Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Isaiah 40:6

There are 33 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 220, footnote 6 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Justin Martyr (HTML)

Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)

Chapter L.—It is proved from Isaiah that John is the precursor of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2108 (In-Text, Margin)

... balance? Who has known the mind of the Lord? And who has been His counsellor, and who shall advise Him? Or with whom did He take counsel, and he instructed Him? Or who showed Him judgment? Or who made Him to know the way of understanding? All the nations are reckoned as a drop of a bucket, and as a turning of a balance, and shall be reckoned as spittle. But Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts sufficient for a burnt-offering; and all the nations are considered nothing, and for nothing.’ ”[Isaiah 40:1-17]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 563, footnote 5 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book V (HTML)

Chapter XXXIII.—Further proofs of the same proposition, drawn from the promises made by Christ, when He declared that He would drink of the fruit of the vine with His disciples in His Father’s kingdom, while at the same time He promised to reward them an hundred-fold, and to make them partake of banquets. The blessing pronounced by Jacob had pointed out this already, as Papias and the elders have interpreted it. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4746 (In-Text, Margin)

... agree together; and the lion shall eat straw as well as the ox. And the infant boy shall thrust his hand into the asp’s den, into the nest also of the adder’s brood; and they shall do no harm, nor have power to hurt anything in my holy mountain.” And again he says, in recapitulation, “Wolves and lambs shall then browse together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the serpent earth as if it were bread; and they shall neither hurt nor annoy anything in my holy mountain, saith the Lord.”[Isaiah 40:6] I am quite aware that some persons endeavour to refer these words to the case of savage men, both of different nations and various habits, who come to believe, and when they have believed, act in harmony with the righteous. But although this is ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 401, footnote 1 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2642 (In-Text, Margin)

... citius quam oportuit, fraude inducti, cura adhuc essent juvenes; justum quidera est Dei judicium in eos qui non exspectarunt ejus voluntatera: sancta est autem generatio, per quam mundus consistit, per quam essentiæ, per quara naturæ, per quam angeli, per quam potestates, per quam animæ, per quam præcepta, per quam lex, per quam Evangelium, per quam Dei cognitio. “Et omnis caro fenum, et omnis gloria ejus quasi flos feni; et fenum quidem exsiccatur, flos autem decidit, sed verbum Domini manet,”[Isaiah 40:6-8] quod unxit artimam et uniit spiritui. Quomodo autem, qure est in Ecclesia nostra, œconomia ad finem perduci potuisset absque corpore, cum etiam ipse, qui est caput Ecclesire, in came quidem informis et specie carens vitam transiit, ut doceret nos ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 439, footnote 9 (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 2921 (In-Text, Margin)

... Gnostic, who morally, physically, and logically occupies himself with God. For wisdom is the knowledge of things divine and human; and righteousness is the concord of the parts of the soul; and holiness is the service of God. But if one were to say that he disparaged the flesh, and generation on account of it, by quoting Isaiah, who says, “All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass: the grass is withered, and the flower has fallen; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever;”[Isaiah 40:6-8] let him hear the Spirit interpreting the matter in question by Jeremiah, “And I scattered them like dry sticks, that are made to fly by the wind into the desert. This is the lot and portion of your disobedience, saith the

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 518, footnote 13 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Against the Valentinians. (HTML)

Indignant Irony Exposing the Valentinian Fable About the Judicial Treatment of Mankind at the Last Judgment. The Immorality of the Doctrine. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6903 (In-Text, Margin)

As for the human race, its end will be to the following effect:—To all which bear the earthy and material mark there accrues an entire destruction, because “all flesh is grass,”[Isaiah 40:6] and amongst these is the soul of mortal man, except when it has found salvation by faith. The souls of just men, that is to say, our souls, will be conveyed to the Demiurge in the abodes of the middle region. We are duly thankful; we shall be content to be classed with our god, in whom lies our own origin. Into the palace of the Pleroma nothing of the animal nature is admitted—nothing but the spiritual ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 122, footnote 2 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)

Book VIII. (HTML)
Monoïmus on the Sabbath; Allegorizes the Rod of Moses; Notion Concerning the Decalogue. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 938 (In-Text, Margin)

... conversion of the creation, and this is accomplished by ten strokes of the one tittle. And this (tittle) is Moses’ rod, which was given by God into the hand of Moses. And with this (rod Moses) smites the Egyptians, for the purpose of altering bodies,—as, for instance, water into blood; and the rest of (material) things similarly with these,—(as, for example,) the locusts, which is a symbol of grass. And by this he means the alteration of the elements into flesh; “for all flesh,” he says, “is grass.”[Isaiah 40:6] These men, nevertheless receive even the entire law after some such manner; adopting very probably, as I think, the opinions of those of the Greeks who affirm that there are Substance, and Quality, and Quantity, and Relation, and Place, and Time, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 432, footnote 1 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

On the Dress of Virgins. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3189 (In-Text, Margin)

... the lusts and vices of the flesh, is found in the midst of those very things which she has renounced! Virgin, thou art taken, thou art exposed, thou boastest one thing and affectest another. You sprinkle yourself with the stains of carnal concupiscence, although you are a candidate of purity and modesty. “Cry,” says the Lord to Isaiah, “All flesh is grass, and all the glory of it as the flower of the grass: the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.”[Isaiah 40:6] It is becoming for no Christian, and especially it is not becoming for a virgin, to regard any glory and honour of the flesh, but only to desire the word of God, to embrace benefits which shall endure for ever. Or, if she must glory in the flesh, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 548, footnote 8 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
That no one should be made sad by death; since in living is labour and peril, in dying peace and the certainty of resurrection. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 4470 (In-Text, Margin)

... thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field in the sweat of thy brow. Thou shalt eat thy bread until thou return unto the earth from which also thou wast taken; because earth thou art, and to earth thou shalt go.” Also in the same place: “And Enoch pleased God, and was not found afterwards: because God translated him.” And in Isaiah: “All flesh is grass, and all the glory of it as the flower of grass. The grass withered, and the flower hath fallen away; but the word of the Lord abideth for ever.”[Isaiah 40:6-7] In Ezekiel: “They say, Our bones are become dry, our hope hath perished: we have expired. Therefore prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I open your monuments, and I will bring you forth from your monuments, and I will bring you into the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 44, footnote 7 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 218 (In-Text, Margin)

... distressed, unless they had always some suffering in the body. For they were afraid, that if they received not in this world the punishment of the sins which, in numbers through ignorance, accompany those that are in the flesh, they would in the other world suffer the penalty all at once. So that they preferred curative treatment here. What is to be dreaded is, then, not external disease, but sins, for which disease comes, and disease of the soul, not of the body: “For all flesh is grass,”[Isaiah 40:6] and corporeal and external good things are temporary; “but the things which are unseen are eternal.”

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 433, footnote 2 (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 XI. (HTML)
The Exposition of Details Continued.  The Sitting Down on the Grass.  The Division into Companies. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5360 (In-Text, Margin)

... look the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, He blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes.  And they did all eat. ” For what is meant by the words, “And He commanded all the multitudes to sit down on the grass?” And what are we to understand in the passage worthy of the command of Jesus? Now, I think that He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass because of what is said in Isaiah, “All flesh is grass;”[Isaiah 40:6] that is to say, He commanded them to put the flesh under, and to keep in subjection “the mind of the flesh,” that so any one might be able to partake of the loaves which Jesus blesses. Then since there are different orders of those who need the food ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 449, footnote 6 (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 XI. (HTML)
Concerning the Seven Loaves.  The Narrative of the Feeding of the Four Thousand Compared with that of the Five Thousand. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5549 (In-Text, Margin)

... superior to those who ate of the five which were blessed; and these who ate the few little fishes to those who ate of the two, and perhaps also these who sat down upon the ground to those who sat down on the grass. And those from fewer loaves leave twelve baskets, but these from a greater number leave seven baskets, inasmuch, as they were able to receive more. And perhaps these tread upon all earthly things and sit down upon them, but those upon the grass—upon their flesh only—for “all flesh is grass.”[Isaiah 40:6] Consider also after this, that Jesus does not wish to send them away fasting lest they faint on the way, as being without the loaves of Jesus, and while they were still on the way—the way to their own concerns—might suffer injury. Take note also of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 196, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Gen. I.) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God. (HTML)

Allegorical Explanation of the Firmament and Upper Works, Ver. 6. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1279 (In-Text, Margin)

... Lord, is in the heavens, and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.” The clouds pass away, but the heaven remaineth. The preachers of Thy Word pass away from this life into another; but Thy Scripture is spread abroad over the people, even to the end of the world. Yea, both heaven and earth shall pass away, but Thy Words shall not pass away. Because the scroll shall be rolled together, and the grass over which it was spread shall with its goodliness pass away; but Thy Word remaineth for ever,[Isaiah 40:6-8] which now appeareth unto us in the dark image of the clouds, and through the glass of the heavens, not as it is; because we also, although we be the well-beloved of Thy Son, yet it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. He looketh through the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 300, footnote 1 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Catechising of the Uninstructed. (HTML)

