Matthew 10:27 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 10:27 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.”

What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. The disciples are to take the private teaching they have received in the intimate context of Jesus' company and make it fully public — the darkness of private instruction becomes the light of public proclamation, the whisper becomes the housetop announcement. Luke 12:3 applies the same principle in the reverse direction — what is said in the dark will be heard in the light. The kingdom's message is not an esoteric secret for the initiated but a public proclamation for all to hear.

Church Fathers on Matthew 10:27

To the foregoing consolation He adds another no less, saying, 'Fear ye not them,' namely, the persecutors. And why they were not to fear, He adds, 'For there is nothing hid which shall not be revealed, nothing secret which shall not be known.'
Remigius · 9th century

How is it then that in the present world, the sins of so many are unknown? It is of the time to come that this is said; the time when God shall judge the hidden things of men, shall enlighten the hidden places of darkness, and shall make manifest the secrets of hearts. The sense is, Fear not the cruelty of the persecutor, or the rage of the blasphemer, for there shall come a day of judgment in which your virtue and their wickedness will be made known.
Jerome · 4th century

Therefore neither threatening, nor evil speaking, nor power of their enemies should move them, seeing the judgment-day will disclose how empty, how nought all these were.
Hilary of Poitiers · 4th century

Read all 17 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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