Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Psalms 82:6

There are 45 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 419, footnote 6 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book III (HTML)

Chapter VI—The Holy Ghost, throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, made mention of no other God or Lord, save him who is the true God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3336 (In-Text, Margin)

... synagogue of God, which God—that is, the Son Himself—has gathered by Himself. Of whom He again speaks: “The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken, and hath called the earth.” Who is meant by God? He of whom He has said, “God shall come openly, our God, and shall not keep silence;” that is, the Son, who came manifested to men who said, “I have openly appeared to those who seek Me not.” But of what gods [does he speak]? [Of those] to whom He says, “I have said, Ye are gods, and all sons of the Most High.”[Psalms 82:6] To those, no doubt, who have received the grace of the “adoption, by which we cry, Abba Father.”

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 448, footnote 8 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book III (HTML)

Chapter XIX.—Jesus Christ was not a mere man, begotten from Joseph in the ordinary course of nature, but was very God, begotten of the Father most high, and very man, born of the Virgin. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3667 (In-Text, Margin)

... receiving liberty through the Son, as He does Himself declare: “If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” But, being ignorant of Him who from the Virgin is Emmanuel, they are deprived of His gift, which is eternal life; and not receiving the incorruptible Word, they remain in mortal flesh, and are debtors to death, not obtaining the antidote of life. To whom the Word says, mentioning His own gift of grace: “I said, Ye are all the sons of the Highest, and gods; but ye shall die like men.”[Psalms 82:6-7] He speaks undoubtedly these words to those who have not received the gift of adoption, but who despise the incarnation of the pure generation of the Word of God, defraud human nature of promotion into God, and prove themselves ungrateful to the Word ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 522, footnote 1 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXXVIII.—Why man was not made perfect from the beginning. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4419 (In-Text, Margin)

... these, [the dumb animals], bring no charge against God for not having made them men; but each one, just as he has been created, gives thanks that he has been created. For we cast blame upon Him, because we have not been made gods from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods; although God has adopted this course out of His pure benevolence, that no one may impute to Him invidiousness or grudgingness. He declares, “I have said, Ye are gods; and ye are all sons of the Highest.”[Psalms 82:6-7] But since we could not sustain the power of divinity, He adds, “But ye shall die like men,” setting forth both truths—the kindness of His free gift, and our weakness, and also that we were possessed of power over ourselves. For after His great ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 206, footnote 4 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

Exhortation to the Heathen (HTML)

Chapter XII.—Exhortation to Abandon Their Old Errors and Listen to the Instructions of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1032 (In-Text, Margin)

It is time, then, for us to say that the pious Christian alone is rich and wise, and of noble birth, and thus call and believe him to be God’s image, and also His likeness, having become righteous and holy and wise by Jesus Christ, and so far already like God. Accordingly this grace is indicated by the prophet, when he says, “I said that ye are gods, and all sons of the Highest.”[Psalms 82:6] For us, yea us, He has adopted, and wishes to be called the Father of us alone, not of the unbelieving. Such is then our position who are the attendants of Christ.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 215, footnote 5 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Instructor (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Chapter VI.—The Name Children Does Not Imply Instruction in Elementary Principles. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1083 (In-Text, Margin)

... John, He becomes perfect? Manifestly. He did not then learn anything more from him? Certainly not. But He is perfected by the washing—of baptism—alone, and is sanctified by the descent of the Spirit? Such is the case. The same also takes place in our case, whose exemplar Christ became. Being baptized, we are illuminated; illuminated, we become sons; being made sons, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are made immortal. “I,” says He, “have said that ye are gods, and all sons of the Highest.”[Psalms 82:6] This work is variously called grace, and illumination, and perfection, and washing: washing, by which we cleanse away our sins; grace, by which the penalties accruing to transgressions are remitted; and illumination, by which that holy light of ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 374, footnote 2 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
Chapter XX.—The True Gnostic Exercises Patience and Self-Restraint. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2404 (In-Text, Margin)