A Specimen of a Catechetical Address; And First, the Case of a Catechumen with Worthy Views. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1429 (In-Text, Margin)

... to) leave them at his death. For of what measure is the life of man, even if he lives to old age? Or when men desire for themselves old age, what else do they really desire but long infirmity? So, too, with the honors of this world,—what are they but empty pride and vanity, and peril of ruin? For holy Scripture speaks in this wise: ‘All flesh is grass, and the glory of man is as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.’[Isaiah 40:6] Consequently, if any man longs for true rest and true felicity, he ought to lift his hope off things which are mortal and transitory, and fix it on the word of the Lord; so that, cleaving to that which endures for ever, he may himself together with ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 466, 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)

On the same words, John i. ‘In the beginning was the word,’ etc. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3613 (In-Text, Margin)

... fount of nature men are born, they live, they die; or whence they come, or whither they go, we know not. It is a hidden water, till it issue from its source; it flows on, and is seen in its course; and again it is hidden in the sea. Let us despise this stream flowing on, running, disappearing, let us despise it. “All flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh is as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower falleth away.” Wouldest thou endure? “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.”[Isaiah 40:6-7]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 474, 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, John v. 2, ‘Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool,’ etc. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3680 (In-Text, Margin)

... vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Therefore in that health was restored to this man’s body for a time, some enduringness was restored to a vapour. So then this is not to be valued much; “Vain is the health of man.” And, brethren, recollect that Prophetical and Evangelical testimony, for it is read in the Gospel; “All flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh as the flower of grass; the grass withereth, the flower falleth away, the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.”[Isaiah 40:6-7] The Word of the Lord communicateth glory even to the grass, and no transitory glory; for even to flesh He giveth immortality.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 48, footnote 2 (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. 34–51. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 146 (In-Text, Margin)

... when it comes, be held fast. For this day which is a day of rejoicing in this city to the lost, to-morrow will, of course, cease to be; nor will they themselves be the same tomorrow that they are to-day. And all things pass away, fly away, and vanish like smoke; and woe to those who love such things! For every soul follows what it loves. “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of the Lord abideth forever.”[Isaiah 40:1-8] Behold what thou must love if thou dost desire to abide for ever. But thou hadst this to reply: How can I apprehend the word of God? “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 159, footnote 2 (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 VI. 1–14. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 481 (In-Text, Margin)

... requires one that understands: for even this number of the people fed, signified the people that were under the law. For why were there five thousand, but because they were under the law, which is unfolded in the five books of Moses? Why were the sick laid at those five porches, but not healed? He, however, there cured the impotent man, who here fed multitudes with five loaves. Moreover, they sat down upon the grass; therefore understood carnally, and rested in the carnal. “For all flesh is grass.”[Isaiah 40:6] And what were those fragments, but things which the people were not able to eat? We understand them to be certain matters of more hidden meaning, which the multitude are not able to take in. What remains then, but that those matters of more hidden ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 2, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm I (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 18 (In-Text, Margin)

... season,” that is, after He hath been glorified by His Resurrection and Ascension into heaven. For then, by the sending of the Holy Ghost to the Apostles, and by the confirming of their faith in Him, and their mission to the world, He made the Churches to “bring forth fruit.” “His leaf also shall not fall,” that is, His Word shall not be in vain. For, “all flesh is grass, and the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withereth, and the flower falleth, but the word of the Lord abideth for ever.[Isaiah 40:6-8] And whatsoever He doeth shall prosper” that is, whatsoever that tree shall bear; which all must be taken of fruit and leaves, that is, deeds and words.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 199, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1899 (In-Text, Margin)

8. “Wherefore God shall destroy thee at the end” (ver. 6): though now thou seemest to flourish like grass in the field before the heat of the sun. For, “All flesh is grass, and the brightness of man as the bloom of grass: the grass hath withered, and the bloom hath fallen down: but the word of the Lord abideth for everlasting.”[Isaiah 40:6-8] Behold that to which thou mayest bind thyself, to what “abideth for everlasting.” For if to grass, and to the bloom of grass, thou shalt have bound thyself, since the grass shall wither, and the bloom shall fall down, “God shall destroy thee at the end:” and if not now, certainly at the end He shall destroy, when that winnowing ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 206, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1952 (In-Text, Margin)

... Observe David hiding: “For ye are dead,” saith the Apostle to the members of Christ, “and your life is hid with Christ in God.” These men, therefore, that are hiding, when shall they be flourishing? “When Christ,” he saith, “your life, shall have appeared, then ye also with Him shall appear in glory.” When these men shall be flourishing, then shall be those Ziphites withering. For observe to what flower their glory is compared: “All flesh is grass, and the honour of flesh as the flower of grass.”[Isaiah 40:6] What is the end? “The grass hath withered, and the flower hath fallen off.” Where then shall be David? See what followeth: “But the Word of the Lord abideth for ever.”…

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 207, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1964 (In-Text, Margin)

... those that place no hope but in things secular, and in temporal felicity, and the other of those that do firmly place their hope in the Lord God. And though concordant are these Ziphites, do not much trust to their concord: temptations are wanting; when there shall have come any temptation, so as that a person may be reproved for the flower of the world, I say not to thee he will quarrel with the Bishop, but not even to the Church Herself will he draw near, lest there fall any part of the grass.[Isaiah 40:6] Wherefore have I said these words, brethren? Because now gladly ye all hear in the name of Christ, and according as ye understand, so ye shout out at the word; ye would not indeed shout at it unless ye understood. This your understanding ought to be ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 209, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1972 (In-Text, Margin)

... admonition hath redounded to Thy praise. For I should not have understood where I was, except of my weakness I had been admonished. “Out of all tribulations,” therefore, “Thou hast delivered me. And upon mine enemies mine eye hath looked back:” upon those Ziphites “mine eye hath looked back.” Yea, their flower I have passed over in loftiness of heart, unto Thee I have come, and thence I have looked back upon them, and have seen that “All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass:”[Isaiah 40:6] as in a certain place is also said, “I have seen the ungodly man to be exalted and raised up like the cedars of Lebanon: I passed by, and, lo! he was not.” Wherefore “he was not”? Because thou hast passed by. What is, “because thou hast passed by”? ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 244, footnote 10 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2291 (In-Text, Margin)

... Syria is interpreted “lofty.” But she which was lofty, burned up hath been and humbled. Sobal is interpreted “empty antiquity.” Thanks to Christ that hath burned her. Whenever old bushes are burned up, green places succeed; and more speedily and more plentifully, and more fully green, fresh ones spring out, when fire hath gone before them to the burning up of the old. Let not therefore the fire of Christ be feared, hay it consumeth. “For all flesh is hay, and all the glory of man as flower of hay.”[Isaiah 40:6] He burneth up therefore those things with that fire. “And turned Joab.” Joab is interpreted enemy. There was turned an enemy, as thou wilt understand it. If turned unto flight, the devil it is: if converted to the faith, a Christian it is. How unto ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 253, footnote 22 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2406 (In-Text, Margin)

... For they were rendering evil things for good things: for them was I thirsting: mine honour they thought to drive back: I was thirsting to bring them over into my body. For in drinking what do we, but send into our members liquor that is without, and suck it into our body? Thus did Moses in that head of the calf. The head of the calf is a great sacrament. For the head of the calf was the body of ungodly men, in the similitude of a calf eating hay, seeking earthly things: because all flesh is hay.[Isaiah 40:6] …And what now is more evident, than that into that City Jerusalem, of which the people Israel was a type, by Baptism men were to be made to pass over? Therefore in water it was scattered, in order that for drink it might be given. For this even unto ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 333, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3240 (In-Text, Margin)

... called grass in Holy Scripture; as in Genesis there is a command for the earth to bring forth every tree and every grass, and there is not added every wheat: which without doubt would not have been passed over unless under the name of grass this also were understood; and in many other passages of the Scriptures this is found. But if we must take, “and they shall flourish like the grass of the earth,” in the same manner as is said, “all flesh is grass, and the glory of a man like the flower of grass:”[Isaiah 40:6] certainly then that city must be understood which doth intimate this world’s society: for it was not to no purpose that Cain was the first to build a city. Thus the fruit of Christ being exalted above Libanus, that is, above enduring trees and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 378, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXVIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3644 (In-Text, Margin)

... tortured, if he shall have looked back upon things behind; which, as saith the Apostle, he ought to value as dung. For they that do so receive the Testament of God, as that they put not off from them the old vanity, are like the hostile nations, who did place the captured Ark of the Testament beside their own idols. And yet those old things even though these be unwilling do fall: for “all flesh is hay, and the glory of man as the flower of hay. The hay hath dried up, and the flower hath fallen off:”[Isaiah 40:6-7] but the Ark of the Lord “abideth for everlasting,” to wit, the secret testament of the kingdom of Heaven, where is the eternal Word of God. But they that have loved things behind, because of these very things most justly shall be tormented. For ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 442, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XC (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4247 (In-Text, Margin)

... gone. “In the morning,” that is, before they come, “as a heat let it pass by;” but “in the evening,” it means after they come, “let it fall, and be dried up, and withered” (ver. 6). It is “to fall” in death, be “dried up” in the corpse, “withered” in the dust. What is this but flesh, wherein is the accursed lust of fleshly things? “For all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness of man as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of the Lord abideth for ever.”[Isaiah 40:6]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 496, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4587 (In-Text, Margin)

5. Look back to Adam, whence the human race sprung. For how but from him was misery propagated? whence but from him is this hereditary poverty? Let him then, who in his own body was at one time in despair, now that he is set in Christ’s body, say with hope, “My heart is smitten down, and withered like grass” (ver. 4). Deservedly, since all flesh is grass.[Isaiah 40:6] But how did this happen unto thee? “Since I have forgotten to eat my bread.” For God had given His commandment for bread. For what is the bread of the soul? The serpent suggesting, and the woman transgressing, he touched the forbidden fruit, he forgot the commandment: his heart was smitten as it deserved, and withered ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 509, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4687 (In-Text, Margin)

... short season unto God. God doth not count, as thou dost. Compared with the length and long life of ages, all the flower of any house is as the flower of the field. All the beauty of the year hardly lasteth for the year. Whatever there flourisheth, whatever there is warmed with heat, whatever there is beautiful, lasteth not; nay, it cannot exist for one whole year. In how brief a season do flowers pass away, and these are the beauty of the herbs! This which is so very beautiful, this quickly falleth.[Isaiah 40:6-8] Inasmuch then as He knoweth as a father our forming, that we are but grass, and can only flourish for a time; He sent unto us His Word, and His Word, which abideth for evermore, He hath made a brother unto the grass which abideth not. Wonder not ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 251, footnote 2 (Image)

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

Two Homilies on Eutropius. (HTML)

Homily I. When He Had Taken Refuge in the Church. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 810 (In-Text, Margin)

... fright, more terrified than a hare or a frog, nailed fast to yonder pillar, without bonds, his fear serving instead of a chain, panic-stricken and trembling, he abates his haughtiness, he puts down his pride, and having acquired the kind of wisdom concerning human affairs which it concerns him to have he departs instructed by example in the lesson which Holy Scripture teaches by precept:—“All flesh is grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass: the grass withereth and the flower faileth”[Isaiah 40:6-7] or “They shall wither away quickly as the grass, and as the green herb shall they quickly fail” or “like smoke are his days,” and all passages of that kind. Again the poor man when he has entered and gazed at this spectacle does not think meanly of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 290, footnote 1 (Image)

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

Letters of St. Chrysostom to Olympias. (HTML)

To My Lady. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 911 (In-Text, Margin)

... such is the nature of present things whether they be pleasant or painful. And another prophet compared all human prosperity not to grass, but to another material even more flimsy, describing the whole of it “as the flower of grass.” For he did not single out any one part of it, as wealth alone, or luxury alone, or power, or honour; but having comprised all the things which are esteemed splendid amongst men under the one designa tion of glory he said “all the glory of man is as the flower of grass.”[Isaiah 40:6]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 165, footnote 10 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Salvina. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2427 (In-Text, Margin)

6. Why do I farther postpone the end? “All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.”[Isaiah 40:6] The dust has returned to the dust. He has fallen asleep in the Lord and has been laid with his fathers, full of days and of light and fostered in a good old age. For “wisdom is the grey hair unto men.” “In a short time he” has “fulfilled a long time.” In his place we now have his charming children. His wife is the heir of his chastity. To those who miss his father the tiny Nebridius shews him once more, for

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 261, footnote 1 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To the Beræans. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2870 (In-Text, Margin)

... For the present I beseech you not to faint. Do not despair because your troubles follow so closely one upon another. Your crowns are near: the help of the Lord is near. Do not let all you have hitherto undergone go for nothing; do not nullify a struggle which has been famous over all the world. Human life is but of brief duration. “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.…The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”[Isaiah 40:6] Let us hold fast to the commandment that abideth, and despise the unreality that passeth away. Many Churches have been cheered by your example. In calling new champions into the field you have won for yourselves a great reward, though you knew it ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs