Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
2 Corinthians 5:1
There are 23 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 440, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter XXIII.—The Same Subject Continued. (HTML)
... and on no occasion turning back; giving thanks for his sojourn, and blessing [God] for his departure, embracing the mansion that is in heaven. “For we know, that, if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we walk by faith, not by sight,”[2 Corinthians 5:1-3] as the apostle says; “and we are willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with God.” The rather is in comparison. And comparison obtains in the case of things that fall under resemblance; as the more valiant man is more valiant among ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 455, footnote 8 (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 Eternal Home in Heaven. Beautiful Exposition by Tertullian of the Apostle's Consolatory Teaching Against the Fear of Death, So Apt to Arise Under Anti-Christian Oppression. The Judgment-Seat of Christ--The Idea, Anti-Marcionite. Paradise. Judicial Characteristics of Christ Which are Inconsistent with the Heretical Views About Him; The Apostle's Sharpness, or Severity, Shows Him to Be a Fit Preacher of the Creator's Christ. (HTML)
As to the house of this our earthly dwelling-place, when he says that “we have an eternal home in heaven, not made with hands,”[2 Corinthians 5:1] he by no means would imply that, because it was built by the Creator’s hand, it must perish in a perpetual dissolution after death. He treats of this subject in order to offer consolation against the fear of death and the dread of this very dissolution, as is even more manifest from what follows, when he adds, that “in this tabernacle of our earthly body we do groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with the vesture which is ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 575, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
The Dissolution of Our Tabernacle Consistent with the Resurrection of Our Bodies. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7552 (In-Text, Margin)
It is still the same sentiment which he follows up in the passage in which he puts the recompense above the sufferings: “for we know;” he says, “that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;”[2 Corinthians 5:1] in other words, owing to the fact that our flesh is undergoing dissolution through its sufferings, we shall be provided with a home in heaven. He remembered the award (which the Lord assigns) in the Gospel: “Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Yet, when he thus contrasted the recompense of the reward, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 21, footnote 14 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On the Apparel of Women. (HTML)
II (HTML)
Of Dyeing the Hair. (HTML)
... even from white to black! O temerity! The age which is the object of our wishes and prayers blushes (for itself)! a theft is effected! youth, wherein we have sinned, is sighed after! the opportunity of sobriety is spoiled! Far from Wisdom’s daughters be folly so great! The more old age tries to conceal itself, the more will it be detected. Here is a veritable eternity, in the (perennial) youth of your head! Here we have an “incorruptibility” to “put on,” with a view to the new house of the Lord[2 Corinthians 5:1] which the divine monarchy promises! Well do you speed toward the Lord; well do you hasten to be quit of this most iniquitous world, to whom it is unsightly to approach (your own) end!
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 151, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
Appendix (HTML)
Five Books in Reply to Marcion. (HTML)
Of the Harmony of the Old and New Laws. (HTML)
340 Thus did he speak of “flesh.” In fine, he said[2 Corinthians 5:1]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 346, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
On the End of the World. (HTML)
... find the apostle making mention of a spiritual body, let us inquire, to the best of our ability, what idea we are to form of such a thing. So far, then, as our understanding can grasp it, we consider a spiritual body to be of such a nature as ought to be inhabited not only by all holy and perfect souls, but also by all those creatures which will be liberated from the slavery of corruption. Respecting the body also, the apostle has said, “We have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,”[2 Corinthians 5:1] i.e., in the mansions of the blessed. And from this statement we may form a conjecture, how pure, how refined, and how glorious are the qualities of that body, if we compare it with those which, although they are celestial bodies, and of most ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 624, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XXXII (HTML)
Celsus next assails the doctrine of the resurrection, which is a high and difficult doctrine, and one which more than others requires a high and advanced degree of wisdom to set forth how worthy it is of God; and how sublime a truth it is which teaches us that there is a seminal principle lodged in that which Scripture speaks of as the “tabernacle” of the soul, in which the righteous “do groan, being burdened, not for that they would be unclothed, but clothed upon.”[2 Corinthians 5:1] Celsus ridicules this doctrine because he does not understand it, and because he has learnt it from ignorant persons, who were unable to support it on any reasonable grounds. It will be profitable, therefore, that in addition to what we have said above, we should ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 624, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XXXII (HTML)
... regions of heaven. When it comes into the world at birth, it casts off the integuments which it needed in the womb; and before doing this, it puts on another body suited for its life upon earth. Then, again, as there is “a tabernacle” and “an earthly house” which is in some sort necessary for this tabernacle, Scripture teaches us that “the earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved,” but that the tabernacle shall “be clothed upon with a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”[2 Corinthians 5:1] The men of God say also that “the corruptible shall put on incorruption,” which is a different thing from “the incorruptible;” and “the mortal shall put on immortality,” which is different from “the immortal.” Indeed, what “wisdom” is to “the wise,” ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 373, footnote 4 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
From the Discourse on the Resurrection. (HTML)
Part III. (HTML)
A Synopsis of Some Apostolic Words from the Same Discourse. (HTML)
V. Now the followers of Origen bring forward this passage, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,”[2 Corinthians 5:1] and so forth, to disprove the resurrection of the body, saying that the “tabernacle” is the body, and the “house not made with hands” “in the heavens” is our spiritual clothing. Therefore, says the holy Methodius, by this earthly house must metaphorically be understood our short-lived existence here, and not this tabernacle; for if you decide to consider the body as being the earthly house which is dissolved, tell us what is the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 698, footnote 2 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents. (HTML)
Martyrdom of the Holy Confessors Shamuna, Guria, and Habib, from Simeon Metaphrastes. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3283 (In-Text, Margin)
... nearer: What, said they, does it matter to us, if thou art angry, and nursest thine anger, and rainest tortures upon us like snow-flakes? For then wouldst thou be favouring us all the more, by rendering the proof of our fortitude more conspicuous, and winning for us a greater recompense. For this is the crowning point of our hope, that we shall leave behind our present dwelling, which is but for a time, and depart to one that will last forever. For we have “a tabernacle not made with hands”[2 Corinthians 5:1] in heaven, which the Scripture is accustomed also to call “Abraham’s bosom,” because of the familiar intercourse with God with which he was blessed. The governor, seeing that their firmness underwent no change, forthwith left off speaking and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 181, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He continues his explanation of the first Chapter of Genesis according to the Septuagint, and by its assistance he argues, especially, concerning the double heaven, and the formless matter out of which the whole world may have been created; afterwards of the interpretations of others not disallowed, and sets forth at great length the sense of the Holy Scripture. (HTML)
He Argues Against Adversaries Concerning the Heaven of Heavens. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1115 (In-Text, Margin)
... that createth and that which hath been created; as between the Righteousness which justifieth, and the righteousness which has been made by justification. For we also are called Thy righteousness; for thus saith a certain servant of Thine: “That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Therefore, since a certain created wisdom was created before all things, the rational and intellectual mind of that chaste city of Thine, our mother which is above, and is free, and “eternal in the heavens”[2 Corinthians 5:1] (in what heavens, unless in those that praise Thee, the “heaven of heavens,” because this also is the “heaven of heavens,” which is the Lord’s)—although we find not time before it, because that which hath been created before all things also ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 263, footnote 10 (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)
That the Sin is Caused Not by the Flesh, But by the Soul, and that the Corruption Contracted from Sin is Not Sin But Sin’s Punishment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 648 (In-Text, Margin)
... “though our outward man perish,” says, “We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up in life.”[2 Corinthians 5:1-4] We are then burdened with this corruptible body; but knowing that the cause of this burdensomeness is not the nature and substance of the body, but its corruption, we do not desire to be deprived of the body, but to be clothed with its immortality. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 96, footnote 15 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
The Old Law Ministers Death; The New, Righteousness. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 850 (In-Text, Margin)
... says he, “this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” When further on he commends in glowing terms this same grace, in the Lord Jesus Christ, until he comes to that vestment of the righteousness of faith, “clothed with which we cannot be found naked,” and whilst longing for which “we groan, being burdened” with mortality, “earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven,” “that mortality might be swallowed up of life;”[2 Corinthians 5:1-4] —observe what he says: “Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit;” and after a little he thus briefly draws the conclusion of the matter: “That we might be made the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 321, 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 XIV. 1–3. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1258 (In-Text, Margin)
... the apostles, but even of any baptized infant from the kingdom of heaven; do you not think yourselves deserving of reprobation in thus putting a separation between these and the house of God the Father? For the Lord’s words are not, In the whole world, or, In all creation, or, In everlasting life and blessedness, there are many mansions; but He says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” Is not that the house where we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens?[2 Corinthians 5:1] Is not that the house whereof we sing to the Lord, “Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house; they shall praise Thee for ever and ever”? Will you then venture to separate from the kingdom of heaven the house, not of every baptized brother, but of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 47, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 498 (In-Text, Margin)
... meaning, it is a thing of war. Hence soldiers are called tent-fellows, as having their tents together. This sense is assisted by the words, “Who shall sojourn?” For we war with the devil for a time, and then we need a tabernacle wherein we may refresh ourselves. Which specially points out the faith of the temporal Dispensation, which was wrought for us in time through the Incarnation of the Lord. “And who shall rest in Thy holy mountain?” Here perhaps he signifies at once the eternal habitation itself,[2 Corinthians 5:1-2] that we should understand by “mountain” the supereminence of the love of Christ in life eternal.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 118, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1084 (In-Text, Margin)
... the place where I am to dwell for ever. The place where I am to abide for ever, should be rather called my home. In the place from which I am to remove I am a “sojourner;” but yet it is with my God that I am a sojourner, with whom I am hereafter to abide, when I have reached my home. But what home is that to which you are to remove from this estate of a sojourner? Recognise that home, of which the Apostle speaks, “We have an habitation of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.”[2 Corinthians 5:1] If this house is eternal in the Heavens, when we have come to it, we shall not be sojourners any more. For how should you be a sojourner in an eternal home? But here, where the Master of the house is some day to say to you, “Remove,” while you ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 300, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2908 (In-Text, Margin)
... unwilling to die: and therefore willingly or rather patiently we suffer, because no other passage is given us, through which we may cleave to Christ. For if we could in any other way arrive at Christ, that is, at life everlasting, who would be willing to die? For while explaining our nature, that is, a sort of association of soul and body, and in these two parts a kind of intimacy of gluing and fastening together, the Apostle saith, that “we have a House not made with hands, everlasting in the Heavens:”[2 Corinthians 5:1] that is, immortality prepared for us, wherewith we are to be clothed at the end, when we shall have risen from the dead; and he saith, “Wherein we are not willing to be stripped, but to be clothed upon, that the mortal may be swallowed up of life.” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 593, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5429 (In-Text, Margin)
... of the kindled heart of the loving Psalmist, as a great thing? Is not it that Jerusalem, unto whom the Lord said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets,” etc. What great thing then did he desire; to stand among those who slew the Prophets, and stoned them that were sent unto them? God forbid that he should think of that Jerusalem, who so loveth, who so burneth, who so longeth to reach that Jerusalem, “our Mother,” of which the Apostle saith, that She is “eternal in the Heavens.”[2 Corinthians 5:1]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 678, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXLIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5978 (In-Text, Margin)
... see: see what? God. Ask John: “God is love;” let us bless His holy Name, and rejoice in God by rejoicing in love. Whoso hath love, why send we him afar to see God? Let him regard his own conscience, and there he seeth God.…“And let the sons of Sion exult in their King.” The sons of the Church are Israel. For Sion indeed was one city, which fell: amid its ruins certain saints dwelt after the flesh: but the true Sion, the true Jerusalem (for Sion and Jerusalem are one), is “eternal in the heavens,”[2 Corinthians 5:1] and is “our mother.” She it is that hath given us birth, she is the Church of the saints, she hath nourished us, she, who is in part a pilgrim, in part abiding in the heavens. In the part which abideth in heaven is the bliss of angels, in the part ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 375, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4530 (In-Text, Margin)
... of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” This is so clear that no explanation can make it clearer: “Flesh and blood,” he says, “cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” If corruption attaches to all intercourse, and incorruption is characteristic of chastity, the rewards of chastity cannot belong to marriage.[2 Corinthians 5:1] “For we know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 237, footnote 2 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Panegyric on His Brother S. Cæsarius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2975 (In-Text, Margin)
... also it bestows upon it a portion of its joys, gathering it up entirely into itself, and becoming with it one in spirit and in mind and in God, the mortal and mutable being swallowed up of life. Hear at least how the inspired Ezekiel discourses of the knitting together of bones and sinews, how after him Saint Paul speaks of the earthly tabernacle, and the house not made with hands, the one to be dissolved, the other laid up in heaven, alleging absence from the body to be presence with the Lord,[2 Corinthians 5:1] and bewailing his life in it as an exile, and therefore longing for and hastening to his release. Why am I faint-hearted in my hopes? Why behave like a mere creature of a day? I await the voice of the Archangel, the last trumpet, the transformation ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 293, footnote 5 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To the very well beloved and reverend brethren the presbyters Acacius, Aetius, Paulus, and Silvanus; the deacons Silvinus and Lucius, and the rest of the brethren the monks, Basil, the bishop. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3126 (In-Text, Margin)
has reached me of the severe persecution carried on against you, and how directly after Easter the men who fast for strife and debate attacked your homes, and gave your labours to the flames, preparing for you indeed a house in the heavens, not made with hands,[2 Corinthians 5:1] but for themselves laying up in store the fire which they had used to your hurt. I no sooner heard of this than I groaned over what had happened; pitying not you, my brethren, (God forbid!) but the men who are so sunk in wickedness as to carry their evil deeds to such an extent. I expected you all to hurry at once to the refuge prepared for you in my humble self; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 322, footnote 6 (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 III. Conference of Abbot Paphnutius. On the Three Sorts of Renunciations. (HTML)
Chapter VII. How we can attain perfection in each of these sorts of renunciations. (HTML)
... Scripture says to Jerusalem which had despised God the true Father, “Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite;” and in the gospel we read “Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye love to do.” And when we have left him, as we pass from things visible to things unseen we shall be able to say with the Apostle: “But we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved we have a habitation from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,”[2 Corinthians 5:1] and this also, which we quoted a little while ago: “But our conversation is in heaven, whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who will reform the body of our low estate made like to the body of His glory,” and this of the blessed ...