Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Isaiah 5:20
There are 18 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 179, footnote 4 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Justin Martyr (HTML)
The First Apology (HTML)
Chapter XLIX.—His rejection by the Jews foretold. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1870 (In-Text, Margin)
... preached concerning Him, and gave them the prophecies, were filled with joy and faith, and cast away their idols, and dedicated themselves to the Unbegotten God through Christ. And that it was foreknown that these infamous things should be uttered against those who confessed Christ, and that those who slandered Him, and said that it was well to preserve the ancient customs, should be miserable, hear what was briefly said by Isaiah; it is this: “Woe unto them that call sweet bitter, and bitter sweet.”[Isaiah 5:20]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 203, footnote 4 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Justin Martyr (HTML)
Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)
Chapter XVII.—The Jews sent persons through the whole earth to spread calumnies on Christians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1988 (In-Text, Margin)
... Woe unto the wicked! evil shall be rendered to him according to the works of his hands.’ And again, in other words: ‘Woe unto them that draw their iniquity as with a long cord, and their transgressions as with the harness of a heifer’s yoke: who say, Let his speed come near; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put light for darkness, and darkness for light; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!’[Isaiah 5:20] Accordingly, you displayed great zeal in publishing throughout all the land bitter and dark and unjust things against the only blameless and righteous Light sent by God.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 266, footnote 7 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Justin Martyr (HTML)
Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)
Chapter CXXXIII.—The hard-heartedness of the Jews, for whom the Christians pray. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2469 (In-Text, Margin)
... coal of fire, and utterly consumed by the burning flame, their root shall be as wool, and their flower shall go up like dust. For they would not have the law of the Lord of Sabaoth, but despised the word of the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. And the Lord of Sabaoth was very angry, and laid His hands upon them, and smote them; and He was provoked against the mountains, and their carcases were in the midst like dung on the road. And for all this they have not repented, but their hand is still high.’[Isaiah 5:18-25] For verily your hand is high to commit evil, because ye slew the Christ, and do not repent of it; but so far from that, ye hate and murder us who have believed through Him in the God and Father of all, as often as ye can; and ye curse Him without ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 351, footnote 3 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book I (HTML)
Chapter XXV.—Doctrines of Carpocrates. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2950 (In-Text, Margin)
4. So unbridled is their madness, that they declare they have in their power all things which are irreligious and impious, and are at liberty to practise them; for they maintain that things are evil or good, simply in virtue of human opinion.[Isaiah 5:20] They deem it necessary, therefore, that by means of transmigration from body to body, souls should have experience of every kind of life as well as every kind of action (unless, indeed, by a single incarnation, one may be able to prevent any need for others, by once for all, and with equal completeness, doing all those things which we dare not either speak or hear of, nay, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 293, footnote 10 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Chapter XII.—Continuation: with Texts from Scripture. (HTML)
The liars and the proud, too, He threatens; the former thus: “Woe to them that call bitter sweet, and sweet bitter;” and the latter: “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.”[Isaiah 5:20-21] “For he that humbleth himself shall be exalted, and he that exalteth himself shall be humbled.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 541, footnote 20 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Flesh of Christ. (HTML)
Divine Strictures on Various Heretics Descried in Various Passages of Prophetical Scripture. Those Who Assail the True Doctrine of the One Lord Jesus Christ, Both God and Man, Thus Condemned. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7269 (In-Text, Margin)
For when Isaiah hurls denunciation against our very heretics, especially in his “Woe to them that call evil good, and put darkness for light,”[Isaiah 5:20] he of course sets his mark upon those amongst you who preserve not in the words they employ the light of their true significance, (by taking care) that the soul should mean only that which is so called, and the flesh simply that which is confest to our view, and God none other than the One who is preached. Having thus Marcion in his prophetic view, he says, “I am God, and there is none else; there is no ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 634, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Scorpiace. (HTML)
Chapter I. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8227 (In-Text, Margin)
