Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
1 Corinthians 7:40
There are 22 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 396, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2574 (In-Text, Margin)
... propria toti quoque Ecclesiæ præ esse sint meditati. “Unusquisque” ergo, “in quo vocatus est” opere ministerium peragat, ut liber in Christo fiat, et debitam ministerio suo mercedem accipiat. Et rursus de lege disserens, utens allegoria: “Nam quæ sub viro est mulier,” inquit, “viventi viro alligata est lege,” et quæ sequuntur. Et rursus: “Mulletest alligata, quandiu vivit vir ejus; sin autem mortuus fuerit, libera est ut nubat, modo in Domino. Beata est autem si sic permanserit, mea quidem sententia.”[1 Corinthians 7:39-40] Sed in priore quidem particula, “mortificati estis,” inquit, “legi,” non matrimonio, “ut efficiamini vos alteri, qui excitatus est ex mortuis,” sponsa et Ecclesia; quam castam esse oportet, et ab iis quæ strut intus, cogitationibus, quæ sunt ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 715, footnote 18 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Patience. (HTML)
Of Bodily Patience. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 9158 (In-Text, Margin)
... severity, elicits clemency. Thus that Babylonish king, after being exiled from human form in his seven years’ squalor and neglect, because he had offended the Lord; by the bodily immolation of patience not only recovered his kingdom, but—what is more to be desired by a man—made satisfaction to God. Further, if we set down in order the higher and happier grades of bodily patience, (we find that) it is she who is entrusted by holiness with the care of continence of the flesh: she keeps the widow,[1 Corinthians 7:39-40] and sets on the virgin the seal and raises the self-made eunuch to the realms of heaven. That which springs from a virtue of the mind is perfected in the flesh; and, finally, by the patience of the flesh, does battle under persecution. ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 60, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Monogamy. (HTML)
The Question of Novelty Further Considered in Connection with the Words of the Lord and His Apostles. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 586 (In-Text, Margin)
... assertion we make: that even if the Paraclete had in this our day definitely prescribed a virginity or continence total and absolute, so as not to permit the heat of the flesh to foam itself down even in single marriage, even thus He would seem to be introducing nothing of “novelty;” seeing that the Lord Himself opens “the kingdoms of the heavens” to “eunuchs,” as being Himself, withal, a virgin; to whom looking, the apostle also—himself too for this reason abstinent—gives the preference to continence.[1 Corinthians 7:40] (“Yes”), you say, “but saving the law of marriage.” Saving it, plainly, and we will see under what limitations; nevertheless already destroying it, in so far as he gives the preference to continence. “Good,” he says, “(it is) for a man not to have ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 550, footnote 19 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
... of thy parents.” Also in Genesis, Abraham sends his servant to take from his seed Rebecca, for his son Isaac. Also in Esdras, it was not sufficient for God when the Jews were laid waste, unless they forsook their foreign wives, with the children also whom they had begotten of them. Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “The woman is bound so long as her husband liveth; but if he die, she is freed to marry whom she will, only in the Lord. But she will be happier if she abide thus.”[1 Corinthians 7:39-40] And again: “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? Far be it from me. Or know ye not that he who is joined together with an harlot is one body? for two ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 641, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Novatian. (HTML)
A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. (HTML)
He Next Teaches Us that the Authority of the Faith Enjoins, After the Father and the Son, to Believe Also on the Holy Spirit, Whose Operations He Enumerates from Scripture. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5273 (In-Text, Margin)
... insatiable desires, controls immoderate lusts, quenches unlawful fires, conquers reckless impulses, repels drunkenness, checks avarice, drives away luxurious revellings, links love, binds together affections, keeps down sects, orders the rule of truth, overcomes heretics, turns out the wicked, guards the Gospel. Of this says the same apostle: “We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God.” Concerning Him he exultingly says: “And I think also that I have the Spirit of God.”[1 Corinthians 7:40] Of Him he says: “The Spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets.” Of Him also he tells: “Now the Spirit speaketh plainly, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, doctrines of demons, who speak ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 46, footnote 8 (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)
... 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.” 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 also that I have the Spirit of God.”[1 Corinthians 7:40]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 507, footnote 8 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)
Book XIV. (HTML)
The Bill of Divorcement. (HTML)
... Christ Jesus which teaches that the law is spiritual, he will seek also the spiritual understanding of this law. And he who wishes to interpret these things figuratively will say that, just as it was said by Paul confident in the grace which he had, “A wife is bound for so long time as her husband liveth, but if the husband be dead she is free to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord; but she is happier if she abide as she is, after my judgment, and I think that I also have the Spirit of God”[1 Corinthians 7:39-40] (for here to the words, “after my judgment,” lest it should be despised as being without the Spirit of God, he well added, “and I think that I also have the Spirit of God),” so also it would be possible for Moses, by reason of the power given to him ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 422, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Of Holy Virginity. (HTML)
Section 18 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2054 (In-Text, Margin)
... Wherefore I admonish both men and women who follow after perpetual continence and holy virginity, that they so set their own good before marriage, as that they judge not marriage an evil: and that they understand that it was in no way of deceit, but of plain truth that it was said by the Apostle, “Whoso gives in marriage does well; and whoso gives not in marriage, does better; and, if thou shalt have taken a wife, thou hast not sinned; and, if a virgin shall have been married, she sinneth not;”[1 Corinthians 7:40] and a little after, “But she wilt be more blessed, if she shall have continued so, according to my judgment.” And, that the judgment should not be thought human, he adds, “But I think I also have the Spirit of God.” This is the doctrine of the Lord, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 443, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Good of Widowhood. (HTML)
Section 5 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2229 (In-Text, Margin)
... good; but concerning that immoderate use of the flesh, which is recognized in the weakness of married persons, and is pardoned by the intervention of the good of marriage, the Apostle saith, “I speak of leave, not of command.” Also, when he says, “The woman is bound, so long as her husband lives: but, in case her husband shall have died, she is set free: let her be married to whom she will, only in the Lord: but she shall be more blessed, if she shall have so continued, according to my counsel;”[1 Corinthians 7:39-40] he shows sufficiently that a faithful woman is blessed in the Lord, even when she marries a second time after the death of her husband, but that a widow is more blessed in the same Lord; that is, to speak not only in the words, but by instances ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 447, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Good of Widowhood. (HTML)
Section 15 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2255 (In-Text, Margin)
... brevity of this my answer may chance to displease any, I am prepared to listen to my reprover treating more fully. For perhaps he alleges some reason, why second marriages be not condemned, but third be condemned. For I, as in the beginning of this discourse I gave warning, dare not to be more wise than it behoveth to be wise. For who am I, that I should think that that must be defined which I see that the Apostle hath not defined? For he saith, “A woman is bound, so long as her husband liveth.”[1 Corinthians 7:39-40] He said not, her first; or, second; or, third; or, fourth; but, “A woman,” saith he, “is bound, so long as her husband liveth; but if her husband shall be dead, she is set free; let her be married to whom she will, only in the Lord: but she shall be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 214, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. 19, 20. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 679 (In-Text, Margin)
... is hid, it is unbelief that is reproved by that doubting, not the Godhead merely expressing an opinion. For men sometimes chidingly express doubt concerning things which they hold certain; that is, use a word of doubting, while in their heart they doubt not: just as thou wouldst say to thy slave, if thou wert angry with him, “Thou despisest me; but consider, perhaps I am thy master.” Hence also the apostle, speaking to some who despised him, says: “And I think that I also have the Spirit of God.”[1 Corinthians 7:40] When he says, “I think,” he seems to doubt; but he is rebuking, not doubting. And in another place the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, rebuking the future unbelief of mankind, saith: “When the Son of man cometh, will He, thinkest thou, find faith on the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 359, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3471 (In-Text, Margin)
... Some woman or other devoted to continence hath willed to marry: what hath she willed? The same as any virgin. What hath she willed? The same as her own mother. Hath she willed any evil thing? Evil certainly. Why? Because already she had vowed to the Lord her God. For what hath the apostle Paul said concerning such? Though he saith that young widows may marry if they will: nevertheless he saith in a certain passage, “but more blessed she will be, if so she shall have remained, after my judgment.”[1 Corinthians 7:40] He showeth that she is more blessed, if so she shall have remained; but nevertheless that she is not to be condemned, if she shall have willed to marry. But what saith he concerning certain who have vowed and have not paid? “Having,” he saith, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 122, footnote 8 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Letter to a Young Widow. (HTML)
Letter to a Young Widow. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 344 (In-Text, Margin)
... not exercise authority over them, but suffered them to live in freedom. Neither did Paul confine his discourse on the subject to these remarks, but also in another place again he has manifested great anxiety about it where he says “Now she who liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth; but she who is a widow indeed and desolate hath set her hope in God, and continueth in prayers and supplications day and night.” And writing to the Corinthians he says “But she is more blessed if she abide thus.”[1 Corinthians 7:40] You see what great praise is bestowed upon widowhood, and this in the New Testament, when the beauty of virginity also was clearly brought to light. Nevertheless even the lustre of this state could not obscure the glories of widowhood, which shines ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 70, footnote 10 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Pammachius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1099 (In-Text, Margin)
... contain, lest ‘when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they marry, having condemnation because they have rejected their first faith,’ and he makes this concession because many ‘are turned aside after Satan.’ But they will be happier if they abide as widows. To this he immediately adds his apostolical authority, ‘after my judgment.’ Moreover, lest any should consider that authority, being human, to be of small weight, he goes on to say, ‘and I think also that I have the spirit of God.’[1 Corinthians 7:40] Thus, where he urges men to continence he appeals not to human authority, but to the Spirit of God; but when he gives them permission to marry he does not mention the Spirit of God, but allows prudential considerations to turn the balance, relaxing ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 231, footnote 5 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Ageruchia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3234 (In-Text, Margin)
... which is absolutely good and not merely relatively so is to be as the apostle, that is loose, not bound; free, not enslaved; caring for the things of God, not for the things of a wife. Immediately afterwards he adds: “The wife is bound by the law to her husband as long as her husband liveth, but if her husband be fallen asleep, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord. But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment: and I think also that I have the spirit of God.”[1 Corinthians 7:39-40] This passage corresponds with the former in meaning, because the spirit of the two is the same. For though the epistles are different, they are the work of one author. While her husband lives the woman is bound, and when he is dead, she is loosed. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 358, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4340 (In-Text, Margin)
14. He has ended his discussion of wedlock and virginity, and has carefully steered between the two precepts without turning to the right hand or to the left. He has followed the royal road and fulfilled the command not to be righteous over much. Now again he compares monogamy with digamy, and as he had subordinated marriage to virginity, so he makes second marriages inferior to first, and says,[1 Corinthians 7:39-40] “A wife is bound for so long time as her husband liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is free to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord. But she is happier if she abide as she is, after my judgement: and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.” He allows second marriages, but to such ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 358, footnote 6 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4342 (In-Text, Margin)
... the husband be dead, she is free to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord. But she is happier if she abide as she is, after my judgement: and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.” He allows second marriages, but to such persons as wish for them and are not able to contain; lest, having “waxed wanton against Christ,” they desire to marry, “having condemnation, because they have rejected their first faith;” and he makes the concession because many had already turned aside after Satan.[1 Corinthians 7:40] “But,” says he, “they will be happier if they abide as they are,” and he immediately adds the weight of Apostolic authority, “after my judgement.” And that an Apostle’s authority might not, like that of an ordinary man, be without weight, he added, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 443, footnote 3 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Letters of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Letters on the Apollinarian Controversy. (HTML)
To Cledonius the Priest Against Apollinarius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4722 (In-Text, Margin)
... love of novelty and proneness to innovations, rejects us as unworthy of credit, and attaches himself to such men, and divides the noble body of the Church, he shall bear his judgment, whoever he may be, and shall give account to God in the day of judgment. But if their long books, and their new Psalters, contrary to that of David, and the grace of their metres, are taken for a third Testament, we too will compose Psalms, and will write much in metre. For we also think we have the spirit of God,[1 Corinthians 7:40] if indeed this is a gift of the Spirit, and not a human novelty. This I will that thou declare publicly, that we may not be held responsible, as overlooking such an evil, and as though this wicked doctrine received food and strength from our ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 40, footnote 3 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
That the word “in,” in as many senses as it bears, is understood of the Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1263 (In-Text, Margin)
... larger and another a smaller share of the aid of the Spirit, that we may offer “the sacrifice of praise to God.” According to one use, then, it is thus that we offer our thanksgiving, as the true religion requires, in the Spirit; although it is not quite unobjectionable that any one should testify of himself “the Spirit of God is in me, and I offer glory after being made wise through the grace that flows from Him.” For to a Paul it is becoming to say “I think also that I have the Spirit of God,”[1 Corinthians 7:40] and again, “that good thing which was committed to thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.” And of Daniel it is fitting to say that “the Holy Spirit of God is in him,” and similarly of men who are like these in virtue.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 143, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter IX. That the Holy Spirit is provoked is proved by the words of St. Peter, in which it is shown that the Spirit of God is one and the same as the Spirit of the Lord, both by other passages and by reference to the sentence of the same Apostle on Ananias and Sapphira, whence it is argued that the union of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, as well as His own Godhead, is proved. (HTML)
55. Then, in the same way as we here understand that where the Spirit is there also is Christ; so also, elsewhere, he shows that where Christ is, there also is the Holy Spirit. For having said: “Do ye seek a proof of Christ Who speaketh in me?” he says elsewhere: “For I think that I also have the Spirit of God.”[1 Corinthians 7:40] The Unity, then, is inseparable, for by the testimony of Scripture where either the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit is designated, there is all the fulness of the Trinity.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 391, footnote 2 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Widows. (HTML)
Chapter I. After having written about virgins, it seemed needful to say something concerning widows, since the Apostle joins the two classes together, and the latter are as it were teachers of the former, and far superior to those who are married. Elijah was sent to a widow, a great mark of honour; yet widows are not honourable like her of Sarepta, unless they copy her virtues, notably hospitality. The avarice of men is rebuked, who forfeit the promises of God by their grasping. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3303 (In-Text, Margin)
2. But in this particular virtue is contained also the prizes of liberty. For: “The wife is bound as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband fall asleep she is freed: let her marry whom she will, only in the Lord. But she will be happier if she so abide, after my judgment, for I think I also have the Spirit of God.”[1 Corinthians 7:39-40] Evidently, then, the Apostle has expressed the difference, having said that the one is bound, and stated that the other is happier, and that he asserts not so much as the result of his own judgment, as of the infusion of the Spirit of God; that the decision should be seen to be heavenly, not human.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 462, footnote 5 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose. (HTML)
Epistle LXIII: To the Church at Vercellæ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3703 (In-Text, Margin)
... will, and hath determined this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin, doeth well. So then both he who giveth his own virgin in marriage, doeth well; and he that giveth her not in marriage, doeth better. A woman is bound by the law, for so long a time as her husband liveth. But if her husband have fallen asleep, she is freed, let her marry whom she will, only in the Lord. But she will be more happy if she abide as she is, after my counsel, for I think that I also have the Spirit of the Lord.”[1 Corinthians 7:37-40] This is to have the counsel of God, to search diligently into all things, and to advise things that are best, and to point out those that are safest.