Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Matthew 20:21

There are 9 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 52, footnote 5 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

The Pastor of Hermas (HTML)

Book Third.—Similitudes (HTML)

Similitude Ninth. The Great Mysteries in the Building of the Militant and Triumphant Church. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 390 (In-Text, Margin)

... fruits, adorned with fruits of various kinds, they who believed were the following: they who suffered for the name of the Son of God, and who also suffered cheerfully with their whole heart, and laid down their lives.” “Why, then, sir,” I said, “do all these trees bear fruit, and some of them fairer than the rest?” “Listen,” he said: “all who once suffered for the name of the Lord are honourable before God; and of all these the sins were remitted, because they suffered for the name of the Son of God.[Matthew 20:21-23] And why their fruits are of various kinds, and some of them superior, listen. All,” he continued, “who were brought before the authorities and were examined, and did not deny, but suffered cheerfully—these are held in greater honour with God, and of ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 227, footnote 11 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Instructor (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Chapter VIII.—Against Those Who Think that What is Just is Not Good. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1196 (In-Text, Margin)

... am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: For Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have declared to them Thy name, and will declare it.” This is He “that visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, to them that hate Him, and shows mercy to those that love Him.” For He who placed some “on the right hand, and others on the left,”[Matthew 20:21] conceived as Father, being good, is called that which alone He is—“good;” but as He is the Son in the Father, being his Word, from their mutual relation, the name of power being measured by equality of love, He is called righteous. “He will judge,” ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 545, footnote 5 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XII.—The True Gnostic is Beneficent, Continent, and Despises Worldly Things. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3622 (In-Text, Margin)

This Gnostic, to speak compendiously, makes up for the absence of the apostles, by the rectitude of his life, the accuracy of his knowledge, by benefiting his relations, by “removing the mountains” of his neighbours, and putting away the irregularities of their soul. Although each of us is his[Matthew 20:21] own vineyard and labourer.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 646, footnote 6 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Scorpiace. (HTML)

Chapter XII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8300 (In-Text, Margin)

... glistening whiteness, and the name unknown (to every man save him that receiveth it); now power to rule with a rod of iron, and the brightness of the morning star; now the being clothed in white raiment, and not having the name blotted out of the book of life, and being made in the temple of God a pillar with the inscription on it of the name of God and of the Lord, and of the heavenly Jerusalem; now a sitting with the Lord on His throne,—which once was persistently refused to the sons of Zebedee.[Matthew 20:20-23] Who, pray, are these so blessed conquerors, but martyrs in the strict sense of the word? For indeed theirs are the victories whose also are the fights; theirs, however, are the fights whose also is the blood. But the souls of the martyrs both ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 90, 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 XXX. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2112 (In-Text, Margin)

[46] Then came near to him the mother of the (two) sons of Zebedee, she and her (two) sons, and worshipped him, and asked of him a certain thing.[Matthew 20:21] And he said [47] unto her, What wouldest thou? And James and John, her two sons, came forward, and said unto him, Teacher, we would that all that we ask thou wouldest [48] do unto us. He said unto them, What would ye that I should do unto you? [49] They said unto him, Grant us that we may sit, the one on thy right, and the other [50] on thy left, in thy kingdom and thy glory. And Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 428, footnote 11 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

Of Holy Virginity. (HTML)

Section 32 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2113 (In-Text, Margin)

... their sins in prayer, unto whom is due not upbraiding with arrogance, but pity without despair. What is it that, when His disciples were questioning among themselves, who of them should be greater, He set a little child before their eyes, saying, “Unless ye shall be as this child, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven?” Did He not chiefly commend humility, and set in it the desert of greatness? Or when unto the sons of Zebedee desiring to be at His side in lofty seats He so made answer,[Matthew 20:21-22] as that they should rather think of having to drink the Cup of His Passion, wherein He humbled Himself even unto death, even the death of the Cross, than with proud desire demand to be preferred to the rest; what did He show, save, that He would be ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 157, footnote 5 (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 Occasions on Which He Foretold His Passion in Private to His Disciples; And of the Time When the Mother of Zebedee’s Children Came with Her Sons, Requesting that One of Them Should Sit on His Right Hand, and the Other on His Left Hand; And of the Absence of Any Discrepancy Between Matthew and the Other Two Evangelists on These Subjects. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1122 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him; and the third day He shall rise again. Then came to Him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping Him, and desiring a certain thing of Him;” and so on, down to the words, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.”[Matthew 20:17-28] Here again Mark keeps the same order as Matthew, only he represents the sons of Zebedee to have made the request themselves; while Matthew has stated that it was preferred on their behalf not by their own personal application, but by their mother, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 607, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXXVII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5519 (In-Text, Margin)

... light, Christ, hath arisen; it is good for thee to rise after Christ, not to rise before Christ. Who rise before Christ? They who choose to prefer themselves to Christ. And who are they who wish to prefer themselves to Christ? They who wish to be exalted here, where He was humble. Let them, therefore, be humble here, if they wish to be exalted there, where Christ is exalted.…The Lord recalled the sons of Zebedee to humility, and said unto them, “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?”[Matthew 20:21-22] I came to be humble: and are ye wishing to be exalted before Me? The way I go, do ye follow, He saith. For if ye choose to go this way where I do not go, your labour is lost, in rising before dawn. Peter too had risen before the light, when he ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 292, footnote 2 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book V. (HTML)
Chapter V. Ambrose answers those who press the words of the Lord to the mother of Zebedee's children, by saying that they were spoken out of kindness, because Christ was unwilling to cause her grief. Ample reason for such tenderness is brought forward. The Lord would rather leave the granting of that request to the Father, than declare it to be impossible. This answer of Christ's, however, is not to His detriment, as is shown both by His very words, and also by comparing them with other passages. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2584 (In-Text, Margin)

56. She then, somewhat yielding to the devotion of a mother’s zeal, besought the Saviour, saying: “Grant that these my two sons may sit the one on Thy right hand, the other on Thy left in Thy kingdom.”[Matthew 20:21] Although it was an error, it was an error of a mother’s affections; for a mother’s heart knows no patience. Though eager for the object of her desires, yet her longing was pardonable, for she was not greedy for money, but for grace. Not shameless was her request, for she thought not of herself, but of her children. Contemplate the mother, reflect upon her.

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