Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

1 Samuel 15

There are 29 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 482, footnote 8 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XVII.—Proof that God did not appoint the Levitical dispensation for His own sake, or as requiring such service; for He does, in fact, need nothing from men. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4007 (In-Text, Margin)

... account of man himself who offers it, the Lord taught distinctly, as I have pointed out. For when He perceived them neglecting righteousness, and abstaining from the love of God, and imagining that God was to be propitiated by sacrifices and the other typical observances, Samuel did even thus speak to them: “God does not desire whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices, but He will have His voice to be hearkened to. Behold, a ready obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”[1 Samuel 15:22] David also says: “Sacrifice and oblation Thou didst not desire, but mine ears hast Thou perfected; burnt-offerings also for sin Thou hast not required.” He thus teaches them that God desires obedience, which renders them secure, rather than ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 315, footnote 10 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)

Book II. Wherein Tertullian shows that the creator, or demiurge, whom Marcion calumniated, is the true and good God. (HTML)
Instances of God's Repentance, and Notably in the Case of the Ninevites, Accounted for and Vindicated. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2989 (In-Text, Margin)

Furthermore, with respect to the repentance which occurs in His conduct, you interpret it with similar perverseness just as if it were with fickleness and improvidence that He repented, or on the recollection of some wrong-doing; because He actually said, “It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king,”[1 Samuel 15:11] very much as if He meant that His repentance savoured of an acknowledgment of some evil work or error. Well, this is not always implied. For there occurs even in good works a confession of repentance, as a reproach and condemnation of the man who has proved himself unthankful for a benefit. For instance, in this case of Saul, the Creator, who ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 316, footnote 14 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)

Book II. Wherein Tertullian shows that the creator, or demiurge, whom Marcion calumniated, is the true and good God. (HTML)
Instances of God's Repentance, and Notably in the Case of the Ninevites, Accounted for and Vindicated. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3012 (In-Text, Margin)

... recollection of a sin, and occasionally even from the unpleasantness of some good action, this is never the case with God. For, inasmuch as God neither commits sin nor condemns a good action, in so far is there no room in Him for repentance of either a good or an evil deed. Now this point is determined for you even in the scripture which we have quoted. Samuel says to Saul, “The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine that is better than thou;”[1 Samuel 15:28] and into two parts shall Israel be divided: “for He will not turn Himself, nor repent; for He does not repent as a man does.” According, therefore, to this definition, the divine repentance takes in all cases a different form from that of man, in ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 356, footnote 7 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen De Principiis. (HTML)

IV (HTML)
Chapter I., Sections 1-23 translated from the Latin of Rufinus:  That the Scriptures are Divinely Inspired. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2737 (In-Text, Margin)

... Lord Jesus Christ; nay, contrary to all the principles of human and divine law, i.e., contrary to the faith of prophecy, they crucified Him for assuming to Himself the name of Christ. There­upon the heretics, reading that it is written in the law, “A fire has been kindled in Mine anger;” and that “I the Lord am a jealous (God), visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation;” and that “it repenteth Me that I anointed Saul to be king;”[1 Samuel 15:11] and, “I am the Lord, who make peace and create evil;” and again, “There is not evil in a city which the Lord hath not done;” and, “Evils came down from the Lord upon the gates ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 356, footnote 11 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen De Principiis. (HTML)

IV (HTML)
Chapter I., Sections 1-23 translated from the Greek:  On the Inspiration of Holy Scripture, and How the Same is to be Read and Understood, and What is the Reason of the Uncertainty in it; and of the Impossibility or Irrationality of Certain Things in it, Taken According to the Letter. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2863 (In-Text, Margin)

... seeing none of these things visibly accomplished during the advent of Him who is believed by us to be Christ, they did not accept our Lord Jesus; but, as having called Himself Christ improperly, they crucified Him. And those belonging to heretical sects reading this (statement), “A fire has been kindled in Mine anger;” and this, “I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation;” and this, “I repent of having anointed Saul to be king;”[1 Samuel 15:11] and this, “I am a God that maketh peace, and createth evil;” and, among others, this, “There is not wickedness in the city which the Lord hath not done;” and again this, “Evils came down from the Lord ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 399, footnote 9 (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. III.—How the Bishop is to Treat the Innocent, the Guilty, and the Penitent (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2634 (In-Text, Margin)

X. But he who does not consider these things, will, contrary to justice, spare him who deserves punishment; as Saul spared Agag,[1 Samuel 15] and Eli his sons, “who knew not the Lord.” Such a one profanes his own dignity, and that Church of God which is in his parish. Such a one is esteemed unjust before God and holy men, as affording occasion of scandal to many of the newly baptized, and to the catechumens; as also to the youth of both sexes, to whom a woe belongs, add “a mill-stone about his neck,” and drowning, on account of his guilt. For, observing what ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 424, footnote 7 (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. VII.—On Assembling in the Church (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2855 (In-Text, Margin)

... between God and the devil; for he that assembles himself with those that favour the things of the devil, will be esteemed one of them, and will inherit a woe. Avoid also indecent spectacles: I mean the theatres and the pomps of the heathens; their enchantments, observations of omens, soothsayings, purgations, divinations, observations of birds; their necromancies and invocations. For it is written: “There is no divination in Jacob, nor soothsaying in Israel.” And again: “Divination is iniquity.”[1 Samuel 15:23] And elsewhere: “Ye shall not be soothsayers, and follow observers of omens, nor diviners, nor dealers with familiar spirits. Ye shall not preserve alive wizards.” Wherefore Jeremiah exhorts, saying: “Walk ye not according to the ways of the heathen, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 460, footnote 7 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)

Sec. IV.—Of the Law (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3286 (In-Text, Margin)

... your new moons, and your Sabbaths, and your great day, I cannot bear them: your fasts, and your rests, and your feasts, my soul hateth them; I am over-full of them.” And He says by another: “Depart from me; the sound of thine hymns, and the psalms of thy musical instruments, I will not hear.” And Samuel says to Saul, when he thought to sacrifice: “Obedience is better than sacrifice, and hearkening than the fat of rams. For, behold, the Lord does not so much delight in sacrifice, as in obeying Him.”[1 Samuel 15:22] And He says by David: “I will take no calves out of thine house, nor he-goats out of thy flock. If I should be hungry, I would not tell thee; for the whole world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 467, footnote 3 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book VII. Concerning the Christian Life, and the Eucharist, and the Initiation into Christ (HTML)

Sec. I.—On the Two Ways,—The Way of Life and the Way of Death (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3403 (In-Text, Margin)

VI. Be not a diviner, for that leads to idolatry; for says Samuel, “Divination is sin;”[1 Samuel 15:23] and, “There shall be no divination in Jacob, nor soothsaying in Israel.” Thou shalt not use enchantments or purgations for thy child. Thou shall not be a soothsayer nor a diviner by great or little birds. Nor shalt thou learn wicked arts; for all these things has the law forbidden. Be not one that wishes for evil, for thou wilt be led into intolerable sins. Thou shalt not speak obscenely, nor use wanton glances, nor be a drunkard; for from ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 761, footnote 28 (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 3684 (In-Text, Margin)

... says:  “ Now I know that thou fearest the Lord;” that is, I have made thee to know.The ignorance of God is His disapproval. In the Gospel: “I know you not.”The remembrance of God —His mercy, by which He rejects and has mercy on whom He will. So in Genesis: “The Lord remembered Noah;” and in another passage: “The Lord hath remembered His people.”The repentance of the LordHis change of procedure. As in the book of Kings: “It repented me that I have made Saul king.”[1 Samuel 15:11]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 271, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Of the punishment and results of man’s first sin, and of the propagation of man without lust. (HTML)

Of the Fall of the First Man, in Whom Nature Was Created Good, and Can Be Restored Only by Its Author. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 723 (In-Text, Margin)

... ordained, and not according to our own ideas, which do not embrace God’s ordination. For man, by his sin, could not disturb the divine counsel, nor compel God to change what He had decreed; for God’s foreknowledge had anticipated both,—that is to say, both how evil the man whom He had created good should become, and what good He Himself should even thus derive from him. For though God is said to change His determinations (so that in a tropical sense the Holy Scripture says even that God repented[1 Samuel 15:11]), this is said with reference to man’s expectation, or the order of natural causes, and not with reference to that which the Almighty had foreknown that He would do. Accordingly God, as it is written, made man upright, and consequently with a good ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 346, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel. (HTML)

Of the Disruption of the Kingdom of Israel, by Which the Perpetual Division of the Spiritual from the Carnal Israel Was Prefigured. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1033 (In-Text, Margin)

