Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Ecclesiastes 10:4
There are 9 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 329, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
On the Opposing Powers. (HTML)
... deceive (Achab), and to work a lie, in order that the Lord might mislead the king to his death, for he deserved to suffer. In the first book of Chronicles also it is said, “The devil, Satan, stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number the people.” In the Psalms, moreover, an evil angel is said to harass certain persons. In the book of Ecclesiastes, too, Solomon says, “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for soundness will restrain many transgressions.”[Ecclesiastes 10:4] In Zechariah we read that the devil stood on the right hand of Joshua, and resisted him. Isaiah says that the sword of the Lord arises against the dragon, the crooked serpent. And what shall I say of Ezekiel, who in his second vision prophesies most ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 331, footnote 10 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
On the Opposing Powers. (HTML)
... confirmed by the testimony of holy Scripture. That, then, thoughts arise within ourselves, David testifies in the Psalms, saying, “The thought of a man will make confession to Thee, and the rest of the thought shall observe to Thee a festival day.” That this, however, is also brought about by the opposing powers, is shown by Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes in the following manner: “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for soundness restrains great offences.”[Ecclesiastes 10:4] The Apostle Paul also will bear testimony to the same point in the words: “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowl edge of Christ.” That it is an effect due to God, nevertheless, is declared by David, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 504, footnote 5 (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 II (HTML)
His confession of faith is unsatisfactory. No one asked him about the Trinity, but about Origen's doctrines of the Resurrection, the origin of souls, and the salvability of Satan. As to the Resurrection and to Satan he is ambiguous. As to souls he professes ignorance. (HTML)
... also the Apostle says; “Such men I delivered to Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme.” He delivered to Satan as to a torturer, with a view to their punishment, those who, before they had been delivered to him learned to blaspheme by their own will. David also draws the distinction in a few words between the faults due to his own will and the incentives of vice when he says “Cleanse thou me from my secret faults, and keep back thy servant from alien sins.” We read also in Ecclesiastes[Ecclesiastes 10:4] “If the spirit of a ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place;” from which we may clearly see that we commit sin if we give opportunity to the power which rises up, and if we fail to hurl down headlong the enemy who is scaling our walls. As to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 33, footnote 10 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 547 (In-Text, Margin)
... that you should refuse, and say: “I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?” Arise forthwith and open. Otherwise while you linger He may pass on and you may have mournfully to say: “I opened to my beloved, but my beloved was gone.” Why need the doors of your heart be closed to the Bridegroom? Let them be open to Christ but closed to the devil according to the saying: “If the spirit of him who hath power rise up against thee, leave not thy place.”[Ecclesiastes 10:4] Daniel, in that upper story to which he withdrew when he could no longer continue below, had his windows open toward Jerusalem. Do you too keep your windows open, but only on the side where light may enter and whence you may see the eye of the Lord. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 265, footnote 12 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Demetrius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3675 (In-Text, Margin)
8. In speaking thus I do not wish to utter an ill-omened prophecy against you but only to warn you as an apprehensive and prudent monitor who in your case fears even what is safe. What says the scripture? “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place.”[Ecclesiastes 10:4] We must always stand under arms and in battle array, ready to engage the foe. When he tries to dislodge us from our position and to make us fall back, we must plant our feet firmly down, and say with the psalmist, “he hath set my feet upon a rock” and “the rocks are a refuge for the conies.” In this latter passage for ‘conies’ many read ‘hedgehogs.’ Now the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 266, footnote 2 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Demetrius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3687 (In-Text, Margin)
But let us turn back to the passage first quoted, “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place,” a sentence which is followed by these words: “for yielding pacifieth great offences.”[Ecclesiastes 10:4] The meaning is, that if the serpent finds his way into your thoughts you must “keep your heart with all diligence” and sing with David, “cleanse thou me from secret faults: keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins,” and come not to “the great transgression” which is sin in act. Rather slay the allurements to vice while they are still only thoughts; and dash the little ones of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 8, footnote 10 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On Repentance and Remission of Sins, and Concerning the Adversary. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 501 (In-Text, Margin)
3. Yet thou art not the sole author of the evil, but there is also another most wicked prompter, the devil. He indeed suggests, but does not get the mastery by force over those who do not consent. Therefore saith the Preacher, If the spirit of him that hath power rise up against thee, quit not thy place[Ecclesiastes 10:4]. Shut thy door, and put him far from thee, and he shall not hurt thee. But if thou indifferently admit the thought of lust, it strikes root in thee by its suggestions, and enthrals thy mind, and drags thee down into a pit of evils.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 304, footnote 12 (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 I. First Conference of Abbot Moses. (HTML)
Chapter XIX. Of the three origins of our thoughts. (HTML)
... into an angel of light to us: as when the evangelist tells us: “And when supper was ended, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray” the Lord: and again also “after the sop,” he says, “Satan entered into him.” Peter also says to Ananias: “Why hath Satan tempted thine heart, to lie to the Holy Ghost?” And that which we read in the gospel much earlier as predicted by Ecclesiastes: “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place.”[Ecclesiastes 10:4] That too which is said to God against Ahab in the third book of Kings, in the character of an unclean spirit: “I will go forth and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.” But they arise from ourselves, when in the course of nature ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 367, footnote 5 (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 VII. First Conference of Abbot Serenus. On Inconstancy of Mind, and Spiritual Wickedness. (HTML)
Chapter XIV. An objection, as to how we ought to believe that devils see into the thoughts of men. (HTML)
Germanus: In this way, which you describe, those spirits cannot possibly see into our thoughts. But we think it utterly absurd to hold such an opinion, when Scripture says: “If the spirit of him that hath power ascend upon thee;”[Ecclesiastes 10:4] and again: “When the devil had put it into the heart of Simon Iscariot to betray the Lord.” How then can we believe that our thoughts are not open to them, when we feel that for the most part they spring up and are nursed by their suggestions and instigation?