Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

John 19:34

There are 26 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 507, footnote 2 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXXIII.—Whosoever confesses that one God is the author of both Testaments, and diligently reads the Scriptures in company with the presbyters of the Church, is a true spiritual disciple; and he will rightly understand and interpret all that the prophets have declared respecting Christ and the liberty of the New Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4267 (In-Text, Margin)

... who made them, and calls them into his own kingdom? And why is his goodness, which does not save all [thus], defective? Also, why does he, indeed, seem to be good as respects men, but most unjust with regard to him who made men, inasmuch as he deprives him of his possessions? Moreover, how could the Lord, with any justice, if He belonged to another father, have acknowledged the bread to be His body, while He took it from that creation to which we belong, and affirmed the mixed cup to be His blood?[John 19:34-35] And why did He acknowledge Himself to be the Son of man, if He had not gone through that birth which belongs to a human being? How, too, could He forgive us those sins for which we are answerable to our Maker and God? And how, again, supposing that ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 507, footnote 3 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXXIII.—Whosoever confesses that one God is the author of both Testaments, and diligently reads the Scriptures in company with the presbyters of the Church, is a true spiritual disciple; and he will rightly understand and interpret all that the prophets have declared respecting Christ and the liberty of the New Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4268 (In-Text, Margin)

... body, while He took it from that creation to which we belong, and affirmed the mixed cup to be His blood? And why did He acknowledge Himself to be the Son of man, if He had not gone through that birth which belongs to a human being? How, too, could He forgive us those sins for which we are answerable to our Maker and God? And how, again, supposing that He was not flesh, but was a man merely in appearance, could He have been crucified, and could blood and water have issued from His pierced side?[John 19:34] What body, moreover, was it that those who buried Him consigned to the tomb? And what was that which rose again from the dead?

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 165, footnote 8 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)

Concerning the Passion of Christ, and Its Old Testament Predictions and Adumbrations. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1322 (In-Text, Margin)

... were repaying me evil for good;” and, “What I had not seized I was then paying in full;” “They exterminated my hands and feet;” and, “They put into my drink gall, and in my thirst they slaked me with vinegar;” “Upon my vesture they did cast (the) lot;” just as the other (outrages) which you were to commit on Him were foretold,—all which He, actually and thoroughly suffering, suffered not for any evil action of His own, but “that the Scriptures from the mouth of the prophets might be fulfilled.”[John 19:32-37]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 673, footnote 31 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Ethical. (HTML)

On Baptism. (HTML)

Types of the Red Sea, and the Water from the Rock. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8635 (In-Text, Margin)

... 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. 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![John 19:34]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 677, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Ethical. (HTML)

On Baptism. (HTML)

Of the Second Baptism--With Blood. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8703 (In-Text, Margin)

... likewise, a second font, (itself withal one with the former,) of blood, to wit; concerning which the Lord said, “I have to be baptized with a baptism,” when He had been baptized already. For He had come “by means of water and blood,” just as John has written; that He might be baptized by the water, glorified by the blood; to make us, in like manner, called by water, chosen by blood. These two baptisms He sent out from the wound in His pierced side,[John 19:34] in order that they who believed in His blood might be bathed with the water; they who had been bathed in the water might likewise drink the blood. This is the baptism which both stands in lieu of the fontal bathing when that has not been received, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 100, footnote 12 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Modesty. (HTML)

Of Martyrs, and Their Intercession on Behalf of Scandalous Offenders. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 997 (In-Text, Margin)

... act, however, of urgently entreating from a martyr pardon for adulterers and fornicators, you yourself confess that crimes of that nature are not to be washed away except by the martyrdom of the criminal himself, while you presume (they can be washed away) by another’s. If this is so, then martyrdom will be another baptism. For “I have withal,” saith He, “another baptism.” Whence, too, it was that there flowed out of the wound in the Lord’s side water and blood, the materials of either baptism.[John 19:33-34] I ought, then, by the first baptism too to (have the right of) setting another free if I can by the second: and we must necessarily force upon the mind (of our opponents this conclusion): Whatever authority, whatever reason, restores ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 446, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
Chapter XXXVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3298 (In-Text, Margin)

