Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Luke 3:21
There are 9 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 653, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Appendix: Against All Heresies. (HTML)
Marcus and Colarbasus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8395 (In-Text, Margin)
After these there were not wanting a Marcus and a Colarbasus, composing a novel heresy out of the Greek alphabet. For they affirm that without those letters truth cannot be found; nay more, that in those letters the whole plenitude and perfection of truth is comprised; for this was why Christ said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” In fact, they say that Jesus Christ descended, that is, that the dove came down on Jesus;[Luke 3:21-22] and, since the dove is styled by the Greek name περιστερά —(peristera), it has in itself this number DCCCI. These men run through their Ω, Ψ, Χ, Φ, Υ, Τ —through the whole alphabet, indeed, up to 54. And from this day He began to hide His miracles and mysteries and secrets, and to give attention to the law, until He completed His thirtieth year, when His Father publicly declared Him at the Jordan by this voice sent down from heaven: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; the Holy Spirit being present in the form of a white dove.[Luke 3:21-23] ... itself the burden of the sins of the world! This is he concerning whom I said, There cometh after me a man who was before me, because he was [32] before me. And I knew him not; but that he should be made manifest to Israel, [33] for this cause came I to baptize with water. And John was hindering him and [34] saying, I have need of being baptized by thee, and comest thou to me? Jesus answered him and said, Suffer this now: thus it is our duty to fulfill all righteousness. [35] Then he suffered him.[Luke 3:21] And when all the people were baptized, Jesus also [36] was baptized. And immediately he went up out of the water, and heaven opened [37] [Arabic, p. 17] to him, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the similitude of the [38] body of a dove; and ... ... then anointed with that mystical and invisible unction, when the Word of God was made flesh, i.e. when human nature, without any precedent merits of good works, was joined to God the Word in the womb of the Virgin, so that with it it became one person. Therefore it is that we confess Him to have been born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary. For it is most absurd to believe Him to have received the Holy Spirit when He was near thirty years old: for at that age He was baptized by John;[Luke 3:21-23] but that He came to baptism as without any sin at all, so not without the Holy Spirit. For if it was written of His servant and forerunner John himself, “He shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb,” because, although ... 20. But with respect to the mention of Herod, it is well understood that some are apt to be in fluenced by the circumstance that Luke has told us how, in the days of John’s baptizing, and at the time when the Lord, being then a grown man, was also baptized, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee;[Luke 3:1-21] whereas Matthew tells us that the boy Jesus returned from Egypt after the death of Herod. Now these two accounts cannot both be true, unless we may also suppose that there were two different Herods. But as no one can fail to be aware that this is a perfectly possible case, what must be the blindness in which those persons pursue their mad follies, who ... ... unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? And Jesus answering, said unto him, Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered Him.” The others also attest the fact that Jesus came to John. The three also mention that He was baptized. But they omit all mention of one circumstance recorded by Matthew, namely, that John addressed the Lord, or that the Lord made answer to John.[Luke 3:21] ... time when John was imprisoned. Now what reader, unless he were all the better versed in these writings, would not take it to be implied here that it was after the utterance of the words with regard to the fan and the purged floor that Herod became incensed against John, and cast him into prison? Yet, that the incident referred to here did not, as matter of fact, occur in the order in which it is here recorded, we have already shown elsewhere; and, indeed, Luke himself puts the proof into our hands.[Luke 3:15-21] For if [he had meant that] John’s incarceration took place immediately after the utterance of those words, then what are we to make of the fact that in Luke’s own narrative the baptism of Jesus is introduced subsequently to his notice of the ... ... same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him, as a dove, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost”? What shall we say? That we do not know when the dove came? Lest perchance they take refuge in this, let the other evangelists be read, who have spoken of this matter more plainly, and we find most evidently that the dove then descended when the Lord came up out of the water. Upon Him baptized the heavens opened, and He saw the Spirit descending.[Luke 3:21-22] If it was when He was already baptized that John knew Him, how saith he to Him, coming to baptism, “I have need to be baptized of Thee”? Ponder this in the meantime with yourselves, confer upon it, treat of it, one with another. The Lord our God ... ... the remedy of being born again, desired to be baptized just as He desired to be circumcised, and to have a victim offered for His purification: that He, who had been “made of a woman,” as the Apostle says, might become also “under the law” which He had come, “not to destroy but to fulfil,” and by fulfilling to end, as the blessed Apostle proclaims, saying: “but Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth.” But the sacrament of baptism He founded in His own person[Luke 3:15-23], because “in all things having the pre-eminence,” He taught that He Himself was the Beginning. And He ratified the power of re-birth on that occasion, when from His side flowed out the blood of ransom and the water of baptism. As, therefore, the Old ...Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 415, footnote 4 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)
The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of the Saviour. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1801 (In-Text, Margin)
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 50, footnote 5 (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 IV. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 350 (In-Text, Margin)
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 224, footnote 17 (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)
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 114, 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 Herods. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 777 (In-Text, Margin)
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 119, footnote 2 (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 Baptism of Jesus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 803 (In-Text, Margin)
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 146, footnote 7 (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 Order in Which the Accounts of John’s Imprisonment and Death are Given by These Three Evangelists. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1047 (In-Text, Margin)
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 31, footnote 2 (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 I. 19–33. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 89 (In-Text, Margin)
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 29, footnote 7 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Letters. (HTML)
To the Bishops of Sicily. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 193 (In-Text, Margin)