The interpretation timeline

Matt 6:14

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

6 Patristic witnesses · 1 Medieval witness

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Patristic before A.D. 750
John Chrysostom · A.D. 347–407 A.D. 407
“He mentions heaven and the Father to claim our attention, for nothing so likens you to God, as to forgive him who has injured you. And it were indeed unmeet should the son of such a Father become a slave, and should one who has a heavenly vocation live as of this earth, and of this life only.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of Matthew, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 6:14-15 PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1841) ↗
Augustine of Hippo · A.D. 354–430 A.D. 430
“(Serm. in Mont. ii. 11.) Here we should not overlook that of all the petitions enjoined by the Lord, He judged that most worthy of further enforcement, which relates to forgiveness of sins, in which He would have us merciful; which is the only means of escaping misery.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of Matthew, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 6:14-15 PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1841) ↗
426 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Medieval c. 750 – 1100
Rabanus Maurus · c. A.D. 780–856 A.D. 856
“By the word Amen, He shews that without doubt the Lord will bestow all things that are rightly asked, and by those that do not fail in observing the annexed condition, For if ye forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your sins.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of Matthew, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 6:14-15 PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1841) ↗
Undated date unknown
Pseudo-Chrysostom
“He does not say that God will first forgive us, and that we should after forgive our debtors. For God knows how treacherous the heart of man is, and that though they should have received forgiveness themselves, yet they do not forgive their debtors; therefore He instructs us first to forgive, and we shall be forgiven after.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of Matthew, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 6:14-15 PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1841) ↗

The reader meets the sources first; chronology and attribution do the work. Provenance is shown on every quotation — solid for hosted public domain, dashed for link-out.