... things that are above, not to those things which are on the earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ your life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” Of this same thing to the Ephesians: Put off the old man of the former conversation, who is corrupted, according to the lusts of deceit. But be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, him who according to God is ordained in righteousness, and holiness, and truth.”[Ephesians 4:22-24] Of this same thing in the Epistle of Peter: “As strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; but having a good conversation among the Gentiles, that while they detract from you as if from evildoers, yet, beholding ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 543, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

On Christian Doctrine (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

The Knowledge Both of Language and Things is Helpful for the Understanding of Figurative Expressions. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1795 (In-Text, Margin)

... for the sake of our head, which is Christ, we should willingly offer our body to the persecutors, lest the Christian faith should, as it were, be destroyed in us, if to save the body we deny our God! Or again, the statement that the serpent gets rid of its old skin by squeezing itself through a narrow hole, and thus acquires new strength—how appropriately it fits in with the direction to imitate the wisdom of the serpent, and to put off the old man, as the apostle says, that we may put on the new;[Ephesians 4:22] and to put it off, too, by coming through a narrow place, according to the saying of our Lord, “Enter ye in at the strait gate!” As, then, knowledge of the nature of the serpent throws light upon many metaphors which Scripture is accustomed to draw ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 72, footnote 16 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

Augustin explains for what the Son of God was sent; but, however, that the Son of God, although made less by being sent, is not therefore less because the Father sent Him; nor yet the Holy Spirit less because both the Father sent Him and the Son. (HTML)

The One Death and Resurrection of The Body of Christ Harmonizes with Our Double Death and Resurrection of Body and Soul, to the Effect of Salvation. In What Way the Single Death of Christ is Bestowed Upon Our Double Death. (HTML)

... destroyed, and in which death God has left us. And so the body of sin is destroyed through such a cross, that now we should not yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. Because, if even the inner man certainly is renewed day by day, yet undoubtedly it is old before it is renewed. For that is done inwardly of which the same apostle speaks: “Put off the old man, and put on the new;” which he goes on to explain by saying, “Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth.”[Ephesians 4:22-25] But where is lying put away, unless inwardly, that he who speaketh the truth from his heart may inhabit the holy hill of God? But the resurrection of the body of the Lord is shown to belong to the mystery of our own inner resurrection, where, after ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 524, footnote 2 (Image)

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

Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

Of the Work of Monks. (HTML)

Section 40 (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2623 (In-Text, Margin)

... acknowledging of God, according to the image of Him who created him.” Who can doubt that this renewing takes place in the mind? But and if any doubt, let him hear a more open sentence. For, giving the same admonition, he thus saith in another place: “As is the truth in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, him which is corrupt according to the lust of deception; but be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, him which after God is created.”[Ephesians 4:21-24] What then? Have women not this renewal of mind in which is the image of God? Who would say this? But in the sex of their body they do not signify this; therefore they are bidden to be veiled. The part, namely, which they signify in the very fact of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 317, footnote 4 (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 explains the Manichæan denial that man was made by God as applying to the fleshly man not to the spiritual.  Augustin elucidates the Apostle Paul’s contrasts between flesh and spirit so as to exclude the Manichæan view. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 986 (In-Text, Margin)

... makes us new men, and produces us in honor and purity, which would agree perfectly with His sacred and adorable majesty. If you do not reject Paul’s authority, we will prove to you from him what man God makes, and when, and how. He says to the Ephesians, "That ye put off according to your former conversation the old man, which is corrupt through deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and holiness of truth."[Ephesians 4:22-24] This shows that in the creation of man after the image of God, it is another man that is spoken of, and another birth, and another manner of birth. The putting off and putting on of which he speaks, point to the time of the reception of the truth; ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 33, footnote 4 (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 Epistle to the Ephesians. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 365 (In-Text, Margin)

... Himself slain the enmity; and He came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” Then in another passage he thus writes: “As the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”[Ephesians 4:21-24] And again: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 305, footnote 12 (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. x. 16, ‘Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves,’ etc. Delivered on a Festival of Martyrs. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2220 (In-Text, Margin)

... serpent altogether; something he has for thee to hate, and something for thee to imitate. For when the serpent is weighed down with age, and he feels the burden of his many years, he contracts and forces himself into a hole, and lays aside his old coat of skin, that he may spring forth into new life. Imitate him in this, thou Christian, who dost hear Christ saying, “Enter ye in at the strait gate.” And the Apostle Paul saith to thee, “Put ye off the old man with his deeds, and put ye on the new man.”[Ephesians 4:22-24] Thou hast then something to imitate in the serpent. Die not for the “old man,” but for the truth. Whoso dies for any temporal good dies “for the old man.” But when thou hast stripped thyself of all “that old man,” thou hast imitated the wisdom of ...

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

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm VI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 164 (In-Text, Margin)

... since all times have their revolution in a repetition of those seven days, that peradventure is called the eighth day, which will not have this variety. There is another reason, which may be here not unreasonably accepted, why the judgment should be called the eighth, because it will take place after two generations, one relating to the body, the other to the soul. For from Adam unto Moses the human race lived of the body, that is, according to the flesh: which is called the outward and the old man,[Ephesians 4:22] and to which the Old Testament was given, that it might prefigure the spiritual things to come by operations, albeit religious, yet carnal. Through this entire season, when men lived according to the body, “death reigned,” as the Apostle saith, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 30, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm VIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 302 (In-Text, Margin)

... we may from hence consider and distinguish what is the difference in this place between man and son of man; namely, that they who bear the image of the earthy man, who is not a son of man, should be signified by the name of men; but that they who bear the image of the heavenly Man, should be rather called sons of men; for the former again is called the old man and the latter the new; but the new is born of the old, since spiritual regeneration is begun by a change of an earthy, and worldly life;[Ephesians 4:22] and therefore the latter is called son of man. “Man” then in this place is earthy, but “son of man” heavenly; and the former is far removed from God, but the latter present with God; and therefore is He mindful of the former, as in far distance from ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 253, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2388 (In-Text, Margin)

... mortality and from naughtiness every one setteth out, in order that he may be made good hereafter. “For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One Man many shall be made just.” And all we in Adam do die: and each one of us of Adam was born. Let him pass over to Jerusalem, he shall be thrown down old, and shall be builded new. As though to conquered Jebusites, in order that there may be builded up Jerusalem, is said, “Put ye off the old man, and put on the new.”[Ephesians 4:22] And now to them builded in Jerusalem, and shining by the light of Grace, is said, “Ye have been sometime darkness, but now light in the Lord.” The evil city therefore from the beginning even unto the end doth run on, and the good City by the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 400, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXXIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3877 (In-Text, Margin)

... make thy soul ready for temptation:” so each, as he draweth near to the service of God, findeth that he is come to the winepress; he shall undergo tribulation, shall be crushed, shall be pressed, not that he may perish in this world, but that he may flow down into the storehouses of God. He hath the coverings of carnal desires stripped off from him, like grape-skins: for this hath taken place in him in carnal desires, of which the Apostle speaks, “Put ye off the old man, and put on the new man.”[Ephesians 4:22] All this is not done but by pressure: therefore the Churches of God of this time are called winepresses.

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

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4755 (In-Text, Margin)

... 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.” All who believe in Christ, who put off the old man, and put on the new,[Ephesians 4:22-24] 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 great fruit.…

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 412, footnote 2 (Image)

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

The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans (HTML)

Homily XI on Rom. vi. 5. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1367 (In-Text, Margin)

... having had any necessity to undergo, what allowance can you claim, or what excuse can you make, if you run away back to your former estate? Next that you may learn that it came not of your own willing temper only, but the whole of it of God’s grace also, after saying, “Ye have obeyed from the heart,” he adds, “that form of doctrine which was delivered you.” For the obedience from the heart shows the free will. But the being delivered, hints the assistance from God. But what is the form of doctrine?[Ephesians 4:19-24] It is living aright, and in conformity with the best conversation.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 373, footnote 11 (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. Proverbs are of a figurative nature, and must be interpreted as such. We must interpret them, and in particular this passage, by the Regula Fidei. 'He created me' not equivalent to 'I am a creature.' Wisdom a creature so far forth as Its human body. Again, if He is a creature, it is as 'a beginning of ways,' an office which, though not an attribute, is a consequence, of a higher and divine nature. And it is 'for the works,' which implied the works existed, and therefore much more He, before He was created. Also 'the Lord' not the Father 'created' Him, which implies the creation was that of a servant. (HTML)

... the single word ‘He created’ does not simply denote the essence and mode of generation, David shews in the Psalm, ‘This shall be written for another generation, and the people that is created shall praise the Lord;’ and again, ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God;’ and Paul in Ephesians says, ‘Having abolished the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to create in Himself of two one new man;’ and again, ‘Put ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness[Ephesians 4:22].’ For neither David spoke of any people created in essence, nor prayed to have another heart than that he had, but meant renovation according to God and renewal; nor did Paul signify two persons created in essence in the Lord, nor again did he ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 446, footnote 15 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

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

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

Discourse IV (HTML)

That the Son is the Co-existing Word, argued from the New Testament. Texts from the Old Testament continued; especially Ps. cx. 3. Besides, the Word in Old Testament may be Son in New, as Spirit in Old Testament is Paraclete in New. Objection from Acts x. 36; answered by parallels, such as 1 Cor. i. 5. Lev. ix. 7. &c. Necessity of the Word's taking flesh, viz. to sanctify, yet without destroying, the flesh. (HTML)

... ‘founded on the rock,’ and ‘the gates of hades shall not prevail against it.’ Theirs it was to say, ‘Why dost Thou, being a man, make Thyself God?’ and their disciple is the Samosatene; whence to his followers with reason does he teach his heresy. But ‘we did not so learn Christ, if so be that we heard’ Him, and were taught from Him, ‘putting off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,’ and taking up ‘the new, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness[Ephesians 4:20-24].’ Let Christ then in both ways be religiously considered.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 509, footnote 8 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)

The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)

Festal Letters. (HTML)

For 329. Easter-day xi Pharmuthi; viii Id. April; Ær. Dioclet. 45; Coss. Constantinus Aug. VIII. Constantinus Cæs. IV; Præfect. Septimius Zenius; Indict. II. (HTML)

... which that saint was comforted, who said, ‘Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me;’ and to sum up, being in all respects prepared, and careful for nothing, because, as the blessed Paul saith, ‘The Lord is at hand;’ and as our Saviour saith, ‘In an hour when we think not, the Lord cometh;—Let us keep the Feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Putting off the old man and his deeds, let us put on the new man[Ephesians 4:22-24], which is created in God,’ in humbleness of mind, and a pure conscience; in meditation of the law by night and by day. And casting away all hypocrisy and fraud, putting far from us all pride and deceit, let us take upon us love towards God and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 146, footnote 24 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Oceanus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2098 (In-Text, Margin)

... shall be clean from all your filthiness…a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit.” “From all your filthiness” he says, “will I cleanse you.” If all is taken away nothing can be left. If filthiness is cleansed, how much more is cleanness kept from defilement. “A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit.” Yes, for “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but a new nature.” Wherefore the song also which we sing is a new song, and putting off the old man[Ephesians 4:22] we walk not in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the spirit. This is the new stone wherein the new name is written, “which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” “Know ye not,” says the apostle, “that so many of us as were ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 376, footnote 8 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

Against Jovinianus. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4539 (In-Text, Margin)

... him, is sowing to the flesh and not to the Spirit. And he who sows to the flesh (the words are not mine, but the Apostle’s) reaps corruption. God the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we might be holy and without spot before Him. We walked in the lusts of the flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were children of wrath, even as the rest. But now He has raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,[Ephesians 4:22] that we may put away according to our former manner of life the old man, which is corrupt according to the lusts of deceit, and that blessing may be applied to us which so finely concludes the mystical Epistle to the Ephesians: “Grace be with all ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 6, footnote 10 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

To those who are to be Enlightened, delivered extempore at Jerusalem, as an Introductory Lecture to those who had come forward for Baptism. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 468 (In-Text, Margin)

2. If any here is a slave of sin, let him promptly prepare himself through faith for the new birth into freedom and adoption; and having put off the miserable bondage of his sins, and taken on him the most blessed bondage of the Lord, so may he be counted worthy to inherit the kingdom of heaven. Put off, by confession, the old man, which waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit, that ye may put on the new man, which is renewed according to knowledge of Him that created him[Ephesians 4:22]. Get you the earnest of the Holy Spirit through faith, that ye may be able to be received into the everlasting habitations. Come for the mystical Seal, that ye may be easily recognised by the Master; be ye numbered among the holy and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 147, footnote 5 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

On the Mysteries. II:  Of Baptism. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2397 (In-Text, Margin)

... image of putting off the old man with his deeds. Having stripped yourselves, ye were naked; in this also imitating Christ, who was stripped naked on the Cross, and by His nakedness put off from Himself the principalities and powers, and openly triumphed over them on the tree. For since the adverse powers made their lair in your members, ye may no longer wear that old garment; I do not at all mean this visible one, but the old man, which waxeth corrupt in the lusts of deceit[Ephesians 4:22]. May the soul which has once put him off, never again put him on, but say with the Spouse of Christ in the Song of Songs, I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on? O wondrous thing! ye were naked in the sight of all, and were not ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 345, footnote 11 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

On the Theophany, or Birthday of Christ. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3853 (In-Text, Margin)

IV. This is our present Festival; it is this which we are celebrating to-day, the Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth,[Ephesians 4:22] or rather (for this is the more proper expression) that we might go back to God—that putting off the old man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so we might live in Christ, being born with Christ and crucified with Him and buried with Him and rising with Him. For I must undergo the beautiful conversion, and as the painful succeeded the more blissful, so must the more blissful come out of the painful. For where ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 231, footnote 2 (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 XII (HTML)