The Children in the Marketplace (Matthew 11:16–19; Luke 7:31–35)

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

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St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 37 (on Matthew 11:16–19) Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110/npnf110.iii.XXXVII.html

On John and Christ coming by opposite ways to accomplish one and the same thing:

Now what He saith is like this: We have come each of us an opposite way, I and John; and we have done just as if it were some hunters with a wild beast that was hard to catch, and which might by two ways fall into the toils; as if each of the two were to cut it off his several way, and drive it, taking his stand opposite to the other; so that it must needs fall into one of the two snares.

On how either the fast or the feast should have won them, so that they are left without excuse:

Is fasting a good thing, and to be admired? you should then have obeyed John, and received him, and believed his sayings. For so would those sayings have led you towards Jesus. Is fasting, on the other hand, a thing grievous, and burdensome? then should you have obeyed Jesus, and have believed in Him that came the opposite way. Thus, either way, ye would have found yourselves in the kingdom.

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St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Sermon 39 (on Luke 7:31–35) Source: trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain. Full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_04_sermons_39_46.htm

On the children's game the parable draws upon:

There was perchance a sort of game among the Jewish children, something of this kind. A troop of youths was divided into two parts: who, making sport of the confusion in the world, and the uneven course of its affairs, and the painful and rapid change from one extreme to the other, played some of them on instruments of music: while the rest wailed. But neither did the mourners share the merriment of those who were playing music and rejoicing: nor again did those with the instruments of music join in the sorrow of those who were weeping: and finally, they reproached one another with their want of sympathy, so to speak, and absence of affection.

On John the faster, whom they charged with having a devil:

Dost thou say that he hath a devil, who by fastings is mortifying the law of sin that lurks in our fleshly members, and wars against the law of our mind? What is greater than a life of abstinence?

On Christ eating with publicans and sinners, yet remaining undefiled:

He could sustain no pollution, even though He ate with sinners: for yon bright sun sheds its radiance upon, and visits every thing under heaven: it chances, then, that impurities also are found lying exposed to it: but that which pours down this radiance is not in the least defiled, even though it shed it on matters so abominable. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Sun of Righteousness: a wicked man, then, in no way whatsoever defiles Him, though close at His side, and eating with Him.

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Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

Questions on the Gospels, ii, 11 (on Matthew 11:19) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xi.html

On "wisdom is justified of her children":

Wisdom is justified of her children, because the holy Apostles understood that the kingdom of God was not in meat and drink, but in patient enduring; such persons neither does abundance lift up, nor want cast down, but as Paul spoke, I know how to abound, and to suffer want.

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St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 11:16–19) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xi.html

On the peevishness that would accept neither the fast nor the feast:

If fasting then pleases you, why were you not satisfied with John! If fulness, why not with the Son of man? Yet one of these ye said had a daemon, the other ye called a gluttonous man, and drunkard.

On "wisdom is justified of her children":

Wisdom is justified of her children, i. e. The dispensation or doctrine of God, or Christ Himself who is the power and wisdom of God, is proved by the Apostles, who are His children, to have done righteously.

On the variant reading found in some copies:

Some copies read, Wisdom is justified of her works, for wisdom does not seek the witness of words, but of works.

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St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310–367)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 11:16–19) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xi.html

On the whole saying as a reproach of unbelief:

The whole of this speech is a reproach of unbelief, and arises out of the foregoing complaint; that the stiff-necked people had not learned by two different modes of teaching.

On the "children" who piped and mourned as the Prophets:

By the children are meant the Prophets, who preached as children in singleness of meaning, and in the midst of the synagogue, that is in the market-place, reprove them, that when they played to those to whom they had devoted the service of their body, they had not obeyed their words, as the movement of the dancers are regulated by the measures of the music.

On Christ as the Wisdom of God by nature, not by His acts:

He is wisdom itself not by His acts, but by His nature.