... Jesus? Is it ‘such as flows in the bodies of the immortal gods?’” He puts this question in a spirit of mockery; but we shall show from the serious narratives of the Gospels, although Celsus may not like it, that it was no mythic and Homeric ichor which flowed from the body of Jesus, but that, after His death, “one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and there came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith the truth.”[John 19:34-35] Now, in other dead bodies the blood congeals, and pure water does not flow forth; but the miraculous feature in the case of the dead body of Jesus was, that around the dead body blood and water flowed forth from the side. But if this Celsus, who, in ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 412, footnote 1 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)

The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of the Saviour. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1793 (In-Text, Margin)

... at Jesus’ right hand: then, being attacked by Satan in the same manner as usual, he wished to bite the Lord Jesus, but was not able; nevertheless he struck Jesus on the right side, whereupon He began to weep. And immediately Satan went forth out of that boy, fleeing like a mad dog. And this boy who struck Jesus, and out of whom Satan went forth in the shape of a dog, was Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him to the Jews; and that same side on which Judas struck Him, the Jews transfixed with a lance.[John 19:34]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 431, footnote 2 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)

The Gospel of Nicodemus; Part I.--The Acts of Pilate:  Second Greek Form. (HTML)

Chapter 11. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1913 (In-Text, Margin)

... also at other times. Then they say to him: We hold the feast of unleavened bread to-morrow; and we entreat thee, since the crucified are still breathing, that their bones be broken, and that they be brought down. Pilate said: It shall be so. He therefore sent soldiers, and they found the two robbers yet breathing, and they broke their legs; but finding Jesus dead, they did not touch Him at all, except that a soldier speared Him in the right side, and immediately there came forth blood and water.[John 19:31-34]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 124, footnote 5 (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 LII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3640 (In-Text, Margin)

[14] And the Jews, because of the Friday, said, Let these bodies not remain on their crosses, because it is the morning of the sabbath (for that sabbath was a great day); and they asked of Pilate that they might break the legs of those that were [15] crucified, and take them down. And the soldiers came, and brake the legs of the [16] first, and that other which was crucified with him: but when they came to Jesus, [17] they saw that he had died before, so they brake not his legs:[John 19:34] but one of the soldiers pierced him in his side with a spear, and immediately there came forth blood and [18] water. And he that hath seen hath borne witness, and his witness is true: and he [19] knoweth that he hath said the truth, that ye also may ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 64, footnote 13 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

The appearances of God to the Old Testament saints are discussed. (HTML)
In How Many Ways the Creature is to Be Taken by Way of Sign. The Eucharist. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 410 (In-Text, Margin)

... made, or whence it is taken for religious use. And if they were never to learn from their own experience or that of others, and never to see that species of thing except during the celebration of the sacrament, when it is being offered and given; and if it were told them by the most weighty authority whose body and blood it is; they will believe nothing else, except that the Lord absolutely appeared in this form to the eyes of mortals, and that that liquid actually flowed from the piercing of a side[John 19:34] which resembled this. But it is certainly a useful caution to myself, that I should remember what my own powers are, and admonish my brethren that they also remember what theirs are, lest human infirmity pass on beyond what is safe. For how the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 78, footnote 1 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

Augustin explains for what the Son of God was sent; but, however, that the Son of God, although made less by being sent, is not therefore less because the Father sent Him; nor yet the Holy Spirit less because both the Father sent Him and the Son. (HTML)
The Death of Christ Voluntary. How the Mediator of Life Subdued the Mediator of Death. How the Devil Leads His Own to Despise the Death of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 511 (In-Text, Margin)

... after that [last] word, in which He set forth the figure of our sin, He immediately gave up His spirit. For they who are hung on the cross are commonly tortured by a prolonged death. Whence it was that the legs of the thieves were broken, in order that they might die directly, and be taken down from the cross before the Sabbath. And that He was found to be dead already, caused wonder. And it was this also, at which, as we read, Pilate marvelled, when the body of the Lord was asked of him for burial.[John 19:30-34]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 355, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans. (HTML)

Pain Only in Good Natures. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1092 (In-Text, Margin)

... rejoicing cannot exist save from the attainment of inferior good things. But iniquity is the desertion of better things. Likewise in a body, a wound with pain is better than painless putrescence, which is especially called the corruption which the dead flesh of the Lord did not see, that is, did not suffer, as was predicted in prophecy: "Thou shall not suffer Thy Holy one to see corruption." For who denies that He was wounded by the piercing of the nails, and that He was stabbed with the lance?[John 19:34] But even what is properly called by men corporeal corruption, that is, putrescence itself, if as yet there is anything left to consume, increases by the diminution of the good. But if corruption shall have absolutely consumed it, so that there is no ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 348, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin. (HTML)

Book III (HTML)

His Sixth Error. (See Above in Book I. 10-12 [IX., X.], and in Book II. 13, 14 [IX., X.].) (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2445 (In-Text, Margin)

... misled—that of the thief who confessed the Lord upon the cross, or that of Dinocrates the brother of St. Perpetua—contribute no help to you in defence of this erroneous opinion. As for the thief, although in God’s judgment he might be reckoned among those who are purified by the confession of martyrdom, yet you cannot tell whether he was not baptized. For, to say nothing of the opinion that he might have been sprinkled with the water which gushed at the same time with the blood out of the Lord’s side,[John 19:34] as he hung on the cross next to Him, and thus have been washed with a baptism of the most sacred kind, what if he had been baptized in prison, as in after times some under persecution were enabled privately to obtain? or what if he had been baptized ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 526, footnote 6 (Image)

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

Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)

1 John V. 7, 8; Contra Maximinum, lib. ii. c. 22 §. 3. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2543 (In-Text, Margin)

... water are two different substances? yet because Christ and the Holy Spirit are of one and the same nature, therefore when one says, the rock and the water are one, this can be rightly taken in this behalf, that these two things of which the nature is diverse, are signs of other things of which the nature is one. Three things then we know to have issued from the Body of the Lord when He hung upon the tree: first, the spirit: of which it is written, “And He bowed the head and gave up the spirit:”[John 19:34] then, as His side was pierced by the spear, “blood and water.” Which three things if we look at as they are in themselves, they are in substance several and distinct, and therefore they are not one. But if we will inquire into the things signified ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 226, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LVII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2132 (In-Text, Margin)

... from the face of Saul into a cavern. For a cavern may be understood as a lower part of the earth. And certainly, as is manifest and certain to all, His Body in a Tomb was laid, which was cut in a Rock. This Tomb therefore was the Cavern; thither He fled from the face of Saul. For so long the Jews did persecute Him, even until He was laid in a cavern. Whence prove we that so long they persecuted Him, until therein He was laid? Even when dead, and, on the Cross hanging, with lance they wounded Him.[John 19:34] But when shrouded, the funeral celebrated, He was laid in a cavern, no longer had they anything which to the Flesh they might do. Rose therefore the Lord again out of that cavern unhurt, uncorrupt, from that place whither He had fled from the face ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 276, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2609 (In-Text, Margin)

... and again I take it.” Be it that Himself hath destroyed the Temple in His Grace, in your malice. “In the multitude of Thy power thine enemies shall lie to Thee.” Behold they lie, behold they are believed, behold Thou art oppressed, behold Thou art crucified, behold Thou art insulted, behold head is wagged at Thee, “If Son of God He is, let Him come down from the Cross.” Behold when Thou wilt, life Thou layest down, and with lance in the side art pierced, and Sacraments from Thy side flow forth;[John 19:34] Thou art taken down from the Tree, wound in linens, laid in the sepulchre, there are set guards lest Thy disciples take Thee away; there cometh the hour of Thy Resurrection, earth is shaken, tombs are cloven, Thou risest again in secret, appearest ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 607, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXXVII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5522 (In-Text, Margin)

... before dawn.” When was He raised? When He had died. Hope therefore for thine uplifting after thy death: have hope in the resurrection of the dead, because He rose again and ascended. But where did He sleep? On the Cross. When He slept on the Cross, He bore a sign, yea, He fulfilled what had been signified in Adam: for when Adam was asleep, a rib was drawn from him and Eve was created; so also while the Lord slept on the Cross, His side was transfixed with a spear, and the Sacraments flowed forth,[John 19:34] whence the Church was born. For the Church the Lord’s Bride was created from His side, as Eve was created from the side of Adam. But as she was made from his side no otherwise than while sleeping, so the Church was created from His side no otherwise ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 167, footnote 8 (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 1023 (In-Text, Margin)

Eran. —Blood and water.[John 19:34]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 177, 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 Immutable. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1115 (In-Text, Margin)

... fasting forty days, have hungered, on account of His body demanding its own food, nor yet would John his disciple when writing about him have said—‘Jesus being wearied from his journey sat,’ nor would David have uttered the prediction about him ‘And they added to the pain of my wounds,’ nor would he have wept over Lazarus, nor would He have sweated drops of blood, nor would He have said, ‘my soul is exceedingly sorrowful,’ nor yet when He was pierced would blood and water have issued from His side.[John 19:34] For all these things are proofs of the flesh taken from earth, which He had renewed in Himself in the salvation of his own creature.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 552, footnote 19 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)

A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed. (HTML)

Section 23 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3332 (In-Text, Margin)

23. It is written that when the side of Jesus was pierced “He shed thereout blood and water.”[John 19:34] This has a mystical meaning. For Himself had said, “Out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water.” But He shed forth blood also, of which the Jews sought that it might be upon themselves and upon their children. He shed forth water, therefore, which might wash believers; He shed forth blood also which might condemn unbelievers. Yet it might be understood also as prefiguring the twofold grace of baptism, one that which is given by the baptism ...

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 19:34] 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 4 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Oceanus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2078 (In-Text, Margin)

... 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. 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, twin emblems of baptism and of martyrdom.[John 19:34] After His resurrection also, when sending His apostles to the Gentiles, He commands them to baptize these in the mystery of the Trinity. The Jewish people repenting of their misdoing are sent forthwith by Peter to be baptized. Before Sion travails ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 88, footnote 2 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

On the words, Crucified and Buried. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1576 (In-Text, Margin)

... for upon them as plotters came the condemnation from the blood; but to thee who now believest, the salvation which is by water. For nothing has been done without a meaning. Our fathers who have written comments have given another reason of this matter. For since in the Gospels the power of salutary Baptism is twofold, one which is granted by means of water to the illuminated, and a second to holy martyrs, in persecutions, through their own blood, there came out of that saving Side blood and water[John 19:34], to confirm the grace of the confession made for Christ, whether in baptism, or on occasions of martyrdom. There is another reason also for mentioning the Side. The woman, who was formed from the side, led the way to sin; but Jesus who came to ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 78b, 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)
Concerning Faith and Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2303 (In-Text, Margin)

... said, Baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. For since Christ made us for incorruption, and we transgressed His saving command, He condemned us to the corruption of death in order that that which is evil should not be immortal, and when in His compassion He stooped to His servants and became like us, He redeemed us from corruption through His own passion. He caused the fountain of remission to well forth for us out of His holy and immaculate side[John 19:34], water for our regeneration, and the washing away of sin and corruption; and blood to drink as the hostage of life eternal. And He laid on us the command to be born again of water and of the Spirit, through prayer and invocation, the Holy Spirit ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 385, footnote 2 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Concerning Virgins. (HTML)

Book III. (HTML)
Chapter V. St. Ambrose, speaking of tears, explains David's saying, “Every night wash l my couch with my tears,” and goes on to speak of Christ bearing our griefs and infirmities. Everything should be referred to His honour, and we ought to rejoice with spiritual joy, but not after a worldly fashion. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3290 (In-Text, Margin)

22. And since I have inserted a clause in which mention is made of the Lord’s Body, lest any one should be troubled at reading that the Lord took a body of pain, let him remember that the Lord grieved and wept over the death of Lazarus, and was wounded in His passion, and that from the wound there went forth blood and water,[John 19:34] and that He gave up His Spirit. Water for washing, Blood for drink, the Spirit for His rising again. For Christ alone is to us hope, faith, and love—hope in His resurrection, faith in the laver, and love in the sacrament.

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs