Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 13:47
There are 18 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 502, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Chapter XI.—The Mystical Meanings in the Proportions of Numbers, Geometrical Ratios, and Music. (HTML)
I pass over in silence at present the parable which says in the Gospel: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who cast a net into the sea and out of the multitude of the fishes caught, makes a selection of the better ones.”[Matthew 13:47-48]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 70, footnote 30 (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 XVII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1237 (In-Text, Margin)
[30][Matthew 13:47] And again the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea, and [31] gathered of every kind: and when it was filled, they drew it up on to the shore of the sea, and sat down to select; and the good of them they threw into the vessels, [32] and the bad they threw outside. Thus shall it be in the end of the world: the angels [33] shall go forth, and separate the wicked from among the good, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 419, footnote 1 (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 X. (HTML)
The Parable of the Drag-Net. (HTML)
“ Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea. ”[Matthew 13:47] As in the case of images and statues, the likenesses are not likenesses in every respect of those things in relation to which they are made; but, for example, the image painted with wax on the plane surface of wood has the likeness of the surface along with the colour, but does not further preserve the hollows and prominences, but only their outward appearance; and in the moulding of statues an endeavour is made to preserve the likeness in respect of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 420, footnote 1 (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 X. (HTML)
The Divine Scriptures Compared to a Net. (HTML)
Now, these things being said, we must hold that “the kingdom of heaven is likened to a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind,[Matthew 13:47] ” in order to set forth the varied character of the principles of action among men, which are as different as possible from each other, so that the expression “gathered from every kind” embraces both those worthy of praise and those worthy of blame in respect of their proclivities towards the forms of virtues or of vices. And the kingdom of heaven is likened unto the variegated texture of a net, with reference to the Old ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 391, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world. (HTML)
Of the Indiscriminate Increase of the Church, Wherein Many Reprobate are in This World Mixed with the Elect. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1236 (In-Text, Margin)
In this wicked world, in these evil days, when the Church measures her future loftiness by her present humility, and is exercised by goading fears, tormenting sorrows, disquieting labors, and dangerous temptations, when she soberly rejoices, rejoicing only in hope, there are many reprobate mingled with the good, and both are gathered together by the gospel as in a drag net;[Matthew 13:47-50] and in this world, as in a sea, both swim enclosed without distinction in the net, until it is brought ashore, when the wicked must be separated from the good, that in the good, as in His temple, God may be all in all. We acknowledge, indeed, that His word is now fulfilled who spake in the psalm, and said, “I ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 569, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
On Christian Doctrine (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
The Second Rule of Tichonius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1901 (In-Text, Margin)
... if both sets constituted one body in consequence of their being for the time united in a common participation of the sacraments. An example of this is that passage in the Song of Solomon, “I am black, but comely, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.” For it is not said, I was black as the tents of Kedar, but am now comely as the curtains of Solomon. The Church declares itself to be at present both; and this because the good fish and the bad are for the time mixed up in the one net.[Matthew 13:47-48] For the tents of Kedar pertain to Ishmael, who “shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.” And in the same way, when God says of the good part of the Church, “I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 343, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen. (HTML)
Section 11 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1691 (In-Text, Margin)
... they are the more within us. For, lest on this subject also the weak should be troubled, divine prophecy hath not been silent, where in the Song of Songs the Bridegroom speaking unto the Bride, that is, Christ the Lord unto the Church, saith, “As a lily in the midst of thorns, so is my best Beloved in the midst of the daughters.” He said not, in the midst of them that are without; but, “in the midst of daughters. Whoso hath ears to hear, let him hear:” and whilst the net which is cast into the sea,[Matthew 13:47-50] and gathers together all kinds of fishes, as saith the holy Gospel, is being drawn unto the shore, that is, unto the end of the world, let him separate himself from the evil fishes, in heart, not in body; by changing evil habits, not by breaking ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 597, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist. (HTML)
In this book Augustin refutes the second letter which Petilianus wrote to him after having seen the first of Augustin’s earlier books. This letter had been full of violent language; and Augustin rather shows that the arguments of Petilianus had been deficient and irrelevant, than brings forward arguments in support of his own statements. (HTML)
Chapter 2 (HTML)
... every one is cursed who places his trust in man, so that none should make his boast of man, then you will in no wise desert the threshing-floor of the Lord on account of the chaff which either is now being dispersed beneath the blast of the wind of pride, or will be separated by the final winnowing; nor will you fly from the great house on account of the vessels made to dishonor; nor will you quit the net through the breaches made in it because of the bad fish which are to be separated on the shore;[Matthew 13:47-48] nor will you leave the good pastures of unity, because of the goats which are to be placed on the left when the Good Shepherd shall divide the flock; nor will you separate yourselves by an impious secession, because of the mixture of the tares, from ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 143, footnote 6 (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 Words Which Were Spoken Out of the Ship on the Subject of the Sower, Whose Seed, as He Sowed It, Fell Partly on the Wayside, Etc.; And Concerning the Man Who Had Tares Sowed Over and Above His Wheat; And Concerning the Grain of Mustard Seed and the Leaven; As Also of What He Said in the House Regarding the Treasure Hid in the Field, and the Pearl, and the Net Cast into the Sea, and the Man that Brings Out of His Treasure Things New and Old; And of the Method in Which Matthew’s Harmony with Mark and Luke is Proved Both with Respect to the Things Which They Have Reported in Common with Him, and in the Matter of the Order of Narration. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1025 (In-Text, Margin)
88. Matthew continues thus: “In that day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the seaside: and great multitudes were gathered together unto Him, so that He went into a ship and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And He spake many things unto them in parables, saying;” and so on, down to the words, “Therefore every scribe which is instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.”[Matthew 13:1-52] That the things narrated in this passage took place immediately after the incident touching the mother and the brethren of the Lord, and that Matthew has also retained that historical order in his version of these events, is indicated by the circumstance ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 443, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XX. 30–31, and XXI. 1-11. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1946 (In-Text, Margin)
... but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. The latter, therefore, may possibly belong to the number of great fishes. But he that is the least, who undoes in deed what he teaches in word, may be in such a church as is signified by that first capture of fishes, which contains both good and bad, for it also is called the kingdom of heaven, as He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of ever kind;”[Matthew 13:47] where He wishes the good as well as the bad to be understood, and of whom He declares that they are yet to be separated on the shore, to wit, at the end of the world. And lastly, to show that those least ones are reprobates who teach by word of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 31, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm VIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 315 (In-Text, Margin)
... beyond question, to recognise some difference or another. But under this word, “moreover,” not only “beasts of the field,” but also “birds of the air, and fish of the sea, which walk through the paths of the sea” (ver. 8), are to be taken in. What is then this distinction? Call to mind the “wine-presses,” holding husks and wine; and the threshing-floor, containing chaff and corn; and the nets, in which were enclosed good fish and bad; and the ark of Noah, in which were both unclean and clean animals:[Matthew 13:47] and you will see that the Churches for a while, now in this time, unto the last time of judgment, contain not only sheep and oxen, that is, holy laymen and holy ministers, but “moreover beasts of the field, birds of the air, and birds of the sea, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 43, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 443 (In-Text, Margin)
8. “His eyes look upon the poor.” His to Whom the poor man hath been left, and Who hath been made a refuge to the poor. And therefore all the seditions and tumults within these nets,[Matthew 13:47] until they be drawn to shore, concerning which heretics upbraid us to their own ruin and our correction, are caused by those men, who will not be Christ’s poor. But do they turn away God’s eyes from such as would be so? “For His eyes look upon the poor.” Is it to be feared lest, in the crowd of the rich, He may not be able to see the few poor, whom He brings up in safe keeping in the bosom of the Catholic ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 271, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2565 (In-Text, Margin)
... were taken within the nets they said they would not endure; they themselves have become more evil than they whom they said they could not endure. For those nets did take fishes both good and evil. The Lord saith, “The kingdom of Heaven is like to a sein cast into the sea, which gathereth of every kind, which, when it had been filled, drawing out, and sitting on the shore, they gathered the good into vessels, but the evil they cast out: so it shall be,” He saith, “in the consummation of the world.”[Matthew 13:47-49] He showeth what is the shore, He showeth what is the end of the sea. “The angels shall go forth, and shall sever the evil from the midst of the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Ha! ye ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 436, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4194 (In-Text, Margin)
... striving with a stiff neck against the discipline of the Father, even wholly refusing God as their Father, though they have the mark of Christ, and so fall into such sins, that it can only be announced against them, “that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Nevertheless, Christ shall not be destitute of an inheritance on their account: not for the chaff’s sake shall the wheat also perish: nor on account of bad fish shall nothing be cast into the vessels from that net.[Matthew 13:47] “The Lord knows them that are His.” For He who predestined us before we were born, promised undoubtingly: “For whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 20, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans
A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (HTML)
Homily III on Acts i. 12. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 69 (In-Text, Margin)
... two things reported in their praise. [“Where they were abiding,” etc., to, “And Mary the Mother of Jesus and His brethren.”] Now Joseph perhaps was dead: for it is not to be supposed that when the brethren had become believers, Joseph believed not; he who in fact had believed before any. Certain it is that we nowhere find him looking upon Christ as man merely. As where His mother said, [“Thy father and I did seek thee sorrowing.” (Luke ii. 48.) And upon another occasion, it was said,] “Thy mother[Matthew 13:47] and thy brethren seek thee.” (Matt. xiii. 47.) So that Joseph knew this before all others. And to them [the brethren] Christ said, “The world cannot hate you, but Me it hateth. (John vii. 7.)
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 546, footnote 4 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)
A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed. (HTML)
Section 7 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3275 (In-Text, Margin)
... of meal,” are we to imagine that the kingdom of heaven is in all respects like leaven, so that like leaven it is palpable and perishable so as to become sour and unfit for use? Obviously the illustration was employed simply for this object—to shew how, through the preaching of God’s word which seems so small a thing, men’s minds could be imbued with the leaven of faith. So likewise, when it is said, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net cast into the sea, which draws in fishes of every kind,”[Matthew 13:47] are we to suppose that the substance of the kingdom of heaven is likened in all respects to the nature of twine of which a net is made, and to the knots with which the meshes are tied? No; the sole object of the comparison is to shew that, as a net ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 2, footnote 11 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
Procatechesis, or Prologue to the Catechetical Lectures of our Holy Father, Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 420 (In-Text, Margin)
... pretext. It is possible that a man is wishing to pay court to a woman, and came hither on that account. The remark applies in like manner to women also in their turn. A slave also perhaps wishes to please his master, and a friend his friend. I accept this bait for the hook, and welcome thee, though thou camest with an evil purpose, yet as one to be saved by a good hope. Perhaps thou knewest not whither thou wert coming, nor in what kind of net thou art taken. Thou art come within the Church’s nets[Matthew 13:47]: be taken alive, flee not: for Jesus is angling for thee, not in order to kill, but by killing to make alive: for thou must die and rise again. For thou hast heard the Apostle say, Dead indeed unto sin, but living unto righteousness ... offered Zacchæus as fruit; the fruit of its own nature it gave not, but it yielded one reasonable fruit! The Lord spread His thirst over the well, and caught her that was thirsty with the water that He asked of her. He caught one soul at the well, and again caught with her the whole city: twelve fishers the Holy One caught, and again caught with them the whole world. As for Iscariot, that escaped from His nets, the strangling halter fell upon his neck! His all-quickening net catches the living,[Matthew 13:47] and he that escapes from it escapes from the living.Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 230, footnote 9 (Image)
Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)
Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh. (HTML)
Hymn III. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 408 (In-Text, Margin)