Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 10:37
There are 18 footnotes for this reference.
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 3, page 378, footnote 9 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke's Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian's Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.“ It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man. (HTML)
The Rich Women of Piety Who Followed Jesus Christ's Teaching by Parables. The Marcionite Cavil Derived from Christ's Remark, When Told of His Mother and His Brethren. Explanation of Christ's Apparent Rejection Them. (HTML)
... Him by reason of their faith. Now no one transfers a thing except from him who possesses that which is transferred. If, therefore, He made them “His mother and His brethren” who were not so, how could He deny them these relationships who really had them? Surely only on the condition of their deserts, and not by any disavowal of His near relatives; teaching them by His own actual example, that “whosoever preferred father or mother or brethren to the Word of God, was not a disciple worthy of Him.”[Matthew 10:37] Besides, His admission of His mother and His brethren was the more express, from the fact of His unwillingness to acknowledge them. That He adopted others only confirmed those in their relationship to Him whom He refused because of their offence, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 675, footnote 20 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Baptism. (HTML)
Of the Necessity of Baptism to Salvation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8677 (In-Text, Margin)
... thy believing, of course, albeit thou be not yet baptized. If that was wanting to the apostles, I know not in the faith of what things it was, that, roused by one word of the Lord, one left the toll-booth behind for ever; another deserted father and ship, and the craft by which he gained his living; a third, who disdained his father’s obsequies, fulfilled, before he heard it, that highest precept of the Lord, “He who prefers father or mother to me, is not worthy of me.”[Matthew 10:37]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 684, footnote 10 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Prayer. (HTML)
The Seventh or Final Clause. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8819 (In-Text, Margin)
... tempts; but far be the thought that the Lord should seem to tempt, as if He either were ignorant of the faith of any, or else were eager to overthrow it. Infirmity and malice are characteristics of the devil. For God had commanded even Abraham to make a sacrifice of his son, for the sake not of tempting, but proving, his faith; in order through him to make an example for that precept of His, whereby He was, by and by, to enjoin that he should hold no pledges of affection dearer than God.[Matthew 10:37] He Himself, when tempted by the devil, demonstrated who it is that presides over and is the originator of temptation. This passage He confirms by subsequent ones, saying, “Pray that ye be not tempted;” yet they were tempted, (as they showed) ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 120, footnote 9 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
De Fuga in Persecutione. (HTML)
De Fuga in Persecutione. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1161 (In-Text, Margin)
... weak! Whereas in fact He does not cherish, but ever rejects the weak, teaching first, not that we are to fly from our persecutors, but rather that we are not to fear them. “Fear not them who are able to kill the body, but are unable to do ought against the soul; but fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” And then what does He allot to the fearful? “He who will value his life more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he who takes not up his cross and follows Me, cannot be My disciple.”[Matthew 10:37-38] Last of all, in the Revelation, He does not propose flight to the “fearful,” but a miserable portion among the rest of the outcast, in the lake of brimstone and fire, which is the second death.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 303, footnote 2 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
Moyses, Maximus, Nicostratus, and the Other Confessors Answer the Foregoing Letter. A.D. 250. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2293 (In-Text, Margin)
4. For to this battle our Lord, as with the trumpet of His Gospel, stimulates us when He says, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth his own soul more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.”[Matthew 10:37-38] And again, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed shall ye be, when men shall persecute you, and hate you. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for so did their fathers persecute the prophets which were before you.” And again, “Because ye shall stand before kings and powers, and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 480, footnote 7 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On Works and Alms. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3566 (In-Text, Margin)
... restrain and recall the Christian from good and righteous works, that any one should fancy that he could be excused for the benefit of his children; since in spiritual expenditure we ought to think of Christ, who has declared that He receives them; and not prefer our fellow-servants, but the Lord, to our children, since He Himself instructs and warns us, saying, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”[Matthew 10:37] Also in Deuteronomy, for the strengthening of faith and the love of God, similar things are written: “Who say,” he saith, “unto their father or mother, I have not known thee; neither did they acknowledge their children, these have observed Thy ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 500, footnote 4 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus. (HTML)
That, being redeemed and quickened by the blood of Christ, we ought to prefer nothing to Christ. (HTML)
In the Gospel the Lord speaks, and says: “He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that taketh not his cross and followeth me, is not worthy of me.”[Matthew 10:37-38] So also it is written in Deuteronomy: “They who say to their father and their mother, I have not known thee, and have not acknowledged their own children, these have kept Thy precepts, and have observed Thy covenant.” Moreover, the Apostle Paul says: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 539, footnote 11 (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 Deuteronomy: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Also in the Gospel according to Matthew: “He that loveth father or mother above me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter above me, is not worthy of me; and he that taketh not up his cross and followeth me, is not my disciple.”[Matthew 10:37-38] Also in the Epistle of Paul to the Romans: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, Because for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 224, footnote 11 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Archelaus. (HTML)
