“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? The Pharisees and Sadducees represent the two dominant Jewish political-religious parties of the period — the Pharisees as the teachers of tradition and oral law, the Sadducees as the aristocratic temple establishment. Their arrival at John's baptism prompts not welcome but denunciation: brood of vipers. The snake imagery recalls Genesis 3 and the enemy of humanity; it will reappear in Matthew 12:34 and 23:33 as Jesus' characterization of the same leadership. Who warned you? is a challenge about motivation: are they coming to genuinely repent, or to manage their public image in light of the movement's popularity?
Church Fathers on Matthew 3:7
The words of the teachers should be fitted to the quality of the hearers, that in each particular it should agree with itself and yet never depart from the fortress of general edification.
It was necessary that after the teaching which he used to the common people, the Evangelist should give an example of the doctrine he delivered to the more advanced; therefore he says, 'Seeing many of the Pharisees, &c.'
The manner of Scripture is to give names from the imitation of deeds, according to that of Ezekiel, 'Thy father was an Amorite;' [Ezek 16:3] so these from following vipers are called 'generation of vipers.'
Read all 28 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!