Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 12:34
There are 15 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 596, footnote 1 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
Who is the Rich Man that shall be saved? (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3855 (In-Text, Margin)
... be able to desire and to mind the kingdom of heaven,—a man who carries not a heart, but land or metal, who must perforce be found in the midst of the objects he has chosen? For where the mind of man is, there is also his treasure. The Lord acknowledges a twofold treasure,—the good: “For the good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good;” and the evil: for “the evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil: for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”[Matthew 12:34-35] As then treasure is not one with Him, as also it is with us, that which gives the unexpected great gain in the finding, but also a second, which is profitless and undesirable, an evil acquisition, hurtful; so also there is a richness in good things, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 340, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
To Cornelius, Concerning Fortunatus and Felicissimus, or Against the Heretics. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2532 (In-Text, Margin)
... one that is lifted up, and lofty.” By his mouth, therefore, and by his words, is every one at once betrayed; and whether he has Christ in his heart, or Antichrist, is discerned in his speaking, according to what the Lord says in His Gospel, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”[Matthew 12:34-35] Whence also that rich sinner who implores help from Lazarus, then laid in Abraham’s bosom, and established in a place of comfort, while he, writhing in torments, is consumed by the heats of burning flame, suffers most punishment of all parts of his ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 332, footnote 4 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Clementine Homilies. (HTML)
Homily XIX. (HTML)
Peter Suspects Simon of Not Believing Even in a God. (HTML)
And Peter said: “You are not so blessed as to praise Him, nor indeed can you do such a good deed as this; for then you would be full of Him. For thus said our Teacher, who always spoke the truth: ‘Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.’[Matthew 12:34] Whence you, abounding in evil purposes, through ignorance speak against the only good God. And not yet suffering what you deserve to suffer for the words which you have dared to utter, you either imagine that there will be no judgment, or perchance you think that there is not even a God. Whence, not comprehending such long-suffering as His, you are moving on to still ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 66, footnote 5 (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 XIV. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1053 (In-Text, Margin)
... forgiveness for him for ever, but he is deserving of eternal punishment: because they [31] said that he had an unclean spirit. And he said also, Every one that speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to [32] come. Either ye must make a good tree and its fruit good; or ye must make an evil [33] tree and its fruit evil: for the tree is known by its fruit.[Matthew 12:34] Ye children of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? from the overflowings of the heart the mouth [34] speaketh. The good man from the good treasures which are in his heart bringeth forth good things; and the wicked man from the evil ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 597, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
It is Permissible for a Preacher to Deliver to the People What Has Been Written by a More Eloquent Man Than Himself. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2022 (In-Text, Margin)
... for both these statements must be true, both being made by Him who is the Truth. Speaking of such men, in one place He says, “Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works;”—that is to say, what ye hear from their lips, that do; what ye see in their lives, that do ye not;—“for they say and do not.” And so, though they do not, yet they say. But in another place, upbraiding such men, He says, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?”[Matthew 12:34] And from this it would appear that even what they say, when they say what is good, it is not themselves who say, for in will and in deed they deny what they say. Hence it happens that a wicked man who is eloquent may compose a discourse in which the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 60, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
On the Latter Part of Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Contained in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter XXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 465 (In-Text, Margin)
... If an evil man, therefore, wishes to perform good works, let him first become good. So the Lord Himself says in another passage more plainly: “Either make the tree good, or make the tree bad.” But if He were figuratively representing the two natures of such parties by these two trees, He would not say, “Make:” for who of the sons of men can make a nature? Then also in that passage, when He had made mention of these two trees, He added, “Ye hypocrites, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?”[Matthew 12:33-34] As long, therefore, as any one is evil, he cannot bring forth good fruits; for if he were to bring forth good fruits, he would no longer be evil. So it might most truly have been said, snow cannot be warm; for when it begins to be warm, we no longer ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 142, footnote 1 (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 Occasion on Which It Was Said to Him that He Cast Out Devils in the Power of Beelzebub, and of the Declarations Drawn Forth from Him by that Circumstance in Regard to the Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit, and with Respect to the Two Trees; And of the Question Whether There is Not Some Discrepancy in These Sections Between Matthew and the Other Two Evangelists, and Particularly Between Matthew and Luke. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1013 (In-Text, Margin)
85. Matthew proceeds with his narrative in the following terms: “And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils but in Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation;” and so on, down to the words, “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”[Matthew 12:23-37] Mark does not bring in this allegation against Jesus, that He cast out devils in [the power of] Beelzebub, in immediate sequence on the story of the dumb man; but after certain other matters, recorded by himself alone, he introduces this incident also, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 336, 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. xiii. 52, ‘Therefore every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of Heaven,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2529 (In-Text, Margin)
3. Peradventure some of you may say, “And how can a bad man speak what is good, when it is written, in the words of the Lord Himself, ‘A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth evil things. Ye hypocrites, how can ye being evil speak good things?’”[Matthew 12:34] In the one place He says, “How can ye being evil speak good things?” in the other He says, “What they say, do, but do ye not after their works. For they say, and do not.” If “they say and do not,” they are evil; if they are evil, they cannot “speak good things;” how then are we to do what we hear from them, when we cannot ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 479, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John II. 18–27. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2163 (In-Text, Margin)
... Where find we this in Scripture? Hear Paul the Apostle; speaking of such, he saith, “For they confess that they know God, but in their deeds deny Him.” We find these also to be antichrists: whosoever in his deeds denies Christ, is an antichrist. I listen not to what he says, but I look what life he leads. Works speak, and do we require words? For where is the bad man that does not wish to talk well? But what saith the Lord to such? “Ye hypocrites, how can ye speak good things, while ye are evil?”[Matthew 12:34] Your voices ye bring into mine ears: I look into your thoughts. I see an evil will there, and ye make a show of false fruits. I know what I must gather, and whence; I do not “gather figs of thistles,” I do not gather “grapes of thorns;” for “every ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 14, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm V (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 140 (In-Text, Margin)
... open sepulchres: for themselves too are in a manner lifeless, being destitute of the life of truth; and they take in to themselves dead men, whom having slain by lying words and a vain heart, they turn unto themselves. “With their own tongues they dealt craftily:” that is, with evil tongues. For this seems to be signified, when he says “their own.” For the evil have evil tongues, that is, they speak evil, when they speak craftily. To whom the Lord saith, “How can ye, being evil, speak good things?”[Matthew 12:34]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 230, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2169 (In-Text, Margin)
... he cried out to them, “If truly indeed justice ye speak,”—if not falsely justice ye speak, if not one thing on lips doth sound, whilst another thing is concealed in hearts,—“judge right things, ye sons of men.” Hear out of the Gospel His own voice, the very same as is in this Psalm: “Hypocrites,” saith the Lord to the Pharisees, “how are ye able good things to speak, when ye are evil men?.…Either make the tree good, and the fruit thereof good: or make the tree evil, and the fruit thereof evil.”[Matthew 12:33-34] Why wilt thou whiten thee, wall of mud? I know thy inward parts, I am not deceived by thy covering: I know what thou holdest forth, I know what thou coverest. “For there was no need for Him, that any one to Him should bear testimony of man: for He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 320, footnote 1 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Discourse I (HTML)
Objections to the Foregoing Proof. Whether, in the generation of the Son, God made One that was already, or One that was not. (HTML)
22 (continued). Him among these, according to the teaching of Eusebius, and accounting Him such as the things which come into being through Him, Arius and his fellows revolted from the truth, and used, when they commenced this heresy, to go about with dishonest phrases which they had got together; nay, up to this time some of them, when they fall in with boys in the market-place, question them, not out of divine Scripture, but thus, as if bursting with ‘the abundance of their heart[Matthew 12:34];’—‘He who is, did He make him who was not, from that which was [not], or him who was? therefore did He make the Son, whereas He was, or whereas He was not?’ And again, ‘Is the Unoriginate one or two?’ and ‘Has He free will, and yet does not alter at ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 547, footnote 3 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)
The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)
Festal Letters. (HTML)
(For 347.) Coss. Rufinus, Eusebius; Præf. the same Nestorius; Indict. v; Easter-day, Prid. Id. Apr., Pharmuthi xvii; Æra Dioclet. 63; Moon 15. (HTML)
6. Like these too, are the heretics, who, having fallen from true discernment, dare to invent to themselves atheism. ‘For the fool saith in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, and become abominable in their doings.’ Of such as are fools in their thoughts, the actions are wicked, as He saith, ‘can ye, being evil, speak good things[Matthew 12:34];’ for they were evil, because they thought wickedness. Or how can those do just acts, whose minds are set upon fraud? Or how shall he love, who is prepared beforehand to hate? How shall he be merciful, who is bent upon the love of money? How shall he be chaste, who looks upon a woman to lust after her? ‘For from the heart ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 313, footnote 6 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Fourth Theological Oration, Which is the Second Concerning the Son. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3640 (In-Text, Margin)
... unbelief, —i.e. of those who should receive them. For since in order to healing there is need of both faith in the patient and power in the Healer, when one of the two failed the other was impossible. But probably this sense also is to be referred to the head of the unreasonable. For healing is not reasonable in the case of those who would afterwards be injured by unbelief. The sentence The world cannot hate you, comes under the same head, as does also How can ye, being evil, speak good things?[Matthew 12:34] For in what sense is either impossible, except that it is contrary to the will? There is a somewhat similar meaning in the expressions which imply that a thing impossible by nature is possible to God if He so wills; as that a man cannot be born a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 235, footnote 1 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To Ambrose, bishop of Milan. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2686 (In-Text, Margin)
... allowed us, far apart in place though we be, of addressing one another by letter. He grants us two means of becoming acquainted; one by personal intercourse, another by epistolary correspondence. Now I have become acquainted with you through what you have said. I do not mean that my memory is impressed with your outward appearance, but that the beauty of the inner man has been brought home to me by the rich variety of your utterances, for each of us “speaketh out of the abundance of the heart.”[Matthew 12:34] I have given glory to God, Who in every generation selects those who are well-pleasing to Him; Who of old indeed chose from the sheepfold a prince for His people; Who through the Spirit gifted Amos the herdman with power and raised him up to be a ...