Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 9:4
There are 13 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 194, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
A Treatise on the Soul. (HTML)
The Soul's Vitality and Intelligence. Its Character and Seat in Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1588 (In-Text, Margin)
... himself; and better than all others, there are our Christian authorities. We are taught by God concerning both these questions—viz. that there is a ruling power in the soul, and that it is enshrined in one particular recess of the body. For, when one reads of God as being “the searcher and witness of the heart;” when His prophet is reproved by His discovering to him the secrets of the heart; when God Himself anticipates in His people the thoughts of their heart, “Why think ye evil in your hearts?”[Matthew 9:4] when David prays “Create in me a clean heart, O God,” and Paul declares, “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness,” and John says, “By his own heart is each man condemned;” when, lastly, “he who looketh on a woman so as to lust after her, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 555, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
As the Flesh is a Partaker with the Soul in All Human Conduct, So Will It Be in the Recompense of Eternity. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7371 (In-Text, Margin)
... is so far from conducting (the affairs of) life, that we do not withdraw from community with the flesh even our thoughts, however isolated they be, however unprecipitated into act by means of the flesh; since whatever is done in man’s heart is done by the soul in the flesh, and with the flesh, and through the flesh. The Lord Himself, in short, when rebuking our thoughts, includes in His censures this aspect of the flesh, (man’s heart), the citadel of the soul: “Why think ye evil in your hearts?”[Matthew 9:4] and again: “Whosoever looketh on a woman, to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.” So that even the thought, without operation and without effect, is an act of the flesh. But if you allow that the faculty which ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 448, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Lord's Prayer. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3310 (In-Text, Margin)
... the brethren in one place, and celebrate divine sacrifices with God’s priest, we ought to be mindful of modesty and discipline—not to throw abroad our prayers indiscriminately, with unsubdued voices, nor to cast to God with tumultuous wordiness a petition that ought to be commended to God by modesty; for God is the hearer, not of the voice, but of the heart. Nor need He be clamorously reminded, since He sees men’s thoughts, as the Lord proves to us when He says, “Why think ye evil in your hearts?”[Matthew 9:4] And in another place: “And all the churches shall know that I am He that searcheth the hearts and reins.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 208, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
He embraces in a brief compendium the contents of the previous books; and finally shows that the Trinity, in the perfect sight of which consists the blessed life that is promised us, is here seen by us as in a glass and in an enigma, so long as it is seen through that image of God which we ourselves are. (HTML)
Concerning the Word of the Mind, in Which We See the Word of God, as in a Glass and an Enigma. (HTML)
... themselves, thinking not aright.” For the words, “They said within themselves,” are explained by the addition of “thinking.” A like passage to this is that in the Gospel,—that certain scribes, when they heard the Lord’s words to the paralytic man, “Be of good cheer, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee,” said within themselves, “This man blasphemeth.” For how did they “say within themselves,” except by thinking? Then follows, “And when Jesus saw their thoughts, He said, Why think ye evil in your thoughts?”[Matthew 9:2-4] So far Matthew. But Luke narrates the same thing thus: “The scribes and Pharisees began to think, saying, Who is this that speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He, answering, said unto ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 130, footnote 8 (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 Man Sick of the Palsy to Whom the Lord Said, ‘Thy Sins are Forgiven Thee,’ And ‘Take Up Thy Bed;’ And in Especial, of the Question Whether Matthew and Mark are Consistent with Each Other in Their Notice of the Place Where This Incident Took Place, in So Far as Matthew Says It Happened ‘In His Own City,’ While Mark Says It Was in Capharnaum. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 909 (In-Text, Margin)
57. Hereupon Matthew proceeds with his recital, still preserving the order of time, and connects his narrative in the following manner:—“And He entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His own city. And, behold, they brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed;” and so on down to where it is said, “But when the multitude saw it, they marvelled; and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.”[Matthew 9:1-8] Mark and Luke have also told the story of this paralytic. Now, as regards Matthew’s stating that the Lord said, “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee;” while Luke makes the address run, not as “son,” but as “man,”—this only helps to bring out the Lord’s meaning more ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 229, footnote 14 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Rusticus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3215 (In-Text, Margin)
... resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, and in the first of which He uttered His infant-cry. She draws you to her by her prayers that you may be saved, if not by your own exertions, at any rate by her faith. Of old one lay upon his bed sick of the palsy, so powerless in all his joints that he could neither move his feet to walk nor his hands to pray; yet when he was carried to our Lord by others, he was by Him so completely restored to health as to carry the bed which a little before had carried him.[Matthew 9:1-7] You too—absent in the body but present to her faith—your fellow-servant offers to her Lord and Saviour; and with the Canaanite woman she says of you: “my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.” Souls are of no sex; therefore I may fairly call ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 178, footnote 4 (Image)
Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus
Title Page (HTML)
De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book IX (HTML)
66. The Lord Jesus Christ, then, Who searcheth the heart and the reins, has no weakness in His nature, that He should not know, for, as we perceive, even the fact of His ignorance proceeds from the omniscience of His nature. Yet if any there be, who impute to Him ignorance, let them tremble, lest He Who knows their thoughts should say to them, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts[Matthew 9:4] ? The All-knowing, though not ignorant of thoughts and deeds, sometimes enquires as if He were, as for instance when He asks the woman who it was that touched the hem of His garment, or the Apostles, why they quarrelled among themselves, or the mourners, where the sepulchre of Lazarus was: ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 10, footnote 5 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XIV. Nothing escapes God's knowledge. This is proved by the witness of the Scriptures and the analogy of the sun, which, although created, yet by its light or heat enters into all things. (HTML)
53. But we are satisfied with the witness of Him Who says: “I search out the heart and the reins.” In the Gospel, also, the Lord Jesus says: “Why think ye evil in your hearts? For He knew they were thinking evil.”[Matthew 9:4] The evangelist also witnesses to this, saying: “For Jesus knew their thoughts.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 155, footnote 10 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter XIX. Having proved above that the Spirit abides and speaks in the prophets, St. Ambrose infers that He knows all things which are of God, and therefore is One with the Father and the Son. This same point he establishes again from the fact that He possesses all that God possesses, namely, Godhead, knowledge of the heart, truth, a Name above every name, and power to raise the dead, as is proved from Ezekiel, and in this He is equal to the Son. (HTML)
146. God, again, searches the hearts and reins, for it is written: “God searcheth the hearts and reins.” The Son also has this power, Who said, “Why think ye evil in your hearts?”[Matthew 9:4] For Jesus knew their thoughts. And the Spirit has the same power, Who manifests to the prophets also the secrets of the hearts of others, as we said above: “for the secrets of his heart are made manifest.” And why do we wonder if He searches the hidden things of man Who searches even the deep things of God?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 312, footnote 3 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
Chapter XVIII. Wishing to give a reason for the Lord's answer to the apostles, he assigns the one received to Christ's tenderness. Then when another reason is supplied by others he confesses that it is true; for the Lord spoke it by reason of His human feelings. Hence he gathers that the knowledge of the Father and the Son is equal, and that the Son is not inferior to the Father. After having set beside the text, in which He is said to be inferior, another whereby He is declared to be equal, he censures the rashness of the Arians in judging about the Son, and shows that whilst they wickedly make Him to be inferior, He is rightly called a Stone by Himself. (HTML)
... which embraces both, He guides our mind, so that He as Son of Man according to His adoption of our ignorance and growth of knowledge, might be believed as yet not fully to have known all things. For it is not for us to know the future. Thus He seems to be ignorant in that state in which He makes progress. For how does He progress according to His Godhead, in Whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells? Or what is there which the Son of God does not know, Who said: “Why think ye evil in your hearts?”[Matthew 9:4] How does He not know, of Whom Scripture says: “But Jesus knew their thoughts”?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 304, footnote 17 (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 I. First Conference of Abbot Moses. (HTML)
Chapter XIX. Of the three origins of our thoughts. (HTML)
... ourselves, when in the course of nature we recollect what we are doing or have done or have heard. Of which the blessed David speaks: “I thought upon the ancient days, and had in mind the years from of old, and I meditated, by night I exercised myself with my heart, and searched out my spirit.” And again: “the Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vain:” and “the thoughts of the righteous are judgments.” In the gospel too the Lord says to the Pharisees: “why do ye think evil in your hearts?”[Matthew 9:4]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 363, footnote 5 (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 VII. First Conference of Abbot Serenus. On Inconstancy of Mind, and Spiritual Wickedness. (HTML)
Chapter IV. The discourse of the old man on the state of the soul and its excellence. (HTML)
... of our nature. And with this meaning the Psalmist also is in agreement, when he says: “Blessed is the man whose help is from Thee: in his heart he hath disposed his ascents.” You see then that it lies in our power to dispose in our hearts either ascents, i.e., thoughts that belong to God, or descents; viz., those that sink down to carnal and earthly things. And if this was not in our power the Lord would not have rebuked the Pharisees, saying “Why do ye think evil in your hearts?”[Matthew 9:4] nor would He have given this charge by the prophet, saying: “Take away the evil of your thoughts from mine eyes;” and “How long shall wicked thoughts remain in you?” Nor would the character of them as of our works be taken into consideration in the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 433, footnote 8 (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 XIII. The Third Conference of Abbot Chæremon. On the Protection of God. (HTML)
Chapter XVI. Of the grace of God; to the effect that it transcends the narrow limits of human faith. (HTML)
... which, when the scribes did not believe that He could forgive men’s sins, in order to confound their incredulity, He set free by the power of His word the man’s limb, and put an end to his disease of paralysis, by saying: “Why think ye evil in your hearts? Whether is easier to say, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, arise and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then saith He to the sick of the palsy: Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.”[Matthew 9:2-6] And in the same way in the case of the man who had been lying for thirty-eight years near the edge of the pool, and hoping for a cure from the moving of the water, He showed the princely character of His bounty unasked. For when in His wish to ...