Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Proverbs 3:18

There are 7 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 461, footnote 4 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book V (HTML)
Chapter XI.—Abstraction from Material Things Necessary in Order to Attain to the True Knowledge of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3075 (In-Text, Margin)

... the divine prudence, called it the tree of life planted in Paradise; which Paradise may be the world in which all things proceeding from creation grow. In it also the Word blossomed and bore fruit, being “made flesh,” and gave life to those “who had tasted of His graciousness;” since it was not without the wood of the tree that He came to our knowledge. For our life was hung on it, in order that we might believe. And Solomon again says: “She is a tree of immortality to those who take hold of her.”[Proverbs 3:18] “Behold, I set before thy face life and death, to love the Lord thy God, and to walk in His ways, and hear His voice, and trust in life. But if ye transgress the statutes and the judgments which I have given you, ye shall be ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 346, footnote 4 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Methodius. (HTML)

The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity. (HTML)

Tusiane. (HTML)
How Each One Ought to Prepare Himself for the Future Resurrection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2769 (In-Text, Margin)

Such fruit it is necessary that we bring when we come to the judgment-seat of Christ, on the first day of the feast; for if we are without it we shall not be able to feast with God, nor to have part, according to John, in the first resurrection. For the tree of life is wisdom first begotten of all. “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her,” says the prophet;[Proverbs 3:18] “and happy is every one that retaineth her.” “A tree planted by the waterside, that will bring forth his fruit in due season;” that is, learning and charity and discretion are imparted in due time to those who come to the waters of redemption.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 256, footnote 1 (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)

That the Flesh Now Resting in Peace Shall Be Raised to a Perfection Not Enjoyed by the Flesh of Our First Parents. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 606 (In-Text, Margin)

... they took that their animal bodies might not suffer the discomfort of hunger or thirst; but they tasted the tree of life, that death might not steal upon them from any quarter, and that they might not, spent with age, decay. Other fruits were, so to speak, their nourishment, but this their sacrament. So that the tree of life would seem to have been in the terrestrial Paradise what the wisdom of God is in the spiritual, of which it is written, “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her.”[Proverbs 3:18]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 447, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Of the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the Old and New Testaments. (HTML)

Of the Sacrifices Offered to God by the Saints, Which are to Be Pleasing to Him, as in the Primitive Days and Former Years. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1464 (In-Text, Margin)

But if any one contends that those days of the tree of life mentioned by the prophet Isaiah are the present times of the Church of Christ, and that Christ Himself is prophetically called the Tree of Life, because He is Wisdom, and of wisdom Solomon says, “It is a tree of life to all who embrace it;”[Proverbs 3:18] and if they maintain that our first parents did not pass years in paradise, but were driven from it so soon that none of their children were begotten there, and that therefore that time cannot be alluded to in words which run, “as in the primitive days, and as in former years,” I forbear entering on this question, lest by discussing ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 58, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

Adam and Eve; Obedience Most Strongly Enjoined by God on Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 589 (In-Text, Margin)

... to them, and which, by its especial virtue, prevented even their animal bodies from undergoing change through the decay of age, and from aging into death, applying this benefit from its own body to the man’s body, and in a mystery demonstrating what is conferred by wisdom (which it symbolized) on the rational soul, even that, quickened by its fruit, it should not be changed into the decay and death of iniquity? For of her it is rightly said, “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold of her.”[Proverbs 3:18] Just as the one tree was for the bodily Paradise, the other is for the spiritual; the one affording a vigour to the senses of the outward man, the other to those of the inner man, such as will abide without any change for the worse through time. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 239, footnote 4 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

Homilies on Psalms I., LIII., CXXX. (HTML)

Homilies on the Psalms. (HTML)
Homily on Psalm I. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1371 (In-Text, Margin)

... lawgiver depicts the paradise planted by God, we are shewn that every tree is fair to look upon and good for food; it is also stated that there stands in the midst of the garden a tree of Life and a tree of the knowledge of good and evil; next that the garden is watered by a stream that afterwards divides into four heads. The Prophet Solomon teaches us what this tree of Life is in his exhortation concerning Wisdom: She is a tree of life to all them that lay hold upon her, and lean upon her[Proverbs 3:18]. This tree then is living; and not only living, but, furthermore, guided by reason; guided by reason, that is, in so far as to yield fruit, and that not casually nor unseasonably, but in its own season. And this tree is planted beside the rills of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 223, footnote 6 (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)

Ephraim Syrus:  Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh. (HTML)

Hymn I. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 360 (In-Text, Margin)

Risen is the Light of the kingdom, in Ephrata the city of the King. The blessing wherewith Jacob blessed, to its fulfilment came to-day! That tree likewise, [the tree] of life, brings hope to mortal men! Solomon’s hidden proverb[Proverbs 3:18] had to-day its explanation! To-day was born the Child, and His name was called Wonder! For a wonder it is that God as a Babe should show Himself. By the word Worm did the Spirit foreshow Him in parable, because His generation was without marriage. The type that the Holy Ghost figured to-day its meaning was [explained.] He came up as a root before Him, as a root of parched ground. ...

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