Healing many at evening in Capernaum (Matt 8:16–17; Mark 1:32–34; Luke 4:40–41)

The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations; nothing is paraphrased.

---

St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 27 (on Matthew 8:16–17) Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110.iii.XXVII.html

On the crowds who would not leave though the day was spent, and on the evangelists' summary of an unnumbered multitude of cures:

Seest thou the multitude, by this time growing in faith? For not even when the time pressed could they endure to depart, nor did they account it unseasonable to bring their sick to Him at eventide. But mark, I pray thee, how great a multitude of persons healed the evangelists pass quickly over, not mentioning one by one, and giving us an account of them, but in one word traversing an unspeakable sea of miracles.

On "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses":

He said not, "He did them away," but "He took and bare them;" which seems to me to be spoken rather of sins, by the prophet, in harmony with John, where he saith, "Behold the Lamb of God, that beareth the sin of the world."

On why the evangelist nevertheless applies the prophet's word to bodily diseases:

How then doth the evangelist here apply it to diseases? Either as rehearsing the passage in the historical sense, or to show that most of our diseases arise from sins of the soul. For if the sum of all, death itself, hath its root and foundation from sin, much more the majority of our diseases also: since our very capability of suffering did itself originate there.

---

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (on Luke 4:40) Source: trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain. Full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_02_sermons_12_25.htm

On why He who could heal by a word yet laid His hands upon the sick — that His very flesh is the life-giving flesh of God:

He laid also His hands upon the sick one by one, and freed them from their malady, so demonstrating that the holy flesh, which He had made His own, and endowed with godlike power, possessed the active presence of the might of the Word: intending us thereby to learn that though the Only-begotten Word of God became like unto us, yet even so is He none the less God, and able easily, even by His own flesh, to accomplish all things: for by it as His instrument He wrought miracles. Nor is there any reason for great wonder at this; but consider, on the contrary, how fire, when placed in a brazen vessel, communicates to it the power of producing the effects of heat. So therefore the all-powerful Word of God also, having joined by a real union unto Himself the living and intelligent temple taken from the holy Virgin, endowed it with the power of actively exerting His own godlike might.

(This passage comes from Cyril's continuous Commentary on Luke, in R. Payne Smith's 1859 translation from the Syriac.)

---

Theophylact of Ohrid (c. 1055–1107)

Explanation of the Gospel of Mark (on Mark 1:32–34) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Mark. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena2.iii.i.html

On why the crowds waited until the sun had set:

Because the multitude thought that it was not lawful to heal on the sabbath day, they waited for the evening, to bring those who were to be healed to Jesus.

On why the Gospel says He healed "many":

Or he says, "many", because there were some faithless persons, who could not at all be cured on account of their unfaithfulness. Therefore He healed many of those who were brought, that is, all who had faith.

On why He would not suffer the devils to speak, though they spoke the truth:

Furthermore, the reason that He forbade the devils to speak, was to teach us not to believe them, even if they say true. For if once they find persons to believe them, they mingle truth with falsehood.

---

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

The Harmony of the Gospels, Book II.21 (on Matthew 8:14–17) Source: trans. S. D. F. Salmond, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf106.vi.v.xxii.html

On the order in which Matthew, Mark, and Luke relate this Capernaum episode, and why their differing arrangement is no discrepancy:

Matthew has not indicated the date of this incident; that is to say, he has specified neither before what event nor after what occurrence it took place. For we are certainly under no necessity of supposing that, because it is recorded after a certain event, it must also have happened in actual matter of fact after that event. And unquestionably, in this case, we are to understand that he has introduced for record here something which he had omitted to notice previously. ... For of what consequence is it in what place any of them may give his account; or what difference does it make whether he inserts the matter in its proper order, or brings in at a particular point what was previously omitted, or mentions at an earlier stage what really happened at a later, provided only that he contradicts neither himself nor a second writer in the narrative of the same facts or of others?

---

St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 8:16–17) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.viii.html

On the mystical meaning of the hour — that the sick are healed at sunset:

It should be noted, that all the sick were healed not in the morning nor at noon, but rather about sunset; as a corn of wheat dies in the ground that it may bring forth much fruit.

---

St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310–367)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 8:17) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.viii.html

On how the Lord fulfilled the prophet's word — bearing our infirmities in His own body:

And by the passion of His body, according to the words of the Prophet, He absorbed all the infirmities of human weakness.