Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Luke 13:31

Eastern Fathers

Cyril of Alexandria

The preceding words of our Lord roused the Pharisees to anger. For they perceived that the people were now smitten in their hearts, and eagerly receiving His faith. For fear then of losing their office as rulers of the people, and lacking their gains, with pretended love for Him, they persuade Him to depart from hence, as it is said, The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee: but Christ, who searcheth the heart and the reins, answers them meekly and …

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

The accursed Pharisees, consumed by envy, attempt to frighten the Lord and threaten Him with Herod. They did not wish to see Him working miracles, lest by the multitude of signs He draw the people to Himself and by the power of His teaching convert them to Himself (John 11:47–48). They put forward Herod as a pretext and assume an appearance of concern for the Savior.

Commentary on Luke ↗

Cyprian

But the Lord prayed and besought not for Himself-for why should He who was guiltless pray on His own behalf?-but for our sins, as He Himself declared, when He said to Peter, "Behold, Satan hath desired that he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." And subsequently He beseeches the Father for all, saying, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one …

Treatise IV On the Lord's Prayer ↗

Western Saints

Bede

On that same day, some Pharisees approached saying to him: Go out and depart from here, because Herod wants to kill you. And he said to them: Go, tell that fox. He calls Herod a fox because of his deceit and traps, as a fox is an animal full of fraud, always wishing to lurk in a hole, stinking with a foul odor, and never running on straight paths, but on winding trails. All these things are fitting for heretics, of whom Herod holds the type, who try to kill Christ, that is, to take away the humility of Christian faith from believers.

On the Gospel of Luke ↗

Bonaventure

On that very day etc. After he has stirred us to do good works unceasingly on account of the severity of strictness in judging, here secondly he stirs us to the same thing on account of the sublimity of the disposition in redeeming. Now this part has two parts, in the first of which is expressed the sublimity of the divine disposition in the redemption of the human race; in the second, however, in the reprobation of the rebellious people, at the place: Jerusalem, Jerusalem etc. …

Commentary on Luke, Chapter 13 ↗