19 Matt. xxii. 36; Luke x.25. [The passage in Luke tells of an entirely different incident. The citation from Matthew is not exact, though "first" occurs in the answer of our Lord.-R.]
21 Matt. xix. 16, 17; Luke xviii. 18, 19. [The citation agrees more exactly with Mark x. 18. In Matthew, according to the best Mss. authorities, and also the Latin versions and fathers. another form of the answer occurs. Even in Homily LXIII., where the incident is commented upon, Chrysostom does not directly attribute this language, as given above, to Matthew's Gospel.-R.]
27 i e., of those heretics who "commanded to abstain from meats." as though possessed with some evil principle: the Manich'an and Marcionite schools. Comp. St. Chrys. on 1 Tim. 5.5.
31 Luke ix, 62, e0n th=| bassilei/a|. [The citation is peculiar: (1) e! is not found in any of our Mss. of the New Testament, the received text is ei0j th\n basile/ian, while the dative alone is better supported. (20) tw=n ou0ranw=n is substituted for tou=qeou= the former occurring in Matthew only in connection with basileiva.-R.]
33 [More exactly, "ten days."-R.]
34 pw=ma, the lid of a coffer of any kind: here of a sarcophagus.
2 See Mark iv. 35. [But Mark is very specific as to time. This event is placed very much out of chronological position in Matthew's account. But Chrysustom does not discuss such questions with any fullness. Indeed, the order of Matthew seems to have been accepted up to his time. The earliest harmonies were based upon Matthew. Comp. even Augustin, Harmony, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. vi., first series, pp. 67-69, and elsewhere.-R.]
3 i.e., the miracle at the Red Sea, afterwards mentioned.
10 Matt. xv. 16. ["For" is part of the citation, in the Greek text of the Homily, but does not occur in the Gospel narratives. The order, "the sea and the winds," is also peculiar to the text of the Homily. The Oxford translator gives the order of the A. V., whith is well attested, but not followed here.-R.]
14 [R. V., "demons," and so the translator in many places in this Homily.-R.]
19 So St. Augustin de Civitate Dei, ix. 11. "Plotinus says that the souls of men are demons, and of men become Lares, if they are of good desert; if of bad, Lamures or Larv'." Mr. Field refers to St. Chrys. 2 Hom on Lazarus, vi. 235,6 (Savile). "Many of the simpler sort imagine that the souls of such as die violent deaths are turned into demons, whereas the souls which really become such are theirs who are yet living in their sins, not by change of substance, but by imitating their evil mind
Why did the devil introduce this wicked doctrine ? He tried to undermine the glory of the martyrs. I mean, because they die violent deaths, he wishing to diffuse an evil impression of them, did this. This, however, he could not do, but another very grievous result he did accomplish. He induced, by these doctrines, the sorcerers that minister to him to butcher the bodies of many tender youths, in the hope that they would become demons, and in return minister to them." He proceeds to argue against the superstition much as in the text here.