Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 21:31
There are 13 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 492, footnote 9 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XX.—That one God formed all things in the world, by means of the Word and the Holy Spirit: and that although He is to us in this life invisible and incomprehensible, nevertheless He is not unknown; inasmuch as His works do declare Him, and His Word has shown that in many modes He may be seen and known. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4113 (In-Text, Margin)
... she lived fell to ruins at the sounding of the seven trumpets, Rahab the harlot was preserved, when all was over [in ultimis], together with all her house, through faith of the scarlet sign; as the Lord also declared to those who did not receive His advent,—the Pharisees, no doubt, nullify the sign of the scarlet thread, which meant the passover, and the redemption and exodus of the people from Egypt,—when He said, “The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before you.”[Matthew 21:31]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 351, footnote 4 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter IV.—Faith the Foundation of All Knowledge. (HTML)
... For as the wise are wise by their wisdom, and those observant of law are so by the law; so also those who belong to Christ the King are kings, and those that are Christ’s Christians. Then, in continuation, he adds clearly, “What is right will turn out to be lawful, law being in its nature right reason, and not found in writings or elsewhere.” And the stranger of Elea pronounces the kingly and statesmanlike man “ a living law. ” Such is he who fulfils the law, “doing the will of the Father,”[Matthew 21:31] inscribed on a lofty pillar, and set as an example of divine virtue to all who possess the power of seeing. The Greeks are acquainted with the staves of the Ephori at Lacedæmon, inscribed with the law on wood. But my law, as was said above, is both ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 674, footnote 4 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Baptism. (HTML)
Of John's Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8642 (In-Text, Margin)
... are able to determine that that baptism was divine indeed, (yet in respect of the command, not in respect of efficacy too, in that we read that John was sent by the Lord to perform this duty,) but human in its nature: for it conveyed nothing celestial, but it fore-ministered to things celestial; being, to wit, appointed over repentance, which is in man’s power. In fact, the doctors of the law and the Pharisees, who were unwilling to “believe,” did not “repent” either.[Matthew 21:31-32] But if repentance is a thing human, its baptism must necessarily be of the same nature: else, if it had been celestial, it would have given both the Holy Spirit and remission of sins. But none either pardons sins or freely grants the Spirit save God ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 54, footnote 11 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
Further Exposition of the Heresy of the Naasseni; Profess to Follow Homer; Acknowledge a Triad of Principles; Their Technical Names of the Triad; Support These on the Authority of Greek Poets; Allegorize Our Saviour's Miracles; The Mystery of the Samothracians; Why the Lord Chose Twelve Disciples; The Name Corybas, Used by Thracians and Phrygians, Explained; Naasseni Profess to Find Their System in Scripture; Their Interpretation of Jacob's Vision; Their Idea of the “Perfect Man;” The “Perfect Man” Called “Papa” By the Phrygians; The Naasseni and Phrygians on the Resurrection; The Ecstasis of St. Paul; The Mysteries of Religion as Alluded to by Christ; Interpretation of the Parable of the Sower; Allegory of the Promised Land (HTML)
... difficult, he says, to accept and receive this great and ineffable mystery. And again, it is said, the Saviour has declared, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” And it is necessary that they who perform this (will), not hear it merely, should enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again, he says, the Saviour has declared, “The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before you.”[Matthew 21:31] For “the publicans,” he says, are those who receive the revenues of all things; but we, he says, are the publicans, “unto whom the ends of the ages have come.” For “the ends,” he says, are the seeds scattered from the unportrayable one upon the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 167, footnote 15 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)
Exegetical. (HTML)
On Genesis. (HTML)
Hipp. Who else is this than as is shown us by the apostle, “the second man, the Lord from heaven?” And in the Gospel,[Matthew 21:31] He said that he who did the will of the Father was “the last.” And by the words, “Turn back to me,” is meant His ascension to His Father in heaven after His passion. And in the phrase, “Against Him they took counsel together, and reviled Him,” who are intended but just the people in their opposition to our Lord? And as to the words, “they pressed Him sore,” who pressed Him, and to this day still press Him sore? Those—these ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 94, footnote 43 (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 XXXIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2287 (In-Text, Margin)
... the people will stone us, all of them. And all of them were holding [34] to John, that he was a true prophet. They answered and said unto him, We know [35] not. Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you also by what power I work. What think ye? A man had two sons; and he went to the first, and said unto him, My [36] son, go to-day, and till in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I do not wish [37] to: but finally he repented, and went. And he went to the other, and said unto [38] him likewise.[Matthew 21:31] And he answered and said, Yea, my lord: and went not. Which of these two did the will of his father? They said unto him, The first. Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, The publicans and harlots go before you into [39] the kingdom of God. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 430, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Of Holy Virginity. (HTML)
Section 36 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2127 (In-Text, Margin)
... his eyes to heaven, that sinner beating his breast, and drawing near from afar. Let him hear, the centurion, not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under his roof. Let him hear, Zaccheus, chief of publicans, restoring fourfold the gains of damnable sins. Let her hear, the woman in the city a sinner, by so much the more full of tears at Thy feet, the more alien she had been from Thy steps. Let them hear, the harlots and publicans, who enter into the kingdom of heaven before the Scribes and Pharisees.[Matthew 21:31] Let them hear, every kind of such ones, feastings with whom were cast in Thy teeth as a charge, forsooth, as though by whole persons who sought not a physician, whereas Thou camest not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. All these, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 304, 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 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 927 (In-Text, Margin)
80. Another of Faustus’ malicious and impious charges which has to be answered, is about the Lord’s saying to the prophet Hosea, "Take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms." As regards this passage, the impure mind of our adversaries is so blinded that they do not understand the plain words of the Lord in His gospel, when He says to the Jews, "The publicans and harlots shall go into the kingdom of heaven before you."[Matthew 21:31] There is nothing contrary to the mercifulness of truth, or inconsistent with Christian faith, in a harlot leaving fornication, and becoming a chaste wife. Indeed, nothing could be more unbecoming in one professing to be a prophet than not to believe that all the sins of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 341, footnote 2 (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 does not think it would be a great honor to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whose moral characters as set forth in the Old Testament he detests. He justifies his subjective criticism of Scripture. Augustin sums up the argument, claims the victory, and exhorts the Manichæans to abandon their opposition to the Old Testament notwithstanding the difficulties that it presents, and to recognize the authority of the Catholic Church. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1075 (In-Text, Margin)
... that deliverance was granted to him by the same Lord, and that Christ said that on that very day he should be with Him in the paradise of His Father? Who is so hard-hearted as to disapprove of this act of benevolence? Still, it does not follow that, because Jesus pardoned a thief, we must approve of the habits and practices of thieves; any more than of the publicans and harlots, whose faults Jesus pardoned, declaring that they would go into the kingdom of heaven before those who behaved proudly.[Matthew 21:31] For, when He acquitted the woman accused by the Jews as sinful, and as having been caught in adultery, He told her to sin no more. If, then, He has done something of the same kind in the case of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, all the praise is His; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 162, 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 Two Sons Who Were Commanded by Their Father to Go into His Vineyard, and of the Vineyard Which Was Let Out to Other Husbandmen; Of the Question Concerning the Consistency of Matthew’s Version of These Passages with Those Given by the Other Two Evangelists, with Whom He Retains the Same Order; As Also, in Particular, Concerning the Harmony of His Version of the Parable, Which is Recorded by All the Three, Regarding the Vineyard that Was Let Out; And in Reference Specially to the Reply Made by the Persons to Whom that Parable Was Spoken, in Relating Which Matthew Seems to Differ Somewhat from the Others. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1150 (In-Text, Margin)
133. Matthew goes on thus: “But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. But he answered and said, I will not; but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir; and went not;” and so on, down to the words, “And whosoever shall fall upon this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”[Matthew 21:28-44] Mark and Luke do not mention the parable of the two sons to whom the order was given to go and labour in the vineyard. But what is narrated by Matthew subsequently to that,—namely, the parable of the vineyard which was let out to the husbandmen, who persecuted ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 422, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4049 (In-Text, Margin)
... harlot in Jericho, who received the spies and conducted them out of the city by a different road: who trusted beforehand in the promise, who feared God, who was told to hang out of the window a line of scarlet thread, that is, to bear upon her forehead the sign of the blood of Christ. She was saved there, and thus represented the Church of the Gentiles: whence our Lord said to the haughty Pharisees, “Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.”[Matthew 21:31] They go before, because they do violence: they push their way by faith, and to faith a way is made, nor can any resist, since they who are violent take it by force. For it is written, “The kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 16, footnote 12 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 607 (In-Text, Margin)
... was worthy of credit, since he was also the first to practise what he taught: he was not ashamed to speak, for conscience hindered not his tongue: and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. Wouldst thou enjoy the grace of the Holy Spirit, yet judgest the poor not worthy of bodily food? Seekest thou the great gifts, and impartest not of the small? Though thou be a publican, or a fornicator, have hope of salvation: the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you[Matthew 21:31]. Paul also is witness, saying, Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor the rest, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified. He said not, such are some of you, but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 60, footnote 15 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Clause, and in One Lord Jesus Christ, with a Reading from the First Epistle to the Corinthians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1178 (In-Text, Margin)
... the son of Nave was in many things a type of Him. For when he began to rule over the people, he began from Jordan, whence Christ also, after He was baptized, began to preach the gospel. And the son of Nave appoints twelve to divide the inheritance; and twelve Apostles Jesus sends forth, as heralds of the truth, into all the world. The typical Jesus saved Rahab the harlot when she believed: and the true Jesus says, Behold, the publicans and the harlots go before you into the kingdom of God[Matthew 21:31]. With only a shout the walls of Jericho fell down in the time of the type: and because Jesus said, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, the Temple of the Jews opposite to us is fallen, the cause of its fall not being the ...