Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
John 3:16
There are 13 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 145, footnote 6 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Barnabas (HTML)
The Epistle of Barnabas (HTML)
Chapter XII.—The cross of Christ frequently announced in the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1615 (In-Text, Margin)
... “All day long I have stretched forth My hands to an unbelieving people, and one that gainsays My righteous way.” And again Moses makes a type of Jesus, [signifying] that it was necessary for Him to suffer, [and also] that He would be the author of life [to others], whom they believed to have destroyed on the cross when Israel was falling. For since transgression was committed by Eve through means of the serpent, [the Lord] brought it to pass that every [kind of] serpents bit them, and they died,[John 3:14-18] that He might convince them, that on account of their transgression they were given over to the straits of death. Moreover Moses, when he commanded, “Ye shall not have any graven or molten [image] for your God,” did so that he might reveal a type of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 464, footnote 5 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Chapter XIII.—The Knowledge of God a Divine Gift, According to the Philosophers. (HTML)
... God Himself that promulgated the Scriptures by His Son. And he, who announces what is his own, is to be believed. “No one,” says the Lord, “hath known the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him.” This, then, is to be believed, according to Plato, though it is announced and spoken “without probable and necessary proofs,” but in the Old and New Testament. “For except ye believe,” says the Lord, “ye shall die in your sins.” And again: “He that believeth hath everlasting life.”[John 3:15-16] “Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.” For trusting is more than faith. For when one has believed that the Son of God is our teacher, he trusts that his teaching is true. And as “instruction,” according to Empedocles, “makes the mind ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 616, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Against Praxeas. (HTML)
In This and the Four Following Chapters It is Shewn, by a Minute Analysis of St. John's Gospel, that the Father and Son are Constantly Spoken of as Distinct Persons. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8019 (In-Text, Margin)
... distinction which is between the two Persons: that is, the Son then on earth, whom Peter had confessed to be the Son of God; and the Father in heaven, who had revealed to Peter the discovery which he had made, that Christ was the Son of God. When He entered the temple, He called it “His Father’s house,” speaking as the Son. In His address to Nicodemus He says: “So God loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”[John 3:16] And again: “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 675, footnote 4 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Appendix. (HTML)
Anonymous Treatise on Re-baptism. (HTML)
A Treatise on Re-Baptism by an Anonymous Writer. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5468 (In-Text, Margin)
... “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy thought; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. For on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets;” —even as John the evangelist said, “And every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God; for God is love;” even as God also says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that every one that believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,”[John 3:16] —as it manifestly appears that he who has not in him this love, of loving us and of being loved by us, profits nothing by an empty confession and passion, except that thereby it appears and is plain that he is a heretic who believes on another God, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 93, footnote 28 (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 XXXII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2233 (In-Text, Margin)
... say, and what we have seen we witness: and ye receive not our witness. If I said unto you what is on earth, and ye believed not, how then, if I say unto you [39] what is in heaven, will ye believe? And no man hath ascended up into heaven, except him that descended from heaven, the Son of man, which is in heaven. [40] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so is the Son of man to be [41] lifted up; so that every man who may believe in him may not perish, but have [42] eternal life.[John 3:16] God so loved the world, that he should give his only Son; and so every one that believeth on him should not perish, but should have eternal life. [43] God sent not his Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world might [44] be saved by ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 38, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
The Context of Their Chief Text. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 419 (In-Text, Margin)
... not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”[John 3:1-21] Thus far the Lord’s discourse wholly relates to the subject of our present inquiry; from this point the sacred historian digresses to another matter.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 40, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
No One Can Be Reconciled to God, Except by Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 431 (In-Text, Margin)
He then proceeds thus, saying: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”[John 3:16] Every infant, therefore, was destined to perish, and to lose everlasting life, if through the sacrament of baptism he believed not in the only-begotten Son of God; while nevertheless, He comes not so that he may judge the world, but that the world through Him may be saved. This especially appears in the following clause, wherein He says, “He that believeth in Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 39, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 67 (In-Text, Margin)
... disciple said, “Thou knowest Lord that I love Thee,” and invoked the beloved one Himself as a witness of his love, the Saviour did not stop there, but added that which was the token of love. For He did not at that time wish to show how much Peter loved Him, but how much He Himself loved His own Church, and he desired to teach Peter and all of us that we also should bestow much zeal upon the same. For why did God not spare His only-begotten Son, but delivered Him up, although the only one He had?[John 3:16] It was that He might reconcile to Himself those who were disposed towards Him as enemies, and make them His peculiar people. For what purpose did He shed His blood? It was that He might win these sheep which He entrusted to Peter and his successors. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 204, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily on the Passage (Matt. xxvi. 19), 'Father If It Be Possible Let This Cup Pass from Me,' Etc., and Against Marcionists and Manichæans. (HTML)
Against Marcionists and Manichæans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 663 (In-Text, Margin)
... The cross is that which is brighter than the sun, more brilliant than the sunbeam: for when the sun is darkened then the cross shines brightly: and the sun is darkened not because it is extinguished, but because it is overpowered by the brilliancy of the cross. The cross has broken our bond, it has made the prison of death ineffectual, it is the demonstration of the love of God. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that every one who believes in Him should not perish.”[John 3:16] And again Paul says “If being enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.” The cross is the impregnable wall, the invulnerable shield, the safeguard of the rich, the resource of the poor, the defence of those who are exposed to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 220, footnote 4 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus. (HTML)
The Impassible. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1424 (In-Text, Margin)
Eran. —We have learnt this from the divine Scripture. The divine John exclaims “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,”[John 3:16] and the divine Paul, “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by His life.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 66, footnote 1 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Words, the Only-Begotten Son of God, Begotten of the Father Very God Before All Ages, by Whom All Things Were Made. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1260 (In-Text, Margin)
6. Believe thou therefore on Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, and a Son Only-Begotten, according to the Gospel which says, For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life[John 3:16]. And again, He that believeth on the Son is not judged, but hath passed out of death into life. But he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And John testified concerning Him, saying, And we beheld His glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 110, footnote 8 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XII. The peace and grace of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one, so also is Their charity one, which showed itself chiefly in the redemption of man. Their communion with man is also one. (HTML)
... communion. For of love it has been said: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God.” We have heard of the love of the Father. The same love which is the Father’s is also the Son’s. For He Himself said: “He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him.” And what is the love of the Son, but that He offered Himself for us, and redeemed us with His own blood. But the same love is in the Father, for it is written: “God so loved the world, that He gave His Only-begotten Son.”[John 3:16]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 337, footnote 5 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Repentance. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XI. The passage quoted from St. John's Epistle is confirmed by another in which salvation is promised to those who believe in Christ, which refutes the Novatians who try to induce the lapsed to believe, although denying them pardon. Furthermore, many who had lapsed have received the grace of martyrdom, whilst the example of the good Samaritan shows that we must not abandon those in whom even the faintest amount of faith is still alive. (HTML)
48. Since, then, we have spoken of the general Epistle of St. John, let us enquire whether the writings of John in the Gospel agree with your interpretation. For he writes that the Lord said: “God so loved this world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that every one that believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”[John 3:16] If, then, you wish to reclaim any one of the lapsed, do you exhort him to believe, or not to believe? Undoubtedly you exhort him to believe. But, according to the Lord’s words, he who believes shall have everlasting life. How, then, will you forbid to pray for him, who has a claim to everlasting life? since faith is ...