... exhibited before our eyes every day abundant sources of martyrs that are burnt, impaled, beheaded. All these the fear inspired by the law,—leading as a pædagogue to Christ, trained so as to manifest their piety by their blood. “God stood in the congregation of the gods; He judgeth in the midst of the gods.” Who are they? Those that are superior to Pleasure, who rise above the passions, who know what they do—the Gnostics, who are greater than the world. “I said, Ye are Gods; and all sons of the Highest.”[Psalms 82:6] To whom speaks the Lord? To those who reject as far as possible all that is of man. And the apostle says, “For ye are not any longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” And again he says, “Though in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.” “For ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 437, footnote 4 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter XXIII.—The Same Subject Continued. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2902 (In-Text, Margin)

On this wise it is possible for the Gnostic already to have become God. “I said, Ye are gods, and[Psalms 82:6] sons of the highest.” And Empedocles says that the souls of the wise become gods, writing as follows:—

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 275, footnote 15 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)

Book I. Wherein is described the god of Marcion.  He is shown to be utterly wanting in all the attributes of the true God. (HTML)
Other Beings Besides God are in Scripture Called God. This Objection Frivolous, for It is Not a Question of Names. The Divine Essence is the Thing at Issue. Heresy, in Its General Terms, Thus Far Treated. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2402 (In-Text, Margin)

But this argument you will try to shake with an objection from the name of God, by alleging that that name is a vague one, and applied to other beings also; as it is written, “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; He judgeth among the gods.” And again, “I have said, Ye are gods.”[Psalms 82:6] As therefore the attribute of supremacy would be inappropriate to these, although they are called gods, so is it to the Creator. This is a foolish objection; and my answer to it is, that its author fails to consider that quite as strong an objection might be urged against the (superior) god of Marcion: he too is called god, but is not on that account ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 480, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Against Hermogenes. (HTML)

Hermogenes Coquets with His Own Argument, as If Rather Afraid of It. After Investing Matter with Divine Qualities, He Tries to Make It Somehow Inferior to God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6183 (In-Text, Margin)

... alone. For so will it belong to Himself if it belong to Him alone; and therefore it will be impossible that another god should be admitted, when it is permitted to no other being to possess anything of God. Well, then, you say, we ourselves at that rate possess nothing of God. But indeed we do, and shall continue to do—only it is from Him that we receive it, and not from ourselves. For we shall be even gods, if we, shall deserve to be among those of whom He declared, “I have said, Ye are gods,”[Psalms 82:6] and, “God standeth in the congregation of the gods.” But this comes of His own grace, not from any property in us, because it is He alone who can make gods. The property of Matter, however, he makes to be that which it has in common with God. ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 608, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Against Praxeas. (HTML)

The Force of Sundry Passages of Scripture Illustrated in Relation to the Plurality of Persons and Unity of Substance. There is No Polytheism Here, Since the Unity is Insisted on as a Remedy Against Polytheism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7912 (In-Text, Margin)

... think words ought to be taken and understood in the sense in which they are written, especially when they are not expressed in allegories and parables, but in determinate and simple declarations? If, indeed, you follow those who did not at the time endure the Lord when showing Himself to be the Son of God, because they would not believe Him to be the Lord, then (I ask you) call to mind along with them the passage where it is written, “I have said, Ye are gods, and ye are children of the Most High;”[Psalms 82:6] and again, “God standeth in the congregation of gods;” in order that, if the Scripture has not been afraid to designate as gods human beings, who have become sons of God by faith, you may be sure that the same Scripture has with greater propriety ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 52, footnote 1 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)

Book V. (HTML)
Naasseni Ascribe Their System, Through Mariamne, to James the Lord's Brother; Really Traceable to the Ancient Mysteries; Their Psychology as Given in the “Gospel According to Thomas;” Assyrian Theory of the Soul; The Systems of the Naasseni and the Assyrians Compared; Support Drawn by the Naasseni from the Phrygian and Egyptian Mysteries; The Mysteries of Isis; These Mysteries Allegorized by the Naasseni. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 376 (In-Text, Margin)

This, he says, is ocean, “generation of gods and generation of men” ever whirled round by the eddies of water, at one time upwards, at another time downwards. But he says there ensues a generation of men when the ocean flows downwards; but when upwards to the wall and fortress and the cliff of Luecas, a generation of gods takes place. This, he asserts, is that which has been written: “I said, Ye are gods, and all children of the highest;”[Psalms 82:6] “If ye hasten to fly out of Egypt, and repair beyond the Red Sea into the wilderness,” that is, from earthly intercourse to the Jerusalem above, which is the mother of the living; “If, moreover, again you return into Egypt,” that is, into earthly intercourse, “ye shall die as ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 518, footnote 13 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
That Christ is God. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 3981 (In-Text, Margin)

... Also in the Apocalypse: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end: I will give to him that is athirst, of the fountain of living water freely. He that overcometh shall possess these things, and their inheritance; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” Also in the eighty-first Psalm: “God stood in the congregation of gods, and judging gods in the midst.” And again in the same place: “I have said, Ye are gods; and ye are all the children of the Highest: but ye shall die like men.”[Psalms 82:6-7] But if they who have been righteous, and have obeyed the divine precepts, may be called gods, how much more is Christ, the Son of God, God! Thus He Himself says in the Gospel according to John: “Is it not written in the law, that I said, Ye are ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 410, footnote 2 (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. IV.—On the Management of the Resources Collected for the Support of the Clergy, and the Relief of the Poor (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2724 (In-Text, Margin)

... knowledge, the mediator between God and you in the several parts of your divine worship. He is the teacher of piety; and, next after God, he is your father, who has begotten you again to the adoption of sons by water and the Spirit. He is your ruler and governor; he is your king and potentate; he is, next after God, your earthly god, who has a right to be honoured by you. For concerning him, and such as he, it is that God pronounces, “I have said, Ye are gods; and ye are all children of the Most High.”[Psalms 82:6] And, “Ye shall not speak evil of the gods.” For let the bishop preside over you as one honoured with the authority of God, which he is to exercise over the clergy, and by which he is to govern all the people. But let the deacon minister to him, as ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 412, footnote 1 (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. IV.—On the Management of the Resources Collected for the Support of the Clergy, and the Relief of the Poor (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2739 (In-Text, Margin)

... gives it so that it must tend to the reproach of the bishop, and he accuses him as careless of the distressed. But he that casts reproach on his bishop, either by word or deed, opposes God, not hearkening to what He says: “Thou shalt not speak evil of the gods.” For He did not make that law concerning deities of wood and of stone, which are abominable, because they are falsely called gods, but concerning the priests and the judges, to whom He also said, “Ye are gods, and children of the Most High.”[Psalms 82:6]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 178, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Of those who allege a distinction among demons, some being good and others evil. (HTML)

That the Name of Gods is Falsely Given to the Gods of the Gentiles, Though Scripture Applies It Both to the Holy Angels and Just Men. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 367 (In-Text, Margin)

... those whom the nations count gods, in other words, demons. By them He is to be feared with that terror in which they cried to the Lord, “Hast Thou come to destroy us?” But where it is said, “the God of gods,” it cannot be understood as the god of the demons; and far be it from us to say that “great King above all gods” means “great King above all demons.” But the same Scripture also calls men who belong to God’s people “gods:” “I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you children of the Most High.”[Psalms 82:6] Accordingly, when God is styled God of gods, this may be understood of these gods; and so, too, when He is styled a great King above all gods.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 181, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Porphyry’s doctrine of redemption. (HTML)

That the Platonists Themselves Have Determined that God Alone Can Confer Happiness Either on Angels or Men, But that It Yet Remains a Question Whether Those Spirits Whom They Direct Us to Worship, that We May Obtain Happiness, Wish Sacrifice to Be Offered to Themselves, or to the One God Only. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 375 (In-Text, Margin)

... lang="EL">λατρεία, and in Latin “servitus” [service], but the service due to God only; this worship, which in Greek is called θρησκεία, and in Latin “religio,” but the religion by which we are bound to God only; this worship, which they call θεοσέβεια, but which we cannot express in one word, but call it the worship of God,—this, we say, belongs only to that God who is the true God, and who makes His worshippers gods.[Psalms 82:6] And therefore, whoever these immortal and blessed inhabitants of heaven be, if they do not love us, and wish us to be blessed, then we ought not to worship them; and if they do love us and desire our happiness, they cannot wish us to be made happy ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 305, footnote 1 (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)

Whether We are to Believe that Angels, Who are of a Spiritual Substance, Fell in Love with the Beauty of Women, and Sought Them in Marriage, and that from This Connection Giants Were Born. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 850 (In-Text, Margin)

... name” sons of God.” And Aquila, whom the Jews prefer to the other interpreters, has translated neither angels of God nor sons of God, but sons of gods. But both are correct. For they were both sons of God, and thus brothers of their own fathers, who were children of the same God; and they were sons of gods, because begotten by gods, together with whom they themselves also were gods, according to that expression of the psalm: “I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.”[Psalms 82:6] For the Septuagint translators are justly believed to have received the Spirit of prophecy; so that, if they made any alterations under His authority, and did not adhere to a strict translation, we could not doubt that this was divinely dictated. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 23, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

The unity and equality of the Trinity are demonstrated out of the Scriptures; and the true interpretation is given of those texts which are wrongly alleged against the equality of the Son. (HTML)
That the Son is Very God, of the Same Substance with the Father. Not Only the Father, But the Trinity, is Affirmed to Be Immortal. All Things are Not from the Father Alone, But Also from the Son. That the Holy Spirit is Very God, Equal with the Father and the Son. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 51 (In-Text, Margin)

13. Similar evidence has been collected also concerning the Holy Spirit, of which those who have discussed the subject before ourselves have most fully availed themselves, that He too is God, and not a creature. But if not a creature, then not only God (for men likewise are called gods[Psalms 82:6]), but also very God; and therefore absolutely equal with the Father and the Son, and in the unity of the Trinity consubstantial and co-eternal. But that the Holy Spirit is not a creature is made quite plain by that passage above all others, where we are commanded not to serve the creature, but the Creator; not in the sense in which we are commanded to ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 327, footnote 11 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

A Treatise on Faith and the Creed. (HTML)

Of the Holy Spirit and the Mystery of the Trinity. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1592 (In-Text, Margin)

... interrogated on the subject of each separately, and if the question be put to us, “Is the Father God?” we shall reply, “He is God.” If it be asked whether the Son is God, we shall answer to the same effect. Nor, if this kind of inquiry be addressed to us with respect to the Holy Spirit, ought we to affirm in reply that He is anything else than God; being earnestly on our guard, [however], against an acceptance of this merely in the sense in which it is applied to men, when it is said, “Ye are gods.”[Psalms 82:6] For of all those who have been made and fashioned of the Father, through the Son, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, none are gods according to nature. For it is this same Trinity that is signified when an apostle says, “For of Him, and in Him, and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 39, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)

On the Latter Part of Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Contained in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of Matthew. (HTML)

Chapter IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 272 (In-Text, Margin)

... i.e. still living according to the flesh. I say this, however, inasmuch as they received the commands of the law, which they were ordered to observe: for the prophets often show that this same Lord of ours might have been their Father also, if they had not strayed from His commandments: as, for instance, we have that statement, “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me;” and that other, “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High;”[Psalms 82:6] and this again, “If then I be a Father, where is mine honour? and if I be a Master, where is my fear?” and very many other statements, where the Jews are accused of showing by their sin that they did not wish to become sons: those things being left ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 340, 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)

Again on Matt. xiv. 25: Of the Lord walking on the waves of the sea, and of Peter tottering. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2574 (In-Text, Margin)

... commended; and calleth him Satan, whom he had pronounced “blessed.” “Get thee behind Me, Satan,” he saith, “thou art an offence unto Me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” What would He have us do in our present state, who thus findeth fault because we are men? Would you know what He would have us do? Give ear to the Psalm; “I have said, Ye are gods, and ye are all the children of the Most High.” But by savouring the things of men; “ye shall die like men.”[Psalms 82:6-7] The very same Peter a little while before blessed, afterwards Satan, in one moment, within a few words! Thou wonderest at the difference of the names, mark the difference of the reasons of them. Why wonderest thou that he who was a little before ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 355, footnote 8 (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. xviii. 7, where we are admonished to beware of the offences of the world. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2719 (In-Text, Margin)

... one.” Why? Because they wished to be sons of men. But in order that he might deliver them from these iniquities, cure, heal, change, the sons of men; “he gave them power to become the sons of God.” What marvel then! Ye were men, if we were the sons of men; ye were all men, and were liars, for, “All men are liars.” The grace of God came to you, and “gave you power to become the sons of God.” Hear the voice of My Father saying, “I have said, Ye are gods; and ye are all the children of the Most High.”[Psalms 82:6] Since then they are men, and the sons of men, if they are not the children of the Most High, they are liars, for, “all men are liars.” If they are the sons of God, if they have been redeemed by the Saviour’s grace, if purchased with His precious ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 411, footnote 5 (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, Mark xiii. 32, ‘But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.’ (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3178 (In-Text, Margin)

2. And how have we in the Psalm sung unto the Lord, “Lord, have mercy on me, for man hath trodden me down”? He is called a man who lives after the manner of men. For it is said to them who live after God, “Ye are gods, and ye are all the children of the Most High.”[Psalms 82:6] But to the reprobate, who were called to be the sons of God, and who wished rather to be men, that is, to live after the manner of men, he says, “But ye shall die like men, and fall as one of the princes.” For that man is mortal, ought to avail for his instruction, not for boasting. Whereupon does a worm that is to die on the morrow boast himself? I speak to your ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 437, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

On the words of the Gospel, Luke xii. 15, ‘And he said unto them, take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness.’ (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3394 (In-Text, Margin)

... to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.” Just case, short case. But let us hear Him who at once gives judgment and instruction. “Man,” He saith. “O man;” for seeing thou valuest this inheritance so highly, what art thou but a man? He wished to make him something more than man. What more did He wish to make him, from whom He wished to take covetousness away? What more did He wish to make him? I will tell you, “I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.”[Psalms 82:6] Lo, what He wished to make him, to reckon him that hath no covetousness among the “gods.” “Man, who made Me a divider among you?” So the Apostle Paul His servant, when he said, “I beseech you, brethren, that ye all speak the same thing, and that ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 477, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

Again in John v. 2, etc., on the five porches, where lay a great multitude of impotent folk, and of the pool of Siloa. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3696 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Lord Jesus Christ came? The Lord’s Passion was the troubling of the water. For the Jews were troubled when the Lord suffered. See, what was just now read had relation to this troubling. “The Jews wished to kill Him, not only because He did these things on the sabbaths, but because He called Himself the Son of God, making Himself equal with God.” For Christ called Himself the Son after one manner, in another was it said to men, “I said, Ye are Gods, and ye are all children of the Most High.”[Psalms 82:6] For if He had made Himself the Son of God in such sort as any man whatever may be called the son of God (for by the grace of God men are called sons of God); the Jews would not have been enraged. But because they understand Him to call Himself the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 8, footnote 4 (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. 1–5. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 9 (In-Text, Margin)

... In so far as he had begun to be an angel. For all saints are angels, since they are messengers of God. Therefore to carnal and natural men, who are not able to perceive the things that are of God, what says the apostle? “For whereas ye say, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, are ye not men?” What did he wish to make them whom he upbraided because they were men? Do you wish to know what he wished to make them? Hear in the Psalms: “I have said, ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High.”[Psalms 82:6] To this, then, God calls us, that we be not men. But then will it be for the better that we be not men, if first we recognize the fact that we are men, that is, to the end that we may rise to that height from humility; lest, when we think that we ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 268, 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 X. 22–42. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 954 (In-Text, Margin)

9. But see what answer the Lord gave to their dull apprehension. He saw that they could not bear the brilliance of the truth, and He tempered it with words. “Is it not written in your law,” that is, as given to you, “that I said, Ye are gods?”[Psalms 82:6] And the Lord called all the Scriptures generally, the law: although elsewhere He speaks more definitely of the law, distinguishing it from the prophets; as it is said, “The law and the prophets were until John;” and “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Sometimes, however, He divided the same Scriptures into three parts, as where He saith, “All ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 475, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)

1 John II. 12–17. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2130 (In-Text, Margin)

... make place for Charity when she cometh, that ye may love God. Because if love of the world be there, love of God will not be there. Hold fast rather the love of God, that as God is for ever and ever, so ye also may remain for ever and ever: because such is each one as is his love. Lovest thou earth, thou shalt be earth. Lovest thou God, what shall I say? thou shalt be a god? I darenot say it of myself, let us hear the Scriptures: “I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High.”[Psalms 82:6] If then ye would be gods and sons of the Most High, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all the things that are in the world, is the lust of the flesh, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 178, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm L (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1680 (In-Text, Margin)

... account.[Psalms 82:6-7] It is evident then, that He hath called men gods, that are deified of His Grace, not born of His Substance. For He doth justify, who is just through His own self, and not of another; and He doth deify who is God through Himself, not by the partaking ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 413, footnote 10 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXXVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3968 (In-Text, Margin)

... else in your temples, nothing else inspires your prophets than a devil. But what do ye say? We worship Angels, we have Angels as gods. Ye know not altogether what Angels are. Angels worship the one God, and favour not men who wish to worship Angels and not God. For we find Angels of high rank forbidding men to adore them, and commanding them to adore the true God. But when they say Angels, suppose they mean men, since it is said, “I have said, Ye are Gods, and all the children of the Most Highest.”[Psalms 82:6] Whatever man thinks to the contrary, that which was made is not like Him who made it. Except God, whatever else there is in the universe was made by God. What a difference there is between Him who made, and that which was made, who can worthily ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 478, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XCVII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4482 (In-Text, Margin)

... “above all gods”? Who are they? Idols have not life, have not sense: devils have life and sense; but they are evil. What great thing is it that Christ is exalted above devils? He is exalted above devils: but neither is this very great; the heathen gods indeed are devils, but “He is far above all gods.” Even men are styled gods: “I have said, Ye are gods: and ye are all the children of the Most Highest:” again it is written, “God standeth in the congregation of princes: He is a Judge among gods.”[Psalms 82:6] Jesus Christ our Lord is exalted above all: not only above idols, not only above devils; but above all righteous men. Even this is not enough; above all Angels also: for whence otherwise is this, “Worship Him, all ye gods”? “Thou art far exalted ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 257, footnote 1 (Image)

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

Two Homilies on Eutropius. (HTML)

Homily II. After Eutropius having been found outside the Church had been taken captive. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 845 (In-Text, Margin)

... body, seeking also corporeal terms in order that, by borrowing expressions which are familiar to thee, thou who art thus encompassed with a body, mayest be able to think on thoughts which transcend thy understanding. What kind of names hath He received from me, and what kind hath He given to me? He Himself is God, and He hath called me God; with Him is the essential nature as an actual fact, with me only the honour of the name: “I have said ye are gods, and ye are all children of the most highest.”[Psalms 82:6] Here are words, but in the other case there is the actual reality. He hath called me god, for by that name I have received honour. He Himself was called man, he was called Son of man, he was called the Way, the Door, the Rock. These words He ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 319, footnote 10 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)

To John the Œconomus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2084 (In-Text, Margin)

... and they took them wives of them,” and the God of all Himself said to this Prophet “Thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Israel is my son even my first-born.” In the great song he says “Rejoice O ye nations with His people and let all the sons of God be strong in Him;” and by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah He says “I have nourished and brought up sons (children) and they have rebelled against me;” and through the thrice blessed David “I have said ye are gods and all of you are children of the Most High,”[Psalms 82:6] and to the Romans the wise Paul wrote in this manner, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 319, footnote 15 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)

To John the Œconomus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2089 (In-Text, Margin)

If then, because the name of the Christ is common, we ought not to glorify the Christ as God, we shall equally shrink from worshipping Him as Son, since this also is a name which has been bestowed upon many. And why do I say the Son? The very name of God itself has been given by God to many. “The Lord the God of gods hath spoken and called the earth.” And “I have said Ye are gods,”[Psalms 82:6] and “Thou shalt not revile the gods.” Many too have appropriated this name to themselves. The dæmons who have deceived mankind have given this title to idols; whence Jeremiah exclaims, “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth even they shall perish from the earth and from under these ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 38, footnote 7 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

The Incarnation of the Word. (HTML)

On the Incarnation of the Word. (HTML)

Our creation and God's Incarnation most intimately connected. As by the Word man was called from non-existence into being, and further received the grace of a divine life, so by the one fault which forfeited that life they again incurred corruption and untold sin and misery filled the world. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 208 (In-Text, Margin)

... disintegrated and abide in death and corruption. 6. For man is by nature mortal, inasmuch as he is made out of what is not; but by reason of his likeness to Him that is (and if he still preserved this likeness by keeping Him in his knowledge) he would stay his natural corruption, and remain incorrupt; as Wisdom says: “The taking heed to His laws is the assurance of immortality;” but being incorrupt, he would live henceforth as God, to which I suppose the divine Scripture refers, when it says: “I have[Psalms 82:6] said ye are gods, and ye are all sons of the most Highest; but ye die like men, and fall as one of the princes.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 65, footnote 3 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

The Incarnation of the Word. (HTML)

On the Incarnation of the Word. (HTML)

The Word Incarnate, as is the case with the Invisible God, is known to us by His works. By them we recognise His deifying mission. Let us be content to enumerate a few of them, leaving their dazzling plentitude to him who will behold. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 347 (In-Text, Margin)

... be human works or God’s works. 2. And if they be human, let him scoff; but if they are not human, but of God, let him recognise it, and not laugh at what is no matter for scoffing; but rather let him marvel that by so ordinary a means things divine have been manifested to us, and that by death immortality has reached to all, and that by the Word becoming man, the universal Providence has been known, and its Giver and Artificer the very Word of God. 3. For He was made man that we might be made God[Psalms 82:6]; and He manifested Himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality. For while He Himself was in no way injured, being impossible and incorruptible and very ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 311, footnote 3 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

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

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

Discourse I (HTML)
The Importance of the Subject. The Arians affect Scripture language, but their doctrine new, as well as unscriptural. Statement of the Catholic doctrine, that the Son is proper to the Father's substance, and eternal. Restatement of Arianism in contrast, that He is a creature with a beginning: the controversy comes to this issue, whether one whom we are to believe in as God, can be so in name only, and is merely a creature. What pretence then for being indifferent in the controversy? The Arians rely on state patronage, and dare not avow their tenets. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1866 (In-Text, Margin)

9. For, behold, we take divine Scripture, and thence discourse with freedom of the religious Faith, and set it up as a light upon its candlestick, saying:—Very Son of the Father, natural and genuine, proper to His essence, Wisdom Only-begotten, and Very and Only Word of God is He; not a creature or work, but an offspring proper to the Father’s essence. Wherefore He is very God, existing one in essence with the very Father; while other beings, to whom He said, ‘I said ye are Gods[Psalms 82:6],’ had this grace from the Father, only by participation of the Word, through the Spirit. For He is the expression of the Father’s Person, and Light from Light, and Power, and very Image of the Father’s essence. For this too the Lord has said, ‘He that hath ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 24, footnote 2 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Eustochium. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 369 (In-Text, Margin)

... sentence passed upon him, “Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.” For he had said in his heart, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God,” and “I will be like the Most High.” Wherefore God says every day to the angels, as they descend the ladder that Jacob saw in his dream, “I have said ye are Gods and all of you are children of the Most High. But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes.”[Psalms 82:6-7] The devil fell first, and since “God standeth in the congregation of the Gods and judgeth among the Gods,” the apostle writes to those who are ceasing to be Gods—“Whereas there is among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal and walk as men?”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 65, footnote 6 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

On the Words, the Only-Begotten Son of God, Begotten of the Father Very God Before All Ages, by Whom All Things Were Made. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1248 (In-Text, Margin)

To others also the Scripture says, Ye are the sons of the Lord your God: and in another place, I have said, Ye are gods, and ye are all sons of the Most High[Psalms 82:6]. I have said, not, “I have begotten.” They, when God so said, received the sonship, which before they had not: but He was not begotten to be other than He was before; but was begotten from the beginning Son of the Father, being above all beginning and all ages, Son of the Father, in all things like to Him who begat Him, eternal of a Father eternal, Life of Life begotten, and Light of Light, and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 117, footnote 2 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To the Cæsareans.  A defence of his withdrawal, and concerning the faith. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1790 (In-Text, Margin)

