Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 23:38
There are 15 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 520, footnote 5 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XXXVII.—Men are possessed of free will, and endowed with the faculty of making a choice. It is not true, therefore, that some are by nature good, and others bad. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4412 (In-Text, Margin)
... for this reason, “he that believeth in Him has eternal life while he who believeth not the Son hath not eternal life, but the wrath of God shall remain upon him.” In the same manner therefore the Lord, both showing His own goodness, and indicating that man is in his own free will and his own power, said to Jerusalem, “How often have I wished to gather thy children together, as a hen [gathereth] her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Wherefore your house shall be left unto you desolate.”[Matthew 23:37-38]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 229, footnote 20 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter IX.—That It is the Prerogative of the Same Power to Be Beneficent and to Punish Justly. Also the Manner of the Instruction of the Logos. (HTML)
Visitation is severe rebuke. He uses this species in the Gospel: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee!” The reduplication of the name gives strength to the rebuke. For he that knows God, how does he persecute God’s servants? Wherefore He says, “Your house is left desolate; for I say unto you, Henceforth ye shall not see Me, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”[Matthew 23:37-39] For if you do not receive His love, ye shall know His power.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 389, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
A Letter from Origen to Africanus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3042 (In-Text, Margin)
... blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.” And what follows is of the same tenor: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”[Matthew 23:29-38]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 220, footnote 6 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)
Dogmatical and Historical. (HTML)
Expository Treatise Against the Jews. (HTML)
... reason, was the temple made desolate? Was it on account of that ancient fabrication of the calf? Was it on account of the idolatry of the people? Was it for the blood of the prophets? Was it for the adultery and fornication of Israel? By no means, he says; for in all these transgressions they always found pardon open to them, and benignity; but it was because they killed the Son of their Benefactor, for He is coeternal with the Father. Whence He saith, “Father, let their temple be made desolate;[Matthew 23:38] for they have persecuted Him whom Thou didst of Thine own will smite for the salvation of the world;” that is, they have persecuted me with a violent and unjust death, “and they have added to the pain of my wounds.” In former time, as the Lover of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 510, footnote 6 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
... and as a keeper’s lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a city which is besieged. And unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should have been as Sodoma, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” Also in the Gospel the Lord says: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not! Behold, your house shall be left unto you desolate.”[Matthew 23:37-38]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 392, footnote 4 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna On the Day that They Met in the Temple. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3093 (In-Text, Margin)
... placed within their hearing, and held in veneration by the heavenly beings themselves; wherefore the house in which they boasted was filled with smoke. Now smoke is a sign and sure evidence of wrath; as it is written, “There went up a smoke in His anger, and fire from His countenance devoured;” and in another place, “Amongst the disobedient people shall the fire burn,” which plainly, in the revered Gospels, our Lord signified, when He said to the Jews, “Behold your house is left unto you desolate.”[Matthew 23:38] Also, in another place, “The king sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city.” Of such a nature was the adverse reward of the Jews for their unbelief, which caused them to refuse to pay to the Trinity the tribute ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 452, footnote 2 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Sec. II.—History and Doctrines of Heresies (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3191 (In-Text, Margin)
... says in Jeremiah: “Our sanctuary is an exalted throne of glory.” And He says in Isaiah: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord shall be glorious, and the house of the Lord shall be upon the top of the mountains, and shall be advanced above the hills.” Since, therefore, He has forsaken His people, He has also left His temple desolate, and rent the veil of the temple, and took from them the Holy Spirit; for says He, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”[Matthew 23:38] And He has bestowed upon you, the converted of the Gentiles, spiritual grace, as He says by Joel: “And it shall come to pass after these things, saith God, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons shall prophesy, and your ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 106, footnote 22 (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 XLI. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2809 (In-Text, Margin)
[4] [Arabic, p. 155] O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, slayer of the prophets, and stoner of them that are sent unto her! how many times did I wish to gather thy children, as [5] a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not![Matthew 23:38] Your house shall [6] be left over you desolate. Verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 309, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2997 (In-Text, Margin)
... in saying, “If we shall have let go this man thus, there will come the Romans, and take away from us both place and kingdom”? Behold, both they did not let Him go alive, and He liveth: and there have come the Romans, and have taken from them both place and kingdom. But now we heard, when the Gospel was being read, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered together thy sons, as a hen her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? Behold there is left to you your house forsaken.”[Matthew 23:37-38] …
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 440, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4231 (In-Text, Margin)
... future. Let not the enemy lead us astray from the way, that He, who gathers us like chickens under His wings, may foster us: lest we stray from His wings, and the hawk of the air carry us off while yet unfledged. For the Christian ought not to hope in himself: if he hopes to be strong, let him be reared by his mother’s warmth. This is the hen who gathers her young together; whence is the reproach of our Saviour against the unbelieving Jerusalem. “Behold, your house shall be left unto you desolate.”[Matthew 23:38] Hence was it said, “Thou hast made his strongholds a terror.” Since then they would not be gathered together under the wings of this hen, and have given as a warning to teach us to dread the unclean spirits that fly in the air, seeking daily what ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 501, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4631 (In-Text, Margin)
... which we find it. But since it is doubtful, whether it be “His praise,” or “Jerusalem,” let us expound it each way. How did “His praise” answer Him? When they who are called by Him thank Him. For He calleth, we answer; not by our voice, but by our faith; not by our tongue, but by our life.…From His elect and holy men, Jerusalem also answereth Him. For Jerusalem also was called: and the first Jerusalem refused to hear, and it was said unto her, “Behold, thy house shall be left unto the desolate.”[Matthew 23:38] …But that Jerusalem, of whom it was written, “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear,” “She hath answered Him.” What meaneth, “She hath answered Him”? She despiseth Him not when He called. He sent rain, She gave fruit.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, page 609, footnote 1 (Image)
Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine
The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius. (HTML)
The Oration of Eusebius. (HTML)
Chapter XVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3582 (In-Text, Margin)
... that, as the immediate consequence of their impiety, the entire Jewish people were scattered by an unseen power, their royal seat utterly removed, and their very temple with its holy things levelled with the ground? Who, like our Saviour, has uttered predictions at once concerning that impious nation and the establishment of his church throughout the world, and has equally verified both by the event? Respecting the temple of these wicked men, our Saviour said: “Your house is left unto you desolate”:[Matthew 23:38] and, “There shall not be left one stone upon another in this place, that shall not be thrown down.” And again, of his church he says: “I will build my church upon a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 32, footnote 8 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 521 (In-Text, Margin)
... they might serve Him, suffered the plagues described in Scripture. Jesus entering into the temple cast out those things which belonged not to the temple. For God is jealous and will not allow the father’s house to be made a den of robbers. Where money is counted, where doves are sold, where simplicity is stifled where, that is, a virgin’s breast glows with cares of this world; straightway the veil of the temple is rent, the bridegroom rises in anger, he says: “Your house is left unto you desolate.”[Matthew 23:38] Read the gospel and see how Mary sitting at the feet of the Lord is set before the zealous Martha. In her anxiety to be hospitable Martha was preparing a meal for the Lord and His disciples; yet Jesus said to her: “Martha, Martha, thou art careful ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 62, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
Paula and Eustochium to Marcella. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 964 (In-Text, Margin)
... verses, however, are susceptible of a deeper interpretation. But things are changed since then. The risen Lord has proclaimed in tones of thunder: “Your house is left unto you desolate.” With tears He has prophesied its downfall: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent un to thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold your house is left unto you desolate.”[Matthew 23:37-38] The veil of the temple has been rent; an army has encompassed Jerusalem, it has been stained by the blood of the Lord. Now, therefore, its guardian angels have forsaken it and the grace of Christ has been withdrawn. Josephus, himself a Jewish ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 120, footnote 11 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Paulinus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1762 (In-Text, Margin)
... the fleece of Judæa was made dry although the whole world was wet with the dew of heaven, and when many came from the East and from the West and sat in Abraham’s bosom: then God ceased to be known in Judah only and His name to be great in Israel alone; the sound of the apostles went out into all the earth and their words into the ends of the world. The Saviour Himself speaking to His disciples in the temple said: “arise, let us go hence,” and to the Jews: “your house is left unto you desolate.”[Matthew 23:38] If heaven and earth must pass away, obviously all things that are earthly must pass away also. Therefore the spots which witnessed the crucifixion and the resurrection profit those only who bear their several crosses, who day by day rise again with ...