Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

2 Corinthians 6:10

There are 26 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 27, footnote 5 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Mathetes (HTML)

Epistle to Diognetus (HTML)

Chapter V.—The manners of the Christians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 287 (In-Text, Margin)

... marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich;[2 Corinthians 6:10] they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 27, footnote 7 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

The Pastor of Hermas (HTML)

Book Second.—Commandments (HTML)

Commandment Tenth. Of Grief, and Not Grieving the Spirit of God Which is in Us. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 218 (In-Text, Margin)

... in his heart. Grief, then, mingled with his entreaty, does not permit the entreaty to ascend pure to the altar of God. For as vinegar and wine, when mixed in the same vessel, do not give the same pleasure [as wine alone gives], so grief mixed with the Holy Spirit does not produce the same entreaty [as would be produced by the Holy Spirit alone]. Cleanse yourself from this wicked grief, and you will live to God; and all will live to God who drive away grief from them, and put on all cheerfulness.”[2 Corinthians 6:10]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 300, footnote 2 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Chapter I.—Preface—The Author’s Object—The Utility of Written Compositions. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1804 (In-Text, Margin)

... readiness for adopting a right mode of life, the impulse towards the truth, a movement of inquiry, a trace of knowledge; in a word, it gives the means of salvation. And those who have been rightly reared in the words of truth, and received provision for eternal life, wing their way to heaven. Most admirably, therefore, the apostle says, “In everything approving ourselves as the servants of God; as poor, and yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things. Our mouth is opened to you.”[2 Corinthians 6:10-11] “I charge thee,” he says, writing to Timothy, “before God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things, without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.”

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 218, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Commodianus. (HTML)

The Instructions of Commodianus. (HTML)

The Name of the Man of Gaza. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1863 (In-Text, Margin)

... account when the thousandth year is finished shall perish by fire, when they themselves shall speak to the mountains. All flesh in the monuments and tombs is restored according to its deed: they are plunged in hell; they bear their punishments in the world; they are shown to them, and they read the things transacted from heaven; the reward according to one’s deeds in a perpetual tyranny. I cannot comprehend all things in a little treatise; the curiosity of the learned men shall find my name in this.[2 Corinthians 6:10]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 674, footnote 4 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Appendix. (HTML)

Anonymous Treatise on Re-baptism. (HTML)

A Treatise on Re-Baptism by an Anonymous Writer. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5463 (In-Text, Margin)

13. For any one of us will hold it necessary, that whatever is the last thing to be found in a man in this respect, is that whereby he must be judged, all those things which he has previously done being wiped away and obliterated.[2 Corinthians 6:10] And therefore, although in martyrdom there is so great a change of things in a moment of time, that in a very rapid case all things may be changed; let nobody flatter himself who has lost the occasion of a glorious salvation, if by chance he has excluded himself therefrom by his own fault; even as that wife of Lot, who in a similar manner in time of trouble only, contrary to the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 81, footnote 9 (Image)

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

The Confessions (HTML)

He describes the twenty-ninth year of his age, in which, having discovered the fallacies of the Manichæans, he professed rhetoric at Rome and Milan. Having heard Ambrose, he begins to come to himself. (HTML)

That the Knowledge of Terrestrial and Celestial Things Does Not Give Happiness, But the Knowledge of God Only. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 384 (In-Text, Margin)

... of Thee only, if knowing Thee he glorify Thee as God, and gives thanks, and becomes not vain in his thoughts. But as he is happier who knows how to possess a tree, and for the use thereof renders thanks to Thee, although he may not know how many cubits high it is, or how wide it spreads, than he that measures it and counts all its branches, and neither owns it nor knows or loves its Creator; so a just man, whose is the entire world of wealth, and who, as having nothing, yet possesseth all things[2 Corinthians 6:10] by cleaving unto Thee, to whom all things are subservient, though he know not even the circles of the Great Bear, yet it is foolish to doubt but that he may verily be better than he who can measure the heavens, and number the stars, and weigh the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 215, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Augustin passes to the second part of the work, in which the origin, progress, and destinies of the earthly and heavenly cities are discussed.—Speculations regarding the creation of the world. (HTML)

Of the Beauty of the Universe, Which Becomes, by God’s Ordinance, More Brilliant by the Opposition of Contraries. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 489 (In-Text, Margin)

