Matthew 3:10
By “axe” (Matthew 3:10) he means Christ, “sharper than any two-edged sword,” who is about to cut away the unbelieving Jews and estrange them from the patriarchs’ honor and fellowship. He also called those patriarchs the root — the fathers of old who pleased God, those around Abraham, and as many as were holy before.
Their unbelieving descendants were cut off as fruitless branches, but the root remained, and onto it those from the nations were grafted (Romans 11:17–24). Irenaeus says the axe is the word of God, as Jeremiah also does: the word of the Lord is “like an axe cutting rock.” (Jeremiah 23:29) Why do I say you are about to fall away? For this very reason it had not even stood clear of the root.
Greek
Ἀξίνην φησὶν τὸν Χριστὸν τὸν "τομώτερον μαχαίρας διστόμου" τὸν μέλλοντα ἐκκόπτειν τοὺς ἀπίστους Ἰουδαίους καὶ ἀλλοτριοῦν ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν πατριαρχῶν τιμῆς καὶ κοινωνίας, οὓς καὶ ῥίζαν εἶπεν, οἳ καὶ ἔμειναν οἱ πάλαι θεῷ ἀρέσαντες πατέρες οἱ περὶ Ἀβραὰμ καὶ ὅσοι πρῴην ἅγιοι· οἱ γὰρ ἐξ αὐτῶν ἄπιστοι ἐξεκόπησαν ὡς ἄκαρποι κλάδοι, ἡ δὲ ῥίζα ἔμεινεν, ἐφ' ἧς οἱ ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἐνεκεντρίσθησαν. Εἰρηναῖος δὲ ἀξίνην φησὶν τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ καθὰ καὶ Ἰερεμίας· ὁ λόγος κυρίου "ὡς πέλυξ κόπτων πέτραν". τί γὰρ λέγω, φησίν, ὅτι ἐκπίπτειν μέλλετε–διά τοι τοῦτο οὐδὲ ἀφειστήκει τῆς ῥίζης.
About this text
Catena fragments on Matthew (CPG 5206). Contents follow Matthew chapter and verse. Edition fragment numbers stay in About this text and under each passage.
English follows the named copy-text (Aegean/khazarzar Migne PG 72 extract). Other prints were checked as noted; no silent merge of recensions.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Migne PG 72 Commentarii in Matthaeum (Aegean Digital Patrologia / khazarzar) (Greek · CPG 5206 catena fragments (290 parsed heads))
- Checked print matia.gr mirror of same Aegean extract (Greek · Byte-identical PDF; integrity check only)
- Checked print Internet Archive PG 72 volume OCR (bim … 1859_72) (Greek (OCR damaged) · Locus confirmation only; not used as reading text)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.