Matthew 113

The Gospel of Matthew stands out as a favorite biblical text among patristic commentators. The patristic commentary tradition on Matthew begins with Origen's pioneering twenty-five-volume commentary on the First Gospel in the mid-third century. In the Latin-speaking West, where commentaries did not appear until about a century later, the first commentary on Matthew was written by Hillary of Poitiers in the mid-fourth century. From that point the First Gospel became one of the most frequently commented texts in patristic exegesis. Outstanding examples are Jerome's four-volume commentary and the valuable but anonymous and incomplete Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum. Then there are the Greek catena fragments derived from commentaries by Theodore of Heraclea, Apollinaris of Laodicea, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Cyril of Alexandria. The ancient homilies also provide ample comment, including John Chrysostom's ninety homilies and Chromatius's fifty-nine homilies on the Gospel of Matthew. In addition there are various Sunday and feast-day homilies from towering figures such as Augustine and Gregory the Great as well as other fathers. This abundance of patristic comment, much of it presented here in English translation for the first time, provides a rich and varied feast of ancient interpretation of the First Gospel.