Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Psalms 49
There are 48 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 466, footnote 8 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter IV.—Answer to another objection, showing that the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the city of the great King, diminished nothing from the supreme majesty and power of God, for that this destruction was put in execution by the most wise counsel of the same God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3842 (In-Text, Margin)
... his will, and with power over himself, is himself the cause to himself, that sometimes he becomes wheat, and sometimes chaff. Wherefore also he shall be justly condemned, because, having been created a rational being, he lost the true rationality, and living irrationally, opposed the righteousness of God, giving himself over to every earthly spirit, and serving all lusts; as says the prophet, “Man, being in honour, did not understand: he was assimilated to senseless beasts, and made like to them.”[Psalms 49:12]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 525, footnote 7 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XLI.—Those persons who do not believe in God, but who are disobedient, are angels and sons of the devil, not indeed by nature, but by imitation. Close of this book, and scope of the succeeding one. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4444 (In-Text, Margin)
... anger is after the likeness of a serpent.” And therefore did the Lord term those whom He knew to be the offspring of men “a generation of vipers;” because after the manner of these animals they go about in subtilty, and injure others. For He said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.” Speaking of Herod, too, He says, “Go ye and tell that fox,” aiming at his wicked cunning and deceit. Wherefore the prophet David says, “Man, being placed in honour, is made like unto cattle.”[Psalms 49:21] And again Jeremiah says, “They are become like horses, furious about females; each one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.” And Isaiah, when preaching in Judea, and reasoning with Israel, termed them “rulers of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrah;” ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 534, footnote 2 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book V (HTML)
Chapter VIII.—The gifts of the Holy Spirit which we receive prepare us for incorruption, render us spiritual, and separate us from carnal men. These two classes are signified by the clean and unclean animals in the legal dispensation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4501 (In-Text, Margin)
3. For the same reason, too, do the prophets compare them to irrational animals, on account of the irrationality of their conduct, saying, “They have become as horses raging for the females; each one of them neighing after his neighbour’s wife.” And again, “Man, when he was in honour, was made like unto cattle.”[Psalms 49:20] This denotes that, for his own fault, he is likened to cattle, by rivalling their irrational life. And we also, as the custom is, do designate men of this stamp as cattle and irrational beasts.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 9, footnote 11 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
The Pastor of Hermas (HTML)
Book First.—Visions (HTML)
Vision First. Against Filthy and Proud Thoughts, and the Carelessness of Hermas in Chastising His Sons. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 31 (In-Text, Margin)
... righteous man commits sin when an evil desire arises in his heart? There is sin in such a case, and the sin is great,” said she; “for the thoughts of a righteous man should be righteous. For by thinking righteously his character is established in the heavens, and he has the Lord merciful to him in every business. But such as entertain wicked thoughts in their minds are bringing upon themselves death and captivity; and especially is this the case with those who set their affections on this world,[Psalms 49:6] and glory in their riches, and look not forward to the blessings of the life to come. For many will their regrets be; for they have no hope, but have despaired of themselves and their life. But do thou pray to God, and He will heal thy sins, and the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 235, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter XIII.—Virtue Rational, Sin Irrational. (HTML)
... will of necessity be the efficacious cause of duty? For virtue itself is a state of the soul rendered harmonious by reason in respect to the whole life. Nay, to crown all, philosophy itself is pronounced to be the cultivation of right reason; so that, necessarily, whatever is done through error of reason is transgression, and is rightly called, (ἁμάρτημα) sin. Since, then, the first man sinned and disobeyed God, it is said, “And man became like to the beasts:”[Psalms 49:12] being rightly regarded as irrational, he is likened to the beasts. Whence Wisdom says: “The horse for covering; the libidinous and the adulterer is become like to an irrational beast.” Wherefore also it is added: “He neighs, whoever may be sitting ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 235, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter XIII.—Virtue Rational, Sin Irrational. (HTML)
... will of necessity be the efficacious cause of duty? For virtue itself is a state of the soul rendered harmonious by reason in respect to the whole life. Nay, to crown all, philosophy itself is pronounced to be the cultivation of right reason; so that, necessarily, whatever is done through error of reason is transgression, and is rightly called, (ἁμάρτημα) sin. Since, then, the first man sinned and disobeyed God, it is said, “And man became like to the beasts:”[Psalms 49:20] being rightly regarded as irrational, he is likened to the beasts. Whence Wisdom says: “The horse for covering; the libidinous and the adulterer is become like to an irrational beast.” Wherefore also it is added: “He neighs, whoever may be sitting ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 361, footnote 8 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter XIII.—On First and Second Repentance. (HTML)
... father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.” David writes, “They who sow,” then, “in tears, shall reap in joy;” those, namely, who confess in penitence. “For blessed are all those that fear the Lord.” You see the corresponding blessing in the Gospel. “Fear not,” it is said, “when a man is enriched, and when the glory of his house is increased: because when he dieth he shall leave all, and his glory shall not descend after him.”[Psalms 49:16-17] “But I in Thy I mercy will enter into Thy house. I will worship toward Thy holy temple, in Thy fear: Lord, lead me in Thy righteousness.” Appetite is then the movement of the mind to or from something. Passion is an excessive ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 86, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
The Shows, or De Spectaculis. (HTML)
Chapter XV. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 363 (In-Text, Margin)
... desire, there is no pleasure, and he is chargeable with trifling who goes where nothing is gotten; in my view, even that is foreign to us. Moreover, a man pronounces his own condemnation in the very act of taking his place among those with whom, by his disinclination to be like them, he confesses he has no sympathy. It is not enough that we do no such things ourselves, unless we break all connection also with those who do. “If thou sawest a thief,” says the Scripture, “thou consentedst with him.”[Psalms 49:18] Would that we did not even inhabit the same world with these wicked men! But though that wish cannot be realized, yet even now we are separate from them in what is of the world; for the world is God’s, but the worldly is the devil’s.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 159, footnote 10 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)
Of the Times of Christ's Birth and Passion, and of Jerusalem's Destruction. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1237 (In-Text, Margin)
Then, after Alexander, who had reigned over both Medes and Persians, whom he had reconquered, and had established his kingdom firmly in Alexandria, when withal he called that (city) by his own name;[Psalms 49:11] after him reigned, (there, in Alexandria,)
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 213, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
A Treatise on the Soul. (HTML)
Empedocles Increased the Absurdity of Pythagoras by Developing the Posthumous Change of Men into Various Animals. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1721 (In-Text, Margin)
... its own (primitive) condition. Since, therefore, the soul does not admit of change, lest it should cease to retain its identity; and yet is unable to remain unchanged in its original state, because it fails then to receive contrary (bodies),—I still want to know some credible reason to justify such a transformation as we are discussing. For although some men are compared to the beasts because of their character, disposition, and pursuits (since even God says, “Man is like the beasts that perish”[Psalms 49:20]), it does not on this account follow that rapacious persons become kites, lewd persons dogs, ill-tempered ones panthers, good men sheep, talkative ones swallows, and chaste men doves, as if the selfsame substance of the soul everywhere repeated its ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 369, footnote 11 (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)
Sermon on the Mount Continued. Its Woes in Strict Agreement with the Creator's Disposition. Many Quotations Out of the Old Testament in Proof of This. (HTML)
... together with their strength: those that are lifted up shall be hewn down, and such as are lofty shall fall by the sword.” And who are these but the rich? Because they have indeed received their consolation, glory, and honour and a lofty position from their wealth. In Psalm xlviii. He also turns off our care from these and says: “Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, and when his glory is increased: for when he shall die, he shall carry nothing away; nor shall his glory descend along with him.”[Psalms 49:16-17] So also in Psalm lxi.: “Do not desire riches; and if they do yield you their lustre, do not set your heart upon them.” Lastly, this very same woe is pronounced of old by Amos against the rich, who also abounded in delights. “Woe unto them,” ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 585, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
From St. Paul's Analogy of the Seed We Learn that the Body Which Died Will Rise Again, Garnished with the Appliances of Eternal Life. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7680 (In-Text, Margin)
