Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Luke 11:9
There are 13 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 558, footnote 1 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book VIII (HTML)
Chapter I.—The Object of Philosophical and Theological Inquiry—The Discovery of Truth. (HTML)
... not carried away to disputing and doubting, much less are we, who are attached to the really true philosophy, on whom the Scripture enjoins examination and investigation. For it is the more recent of the Hellenic philosophers who, by empty and futile love of fame, are led into useless babbling in refuting and wrangling. But, on the contrary, the Barbarian philosophy, expelling all contention, said, “Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; ask, and it shall be given you.”[Luke 11:9]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 249, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Prescription Against Heretics. (HTML)
After We Have Believed, Search Should Cease; Otherwise It Must End in a Denial of What We Have Believed. No Other Object Proposed for Our Faith. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1987 (In-Text, Margin)
... was without bread, and therefore he knocked; but as soon as the door was opened to him, and he received the bread, he discontinued knocking. The widow kept asking to be heard by the judge, because she was not admitted; but when her suit was heard, thenceforth she was silent. So that there is a limit both to seeking, and to knocking, and to asking. “For to every one that asketh,” says He, “it shall be given, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened, and by him that seeketh it shall be found.”[Luke 11:9] Away with the man who is ever seeking because he never finds; for he seeks there where nothing can be found. Away with him who is always knocking because it will never be opened to him; for he knocks where there is none (to open). Away with him who ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 392, footnote 14 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke's Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian's Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.“ It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man. (HTML)
From St. Luke's Eleventh Chapter Other Evidence that Christ Comes from the Creator. The Lord's Prayer and Other Words of Christ. The Dumb Spirit and Christ's Discourse on Occasion of the Expulsion. The Exclamation of the Woman in the Crowd. (HTML)
... them; or He who, unless He forgives them, will retain them, even to His judgment? Who shall suffer us not to be led into temptation? He before whom the tempter will never be able to tremble; or He who from the beginning has beforehand condemned the angel tempter? If any one, with such a form, invokes another god and not the Creator, he does not pray; he only blasphemes. In like manner, from whom must I ask that I may receive? Of whom seek, that I may find? To whom knock, that it may be opened to me?[Luke 11:9] Who has to give to him that asks, but He to whom all things belong, and whose am I also that am the asker? What, however, have I lost before that other god, that I should seek of him and find it. If it be wisdom and prudence, it is the Creator who ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 679, footnote 15 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Baptism. (HTML)
Of Preparation For, and Conduct After, the Reception of Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8758 (In-Text, Margin)
... of God;” and that temptations incident to fulness or immoderation of appetite are shattered by abstinence. Therefore, blessed ones, whom the grace of God awaits, when you ascend from that most sacred font of your new birth, and spread your hands for the first time in the house of your mother, together with your brethren, ask from the Father, ask from the Lord, that His own specialties of grace and distributions of gifts may be supplied you. “Ask,” saith He, “and ye shall receive.”[Luke 11:9] Well, you have asked, and have received; you have knocked, and it has been opened to you. Only, I pray that, when you are asking, you be mindful likewise of Tertullian the sinner.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 683, footnote 18 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Prayer. (HTML)
The Fifth Clause. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8805 (In-Text, Margin)
... prayed for, which is the only food necessary for believers; for “all other things the nations seek after.” The like lesson He both inculcates by examples, and repeatedly handles in parables, when He says, “Doth a father take away bread from his children, and hand it to dogs?” and again, “Doth a father give his son a stone when he asks for bread?” For He thus shows what it is that sons expect from their father. Nay, even that nocturnal knocker knocked for “ bread.”[Luke 11:5-9] Moreover, He justly added, “Give us this day,” seeing He had previously said, “Take no careful thought about the morrow, what ye are to eat.” To which subject He also adapted the parable of the man who pondered on an enlargement of his barns ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 684, footnote 15 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Prayer. (HTML)
We May Superadd Prayers of Our Own to the Lord's Prayer. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8825 (In-Text, Margin)
Since, however, the Lord, the Foreseer of human necessities, said separately, after delivering His Rule of Prayer, “Ask, and ye shall receive;”[Luke 11:9] and since there are petitions which are made according to the circumstances of each individual; our additional wants have the right—after beginning with the legitimate and customary prayers as a foundation, as it were—of rearing an outer superstructure of petitions, yet with remembrance of the Master’s precepts.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 394, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
A Letter from Origen to Gregory. (HTML)
A Letter from Origen to Gregory. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3068 (In-Text, Margin)
... of whom Jesus says, “To him the porter opens.” And applying yourself thus to the divine study, seek aright, and with unwavering trust in God, the meaning of the holy Scriptures, which so many have missed. Be not satisfied with knocking and seeking; for prayer is of all things indispensable to the knowledge of the things of God. For to this the Saviour exhorted, and said not only, “Knock, and it shall be opened to you; and seek, and ye shall find,” but also, “Ask, and it shall be given unto you.”[Luke 11:9] My fatherly love to you has made me thus bold; but whether my boldness be good, God will know, and His Christ, and all partakers of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. May you also be a partaker, and be ever increasing your inheritance, that ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 547, footnote 2 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)
Acts of the Holy Apostle Thomas. (HTML)
Acts of the Holy Apostle Thomas, When He Came into India, and Built the Palace in the Heavens. (HTML)
About the Young Man Who Killed the Maiden. (HTML)
... when they came to the inn, they found her lying. And the apostle, seeing her, was disheartened, for she was a beautiful maiden; and he ordered her to be brought into the middle of the inn. And having put her on a couch, they brought it, and set it in the midst of the court-yard of the inn. And the apostle laid his hand on her, and began to say: Jesus, who always appearest to us—for this Thou always wishest, that we should seek Thee—and Thou Thyself hast given us this power of asking and receiving;[Luke 11:9] and not only hast Thou given us this, but hast also taught us how to pray; who art not seen by bodily eyes, but who art not altogether hidden from those of our soul, and who art hidden in Thy form, but manifested to us by Thy works; and by Thy many ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 59, footnote 34 (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 X. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 786 (In-Text, Margin)
... midnight, [23] and saith unto him, My friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend hath come [24] to me from a journey, and I have nothing to offer to him: and that friend shall [Arabic, p. 40] answer him from within, and say unto him, Trouble me not; for the door is shut, and my children are with me in bed, and I cannot rise and give thee? [25] And verily I say unto you, If he will not give him because of friendship, yet because [26] of his importunity he will rise and give him what he seeketh.[Luke 11:9] And I also say unto you, Ask, and ye shall be given unto; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be [27] opened unto you. Every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and [28] he that knocketh, it ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 174, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness. (HTML)
The Ninth Passage. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1571 (In-Text, Margin)
... “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” For indeed why do we present such petitions in earnest supplication, if the result is of him that willeth, and him that runneth, but not of God that showeth mercy? Not that the result is without our will, but that our will does not accomplish the result, unless it receive the divine assistance. Now the wholesomeness of faith is this, that it makes us “seek, that we may find; ask, that we may receive; and knock, that it may be opened to us.”[Luke 11:9] Whereas the man who gainsays it, does really shut the door of God’s mercy against himself. I am unwilling to say more touching so important a matter, because I do better in committing it to the groans of the faithful, than to words of my own.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 209, footnote 2 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Life of Antony. (Vita Antoni.) (HTML)
Life of Antony. (Vita Antoni.) (HTML)
How he delivered a woman from an evil spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1090 (In-Text, Margin)
... out and pray to God for his child, Antony, not bearing to open, looked out from above and said, ‘Man, why dost thou call on me? I also am a man even as you. But if you believe on Christ whom I serve, go, and according as you believe, pray to God, and it shall come to pass.’ Straightway, therefore, he departed, believing and calling upon Christ, and he received his daughter cleansed from the devil. Many other things also through Antony the Lord did, who saith, ‘Seek and it shall be given unto you[Luke 11:9].’ For many of the sufferers, when he would not open his door, slept outside his cell, and by their faith and sincere prayers were healed.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 50, footnote 3 (Image)
Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus
Title Page (HTML)
De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
... the Only-begotten, to the world in its blindness and the heretic in his rebellion. But this is the mere expression of my own desire; I must pray also for the gift of Thy help and compassion, that the breath of Thy Spirit may fill the sails of faith and confession which I have spread, and a favouring wind be sent to forward me on my voyage of instruction. We can trust the promise of Him Who said, Ask, and it shall be given you, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you[Luke 11:9]; and we in our want shall pray for the things we need. We shall bring an untiring energy to the study of Thy Prophets and Apostles, and we shall knock for entrance at every gate of hidden knowledge, but it is Thine to answer the prayer, to grant the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 399, footnote 1 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X. (HTML)
Conference IX. The First Conference of Abbot Isaac. On Prayer. (HTML)
Chapter XXXIV. Answer on the different reasons for prayer being heard. (HTML)
... in His desire to grant what is heavenly and eternal, urges us to constrain Him as it were by our importunity, as He not only does not despise or reject the importunate, but actually welcomes and praises them, and most graciously promises to grant whatever they have perseveringly hoped for; saying, “Ask and ye shall receive: seek and ye shall find: knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened;”[Luke 11:9-10] and again: “All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive, and nothing shall be impossible to you.” And therefore even if all the grounds for being heard which we have mentioned are altogether wanting, at any rate the ...