Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Isaiah 40:22

There are 10 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 403, footnote 4 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book II (HTML)

Chapter XXX.—Absurdity of their styling themselves spiritual, while the Demiurge is declared to be animal. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3246 (In-Text, Margin)

... folly.[Isaiah 40:22] of the earth, as it were, in His hand, in whose sight its inhabitants are counted as grasshoppers, and who is the Creator and Lord of all spiritual substance, is of an animal nature,—they do beyond doubt and verily betray their own madness; and, as ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 100, footnote 3 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Theophilus (HTML)

Theophilus to Autolycus (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
Chapter XIII.—Remarks on the Creation of the World. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 576 (In-Text, Margin)

... nourish creation. For the Spirit being one, and holding the place of light, was between the water and the heaven, in order that the darkness might not in any way communicate with the heaven, which was nearer God, before God said, “Let there be light.” The heaven, therefore, being like a dome-shaped covering, comprehended matter which was like a clod. And so another prophet, Isaiah by name, spoke in these words: “It is God who made the heavens as a vault, and stretched them as a tent to dwell in.”[Isaiah 40:22] The command, then, of God, that is, His Word, shining as a lamp in an enclosed chamber, lit up all that was under heaven, when He had made light apart from the world. And the light God called Day, and the darkness Night. Since man would not have ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 613, footnote 6 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Novatian. (HTML)

A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. (HTML)

That God is the Founder of All Things, Their Lord and Parent, is Proved from the Holy Scriptures. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5026 (In-Text, Margin)

... all things were made;” He commanded, and all things went forth: of whom it is written, “Thou hast made all things in wisdom;” of whom Moses said, “God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath;” who, according to Isaiah, “hath meted out the heaven with a span, the earth with the hollow of His hand;” “who looketh on the earth, and maketh it tremble; who boundeth the circle of the earth, and those that dwell in it like locusts; who hath weighed the mountains in a balance, and the groves in scales,”[Isaiah 40:22] that is, by the sure test of divine arrangement; and lest its greatness, lying unequally, should easily fall into ruins if it were not balanced with equal weights, He has poised this burden of the earthly mass with equity. Who says by the prophet, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 409, footnote 12 (Image)

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

The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)

Homily X (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1458 (In-Text, Margin)

8. And both of these points the Scriptures teach, for one in treating of the beauty of the heavens thus speaks; “The heavens declare the glory of God.” And again, “Who hath placed the sky as a vault, and spread it out as a tent over the earth.”[Isaiah 40:22] And again, “Who holdeth the circle of heaven.” But another writer, shewing that although the world be great and fair, it is yet corruptible, thus speaks; “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thine hands. They shall perish, but Thou remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 5, page 125, footnote 7 (Image)

Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises. (HTML)

Against Eunomius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
He thus proceeds to a magnificent discourse of the interpretation of “Mediator,” “Like,” “Ungenerate,” and “generate,” and of “The likeness and seal of the energy of the Almighty and of His Works.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 425 (In-Text, Margin)

... moulded at pleasure by non-existence. God the Word, Who was in the beginning, is “the seal of the energy”:—the Only-begotten God, Who is contemplated in the eternity of the Beginning of existent things, Who is in the bosom of the Father, Who sustains all things, by the word of His power, the creator of the ages, from Whom and through Whom and in Whom are all things, Who sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and hath meted out heaven with the span, Who measureth the water in the hollow of his hand[Isaiah 40:12-22], Who holdeth in His hand all things that are, Who dwelleth on high and looketh upon the things that are lowly, or rather did look upon them to make all the world to be His footstool, imprinted by the footmark of the Word—the form of God is “the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 34, footnote 3 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

Concerning the Unity of God.  On the Article, I Believe in One God.  Also Concerning Heresies. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 827 (In-Text, Margin)

... thou hast surveyed all the heavens, not yet will even the heavens be able to praise God as He is, nay, not if they should resound with a voice louder than thunder. But if these great vaults of the heavens cannot worthily sing God’s praise, when shall ‘earth and ashes,’ the smallest and least of things existing, be able to send up a worthy hymn of praise to God, or worthily to speak of God, that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and holdeth the inhabitants thereof as grasshoppers[Isaiah 40:22].

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 46, footnote 17 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

The Father. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1009 (In-Text, Margin)

12. Having reached this point of my discourse, and being reminded of the passages just before mentioned, in which God was addressed as the Father of men, I am greatly amazed at men’s insensibility. For God with unspeakable loving-kindness deigned to be called the Father of men,—He in heaven, they on earth,—and He the Maker of Eternity, they made in time,—He who holdeth the earth in the hollow of His hand, they upon the earth as grasshoppers[Isaiah 40:22]. Yet man forsook his heavenly Father, and said to the stock, Thou art my father, and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me. And for this reason, methinks, the Psalmist says to mankind, Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house, whom thou hast chosen ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 56, footnote 8 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Hexæmeron. (HTML)

In the Beginning God made the Heaven and the Earth. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1399 (In-Text, Margin)

... edification of the Church. Upon the essence of the heavens we are contented with what Isaiah says, for, in simple language, he gives us sufficient idea of their nature, “The heaven was made like smoke,” that is to say, He created a subtle substance, without solidity or density, from which to form the heavens. As to the form of them we also content ourselves with the language of the same prophet, when praising God “that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.”[Isaiah 40:22] In the same way, as concerns the earth, let us resolve not to torment ourselves by trying to find out its essence, not to tire our reason by seeking for the substance which it conceals. Do not let us seek for any nature devoid of qualities by the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 72, footnote 4 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Hexæmeron. (HTML)

Upon the gathering together of the waters. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1523 (In-Text, Margin)

... chariots, change their drivers, and even in sleep are not free from the folly of the day. And shall we, whom the Lord, the great worker of marvels, calls to the contemplation of His own works, tire of looking at them, or be slow to hear the words of the Holy Spirit? Shall we not rather stand around the vast and varied workshop of divine creation and, carried back in mind to the times of old, shall we not view all the order of creation? Heaven, poised like a dome, to quote the words of the prophet;[Isaiah 40:22] earth, this immense mass which rests upon itself; the air around it, of a soft and fluid nature, a true and continual nourishment for all who breathe it, of such tenuity that it yields and opens at the least movement of the body, opposing no ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 22b, footnote 2 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)

An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
Concerning the Heaven. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1692 (In-Text, Margin)

Others have pictured the heaven as a hemisphere. This idea is suggested by these words of David, the singer of God, Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain, by which word he clearly means a tent: and by these from the blessed Isaiah, Who hath established the heavens like a vault[Isaiah 40:22]: and also because when the sun, moon, and stars set they make a circuit round the earth from west to north, and so reach once more the east. Still, whether it is this way or that, all things have been made and established by the divine command, and have the divine will and counsel for a foundation that cannot be moved. For He Himself spoke and ...

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