Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 6:33
There are 24 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 168, footnote 1 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Justin Martyr (HTML)
The First Apology (HTML)
Chapter XV.—What Christ himself taught. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1792 (In-Text, Margin)
... and merciful, and maketh His sun to rise on sinners, and the righteous, and the wicked. Take no thought what ye shall eat, or what ye shall put on: are ye not better than the birds and the beasts? And God feedeth them. Take no thought, therefore, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall put on; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But seek ye the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you. For where his treasure is, there also is the mind of a man.”[Matthew 6:33] And, “Do not these things to be seen of men; otherwise ye have no reward from your Father which is in heaven.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 268, footnote 1 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter XIII—Against Excessive Fondness for Jewels and Gold Ornaments. (HTML)
But you also oppose Scripture, seeing it expressly cries “Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you.”[Matthew 6:33] But if all things have been conferred on you, and all things allowed you, and “if all things are lawful, yet all things are not expedient,” says the apostle. God brought our race into communion by first imparting what was His own, when He gave His own Word, common to all, and made all things for all. All things therefore are common, and not for the rich to appropriate an undue share. That expression, therefore, “I possess, and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 335, footnote 10 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter XXIV.—How Moses Discharged the Part of a Military Leader. (HTML)
Of the kingly office one kind is divine,—that which is according to God and His holy Son, by whom both the good things which are of the earth, and external and perfect felicity too, are supplied. “For,” it is said, “seek what is great, and the little things shall be added.”[Matthew 6:33] And there is a second kind of royalty, inferior to that administration which is purely rational and divine, which brings to the task of government merely the high mettle of the soul; after which fashion Hercules ruled the Argives, and Alexander the Macedonians. The third kind is what aims after one thing—merely to conquer and overturn; but to turn conquest ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 415, footnote 10 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter V.—On Contempt for Pain, Poverty, and Other External Things. (HTML)
... lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” “Wherefore I say, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for your body, what ye shall put on. For your life is more than meat, and your body than raiment.” And again, “For your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” “But seek first the kingdom of heaven, and its righteousness,” for these are the great things, and the things which are small and appertain to this life “shall be added to you.”[Matthew 6:32-33] Does He not plainly then exhort us to follow the gnostic life, and enjoin us to seek the truth in word and deed? Therefore Christ, who trains the soul, reckons one rich, not by his gifts, but by his choice. It is said, therefore, that Zaccheus, or, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 683, footnote 11 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Prayer. (HTML)
The Fifth Clause. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8798 (In-Text, Margin)
But how gracefully has the Divine Wisdom arranged the order of the prayer; so that after things heavenly—that is, after the “Name” of God, the “Will” of God, and the “Kingdom” of God—it should give earthly necessities also room for a petition! For the Lord had withal issued His edict, “Seek ye first the kingdom, and then even these shall be added:”[Matthew 6:33] albeit we may rather understand, “Give us this day our daily bread,” spiritually. For Christ is our Bread; because Christ is Life, and bread is life. “I am,” saith He, “the Bread of Life;” and, a little above, “The Bread is the Word of the living God, who came down from the heavens.” Then we find, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 72, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Monogamy. (HTML)
Weakness of the Pleas Urged in Defence of Second Marriage. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 684 (In-Text, Margin)
... women than he paints. For in him matter is abundant: whence he presumes that even the soul is material; and therefore much more (than other men) he has not the Spirit from God, being no longer even a Psychic, because even his psychic element is not derived from God’s afflatus! What if a man allege “indigence,” so as to profess that his flesh is openly prostituted, and given in marriage for the sake of maintenance; forgetting that there is to be no careful thought about food and clothing?[Matthew 6:25-34] He has God (to look to), the Foster-father even of ravens, the Rearer even of flowers. What if he plead the loneliness of his home? as if one woman afforded company to a man ever on the eve of flight! He has, of course, a widow (at hand), whom it ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 478, footnote 11 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On Works and Alms. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3550 (In-Text, Margin)
... the retribution of God. And the Lord in the Gospel, already considering the hearts of men of this kind, and with prescient voice denouncing faithless and unbelieving men, bears witness, and says: “Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For these things the Gentiles seek. And your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”[Matthew 6:31-33] He says that all these things shall be added and given to them who seek the kingdom and righteousness of God. For the Lord says, that when the day of judgment shall come, those who have laboured in His Church are admitted to receive the kingdom.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 535, footnote 19 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
... your loins girt, and your shoes on your feet, and your staves in your hands: and ye shall eat it in haste, for it is the Lord’s passover.” Of this same thing in the Gospel according to Matthew: “Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewith shall we be clothed? for these things the nations seek after. But your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”[Matthew 6:31-33] Likewise in the same place: “Think not for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for itself. Sufficient unto the day is its own evil.” Likewise in the same place: “No one looking back, and putting his hands to the plough, is fit for the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 44, footnote 9 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)
Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 220 (In-Text, Margin)
XII. As to knowledge, some elements of it we already possess; others, by what we do possess, we firmly hope to attain. For neither have we attained all, nor do we lack all. But we have received, as it were, an earnest of the eternal blessings, and of the ancestral riches. The provisions for the Lord’s way are the Lord’s beatitudes. For He said: “Seek,” and anxiously seek, “the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you: for the Father knoweth what things ye have need of.”[Matthew 6:33] Thus He limits not only our occupations, but our cares. For He says: “Ye cannot, by taking thought, add aught to your stature.” For God knows well what it is good for us to have and what to want. He wishes, therefore, that we, emptying ourselves of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 103, footnote 2 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Recognitions of Clement. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. (HTML)
“Peace be to all of you who are prepared to give your right hands to truth: for whosoever are obedient to it seem indeed themselves to confer some favour upon God; whereas they do themselves obtain from Him the gift of His greatest bounty, walking in His paths of righteousness. Wherefore the first duty of all is to inquire into the righteousness of God and His kingdom;[Matthew 6:33] His righteousness, that we may be taught to act rightly; His kingdom, that we may know what is the reward appointed for labour and patience; in which kingdom there is indeed a bestowal of eternal good things upon the good, but upon those who have acted contrary to the will of God, a worthy infliction of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 110, footnote 2 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Recognitions of Clement. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Christ Acknowledged the God of the Jews. (HTML)
... really a prophet, and performed signs and wonders, as you promise to do, if you were to announce other gods besides Him who is the true God, it would be manifest that you were raised up as a trial to the people of God; and therefore you can by no means be believed. For He alone is the true God, who is the God of the Jews; and for this reason our Lord Jesus Christ did not teach them that they must inquire after God, for Him they knew well already, but that they must seek His kingdom and righteousness,[Matthew 6:33] which the scribes and Pharisees, having received the key of knowledge, had not shut in, but shut out. For if they had been ignorant of the true God, surely He would never have left the knowledge of this thing, which was the chief of all, and blamed ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 119, footnote 1 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Recognitions of Clement. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Common Principles. (HTML)
... world, not that they should inquire about Him whom they knew, but that, knowing Him, they should investigate His will and His righteousness; because it is placed in men’s power that, searching into these things, they may find, and do, and observe those things concerning which they are to be judged. Therefore He commanded us to inquire, not whence evil cometh, as you asked just now, but to seek the righteousness of the good God, and His kingdom; and all these things, says He, shall be added to you.”[Matthew 6:33] Then Simon said: “Since these things are commanded to Hebrews, as having a right knowledge of God, and being of opinion that every one has it in his power to do these things concerning which he is to be judged,—but my opinion differs from ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 124, footnote 1 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Recognitions of Clement. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
God Righteous as Well as Good. (HTML)
... knowledge is not sufficient for salvation. For in the present life not only the worthy, but also the unworthy, enjoy His goodness and His benefits. But if we believe Him to be not only good, but also righteous, and if, according to what we believe concerning God, we observe righteousness in the whole course of our life, we shall enjoy His goodness for ever. In a word, to the Hebrews, whose opinion concerning God was that He is only good, our Master said that they should seek also His righteousness;[Matthew 6:33] that is, that they should know that He is good indeed in this present time, that all may live in His goodness, but that He shall be righteous at the day of judgment, to bestow eternal rewards upon the worthy, from which the unworthy shall be ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 125, footnote 2 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Recognitions of Clement. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Cavils of Simon. (HTML)
... their deserts, we should truly seem to be deceivers when we say that there is a judgment to come; and therefore this very fact, that in the present life a return is not made to every one according to his deeds, affords, to those who know that God is just, an indubitable proof that there shall be a judgment.” Then said Simon: “Why, then, am I not persuaded of it?” Peter: “Because you have not heard the true Prophet saying, ‘Seek first His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.’[Matthew 6:33] “Then said Simon: “Pardon me if I am unwilling to seek righteousness, before I know if the soul is immortal.” Then Peter: “You also pardon me this one thing, because I cannot do otherwise than the Prophet of truth has instructed me.” Then said ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 59, footnote 14 (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 X. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 766 (In-Text, Margin)
... of his glory was not clothed like one of [8] them. And if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow [9] is cast into the oven, how much more shall be unto you, O ye of little faith! Be not anxious, so as to say, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With [10] what shall we be clothed? Neither let your minds be perplexed in this: all these things the nations of the world seek; and your Father which is in heaven knoweth [11] your need of all these things.[Matthew 6:33] Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; [12] [Arabic, p. 39] and all these shall come to you as something additional for you. Be not anxious for the morrow; for the morrow shall be anxious for what belongs to it. Sufficient unto the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 164, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
The design of his confessions being declared, he seeks from God the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and begins to expound the words of Genesis I. I, concerning the creation of the world. The questions of rash disputers being refuted, ‘What did God before he created the world?’ That he might the better overcome his opponents, he adds a copious disquisition concerning time. (HTML)
He Begs of God that Through the Holy Scriptures He May Be Led to Truth. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1014 (In-Text, Margin)
4. Lord, have mercy on me and hear my desire. For I think that it is not of the earth, nor of gold and silver, and precious stones, nor gorgeous apparel, nor honours and powers, nor the pleasures of the flesh, nor necessaries for the body, and this life of our pilgrimage; all which are added to those that seek Thy kingdom and Thy righteousness.[Matthew 6:33] Behold, O Lord my God, whence is my desire. The unrighteous have told me of delights, but not such as Thy law, O Lord. Behold whence is my desire. Behold, Father, look and see, and approve; and let it be pleasing in the sight of Thy mercy, that I may find grace before Thee, that the secret things of Thy Word may be opened ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 504, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Of the Work of Monks. (HTML)
Section 2 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2477 (In-Text, Margin)
... clotheth; how much more you, (O ye) of little faith! Be not therefore solicitous, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clad? for all these things do the Gentiles seek. And your heavenly Father knoweth that ye need all these. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these shall be added unto you. Be not therefore solicitous for the morrow: for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”[Matthew 6:25-34] Lo, say they, where the Lord biddeth us be without care concerning our food and clothing: how then could the Apostle think contrary to the Lord, that he should instruct us that we ought to be in such sort solicitous, what we shall eat, or what we ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 50, footnote 13 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
On the Latter Part of Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Contained in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter XVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 398 (In-Text, Margin)
... shall be added unto you.” Here He shows most manifestly that these things are not to be sought as if they were our blessings in such sort, that on account of them we ought to do well in all our actings, but yet that they are necessary. For what the difference is between a blessing which is to be sought, and a necessary which is to be taken for use, He has made plain by this sentence, when He says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”[Matthew 6:33] The kingdom and the righteousness of God therefore are our good; and this is to be sought, and there the end is to be set up, on account of which we are to do everything which we do. But because we serve as soldiers in this life, in order that we ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 285, footnote 14 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
Again on the Lord’s Prayer, Matt. vi. To the Competentes. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2050 (In-Text, Margin)
... under the name of bread other necessary things are also understood. As when Joseph invited his brethren, “These men,” saith he, “will eat bread with me to-day.” Why, were they to eat bread only? No, but in the mention of bread only, all the rest was understood. So when we pray for daily bread, we ask for whatever is necessary for us in earth for our bodies’ sake. But what saith the Lord Jesus? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”[Matthew 6:33] Again, this is a very good sense of, “Give us this day our daily bread,” thy Eucharist, our daily food. For the faithful know what they receive, and good for them it is to receive that daily bread which is necessary for this time present. They pray ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 440, footnote 5 (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 XX. 30–31, and XXI. 1-11. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1934 (In-Text, Margin)
4. But some one will reply, And why did he not find them, when the Lord had promised, saying, “Seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God, and all these things shall be added unto you”?[Matthew 6:33] Precisely also in this very way did the Lord fulfill His promise. For who else placed there the fishes that were to be caught, but He, who, we are bound to believe, threw them into the penury that compelled them to go a fishing, for no other reason than that He wished to show them the miracle He had prepared, that so He might both feed the preachers of His gospel, and at the same time enhance that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 14, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Heliodorus, Monk. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 175 (In-Text, Margin)
... present, it goes in search of you when absent. You asked me yourself, when you were going away, to invite you to the desert when I took up my quarters there, and I for my part promised to do so. Accordingly I invite you now; come, and come quickly. Do not call to mind old ties; the desert is for those who have left all. Nor let the hardships of our former travels deter you. You believe in Christ, believe also in His words: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.”[Matthew 6:33] Take neither scrip nor staff. He is rich enough who is poor—with Christ.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 36, footnote 17 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 595 (In-Text, Margin)
“The love of money is the root of all evil,” and the apostle speaks of covetousness as being idolatry. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.”[Matthew 6:33] The Lord will never allow a righteous soul to perish of hunger. “I have been young,” the psalmist says, “and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.” Elijah is fed by ministering ravens. The widow of Zarephath, who with her sons expected to die the same night, went without food herself that she might feed the prophet. He who had come to be fed then turned ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 235, footnote 18 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Ageruchia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3309 (In-Text, Margin)
... churches? Do not soldiers and travellers manage their domestic affairs and give entertainments to one another with no wives to help them? Why can you not have grave and elderly servants or freed-men, such as those who have nursed you in your childhood, to preside over your house, to answer public calls, to pay taxes; men who will look up to you as a patroness, who will love you as a nursling, who will revere you as a saint? “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.”[Matthew 6:33] If you are careful for raiment the gospel bids you “consider the lilies;” and, if for food, to go back to the fowls which “sow not neither do they reap; yet your heavenly father feedeth them.” How many virgins and widows there are who have looked ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 363, footnote 12 (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 849 (In-Text, Margin)
Let us diligently ask for mercy, that we may receive whatsoever is necessary for us. Let us seek His Kingdom and His righteousness,[Matthew 6:33] that we may receive increase in the land. Let us think upon the things which are above, on the heavenly things, and meditate on them, where Christ has been lifted up and exalted. But let us forsake the world which is not ours, that we may arrive at the place to which we have been invited. Let us raise up our eyes on high, that we may see the splendour which shall be revealed. Let us lift up our wings as eagles, that we may see ...