The thieves also, who were crucified with him, reviled him the same way.
All Commentaries on Matthew 27:44 Go To Matthew 27
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Having stripped and crucified Christ, they go yet further, and seeing Him on the cross revile Him.
And as beginning to extenuate His former miracles, they add, “Save thyself; ifthou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.”.
Hom. de Cruc. et Latr. ii: He, on the contrary, does not come down from the cross, because He is the Son of God; for He therefore came that He might be crucified for us.
and they say now, “If thou bethe Son of God, come down from the cross.”.
“He trusted in God, let him now deliver him, if he will.” O most foul! Were they therefore not Prophets or righteous men, because God did not deliver them out of their perils? But if He would not oppose their glory, which accrued to the m out of the perils which you brought upon them, much more in this man ought you not to be offended because of what He suffers; what He has ever said ought to remove any such suspicion. When they add, “Because he said, I am the Son of God,” they desire to intimate that He suffered as an impostor and seducer, and as making high and false pretences. And not only the Jews and the soldiers from below, but from above likewise. “The thieves, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.”
