Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Matthew 10:30

There are 21 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 397, footnote 5 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book II (HTML)

Chapter XXVI.—“Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3203 (In-Text, Margin)

2. For how would it be, if any one, gradually elated by attempts of the kind referred to, should, because the Lord said that “even the hairs of your head are all numbered,”[Matthew 10:30] set about inquiring into the number of hairs on each one’s head, and endeavour to search out the reason on account of which one man has so many, and another so many, since all have not an equal number, but many thousands upon thousands are to be found with still varying numbers, on this account that some have larger and others smaller heads, some have bushy heads of hair, others thin, and others scarcely any ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 66, footnote 3 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Tatian (HTML)

Address to the Greeks (HTML)

Chapter IV. The Christians Worship God Alone. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 426 (In-Text, Margin)

For what reason, men of Greece, do you wish to bring the civil powers, as in a pugilistic encounter, into collision with us? And, if I am not disposed to comply with the usages of some of them, why am I to be abhorred as a vile miscreant?[Matthew 10:22-39] Does the sovereign order the payment of tribute, I am ready to render it. Does my master command me to act as a bondsman and to serve, I acknowledge the serfdom. Man is to be honoured as a fellow-man; God alone is to be feared,—He who is not visible to human eyes, nor comes within the compass of human art. Only when I am commanded to deny Him, will I not obey, but will rather ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 276, footnote 2 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Instructor (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
Chapter III.—Against Men Who Embellish Themselves. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1603 (In-Text, Margin)

... Wherefore males have both more hair and more heat than females, animals that are entire than the emasculated, perfect than imperfect. It is therefore impious to desecrate the symbol of manhood, hairiness. But the embellishment of smoothing (for I am warned by the Word), if it is to attract men, is the act of an effeminate person,—if to attract women, is the act of an adulterer; and both must be driven as far as possible from our society. “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered,” says the Lord;[Matthew 10:30] those on the chin, too, are numbered, and those on the whole body. There must be therefore no plucking out, contrary to God’s appointment, which has counted them in according to His will. “Know ye not yourselves,” says the apostle, “that Christ ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 571, footnote 4 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)

Explanation of What is Meant by the Body, Which is to Be Raised Again. Not the Corporeality of the Soul. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7517 (In-Text, Margin)

... selfsame hope, adds the example of “the sparrows”—how that “not one of them falls to the ground without the will of God.” He says this, that you may believe that the flesh which has been consigned to the ground, is able in like manner to rise again by the will of the same God. For although this is not allowed to the sparrows, yet “we are of more value than many sparrows,” for the very reason that, when fallen, we rise again. He affirms, lastly, that “the very hairs of our head are all numbered,”[Matthew 10:30] and in the affirmation He of course includes the promise of their safety; for if they were to be lost, where would be the use of having taken such a numerical care of them? Surely the only use lies (in this truth): “That of all which the Father hath ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 667, footnote 7 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VIII (HTML)
Chapter LXX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4973 (In-Text, Margin)

... world prevails only so long as it is the pleasure of Him who received from the Father power to overcome the world; and from His victory we take courage. Should He even wish us again to contend and struggle for our religion, let the enemy come against us, and we will say to them, “I can do all things, through Christ Jesus our Lord, which strengtheneth me.” For of “two sparrows which are sold for a farthing,” as the Scripture says, “not one of them falls on the ground without our Father in heaven.”[Matthew 10:29-30] And so completely does the Divine Providence embrace all things, that not even the hairs of our head fail to be numbered by Him.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 617, footnote 4 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Novatian. (HTML)

A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. (HTML)

It is This God, Therefore, that the Church Has Known and Adores; And to Him the Testimony of Things as Well Visible as Invisible is Given Both at All Times and in All Forms, by the Nature Which His Providence Rules and Governs. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5054 (In-Text, Margin)

... cities themselves, and states whose destructions have been announced by the words of prophets; yea, even through the whole world itself; whose end, whose miseries, and wastings, and sufferings on account of unbelief He has allotted. And lest moreover any one should think that such an indefatigable providence of God does not reach to even the very least things, “One of two sparrows,” says the Lord, “shall not fall without the will of the Father; but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”[Matthew 10:29-30] And His care and providence did not permit even the clothes of the Israelites to be worn out, nor even the vilest shoes on their feet to be wasted; nor, moreover, finally, the very garments of the captive young men to be burnt. And this is not ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 524, footnote 3 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)

Acts of Andrew and Matthias. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2272 (In-Text, Margin)

... saying: Lord Jesus Christ, be not displeased with me; for Thou knowest, Lord, what the fiend has inflicted upon me, along with his demons. These tortures are enough, my Lord; for, behold, I am dragged about for three days. But do Thou, Lord, remember that Thou wast three hours upon the cross, and didst cry out to the Father, My Father, why hast Thou forsaken me? Where are Thy words, Lord, which Thou spakest to us, confirming us, when we walked about with Thee, saying to us, Ye shall not lose one hair?[Matthew 10:30] Consider, then, Lord, what has become of my flesh, and the hairs of my head. Then Jesus said to Andrew: O our Andrew, the heaven and the earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Turn thyself then, Andrew, and behold thy flesh that ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 64, footnote 9 (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 XIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 973 (In-Text, Margin)

... ye in the light; and what ye have told [13] secretly in the ears in closets, let it be proclaimed on the housetops. I say unto you now, my beloved, Be not agitated at those who kill the body, but have no power to [14] kill the soul. I will inform you whom ye shall fear: him which is able to destroy [15] soul and body in hell. Yea, I say unto you, Be afraid of him especially. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing in a bond? and one of them shall not fall on the [16] ground without your Father.[Matthew 10:30] But what concerns you: even the hair of your heads [17, 18] also is numbered. Fear not therefore; ye are better than many sparrows. Every man who confesseth me now before men, I also will confess him before my Father [19] which is in heaven; but ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 51, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

Commencing with the invocation of God, Augustin relates in detail the beginning of his life, his infancy and boyhood, up to his fifteenth year; at which age he acknowledges that he was more inclined to all youthful pleasures and vices than to the study of letters. (HTML)

Being Compelled, He Gave His Attention to Learning; But Fully Acknowledges that This Was the Work of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 164 (In-Text, Margin)

... this was well done towards me, but I did not well, for I would not have learned had I not been compelled. For no man doth well against his will, even if that which he doth be well. Neither did they who forced me do well, but the good that was done to me came from Thee, my God. For they considered not in what way I should employ what they forced me to learn, unless to satisfy the inordinate desires of a rich beggary and a shameful glory. But Thou, by whom the very hairs of our heads are numbered,[Matthew 10:30] didst use for my good the error of all who pressed me to learn; and my own error in willing not to learn, didst Thou make use of for my punishment—of which I, being so small a boy and so great a sinner, was not unworthy. Thus by the instrumentality ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 75, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

Then follows a period of nine years from the nineteenth year of his age, during which having lost a friend, he followed the Manichæans—and wrote books on the fair and fit, and published a work on the liberal arts, and the categories of Aristotle. (HTML)

Concerning the Books Which He Wrote ‘On the Fair and Fit,’ Dedicated to Hierius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 327 (In-Text, Margin)

... that I am in love with in another, which, if I did not hate, I should not detest and repel from myself, seeing we are equally men? For it does not follow that because a good horse is loved by him who would not, though he might, be that horse, the same should therefore be affirmed by an actor, who partakes of our nature. Do I then love in a man that which I, who am a man, hate to be? Man himself is a great deep, whose very hairs Thou numberest, O Lord, and they fall not to the ground without Thee.[Matthew 10:29-30] And yet are the hairs of his head more readily numbered than are his affections and the movements of his heart.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 238, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Of the creation of angels and men, and of the origin of evil. (HTML)

Against Those Who Assert that Things that are Infinite Cannot Be Comprehended by the Knowledge of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 559 (In-Text, Margin)

... himself as to say so? Yet they can hardly pretend to put numbers out of the question, or maintain that they have nothing to do with the knowledge of God; for Plato, their great authority, represents God as framing the world on numerical principles: and in our books also it is said to God, “Thou hast ordered all things in number, and measure, and weight.” The prophet also says,” Who bringeth out their host by number.” And the Saviour says in the Gospel, “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.”[Matthew 10:30] Far be it, then, from us to doubt that all number is known to Him “whose understanding,” according to the Psalmist, “is infinite.” The infinity of number, though there be no numbering of infinite numbers, is yet not incomprehensible by Him whose ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 540, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On Care to Be Had for the Dead. (HTML)

Section 4 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2716 (In-Text, Margin)

4. “But” (say I) “in such a slaughter-heap of dead bodies, could they not even be buried? not this, either, doth pious faith too greatly dread, holding that which is foretold that not even consuming beasts will be an hindrance to the rising again of bodies of which not a hair of the head shall perish.[Matthew 10:28-30] Nor in any wise would Truth say, “Fear not them which kill the body, but cannot kill the soul;” if it could at all hinder the life to come whatever enemies might choose to do with the bodies of the slain. Unless haply any is so absurd as to contend that they ought not to be feared before death, lest they kill the body, but ought to be feared ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 302, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

Faustus states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 912 (In-Text, Margin)

... confirmed by the patient endurance of what is commonly called adversity for the sake of that felicity. So in fullness of time the Son of God, made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law, made of the seed of David according to the flesh sends His disciples as sheep into the midst of wolves, and bids them not fear those that can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, and promises that even the body will be entirely restored, so that not a hair shall be lost.[Matthew 10:30] Peter’s sword He orders back into its sheath, restoring as it was before the ear of His enemy that had been cut off. He says that He could obtain legions of angels to destroy His enemies, but that He must drink the cup which His Father’s will had ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 303, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

On the words of the Gospel, Matt. viii. 8, ‘I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof,’ etc., and of the words of the apostle, 1 Cor. viii. 10, ‘For if a man see thee who hast knowledge sitting at meat in an idol’s temple,’ etc. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2200 (In-Text, Margin)

15. Be sure, Brethren, that enemies have no power against the faithful, except so far as it profiteth them to be tempted and proved. Of this be sure, Brethren, let no one say ought against it. Cast all your care upon the Lord, throw yourselves wholly and entirely upon Him. He will not withdraw Himself that ye should fall. He who created us, hath given us security touching our very hairs. “Verily I say unto you, even the hairs of your head are all numbered.”[Matthew 10:30] Our hairs are numbered by God; how much more is our conduct known to Him to whom our hairs are thus known? See then, how that God doth not disregard our least things. For if He disregarded them, He would not create them. For He verily both created our hairs, and still ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 382, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3694 (In-Text, Margin)

... have it, “mortal.” For “dead” is only said of those that have died; but mortal is a term applied even to living bodies. When then, as I have said, to their Husbandman the spirits of martyrs like apples had passed away, their dead bodies and their fleshes they set before the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the earth: as if any part of them could be lost to the resurrection, whereas out of the hidden recesses of the natural world He will renew the whole, by whom even our hairs have been numbered.[Matthew 10:30]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 479, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XCVII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4485 (In-Text, Margin)

... will give thee a robe of glory. What robe dost thou tell me of? “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” This very flesh of thine shall not perish. Thine enemy can rage as far as to thy death: he hath not power beyond, either over thy soul, or even over thy flesh; for although he scatter thy flesh about, he hindereth not the resurrection. Men were fearful for their life: and what said the Lord unto them? “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.”[Matthew 10:30] Dost thou, who losest not a single hair, fear the loss of thy life? All things are numbered with God. He who created all things, will restore all things. They were not, and they were created: they were, and shall they not be restored?…“He shall ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 483, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XCIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4512 (In-Text, Margin)

... soul of the righteous is the seat of wisdom.” For a throne is in our language called a seat. For some, conversant with the Hebrew tongue, have interpreted cherubim in the Latin language (for it is a Hebrew term) by the words, fulness of knowledge. Therefore, because God surpasseth all knowledge, He is said to sit above the fulness of knowledge. Let there be therefore in thee fulness of knowledge, and even thou shalt be the throne of God.…He knoweth all things: for our hairs are numbered before God.[Matthew 10:30] But the fulness of knowledge which He willed man to know is different from this; the knowledge which He willed thee to have, pertaineth to the law of God. And who can, thou mayest perhaps say unto me, perfectly know the Law, so that he may have ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 639, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5733 (In-Text, Margin)

17. “I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand” (ver. 18). By means of them, who “wandered in the day,” lo! there has been born all this great multitude, which now is like the sand innumerable, save by God. For He said, “they shall be multiplied above the sand,” and yet He had said, “I will number them.” The very same who are numbered, “shall be multiplied above the sand.” For by Him is the sand numbered, by whom “the very hairs of our head are numbered.”[Matthew 10:30] “I have risen, and yet am I with Thee.” Already have I suffered, saith He, already have I been buried; lo! I have risen, and not yet do they understand that I am with them. “Yet am I with Thee,” that is, not yet with them, for not yet do they recognise Me. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 663, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXLVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5893 (In-Text, Margin)

... law. As far then as regards giving a law, “God careth not for oxen:” as regards creating, feeding, governing, ruling, all things have to do with God. “Are not two sparrows sold for one farthing?” saith our Lord Jesus Christ, “and one of them shall not fall to the ground without the will of your Father: how much better are ye than they.” Perhaps thou sayest, God counteth me not in this great multitude. There follows here a wondrous passage in the Gospel: “the hairs of your head are all numbered.”[Matthew 10:30]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 666, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXLVII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5907 (In-Text, Margin)

... number of the stars”! Men even have endeavoured to do this; whether they have been able to achieve it, is their concern; they would not however attempt it, did they not think that they should achieve it. Let us leave alone what they can do, and how far they have attained; for God I think it no great matter to count all the stars. Or doth He perhaps go over the number, lest He should forget it? Is it any great thing for God to number the stars, by whom “the very hairs of your head are numbered”?[Matthew 10:30] The stars are certain lights in the Church comforting our night; all of whom the Apostle saith, “In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding the Word of life.” These stars God counteth; all ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 117, footnote 4 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Introduction. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1025 (In-Text, Margin)

15. And so, also, in the Gospel our Lord, pointing out that some hairs are seen and known, says: “But even the hairs of your head are all numbered,”[Matthew 10:30] implying, indeed, acts of spiritual virtues, for God does not take care for our hair. Though, indeed, it is not absurd to believe that literally, seeing that according to His divine Majesty nothing can be hidden from Him.

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs