Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

2 Corinthians 5:17

There are 39 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 62, footnote 5 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Ignatius (HTML)

Epistle to the Magnesians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)

Chapter VIII.—Caution against false doctrines. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 678 (In-Text, Margin)

Be not deceived with strange doctrines, “nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies,” and things in which the Jews make their boast. “Old things are passed away: behold, all things have become new.”[2 Corinthians 5:17] For if we still live according to the Jewish law, and the circumcision of the flesh, we deny that we have received grace. For the divinest prophets lived according to Jesus Christ. On this account also they were persecuted, being inspired by grace to fully convince the unbelieving that there is one God, the Almighty, who has manifested Himself by Jesus Christ His Son, who is His Word, not ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 140, footnote 30 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Barnabas (HTML)

The Epistle of Barnabas (HTML)

Chapter VI.—The sufferings of Christ, and the new covenant, were announced by the prophets. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1515 (In-Text, Margin)

... speaks to the Son, “Let Us make man after Our image, and after Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the beasts of the earth, and the fowls of heaven, and the fishes of the sea.” And the Lord said, on beholding the fair creature man, “Increase, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” These things [were spoken] to the Son. Again, I will show thee how, in respect to us, He has accomplished a second fashioning in these last days. The Lord says, “Behold, I will make the last like the first.”[2 Corinthians 5:17] In reference to this, then, the prophet proclaimed, “Enter ye into the land flowing with milk and honey, and have dominion over it.” Behold, therefore, we have been refashioned, as again He says in another prophet, “Behold, saith the Lord, I will ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 392, footnote 7 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2540 (In-Text, Margin)

... peccabimus, quiâ non sumus sub lege, sed sub gratia? Absit.” Adeo divine et prophetice e vestigio dissolvit artem voluptatis sophisticam. Non intelligunt ergo, ut videtur, quod “omnes nos oportet manifestari ante tribunal Christi, ut referat unusquisque per corpus ea quæ fecit, sire bonum, sive malum:” ut quæ per corpus fecit aliquis, recipiat. “Quare si quis est in Christo, nova creatura est,” nec amplius peccatis dedita: “Vetera præterierunt,” vitam antiquam exuimus: “Ecce enim nova facta sunt,”[2 Corinthians 5:16-17] castitas ex fornicatione, et continentia ex incontinentia, justitia ex injustitia. “Quæ est enim participatio justitiæ et injustitiæ? aut quæ luci cure tenebris societas? quæ est autem conventio Christo cum Belial? quæ pars est fideli cum infideli? ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 456, 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 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)
CCEL Footnote 5765 (In-Text, Margin)

... he sets before us a Judge who is to award both sentences, and has thereby affirmed that all will have to be present at the tribunal in their bodies. For it will be impossible to pass sentence except on the body, for what has been done in the body. God would be unjust, if any one were not punished or else rewarded in that very condition, wherein the merit was itself achieved. “If therefore any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new;”[2 Corinthians 5:17] and so is accomplished the prophecy of Isaiah. When also he (in a later passage) enjoins us “to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and blood” (since this substance enters not the kingdom of God); when, again, he “espouses the church as a ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 472, footnote 7 (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 Epistle to the Colossians. Time the Criterion of Truth and Heresy. Application of the Canon. The Image of the Invisible God Explained. Pre-Existence of Our Christ in the Creator's Ancient Dispensations.  What is Included in the Fulness of Christ. The Epicurean Character of Marcion's God. The Catholic Truth in Opposition Thereto. The Law is to Christ What the Shadow is to the Substance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6094 (In-Text, Margin)

... conduct of those persons who “held not the Head,” even Him in whom all things are gathered together; for they are all recalled to Christ, and concentrated in Him as their initiating principle —even the meats and drinks which were indifferent in their nature. All the rest of his precepts, as we have shown sufficiently, when treating of them as they occurred in another epistle, emanated from the Creator, who, while predicting that “old things were to pass away,” and that He would “make all things new,”[2 Corinthians 5:17] commanded men “to break up fresh ground for themselves,” and thereby taught them even then to put off the old man and put on the new.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 79, footnote 19 (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 774 (In-Text, Margin)

... unsealed even by marriage,—and “the Word was made flesh,” —(flesh) never to be unsealed by marriage,—which was to find its way to the tree not of incontinence, but of endurance; which was to taste from that tree not anything sweet, but something bitter; which was to pertain not to the infernal regions, but to heaven; which was to be precinct not with the leaves of lasciviousness, but the flowers of holiness; which was to impart to the waters its own purities—thenceforth, whatever flesh (is) “in Christ”[2 Corinthians 5:17] 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 ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 112, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Fasting. (HTML)

Reply to the Charge of “Galaticism.“ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1098 (In-Text, Margin)

Being, therefore, observers of “seasons” for these things, and of “days, and months, and years,” we Galaticize. Plainly we do, if we are observers of Jewish ceremonies, of legal solemnities: for those the apostle unteaches, suppressing the continuance of the Old Testament which has been buried in Christ, and establishing that of the New. But if there is a new creation in Christ,[2 Corinthians 5:17] our solemnities too will be bound to be new: else, if the apostle has erased all devotion absolutely “of seasons, and days, and months, and years,” why do we celebrate the passover by an annual rotation in the first month? Why in the fifty ensuing days do we ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 49, footnote 10 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)

Book V. (HTML)
Naasseni Ascribe Their System, Through Mariamne, to James the Lord's Brother; Really Traceable to the Ancient Mysteries; Their Psychology as Given in the “Gospel According to Thomas;” Assyrian Theory of the Soul; The Systems of the Naasseni and the Assyrians Compared; Support Drawn by the Naasseni from the Phrygian and Egyptian Mysteries; The Mysteries of Isis; These Mysteries Allegorized by the Naasseni. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 341 (In-Text, Margin)

For (the Naassene) says, there is the hermaphrodite man. According to this account of theirs, the intercourse of woman with man is demonstrated, in conformity with such teaching, to be an exceedingly wicked and filthy (practice). For, says (the Naassene), Attis has been emasculated, that is, he has passed over from the earthly parts of the nether world to the everlasting substance above, where, he says, there is neither female or male, but a new creature,[2 Corinthians 5:17] a new man, which is hermaphrodite. As to where, however, they use the expression “above,” I shall show when I come to the proper place (for treating this subject). But they assert that, by their account, they testify that Rhea is not absolutely isolated, but—for so I ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 152, footnote 4 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)

Book X. (HTML)
The Doctrine of the Truth Continued. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1094 (In-Text, Margin)

... conjecture, but that He should be manifested, so that we could see Him with our own eyes. This Logos, I say, the Father sent forth, in order that the world, on beholding Him, might reverence Him who was delivering precepts not by the person of prophets, nor terrifying the soul by an angel, but who was Himself—He that had spoken— corporally present amongst us. This Logos we know to have received a body from a virgin, and to have remodelled the old man[2 Corinthians 5:17] by a new creation. And we believe the Logos to have passed through every period in this life, in order that He Himself might serve as a law for every age, and that, by being present (amongst) us, He might exhibit His own manhood as an ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 383, footnote 2 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Methodius. (HTML)

Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna On the Day that They Met in the Temple. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2988 (In-Text, Margin)

... issues, are by the sacred preachers read over to the assembled Church. Today the accomplishment of that ancient and true counsel is, in fact and deed, gloriously manifested to the world. Today, without any covering, and with unveiled face, we see, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, and the majesty of the divine ark itself. To-day, the most holy assembly, bearing upon its shoulders the heavenly joy that was for generations expected, imparts it to the race of man. “Old things are passed away”[2 Corinthians 5:17] —things new burst forth into flowers, and such as fade not away. No longer does the stern decree of the law bear sway, but the grace of the Lord reigneth, drawing all men to itself by saving long-suffering. No second time is an Uzziah invisibly ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 383, footnote 8 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Methodius. (HTML)

Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna On the Day that They Met in the Temple. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2994 (In-Text, Margin)

... cares for man, in it makes His resting-place. These are the gifts of this new grace. This is that new and strange thing that has happened under the sun —a thing that never had place before, nor will have place again. That which God of His compassion toward us foreordained has come to pass, He hath given it fulfilment because of that love for man which is so becoming to Him. With good right, therefore, has the sacred trumpet sounded, “Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.”[2 Corinthians 5:17] And what shall I conceive, what shall I speak worthy of this day? I am struggling to reach the inaccessible, for the remembrance of this holy virgin far transcends all words of mine. Wherefore, since the greatness of the panegyric required ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 458, footnote 9 (Image)

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

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)

Sec. IV.—Of the Law (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3257 (In-Text, Margin)

By whom also we exhort you in the Lord to abstain from your old conversation, vain bonds, separations, observances, distinction of meats, and daily washings: for “old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”[2 Corinthians 5:17]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 197, footnote 7 (Image)

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

The Confessions (HTML)

Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Gen. I.) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God. (HTML)

Of the Lights and Stars of Heaven—Of Day and Night, Ver. 14. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1299 (In-Text, Margin)

... souls, given, some to things intellectual, others to things of sense; so that now not Thou only in the secret of Thy judgment, as before the firmament was made, dividest between the light and the darkness, but Thy spiritual children also, placed and ranked in the same firmament (Thy grace being manifest throughout the world), may give light upon the earth, and divide between the day and night, and be for signs of times; because “old things have passed away,” and “behold all things are become new;”[2 Corinthians 5:17] and “because our salvation is nearer than when we believed;” and because “the night is far spent, the day is at hand;” and because Thou wilt crown Thy year with blessing, sending the labourers of Thy goodness into Thy harvest, in the sowing of which ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 182, footnote 1 (Image)

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

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

Faustus quotes passages to show that the Apostle Paul abandoned belief in the incarnation, to which he earlier held.  Augustin shows that the apostle was consistent with himself in the utterances quoted. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 399 (In-Text, Margin)

... which in Christ was already a reality. So, though he has known Christ after the flesh, before His death, now he knows Him no more; for he knows that He has risen, and that death has no more dominion over Him. And because in Christ we all are even now in hope, though not in reality, what Christ is, he adds: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Christ."[2 Corinthians 5:14-18] What the new creature—that is, the people renewed by faith—hopes for regarding itself, it has already in Christ; and the hope will also hereafter be actually realized. And, as regards this hope, old things have passed away, because we are no longer ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 243, footnote 3 (Image)

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

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

Faustus is willing to admit that Christ may have said that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them; but if He did, it was to pacify the Jews and in a modified sense.  Augustin replies, and still further elaborates the Catholic view of prophecy and its fulfillment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 685 (In-Text, Margin)

... sufferings of Christ, the Lamb without spot. When you ask why a Christian does not keep the feasts of the new moon appointed in the law, if Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, I reply, that he does not keep them precisely because what was thus prefigured is fulfilled in Christ. For the feast of the new moon prefigured the new creature, of which the apostle says: "If therefore there is any new creature in Christ Jesus, the old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new."[2 Corinthians 5:17] When you ask why a Christian does not observe the baptisms for various kinds of uncleanness according to the law, if Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, I reply, that he does not observe them precisely because they were figures of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 32, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

From the Epistles to the Corinthians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 358 (In-Text, Margin)

... reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given unto us the ministry of reconciliation. To what effect? That God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and putting on us the ministry of reconciliation. Now then are we ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, to be reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.[2 Corinthians 5:14-21] We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For He saith, I have heard thee in an acceptable time, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the acceptable time; ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 122, footnote 11 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)

Nature Was Created Sound and Whole; It Was Afterwards Corrupted by Sin. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1137 (In-Text, Margin)

... it is not sound. All good qualities, no doubt, which it still possesses in its make, life, senses, intellect, it has of the Most High God, its Creator and Maker. But the flaw, which darkens and weakens all those natural goods, so that it has need of illumination and healing, it has not contracted from its blameless Creator—but from that original sin, which it committed by free will. Accordingly, criminal nature has its part in most righteous punishment. For, if we are now newly created in Christ,[2 Corinthians 5:17] we were, for all that, children of wrath, even as others, “but God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by whose grace we were saved.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 451, footnote 16 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)

Abstract. (HTML)

The Question Answered. Justification is Grace Simply and Entirely, Eternal Life is Reward and Grace. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3063 (In-Text, Margin)

... (that is, has formed and created) you. For of these he says, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Now he does not here speak of that creation which made us human beings, but of that in reference to which one said who was already in full manhood, “Create in me a clean heart, O God;” concerning which also the apostle says, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God.”[2 Corinthians 5:17-18] We are framed, therefore, that is, formed and created, “in the good works which” we have not ourselves prepared, but “God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” It follows, then, dearly beloved, beyond all doubt, that as your good life ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 336, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xiii. 52, ‘Therefore every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of Heaven,’ etc. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2537 (In-Text, Margin)

5. But why were they such as they were? “Because,” says St. Paul, “the vail is upon their heart. And they do not see that the old things are passed away, and all things are become new.”[2 Corinthians 5:17] Hence it is that they were such, and all others who even now are like them. Why are they old things? Because they have been a long while published. Why new? Because they relate to the kingdom of God. How the vail then is taken away, the Apostle himself tells us. “But when thou shalt turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.” So then the Jew who does not turn to the Lord, does not carry on his ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 114, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1043 (In-Text, Margin)

9. “Behold, thou hast made my days old” (ver. 5). For these days are “waxing old.” I long for new days “that never shall wax old,” that I may say, “Old things have passed away; behold, things are become new.”[2 Corinthians 5:17] Already new in hope; then in reality. For though, in hope and in faith, made new already, how much do we even now do after our old nature! For we are not so completely “clothed upon” with Christ, as not to bear about with us anything derived from Adam. Observe that Adam is “waxing old” within us, and Christ is being “renewed” in us. “Though our outward man is perishing, yet is our inward man ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 392, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXXI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3792 (In-Text, Margin)

... affrighted! as the Prophet says in a certain place, “Cry out, and lift up as with a trumpet thy voice.” Sound the trumpet in the beginning of the month of the trumpet.” It was ordered, that in the beginning of the month there should be a sounding of the trumpet: and this even now the Jews do in bodily sort, after the spirit they understand it not. For the beginning of the month, is the new moon: the new moon, is the new life. What is the new moon? “If any, then, is in Christ, he is a new creature.”[2 Corinthians 5:17] What is, “sound the trumpet in the beginning of the month of the trumpet”? With all confidence preach ye the new life, fear not the noise of the old life.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 500, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4624 (In-Text, Margin)

... belongeth to the New Testament; and since the New Testament announceth this that was prophesied, “Let these things be written for those that come after: and the people which shall be created, shall praise the Lord.” Not the people which is created, but “the people which shall be created.” What is clearer, my brethren? Here is prophesied that creation of which the Apostle saith: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”[2 Corinthians 5:17] “For he hath looked down from His lofty sanctuary.” He hath looked down from on high, that He might come unto the humble: from on high He hath become humble, that He might exalt the humble.…

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 516, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4754 (In-Text, Margin)

... so? We discern how: for what was not made by the Father through the Son? Whatever walketh and doth crawl on earth, whatever doth swim in the waters, whatever flieth in the air, whatever doth revolve in heaven, how much more then the earth, the whole universe, is the work of God. But he seems to me to speak here of some new creation, of which the Apostle saith, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God.”[2 Corinthians 5:17-18] All who believe in Christ, who put off the old man, and put on the new, are a new creature. “The earth is full of Thy works.” On one spot of the earth He was crucified, in one small spot that seed fell into the earth, and died; but brought forth ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 517, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4756 (In-Text, Margin)

... of all animals and flocks, and of the whole of the human race; the earth is full of the creation of God. We see, know, read, recognise, praise, and in these we preach of Him; yet we are not able to praise respecting these things, as fully as our heart doth abound with praise after the beautiful contemplation of them. But we ought rather to heed that creation, of which the Apostle saith, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”[2 Corinthians 5:17] What “old things have passed away”? In the Gentiles, all idolatry; in the Jews themselves, all that servitude unto the Law, all those sacrifices that were harbingers of the present Sacrifice. The oldness of man was then abundant; One came to ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 2, page 48, footnote 13 (Image)

Socrates: Church History from A.D. 305-438; Sozomenus: Church History from A.D. 323-425

The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

Defense of Eusebius Pamphilus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 326 (In-Text, Margin)

... word “creates” being used instead of “sends down,” or appoints; and thunder in another figure implying the preaching of the Gospel. Again he that says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God,” said not this as if he had no heart; but prayed that his mind might be purified. Thus also it is said, “That he might create the two into one new man,” instead of unite. Consider also whether this passage is not of the same kind, “Clothe yourselves with the new man, which is created according to God”; and this,[2 Corinthians 5:17] “If, therefore, any one be in Christ, he is a new creature”; and whatever other expressions of a similar nature any one may find who shall carefully search the divinely inspired Scripture. Wherefore, one should not be surprised if in this passage, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 45, footnote 7 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Confutation of Arianism deduced from the Writings of Eustathius and Athanasius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 349 (In-Text, Margin)

... only-begotten of God, Word, Power, and sole Wisdom of the Father; that He is, as John said, ‘the true God,’ and, as Paul has written, ‘the brightness of the glory, and the express image of the person of the Father,’ the followers of Eusebius, drawn aside by their own vile doctrine, then began to say one to another, Let us agree, for we are also of God; ‘ There is but one God, by whom are all things; ‘ Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God[2 Corinthians 5:17-18].’ They also dwelt particularly upon what is contained in ‘The Shepherd:’ ‘Believe above all that there is one God, who created and fashioned all things, and making them to be out of that which is not.’

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 322, footnote 2 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)

To John the Œconomus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2128 (In-Text, Margin)

The Apostle therefore continues “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.”[2 Corinthians 5:17] He speaks of what is to be in the future as though it had already come to pass. We have not yet been gifted with immortality, but we shall be; and when so gifted we shall not become bodiless, but we shall put on immortality. “For” says the divine Apostle, “we would not be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” And again “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 162, footnote 7 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Defence of the Nicene Definition. (De Decretis.) (HTML)

De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) (HTML)

Defence of the Council's Phrases, “from the essence,” And “one in essence.” Objection that the phrases are not scriptural; we ought to look at the sense more than the wording; evasion of the Arians as to the phrase “of God” which is in Scripture; their evasion of all explanations but those which the Council selected, which were intended to negative the Arian formulæ; protest against their conveying any material sense. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 885 (In-Text, Margin)

... that the Son is not from nothing but ‘from God,’ and is ‘Word’ and ‘Wisdom,’ and not creature or work, but a proper offspring from the Father, Eusebius and his fellows, led by their inveterate heterodoxy, understood the phrase ‘from God’ as belonging to us, as if in respect to it the Word of God differed nothing from us, and that because it is written, ‘There is one God, from whom, all things;’ and again, ‘Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new, and all things are from God[2 Corinthians 5:17].’ But the Fathers, perceiving their craft and the cunning of their irreligion, were forced to express more distinctly the sense of the words ‘from God.’ Accordingly, they wrote ‘from the essence of God,’ in order that ‘from God’ might not be ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 384, footnote 5 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

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

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

Discourse II (HTML)
Texts Explained; Sixthly, Proverbs viii. 22, Continued. Our Lord not said in Scripture to be 'created,' or the works to be 'begotten.' 'In the beginning' means in the case of the works 'from the beginning.' Scripture passages explained. We are made by God first, begotten next; creatures by nature, sons by grace. Christ begotten first, made or created afterwards. Sense of 'First-born of the dead;' of 'First-born among many brethren;' of 'First-born of all creation,' contrasted with 'Only-begotten.' Further interpretation of 'beginning of ways,' and 'for the works.' Why a creature could not redeem; why redemption was necessary at all. Texts which contrast the Word and the works. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2655 (In-Text, Margin)

... thou return,’ therefore the Word of God, who loves man, puts on Him created flesh at the Father’s will, that whereas the first man had made it dead through the transgression, He Himself might quicken it in the blood of His own body, and might open ‘for us a way new and living,’ as the Apostle says, ‘through the veil, that is to say, His flesh;’ which he signifies elsewhere thus, ‘Wherefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new[2 Corinthians 5:17].’ But if a new creation has come to pass, some one must be first of this creation; now a man, made of earth only, such as we are become from the transgression, he could not be. For in the first creation, men had become unfaithful, and through them ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 491, footnote 8 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa. (Ad Afros Epistola Synodica.) (HTML)

Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa. (Ad Afros Epistola Synodica.) (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3737 (In-Text, Margin)

... acknowledged language of Scripture, namely that the Word is of God by nature Only-begotten, Power, Wisdom of the Father, Very God, as John says, and as Paul wrote, brightness of the Father’s glory and express image of His person. But Eusebius and his fellows, drawn on by their own error, kept conferring together as follows: ‘Let us assent. For we also are of God: for “there is one God of whom are all things,” and “old things are passed away, behold all things are made new, but all things are of God[2 Corinthians 5:17-18].”’ And they considered what is written in the Shepherd, ‘Before all things believe that God is one, who created and set all things in order, and made them to exist out of nothing.’ But the Bishops, beholding their craftiness, and the cunning of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 5, page 113, footnote 5 (Image)

Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises. (HTML)

Against Eunomius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
He further very appositely expounds the meaning of the term “Only-Begotten,“ and of the term “First born,“ four times used by the Apostle. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 338 (In-Text, Margin)

... that His new birth from the dead was made a way for us also, since the pains of death, wherein we were held, were loosed by the resurrection of the Lord. Thus, just as by having shared in the washing of regeneration He became “the first-born among many brethren,” and again by having made Himself the first-fruits of the resurrection, He obtains the name of the “first-born from the dead,” so having in all things the pre-eminence, after that “all old things,” as the apostle says, “have passed away[2 Corinthians 5:17],” He becomes the first-born of the new creation of men in Christ by the two-fold regeneration, alike that by Holy Baptism and that which is the consequence of the resurrection from the dead, becoming for us in both alike the Prince of Life, the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 173, footnote 10 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2533 (In-Text, Margin)

... attach to him on that score. Indeed this particular age is stamped as full and complete by the mystery of Christ’s assumed manhood. Let him call to mind the ancient law, and he will see that after his twenty-fifth year a Levite might be chosen to the priesthood; or if in this passage he prefers to follow the Hebrew he will find that candidates for the priesthood must be thirty years old. And that he may not venture to say that “old things are passed away; and, behold, all things are become new,”[2 Corinthians 5:17] let him hear the apostle’s words to Timothy, “Let no man despise thy youth.” Certainly when my opponent was himself ordained bishop, he was not much older than my brother is now. And if he argues that youth is no hindrance to a bishop but that it is ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 374, footnote 6 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

Against Jovinianus. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4516 (In-Text, Margin)

37. But why do we argue, and why are we eager to frame a clever and victorious reply to our opponent?[2 Corinthians 5:17] “Old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” I will run through the utterances of the Apostles, and as to the instances afforded by Solomon I added short expositions to facilitate their being understood, so now I will go over the passages bearing on Christian purity and continence, and will make of many proofs a connected series. By this method I shall succeed in omitting nothing relating to chastity, and shall avoid being ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 247, footnote 8 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

On His Father's Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3051 (In-Text, Margin)

2. I have not yet alluded to the true and first wisdom, for which our wonderful husbandman and shepherd is conspicuous. The first wisdom is a life worthy of praise, and kept pure for God, or being purified for Him Who is all-pure and all-luminous, Who demands of us, us His only sacrifice, purification—that is, a contrite heart and the sacrifice of praise, and a new creation in Christ,[2 Corinthians 5:17] and the new man, and the like, as the Scripture loves to call it. The first wisdom is to despise that wisdom which consists of language and figures of speech, and spurious and unnecessary embellishments. Be it mine to speak five words with my understanding in the church, rather than ten thousand words in ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 423, footnote 1 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Second Oration on Easter. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4589 (In-Text, Margin)

... trumpet; and round about Him is as it were a multitude of the Heavenly Host; and he saith, Today is salvation come unto the world, to that which is visible, and to that which is invisible. Christ is risen from the dead, rise ye with Him. Christ is returned again to Himself, return ye. Christ is freed from the tomb, be ye freed from the bond of sin. The gates of hell are opened, and death is destroyed, and the old Adam is put aside, and the New is fulfilled; if any man be in Christ he is a new creature;[2 Corinthians 5:17] be ye renewed. Thus he speaks; and the rest sing out, as they did before when Christ was manifested to us by His birth on earth, their glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace, goodwill among men. And with them I also utter the same words among ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 31, footnote 5 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

Against those who assert that the Spirit ought not to be glorified. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1133 (In-Text, Margin)

... If here creation may be taken to mean the bringing of the departed to life again, how mighty is not the operation of the Spirit, Who is to us the dispenser of the life that follows on the resurrection, and attunes our souls to the spiritual life beyond? Or if here by creation is meant the change to a better condition of those who in this life have fallen into sin, (for it is so understood according to the usage of Scripture, as in the words of Paul “if any man be in Christ he is a new creature”[2 Corinthians 5:17]), the renewal which takes place in this life, and the transmutation from our earthly and sensuous life to the heavenly conversation which takes place in us through the Spirit, then our souls are exalted to the highest pitch of admiration. With these ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 33, footnote 3 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

Proof from Scripture that the Spirit is called Lord. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1160 (In-Text, Margin)

... of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.” Now what Lord does he entreat to stablish the hearts of the faithful at Thessalonica, unblamable in holiness before God even our Father, at the coming of our Lord? Let those answer who place the Holy Ghost among the ministering spirits that are sent forth on service. They cannot. Wherefore let them hear yet another testimony which distinctly calls the Spirit Lord. “The Lord,” it is said, “is that Spirit;” and again “even as from the Lord the Spirit.”[2 Corinthians 5:17] But to leave no ground for objection, I will quote the actual words of the Apostle;—“For even unto this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ.…Nevertheless, when it shall turn ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 121, footnote 6 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To the Cæsareans.  A defence of his withdrawal, and concerning the faith. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1852 (In-Text, Margin)

... creations. The first is the evolution from non-being into being. The second is change from the worse to the better. The third is the resurrection of the dead. In these you will find the Holy Ghost cooperating with the Father and the Son. There is a bringing into existence of the heavens; and what says David? “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” Again, man is created through baptism, for “if any man be in Christ he is a new creature.”[2 Corinthians 5:17] And why does the Saviour say to the disciples, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost”? Here too you see the Holy Ghost present with the Father and the Son. And what ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 193, footnote 6 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book X (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1166 (In-Text, Margin)

... death. Again, He does not pray that the cup may pass over Himself, but that it may pass away from Himself, though before it could pass away He must have drunk it. But, further, ‘to pass away’ does not mean merely ‘to leave the place,’ but ‘not to exist any more at all:’ which is shewn in the language of the Gospels and Epistles: for example, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not perish: also the Apostle says, Behold the old things are passed away; they are become new[2 Corinthians 5:17]. And again, The fashion of this world shall pass away. The cup, therefore, of which He prays to the Father, cannot pass away unless it be drunk; and when He prays, He prays for those whom He preserved, so long as He was with them, whom He now ...

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