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MATTHEW 9:4 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 9:3Matt 9:5
And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?
But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? The knowledge of thoughts is a divine attribute: Psalm 139:2 says God knows my thoughts before I utter them. Jesus' knowing their thoughts is therefore itself a demonstration of what the scribes are denying — the kind of knowledge that belongs to God is present in Jesus. The evil in their hearts is the determination to interpret the evidence against Jesus rather than to let the evidence question their framework. The same evidence — Jesus declaring sins forgiven and healing a paralytic — is read as blasphemy by those who have decided against him and as the authority of the Son of Man by those who have not.

Church Fathers on Matthew 9:4

Christ had above shewn His excellent power by teaching, when 'he taught them as one having authority;' in the leper, when He said, 'I will, be thou clean;' by the centurion, who said to Him, 'Speak the word, and my servant shall be healed;' by the sea which He calmed by a word; by the daemons who confessed Him; now again, in another and greater way, He compels His enemies to confess the equality of His honour with the Father; to this end it proceeds, 'And Jesus entered into a…

Chrysostom · 4th century · Hom. xxix

That Matthew here speaks of 'his own city,' and Mark calls it Capharnaum, would be more difficult to be reconciled if Matthew had expressed it Nazareth. But as it is, all Galilee might be called Christ’s city, because Nazareth was in Galilee; just as all the Roman empire, divided into many states, was still called the Roman city. [margin note: civitas] Who can doubt then that the Lord in coming to Galilee is rightly said to come into 'his own city,' whatever was the town in…

Augustine · 4th century · De Cons. Evan., ii, 25

Or; This city may be no other than Nazareth, whence He was called a Nazarene.

Jerome · 4th century
Read all 29 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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