Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Romans 1:23

There are 30 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 195, footnote 7 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

Exhortation to the Heathen (HTML)

Chapter VIII.—The True Doctrine is to Be Sought in the Prophets. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 954 (In-Text, Margin)

... sounding like a battle march, “Sons of men, how long will ye be slow of heart? Why do you love vanity, and seek after a lie?” What, then, is the vanity, and what the lie? The holy apostle of the Lord, reprehending the Greeks, will show thee: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and changed the glory of God into the likeness of corruptible man, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.”[Romans 1:23] And verily this is the God who “in the beginning made the heaven and the earth.” But you do not know God, and worship the heaven, and how shall you escape the guilt of impiety? Hear again the prophet speaking: “The sun, shall suffer eclipse, and the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 389, footnote 12 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)

Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke's Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian's Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.“ It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man. (HTML)
Christ Thanks the Father for Revealing to Babes What He Had Concealed from the Wise. This Concealment Judiciously Effected by the Creator. Other Points in St. Luke's Chap. X. Shown to Be Only Possible to the Creator's Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4475 (In-Text, Margin)

... himself the revealer, who was not previously the concealer; so neither will any be the Lord of heaven nor the Father of Christ but He in whom all these attributes consistently meet. For He conceals by His preparatory apparatus of prophetic obscurity, the understanding of which is open to faith (for “if ye will not believe, ye shall not understand”); and He had offenders in those wise and prudent ones who would not seek after God, although He was to be discovered in His so many and mighty works,[Romans 1:20-23] or who rashly philosophized about Him, and thereby furnished to heretics their arts; and lastly, He is a jealous God. Accordingly, that which Christ thanks God for doing, He long ago announced by Isaiah: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 493, footnote 3 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
Chapter LXXIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3659 (In-Text, Margin)

... will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.” And Paul also, knowing this, said, “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise,” calling, in a general way, wise all who appear to have made advances in knowledge, but have fallen into an atheistic polytheism, since “professing themselves to be wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.”[Romans 1:22-23]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 510, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XXX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3816 (In-Text, Margin)

... truth, to the wrigglings of worms or any other such creatures; but in the spirit of truth, we testify of certain Greek philosophers that they knew God, seeing “He manifested Himself to them,” although “they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations; and professing themselves to be wise, they became foolish, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.”[Romans 1:21-23]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 575, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)
Chapter III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4289 (In-Text, Margin)

... are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.”[Romans 1:18-23] The truth, then, is verily held (in unrighteousness), as our Scriptures testify, by those who are of opinion that “the chief good cannot be described in words,” but who assert that, “after long custom and familiar usage, a light becomes suddenly ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 631, footnote 4 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XLVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4792 (In-Text, Margin)

... imaginations;” and notwithstanding the bright light of knowledge with which God had enlightened them, “their foolish heart” was carried away, and became “darkened.” Thus we may see how those who accounted themselves wise gave proofs of great folly, when, after such grand arguments delivered in the schools on God and on things apprehended by the reason, they “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.”[Romans 1:23] As, then, they lived in a way unworthy of the knowledge which they had received from God, His providence leaving them to themselves, they were given “up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonour their own bodies,” in ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 50, footnote 1 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)

Book V. (HTML)
Naasseni Ascribe Their System, Through Mariamne, to James the Lord's Brother; Really Traceable to the Ancient Mysteries; Their Psychology as Given in the “Gospel According to Thomas;” Assyrian Theory of the Soul; The Systems of the Naasseni and the Assyrians Compared; Support Drawn by the Naasseni from the Phrygian and Egyptian Mysteries; The Mysteries of Isis; These Mysteries Allegorized by the Naasseni. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 342 (In-Text, Margin)

... however, the natural use is, according to them, we shall afterwards declare. “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly”—now the expression that which is unseemly signifies, according to these (Naasseni), the first and blessed substance, figureless, the cause of all figures to those things that are moulded into shapes,—“and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.”[Romans 1:20-27] For in these words which Paul has spoken they say the entire secret of theirs, and a hidden mystery of blessed pleasure, are comprised. For the promise of washing is not any other, according to them, than the introduction of him that is washed in, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 498, footnote 1 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus. (HTML)
That idols are not gods, and that the elements are not to be worshipped in the place of gods. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3702 (In-Text, Margin)

1. That idols are not gods, and that the elements are not to be worshipped in the place of gods.[Romans 1:23]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 101, footnote 1 (Image)

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

Lactantius (HTML)

The Divine Institutes (HTML)

Book IV. Of True Wisdom and Religion (HTML)
Chap. I.—Of the former religion of men, and how error was spread over every age, and of the seven wise men of Greece (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 495 (In-Text, Margin)

... embracing various superstitions, and believing in the existence of many gods, they suddenly arrived at such ignorance of themselves, that the truth being taken away from their eyes, the religion of the true God was not observed, nor the condition of human nature, since men did not seek the chief good in heaven, but on earth. And on this account assuredly the happiness of the ancient ages was changed. For, having left God, the parent and founder of all things, men began to worship the senseless works[Romans 1:21-23] of their own hands. And what were the effects of this corruption, or what evils it introduced, the subject itself sufficiently declares. For, turning away from the chief good, which is blessed and everlasting on this account, because it cannot be ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 81, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

He describes the twenty-ninth year of his age, in which, having discovered the fallacies of the Manichæans, he professed rhetoric at Rome and Milan. Having heard Ambrose, he begins to come to himself. (HTML)

Having Heard Faustus, the Most Learned Bishop of the Manichæans, He Discerns that God, the Author Both of Things Animate and Inanimate, Chiefly Has Care for the Humble. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 379 (In-Text, Margin)

... if they find Him, knowing that He is God, they glorify Him not as God, neither are they thankful, but become vain in their imaginations, and say that they themselves are wise, attributing to themselves what is Thine; and by this, with most perverse blindness, they desire to impute to Thee what is their own, forging lies against Thee who art the Truth, and changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things,[Romans 1:23] —changing Thy truth into a lie, and worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 151, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Some account of the Socratic and Platonic philosophy, and a refutation of the doctrine of Apuleius that the demons should be worshipped as mediators between gods and men. (HTML)

That the Excellency of the Christian Religion is Above All the Science of Philosophers. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 305 (In-Text, Margin)

... God Himself, because they paid divine honors, which are due to Him alone, to other things also to which they ought not to have paid them,—“because, knowing God, they glorified Him not as God: neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things;”[Romans 1:21-23] —where the apostle would have us understand him as meaning the Romans, and Greeks, and Egyptians, who gloried in the name of wisdom; but concerning this we will dispute with them afterwards. With respect, however, to that wherein they agree with us ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 283, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Of the punishment and results of man’s first sin, and of the propagation of man without lust. (HTML)

Of the Nature of the Two Cities, the Earthly and the Heavenly. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 765 (In-Text, Margin)

... in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise,”—that is, glorying in their own wisdom, and being possessed by pride,—“they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.” For they were either leaders or followers of the people in adoring images, “and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.”[Romans 1:21-25] But in the other city there is no human wisdom, but only godliness, which offers due worship to the true God, and looks for its reward in the society of the saints, of holy angels as well as holy men, “that God may be all in all.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 545, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

On Christian Doctrine (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

No Help is to Be Despised, Even Though It Come from a Profane Source. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1803 (In-Text, Margin)

... and acknowledges the truth, even in their religious literature, let him reject the figments of superstition, and let him grieve over and avoid men who, “when they knew God, glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.”[Romans 1:21-23]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 181, footnote 4 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

He expounds this trinity that he has found in knowledge by commending Christian faith. (HTML)
What in the Incarnate Word Belongs to Knowledge, What to Wisdom. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 846 (In-Text, Margin)

... But that the same is Himself the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,—this took place, in order that He Himself in things done for us in time should be the same for whom we are cleansed by the same faith, that we may contemplate Him steadfastly in things eternal. And those distinguished philosophers of the heathen who have been able to understand and discern the invisible things of God by those things which are made, have yet, as is said of them, “held down the truth in iniquity;”[Romans 1:23] because they philosophized without a Mediator, that is, without the man Christ, whom they neither believed to be about to come at the word of the prophets, nor to have come at that of the apostles. For, placed as they were in these lowest things, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 327, 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 Christ’s Session at the Father’s Right Hand. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1582 (In-Text, Margin)

... however, is not to lead us to suppose that God the Father is, as it were, circumscribed by a human form, so that, when we think of Him, a right side or a left should suggest itself to the mind. Nor, again, when it is thus said in express terms that the Father sitteth, are we to fancy that this is done with bended knees; lest we should fall into that profanity, in [dealing with] which an apostle execrates those who “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of corruptible man.”[Romans 1:23] For it is unlawful for a Christian to set up any such image for God in a temple; much more nefarious is it, [therefore], to set it up in the heart, in which truly is the temple of God, provided it be purged of earthly lust and error. This ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 261, footnote 2 (Image)

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

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

Faustus repels the charge of sun-worship, and maintains that while the Manichæans believe that God’s power dwells in the sun and his wisdom in the moon, they yet worship one deity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  They are not a schism of the Gentiles, nor a sect.  Augustin emphasizes the charge of polytheism, and goes into an elaborate comparison of Manichæan and pagan mythology. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 748 (In-Text, Margin)

... seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." But, as the apostle adds, "when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things."[Romans 1:20-23] These are the idols of the Gentiles, which they cannot explain except by referring to the creatures made by God; so that this very explanation of their idolatry, on which the more enlightened Gentiles were wont to pride themselves as a proof of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 310, footnote 4 (Image)

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

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

Faustus states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 966 (In-Text, Margin)

... in their impious rites. The calf is gold, because there is a semblance of wisdom in the institution of idolatrous worship. Of this the apostle says, "Knowing God, they glorified Him not as God, nor were thankful; but they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise they became foolish, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things."[Romans 1:21-23] From this so-called wisdom came the golden calf, which was one of the forms of idolatry among the chief men and professed sages of Egypt. The calf, then, represents every body or society of Gentile idolaters. This impious society the Lord Christ ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 91, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Knowledge of God Through the Creation. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 784 (In-Text, Margin)

... world, being understood through the things that are made, even His eternal power and divinity; so that they are without excuse: because, knowing God, they yet glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools; and they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to four footed beasts, and to creeping things.”[Romans 1:18-23] Observe, he does not say that they were ignorant of the truth, but that they held down the truth in unrighteousness. For it occurred to him, that he would inquire whence the knowledge of the truth could be obtained by those to whom God had not given ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 129, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)

Sin and the Penalty of Sin the Same. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1185 (In-Text, Margin)

... yet by this very penalty—that is, by their blindness of heart, which supervenes on the withdrawal of the light of wisdom—they fell into more grievous sins still. “For giving themselves out as wise, they became fools.” This is a grievous penalty, if one only understands it; and from such a penalty only see to what lengths they ran: “And they changed,” he says, “the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.”[Romans 1:23] All this they did owing to that penalty of their sin, whereby “their foolish heart was darkened.” And yet, owing to these deeds of theirs, which, although coming in the way of punishment, were none the less sins (he goes on to say): “Wherefore God ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 267, footnote 9 (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. Chap. v. 3 and 8, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit:' etc., but especially on that, 'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.' (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1898 (In-Text, Margin)

... But if now thy conceptions of God are at least so spiritual as not to imagine Him to be corporeal (of which subject I treated yesterday at considerable length, if yet it was not in vain), if I have succeeded in breaking down in your heart, as in God’s temple, that image of human form; if the words in which the Apostle expresses his detestation of those, “who, professing themselves to be wise became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man,”[Romans 1:22-23] have entered deep into your minds, and taken possession of your inmost heart; if ye do now detest and abhor such impiety, if ye keep clean for the Creator His own temple, if ye would that He should come and make His abode with you, “Think of the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 531, footnote 10 (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, John xiv. 6, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’ (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4197 (In-Text, Margin)

... Show, prove their foolishness. Show, O Apostle, and as thou hast shown us whereby they were able to attain to the knowledge of God, for that “the invisible things of Him are clearly seen, being understood by those things that are made;” so now show how, “professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Hear; Because “they changed,” he says, “the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things.”[Romans 1:23] For of figures of these animals, the Pagans made themselves gods. Thou hast found out God, and thou worshippest an idol. Thou hast found out the truth, and this very truth dost thou detain in unrighteousness. And what by the works of God thou hast ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 90, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XXXVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 843 (In-Text, Margin)

... so that they have come into that abyss of which it is said, “Thy judgments are like the great abyss:” so that they have come even to that deep wherein sinners who despise have fallen. “Have fallen.” Whereby did they first fall? By the foot of pride. Hear the foot of pride. “When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God.” Therefore came against them the foot of pride, whereby they came into the depth. “God gave them over to their own hearts’ lusts, to do those things which are not convenient.”[Romans 1:21-24] The root of sin, and the head of sin feared he who said, “Let not the foot of pride come against me.” Wherefore said he, “the foot”? Because by walking proudly man deserted God, and departed from Him. His foot, called he his affection. “Let not the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 529, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4843 (In-Text, Margin)

... made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the graven image” (ver. 19). “Thus they changed their glory, in the similitude of a calf that eateth hay” (ver. 20). He saith not “into” the likeness, but “in” the likeness. It is such a form of speech as where he said “and they believed in His words.” With great effect in truth he saith not, they changed the glory of God when they did this; as the Apostle also saith, “They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man:”[Romans 1:23] but “their glory.” For God was their glory, if they would abide His counsel, and hasten not.…

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 195, footnote 6 (Image)

Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans

A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (HTML)

Homily XXXI on Acts xiv. 14, 15. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 716 (In-Text, Margin)

... that they themselves should refer all to God. “Nevertheless, He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, giving you rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.” (v. 17.) (c) See how covertly he puts the accusation “in that He did good,” etc. And yet if God did this, He could not have “let them alone;” on the contrary, they ought to be punished, for that, enjoying so great benefits, they had not acknowledged Him, not even as their feeder.[Romans 1:18-32] “From heaven,” he says, “giving you rain.” Thus also David said, “From the fruit of their corn and wine and oil were they made to abound” (Ps. iv. 7), and in many places speaking of Creation, he brings forward these benefits: and Jeremiah mentions ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 320, footnote 3 (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)
Objections to the Foregoing Proof. Whether, in the generation of the Son, God made One that was already, or One that was not. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1971 (In-Text, Margin)

... yet does not alter at His own choice, as being of an alterable nature? for He is not as a stone to remain by Himself unmoveable.’ Next they turn to silly women, and address them in turn in this womanish language; ‘Hadst thou a son before bearing? now, as thou hadst not, so neither was the Son of God before His generation.’ In such language do the disgraceful men sport and revel, and liken God to men, pretending to be Christians, but changing God’s glory ‘into an image made like to corruptible man[Romans 1:23].’

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 392, footnote 11 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

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

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

Discourse II (HTML)
Texts Explained; Sixthly, the Context of Proverbs viii. 22 Vz. 22-30. It is right to interpret this passage by the Regula Fidei. 'Founded' is used in contrast to superstructure; and it implies, as in the case of stones in building, previous existence. 'Before the world' signifies the divine intention and purpose. Recurrence to Prov. viii. 22, and application of it to created Wisdom as seen in the works. The Son reveals the Father, first by the works, then by the Incarnation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2776 (In-Text, Margin)

... must be told, ‘Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools;’ for ‘that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has revealed it unto them; for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived by the things that are made, even His eternal Power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, but served the creature more than the Creator of all, who is blessed for ever. Amen[Romans 1:19-25].’ And they will surely be shamed at hearing, ‘For, after that in the wisdom of God (in the mode we have explained above), the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe.’ For no longer, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 294, footnote 2 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Second Theological Oration. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3458 (In-Text, Margin)

... distribution of inheritance! Then they gave to each of these concepts the name of some god or demon, by the authority and private judgment of their error, and set up statues whose costliness is a snare, and thought to honour them with blood and the steam of sacrifices, and sometimes even by most shameful actions, frenzies and manslaughter. For such honours were the fitting due of such gods. And before now men have insulted themselves by worshipping monsters, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things,[Romans 1:23] and of the very vilest and most absurd, and have made an offering to them of the glory of God; so that it is not easy to decide whether we ought most to despise the worshippers or the objects of their worship. Probably the worshippers are far the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 348, footnote 6 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

On the Theophany, or Birthday of Christ. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3870 (In-Text, Margin)

... as the more tender, and which she brought to bear upon the man, as she was the more apt to persuade, alas for my weakness! (for that of my first father was mine), he forgot the Commandment which had been given to him; he yielded to the baleful fruit; and for his sin he was banished, at once from the Tree of Life, and from Paradise, and from God; and put on the coats of skins…that is, perhaps, the coarser flesh, both mortal and contradictory. This was the first thing that he learnt—his own shame;[Romans 1:22-31] and he hid himself from God. Yet here too he makes a gain, namely death, and the cutting off of sin, in order that evil may not be immortal. Thus his punishment is changed into a mercy; for it is in mercy, I am persuaded, that God inflicts ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 218, 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 XII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1306 (In-Text, Margin)

... Apostle, who was trained by the law, and separated by divine appointment, and spoke through Christ speaking in him, either was ignorant of the prophecy, or was not ignorant but contradicted it; and thus did not know Christ to be a creature when he named Him the Creator; and forbade the worship of a creature, warning us that the Creator alone is to be served, and saying, Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and served the creature, passing by the Creator Who is blessed for ever and ever[Romans 1:23]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 403, footnote 1 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X. (HTML)

Conference X. The Second Conference of Abbot Isaac. On Prayer. (HTML)
Chapter V. The answer on the heresy described above. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1665 (In-Text, Margin)

... glory of the true Deity should be worshipped under the limitations of some figure, as they believe that they can grasp and hold nothing if they have not some image set before them, which they can continually address while they are at their devotions, and which they can carry about in their mind and have always fixed before their eyes. And against this mistake of theirs this text may be used: “And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man.”[Romans 1:23] Jeremiah also says: “My people have changed their glory for an idol. Which error although by this its origin, of which we have spoken, it is engrained in the notions of some, yet none the less is it contracted in the hearts also of those who have ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs