Matthew 8:21
Where honor toward God is not at stake, it is right to honor parents. But when both stand in the middle, one must cling to the one and despise the other — especially if honor to parents hinders pleasing God. God must be given the first place, lest we be found like Cain assigning God the second place.
Likewise the old law forbade priests to approach the dead and to hold to their own ministry without being dragged down into fleshly sympathies — that through shadows; but Christ teaches unveiledly that whoever wants to attend on God must make no account of kinship so as to be distracted from being with Christ. He himself, for the benefit of those with him, overlooked mother and brothers, saying, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” (Matthew 8:21–22) and “My mother is….” (Matthew 12:48–50)
Greek
Ἔνθα μὴ πρόκειται εἰ πρὸς θεὸν τιμή, δίκαιον τιμᾶν τοὺς γονεῖς· ἐπὰν δὲ τὰ δύο ἐν μέσῳ ᾖ, τοῦ μὲν δεῖ ἀντέχεσθαι, τοῦ δὲ καταφρονεῖν, μάλιστα εἰ ἐμποδίζεται πρὸς τὸ ἀρέσαι θεῷ ἡ πρὸς τοὺς γονεῖς τιμή· τοῖς γὰρ πρωτείοις δεῖ δοξάσαι τὸν θεόν, ἵνα μὴ εὑρεθῶμεν κατὰ τὸν Κάϊν τὰ δευτερεῖα τῷ θεῷ ἀπονέμοντες. ὁμοίως καὶ ὁ παλαιὸς νόμος τοὺς ἱερέας ἐκώλυε προσπελάζειν τοῖς νεκροῖς καὶ τῆς οἰκείας ἔχεσθαι λει τουργίας καὶ μὴ κατάγεσθαι περὶ τὰς σαρκικὰς συμπαθείας, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνος μὲν διὰ σκιῶν, ὁ δὲ Χριστὸς ἀπαρακαλύπτως διδάσκει τὸν τῷ θεῷ προσεδρεύειν θέλοντα μηδεμιᾶς συγγενείας λόγον ποιεῖσθαι εἰς τὸ ἀπα σχοληθῆναι τῷ συνεῖναι Χριστῷ· καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸς διὰ τὴν πρὸς τοὺς συν όντας ὠφέλειαν ὑπερεῖδεν μητέρα καὶ ἀδελφοὺς εἰπών· "τίς ἐστιν ἡ μήτηρ μου, καὶ τίνες οἱ ἀδελφοί μου" καὶ "μήτηρ μού ἐστιν".
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.