Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Matthew 22:38

There are 29 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 599, footnote 3 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

Who is the Rich Man that shall be saved? (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3874 (In-Text, Margin)

The Master accordingly, when asked, “Which is the greatest of the commandments?” says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and with all thy strength;”[Matthew 22:36-38] that no commandment is greater than this (He says), and with exceeding good reason; for it gives command respecting the First and the Greatest, God Himself, our Father, by whom all things were brought into being, and exist, and to whom what is saved returns again. By Him, then, being loved beforehand, and having received existence, it is impious for us to regard aught else older or more excellent; rendering only ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 152, footnote 8 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)

The Law Anterior to Moses. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1143 (In-Text, Margin)

... gave to Adam himself and Eve a law, that they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree planted in the midst of paradise; but that, if they did contrariwise, by death they were to die. Which law had continued enough for them, had it been kept. For in this law given to Adam we recognise in embryo all the precepts which afterwards sprouted forth when given through Moses; that is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God from thy whole heart and out of thy whole soul; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;[Matthew 22:34-40] Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not commit adultery; Thou shalt not steal; False witness thou shalt not utter; Honour thy father and mother; and, That which is another’s, shalt thou not covet. For the primordial law was given to Adam and Eve in ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 552, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)

God's Love for the Flesh of Man, as Developed in the Grace of Christ Towards It. The Flesh the Best Means of Displaying the Bounty and Power of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7344 (In-Text, Margin)

... forbid, (I repeat), that He should abandon to everlasting destruction the labour of His own hands, the care of His own thoughts, the receptacle of His own Spirit, the queen of His creation, the inheritor of His own liberality, the priestess of His religion, the champion of His testimony, the sister of His Christ! We know by experience the goodness of God; from His Christ we learn that He is the only God, and the very good. Now, as He requires from us love to our neighbour after love to Himself,[Matthew 22:37-40] so He will Himself do that which He has commanded. He will love the flesh which is, so very closely and in so many ways, His neighbour—(He will love it), although infirm, since His strength is made perfect in weakness; although disordered, since ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 103, footnote 14 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Fasting. (HTML)

Arguments of the Psychics, Drawn from the Law, the Gospel, the Acts, the Epistles, and Heathenish Practices. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1017 (In-Text, Margin)

... and similar passages, they subtlely tend at last to such a point, that every one who is somewhat prone to appetite finds it possible to regard as superfluous, and not so very necessary, the duties of abstinence from, or diminution or delay of, food, since “God,” forsooth, “prefers the works of justice and of innocence.” And we know the quality of the hortatory addresses of carnal conveniences, how easy it is to say, “I must believe with my whole heart; I must love God, and my neighbour as myself:[Matthew 22:37-40] for ‘on these two precepts the whole Law hangeth, and the prophets,’ not on the emptiness of my lungs and intestines.”

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 498, footnote 12 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus. (HTML)
That God alone must be worshipped. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3713 (In-Text, Margin)

... His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that therein is.” So also the Lord, in His Gospel, makes mention of the first and second commandment, saying, “Hear, O Israel, The Lord thy God is one God;” and, “Thou shalt love thy Lord with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. This is the first; and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[Matthew 22:37-40] And once more: “And this is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 96, footnote 15 (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 XXXIV. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2353 (In-Text, Margin)

... scribes, of those that knew the law, when he saw the excellence [26] of his answer to them, desired to try him, and said unto him, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? and, Which of the commandments is greater, and has precedence [27] in the law? Jesus said unto him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O [28] Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy thought, and with all thy [29, 30] strength.[Matthew 22:38] This is the great and preëminent commandment. And the second, which is like it, is, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. And another commandment [31] greater than these two there is not. On these two commandments, then, are hung the [32] ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 65, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

Of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth years of his age, passed at Carthage, when, having completed his course of studies, he is caught in the snares of a licentious passion, and falls into the errors of the Manichæans. (HTML)

He Argues Against the Same as to the Reason of Offences. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 250 (In-Text, Margin)

15. Can it at any time or place be an unrighteous thing for a man to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind, and his neighbour as himself?[Matthew 22:37-39] Therefore those offences which be contrary to nature are everywhere and at all times to be held in detestation and punished; such were those of the Sodomites, which should all nations commit, they should all be held guilty of the same crime by the divine law, which hath not so made men that they should in that way abuse one another. For even that fellowship which should be between God and us is violated, when ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 182, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Porphyry’s doctrine of redemption. (HTML)

That the Platonists, Though Knowing Something of the Creator of the Universe, Have Misunderstood the True Worship of God, by Giving Divine Honor to Angels, Good or Bad. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 379 (In-Text, Margin)

... spiritually embracing Him that the intellectual soul is filled and impregnated with true virtues. We are enjoined to love this good with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength. To this good we ought to be led by those who love us, and to lead those we love. Thus are fulfilled those two commandments on which hang all the law and the prophets: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul;” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”[Matthew 22:37-40] For, that man might be intelligent in his self-love, there was appointed for him an end to which he might refer all his actions, that he might be blessed. For he who loves himself wishes nothing else than this. And the end set before him is “to draw ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 529, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

On Christian Doctrine (HTML)

Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture (HTML)

The Command to Love God and Our Neighbor Includes a Command to Love Ourselves. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1738 (In-Text, Margin)

... connected with us, through a law of nature which has never been violated, and which is common to us with the beasts (for even the beasts love themselves and their own bodies),—it only remained necessary to lay injunctions upon us in regard to God above us, and our neighbor beside us. “Thou shalt love,” He says, “the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[Matthew 22:37-40] Thus the end of the commandment is love, and that twofold, the love of God and the love of our neighbor. Now, if you take yourself in your entirety,—that is, soul and body together,—and your neighbor in his entirety, soul and body together (for man ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 538, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

On Christian Doctrine (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

Steps to Wisdom:  First, Fear; Second, Piety; Third, Knowledge; Fourth, Resolution; Fifth, Counsel; Sixth, Purification of Heart; Seventh, Stop or Termination, Wisdom. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1763 (In-Text, Margin)

... third step, knowledge, of which I have now undertaken to treat. For in this every earnest student of the Holy Scriptures exercises himself, to find nothing else in them but that God is to be loved for His own sake, and our neighbor for God’s sake; and that God is to be loved with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind, and one’s neighbor as one’s self—that is, in such a way that all our love for our neighbor, like all our love for ourselves, should have reference to God.[Matthew 22:37-40] And on these two commandments I touched in the previous book when I was treating about things. It is necessary, then, that each man should first of all find in the Scriptures that he, through being entangled in the love of this world— i.e., ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 51, footnote 12 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

The equality of the Trinity maintained against objections drawn from those texts which speak of the sending of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
How the Back Parts of God Were Seen. The Faith of the Resurrection of Christ. The Catholic Church Only is the Place from Whence the Back Parts of God are Seen. The Back Parts of God Were Seen by the Israelites. It is a Rash Opinion to Think that God the Father Only Was Never Seen by the Fathers. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 323 (In-Text, Margin)

... subject to ordinances?” Not therefore without cause will no one be able to see the “face,” that is, the manifestation itself of the wisdom of God, and live. For it is this very appearance, for the contemplation of which every one sighs who strives to love God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind; to the contemplation of which, he who loves his neighbor, too, as himself builds up his neighbor also as far as he may; on which two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.[Matthew 22:37-40] And this is signified also in Moses himself. For when he had said, on account of the love of God with which he was specially inflamed, “If I have found grace in thy sight, show me now Thyself plainly, that I may find grace in Thy sight;” he ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 100, footnote 2 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

In reply to the argument alleged against the equality of the Son from the apostle’s words, saying that Christ is the ‘power of God and the wisdom of God,’ he propounds the question whether the Father Himself is not wisdom. But deferring for a while the answer to this, he adduces further proof of the unity and equality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that God ought to be said and believed to be a Trinity, not triple (triplicem). And he adds an explanation of the saying of Hilary—Eternity in the Father, Appearance in the Image, and Use in the Gift. (HTML)
The Holy Spirit Also is Equal to the Father and the Son in All Things. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 612 (In-Text, Margin)

... holiness, it is manifest that He is not one of the two, through whom the two are joined, through whom the Begotten is loved by the Begetter, and loves Him that begat Him, and through whom, not by participation, but by their own essence, neither by the gift of any superior, but by their own, they are “keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace;” which we are commanded to imitate by grace, both towards God and towards ourselves. “On which two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[Matthew 22:37-40] So those three are God, one, alone, great, wise, holy, blessed. But we are blessed from Him, and through Him, and in Him; because we ourselves are one by His gift, and one spirit with Him, because our soul cleaves to Him so as to follow Him. And it ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 122, footnote 4 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

He advances reasons to show not only that the Father is not greater than the Son, but that neither are both together anything greater than the Holy Spirit, nor any two together in the same Trinity anything greater than one, nor all three together anything greater than each singly. He also intimates that the nature of God may be understood from our understanding of truth, from our knowledge of the supreme good, and from our implanted love of righteousness; but above all, that our knowledge of God is to be sought through love, in which he notices a trio of things which contains a trace of the Trinity. (HTML)
Of True Love, by Which We Arrive at the Knowledge of the Trinity. God is to Be Sought, Not Outwardly, by Seeking to Do Wonderful Things with the Angels, But Inwardly, by Imitating the Piety of Good Angels. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 677 (In-Text, Margin)

... improperly to love, just as they who love are said improperly to desire. But this is true love, that cleaving to the truth we may live righteously, and so may despise all mortal things in comparison with the love of men, whereby we wish them to live righteously. For so we should be prepared also to die profitably for our brethren, as our Lord Jesus Christ taught us by His example. For as there are two commandments on which hang all the Law and the prophets, love of God and love of our neighbor;[Matthew 22:37-40] not without cause the Scripture mostly puts one for both: whether it be of God only, as is that text, “For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God;” and again, “But if any man love God, the same is known of Him;” and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 224, footnote 10 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

He embraces in a brief compendium the contents of the previous books; and finally shows that the Trinity, in the perfect sight of which consists the blessed life that is promised us, is here seen by us as in a glass and in an enigma, so long as it is seen through that image of God which we ourselves are. (HTML)
The Holy Spirit Twice Given by Christ. The Procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and from the Son is Apart from Time, Nor Can He Be Called the Son of Both. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1056 (In-Text, Margin)

46. But the reason why, after His resurrection, He both gave the Holy Spirit, first on earth, and afterwards sent Him from heaven, is in my judgment this: that “love is shed abroad in our hearts,” by that Gift itself, whereby we love God and our neighbors, according to those two commandments, “on which hang all the law and the prophets.”[Matthew 22:37-40] And Jesus Christ, in order to signify this, gave to them the Holy Spirit, once upon earth, on account of the love of our neighbor, and a second time from heaven, on account of the love of God. And if some other reason may perhaps be given for this double gift of the Holy Spirit, at any rate we ought not to doubt that the same ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 308, footnote 3 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Catechising of the Uninstructed. (HTML)

Of the Mission of the Holy Ghost Fifty Days After Christ’s Resurrection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1474 (In-Text, Margin)

... He had promised), by whose agency they were to have love shed abroad in their hearts, to the end that they might be able to fulfill the law, not only without the sense of its being burdensome, but even with a joyful mind. This law was given to the Jews in the ten commandments, which they call the Decalogue. And these commandments, again, are reduced to two, namely that we should love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind; and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves.[Matthew 22:37-40] For that on these two precepts hang all the law and the prophets, the Lord Himself has at once declared in the Gospel and shown in His own example. For thus it was likewise in the instance of the people of Israel, that from the day on which they ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 214, footnote 4 (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 rejects the Old Testament because it leaves no room for Christ.  Christ the one Bridegroom suffices for His Bride the Church.  Augustin answers as well as he can, and reproves the Manichæans with presumption in claiming to be the Bride of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 555 (In-Text, Margin)

... the friend of thy Bridegroom said: "For thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not murder, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is contained in this word, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." One table contains the precept of love to God, and the other of love to man. And He who first sent these tablets Himself came to enjoin those precepts on which hang the law and the prophets.[Matthew 22:37-40] In the first precept is the chastity of thy espousals; in the second is the unity of thy members. In the one thou art united to divinity; in the other thou dost gather a society. And these two precepts are identical with the ten, of which three ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 59, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)

On the Latter Part of Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Contained in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of Matthew. (HTML)

Chapter XXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 455 (In-Text, Margin)

... precept that he should love God and men. But when it is said more expressly of men, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,” nothing else seems to be meant than, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” But we must carefully attend to what He has added here: “for this is the law and the prophets.” Now, in the case of these two precepts, He not merely says, The law and the prophets hang; but He has also added, “all the law and the prophets,”[Matthew 22:37-40] which is the same as the whole of prophecy: and in not making the same addition here, He has kept a place for the other precept, which refers to the love of God. Here, then, inasmuch as He is following out the precepts with respect to a single ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 165, footnote 3 (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 Person to Whom the Two Precepts Concerning the Love of God and the Love of Our Neighbour Were Commended; And of the Question as to the Order of Narration Which is Observed by Matthew and Mark, and the Absence of Any Discrepancy Between Them and Luke. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1168 (In-Text, Margin)

... that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. And one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[Matthew 22:34-40] This is recorded also by Mark, and that too in the same order. Neither should there be any difficulty in the statement made by Matthew, to the effect that the person by whom the question was put to the Lord tempted Him; whereas Mark says nothing ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 480, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

Again in John v. 2, etc., on the five porches, where lay a great multitude of impotent folk, and of the pool of Siloa. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3730 (In-Text, Margin)

... Apostle, “Charity is the fulfilling of the Law. For all the Law is fulfilled in one word, in that which is written, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” But the commandment of charity is twofold; “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great commandment. The other is like it; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” They are the words of the Lord in the Gospel: “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”[Matthew 22:37-40] Without this twofold love the Law cannot be fulfilled. As long as the Law is not fulfilled, there is infirmity. Therefore he had two short, who was infirm thirty and eight years. What means, “had two short”? He did not fulfil these two commandments. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 113, footnote 3 (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 IV. 1–18. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 363 (In-Text, Margin)

... your memory, what I say; be ye not despisers of the word, that your soul may not become a trodden path, where the seed cast cannot sprout, “and the fowls of the air will come and gather it up.” Apprehend it, and lay it up in your hearts. The precepts of love, given to us by the Lord, are two: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;” and, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[Matthew 22:37-40] With good reason did the widow cast “two mites,” all her substance, into the offerings of God: with good reason did the host take “two” pieces of money, for the poor man that was wounded by the robbers, for his making whole: with good reason did ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 235, footnote 3 (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 VIII. 31–36. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 774 (In-Text, Margin)

... carried into the inn to be healed. For it is He who promises salvation, who pitied the man left half-alive on the road by robbers. He poured in oil and wine, He healed the wounds, He put him on his beast, He took him to the inn, He commended him to the innkeeper’s care. To what innkeeper? Perhaps to him who said, “We are ambassadors for Christ.” He gave also two pence to pay for the healing of the wounded man. And perhaps these are the two commandments, on which hang all the law and the prophets.[Matthew 22:37-40] Therefore, brethren, is the Church also, wherein the wounded is healed meanwhile, the traveller’s inn; but above the Church itself, lies the possessor’s inheritance.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 318, footnote 7 (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 XIII. 34, 35. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1243 (In-Text, Margin)

... new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another,” there is any overlooking of that greater commandment, which requires us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind; for along with this seeming oversight, the words “that ye love one another” appear also as if they had no reference to that second commandment, which says, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” For “on these two commandments,” He says, “hang all the law and the prophets.”[Matthew 22:37-40] But both commandments may be found in each of these by those who have good understanding. For, on the one hand, he that loveth God cannot despise His commandment to love his neighbor; and on the other, he who in a holy and spiritual way loveth his ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 523, footnote 12 (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 V. 1–3. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2519 (In-Text, Margin)

... love of God, that we keep His commandments.” Already ye have heard, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” See how He would not have thee divide thyself over a multitude of pages: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” On what two commandments? “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[Matthew 22:37-40] See here of what commandments this whole epis tle talks. Therefore hold fast love, and set your minds at rest. Why fearest thou lest thou do evil to some man? Who does evil to the man he loves? Love thou: it is impossible to do this without doing ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 565, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXIX (HTML)

He. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5166 (In-Text, Margin)

34. “Give me understanding, and I shall search Thy law, yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart” (ver. 34). For when each man hath searched the law, and searched its deep things, in which its whole meaning doth consist; he ought indeed to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind; and his neighbour as himself. “For on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”[Matthew 22:37-40] This he seemeth to have promised, when he said, “Yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 576, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXIX (HTML)

Lamed. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5265 (In-Text, Margin)

... life, and by sorrows and reproaches. But in what he hath added, “Thy commandment is exceeding broad;” I understand only love. For what would it have profited him, whatever death impended over him, in the midst of whatsoever torment, to confess those testimonies, if love were not in the confessor?…Broad therefore is the commandment of charity, that twofold commandment, whereby we are enjoined to love God and our neighbour. But what is broader than that, “on” which “hang all the Law and the Prophets”?[Matthew 22:37-40]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 582, footnote 10 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXIX (HTML)

Pe. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5328 (In-Text, Margin)

... word: and so shall no wickedness have dominion over me” (ver. 133). Where what else doth he say than this, Make me upright and free according to Thy promise. But so much the more as the love of God reigneth in every man, so much the less hath wickedness dominion over him. What else then doth he seek than that by the gift of God he may love God? For by loving God he loveth himself, so that he may healthily love his neighbour also as himself: on which commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.[Matthew 22:37-40] What then doth he pray, save that God may cause the fulfillment by His help of those commandments which He imposeth by His bidding?

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 592, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXXI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5415 (In-Text, Margin)

... by your voices. Since then ye have understood, brethren, consider what followeth; wherefore the Lord shieldeth thee “upon the hand of thy right hand,” that is, in thy faith, wherein we have received “power to become the sons of God,” and to be on His right hand: wherefore should God shield us? On account of offences. Whence come offences? Offences are to be feared from two quarters, for there are two precepts upon which the whole Law hangeth and the Prophets, the love of God and of our neighbour.[Matthew 22:37-40] The Church is loved for the sake of our neighbour, but God for the sake of God. Of God, is understood the sun figuratively: of the Church, is understood the moon figuratively. Whoever can err, so as to think otherwise of God than he ought, believing ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 621, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXXXII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5621 (In-Text, Margin)

... they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.” And see that they are poor in this world: “Laying up in store for themselves,” he addeth, “a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” When they have laid hold of eternal life, then will they be rich; but since they have it not as yet, they should know that they are poor. Thus it is that God counteth among His poor all the humble in heart, who are established in that twofold charity,[Matthew 22:37-39] whatever they may have in this world—among His poor, whom He satisfieth with bread.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 304, footnote 6 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)

To Theoctistus, Bishop of Berœa. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1966 (In-Text, Margin)

Our Saviour, Lawgiver, and Lord, was once asked, “What is the first commandment?” His reply was “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” And He added “This is the first commandment: and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Then He said further “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[Matthew 22:36-40]

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs