Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
John 4:23
There are 11 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 307, footnote 4 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter VI.—The Benefit of Culture. (HTML)
... training, become still better than before both in other respects, but especially in productiveness, as is the case with the other creatures. Wherefore it is said, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and become wiser than it, which provideth much and, varied food in the harvest against the inclemency of winter.” Or go to the bee, and learn how laborious she is; for she, feeding on the whole meadow, produces one honey-comb. And if “thou prayest in the closet,” as the Lord taught, “to worship in spirit,”[John 4:23] thy management will no longer be solely occupied about the house, but also about the soul, what must be bestowed on it, and how, and how much; and what must be laid aside and treasured up in it; and when it ought to be produced, and to whom. For it ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 690, footnote 14 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Prayer. (HTML)
Of the Spiritual Victim, Which Prayer is. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8938 (In-Text, Margin)
... victim which has abolished the pristine sacrifices. “To what purpose,” saith He, “(bring ye) me the multitude of your sacrifices? I am full of holocausts of rams, and I desire not the fat of rams, and the blood of bulls and of goats. For who hath required these from your hands?” What, then, God has required the Gospel teaches. “An hour will come,” saith He, “when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and truth. For God is a Spirit, and accordingly requires His adorers to be such.”[John 4:23-24] We are the true adorers and the true priests, who, praying in spirit, sacrifice, in spirit, prayer,—a victim proper and acceptable to God, which assuredly He has required, which He has looked forward to for Himself! This victim, devoted from ...
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 4, page 243, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
On God. (HTML)
... God was less rightly or duly worshipped, according to the privileges of the different localities, either by the Jews in Jerusalem or by the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim, the Saviour answered that he who would follow the Lord must lay aside all preference for particular places, and thus expressed Himself: “The hour is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain shall the true worshippers worship the Father. God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”[John 4:23-24] And observe how logically He has joined together the spirit and the truth: He called God a Spirit, that He might distinguish Him from bodies; and He named Him the truth, to distinguish Him from a shadow or an image. For they who worshipped in ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 448, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Lord's Prayer. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3303 (In-Text, Margin)
... Himself also gave a form of praying—Himself advised and instructed us what we should pray for. He who made us to live, taught us also to pray, with that same benignity, to wit, wherewith He has condescended to give and confer all things else; in order that while we speak to the Father in that prayer and supplication which the Son has taught us, we may be the more easily heard. Already He had foretold that the hour was coming “when the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth;”[John 4:23] and He thus fulfilled what He before promised, so that we who by His sanctification have received the Spirit and truth, may also by His teaching worship truly and spiritually. For what can be a more spiritual prayer than that which was given to us ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 76, 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 XXI. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1507 (In-Text, Margin)
... hast now is not thy husband; and [23] in this thou saidst truly. That woman said unto him, My Lord, I perceive thee to [24] be a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say that in Jerusalem [25] is the place in which worship must be. Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me, an hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, shall ye worship [26] the Father. Ye worship that which ye know not: but we worship that which [27] we know: for salvation is of the Jews.[John 4:23] But an hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: and the Father also [28] seeketh such as these worshippers. For God is a Spirit: and they that worship him [29] must worship him in spirit and in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 614, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXXXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5577 (In-Text, Margin)
... have often warned you, beloved, that it ought not to be received as the voice of one man singing, but of all who are in Christ’s Body. And since all are in His Body, as it were one man speaketh: and he is one who also is many.…Now he prayeth in the temple of God, who prayeth in the peace of the Church, in the unity of Christ’s Body; which Body of Christ consisteth of many who believe in the whole world: and therefore he who prayeth in the temple, is heard. For he prayeth in the spirit and in truth,[John 4:21-24] who prayeth in the peace of the Church; not in that temple, wherein was the figure.…
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 126, footnote 17 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
Continuation of the Discourse on the Holy Ghost. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2150 (In-Text, Margin)
... he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And that this grace is from the Father, He thus states, How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. And that we ought to worship God in the Spirit, He shews thus, But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth; for the Father also seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth[John 4:23]. And again, But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils; and immediately afterwards, Therefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 39, footnote 9 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
That the word “in,” in as many senses as it bears, is understood of the Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1251 (In-Text, Margin)
... able to see God intelligibly manifested to him. This is the special and peculiar place of true worship; for it is said “Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place…but in the place the Lord thy God shall choose.” Now what is a spiritual burnt offering? “The sacrifice of praise.” And in what place do we offer it? In the Holy Spirit. Where have we learnt this? From the Lord himself in the words “The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”[John 4:23] This place Jacob saw and said “The Lord is in this place.” It follows that the Spirit is verily the place of the saints and the saint is the proper place for the Spirit, offering himself as he does for the indwelling of God, and called God’s Temple. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 145, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter XI. The objection has been made, that the words of St. John, “The Spirit is God,” are to be referred to God the Father; since Christ afterwards declares that God is to be worshipped in Spirit and in truth. The answer is, first, that by the word Spirit is sometimes meant spiritual grace; next, it is shown that, if they insist that the Person of the Holy Spirit is signified by the words “in Spirit,” and therefore deny that adoration is due to Him, the argument tells equally against the Son; and since numberless passages prove that He is to be worshipped, we understand from this that the same rule is to be laid down as regards the Spirit. Why are we commanded to fall down before His footstool? Because by this signified Lord's (HTML)
69. But perhaps reference may be made to the fact that in a later passage of the same book, the Lord again said that God is Spirit, but spoke of God the Father. For you have this passage in the Gospel: “The hour now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for such also doth the Father seek. God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth.”[John 4:23-24] By this passage you wish not only to deny the divinity of the Holy Spirit, but also, from God being worshipped in Spirit, deduce a subjection of the Spirit.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 291, footnote 4 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
Chapter IV. It is objected by heretics that Christ offered worship to His Father. But instead it is shown that this must be referred to His humanity, as is clear from an examination of the passage. However, it also offers fresh witness to His Godhead, as we often see it happening in other actions that Christ did. (HTML)
51. But immediately after this He put aside His human feelings, saying: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father.”[John 4:23] He said not: “We shall worship.” This He would certainly have said, if He had a share in our obedience.