislate impossibilities, as Stephen showed at the time of his passion, when he bent his knees and prayed for those who were stoning him. Similarly Paul, who had suffered so many things at the hands of the Jews, also prays for them. Therefore the infrequency of these things shows that they are not impossible. For most people, though, they are difficult to accomplish owing to their unwillingness to strive to reach the summit of virtue.

  FRAGMENT 40.42

• Matthew 5:45

  The imitator of God and Christ makes the sun of his word and the brightness of his righteousness to shine on both evil and good people, and the rain from his mouth falls upon both the righteous and the sinful.

  FRAGMENT 42

• Matthew 10:23

  His coming is not described as a manifest one at the end of our life. His coming will appear as spiritual guidance and help for those who are persecuted from time to time for the sake of God.

  FRAGMENT 68

• Matthew 10:41

  The one who receives people sent by anyone gladly honors the one who sent them, and vice versa. Or alternately: the one who receives the apostles who preach the Trinity receives "the fullness of deity" itself. And I think it likely that even in our days we receive them in spirit, if we receive their counsels with an open mind.

  FRAGMENT 72.41

• Matthew 11:18-19

  Christ himself was judged by those who believed in him to be the living, foundational wisdom, who managed everything justly. Although he was treated spitefully by the unbelieving Jews, he did not stop speaking kindly to the Jews and calling them to be his children.

  FRAGMENT 77

• Matthew 11:23

  Many were the miracles Jesus performed in the city of Capernaum. For this reason it was all the more necessary that those who dwelled there should believe. This city was for a time "lifted up unto heaven" on account of the miracles. But on account of the sin and unbelief of its inhabitants, an even more dreadful fall occurred, and they were "brought down to Hades." Christ was the steward. When the time was right, the Word became incarnate and performed miracles. He chastised Gentiles and Jews proportionately. Tyre and Sidon transgressed only natural law, but the Jews, who disobeyed Christ, transgressed the law of Moses and the prophets. Jesus said this even more sternly when he wished to point out that their wickedness was greater by comparison. For, if not these things, then other things might have happened in Tyre and Sidon, and even in Sodom and Gomorrah, if they had come to repentance. But, as I said, he presents this comparison in order more forcefully to demonstrate their wickedness.

  FRAGMENT 78

• Matthew 11:25

  Jesus called the Jews wise, either because they were entrusted with the oracles of God or because they were evil-doers and wise at doing evil, but he called the apostles children. He called the scribes and Pharisees wise, though they did not really possess wisdom but only what appeared to be wisdom because of their cleverness with words. He called the fishermen, who were unskilled in evil, children. In this way, the grace of God was clearly manifested as Jesus made himself known to simple men.… And even if it was Christ himself who, for the most part, did these things, nevertheless, by giving thanks for them as things done by the Father, he shows that they share a common will and gives thanks for God's love for us in the things by which we have received benefit.

  FRAGMENT 80

• Matthew 12:8

  You will also thus observe that knowing God is more necessary than resting on the sabbath. The sabbath was given to the Jews when, in Egypt, they were turned toward idolatry. And the sabbath was given for this reason: so that they would not call the world uncreated and outside the sphere of providence, but that they would acknowledge that God is both the One who planned it and that it is he himself who made the world in six days and on the seventh day rested. When God commanded them to do no work on the sabbath, it was to remind them of this. Subsequently, the fact that God is the Maker of the universe has become known to all, and so much of the detailed sabbath law has become superficial. If these extreme arguments about the sabbath were truly useful, they would have been applied not only to human beings but even to the sun and moon. Imagine that the very sun would cease working its benefits to us on the sabbath day. No. This commandment has been given to human beings, even from the foundation of the world.

  FRAGMENT 84

• Matthew 12:20-21

  He did not eagerly contend with the folly of the rulers, nor did he scream and provoke them to anger against himself. Rather, with gentleness Jesus withdrew slowly so that he might not, in confuting them, cause them to be destroyed while they were still weak in soul like "a bruised reed" or like "smoking flax," that is, very close to being snuffed out. He bore with them patiently, so as not to reduce them to utter oblivion on account of their weakness, until he had fulfilled the purpose of his dispensation,that is, to bring judgment to a full end. By this dispensation all the nations would come to believe.

  FRAGMENT 85

• Matthew 12:37

  If we are called to account "for every careless word," how much more will those who have blasphemed against the Spirit of the only begotten Son receive a more bitter punishment on the day of judgment. And if, Christ says, someone merely utters a slander against someone else, that one will by no means escape judgment. If they will give an account concerning an idle word, how much more so concerning a work.

  FRAGMENTS 88-89

• Matthew 12:40

  Christ says he will spend "three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." He is referring to the end of Friday, all of Saturday and the beginning of Sunday [of the passion week], in keeping with the way people understood the beginning and ending of days. For we too commemorate the third day of those who have died, not when three days and three nights, completed in equal measure, have gone by. But we reckon as a single, complete day that day on which the person died, regardless of what hour the death occurred. We count as another day that on which we take our leave of the departed in hymns before the tombs. Following this same kind of sequence, then, the Lord announced that he would spend a full three days and nights under the earth. A clear indication of this is the fact that the women arrived at that very time, in order to fulfill those things that the law prescribed to be done for the dead upon the third day.

  FRAGMENT 90

• Matthew 14:2

  Thinking that the Baptist had risen from the dead, Herod began to be afraid of him, as though John had become all the more powerful. He was alarmed lest John should employ against him even more of his caustic freedom of speech, which was a terror to him, frustrating him by revealing his crooked deeds.

  FRAGMENT 93

• Matthew 15:32

  In this way, by his speech, Christ had so disposed their souls that they had even become self-forgetful and had taken no care to provide for food or other inevitable needs. They had not grown weary, even in the desert, of being with Christ. But Christ understood the weakness of our nature and that we require food for the health of our bodies. He makes preparation even for this, that it might be evident that he is concerned not only about our souls but about our bodies as well. For he himself is the Creator of both soul and body. He is not merely the Lord of one or the other, as the lunacies of the Manichaeans hold. They teach different creators, one for the soul and another for the body.

  FRAGMENT 97

• Matthew 15:38-39

  He does this not only once but also a second time, in order that we should know his strength. This strength by which he feeds the multitudes when he wishes and without bread finds its source in his divinity. He does this in order to bring them to believe that he himself is the one who earlier had fed Israel for forty years in the wilderness. And Jesus not only fed them with a few loaves of bread, but he even produced a surplus of seven baskets, so that he might be shown as incomparably surpassing Elijah, who himself also caused a multiplication of the widow's small quantity of oil and flour. Nevertheless, when Jesus produced a multiplication of seven baskets from seven loaves, he did not go beyond what was needed, lest the difference between these miracles should again be forgotten by the disciples.

  FRAGMENT 98

• Matthew 16:13

  Jesus asks this in order that we might know what opinions about him were current among the Jews. [He also asks] so that we might learn to inquire intently into what people are saying about him, and if it is bad, to remove the causes, or if complimentary, to increase them. But he said "Son of man" in order to show that he himself not only appears to be but in fact unchangeably is man, and again, is true God. [It is] not as if he were divided into different species, one part God and one part man; rather one may address him as Son of man with no doubt that this very same one is also the Son of God.

  FRAGMENT 101.5

• Matthew 16:23

  When, contrary to what he had hoped, Peter heard this, he was troubled. For the revelation had exhibited Christ as Son of God and the living God, on the one hand. Yet on the other hand, he was found to be preparing for the dreadful events of the Passion. In rebuking Peter, Christ brings to light his own righteous judgment. When Peter confessed Christ, Christ praised him. But when he was irrationally terrified, Christ rebuked him, acting without respect of persons.

  FRAGMENT 102

• Matthew 18:10

  But see, he says, that you do not at all despise those forced out of the church for wickedness. He does not want them to be cast out with any hatred or curse. But he spares those who are guilty of some damage or disorder and often hardened in their own depravity. It is as if it were possible to see even these change again for the better. By "little ones" he means those imperfect in their knowledge or those recently baptized. He does not want these to be looked down upon as ignorant in his teaching.

  FRAGMENT 105

• Matthew 19:29

  "A hundredfold" means that which is incomparably better as regards the future in heaven. When Mark says he will receive a hundredfold "in this age," we should understand him as speaking about spiritual joys far exceeding earthly ones, inasmuch as they are pledges of future blessings.

  FRAGMENT 107

• Matthew 23:16-17

  Jesus is saying that the gold in the temple, the gold objects dedicated in the temple to the glory of God, whether these be the gold cherubim or the gold jar containing the manna, were considered by the Jews to be worthy of much more honor than the temple. Therefore they were condemned by the Lord.… But the saying possesses a figurative meaning directed against them because they are not receiving the truth regarding Christ. Instead, they were judging Moses and the types given through him as more valuable than Christ.… They were rejecting the Christ who sanctifies Moses while simultaneously praising the law. Just as the law was praiseworthy, not because it possesses the types and the symbols but because it prefigures the true mystery of worship in Christ, in the same way the gold is precious because of the one who sanctifies the temple, and heaven is beautiful because of the God who sanctifies it and dwells within it.

  FRAGMENT 115.16

• Matthew 24:27

  For it is much the same with lightning. Lightning is figuratively compared with truth. It is likened to the coming of the Son of man, which is explained in every Scripture, whether it concerns the law, prophecy, the gospel or apostolic testimony. It flashes out from the east, the region of principalities and spiritual powers, and shines all the way to the west, the realm of darkness and Satan, in the time of the Passion. Note that if the law is rising in the east, the end of the law is setting in the west. But from Jesus Christ to Paul is a rising and setting. He was revealed to Paul last of all as "to one abnormally born."

  FRAGMENT 124-25