Chapter 187

22:17. Tell us therefore what dost thou think? Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?

22:18. But Jesus knowing their wickedness, said: Why do you tempt me, ye hypocrites?

22:19. Shew me the coin of the tribute. And they offered him a penny.

22:20. And Jesus saith to them: Whose image and inscription is this?

22:21. They say to him: Caesar’s. Then he saith to them: Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that are God’s.

22:22. And hearing this, they wondered and, leaving him, went their ways.

22:23. That day there came to him the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection; and asked him,

22:24. Saying: Master, Moses said: If a man die having no son, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up issue to his brother.

22:25. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first having married a wife, died; and not having issue, left his wife to his brother.

22:26. In like manner the second and the third and so on, to the seventh.

22:27. And last of all the woman died also.

22:28. At the resurrection therefore, whose wife of the seven shall she be? For they all had her.

22:29. And Jesus answering, said to them: You err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.

22:30. For in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be married, but shall be as the angels of God in heaven.

22:31. And concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken by God, saying to you:

22:32. I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.

22:33. And the multitudes hearing it were in admiration at his doctrine.

22:34. But the Pharisees, hearing that he had silenced the Sadducees, came together.

22:35. And one of them, a doctor of the law, asked him, tempting him:

22:36. Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

22:37. Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind.

22:38. This is the greatest and the first commandment.

22:39. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

22:40. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.

22:41. And the Pharisees being gathered together, Jesus asked them,

22:42. Saying: What think you of Christ? Whose son is he? They say to him: David’s.

22:43. He saith to them: How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying:

22:44. The Lord said to my Lord: Sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool?

22:45. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?

22:46. And no man was able to answer him a word: neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

Matthew Chapter 23

Christ admonishes the people to follow the good doctrine, not the bad example of the scribes and Pharisees. He warns his disciples not to imitate their ambition and denounces divers woes against them for their hypocrisy and blindness.

23:1. Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,

23:2. Saying: The scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses.

23:3. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not. For they say, and do not.

23:4. For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders: but with a finger of their own they will not move them.

23:5. And all their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their phylacteries broad and enlarge their fringes.

Phylacteries.... that is, parchments, on which they wrote the ten commandments, and carried them on their foreheads before their eyes: which the Pharisees affected to wear broader than other men; so to seem more zealous for the law.

23:6. And they love the first places at feasts and the first chairs in the synagogues,

23:7. And salutations in the market place, and to be called by men, Rabbi.

23:8. But be not you called Rabbi. For one is your master: and all you are brethren.

23:9. And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven.

Call none your father—Neither be ye called masters, etc.... The meaning is that our Father in heaven is incomparably more to be regarded, than any father upon earth: and no master to be followed, who would lead us away from Christ. But this does not hinder but that we are by the law of God to have a due respect both for our parents and spiritual fathers, (1 Cor. 4. 23:15,) and for our masters and teachers.

23:10. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, Christ.

23:11. He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant.

23:12. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

23:13. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for you yourselves do not enter in and those that are going in, you suffer not to enter.

23:14. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour the houses of widows, praying long prayers. For this you shall receive the greater judgment.

23:15. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you go round about the sea and the land to make one proselyte. And when he is made, you make him the child of hell twofold more than yourselves.

23:16. Woe to you, blind guides, that say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but he that shall swear by the gold of the temple is a debtor.

23:17. Ye foolish and blind: for whether is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?

23:18. And whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it is a debtor.

23:19. Ye blind: for whether is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?

23:20. He therefore that sweareth by the altar sweareth by it and by all things that are upon it.

23:21. And whosoever shall swear by the temple sweareth by it and by him that dwelleth in it.

23:22. And he that sweareth by heaven sweareth by the throne of God and by him that sitteth thereon.

23:23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you tithe mint and anise and cummin and have left the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and faith. These things you ought to have done and not to leave those undone.

23:24. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.

23:25. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness.

23:26. Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside may become clean.

23:27. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful but within are full of dead men’s bones and of all filthiness.

23:28. So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just: but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

23:29. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, that build the sepulchres of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the just,

Build the sepulchres, etc.... This is not blamed, as if it were in itself evil to build or adorn the monuments of the prophets: but the hypocrisy of the Pharisees is here taxed; who, whilst they pretended to honour the memory of the prophets, were persecuting even unto death the Lord of the prophets.

23:30. And say: If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

23:31. Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of them that killed the prophets.

23:32. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

23:33. You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell?

23:34. Therefore behold I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and crucify: and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city.

23:35. That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar.

That upon you may come, etc.... Not that they should suffer more than their own sins justly deserved; but that the justice of God should now fall upon them with such a final vengeance, once for all, as might comprise all the different kinds of judgments and punishments, that had at any time before been inflicted for the shedding of just blood.

23:36. Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.

23:37. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not?

23:38. Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate.

23:39. For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Matthew Chapter 24

Christ foretells the destruction of the temple, with the signs that shall come before it and before the last judgment. We must always watch.

24:1. And Jesus being come out of the temple, went away. And his disciples came to shew him the buildings of the temple.

24:2. And he answering, said to them: Do you see all these things? Amen I say to you, there shall not be left here a stone upon a stone that shall not be destroyed.

24:3. And when he was sitting on mount Olivet, the disciples came to him privately, saying: Tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the consummation of the world?

24:4. And Jesus answering, said to them: Take heed that no man seduce you.

24:5. For many will come in my name saying, I am Christ. And they will seduce many.

24:6. And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that ye be not troubled. For these things must come to pass: but the end is not yet.

24:7. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And there shall be pestilences and famines and earthquakes in places.

24:8. Now all these are the beginnings of sorrows.

24:9. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall put you to death: and you shall be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.

24:10. And then shall many be scandalized and shall betray one another and shall hate one another.

24:11. And many false prophets shall rise and shall seduce many.

24:12. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.

24:13. But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved.

24:14. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations: and then shall the consummation come.

24:15. When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand.

24:16. Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains:

24:17. And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take any thing out of his house:

24:18. And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat.

24:19. And woe to them that are with child and that give suck in those days.

24:20. But pray that your flight be not in the winter or on the sabbath.

24:21. For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be.

24:22. And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened.

24:23. Then if any man shall say to you, Lo here is Christ, or there: do not believe him.

24:24. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect.

24:25. Behold I have told it to you, beforehand.

24:26. If therefore they shall say to you, Behold he is in the desert: go ye not out. Behold he is in the closets: believe it not.

24:27. For as lightning cometh out of the east and appeareth even into the west: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

24:28. Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together.

Wheresoever, etc.... The coming of Christ shall be sudden, and manifest to all the world, like lightning: and wheresoever he shall come, thither shall all mankind be gathered to him, as eagles are gathered about a dead body.

24:29. And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be moved.

The stars.... Or flaming meteors resembling stars.

24:30. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven. And then shall all tribes of the earth mourn: and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty.

The sign, etc.... The cross of Christ.

24:31. And he shall send his angels with a trumpet and a great voice: and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them.

24:32. And from the fig tree learn a parable: When the branch thereof is now tender and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is nigh.

24:33. So you also, when you shall see all these things, know ye that it is nigh, even at the doors.

24:34. Amen I say to you that this generation shall not pass till all these things be done.

24:35. Heaven and earth shall pass: but my words shall not pass.

Shall pass.... Because they shall be changed at the end of the world into a new heaven and new earth.

24:36. But of that day and hour no one knoweth: no, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone.

24:37. And as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

24:38. For, as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark:

24:39. And they knew not till the flood came and took them all away: so also shall the coming of the Son of man be.

24:40. Then two shall be in the field. One shall be taken and one shall be left.

24:41. Two women shall be grinding at the mill. One shall be taken and one shall be left.

24:42. Watch ye therefore, because you know not what hour your Lord will come.

24:43. But this know ye, that, if the goodman of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch and would not suffer his house to be broken open.

24:44. Wherefore be you also ready, because at what hour you know not the Son of man will come.

24:45. Who, thinkest thou, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath appointed over his family, to give them meat in season?

24:46. Blessed is that servant, whom when his lord shall come he shall find so doing.

24:47. Amen I say to you: he shall place him over all his goods.

24:48. But if that evil servant shall say in his heart: My lord is long a coming:

24:49. And shall begin to strike his fellow servants and shall eat and drink with drunkards:

24:50. The lord of that servant shall come in a day that he hopeth not and at an hour that he knoweth not:

24:51. And shall separate him and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew Chapter 25

The parable of the ten virgins and of the talents. The description of the last judgment.

25:1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride.

25:2. And five of them were foolish and five wise.

25:3. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them.

25:4. But the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps.

25:5. And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept.

