Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Luke 13:8
There are 9 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 86, footnote 2 (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 XXVII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1919 (In-Text, Margin)
[36] And he spake unto them this parable: A man had a fig tree planted in his vine yard; [37] and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. So he said to the husbandman, Lo, three years do I come and seek fruit on this fig tree, and find [38] none: cut it down; why doth it render the ground unoccupied?[Luke 13:8] The husbandman said unto him, My lord, leave it this year also, that I may dig about it, and dung [39] it; then if it bear fruit—! and if not, then cut it down in the coming year.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 418, footnote 13 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)
Book X. (HTML)
Christ the Pearl of Great Price. (HTML)
... part,” though it be, of the prophets, suppose that they can, without a clear exposition and apprehension of these, find in whole the one precious pearl, and behold “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ,” in comparison with which all things that came before such and so great knowledge, although they were not refuse in their own nature, appear to be refuse. This refuse is perhaps the “dung” thrown down beside the fig tree by the keeper of the vineyard, which is the cause of its bearing fruit.[Luke 13:8]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 73, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
Augustin explains for what the Son of God was sent; but, however, that the Son of God, although made less by being sent, is not therefore less because the Father sent Him; nor yet the Holy Spirit less because both the Father sent Him and the Son. (HTML)
The Ratio of the Single to the Double Comes from the Perfection of the Senary Number. The Perfection of The Senary Number is Commended in the Scriptures. The Year Abounds in The Senary Number. (HTML)
... enemies: “They bowed down my soul.” And this woman had her infirmity eighteen years, which is thrice six. And the months of eighteen years are found in number to be the cube of six, viz. six times six times six. Nearly, too, in the same place in the Gospel is that fig tree, which was convicted also by the third year of its miserable barrenness. But intercession was made for it, that it might be let alone that year, that year, that if it bore fruit, well; if otherwise, it should be cut down.[Luke 13:6-17] For both three years belong to the same threefold division, and the months of three years make the square of six, which is six times six.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 444, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, Luke xiii. 6, where we are told of the fig-tree, which bare no fruit for three years; and of the woman which was in an infirmity eighteen years; and on the words of the ninth Psalm, v. 19, ‘Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail: let the nations be judged in thy sight.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3444 (In-Text, Margin)
... The gardener intercedes for it, punishment is deferred, that help may be administered. Now the gardener who intercedes, is every saint who within the Church prays for those who are without the Church. And what does he pray? “Lord, let it alone this year also;” that is, in this time of grace, spare the sinners, spare the unbelievers, spare the barren, spare the unfruitful. “I will dig about it, and put a basket of dung about it; if it bear fruit, well; but if not, thou shalt come and cut it down.”[Luke 13:8-9] “Thou shalt come:” When? Thou shalt come in judgment, when Thou shalt come to judge the quick and dead. Meanwhile they are spared. But what is the “digging”? What is the “digging about it,” but the teaching lowliness and repentance? For a ditch is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 181, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm L (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1710 (In-Text, Margin)
... to good. Wherefore doth it grieve thee, except because thou believest not? Let each one then examine his heart, and see what faith doth hold there. If we believe a judgment to come, brethren, let us live well. Now is time of mercy, then will be time of judgment. No one will say, “Call me back to my former years.” Even then men will repent, but will repent in vain: now let there be repentance, while there is fruit of repentance; now let there be applied to the roots of the tree a basket of dung,[Luke 13:8] sorrow of heart, and tears; lest He come and pluck up by the roots. For when He shall have plucked up, then the fire is to be looked for. Now, even if the branches have been broken, they can again be grafted in: then, “every tree which bringeth not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 389, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3773 (In-Text, Margin)
... now, if desire prevailed not, perchance fear will prevail to make thee sin.…What had evil fear done? It had dug up, as it were. For love doth inflame, fear doth humble: therefore, sins of evil love, with fire were lighted: sins of evil fear were dug up. On the one hand, evil fear doth humble, and good love doth light; but in different ways respectively. For even the husbandman interceding for the tree, that it should not be cut down, saith, “I will dig about it, and will apply a basket of dung.”[Luke 13:8] The dug trench doth signify the godly humility of one fearing, and the basket of dung the profitable squalid state of one repenting. But concerning the fire of good love the Lord saith, “Fire I have come to send into the world.” With which fire may ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 358, footnote 1 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Oration on the Holy Lights. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3973 (In-Text, Margin)
... prophetic; for he knew that after Herod would come the madness of Pilate, and so that when he had gone before Christ would follow him. But what saith Jesus? “Suffer it to be so now,” for this is the time of His Incarnation; for He knew that yet a little while and He should baptize the Baptist. And what is the “Fan?” The Purification. And what is the “Fire?” The consuming of the chaff, and the heat of the Spirit. And what the “Axe?” The excision of the soul which is incurable even after the dung.[Luke 13:8] And what the Sword? The cutting of the Word, which separates the worse from the better, and makes a division between the faithful and the unbeliever; and stirs up the son and the daughter and the bride against the father and the mother and the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 362, footnote 1 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Oration on Holy Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4034 (In-Text, Margin)
... painless remedy one which is more painful; to cast away the grace of mercy, and owe a debt of punishment; and to measure our amendment against sin. For how many tears must we contribute before they can equal the fount of baptism; and who will be surety for us that death shall wait for our cure, and that the judgment seat shall not summon us while still debtors, and needing the fire of the other world? You perhaps, as a good and pitiful husbandman, will entreat the Master still to spare the figtree,[Luke 13:8] and not yet to cut it down, though accused of unfruitfulness; but to allow you to put dung about it in the shape of tears, sighs, invocations, sleepings on the ground, vigils, mortifications of soul and body, and correction by confession and a life ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 345, footnote 2 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Repentance. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter I. St. Ambrose gives additional rules concerning repentance, and shows that it must not be delayed. (HTML)
2. For repentance must be taken in hand not only anxiously, but also quickly, lest perchance that father of the house in the Gospel who planted a fig-tree in his vineyard should come and seek fruit on it, and finding none, say to the vine-dresser: “Cut it down, why doth it cumber the ground?” And unless the vine-dresser should intercede and say: “Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it and dung it, and if it bear fruit—well; but if not let it be cut down.”[Luke 13:8-9]