Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Matthew 10:38

There are 13 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 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 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)
CCEL Footnote 3735 (In-Text, Margin)

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)
That nothing is to be preferred to the love of God and Christ. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 4313 (In-Text, Margin)

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 9, page 64, footnote 18 (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 982 (In-Text, Margin)

... 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] 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][Matthew 10:38] And every one that doth not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of [26] me. Whosoever findeth his life shall lose it; and whosoever loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 463, footnote 6 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)

Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)

Book XII. (HTML)
Importance of the Expressions “Behind” And “Turned.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5705 (In-Text, Margin)

But you will compare together His saying to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan,” with that said to the devil (who said to Him, “All these things will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me”), “get thee hence,” without the addition, “behind Me;” for to be behind Jesus is a good thing. Wherefore it was said, “Come ye behind Me and I will make you fishers of men.” And to the same effect is the saying, “He that doth not take his cross and follow behind Me is not worthy of Me.”[Matthew 10:38] And as a general principle observe the expression “behind”; because it is a good thing when any one goes behind the Lord God and is behind the Christ; but it is the opposite when any one casts the words of God behind him, or when he transgresses the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 166, footnote 3 (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 claims that the Manichæans and not the Catholics are consistent believers in the Gospel, and seeks to establish this claim by comparing Manichæan and Catholic obedience to the precepts of the Gospel.  Augustin exposes the hypocrisy of the Manichæans and praises the asceticism of Catholics. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 345 (In-Text, Margin)

... cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple," He immediately adds, for the consolation of the weak, "Whoso receiveth a just man in the name of a just man shall receive a just man’s reward; and whoso receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet’s reward." So that not only he who gives Timothy a little wine for his stomach’s sake, and his frequent infirmities, but he who gives to a strong man a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, shall not lose his reward.[Matthew 10:38-42]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 376, footnote 5 (Image)

Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes

The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)

Homily V (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1257 (In-Text, Margin)

14. Let us not then fear death, but let us only fear sin, and grieve on account of this. And these things I speak, not anticipating any thing fearful, God forbid! but wishing you when alarmed to be always thus affected, and to fulfil the law of Christ in very deed. For “he,” saith Christ, “that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me.”[Matthew 10:38] This He said, not that we should bear the wood upon our shoulders, but that we should always have death before our eyes. Even so as Paul, that is, died daily, and laughed at death, and despised the present life. For indeed thou art a soldier, and standest continually at arms; but a soldier who is afraid of death, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 144, footnote 10 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To Chilo, his disciple. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2072 (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.” What is the meaning of the Lord’s commandment? “He that taketh not up his cross and followeth after me, cannot be my disciple?”[Matthew 10:38] 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 place: if you abandon your place, perhaps you will abandon your ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 184, footnote 10 (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 X (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1112 (In-Text, Margin)

... pain should have seized Him?” The objects of His fear, which they allege, are, I suppose, suffering and death. Now I ask those who are of this opinion, “Can we reasonably suppose that He feared death, Who drove away the terrors of death from His Apostles, exhorting them to the glory of martyrdom with the words, He that doth not take his cross and follow after Me is not worth of Me; and, He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that hath lost his life for My sake shall find it[Matthew 10:38-39] ? If to die for Him is life, what pain can we think He had to suffer in the mystery of death, Who rewards with life those who die for Him? Could death make Him fear what could be done to the body, when He exhorted the disciples, Fear not ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 230, footnote 9 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)

Book IV. Of the Institutes of the Renunciants. (HTML)
Chapter XXXIV. Of the way in which our renunciation is nothing but mortification and the image of the Crucified. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 799 (In-Text, Margin)

... you no longer live but He lives in you who was crucified for you. We must therefore pass our time in this life in that fashion and form in which He was crucified for us on the cross so that (as David says) piercing our flesh with the fear of the Lord, we may have all our wishes and desires not subservient to our own lusts but fastened to His mortification. For so shall we fulfil the command of the Lord which says: “He that taketh not up his cross and followeth me is not worthy of me.”[Matthew 10:38] But perhaps you will say: How can a man carry his cross continually? or how can any one who is alive be crucified? Hear briefly how this is.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 172, footnote 2 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Sermons. (HTML)

On the Passion, VIII.:  on Wednesday in Holy Week. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1016 (In-Text, Margin)

... wicked a mighty mockery, but to the faithful a mighty mystery was set forth, seeing that He, the glorious vanquisher of the Devil, and the strong defeater of the powers that were against Him, was carrying in noble sort the trophy of His triumph, and on the shoulders of His unconquered patience bore into all realms the adorable sign of salvation: as if even then to confirm all His followers by this mere symbol of His work, and say, “He that taketh not his cross and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me[Matthew 10:38].”

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