Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Acts 20:35

There are 10 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 5, footnote 5 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Clement of Rome (HTML)

First Epistle to the Corinthians (HTML)

Chapter II.—Praise of the Corinthians continued. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7 (In-Text, Margin)

Moreover, ye were all distinguished by humility, and were in no respect puffed up with pride, but yielded obedience rather than extorted it, and were more willing to give than to receive.[Acts 20:35] Content with the provision which God had made for you, and carefully attending to His words, ye were inwardly filled with His doctrine, and His sufferings were before your eyes. Thus a profound and abundant peace was given to you all, and ye had an insatiable desire for doing good, while a full outpouring of the Holy Spirit was upon you all. Full of holy designs, ye did, with true earnestness of mind ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 433, footnote 2 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book IV (HTML)

Sec. I.—On Helping the Poor (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2934 (In-Text, Margin)

III. Since even the Lord said: “The giver was happier than the receiver.”[Acts 20:35] For it is again said by Him: “Woe to those that have, and receive in hypocrisy; or who are able to support themselves, yet will receive of others: for both of them shall give an account to the Lord God in the day of judgment.” But an orphan who, by reason of his youth, or he that by the feebleness of old age, or the incidence of a disease, or the bringing up of many children, receives alms, such a one shall not only not be blamed, but shall be ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 460, footnote 17 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)

Sec. IV.—Of the Law (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3296 (In-Text, Margin)

... is one Lord;” the same says in the Gospel, “That they might know Thee, the only true God.” And He that said, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” says in the Gospel, renewing the same precept, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.” He who then forbade murder, does now forbid causeless anger. He that forbade adultery, does now forbid all unlawful lust. He that forbade stealing, now pronounces him most happy who supplies those that are in want out of his own labours.[Acts 20:35] He that forbade hatred, now pronounces him blessed that loves his enemies. He that forbade revenge, now commands long-suffering; not as if just revenge were an unrighteous thing, but because long-suffering is more excellent. Nor did He make laws to ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 229, footnote 5 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

The Epistles of Clement. (HTML)

The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. (HTML)

Praise of the Corinthians Continued. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4003 (In-Text, Margin)

Moreover, ye were all distinguished by humility, and were in no respect puffed up with pride, but yielded obedience rather than extorted it, and were more willing to give than to receive.[Acts 20:35] Content with the provision which God had made for you, and carefully attending to His words, ye were inwardly filled with His doctrine, and His sufferings were before your eyes. Thus a profound and abundant peace was given to you all, and ye had an insatiable desire for doing good, while a full outpouring of the Holy Spirit was upon you all. Full of holy designs, ye did, with true earnestness of mind ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 510, footnote 5 (Image)

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

Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

Of the Work of Monks. (HTML)

Section 13 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2514 (In-Text, Margin)

... he speaks the same thing, when, sending from Miletus to Ephesus, he had called thence the presbyters of the Church, to whom, among much else, “Silver,” saith he, “and gold, or apparel of no man have I coveted; yourselves know, that to my necessities and theirs who were with me these hands have ministered. In all things have I shown you that so laboring it behoveth to help the weak, mindful also of the words of the Lord Jesus, for that He said, More blessed is it rather to give than to receive.”[Acts 20:33-35]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 96, footnote 1 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Nepotian. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1392 (In-Text, Margin)

16. Let us never seek for presents and rarely accept them when we are asked to do so. For “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”[Acts 20:35] Somehow or other the very man who begs leave to offer you a gift holds you the cheaper for your acceptance of it; while, if you refuse it, it is wonderful how much more he will come to respect you. The preacher of continence must not be a maker of marriages. Why does he who reads the apostle’s words “it remaineth that they that have wives be as though they had none” —why does he press a virgin to marry? Why does a priest, who ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 370, footnote 2 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Oration on Holy Baptism. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4092 (In-Text, Margin)

... thirsteth, come ye to the waters,” Esaias invites you, “and he that hath no money, come buy wine and milk, without money and without price.” O swiftness of His mercy: O easiness of the Covenant: This blessing may be bought by you merely for willing it; He accepts the very desire as a great price; He thirsts to be thirsted for; He gives to drink to all who desire to drink; He takes it as a kindness to be asked for the kindness; He is ready and liberal; He gives with more pleasure than others receive.[Acts 20:35] Only let us not be condemned for frivolity by asking for little, and for what is unworthy of the Giver. Blessed is he from whom Jesus asks drink, as He did from that Samaritan woman, and gives a well of water springing up unto eternal life. Blessed ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 253, footnote 5 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)

Book VII. Of the Spirit of Covetousness. (HTML)
Chapter XVI. Of the authority under which those shelter themselves who object to stripping themselves of their goods. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 891 (In-Text, Margin)

... their original avarice, by some authority from Holy Scripture, which they interpret with base ingenuity, in their desire to wrest and pervert to their own purposes a saying of the Apostle or rather of the Lord Himself: and, not adapting their own life or understanding to the meaning of the Scripture, but making the meaning of Scripture bend to the desires of their own lust, they try to make it to correspond to their own views, and say that it is written, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”[Acts 20:35] And by an entirely wrong interpretation of this they think that they can weaken the force of that saying of the Lord in which he says: “If thou wilt be perfect, go sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 272, footnote 4 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)

Book X. Of the Spirit of Accidie. (HTML)
Chapter XVIII. That the Apostle wrought what he thought would be sufficient for him and for others who were with him. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 982 (In-Text, Margin)

... Ephesus, and summoning to him the elders of the church of Ephesus, he charged them how they ought to rule the church of God in his absence, and said: “I have not coveted any man’s silver and gold; you yourselves know how for such things as were needful for me and them that are with me these hands have ministered. I have showed you all things, how that so labouring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said: It is more blessed to give than to receive.”[Acts 20:33-35] He left us a weighty example in his manner of life, as he testifies that he not only wrought what would supply his own bodily wants alone, but also what would be sufficient for the needs of those who were with him: those, I mean, who, being taken up ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 288, footnote 1 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)

Book XII. Of the Spirit of Pride. (HTML)
Chapter XXV. A description of carnal pride, and of the evils which it produces in the soul of a monk. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1078 (In-Text, Margin)

... him many lengthy infirmities, and covers him with shame and confusion. If when stripped of everything he has begun to be supported by the property of others and not his own, it persuades him that it is much better for food and clothing to be provided for him by his own rather than by another’s means according to that text (which, as was before said, those who are rendered dense through such dulness and coldness of heart, cannot possibly understand), “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”[Acts 20:35]

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