Matthew 3:7
As men more learned in the law than the rest, they came to John later. He calls them offspring of vipers because of their likeness: when vipers are about to come into the light, they burst their mother’s belly and leave her dead.
In the same way these men left their own mother, Jerusalem, as if she were dead, and were being saved from the killing of Christ — the crime for which they endured incurable evils for a time under the Romans, which he calls the coming wrath (Matthew 3:7).
Greek
Ὡς νομομαθέστεροι τῶν ἄλλων ὕστερον προσῆλθον τῷ Ἰωάννῃ οὓς καλεῖ γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν διὰ τὸ ὁμοιότροπον· ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐκεῖνα, ὅτε μέλλει εἰς φῶς ἐξιέναι, διαρρήγνυσιν τὴν τῆς μητρὸς νηδὺν καὶ νεκρὰν αὐτὴν καταλείποντα ἄπεισιν, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ οὗτοι νεκρὰν ὥσπερ οὖσαν τὴν ἑαυτῶν μητέρα, τὴν Ἰερουσαλήμ, κατέλειψαν καὶ διεσῴζοντο ἐκ τῆς χριστοκτονίας, δι' ἣν ὑπέμειναν τὰ ἀνήκεστα κακὰ τέως ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίων, ἣν καλεῖ μέλλουσαν ὀργήν.
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.