Whose Son Is the Christ? (Matthew 22:41–46)

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 71 (on Matthew 22:41–46), trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110.iii.LXVIII.html

On the many signs that go before, and His secret aim to bring them to confess His Godhead:

See after how many miracles, after how many signs, after how many questions ... He asks the question, that they may not be able to say, that He did miracles indeed, yet was an adversary to the law, and a foe to God. Therefore, after so many things, He asks these questions, secretly leading them on to confess Him also to be God.

On why they answer "the Son of David," and why He brings in the prophet:

For they indeed supposed that He was a mere man, wherefore also they said, "the Son of David;" but He to correct this brings in the prophet witnessing to His being Lord, and the genuineness of His Sonship, and His equality in honor with His Father.

On His not denying the Davidic sonship, but correcting the thought that He is son only and not also Lord:

not taking away the fact that He is his Son, away with the thought; ... but to correct their secret thoughts. So that when He saith, "How is He his Son?" He meaneth this, not so as ye say. For they said, that He is Son only, and not also Lord.

On the silence that fell upon the questioners:

And upon His reasonings with them He doth set this end high and great, and sufficient to close fast their mouths. For they were silent from thenceforth, not willingly, but from their having nothing to say; and they received so deadly a blow, as no longer to dare to attempt the same things any more.

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St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Sermon 137 (on Luke 20:41–44), trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain. Full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_13_sermons_135_145.htm

On the two natures — Lord of David by His Godhead, son of David by the flesh:

He is David's Lord therefore according to that which belongs to His divine glory and nature and sovereignty: but his son according to the flesh.

On the session at the right hand as the pledge of supreme glory and equality of nature:

For to sit at all at the right hand of the Father is the assurance and pledge of supreme glory. For those who share the same throne are equal also in dignity: and those who are crowned with equal honours are understood of course to be equal in nature.

On how the Word, being God and equal to the Father, became flesh without leaving His divine dignity:

the Word being God, and sprung from the very substance of God the Father, and being in His likeness and on an equality with Him, became flesh, that is, man, perfectly, and yet without departing from the incomparable excellence of the divine dignities

On the malicious silence of the Pharisees:

The Pharisees however gave no answer to Christ's question: and this they did in malice, or rather against their own selves, lest being pricked by the enquiry, the word of salvation should shine forth in them.

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Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–254)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew (on Matthew 22:41–46). Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xxii.html

On the enemies made a footstool, for salvation as well as destruction:

For God puts Christ's enemies as a footstool beneath His feet, for their salvation as well as their destruction.

On why He answered so as to deter them from further questioning:

For had their question sprung of desire to know, He would never have proposed to them such things as should have deterred them from asking further.

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St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew (on Matthew 22:41–46). Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xxii.html

On the citation of Psalm 109 (110 in the Hebrew) and the eternal generation:

This passage is out of the 109th Psalm. Christ is therefore called David's Lord, not in respect of His descent from him, but in respect of His eternal generation from the Father, wherein He was before His fleshly Father. And he calls Him Lord, not by a mere chance, nor of his own thought, but by the Holy Spirit.

On how the question still stands against those who make Christ a mere man:

This question is still available for us against the Jews; for these who believe that Christ is yet to come, assert that He is a mere man, though a holy one, of the race of David. Let us then thus taught by the Lord ask them, If He be mere man, and only the Son of David, how does David call Him his Lord?

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Remigius (c. 841–908)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew (on Matthew 22:41–46). Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xxii.html

(Remigius of Auxerre is a later Western compiler, included here for his gloss on the session at God's right hand.)

On what it means to sit at the right hand of God, who has no body:

That He says, "Sit thou on my right hand," is not to be taken as though God had a body, and either a right hand or a left hand; but to sit on the right hand of God is to abide in the honour and equality of the Father's majesty.

On "till" as meaning not a limit but perpetuity:

But "till" is used for indefinite time, that the meaning be, Sit Thou for ever, and for ever hold thine enemies beneath thy feet.