Matthew 5:25–26
What he means is this: be reasonable before judgment. If you are accused and jailed, you are not released until you pay down to an obol — that is what the quadrans shows.
He exhorts us to be reasonable and not to trust the lawsuit. If something goes against hope and the judge holds you, you will not be released until you pay the last obol. That is what is called a quadrans.
Greek
Ὁ ἀθετῶν μίαν τῶν τοῦ νόμου ἐντολῶν ἀθετεῖται παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ὡς θεομάχος καὶ ἀντινομοθετῶν τῷ θεῷ. καὶ νῦν ἐκ τοῦ εὐαγγελικοῦ νόμου δέχεται τὴν τιμωρίαν, ἣν νόμος πάλαι οὐκ ἦν ὁρίσας. διὸ καὶ ἀκολούθως λέγει ὁ Χριστός, "ὅτι οὐκ ἦλθον καταλῦσαι τὸν νόμον, ἀλλὰ πληρῶσαι". ὃ γὰρ ἐκεῖ ἔλειπε, ὧδε ἀνεπλήρωσεν, οἷον ἐν τῷ νόμῳ ἐλέ χθη· "ἀπὸ προσώπου πολιοῦ ἐξαναστήσῃ" καὶ "ἐὰν ἴδῃς τὸ ὑποζύγιον τοῦ ἐχθροῦ σου ὑποπεπτωκὸς ὑπὸ τὸν γόμον, συνέγειρον αὐτὸ μετ' αὐτοῦ". ταῦτα εἰ παρέβη τις, οὐκ ἦν τιμωρία ὁρισθεῖσα ὑπὸ τοῦ νόμου. ἣν ἀποπληρῶν ὁ Χριστός φησιν, ὅτι ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ τοιοῦτος ἐξουθενηθήσεται. ταύτην οὖν καλεῖ ἐλαχίστην ἐντολήν, ἐφ' ἣν οὐκ ἦν ἐκ παραβάσεως ἐπαγομένη κόλασις.
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)
English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.