MATTHEW 11:17 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.”
We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn. The two children's games that the generation refused: flute-playing for dancing (celebration) and dirge-singing for mourning (grief). Both modes of the messianic invitation were rejected. Jesus and John represented the two modes — John the ascetic mourner, Jesus the celebratory feaster — and the generation dismissed both. The rejection of both modes communicates that the generation's objection was not stylistic but fundamental.
Church Fathers on Matthew 11:17
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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