Loading…
VRSZ
This sets the art on your cards and whose commentary you read on each verse. You can change it later in settings.
Translation
Loading…
What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
St. Luke commences the history of his Gospel with Zacharias and the birth of John; relating one marvellous event before another, the less before the greater. For since a virgin was about to become a mother, it had been fore-ordained by grace that the old should previously conceive. He fixes the time, when he says, In the days of Herod, and in the following words adds his rank, king of Judæa. (in Matt. cap. 2.). There was another Herod, who killed John; he was tetrarch, whereas this one was king.
Theophylact of Ohrid
He mentioned the reign of Herod, on the one hand, out of a desire to narrate after the example of the prophets, for they begin thus: "In the days of Ahaz and Hezekiah and such-and-such a one, the following took place" (Is. 1:1; Hos. 1:1; Am. 1:1), and on the other hand, since he intends to speak about Christ, he mentioned Herod in order to show that under Herod Christ truly came. For this Herod was ruling at the time when, according to the prophecy of Jacob (Gen. …
Western Saints
Ambrose of Milan
Divine Scripture teaches us with respect to those whom we commemorate, that not only the characters of the men themselves, but of their parents also, ought to be praised, that they might be distinguished by an inheritance, as it were, handed down to them of unspotted purity. Now not only from his parents, but also from his ancestors, St. John derives his illustrious descent, a descent not exalted by secular power, but venerable from its sanctity. …
Bede
Now the time of Herod, i. e. of a foreign king, bears witness to our Lord's coming, for it had been foretold, The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. (Gen. 49:12.) For from the time that our fathers came out of Egypt, they were governed by judges of their own nation, until the Prophet Samuel; and then by kings, until the carrying away to Babylon. …
Bonaventure
First, therefore, he shows the office of dignity, when he says: There was in the days of Herod, king of Judea, a certain priest named Zechariah. He sets forth the priestly office, adding royal dominion, to intimate that John was to foreannounce Christ, who was a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, that is, simultaneously king and priest: Hebrews 7: "Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God," etc. …
Translation