MATTHEW 11:18 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.”
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, he has a demon. John's ascetic ministry — the wilderness diet, the camel-hair clothing, the fasting — was met with the charge of demon possession. The asceticism that should have signaled the prophetic seriousness of the moment was dismissed as evidence of spiritual pathology. The generation that had asked for the austere prophet rejected the austere prophet when he arrived.
Church Fathers on Matthew 11:18
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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