Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XVIII/Chapter 15

Chapter XV.&#8212;Matthew XI. 25 Discussed.

And Simon, being vexed at this, said:&#160; &#8220;Blame your own teacher, who said, &#8216;I thank Thee, Lord of heaven and earth, that what was concealed from the wise, Thou hast revealed to suckling babes.&#8217;&#8221; &#160; And Peter said: &#160;&#8220;This is not the way in which the statement was made; but I shall speak of it as if it had been made in the way that has seemed good to you.&#160; Our Lord, even if He had made this statement, &#8216;What was concealed from the wise, the Father revealed to babes,&#8217; could not even thus be thought to point out another God and Father in addition to Him who created the world.&#160; For it is possible that the concealed things of which He spoke may be those of the Creator (Demiurge) himself; because Isaiah says, &#8216;I will open my mouth in parables, and I will belch forth things concealed from the foundation of the world.&#8217;&#160; Do you allow, then, that the prophet was not ignorant of the things concealed, which Jesus says were concealed from the wise, but revealed to babes?&#160; And how was the Creator (Demiurge) ignorant of them, if his prophet Isaiah was not ignorant of them?&#160; But our Jesus did not in reality say &#8216;what was concealed,&#8217; but He said what seems a harsher statement; for He said, &#8216;Thou hast concealed these things from the wise, and hast revealed them to sucking babes.&#8217;&#160; Now the word &#8216;Thou hast concealed&#8217; implies that they had once been known to them; for the key of the kingdom of heaven, that is, the knowledge of the secrets, lay with them.