Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
John 4:14
There are 34 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 77, footnote 4 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to the Romans: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)
Chapter VII.—Reason of desiring to die. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 870 (In-Text, Margin)
... my side, that is, on the side of God. Do not speak of Jesus Christ, and yet prefer this world to Him. Let not envy find a dwelling-place among you; nor even should I, when present with you, exhort you to it, be ye persuaded, but rather give credit to those things which I now write to you. For though I am alive while I write to you, yet I am eager to die for the sake of Christ. My love has been crucified, and there is no fire in me that loves anything; but there is living water springing up in me,[John 4:14] and which says to me inwardly, Come to the Father. I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 516, footnote 3 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XXXVI.—The prophets were sent from one and the same Father from whom the Son was sent. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4368 (In-Text, Margin)
4. Since the Son of God is always one and the same, He gives to those who believe on Him a well of water[John 4:14] [springing up] to eternal life, but He causes the unfruitful fig-tree immediately to dry up; and in the days of Noah He justly brought on the deluge for the purpose of extinguishing that most infamous race of men then existent, who could not bring forth fruit to God, since the angels that sinned had commingled with them, and [acted as He did] in order that He might put a check upon the sins of these men, but [that at the same time] He might ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 576, footnote 9 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus (HTML)
LII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4904 (In-Text, Margin)
... Son of man, so is the same Being not a [mere] man; and as He is flesh, so is He also spirit, and the Word of God, and God. And as He was born of Mary in the last times, so did He also proceed from God as the First-begotten of every creature; and as He hungered, so did He satisfy [others]; and as He thirsted, so did He of old cause the Jews to drink, for the “Rock was Christ” Himself: thus does Jesus now give to His believing people power to drink spiritual waters, which spring up to life eternal.[John 4:14] And as He was the son of David, so was He also the Lord of David. And as He was from Abraham, so did He also exist before Abraham. And as He was the servant of God, so is He the Son of God, and Lord of the universe. And as He was spit upon ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 230, footnote 15 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter IX.—That It is the Prerogative of the Same Power to Be Beneficent and to Punish Justly. Also the Manner of the Instruction of the Logos. (HTML)
... ill of shameful lusts and reprehensible excesses, and other inflammatory effects of the passions, need the Saviour. And He administers not only mild, but also stringent medicines. The bitter roots of fear then arrest the eating sores of our sins. Wherefore also fear is salutary, if bitter. Sick, we truly stand in need of the Saviour; having wandered, of one to guide us; blind, of one to lead us to the light; thirsty, “of the fountain of life, of which whosoever partakes, shall no longer thirst;”[John 4:13-14] dead, we need life; sheep, we need a shepherd; we who are children need a tutor, while universal humanity stands in need of Jesus; so that we may not continue intractable and sinners to the end, and thus fall into condemnation, but may be separated ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 85, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Modesty. (HTML)
From Parables Tertullian Comes to Consider Definite Acts of the Lord. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 819 (In-Text, Margin)
... parables indeed has by this time been disposed of. If, however, the Lord, by His deeds withal, issued any such proclamation in favour of sinners; as when He permitted contact even with his own body to the “woman, a sinner,”—washing, as she did, His feet with tears, and wiping them with her hair, and inaugurating His sepulture with ointment; as when to the Samaritaness—not an adulteress by her now sixth marriage, but a prostitute—He showed (what He did show readily to any one) who He was;[John 4:1-25] —no benefit is hence conferred upon our adversaries, even if it had been to such as were already Christians that He (in these several cases) granted pardon. For we now affirm: This is lawful to the Lord alone: may the power of His indulgence be ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 66, footnote 15 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
The System of the Sethians; Their Triad of Infinite Principles; Their Heresy Explained; Their Interpretation of the Incarnation. (HTML)
... primal offspring of water, (namely,) serpent, wind, (and) beast. This, he says, is the form of the servant, and this the necessity of the Word of God coming down into the womb of a virgin. But he says it is not sufficient that the Perfect Man, the Word, has entered into the womb of a virgin, and loosed the pangs which were in that darkness. Nay, more than this was requisite; for after his entrance into the foul mysteries of the womb, he was washed, and drank of the cup of life-giving bubbling water.[John 4:7-14] And it was altogether needful that he should drink who was about to strip off the servile form, and assume celestial raiment.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 73, footnote 7 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
Oath Used by the Justinian Heretics; The Book of Baruch; The Repertory of Their System. (HTML)
... the oath is couched in these terms: “I swear by that Good One who is above all, to guard these mysteries, and to divulge them to no one, and not to relapse from the Good One to the creature.” And when he has sworn this oath, he goes on to the Good One, and beholds “whatever things eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man;” and he drinks from life-giving water, which is to them, as they suppose, a bath, a fountain of life-giving, bubbling water.[John 4:14] For there has been a separation made between water and water; and there is water, that below the firmament of the wicked creation, in which earthly and animal men are washed; and there is life-giving water, (that) above the firmament, of the Good ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 235, footnote 5 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)
Dogmatical and Historical. (HTML)
The Discourse on the Holy Theophany. (HTML)
2. Nor is this the only thing that proves the dignity of the water. But there is also that which is more honourable than all—the fact that Christ, the Maker of all, came down as the rain, and was known as a spring,[John 4:14] and diffused Himself as a river, and was baptized in the Jordan. For you have just heard how Jesus came to John, and was baptized by him in the Jordan. Oh things strange beyond compare! How should the boundless River that makes glad the city of God have been dipped in a little water! The illimitable Spring that bears life to all men, and has no end, was covered by poor and temporary ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 360, footnote 9 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
Cæcilius, on the Sacrament of the Cup of the Lord. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2681 (In-Text, Margin)
... that when the divine Scripture speaks of baptism, it says that we thirst and drink, since the Lord also in the Gospel says, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness;” because what is received with a greedy and thirsting desire is drunk more fully and plentifully. As also, in another place, the Lord speaks to the Samaritan woman, saying, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall not thirst for ever.”[John 4:13-14] By which is also signified the very baptism of saving water, which indeed is once received, and is not again repeated. But the cup of the Lord is always both thirsted for and drunk in the Church.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 458, footnote 15 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Arnobius. (HTML)
The Seven Books of Arnobius Against the Heathen. (Adversus Gentes.) (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter LXIV. (HTML)
64. But, my opponents ask, if Christ came as the Saviour of men, as you say, why does He not, with uniform benevolence, free all without exception? I reply, does not He free all alike who invites all alike? or does He thrust back or repel any one from the kindness of the Supreme who gives to all alike the power of coming to Him,—to men of high rank, to the meanest slaves, to women, to boys? To all, He says, the fountain of life is open,[John 4:13-15] and no one is hindered or kept back from drinking. If you are so fastidious as to spurn the kindly offered gift, nay, more, if your wisdom is so great that you term those things which are offered by Christ ridiculous and absurd, why should He keep on inviting you, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 76, footnote 19 (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 XXI. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1498 (In-Text, Margin)
... knewest the gift of God, and who this is that said unto thee, Give me [15] to drink; thou wouldest ask him, and he would give thee the water of life. That woman said unto him, My Lord, thou hast no bucket, and the well is deep: from [16] whence hast thou the water of life? Can it be that thou art greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it, and his children, and his sheep? [17] Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst [18] again:[John 4:14] but whosoever drinketh of the water which I shall give him shall not thirst for ever: but the water which I shall give him shall be in him a spring of water springing [19] up unto eternal life. That woman said unto him, My Lord, give me of this ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 89, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Attaining his thirtieth year, he, under the admonition of the discourses of Ambrose, discovered more and more the truth of the Catholic doctrine, and deliberates as to the better regulation of his life. (HTML)
His Mother Having Followed Him to Milan, Declares that She Will Not Die Before Her Son Shall Have Embraced the Catholic Faith. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 436 (In-Text, Margin)
... and with a breast full of confidence, she replied to me, “She believed in Christ, that before she departed this life, she would see me a Catholic believer.” And thus much said she to me; but to Thee, O Fountain of mercies, poured she out more frequent prayers and tears, that Thou wouldest hasten Thy aid, and enlighten my darkness; and she hurried all the more assiduously to the church, and hung upon the words of Ambrose, praying for the fountain of water that springeth up into everlasting life.[John 4:14] For she loved that man as an angel of God, because she knew that it was by him that I had been brought, for the present, to that perplexing state of agitation I was now in, through which she was fully persuaded that I should pass from sickness unto ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 245, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
from Paulinus and Therasia (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1502 (In-Text, Margin)
2. You see, my brother beloved, esteemed, and welcomed in Christ our Lord, with what intimacy I claim to know you, with what amazement I admire and with what love I embrace you, seeing that I enjoy daily converse with you by the medium of your writings, and am fed by the breath of your mouth. For your mouth I may justly call a pipe conveying living water, and a channel from the eternal fountain; for Christ has become in you a fountain of “living water springing up into eternal life.”[John 4:14] Through desire for this my soul thirsted within me, and my parched ground longed to be flooded with the fulness of your river. Since, therefore, you have armed me completely by this your Pentateuch against the Manichæans, if you have prepared any ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 218, footnote 1 (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 is Called the Gift of God in the Scriptures. By the Gift of the Holy Spirit is Meant the Gift Which is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Specially Called Love, Although Not Only the Holy Spirit in the Trinity is Love. (HTML)
... Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto Him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: whence then hast thou this living water, etc.? Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whose shall drink of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life.”[John 4:7-14] Because this living water, then, as the evangelist has explained to us, is the Holy Spirit, without doubt the Spirit is the gift of God, of which the Lord says here, “If thou hadst known the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 307, footnote 15 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 953 (In-Text, Margin)
... Tobit, that Pentecost was the feast of seven weeks. To forty-nine, which is seven times seven, one is added to denote unity. To this effect is the saying of the apostle: "Bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." The Church becomes a well of satisfaction by this gift of the Spirit, the number seven denoting its spirituality; for it is in her a fountain of living water springing up unto everlasting life, and he who has it shall never thirst.[John 4:13-14] Uriah, Bersabee’s husband, must, from the meaning of his name, be understood as representing the devil. It is in union to the devil that all are bound whom the grace of God sets free, that the Church without spot or wrinkle may be married to her ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 5, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
Explanation of the First Part of the Sermon Delivered by Our Lord on the Mount, as Contained in the Fifth Chapter of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 23 (In-Text, Margin)
6. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Now He calls those parties, lovers of a true and indestructible good. They will therefore be filled with that food of which the Lord Himself says, “My meat is to do the will of my Father,” which is righteousness; and with that water, of which whosoever “drinketh,” as he also says, it “shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.”[John 4:14]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 1, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 16 (In-Text, Margin)
... which is said in another Psalm, “the river of God is full of water.” Or by the Holy Ghost, of whom it is said, “He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost;” and again, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink;” and again, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that asketh water of thee, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water, of which whoso drinketh shall never thirst, but it shall be made in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”[John 4:14] Or, “by the running streams of waters” may be by the sins of the people, because first the waters are called “peoples” in the Apocalypse; and again, by “running stream” is not unreasonably understood “fall,” which hath relation to sin. That “tree” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 52, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 533 (In-Text, Margin)
16. “And the fountains of water were seen. And the fountains of water springing up into everlasting life,”[John 4:14] which were made in the preachers, were seen. “And the foundations of the round world were revealed” (ver. 15). And the Prophets, who were not understood, and upon whom was to be built the world of believers in the Lord, were revealed. “At Thy chiding, O Lord:” crying out, “The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” “At the blasting of the breath of Thy displeasure;” saying, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 260, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2470 (In-Text, Margin)
... this a man running, even knew where he might thence get forth!…Evil is the desert, horrible, and to be feared: and nevertheless God hath pitied us, and hath made for us a way in the desert, Himself our Lord Jesus Christ: and hath made for us a consolation in the desert, in sending to us preachers of His Word: and hath given to us water in the desert, by fulfilling with the Holy Spirit His preachers, in order that there might be created in them a well of water springing up unto life everlasting.[John 4:14] And, lo! we have here all things, but they are not of the desert.…
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 296, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2840 (In-Text, Margin)
... Churches are the damsels, with new grace decked: the Churches are the players on the timbrels, with chastened flesh being spiritually tuneful. “In the Churches,” then, “bless ye the Lord God from the wells of Israel.” For from thence He first chose those whom He made wells. For from thence were chosen the Apostles; and they first heard, “He that shall have drunk of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst, but there shall be made in him a well of water springing unto life everlasting.”[John 4:14]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 347, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3360 (In-Text, Margin)
14. “Thou hast cleft the fountains and torrents” (ver. 15): in order that they might flow with the stream of wisdom, might flow with the riches of the faith, might water the saltness of the Gentiles, in order that they might convert all unbelievers into the sweetness of the faith by their watering.…In some men the Word of God becometh a well of water springing up unto life eternal;[John 4:14] but others hearing the Word, and not so keeping it as that they live well, yet not keeping silence with tongue, they become torrents. For they are properly called torrents which are not perennial: for sometimes also in a secondary sense torrent is used for river: as hath been said, “with the torrent of Thy ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 347, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3362 (In-Text, Margin)
... drink.” For that torrent shall not ever be dried up. But torrents properly are those rivers named, which in summer fail, but with winter rains are flooded and run. Thou seest therefore a man sound in faith, that will persevere even unto the end, that will not forsake God in any trial; for the sake of the truth, not for the sake of falsehood and error, enduring all difficulties. Whence is this man so vigorous, but because the Word hath become in him a well of water springing up unto life eternal?[John 4:14] But the other receiveth the Word, he preacheth, he is not silent, he runneth: but summer proveth whether he be fountain or torrent. Nevertheless through both be the earth watered, by Him who hath wrought Salvation in the midst of the earth: let the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 371, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3588 (In-Text, Margin)
... great deep” (ver. 15); “and brought out water from the rock, and brought down waters like rivers” (ver. 16), is surely able upon thirsty faith to pour the gift of the Holy Spirit (the which gift the performance of that thing did spiritually signify), to pour, I say, from the Spiritual Rock that followed, which is Christ: who did stand and cry, “If any is athirst, let him come to Me:” and, “he that shall have drunk of the water which I shall give, rivers of living water shall flow out of his bosom.”[John 4:14] For this He spake, as is read in the Gospel, to the Spirit, which they were to receive that believed in Him, unto whom like the rod drew near the wood of the Passion, in order that there might flow forth grace for believers.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 551, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5053 (In-Text, Margin)
9. “Who turned the hard rock into standing waters, and the flint stone into springing wells” (ver. 8). For He melted Himself, and what may be called His hardness to water those who believe on Him, that He might in them become “a fountain of water gushing forth unto everlasting life;”[John 4:14] because formerly, when He was not known, He seemed hard. Hence they who said, “This is an hard saying, who can bear it?” were confounded, and waited not until He should flow and stream upon them when the Scriptures were revealed. The rock, that hardness, was turned into pools of water, that stone into fountains of waters, when on His resurrection, “He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 672, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXLVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5957 (In-Text, Margin)
... “For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them that hereafter should believe on Him unto eternal life.” God then calleth unto the Gentiles, “Be melted, O crystal; come, ye snows.” “His Spirit shall blow, and the waters shall flow.” Lo, the “crystal” and the “snows” are melted, they turn into water, “let them that thirst, come and drink.” Saul, hard as crystal, persecuted Stephen unto death; Paul, now in the living water,[John 4:14] calleth the Gentiles to the Fount.…
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 225, footnote 4 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily to Those Who Had Not Attended the Assembly: and on the Apostolic Saying, 'If Thine Enemy Hunger, Feed Him, Etc. (Rom. xii. 20), and Concerning Resentment of Injuries.' (HTML)
To Those Who Had Not Attended the Assembly. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 749 (In-Text, Margin)
... zeal, whilst we who have not undergone any of their innumerable sufferings small or great, neglect our own salvation on account of a scorching sun and a little short lived heat and toil, and forsaking the assembly wander away, depraving ourselves by going to meetings which are thoroughly unwholesome? When the dew of the divine oracles is so abundant dost thou make heat thy excuse? “The water which I will give him,” saith Christ “shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life;”[John 4:14] and again; “He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” Tell me; when thou hast spiritual wells and rivers, art thou afraid of material heat? Now in the market place where there is so much ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 538, footnote 5 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)
The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)
Festal Letters. (HTML)
For 339. Coss. Constantius Augustus II, Constans I; Præfect, Philagrius the Cappadocian, for the second time; Indict. xii; Easter-day xvii Kal. Mai, xx Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 55. (HTML)
... our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall all rise. ‘For,’ he says, ‘this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.’ Now this came to pass in the time of the Passion, in which our Lord died for us, for ‘our Passover, Christ, is sacrificed.’ Therefore, because He was sacrificed, let each of us feed upon Him, and with alacrity and diligence partake of His sustenance; since He is given to all without grudging, and is in every one ‘a well of water flowing to everlasting life[John 4:14].’
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 5, footnote 19 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Rufinus the Monk. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 47 (In-Text, Margin)
... solitude no longer remains at his side. Alone upon the island—or rather not alone, for Christ is with him—he sees the glory of God, which even the apostles saw not save in the desert. He beholds, it is true, no embattled towns, but he has enrolled his name in the new city. Garments of sackcloth disfigure his limbs, yet so clad he will be the sooner caught up to meet Christ in the clouds. No watercourse pleasant to the view supplies his wants, but from the Lord’s side he drinks the water of life.[John 4:14] Place all this before your eyes, dear friend, and with all the faculties of your mind picture to yourself the scene. When you realize the effort of the fighter then you will be able to praise his victory. Round the entire island roars the frenzied ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 146, footnote 2 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Oceanus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2076 (In-Text, Margin)
... When the daughters of the priests of Midian are in a strait to reach the well, Moses opens a way for them and delivers them from outrage. The Lord’s forerunner at Salem (a name which means peace or perfection) makes ready the people for Christ with spring-water. The Saviour Himself does not preach the kingdom of heaven until by His baptismal immersion He has cleansed the Jordan. Water is the matter of His first miracle and it is from a well that the Samaritan woman is bidden to slake her thirst.[John 4:13-14] To Nicodemus He secretly says:—“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” As His earthly course began with water, so it ended with it. His side is pierced by the spear, and blood and water flow forth, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 207, footnote 11 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2963 (In-Text, Margin)
... However, she has finished her course, she has kept the faith, and now she enjoys the crown of righteousness. She follows the Lamb whithersoever he goes. She is filled now because once she was hungry. With joy does she sing: “as we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.” O blessed change! Once she wept but now laughs for evermore. Once she despised the broken cisterns of which the prophet speaks; but now she has found in the Lord a fountain of life.[John 4:14] Once she wore haircloth but now she is clothed in white raiment, and can say: “thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.” Once she ate ashes like bread and mingled her drink with weeping; saying “my tears have been my meat day and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 117, footnote 12 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Article, And in One Holy Ghost, the Comforter, Which Spake in the Prophets. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1998 (In-Text, Margin)
11. Let then thus much suffice concerning those outcasts; and now let us return to the divine Scriptures, and let us drink waters out of our own cisterns [that is, the holy Fathers], and out of our own springing wells. Drink we of living water, springing up into everlasting life[John 4:14]; but this spake the Saviour of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive. For observe what He says, He that believeth on Me (not simply this, but), as the Scripture hath said (thus He hath sent thee back to the Old Testament), out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, not rivers ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 116, footnote 3 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To the Cæsareans. A defence of his withdrawal, and concerning the faith. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1783 (In-Text, Margin)
... lessons drawn from Holy Scripture, but to mar the harmony of the truth by heathen philosophy. Is not he an open Philistine who is introducing the terms “ unbegotten ” and “ begotten ” into our faith, and asserts that there was once a time when the Everlasting was not; that He who is by nature and eternally a Father became a Father; that the Holy Ghost is not eternal? He bewitches our Patriarch’s sheep that they may not drink “of the well of water springing up into everlasting life,”[John 4:14] but may rather bring upon themselves the words of the prophet, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water;” when all the while they ought to confess that the Father is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 89b, footnote 13 (Image)
Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus
John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)
An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Concerning Scripture. (HTML)
... carelessly but rather zealously and constantly: lest knocking we grow weary. For thus it will be opened to us. If we read once or twice and do not understand what we read, let us not grow weary, but let us persist, let us talk much, let us enquire. For ask thy Father, he saith, and He will shew thee: thy elders and they will tell thee. For there is not in every man that knowledge. Let us draw of the fountain of the garden perennial and purest waters springing into life eternal[John 4:14]. Here let us luxuriate, let us revel insatiate: for the Scriptures possess inexhaustible grace. But if we are able to pluck anything profitable from outside sources, there is nothing to forbid that. Let us become tried money-dealers, heaping up the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 114, footnote 4 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XVI. The Holy Spirit is that large river by which the mystical Jerusalem is watered. It is equal to its Fount, that is, the Father and the Son, as is signified in holy Scripture. St. Ambrose himself thirsts for that water, and warns us that in order to preserve it within us, we must avoid the devil, lust, and heresy, since our vessels are frail, and that broken cisterns must be forsaken, that after the example of the Samaritan woman and of the patriarchs we may find the water of the Lord. (HTML)
... nature, of one brightness and beauty. And do you assert rightly that the Holy Spirit is of one substance, brightness, and glory with the Son of God and with God the Father. I will sum up all in the oneness of the qualities, and shall not be afraid of any question as to difference of greatness. For in this point also Scripture has provided for us; for the Son of God says: “He that shall drink of the water which I will give him, it shall become in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.”[John 4:14] This well is clearly the grace of the Spirit, a stream proceeding from the living Fount. The Holy Spirit, then, is also the Fount of eternal life.