Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Proverbs 25
There are 23 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 176, footnote 3 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)
Exegetical. (HTML)
On the Song of Songs. (HTML)
... Wisdom, and Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. What then? Does the Scripture speak falsely? God forbid. But the matter of his writings was various, as is shown in the phrase “Song of Songs;” for that indicates that in this one book he digested the contents of the 5,000 songs. In the days moreover of Hezekiah, there were some of the books selected for use, and others set aside. Whence the Scripture says, “These are the mixed Proverbs of Solomon, which the friends of Hezekiah the king copied out.”[Proverbs 25:1] And whence did they take them, but out of the books containing the 3,000 parables and the 5,000 songs? Out of these, then, the wise friends of Hezekiah took those portions which bore upon the edification of the Church. And the books of Solomon on ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 531, footnote 9 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
... do it in the sight of the most high God.” On this same subject in Solomon in Proverbs: “He that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord.” Also in the same place: “He that giveth to the poor shall never want; but he who turns away his eye shall be in much penury.” Also in the same place: “Sins are purged away by alms-giving and faith.” Again, in the same place: “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; and if he thirst, give him to drink: for by doing this thou shalt scatter live coals upon his head.”[Proverbs 25:21] Again, in the same place: “As water extinguishes fire, so alms-giving extinguishes sin.” In the same in Proverbs: “Say not, Go away, and return, to-morrow I will give; when you can do good immediately. For thou knowest not what may happen on the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 59, footnote 8 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Two Epistles Concerning Virginity. (HTML)
The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle. (HTML)
Perniciousness of Idleness; Warning Against the Empty Longing to Be Teachers; Advice About Teaching and the Use of Divine Gifts. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 396 (In-Text, Margin)
... teachers among you, my brethren, and be not all of you prophets.” For “he who does not transgress in word is a perfect man, able to keep down and subjugate his whole body.” And, “If a man speak, let him speak in the words of God.” And, “If there is in thee understanding, give an answer to thy brother but if not, put thy hand on thy mouth.” For, “at one time it is proper to keep silence, and at another thee to speak.” And again it says “When a man speaks in season, it is honourable to him.”[Proverbs 25:11] And again it says: “Let your speech be seasoned with grace. For it is required of a man to know how to give an answer to every one in season.” For “he that utters whatsoever comes to his mouth, that man produces strife; and he that utters a ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 422, footnote 11 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)
Book X. (HTML)
The Disciples as Scribes. (HTML)
... treasure-house—in heaven, in which he stores his treasure as one who has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven,—where neither moth doth consume, nor thieves break through. And in regard to him, who, as we have said, lays up treasure in heaven, we may truly lay down that not one moth of the passions can touch his spiritual and heavenly possessions. “A moth of the passions,” I said, taking the suggestion from the “Proverbs” in which it is written, “a worm in wood, so pain woundeth the heart of man.”[Proverbs 25:20] For pain is a worm and a moth, which wounds the heart which has not its treasures in heaven and spiritual things, for if a man has his treasure in these—“for where the treasure is, there will the heart be also,” —he has his heart in heaven, and on ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 563, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
On Christian Doctrine (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Rule for Interpreting Commands and Prohibitions. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1868 (In-Text, Margin)
... blood, ye have no life in you.” This seems to enjoin a crime or a vice; it is therefore a figure, enjoining that we should have a share in the sufferings of our Lord, and that we should retain a sweet and profitable memory of the fact that His flesh was wounded and crucified for us. Scripture says: “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink;” and this is beyond doubt a command to do a kindness. But in what follows, “for in so doing thou shall heap coals of fire on his head,”[Proverbs 25:21-22] one would think a deed of malevolence was enjoined. Do not doubt, then, that the expression is figurative; and, while it is possible to interpret it in two ways, one pointing to the doing of an injury, the other to a display of superiority, let ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 250, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus is willing to admit that Christ may have said that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them; but if He did, it was to pacify the Jews and in a modified sense. Augustin replies, and still further elaborates the Catholic view of prophecy and its fulfillment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 719 (In-Text, Margin)