... prepare by my pen, in opposition to the little beasts which trouble our sect, our antidote against poison, that I may thereby effect cures. You who read will at the same time drink. Nor is the draught bitter. If the utterances of the Lord are sweeter than honey and the honeycombs, the juices are from that source. If the promise of God flows with milk and honey, the ingredients which go to make that draught have the smack of this. “But woe to them who turn sweet into bitter, and light into darkness.”[Isaiah 5:20] For, in like manner, they also who oppose martyrdoms, representing salvation to be destruction, transmute sweet into bitter, as well as light into darkness; and thus, by preferring this very wretched life to that most blessed one, they put bitter ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 462, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter LXXVI (HTML)
... Jew. For in the writings of the law and the prophets God makes use of threats and revilings, when He employs language of not less severity than that found in the Gospel, such as the following expressions of Isaiah: “Woe unto them that join house to house, and lay field to field;” and, “Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink;” and, “Woe unto them that draw their sins after them as with a long rope;” and, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;”[Isaiah 5:20] and, “Woe unto those of you who are mighty to drink wine;” and innumerable other passages of the same kind. And does not the following resemble the threats of which he speaks: “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 605, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Chapter LXVII (HTML)
... Celsus, who says nothing that is distinct or true, “I see nothing that is distinct among all your statements.” It is not, therefore, “out of darkness” into “the brightness of light” that Celsus leads us forth: he wishes, on the contrary, to transport us from light into darkness, making the darkness light and the light darkness, and exposing himself to the woe well described by the prophet Isaiah in the following manner: “Woe unto them that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.”[Isaiah 5:20] But we, the eyes of whose soul have been opened by the Word, and who see the difference between light and darkness, prefer by all means to take our stand “in the light,” and will have nothing to do with darkness at all. The true light, moreover, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 415, footnote 10 (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. V.—On Accusations, and the Treatment of Accusers (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2781 (In-Text, Margin)
... the righteous thou shalt not slay.” “Thou shalt not take gifts to smite the soul: for gifts blind the eyes of the wise, and destroy the words of the righteous.” And again: “They that justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.” Be careful, therefore, not to condemn any persons unjustly, and so to assist the wicked. For “woe to him that calls evil good, and good evil; bitter sweet, and sweet bitter; that puts light for darkness, and darkness for light.”[Isaiah 5:20] Take care, therefore, lest by any means ye become acceptors of persons, and thereby fall under this voice of the Lord. For if you condemn others unjustly, you pass sentence against yourselves. For the Lord says: “With what judgment ye judge, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 241, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
There Can Be No Evil Where There is No Good; And an Evil Man is an Evil Good. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1104 (In-Text, Margin)
... be evil, seeing that every being is good, and that no evil can exist except in a being. Nothing, then, can be evil except something which is good. And although this, when stated, seems to be a contradiction, yet the strictness of reasoning leaves us no escape from the conclusion. We must, however, beware of incurring the prophetic condemnation: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”[Isaiah 5:20] And yet our Lord says: “An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil.” Now, what is evil man but an evil being? for a man is a being. Now, if a man is a good thing because he is a being, what is an evil man but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 243, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
Men’s Errors Vary Very Much in the Magnitude of the Evils They Produce; But Yet Every Error is in Itself an Evil. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1112 (In-Text, Margin)
... what leads to eternal death. It is a small evil for a man to be deceived, when, by taking falsehood for truth, he brings upon himself temporal annoyances; for the patience of the believer will turn even these to a good use, as when, for example, taking a bad man for a good, he receives injury from him. But one who believes a bad man to be good, and yet suffers no injury, is nothing the worse for being deceived, nor does he fall under the prophetic denunciation: “Woe to those who call evil good!”[Isaiah 5:20] For we are to understand that this is spoken not about evil men, but about the things that make men evil. Hence the man who calls adultery good, falls justly under that prophetic denunciation. But the man who calls the adulterer good, thinking him ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 528, footnote 2 (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)
You speak of the Egyptian Bishop Paul. We received him, though an Origenist, as a stranger; and he has united himself to the orthodox faith. Not only Theophilus but the Emperors condemn Origen. (HTML)
... hearer and disciple of Theophilus, although he, before he became a bishop, through his native modesty, never taught in public, and you, after he became a Bishop, were never at Alexandria. Yet you dare, in order to deal a blow at me, to say “I do not accuse, or change, my masters.” If that were true it would in my opinion throw a grave suspicion on your Christian standing. As for myself, you have no right to charge me with condemning my former teachers: but I stand in awe of those words of Isaiah:[Isaiah 5:20] “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that call bitter sweet and sweet bitter.” But it is you who drink alike the honeywine of your masters and their poisons, who have fallen away from ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 263, footnote 7 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Defence of His Flight. (Apologia de Fuga.) (HTML)
Defence of His Flight. (Apologia de Fuga.) (HTML)
Persecution is from the Devil. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1498 (In-Text, Margin)
... fled: but persecution is a device of the Devil, and one which he desires to exercise against all. Let them say then, to which we ought to submit ourselves; to the words of the Lord, or to their fabrications? Whose conduct ought we to imitate, that of the Saints, or that of those whose example these men have adopted? But since it is likely they cannot determine this question (for, as Esaias said, their minds and their consciences are blinded, and they think ‘bitter to be sweet,’ and ‘light darkness[Isaiah 5:20] ’) let some one come forth from among us Christians, and put them to rebuke, and cry with a loud voice, ‘It is better to trust in the Lord, than to attend to the foolish sayings of these men; for the “words” of the Lord have “eternal life,” but the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 270, footnote 3 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Arian History. (Historia Arianorum ad Monachos.) (HTML)
Arian History. (Historia Arianorum ad Monachos.) (HTML)
Arian Persecution Under Constantine. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1516 (In-Text, Margin)
... upon them, and again pretended the imperial authority in their behalf. And they were not ashamed to say in their letters, ‘since Athanasius suffered, all jealousy has ceased, and let us henceforward receive Arius and his fellows;’ adding, in order to frighten their hearers, ‘because the Emperor has commanded it.’ Moreover, they were not ashamed to add, ‘for these men profess orthodox opinions;’ not fearing that which is written, ‘Woe unto them that call bitter sweet, that put darkness for light[Isaiah 5:20];’ for they are ready to undertake anything in support of their heresy. Now is it not hereby plainly proved to all men, that we both suffered heretofore, and that you now persecute us, not under the authority of an Ecclesiastical sentence, but on the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 134, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Tranquillinus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1911 (In-Text, Margin)
... Apollinarius and some other church writers both Greek and Latin, and that we should select what is good and avoid what is bad in their writings according to the words of the Apostle, “Prove all things: hold fast that which is good.” Those, however, who are led by some perversity in their dispositions to conceive for him too much fondness or too much aversion seem to me to lie under the curse of the Prophet:—“Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”[Isaiah 5:20] For while the ability of his teaching must not lead us to embrace his wrong opinions, the wrongness of his opinions should not cause us altogether to reject the useful commentaries which he has published on the holy scriptures. But if his admirers ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 176, footnote 7 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Pammachius and Oceanus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2555 (In-Text, Margin)
... yet, delighted as he is with the ability of this learned and zealous writer he does not join him in following Montanus and Maximilla. Apollinaris is the author of a most weighty book against Porphyry, and Eusebius has composed a fine history of the Church; yet of these the former has mutilated Christ’s incarnate humanity, while the latter is the most open champion of the Arian impiety. “Woe,” says Isaiah, “unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”[Isaiah 5:20] We must not detract from the virtues of our opponents—if they have any praiseworthy qualities—but neither must we praise the defects of our friends. Each several case must be judged on its own merits and not by a reference to the persons concerned. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 182, footnote 3 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Paulinus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2613 (In-Text, Margin)
... literature, I desire to give your excellency this note of warning. Do not suppose that I am a clumsy buffoon who condemn everything that Origen has written,—as his injudicious friends falsely assert—or that I have changed my mind as suddenly as the philosopher Dionysius. The fact is that I repudiate merely his objectionable dogmas. For I know that one curse hangs over those who call evil good and over those who call good evil, over those who put bitter for sweet, and over those who put sweet for bitter.[Isaiah 5:20] Who would go so far in praise of another man’s teaching as to acquiesce in blasphemy?