Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Psalms 58
There are 19 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 424, footnote 1 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book III (HTML)
Chapter X.—Proofs of the foregoing, drawn from the Gospels of Mark and Luke. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3399 (In-Text, Margin)
... even “more than a prophet,” and that “among those born of women none is greater than John the Baptist;” who did also make the people ready for the Lord’s advent, warning his fellow-servants, and preaching to them repentance, that they might receive remission from the Lord when He should be present, having been converted to Him, from whom they had been alienated because of sins and transgressions. As also David says, “The alienated are sinners from the womb: they go astray as soon as they are born.”[Psalms 58:3] And it was on account of this that he, turning them to their Lord, prepared, in the spirit and power of Elias, a perfect people for the Lord.
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 ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 632, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VII (HTML)
Chapter L (HTML)
... to enable us to compare his ideas with ours, and to pass judgment on them. But the prophets, who have given some wise suggestions on the subject of things produced by generation, tell us that a sacrifice for sin was offered even for new-born infants, as not being free from sin. They say, “I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me;” also, “They are estranged from the womb;” which is followed by the singular expression, “They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.”[Psalms 58:3] Besides, our wise men have such a contempt for all sensible objects, that sometimes they speak of all material things as vanity: thus, “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that subjected the same in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 157, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Having manifested what he was and what he is, he shows the great fruit of his confession; and being about to examine by what method God and the happy life may be found, he enlarges on the nature and power of memory. Then he examines his own acts, thoughts and affections, viewed under the threefold division of temptation; and commemorates the Lord, the one mediator of God and men. (HTML)
Of the Very Dangerous Allurements of the Eyes; On Account of Beauty of Form, God, the Creator, is to Be Praised. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 940 (In-Text, Margin)
... offer a sacrifice of praise unto my Sanctifier, because those beautiful patterns, which through the medium of men’s souls are conveyed into their artistic hands, emanate from that Beauty which is above our souls, which my soul sigheth after day and night. But as for the makers and followers of those outward beauties, they from thence derive the way of approving them, but not of using them. And though they see Him not, yet is He there, that they might not go astray, but keep their strength for Thee,[Psalms 58:10] and not dissipate it upon delicious lassitudes. And I, though I both say and perceive this, impede my course with such beauties, but Thou dost rescue me, O Lord, Thou dost rescue me; “for Thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes.” For I am taken ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 430, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which Augustin proves that it is to no purpose that the Donatists bring forward the authority of Cyprian, bishop and martyr, since it is really more opposed to them than to the Catholics. For that he held that the view of his predecessor Agrippinus, on the subject of baptizing heretics in the Catholic Church when they join its communion, should only be received on condition that peace should be maintained with those who entertained the opposite view, and that the unity of the Church should never be broken by any kind of schism. (HTML)
Chapter 7 (HTML)
... say, "so utterly without resource, but that we can still answer, It is our will. ‘Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.’" They do not understand that this was said to men who were wishing to judge, not of open facts, but of the hearts of other men. For how does the apostle himself come to say so much about the sins of schisms and heresies? Or how comes that verse in the Psalms, "If of a truth ye love justice, judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?"[Psalms 58:1] But why does the Lord Himself say, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment," if we may not judge any man? Lastly, why, in the case of those traditors, whom they have judged unrighteously, have they themselves ventured to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 502, footnote 9 (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 3922 (In-Text, Margin)
... say, “I shall never be moved.” What next? “O Lord, in Thy favour Thou gavest strength to my beauty.” But “Thou turnedst away Thy Face from me, and I was troubled.” “Thou hast shown me,” saith he, “that that wherein I did abound, was of Thee. Thou hast shown me Whence I should seek, to Whom attribute what I had received, to Whom I ought to render thanks, to Whom I should run in my thirst, Whereby be filled, and with Whom keep that whereby I should be filled. ‘For my strength will I keep to Thee;’[Psalms 58:10] whereby I am by Thy bounty filled, through Thy safe keeping I will not lose. ‘My strength will I keep to Thee.’ That Thou mightest show me this, ‘Thou turnedst away Thy Face from me, and I was troubled.’ ‘Troubled,’ because dried up; dried up, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 46, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 488 (In-Text, Margin)
... the disorder of their own conversation. Like to which with the contrary meaning is that which was said to Peter, “Kill and eat;” that he should convert the Gentiles to his own faith and good conversation. “With their tongues they have dealt craftily.” Flattery is the companion of the greedy and of all bad men. “The poison of asps is under their lips.” By “poison,” he means deceit; and “of asps,” because they will not hear the precepts of the law, as asps “will not hear the voice of the charmer;”[Psalms 58:5] which is said more clearly in another Psalm. “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:” this is, “the poison of asps.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood.” He here shows forth the habit of ill doing. “Destruction and unhappiness” are “in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 58, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 599 (In-Text, Margin)
2. “O God, my God, look upon me, why hast Thou forsaken[Psalms 58] me far from my salvation?” (ver. 1). Far removed from my salvation: for “salvation is far from sinners.” “The words of my sins.” For these are not the words of righteousness, but of my sins. For it is the old man nailed to the Cross that speaks, ignorant even of the reason why God hath forsaken him: or else it may be thus, The words of my sins are far from my salvation.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 233, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2188 (In-Text, Margin)
10. “The jaw-bones of lions the Lord hath broken utterly.”[Psalms 58:6] Not only of asps. What of asps? Asps treacherously desire to throw in their venom, and scatter it, and hiss. Most openly raged the nations, and roared like lions. “Wherefore have raged the nations, and the peoples meditated empty things?” When they were lying in wait for the Lord. Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar, or is it not lawful? Asps they were, serpents they were, broken utterly were the teeth of them in their own mouth. Afterwards they cried out, ...
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 1, page 374, footnote 1 (Image)
Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine
The Church History of Eusebius. (HTML)
Book X (HTML)
Panegyric on the Splendor of Affairs. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2854 (In-Text, Margin)
28. For when the Great Shepherd had driven away the wild animals and wolves and every cruel and savage beast, and, as the divine oracles say, ‘had broken the jaws of the lions,’[Psalms 58:6] he thought good to collect again her children in the same place, and in the most righteous manner he set up the fold of her flock, ‘to put to shame the enemy and avenger,’ and to refute the impious daring of the enemies of God.
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 3, page 541, footnote 17 (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)
And again:[Psalms 58:10-11]
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 209, footnote 4 (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 2586 (In-Text, Margin)
20. For we either hide away our sin, cloaking it over in the depth of our soul, like some festering and malignant disease, as if by escaping the notice of men we could escape the mighty eye of God and justice. Or else we allege excuses in our sins, by devising pleas in defence of our falls, or tightly closing our ears, like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ears, we are obstinate in refusing to hear the voice of the charmer, and be treated with the medicines of wisdom,[Psalms 58:5-6] by which spiritual sickness is healed. Or, lastly, those of us who are most daring and self-willed shamelessly brazen out our sin before those who would heal it, marching with bared head, as the saying is, into all kinds of transgression. O what madness, if there ...
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 ...