Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Galatians 4:27
There are 19 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 331, footnote 8 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book I (HTML)
Chapter X.—Unity of the faith of the Church throughout the whole world. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2797 (In-Text, Margin)
... how it is that God has made the Gentiles, whose salvation was despaired of, fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers with the saints; and discourse how it is that “this mortal body shall put on immortality, and this corruptible shall put on incorruption;” and proclaim in what sense [God] says, “That is a people who was not a people; and she is beloved who was not beloved;” and in what sense He says that “more are the children of her that was desolate, than of her who possessed a husband.”[Galatians 4:27] For in reference to these points, and others of a like nature, the apostle exclaims: “Oh! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” But [the superior skill ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 63, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Monogamy. (HTML)
The Case of Abraham, and Its Bearing on the Present Question. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 613 (In-Text, Margin)
Thenceforward let matters see to themselves. Figures are one thing; laws another. Images are one thing; statutes another. Images pass away when fulfilled: statutes remain permanently to be fulfilled. Images prophesy: statutes govern. What that digamy of Abraham portends, the same apostle fully teaches,[Galatians 4:21-31] the interpreter of each testament, just as he likewise lays it down that our “seed” is called in Isaac. If you are “of the free woman,” and belong to Isaac, he, at all events, maintained unity of marriage to the last.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 151, footnote 7 (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 Fathers of the Old and New Testaments. (HTML)
Barren, giv’n birth:[Galatians 4:27] now a new people, born
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 151, footnote 8 (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 Fathers of the Old and New Testaments. (HTML)
From the free woman,[Galatians 4:19-31] joys: (the slave expelled,
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 55, footnote 7 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
Further Exposition of the Heresy of the Naasseni; Profess to Follow Homer; Acknowledge a Triad of Principles; Their Technical Names of the Triad; Support These on the Authority of Greek Poets; Allegorize Our Saviour's Miracles; The Mystery of the Samothracians; Why the Lord Chose Twelve Disciples; The Name Corybas, Used by Thracians and Phrygians, Explained; Naasseni Profess to Find Their System in Scripture; Their Interpretation of Jacob's Vision; Their Idea of the “Perfect Man;” The “Perfect Man” Called “Papa” By the Phrygians; The Naasseni and Phrygians on the Resurrection; The Ecstasis of St. Paul; The Mysteries of Religion as Alluded to by Christ; Interpretation of the Parable of the Sower; Allegory of the Promised Land (HTML)
... revolves as it were, and goes round himself. Moreover, also, cities in which we dwell, because we turn and go round in them, are denominated “Poleis.” In this manner, he says, the Phrygians call this one “Aipolis,” inasmuch as he everywhere ceaselessly turns all things, and changes them into their own peculiar (functions). And the Phrygians style him, he says, “very fruitful” likewise, “because,” says he, “more numerous are the children of the desolate one, than those of her which hath an husband;”[Galatians 4:27] that is, things by being born again become immortal and abide for ever in great numbers, even though the things that are produced may be few; whereas things carnal, he says, are all corruptible, even though very many things (of this type) are ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 517, footnote 15 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
The Second Epistle of Clement (HTML)
The Homily (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3863 (In-Text, Margin)
“Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for she that is desolate hath many more children than she that hath an husband.”[Galatians 4:27] In that He said, “Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not,” He referred to us, for our Church was barren before that children were given to her. But when He said, “Cry out, thou that travailest not,” He means this, that we should sincerely offer up our prayers to God, and should not, like women in travail, show signs of weakness. And in that He said, “For she that is desolate hath many more children than she that ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 251, footnote 9 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
The Epistles of Clement. (HTML)
The Second Epistle of Clement. (HTML)
The Church, Formerly Barren, is Now Fruitful. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4337 (In-Text, Margin)
“Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for she that is desolate hath many more children than she that hath an husband.”[Galatians 4:27] In that He said, “Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not,” He referred to us, for our church was barren before that children were given to her. But when He said, “Cry out, thou that travailest not,” He means this, that we should sincerely offer up our prayers to God, and should not, like women in travail, show signs of weakness. And in that He said, “For she that is desolate hath many more children than she that ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 430, footnote 1 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)
Book X. (HTML)
The Withdrawal of Jesus. (HTML)
... umpire, then Jesus withdraws from the place in which prophecy was attacked and condemned; and He withdraws to the place which had been barren of God among the Gentiles, in order that the Word of God, when the kingdom was taken from the Jews and “given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof,” might be among the Gentiles; and, on account of it, “the children of the desolate one,” who had not been instructed either in the law or the prophets, “might be more than of her who has the husband,”[Galatians 4:27] that is, the law. When, then, the word was of old among the Jews, it was not so among them as it is among the Gentiles; wherefore it is said that, “in a boat,”—that is, in the body—He went to the desert place apart, when He heard about the killing ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 285, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
The progress of the earthly and heavenly cities traced by the sacred history. (HTML)
Of the Children of the Flesh and the Children of the Promise. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 771 (In-Text, Margin)
... many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bond woman and her son: for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. And we, brethren, are not children of the bond woman, but of the free, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.”[Galatians 4:21-31] This interpretation of the passage, handed down to us with apostolic authority, shows how we ought to understand the Scriptures of the two covenants—the old and the new. One portion of the earthly city became an image of the heavenly city, not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 338, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel. (HTML)
Of the Three-Fold Meaning of the Prophecies, Which are to Be Referred Now to the Earthly, Now to the Heavenly Jerusalem, and Now Again to Both. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 983 (In-Text, Margin)
... the possessing of eternal life and the kingdom of the heavens. Therefore they pertain partly to the bond maid who gendereth to bondage, that is, the earthly Jerusalem, which is in bondage with her children; but partly to the free city of God, that is, the true Jerusalem eternal in the heavens, whose children are all those that live according to God in the earth: but there are some things among them which are understood to pertain to both,—to the bond maid properly, to the free woman figuratively.[Galatians 4:22-31]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 637, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
The Correction of the Donatists. (HTML)
Chapter 2 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2492 (In-Text, Margin)
11. But this, I say, I forbear to urge. Yet one point I must press: If the true Church is the one which actually suffers persecution, not the one which inflicts it, let them ask the apostle of what Church Sarah was a type, when she inflicted persecution on her hand-maid. For he declares that the free mother of us all, the heavenly Jerusalem, that is to say, the true Church of God, was prefigured in that woman who cruelly entreated her hand-maid.[Galatians 4:22-31] But if we investigate the story further, we shall find that the handmaid rather persecuted Sarah by her haughtiness, than Sarah the handmaid by her severity: for the handmaid was doing wrong to her mistress; the mistress only imposed on her a proper discipline in her ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 77, 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 II. 23–25; III. 1–5. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 274 (In-Text, Margin)
... son; for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free.” The apostle recounts this; and he says that in those two sons of Abraham was a figure of the two Testaments, the Old and the New. To the Old Testament belong the lovers of temporal things, the lovers of the world: to the New Testament belong the lovers of eternal life. Hence, that Jerusalem on earth was the shadow of the heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of us all, which is in heaven; and these are the apostle’s words.[Galatians 4:22-30] And of that city from which we are absent on our sojourn, you know much, you have now heard much. But we find a wonderful thing in these births, in these fruits of the womb, in these generations of free and bond women: namely, four sorts of men; in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 430, footnote 2 (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. 17–22. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1881 (In-Text, Margin)
... counted for the seed.” And the Gentiles were those to whom he said, “But if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Christ therefore is king of the Jews, but of those who are Jews by the circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God; who belong to the Jerusalem that is free, our eternal mother in heaven, the spiritual Sarah, who casteth out the bond maid and her children from the house of liberty.[Galatians 4:22-31] And therefore what Pilate wrote he wrote, because what the Lord said He said.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 299, footnote 27 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2900 (In-Text, Margin)
... hath leavened three measures, that is, the whole round world repeopled by the three sons of Noe: for from East and West and North and South shall come they that shall sit down with the Patriarchs, while those shall have been driven without, that have been born of their flesh and have not imitated their faith. Unto his glory then of Christ’s Church our eyes we have opened; and that barren one, for whom joy was proclaimed and foretold, because she was to have more sons than she that had the husband,[Galatians 4:27] her we have found to be such an one as hath forgotten the reproaches and infamy of her widowhood: and so we may perhaps wonder when we chance to read in any prophecy the words of Christ’s humiliation, or our own. And it may be, that we are less ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 440, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4224 (In-Text, Margin)
39. “Remember, Lord, the rebuke that Thy servants have” (ver. 50). Even while Christ was living, and while He was sitting on His Father’s right hand, reproaches were cast against the Christians: they long were reproached with the name of Christ. That widowed one who brought forth, and whose children were more than those of the married wife,[Galatians 4:27] heard ill names, heard reproaches: but the Church, multiplied as she is, extending right and left, no longer remembers the reproach of her widowhood. “Remember, Lord,” in the memory of whom there is abundant sweetness. “Remember,” forget not. Remember what? “the rebuke that Thy servants have: and how I do bear in my bosom the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 501, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4632 (In-Text, Margin)
... let us expound it each way. How did “His praise” answer Him? When they who are called by Him thank Him. For He calleth, we answer; not by our voice, but by our faith; not by our tongue, but by our life.…From His elect and holy men, Jerusalem also answereth Him. For Jerusalem also was called: and the first Jerusalem refused to hear, and it was said unto her, “Behold, thy house shall be left unto the desolate.” …But that Jerusalem, of whom it was written, “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear,”[Galatians 4:27] “She hath answered Him.” What meaneth, “She hath answered Him”? She despiseth Him not when He called. He sent rain, She gave fruit.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 627, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXXXV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5668 (In-Text, Margin)
16. Let us also with one voice say what follows: “Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, who dwelleth in Jerusalem” (ver. 21). Out of Zion is Jerusalem too. Zion is “watching,” Jerusalem the “vision of peace.” In what Jerusalem will He dwell now? In that which has fallen? Nay, but in that which is our mother, which is in the heavens, of which it is said, “The desolate hath more children than she which hath a husband.”[Galatians 4:27] For now the Lord is from Zion, because we watch when He will come; now as long as we live in hope, we are in Zion. When our way is ended, we shall dwell in that city which will never fall, because the Lord dwelleth in her, and keepeth her, which is the vision of peace, the eternal ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 368, footnote 2 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Virgins. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter VI. St. Ambrose explains that he is not speaking against marriage, and proceeds to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the single and married state. (HTML)
... father, but by the Spirit. She bears us not with pain, but with the rejoicings of the angels. She, a virgin, feeds us, not with the milk of the body, but with that of the Apostle, wherewith he fed the tender age of the people who were still children. For what bride has more children than holy Church, who is a virgin in her sacraments and a mother to her people, whose fertility even holy Scripture attests, saying, “For many more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath an husband”?[Galatians 4:27] She has not an husband, but she has a Bridegroom, inasmuch as she, whether as the Church amongst nations, or as the soul in individuals, without any loss of modesty, she weds the Word of God as her eternal Spouse, free from all injury, full of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 438, footnote 2 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII. (HTML)
Conference XIV. The First Conference of Abbot Nesteros. On Spiritual Knowledge. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. Of spiritual knowledge. (HTML)
... Arabia, which is compared to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.” But the anagogical sense rises from spiritual mysteries even to still more sublime and sacred secrets of heaven, and is subjoined by the Apostle in these words: “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not, break forth and cry, thou that travailest not, for many are the children of the desolate more than of her that hath an husband.”[Galatians 4:22-27] The tropological sense is the moral explanation which has to do with improvement of life and practical teaching, as if we were to understand by these two covenants practical and theoretical instruction, or at any rate as if we were to want to take ...