Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

John 14:28

There are 57 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 402, footnote 1 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book II (HTML)

Chapter XXVIII.—Perfect knowledge cannot be attained in the present life: many questions must be submissively left in the hands of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3233 (In-Text, Margin)

... they strive to establish that fabulous account which they have devised. For if any one should inquire the reason why the Father, who has fellowship with the Son in all things, has been declared by the Lord alone to know the hour and the day [of judgment], he will find at present no more suitable, or becoming, or safe reason than this (since, indeed, the Lord is the only true Master), that we may learn through Him that the Father is above all things. For “the Father,” says He, “is greater than I.”[John 14:28] The Father, therefore, has been declared by our Lord to excel with respect to knowledge; for this reason, that we, too, as long as we are connected with the scheme of things in this world, should leave perfect knowledge, and such questions [as have ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 604, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Against Praxeas. (HTML)

The Catholic Rule of Faith Expounded in Some of Its Points. Especially in the Unconfused Distinction of the Several Persons of the Blessed Trinity. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7863 (In-Text, Margin)

... Economy) they contend for the identity of the Father and Son and Spirit, that it is not by way of diversity that the Son differs from the Father, but by distribution: it is not by division that He is different, but by distinction; because the Father is not the same as the Son, since they differ one from the other in the mode of their being. For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole, as He Himself acknowledges: “My Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28] In the Psalm His inferiority is described as being “a little lower than the angels.” Thus the Father is distinct from the Son, being greater than the Son, inasmuch as He who begets is one, and He who is begotten is another; He, too, who sends is ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 610, footnote 4 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Against Praxeas. (HTML)

The Natural Invisibility of the Father, and the Visibility of the Son Witnessed in Many Passages of the Old Testament. Arguments of Their Distinctness, Thus Supplied. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7934 (In-Text, Margin)

... dream, and in a glass and enigma, because the Word and Spirit (of God) cannot be seen except in an imaginary form. But, (they say,) He calls the invisible Father His face. For who is the Father? Must He not be the face of the Son, by reason of that authority which He obtains as the begotten of the Father? For is there not a natural propriety in saying of some personage greater (than yourself), That man is my face; he gives me his countenance? “My Father,” says Christ, “is greater than I.”[John 14:28] Therefore the Father must be the face of the Son. For what does the Scripture say? “The Spirit of His person is Christ the Lord.” As therefore Christ is the Spirit of the Father’s person, there is good reason why, in virtue indeed of the unity, the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 645, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VIII (HTML)
Chapter XIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4872 (In-Text, Margin)

... the world.” And it is He whom we call Son of God—Son of that God, namely, whom, to quote the words of Celsus, “we most highly reverence;” and He is the Son who has been most highly exalted by the Father. Grant that there may be some individuals among the multitudes of believers who are not in entire agreement with us, and who incautiously assert that the Saviour is the Most High God; however, we do not hold with them, but rather believe Him when He says, “The Father who sent Me is greater than I.”[John 14:28] We would not therefore make Him whom we call Father inferior—as Celsus accuses us of doing—to the Son of God.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 548, footnote 19 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
That no one should be made sad by death; since in living is labour and peril, in dying peace and the certainty of resurrection. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 4481 (In-Text, Margin)

... sting? Where, O death, is thy striving?” Also in the Gospel according to John: “Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given me be with me where I shall be, and may see my glory which Thou hast given me before the foundation of the world.” Also according to Luke: “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, O Lord, according to the word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” Also according to John: “If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 637, footnote 5 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Novatian. (HTML)

A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. (HTML)

Moreover, Against the Sabellians He Proves that the Father is One, the Son Another. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5216 (In-Text, Margin)

... inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession?” Or when also that beloved writer says: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand, until I shall make Thine enemies the stool of Thy feet?” Or when, unfolding the prophecies of Isaiah, he finds it written thus: “Thus saith the Lord to Christ my Lord?” Or when he reads: “I came not down from heaven to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me?” Or when he finds it written: “Because He who sent me is greater than I?”[John 14:28] Or when he considers the passage: “I go to my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God?” Or when he finds it placed side by side with others: “Moreover, in your law it is written that the witness of two is true. I bear witness of myself, and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 639, footnote 14 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Novatian. (HTML)

A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. (HTML)

He Proves Also that the Words Spoken to Philip Make Nothing for the Sabellians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5251 (In-Text, Margin)

... keep my word: and my Father will love him; and we will come unto him, and will make our abode with him.” Moreover, also, He added this too: “But the Advocate, that Holy Spirit whom the Father will send, He will teach you, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” He utters, further, that passage when He shows Himself to be the Son, and reasonably subjoins, and says, “If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28] But what shall we say when He also continues in these words: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth, that it may bring ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 71, footnote 4 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Gregory Thaumaturgus. (HTML)

Dubious or Spurious Writings. (HTML)

Four Homilies. (HTML)
On the Holy Theophany, or on Christ's Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 588 (In-Text, Margin)

... sin. This is He who along with me made man. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This Son of mine and this son of Mary are not two distinct persons; but this is my beloved Son,—this one who is both seen with the eye and apprehended with the mind. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him. If He shall say, I and my Father are one, hear Him. If He shall say, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, hear Him. If He shall say, He that hath sent me is greater than I,[John 14:28] adapt the voice to the economy. If He shall say, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? answer ye Him thus: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. By these words, as they were sent from the Father out of heaven in thunder-form, the race ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 295, footnote 4 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Alexander of Alexandria. (HTML)

Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius. (HTML)

To Alexander, Bishop of the City of Constantinople. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2438 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Father.” That He is equally with the Father unchangeable and immutable, wanting in nothing, and the perfect Son, and like to the Father, we have learnt; in this alone is He inferior to the Father, that He is not unbegotten. For He is the very exact image of the Father, and in nothing differing from Him. For it is clear that He is the image fully containing all things by which the greatest similitude is declared, as the Lord Himself hath taught us, when He says, “My Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28] And according to this we believe that the Son is of the Father, always existing. “For He is the brightness of His glory, the express image of His Father’s person.” But let no one take that word always so as to raise suspicion that He ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 296, footnote 1 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Alexander of Alexandria. (HTML)

Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius. (HTML)

To Alexander, Bishop of the City of Constantinople. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2440 (In-Text, Margin)

... have said, a generation from the Father without beginning, and allotting adoration to Him, so as only piously and properly to use the words, “He was,” and “always,” and “before all worlds,” with respect to Him; by no means rejecting His Godhead, but ascribing to Him a similitude which exactly answers in every respect to the Image and Exemplar of the Father. But we must say that to the Father alone belongs the property of being unbegotten, for the Saviour Himself said, “My Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28] And besides the pious opinion concerning the Father and the Son, we confess to one Holy Spirit, as the divine Scriptures teach us; who hath inaugurated both the holy men of the Old Testament, and the divine teachers of that which is called the New. ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 331, footnote 5 (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)
What the True and Seemly Manner of Praising; The Father Greater Than the Son, Not in Substance, But in Order; Virginity the Lily; Faithful Souls and Virgins, the One Bride of the One Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2682 (In-Text, Margin)

... is given not from favour, nor of necessity, nor from repute, but in accordance with truth and an unflattering judgment. And so the prophets and apostles, who spoke more fully concerning the Son of God, and assigned to Him a divinity above other men, did not refer their praises of Him to the teaching of angels, but to Him upon whom all authority and power depend. For it was fitting that He who was greater than all things after the Father, should have the Father, who alone is greater than Himself,[John 14:28] as His witness. And so I will not bring forward the praises of virginity from mere human report, but from Him who cares for us, and who has taken up the whole matter, showing that He is the husbandman of this grace, and a lover of its beauty, and a ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 114, 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 XLVI. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3173 (In-Text, Margin)

[5, 6] This have I spoken unto you, while I was yet with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom my Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything, and [7] [Arabic, p. 174] he will bring to your remembrance all that I say unto you. Peace I leave you; my peace I give unto you: and not as this world giveth, give I unto you. [8][John 14:28] Let your heart not be troubled, nor fearful. Ye heard that I said unto you, that I go away, and come unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, that I go away to my [9] Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I say unto you before it come [10] to pass, that, when it cometh to pass, ye may believe me. Now I will not ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 24, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

The unity and equality of the Trinity are demonstrated out of the Scriptures; and the true interpretation is given of those texts which are wrongly alleged against the equality of the Son. (HTML)
In What Manner the Son is Less Than the Father, and Than Himself. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 58 (In-Text, Margin)

... even most expressly declare, the Father to be greater than the Son; men have erred through a want of careful examination or consideration of the whole tenor of the Scriptures, and have endeavored to transfer those things which are said of Jesus Christ according to the flesh, to that substance of His which was eternal before the incarnation, and is eternal. They say, for instance, that the Son is less than the Father, because it is written that the Lord Himself said, “My Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28] But the truth shows that after the same sense the Son is less also than Himself; for how was He not made less also than Himself, who “emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant?” For He did not so take the form of a servant as that He ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 27, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

The unity and equality of the Trinity are demonstrated out of the Scriptures; and the true interpretation is given of those texts which are wrongly alleged against the equality of the Son. (HTML)
All are Sometimes Understood in One Person. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 102 (In-Text, Margin)

... presence of the Son of man with them would be a hindrance to the coming of Him, who was not less, because He did not “empty Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant,” as the Son did. It was necessary, then, that the form of a servant should be taken away from their eyes, because, through gazing upon it, they thought that alone which they saw to be Christ. Hence also is that which is said, “If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I said, ‘I go unto the Father; for my Father is greater than I:’”[John 14:28] that is, on that account it is necessary for me to go to the Father, because, whilst you see me thus, you hold me to be less than the Father through that which you see; and so, being taken up with the creature and the “fashion” which I have taken ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 30, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

The unity and equality of the Trinity are demonstrated out of the Scriptures; and the true interpretation is given of those texts which are wrongly alleged against the equality of the Son. (HTML)
By What Rule in the Scriptures It is Understood that the Son is Now Equal and Now Less. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 120 (In-Text, Margin)

... He is equal to the Father, and what to the form of a servant which He took, in which He is less than the Father; we shall not be disquieted by apparently contrary and mutually repugnant sayings of the sacred books. For both the Son and the Holy Spirit, according to the form of God, are equal to the Father, because neither of them is a creature, as we have already shown: but according to the form of a servant He is less than the Father, because He Himself has said, “My Father is greater than I;”[John 14:28] and He is less than Himself, because it is said of Him, He emptied Himself;” and He is less than the Holy Spirit, because He Himself says, “Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 38, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

The equality of the Trinity maintained against objections drawn from those texts which speak of the sending of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
There is a Double Rule for Understanding the Scriptural Modes of Speech Concerning the Son of God. These Modes of Speech are of a Threefold Kind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 215 (In-Text, Margin)

... and the Son, as to intimate the unity and equality of their substance; as, for instance, “I and the Father are one;” and, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God;” and whatever other texts there are of the kind. And some, again, are so put that they show the Son as less on account of the form of a servant, that is, of His having taken upon Him the creature of a changeable and human substance; as, for instance, that which says, “For my Father is greater than I;”[John 14:28] and, “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.” For a little after he goes on to say, “And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man.” And further, some are so put, as to show Him ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 102, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

In reply to the argument alleged against the equality of the Son from the apostle’s words, saying that Christ is the ‘power of God and the wisdom of God,’ he propounds the question whether the Father Himself is not wisdom. But deferring for a while the answer to this, he adduces further proof of the unity and equality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that God ought to be said and believed to be a Trinity, not triple (triplicem). And he adds an explanation of the saying of Hilary—Eternity in the Father, Appearance in the Image, and Use in the Gift. (HTML)
Whether One or the Three Persons Together are Called the Only God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 622 (In-Text, Margin)

... only all three together, how can God be the head of Christ, that is, the Trinity the head of Christ, since Christ is in the Trinity in order that it may be the Trinity? Is that which is the Father with the Son, the head of that which is the Son alone? For the Father with the Son is God, but the Son alone is Christ: especially since it is the Word already made flesh that speaks; and according to this His humiliation also, the Father is greater than He, as He says, “for my Father is greater than I;”[John 14:28] so that the very being of God, which is one to Him with the Father, is itself the head of the man who is mediator, which He is alone. For if we rightly call the mind the chief thing of man, that is, as it were the head of the human substance, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 329, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

A Treatise on Faith and the Creed. (HTML)

Of the Holy Spirit and the Mystery of the Trinity. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1601 (In-Text, Margin)

... (hominem),—to wit, the changeable creature that was thereby to be changed into something better,—many statements concerning Him are discovered in the Scriptures, which are so expressed as to have given occasion to error in the impious intellects of heretics, with whom the desire to teach takes precedence of that to understand, so that they have supposed Him to be neither equal with the Father nor of the same substance. Such statements [are meant] as the following: “For the Father is greater than I;”[John 14:28] and, “The head of the woman is the man, the Head of the man is Christ, and the Head of Christ is God;” and, “Then shall He Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him;” and, “I go to my Father and your Father, my God and your God,” ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 552, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints. (HTML)

A Treatise on the Gift of Perseverance. (HTML)

The Most Eminent Instance of Predestination is Christ Jesus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3716 (In-Text, Margin)

... say that Christ was true God, born of God the Father without any beginning of time; and that He was also true or very man, born of human mother in the certain fulness of time; and that His humanity, whereby He is less than the Father, does not diminish aught from His divinity, whereby He is equal to the Father. For both of them are One Christ—who, moreover, most truly said in respect of the God, “I and the Father are one;” and most truly said in respect of the man, “My Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28] He, therefore, who made of the seed of David this righteous man, who never should be unrighteous, without any merit of His preceding will, is the same who also makes righteous men of unrighteous, without any merit of their will preceding; that He ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 398, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xxii. 42, where the Lord asks the Jews whose son they said David was. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3047 (In-Text, Margin)

3. But seeing that is a great thing to know the mystery how He is David’s Son and David’s Lord: how one Person is both Man and God; how in the form of Man He is less than the Father, in the form of God equal with the Father; how again He saith, on the one hand, “The Father is greater than I;”[John 14:28] and on the other, “I and My Father are one;” seeing this is a great mystery, our conduct must be fashioned, that it may be comprehended. For to the unworthy is it closed up, it is opened to those who are meet for it. It is not with stones, or clubs, or the fist, or the heel, that we knock unto the Lord. It is the life which knocks, it is to the life ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 157, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter V. 19–40. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 479 (In-Text, Margin)

... Father doth; the Son quickeneth just as the Father doth. Therefore, in the resurrection of souls, “let all honor the Son as they honor the Father.” But what of the honoring on account of the resurrection of the body? “Whoso honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father that sent Him.” He said not even as, but honoreth and honoreth. For the man Christ is honored, but not even as God the Father. Why? Because, with respect to this, He said, “The Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28] And when is the Son honored even as the Father is honored? When “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and all things were made by Him.” And hence, in this second honoring, what saith He? “Whoso honoreth not the Son, honoreth not ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 266, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2515 (In-Text, Margin)

... deep heart,” that is, a secret “heart:” presenting before human faces Man, keeping within God: concealing the “form of God,” wherein He is equal with the Father, and presenting the form of a servant, wherein He is less than the Father. For Himself hath spoken of both: but one thing there is which He saith in the form of God, another thing in the form of a servant. He hath said in the form of God, “I and the Father are one:” He hath said in the form of a servant, “For the Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28] Whence in the form of God saith He, “I and the Father are one”?…

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 2, page 58, footnote 5 (Image)

Socrates: Church History from A.D. 305-438; Sozomenus: Church History from A.D. 323-425

The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

Creeds published at Sirmium in Presence of the Emperor Constantius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 376 (In-Text, Margin)

... because these things are above the knowledge of mankind and human capacity, and that no one can explain the Son’s generation, of which it is written, ‘And who shall declare his generation?’ It is manifest that the Father only knows in what way he begat the Son; and again the Son, how he was begotten by the Father. But no one can doubt that the Father is greater in honor, dignity, and divinity, and in the very name of Father; the Son himself testifying ‘My Father who hath sent me is greater than I.’[John 14:28] And no one is ignorant that this is also catholic doctrine, that there are two persons of the Father and Son, and that the Father is the greater: but that the Son is subject, together with all things which the Father has subjected to him. That the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 39, footnote 9 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
The Epistle of Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria to Alexander, Bishop of Constantinople. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 308 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Saviour yet sound in our ears, ‘ No one knoweth who the Father is but the Son, and no one knoweth who the Son is but the Father.’ We have learnt that the Son is immutable and unchangeable, all-sufficient and perfect, like the Father, lacking only His “unbegotten.” He is the exact and precisely similar image of His Father. For it is clear that the image fully contains everything by which the greater likeness exists, as the Lord taught us when He said, ‘ My Father is greater than I[John 14:28].’ And in accordance with this we believe that the Son always existed of the Father; for he is the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Father’s Person.” But let no one be led by the word ‘ always ’ to imagine ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 40, footnote 2 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
The Epistle of Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria to Alexander, Bishop of Constantinople. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 311 (In-Text, Margin)

... Him, there being to Him a generation from the Father which has no beginning; we must render Him worship, as we have already said, only piously and religiously ascribing to Him the ‘was’ and the ‘ever,’ and the ‘before all ages;’ not however rejecting His divinity, but ascribing to Him a perfect likeness in all things to His Father, while at the same time we ascribe to the Father alone His own proper glory of ‘the unbegotten,’ even as the Saviour Himself says, ‘ My Father is greater than I[John 14:28].’

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 181, footnote 3 (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 Immutable. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1164 (In-Text, Margin)

Testimony of Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. From his Discourse on “My Father is greater than I:”[John 14:28]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 208, footnote 5 (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 Unconfounded. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1361 (In-Text, Margin)

“The Son of Mary converses with brothers, but the only begotten has no brothers, for how could the name of only begotten be preserved among brothers? And the same Christ that said ‘God is a spirit’ says to His disciples ‘Handle me,’ to shew that the human nature only can be handled and that the divine is intangible; and He that said ‘I go’[John 14:28] indicates removal from place to place, while He that comprehends all things and ‘by Whom,’ as says the Apostle, ‘all things were created and by Whom all things consist,’ had among all existing things nothing without and beyond Himself which can stand to Him in the relation of motion or removal.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 208, footnote 10 (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 Unconfounded. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1366 (In-Text, Margin)

From his discourse on “My Father is greater than I”:[John 14:28]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 240, footnote 2 (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 1550 (In-Text, Margin)

Of the same from his discourse on “My Father is greater than I”:[John 14:28]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 314, footnote 1 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse I (HTML)
That the Son is Eternal and Increate. These attributes, being the points in dispute, are first proved by direct texts of Scripture. Concerning the 'eternal power' of God in Rom. i. 20, which is shewn to mean the Son. Remarks on the Arian formula, 'Once the Son was not,' its supporters not daring to speak of 'a time when the Son was not.' (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1906 (In-Text, Margin)

... every plant of the field, before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.’ And in Deuteronomy, ‘When the Most High divided to the nations.’ And the Lord said in His own Person, ‘If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice because I said, I go unto the Father, for My Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might believe[John 14:28-29].’ And concerning the creation He says by Solomon, ‘Or ever the earth was, when there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, was I brought forth.’ ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 340, footnote 7 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse I (HTML)
Texts Explained; Thirdly, Hebrews i. 4. Additional texts brought as objections; e.g. Heb. i. 4; vii. 22. Whether the word 'better' implies likeness to the Angels; and 'made' or 'become' implies creation. Necessary to consider the circumstances under which Scripture speaks. Difference between 'better' and 'greater;' texts in proof. 'Made' or 'become' a general word. Contrast in Heb. i. 4, between the Son and the Works in point of nature. The difference of the punishments under the two Covenants shews the difference of the natures of the Son and the Angels. 'Become' relates not to the nature of the Word, but to His manhood and office and relation towards us. Parallel passages in which the term is applied to the Eternal Father. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2174 (In-Text, Margin)

... as has been above shewn, the Son is Offspring of the Father’s essence, and He is Framer, and other things are framed by Him, and He is the Radiance and Word and Image and Wisdom of the Father, and things originate stand and serve in their place below the Triad, therefore the Son is different in kind and different in essence from things originate, and on the contrary is proper to the Father’s essence and one in nature with it. And hence it is that the Son too says not, ‘My Father is better than I[John 14:28],’ lest we should conceive Him to be foreign to His Nature, but ‘greater,’ not indeed in greatness, nor in time, but because of His generation from the Father Himself, nay, in saying ‘greater’ He again shows that He is proper to His essence.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 55, footnote 7 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Marcella. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 874 (In-Text, Margin)

1. As regards the passages brought together from the gospel of John with which a certain votary of Montanus has assailed you, passages in which our Saviour promises that He will go to the Father, and that He will send the Paraclete[John 14:28] —as regards these, the Acts of the Apostles inform us both for what time the promises were made, and at what time they were actually fulfilled. Ten days had elapsed, we are told, from the Lord’s ascension and fifty from His resurrection, when the Holy Spirit came down, and the tongues of the believers were cloven, so that each spoke every language. Then it was that, when certain ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 244, footnote 1 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Avitus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3395 (In-Text, Margin)

... himself by virtue of a special faculty; in this sense we cannot say that the Son comprehends the Father. For the Father comprehends all things, and of these the Son is one; therefore, He comprehends the Son.” And to shew us reasons why, while the Father comprehends the Son, the Son cannot comprehend the Father, he adds: “the curious reader may inquire whether the Father knows Himself in the same way that the Son knows Him. But if he recalls the words: ‘the Father who sent me is greater than I,’[John 14:28] he will allow that they must be universally true and will admit that, in knowledge as in everything else, the Father is greater than the Son, and knows Himself more perfectly and immediately than the Son can do.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 312, footnote 3 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Fourth Theological Oration, Which is the Second Concerning the Son. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3625 (In-Text, Margin)

VII. As your third point you count the Word Greater;[John 14:28] and as your fourth, To My God and your God. And indeed, if He had been called greater, and the word equal had not occurred, this might perhaps have been a point in their favour. But if we find both words clearly used what will these gentlemen have to say? How will it strengthen their argument? How will they reconcile the irreconcilable? For that the same thing should be at once greater than and equal to the same thing is an impossibility; and the evident solution is ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 118, 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 1812 (In-Text, Margin)

5. And again, “My Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28] This passage is also employed by the ungrateful creatures, the brood of the evil one. I believe that even from this passage the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father is set forth. For I know that comparisons may properly be made between things which are of the same nature. We speak of angel as greater than angel, of man as juster than man, of bird as fleeter than bird. If then comparisons are made between things of the same species, and the Father by comparison is ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 119, footnote 6 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To the Cæsareans.  A defence of his withdrawal, and concerning the faith. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1829 (In-Text, Margin)

... of the Word. But since our intelligence is made dense and bound to earth, it is both commingled with clay and incapable of gazing intently in pure contemplation, being led through adornments cognate to its own body. It considers the operations of the Creator, and judges of them meanwhile by their effects, to the end that growing little by little it may one day wax strong enough to approach even the actual unveiled Godhead. This is the meaning, I think, of the words “my Father is greater than I,”[John 14:28] and also of the statement, “It is not mine to give save to those for whom it is prepared by my Father.” This too is what is meant by Christ’s “delivering up the kingdom to God even the Father;” inasmuch as according to the denser doctrine which, as ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 6, footnote 3 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Synodis or On the Councils. (HTML)

De Synodis or On the Councils. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 458 (In-Text, Margin)

... above man’s understanding, nor can any man declare the birth of the Son, of whom it is written, Who shall declare His generation ? For it is plain that only the Father knows how He begot the Son, and the Son how He was begotten of the Father. There is no question that the Father is greater. No one can doubt that the Father is greater than the Son in honour, dignity, splendour, majesty, and in the very name of Father, the Son Himself testifying, He that sent Me is greater than I[John 14:28]. And no one is ignorant that it is Catholic doctrine that there are two Persons of Father and Son; and that the Father is greater, and that the Son is subordinated to the Father, together with all things which the Father has subordinated to Him, and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 55, footnote 1 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 569 (In-Text, Margin)

10. Listen then to the Unbegotten Father, listen to the Only-begotten Son. Hear His words, The Father is greater than I[John 14:28], and I and the Father are One, and He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father also, and The Father is in Me and I in the Father, and I went out from the Father, and Who is in the bosom of the Father, and Whatsoever the Father hath He hath delivered to the Son, and The Son hath life in Himself, even as the Father hath in Himself. Hear in these words the Son, the Image, the Wisdom, the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 58, footnote 5 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 600 (In-Text, Margin)

23. Let Sabellius, if he dare, confound Father and Son as two names with one meaning, making of them not Unity but One Person. He shall have a prompt answer from the Gospels, not once or twice, but often repeated, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. He shall hear the words, The Father is greater than I[John 14:28], and I go to the Father, and Father, I thank Thee, and Glorify Me, Father, and Thou art the Son of the living God. Let Hebion try to sap the faith, who allows the Son of God no life before the Virgin’s womb, and sees in Him the Word only after His life as flesh had begun. We will bid him read again, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 74, footnote 4 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 685 (In-Text, Margin)

... they prove, as to the first point, by what Paul writes to the Hebrews, Being made so much better than the angels, as He possesseth a more excellent name than they, and again, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus Christ, who is faithful to Him that made Him. For their depreciation of the might and majesty and Godhead of the Son they rely chiefly on His own words, The Father is greater than I[John 14:28]. But they admit that He is not one of the common herd of creatures on the evidence of All things were made through Him. And so they sum up the whole of their blasphemous teaching in these words which follow:—

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 106, footnote 5 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 790 (In-Text, Margin)

25. I can conceive of no man so destitute of ordinary reason as to recognise in each of the Gospels confessions by the Son of the humiliation to which He has submitted in taking a body upon Him,—as for instance His words, often repeated, Father, glorify Me, and Ye shall see the Son of Man, and The Father is greater than I[John 14:28], and, more strongly, Now is My soul troubled exceedingly, and even this, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? and many more, of which I shall speak in due time,—and yet, in the face of these constant expressions of His humility, to charge Him with presumption because He calls God His Father, as ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 173, footnote 2 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book IX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1047 (In-Text, Margin)

51. He who has not grasped the manifest truths of the faith, obviously cannot have an understanding of its mysteries; because he has not the doctrine of the Gospel he is an alien to the hope of the Gospel. We must confess the Father to be in the Son and the Son in the Father, by unity of nature, by might of power, as equal in honour as Begetter and Begotten. But, perhaps you say, the witness of our Lord Himself is contrary to this declaration, for He says, The Father is greater than I[John 14:28]. Is this, heretic, the weapon of your profanity? Are these the arms of your frenzy? Has it escaped you, that the Church does not admit two Unbegotten, or confess two Fathers? Have you forgotten the Incarnation of the Mediator, with the birth, the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 8b, footnote 17 (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 I (HTML)
Concerning the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1535 (In-Text, Margin)

And this also it behoves us to know, that the names Fatherhood, Sonship and Procession, were not applied to the Holy Godhead by us: on the contrary, they were communicated to us by the Godhead, as the divine apostle says, Wherefore I bow the knee to the Father, from Whom is every family in heaven and on earth. But if we say[John 14:28] that the Father is the origin of the Son and greater than the Son, we do not suggest any precedence in time or superiority in nature of the Father over the Son (for through His agency He made the ages), or superiority in any other respect save causation. And we mean by this, that the Son is begotten of the Father and not the Father ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 9b, footnote 1 (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 I (HTML)
Concerning the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1536 (In-Text, Margin)

And this also it behoves us to know, that the names Fatherhood, Sonship and Procession, were not applied to the Holy Godhead by us: on the contrary, they were communicated to us by the Godhead, as the divine apostle says, Wherefore I bow the knee to the Father, from Whom is every family in heaven and on earth. But if we say that the Father is the origin of the Son and greater than the Son, we do not suggest any precedence in time or superiority in nature of the Father over the Son[John 14:28] (for through His agency He made the ages), or superiority in any other respect save causation. And we mean by this, that the Son is begotten of the Father and not the Father of the Son, and that the Father naturally is the cause of the Son: just as we ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 90b, footnote 12 (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)
Regarding the things said concerning Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2544 (In-Text, Margin)

And others make known the fact of His origin from the Father as cause, for instance My Father is greater than I[John 14:28]. For from Him He derives both His being and all that He has: His being was by generative and not by creative means, as, I came forth from the Father and am come, and I live by the Father25472547

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 231, footnote 2 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. Christ's saying, “The Father is greater than I,” is explained in accordance with the principle just established. Other like sayings are expounded in like fashion. Our Lord cannot, as touching His Godhead, be called inferior to the Father. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1980 (In-Text, Margin)

59. It was due to His humanity, therefore, that our Lord doubted and was sore distressed, and rose from the dead, for that which fell doth also rise again. Again, it was by reason of His humanity that He said those words, which our adversaries use to maliciously turn against Him: “Because the Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 284, footnote 3 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter XII. The comparison, found in the Gospel of St. John, of the Son to a Vine and the Father to a husbandman, must be understood with reference to the Incarnation. To understand it with reference to the Divine Generation is to doubly insult the Son, making Him inferior to St. Paul, and bringing Him down to the level of the rest of mankind, as well as in like manner the Father also, by making Him not merely to be on one footing with the same Apostle, but even of no account at all. The Son, indeed, in so far as being God, is also the husbandman, and, as regards His Manhood, a grape-cluster. True statement of the Father's pre-eminence. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2502 (In-Text, Margin)

169. But if there be now left no room for doubt that the Son of God is called the Vine with respect and intention to His Incarnation, you see what hidden truth it was to which our Lord had regard in saying, “The Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28] For after this premised, He proceeded immediately: “I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman,” that you might know that the Father is greater in so far as He dresses and tends our Lord’s flesh, as the husbandman dresses and tends his vines. Further, our Lord’s flesh is that which could increase in stature with age, and be wounded through suffering, to the end that ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 313, footnote 2 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book V. (HTML)
Chapter XVIII. Wishing to give a reason for the Lord's answer to the apostles, he assigns the one received to Christ's tenderness. Then when another reason is supplied by others he confesses that it is true; for the Lord spoke it by reason of His human feelings. Hence he gathers that the knowledge of the Father and the Son is equal, and that the Son is not inferior to the Father. After having set beside the text, in which He is said to be inferior, another whereby He is declared to be equal, he censures the rashness of the Arians in judging about the Son, and shows that whilst they wickedly make Him to be inferior, He is rightly called a Stone by Himself. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2808 (In-Text, Margin)

224. It is written, they say: “For the Father is greater than I.”[John 14:28] It is also written: “He thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” It is written again that the Jews wished to kill Him, because He said He was the Son of God, making Himself equal with God. It is written: “I and My Father are one.” They read “one,” they do not read “many.” Can He then be both inferior and equal in the same Nature? Nay, the one refers to His Godhead, the other to His flesh.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 41, footnote 8 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Letters. (HTML)

To Flavian commonly called “the Tome.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 287 (In-Text, Margin)

... instances, it is not part of the same nature to be moved to tears of pity for a dead friend, and when the stone that closed the four-days’ grave was removed, to raise that same friend to life with a voice of command: or, to hang on the cross, and turning day to night, to make all the elements tremble: or, to be pierced with nails, and yet open the gates of paradise to the robber’s faith: so it is not part of the same nature to say, “I and the Father are one,” and to say, “the Father is greater than I[John 14:28].” For although in the Lord Jesus Christ God and man is one person, yet the source of the degradation, which is shared by both, is one, and the source of the glory, which is shared by both, is another. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 60, footnote 9 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Letters. (HTML)

To the Clergy and People of the City of Constantinople. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 398 (In-Text, Margin)

... Christ the Son of God, true God, born of God the Father without any beginning in time, and likewise true Man, born of a human Mother, at the ordained fulness of time, and we say that His Manhood, whereby the Father is the greater, does not in anything lessen that nature whereby He is equal with the Father. But these two natures form one Christ, Who has said most truly both according to His Godhead: “I and the Father are one[John 14:28],” and according to His manhood “the Father is greater than I.” This true and indestructible Faith, dearly-beloved, which alone makes us true Christians, and which, as we hear with approval, you are defending with loyal zeal and praiseworthy ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 60, footnote 10 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Letters. (HTML)

To the Clergy and People of the City of Constantinople. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 399 (In-Text, Margin)

... class="sc">God, born of God the Father without any beginning in time, and likewise true Man, born of a human Mother, at the ordained fulness of time, and we say that His Manhood, whereby the Father is the greater, does not in anything lessen that nature whereby He is equal with the Father. But these two natures form one Christ, Who has said most truly both according to His Godhead: “I and the Father are one,” and according to His manhood “the Father is greater than I[John 14:28].” This true and indestructible Faith, dearly-beloved, which alone makes us true Christians, and which, as we hear with approval, you are defending with loyal zeal and praiseworthy affection, hold fast and maintain boldly. And since, besides

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 133, footnote 1 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Sermons. (HTML)

On the Feast of the Nativity, III. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 752 (In-Text, Margin)

... blindness could not see with the eyes of intelligence, but, not believing that the Only-begotten of God was of the same glory and substance with the Father, spoke of the Son’s Godhead as inferior, drawing its arguments from those words which are to be referred to the “form of a slave,” in respect of which, in order to show that it belongs to no other or different person in Himself, the same Son of God with the same form, says, “The Father is greater than I[John 14:28],” just as He says with the same form, “I and my Father are one.” For in “the form of a slave,” which He took at the end of the ages for our restoration, He is inferior to the Father: but in the form of God, in which He was ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 139, footnote 7 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Sermons. (HTML)

On the Feast of the Nativity, VII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 811 (In-Text, Margin)

... renewing man in His manhood, but enduring unchangeable in Himself. For the Godhead which is His in common with the Father underwent no loss of omnipotence, nor did the “form of a slave” do despite to the “form of God,” because the supreme and eternal Essence, which lowered Itself for the salvation of mankind, transferred us into Its glory, but did not cease to be what It was. And hence when the Only-begotten of God confesses Himself less than the Father[John 14:28], and yet calls Himself equal with Him, He demonstrates the reality of both forms in Himself: so that the inequality proves the human nature, and the equality the Divine.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 139, footnote 8 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Sermons. (HTML)

On the Feast of the Nativity, VII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 812 (In-Text, Margin)

... unchangeable in Himself. For the Godhead which is His in common with the Father underwent no loss of omnipotence, nor did the “form of a slave” do despite to the “form of God,” because the supreme and eternal Essence, which lowered Itself for the salvation of mankind, transferred us into Its glory, but did not cease to be what It was. And hence when the Only-begotten of God confesses Himself less than the Father, and yet calls Himself equal with Him[John 14:28], He demonstrates the reality of both forms in Himself: so that the inequality proves the human nature, and the equality the Divine.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 192, footnote 8 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Sermons. (HTML)

On Whitsuntide, III. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1157 (In-Text, Margin)

The Lord Jesus does, indeed, say to His disciples, as was read in the Gospel lection, “if ye loved Me, ye would assuredly rejoice, because I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I[John 14:28];” but those ears, which have often heard the words, “I and the Father are One,” and “He that sees Me, sees the Father also,” accept the saying without supposing a difference of Godhead or understanding it of that Essence which they know to be co-eternal and of the same nature with the Father. Man’s uplifting, therefore, in the Incarnation of the Word, is commended to the holy Apostles ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 193, footnote 1 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Sermons. (HTML)

On Whitsuntide, III. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1158 (In-Text, Margin)

The Lord Jesus does, indeed, say to His disciples, as was read in the Gospel lection, “if ye loved Me, ye would assuredly rejoice, because I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I;” but those ears, which have often heard the words, “I and the Father are One[John 14:28],” and “He that sees Me, sees the Father also,” accept the saying without supposing a difference of Godhead or understanding it of that Essence which they know to be co-eternal and of the same nature with the Father. Man’s uplifting, therefore, in the Incarnation of the Word, is commended to the holy Apostles also, and they, who were distressed at ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 193, footnote 2 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Sermons. (HTML)

On Whitsuntide, III. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1159 (In-Text, Margin)

The Lord Jesus does, indeed, say to His disciples, as was read in the Gospel lection, “if ye loved Me, ye would assuredly rejoice, because I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I;” but those ears, which have often heard the words, “I and the Father are One,” and “He that sees Me, sees the Father also[John 14:28],” accept the saying without supposing a difference of Godhead or understanding it of that Essence which they know to be co-eternal and of the same nature with the Father. Man’s uplifting, therefore, in the Incarnation of the Word, is commended to the holy Apostles also, and they, who were distressed at the announcement of the ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs