Whether Christ Should Have Taught All Things Openly?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ should not have taught all
things openly. For we read that He taught many things to His
disciples apart: as is seen clearly in the sermon at the Supper.
Wherefore He said: "That which you heard in the ear in the chambers
shall be preached on the housetops" [*St. Thomas, probably quoting
from memory, combines Matt. 10:27 with Luke 12:3]. Therefore He did
not teach all things openly.
Obj. 2: Further, the depths of wisdom should not be expounded save to
the perfect, according to 1 Cor. 2:6: "We speak wisdom among the
perfect." Now Christ's doctrine contained the most profound wisdom.
Therefore it should not have been made known to the imperfect crowd.
Obj. 3: Further, it comes to the same, to hide the truth, whether by
saying nothing or by making use of a language that is difficult to
understand. Now Christ, by speaking to the multitudes a language they
would not understand, hid from them the truth that He preached; since
"without parables He did not speak to them" (Matt. 13:34). In the
same way, therefore, He could have hidden it from them by saying
nothing at all.
_On the contrary,_ He says Himself (John 18:20): "In secret I have
spoken nothing."
_I answer that,_ Anyone's doctrine may be hidden in three ways.
First, on the part of the intention of the teacher, who does not wish
to make his doctrine known to many, but rather to hide it. And this
may happen in two ways--sometimes through envy on the part of the
teacher, who desires to excel in his knowledge, wherefore he is
unwilling to communicate it to others. But this was not the case with
Christ, in whose person the following words are spoken (Wis. 7:13):
"Which I have learned without guile, and communicate without envy,
and her riches I hide not." But sometimes this happens through the
vileness of the things taught; thus Augustine says on John 16:12:
"There are some things so bad that no sort of human modesty can bear
them." Wherefore of heretical doctrine it is written (Prov. 9:17):
"Stolen waters are sweeter." Now, Christ's doctrine is "not of error
nor of uncleanness" (1 Thess. 2:3). Wherefore our Lord says (Mk.
4:21): "Doth a candle," i.e. true and pure doctrine, "come in to be
put under a bushel?"
Secondly, doctrine is hidden because it is put before few. And thus,
again, did Christ teach nothing in secret: for He propounded His
entire doctrine either to the whole crowd or to His disciples
gathered together. Hence Augustine says on John 18:20: "How can it
be said that He speaks in secret when He speaks before so many
men? . . . especially if what He says to few He wishes through them
to be made known to many?"
Thirdly, doctrine is hidden, as to the manner in which it is
propounded. And thus Christ spoke certain things in secret to the
crowds, by employing parables in teaching them spiritual mysteries
which they were either unable or unworthy to grasp: and yet it was
better for them to be instructed in the knowledge of spiritual
things, albeit hidden under the garb of parables, than to be deprived
of it altogether. Nevertheless our Lord expounded the open and
unveiled truth of these parables to His disciples, so that they might
hand it down to others worthy of it; according to 2 Tim. 2:2: "The
things which thou hast heard of me by many witnesses, the same
command to faithful men, who shall be fit to teach others." This is
foreshadowed, Num. 4, where the sons of Aaron are commanded to wrap
up the sacred vessels that were to be carried by the Levites.
Reply Obj. 1: As Hilary says, commenting on the passage quoted, "we
do not read that our Lord was wont to preach at night, and expound
His doctrine in the dark: but He says this because His speech is
darkness to the carnal-minded, and His words are night to the
unbeliever. His meaning, therefore, is that whatever He said we also
should say in the midst of unbelievers, by openly believing and
professing it."
Or, according to Jerome, He speaks comparatively--that is to say,
because He was instructing them in Judea, which was a small place
compared with the whole world, where Christ's doctrine was to be
published by the preaching of the apostles.
Reply Obj. 2: By His doctrine our Lord did not make known all the
depths of His wisdom, neither to the multitudes, nor, indeed, to His
disciples, to whom He said (John 16:12): "I have yet many things to
say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Yet whatever things out of
His wisdom He judged it right to make known to others, He expounded,
not in secret, but openly; although He was not understood by all.
Hence Augustine says on John 18:20: "We must understand this, 'I have
spoken openly to the world,' as though our Lord had said, 'Many have
heard Me' . . . and, again, it was not 'openly,' because they did not
understand."
Reply Obj. 3: As stated above, our Lord spoke to the multitudes in
parables, because they were neither able nor worthy to receive the
naked truth, which He revealed to His disciples.
And when it is said that "without parables He did not speak to them,"
according to Chrysostom (Hom. xlvii in Matth.), we are to understand
this of that particular sermon, since on other occasions He said many
things to the multitude without parables. Or, as Augustine says (De
Qq. Evang., qu. xvii), this means, "not that He spoke nothing
literally, but that He scarcely ever spoke without introducing a
parable, although He also spoke some things in the literal sense."
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