St Matthew Chapter IX : Verses 14-17
Contents
- Matt. ix. 14-17 Douay-Rheims text & Latin text (Vulgate).
- Notes on the text
- Additional Notes.
Matt. ix. 14-17
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| John the Baptist addresses the Pharisees. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
Tunc accesserunt ad eum discipuli Joannis, dicentes : Quare nos, et pharisæi, jejunamus frequenter : discipuli autem tui non jejunant?
15 And Jesus said to them: Can the children of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.
Et ait illis Jesus : Numquid possunt filii sponsi lugere, quamdiu cum illis est sponsus? Venient autem dies cum auferetur ab eis sponsus : et tunc jejunabunt.
16 And nobody putteth a piece of raw cloth unto an old garment. For it taketh away the fulness thereof from the garment, and there is made a greater rent.
Nemo autem immittit commissuram panni rudis in vestimentum vetus : tollit enim plenitudinem ejus a vestimento, et pejor scissura fit.
17 Neither do they put new wine into old bottles. Otherwise the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish. But new wine they put into new bottles: and both are preserved.
Neque mittunt vinum novum in utres veteres : alioquin rumpuntur utres, et vinum effunditur, et utres pereunt. Sed vinum novum in utres novos mittunt : et ambo conservantur.
Notes
14. the disciples of John. They came with the disciples of the Pharisees. (See St Mark ii. 18.)
we and the Pharisees fast often. The disciples of John, like their master, St John the Baptist, were accustomed to fast frequently. The Pharisees fasted on Mondays and Thursdays in memory of Moses’ ascent and descent of Mount Sinai, as the Pharisee boasted, I fast twice in a week (St Luke xviii. 12). They also kept additional fasts, and very possibly the banquet at Levi’s house fell on one of their extra fastdays. Certainly our Lord would not have broken a fast prescribed by the Law of Moses. The Pharisees and the disciples of John joined together in blaming our Lord’s action. The Jews always joined prayer with fasting in order to increase their merit. Also in the Catholic Church, the fast-days are pre-eminently days of prayer, e.g. the Ember days.
thy disciples do not fast, — i.e. they did not keep the extra fasts prescribed by the Pharisees, but most certainly they observed the fast of the day of Atonement, the only one commanded by the Mosaic Law.
15. children of the bridegroom. The wedding-guests who accompanied the bridegroom to the house of the bride and assisted at the marriage feast. They were obliged by their custom and their laws to rejoice during the whole week following the marriage.
bridegroom. Jesus is the Bridegroom, and He here reminds these disciples that their master had spoken of Him as such, and that St John was the friend who rejoiced : He that hath the bride, is the bridegroom : but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled (St John iii. 29).
mourn. The parallel passage in St Luke has fast.
as long as the bridegroom is with them. Jesus was with His disciples ; they were the sons or children of the marriage, hence they were bound to rejoice. It was not the time for the fasting of supererogation. Such conduct would be inconsistent.
the days will come. A reference to His Crucifixion. Our Lord often referred to His death (see St John ii. 19, iii. 14), and more frequently as the time drew nearer. .
taken away. This is the first allusion to our Lord’s death that St Matthew records. Later on, Jesus spoke more plainly (see infra, xii. 40, xvi. 21, xvii. 9, 21, 22, etc.).
then they shall fast. Both when they mourned Christ’s death, and also after His Ascension, when the Bridegroom left them.
d
Additional Notes
14. The Pharisees fast often. According to Lightfoot, the Pharisees fasted from various motives : e.g. —
1. To conform to the tradition which appears to have dated from the time of Esdras, and by which the Jews were accustomed to fast twice a week.
2. “ It was not seldom that they enjoined themselves fasts, for this end, to have lucky dreams ; or to attain the interpretation of some dream ; or to turn away the ill import of a dream. Hence was that expression very usual, a fast for a dream ; and it was a common proverb, A fast is as fit for a dream, as fire for flax. For this cause it was allowed to fast on the Sabbath, which otherwise was forbidden” (Lightfoot, Hor. Heb., p. 170).
3. To obtain some petition or to avert some evil. Thus it is related of Rabbi Zadok that at the time when the Temple doors opened of their own accord (see p. 282), he so mortified himself with fasting, that he was surnamed “ the weak.” But after the destruction of the city, seeing that his fasting had not obtained the desired favour, he had recourse to the physicians of Troy to recruit his health.
15. When the bridegroom shall he taken from them, and. then they shall fast. From Tertullian we learn that the primitive Christians, taking these words literally, observed a strict fast yearly in memory of the forty hours our Lord spent in the tomb. The Didache, an ancient document setting forth the teaching of the apostles (Διδαχὴ τῷν δώδεκα ἀποστόλων), furnishes us with one of the earliest proofs that the primitive Church formally enjoined fasting, but the Christians are cautioned not to fast on the same days as the Pharisees. That the disciples of Christ did fast, we can prove from the examples of the apostles and from their writings, e.g. —
1. “ And as they were ministering to the Lord, and fasting, the Holy Ghost said to them : Separate me Saul and Barnabas, for the work whereunto I have taken them. Then they fasting and praying and imposing their hands upon them, sent them away” (Acts xiii. 2, 3).
2. “ And when they ” (i e. St Paul and Barnabas) “ had ordained to them priests in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, in whom they believed ” (Acts xiv. 22).
3. “In stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labours, in watchings, in fastings” (2 Cor. vi. 5).
4. “ In labour and painfulness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness ” (2 Cor. xi. 27).
Note. — The parables of the raw cloth and the old garment and of the old. bottles and the new wine both teach the same lessons, viz. that the Gospel was to take the place of the Law. In the early Church some of the first difficulties which arose resulted from a misapprehension of this fact. The converted Jews clung to their old faith and traditions; they wished to graft Christianity on to them, and to retain the ancient ceremonial. Hence the dissension at the first council of the Church as to whether the Gentile converts should be circumcised or not (Acts xv.). St Paul was constantly in conflict with these Judaizing Christians.
Both these parables shew clearly that the Old Dispensation was destined to pass away and to give place to the New. We find other examples of pairs of parables illustrating the same truth under two aspects. The second parable often shews a further development of the truth inculcated.
(a) The mustard Seed and the Leaven.
(b) The hidden Treasure and the Pearl of great price.
(c) The ten Virgins and the Talents.
(d) The lost Sheep and the lost Drachma.
(e) The foolish Builder and the foolish King.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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