leper was cleansed at a time when the Lord was now in a certain city,—a circumstance which
Matthew has not cared to mention.
47. After all, however, this explanation may also be suggested,—namely, that in the first
instance the Lord, along with His disciples and no others, was on some more elevated portion
of the mountain, and that during the period of His stay there He chose out of the number
of His followers those twelve; that then He came down in company with them, not indeed
from the mountain itself, but from that said altitude on the mountain, into the plain—that
is to say, into some level spot which was found on the slope of the mountain, and which
was capable of accommodating great multitudes; and that thereafter, when He had seated
Himself, His disciples took up their position next Him, and in these circumstances He de-
livered both to them and to the other multitudes who were present one discourse, which
Matthew and Luke have both recorded, their modes of narrating it being indeed different,
but the truth being given with equal fidelity by the two writers in all that concerns the facts
and sayings which both of them have recounted. For we have already prefaced our inquiry
with the position, which indeed ought of itself to have been obvious to all without the need
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of any one to give them counsel to that effect beforehand, that there is not [necessarily] any
antagonism between writers, although one may omit something which another mentions;
nor, again, although one states a fact in one way, and another in a different method, provided
that the same truth is set forth in regard to the objects and sayings themselves. In this way,
therefore, Matthew’s sentence, “Now when He was come down from the mountain,” may
at the same time be understood to refer also to the plain, which there might very well have
been on the slope of the mountain. And thereafter Matthew tells the story of the cleansing
of the leper, which is also given in a similar manner by Mark and Luke.
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Of the Lengthened Sermon Which, According to Matthew, He Delivered on the…