Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Matthew 19:6

There are 33 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 168, footnote 7 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Justin Martyr (HTML)

The First Apology (HTML)

Chapter XVI.—Concerning patience and swearing. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1798 (In-Text, Margin)

... as follows: “Swear not at all; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” And that we ought to worship God alone, He thus persuaded us: “The greatest commandment is, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shall thou serve, with all thy heart, and with all thy strength, the Lord God that made thee.” And when a certain man came to Him and said, “Good Master,” He answered and said, “There is none good but God only, who made all things.”[Matthew 19:6] And let those who are not found living as He taught, be understood to be no Christians, even though they profess with the lip the precepts of Christ; for not those who make profession, but those who do the works, shall be saved, according to His ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 389, footnote 7 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2492 (In-Text, Margin)

... implendam autem, non ut cui aliquid deesset, sed quod legis prophetiæ per ejus adventum completæ fuerint. Nam recta vitæ institutio, iis etiam, qui juste vixerunt ante legem, per Logon præ dicabatur. Vulgus ergo hominum, quod non novit continentiam, corpore vitam degit, sed non spiritu: sine spiritu autem corpus nihil aliud est quam terra et cinis. lam adulterium judicat Dominus ex cogitatione. Quid enim? annon licet etiam continenter uti matrimonio, et non conari dissolvere, quod “conjunxit Deus?”[Matthew 19:6] Talia enim docent conjugii divisores, propter quod nomen probris ac maledictis appetitur inter gentes. Sceleratum autem dicentes isti esse coitum, qui ipsi quoque suam essentiam ex coitu accepere, quomodo non fuerint scelerati? Eorum autem, qui sunt ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 390, footnote 3 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2499 (In-Text, Margin)

... possedit; se magis quam alii Evangelium intellexisse gloriantes. Eis autem dicit Scriptura: “Deus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam.” Deinde nesciunt causam cur Dominas uxorem non duxerit. Primum quidem, propriam sponsam habuit Ecclesiam: deinde vero, nec homo erat communis, ut opus haberet etiam adjutore aliquo secundum carnem; neque erat ei necesse procreare filios, qui manet in æternum, et natus est solus Dei Filius. Hic ipse autem Dominus dicit: “Quod Deus conjunxit, homo ne separet.”[Matthew 19:6] Et rursus: “Sicut autem erat in diebus Nœ, erant nubentes, et nuptui dantes, ædificantes, et plantantes; et sicut erat in diebus Lot, ita erit adventus Filii hominis.” Et quod hoc non dicit ad genies, ostendit, cum subjungit: “Num cum venerit Filius ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 396, footnote 10 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2582 (In-Text, Margin)

... genitali seminis facultati baptismum olim adhibuit, non vero quod ab hominis generatione abhorreret. Quod enim apparet homo generatus, hoc valet seminis dejectio. Non sunt ergo multi coitus genitales, sed matricis susceptio fatetur generationem, cum in naturæ officina semen formatur in fetum. Quomodo autem vetus quidera est solum matrimonium et legis inventum, alienum autem est, quod est ex Domino, matrimonium, cum idem Deus servetur a nobis? “Non” enim “quod Deus conjunxit, homo” jure “dissolverit;”[Matthew 19:6] multo autem magis quæ jussit Pater, servabit quoque Filius. Si autem idem simul est et legislator et evangelista, nunquam ipse secum pugnat. Vivit enim lex, cum sit spiritalis, et gnostice intelligatur: nos autem “mortui” sumus “legi per corpus ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 404, footnote 14 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)

Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke's Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian's Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.“ It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man. (HTML)
Moses, Allowing Divorce, and Christ Prohibiting It, Explained. John Baptist and Herod. Marcion's Attempt to Discover an Antithesis in the Parable of the Rich Man and the Poor Man in Hades Confuted. The Creator's Appointment Manifested in Both States. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4809 (In-Text, Margin)

