And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.
All Commentaries on Matthew 11:1 Go To Matthew 11
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
ily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable: Arabic, there shalt be greater remission for Tyre, &c. For the Tyrians and Sidonians shall be punished on account of their own wickednesses, but you, 0 ye Galilans shall be more severely punished: 1. Because ye had greater knowledge of God"s law, and virtue2. Because ye have often heard Me preaching and exhorting to repentance, and have beheld Me doing many miracles, none of which things the Tyrians have either seen or heard.
Moraliter: In like manner, Christians shall be more heavily punished in the day of judgment than the Jews; the citizens of Rome, than the inhabitants of India; priests, than laymen; religious, than seculars, if the former classes have lived sinful lives; forasmuch as they have received greater degrees of grace and knowledge from God, and would not make use of them, but abused them to their own greater damnation.
And thou, Capernaum, &c. Thou, which art exalted through My miracles and doctrine and preaching, rather than by thy merchandise and thy wealth, and who hast been made glorious and famous with God and Prayer of Manasseh , shalt thou, I say, be always exalted? Not so: but in the day of judgment thou shalt be thrust down to hell . Thou shalt descend into its lowest pit; that beneath the Tyrians and Sidonians who have sinned less than thou hast, thou mayst abide in the very centre of Gehenna, and there mayest feel more than others its fiery burnings. Thou shalt be tormented and burnt up, because very many of thy citizens shall be cast into hell. Hence S. Aug. (Serm42de Sanc.) explains exalted, as follows. "Forasmuch as thou seemest to thyself to be very happy, very powerful, very proud, and so dost despise Me, and all who admonish thee, this is the very cause why thou rushest on thine own destruction."
For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would perchance, as the Vulg. here hath it: (forte) &c. But this word forte, peradventure, or perchance, does not in this place denote doubt, or hesitation. It represents the α̉ν of the Gr. text, α̉ν being here an expletive, or a particle expressing confirmation, and signifies, certainly, verify. The translation omits to render α̉ν in v21, and various other passages, where it is found in the Greek. Indeed α̉ν is only translated forte, perhaps, in four places, viz, here; in John v46; in Psalm 81:15; and in 2 Corinthians 7:5. In all the other passages, which are very numerous, in which α̉ν occurs in the Greek, it is not translated in the Vulgate, but the passage is rendered affirmatively, as in Matthew 3:18, Matthew 5:18, Matthew 6:5, Matthew 10:12, and very many other places, as you may perceive from a Greek Concordance. This is the reason why Vatablus and others omit the perchance in this passage, and trans. simply, it would have remained. The perchance does not mean that Christ had any doubt about Sodom"s remaining, but that although it certainly would have remained, yet this remaining would have been free, i.e. of its own free will, therefore the word α̉ν denotes that he foresaw what would have happened, as it were fortuitously. Thus Terence says in the Andria, "Perchance I behold a soldier: I approach the man." Also Livy (lib1.), "Perchance it fell out." The meaning therefore Isaiah , If the Sodomites had heard My preaching, and had beheld as many miracles, as you have, 0 ye inhabitants of Capernaum, in confirmation of that preaching, verify they would have felt compunction and would have repented, and would have remained until this very day. Understand; unless they themselves or their descendants had after their repentance again relapsed into the same, or similar sins, and had again provoked the anger of God to bring upon them a like destruction. But if they had continued in their repentance and change of life, they would have remained until this day. All this is intimated by the word, perchance, here. And this is why Franc. Lucas renders α̉ν Îμειναν, by the potential mood, they might have remained.
