Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Luke 15:23
There are 12 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 479, footnote 3 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XIV.—If God demands obedience from man, if He formed man, called him and placed him under laws, it was merely for man’s welfare; not that God stood in need of man, but that He graciously conferred upon man His favours in every possible manner. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3965 (In-Text, Margin)
... with Himself to those who stood in need of it, and sketching out, like an architect, the plan of salvation to those that pleased Him. And He did Himself furnish guidance to those who beheld Him not in Egypt, while to those who became unruly in the desert He promulgated a law very suitable [to their condition]. Then, on the people who entered into the good land He bestowed a noble inheritance; and He killed the fatted calf for those converted to the Father, and presented them with the finest robe.[Luke 15:22-23] Thus, in a variety of ways, He adjusted the human race to an agreement with salvation. On this account also does John declare in the Apocalypse, “And His voice as the sound of many waters.” For the Spirit [of God] is truly [like] many waters, since ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 663, footnote 18 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Repentance. (HTML)
Examples from Scripture to Prove the Lord's Willingness to Pardon. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8502 (In-Text, Margin)
... withal, one little ewe of the shepherd’s; but the flock was not more dear than the one: that one is earnestly sought; the one is longed for instead of all; and at length she is found, and is borne back on the shoulders of the 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.[Luke 15:11-32] 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; no one so rich in ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 715, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Patience. (HTML)
Certain Other Divine Precepts. The Apostolic Description of Charity. Their Connection with Patience. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 9145 (In-Text, Margin)
... amends. So, too, she is found in those holy examples touching patience in the Lord’s parables. The shepherd’s patience seeks and finds the straying ewe: for Im patience would easily despise one ewe; but Patience undertakes the labour of the quest, and the patient burden-bearer carries home on his shoulders the forsaken sinner. That prodigal son also the father’s patience receives, and clothes, and feeds, and makes excuses for, in the presence of the angry brother’s im patience.[Luke 15:11-32] He, therefore, who “had perished” is saved, because he entered on the way of repentance. Repentance perishes not, because it finds Patience (to welcome it). For by whose teachings but those of Patience is Charity —the highest sacrament of the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 83, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Modesty. (HTML)
Certain General Principles of Parabolic Interpretation. These Applied to the Parables Now Under Consideration, Especially to that of the Prodigal Son. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 804 (In-Text, Margin)
... (be said that) the whole “substance” of the sacrament is most truly wasted away. For who will fear to squander what he has the power of afterwards recovering? Who will be careful to preserve to perpetuity what he will be able to lose not to perpetuity? Security in sin is likewise an appetite for it. Therefore the apostate withal will recover his former “garment,” the robe of the Holy Spirit; and a renewal of the “ring,” the sign and seal of baptism; and Christ will again be “slaughtered;”[Luke 15:23] and he will recline on that couch from which such as are unworthily clad are wont to be lifted by the torturers, and cast away into darkness, —much more such as have been stripped. It is therefore a further step if it is not ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 333, footnote 1 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity. (HTML)
Procilla. (HTML)
The Passage Explained; The Queens, the Holy Souls Before the Deluge; The Concubines, the Souls of the Prophets; The Divine Seed for Spiritual Offspring in the Books of the Prophets; The Nuptials of the Word in the Prophets as Though Clandestine. (HTML)
... forth with whom Christ has had intercourse, fruits which bear an ever-memorable renown. For if you will look at the books of Moses, or David, or Solomon, or Isaiah, or of the prophets who follow, O virgins, you will see what offspring they have left, for the saving of life, from their intercourse with the Son of God. Hence the Word has with deep perception called the souls of the prophets concubines, because He did not espouse them openly, as He did the Church, having killed for her the fatted calf.[Luke 15:23]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 84, footnote 12 (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 XXVI. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1835 (In-Text, Margin)
... make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But his father saw him while he was at a distance, and was moved with compassion [22] for him, and ran, and fell on his breast, and kissed him. And his son said unto him, My father, I have sinned in heaven and before thee, and am not worthy to be [23] called thy son. His father said unto his servants, Bring forth a stately robe, and put [24] it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and put on him shoes on his feet:[Luke 15:23] and bring and [25] slay a fatted ox, that we may eat and make merry: for this my son was dead, and is [26] [Arabic, p. 102] alive; and was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and drew ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 53, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Commencing with the invocation of God, Augustin relates in detail the beginning of his life, his infancy and boyhood, up to his fifteenth year; at which age he acknowledges that he was more inclined to all youthful pleasures and vices than to the study of letters. (HTML)
Men Desire to Observe the Rules of Learning, But Neglect the Eternal Rules of Everlasting Safety. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 181 (In-Text, Margin)
... face, Lord, will I seek.” For I was far from Thy face, through my darkened affections. For it is not by our feet, nor by change of place, that we either turn from Thee or return to Thee. Or, indeed, did that younger son look out for horses, or chariots, or ships, or fly away with visible wings, or journey by the motion of his limbs, that he might, in a far country, prodigally waste all that Thou gavest him when he set out? A kind Father when Thou gavest, and kinder still when he returned destitute![Luke 15:11-32] So, then, in wanton, that is to say, in darkened affections, lies distance from Thy face.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 494, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Against Lying. (HTML)
Section 28 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2436 (In-Text, Margin)
... going further, with reason might it be judged to be a lie: but then if it be rightly understood and referred to that which He willed to signify, it is a mystery. Else will all things be lies which, on account of a certain similitude of things to be signified, although they never were done, are related to have been done. Of which sort is that concerning the two sons of one man, the elder who tarried with his father, and the younger who went into a far country, which is narrated so much at length.[Luke 15:11-32] In which sort of fiction, men have put even human deeds or words to irrational animals and things without sense, that by this sort of feigned narrations but true significations, they might in more winning manner intimate the things which they ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 4, footnote 3 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Theodosius and the Rest of the Anchorites. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 21 (In-Text, Margin)
... in writing to you I repeat anew the same request; for all the energy of my mind is devoted to this one object. It rests with you to give effect to my resolve. I have the will but not the power; this last can only come in answer to your prayers. For my part, I am like a sick sheep astray from the flock. Unless the good Shepherd shall place me on his shoulders and carry me back to the fold, my steps will totter, and in the very effort of rising I shall find my feet give way. I am the prodigal son[Luke 15:11-32] who although I have squandered all the portion entrusted to me by my father, have not yet bowed the knee in submission to him; not yet have I commenced to put away from me the allurements of my former excesses. And because it is only a little while ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 228, footnote 7 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Rusticus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3183 (In-Text, Margin)
... in our salvation! For it is of us that the words are said: “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Death and life are contrary the one to the other; there is no middle term. Yet penitence can knit death to life. The prodigal son, we are told, wasted all his substance, and in the far country away from his father “would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat.” Yet, when he comes back to his father, the fatted calf is killed, a robe and a ring are given to him.[Luke 15:11-24] That is to say, he receives again Christ’s robe which he had before defiled, and hears to his comfort the injunction: “let thy garments be always white.” He receives the signet of God and cries to the Lord: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 288, footnote 5 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Exuperantius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3926 (In-Text, Margin)
... the gospel who cast but two mites into the treasury was set before all the men of wealth because she gave all that she had. So it should be with you. Seek not for wealth which you will have to pay away; but rather give up that which you have already acquired that Christ may know his new recruit to be brave and resolute, and then when you are a great way off His Father will run with joy to meet you. He will give you a robe, will put a ring upon your finger, and will kill for you the fatted calf.[Luke 15:20-23] Then when you are freed from all encumbrances God will soon make a way for you to cross the sea to me with your reverend brother Quintilian. I have now knocked at the door of friendship: if you open it to me you will find me a frequent visitor.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 401, footnote 10 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4823 (In-Text, Margin)
... who fasted forty days to hallow Christian fasting; who calls them blessed that hunger and thirst; who says that He has food, not that which the disciples surmised, but such as would not perish for ever; who forbids us to think of the morrow; who, though He is said to have hungered and thirsted, and to have gone frequently to various meals, except in celebrating the mystery whereby He represented His passion, or in proving the reality of His body is nowhere described as ministering to His appetite;[Luke 15:19-31] who tells of purple-clad Dives in hell for his feasting, and says that poor Lazarus for his abstinence was in Abraham’s bosom; who, when we fast, bids us anoint our head and wash our face, that we fast not to gain glory from men, but praise from the ...