MATTHEW 11:16 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“But whereunto shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows,”
But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates. The parable of the children in the marketplace addresses the generation that refused both John and Jesus. The marketplace children who call to their companions are the generation who set the terms of engagement and complain when neither John nor Jesus meets those terms. The parable communicates the perversity of the rejection: no style of ministry is acceptable to those determined not to respond.
Church Fathers on Matthew 11:16
The whole of this speech is a reproach of unbelief, and arises out of the foregoing complaint; that the stiff-necked people had not learned by two different modes of teaching.
Whence He puts this question, shewing that nothing had been omitted that ought to be done for their salvation, saying, 'To whom shall I liken this generation?
By 'this generation' He means the Jews together with Himself and John. As though He had said; John is thus great; but ye would believe neither him nor Me, and therefore to whom shall I liken you?
Read all 19 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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