BEDE;
Our Lord had been assailed with two kinds of questions, for some accused Him of
casting out devils through Beelzebub, to whom up to this point His answer was
addressed; and others tempting Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven, and
these He now proceeds to answer. As it follows, And when the people were
gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation, &c. AMBROSE;
That you may know that the people of the Synagogue are treated with dishonor,
while the blessedness of the Church is increased. But as Jonas was a sign to
the Ninevites, so also will the Son of man be to the Jews. Hence it is added,
They seek a sign; and there shall no sign. be given them but the sign of Jonas
the prophet. BASIL; A sign is a thing brought openly to view, containing
in itself the manifestation of something hidden, as the sign of Jonas
represents the descent to hell, the ascension of Christ, and His resurrection
from the dead. Hence it is added, For as Jonas was a sign to the Ninevites, so
shall also the Son of man be to this generation. He gives them a sign, not from
heaven, because they were unworthy to see it, but from the lowest depths of
hell; a sign, namely, of His incarnation, not of His divinity; of His passion,
not of His glorification.
AMBROSE;
Now as the sign of Jonas is a type of our Lord’s passion, so also is it a testimony
of the grievous sins which the Jews have committed. We may remark at once both
the mighty voice of warning, and the declaration of mercy. For by the example
of the Ninevites both a punishment is denounced, and a remedy promised. Hence
even the Jews ought not to despair of pardon, if they will but practice
repentance. THEOPHYL. Now Jonas after he came forth from the whale’s
belly converts the men of Nineveh by his preaching, but when Christ; rose
again, the Jewish nation believed not. So there was a sentence already passed
upon them, of which there follows a second example, as it is said, The queen of
the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and
condemn them. BEDE; Not certainly by any authority to judge, but by the
contrast of a better deed. As it follows, For she came from the utmost parts of
the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, greater than Solomon is
here. Here in this place is not the pronoun, but the adverb of place, that is,
“there is one present among you who is incomparably superior to Solomon.” He
said not, “I am greater than Solomon,” that he might teach us to be humble,
though fruitful in spiritual graces. As if he said, “The barbarian woman
hastened to hear Solomon, taking so long a journey to be instructed in the
knowledge of visible living creatures, and the virtues of herbs. But you when
you stand by and hear Wisdom herself teaching you invisible and heavenly
things, and confirming her words with signs and wonders, are strangers to the
word, and senselessly disregard the miracles.”
BEDE;
But if the queen of the South, who doubtless is of the elect, shall rise up in
judgment together with the wicked, we have a proof of the one resurrection of
all men, good as well as bad, and that not according to Jewish fables to happen
a thousand years before the judgment, but at the judgment itself. AMBROSE;
Herein also while condemning the Jewish people, He strongly expresses the
mystery of the Church, which in the queen of the South, through the desire of
obtaining wisdom is gathered together from the uttermost parts of the whole
earth, to hear the words of the Peacemaking Solomon; a queen plainly whose
kingdom is undivided rising up from different and distant nations into one
body. GREG NYSS. Now as she was queen of the Ethiopians’ and in a far
distant country, so in the beginning the Church of the Gentiles was in
darkness, and far off from the knowledge of God. But when Christ the Prince of
peace shone forth, the Jews being still in darkness, thither came the Gentiles,
and offered to Christ the frankincense of piety, the gold of divine knowledge,
and precious stones, that is, obedience to His commands. THEOPHYL. Or
because the South is praised in Scripture as warm and life-giving, therefore
the soul reigning in the south, that is, in all spiritual conversation, comes
to hear the wisdom of Solomon, the Prince of peace, the Lord our God, (i.e. is
raised up to contemplate Him,) to whom no one shall come except he reign in a
good life. But He brings next an example from the Ninevites, saying, The men of
Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it. CHRYS.
The judgment of condemnation comes from men like or unlike to those who are
condemned. From like, for instance, as in the parable of the ten virgins, but
from unlike, when the Ninevites condemn those who lived at the time of Christ,
that so their condemnation might be the more remarkable. For the Ninevites
indeed were barbarians, but these Jews. The one enjoying the prophetic
teaching, the other having never received the divine word. To the former came a
servant, to the latter the Master, of whom the one foretold destruction, the
other preached the kingdom of heaven. To all men then was it known that the
Jews ought rather to have believed, but the contrary happened; therefore he
adds, For they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and, behold, a greater than
Jonas is here. AMBROSE; Now in a mystery, the Church consists of two
things, either ignorance of sin, which has reference mainly to the queen of the
South, or ceasing to sin, which relates indeed to the repentant Ninevites. For
repentance blots out the offense, wisdom guards against it.
AUG.
Luke indeed relates this in the same place as Matthew, but in a somewhat
different order. But who does not see that it is an idle question, in what
order our Lord said those things, seeing that we ought to learn by the most
precious authority of the Evangelist, that there is no falsehood. But not every
man will repeat another’s words in the same order in which they proceeded from
his mouth, seeing that the order itself makes no difference with respect to the
fact, whether it be so or not.
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