Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Isaiah 45:7
There are 21 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 523, footnote 6 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XL.—One and the same God the Father inflicts punishment on the reprobate, and bestows rewards on the elect. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4426 (In-Text, Margin)
... is therefore one and the same God the Father who has prepared good things with Himself for those who desire His fellowship, and who remain in subjection to Him; and who has the eternal fire for the ringleader of the apostasy, the devil, and those who revolted with him, into which [fire] the Lord has declared those men shall be sent who have been set apart by themselves on His left hand. And this is what has been spoken by the prophet, “I am a jealous God, making peace, and creating evil things;”[Isaiah 45:7] thus making peace and friendship with those who repent and turn to Him, and bringing [them to] unity, but preparing for the impenitent, those who shun the light, eternal fire and outer darkness, which are evils indeed to those persons who fall into ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 272, footnote 16 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book I. Wherein is described the god of Marcion. He is shown to be utterly wanting in all the attributes of the true God. (HTML)
Marcion, Aided by Cerdon, Teaches a Duality of Gods; How He Constructed This Heresy of an Evil and a Good God. (HTML)
... bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither the corrupt tree good fruit.” Which means, that an honest mind and good faith cannot produce evil deeds, any more than an evil disposition can produce good deeds. Now (like many other persons now-a-days, especially those who have an heretical proclivity), while morbidly brooding over the question of the origin of evil, his perception became blunted by the very irregularity of his researches; and when he found the Creator declaring, “I am He that createth evil,”[Isaiah 45:7] inasmuch as he had already concluded from other arguments, which are satisfactory to every perverted mind, that God is the author of evil, so he now applied to the Creator the figure of the corrupt tree bringing forth evil fruit, that is, moral ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 283, footnote 4 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book I. Wherein is described the god of Marcion. He is shown to be utterly wanting in all the attributes of the true God. (HTML)
Marcion Assumes the Existence of Two Gods from the Antithesis Between Things Visible and Things Invisible. This Antithetical Principle in Fact Characteristic of the Works of the Creator, the One God--Maker of All Things Visible and Invisible. (HTML)
... visible, and not to be ascribed to any other author than Him to whom their counterparts are imputed, marking as they do diversity in the Creator Himself, who orders what He forbade, and forbids what He ordered; who also strikes and heals. Why do they take Him to be uniform in one class of things alone, as the Creator of visible things, and only them; whereas He ought to be believed to have created both the visible and the invisible, in just the same way as life and death, or as evil things and peace?[Isaiah 45:7] And verily, if the invisible creatures are greater than the visible, which are in their own sphere great, so also is it fitting that the greater should be His to whom the great belong; because neither the great, nor indeed the greater, can be ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 308, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book II. Wherein Tertullian shows that the creator, or demiurge, whom Marcion calumniated, is the true and good God. (HTML)
Evil of Two Kinds, Penal and Criminal. It is Not of the Latter Sort that God is the Author, But Only of the Former, Which are Penal, and Included in His Justice. (HTML)
On all occasions does God meet you: it is He who smites, but also heals; who kills, but also makes alive; who humbles, and yet exalts; who “creates evil,” but also “makes peace;”[Isaiah 45:7] —so that from these very (contrasts of His providence) I may get an answer to the heretics. Behold, they say, how He acknowledges Himself to be the creator of evil in the passage, “It is I who create evil.” They take a word whose one form reduces to confusion and ambiguity two kinds of evils (because both sins and punishments are called evils), and will have Him in every passage to be understood as ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 316, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book II. Wherein Tertullian shows that the creator, or demiurge, whom Marcion calumniated, is the true and good God. (HTML)
Instances of God's Repentance, and Notably in the Case of the Ninevites, Accounted for and Vindicated. (HTML)
... good tree ought not to produce bad fruit; but yet he has mentioned “evil” (in the passage under discussion), which the most good God is incapable of, is there forthcoming any explanation of these “evils,” which may render them compatible with even the most Good? There is. We say, in short, that evil in the present case means, not what may be attributed to the Creator’s nature as an evil being, but what may be attributed to His power as a judge. In accordance with which He declared, “I create evil,”[Isaiah 45:7] and, “I frame evil against you;” meaning not to sinful evils, but avenging ones. What sort of stigma pertains to these, congruous as they are with God’s judicial character, we have sufficiently explained. Now although these are called “evils,” they ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 347, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke's Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian's Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.“ It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man. (HTML)
Examination of the Antitheses of Marcion, Bringing Them to the Test of Marcion's Own Gospel. Certain True Antitheses in the Dispensations of the Old and the New Testaments. These Variations Quite Compatible with One and the Same God, Who Ordered Them. (HTML)
... foretold the innovation, the same announced beforehand the contrariety likewise. Why, in your interpretation, do you impute a difference in the state of things to a difference of powers? Why do you wrest to the Creator’s prejudice those examples from which you draw your antitheses, when you may recognise them all in His sensations and affections? “I will wound,” He says, “and I will heal;” “I will kill,” He says again, “and I will make alive” —even the same “who createth evil and maketh peace;”[Isaiah 45:7] from which you are used even to censure Him with the imputation of fickleness and inconstancy, as if He forbade what He commanded, and commanded what He forbade. Why, then, have you not reckoned up the Antitheses also which occur in the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 495, footnote 14 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Against Hermogenes. (HTML)
The Account of the Creation in Genesis a General One, Corroborated, However, by Many Other Passages of the Old Testament, Which Give Account of Specific Creations. Further Cavillings Confuted. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6460 (In-Text, Margin)
... creation of the individual parts. You have Wisdom saying, “But before the depths was I brought forth,” in order that you may believe that the depths were also “brought forth”—that is, created—just as we create sons also, though we “bring them forth.” It matters not whether the depth was made or born, so that a beginning be accorded to it, which however would not be, if it were subjoined to matter. Of darkness, indeed, the Lord Himself by Isaiah says, “I formed the light, and I created darkness.”[Isaiah 45:7] Of the wind also Amos says, “He that strengtheneth the thunder, and createth the wind, and declareth His Christ unto men;” thus showing that that wind was created which was reckoned with the formation of the earth, which was wafted over the waters, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 76, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Modesty. (HTML)
God Just as Well as Merciful; Accordingly, Mercy Must Not Be Indiscriminate. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 730 (In-Text, Margin)
... futilities of theirs wherewith they flatter God and pander to themselves, effeminating rather than invigorating discipline, with how cogent and contrary (arguments) are we for our part able to rebut,—(arguments) which set before us warningly the “severity” of God, and provoke our own constancy? Because, albeit God is by nature good, still He is “just” too. For, from the nature of the case, just as He knows how to “heal,” so does He withal know how to “smite;” “making peace,” but withal “creating evils;”[Isaiah 45:7] preferring repentance, but withal commanding Jeremiah not to pray for the aversion of ills on behalf of the sinful People,—“since, if they shall have fasted,” saith He, “I will not listen to their entreaty.” And again: “And pray not thou unto (me) ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 118, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
De Fuga in Persecutione. (HTML)
De Fuga in Persecutione. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1145 (In-Text, Margin)
3. Seeing therefore, too, these cases occur in persecutions more than at other times, as there is then among us more of proving or rejecting, more of abusing or punishing, it must be that their general occurrence is permitted or commanded by Him at whose will they happen even partially; by Him, I mean, who says, “I am He who make peace and create evil,”[Isaiah 45:7] —that is, war, for that is the antithesis of peace. But what other war has our peace than persecution? If in its issues persecution emphatically brings either life or death, either wounds or healing, you have the author, too, of this. “I will smite and heal, I will make alive and put to death.” “I will burn them,” He ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 356, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
IV (HTML)
Chapter I., Sections 1-23 translated from the Latin of Rufinus: That the Scriptures are Divinely Inspired. (HTML)
