Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Deuteronomy 19
There are 24 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 154, footnote 13 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)
Of Circumcision and the Supercession of the Old Law. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1178 (In-Text, Margin)
... into ploughs, and their lances into sickles; and nations shall not take up glaive against nation, and they shall no more learn to fight.” Who else, therefore, are understood but we, who, fully taught by the new law, observe these practices,—the old law being obliterated, the coming of whose abolition the action itself demonstrates? For the wont of the old law was to avenge itself by the vengeance of the glaive, and to pluck out “eye for eye,” and to inflict retaliatory revenge for injury.[Deuteronomy 19:11-21] But the new law’s wont was to point to clemency, and to convert to tranquillity the pristine ferocity of “glaives” and “lances,” and to remodel the pristine execution of “war” upon the rivals and foes of the law into the pacific actions of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 253, footnote 14 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Prescription Against Heretics. (HTML)
Attempt to Invalidate This Rule of Faith Rebutted. The Apostles Safe Transmitters of the Truth. Sufficiently Taught at First, and Faithful in the Transmission. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2082 (In-Text, Margin)
... and on earth?” Was anything, again, concealed from John, the Lord’s most beloved disciple, who used to lean on His breast to whom alone the Lord pointed Judas out as the traitor, whom He commended to Mary as a son in His own stead? Of what could He have meant those to be ignorant, to whom He even exhibited His own glory with Moses and Elias, and the Father’s voice moreover, from heaven? Not as if He thus disapproved of all the rest, but because “by three witnesses must every word be established.”[Deuteronomy 19:15] After the same fashion, too, (I suppose,) were they ignorant to whom, after His resurrection also, He vouchsafed, as they were journeying together, “to expound all the Scriptures.” No doubt He had once said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 422, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke's Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian's Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.“ It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man. (HTML)
Conclusions. Jesus as the Christ of the Creator Proved from the Events of the Last Chapter of St. Luke. The Pious Women at the Sepulchre. The Angels at the Resurrection. The Manifold Appearances of Christ After the Resurrection. His Mission of the Apostles Amongst All Nations. All Shown to Be in Accordance with the Wisdom of the Almighty Father, as Indicated in Prophecy. The Body of Christ After Death No Mere Phantom. Marcion's Manipulation of the Gospel on This Point. (HTML)
... desertion with which at present they seemed to themselves to have been smitten by the Lord, and the hope of the resurrection itself, by which they rightly supposed that all would be restored to them? But when “they found not the body (of the Lord Jesus),” “His sepulture was removed from the midst of them,” according to the prophecy of Isaiah. “Two angels however, appeared there.” For just so many honorary companions were required by the word of God, which usually prescribes “ two witnesses.”[Deuteronomy 19:15] Moreover, the women, returning from the sepulchre, and from this vision of the angels, were foreseen by Isaiah, when he says, “Come, ye women, who return from the vision;” that is, “come,” to report the resurrection of the Lord. It was well, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 672, footnote 11 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Baptism. (HTML)
The Angel the Forerunner of the Holy Spirit. Meaning Contained in the Baptismal Formula. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8588 (In-Text, Margin)
... the angel, we are cleansed, and prepared for the Holy Spirit. In this case also a type has preceded; for thus was John beforehand the Lord’s forerunner, “preparing His ways.” Thus, too, does the angel, the witness of baptism, “make the paths straight” for the Holy Spirit, who is about to come upon us, by the washing away of sins, which faith, sealed in (the name of) the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, obtains. For if “in the mouth of three witnesses every word shall stand:”[Deuteronomy 19:15] —while, through the benediction, we have the same (three) as witnesses of our faith whom we have as sureties of our salvation too—how much more does the number of the divine names suffice for the assurance of our hope likewise! Moreover, after the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 54, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Exhortation to Chastity. (HTML)
The Objection from the Polygamy of the Patriarchs Answered. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 536 (In-Text, Margin)
... out, and recalled the indulgence which He had granted; not without a reasonable ground for the extension (of that indulgence) in the beginning, and the limitation of it in the end. Laxity is always allowed to the beginning (of things). The reason why any one plants a wood and lets it grow, is that at his own time he may cut it. The wood was the old order, which is being pruned down by the new Gospel, in which withal “the axe has been laid at the roots.” So, too, “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth,”[Deuteronomy 19:21] has now grown old, ever since “Let none render evil for evil” grew young. I think, moreover, that even with a view to human institutions and decrees, things later prevail over things primitive.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 103, footnote 3 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Dionysius. (HTML)
Extant Fragments. (HTML)
Containing Epistles, or Fragments of Epistles. (HTML)
To Philemon, a Presbyter. (HTML)
I learned this besides, that this custom is not now first of all imported among the Africans alone; but moreover, long before, in the times of former bishops, among most populous churches, and that when synods of the brethren of Iconium and Synades were held, it also pleased as many as possible, I should be unwilling, by overturning their judgments, to throw them into strifes and contentious. For it is written, “Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour’s landmark, which thy fathers have placed.”[Deuteronomy 19:14]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 391, footnote 8 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book I. Concerning the Laity (HTML)
Sec. I.—General Commandments (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2545 (In-Text, Margin)
... to part with somewhat for nothing? For as the prophet somewhere speaks: “Woe to those who join house to house, and lay field to field, that they may deprive their neighbour of somewhat which was his.” Wherefore he says: “Must you alone inhabit the earth? For these things have been heard in the ears of the Lord of hosts.” And elsewhere: “Cursed be he who removeth his neighbour’s landmarks: and all the people shall say, Amen.” Wherefore Moses says: “Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour’s landmarks[Deuteronomy 19:14] which thy fathers have set.” Upon this account, therefore, terrors, death, tribunals, and condemnations follow such as these from God. But as to those who are obedient to God, there is one law of God, simple, true, living, which is ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 416, footnote 2 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book II. Of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons (HTML)
Sec. V.—On Accusations, and the Treatment of Accusers (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2784 (In-Text, Margin)
... causing perplexity by accusing the man as if he were wicked, inconstant in his words, contradicting himself in what he affirms, and entangled with the words of his own mouth; for his own lips are a dangerous snare to him: whom, when thou hast convicted him of speaking falsely, thou shalt judge severely, and shalt deliver him to the fiery sword, and thou shalt do to him as he wickedly proposed to do to his brother; for as much as in him lay he slew his brother, by forestalling the ears of the judge.[Deuteronomy 19:19] Now it is written, that “he that sheddeth man’s blood, for that his own blood shall be shed.” And: “Thou shalt take away that innocent blood, which was shed without cause, from thee.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 416, footnote 4 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book II. Of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons (HTML)
Sec. V.—On Accusations, and the Treatment of Accusers (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2786 (In-Text, Margin)
... lips are a dangerous snare to him: whom, when thou hast convicted him of speaking falsely, thou shalt judge severely, and shalt deliver him to the fiery sword, and thou shalt do to him as he wickedly proposed to do to his brother; for as much as in him lay he slew his brother, by forestalling the ears of the judge. Now it is written, that “he that sheddeth man’s blood, for that his own blood shall be shed.” And: “Thou shalt take away that innocent blood, which was shed without cause, from thee.”[Deuteronomy 19:13]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 417, footnote 8 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book II. Of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons (HTML)
Sec. VI.—The Disputes of the Faithful to Be Settled by the Decisions of the Bishop, and the Faithful to Be Reconciled (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2799 (In-Text, Margin)
... Let your judicatures be held on the second day of the week, that if any controversy arise about your sentence, having an interval till the Sabbath, you may be able to set the controversy right, and to reduce those to peace who have the contests one with another against the Lord’s day. Let also the deacons and presbyters be present at your judicatures, to judge without acceptance of persons, as men of God, with righteousness. When, therefore, both the parties are come, according as the law says,[Deuteronomy 19:17] those that have the controversy shall stand severally in the middle of the court; and when you have heard them, give your votes holily, endeavouring to make them both friends before the sentence of the bishop, that judgment against the offender may ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 418, footnote 2 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book II. Of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons (HTML)
Sec. VI.—The Disputes of the Faithful to Be Settled by the Decisions of the Bishop, and the Faithful to Be Reconciled (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2802 (In-Text, Margin)
... person he has accused, or whether he has advanced accusations against some others before, and whether this contest and accusation of theirs does not arise from some quarrel, and what sort of life the accuser leads. Yet, though he be of a good conscience, do not give credit to him alone, for that is contrary to the law; but let him have others to join in his testimony, and those of the same course of life. As the law says: “At the mouth of two or three witnesses everything shall be established.”[Deuteronomy 19:15] But why did we say that the character of the witnesses was to be inquired after, of what sort it is? Because it frequently happens that two and more testify for mischief, and with joint consent prefer a lie; as did the two elders against Susanna in ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 504, footnote 14 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book VIII. Concerning Gifts, and Ordinations, and the Ecclesiastical Canons (HTML)
The Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3815 (In-Text, Margin)
75. Do not ye receive an heretic in a testimony against a bishop; nor a Christian if he be single. For the law says, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”[Deuteronomy 19:15]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 434, footnote 1 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)
The Gospel of Nicodemus; Part I.--The Acts of Pilate: Second Greek Form. (HTML)
Chapter 16. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1928 (In-Text, Margin)
Then Annas and Caiaphas took the three apart, one by one, and questioned them singly in private. They agreed with one another, therefore, and gave, even the three, one account. The chief priests answered, saying: Our Scripture says that every word shall be established by two or three witnesses.[Deuteronomy 19:15] Joseph, then, has confessed that he, along with Nicodemus, attended to his body, and buried him, and how it is the truth that he has risen.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 223, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus willing to believe not only that the Jewish but that all Gentile prophets wrote of Christ, if it should be proved; but he would none the less insist upon rejecting their superstitions. Augustin maintains that all Moses wrote is of Christ, and that his writings must be either accepted or rejected as a whole. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 584 (In-Text, Margin)
... testimony of two men is true; I am one who bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me." What does this mean, if rightly understood, but that this number of witnesses required by the law was fixed upon and consecrated in the spirit of prophecy, that even thus might be prefigured the future revelation of the Father and Son, whose spirit is the Holy Spirit of the inseparable Trinity? So it is written: "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established."[Deuteronomy 19:15] As a matter of fact, one witness generally speaks the truth, while a number tell lies. And the world, in its conversion to Christianity, believed one apostle preaching the gospel rather than the mistaken multitude who persecuted him. There was a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 577, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist. (HTML)
In which Augustin replies to all the several statements in the letter of Petilianus, as though disputing with an adversary face to face. (HTML)
Chapter 92 (HTML)
201. answered: Is it then really so, that when men smite you on the one cheek, you turn to them the other? This is not the report that your furious bands won for you by wandering everywhere throughout the whole of Africa with dreadful wickedness. I would fain have it that men should make a bargain with you, that, in accordance with the old law, you should seek but "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,"[Deuteronomy 19:21] instead of bringing out cudgels in return for the words which greet your ears.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 212, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. 15–18. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 674 (In-Text, Margin)
10. He had spoken of judgment; He means to speak of testimony. “In your law,” saith He, “it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.” He expounded the law to them also, if they were not unthankful. For it is a great question, my brethren, and to me it certainly appears to have been ordained in a mystery, where God said, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand.”[Deuteronomy 19:15] Is truth sought by two witnesses? Clearly it is; so is the custom of mankind: but yet it may be that even two witnesses lie. The chaste Susanna was pressed by two false witnesses: were they not therefore false because they were two? Do we speak of two or of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 419, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XVIII. 13–27. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1822 (In-Text, Margin)
... openly to the world;” as if He had said, There were many that heard me. And that word “openly” was in a certain sense openly and in another sense not openly. It was openly, because many heard Him; and again it was not openly, because they did not understand Him. And even what He spake to His disciples apart, He certainly spake not in secret. For who speaketh in secret, that speaketh before so many persons; as it is written, “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established:”[Deuteronomy 19:15] especially if that be spoken to a few which he wisheth to become known to many through them; as the Lord Himself said to the few whom He had as yet, “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 219, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2078 (In-Text, Margin)
2. Who are then the people that from holy men were put afar off at the inscription of the Title? Let the Title itself declare to us that people. For there was written a certain title at the Passion of the Lord, when the Lord was crucified: there was in that place a Title inscribed in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin, “The King of the Jews;” in three tongues as though by three witnesses the Title was confirmed: because “in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall stand every word.”[Deuteronomy 19:15] …
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 231, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily to Those Who Had Not Attended the Assembly: and on the Apostolic Saying, 'If Thine Enemy Hunger, Feed Him, Etc. (Rom. xii. 20), and Concerning Resentment of Injuries.' (HTML)
To Those Who Had Not Attended the Assembly. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 764 (In-Text, Margin)
... the fear of future events did not impel him to lay violent hands on his enemy. For he knew clearly that if Saul escaped his hands, he would again be his adversary; yet he preferred exposing himself to danger by letting go the man who had wronged him, to providing for his own security by laying violent hands upon his foe. What could equal then the great and generous spirit of this man, who, when the law commanded eye to be plucked out for eye, and tooth for tooth, and retaliation on equal terms,[Deuteronomy 19:21] not only abstained from doing this, but exhibited a far greater measure of moral wisdom? At least if he had slain Saul at that time he would have retained credit for moral wisdom unimpaired, not merely because he had acted on the defensive, not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, page 296, footnote 9 (Image)
Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine
The Church History of Eusebius. (HTML)
Book VII (HTML)
The Abominable Error of the Heretics; the Divine Vision of Dionysius; and the Ecclesiastical Canon which he received. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2195 (In-Text, Margin)
... treating the question thoroughly, he adds: “I have learned also that this is not a novel practice introduced in Africa alone, but that even long ago in the times of the bishops before us this opinion has been adopted in the most populous churches, and in synods of the brethren in Iconium and Synnada, and by many others. To overturn their counsels and throw them into strife and contention, I cannot endure. For it is said, ‘Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor’s landmark, which thy fathers have set.’”[Deuteronomy 19:14]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 57, footnote 1 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
The artful Machinations of Eusebius and his followers against the Holy Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch. (HTML)
... spectators had been ordered to retire, they introduced the wretched woman. She held a babe in her arms, of which she loudly and impudently affirmed that Eustathius was the father. Eustathius, conscious of his innocence, asked her whether she could bring forward any witness to prove what she had advanced. She replied that she could not: yet these equitable judges admitted her to oath, although it is said in the law, that “ at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the matter be established[Deuteronomy 19:15];” and the apostle says, “ against an elder receive not any accusation but before two or three witnesses.” But they despised these divine laws, and admitted the accusation against this great man without any witnesses. When the woman had again ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 22, footnote 4 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Ten Points of Doctrine. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 688 (In-Text, Margin)
... day? Is a dead man raised to life on touching the bones of Elisha, and is it not much easier for the Maker of mankind to be raised by the power of the Father? Well then, He truly rose, and after He had risen was seen again of the disciples: and twelve disciples were witnesses of His Resurrection, who bare witness not in pleasing words, but contended even unto torture and death for the truth of the Resurrection. What then, shall every word be established at the mouth of two of three witnesses[Deuteronomy 19:15], according to the Scripture, and, though twelve bear witness to the Resurrection of Christ, art thou still incredulous in regard to His Resurrection?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 45, footnote 3 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
Enumeration of the illustrious men in the Church who in their writings have used the word “with.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1310 (In-Text, Margin)
... these traditions is the practice which is now before us, which they who ordained from the beginning, rooted firmly in the churches, delivering it to their successors, and its use through long custom advances pace by pace with time. If, as in a Court of Law, we were at a loss for documentary evidence, but were able to bring before you a large number of witnesses, would you not give your vote for our acquittal? I think so; for “at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the matter be established.”[Deuteronomy 19:15] And if we could prove clearly to you that a long period of time was in our favour, should we not have seemed to you to urge with reason that this suit ought not to be brought into court against us? For ancient dogmas inspire a certain sense of awe, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 163, footnote 6 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Sermons. (HTML)
A Homily delivered on the Saturday before the Second Sunday in Lent--on the Transfiguration, S. Matt. xvii. 1-13. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 962 (In-Text, Margin)
For Moses and Elias, that is the Law and the Prophets, appeared talking with the Lord; that in the presence of those five men might most truly be fulfilled what was said: “In two or three witnesses stands every word[Deuteronomy 19:15].” What more stable, what more steadfast than this word, in the proclamation of which the trumpet of the Old and of the New Testament joins, and the documentary evidence of the ancient witnesses combine with the teaching of the Gospel? For the pages of both covenants corroborate each other, and He Whom under the veil of mysteries the types that went before had promised, is ...