... Against adultery in the heart, "Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife." It is not, "Thou shall not commit adultery;" but, "Thou shall not covet." The apostle, in quoting this, says: "I had not known lust, unless the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Regarding patience in not offering resistance, a man is praised who "giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him, and who is filled full with reproach." Of love to enemies it is said: "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink."[Proverbs 25:21] This also is quoted by the apostle. In the Psalm, too, it is said, "I was a peace maker among them that hated peace;" and in many similar passages. In connection also with our imitating God in refraining from taking revenge, and in loving even the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 36, footnote 1 (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 II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 253 (In-Text, Margin)
... Himself, when His enemies the Jews were standing round, mercifully heal men? why did the Apostle Peter, by healing the lame man whom he pitied at the gate Beautiful, bring also the wrath of the enemy upon himself, and upon the other disciples of Christ? Then, further, if it is necessary that the enemy should not know when we do our alms, how shall we do with the enemy himself so as to fulfil that precept, “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”?[Proverbs 25:21]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 230, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily to Those Who Had Not Attended the Assembly: and on the Apostolic Saying, 'If Thine Enemy Hunger, Feed Him, Etc. (Rom. xii. 20), and Concerning Resentment of Injuries.' (HTML)
To Those Who Had Not Attended the Assembly. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 760 (In-Text, Margin)
... onerous was accomplished under the Old Dispensation when the manifestation of spiritual wisdom was not so great as it is now. For this reason also Paul did not introduce the law in his own words, but used the very expressions which were employed by him who originally brought it in, that he might leave no room for excuse to those who do not observe it: for the precept “if thine enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst give him drink” is not the utterance of Paul in the first instance, but of Solomon.[Proverbs 25:21-22] For this reason he quoted the words that he might persuade the hearer that for one who has been advanced to such a high standard of wisdom to regard an old law as onerous and grievous which was often fulfilled by the men of old time, is one of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 122, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians. (HTML)
Homilies on Ephesians. (HTML)
Ephesians 4.31 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 355 (In-Text, Margin)
... not proof against his malice, I am afraid lest he should take me who am a simple man, and unable to foresee any of his schemes, and throw me into his snares, and entangle us in the toils which he has set to deceive us.” Now I cannot but smile. And why forsooth? Because these are the arguments of children, who fear things which are not to be feared. Surely there is nothing we ought so to despise, nothing we ought so to laugh to scorn, as a bitter and malicious man. For there is nothing so powerless[Proverbs 25:28] as bitterness. It makes men fools and senseless.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 139, footnote 1 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Defence Against the Arians. (Apologia Contra Arianos.) (HTML)
Apologia Contra Arianos. (Defence Against the Arians.) (HTML)
Part II (HTML)
Documents connected with the Council of Tyre. (HTML)
Knowing that which is written, ‘Speak that thine eyes have seen,’ and, ‘A false witness shall not be unpunished[Proverbs 25:7] ’, we testify what we have seen, especially since the conspiracy which has been formed against our Bishop Athanasius has made our testimony necessary. We wonder how Ischyras ever came to be reckoned among the number of the Ministers of the Church, which is the first point we think it necessary to mention. Ischyras never was a Minister of the Church; but when formerly he represented himself to be a Presbyter of Colluthus, he found no one to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 240, footnote 1 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Apology to the Emperor. (Apologia Ad Constantium.) (HTML)
Apology to the Emperor. (Apologia Ad Constantium.) (HTML)
No possible time or place for the alleged offence. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1302 (In-Text, Margin)
Now what place and time does my accuser specify, at which I made use of these expressions according to his slanderous imputation? In whose presence was I so mad as to give utterance to the words which he has falsely charged me with speaking? Who is there ready to support the charge, and to testify to the fact? What his own eyes have seen that ought he to speak[Proverbs 25:7], as holy Scripture enjoins. But no; he will find no witnesses of that which never took place. But I take your Piety to witness, together with the Truth, that I lie not. I request you, for I know you to be a person of excellent memory, to call to mind the conversation I had with you, when you condescended to see me, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 242, footnote 12 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Apology to the Emperor. (Apologia Ad Constantium.) (HTML)
Apology to the Emperor. (Apologia Ad Constantium.) (HTML)
Truth the defence of Thrones. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1327 (In-Text, Margin)
... craft of Laban towards Jacob was shewn in his countenance. And thus you see the suspicious alarm of these persons, for they fly and hide themselves; but on our part frankness in making our defence. And the question between us is not one regarding worldly wealth, but concerning the honour of the Church. He that has been struck by a stone, applies to a physician; but sharper than a stone are the strokes of calumny; for as Solomon has said, ‘A false witness is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow[Proverbs 25:18],’ and its wounds Truth alone is able to cure; and if Truth be set at nought, they grow worse and worse.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 549, 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 348.) Coss. Philippus, Salia; Præfect the same Nestorius; Indict. vi; Easter-day iii Non. Apr., viii Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 64; Moon 18. (HTML)
... shall find Him ready as the morning, and He will come to us as the early and the latter rain for the earth.’ For not only does He satisfy them in the morning; neither does He give them only as much to drink as they ask; but He gives them abundantly according to the multitude of His lovingkindness, vouchsafing to them at all times the grace of the Spirit. And what it is they thirst for He immediately adds, saying, ‘He that believeth on Me.’ For, ‘as cold waters are pleasant to those who are thirsty[Proverbs 25:25],’ according to the proverb, so to those who believe in the Lord, the coming of the Spirit is better than all refreshment and delight.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 563, 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)
Personal Letters. (HTML)
First Letter to Monks. (Written 358-360). (HTML)
2. Considering therefore how it is written in the Book of Ecclesiastes, ‘I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me; That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who shall find it out?’ and what is said in the Psalms, ‘The knowledge of Thee is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it;’ and that Solomon says, ‘It is the glory of God to conceal a thing[Proverbs 25:2];’ I frequently designed to stop and to cease writing; believe me, I did. But lest I should be found to disappoint you, or by my silence to lead into impiety those who have made enquiry of you, and are given to disputation, I constrained myself to write briefly, what I have now sent to your piety. For although a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 251, footnote 5 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Rusticus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3493 (In-Text, Margin)
... given to detraction, but how can I check others who are?’ If we put forward such a plea as this it can only be that we may “practise wicked works with men that work iniquity.” Yet Christ is not deceived by this device. It is not I but an apostle who says: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked.” “Man looketh upon the outward appearance but the Lord looketh upon the heart.” And in the proverbs Solomon tells us that as “the north wind driveth away rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.”[Proverbs 25:23] It sometimes happens that an arrow when it is aimed at a hard object rebounds upon the bowman, wounding the would-be wounder, and thus, the words are fulfilled, “they were turned aside like a deceitful bow,” and in another passage: “whoso casteth a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 367, footnote 7 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4440 (In-Text, Margin)
... in wood, so a wicked woman destroyeth her husband.” But if you assert that this was spoken of bad wives, I shall briefly answer: What necessity rests upon me to run the risk of the wife I marry proving good or bad? “It is better,” he says, “to dwell in a desert land, than with a contentious and passionate woman in a wide house.” How seldom we find a wife without these faults, he knows who is married. Hence that sublime orator, Varius Geminus says well “The man who does not quarrel is a bachelor.”[Proverbs 25:24] “It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a contentious woman in a house in common.” If a house common to husband and wife makes a wife proud and breeds contempt for the husband: how much more if the wife be the richer of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 223, footnote 18 (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 2845 (In-Text, Margin)
... antitype of the great mysteries, or clothe myself with the garb and name of priest, before my hands had been consecrated by holy works; before my eyes had been accustomed to gaze safely upon created things, with wonder only for the Creator, and without injury to the creature; before my ear had been sufficiently opened to the instruction of the Lord, and He had opened mine ear to hear without heaviness, and had set a golden earring with precious sardius, that is, a wise man’s word in an obedient ear;[Proverbs 25:12] before my mouth had been opened to draw in the Spirit, and opened wide to be filled with the spirit of speaking mysteries and doctrines; and my lips bound, to use the words of wisdom, by divine knowledge, and, as I would add, loosed in due season: ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 286, footnote 6 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The First Theological Oration. A Preliminary Discourse Against the Eunomians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3397 (In-Text, Margin)
... day, and praise the Lord at every time; or, to use Moses’ words, whether a man lie down, or rise up, or walk by the way, or whatever else he be doing —and by this recollection we are to be moulded to purity. So that it is not the continual remembrance of God that I would hinder, but only the talking about God; nor even that as in itself wrong, but only when unseasonable; nor all teaching, but only want of moderation. As of even honey repletion and satiety, though it be of honey, produce vomiting;[Proverbs 25:16] and, as Solomon says and I think, there is a time for every thing, and that which is good ceases to be good if it be not done in a good way; just as a flower is quite out of season in winter, and just as a man’s dress does not become a woman, nor a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 88, footnote 2 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter XXII. Virtue must never be given up for the sake of a friend. If, however, one has to bear witness against a friend, it must be done with caution. Between friends what candour is needed in opening the heart, what magnanimity in suffering, what freedom in finding fault! Friendship is the guardian of virtues, which are not to be found but in men of like character. It must be mild in rebuking and averse to seeking its own advantage; whence it happens that true friends are scarce among the rich. What is the dignity of friendship? The treachery of a friend, as it is worse, so it is also more hateful than another's, as is recognized from the example of Judas and of Job's friends. (HTML)
126. And Scripture also says: “A maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow, so is a man that beareth false witness against his friend.”[Proverbs 25:18] But note what it adds. It blames not witness given against a friend, but false witness. For what if the cause of God or of one’s country compels one to give witness? Ought friendship to take a higher place than our religion, or our love for our fellow-citizens? In these matters, however, true witness is required so that a friend may not be assailed by the treachery of a friend, by whose good faith he ought to be acquitted. A man, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 264, footnote 1 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)
Book IX. Of the Spirit of Dejection. (HTML)
Chapter II. Of the care with which the malady of dejection must be healed. (HTML)
Wherefore if we are anxious to exert ourselves lawfully in the struggle of our spiritual combat we ought with no less care to set about healing this malady also. For “as the moth injures the garment, and the worm the wood, so dejection the heart of man.”[Proverbs 25:20] With sufficient clearness and appropriateness has the Divine Spirit expressed the force of this dangerous and most injurious fault.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 309, footnote 9 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X. (HTML)
Conference II. Second Conference of Abbot Moses. (HTML)
Chapter IV. What is said of the value of discretion in Holy Scripture. (HTML)
... guidance of our life: as it said “Those who have no guidance, fall like leaves.” It is most truly named counsel, without which the authority of Scripture allows us to do nothing, so that we are not even permitted to take that spiritual “wine which maketh glad the heart of man” without its regulating control: as it is said “Do everything with counsel, drink thy wine with counsel,” and again “like a city that has its walls destroyed and is not fenced in, so is a man who does anything without counsel.”[Proverbs 25:28] And how injurious the absence of this is to a monk, the illustration and figure in the passage quoted shows, by comparing it to a city that is destroyed and without walls. Herein lies wisdom, herein lies intelligence and understanding without which ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 448, footnote 8 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII. (HTML)
Conference XV. The Second Conference of Abbot Nesteros. On Divine Gifts. (HTML)
Chapter VII. How the excellence of gifts consists not in miracles but in humility. (HTML)
... those as good monks or free from the fault of vainglory, who professed themselves exorcists among men, and proclaimed with boastful ostentation among admiring crowds the grace which they had either obtained or which they claimed. But in vain, for “he who trusteth in lies feedeth the winds: and the same runneth after birds that fly away.” For without doubt that will happen to them which we find in Proverbs: “As the winds and clouds and rain are very clear so are these who boast of a fictitious gift.”[Proverbs 25:14] And so if any one does any of these things in our presence, he ought to meet with commendation from us not from admiration of his miracles, but from the beauty of his life, nor should we ask whether the devils are subject to him, but whether he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 459, footnote 6 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII. (HTML)
Conference XVI. The First Conference of Abbot Joseph. On Friendship. (HTML)
Chapter XXVII. How anger should be repressed. (HTML)
... make out that those give place to anger, who go away from a man in a rage, seem to me not to cut off but rather to foment the incitement to quarrelling, for unless a neighbour’s wrath is overcome at once by amends being humbly made, a man provokes rather than avoids it by his flight. And there is something like this that Solomon says: “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be wroth, for anger reposes in the bosom of fools;” and: “Be not quick to rush into a quarrel, lest thou repent thereof at the last.”[Proverbs 25:8] For he does not blame a hasty exhibition of quarrelling and anger in such a way as to praise a tardy one. In the same way too must this be taken: “A fool declares his anger in the very same hour, but a prudent man hides his shame.” For he does not ...