... for like and unlike are predicated in relation to quality, and the divine is free from quality. We, on the contrary, confess identity of nature and accepting the consubstantiality, and rejecting the composition of the Father, God in substance, Who begat the Son, God in substance. From this the consubstantiality is proved. For God in essence or substance is co-essential or con-substantial with God in essence or substance. But when even man is called “god” as in the words, “I have said ye are gods,”[Psalms 82:6] and “dæmon” as in the words, “The gods of the nations are dæmons,” in the former case the name is given by favour, in the latter untruly. God alone is substantially and essentially God. When I say “alone” I set forth the holy and uncreated essence ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 203, footnote 2 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book XI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1225 (In-Text, Margin)

... Christ, being in the weakness of our nature, groaned with anguish when the nails pierced His hands, that He lost the virtue of His own power and nature, and shrank shuddering from the death which threatened Him. Another even denies the cardinal doctrine of the Generation and pronounces Him a creature. Another will call Him, but not think Him, God on the ground that religion allows us to speak of more Gods than One, but He, Whom we recognise as God, must be conscious of sharing the divine nature[Psalms 82:6]. Again, how can Christ the Lord be one, when some say that as God He feels no pain, others make Him weak and fearful: to some He is God in name, to others God in nature: to some the Son by Generation, to others the Son by appellation? And if this is ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 207, footnote 1 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book I. (HTML)
Chapter V. The various blasphemies uttered by the Arians against Christ are cited. Before these are replied to, the orthodox are admonished to beware of the captious arguments of philosophers, forasmuch as in these especially did the heretics put their trust. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1745 (In-Text, Margin)

40. Furthermore, the Arians deny that in Godhead He is One with the Father.[Psalms 82:6] Let them annul the Gospel, then, and silence the voice of Christ. For Christ Himself has said: “I and the Father are one.” It is not I who say this: Christ has said it. Is He a deceiver, that He should lie? Is He unrighteous, that He should claim to be what He never was? But of these matters we will deal severally, at greater length, in their proper place.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 239, footnote 4 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Chapter XIII. The wicked and dishonourable opinions held by Arians, Sabellians, and Manichæans as concerning their Judge are shortly refuted. Christ's remonstrances regarding the rest of His adversaries being set forth, St. Ambrose expresses a hope of milder judgment for himself. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2062 (In-Text, Margin)

... Godhead.” To whom the Lord will make answer: “‘The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God’ Of whom, think you, is this said?—of Jew or Gentile, or of the devil. Whosoever he be of whom it is said, O disciple of Photinus, he is more to be borne with, who held his peace; thou, nevertheless, hast dared to lift up thy voice to utter it, that thou mightest be proved more foolish than the fool. Thou deniest My Godhead, whereas I said, ‘Ye are gods, and ye are all the children of the Most Highest?’[Psalms 82:6] And thou deniest Him to be God, Whose godlike works thou seest around thee.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 287, footnote 3 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book V. (HTML)
Chapter I. How impious the Arians are, in attacking that on which human happiness depends. John ever unites the Son with the Father, especially where he says: “That they may know Thee, the only true God, etc.” In that place, then, we must understand the words “true God” also of the Son; for it cannot be denied that He is God, and it cannot be said He is a false god, and least of all that He is God by appellation only. This last point being proved from the Apostle's words, we rightly confess that Christ is true God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2537 (In-Text, Margin)

... God was falsely given to Him. But if they think He is called God because He had an indwelling of the Godhead within Him,—as many holy men were (for the Scripture calls them Gods to whom the word of God came), —they do not place Him before other men, but think He is to be compared with them; so that they consider Him to be the same as He has granted other men to be, even as He says to Moses: “I have made thee a god unto Pharaoh.” Wherefore it is also said in the Psalms: “I have said, ye are gods.”[Psalms 82:6]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 388, footnote 1 (Image)

Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat

Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)

Aphrahat:  Select Demonstrations. (HTML)

Of Christ the Son of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1048 (In-Text, Margin)

... children of the Lord your God. And about Solomon He said, He shall be to Me a son, and I will be to him a Father. So also we call the Christ, the Son of God, for through Him we have gained the knowledge of God; even as He called Israel My firstborn son, and as He said concerning Solomon, He shall be to Me a son. And we call Him God, even as He surnamed Moses by His own Name. And also David said concerning them:— Ye are Gods and children of the Highest, all of you.[Psalms 82:6] And when they amended not themselves, therefore He said concerning them:— As men shall ye die, and as one of the princes shall ye fall.

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs