Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
1 Corinthians 3:16
There are 37 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 84, footnote 2 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to the Philadelphians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)
Chapter VII.—I have exhorted you to unity. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 943 (In-Text, Margin)
... comes and whither it goes, and detects the secrets [of the heart]. For, when I was among you, I cried, I spoke with a loud voice: Give heed to the bishop, and to the presbytery and deacons. Now, some suspected me of having spoken thus, as knowing beforehand the division caused by some among you. But He is my witness, for whose sake I am in bonds, that I got no intelligence from any man. But the Spirit proclaimed these words: Do nothing without the bishop; keep your bodies as the temples of God;[1 Corinthians 3:16] love unity; avoid divisions; be the followers of Jesus Christ, even as He is of His Father.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 532, footnote 2 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book V (HTML)
Chapter VI.—God will bestow salvation upon the whole nature of man, consisting of body and soul in close union, since the Word took it upon Him, and adorned with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, of whom our bodies are, and are termed, the temples. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4479 (In-Text, Margin)
2. Whence also he says, that this handiwork is “the temple of God,” thus declaring: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man, therefore, will defile the temple of God, him will God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are.”[1 Corinthians 3:16] Here he manifestly declares the body to be the temple in which the Spirit dwells. As also the Lord speaks in reference to Himself, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He spake this, however,” it is said, “of the temple of His body.” And not only does he (the apostle) acknowledge our bodies to be a temple, but even the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 575, footnote 8 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus (HTML)
XL. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4883 (In-Text, Margin)
“And he found the jaw-bone of an ass.” It is to be observed that, after [Samson had committed] fornication, the holy Scripture no longer speaks of the things happily accomplished by him in connection with the formula, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him.” For thus, according to the holy apostle, the sin of fornication is perpetrated against the body, as involving also sin against the temple of God.[1 Corinthians 3:16-17]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 36, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
The Pastor of Hermas (HTML)
Book Third.—Similitudes (HTML)
Similitude Fifth. Of True Fasting and Its Reward: Also of Purity of Body. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 286 (In-Text, Margin)
“I rejoice, sir,” I said, “to hear this explanation.” “Hear,” again he replied: “Keep this flesh pure and stainless, that the Spirit which inhabits it may bear witness to it, and your flesh may be justified. See that the thought never arise in your mind that this flesh of yours is corruptible, and you misuse it by any act of defilement. If you defile your flesh, you will also defile the Holy Spirit; and if you defile your flesh [and spirit], you will not live.”[1 Corinthians 3:16-17] “And if any one, sir,” I said, “has been hitherto ignorant, before he heard these words, how can such a man be saved who has defiled his flesh?” “Respecting former sins of ignorance,” he said, “God alone is able to heal them, for to Him belongs all power. [But be on ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 547, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XIII.—Description of the Gnostic Continued. (HTML)
What, then, shall we say of the Gnostic himself? “Know ye not,” says the apostle, “that ye are the temple of God?”[1 Corinthians 3:16] The Gnostic is consequently divine, and already holy, God-bearing, and God-borne. Now the Scripture, showing that sinning is foreign to him, sells those who have fallen away to strangers, saying, “Look not on a strange woman, to lust,” plainly pronounces sin foreign and contrary to the nature of the temple of God. Now the temple is great, as the Church, and it is small, as the man who preserves the seed of Abraham. He, therefore, who has ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 230, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
A Treatise on the Soul. (HTML)
The Entire Soul Being Indivisible Remains to the Last Act of Vitality; Never Partially or Fractionally Withdrawn from the Body. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1796 (In-Text, Margin)
... belongs to the whole, and completes it. Hence, indeed, many times it happens that the soul in its actual separation is more powerfully agitated with a more anxious gaze, and a quickened loquacity; whilst from the loftier and freer position in which it is now placed, it enunciates, by means of its last remnant still lingering in the flesh, what it sees, what it hears, and what it is beginning to know. In Platonic phrase, indeed, the body is a prison, but in the apostle’s it is “the temple of God,”[1 Corinthians 3:16] because it is in Christ. Still, (as must be admitted,) by reason of its enclosure it obstructs and obscures the soul, and sullies it by the concretion of the flesh; whence it happens that the light which illumines objects comes in upon the soul in a ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 442, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture. (HTML)