The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes. (HTML)
Chapter XLVIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2037 (In-Text, Margin)
... brethren. What then? Ought He, now, yourself being judge, to have left those whom He was healing and instructing, and gone to speak with His mother and His brethren? Would you not by such a supposition at once lower the character of the Person Himself? When, again, He chose certain men who were laden and burdened with sins for the honour of discipleship, to the number of twelve, whom He also named His apostles, He gave them this injunction, Leave father and mother, that you may be made worthy of me;[Matthew 10:37] intending by this that thence forward the memory of father or mother should no more impair the stedfastness of their heart. And on another occasion, when a different individual chose to say to Him, “I will go and bury my father,” He answered, “Let ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 438, footnote 9 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Sec. I.—Concerning the Martyrs (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2982 (In-Text, Margin)
... again He speaks thus to us ourselves, His disciples: “He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”[Matthew 10:37] And afterwards: “Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 64, footnote 17 (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 981 (In-Text, Margin)
... I am come to cast peace into the earth? I came not to cast peace, [21] but to cast dissension. Henceforth there shall be five in one house, three of them [22] disagreeing with two, and the two with the three. The father shall become hostile to his son, and the son to his father; and the mother to her daughter, and the daughter to her mother; and the mother in law to her daughter in law, and the daughter [23] in law to her mother in law: and a man’s enemies shall be the people of his house. [24][Matthew 10:37] Whosoever loveth father or mother better than me is not worthy of me; and whosoever [Arabic, p. 52] loveth son or daughter more than his love of me is not worthy of me. [25] And every one that doth not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 475, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
What It is to Have Christ for a Foundation, and Who They are to Whom Salvation as by Fire is Promised. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1581 (In-Text, Margin)
... those relatives who afford no delight of such a kind, and whom it is right to love,—whosoever prefers these to Christ, and loves them after a human and carnal fashion, has not Christ as a foundation, and will therefore not be saved by fire, nor indeed at all; for he shall not possibly dwell with the Saviour, who says very explicitly concerning this very matter, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”[Matthew 10:37] But he who loves his relations carnally, and yet so that he does not prefer them to Christ, but would rather want them than Christ if he were put to the proof, shall be saved by fire, because it is necessary that by the loss of these relations he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 14, footnote 12 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Heliodorus, Monk. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 186 (In-Text, Margin)
Scripture, you will argue, bids us obey our parents. Yes, but whoso loves them more than Christ loses his own soul.[Matthew 10:37] The enemy takes sword in hand to slay me, and shall I think of a mother’s tears? Or shall I desert the service of Christ for the sake of a father to whom, if I am Christ’s servant, I owe no rites of burial, albeit if I am Christ’s true servant I owe these to all? Peter with his cowardly advice was an offence to the Lord on the eve of His passion; and to the breth ren who strove to restrain him from going up to Jerusalem, Paul’s one ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 205, footnote 19 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2929 (In-Text, Margin)
... world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof.” I know that when word was sent to her of the serious illnesses of her children and particularly of Toxotius whom she dearly loved, she first by her self-control fulfilled the saying: “I was troubled and I did not speak,” and then cried out in the words of scripture, “He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”[Matthew 10:37] And she prayed to the Lord and said: Lord “preserve thou the children of those that are appointed to die,” that is, of those who for thy sake every day die bodily. I am aware that a talebearer—a class of persons who do a great deal of harm—once told ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 429, footnote 3 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5010 (In-Text, Margin)
... was proved to be a man after God’s own heart, says: “Do not I hate those that hate thee, O Lord, and did not I pine away over thine enemies? I hated them with a perfect hatred.” Had I heard my father, or mother, or brother say such things against my Master Christ, I would have broken their blasphemous jaws like those of a mad dog, and my hand should have been amongst the first lifted up against them. They who said to father and mother, “We know you not,” these men fulfilled the will of the Lord.[Matthew 10:37] He that loveth father or mother more than Christ, is not worthy of Him.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 47, footnote 14 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
The Father. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1026 (In-Text, Margin)
... saying, Honour thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and thy days shall be long in the land. And let this commandment be especially observed by those here present who have fathers and mothers. Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing to the Lord. For the Lord said not, He that loveth father or mother is not worthy of Me, lest thou from ignorance shouldest perversely mistake what was rightly written, but He added, more than Me[Matthew 10:37]. For when our fathers on earth are of a contrary mind to our Father in heaven, then we must obey Christ’s word. But when they put no obstacle to godliness in our way, if we are ever carried away by ingratitude, and, forgetting their benefits to us, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 144, footnote 9 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To Chilo, his disciple. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2071 (In-Text, Margin)
3. You will not love your kinsfolk more than the Lord. “He that loveth,” He says, “father, or mother, or brother, more than me, is not worthy of me.”[Matthew 10:37] What is the meaning of the Lord’s commandment? “He that taketh not up his cross and followeth after me, cannot be my disciple?” If, together with Christ, you died to your kinsfolk according to the flesh, why do you wish to live with them again? If for your kinsfolk’s sake you are building up again what you destroyed for Christ’s sake, you make yourself a transgressor. Do not then for your kinsfolk’s sake abandon your ...