Matthew 4:25Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Observe the reserve of the Evangelist; he does not give an account of any one of the various cases of healing, but passes in one brief phrase an abundance of miracles, they brought to him all their sick.

We must consider that when some great change is being wrought, as the introduction of a new polity, God is wont to work miracles, giving pledges of His power to those who are to receive His laws. Thus when He would make man, He first created a world, and then at length gave man in paradise a law. When He would dispense a law to the holy Noah, he shewed truly great wonders; and again when He was about to ordain the Law for the Jews, He first shewed great prodigies, and then at length gave them the commandments. So now when about to introduce a sublime discipline of life, He first provided a sanction to His instructions by mighty signs, because the eternal kingdom He preached was not seen, by the things which did appear, He made sure that which as yet did not appear.

a By which too He shewed the Jews that He came not as an enemy of God, or a seducer of souls, but as consenting with his Father.

In some places it is, He cured many; but here, He cured them, meaning ‘all;’ as a new physician first entering a town cures all who come to him. to beget a good opinion concerning himself.

Or, by disease we may understand any passion of the mind, as avarice, lust, and such like, by malady unbelief, that is, weakness of faith. Or, the diseases are the more grievous pains of the body, the maladies the slighter. As He cured the bodily pains by virtue of His divine power, so He cured the spiritual by the word of His mercy. He first teaches, and then performs the cures, for two reasons. First, that what is needed most may come first; for it is the word of holy instruction, and not miracles, that edify the soul. Secondly, because teaching is commended by miracles, not the converse.

Kings, when about to go to war with their enemies, first gather an army, and so go out to battle; thus the Lord when about to war against the Devil, first collected Apostles, and then began to preach the Gospel.

Because they being weak could not come to their physician, He as a zealous Physician went about to visit those who had any grievous sickness. The Lord went round the several regions, and after His example the pastors of each region ought to go round to study the several dispositions of their people, that for the remedy of each disease some medicine may be found in the Church.

Or, He taught natural righteousness, those things which natural reason teaches, as chastity, humility, and the like, which all men of themselves see to be goods. Such things are necessary to be taught not so much for the sake of making them known as for stirring the heart. For beneath the prevalence of carnal delights the knowledge of natural righteousness sleeps forgotten. When then a teacher begins to denounce carnal sins, his teaching does not bring up a new knowledge, but recalls to memory one that had been forgotten. But He preached the Gospel, in telling of good things which the ancients had manifestly not heard of, as the happiness of heaven, the resurrection of the dead, and the like. Or, He taught by interpreting the prophecies concerning Himself; He preached by declaring the benefits that were to come from Himself.

crowds that followed Him consisted of four sorts of men, some followed for the heavenly teaching as disciples, some for the curing of their diseases, some from the reports concerning Him alone, and curiosity to find whether they were true; others from envy, wishing to catch Him in some matter that they might accuse Him. Mystically, Syria is interpreted ‘lofty,’ Galilee, ‘turning:’ or ‘a wheel;’ that is, the Devil and the world; the Devil is both proud and always turned round to the bottom; the world in which the fame of Christ went abroad through preaching: the dæmoniacs are the idolaters; the lunatics, the unstable; the paralytics, the slow and careless.

Syria here is all the region from Euphrates to the Great sea, from Cappadocia to Egypt, in which is the country of Palestine, inhabited by Jews.

By these he would have us understand various but slighter diseases; but when he says, seized with divers sicknesses and torments, he would have those understood, of whom it is subjoined, and who had dæmons.

‘Lunatics’ are so called from the moon; for as it waxes in its monthly seasons they are tormented.

An example of life for doctors; that they should not be inactive, they are instructed in these words, And Jesus went about.

That they should not be acceptors of persons the preachers are instructed in what follows, the whole of Galilee. That they should not go about empty, by the word teaching. That they should seek to benefit not few but many, in what follows, in their synagogues.

That they should not preach error nor fable, but sound doctrine, is inculcated in the words, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom. ‘Teaching’ and ‘preaching’ differ; teaching refers to things present, preaching to things to come; He taught present commandments and preached future promises.

Or, they follow the Lord from Galilee, that is, from the unstable world; from Decapolis, (the country of ten towns,) signifying those who break the Ten Commandments; and from Jerusalem, because before it was preserved unhurt in peace; and from Jordan, that is, from the confession of the Devil; and from beyond Jordan, they who were first planted in paganism, but passing the water of Baptism came to Christ.