Matthew 5:26 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 5:26 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.”

Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. The until you have paid the last penny intensifies the warning: the consequence of the unresolved conflict is total, extending to the smallest unit of currency — the full debt must be paid before freedom is restored. The penny (kodrantes, the smallest Roman coin) communicates that the accounting is exact and exhaustive. Whether the prison and the debt are to be read literally (consequences in human legal systems) or figuratively (eschatological consequences) has been debated, but the intensity of the warning is the point: the cost of unresolved conflict is not reduced by delay.

Church Fathers on Matthew 5:26

The Lord suffers us at no time to be wanting in peaceableness of temper, and therefore bids us be reconciled to our adversary quickly, while on the road to life, lest we be cast into the season of death before peace by joined between us.
Hilary of Poitiers · 4th century

The word here in our Latin books is 'consentiens,' in Greek, ευνοων , which means, 'kind,' 'benevolent.'
Jerome · 4th century

Let us see who this adversary is to whom we are bid to be benevolent. It may then be either the Devil, or man, or the flesh, or God, or His commandments. But I do not see how we can be bid be benevolent, or agreeing with the Devil; for where there is good will, there is friendship, and no one will say that friendship should be made with the Devil, or that it is well to agree with him, having once proclaimed war against him when we renounced him; nor ought we to consent with…
Augustine · 4th century · Serm. in Mont, i, 11

Read all 19 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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