Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Galatians 5:2

There are 10 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 259, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Prescription Against Heretics. (HTML)

Present Heresies (Seedlings of the Tares Noted by the Sacred Writers) Already Condemned in Scripture.  This Descent of Later Heresy from the Earlier Traced in Several Instances. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2195 (In-Text, Margin)

... even then in existence, or at any rate to have been seedlings of the (tares) which then were. Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, sets his mark on certain who denied and doubted the resurrection. This opinion was the especial property of the Sadducees. A part of it, however, is maintained by Marcion and Apelles and Valentinus, and all other impugners of the resurrection. Writing also to the Galatians, he inveighs against such men as observed and defend circumcision and the (Mosaic) law.[Galatians 5:2] Thus runs Hebion’s heresy. Such also as “forbid to marry” he reproaches in his instructions to Timothy. Now, this is the teaching of Marcion and his follower Apelles. (The apostle) directs a similar blow against those who said that “the resurrection ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 565, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book V (HTML)
Chapter XLVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4238 (In-Text, Margin)

... and this power lasted so long as Jesus had not assumed a human body. But when He had done this, and had undergone the rite of circumcision in His own person, all the power of the angel over those who practise the same worship, but are not circumcised, was abolished; for Jesus reduced it to nought by (the power of) His unspeakable divinity. And therefore His disciples are forbidden to circumcise themselves, and are reminded (by the apostle): “If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.”[Galatians 5:2]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 461, footnote 9 (Image)

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

Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On Lying. (HTML)

Section 8 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2319 (In-Text, Margin)

... to disseminate concerning Paul himself as a token that he had given place to the truth of their preaching, who said that the hope of Gospel salvation is in circumcision of the flesh and observances of that kind, and that without these Christ profiteth no man: whereas on the contrary Christ would nothing profit them, who should be circumcised because they thought that in it was salvation; whence that saying, “Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.”[Galatians 5:2] Out of this liberty, therefore, did Paul keep the observances of his fathers, but with this one precaution and express declaration, that people should not suppose that without these was no Christian salvation. Peter, however, by his making as though ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 245, 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 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 695 (In-Text, Margin)

... opposite wall of circumcision, there was no obligation to adopt Jewish customs. If, indeed, like Timothy, they chose to accommodate themselves to the views of those of the circumcision who were still wedded to their old sacraments, they were free to do so. But if they supposed that their hope and salvation depended on these works of the law, they were warned against them as a fatal danger. So the apostle says: "Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing;"[Galatians 5:2] that is, if they were circumcised, as they were intending to be, in compliance with some corrupt teachers, who told them that without these works of the law they could not be saved. For when, chiefly through the preaching of the Apostle Paul, the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 38, footnote 5 (Image)

Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes

Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 58 (In-Text, Margin)

... shook off the feeling of suffocation and escaped the imminent peril. Do you see the advantage of deceit? And if any one were to reckon up all the tricks of physicians the list would run on to an indefinite length. And not only those who heal the body but those also who attend to the diseases of the soul may be found continually making use of this remedy. Thus the blessed Paul attracted those multitudes of Jews: with this purpose he circumcised Timothy, although he warned the Galatians in his letter[Galatians 5:2] that Christ would not profit those who were circumcised. For this cause he submitted to the law, although he reckoned the righteousness which came from the law but loss after receiving the faith in Christ. For great is the value of deceit, provided ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 97, footnote 2 (Image)

Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes

An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall. (HTML)

Letter I (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 246 (In-Text, Margin)

... and worketh miracles among you:” and that they endured many contests for the sake of the faith, he also testified when he says: “Have ye suffered so many things in vain if it be indeed in vain.” Nevertheless after making so great an advance they committed sin sufficient to estrange them from Christ concerning which he declares saying: “Behold, I Paul tell you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing:” and again “ye who would be justified by the law are fallen away from grace:”[Galatians 5:2] and yet even after so great a lapse he welcomes them saying “my little children of whom I am in travail again until Christ be formed in you ” showing that after extreme perversion it is possible for Christ to be formed again in us: for He doth not ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 202, footnote 2 (Image)

Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans

A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (HTML)

Homily XXXII on Acts xv. 1. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 736 (In-Text, Margin)

... by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God.” (Rom. iv. 2.) Do you perceive that all this is more a lesson for them than apology for the Gentiles? However, if he had spoken this without a plea for speaking, he would have been suspected: an occasion having offered, he lays hold of it, and speaks out fearlessly. See on all occasions how the designs of their foes are made to work with them. If those had not stirred the question, these things would not have been spoken, nor what follows.[Galatians 5:1-12]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 17, footnote 9 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

That they who deny the Spirit are transgressors. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 940 (In-Text, Margin)

... inasmuch as he has broken his covenant with God? And when the confession of faith in Him secures the blessing of true religion. and its denial subjects men to the doom of godlessness, is it not a fearful thing for them to set the confession at naught, not through fear of fire, or sword, or cross, or scourge, or wheel, or rack, but merely led astray by the sophistry and seductions of the pneumatomachi? I testify to every man who is confessing Christ and denying God, that Christ will profit him nothing;[Galatians 5:2] to every man that calls upon God but rejects the Son, that his faith is vain; to every man that sets aside the Spirit, that his faith in the Father and the Son will be useless, for he cannot even hold it without the presence of the Spirit. For he ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 467, 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 XVII. The Second Conference of Abbot Joseph. On Making Promises. (HTML)
Chapter XX. How even Apostles thought that a lie was often useful and the truth injurious. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2033 (In-Text, Margin)

... require? And that we may trace these matters out more carefully and recount one by one the glories of the good deeds of the Apostles, some one may ask how the blessed Apostle can be proved to have suited himself to all men in all things. When did he to the Jews become as a Jew? Certainly in the case where, while he still kept in his inmost heart the opinion which he had maintained to the Galatians saying: “Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing,”[Galatians 5:2] yet by circumcising Timothy he adopted a shadow as it were of Jewish superstition. And again, where did he become to those under the law, as under the law? There certainly where James and all the Elders of the Church, fearing lest he might be ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 529, footnote 1 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV. (HTML)

Conference XXIII. The Third Conference of Abbot Theonas. On Sinlessness. (HTML)
Chapter XVI. What is the body of sin. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2281 (In-Text, Margin)

... at any rate the Apostle is familiarly accustomed to use, whenever he wants to point specially to himself, as here: “I, Paul, myself beseech you by the mildness and modesty of Christ;” and again: “except that I myself was not burdensome to you;” and once more: “But be it so: I myself did not burden you;” and elsewhere: “I, Paul, myself say unto you: if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing;” and to the Romans: “For I could wish that I myself were Anathema from Christ for my brethren.”[Galatians 5:2] But it cannot unreasonably be taken in this way, that “And so I myself” is expressly said with emphasis, i.e., I whom you know to be an Apostle of Christ, whom you venerate with the utmost respect, whom you believe to be of the highest character and ...

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