Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Judges 6
There are 23 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 445, footnote 2 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book III (HTML)
Chapter XVII.—The apostles teach that it was neither Christ nor the Saviour, but the Holy Spirit, who did descend upon Jesus. The reason for this descent. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3622 (In-Text, Margin)
3. Gideon,[Judges 6:37] that Israelite whom God chose, that he might save the people of Israel from the power of foreigners, foreseeing this gracious gift, changed his request, and prophesied that there would be dryness upon the fleece of wool (a type of the people), on which alone at first there had been dew; thus indicating that they should no longer have the Holy Spirit from God, as saith Esaias, “I will also command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon it,” but that the dew, which is the Spirit of God, who ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 571, footnote 8 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus (HTML)
XVIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4825 (In-Text, Margin)
And this was not without meaning; but that by means of the number of the ten men,[Judges 6:27] he (Gideon) might appear as having Jesus for a helper, as [is indicated] by the compact entered into with them. And when he did not choose to partake with them in their idol-worship, they threw the blame upon him: for “Jerubbaal” signifies the judgment-seat of Baal.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 390, footnote 10 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna On the Day that They Met in the Temple. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3074 (In-Text, Margin)
... God, mother of God, thou that givest light to the faithful. Thou art the circumscription, so to speak, of Him who cannot be circumscribed; the root of the most beautiful flower; the mother of the Creator; the nurse of the Nourisher; the circumference of Him who embraces all things; the upholder of Him who upholds all things by His word; the gate through which God appears in the flesh; the tongs of that cleansing coal; the bosom in small of that bosom which is all-containing; the fleece of wool,[Judges 6:37] the mystery of which cannot be solved; the well of Bethlehem, that reservoir of life which David longed for, out of which the draught of immortality gushed forth; the mercy-seat from which God in human form was made known unto men; the spotless robe ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 291, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
From Publicola (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1670 (In-Text, Margin)
... have found; but if you have found anything better or more to the purpose in Scripture, be so good as let me know. For example, when Laban said to Jacob, “The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor judge betwixt us,” Scripture does not declare which god is meant. Again, when Abimelech came to Isaac, and he and those who were with him sware to Isaac, we are not told what kind of oath it was. As to the idols, Gideon was commanded by the Lord to make a whole burnt-offering of the bullock which he killed.[Judges 6:26] And in the book of Joshua the son of Nun, it is said of Jericho that all the silver, and gold, and brass should be brought into the treasures of the Lord, and the things found in the accursed city were called sacred. Also we read in Deuteronomy: ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 591, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
Examples of the Various Styles, Drawn from the Teachers of the Church, Especially Ambrose and Cyprian. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1994 (In-Text, Margin)
... following passage among others: “When Gideon was startled by the message he had heard from God, that, though thousands of the people failed, yet through one man God would deliver His people from their enemies, he brought forth a kid of the goats, and by direction of the angel laid it with unleavened cakes upon a rock, and poured the broth over it; and as soon as the angel of God touched it with the end of the staff that was in his hand, there rose up fire out of the rock and consumed the offering.[Judges 6:14-21] Now this sign seems to indicate that the rock was a type of the body of Christ, for it is written, ‘They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ;’ this, of course, referring not to Christ’s divine nature but to His ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 247, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On Original Sin. (HTML)
The Righteous Men Who Lived in the Time of the Law Were for All that Not Under the Law, But Under Grace. The Grace of the New Testament Hidden Under the Old. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1985 (In-Text, Margin)
... Christ was dying, this veil was rent asunder, to signify the full revelation of Him. Even of old, therefore there existed amongst the people of God this grace of the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; but like the rain in the fleece which God sets apart for His inheritance, not of debt, but of His own will, it was latently present, but is now patently visible amongst all nations as its “floor,” the fleece being dry,—in other words, the Jewish people having become reprobate.[Judges 6:36-40]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 504, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, John vi. 53, ‘Except ye eat the flesh,’ etc., and on the words of the apostles. And the Psalms. Against the Pelagians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3942 (In-Text, Margin)
... even in our own times, in the times of open grace, the times of the full revelation of grace which before was hidden; in the times of grace now manifested in the floor, which once lay hid in the fleece. I see that a few have understood me, that more have not understood, whom I will by no means defraud by keeping silence. Gideon, one of the righteous men of old, asked for a sign from the Lord, and said, “I pray, Lord, that this fleece which I put in the floor be bedewed, and that the floor be dry.”[Judges 6:37] And it was so; the fleece was bedewed, the whole floor was dry. In the morning he wrung out the fleece in a basin; forasmuch as to the humble is grace given; and in a basin, ye know what the Lord did to His disciples. Again, he asked for another ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 158, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XLVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1495 (In-Text, Margin)
... when the mountains were carried into the heart of the sea; when it was said, “It was necessary that the word of God should have been spoken first to you; but seeing ye put it from you, we turn to the Gentiles;” then was fulfilled, “I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” The nation of the Jews hath just so remained as a fleece dry upon the ground. For this, ye know, happened in a certain miracle, the ground was dry, the fleece only was wet, yet rain in the fleece appeared not.[Judges 6:36-40] So also the mystery of the New Testament appeared not in the nation of the Jews. What there was the fleece, is here the veil. For in the fleece was veiled the mystery. But on the ground, in all the nations open lieth Christ’s Gospel; the rain is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 329, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3197 (In-Text, Margin)
9. “And He shall come down like rain into a fleece, and like drops distilling upon the earth” (ver. 6). He hath called to our minds and admonished us, that what was done by Gedeon the Judge, in Christ hath its end. For he asked a sign of the Lord, that a fleece laid on the floor should alone be rained upon, and the floor should be dry; and again, the fleece alone should be dry, and the floor should be rained upon; and so it came to pass.[Judges 6:36-38] Which thing signified, that, being as it were on a floor in the midst of the whole round world, the dry fleece was the former people Israel. The same Christ therefore Himself came down like rain upon a fleece, when yet the floor was dry: whence also He said, “I am not sent but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 634, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXXXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5713 (In-Text, Margin)
... “all the words of Thy mouth:” in the Jewish nation alone were “all the words of Thy mouth,” the nation which the Apostle praiseth, saying, “What advantage hath the Jew? Much every way; chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” These were the words of God. …What meant Gideon’s fleece? It is like the nation of the Jews in the midst of the world, which had the grace of sacraments, not indeed openly manifested, but hidden in a cloud, or in a veil, like the dew in the fleece.[Judges 6:37] The time came when the dew was to be manifested in the floor; it was manifested, no longer hidden. Christ alone is the sweetness of dew: Him alone thou recognisest not in Scripture, for whom Scripture was written. But yet, “they have heard all the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 634, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXXXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5713 (In-Text, Margin)
... “all the words of Thy mouth:” in the Jewish nation alone were “all the words of Thy mouth,” the nation which the Apostle praiseth, saying, “What advantage hath the Jew? Much every way; chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” These were the words of God. …What meant Gideon’s fleece? It is like the nation of the Jews in the midst of the world, which had the grace of sacraments, not indeed openly manifested, but hidden in a cloud, or in a veil, like the dew in the fleece.[Judges 6:39] The time came when the dew was to be manifested in the floor; it was manifested, no longer hidden. Christ alone is the sweetness of dew: Him alone thou recognisest not in Scripture, for whom Scripture was written. But yet, “they have heard all the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 99, footnote 3 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans
A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (HTML)
Homily XV on Acts vi. 8. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 361 (In-Text, Margin)
... insulted her not: but what does she? She takes refuge with God, and in her prayer does not even make mention of her, nor say, “Avenge me, for such an one reproaches me:” so magnanimous was that woman (let us men be ashamed):—and yet ye know, that there is nothing like jealousy. The publican, when insulted by the Pharisee, insulted not in return, though, had he wished it, he might have done so: but he bore it like a philosopher, saying, “Be merciful to me a sinner.” (Luke xviii. 13.) Mephibosheth,[Judges 6:32] having been accused and calumniated by his servant, neither said, nor did, any evil to him, not even in the presence of the king himself. (2 Sam. xix. 26.) Shall I tell you even of a harlot, what philosophic magnanimity she showed? Hear Christ ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 120, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Paulinus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1755 (In-Text, Margin)
... heaven cannot contain. Each believer is judged not by his residence in this place or in that but according to the deserts of his faith. The true worshippers worship the Father neither at Jerusalem nor on mount Gerizim; for “God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” “Now the spirit bloweth where it listeth,” and “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” When the fleece of Judæa was made dry although the whole world was wet with the dew of heaven,[Judges 6:36-40] and when many came from the East and from the West and sat in Abraham’s bosom: then God ceased to be known in Judah only and His name to be great in Israel alone; the sound of the apostles went out into all the earth and their words into the ends of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 341, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4220 (In-Text, Margin)
... James the less was the wife of Alphæus and sister of Mary the Lord’s mother, the one who is called by John the Evangelist “Mary of Clopas,” whether after her father, or kindred, or for some other reason. But if you think they are two persons because elsewhere we read, “Mary the mother of James the less,” and here, “Mary of Clopas,” you have still to learn that it is customary in Scripture for the same individual to bear different names. Raguel, Moses’ father-in-law, is also called Jethro. Gedeon,[Judges 6:2] without any apparent reason for the change, all at once becomes Jerubbaal. Ozias, king of Judah, has an alternative, Azarias. Mount Tabor is called Itabyrium. Again Hermon is called by the Phenicians Sanior, and by the Amorites Sanir. The same tract ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 93, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Preface. (HTML)
1. When Jerubbaal, as we read, was beating out wheat[Judges 6:11] under an oak, he received a message from God in order that he might bring the people of God from the power of strangers into liberty. Nor is it a matter of wonder if he was chosen for grace, seeing that even then, being appointed under the shadow of the holy cross and of the adorable Wisdom in the predestined mystery of the future Incarnation, he was bringing forth the visible grains of the fruitful corn from their hiding places, and was [mystically] ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 93, footnote 2 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Preface. (HTML)
2. And Gideon, moved by that message, when he heard that, though thousands of the people failed, God would deliver His own from their enemies by means of one man,[Judges 6:14] offered a kid, and according to the word of the Angel, laid its flesh and the unleavened cakes upon the rock, and poured the broth upon them. And as soon as the Angel touched them with the end of the staff which he bore, fire burst forth out of the rock, and so the sacrifice which he was offering was consumed. By which it seems clear that that rock was a figure of the Body of Christ, for it is written: “They drank ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 93, footnote 3 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Preface. (HTML)
2. And Gideon, moved by that message, when he heard that, though thousands of the people failed, God would deliver His own from their enemies by means of one man, offered a kid, and according to the word of the Angel, laid its flesh and the unleavened cakes upon the rock, and poured the broth upon them. And as soon as the Angel touched them with the end of the staff which he bore, fire burst forth out of the rock, and so the sacrifice which he was offering was consumed.[Judges 6:19-21] By which it seems clear that that rock was a figure of the Body of Christ, for it is written: “They drank of that rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.” Which certainly refers not to His Godhead, but to His Flesh, which watered the hearts of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 93, footnote 6 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Preface. (HTML)
3. Even at that time was it declared in a mystery that the Lord Jesus in His Flesh would, when crucified, do away the sins of the whole world, and not only the deeds of the body, but the desires of the soul. For the flesh of the kid refers to sins of deed, the broth to the enticements of desire as it is written: “For the people lusted an evil lust, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?” That the Angel then stretched forth his staff, and touched the rock, from which fire went out,[Judges 6:21] shows that the Flesh of the Lord, being filled with the Divine Spirit, would burn away all the sins of human frailty. Wherefore, also, the Lord says: “I am come to send fire upon the earth.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 94, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Preface. (HTML)
4. Then the man, instructed and foreknowing what was to be, observes the heavenly mysteries, and therefore, according to the warning, slew the bullock de stined by his father to idols, and himself offered to God another bullock seven years old.[Judges 6:26] By doing which he most plainly showed that after the coming of the Lord all Gentile sacrifices should be done away, and that only the sacrifice of the Lord’s passion should be offered for the redemption of the people. For that bullock was, in a type, Christ, in Whom, as Esaias said, dwelt the fulness of the seven gifts of the Spirit. This bullock Abraham also offered when he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 94, footnote 4 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Preface. (HTML)
... incursion of worse enemies, not by the multitude of their number, but by the mystery of the cross. And yet, though he was brave and faithful, he asked of the Lord yet fuller proofs of future victory, saying: “If Thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, O Lord, as Thou hast said, behold I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor, and if there shall be dew on the fleece and dryness on all the ground, I shall know that Thou wilt deliver the people by my hand according to Thy promise. And it was so.”[Judges 6:36] Afterwards he asked in addition that dew should descend on all the earth and dryness be on the fleece.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 320, footnote 10 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Mysteries. (HTML)
Chapter V. Christ is Himself present in Baptism, so that we need not consider the person of His ministers. A brief explanation of the confession of the Trinity as usually uttered by those about to be baptized. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2860 (In-Text, Margin)
... Father clearly calls from heaven in the Gospel narrative, and says: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased”? When the Son also speaks, upon Whom the Holy Spirit showed Himself in the likeness of a dove? When the Holy Spirit also speaks, Who came down in the likeness of a dove? When David, too, speaks: “The voice of the Lord is above the waters, the God of glory thundered, the Lord above many waters”? When Scripture testifies that at the prayer of Jerubbaal, fire came down from heaven,[Judges 6:21] and again, when Elijah prayed, fire was sent forth and consecrated the sacrifice.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 394, footnote 6 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Widows. (HTML)
Chapter III. St. Ambrose returns to the story of the widow of Sarepta, and shows that she represented the Church, hence that she was an example to virgins, married women, and widows. Then he refers to the prophet as setting forth Christ, inasmuch as he foretold the mysteries and the rain which was to come. Next he touches upon and explains the twofold sign of Gideon, and points out that it is not in every one's power to work miracles, and that the Incarnation of Christ and the rejection of the Jews were foreshadowed in that account. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3330 (In-Text, Margin)
... the drops that water the earth.” In which passage is disclosed the mystery of the old history where Gideon, the warrior of the mystic conflict, receiving the pledge of future victory, recognized the spiritual sacrament in the vision of his mind, that that rain was the dew of the Divine Word, which first came down on the fleece, when all the earth was parched with continual drought, and by a second true sign, moistened the floor of all the earth with a shower, whilst dryness was upon the fleece.[Judges 6:37]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 444, footnote 4 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose. (HTML)
Letter XL: To Theodosius as to the Burning of a Jewish Synagogue. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3564 (In-Text, Margin)
26. And yet how great a thing it is, O Emperor, that you should not think it necessary to enquire or to punish in regard to a matter as to which up to this day no one has enquired, no one has ever inflicted punishment. It is a serious matter to endanger your salvation for the Jews. When Gideon[Judges 6:31] had slain the sacred calf, the heathen said, The gods will themselves avenge the injury done to them. Who is to avenge the Synagogue? Christ, Whom they slew, Whom they denied? Will God the Father avenge those who do not receive the Father, since they have not received the Son? Who is to avenge the heresy of the Valentinians? How can your piety avenge ...