The Divine Way of Wisdom, and Greatness, and Might. God's Hiding of Himself, and Subsequent Revelation. To Marcion's God Such a Concealment and Manifestation Impossible. God's Predestination. No Such Prior System of Intention Possible to a God Previously Unknown as Was Marcion's. The Powers of the World Which Crucified Christ. St. Paul, as a Wise Master-Builder, Associated with Prophecy. Sundry Injunctions of the Apostle Parallel with the Teaching of the Old Testament. (HTML)
... believe in Him, upon which every man should build at will the superstructure of either sound or worthless doctrine; forasmuch as it is the Creator’s function, when a man’s work shall be tried by fire, (or) when a reward shall be recompensed to him by fire; because it is by fire that the test is applied to the building which you erect upon the foundation which is laid by Him, that is, the foundation of His Christ. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”[1 Corinthians 3:16] Now, since man is the property, and the work, and the image and likeness of the Creator, having his flesh, formed by Him of the ground, and his soul of His afflatus, it follows that Marcion’s god wholly dwells in a temple which belongs to ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 552, footnote 19 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
Holy Scripture Magnifies the Flesh, as to Its Nature and Its Prospects. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7361 (In-Text, Margin)
... assertions which he makes, it is not the substance of the flesh, but its actions, which are censured. Moreover, we shall elsewhere take occasion to remark, that no reproaches can fairly be cast upon the flesh, without tending also to the castigation of the soul, which compels the flesh to do its bidding. However, let me meanwhile add that in the same passage Paul “carries about in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus;” he also forbids our body to be profaned, as being “the temple of God;”[1 Corinthians 3:16] he makes our bodies “the members of Christ;” and he exhorts us to exalt and “glorify God in our body.” If, therefore, the humiliations of the flesh thrust off its resurrection, why shall not its high prerogatives rather avail to bring it ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 18, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On the Apparel of Women. (HTML)
II (HTML)
Introduction. Modesty to Be Observed Not Only in Its Essence, But in Its Accessories. (HTML)
... fellow-servants and sisters, the right which I enjoy with you—I, the most meanest in that right of fellow-servantship and brotherhood—emboldens me to address to you a discourse, not, of course, of affection, but paving the way for affection in the cause of your salvation. That salvation—and not (the salvation) of women only, but likewise of men—consists in the exhibition principally of modesty. For since, by the introduction into an appropriation (in) us of the Holy Spirit, we are all “the temple of God,”[1 Corinthians 3:16-17] Modesty is the sacristan and priestess of that temple, who is to suffer nothing unclean or profane to be introduced (into it), for fear that the God who inhabits it should be offended, and quite forsake the polluted abode. But on the present ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 46, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
To His Wife. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Remarks on Some of the “Dangers and Wounds” Referred to in the Preceding Chapter. (HTML)
... the brotherhood, in accordance with the letter of the apostle, who says that “with persons of that kind there is to be no taking of food even.” Or shall we “in that day” produce (our) marriage certificates before the Lord’s tribunal, and allege that a marriage such as He Himself has forbidden has been duly contracted? What is prohibited (in the pas sage just referred to) is not “adultery;” it is not “fornication.” The admission of a strange man (to your couch) less violates “the temple of God,”[1 Corinthians 3:16] less commingles “the members of Christ” with the members of an adulteress. So far as I know, “we are not our own, but bought with a price;” and what kind of price? The blood of God. In hurting this flesh of ours, therefore, we hurt Him directly. ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 80, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Modesty. (HTML)
Examples of Such Offences Under the Old Dispensation No Pattern for the Disciples of the New. But Even the Old Has Examples of Vengeance Upon Such Offences. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 777 (In-Text, Margin)
... lasciviousness, but the flowers of holiness; which was to impart to the waters its own purities—thenceforth, whatever flesh (is) “in Christ” has lost its pristine soils, is now a thing different, emerges in a new state, no longer (generated) of the slime of natural seed, nor of the grime of concupiscence, but of “pure water” and a “clean Spirit.” And, accordingly, why excuse it on the ground of pristine precedent? It did not bear the names of “body of Christ,” of “members of Christ,” of “temple of God,”[1 Corinthians 3:16] at the time when it used to obtain pardon for adultery. And thus if, from the moment when it changed its condition, and “having been baptized into Christ put on Christ,” and was “redeemed with a great price”—“the blood,” to wit, “of the Lord and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 91, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Modesty. (HTML)
General Consistency of the Apostle. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 862 (In-Text, Margin)
Necessary it is, therefore, that the (character of the) apostle should be continuously pointed out to them; whom I will maintain to be such in the second of Corinthians withal, as I know (him to be) in all his letters. (He it is) who even in the first (Epistle) was the first of all (the apostles) to dedicate the temple of God: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that in you the Lord dwells?”[1 Corinthians 3:16] —who likewise, for the consecrating and purifying (of) that temple, wrote the law pertaining to the temple-keepers: “If any shall have marred the temple of God, him shall God mar; for the temple of God is holy, which (temple) are ye.” Come, now; who in the world has (ever) redintegrated one who ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 355, footnote 3 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
To the Numidian Bishops, on the Redemption of Their Brethren from Captivity Among the Barbarians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2639 (In-Text, Margin)
2. For inasmuch as the Apostle Paul says again, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”[1 Corinthians 3:16] —even although love urged us less to bring help to the brethren, yet in this place we must have considered that it was the temples of God which were taken captive, and that we ought not by long inactivity and neglect of their suffering to allow the temples of God to be long captive, but to strive with what powers we can, and to act quickly by our obedience, to deserve well of Christ our Judge and Lord and God. For as the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 542, footnote 12 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
In the Gospel according to John: “Lo, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing happen unto thee.” Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God abideth in you? If any one violate the temple of God, him will God destroy.”[1 Corinthians 3:16-17] Of this same thing in the Chronicles: “God is with you, while ye are with Him: if ye forsake Him, He will forsake you.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 46, footnote 5 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Gregory Thaumaturgus. (HTML)
Dubious or Spurious Writings. (HTML)
A Sectional Confession of Faith. (HTML)
Section XXI. (HTML)
... “Approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities,” and so forth. Then he adds these words: “By kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God.” Behold here again the saint has defined the holy Trinity, naming God, and the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And again he says: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.”[1 Corinthians 3:16-17] And again: “But ye are washed, but ye are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” And again: “What! know ye not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?” “And I think ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 108, footnote 13 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
He resolves the question he had deferred, and teaches us that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one power and one wisdom, no otherwise than one God and one essence. And he then inquires how it is that, in speaking of God, the Latins say, One essence, three persons; but the Greeks, One essence, three substances or hypostases. (HTML)
Why the Son Chiefly is Intimated in the Scriptures by the Name of Wisdom, While Both the Father and the Holy Spirit are Wisdom. That the Holy Spirit, Together with the Father and the Son, is One Wisdom. (HTML)
... said which is written, “God is love;” how is He not also Himself wisdom, since He is light, because “God is light”? or whether after any other way the essence of the Holy Spirit is to be singly and properly named; then, too, since He is God, He is certainly light; and since He is light, He is certainly wisdom. But that the Holy Spirit is God, Scripture proclaims by the apostle, who says, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?” and immediately subjoins, “And the Spirit of God dwelleth in you;”[1 Corinthians 3:16] for God dwelleth in His own temple. For the Spirit of God does not dwell in the temple of God as a servant, since he says more plainly in another place, “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, and which ye have ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 256, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
The Holy Spirit and the Church. The Church is the Temple of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1190 (In-Text, Margin)
... of a temple. Now He has a temple, of which the apostle says: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God?” Of which body he says in another place: “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?” How, then, is He not God, seeing that He has a temple? and how can He be less than Christ, whose members are His temple? Nor has He one temple, and God another, seeing that the same apostle says: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?”[1 Corinthians 3:16] and adds, as proof of this, “and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” God, then, dwells in His temple: not the Holy Spirit only, but the Father also, and the Son, who says of His own body, through which He was made Head of the Church upon earth ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 256, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
The Holy Spirit and the Church. The Church is the Temple of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1191 (In-Text, Margin)
... that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God?” Of which body he says in another place: “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?” How, then, is He not God, seeing that He has a temple? and how can He be less than Christ, whose members are His temple? Nor has He one temple, and God another, seeing that the same apostle says: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?” and adds, as proof of this, “and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.”[1 Corinthians 3:16] God, then, dwells in His temple: not the Holy Spirit only, but the Father also, and the Son, who says of His own body, through which He was made Head of the Church upon earth (“that in all things He might have the pre-eminence):” “Destroy this ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 474, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Lying. (HTML)
Section 38 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2370 (In-Text, Margin)
... any inconvenience of Him, but to their own pernicious hurt; seeing they corrupt His gifts bestowed upon them, even His temporal gifts, and by their very corruptions turn away from eternal gifts: above all, if they have already begun to be the Temple of God; which to all Christians the Apostle saith thus: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Whoso shall corrupt God’s temple, God will corrupt him. For the temple of God is holy: which temple are ye.”[1 Corinthians 3:16-17]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 329, 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. xii. 32, ‘Whosoever shall speak a word against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.’ Or, ‘on the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2460 (In-Text, Margin)
... Divinity of the Almighty, and the Unity of the Unchangeable Trinity, who can easily perceive by knowledge what the soul is; and yet who is there that hath not a soul? Finally, that we may know most certainly that “babes in Christ,” who do not “perceive the things of the Spirit of God,” have notwithstanding the Spirit of God; let us look how the Apostle Paul, when a little while after he is rebuking them, saith, “Know ye not that ye are the temples of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”[1 Corinthians 3:16] This surely he would in no wise say to those who are separated from the Church, who are described as “having not the Spirit.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 361, footnote 4 (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. xviii. 15, ‘If thy brother sin against thee, go, shew him his fault between thee and him alone;’ and of the words of Solomon, he that winketh with the eyes deceitfully, heapeth sorrow upon men; but he that reproveth openly, maketh peace. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2755 (In-Text, Margin)
13. Let no one say in his heart, “God careth not for sins of the flesh.” “Know ye not,” saith the Apostle, “that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy.”[1 Corinthians 3:16-17] “Let no man deceive himself.” But perhaps a man will say, “My soul is the temple of God, not my body,” and will add this testimony also, “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.” Unhappy interpretation! conceit meet for punishment! The flesh is called grass, because it dies; but take thou heed that that which dies for a time, rise not again with ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 419, footnote 5 (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, Luke vii. 37, ‘And behold, a woman who was in the city, a sinner,’ etc. On the remission of sins, against the Donatists. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3230 (In-Text, Margin)
... given to His faithful ones, and not by men’s deserts, after He had risen from the dead, He saith in a certain place, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost;” and when He had said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” He subjoined immediately, “Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them;” that is, the Spirit remits them, not ye. Now the Spirit is God. God therefore remits, not ye. But what are ye in regard to the Spirit? “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”[1 Corinthians 3:16] And again, “Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?” So then God dwelleth in His holy temple, that is in His holy faithful ones, in His Church; by them doth He remit sins; because they ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 91, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall. (HTML)
Letter I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 222 (In-Text, Margin)
... more precious. For if one man who does the will of God is better than ten thousand transgressors, then thou wast formerly better than ten thousand Jews. Wherefore no one would now blame me if I were to compose more lamentations than those which are contained in the prophet, and to utter complaints yet more vehement. For it is not the overthrow of a city which I mourn, nor the captivity of wicked men, but the desolation of a sacred soul, the destruction and effacement of a Christ-bearing temple.[1 Corinthians 3:16-17] For would not any one who knew in the days of its glory that well-ordered mind of thine which the devil has now set on fire, groan, imitating the lamentation of the prophet; when he hears that barbarian hands have defiled the holy of holies, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 316, 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)
Subject Continued. Objection, that the Son's eternity makes Him coordinate with the Father, introduces the subject of His Divine Sonship, as a second proof of His eternity. The word Son is introduced in a secondary, but is to be understood in real sense. Since all things partake of the Father in partaking of the Son, He is the whole participation of the Father, that is, He is the Son by nature; for to be wholly participated is to beget. (HTML)
... what does begetting signify but a Son? And thus of the Son Himself, all things partake according to the grace of the Spirit coming from Him; and this shews that the Son Himself partakes of nothing, but what is partaken from the Father, is the Son; for, as partaking of the Son Himself, we are said to partake of God; and this is what Peter said ‘that ye may be partakers in a divine nature;’ as says too the Apostle, ‘Know ye not, that ye are a temple of God?’ and, ‘We are the temple of a living God[1 Corinthians 3:16].’ And beholding the Son, we see the Father; for the thought and comprehension of the Son, is knowledge concerning the Father, because He is His proper offspring from His essence. And since to be partaken no one of us would ever call affection or ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 333, 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; Secondly, Psalm xlv. 7, 8. Whether the words 'therefore,' 'anointed,' &c., imply that the Word has been rewarded. Argued against first from the word 'fellows' or 'partakers.' He is anointed with the Spirit in His manhood to sanctify human nature. Therefore the Spirit descended on Him in Jordan, when in the flesh. And He is said to sanctify Himself for us, and give us the glory He has received. The word 'wherefore' implies His divinity. 'Thou hast loved righteousness,' &c., do not imply trial or choice. (HTML)
47. If then for our sake He sanctifies Himself, and does this when He is become man, it is very plain that the Spirit’s descent on Him in Jordan was a descent upon us, because of His bearing our body. And it did not take place for promotion to the Word, but again for our sanctification, that we might share His anointing, and of us it might be said, ‘Know ye not that ye are God’s Temple, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you[1 Corinthians 3:16]?’ For when the Lord, as man, was washed in Jordan, it was we who were washed in Him and by Him. And when He received the Spirit, we it was who by Him were made recipients of It. And moreover for this reason, not as Aaron or David or the rest, was He anointed with oil, but in another ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 403, footnote 5 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4842 (In-Text, Margin)
... indicates the number of Churches in the whole world, for though the Church be seven-fold she is but one. “I go,” He says, “to prepare a place for you,” not places. If this promise is peculiar to the twelve apostles, then Paul is shut out from that place, and the chosen vessel will be thought superfluous and unworthy. John and James, because they asked more than the others, did not obtain it; and yet their dignity is not diminished, because they were equal to the rest of the apostles.[1 Corinthians 3:16] “Know ye not that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Ghost?” A temple, He says, not temples, in order to show that God dwells in all alike. “Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 472, footnote 8 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5289 (In-Text, Margin)
... All indeed run, but one receiveth the crown. And in the Psalm it is written, “O Lord, thou hast crowned us with thy favour as with a shield.” For our victory is won and the crown of our victory is gained by His protection and through His shield; and here we run that hereafter we may attain; there he shall receive the crown who in this world has proved the conqueror. And when we have been baptized we are told, “Behold thou art made whole; sin no more lest a worse thing happen unto thee.” And again,[1 Corinthians 3:16-17] “Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man profane the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” And in another place, “The Lord is with you so long as ye are with Him: if ye forsake Him, He will ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 359, footnote 8 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Oration on the Holy Lights. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4007 (In-Text, Margin)
... Lord together. Let none of you, even though he has much confidence in himself, dare to say, Touch me not for I am pure, and who is so pure as I? Give us too a share in your brightness. But perhaps we are not convincing you? Then we will weep for you. Let these men then if they will, follow our way, which is Christ’s way; but if they will not, let them go their own. Perhaps in it they will be baptized with Fire, in that last Baptism which is more painful and longer, which devours wood like grass,[1 Corinthians 3:12-19] and consumes the stubble of every evil.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 34, footnote 4 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
Proof from Scripture that the Spirit is called Lord. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1165 (In-Text, Margin)
... firmly on the Spirit by the Spirit’s glory somehow transfigured into greater splendour, having his heart lighted up, as it were, by some light streaming from the truth of the Spirit. And, this is “being changed from the glory” of the Spirit “into” His own “glory,” not in niggard degree, nor dimly and indistinctly, but as we might expect any one to be who is enlightened by the Spirit. Do you not, O man, fear the Apostle when he says “Ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you”?[1 Corinthians 3:16] Could he ever have brooked to honour with the title of “temple” the quarters of a slave? How can he who calls Scripture “God-inspired,” because it was written through the inspiration of the Spirit, use the language of one who insults and belittles ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 87b, footnote 6 (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 the honour due to the Saints and their remains. (HTML)
Further, that God dwelt even in their bodies in spiritual wise, the Apostle tells us, saying, Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you?[1 Corinthians 3:16], and The Lord is that Spirit, and If any one destroy the temple of God, him will God destroy. Surely, then, we must ascribe honour to the living temples of God, the living tabernacles of God. These while they lived stood with confidence before God.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 148, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter XII. From the fact that St. Paul has shown that the light of the Godhead which the three apostles worshipped in Christ is in the Trinity, it is made clear that the Spirit also is to be worshipped. It is shown from the words themselves that the Spirit is intended by the apostles. The Godhead of the same Spirit is proved from the fact that He has a temple wherein He dwells not as a priest, but as God: and is worshipped with the Father and the Son; whence is understood the oneness of nature in Them. (HTML)
90. But how shamelessly do you deny this, since you have read that the Holy Spirit has a temple. For it is written: “Ye are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwelleth in you.”[1 Corinthians 3:16] Now God has a temple, a creature has no true temple. But the Spirit, Who dwelleth in us, has a temple. For it is written: “Your members are temples of the Holy Spirit.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 264, 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 IX. Of the Spirit of Dejection. (HTML)
Chapter III. To what the soul may be compared which is a prey to the attacks of dejection. (HTML)
... of the holy David, the ointment of the Holy Spirit coming down from heaven, first on Aaron’s beard, then on his skirts, is wont to assume: as it is said, “It is like the ointment upon the head which ran down upon Aaron’s beard, which ran down to the skirts of his clothing.” Nor can it have anything to do with the building or ornamentation of that spiritual temple of which Paul as a wise master builder laid the foundations, saying, “Ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you:”[1 Corinthians 3:16] and what the beams of this are like the bride tells us in the Song of Songs: “Our rafters are of cypress: the beams of our houses are of cedar.” And therefore those sorts of wood are chosen for the temple of God which are fragrant and not liable to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 582, footnote 2 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius. (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
Chapter III. How this participation in Divinity which the Pelagians and Nestorians attribute to Christ, is common to all holy men. (HTML)
... between Him and all other holy men: for all holy men have certainly had God within them. For we know well that God was in the patriarchs, and that He spoke in the prophets. In a word we believe that, I do not say apostles and martyrs, but, all the saints and servants of God have within them the Spirit of God, according to this: “Ye are the temple of the living God: as God said, For I will dwell in them.” And again: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”[1 Corinthians 3:16] And thus we are all receivers of God (Θεοδόχοι); and in this way you say that all the saints are only like Christ, and equal to God. But away with such a wicked and abominable heresy as that the Creator should be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 141, footnote 5 (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 826 (In-Text, Margin)
... and glory of the Maker. Be not subject to that light wherein birds and serpents, beasts and cattle, flies and worms delight. Confine the material light to your bodily senses, and with all your mental powers embrace that “true light which lighteth every man that cometh into this world,” and of which the prophet says, “Come unto Him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not blush.” For if we “are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in[1 Corinthians 3:16] ” us, what every one of the faithful has in his own heart is more than what he wonders at in heaven. And so, dearly beloved, we do not bid or advise you to despise God’s works or to think there is anything opposed to your ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 346, footnote 3 (Image)
Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)
Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations. (HTML)
Of Faith. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 651 (In-Text, Margin)
... consummated. And when his whole structure is raised up, consummated, and perfected, then he becomes a house and a temple for a dwelling-place of Christ, as Jeremiah the Prophet said:— The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are ye, if ye amend your ways and your works. And again He said through the Prophet:— I will dwell in them and walk in them. And also the Blessed Apostle thus said:— Ye are the temple of God and the spirit of Christ dwelleth in you.[1 Corinthians 3:16] And also our Lord again thus said to His disciples:— Ye are in Me and I am in you.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 347, footnote 3 (Image)
Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)
Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations. (HTML)
Of Faith. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 655 (In-Text, Margin)
... the blessed Apostle say. For he said:— I as a wise architect have laid the foundation. And there he defined the foundation and made it clear, for he said as follows:— No man can lay other foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And that Christ furthermore dwells in that building is the word that was written above—that of Jeremiah who called men temples and said of God that He dwelt in them. And the Apostle said:— The Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you.[1 Corinthians 3:16] And our Lord said:— I and My Father are one. And therefore that word is accomplished, that Christ dwells in men, namely, in those who believe on Him, and He is the foundation on which is reared up the whole building.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 364, footnote 14 (Image)
Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)
Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations. (HTML)
Of Monks. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 866 (In-Text, Margin)
... Lord’s money on the banker’s table, will not be called an unprofitable servant. Whosoever loves humility, shall be heir in the land of life. Whosoever wishes to make peace, shall be one of the sons of God. Whosoever knows the will of his Lord, let him do that will, that he may not be beaten much. Whosoever cleanses his heart from deceits, His eyes shall behold the King in his beauty. Whosoever receives the Spirit of Christ, let him adorn his inner man. Whosoever is called the temple of God,[1 Corinthians 3:16-17] let him purify his body from all uncleanness. Whosoever grieves the Spirit of Christ, shall not raise up his head from griefs. Whosoever receives the body of Christ, let him keep his body from all uncleanness. Whosoever casts off the old man, ...