Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Isaiah 56
There are 24 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 52, footnote 8 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to the Ephesians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)
Chapter VII.—Beware of false teachers. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 536 (In-Text, Margin)
... some most worthless persons are in the habit of carrying about the name [of Jesus Christ] in wicked guile, while yet they practise things unworthy of God, and hold opinions contrary to the doctrine of Christ, to their own destruction, and that of those who give credit to them, whom you must avoid as ye would wild beasts. For “the righteous man who avoids them is saved for ever; but the destruction of the ungodly is sudden, and a subject of rejoicing.” For “they are dumb dogs, that cannot bark,”[Isaiah 56:10] raving mad, and biting secretly, against whom ye must be on your guard, since they labour under an incurable disease. But our Physician is the only true God, the unbegotten and unapproachable, the Lord of all, the Father and Begetter of the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 233, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter X.—That the Same God, by the Same Word, Restrains from Sin by Threatening, and Saves Humanity by Exhorting. (HTML)
... by us; —and it is known by the Word, by whom we are blessed and wise. For wisdom and knowledge are mentioned by the same prophet, when he says, “Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life, and give ear to know understanding.” By Moses, too, by reason of the love He has to man, He promises a gift to those who hasten to salvation. For He says, “And I will bring you into the good land, which the Lord sware to your fathers.” And further, “And I will bring you into the holy mountain, and make you glad,”[Isaiah 56:7] He says by Isaiah. And still another form of instruction is benediction. “And blessed is he,” He saith by David, “who has not sinned; and he shall be as the tree planted near the channels of the waters, which will yield its fruit in its season, and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 398, footnote 9 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2608 (In-Text, Margin)
... argumentis utitur quoque Julius Cassianus, qui fixit princeps sectæ Docetarum. Inopere ceete De continentia, vel De castitate, his verbis dicit: “Nec dicat aliquis, quod quoniam talia habemus membra, ut aliter figurata sit femina, aliter vero masculus: illa quidera ad suscipiendum, hic vero ad seminandum, concessam esse a Deo consuetudinem. Si enim a Deo, ad quem tendimus, essethæc constitutio, non beatos dixisset esse eunuchos; neque propheta dixisset, eos ‘non esse arborem infrugiferam;[Isaiah 56:3] transferens ab arbore ad hominem, qui sua sponte et ex instituto se castrat tall cogitatione.” Et pro impia opinione adhuc decertans, subjungit: “Quomodo autem non jure quis reprehenderit Servatorem, si nos transformavit, et ab errore liberavit, eta ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 399, footnote 15 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2623 (In-Text, Margin)
... quoque eos, qui occupantur in matrimonio, “mundo dixit placere.” Rursus dicit Dominus: “Qui uxorem duxit, ne expellat; et qui non duxit, ne ducat;” qui ex proposito castitatis professus est uxorem non ducere maneat cælebs. Utrisque ergo idem Dominus per prophetam Isaiam convenientes dat promissiones sic dicens: “Ne dicat eunuchus: Sum lignum aridum;” hæc enim dicit Dominus eunuchis: “Si custodieritis sabbata mea, et feceritis quæ cunque pruodæcipio, dabo vobis locum meliorem filiis et filiabus.”[Isaiah 56:3-5] Non sola enim justificat castitas, sed nec sabbatum eunuchi, nisi fecerit mandata. Infert autem iis, qui uxoremduxerunt, et dicit: “Electi mei non laborabunt in vanum, neque procreabunt filios in exsecrationem, quiâ semen est benedictum a Domino.” ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 363, footnote 26 (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)
Christ's Authority Over the Sabbath. As Its Lord He Recalled It from Pharisaic Neglect to the Original Purpose of Its Institution by the Creator the Case of the Disciples Who Plucked the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath. The Withered Hand Healed on the Sabbath. (HTML)
... servants when exposed to the perils of war. Now, although He has in a certain place expressed an aversion of Sabbaths, by calling them your Sabbaths, reckoning them as men’s Sabbaths, not His own, because they were celebrated without the fear of God by a people full of iniquities, and loving God “with the lip, not the heart,” He has yet put His own Sabbaths (those, that is, which were kept according to His prescription) in a different position; for by the same prophet, in a later passage,[Isaiah 56:2] He declared them to be “true, and delightful, and inviolable.” Thus Christ did not at all rescind the Sabbath: He kept the law thereof, and both in the former case did a work which was beneficial to the life of His disciples, for He indulged them ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 205, footnote 7 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)
Dogmatical and Historical. (HTML)
Treatise on Christ and Antichrist. (HTML)
... men. And the ignorant He loves to teach, and the erring He turns again to His own true way. And by those who live by faith He is easily found; and to those of pure eye and holy heart, who desire to knock at the door, He opens immediately. For He casts away none of His servants as unworthy of the divine mysteries. He does not esteem the rich man more highly than the poor, nor does He despise the poor man for his poverty. He does not disdain the barbarian, nor does He set the eunuch aside as no man.[Isaiah 56:3-4] He does not hate the female on account of the woman’s act of disobedience in the beginning, nor does He reject the male on account of the man’s transgression. But He seeks all, and desires to save all, wishing to make all the children of God, and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 56, footnote 13 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Two Epistles Concerning Virginity. (HTML)
The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle. (HTML)
Continuation of the Remarks on Self-Denial; Object and Reward of True Virgins. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 322 (In-Text, Margin)
... work pure and holy, and “in the holiness of the Spirit of God,” and that he may serve God Almighty through Jesus Christ for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. On this account he severs himself from all the appetites of the body. And not only does he excuse himself from this command, “Be fruitful, and multiply,” but he longs for the “hope promised” and prepared “and laid up in heaven” by God, who has declared with His mouth, and He does not lie, that it is “better than sons and daughters,”[Isaiah 56:4-5] and that He will give to virgins a notable place in the house of God, which is something “better than sons and daughters,” and better than the place of those who have passed a wedded life in sanctity, and whose “bed has not been ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 74, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Then follows a period of nine years from the nineteenth year of his age, during which having lost a friend, he followed the Manichæans—and wrote books on the fair and fit, and published a work on the liberal arts, and the categories of Aristotle. (HTML)
Love is Not Condemned, But Love in God, in Whom There is Rest Through Jesus Christ, is to Be Preferred. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 315 (In-Text, Margin)
... but in Him are they firmly established, else would they pass, and pass away. In Him, then, let them be beloved; and draw unto Him along with thee as many souls as thou canst, and say to them, “Him let us love, Him let us love; He created these, nor is He far off. For He did not create them, and then depart; but they are of Him, and in Him. Behold, there is He wherever truth is known. He is within the very heart, but yet hath the heart wandered from Him. Return to your heart, O ye transgressors,[Isaiah 56:8] and cleave fast unto Him that made you. Stand with Him, and you shall stand fast. Rest in Him, and you shall be at rest. Whither go ye in rugged paths? Whither go ye? The good that you love is from Him; and as it has respect unto Him it is both good ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 443, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the Old and New Testaments. (HTML)
What is Meant by the Good Going Out to See the Punishment of the Wicked. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1434 (In-Text, Margin)
... without. For if the prophets were able to know things that had not yet happened, by means of that indwelling of God in their minds, limited though it was, shall not the immortal saints know things that have already happened, when God shall be all in all? The seed, then, and the name of the saints shall remain in that blessedness,—the seed, to wit, of which John says, “And his seed remaineth in him;” and the name, of which it was said through Isaiah himself, “I will give them an everlasting name.”[Isaiah 56:5] “And there shall be to them month after month, and Sabbath after Sabbath,” as if it were said, Moon after moon, and rest upon rest, both of which they shall themselves be when they shall pass from the old shadows of time into the new lights of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 425, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Of Holy Virginity. (HTML)
Section 24 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2067 (In-Text, Margin)
24. But concerning what eunuchs speaketh God by the prophet Isaiah, unto whom He saith that He will give in His house and in His wall a place by name, much better than of sons and daughters,[Isaiah 56:4-5] save concerning these, who make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven? For for these, whose bodily organ is without strength, so that they cannot beget, (such as are the eunuchs of rich men and of kings,) it is surely enough, when they become Christians, and keep the commands of God, yet have this purpose, that, if they could, they would have wives, to be made equal to the rest of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 425, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Of Holy Virginity. (HTML)
Section 25 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2069 (In-Text, Margin)
25. Nor indeed hath the Holy Spirit failed to speak what should be of open and unshaken avail against these men, most shamelessly and madly obstinate, and should repel their assault, as of wild beasts, from His sheep-fold, by defences that may not be stormed. For, after He had said concerning eunuchs, “I will give unto them in My house and in My wall a named place, much better than of sons and daughters;”[Isaiah 56:4-5] lest any too carnal should think that there was any thing temporal to be hoped for in these words, straightway He added, “An eternal name I will give unto them, nor shall it ever fail:” as though He should say, Why dost thou draw back, impious blindness? Why dost thou draw back? Why dost thou ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 427, footnote 18 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Of Holy Virginity. (HTML)
Section 30 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2100 (In-Text, Margin)
... shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not kill,” can it so be said, Thou shalt not wed. The former are demanded, the latter are offered. If the latter are done, they are praised: unless the former are done, they are condemned. In the former the Lord commands us what is due; but in the latter, if ye shall have spent any thing more, on His return He will repay you. Think of (whatever that be) within His wall “a place named, much better than of sons and of daughters.” Think of “an eternal name” there.[Isaiah 56:5] Who unfolds of what kind that name shall be? Yet, whatever it shall be, it shall be eternal. By believing and hoping and loving this, ye have been able, not to shun marriage, as forbidden, but to fly past it, as allowed.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 211, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus abhors Moses for the awful curse he has pronounced upon Christ. Augustin expounds the Christian doctrine of the suffering Saviour by comparing Old and New Testament passages. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 540 (In-Text, Margin)
13. If Faustus thinks Moses an enemy of continence or virginity because he says, "Cursed is everyone that raiseth not up seed in Israel," let them hear the words of Isaiah: "Thus saith the Lord to all eunuchs; To them who keep my precepts, and choose the things that please me, and regard my covenant, will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off."[Isaiah 56:4-5] Though our adversaries disagree with Moses, if they agree with Isaiah it is something gained. It is enough for us to know that the same God spoke by both Moses and Isaiah, and that every one is cursed who raiseth not up seed in Israel, both then when begetting ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 46, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
The Will of Man Requires the Help of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 469 (In-Text, Margin)
... what else do we say than, “Give what Thou commandest?” When He commands us, saying, “Understand now, ye simple among the people,” and we say to Him, “Give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments;” what else do we say than, “Give what Thou commandest?” When He commands us, saying, “Go not after thy lusts,” and we say to Him, “We know that no man can be continent, except God gives it to him;” what else do we say than, “Give what Thou commandest?” When He commands us, saying, “Do justice,”[Isaiah 56:1] and we say, “Teach me Thy judgments, O Lord;” what else do we say than, “Give what Thou commandest?” In like manner, when He says: “Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled,” from whom ought we to seek ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 430, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Cyprian’s Orthodoxy Undoubted. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2880 (In-Text, Margin)
... be achieved in the way of command merely, but to be received in the way of reward. For not even when that shall have come for which we pray when we say, “Thy kingdom come,” will there be in that kingdom of God no righteousness; since the apostle says, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Certainly these three things are commanded among other divine precepts. Here righteousness is prescribed to us when it is said, “Do righteousness;”[Isaiah 56:1] peace is prescribed when it is said, “Have peace among yourselves;” joy is prescribed when it is said, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Let, then, the Pelagians deny that these things shall be in the kingdom of God, where we shall live without end; or ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 295, footnote 15 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2832 (In-Text, Margin)
... water of the river like dogs; and of such sort not more than three hundred among so great a multitude were found. In which number is the sign of the Cross because of the letter T, which in the Greek numeral characters signifieth three hundred. Of such dogs in another Psalm also said, “They shall be turned at even, and hunger they shall suffer as dogs.” For even some dogs have been reproved by the Prophet Isaiah, not because they were dogs, but because they knew not how to bark, and loved to sleep.[Isaiah 56:10] In which place indeed he hath shown, that if they had watched and barked for their Lord, they would have been praiseworthy dogs: just as they are praised, of whom is said, “The tongue of Thy dogs.”…
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 396, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3840 (In-Text, Margin)
... numerous, that, as the Gospel says, the Jews feared them, and therefore dared not lay hands on Christ, afterwards consented, and permitted Him to be slain by the malicious and envious Jewish rulers: yet if they had so willed, they would still have been feared, so that the hands of the wicked would never have prevailed against Him. For of these it is said elsewhere, “Dumb dogs, they know not how to bark.” Of them too is that said, “Lo, how the righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart.”[Isaiah 56:10] He perished as far as lay in them who would have Him to perish; for how could He perish by dying, who in that way rather was seeking again what had perished? If then they are justly blamed and deservedly rebuked, who by their dissembling suffered ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 339, footnote 1 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Discourse I (HTML)
Texts Explained; Thirdly, Hebrews i. 4. Additional texts brought as objections; e.g. Heb. i. 4; vii. 22. Whether the word 'better' implies likeness to the Angels; and 'made' or 'become' implies creation. Necessary to consider the circumstances under which Scripture speaks. Difference between 'better' and 'greater;' texts in proof. 'Made' or 'become' a general word. Contrast in Heb. i. 4, between the Son and the Works in point of nature. The difference of the punishments under the two Covenants shews the difference of the natures of the Son and the Angels. 'Become' relates not to the nature of the Word, but to His manhood and office and relation towards us. Parallel passages in which the term is applied to the Eternal Father. (HTML)
... in nature? Are heavenly courts at all akin to earthly houses? Or is there any similarity between things eternal and spiritual, and things temporal and mortal? And this is what Isaiah says, ‘Thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My sabbaths, and choose the things that please Me, and take hold of My Covenant; even unto them will I give in Mine house, and within My walls, a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off[Isaiah 56:4-5].’ In like manner there is nought akin between the Son and the Angels; so that the word ‘better’ is not used to compare but to contrast, because of the difference of His nature from them. And therefore the Apostle also himself, when he interprets the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 30, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 485 (In-Text, Margin)
21. The old law had a different ideal of blessedness, for therein it is said: “Blessed is he who hath seed in Zion and a family in Jerusalem:” and “Cursed is the barren who beareth not:” and “Thy children shall be like olive-plants round about thy table.” Riches too are promised to the faithful and we are told that “there was not one feeble person among their tribes.” But now even to eunuchs it is said, “Say not, behold I am a dry tree,”[Isaiah 56:3] for instead of sons and daughters you have a place forever in heaven. Now the poor are blessed, now Lazarus is set before Dives in his purple. Now he who is weak is counted strong. But in those days the world was still unpeopled: accordingly, to pass over instances of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 356, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4321 (In-Text, Margin)
... eunuchs have the reward of the kingdom of heaven, it follows that they who have not made themselves such cannot be placed with those who have. He who is able, he says, to receive it, let him receive it. It is a mark of great faith and of great virtue, to be the pure temple of God, to offer oneself a whole burnt-offering, and, according to the same apostle, to be holy both in body and in spirit. These are the eunuchs, who thinking themselves dry trees because of their impotence, hear by the mouth of[Isaiah 56:3] Isaiah that they have a place prepared in heaven for sons and daughters. Their type is Ebed-melech the eunuch in Jeremiah, and the eunuch of Queen Candace in the Acts of the Apostles, who on account of the strength of his faith gained the name of a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 251, footnote 8 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To the notables of Neocæsarea. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2794 (In-Text, Margin)
... defilement, the prophetic gift shines clear. In a foul mirror you cannot see what the reflexion is, neither can a soul preoccupied with cares of this life, and darkened with the passions of the lust of the flesh, receive the rays of the Holy Ghost. Every dream is not a prophecy, as says Zechariah, “The Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain,…for the idols have spoken vanity and the diviners have told false dreams.” Those who, as Isaiah says, dream and love to sleep in their bed[Isaiah 56:10] forget that an operation of error is sent to “the children of disobedience.” And there is a lying spirit, which arose in false prophecies, and deceived Ahab. Knowing this they ought not to have been so lifted up as to ascribe the gift of prophecy to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 127, footnote 18 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter X. Being about to prove that the will, the calling, and the commandment of the Trinity is one, St. Ambrose shows that the Spirit called the Church exactly as the Father and the Son did, and proves this by the selection of SS. Paul and Barnabas, and especially by the mission of St. Peter to Cornelius. And by the way he points out how in the Apostle's vision the calling of the Gentiles was shadowed forth, who having been before like wild beasts, now by the operation of the Spirit lay aside that wildness. Then having quoted other passages in support of this view, he shows that in the case of Jeremiah cast into a pit by Jews, and rescued by Abdemelech, is a type of the slighting of the Holy Spirit by the Jews, and of His being honoured (HTML)
101. And not only is the operation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit everywhere one but also there is one and the same will, calling, and giving of commands, which one may see in the great and saving mystery of the Church. For as the Father called the Gentiles to the Church, saying: “I will call her My people which was not My people, and her beloved who was not beloved;” and elsewhere: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations,”[Isaiah 56:7] so, too, the Lord Jesus said that Paul was chosen by Him to call forth and gather together the Church, as you find it said by the Lord Jesus to Ananias: “Go, for he is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My name before all nations.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 58, footnote 6 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of Sulpitius Severus. (HTML)
The Doubtful Letters of Sulpitius Severus. (HTML)
Letter II. A Letter of Sulpitius Severus to His Sister Claudia Concerning Virginity. (HTML)
Chapter II. (HTML)
... from children; and to regard as nothing, in the hope of future blessedness, everything that is reckoned among the advantages of this present life. This is, as I have said, a great and admirable virtue, and is not undeservedly destined to a vast reward, in proportion to the greatness of its labor. The Scripture says, “I will give to the eunuchs, saith the Lord, a place in my house and within my walls, a place counted better than sons and daughters; I will give them an eternal name, and it shall not[Isaiah 56:5] fail.” The Lord again speaks concerning such eunuchs in the Gospel, saying, “For there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake.” Great, indeed, is the struggle connected with chastity, but greater is the reward; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 367, footnote 8 (Image)
Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)
Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations. (HTML)
Of Monks. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 903 (In-Text, Margin)
... marriage chamber. All those that are betrothed to Christ are far removed from the curse of the Law, and are redeemed from the condemnation of the daughters of Eve; for they are not wedded to men so as to receive the curses and come into the pains. They take no thought of death, because they do not deliver children to him. And in place of a mortal husband, they are betrothed to Christ. And because they do not bear children, there is Given to them the name that is better than sons and daughters.[Isaiah 56:5] And instead of the groans of the daughters of Eve, they utter the songs of the Bridegroom. The wedding-feast of the daughters of Eve continues for but seven days; but for these (virgins) is the Bridegroom who departs not for ever. The adornment of ...