... Unquestionably it is in this sense that he says, “All flesh is not the same flesh;” meaning not to deny a community of substance, but a parity of prerogative,—reducing the body to a difference of honour, not of nature. With this view he adds, in a figurative sense, certain examples of animals and heavenly bodies: “There is one flesh of man” (that is, servants of God, but really human), “another flesh of beasts” (that is, the heathen, of whom the prophet actually says, “Man is like the senseless cattle”[Psalms 49:20]), “another flesh of birds” (that is, the martyrs which essay to mount up to heaven), “another of fishes” (that is, those whom the water of baptism has submerged). In like manner does he take examples from the heavenly bodies: “There is one glory of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 137, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
Appendix (HTML)
A Strain of the Judgment of the Lord. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1302 (In-Text, Margin)
Or else to live wholly the life of sheep,[Psalms 49:14]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 537, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XC (HTML)
But we have a few remarks to make, out of a larger number, in answer to these statements of Celsus, that we may show the ingratitude towards his Maker which is involved in his holding these false opinions. For Celsus, although a man, and “being in honour,”[Psalms 49:12] does not possess understanding, and therefore he did not compare himself with the birds and the other irrational animals, which he regards as capable of divining; but yielding to them the foremost place, he lowered himself, and as far as he could the whole human race with him (as entertaining lower and inferior views of God than the irrational animals), beneath the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 580, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Chapter XIII (HTML)
... use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” This opinion, moreover, is truly an ancient one, its antiquity not being referred back, as Celsus thinks, merely to Heraclitus and Plato. For before these individuals lived, the prophets distinguished between the two kinds of wisdom. It is sufficient for the present to quote from the words of David what he says regarding the man who is wise, according to divine wisdom, that “he will not see corruption when he beholds wise men dying.”[Psalms 49:9-10] Divine wisdom, accordingly, being different from faith, is the “first” of the so-called “charismata” of God; and the “second” after it—in the estimation of those who know how to distinguish such things accurately—is what is called “knowledge;” and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 585, footnote 7 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)
Revelation of John. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2596 (In-Text, Margin)
... those nations, both the Greek and those who have believed in idols, and in the sun, and in the stars, and those who have defiled the faith by heresy, and who have not believed the holy resurrection, and who have not confessed the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost: then will I send them away into Hades, as the prophet David foretold, Let the sinners be turned into Hades, and all the nations that forget God. And again he said: They were put in Hades like sheep; death shall be their shepherd.[Psalms 49:14]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 244, footnote 14 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
The Epistles of Clement. (HTML)
The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. (HTML)
Let the Partakers in Strife Acknowledge Their Sins. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4276 (In-Text, Margin)
... their neighbours should be involved in suffering. And they prefer to bear blame themselves, rather than that the concord which has been well and piously handed down to us should suffer. For it is better that a man should acknowledge his transgressions than that he should harden his heart, as the hearts of those were hardened who stirred up sedition against Moses the servant of God, and whose condemnation was made manifest [unto all]. For they went down alive into Hades, and death swallowed them up.[Psalms 49:14] Pharaoh with his army and all the princes of Egypt, and the chariots with their riders, were sunk in the depths of the Red Sea, and perished, for no other reason than that their foolish hearts were hardened, after so many signs and wonders had been ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 201, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Gen. I.) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God. (HTML)
That to Have Power Over All Things (Ver. 26) is to Judge Spiritually of All. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1380 (In-Text, Margin)
33. But that he judgeth all things answers to his having dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over all cattle and wild beasts, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. For this he doth by the discernment of his mind, whereby he perceiveth the things “of the Spirit of God;” whereas, otherwise, man being placed in honour, had no understanding, and is compared unto the brute beasts, and is become like unto them.[Psalms 49:20] In Thy Church, therefore, O our God, according to Thy grace which Thou hast accorded unto it, since we are Thy workmanship created in good works, there are not only those who are spiritually set over, but those also who are spiritually subjected to those ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 242, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
To Maximin (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1494 (In-Text, Margin)
... that you are not my bishop, and, I am not your presbyter. “Worthy of honour” I therefore willingly call you on this ground, that I know you to be a man; and I know that man was made in the image and likeness of God, and is placed in honour by the very order and law of nature, if by understanding the things which he ought to understand he retain his honour. For it is written, “Man being placed in honour did not understand: he is compared to the brutes devoid of reason, and is made like unto them.”[Psalms 49:12] Why then may I not address you as worthy of honour, inasmuch as you are a man, especially since I dare not despair of your repentance and salvation so long as you are in this life? Moreover, as to my calling you “brother,” you are well acquainted ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 246, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
That death is penal, and had its origin in Adam’s sin. (HTML)
Whether Death, Which by the Sin of Our First Parents Has Passed Upon All Men, is the Punishment of Sin, Even to the Good. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 580 (In-Text, Margin)
... far as the origin of sin and death are concerned. For neither by sin nor its punishment was he himself reduced to that infantine and helpless infirmity of body and mind which we see in children. For God ordained that infants should begin the world as the young of beasts begin it, since their parents had fallen to the level of the beasts in the fashion of their life and of their death; as it is written, “Man when he was in honor understood not; he became like the beasts that have no understanding.”[Psalms 49:12] Nay more, infants, we see, are even feebler in the use and movement of their limbs, and more infirm to choose and refuse, than the most tender offspring of other animals; as if the force that dwells in human nature were destined to surpass all other ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 302, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
The progress of the earthly and heavenly cities traced by the sacred history. (HTML)
Why It is That, as Soon as Cain’s Son Enoch Has Been Named, the Genealogy is Forthwith Continued as Far as the Deluge, While After the Mention of Enos, Seth’s Son, the Narrative Returns Again to the Creation of Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 836 (In-Text, Margin)
... that which was exemplified in the individual who was begotten by him who typified the resurrection of the murdered Abel. That one man is the unity of the whole heavenly city, not yet indeed complete, but to be completed, as this prophetic figure foreshows. The son of Cain, therefore, that is, the son of possession (and of what but an earthly possession?), may have a name in the earthly city which was built in his name. It is of such the Psalmist says, “They call their lands after their own names.”[Psalms 49:11] Wherefore they incur what is written in another psalm: “Thou, O Lord, in Thy city wilt despise their image.” But as for the son of Seth, the son of the resurrection, let him hope to call on the name of the Lord God. For he prefigures that society of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 502, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal happiness of the saints, the resurrection of the body, and the miracles of the early Church. (HTML)
Of the Blessings with Which the Creator Has Filled This Life, Obnoxious Though It Be to the Curse. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1660 (In-Text, Margin)
... whereby he might propagate other men, giving them a congenital capacity to propagate their kind, but not imposing on them any necessity to do so. This capacity God withdraws at pleasure from individuals, making them barren; but from the whole race He has not withdrawn the blessing of propagation once conferred. But though not withdrawn on account of sin, this power of propagation is not what it would have been had there been no sin. For since “man placed in honor fell, he has become like the beasts,”[Psalms 49:20] and generates as they do, though the little spark of reason, which was the image of God in him, has not been quite quenched. But if conformation were not added to propagation, there would be no reproduction of one’s kind. For even though there were ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 161, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
After premising the difference between wisdom and knowledge, he points out a kind of trinity in that which is properly called knowledge; but one which, although we have reached in it the inner man, is not yet to be called the image of God. (HTML)
The Image of the Beast in Man. (HTML)
... power, man by his own bidding falls down to himself as to a sort of intermediate grade. And so, while he wishes to be as God is, that is, under no one, he is thrust on, even from his own middle grade, by way of punishment, to that which is lowest, that is, to those things in which beasts delight: and thus, while his honor is the likeness of God, but his dishonor is the likeness of the beast, “Man being in honor abideth not: he is compared to the beasts that are foolish, and is made like to them.”[Psalms 49:12] By what path, then, could he pass so great a distance from the highest to the lowest, except through his own intermediate grade? For when he neglects the love of wisdom, which remains always after the same fashion, and lusts after knowledge by ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 253, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On Original Sin. (HTML)
Difficulty of Believing Original Sin. Man’s Vice is a Beast’s Nature. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2038 (In-Text, Margin)
... punishes, this fatal flaw has so far prevailed, that men are born with the fault of original sin; but yet its influence has not extended so far as to stop the birth of men. Just so does it happen in persons of adult age: whatever sins they commit, do not eliminate his manhood from man; nay, God’s work continues still good, however evil be the deeds of the impious. For although “man being placed in honour abideth not; and being without understanding, is compared with the beasts, and is like them,”[Psalms 49:12] yet the resemblance is not so absolute that he becomes a beast. There is a comparison, no doubt, between the two; but it is not by reason of nature, but through vice—not vice in the beast, but in nature. For so excellent is a man in comparison with ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 354, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin. (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
The Points Which Victor Thought Blameworthy in Augustin. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2456 (In-Text, Margin)
... absurd and unreasonable that a man should be a stranger to himself; or that a person who is supposed to have acquired the knowledge of all things, should regard himself as unknown to his very self. For what difference is there between a man and a brute beast, if he knows not how to discuss and determine his own quality and nature? so that there may justly be applied to him the statement of Scripture: ‘Man, although he was in honour, understood not; he is like the cattle, and is compared with them.’[Psalms 49:12] For when the good and gracious God created everything with reason and wisdom, and produced man as a rational animal, capable of understanding, endowed with reason, and lively with sensation,—because by His prudent arrangement He assigns their place ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 360, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin. (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
We Must Not Be Wise Above What is Written. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2476 (In-Text, Margin)
... without it, we should not be different from brute beasts, so far as our souls are concerned), understand, I beg of you, what it is that you do not understand, lest you should understand nothing: and do not despise any man who, in order that he may truly understand, understands that he does not understand that which he does not understand. With regard, however, to the passage in the inspired psalm, “Man, being in honour, understandeth not; he is compared to the senseless cattle, and is like unto them;”[Psalms 49:12-13] read and understand these words, that you may rather with a humble spirit guard against the opprobrium yourself, than arrogantly throw it out against another person. The passage applies to those who regard only that as a life worth living which they ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 370, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin. (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Wide and Narrow Sense of the Word 'Spirit.' (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2516 (In-Text, Margin)
... enlivened by sensibility, so as to be able to distribute in a wise arrangement all things that are void of reason.” In these words of yours you have plainly asserted what is certainly most true, that man is endowed with reason and capable of intelligence, which, of course, animals void of reason are not. And you have, in accordance with this view, quoted a passage of Scripture, and, adopting its language, have compared men of no understanding to the cattle, which, of course, have not intellect.[Psalms 49:12] A statement the like to which occurs in another passage of Scripture: “Be ye not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding.” This being the case, I want you also to observe in what terms you have defined and described the spirit when ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 381, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
The Fourth Calumny,—That the Saints of the Old Testament are Said to Be Not Free from Sins. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2552 (In-Text, Margin)
“They say,” says he, “that the saints in the Old Testament were not without sins,—that is that they were not free from crimes even by amendment, but they were seized by death in their guilt.” Nay, I say that either before the law, or in the time of the Old Testament, they were freed from sins,—not by their own power, because “cursed is every one that hath put his hope in man,” and without any doubt those are under this curse whom also the sacred Psalm notifies, “who trust in their own strength;”[Psalms 49:6] nor by the old covenant which gendereth to bondage, although it was divinely given by the grace of a sure dispensation; nor by that law itself, holy and just and good as it was, where it is written, “Thou shalt not covet,” since it was not given as ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 312, footnote 4 (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, Matt. xi. 25, ‘I thank thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2272 (In-Text, Margin)
... enemies, let us see to our defence against them. “In praising I will call upon the Lord, so shall I be safe from mine enemies.” Thou seest what thou hast to do. “In praising call;” that is, “in praising the Lord, call.” For thou wilt not be safe from thine enemies, if thou praise thyself. “In praising call upon the Lord, and thou shalt be safe from thine enemies.” For what doth the Lord Himself say? “The sacrifice of praise shall glorify Me, and there is the way, in which I will show him My salvation.”[Psalms 49:23] Where is the way? In the sacrifice of praise. Let not your foot then wander out of this way. Keep in the way; depart not from it; from the praise of the Lord depart not a foot, nay, not a nail’s breadth. For if thou wilt deviate from this way, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 26, 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 I. 19–33. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 75 (In-Text, Margin)
... It would not have been said, “He will come manifestly,” unless at first He had come concealed; nor would it have been said, “He shall not keep silence,” unless He had first kept silence. How was He silent? Interrogate Isaiah: “He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer was dumb, so He opened not His mouth.” “But He shall come manifestly, and shall not keep silence.” In what manner “manifestly”? “A fire shall go before Him, and round about Him a strong tempest.”[Psalms 49:3] That tempest has to carry away all the chaff from the floor, which is now being threshed; and the fire has to burn what the tempest carries away. But now He is silent; silent in judgment, but not silent in precept. For if Christ is silent, what is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 176, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XLIX (HTML)
Part 2 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1660 (In-Text, Margin)
... himself one hovel where he may snatch a sleep, and thou sayest, “Happy is he, for his house hath been garnished.” Who would not judge that thou wast either jesting or wast mad? Thou dost garnish the body, the spirit is tormented. Give something to the spirit, and ye have given something to the dead man. But what wilt thou give him, when he desired one drop, and received not? For the man scorned to send before him anything. Wherefore scorned? “because this their way is a stumbling-block to them.”[Psalms 49:13] He minded not any but the present life, he thought not but how he might be buried, wound in costly vestments. His soul was taken from him, as the Lord saith: “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be taken from thee, and whose shall those things be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 177, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XLIX (HTML)
Part 2 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1670 (In-Text, Margin)
... hath willed to show that righteousness is not evil when men murmur against her: but these men have their father from the beginning, even to the generation of their fathers. Two men Adam begat, and in one was unrighteousness, in one was righteousness: unrighteousness in Cain, righteousness in Abel. Unrighteousness seemed to prevail over righteousness, because Cain unrighteous slew Abel righteous in the night. Is it so in the morning? Nay, “but the righteous shall reign over them in the morning.”[Psalms 49:14] The morning shall come, and it shall be seen where Abel is, and where Cain. So all men who are after Cain, and so all who are after Abel, even unto the end of the world. “He shall enter even unto the generations of his fathers: even to eternity he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 177, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XLIX (HTML)
Part 2 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1671 (In-Text, Margin)
But wherefore this? What he hath written in the middle of the Psalm,[Psalms 49:12] the same also he hath writ at the end: “Man, though he was in honour, understood not, was compared to the beasts without sense, and was made like to them” (ver. 20). But ye, brethren, consider that ye be men made after the image and likeness of God. The image of God is within, is not in the body; is not in these ears which ye see, and eyes, and nostrils, and palate, and hands, and feet; but is made nevertheless: wherein is the intellect, wherein is the mind, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 325, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3153 (In-Text, Margin)
... breaketh the commandment, he hath shaken off from his neck the yoke of discipline, uplifted with high spirit he hath broken in sunder the reins of guidance: where is he now? Truly captive he crieth, “O Lord, who is like unto Thee?” I perversely willed to be like unto Thee, and I have been made like unto a beast! Under Thy dominion, under Thy commandment, I was indeed like: “But a man in honour set hath not perceived, he hath been compared to beasts without sense, and hath been made like unto them.”[Psalms 49:12] Now out of the likeness of beasts cry though late and say, “O God, who is like unto Thee?”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 512, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4713 (In-Text, Margin)
12. These beasts, then, drink those waters, but passing; not staying, but passing; for all that teaching which in all this time is dispensed passeth.…Unless perchance your love thinketh that in that city to which it is said, “Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem, praise thy God, O Sion; for He hath made strong the bars of thy gates;” when the bars are now strengthened and the city closed, whence, as we said some time since, no friend goeth out, no enemy entereth;[Psalms 49] that there we shall have a book to read, or speech to be explained as it is now explained to you. Therefore is it now treated, that there it may be held fast: therefore is it now divided by syllables, that there it may be contemplated whole and entire. The Word of God ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 113, footnote 8 (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 316 (In-Text, Margin)
... has come on the king is no king, the ruler no ruler, and the general no general, even so also in that day each man will receive his due reward not according to the outward part which he has played but according to his works. Well! is glory a precious thing which perishes like the power of grass? or wealth, the possessors of which are pronounced unhappy? “For woe” we read, “to the rich;” and again, “Woe unto them who trust in their strength and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches!”[Psalms 49:6] But the Christian never becomes a private person after being a ruler, or a poor man after being rich, or without honour after being held in honour; but he abides rich even when he is poor, and is exalted when he strives to humble himself; and from ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 348, footnote 4 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1100 (In-Text, Margin)
... about for guards. But he has over-persuaded these very servants, and has fled away together with his guards; dragging his keepers after him like a chain, so little security was there in this custody. What then can be more faithless than this? what more wretched than men devoted to it? When men endeavour with all eagerness to collect so frail and fleeting a thing, they do not hear what the prophet saith: “Woe unto them who trust in their power, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.”[Psalms 49:6] Tell me why is this woe pronounced?—“He heapeth up treasure,” saith he, “and knoweth not for whom he will gather it,” —forasmuch as the labor is certain, but the enjoyment uncertain. Very often you toil and endure trouble for enemies. The ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 369, footnote 7 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1216 (In-Text, Margin)
... its own nature, but according to the choice of those who employed it. For the nature of this tongue and of that was the same, but the operation was not the same. And again, as to the mouth likewise, we may see this same thing. For these had a mouth full of filth and of wickedness, therefore against such it is said by way of accusation, “Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;” not such was his, but “My mouth shall speak of wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.”[Psalms 49:3] Again, there were others who had their hands full of iniquity, and accusing these he said, “Iniquities are in their hands, and their right hand is filled with gifts.” But he himself had hands practised in nothing but in being stretched out towards ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 370, footnote 5 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1221 (In-Text, Margin)
... is vain;” but of his own, “My heart is inditing of a good matter.” And as to the ear, one may see that the case is the same; for some have a sense of hearing like that of beasts, which is not to be charmed or moved to pity; and reproaching such the Psalmist says, “They are like the deaf adder, that stoppeth her ears.” But his ear was the receptacle of the divine words, and this he again makes manifest, when he says, “I will incline mine ear to a parable, I will open my dark speech upon the harp.”[Psalms 49:4]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 162, footnote 3 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus. (HTML)
The Immutable. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 975 (In-Text, Margin)
... but bethinks him of the Indian, the Scythian, and the Massagete, and of all the race of men together, and we learn this not only from nature, but also from Holy Scripture, for God said, we read, “I will destroy man from the face of the earth,” and this he spake of countless multitudes, and when more than two thousand and two hundred years had gone by after Adam, he brought universal destruction on men through the flood, and so the blessed David says: “Man that is in honour and understandeth not,”[Psalms 49:20] accusing not one here nor one there, but all men in common. A thousand similar examples might be found, but we must not be tedious.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 540, footnote 8 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)
The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)
Festal Letters. (HTML)
(For 341.) Coss. Marcellinus, Probinus; Præf. Longinus; Indict. xiv; Easter-day, xiii Kal. Maii, xxiv Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 57. (HTML)
4. But all those who ‘call their lands by their own names[Psalms 49:11],’ and have wood, and hay, and stubble in their thoughts; such as these, since they are strangers to difficulties, become aliens from the kingdom of heaven. Had they however known that ‘tribulation perfecteth patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed,’ they would have exercised themselves, after the example of Paul, who said, ‘I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 547, footnote 6 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)
The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)
Festal Letters. (HTML)
(For 347.) Coss. Rufinus, Eusebius; Præf. the same Nestorius; Indict. v; Easter-day, Prid. Id. Apr., Pharmuthi xvii; Æra Dioclet. 63; Moon 15. (HTML)
... woman to lust after her? ‘For from the heart proceed evil thoughts, fornications, adulteries, murders.’ By them the fool is wrecked, as by the waves of the sea, being led away and enticed by his fleshly pleasures; for this stands written, ‘All flesh of fools is greatly tempest-tossed.’ While he associates with folly, he is tossed by a tempest, and perishes, as Solomon says in the Proverbs, ‘The fool and he who lacketh understanding shall perish together, and shall leave their wealth to strangers[Psalms 49:10].’ Now they suffer such things, because there is not among them one sound of mind to guide them. For where there is sagacity, there the Word, who is the Pilot of souls, is with the vessel; ‘for he that hath understanding shall possess guidance;’ but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 109, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Furia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1620 (In-Text, Margin)
... gospel. Anna “lived with an husband seven years from her virginity”; Marcella lived with one for seven months. Anna looked for the coming of Christ; Marcella holds fast the Lord whom Anna received in her arms. Anna sang His praise when He was still a wailing infant; Marcella proclaims His glory now that He has won His triumph. Anna spoke of Him to all those who waited for the redemption of Israel; Marcella cries out with the nations of the redeemed: “A brother redeemeth not, yet a man shall redeem,”[Psalms 49:7] and from another psalm: “A man was born in her, and the Highest Himself hath established her.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 7, footnote 26 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
That v: not found “of whom” in the case of the Son and of the Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 784 (In-Text, Margin)
... distinguished in another passage, where he says that it is proper to a woman to be made of the man, and to a man to be made through the woman, in the words “For as the woman is from [A.V., of] the man, even so is the man also through [A.V., by] the woman.” Nevertheless in the passage in question the apostle, while illustrating the variety of usage, at the same time corrects obiter the error of those who supposed that the body of the Lord was a spiritual body, and, to shew that the God-bearing[Psalms 49] flesh was formed out of the com mon lump of human nature, gave precedence to the more emphatic preposition.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 102, footnote 7 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Hexæmeron. (HTML)
The creation of terrestrial animals. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1700 (In-Text, Margin)
... a celestial growth, rises superior to them as much by the mould of his bodily conformation as by the dignity of his soul. What is the form of quadrupeds? Their head is bent towards the earth and looks towards their belly, and only pursues their belly’s good. Thy head, O man! is turned towards heaven; thy eyes look up. When therefore thou degradest thyself by the passions of the flesh, slave of thy belly, and thy lowest parts, thou approachest animals without reason and becomest like one of them.[Psalms 49:12] Thou art called to more noble cares; “seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth.” Raise thy soul above the earth; draw from its natural conformation the rule of thy conduct; fix thy conversation in heaven. Thy true country is the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 28b, footnote 11 (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 II (HTML)
Concerning earth and its products. (HTML)
... him more readily than it did other living creatures, and held intercourse with him with delightful motions. And hence it was through it that the devil, the prince of evil, made his most wicked suggestion to our first parents. Moreover, the earth of its own accord used to yield fruits, for the benefit of the animals that were obedient to man, and there was neither rain nor tempest on the earth. But after the transgression, when he was compared with the unintelligent cattle and became like to them[Psalms 49:12], after he had contrived that in him irrational desire should have rule over reasoning mind and had become disobedient to the Master’s command, the subject creation rose up against him whom the Creator had appointed to be ruler: and it was appointed ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 43b, footnote 6 (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 II (HTML)
Concerning Prescience and Predestination. (HTML)
... Paradise, at least as much as it was in our power to say. And with this command He gave the promise that, if he should preserve the dignity of the soul by giving the victory to reason, and acknowledging his Creator and observing His command, he should share eternal blessedness and live to all eternity, proving mightier than death: but if forsooth he should subject the soul to the body, and prefer the delights of the body, comparing himself in ignorance of his true dignity to the senseless beasts[Psalms 49:12], and shaking off His Creator’s yoke, and neglecting His divine injunction, he will be liable to death and corruption, and will be compelled to labour throughout a miserable life. For it was no profit to man to obtain incorruption while still untried ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 126, footnote 6 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Sermons. (HTML)
On the Fast of the Tenth Month, VI. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 714 (In-Text, Margin)
... never pay, but to be His creditor and His money-lender, who says, “Give, and it shall be given to you,” and “with what measure ye measure, it shall be measured again to you.” But he is unfaithful and unfair even to himself, who does not wish to have for ever what he esteems desirable. Let him amass what he may, let him hoard and store what he may, he will leave this world empty and needy, as David the prophet says, “for when he dieth he shall take nothing away, nor shall his glory descend with him[Psalms 49:17].” Whereas if he were considerate of his own soul, he would trust his good to Him, who is both the proper Surety for the poor and the generous Repayer of loans. But unrighteous and shameless avarice, which promises to do some kind act but eludes it, ...