Treasures New and Old (Matthew 13:51–52)

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 47 (on Matthew 13:51–52) 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.xlvii.html

On the Old Testament commended as a treasure, so that the ignorant cannot be householders:

Seest thou how so far from excluding the Old Testament, He even commends it, and speaks publicly in favor of it, calling it "a treasure"? So that as many as are ignorant of the divine Scriptures cannot be "householders;" such as neither have of themselves, nor receive of others, but neglect their own case, perishing with famine.

That the new and the old are bound together, so that they who reject the old have neither:

For they bring not forth things new and old. For they have not the old things, wherefore neither have they the new; even as they who have not the new, neither have they the old, but are deprived of both. For these are bound up and interwoven one with another.

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

The City of God, Book XX, ch. 4; and Questions on the Gospel of Matthew, q. 16 (on Matthew 13:52) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xiii.html

On why the Lord said "new and old," preserving the order of value rather than of time:

He said not "old and new," as He surely would have said had He not preferred to preserve the order of value rather than of time. But the Manichaeans while they think they should keep only the new promises of God, remain in the old man of the flesh, and put on newness of error.

On the two Testaments as the things new and old drawn from the treasure of the Scriptures:

in which case we might understand the Holy Scriptures to be here meant, the two Testaments by the things new and old ... If He then, in whom all those old Scriptures have their fulfilment and manifestation, yet speaks in parables until His passion shall rend the vail, when there is nothing hid that shall not be revealed

St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 13:51–52) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xiii.html

On the saying spoken especially to the Apostles, who must understand in order to teach others:

For this is spoken especially to the Apostles, whom He would have not to hear only as the multitude, but to understand as having to teach others.

On the Apostles as scribes and the Saviour's notaries, bringing forth new and old from their doctrine:

Or the Apostles are called Scribes instructed, as being the Saviour's notaries who wrote His words and precepts on fleshly tables of the heart with the sacraments of the heavenly kingdom, and abounded in the wealth of a householder, bringing forth out of the stores of their doctrine things new and old; whatsoever they preached in the Gospels, that they proved by the words of the Law and the Prophets.

St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310–367)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 13:52) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xiii.html

On the disciples called scribes, the new and old being the Law and the Gospels from one treasury:

Speaking to His disciples, He calls them Scribes on account of their knowledge, because they understood the things that He brought forward, both new and old, that is from the Law and from the Gospels; both being of the same householder, and both treasures of the same owner. He compares them to Himself under the figure of a householder, because they had received doctrine of things both new and old out of His treasury of the Holy Spirit.

St. Gregory the Great (c. 540–604)

Forty Gospel Homilies (on Matthew 13:52) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xiii.html

On the learned householder as one who preaches both Testaments in word and in life:

But if by things "new and old" in this passage we understand the two Testaments, we deny Abraham to have been learned ... But what is here said may be understood as meant not of those who had been, but of such as might hereafter be in the Church, who then "bring forth things new and old" when they speak the preachings of both Testaments, in their words and in their lives.

On another reading, the old as punishment and the new as the sweetness of the kingdom:

The things old are, that the human race for its sin should suffer in eternal punishment; the things new, that they should be converted and live in the kingdom ... He is a learned preacher in the Church who knows to bring forth things new concerning the sweetness of the kingdom, and to speak things old concerning the tenor of punishment; that at least punishment may deter those whom rewards do not excite.