MATTHEW 20:24 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren.”
And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. The ten disciples' indignation at James and John's status-seeking is not moral superiority but competitive response: the ten are indignant because James and John tried to get ahead of them. The competition that James and John's mother's request exposed is the same competition that runs through all twelve.
Church Fathers on Matthew 20:24
So long as the judgment of Christ upon this request was in suspense, the other disciples were not indignant; but when they heard Him rebuke them, they were sorrowful; whence it is said, 'And when the ten heard it, they had indignation against the two brethren.'
They do not lay it upon the forwardness of the mother who spoke the request, but upon her sons, who, not knowing their measure, burned with so immoderate desires.
But as the two had asked carnally, so now the ten are grieved carnally. For as to seek to be above all is blameworthy, so to have another above us is mortifying to our vanity.
Read all 13 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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