Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Genesis 8:21
There are 10 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 615, footnote 2 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Novatian. (HTML)
A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. (HTML)
And That, Although Scripture Often Changes the Divine Appearance into a Human Form, Yet the Measure of the Divine Majesty is Not Included Within These Lineaments of Our Bodily Nature. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5040 (In-Text, Margin)
And although the heavenly Scripture often turns the divine appearance into a human form,—as when it says, “The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous;” or when it says, “The Lord God smelled the smell of a good savour;”[Genesis 8:21] or when there are given to Moses the tables “written with the finger of God;” or when the people of the children of Israel are set free from the land of Egypt “with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm;” or when it says, “The mouth of the Lord hath spoken these things;” or when the earth is set forth as “God’s footstool;” or when it says, “Incline thine ear, and hear,” —we who say ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 245, footnote 6 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Clementine Homilies. (HTML)
Homily III. (HTML)
Defects Ascribed to God. (HTML)
... ignorant; and in driving him out lest he should eat and live for ever, he is also envious. And whereas it is written that ‘God repented that he had made man,’ this implies both repentance and ignorance. For this reflection is a view by which one, through ignorance, wishes to inquire into the result of the things which he wills, or it is the act of one repenting on account of the event not being according to his expectation. And whereas it is written, ‘And the Lord smelled a scent of sweetness,’[Genesis 8:21] it is the part of one in need; and his being pleased with the fat of flesh is the part of one who is not good. But his tempting, as it is written, ‘And God did tempt Abraham,’ is the part of one who is wicked, and who is ignorant of the issue of the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 760, footnote 14 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Remains of the Second and Third Centuries. (HTML)
Melito, the Philosopher. (HTML)
From 'The Key.' (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3645 (In-Text, Margin)
The smelling of the Lord —His delight in the prayers or works of the saints. In Genesis: “And the Lord smelled an odour of sweetness.”[Genesis 8:21]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 455, footnote 10 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)
The Apology of Rufinus. Addressed to Apronianus, in Reply to Jerome's Letter to Pammachius. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Origin of men, angels, and heavenly bodies. (HTML)
“We must hold that men are by nature children of wrath because of this ‘body of humiliation’ and ‘body of death,’ and because[Genesis 8:21] ‘the heart of man is disposed to evil from his youth.’”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 167, footnote 3 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Salvina. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2459 (In-Text, Margin)
... class="Greek" lang="EL">προπάθειαι that is ‘predispositions to passion.’ The fact is that suggestions of sin tickle all our minds, and the decision rests with our own hearts either to admit or to reject the thoughts which come. The Lord of nature Himself says in the gospel:—“out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” It is clear from the testimony of another book that “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth,”[Genesis 8:21] and that the soul wavers between the works of the flesh and of the spirit enumerated by the apostle, desiring now the former and now the latter. For
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 399, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4781 (In-Text, Margin)
... produce of the crops, and herbs and vegetables were given him for food, that even when an exile from paradise he might feed not upon flesh which was not to be found in paradise, but upon grain and fruit like that of paradise. But afterwards when God saw that the heart of man from his youth was set on wickedness continually, and that His Spirit could not remain in them because they were flesh, He by the deluge passed sentence on the works of the flesh, and, taking note of the extreme greediness of men,[Genesis 8:21] gave them liberty to eat flesh: so that while understanding that all things were lawful for them, they might not greatly desire that which was allowed, lest they should turn a commandment into a cause of transgression. And yet even then, fasting was ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 473, footnote 4 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Letters of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Miscellaneous Letters. (HTML)
To Theodore, Bishop of Tyana. (HTML)
To Bosporius, Bishop of Colonia. (HTML)
Twice I have been tripped up by you, and have been deceived (you know what I mean), and, if it was justly, may the Lord smell from you an odour of sweet savour;[Genesis 8:21] if unjustly, may the Lord pardon it. For so it is reasonable for me to speak of you, seeing we are commanded to be patient when injuries are inflicted on us. But as you are master of your own opinions, so am I of mine. That troublesome Gregory will no longer be troublesome to you. I will withdraw myself to God, Who alone is pure and guileless. I will retire into myself. This I have determined; for to stumble twice ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 88b, footnote 9 (Image)
Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus
John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)
An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Concerning Images. (HTML)
Moreover the divine Scripture blames those who worship graven images, but also those who sacrifice to demons. The Greeks sacrificed and the Jews also sacrificed: but the Greeks to demons and the Jews to God. And the sacrifice of the Greeks was rejected and condemned, but the sacrifice of the just was very acceptable to God. For Noah sacrificed, and God smelled a sweet savour[Genesis 8:21], receiving the fragrance of the right choice and good-will towards Him. And so the graven images of the Greeks, since they were images of deities, were rejected and forbidden.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 123, footnote 6 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter VII. The Holy Spirit is no less the author of spiritual creation or regeneration than the Father and the Son. The excellence of that creation, and wherein it consists. How we are to understand holy Scripture, when it attributes a body or members to God. (HTML)
68. For there are spiritual nostrils, as we read, which the spouse of the Word has, to whom it is said: “And the smell of thy nostrils;” and in another place: “The Lord smelled a smell of sweetness.”[Genesis 8:21] There are, then, as it were, inward members of a man, whose hands are considered to be in action, his ears in hearing, his feet in a kind of progress in a good work. And so from what is done we gather as it were figures of the members, for it is not suitable for us to imagine anything in the inner man after a fleshly manner.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 519, footnote 2 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV. (HTML)
Conference XXIII. The Third Conference of Abbot Theonas. On Sinlessness. (HTML)
Chapter I. Discourse of Abbot Theonas on the Apostle's words: “For I do not the good which I would.“ (HTML)
... which I hate that I do”? or even this: “But if I do what I would not it is no longer I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me”? For what sinner defiles himself unwillingly by adulteries and fornication? Who against his will prepares plots against his neighbour? Who is driven by unavoidable necessity to oppress a man by false witness or cheat him by theft, or covet the goods of another or shed his blood? Nay rather, as Scripture says, “Mankind is diligently inclined to wickedness from his youth.”[Genesis 8:21] For to such an extent are all inflamed by the love of sin and desire to carry out what they like, that they actually look out with watchful care for an opportunity of committing wickedness and are afraid of being too slow to enjoy their lusts, and ...