Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 10:39
There are 19 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 11, footnote 14 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
The Pastor of Hermas (HTML)
Book First.—Visions (HTML)
Vision Second. Again, of His Neglect in Chastising His Talkative Wife and His Lustful Sons, and of His Character. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 67 (In-Text, Margin)
... the days of repentance to all the saints; but to the heathen, repentance will be possible even to the last day. You will tell, therefore, those who preside over the Church, to direct their ways in righteousness, that they may receive in full the promises with great glory. Stand stedfast, therefore, ye who work righteousness, and doubt not, that your passage may be with the holy angels. Happy ye who endure the great tribulation that is coming on, and happy they who shall not deny their own life.[Matthew 10:39] For the Lord hath sworn by His Son, that those who denied their Lord have abandoned their life in despair, for even now these are to deny Him in the days that are coming. To those who denied in earlier times, God became gracious, on account of His ...
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 413, footnote 6 (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)
... in person and character, and those who are of noble birth, and honourable, having through righteousness attained to adoption, and therefore “have received power to become the sons of God,” and “to tread on serpents and scorpions,” and to rule over demons and “the host of the adversary.” And, in fine, the Lord’s discipline draws the soul away gladly from the body, even if it wrench itself away in its removal. “For he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life shall find it,”[Matthew 10:39] if we only join that which is mortal of us with the immortality of God. It is the will of God [that we should attain] the knowledge of God, which is the communication of immortality. He therefore, who, in accordance with the word of repentance, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 644, footnote 4 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Scorpiace. (HTML)
Chapter XI. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8287 (In-Text, Margin)
In the same manner, therefore, we maintain that the other announcements too refer to the condition of martyrdom. “He,” says Jesus, “who will value his own life also more than me, is not worthy of me,” —that is, he who will rather live by denying, than die by confessing, me; and “he who findeth his life shall lose it; but he who loseth it for my sake shall find it.”[Matthew 10:39] Therefore indeed he finds it, who, in winning life, denies; but he who thinks that he wins it by denying, will lose it in hell. On the other hand, he who, through confessing, is killed, will lose it for the present, but is also about to find it unto everlasting life. In fine, governors themselves, when they urge ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 712, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Patience. (HTML)
The Causes of Impatience, and Their Correspondent Precepts. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 9093 (In-Text, Margin)
... Patience in losses is an exercise in bestowing and communicating. Who fears not to lose, finds it not irksome to give. Else how will one, when he has two coats, give the one of them to the naked, unless he be a man likewise to offer to one who takes away his coat his cloak as well? How shall we fashion to us friends from mammon, if we love it so much as not to put up with its loss? We shall perish together with the lost mammon. Why do we find here, where it is our business to lose?[Matthew 10:39] To exhibit impatience at all losses is the Gentiles’ business, who give money the precedence perhaps over their soul; for so they do, when, in their cupidities of lucre, they encounter the gainful perils of commerce on the sea; when, for money’s ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 583, footnote 5 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
Treatises Attributed to Cyprian on Questionable Authority. (HTML)
On the Glory of Martyrdom. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4854 (In-Text, Margin)
17. But if ambitious dignity deter you, and the amount of your money heaped up in your stores influence you—a cause which ever distracts the intentions of a virtuous heart, and assails the soul devoted to its Lord with a fearful trembling—I beg that you would again refer to the heavenly words. For it is the very voice of Christ who speaks, and says, “Whosoever shall lose his life for my name’s sake, shall receive in this world a hundred fold, and in the world to come shall possess eternal life.”[Matthew 10:39] And we ought assuredly to reckon nothing greater, nothing more advantageous, than this. For although in the nature of your costly garments the purple dye flows into figures, and in the slackening threads the gold strays into a pattern, and the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 586, footnote 7 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
Treatises Attributed to Cyprian on Questionable Authority. (HTML)
On the Glory of Martyrdom. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4863 (In-Text, Margin)
... world, even as the world also was given up by Christ; as it is written, “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” The world has been an object of affection to none whom the Lord has not previously condemned; nor could he enjoy eternal salvation who has gloried in the life of the world. That is the very voice of Christ, who says: “He that loveth his life in this world, shall lose it in the world to come; but he that hateth his life in this world, shall find it in the world to come.”[Matthew 10:39] Moreover, also, the Apostle Paul says: “Be ye imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.” And the same elsewhere says: “I wish that all of you, if it were possible, should be imitators of me.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 694, footnote 2 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents. (HTML)
Martyrdom of Habib the Deacon. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3263 (In-Text, Margin)
Habib said: Nay, we do not hate our bodies: the Scripture distinctly teaches us, “Whosoever shall lose his life shall find it.”[Matthew 10:39] But another thing too it teaches us: that we should “not cast that which is holy to dogs, nor cast pearls before swine.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 64, footnote 19 (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 983 (In-Text, Margin)
... 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] And every one that doth not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of [26] me.[Matthew 10:39] Whosoever findeth his life shall lose it; and whosoever loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 462, footnote 2 (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)
Why Jesus Had to Go to Jerusalem. (HTML)
... the things which are written. For, when any one apprehends from the Word the perfect knowledge of these things, then it must be said that, from a rational exhibition (the mind seeing the things which are shown,) the exhibition becomes complete for him who has the will and the power to contemplate these things, and does contemplate them. But since “it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem,” —a perishing which corresponds to the words, “He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it,”[Matthew 10:39] —on this account it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem, that having suffered many things in that Jerusalem, He might make “the first-fruits” of the resurrection from the dead in the Jerusalem above, doing away with and breaking up the city ...
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 4, page 276, footnote 4 (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 805 (In-Text, Margin)
... the ten virgins to gain eternal life by entering into His kingdom, and in shutting them out, so that they knocked in vain in their entreaty to have the door opened, as if forgetful of His own promise, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you;" as Faustus charges God with fear and envy in not admitting man after his sin to eternal life. Again, he might call Christ greedy of the blood, not of beasts, but of men, because he said, "He that loseth his life for my sake, shall keep it unto life eternal;"[Matthew 10:39] as Faustus reproaches God in reference to those animal sacrifices which prefigured the sacrifice of blood-shedding by which we are redeemed. He might also accuse Christ of jealousy, because in narrating His driving the buyers and sellers out of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 319, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin. (HTML)
Treatise on the Soul and Its Origin (HTML)
Another Error of Victor’s, that Infants Dying Unbaptized May Attain to the Kingdom of Heaven. Another, that the Sacrifice of the Body of Christ Must Be Offered for Infants Who Die Before They are Baptized. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2347 (In-Text, Margin)
... them, indeed, constant oblations and sacrifices must be continually offered up by holy priests.” You may here behold another danger, out of which he will never escape except by regret and a recall of his words. For who can offer up the body of Christ for any except for those who are members of Christ? Moreover, from the time when He said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven;” and again, “He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it;”[Matthew 10:39] no one becomes a member of Christ except it be either by baptism in Christ, or death for Christ.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 339, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Disobedient Compassion and Compassionate Disobedience Reprobated. Martyrdom in Lieu of Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2422 (In-Text, Margin)
... mercy to his fellow-man, in opposition to the sentence of Him by whom man was made. Truth, by the mouth of Itself incarnate, proclaims as if in a voice of thunder: “Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” And in order to except martyrs from this sentence, to whose lot it has fallen to be slain for the name of Christ before being washed in the baptism of Christ, He says in another passage, “He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”[Matthew 10:39] And so far from promising the abolition of original sin to any one who has not been regenerated in the laver of Christian faith, the apostle exclaims, “By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.” And as a counterbalance ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 205, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1943 (In-Text, Margin)
... there, and yet in that case men are afraid. But if a man lose wisdom, truly there is fear, and in that case he is not afraid.…Thou hast feared to give back money, and hast willed to lose fidelity. The Martyrs took not away property of other persons, but even their own they despised that they might not lose fidelity: and it was too little to lose money, when they were proscribed; they took also their life when they suffered: they lost life, in order that unto everlasting life they might find it.[Matthew 10:39] Therefore there they feared, where they ought to have been afraid. But they that of Christ have said, “He is not God,” have there feared where was no fear. For they said, “If we shall have let Him go, there will come the Romans, and will take away ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 504, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4653 (In-Text, Margin)
... this life, and as ye have heard in the Epistle of St. John, laid down their lives for the brethren, which is the perfection of love, even as our Lord saith: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends:” this the holy martyrs, then, considering, despised their lives here, that they might find them there, following our Lord’s words when He said, “He that loveth his life, shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for My sake, shall keep it unto life eternal.”[Matthew 10:39] …“Forget not,” he saith, “all His rewards:” not awards, but “rewards.” For something else was due, and what was not due hath been paid. Whence also these words: “What,” he asketh, “shall I reward the Lord for all His rewards unto me?” Thou hast ...
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)
... 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 10, page 377, footnote 3 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Virgins. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter IV. A virgin at Antioch, having refused to sacrifice to idols, was condemned to a house of ill-fame, whence she escaped unharmed, having changed clothes with a Christian soldier. Then when he was condemned for this, she returned and the two contended for the prize of martyrdom, which was at last given to each. (HTML)
25. And so, instructed by such examples, and at the same time bearing in mind the words of the Lord, where He says: “Whosoever shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it,”[Matthew 10:39] she wept, and was silent, that the adulterer might not even hear her speaking, and she did not choose the wrong done to her modesty, but rejected wrong done to Christ. Consider whether it was possible for her to suffer her body to be unchaste, who guarded even her speech.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 431, footnote 6 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose. (HTML)
Sermon Against Auxentius on the Giving Up of the Basilicas. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3472 (In-Text, Margin)
... But he who loves me here, would show his love much more if he would suffer me to become Christ’s victim, for “to depart and be with Christ is much better, though to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” There is nothing therefore for you to fear, beloved brethren. For I know that whatever I may suffer, I shall suffer for Christ’s sake. And I have read that I ought not to fear those that can kill the flesh. And I have heard One Who says: “He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.”[Matthew 10:39]