Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Ezekiel 34:2

There are 6 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 81, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Modesty. (HTML)

Of the Parables of the Lost Ewe and the Lost Drachma. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 788 (In-Text, Margin)

Finally, if you are mindful of the prophets, when they are chiding the shepherds, there is a word—I think it is Ezekiel’s: “Shepherds, behold, ye devour the milk, and clothe you with the fleeces: what is strong ye have slain; what is weak ye have not tended; what is shattered ye have not bound; what has been driven out ye have not brought back; what has perished ye have not re-sought.”[Ezekiel 34:1-4] Pray, does he withal upbraid them at all concerning that which is dead, that they have taken no care to restore that too to the flock? Plainly, he makes it an additional reproach that they have caused the sheep to perish, and to be eaten up by the beasts of the field; nor can they either “perish ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 404, footnote 1 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book II. Of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons (HTML)

Sec. III.—How the Bishop is to Treat the Innocent, the Guilty, and the Penitent (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2687 (In-Text, Margin)

... not be meat for them.” And he also adds, speaking to the people: “Behold, I will judge between sheep and sheep, and between rams and rams. Seemed it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, and to have trodden down with your feet the residue of your pasture, and that the sheep have eaten what was trodden down with your feet? “And a little after He adds: “And ye shall know that I am the Lord, and you the sheep of my pasture; ye are my men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God.”[Ezekiel 34:2]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 274, footnote 3 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)

To Eusebius, Bishop of Persian Armenia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1741 (In-Text, Margin)

... illustrious patriarch had such care, and offered this defence to him who trusted them to his charge, what ought not we to do who are entrusted with the charge of reasonable sheep, and who have received this trust from the God of all, when we remember that the Lord for them gave up His life? Who does not fear and tremble when he hears the word of God spoken through Ezekiel? “I judge between shepherd and sheep because ye eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool and ye feed not the flocks.”[Ezekiel 34:2] And again, “I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; when thou speakest not to warn the wicked from his wicked way, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity but his blood shall I require at thine hand.” With this agree the words ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 248, footnote 1 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Apology to the Emperor. (Apologia Ad Constantium.) (HTML)

Apology to the Emperor. (Apologia Ad Constantium.) (HTML)

How Athanasius acted when this took place. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1358 (In-Text, Margin)

... and have justly asked, ‘After you had returned under the authority of our letters, why did you withdraw without such authority, and desert your people?’ Would not the people themselves at the day of judgment have reasonably imputed to me this neglect of them, and have said, ‘He that had the oversight of us fled, and we were neglected, there being no one to put us in mind of our duty?’ When they said this, what could I have answered? Such a complaint was made by Ezekiel against the Pastors of old[Ezekiel 34:2]; and the blessed Apostle Paul, knowing this, has charged every one of us through his disciple, saying, ‘Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.’ Fearing this, I wished not to ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 558, footnote 5 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)

The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)

Personal Letters. (HTML)
Letter to Dracontius. Written A.D. 354 or 355. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4604 (In-Text, Margin)

... will turn his mind to you for peace, when he sees the brethren for whom Christ died injured on account of your flight? For you must know, and not be in doubt, that while before your election you lived to yourself, after it, you live for your flock. And before you had received the grace of the episcopate, no one knew you; but after you became one, the laity expect you to bring them food, namely instruction from the Scriptures. When then they expect, and suffer hunger, and you are feeding yourself[Ezekiel 34:2] only, and our Lord Jesus Christ comes and we stand before Him, what defence will you offer when He sees His own sheep hungering? For had you not taken the money, He would not have blamed you. But He would reasonably do so if upon taking it you dug ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 384, footnote 3 (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 Pastors. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1022 (In-Text, Margin)

3. But those pastors who did not care for the sheep, those were hirelings who used to feed themselves alone. On this account the Prophet[Ezekiel 34:2-4] addresses them, saying to them:— O ye pastors who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, hear the word of the Lord.  Thus saith the Lord:  Lo! I will visit My sheep as the pastor visits his flock in the day of the whirlwind, and I will require My sheep at your hands.  O foolish pastors, with the wool of the sheep do ye clothe yourselves and the flesh of the fatlings do eat, and the sheep ye do not feed.  That which was ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs