Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 23:9
There are 23 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 463, footnote 4 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter I.—The Lord acknowledged but one God and Father. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3807 (In-Text, Margin)
... upon His disciples from what He follows Himself. Such conduct, however, does not bespeak the good teacher, but a misleading and invidious one. The apostles, too, according to these men’s showing, are proved to be transgressors of the commandment, since they confess the Creator as God, and Lord, and Father, as I have shown—if He is not alone God and Father. Jesus, therefore, will be to them the author and teacher of such transgression, inasmuch as He commanded that one Being should be called Father,[Matthew 23:9] thus imposing upon them the necessity of confessing the Creator as their Father, as has been pointed out.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 350, 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)
... known to the Greeks; neither, accordingly, to Thales, who came to the conclusion that water was the first cause; nor to the other natural philosophers who succeeded him, since it was Anaxagoras who was the first who assigned to Mind the supremacy over material things. But not even he preserved the dignity suited to the efficient cause, describing as he did certain silly vortices, together with the inertia and even foolishness of Mind. Wherefore also the Word says, “Call no man master on earth.”[Matthew 23:9] For knowledge is a state of mind that results from demonstration; but faith is a grace which from what is indemonstrable conducts to what is universal and simple, what is neither with matter, nor matter, nor under matter. But those who believe not, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 397, footnote 16 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2598 (In-Text, Margin)
... matrimonium, sed remedium afferre exspectationi carnalis cupiditatis in resurrectione. Illud autem, “filiis hujus sæculi,” non dixit ad distinctionera alicujus alius sacculi, sed perinde ac si diceret: Qui in hoc nati sunt sæculo, cum per generationera sint filii, et gighunt et gignuntur; quoniam non absque generatione hanc quis vitam prætergreditur: sedhæc generario, quæ similem suscipit interitum, non amplius competit ei qui ab hac vita est separatus. “Unus est ergo Pater noster, qui est in cœlis:”[Matthew 23:9] sed is ipse quoque Pater est omnium per creationera. “Ne vocaveritis ergo, inquit, vobis patrein super terrain.” Quasi diceret: Ne existimetis eum, qui carnali vos sevit satu, auctorem et causam vestræ essential, sed adjuvantem causam generationis, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 397, footnote 17 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2599 (In-Text, Margin)
... sæculi,” non dixit ad distinctionera alicujus alius sacculi, sed perinde ac si diceret: Qui in hoc nati sunt sæculo, cum per generationera sint filii, et gighunt et gignuntur; quoniam non absque generatione hanc quis vitam prætergreditur: sedhæc generario, quæ similem suscipit interitum, non amplius competit ei qui ab hac vita est separatus. “Unus est ergo Pater noster, qui est in cœlis:” sed is ipse quoque Pater est omnium per creationera. “Ne vocaveritis ergo, inquit, vobis patrein super terrain.”[Matthew 23:9] Quasi diceret: Ne existimetis eum, qui carnali vos sevit satu, auctorem et causam vestræ essential, sed adjuvantem causam generationis, vel ministrum potius. Sic ergo nos rursus conversos vult effici ut pueros, eum, qui vere Pater est, agnoscentes, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 493, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Chapter VII.—What True Philosophy Is, and Whence So Called. (HTML)
... beginning of all things;” pointing out “the first-begotten Son,” Peter writes, accurately comprehending the statement, “In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.” And He is called Wisdom by all the prophets. This is He who is the Teacher of all created beings, the Fellow-counsellor of God, who foreknew all things; and He from above, from the first foundation of the world, “in many ways and many times,” trains and perfects; whence it is rightly said, “Call no man your teacher on earth.”[Matthew 23:8-10]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 663, footnote 19 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Repentance. (HTML)
Examples from Scripture to Prove the Lord's Willingness to Pardon. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8503 (In-Text, Margin)
... shepherd himself; for much had she toiled in straying. That most gentle father, likewise, I will not pass over in silence, who calls his prodigal son home, and willingly receives him repentant after his indigence, slays his best fatted calf, and graces his joy with a banquet. Why not? He had found the son whom he had lost; he had felt him to be all the dearer of whom he had made a gain. Who is that father to be understood by us to be? God, surely: no one is so truly a Father;[Matthew 23:9] no one so rich in paternal love. He, then, will receive you, His own son, back, even if you have squandered what you had received from Him, even if you return naked—just because you have returned; and will joy more over your return than over ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 682, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Prayer. (HTML)
