Jesus said unto him,
I say not unto you, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
All Commentaries on Matthew 18:22 Go To Matthew 18
John Chrysostom
AD 407
What then says Christ, the good God, who is loving towards man? I say not unto you, until seven times, but, until seventy times seven, not setting a number here, but what is infinite and perpetual and forever. For even as ten thousand times signifies often, so here too. For by saying, The barren has borne seven, 1 Samuel 2:5 the Scripture means many. So that He has not limited the forgiveness by a number, but has declared that it is to be perpetual and forever.
This at least He indicated by the parable that is put after. For that He might not seem to any to enjoin great things and hard to bear, by saying, Seventy times seven, He added this parable, at once both leading them on to what He had said, and putting down him who was priding himself upon this, and showing the act was not grievous, but rather very easy. Therefore let me add, He brought forward His own love to man, that by the comparison, as He says, you might learn, that though thou forgive seventy times seven, though thou continually pardon your neighbor for absolutely all his sins, as a drop of water to an endless sea, so much, or rather much more, does your love to man come short in comparison of the boundless goodness of God, of which you stand in need, for that you are to be judged, and to give an account.
