And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
All Commentaries on Matthew 13:58 Go To Matthew 13
Jerome
AD 420
After the parables which the Lord spake to the people, and which the Apostles only understand, He goes over into His own country that He may teach there also.
Wonderful folly of the Nazarenes! They wonder whence Wisdom itself has wisdom, whence Power has mighty works! But the source of their error is at hand, because they regard Him as the Son of a carpenter; as they say, “Is not thisthe carpenter’s son? "And they ought to have given Him more abundant honour, because, that coming of such parents, He spake after such manner; clearly shewing that it came not of human industry, but of divine grace.
And when they are mistaken in His Father, no wonder if they are also mistaken in His brethren. Whence it is added, “Is not his mother Mary, and his brethren, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us?.
Hieron. in Helvid., 14: Those who are here called the Lord’s brethren, are the sons of a Mary, His Mother’s sister; she is the mother of this James and Joseph, that is to say, Mary the wife of Cleophas,and this is the Mary who is called the mother of James the Less.
This error of the Jews is our salvation, and the condemnation of the heretics, for they perceived Jesus Christ to be man so far as to think Him the son of acarpenter.
For it is almost natural for citizens to be jealous towards one another; forthey do not look to the present works of the man, but remember the frailties of his childhood; as if they themselves had not passed through the very same stages of age to their maturity.
Not that because they did not believe He could not do His mighty works; but that He might not by doing them be condemning His fellow-citizens in their unbelief.