25:6. And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold the bridegroom cometh. Go ye forth to meet him.

25:7. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.

25:8. And the foolish said to the wise: Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.

25:9. The wise answered, saying: Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves.

25:10. Now whilst they went to buy the bridegroom came: and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage. And the door was shut.

25:11. But at last came also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us.

25:12. But he answering said: Amen I say to you, I know you not.

25:13. Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour.

25:14. For even as a man going into a far country called his servants and delivered to them his goods;

25:15. And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to every one according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey.

25:16. And he that had received the five talents went his way and traded with the same and gained other five.

25:17. And in like manner he that had received the two gained other two.

25:18. But he that had received the one, going his way, digged into the earth and hid his lord’s money.

25:19. But after a long time the lord of those servants came and reckoned with them.

25:20. And he that had received the five talents coming, brought other five talents, saying: Lord, thou didst deliver to me five talents. Behold I have gained other five over and above.

25:21. His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

25:22. And he also that had received the two talents came and said: Lord, thou deliveredst two talents to me. Behold I have gained other two.

25:23. His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

25:24. But he that had received the one talent, came and said: Lord, I know that thou art a hard man; thou reapest where thou hast not sown and gatherest where thou hast not strewed.

25:25. And being afraid, I went and hid thy talent in the earth. Behold here thou hast that which is thine.

25:26. And his lord answering, said to him: Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not and gather where I have not strewed.

25:27. Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers: and at my coming I should have received my own with usury.

25:28. Take ye away therefore the talent from him and give it him that hath ten talents.

25:29. For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away.

25:30. And the unprofitable servant, cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

25:31. And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty.

25:32. And all nations shall be gathered together before him: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats:

25:33. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.

25:34. Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

25:35. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in:

25:36. Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me.

25:37. Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry and fed thee: thirsty and gave thee drink?

25:38. Or when did we see thee a stranger and took thee in? Or naked and covered thee?

25:39. Or when did we see thee sick or in prison and came to thee?

25:40. And the king answering shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.

25:41. Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.

25:42. For I was hungry and you gave me not to eat: I was thirsty and you gave me not to drink.

25:43. I was a stranger and you took me not in: naked and you covered me not: sick and in prison and you did not visit me.

25:44. Then they also shall answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to thee?

25:45. Then he shall answer them, saying: Amen: I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.

25:46. And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting.

Matthew Chapter 26

The Jews conspire against Christ. He is anointed by Mary. The treason of Judas. The last supper. The prayer in the garden. The apprehension of our Lord. His treatment in the house of Caiphas.

26:1. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended all these words, he said to his disciples:

26:2. You know that after two days shall be the pasch: and the Son of man shall be delivered up to be crucified.

26:3. Then were gathered together the chief priests and ancients of the people, into the court of the high priest, who was called Caiphas:

26:4. And they consulted together that by subtilty they might apprehend Jesus and put him to death.

26:5. But they said: Not on the festival day, lest perhaps there should be a tumult among the people.

26:6. And when Jesus was in Bethania, in the house of Simon the leper,

26:7. There came to him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment and poured it on his head as he was at table.

26:8. And the disciples seeing it had indignation, saying: To what purpose is this waste?

26:9. For this might have been sold for much and given to the poor.

26:10. And Jesus knowing it, said to them: Why do you trouble this woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me.

26:11. For the poor you have always with you: but me you have not always.

Me you have not always.... Viz., in a visible manner, as when conversant here on earth; and as we have the poor, whom we may daily assist and relieve.

26:12. For she in pouring this ointment on my body hath done it for my burial.

26:13. Amen I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done shall be told for a memory of her.

26:14. Then went one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, to the chief priests.

26:15. And said to them: What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? But they appointed him thirty pieces of silver.

26:16. And from thenceforth he sought opportunity to betray him.

26:17. And on the first day of the Azymes, the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the pasch?

Azymes.... Feast of the unleavened bread. Pasch.... The paschal lamb.

26:18. But Jesus said: Go ye into the city to a certain man and say to him: The master saith, My time is near at hand. With thee I make the pasch with my disciples.

26:19. And the disciples did as Jesus appointed to them: and they prepared the pasch.

26:20. But when it was evening, he sat down with his twelve disciples.

26:21. And whilst they were eating, he said: Amen I say to you that one of you is about to betray me.

26:22. And they being very much troubled began every one to say: Is it I, Lord?

26:23. But he answering said: He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, he shall betray me.