MATTHEW 12:14 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.”
But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. The healing that should have produced thanksgiving and affirmation produces instead the first explicit murder conspiracy in Matthew's Gospel. The Pharisees who could not answer the legal argument and could not deny the healing go out and take counsel together about how to destroy Jesus. The conspire-to-destroy response to the evidence of mercy communicates the depth of the opposition: the miracle did not soften them.
Church Fathers on Matthew 12:14
The Pharisees are moved with jealousy at what had been done; because beholding the outward body of a man, they did not recognize the God in His works; 'The Pharisees sent out and sought counsel against him, how they ought destroy him.'
He says, 'went out' because their mind was alien from the Lord. They took counsel how they might destroy life, not how themselves might find life.
Knowing, that is, their designs against Him withdrew Himself, that He might remove from the Pharisees all opportunity of sin.
Read all 32 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!