Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples fast not?
All Commentaries on Matthew 9:14 Go To Matthew 9
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Then came. When the Pharisees in the prior question had been discomfited. By St. Mark, (ii. 18,) we learn that the Pharisees joined with the disciples of the Baptist, and thus is reconciled what we read in St. Luke v. 33, who only mentions the Pharisees. (Bible de Vence)
Why do we, and the Pharisees fast. It is not without reason that the disciples of St. John should ask this question, fasting being always esteemed a great virtue, witness Moses and Elias; the fasts which Samuel made the people observe in Masphat, the tears, prayers, and fasting of Ezechias, of Judith, of Achab, of the Ninivites, of Anna, the wife of Eleana, of Daniel, of David, after he had fallen into the sin of adultery. Aaron, and the other priests, also fasted before they entered into the temple. Witness also the fasts of Anna, the prophetess, of St. John the Baptist, of Christ himself, of Cornelius the centurion (St. Jerome)
This haughty interrogation of St. John's disciples was highly blameable, not only for uniting with the Pharisees, whom they knew their master so much condemned, but also for calumniating him, who, they knew was foretold by John's own testimony. (St. Jerome)
St. Augustine is likewise of opinion, that John's disciples were not the only persons that said this, since St. Mark rather indicates that it was spoken by others. (St. Thomas Aquinas) Ver 15. Can the children of the bridegroom. This, by a Hebraism, signifies the friends or companions of the bridegroom, as a lover of peace, is called a child of peace: he that deserves death, the son of death (Witham)
the disciples had not yet ascended to the higher degrees of perfection, they had not yet been renewed in spirit; therefore they required to be treated with lenity; for had the higher and more sublime mysteries been delivered to them without previous preparation, they would never, not even in the natural course of things, have been able to comprehend them. I have many things to say to you, said our Saviour, but you cannot bear them now. (St. John xvi.) Thus did he condescend to their weakness. (St. Chrysostom, hom. xxxi.)