... i.e., contrary to the faith of prophecy, they crucified Him for assuming to Himself the name of Christ. Thereupon the heretics, reading that it is written in the law, “A fire has been kindled in Mine anger;” and that “I the Lord am a jealous (God), visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation;” and that “it repenteth Me that I anointed Saul to be king;” and, “I am the Lord, who make peace and create evil;”[Isaiah 45:7] and again, “There is not evil in a city which the Lord hath not done;” and, “Evils came down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem;” and, “An evil spirit from the Lord ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 356, footnote 12 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
IV (HTML)
Chapter I., Sections 1-23 translated from the Greek: On the Inspiration of Holy Scripture, and How the Same is to be Read and Understood, and What is the Reason of the Uncertainty in it; and of the Impossibility or Irrationality of Certain Things in it, Taken According to the Letter. (HTML)
... advent of Him who is believed by us to be Christ, they did not accept our Lord Jesus; but, as having called Himself Christ improperly, they crucified Him. And those belonging to heretical sects reading this (statement), “A fire has been kindled in Mine anger;” and this, “I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation;” and this, “I repent of having anointed Saul to be king;” and this, “I am a God that maketh peace, and createth evil;”[Isaiah 45:7] and, among others, this, “There is not wickedness in the city which the Lord hath not done;” and again this, “Evils came down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem;” and, “An evil spirit from the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 599, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Chapter LV (HTML)
Passages, indeed, might be found where corporeal and external (benefits) are improperly called “good,”—those things, viz., which contribute to the natural life, while those which do the reverse are termed “evil.” It is in this sense that Job says to his wife: “If we have received good at the hand of the Lord, shall we not also receive evil!” Since, then, there is found in the sacred Scriptures, in a certain passage, this statement put into the mouth of God, “I make peace, and create evil;”[Isaiah 45:7] and again another, where it is said of Him that “evil came down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem, the noise of chariots and horsemen,” —passages which have disturbed many readers of Scripture, who are unable to see what ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 600, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Chapter LVI (HTML)
... from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem,” —which evils consist of the punishments inflicted upon the Israelites by their enemies with a view to their conversion; nor would one visit “with a rod the transgressions of those who forsake the law of the Lord, and their iniquities with stripes;” nor could it be said, “Thou hast coals of fire to set upon them; they shall be to thee a help.” In the same way also we explain the expressions, “I, who make peace, and create evil;”[Isaiah 45:7] for He calls into existence “corporeal” or “external” evils, while purifying and training those who would not be disciplined by the word and sound doctrine. This, then, is our answer to the question, “How is it that God created evil?”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 172, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)
Exegetical. (HTML)
On the Psalms. (HTML)
... and by tribulation the greatest. The angels also are called evil, not because they are so in their nature, or by their own will, but because they have this office, and are appointed to produce pains and sufferings,—being so called, therefore, with reference to the disposition of those who endure such things; just as the day of judgment is called the evil day, as being laden with miseries and pains for sinners. To the same effect is the word of Isaiah, “I, the Lord, make peace, and create evil;”[Isaiah 45:7] meaning by that, I maintain peace, and permit war.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 614, footnote 2 (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 5031 (In-Text, Margin)
... attract to gentleness our minds, brutish, and swelling, and stubborn with cloddish ferocity, says, “And upon whom shall my Spirit rest, save upon him that is lowly, and quiet, and that trembleth at my words?” —so that in some degree one may recognise how great God is, in learning to fear Him by the Spirit given to him: Who, similarly wishing still more to come into our knowledge, and, by way of stirring up our minds to His worship, said, “I am the Lord, who made the light and created the darkness;”[Isaiah 45:7] that we might deem not that some Nature,—what I know not,—was the artificer of those vicissitudes whereby nights and days are controlled, but might rather, as is more true, recognise God as their Creator. And since by the gaze of our eyes we cannot ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 234, footnote 9 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Archelaus. (HTML)
A Fragment of the Same Disputation. (HTML)
Chapter I. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2165 (In-Text, Margin)
... allegation, calls Himself a fire, whose son is He who says, “I am come to send fire upon the earth?” If you find fault with one who says, “The Lord killeth and maketh alive,” why do you honour Peter, who raised Tabitha to life, but also put Sapphira to death? And if again, you find fault with the one because He has prepared a fire, why do you not find fault with the other, who says, “Depart from me into everlasting fire?” If you find fault with Him who says, “I, God, make peace, and create evil,”[Isaiah 45:7] explain to us how Jesus says, “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Since both persons speak in the same terms, one or other of these two things must follow: namely, either they are both good because they use the same language; or, if Jesus ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 72, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
On the Morals of the Manichæans. (HTML)
The Goodness of God Prevents Corruption from Bringing Anything to Non-Existence. The Difference Between Creating and Forming. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 164 (In-Text, Margin)
... suitable, till in the order of their movements they return to that from which they fell away. Thus, when rational souls fall away from God, although they possess the greatest amount of free-will, He ranks them in the lower grades of creation, where their proper place is. So they suffer misery by the divine judgment, while they are ranked suitably to their deserts. Hence we see the excellence of that saying which you are always inveighing against so strongly, "I make good things, and create evil things."[Isaiah 45:7] To create is to form and arrange. So in some copies it is written, "I make good things and form evil things." To make is used of things previously not in existence; but to form is to arrange what had some kind of existence, so as to improve and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 182, footnote 3 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Three Homilies Concerning the Power of Demons. (HTML)
Homily I. Against Those Who Say that Demons Govern Human Affairs. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 564 (In-Text, Margin)
... arises from our punishment; thus naming it not in regard to its own nature, but according to that view which men take of it. For since we are accustomed to call by the name of evil, not only thefts and adulteries, but also calamities; so he has called the matter, according to the estimate of mankind. This then is that which the prophet saith “There is no evil in the city which the Lord hath not done.” This too by means of Isaiah God has made clear saying “I am God who maketh peace and createth evil,”[Isaiah 45:7] again naming calamities evils. This evil also Christ hints at, thus saying to the disciples, “sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,” that is to say the affliction, the misery. It is manifest then on all sides, that he here calls punishment ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 41, footnote 9 (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 931 (In-Text, Margin)
... thou sayest, calls Himself a fire, whose Son is He who saith, I came to send fire on the earth? If thou findest fault with Him who saith, The Lord killeth, and maketh alive, why dost thou honour Peter, who raised up Tabitha, but struck Sapphira dead? If again thou findest fault, because He prepared fire, wherefore dost thou not find fault with Him who saith, Depart from Me into everlasting fire? If thou findest fault with Him who saith, I am God that make peace, and create evil[Isaiah 45:7], explain how Jesus saith, I came not to send peace but a sword. Since both speak alike, of two things one, either both are good, because of their agreement, or if Jesus is blameless in so speaking. why blamest thou Him that saith the like in the Old ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 52, footnote 9 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Words, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of All Things Visible and Invisible. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1075 (In-Text, Margin)
7. But let no one tolerate any who say that one is the Creator of the light, and another of darkness: for let him remember how Isaiah says, I am the God who made the light, and created darkness[Isaiah 45:7]. Why, O man, art thou vexed thereat? Why art thou offended at the time that is given thee for rest? A servant would have had no rest from his masters, had not the darkness necessarily brought a respite. And often after wearying ourselves in the day, how are we refreshed in the night, and he who was yesterday worn with toils, rises vigorous in the morning because of the night’s rest? And what more ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 354, footnote 1 (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 VI. Conference of Abbot Theodore. On the Death of the Saints. (HTML)
Chapter V. An objection, how God Himself can be said to create evil. (HTML)
Germanus: We often read in holy Scripture that God has created evil or brought it upon men, as is this passage: “There is none beside Me. I am the Lord, and there is none else: I form the light and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil.”[Isaiah 45:6-7] And again: “Shall there be evil in a city which the Lord hath not done?”