Again Saul sinned through disobedience, and again Samuel says to him in the word of the Lord, “Because thou hast despised the word of the Lord, the Lord hath despised thee, that thou mayest not be king over Israel.”[1 Samuel 15:23] And again for the same sin, when Saul confessed it, and prayed for pardon, and besought Samuel to return with him to appease the Lord, he said, “I will not return with thee: for thou hast despised the word of the Lord, and the Lord will despise thee that thou mayest not be king over Israel. And Samuel turned his face to go away, and Saul laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and rent ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 346, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel. (HTML)

Of the Disruption of the Kingdom of Israel, by Which the Perpetual Division of the Spiritual from the Carnal Israel Was Prefigured. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1034 (In-Text, Margin)

... Lord, and the Lord will despise thee that thou mayest not be king over Israel. And Samuel turned his face to go away, and Saul laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and rent it. And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom from Israel out of thine hand this day, and will give it to thy neighbor, who is good above thee, and will divide Israel in twain. And He will not be changed, neither will He repent: for He is not as a man, that He should repent; who threatens and does not persist.”[1 Samuel 15:26-29] He to whom it is said, “The Lord will despise thee that thou mayest not be king over Israel,” and “The Lord hath rent the kingdom from Israel out of thine hand this day,” reigned forty years over Israel,—that is, just as long a time as David ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 298, footnote 1 (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 states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 898 (In-Text, Margin)

... murmur against God as having mocked him with a declaration of forgiveness. This deeply holy man, whose soul was lifted up unto God, and not against God, knew that had not the Lord mercifully accepted his confession and repentance, his sins would have deserved eternal punishment. So when, instead of this, he was made to smart under temporal correction, he saw that, while the pardon remained good, wholesome discipline was also provided. Saul, too, when he was reproved by Samuel, said, I have sinned.[1 Samuel 15:24] Why, then, was he not considered fit to be told, as David was, that the Lord had pardoned his sin? Is there acceptance of persons with God? Far from it. While to the human ear the words were the same, the divine eye saw a difference in the heart. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 339, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

Disobedient Compassion and Compassionate Disobedience Reprobated. Martyrdom in Lieu of Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2420 (In-Text, Margin)

... sacrament of baptism. This man, however, professes the catholic belief on this point, admitting that infants are tied in the bonds of original sin, and yet he releases them from these bonds without the laver of regeneration, and after death, in his compassion, he admits them into paradise; while, with a still ampler compassion, he introduces them after the resurrection even to the kingdom of heaven. Such compassion did Saul see fit to assume when he spared the king whom God commanded to be slain;[1 Samuel 15:9] deservedly, however, was his disobedient compassion, or (if you prefer it) his compassionate disobedience, reprobated and condemned, that man may be on his guard against extending mercy to his fellow-man, in opposition to the sentence of Him by whom ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 619, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXXXII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5608 (In-Text, Margin)

... anything, he wisheth to change what he hath done; thus where thou hearest that God repenteth, look for an actual change. God doth it differently from thee, although He calleth it by the name of repentance; for thou dost it, because thou hadst erred; while He doth it, because He avengeth, or freeth. He changed Saul’s kingdom, when He repented, as it is said: and in the very passage where the Scripture saith, “It repented Him;” it is said a little after, “for He is not a man that He should repent.”[1 Samuel 15:11] When therefore He changeth His works through His immutable counsel, He is said to repent on account of this very change, not of His counsel, but of His work. But He promised this so as not to change it. Just as this passage also saith: “The Lord ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 619, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXXXII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5608 (In-Text, Margin)

... anything, he wisheth to change what he hath done; thus where thou hearest that God repenteth, look for an actual change. God doth it differently from thee, although He calleth it by the name of repentance; for thou dost it, because thou hadst erred; while He doth it, because He avengeth, or freeth. He changed Saul’s kingdom, when He repented, as it is said: and in the very passage where the Scripture saith, “It repented Him;” it is said a little after, “for He is not a man that He should repent.”[1 Samuel 15:29] When therefore He changeth His works through His immutable counsel, He is said to repent on account of this very change, not of His counsel, but of His work. But He promised this so as not to change it. Just as this passage also saith: “The Lord ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 114, footnote 2 (Image)

Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes

An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall. (HTML)

Letter II (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 319 (In-Text, Margin)

... because the latter has been according to the mind of God but the former has been forbidden. It was reckoned to Phinees for righteousness that he pierced to death the woman who committed fornication, together with the fornicator; but Samuel, that saint of God although he wept and mourned and entreated for whole nights, could not rescue Saul from the condemnation which God issued against him, because he saved, contrary to the design of God, the king of the alien tribes whom he ought to have slain.[1 Samuel 15] If then mercy has been a cause of condemnation more than slaughter because God was disobeyed, what wonder is it if marriage condemns more than adultery when it involves the rejection of Christ? For, as I said at the beginning, if you were a private ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 228, footnote 3 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Circular to Bishops of Egypt and Libya. (Ad Episcopos Ægypti Et Libyæ Epistola Encyclica.) (HTML)

To the Bishops of Egypt. (HTML)

Chapter I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1210 (In-Text, Margin)

... as proceeding from the same heart; yet in respect to the refutation of an alleged offence, they have no connection with each other. Accordingly as it is written in the Book of Joshua the son of Nun, when Achan was charged with theft, he did not excuse himself with the plea of his zeal in the wars; but being convicted of the offence was stoned by all the people. And when Saul was charged with negligence and a breach of the law, he did not benefit his cause by alleging his conduct on other matters[1 Samuel 15]. For a defence on one count will not operate to obtain an acquittal on another count; but if all things should be done according to law and justice, a man must defend himself in those particulars wherein he is accused, and must either disprove the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 386, footnote 12 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse II (HTML)
Texts Explained; Sixthly, Proverbs viii. 22, Continued. Our Lord not said in Scripture to be 'created,' or the works to be 'begotten.' 'In the beginning' means in the case of the works 'from the beginning.' Scripture passages explained. We are made by God first, begotten next; creatures by nature, sons by grace. Christ begotten first, made or created afterwards. Sense of 'First-born of the dead;' of 'First-born among many brethren;' of 'First-born of all creation,' contrasted with 'Only-begotten.' Further interpretation of 'beginning of ways,' and 'for the works.' Why a creature could not redeem; why redemption was necessary at all. Texts which contrast the Word and the works. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2690 (In-Text, Margin)

... common with what was foreign), so also the man had not been deified, unless the Word who became flesh had been by nature from the Father and true and proper to Him. For therefore the union was of this kind, that He might unite what is man by nature to Him who is in the nature of the Godhead, and his salvation and deification might be sure. Therefore let those who deny that the Son is from the Father by nature and proper to His Essence, deny also that He took true human flesh of Mary Ever-Virgin[1 Samuel 15:35]; for in neither case had it been of profit to us men, whether the Word were not true and naturally Son of God, or the flesh not true which He assumed. But surely He took true flesh, though Valentinus rave; yea the Word was by nature Very God, though ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 225, footnote 10 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Rusticus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3123 (In-Text, Margin)

... to save greater places, was at least able to preserve smaller ones. For one who had gone so far astray as to live in Gomorrah could not all at once reach the noonland where Abraham, the friend of God, entertained God and His angels. (For it was in Egypt that Joseph fed his brothers, and when the bride speaks to the Bridegroom her cry is: “tell me where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.”) Good men have always sorrowed for the sins of others. Samuel of old lamented for Saul[1 Samuel 15:35] because he neglected to treat the ulcers of pride with the balm of penitence. And Paul wept for the Corinthians who refused to wash out with their tears the stains of fornication. For the same reason Ezekiel swallowed the book where were written ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 289, footnote 7 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Sabinianus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3949 (In-Text, Margin)

1. Of old, when it had repented the Lord that he had anointed Saul to be king over Israel,[1 Samuel 15:11] we are told that Samuel mourned for him; and again, when Paul heard that there was fornication among the Corinthians and such fornication as was not so much as named among the gentiles, he besought them to repent with these tearful words: “lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 289, footnote 7 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Sabinianus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3949 (In-Text, Margin)

1. Of old, when it had repented the Lord that he had anointed Saul to be king over Israel,[1 Samuel 15:17] we are told that Samuel mourned for him; and again, when Paul heard that there was fornication among the Corinthians and such fornication as was not so much as named among the gentiles, he besought them to repent with these tearful words: “lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 291, footnote 8 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Sabinianus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3975 (In-Text, Margin)

4. Have mercy I beseech you upon your soul. Consider that God’s judgment will one day overtake you. Remember by what a bishop you were ordained. The holy man was mistaken in his choice; but this he might well be. For even God repented that he had anointed Saul to be king.[1 Samuel 15:11] Even among the twelve apostles Judas was found a traitor. And Nicolas of Antioch—a deacon like yourself —disseminated the Nicolaitan heresy and all manner of uncleanness. I do not now bring up to you the many virgins whom you are said to have seduced, or the noble matrons who have suffered death because violated by you, or the greedy profligacy with which you ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 227, footnote 1 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2887 (In-Text, Margin)

... a perfect ruler of the man who has confidence in Him, and places all his hopes in Him; but against the danger of disobedience I know of nothing which can help us, and of no ground to encourage our confidence. For it is to be feared that we shall have to hear these words concerning those who have been entrusted to us: I will require their souls at your hands; and, Because ye have rejected me, and not been leaders and rulers of my people, I also will reject you, that I should not be king over you;[1 Samuel 15:26] and, As ye refused to hearken to My voice, and turned a stubborn back, and were disobedient, so shall it be when ye call upon Me, and I will not regard nor give ear to your prayer. God forbid that these words should come to us from the just Judge, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 314, footnote 15 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Fourth Theological Oration, Which is the Second Concerning the Son. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3666 (In-Text, Margin)

... have added and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent, if The Only True God were contrasted with Him, and the sentence did not proceed upon the basis of a common Godhead. The “None is Good” meets the tempting Lawyer, who was testifying to His Goodness viewed as Man. For perfect goodness, He says, is God’s alone, even if a man is called perfectly good. As for instance, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things. And, I will give the kingdom to one who is good above Thee.[1 Samuel 15:28] …Words of God, speaking to Saul about David. Or again, Do good, O Lord, unto the good …and all other like expressions concerning those of us who are praised, upon whom it is a kind of effluence from the Supreme Good, and has come to them in a ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 309, footnote 3 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X. (HTML)

Conference II. Second Conference of Abbot Moses. (HTML)
Chapter III. Of the error of Saul and of Ahab, by which they were deceived through lack of discretion. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1166 (In-Text, Margin)

... judgment of God was the first to be worthy of the kingdom of His people Israel, because he was lacking in this “eye” of discretion, was, as if his whole body were full of darkness, actually cast down from the kingdom while, being deceived by the darkness of this “light,” and in error, he imagined that his own offerings were more acceptable to God than obedience to the command of Samuel, and met with an occasion of falling in that very matter in which he had hoped to propitiate the Divine Majesty.[1 Samuel 15] And ignorance, I say, of this discretion led Ahab the king of Israel after a triumph and splendid victory which had been granted to him by the favour of God to fancy that mercy on his part was better than the stern execution of the divine command, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 472, footnote 1 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII. (HTML)

Conference XVII. The Second Conference of Abbot Joseph. On Making Promises. (HTML)
Chapter XXV. The evidence of Scripture on changes of determination. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2060 (In-Text, Margin)

... many thousands of Israel and anointed him king, rewarding the then existing merits of his life, and not considering the sin of his coming fall, so that after he became reprobate, God complains almost in human terms and, with man’s feelings, as if He repented of his choice, saying: “It repenteth Me that I have appointed Saul king: for he hath forsaken Me, and hath not performed My words;” and again: “But Samuel was grieved for Saul because the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.”[1 Samuel 15:11] Finally this that He afterwards executed, that the Lord also declares by the prophet Ezekiel that He will by His daily judgment do with all men, saying: “Yea, if I shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live, and he trusting in his ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 472, footnote 1 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII. (HTML)

Conference XVII. The Second Conference of Abbot Joseph. On Making Promises. (HTML)
Chapter XXV. The evidence of Scripture on changes of determination. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2060 (In-Text, Margin)

... many thousands of Israel and anointed him king, rewarding the then existing merits of his life, and not considering the sin of his coming fall, so that after he became reprobate, God complains almost in human terms and, with man’s feelings, as if He repented of his choice, saying: “It repenteth Me that I have appointed Saul king: for he hath forsaken Me, and hath not performed My words;” and again: “But Samuel was grieved for Saul because the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.”[1 Samuel 15:35] Finally this that He afterwards executed, that the Lord also declares by the prophet Ezekiel that He will by His daily judgment do with all men, saying: “Yea, if I shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live, and he trusting in his ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs