Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Psalms 58:4
There are 8 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 525, footnote 3 (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 4440 (In-Text, Margin)
3. For as, among men, those sons who disobey their fathers, being disinherited, are still their sons in the course of nature, but by law are disinherited, for they do not become the heirs of their natural parents; so in the same way is it with God,—those who do not obey Him being disinherited by Him, have ceased to be His sons. Wherefore they cannot receive His inheritance: as David says, “Sinners are alienated from the womb; their anger is after the likeness of a serpent.”[Psalms 58:3-4] 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 ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 201, footnote 4 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
Exhortation to the Heathen (HTML)
Chapter X.—Answer to the Objection of the Heathen, that It Was Not Right to Abandon the Customs of Their Fathers. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 997 (In-Text, Margin)
... with ardour and admiration for righteousness, being the lover of One who needs nothing, needs himself but little, having treasured up his bliss in nothing but himself and God, where is neither moth, robber, nor pirate, but the eternal Giver of good. With justice, then, have you been compared to those serpents who shut their ears against the charmers. For “their mind,” says the Scripture, “is like the serpent, like the deaf adder, which stoppeth her ear, and will not hear the voice of the charmers.”[Psalms 58:4-5] But allow yourselves to feel the influence of the charming strains of sanctity, and receive that mild word of ours, and reject the deadly poison, that it may be granted to you to divest yourselves as much as possible of destruction, as they have ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 201, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
Exhortation to the Heathen (HTML)
Chapter X.—Answer to the Objection of the Heathen, that It Was Not Right to Abandon the Customs of Their Fathers. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 999 (In-Text, Margin)
... hear the voice of the charmers.” But allow yourselves to feel the influence of the charming strains of sanctity, and receive that mild word of ours, and reject the deadly poison, that it may be granted to you to divest yourselves as much as possible of destruction, as they have been divested of old age. Hear me, and do not stop your ears; do not block up the avenues of hearing, but lay to heart what is said. Excellent is the medicine of immortality! Stop at length your grovelling reptile motions.[Psalms 58:4-5] “For the enemies of the Lord,” says Scripture, “shall lick the dust.” Raise your eyes from earth to the skies, look up to heaven, admire the sight, cease watching with outstretched head the heel of the righteous, and hindering the way of truth. Be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 285, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2678 (In-Text, Margin)
10. How should we will that to us He come? By living well, by doing well. Let not things past please us; things present not hold us; let us not “close the ear” as it were with tail,[Psalms 58:4] let us not press down the ear on the ground; lest by things past we be kept back from hearing, lest by things present we be entangled and prevented from meditating on things future; let us reach forth unto those things which are before, let us forget things past. And that for which now we toil, for which now we groan, for which now we sigh, of which now we speak, which in part, however small soever, we ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 370, 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 IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1220 (In-Text, Margin)
... evening sacrifice.” The same may also be perceived with reference to the heart; for their heart indeed was foolish, but this man’s was true; hence he speaks of them thus, “Their heart 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.”[Psalms 58:4] 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.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 541, footnote 16 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)
Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
The way of peace is through the wisdom taught in the Book of Proverbs, and through unity in the faith. (HTML)
Such are the lessons in which I have been trained and therefore I was unwilling to return bite for bite, and to attack you by way of retaliation; and I thought it better to exorcise the madness of one who was raving, and to pour in the antidote of a single book into his poisoned breast. But I fear I shall have no success, and that I shall be compelled to sing the song of David, and to take his words for my only consolation:[Psalms 58:3-8]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 282, footnote 5 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Apronius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3895 (In-Text, Margin)
The best course you can take is to leave everything and to come to the East, before all to the holy places; for everything is now quiet here. The heretics have not, it is true, purged the venom from their breasts, but they do not venture to open their impious mouths. They are “like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear.”[Psalms 58:4] Salute your reverend brothers on my behalf.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 372, footnote 15 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Oration on Holy Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4124 (In-Text, Margin)
... which we possess abundantly, till we reach the very bottom; and perhaps this will gush forth food for you, as for the woman of Sarepta, and especially if you happen to be feeding an Elias, to recognize that it is a good abundance to be needy for the sake of Christ, Who for our sakes became poor. If you were deaf and dumb, let the Word sound in your ears, or rather keep there Him Who hath sounded. Do not shut your ears to the Instruction of the Lord, and to His Counsel, like the adder to charms.[Psalms 58:4-5] If you are blind and unenlightened, lighten your eyes that you sleep not in death. In God’s Light see light, and in the Spirit of God be enlightened by the Son, That Threefold and Undivided Light. If you receive all the Word, you will bring ...