Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Matthew 22:18

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

What then saith He? "Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?" Seest thou how He talks with them with more than usual severity? For since their wickedness was now complete and manifest, He cuts the deeper, first confounding and silencing them, by publishing their secret thoughts, and making it manifest to all with what kind of intent they are coming unto Him. And these things He did, repulsing their wickedness, so that they might not suffer hurt in attempting the same things again. …

Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 70 ↗

Western Saints

Jerome

But Jesus, knowing their wickedness, said: Why do you tempt me, hypocrites? The first virtue of a respondent is to understand the minds of those who ask, and to call not disciples, but tempters. Therefore, a hypocrite is called someone who is one thing and pretends to be another, that is, someone who acts one way in action and another in words.

Commentary on Matthew ↗

Thomas Aquinas

There follows the response: but Jesus knowing their wickedness, said. And first he responds to their mind; secondly, to their words, at render. Because it belongs to man to respond to words, but to God to respond to the mind, therefore because Christ was God and man, he responds to both. The searcher of hearts and reins is God, Psalm 7:10. Hypocrites. And he rightly calls them hypocrites, because hypocrites are properly those who have one thing on their lips and another in their heart. Why do you tempt me? …

Commentary on Matthew ↗