Commentary on Matthew

Chapter Eight

97 CHAPTER EIGHT nd when he got into the boat, the disciples followed him. And behold, a great storm arose on the sea,1 etc. After the disciples entered the ship, a storm arose, the sea was agitated, and the passengers were thrown into commotion. Having fallen into a deep sleep, he was aroused by their nervous fearfulness; they begged him to do something.2 After he once more scolded the disciples because of their small faith, he commanded the wind and the waves to be quiet.3 To their amazement, the wind and the sea obeyed his orders.4 It stands to reason that churches which have not followed the Word of God will be shipwrecked.5 This does not happen because Christ is relaxed in sleep, but because he is put fast asleep in us by our own sleep.6 That happens most often when we put our hope in God chiefly out of fear or worry [resulting] from danger. Even if our hope comes late,7 there is the assurance that it can evade the danger, because the power of Christ is awake within it!8 So the Lord leaves for us a perpetual memory of his rebuke when he said: Why are you fearful, men of little faith? 9 In other words, when faith in Christ is awake, there is no need to fear the commotion of the world. 2. Thereafter follows the amazement of the men who said: What kind of man is this that the wind and the sea obey him?10 This 1. Mt 8.23–24. 2. Mt 8.25. 3. Mt 8.26. 4. Mt 8.27. 5. Cf. Cyprian, Ep. 59.6, who spoke of the shipwrecks of the Church. 6. A similar explanation is given infra, 31.7, with regard to Christ’s fear in the garden. 7. As it did for the disciples in the boat who were at first afraid. 8. Cf. infra, 12.17: virtus of Christ is of God who dwells in the man (8.6). 9. Mt 8.26. 10. Mt 8.27. 98 HILARY OF POITIERS statement comes not from the disciples but from the pagans, as it were.11 As the text had said earlier that only the disciples boarded the ship and the Lord was awakened only by the disciples , so it indicates that men were amazed, men who spoke in their amazement of the man. By this turn of phrase, it is understood that all of Christ’s works and powers12 should be praised as those of God. Pagan sacrilege and the foolishness of their wretched error show how they called him a man corresponding with the humility of his Passion, rather than God on account of his powers.13 3. And when he had come to the other side into the region of the Gerasenes , two men who were demon-possessed went out to meet him as they were leaving the tombs; they were exceedingly dangerous,14 etc. The encounter of the two men, the longevity of their demonic possession , the danger of the road for those passing by, the begging of the demons to take refuge in the pigs,15 and, once the men were restored, the fall of the herd headlong into the sea,16 then the flight of the herdsmen into town,17 the procession of the people out of the city and the delegation which besought the Lord not to enter their city,18 and his return to his country,19 and the entreaty of the paralytic lying on a bed there, and at that moment the remission of his sins,20 and the murmur of the scribes,21 and the pronouncement of power,22 and the return of the paralytic to his home bearing his cot,23 and the amazement of the crowd24 —all have a good purpose. 4. In the beginning of the human race, it was divided into three parts, specifically, from the sons of Noah according to the prophecy of Genesis.25 Shem was chosen to be God’s possession . But outside the city, that is, outside the Synagogue of 11. Presumably because such wonder was fitting for pagans, not disciples. 12. virtutes. Cf. infra, 12.17. 13. See supra, 5.15, n.92. 14. Mt 8.28. 15. Mt 8.31. 16. Mt 8.32. 17. Mt 8.33. 18. Mt 8.34. 19. Mt 9.1. 20. Mt 9.2. 21. Mt 9.3. 22. Mt 9.6 (confessio...