Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Malachi 3:2

There are 11 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 27, footnote 19 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Mathetes (HTML)

Epistle to Diognetus (HTML)

Chapter VII.—The manifestation of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 301 (In-Text, Margin)

... or of inspiring fear and terror? By no means, but under the influence of clemency and meekness. As a king sends his son, who is also a king, so sent He Him; as God He sent Him; as to men He sent Him; as a Saviour He sent Him, and as seeking to persuade, not to compel us; for violence has no place in the character of God. As calling us He sent Him, not as vengefully pursuing us; as loving us He sent Him, not as judging us. For He will yet send Him to judge us, and who shall endure His appearing?[Malachi 3:2] … Do you not see them exposed to wild beasts, that they may be persuaded to deny the Lord, and yet not overcome? Do you not see that the more of them are punished, the greater becomes the number of the rest? This does not seem to be the work of man: ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 376, footnote 3 (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)
Concerning the Centurion's Faith. The Raising of the Widow's Son. John Baptist, and His Message to Christ; And the Woman Who Was a Sinner. Proofs Extracted from All of the Relation of Christ to the Creator. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4170 (In-Text, Margin)

... perverse enough, if he gave himself out to be not the Christ of the Creator, and rested the proof of his statement on those very evidences whereby he was urging his claims to be received as the Creator’s Christ. Far greater still is his perverseness when, not being the Christ of John, he yet bestows on John his testimony, affirming him to be a prophet, nay more, his messenger, applying to him the Scripture, “Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.”[Malachi 3:1-3] He graciously adduced the prophecy in the superior sense of the alternative mentioned by the perplexed John, in order that, by affirming that His own precursor was already come in the person of John, He might quench the doubt which lurked in his ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 502, footnote 6 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3730 (In-Text, Margin)

... we speak of “God coming down like a torturer bearing fire,” and thus compels us unseasonably to investigate words of deeper meaning, we shall make a few remarks, sufficient to enable our hearers to form an idea of the defence which disposes of the ridicule of Celsus against us, and then we shall turn to what follows. The divine word says that our God is “a consuming fire,” and that “He draws rivers of fire before Him;” nay, that He even entereth in as “a refiner’s fire, and as a fuller’s herb,”[Malachi 3:2] to purify His own people. But when He is said to be a “consuming fire,” we inquire what are the things which are appropriate to be consumed by God. And we assert that they are wickedness, and the works which result from it, and which, being ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 549, footnote 6 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book V (HTML)
Chapter XV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4131 (In-Text, Margin)

... probably also on each one of those who stand in need of chastisement by the fire and healing at the same time, seeing it burns indeed, but does not consume, those who are without a material body, which needs to be consumed by that fire, and which burns and consumes those who by their actions, words, and thoughts have built up wood, or hay, or stubble, in that which is figuratively termed a “building.” And the holy Scriptures say that the Lord will, like a refiner’s fire and fullers’ soap,[Malachi 3:2] visit each one of those who require purification, because of the intermingling in them of a flood of wicked matter proceeding from their evil nature; who need fire, I mean, to refine, as it were, (the dross of) those who are intermingled with ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 585, footnote 9 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)
Chapter XXV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4416 (In-Text, Margin)

... Benjamin, in which Jerusalem also was situated. And seeking to ascertain what might be the inference from the heavenly Jerusalem belonging to the lot of Benjamin and the valley of Ennom, we find a certain confirmation of what is said regarding the place of punishment, intended for the purification of such souls as are to be purified by torments, agreeably to the saying: “The Lord cometh like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and of gold.”[Malachi 3:2-3]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 381, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world. (HTML)

Of the Prophecy of the Three Prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1207 (In-Text, Margin)

... on account of the evangel which He proclaimed to men. For if we interpret these Greek words, evangel is “good news,” and angel is “messenger.” Again he says of Him, “Behold I will send mine angel, and He will look out the way before my face: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come into His temple, even the Angel of the testament, whom ye desire. Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty, and who shall abide the day of His entry, or who shall stand at His appearing?”[Malachi 3:1-2] In this place he has foretold both the first and second advent of Christ: the first, to wit, of which he says, “And He shall come suddenly into His temple;” that is, into His flesh, of which He said in the Gospel, “Destroy this temple, and in three ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 445, footnote 11 (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)

Of Malachi’s Prophecy, in Which He Speaks of the Last Judgment, and of a Cleansing Which Some are to Undergo by Purifying Punishments. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1458 (In-Text, Margin)

The prophet Malachi or Malachias, who is also called Angel, and is by some (for Jerome tells us that this is the opinion of the Hebrews) identified with Ezra the priest, others of whose writings have been received into the canon, predicts the last judgment, saying, “Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty; and who shall abide the day of His entrance? . . . for I am the Lord your God, and I change not.”[Malachi 3:1-6] From these words it more evidently appears that some shall in the last judgment suffer some kind of purgatorial punishments; for what else can be understood by the word, “Who shall abide the day of His entrance, or who shall be able to look upon Him? for He enters as a moulder’s fire, and as ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 101, footnote 7 (Image)

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

An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall. (HTML)

Letter I (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 262 (In-Text, Margin)

... the host of the Heaven in the height in that day, and upon the kingdoms of the earth, and He shall gather together the congregation thereof into a prison, and shall shut them up in a stronghold.” And Malachi speaking concordantly with these said “Behold the Lord almighty cometh, and who shall abide the day of His coming or who shall stand when He appeareth? for He cometh like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers soap: and He shall sit refining and purifying as it were silver, and as it were gold.”[Malachi 3:2-3] And again, “Behold,” he saith, “the day of the Lord cometh, burning like an oven, and it shall consume them, and all the aliens, and all who work iniquity shall be stubble, and the day which is coming shall set fire to them saith the Lord almighty; ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 104, footnote 8 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

On the Clause, And Shall Come in Glory to Judge the Quick and the Dead; Of Whose Kingdom There Shall Be No End. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1818 (In-Text, Margin)

2. And concerning these two comings, Malachi the Prophet says, And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple[Malachi 3:1-3]; behold one coming. And again of the second coming he says, And the Messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in.  Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty.  But who shall abide the day of His coming? or who shall stand when He appeareth?  Because He cometh in like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ herb; and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier. And immediately after the Saviour Himself says, And I will draw ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 271, footnote 8 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

On the Great Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3283 (In-Text, Margin)

... or, like Elijah, to be refreshed from the brook, when the land was parched by drought; and, when but faintly breathing, to be restored to life and left as a seed to Israel, that we might not become like Sodom and Gomorrah, whose destruction by the rain of fire and brimstone is only more notorious than their wickedness. Therefore, when we were cast down, a horn of salvation was raised up for us, and a chief corner stone, knitting us to itself and to one another, was laid in due season, or a fire[Malachi 3:2-3] to purify our base and evil matter, or a farmer’s fan to winnow the light from the weighty in doctrine, or a sword to cut out the roots of wickedness; and so the Word finds him as his own ally, and the Spirit takes possession of one who will breathe ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 604, footnote 4 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius. (HTML)

Book VII. (HTML)
Chapter I. As he is going to reply to the slanders of his opponents he implores the aid of Divine grace to teach a prayer to be used by those who undertake to dispute with heretics. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2598 (In-Text, Margin)

... his hand into the den of the basilisk. Grant then to us also that we may thrust our hands unharmed into the den of this monstrous and most wicked basilisk; and if it has in any holes, i.e., in the human heart, a lurking or resting place, or has laid its eggs there, or left a trace of its slimy course, do Thou remove from them all the foul and deadly pollution of this most noxious serpent. Take away the uncleanness their blasphemy has brought on them, and purify with the fan of Thy sacred cleansing[Malachi 3:2-3] the souls that are plunged in stinking mud, so that the “dens of thieves” may become “houses of prayer:” and that in those which are now, as is written, the dwellings where hedgehogs and monsters, and satyrs, and all kinds of strange creatures ...

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