MATTHEW 11:19 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.”
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds. Jesus' table-fellowship ministry — eating and drinking with those excluded from polite society — was met with the charge of moral disorder. The friend of tax collectors and sinners accusation is what Jesus has been called (Matthew 9:11), and here he embraces the description ironically. Wisdom is justified by her deeds: the ultimate vindication of both John's ministry and Jesus' comes not through social approval but through the evidence of what their work has produced.
Church Fathers on Matthew 11:19
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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