Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 6:3
There are 14 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 504, footnote 4 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XXX.—Refutation of another argument adduced by the Marcionites, that God directed the Hebrews to spoil the Egyptians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4223 (In-Text, Margin)
... turn out for good, in a way consistent with justice. For, because He knew that we would make a good use of our substance which we should possess by receiving it from another, He says, “He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.” And, “For I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was naked and ye clothed Me.” And, “When thou doest thine alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.”[Matthew 6:3] And we are proved to be righteous by whatsoever else we do well, redeeming, as it were, our property from strange hands. But thus do I say, “from strange hands,” not as if the world were not God’s possession, but that we have gifts of this sort, and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 115, footnote 12 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Theophilus (HTML)
Theophilus to Autolycus (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Chapter XIV.—Of Loving Our Enemies. (HTML)
... those that hate you, and that cast you out, Ye are our brethren, that the name of the Lord may be glorified, and be apparent in their joy.” And the Gospel says: “Love your enemies, and pray for them that despitefully use you. For if ye love them who love you, what reward have ye? This do also the robbers and the publicans.” And those that do good it teaches not to boast, lest they become men-pleasers. For it says: “Let not your left hand know what your right hand doeth.”[Matthew 6:3] Moreover, concerning subjection to authorities and powers, and prayer for them, the divine word gives us instructions, in order that “we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.” And it teaches us to render all things to all, “honour to whom honour, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 46, footnote 11 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
To His Wife. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Of Sin and Danger Incurred Even with a “Tolerant” Husband. (HTML)
... endure our (practices), and not annoy us.” Here, therefore, there is a sin; in that Gentiles know our (practices); in that we are subject to the privity of the unjust; in that it is thanks to them that we do any (good) work. He who “endures” (a thing) cannot be ignorant of it; or else, if he is kept in ignorance because he does not endure (it), he is feared. But since Scripture commands each of two things—namely, that we work for the Lord without the privity of any second person,[Matthew 6:1-4] and without pressure upon ourselves, it matters not in which quarter you sin; whether in regard to your husband’s privity, if he be tolerant, or else in regard of your own affliction in avoiding his in tolerance. “Cast not,” saith He, “your ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 545, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
In the Gospel according to Matthew: “Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall render to thee.”[Matthew 6:3-4] Also in the same place: “When thou doest an alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the streets and in the synagogues, that they may be glorified of men. Verily I say unto you, They have fulfilled their reward.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 430, footnote 5 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Sec. I.—Concerning Widows (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2910 (In-Text, Margin)
XIV. But if any woman has been good, let her, as a prudent person, conceal her own name, not sounding a trumpet before her, that her alms may be with God in secret, as the Lord says: “Thou, when thou doest thine alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand cloth, that thine alms may be in secret.”[Matthew 6:3-4] And let the widow pray for him that gave her the alms, whosoever he be, as being the holy altar of Christ; and “the Father, who seeth in secret, will render to him that did good openly.” But those widows which will not live according to the command of God, are solicitous and inquisitive what deaconess it is that gives the charity, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 58, footnote 16 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
The Diatessaron of Tatian. (HTML)
The Diatessaron. (HTML)
Section IX. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 719 (In-Text, Margin)
[22] Consider your alms; do them not before men to let them see you: and if it be not [23] so, ye have no reward before your Father which is in the heavens. When then thou givest an alms now, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as do the people of hypocrisy, [Arabic, p. 36] in the synagogues and the marketplaces, that men may praise them. And [24] verily say I unto you, They have received their reward.[Matthew 6:3] But thou, when [25] thou doest alms, let thy left hand not know what thy right hand doeth; that thine alms may be concealed: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 139, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
The Harmony of the Gospels. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Of the Section Where It is Recorded, that Being Moved with Compassion for the Multitudes, He Sent His Disciples, Giving Them Power to Work Cures, and Charged Them with Many Instructions, Directing Them How to Live; And of the Question Concerning the Proof of Matthew’s Harmony Here with Mark and Luke, Especially on the Subject of the Staff, Which Matthew Says the Lord Told Them They Were Not to Carry, While According to Mark It is the Only Thing They Were to Carry; And Also of the Wearing of the Shoes and Coats. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 990 (In-Text, Margin)
... committed to writing which was either uttered or done by Him. Moreover, if any one fancies that the Lord could not in the course of the same discourse have used some expressions with a figurative application and others with a literal, let him but examine His other addresses, and he will see how rash and inconsiderate such a notion is. For, then (to mention but a single instance which occurs meantime to my mind), when Christ gives the counsel not to let the left hand know what the right hand doeth,[Matthew 6:3] he may suppose himself under the necessity of accepting in the same figurative sense at once the almsgivings themselves referred to, and the other instructions offered on that occasion.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 286, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XII. 12–26. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1046 (In-Text, Margin)
... servants of Jesus Christ, who seek not their own things, but the things that are Jesus Christ’s. For “let him follow me” is just this: Let him walk in my ways, and not in his own; as it is written elsewhere, “He that saith he abideth in Christ, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” For he ought, if supplying food to the hungry, to do it in the way of mercy and not of boasting, seeking therein nothing else but the doing of good, and not letting his left hand know what his right hand doeth;[Matthew 6:3] in other words, that all thought of self-seeking should be utterly estranged from a work of charity. He that serveth in this way serveth Christ, and will have it rightly said to him, “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of those who are ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 494, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John III. 19–IV. 3. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2298 (In-Text, Margin)
3. This it is then that he enforces here. “In this we know that we are of the truth, when in deed and in truth” we love, “not only in words and in tongue: and assure our heart before Him.” What meaneth, “before Him?” Where He seeth. Whence the Lord Himself in the Gospel saith: “Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward with your Father which is in heaven.”[Matthew 6:1-3] And what meaneth, “Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:” except that the right hand means a pure conscience, the left hand the lust of the world? Many through lust of the world do many wonderful things: the left hand worketh, not the right. The right hand ought to work, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 20, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm VII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 208 (In-Text, Margin)
... knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you: among His friends, I say, there is not the silence, but the words of the silence, that is, the meaning of that silence set forth and manifested. Which silence, that is, Chusi, is called the son of Gemini, that is, righthanded. For what was done for the Saints was not to be hidden from them. And yet He saith, “Let not the left hand know what the right hand doeth.”[Matthew 6:3] The perfect soul then, to which that secret has been made known, sings in prophecy “for the words of Chusi,” that is, for the knowledge of that same secret. Which secret God at her right hand, that is, favourable and propitious unto her, has ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 592, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5412 (In-Text, Margin)
5. I ask you, how ye interpret what is said in the Gospel, “Let not your left hand know what your right hand doeth”?[Matthew 6:3] For if ye understand this, ye will discover what is your right hand, and what is your left: at the same time ye will also understand that God made both hands, the left and the right; yet the left ought not to know what the right doeth. By our left hand is meant all that we have in a temporal way; by our right hand is meant, whatever our Lord promiseth us that is immutable and eternal. But if He who will give everlasting life, Himself ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 33, footnote 19 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 556 (In-Text, Margin)
... cannot believe! Let us rather say: “Thou art my glorying,” and “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,” and “If I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ,” and “Far be it from me to glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world hath been crucified unto me and I unto the world;” and once more: “In God we boast all the day long; my soul shall make her boast in the Lord.” When you do alms, let God alone see you. When you fast, be of a cheerful countenance.[Matthew 6:3] Let your dress be neither too neat nor too slovenly; neither let it be so remarkable as to draw the attention of passers-by, and to make men point their fingers at you. Is a brother dead? Has the body of a sister to be carried to its burial? Take ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 25, footnote 6 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XXX. On kindness and its several parts, namely, good-will and liberality. How they are to be combined. What else is further needed for any one to show liberality in a praiseworthy manner. (HTML)
147. Nor is it a real act of liberality if thou givest for the sake of boasting about it, rather than for mercy’s sake. Thy inner feelings give the name to thy acts. As it comes forth from thee, so will others regard it. See what a true judge thou hast! He consults with thee how to take up thy work, and first of all he questions thy mind. “Let not,” he says, “thy left hand know what thy right hand doth.”[Matthew 6:3] This does not refer to our actual bodies, but means: Let not him who is of one mind with thee, not even thy brother, know what thou doest, lest thou shouldst lose the fruit of thy reward hereafter by seeking here thy price in boastfulness. But that liberality is real where a man hides what he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 469, footnote 1 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII. (HTML)
Conference XVII. The Second Conference of Abbot Joseph. On Making Promises. (HTML)
Chapter XXI. Whether secret abstinence ought to be made known, without telling a lie about it, to those who ask, and whether what has once been declined may be taken in hand. (HTML)
... to incur them whether with or against our will: what, I ask you, is to be done when, while we are proposing to put off our supper, a brother comes and asks us if we have had it: is our fast to be concealed, and the good act of abstinence hidden, or is it to be proclaimed by telling the truth? If we conceal it, to satisfy the Lord’s command which says: “Thou shalt not appear unto men to fast but unto thy Father Who is in secret;” and again: “Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth,”[Matthew 6:3] we must at once tell a lie. If we make manifest the good act of abstinence, the word of the gospel rightly discourages us: “Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.” But what if any one has refused with determination a cup offered to him by ...