... ornaments of style. In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul also makes a graceful use of antithesis, in that place where he says, “By the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”[2 Corinthians 6:7-10] As, then, these oppositions of contraries lend beauty to the language, so the beauty of the course of this world is achieved by the opposition of contraries, arranged, as it were, by an eloquence not of words, but of things. This is quite plainly ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 427, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Of the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the Old and New Testaments. (HTML)

What is Written in the Revelation of John Regarding the Two Resurrections, and the Thousand Years, and What May Reasonably Be Held on These Points. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1346 (In-Text, Margin)

... ten. For ten times ten makes a hundred, that is; the square on a plane superficies. But to give this superficies height, and make it a cube, the hundred is again multiplied by ten, which gives a thousand. Besides, if a hundred is sometimes used for totality, as when the Lord said by way of promise to him that left all and followed Him “He shall receive in this world an hundredfold;” of which the apostle gives, as it were, an explanation when he says, “As having nothing, yet possessing all things,”[2 Corinthians 6:10] —for even of old it had been said, The whole world is the wealth of a believer,—with how much greater reason is a thousand put for totality since it is the cube, while the other is only the square? And for the same reason we cannot better interpret ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 589, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

Examples of the Various Styles Drawn from Scripture. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1986 (In-Text, Margin)

... fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”[2 Corinthians 6:2-10] See him still burning: “O ye Corinthians, our mouth is opened unto you, our heart is enlarged,” and so on; it would be tedious to go through it all.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 124, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

He advances reasons to show not only that the Father is not greater than the Son, but that neither are both together anything greater than the Holy Spirit, nor any two together in the same Trinity anything greater than one, nor all three together anything greater than each singly. He also intimates that the nature of God may be understood from our understanding of truth, from our knowledge of the supreme good, and from our implanted love of righteousness; but above all, that our knowledge of God is to be sought through love, in which he notices a trio of things which contains a trace of the Trinity. (HTML)
Our Love of the Righteous is Kindled from Love Itself of the Unchangeable Form of Righteousness. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 695 (In-Text, Margin)

... fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things?”[2 Corinthians 6:2-10] Why is it that we are inflamed with love of the Apostle Paul, when we read these things, unless that we believe him so to have lived? But we do not believe that the ministers of God ought so to live because we have heard it from any one, but because ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 519, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

Of the Work of Monks. (HTML)

Section 32 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2580 (In-Text, Margin)

... to his daughter on her marriage, unless by decree of the senate she had been dowered from the public treasury: of what mind ought he to be towards his commonwealth, who is a citizen of that eternal City, the heavenly Jerusalem, but that even what with labor of his own hands he earns, he should have in common with his brother, and if the same lack any thing, supply it from the common store; saying with him whose precept and example he hath followed, “As having nothing, and possessing all things?”[2 Corinthians 6:10]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 588, footnote 2 (Image)

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

Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)

Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist. (HTML)

In which Augustin replies to all the several statements in the letter of Petilianus, as though disputing with an adversary face to face. (HTML)
Chapter 100 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2270 (In-Text, Margin)

227. said: "But we who are poor in spirit are not apprehensive for our wealth, but rather feel a dread of wealth. We, ‘as having nothing, and yet possessing all things,’[2 Corinthians 6:10] look on our soul as our wealth, and by our punishments and blood purchase to ourselves the everlasting riches of heaven. So again the same Lord says, ‘Whosoever shall lose his substance, shall find it again an hundred fold.’"

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 367, footnote 6 (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. xix. 17, ‘If thou wouldest enter into life, keep the commandments.’ (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2802 (In-Text, Margin)

3. And let the rich give ear, if indeed they are rich; let them give ear to the Apostle, “Charge the rich of this world,” for there are who are the rich of another world. The poor are the rich of another world. The Apostles are the rich of another world, who said, “As having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”[2 Corinthians 6:10] So that ye may know of what poor he is speaking he added, “of this world.” Let the “rich” then “of this world” give ear to the Apostle, “Charge,” he says, “the rich of this world, that they be not proud in their conceits.” The first worm of riches is pride. A consuming moth, which gnaws the whole, and reduces it even to dust. “Charge ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 433, footnote 4 (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 XIX. 24–30. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1900 (In-Text, Margin)

... things for my sake, shall receive an hundred times as much in this world. That disciple, therefore, had an hundredfold more than he had cast away, whereunto to receive the mother of Him who had graciously bestowed it all. But it was in that society that the blessed John had received an hundredfold, where no one called anything his own, but they had all things in common; even as it is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. For the apostles were as if having nothing, and yet possessing all things.[2 Corinthians 6:10] How was it, then, that the disciple and servant received unto his own the mother of his Lord and Master, where no one called anything his own? Or, seeing we read a little further on in the same book, “For as many as were possessors of lands or ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 286, footnote 10 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXVIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2695 (In-Text, Margin)

5. “Exult ye in the sight of Him,” O ye to whom hath been said, “Sing ye to God, psalm ye to the name of Him, a way make ye to Him that hath ascended above the setting,” also “exult in the sight of Him:” as if “sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing.”[2 Corinthians 6:10] For while ye make a way to Him, while ye prepare a way whereby He may come and possess the nations, ye are to suffer in the sight of men many sorrowful things. But not only faint not, but even exult, not in the sight of men, but in the sight of God. “In hope rejoicing, in tribulation enduring:” “exult ye in the sight of Him.” For they that in the sight of men trouble you, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 293, footnote 16 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXVIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2798 (In-Text, Margin)

... which followeth, “thousands of men rejoicing.” For in hope they are joyful, until they be conducted unto the end, which now they look for through patience. For admirably, when he had said, “Thousands of men rejoicing:” immediately he added, “The Lord is in them.” That we may not wonder why they rejoice, “The Lord is in them.” For through many tribulations we must needs enter into the kingdom of God, but, “The Lord is in them.” Therefore even if they are as it were sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing,[2 Corinthians 6:10] though not now in that same end, to which they have not yet come, yet in hope they are rejoicing, and in tribulation patient: for, “The Lord is in them, in Sina in the holy place.” In the interpretations of Hebrew names, we find Sina interpreted ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 385, footnote 10 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3737 (In-Text, Margin)

... times so much into their bosoms” (ver. 13). Not any evil things he is wishing, but things just he is foretelling and prophesying as to come. But in the number seven, that is, in sevenfold retribution, he would have the completeness of the punishment to be perceived, for with this number fulness is wont to be signified. Whence also there is this saying for the good, “He shall receive in this world seven times as much:” which hath been put for all. “As if having nothing, and possessing all things.”[2 Corinthians 6:10] Of neighbours he is speaking, because amongst them dwelleth the Church even unto the day of severing: for not now is made the corporal separation. “Into their bosoms,” he saith, as being now in secret, so that the vengeance which is now being ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 558, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXVIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5112 (In-Text, Margin)

9. “The voice of joy and health is in the dwellings of the righteous” (ver. 15); where they who raged against their bodies thought there was the voice of sorrow and destruction. For they did not know the inward joy of the saints in their future hope. Whence the Apostle also saith, “As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing;”[2 Corinthians 6:10] and again, “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 102, footnote 5 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Paulinus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1532 (In-Text, Margin)

... of loosing the hawser which prevents your vessel from moving in the sea. The man who sells his goods because he despises them and means to renounce the world can have no desire to sell them dear. Count as money gained the sum that you must expend upon your outfit. There is an old saying that a miser lacks as much what he has as what he has not. The believer has a whole world of wealth; the unbeliever has not a single farthing. Let us always live “as having nothing and yet possessing all things.”[2 Corinthians 6:10] Food and raiment, these are the Christian’s wealth. If your property is in your own power, sell it: if not, cast it from you. “If any man…will take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.” You are all for delay, you wish to defer action: ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 236, footnote 15 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Ageruchia. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3325 (In-Text, Margin)

... much of the story (for there is no time to explain all the points in the narrative) after twenty years he who before had passed over Jordan with his staff returned into his native land with three droves of cattle, rich in flocks and herds and richer still in children. The apostles likewise travelled throughout the world without either money in their purses, or staves in their hands, or shoes on their feet; and yet they could speak of themselves as “having nothing and yet possessing all things.”[2 Corinthians 6:10] “Silver and gold,” say they, “have we none, but such as we have give we thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” For they were not weighed down with the burthen of riches. Therefore they could stand, as Elijah, in the crevice ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 389, footnote 14 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Last Farewell in the Presence of the One Hundred and Fifty Bishops. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4364 (In-Text, Margin)

10. These we present to you, dear shepherds, these we offer to you, with these we welcome our friends, and guests, and fellow pilgrims. We have nothing fairer or more splendid to offer to you, for we have selected the greatest of all our possessions, that you may see that, strangers as we are, we are not in want, but though poor are making many rich.[2 Corinthians 6:10] If these things are small and unworthy of notice, I would fain learn what is greater and of more account. For, if it be no great thing to have established and strengthened with wholesome doctrines a city which is the eye of the universe, in its exceeding strength by sea and land, which is, as it were, the link between the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 128, footnote 17 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

Without address.  On the Perfection of the Life of Solitaries. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1934 (In-Text, Margin)

... whatever he have to suffer, and to convict the wrong-doer in season, not with the desire of his own vindication, but of his brother’s reformation, according to the commandment of the Lord. The Christian ought not to say anything behind his brother’s back with the object of calumniating him, for this is slander, even if what is said is true. He ought to turn away from the brother who speaks evil against him; he ought not to indulge in jesting; he ought not to laugh nor even to suffer laugh makers.[2 Corinthians 6:10] He must not talk idly, saying things which are of no service to the hearers nor to such usage as is necessary and permitted us by God; so that workers may do their best as far as possible to work in silence; and that good words be suggested to them ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 58, footnote 3 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Chapter XVII. What virtues ought to exist in him whom we consult. How Joseph and Paul were equipped with them. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 512 (In-Text, Margin)

... full in Christ. Not corporal, but spiritual, is that satiety which knowledge brings about. And rightly is there need of knowledge: “For man lives not by bread alone, but by every word of God.” For he who knew how to be full also knew how to be hungry, so as to be always seeking something new, hungering after God, thirsting for the Lord. He knew how to hunger, for he knew that the hungry shall eat. He knew, also, how to abound, and was able to abound, for he had nothing and yet possessed all things.[2 Corinthians 6:10]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 467, footnote 2 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose. (HTML)

Epistle LXIII: To the Church at Vercellæ. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3747 (In-Text, Margin)

69. He confessed that he was overcome when he asked them to change their determination, but they thought their pen stronger than swords of iron. Then it was unbelief which was wounded so that it fell, not the faith of the saints; they did not desire a tomb in their own country, for whom was reserved a home in the heavens. They wandered over the whole earth, “having nothing and yet possessing all things.”[2 Corinthians 6:10] Wherever they were sent, they esteemed it a place full of delights, for nothing was wanting to them in whom the riches of faith abounded. Lastly, they enriched others, being themselves poor as to earthly means, rich in grace. They were tried but not killed, in fasting, in labours, in watchings, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 355, footnote 2 (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 VI. Conference of Abbot Theodore. On the Death of the Saints. (HTML)
Chapter IX. The case of Job who was tempted by the devil and of the Lord who was betrayed by Judas: and how prosperity as well as adversity is advantageous to a good man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1388 (In-Text, Margin)

... that love God.” But by saying “All things work together for good,” he includes everything alike, not only things fortunate, but also those which seem to be misfortunes: through which the Apostle tells us in another place that he himself has passed, when he says: “By the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,” i.e., “Through honour and dishonour, through evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as sorrowful but always rejoicing, as needy and yet enriching many:”[2 Corinthians 6:7-10] All those things then which are considered fortunate, and are called those “on the right hand,” which the holy Apostle designates by the terms honour and good report; and those too which are counted misfortunes, which he clearly means by dishonour ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 363, footnote 7 (Image)

Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat

Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)

Aphrahat:  Select Demonstrations. (HTML)

Of Monks. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 844 (In-Text, Margin)

... us for His vineyard. Let us be planted as vines in the midst of His vineyard, for it is the true vineyard. Let us be fruitful vines, that we may not be uprooted out of His vineyard. Let us be a sweet odour, that our fragrance may breathe forth to all around. Let us be poor in the world, and let us enrich many by the doctrine of our Lord. Let us not call anyone our father in the earth, that we may be the children of the Father which is in heaven. Though we have nothing, yet we possess all things.[2 Corinthians 6:9-10] Though no man know us, yet they that have knowledge of us are many. Let us rejoice in our hope at every time, that He Who is our hope and our Redeemer may rejoice in us. Let us judge ourselves righteously and condemn ourselves, that we may not hang ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs