Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 18:21
There are 14 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 684, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Prayer. (HTML)
The Sixth Clause. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8812 (In-Text, Margin)
... petition for pardon is a full confession; because he who begs for pardon fully admits his guilt. Thus, too, penitence is demonstrated acceptable to God who desires it rather than the death of the sinner. Moreover, debt is, in the Scriptures, a figure of guilt; because it is equally due to the sentence of judgment, and is exacted by it: nor does it evade the justice of exaction, unless the exaction be remitted, just as the lord remitted to that slave in the parable his debt;[Matthew 18:21-35] for hither does the scope of the whole parable tend. For the fact withal, that the same servant, after liberated by his lord, does not equally spare his own debtor; and, being on that account impeached before his lord, is made over to the tormentor ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 684, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Prayer. (HTML)
The Sixth Clause. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8814 (In-Text, Margin)
... equally spare his own debtor; and, being on that account impeached before his lord, is made over to the tormentor to pay the uttermost farthing—that is, every guilt, however small: corresponds with our profession that “we also remit to our debtors;” indeed elsewhere, too, in conformity with this Form of Prayer, He saith, “Remit, and it shall be remitted you.” And when Peter had put the question whether remission were to be granted to a brother seven times, “Nay,” saith He, “seventy-seven times;”[Matthew 18:21-22] in order to remould the Law for the better; because in Genesis vengeance was assigned “seven times” in the case of Cain, but in that of Lamech “seventy-seven times.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 714, footnote 13 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Patience. (HTML)
Certain Other Divine Precepts. The Apostolic Description of Charity. Their Connection with Patience. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 9135 (In-Text, Margin)
As regards the rule of peace, which is so pleasing to God, who in the world that is prone to impatience will even once forgive his brother, I will not say “seven times,” or “seventy-seven times?”[Matthew 18:21-22] Who that is contemplating a suit against his adversary will compose the matter by agreement, unless he first begin by lopping off chagrin, hardheartedness, and bitterness, which are in fact the poisonous outgrowths of impatience? How will you “remit, and remission shall be granted” you if the absence of patience makes you tenacious of a wrong? No one who is at variance with his brother in his ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 204, footnote 3 (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 XXXI. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1735 (In-Text, Margin)
... again, He who is ever the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, came and delivered those men from these pains and curses of the law, forgiving them their offences. And He indeed did not deal with them as Moses did, putting the severities of the law in force, and granting indulgence to no man for any offence; but He declared that if any man suffered an injury at the hands of his neighbour, he was to forgive him not once only, nor even twice or thrice, nor only seven times, but even unto seventy times seven;[Matthew 18:21] but that, on the other hand, if after all this the offender still continued to do such wrong, he ought then, as the last resource, to be brought under the law of Moses, and that no further pardon should be granted to the man who would thus persist ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 178, footnote 5 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Lactantius (HTML)
The Divine Institutes (HTML)
Book VI. Of True Worship (HTML)
Chap. XII.—Of the kinds of beneficence, and works of mercy (HTML)
... to be miserably thrown away to the great sacrifice, that in return for these true gifts you may have an everlasting gift from God. Mercy has a great reward; for God promises it, that He will remit all sins. If you shall hear, He says, the prayers of your suppliant, I also will hear yours; if you shall pity those in distress, I also will pity you in your distress. But if you shall not regard nor assist them, I also will bear a mind like your own against you, and I will judge you by your own laws.[Matthew 18:21-35]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 417, footnote 5 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book II. Of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons (HTML)
Sec. VI.—The Disputes of the Faithful to Be Settled by the Decisions of the Bishop, and the Faithful to Be Reconciled (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2796 (In-Text, Margin)
... the punishment of his hatred to his brother. Afterwards, when he repents, let him be received; and so, when they have learned prudence, they will ease your judicatures. It is also a duty to forgive each other’s trespasses—not the duty of those that judge, but of those that have quarrels; as the Lord determined when I Peter asked Him, “How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?” He replied, “I say not unto thee, Until seven times, but until seventy times seven.”[Matthew 18:21-22] For so would our Lord have us to be truly His disciples, and never to have anything against anybody; as, for instance, anger without measure, passion without mercy, covetousness without justice, hatred without reconciliation. Draw by your ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 85, footnote 29 (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 XXVII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1898 (In-Text, Margin)
... to these also, tell the congregation; and if he listen not even to the congregation, let him be unto thee as a publican and a Gentile. [19] Verily I say unto you, All that ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: [20] and what ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. I say unto you also, If two of you agree on earth to ask, everything shall be granted them from my Father [21] [Arabic, p. 105] which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there [22] am I amongst them.[Matthew 18:21] Then Cephas drew near to him, and said unto him, My Lord, how many times, if my brother act wrongly towards me, should I forgive him? [23] until seven times? Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven; but, Until seventy [24] times seven, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 496, footnote 8 (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 XIV. (HTML)
The Limit of Forgiveness. (HTML)
“ Then came Peter and said unto Him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? ”[Matthew 18:21] The conception that these things were said in a simple sense by Peter, as if he were inquiring whether he was to forgive his brother when he sinned against him seven times, but no longer if he sinned an eighth time, and by the Saviour, as if He thought that one should sit still and reckon up the sins of his neighbours against him in order that he might forgive seventy times and seven, but that from the seventy-eighth he should not forgive ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 363, footnote 9 (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. xvii. 21, ‘How oft shall my brother sin against me,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2774 (In-Text, Margin)
3. But now hear what in so plain a precept I may cause a difficulty. In this question of forgiveness when pardon is asked, and it is due from him who should grant it, it may be a difficulty to us as it was to Peter. “How often ought I to forgive? Is up to seven times sufficient?” “It is not sufficient,” saith the Lord, “I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven.”[Matthew 18:21-22] Now reckon up how often thy brother hath sinned against thee. If thou canst reach the seventy-eighth fault, so as to get beyond the seventy times seven, then set about revenge. Is this then what He really means, and is it really so, that if he shall sin “seventy times seven,” thou shouldest forgive ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 228, footnote 12 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Rusticus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3188 (In-Text, Margin)
... every man according as he finds him. It is not the past that He looks upon but the present. Bygone sins there may be, but renewal and conversion remove them. “A just man,” we read “falleth seven times and riseth up again.” If he falls, how is he just? and if he is just, how does he fall? The answer is that a sinner does not lose the name of just if he always repents of his sins and rises again. If a sinner repents, his sins are forgiven him not only till seven times but till seventy times seven.[Matthew 18:21-22] To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. The harlot washed with her tears the Saviour’s feet and wiped them with her hair; and to her, as a type of the Church gathered from the nations, was the declaration made: “Thy sins are forgiven.” The ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 472, footnote 1 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Letters of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Miscellaneous Letters. (HTML)
To Theodore, Bishop of Tyana. (HTML)
Letter LXXVII. (HTML)
... Ephraim what shall I do unto thee, saith God. What anger is here expressed—and yet protection is added. What is swifter than Mercy? The Disciples ask for flames of Sodom upon those who drive Jesus away, but He deprecates revenge. Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus, one of those who outraged Him, but Jesus restores it. And what of him who asks whether he must seven times forgive a brother if he has trespassed, is he not condemned for his niggardliness, for to the seven is added seventy times seven?[Matthew 18:21] What of the debtor in the Gospel who will not forgive as he has been forgiven? Is it not more bitterly exacted of him for this? And what saith the pattern of prayer? Does it not desire that forgiveness may be earned by forgiveness?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 297, footnote 1 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To Optimus the bishop. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3147 (In-Text, Margin)
... can justice be satisfied seven times? And what are the vengeances? Are they for seven sins committed? Or is the sin committed once and are there seven punishments for the one sin? Scripture continually assigns seven as the number of the remission of sins. “How often,” it is asked, “shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?” (It is Peter who is speaking to the Lord.) “Till seven times?” Then comes the Lord’s answer, “I say not unto thee, until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.”[Matthew 18:21-22] Our Lord did not vary the number, but multiplied the seven, and so fixed the limit of the forgiveness. After seven years the Hebrew used to be freed from slavery. Seven weeks of years used in old times to make the famous jubilee, in which the land ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 457, footnote 2 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose. (HTML)
Epistle LXIII: To the Church at Vercellæ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3647 (In-Text, Margin)
3. For if according to the Lord’s saying, that which two shall have agreed upon on earth concerning anything which they shall ask, shall be done for them, as He says, by My Father, Who is in heaven, for: “Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them,”[Matthew 18:21] how much less, where the full congregation is gathered in the Name of the Lord. Where the demand of all is unanimous, ought we to doubt that the Lord Jesus is there as the Author of that desire, and the Hearer of the petition, the Presider over the ordination, and the Giver of the grace?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 472, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose. (HTML)
Epistle LXIII: To the Church at Vercellæ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3791 (In-Text, Margin)
... down to him, not indeed considering him the pitiless, the furious, the degenerate, but Him Whom he reverenced in him. And so he bowed down seven times, which is the number of remission, for he was not bowing down to man, but to Him Whom he foresaw in the Spirit, as hereafter to come in human flesh to take away the sins of the world. And this mystery is unfolded to you in the answer given to Peter, when he said: “If my brother trespass against me how often shall I forgive him? Until seven times?”[Matthew 18:21] You see that remission of sins is a type of that great Sabbath, of that rest of everlasting grace, and therefore is given by contemplation.