MATTHEW 28:17 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.”
When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted — the most honest resurrection report in the New Testament. Matthew does not airbrush the disciples' response into uniform faith: even in the physical presence of the risen Jesus, some doubted. The Greek word distazo (doubt, waver) is the same word used of Peter's wavering faith on the water (Matthew 14:31). This is not the doubt of unbelief but the doubt of overwhelmed belief — the response of people whose categories are being expanded beyond what they can immediately process. The honest report of doubt within the first resurrection community is one of the strongest marks of the account's authenticity: fabricators of resurrection stories do not include the doubters. The commission that follows is given to worshipers and doubters alike.
Church Fathers on Matthew 28:17
When Saint Matthew has vindicated the Lord’s Resurrection as declared by the Angel, he relates the vision of the Lord which the disciples had, 'Then the eleven disciples went into Galilee into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.'
After His Resurrection, Jesus is seen and worshipped in the mountain in Galilee; though some doubt, their doubting confirms our faith.
This is more fully told by Luke; how when the Lord after the Resurrection appeared to the disciples, in their terror they thought they saw a spirit.
Read all 24 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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