Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 6:23
There are 10 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 625, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XXXIII (HTML)
... body must be adapted, and if on that account the “tabernacle” is clothed in the way we have shown, we have no need of a body in order to know God. For that which sees God is not the eye of the body; it is the mind which is made in the image of the Creator, and which God has in His providence rendered capable of that knowledge. To see God belongs to the pure heart, out of which no longer proceed “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, the evil eye,”[Matthew 6:23] or any other evil thing. Wherefore it is said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” But as the strength of our will is not sufficient to procure the perfectly pure heart, and as we need that God should create it, he therefore who ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 58, footnote 46 (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 749 (In-Text, Margin)
... kingdom. [43] Sell your possessions, and give in alms; take to yourselves purses that wax [44] not old. Lay not up treasure on earth, where moth and worm corrupt, and where [45] thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where [46] moth and worm do not corrupt, nor thieves break through nor steal: for where your [47] treasure is, there also will your heart be. The lamp of the body is the eye: if then [48] thine eye now be sound, thy whole body also shall be light.[Matthew 6:23] But if thine eye be evil, all thy body shall be dark. And if the light which is in thee is darkness, how [49] great is thy darkness! Be watchful that the light which is in thee be not darkness. [50] Because that, if thy whole body is light, and have ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 149, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 406 (In-Text, Margin)
... gospel besides what ye have received, let him be ana thema, were it even I, were it even an angel from the heavens.” Now he would not have anathematized both himself and an angel, if he had known the act to be without danger. And again— “I am jealous of you with a jealousy of God,” he says; “for I have betrothed you to one husband a chaste virgin: and fear lest at some time, as the serpent beguiled Eve by his wiliness, so your thoughts should be corrupted from the singleness that is towards Christ.”[Matthew 6:22-24] See, he both set down singleness, and granted no allowance. For if there were allowance, there was no danger: and if there was no danger Paul would not have feared: and Christ would not also have commanded that the tares should be burned up, if it ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 358, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans (HTML)
Homily IV on Rom. i. 26, 27. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1229 (In-Text, Margin)
... the soul is better than the body. Oh, ye that were more senseless than irrational creatures, and more shameless than dogs! for in no case does such intercourse take place with them, but nature acknowledgeth her own limits. But ye have even made our race dishonored below things irrational, by such indignities inflicted upon and by each other. Whence then were these evils born? Of luxury; of not knowing God. For so soon as any have cast out the fear of Him, all that is good straightway goes to ruin.[Matthew 6:23]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 322, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
The Dialogue Against the Luciferians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4065 (In-Text, Margin)
... is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” For when the bishop preaches the true faith the darkness is scattered from the hearts of all. And he gives the reason, “Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house.” That is, God’s motive for lighting the fire of His knowledge in the bishop is that he may not shine for himself only, but for the common benefit. And in the next sentence[Matthew 6:23-24] “If,” says he, “thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness!” And rightly; for since the bishop is appointed in the Church that he may restrain the people ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 322, footnote 5 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
The Dialogue Against the Luciferians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4066 (In-Text, Margin)
... therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness!” And rightly; for since the bishop is appointed in the Church that he may restrain the people from error, how great will the error of the people be when he himself who teaches errs. How can he remit sins, who is himself a sinner? How can an impious man make a man holy? How shall the light enter into me, when my eye is blind? O misery! Antichrist’s disciple governs the Church of Christ. And what are we to think of the words,[Matthew 6:23-24] “No man can serve two masters”? And that too “What communion hath light and darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?” In the old testament we read, “No man that hath a blemish shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord.” And ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 427, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5000 (In-Text, Margin)
... remained; and what you said nothing about, that I should hold to be the truth. But as things are, you have caught the wolf by the ears; you can neither hold fast, nor dare let go. With a sort of careless security and an air of abstraction, you skim over and touch the surface of three in which there is nothing or but little of importance. And your procedure is so dark and close that you confess more by your silence than you rebut by your arguments. Every one has the right forthwith to say to you,[Matthew 6:23] “If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness.” Even in answering three little questions, respecting which you seemed to say something, you are not clear from suspicion and from blame, but your replies are and you were ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 309, 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 II. Second Conference of Abbot Moses. (HTML)
Chapter II. What discretion alone can give a monk; and a discourse of the blessed Antony on this subject. (HTML)
... presumption, nor allows him to be enamoured of slackness and turn aside to the vices on the left hand, i.e., under pretext of controlling the body, to grow slack with the opposite spirit of luke-warmness. For this is discretion, which is termed in the gospel the “eye,” “and light of the body,” according to the Saviour’s saying: “The light of thy body is thine eye: but if thine eye be single, thy whole body will be full of light, but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body will be full of darkness:”[Matthew 6:22-23] because as it discerns all the thoughts and actions of men, it sees and overlooks all things which should be done. But if in any man this is “evil,” i.e., not fortified by sound judgment and knowledge, or deceived by some error and presumption, it ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 309, footnote 2 (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 II. Second Conference of Abbot Moses. (HTML)
Chapter II. What discretion alone can give a monk; and a discourse of the blessed Antony on this subject. (HTML)
... all the thoughts and actions of men, it sees and overlooks all things which should be done. But if in any man this is “evil,” i.e., not fortified by sound judgment and knowledge, or deceived by some error and presumption, it will make our whole body “full of darkness,” i.e., it will darken all our mental vision and our actions, as they will be involved in the darkness of vices and the gloom of disturbances. For, says He, “if the light which is in thee be darkness, how great will that darkness be!”[Matthew 6:22-23] For no one can doubt that when the judgment of our heart goes wrong, and is overwhelmed by the night of ignorance, our thoughts and deeds, which are the result of deliberation and discretion, must be involved in the darkness of still greater sins.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 522, footnote 4 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV. (HTML)
Conference XXIII. The Third Conference of Abbot Theonas. On Sinlessness. (HTML)
Chapter V. How no one can be continually intent upon that highest good. (HTML)
... contemplation, or be thought to be drawn away by earthly thoughts even for a short time from Him Who alone is good? Who ever takes no care for food, none for clothing or other carnal things, or when anxious about receiving the brethren, or change of place, or building his cell, has never desired the aid of man’s assistance, nor when harassed by scarcity and want has incurred this sentence of reproof from the Lord: “Be not anxious for your life what ye shall eat, nor for your body what ye shall put on”?[Matthew 6:23] Further we confidently assert that even the Apostle Paul himself who surpassed in the number of his sufferings the toils of all the saints, could not possibly fulfil this, as he himself testifies to the disciples in the Acts of the Apostles: “Ye ...