Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
2 Corinthians 2:16
There are 19 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 502, footnote 1 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XXVIII.—Those persons prove themselves senseless who exaggerate the mercy of Christ, but are silent as to the judgment, and look only at the more abundant grace of the New Testament; but, forgetful of the greater degree of perfection which it demands from us, they endeavour to show that there is another God beyond Him who created the world. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4204 (In-Text, Margin)
... of the Egyptians, so are we, too, by that of the Jews; if, indeed, the death of the Lord is the condemnation of those who fastened Him to the cross, and who did not believe His advent, but the salvation of those who believe in Him. For the apostle does also say in the Second [Epistle] to the Corinthians: “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them which are saved, and in them which perish: to the one indeed the savour of death unto death, but to the other the savour of life unto life.”[2 Corinthians 2:15-16] To whom, then, is there the savour of death unto death, unless to those who believe not neither are subject to the Word of God? And who are they that did even then give themselves over to death? Those men, doubtless, who do not believe, nor submit ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 254, footnote 4 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter VIII.—On the Use of Ointments and Crowns. (HTML)
... work of sweet savour reaching to all was proclaimed; for the passion of the Lord has filled us with sweet fragrance, and the Hebrews with guilt. This the apostle most clearly showed, when he said, “thanks be to God, who always makes us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are to God a sweet savour of the Lord, in them that are saved, and them that are lost; to one a savour of death unto death, to the other a savour of life unto life.”[2 Corinthians 2:14-16] And the kings of the Jews using gold and precious stones and a variegated crown, the anointed ones wearing Christ symbolically on the head, were unconsciously adorned with the head of the Lord. The precious stone, or pearl, or emerald, points out ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 61, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth years of his age, passed at Carthage, when, having completed his course of studies, he is caught in the snares of a licentious passion, and falls into the errors of the Manichæans. (HTML)
In Public Spectacles He is Moved by an Empty Compassion. He is Attacked by a Troublesome Spiritual Disease. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 222 (In-Text, Margin)
... who had real compassion rather there were nothing for him to grieve about. For if goodwill be ill-willed (which it cannot), then can he who is truly and sincerely commiserating wish that there should be some unhappy ones, that he might commiserate them. Some grief may then be justified, none loved. For thus dost Thou, O Lord God, who lovest souls far more purely than do we, and art more incorruptibly compassionate, although Thou art wounded by no sorrow. “And who is sufficient for these things?”[2 Corinthians 2:16]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 476, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Lying. (HTML)
Section 42 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2379 (In-Text, Margin)
... to the perfecting of faith. Not even if any man is so ill moved by our right deeds as to become worse in his mind, and far more remote from piety, are right deeds therefore to be foregone: since what we are chiefly to hold is that whereunto we ought to call and invite them whom as our own selves we love; and with most courageous mind we must drink in that apostolic sentence: “To some we are a savor of life unto life, to others a savor of death unto death; and who is sufficient for these things?”[2 Corinthians 2:16] Nor in the eighth sort must there be lying: because both among good things chastity of mind is greater than pudicity of body; and among evil things, that which ourselves do, than that which we suffer to be done. In these eight kinds, however, a man ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 498, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Against Lying. (HTML)
Section 36 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2460 (In-Text, Margin)
... move me while contemplating that luminous Good in which is no darkness of a lie, that, when we refuse to lie, and men through hearing of a truth do die, truth is called a murderer. For if a lewd woman crave of thee the gratification of her lust, and, when thou consentest not, she perturbed with the fierceness of her love should die, will chastity also be a murderer? Or, truly, because we read, “We are a sweet savor of Christ in every place, both in them which are saved and in them which perish;”[2 Corinthians 2:15-16] to the one, indeed, a savor of life unto life, to others a savor of death unto death; shall we pronounce even the savor of Christ to be a murderer? But, for that we, being men, are in questions and contradictions of this sort for the most part ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 441, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
Augustin undertakes the refutation of the arguments which might be derived from the epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus, to give color to the view that the baptism of Christ could not be conferred by heretics. (HTML)
Chapter 13 (HTML)
... being different from our own, so that a second baptism should be administered; but that the very same baptism, which was working death by reason of discord outside the Church, may work salvation by reason of the peace within. It was, in fact, the same savor of which the apostle says, "We are a sweet savor of Christ in every place;" and yet, says he, "both in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of life unto life; and to the other the savor of death unto death."[2 Corinthians 2:15-16] And although he used these words with reference to another subject, I have applied them to this, that men may understand that what is good may not only work life to those who use it aright, but also death to those who use it wrong.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 518, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Further Apostolic Testimonies. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3546 (In-Text, Margin)
... death unto death, but to some the savour of life unto life.” See concerning what this most zealous soldier and invincible defender of grace gives thanks. See concerning what he gives thanks,—that the apostles are a sweet savour of Christ unto God, both in those who are saved by His grace, and in those who perish by His judgment. But in order that those who little understand these things may be less enraged, he himself gives a warning when he adds the words: “And who is sufficient for these things?”[2 Corinthians 2:16] But let us return to the opening of the door by which the apostle signified the beginning of faith in his hearers. For what is the meaning of, “Withal praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of the word,” unless it is a most manifest ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 201, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
The Harmony of the Gospels. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Of the Hour of the Lord’s Passion, and of the Question Concerning the Absence of Any Discrepancy Between Mark and John in the Article of the ‘Third’ Hour and the ‘Sixth.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1410 (In-Text, Margin)
... the vision of God, and sojourning distantly from Him, to say, “This ought to have been introduced here;” for he is utterly ignorant of the reason which led God to will its being inserted in the place it occupies. The word of an apostle is to this effect: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.” And again he says: “To the one indeed we are the savour of life unto life; to the other, the savour of death unto death;” and adds immediately, “And who is sufficient for these things?”[2 Corinthians 2:16] —that is to say, who is sufficient to comprehend how righteously that is done? The Lord Himself expresses the same when He says, “I am come that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind.” For it is in the depth of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 280, footnote 7 (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 XI. 55–57; XII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1017 (In-Text, Margin)
... blasphemed, through the good the name of the Lord is honored. Listen to the apostle, when he says, “We are a sweet savor of Christ in every place.” As it is said also in the Song of Songs, “Thy name is as ointment poured forth.” Attend again to the apostle: “We are a sweet savor,” he says, “of Christ in every place, both in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of life unto life, to the other the savor of death unto death: and who is sufficient for these things?”[2 Corinthians 2:14-16] The lesson of the holy Gospel before us affords us the opportunity of so speaking of that savor, that we on our part may give worthy utterance, and you diligent heed, to what is thus expressed by the apostle himself, “And who is sufficient for these ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 358, 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 XV. 22, 23. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1472 (In-Text, Margin)
... him: and this it is, that they believed not on Christ, who came for the very purpose of enlisting their faith. From this sin, had He not come, they would certainly have been free. His advent has become as much fraught with destruction to unbelievers, as it is with salvation to those that believe; for He, the Head and Prince of the apostles, has Himself, as it were, become what they declared of themselves, “to some, indeed, the savour of life unto life; and to some the savor of death unto death.”[2 Corinthians 2:16]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 26, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm VII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 262 (In-Text, Margin)
... that they which are approved,” he says, “may be made manifest among you:” that is, among men, seeing they are manifest to God. Or has He haply ordained the same arrows to be at once instruments of death for the destruction of unbelievers, and wrought them burning, or for the burning, for the exercising of the faithful? For that is not false that the Apostle says, “To the one we are the savour of life unto life, to the other the savour of death unto death; and who is sufficient for these things?”[2 Corinthians 2:16] It is no wonder then if the same Apostles be both instruments of death in those from whom they suffered persecution, and fiery arrows to inflame the hearts of believers.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 43, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 446 (In-Text, Margin)
... following of them, whether by way of preparation for the last punishment, if he shall choose to persevere in sin; or to dissuade from pride, if in time he shall come to seek God with a more sincere intent. But if by clouds are understood good and true prophets only; by these too it is clear that God raineth snares upon sinners, although by them He watereth also the godly unto fruitfulness. “To some,” saith the Apostle, “we are the savour of life unto life; to some the savour of death unto death.”[2 Corinthians 2:16] For not prophets only, but all who with the word of God water souls, may be called clouds. Who when they are understood amiss, God raineth snares upon sinners; but when they are understood aright, He maketh the hearts of the godly and believing ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 52, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 532 (In-Text, Margin)
15. “And He sent out His arrows, and scattered them” (ver. 14). And He sent out Evangelists traversing straight paths on the wings of strength, not in their own power, but His by whom they were sent. And “He scattered them,” to whom they were sent, that to some of them they should be “the savour of life unto life, to others the savour of death unto death.”[2 Corinthians 2:16] “And He multiplied lightnings, and troubled them.” And He multiplied miracles, and troubled them.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 377, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3627 (In-Text, Margin)
... angels to have been wrought in those that are made subject to them by Divine justice. For neither when that cometh to pass of which the apostle speaketh, “God gave them over into the lusts of their heart, that they should do things which are not convenient,” can it be but that those evil angels dwell and rejoice therein, as in the matter of their own work: unto whom most justly is human haughtiness made subject, in all save those whom grace doth deliver. “And for these things who is sufficient?”[2 Corinthians 2:16] Whence when he had said, “He sent unto them the anger of His indignation, indignation and anger and tribulation, an infliction through evil angels;” for this which he hath added, “a way He hath made for the path of His anger” (ver. 50), whose eye, I ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 531, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4856 (In-Text, Margin)
... He doth nothing but what He foreknew that He should do from eternity; but in the temporal changes of creation, which He ruleth wonderfully, He, without any temporal change in Himself, is said to do by a sudden act of will what in the ordained causes of events He hath arranged in the unchangeableness of His most secret counsel, according to which He doth everything according to defined seasons, doing the present, and having already done the future. And who is capable of comprehending these things?[2 Corinthians 2:16] Let us therefore hear the Scripture, speaking high things humbly, giving food for the nourishment of children, and proposing subjects for the research of the older: that everlasting covenant “which He made with Abraham,” not the old which is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 189, footnote 3 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Three Homilies Concerning the Power of Demons. (HTML)
Homily II. On the Power of Man to Resist the Devil. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 586 (In-Text, Margin)
... Cross? But this Cross has become an offence to the weak. “For the word of the Cross is to them that are perishing, foolishness: but to those which are being saved, it is the power of God.” And again, “we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumbling-block and unto Gentiles foolishness.” What could be more fit for teaching than Paul, and the apostles? But the Apostles became a savour of death to many. He says at least “to one a savour from death unto death: to the other a savour from life unto life.”[2 Corinthians 2:16] Dost thou see that the weak is hurt even by Paul, but the strong is injured not even by the Devil?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 261, footnote 4 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Two Homilies on Eutropius. (HTML)
Homily II. After Eutropius having been found outside the Church had been taken captive. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 869 (In-Text, Margin)
... seeds of godliness, like an excellent ploughman handling the ploughshare of doctrine. And to whom did he go? To Thracians, to Scythians, to Indians, to Maurians, to Sardinians, to Goths, to wild savages, and he changed them all. By what means? By means of “the earnest.” How was he sufficient for these things? By the grace of the Spirit. Unskilled, ill-clothed, ill-shod he was upheld by Him “who also hath given the earnest of the Spirit.” Therefore he saith “and who is sufficient for these things?[2 Corinthians 2:16] But our sufficiency is of God, who hath made us sufficient as ministers of the new Testament, not of the letter but of the Spirit.” Behold what the Spirit hath wrought: He found the earth filled with demons and He has made it heaven. For meditate ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 476, footnote 11 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5314 (In-Text, Margin)
9. The Apostle Paul, rapidly recounting the benefits of God, ended with the words,[2 Corinthians 2:16] “And who is sufficient for these things?” Wherefore, also, in another place he says, “Such confidence have we through Christ to Godward; not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; Who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” Do we still dare to pride ourselves on free will, and to abuse ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 214, footnote 8 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2647 (In-Text, Margin)
46. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as the many, able to corrupt[2 Corinthians 2:16-17] the word of truth, and mix the wine, which maketh glad the heart of man, with water, mix, that is, our doctrine with what is common and cheap, and debased, and stale, and tasteless, in order to turn the adulteration to our profit, and accommodate ourselves to those who meet us, and curry favor with everyone, becoming ventriloquists and chatterers, who serve their own pleasures by words uttered from the earth, and sinking into the earth, and, to gain ...