Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
John 13:4
There are 12 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 73, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
On Idolatry. (HTML)
Dress as Connected with Idolatry. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 308 (In-Text, Margin)
... will incur the duty of acting after your Lord’s pattern. That Lord walked in humility and obscurity, with no definite home: for “the Son of man,” said He, “hath not where to lay His head;” unadorned in dress, for else He had not said, “Behold, they who are clad in soft raiment are in kings’ houses:” in short, inglorious in countenance and aspect, just as Isaiah withal had fore-announced. If, also, He exercised no right of power even over His own followers, to whom He discharged menial ministry;[John 13:1-17] if, in short, though conscious of His own kingdom, He shrank back from being made a king, He in the fullest manner gave His own an example for turning coldly from all the pride and garb, as well of dignity as of power. For if they were to be ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 98, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
The Chaplet, or De Corona. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 406 (In-Text, Margin)
... built a ship: I shall see Jonah and the apostles sailing. Nay, there is more than this: for even Christ, we shall find, has ordinary rai ment; Paul, too, has his cloak. If at once, of every article of furniture and each household vessel, you name some god of the world as the originator, well, I must recognise Christ, both as He reclines on a couch, and when He presents a basin for the feet of His disciples, and when He pours water into it from a ewer, and when He is girt about with a linen towel[John 13:1-5] —a garment specially sacred to Osiris. It is thus in general I reply upon the point, admitting indeed that we use along with others these articles, but challenging that this be judged in the light of the distinction between things agreeable and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 673, footnote 29 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Baptism. (HTML)
Types of the Red Sea, and the Water from the Rock. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8633 (In-Text, Margin)
... if, that is, He is Himself baptized in water; inaugurates in water the first rudimentary displays of His power, when invited to the nuptials; invites the thirsty, when He makes a discourse, to His own sempiternal water; approves, when teaching concerning love, among works of charity, the cup of water offered to a poor (child); recruits His strength at a well; walks over the water; willingly crosses the sea; ministers water to His disciples.[John 13:1-12] Onward even to the passion does the witness of baptism last: while He is being surrendered to the cross, water intervenes; witness Pilate’s hands: when He is wounded, forth from His side bursts water; witness the soldier’s lance!
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 432, footnote 7 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Sec. II.—On Deacons and Deaconesses, the Rest of the Clergy, and on Baptism (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2930 (In-Text, Margin)
... us? We ought therefore also to serve the brethren, in imitation of Christ. For says He: “He that will be great among you, let him be your minister; and he that will be first among you, let him be your servant.” For so did He really, and not in word only, fulfil the prediction of, “serving many faithfully.” For “when He had taken a towel, He girded Himself. Afterward He puts water into a bason; and as we were sitting at meat, He came and washed the feet of us all, and wiped them with the towel.”[John 13:4-5] By doing this He demonstrated to us His kindness and brotherly affection, that so we also might do the same to one another. If, therefore, our Lord and Master so humbled Himself, how can you, the labourers of the truth, and administrators of piety, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 111, footnote 23 (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 XLIV. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3036 (In-Text, Margin)
[11] And before the feast of the passover, Jesus knew that the hour was arrived for his departure from this world unto his Father; and he loved his own in this world, [12] and to the last he loved them. And at the time of the feast, Satan put into the [13] heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to deliver him up. And Jesus, because he knew that the Father had delivered into his hands everything, and that he came [14] forth from the Father, and goeth unto God,[John 13:4] rose from supper, and laid aside his [15] garments; and took a towel, and girded his waist, and poured water into a bason, and began to wash the feet of his disciples, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith [16] his waist was girded. And when he ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 408, footnote 3 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Epistle to Gregory and Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)
Book X. (HTML)
How Jesus Knew the Powers, Better or Worse, Which Reside in Man. (HTML)
... who reproved and judged by prophesying, and who brought to the light the secret things of the hearts of those whom the Spirit suggested to them to be thus dealt with. The words, “He knew what was in man,” could also be taken as referring to the powers, better or worse, which work in men. For if any one gives place to the devil, Satan enters into him; thus did Judas give place, and thus did the devil put it in his heart to betray Jesus, and “after the sop,” therefore, “the devil entered into him.”[John 13:2-27] But if any one gives place to God, he becomes blessed; for blessed is the man whose help is from God, and the ascent is in his heart from God. Thou knowest what is in man, Thou who knowest all things, O Son of God. And now that our tenth book has ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 429, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Of Holy Virginity. (HTML)
Section 32 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2115 (In-Text, Margin)
... unto death, even the death of the Cross, than with proud desire demand to be preferred to the rest; what did He show, save, that He would be a bestower of exaltation upon them, who should first follow Him as a teacher of humility? And now, in that, when about to go forth unto His Passion, He washed the feet of His disciples, and most openly taught them to do for their fellow-disciples and fellow-servants this, which He their Lord and Master had done for them; how greatly did He commend humility?[John 13:1-17] And in order to commend this He chose also that time, wherein they were looking on Him, as immediately about to die, with great longing; assuredly about to retain in their memory this especially, which their Master, Whom they were to imitate, had ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 467, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
He examines the last part of the epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus, together with his epistle to Quintus, the letter of the African synod to the Numidian bishops, and Cyprian’s epistle to Pompeius. (HTML)
Chapter 9 (HTML)
... the Father in such wise as not to receive it from the Son, speaking presently of Christ Himself, he says, "Of His fullness have all we received." But by the grace of a certain dispensation John received this, which was to last not for long, but only long enough to prepare for the Lord the way in which he must needs be the forerunner. And as our Lord was presently to enter on this way with all humility, and to lead those who humbly followed Him to perfection, as He washed the feet of His servants,[John 13:4-5] so was He willing to be baptized with the baptism of a servant. For as He set Himself to minister to the feet of those whose guide He was Himself, so He submitted Himself to the gift of John which He Himself had given, that all might understand what ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 457, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XCIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4348 (In-Text, Margin)
... himself before, placeth something before himself, wherewith he is girded; whence it is said, He girded Himself before with a towel, and began to wash the disciples’ feet. Because He was humble when He girded Himself with a towel. He washed the feet of His own disciples. But all strength is in humility: because all pride is fragile: therefore when He was speaking of strength, he added, “He is girded:” that thou mayest remember how thy God was girded in humility, when He washed His disciples’ feet.[John 13:4-15] …After He had washed their feet, again He sat down; He said unto them, “Ye call me Lord and Master: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; how ought ye also to do to one another’s feet?” If therefore ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 206, footnote 3 (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 687 (In-Text, Margin)
... both tells us what ought to be done, and does it. “For,” he says, “he who does and teaches the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Now observe; He commanded men to be lowly-minded, and meek, and He taught this by His words: but see how He also teaches it by His deeds. For having said “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek,” He shows how these virtues ought to be practised. How then did He teach them? He took a towel and girded Himself and washed the disciples’ feet.[John 13:4-5] What can match this lowliness of mind? for He teaches this virtue no longer by His words only but also by His deeds. Again He teaches meekness and forbearance by His acts. How so? He was struck on the face by the servant of the high priest, and said ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 432, footnote 25 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Second Oration on Easter. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4688 (In-Text, Margin)
... finding of the coin, and makes them sharers of His joy, as He had before made them sharers of the secret of His Incarnation? That the Light that is exceeding bright should follow the Candle—Forerunner, and the Word, the Voice, and the Bridegroom, the Bridegroom’s friend, that prepared for the Lord a peculiar people and cleansed them by the water in preparation for the Spirit? Do you Reproach God with this? Do you conceive of Him as less because He girds Himself with a towel and washes His disciples,[John 13:4-5] and shows that humiliation is the best road to exaltation; because He humbles Himself for the sake of the soul that is bent down to the ground, that He may even exalt with Himself that which is bent double under a weight of sin? How comes it that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 95, footnote 2 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Preface. (HTML)
12. Let us come now to the Gospel of God. I find the Lord stripping Himself of His garments, and girding Himself with a towel, pouring water into a basin, and washing the disciples’ feet.[John 13:4] That heavenly dew was this water, this was foretold, namely, that the Lord Jesus Christ would wash the feet of His disciples in that heavenly dew. And now let the feet of our minds be stretched out. The Lord Jesus wills also to wash our feet, for He says, not to Peter alone, but to each of the faithful: “If I wash not thy feet thou wilt have no part with Me.”