... gospel which witnesses to the same verity and the same Christ. There, while prohibiting divorce, He has given us a solution of this special question respecting it: “Moses,” says He, “because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to give a bill of divorcement; but from the beginning it was not so” —for this reason, indeed, because He who had “made them male and female” had likewise said, “They twain shall become one flesh; what therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”[Matthew 19:6] Now, by this answer of His (to the Pharisees), He both sanctioned the provision of Moses, who was His own (servant), and restored to its primitive purpose the institution of the Creator, whose Christ He was. Since, however, you are to be refuted out ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 40, footnote 7 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

To His Wife. (HTML)

I (HTML)
Marriage Good:  Celibacy Preferable. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 361 (In-Text, Margin)

But let it not be thought that my reason for premising thus much concerning the liberty granted to the old, and the restraint imposed on the later time, is that I may lay a foundation for teaching that Christ’s advent was intended to dissolve wedlock, (and) to abolish marriage talons; as if from this period onward I were prescribing an end to marrying. Let them see to that, who, among the rest of their perversities, teach the disjoining of the “one flesh in twain;”[Matthew 19:5-6] denying Him who, after borrowing the female from the male, recombined between themselves, in the matrimonial computation, the two bodies taken out of the consortship of the self-same material substance. In short, there is no place at all where we read that ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 62, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Monogamy. (HTML)

Connection of These Primeval Testimonies with Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 602 (In-Text, Margin)

... (merely) a memorial inasmuch as, if it was “so done from the beginning,” we find ourselves directed to the beginning by Christ: just as, in the question of divorce, by saying that that had been permitted by Moses on account of their hard-heartedness but from the beginning it had not been so, He doubtless recalls to “the beginning” the (law of) the individuity of marriage. And accordingly, those whom God “from the beginning” conjoined, “two into one flesh,” man shall not at the present day separate.[Matthew 19:6] The apostle, too, writing to the Ephesians, says that God “had proposed in Himself, at the dispensation of the fulfilment of the times, to recall to the head” (that is, to the beginning) “things universal in Christ, which are above the heavens and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 66, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Monogamy. (HTML)

From Examples Tertullian Passes to Direct Dogmatic Teachings.  He Begins with the Lord's Teaching. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 652 (In-Text, Margin)

But grant that these argumentations may be thought to be forced and founded on con jectures, if no dogmatic teachings have stood parallel with them which the Lord uttered in treating of divorce, which, permitted formerly, He now prohibits, first because “from the beginning it was not so,” like plurality of marriage; secondly, because “What God hath conjoined, man shall not separate,”[Matthew 19:3-8] —for fear, namely, that he contravene the Lord: for He alone shall “separate” who has “conjoined” (separate, moreover, not through the harshness of divorce, which (harshness) He censures and restrains, but through the debt of death) if, indeed, “one of two sparrows falleth not on the ground without the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 456, footnote 9 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)

Sec. III.—The Heresies Attacked by the Apostles (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3232 (In-Text, Margin)

... male and female; and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they two shall be one flesh.” Nor let it be esteemed lawful after marriage to put her away who is without blame. For says He: “Thou shalt take care to thy spirit, and shalt not forsake the wife of thy youth; for she is the partner of thy life, and the remains of thy spirit. I and no other have made her.” For the Lord says: “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”[Matthew 19:6] For the wife is the partner of life, united by God unto one body from two. But he that divides that again into two which is become one, is the enemy of the creation of God, and the adversary of His providence. In like manner, he that retains her ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 83, footnote 3 (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 XXV. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1788 (In-Text, Margin)

... lawful for a man to put away his wife? He said, What [30] did Moses command you? They said, Moses made it allowable for us, saying, Whosoever [31] will, let him write a writing of divorcement, and put away his wife. Jesus answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, He that made them from the beginning [32] made them male and female, and said, For this reason shall the man leave his father [Arabic, p. 99] and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they both shall be one body? [33][Matthew 19:6] So then they are not twain, but one body; the thing, then, which God hath [34] joined together, let no man put asunder. And those Pharisees said unto him, Why did Moses consent that a man should give a writing of divorcement and put her away? ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 505, footnote 15 (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)
Concerning the Pharisees and Scribes Tempting Jesus (by Asking) Whether Was Lawful for a Man to Put Away His Wife for Every Cause. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6164 (In-Text, Margin)

... husband must dwell with the wife as the weaker vessel, giving honour, and bearing her burdens in sins; and by what is written in Genesis, He puts to shame the Pharisees who boasted in the Scriptures of Moses, by saying, “Have ye not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,” etc., and, subjoining to these words, because of the saying, “And the twain shall become one flesh,” teaching in harmony with one flesh, namely, “So that they are no more twain, but one flesh.”[Matthew 19:4-6] And, as tending to convince them that they should not put away their wife for every cause, is it said, “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” It is to be observed, however, in the exposition of the words quoted from Genesis in the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 505, footnote 16 (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)
Concerning the Pharisees and Scribes Tempting Jesus (by Asking) Whether Was Lawful for a Man to Put Away His Wife for Every Cause. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6165 (In-Text, Margin)

... Pharisees who boasted in the Scriptures of Moses, by saying, “Have ye not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,” etc., and, subjoining to these words, because of the saying, “And the twain shall become one flesh,” teaching in harmony with one flesh, namely, “So that they are no more twain, but one flesh.” And, as tending to convince them that they should not put away their wife for every cause, is it said, “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”[Matthew 19:6] It is to be observed, however, in the exposition of the words quoted from Genesis in the Gospel, that they were not spoken consecutively as they are written in the Gospel; and I think that it is not even said about the same persons, namely, of those ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 506, footnote 3 (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)
Concerning the Pharisees and Scribes Tempting Jesus (by Asking) Whether Was Lawful for a Man to Put Away His Wife for Every Cause. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6168 (In-Text, Margin)

... “agkeba.” For at no time is it “woman” or “man” “after the image,” but the superior class, the male, and the second, the female. But also if a man leave his mother and his father, he cleaves not to the female, but to his own wife, and “they become,” since man and woman are one in flesh, “one flesh.” Then, describing what ought to be in the case of those who are joined together by God, so that they may be joined together in a manner worthy of God, the Saviour adds, “So that they are no more twain;”[Matthew 19:6] and, wherever there is indeed concord, and unison, and harmony, between husband and wife, when he is as ruler and she is obedient to the word, “He shall rule over thee,” then of such persons we may truly say, “They are no more twain.” Then since it ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 506, footnote 9 (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)
Concerning the Pharisees and Scribes Tempting Jesus (by Asking) Whether Was Lawful for a Man to Put Away His Wife for Every Cause. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6174 (In-Text, Margin)

... together by God, there is a “gift”; and Paul knowing this, that marriage according to the Word of God was a “gift,” like as holy celibacy was a gift, says, “But I would that all men were like myself; howbeit, each man hath his own gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that.” And those who are joined together by God both mind and keep the precept, “Husbands love your wives, as Christ also the church.” The Saviour then commanded, “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder,”[Matthew 19:6] but man wishes to put asunder what God hath joined together, when, “falling away from the sound faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 506, footnote 13 (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)
Union of Christ and the Church. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6178 (In-Text, Margin)

But since the Apostle understands the words, “ And they twain shall be one flesh, ” of Christ and the church, we must say that Christ keeping the saying, “What God hath joined together let not man put asunder,”[Matthew 19:6] did not put away His former wife, so to speak—that is, the former synagogue—for any other cause than that that wife committed fornication, being made an adulteress by the evil one, and along with him plotted against her husband and slew Him, saying, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, crucify Him, crucify Him.” It was she therefore who herself revolted, rather than her husband who ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 507, footnote 4 (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)
Union of Christ and the Church. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6185 (In-Text, Margin)

... something apart different from the church, which is His body, and from the members each in his part. And God has joined together these who are not two, but have become one flesh, commanding that men should not separate the church from the Lord. And he who takes heed for himself so as not to be separated, is confident as one who will not possibly be separated and says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Here, therefore, the saying, “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder,”[Matthew 19:6] was written with relation to the Pharisees, but to those who are superior to the Pharisees, it could be said, “What then God hath joined together, let nothing put asunder,” neither principality nor power; for God, who has joined together is stronger ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 251, footnote 5 (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 is willing to admit that Christ may have said that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them; but if He did, it was to pacify the Jews and in a modified sense.  Augustin replies, and still further elaborates the Catholic view of prophecy and its fulfillment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 725 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Lord’s reply to the Jews when they questioned Him on this subject. For when they asked whether it is lawful for a man to put away his wife for any reason, the Lord answered: "Have ye not read, that He that made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh? Therefore they are no longer twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined, let no man put asunder."[Matthew 19:4-6] Here the Jews, who thought that they acted according to the intention of the law of Moses in putting away their wives, are made to see from the book of Moses that a wife should not be put away. And, by the way, we learn here, from Christ’s own ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 295, 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 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 884 (In-Text, Margin)

... should take place only for the procreation of children, and after the celebration of marriage, so as to maintain the bond of peace. Therefore, the prostitution of women, merely for the gratification of sinful passion, is condemned by the divine and eternal law. To purchase the degradation of another, disgraces the purchaser; so that, though the sin would have been greater if Judah had knowingly lain with his daughter-in-law (for if, as the Lord says, man and wife are no more two, but one flesh,[Matthew 19:6] a daughter-in-law is the same as a daughter); still, it is plain that, as regards his own intention, he was disgraced by his intercourse with an harlot. The woman, on the other hand, who deceived her father-in-law, sinned not from wantonness, or ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 23, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

Unbaptized Infants Damned, But Most Lightly; The Penalty of Adam’s Sin, the Grace of His Body Lost. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 281 (In-Text, Margin)

... again in baptism associated with the righteousness and eternal life of the second Adam; even as it is written in the book of Ecclesiasticus: “Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die.” Now whether it be said of the woman or of Adam, both statements pertain to the first man; since (as we know) the woman is of the man, and the two are one flesh. Whence also it is written: “And they twain shall be one flesh; wherefore,” the Lord says, “they are no more twain, but one flesh.”[Matthew 19:5-6]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 250, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)

On Original Sin. (HTML)

Three Things Good and Laudable in Matrimony. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2021 (In-Text, Margin)

... procreation, it is the guarantee of chastity, it is the bond of union. In respect of its ordination for generation the Scripture says, “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house;” as regards its guaranteeing chastity, it is said of it, “The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife;” and considered as the bond of union: “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”[Matthew 19:6] Touching these points, we do not forget that we have treated at sufficient length, with whatever ability the Lord has given us, in other works of ours, which are not unknown to you. In relation to them all the Scripture has this general praise: ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 286, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

On Marriage and Concupiscence. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

The Catholics Maintain the Doctrine of Original Sin, and Thus are Far from Being Manicheans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2213 (In-Text, Margin)

... intruding upon the catholics, who refute you, a name and a dogma which belong to others. For truth rejects both parties—the Manicheans and yourselves. To the Manicheans it says: “Have ye not read that He which made man at the beginning, made them male and female; and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”[Matthew 19:4-6] Now Christ shows, in this passage, that God is both the Creator of man, and the uniter in marriage of husband and wife; whereas the Manicheans deny both these propositions. To you, however, He says: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 380, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

Another Calumny of Julian,—That 'It is Said that Marriage is Not Appointed by God.' (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2547 (In-Text, Margin)

... shall be two in one flesh,” and now, wherefore it is written, “A woman is joined to a man by the Lord.” For nothing else is even now done than that a man cleave to his wife, and they become two in one flesh. Because concerning that very marriage which is now contracted, the Lord was consulted by the Jews whether it was lawful for any cause to put away a wife. And to the testimony of the law on the occasion mentioned, He added, “What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”[Matthew 19:6] The Apostle Paul also applied this witness of the law when he admonished husbands that their wives should be loved by them. Away, then, with the notion that in my book that man should read anything opposed to these divine testimonies! But either by ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 155, footnote 8 (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 Harmony Subsisting Between Matthew and Mark in the Accounts Which They Offer of the Time When He Was Asked Whether It Was Lawful to Put Away One’s Wife, and Especially in Regard to the Specific Questions and Replies Which Passed Between the Lord and the Jews, and in Which the Evangelists Seem to Be, to Some Small Extent, at Variance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1114 (In-Text, Margin)

120. Matthew continues giving his narrative in the following manner: “And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, He departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judæa beyond Jordan; and great multitudes followed Him; and He healed them there. The Pharisees also came unto Him, tempting Him, and saying, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” And so on, down to the words, “He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.”[Matthew 19:1-12] Mark also records this, and observes the same order. At the same time, we must certainly see to it that no appearance of contradiction be supposed to arise from the circumstance that the same Mark tells us how the Pharisees were asked by the Lord as to what ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 63, 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 II. 1–11. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 199 (In-Text, Margin)

... signification, to assure us that marriage was His own institution. For there were to be those of whom the apostle spoke, “forbidding to marry,” and asserting that marriage was an evil, and of the devil’s institution: notwithstanding the same Lord declares in the Gospel, on being asked whether it be lawful for a man to put away his wife for any cause, that it is not lawful save for the cause of fornication. In His answer, if you remember, He said, “What God hath joined together let not man put asunder.”[Matthew 19:6] And they that are well instructed in the catholic faith know that God instituted marriage; and as the union of man and wife is from God, so divorce is from the devil. But in the case of fornication it is lawful for a man to put away his wife, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 462, footnote 8 (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 I. 1–II. 11. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2001 (In-Text, Margin)

... nothing made,”) that He might be seen by eyes of flesh which see the sun, set His very tabernacle in the sun, that is, showed His flesh in manifestation of this light of day: and that Bridegroom’s chamber was the Virgin’s womb, because in that virginal womb were joined the two, the Bridegroom and the bride, the Bridegroom the Word, and the bride the flesh; because it is written, “And they twain shall be one flesh;” and the Lord saith in the Gospel, “Therefore they are no more twain but one flesh.[Matthew 19:6] And Esaias remembers right well that they are two: for speaking in the person of Christ he saith, “He hath set a mitre upon me as upon a bridegroom, and adorned me with an ornament as a bride.” One seems to speak, yet makes Himself at once ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 104, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XXXVIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 963 (In-Text, Margin)

... face of my sins,” who said to Saul, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me,” who, however, being in Heaven, now suffered from no persecutors? But just as, in that passage, the Head spake for the Body, so here too the Head speaks the words of the Body; whilst you hear at the same time the accents of the Head Itself also. Yet do not either, when you hear the voice of the Body, separate the Head from it; nor the Body, when you hear the voice of the Head: because “they are no more twain, but one flesh.”[Matthew 19:6]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 351, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3405 (In-Text, Margin)

... words, “We will confess to Thee, O God, we will confess to Thee, and will invoke Thy name.” Now beginneth the discourse in the person of the Head. But whether Head speaketh or whether members speak, Christ speaketh: He speaketh in the person of the Head, He speaketh in the person of the Body. But what hath been said? There shall be two in one flesh. “This is a great Sacrament:” “I,” he saith, “speak in Christ and in the Church.” And He Himself in the Gospel, “Therefore no longer two, but one flesh.”[Matthew 19:6] For in order that ye may know these in a manner to be two persons, and again one by the bond of marriage, as one He speaketh in Isaiah, and saith, “As upon a Bridegroom he hath bound upon me a mitre, and as a Bride he hath clothed me with an ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 680, footnote 11 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXLIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 6002 (In-Text, Margin)

... of fornication.” He heareth this, he feareth, and doeth it not.…Listen, young men; the bonds are of iron, seek not to set your feet within them; if ye do, ye shall be bound more tightly with fetters. Such fetters the hands of the Bishop make strong for you. Do not men who are thus fettered fly to the Church, and are here loosed? Men do fly hither, desiring to be rid of their wives: here they are more tightly bound: no man looseth these fetters. “What God joined together, let not man put asunder.”[Matthew 19:6] But these bonds are hard. Who but knows it? This hardness the Apostles grieved at, and said, “If this be the case with a wife, it is not good to marry.” If the bonds be of iron, it is not good to set our feet within them. And the Lord said, “All men ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 261, footnote 4 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Defence of His Flight. (Apologia de Fuga.) (HTML)

Defence of His Flight. (Apologia de Fuga.) (HTML)

A time to flee and a time to stay. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1469 (In-Text, Margin)

... Samaria, and rebuked Rehoboam; and of Paul when he appealed unto Cæsar. It was not certainly through cowardice that they fled: God forbid. The flight to which they submitted was rather a conflict and war against death. For with wise caution they guarded against these two things; either that they should offer themselves up without reason (for this would have been to kill themselves, and to become guilty of death, and to transgress the saying of the Lord, ‘What God hath joined let not man put asunder[Matthew 19:6] ’), or that they should willingly subject themselves to the reproach of negligence, as if they were unmoved by the tribulations which they met with in their flight, and which brought with them sufferings greater and more terrible than death. For he ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 68, footnote 8 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Pammachius. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1060 (In-Text, Margin)

... to touch Joseph he flung away his cloak and fled from her hands. But as he who has once married a wife cannot, except by consent, abstain from intercourse with her or repudiate her, so long as she does not sin, he must render unto his wife her due, because he has of his own free will bound himself to render it under compulsion.” Can one who declares that it is a precept of the Lord that wives should not be put away, and that what God has joined together man must not, without consent, put asunder[Matthew 19:6] —can such an one be said to condemn marriage? Again, in the verses which follow, the apostle says: “But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.” In explanation of this saying we made the following ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 214, footnote 1 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To Diodorus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2533 (In-Text, Margin)

4. I, however, maintain that this point has not been left in silence, but that the lawgiver has made a distinct prohibition. The words “None of you shall approach to any one that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness,” embraces also this form of kinsmanship, for what could be more akin to a man than his own wife, or rather than his own flesh? “For they are no more twain but one flesh.”[Matthew 19:6] So, through the wife, the sister is made akin to the husband. For as he shall not take his wife’s mother, nor yet his wife’s daughter, because he may not take his own mother nor his own daughter, so he may not take his wife’s sister, because he may not take his own sister. And, on the other hand, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 588, footnote 3 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius. (HTML)

Book V. (HTML)
Chapter XI. The mystery of the Lord's Incarnation clearly implies the Divinity of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2529 (In-Text, Margin)

And so to every man who breaks out into this mad blasphemy, the Lord Jesus in the gospel Himself repeats what He said to the Pharisees, and declares: “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”[Matthew 19:6] For although where it was originally spoken by God it seems to be in answer to another matter, yet the deep wisdom of God which was speaking not more of carnal than of spiritual things, would have this to be taken of that subject indeed, but even more of this: for when the Jews of that day believed with you that Jesus was only a man without Divinity, and the Lord was asked a ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 103, footnote 1 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

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

Letters. (HTML)

To Nicætas, Bishop of Aquileia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 592 (In-Text, Margin)

... things has im proved through the Lord’s help, some of those who were thought to have perished have returned, you seem, dear brother, naturally to be in doubt what ought to be settled by us about women thus joined to other husbands. But because we know it is written that “a woman is joined to a man by God591591    Prov. xix. 14. (LXX.).,” and again, we are aware of the precept that “what God hath joined, man may not put asunder[Matthew 19:6],” we are bound to hold that the compact of the lawful marriage must be renewed, and after the removal of the evils inflicted by the enemy, what each lawfully had must be restored to him; and we must take every pains that each should recover what is ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs