Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Leviticus 21:13

There are 4 footnotes for this reference.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 144, footnote 6 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Oceanus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2039 (In-Text, Margin)

... ‘requires but an ill wedge to split it.’ The text quoted by the objector, “a bishop must be the husband of one wife,” admits of quite another explanation. The apostle came of the Jews and the primitive Christian church was gathered out of the remnants of Israel. Paul knew that the Law allowed men to have children by several wives, and was aware that the example of the patriarchs had made polygamy familiar to the people. Even the very priests might at their own discretion enjoy the same license.[Leviticus 21:13] He gave commandment therefore that the priests of the church should not claim this liberty, that they should not take two wives or three together, but that they should each have but one wife at one time. Perhaps you may say that this explanation ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 361, footnote 9 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

Against Jovinianus. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4366 (In-Text, Margin)

... the priest to David when he fled to Nob: “If only the young men have kept themselves from women.” And David answered, “of a truth about these three days.” For the shew-bread, like the body of Christ, might not be eaten by those who rose from the marriage bed. And in passing we ought to consider the words “if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” The truth is that, in view of the purity of the body of Christ, all sexual intercourse is unclean. In the law also it is enjoined that the[Leviticus 21:13-14] high priest must not marry any but a virgin, nor must he take to wife a widow. If a virgin and a widow are on the same level, how is it that one is taken, the other rejected? And the widow of a priest is bidden abide in the house of her father, and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 3, footnote 6 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Letters. (HTML)

To the Bishops appointed in Campania, Picenum, Etruria, and all the Provinces. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 34 (In-Text, Margin)

... the husbands of widows have attained to the priesthood: certain, too, who have had several wives, and have led a life given up to all licentiousness, have had all facilities put in their way, and been admitted to the Sacred Order, contrary to that utterance of the blessed Apostle, in which he proclaims and says to such, “the husband of one wife,” and contrary to that precept of the ancient law which says by way of caution: “Let the priest take a virgin to wife, not a widow, not a divorced woman[Leviticus 21:13-14].” All such persons, therefore, who have been admitted we order to be put out of their offices in the church and from the title of priest by the authority of the Apostolic See: for they will have no claim to that for which they were not eligible, on ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 13, footnote 6 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Letters. (HTML)

To All the Bishops of Mauritania Cæsariensis. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 100 (In-Text, Margin)

... the priest-elect: lest she should happen to have been married to another man before she entered into wedlock with him, even though he himself had had no other wife. Who then would dare to allow this injury to be perpetrated upon so great a sacrament, seeing that this great and venerable mystery is not without the support of the statutes of God’s law as well, whereby it is clearly laid down that a priest is to marry a virgin, and that she who is to be the wife of a priest[Leviticus 21:13] is not to know another husband? For even then in the priests was prefigured the Spiritual marriage of Christ and His Church: so that since “the man is the head of the woman,” the spouse of the Word may learn to know no other man but Christ, who did ...