The First Clause. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8769 (In-Text, Margin)
The prayer begins with a testimony to God, and with the reward of faith, when we say, “Our Father who art in the heavens;” for (in so saying), we at once pray to God, and commend faith, whose reward this appellation is. It is written, “To them who believed on Him He gave power to be called sons of God.” However, our Lord very frequently proclaimed God as a Father to us; nay, even gave a precept “that we call no one on earth father, but the Father whom we have in the heavens:”[Matthew 23:9] and so, in thus praying, we are likewise obeying the precept. Happy they who recognize their Father! This is the reproach that is brought against Israel, to which the Spirit attests heaven and earth, saying, “I have begotten sons, and they have not recognized ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 63, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Monogamy. (HTML)
The Case of Abraham, and Its Bearing on the Present Question. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 606 (In-Text, Margin)
But let us proceed with our inquiry into some eminent chief fathers of our origin: for there are some to whom our monogamist parents Adam and Noah are not pleasing, nor perhaps Christ either. To Abraham, in fine, they appeal; prohibited though they are to acknowledge any other father than God.[Matthew 23:9] Grant, now, that Abraham is our father; grant, too, that Paul is. “In the Gospel,” says he, “I have begotten you.” Show yourself a son even of Abraham. For your origin in him, you must know, is not referable to every period of his life: there is a definite time at which he is your father. For if “faith” is the source whence we are reckoned to Abraham ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 450, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Lord's Prayer. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3325 (In-Text, Margin)
... words of his new birth, that he has renounced an earthly and carnal father, and that he has begun to know as well as to have as a father Him only who is in heaven, as it is written: “They who say unto their father and their mother, I have not known thee, and who have not acknowledged their own children; these have observed Thy precepts and have kept Thy covenant.” Also the Lord in His Gospel has bidden us to call “no man our father upon earth, because there is to us one Father, who is in heaven.”[Matthew 23:9] And to the disciple who had made mention of his dead father, He replied, “Let the dead bury their dead;” for he had said that his father was dead, while the Father of believers is living.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 504, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus. (HTML)
That it was before predicted that the world would hold us in abhorrence, and that it would stir up persecutions against us, and that no new thing is happening to the Christians, since from the beginning of the world the good have suffered, and the righteous have been oppressed and slain by the unrighteous. (HTML)
... associated also the mother, their origin and root, who subsequently begat seven churches, she herself having been first, and alone founded upon a rock by the voice of the Lord. Nor is it of no account that in their sufferings the mother alone is with her children. For martyrs who witness themselves as the sons of God in suffering are now no more counted as of any father but God, as in the Gospel the Lord teaches, saying, “Call no man your father upon earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven.”[Matthew 23:9]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 643, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Novatian. (HTML)
A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. (HTML)
In Fine, Notwithstanding the Said Heretics Have Gathered the Origin of Their Error from Consideration of What is Written: Although We Call Christ God, and the Father God, Still Scripture Does Not Set Forth Two Gods, Any More Than Two Lords or Two Teachers. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5295 (In-Text, Margin)
... place, we must turn the attack against them who undertake to make against us the charge of saying that there are two Gods. It is written, and they cannot deny it, that “there is one Lord.” What, then, do they think of Christ?—that He is Lord, or that He is not Lord at all? But they do not doubt absolutely that He is Lord; therefore, if their reasoning be true, here are already two Lords. How, then, is it true according to the Scriptures, there is one Lord? And Christ is called the “one Master.”[Matthew 23:8-10] Nevertheless we read that the Apostle Paul also is a master. Then, according to this, our Master is not one, for from these things we conclude that there are two masters. How, then, according to the Scriptures, is “one our Master, even Christ?” In ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 45, footnote 8 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)
Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 232 (In-Text, Margin)
XX. Now the Lord with His precious blood redeems us, freeing us from our old bitter masters, that is, our sins, on account of which the spiritual powers of wickedness ruled over us. Accordingly He leads us into the liberty of the Father,—sons that are co-heirs and friends. “For,” says the Lord, “they that do the will of my Father are my brethren and fellow-heirs.” “Call no man, therefore, father to yourselves on earth.”[Matthew 23:9] For it is masters that are on earth. But in heaven is the Father, of whom is the whole family, both in heaven and on earth. For love rules willing hearts, but fear the unwilling. One kind of fear is base; but the other, leading us as a pedagogue to good, brings us to Christ, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 167, footnote 2 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Recognitions of Clement. (HTML)
Book VIII. (HTML)
Instincts. (HTML)
When the old man had said this, I Clement said to him: “Hear, my father: if my brother Niceta bring you to acknowledge that the world is not governed without the providence of God, I shall be able to answer you in that part which remains concerning the genesis; for I am well acquainted with this doctrine.” And when I had thus spoken, my brother Aquila said: “What is the use of our calling him father, when we are commanded to call no man father upon earth?”[Matthew 23:9] Then, looking to the old man, he said, “Do not take it amiss, my father, that I have found fault with my brother for calling you father, for we have a precept not to call any one by that name.” When Aquila said that, all the assembly of the bystanders, as ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 105, footnote 20 (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 XL. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2760 (In-Text, Margin)
... in robes, and love salutation in the marketplaces, and sitting in the highest places of the synagogues, and at feasts in the highest parts of [34] the rooms: and they broaden their amulets, and lengthen the cords of their cloaks, [35] and love that they should be called by men, My master, and devour widows’ houses, because of their prolonging their prayers; these then shall receive greater judgement. [36] But ye, be ye not called masters: for your master is one; all ye are brethren. [37][Matthew 23:9] Call not then to yourselves any one father on earth: for your Father is one, who is [38] in heaven. And be not called directors: for your director is one, even the Messiah. [39, 40] He that is great among you shall be unto you a ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 299, footnote 11 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Epistle to Gregory and Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
All Scripture is Gospel; But the Gospels are Distinguished Above Other Scriptures. (HTML)
... we shall arrive at the position that whatever was written by the Apostles is Gospel. As to this second definition, it might be objected that the Epistles are not entitled “Gospel,” and that we are wrong in applying the name of Gospel to the whole of the New Testament. But to this we answer that it happens not unfrequently in Scripture when two or more persons or things are named by the same name, the name attaches itself most significantly to one of those things or persons. Thus the Saviour says,[Matthew 23:8-9] “Call no man Master upon the earth;” while the Apostle says that Masters have been appointed in the Church. These latter accordingly will not be Masters in the strict sense of the dictum of the Gospel. In the same way the Gospel in the Epistles will ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 325, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
A Treatise on Faith and the Creed. (HTML)
Of the Son of God as Neither Made by the Father Nor Less Than the Father, and of His Incarnation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1566 (In-Text, Margin)
... it teach us, that when parents hinder our ministry wherein we minister the word of God to our brethren, they ought not to be recognized by us. For if, on the ground of His having said, “Who is my mother?” every one should conclude that He had no mother on earth, then each should as matter of course be also compelled to deny that the apostles had fathers on earth; since He gave them an injunction in these terms: “Call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven.”[Matthew 23:9]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 174, 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)
The genealogical question is again taken up and argued on both sides. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 368 (In-Text, Margin)
... that He descended from heaven, and also that the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst men. If the words, "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?" are quoted to show that Christ had no earthly mother or descent, it follows that we must believe that His disciples, whom He here teaches by His own example to set no value on earthly relationship, as compared with the kingdom of heaven, had no fathers, because Christ says to them, "Call no man father upon earth; for one is your Father, even God."[Matthew 23:9] What He taught them to do with reference to their fathers, He Himself first did in reference to His own mother and brethren; as in many other things He condescended to set us an example, and to go before that we might follow in His footsteps. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 287, 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 848 (In-Text, Margin)
... no longer be a race of mortals when we receive power to be called and to become sons of God. This grace we obtain not from the synagogue, which is the mother of Christ after the flesh, but from God the Father. And when Christ calls us into another life where there is no death, He teaches us, instead of acknowledging, to deny the earthly relationship, where death soon follows upon birth; for He says to His disciples, "Call no man your father upon earth; for you have one Father, who is in heaven."[Matthew 23:9] And He set us an example of this when He said, "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? And stretching forth His hand to His disciples, He said, These are my brethren." And lest any one should think that He referred to an earthly relationship, He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 481, footnote 4 (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 II. 18–27. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2182 (In-Text, Margin)
... Have ye not all heard this present discourse? and yet how many will go from this place untaught! I, for my part, have spoken to all; but they to whom that Unction within speaketh not, they whom the Holy Ghost within teacheth not, those go back untaught. The teachings of the master from without are a sort of aids and admonitions. He that teacheth the hearts, hath His chair in heaven. Therefore saith He also Himself in the Gospel: “Call no man your master upon earth; One is your Master, even Christ.”[Matthew 23:8-9] Let Him therefore Himself speak to you within, when not one of mankind is there: for though there be some one at thy side, there is none in thine heart. Yet let there not be none in thine heart: let Christ be in thine heart: let His unction be in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 40, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm X (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 394 (In-Text, Margin)
... Thee.” For therefore is he poor, that is, hath despised all the temporal goods of this world, that Thou only mayest be his hope. “Thou wilt be a helper to the orphan,” that is, to him to whom his father this world, by whom he was born after the flesh, dies, and who can already say, “The world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” For of such orphans God becomes the Father. The Lord teaches us in truth that His disciples do become orphans, to whom He saith, “Call no man father on earth.”[Matthew 23:9] Of which He first Himself gave an example in saying, “Who is my mother, and who my brethren?” Whence some most mischievous heretics would assert that He had no mother; and they do not see that it follows from this, if they pay attention to these ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 371, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3583 (In-Text, Margin)
... fathers? It is not in the same manner as God is the One Father, who doth regenerate with His Spirit those whom He doth make sons for an everlasting inheritance; but it is for the sake of honour, because of their age and kindly carefulness: just as Paul the elder saith, “Not to confound you I am writing these things, but as my dearly beloved sons I am admonishing you:” though he knew of a truth that it had been said by the Lord, “Call ye no man your father on earth, for One is your Father, even God.”[Matthew 23:9] And this was not said in order that this term of human honour should be erased from our usual way of speaking: but lest the grace of God whereby we are regenerated unto eternal life, should be ascribed either to the power or even sanctity of any ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 12, page 282, footnote 6 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on First and Second Corinthians
Homilies on Second Corinthians. (HTML)
Homily II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 433 (In-Text, Margin)
... invoketh for them a Prophet’s gift, for the Prophet spoke on this wise; “God giveth me the tongue of instruction, that I should know how to speak a word in season; for He opened my mouth; He gave to me betimes in the morning; He granted me a hearing ear.” (Is. i. 4. Sept.) For as the Prophets heard otherwise than the many, so also do the faithful than the Catechumens. Hereby the Catechumen also is taught not to learn to hear these things of men, (for He saith, “Call no man master upon the earth[Matthew 23:9], but from above, from heaven, “For they shall be all taught of God.” (Is. liv. 13.)
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 363, footnote 6 (Image)
Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)
Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations. (HTML)
Of Monks. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 843 (In-Text, Margin)
... burden of the day, that we may seek a more abundant reward. Let us not be idle workers, for lo! our Lord has hired us for His vineyard. Let us be planted as vines in the midst of His vineyard, for it is the true vineyard. Let us be fruitful vines, that we may not be uprooted out of His vineyard. Let us be a sweet odour, that our fragrance may breathe forth to all around. Let us be poor in the world, and let us enrich many by the doctrine of our Lord. Let us not call anyone our father in the earth,[Matthew 23:9] that we may be the children of the Father which is in heaven. Though we have nothing, yet we possess all things. Though no man know us, yet they that have knowledge of us are many. Let us rejoice in our hope at every time, that He Who is our hope ...