Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Ephesians 4:23
There are 24 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 275, footnote 7 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Chapter III.—Against Men Who Embellish Themselves. (HTML)
... not possible for him to show the head true who has a fraudulent head. “But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man (not the hoary man, but him that is) corrupt according to deceitful lusts; and be renewed (not by dyeings and ornaments), but in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”[Ephesians 4:20-24]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 386, footnote 1 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2460 (In-Text, Margin)
... hirci, maximaque apud illos in spe fuerint meretrices, quæ in prostibulis præsto sunt, et volentes omnes admittunt. “Vos autem non sic Christum didicistis, siquidem ipsum audiistis, et in eo docti estis, quemadmodum est veritas in Christo Jesu, ut deponatis quæ sunt secundum veterem conversationem, veterem hominem, qui corrumpitur secundum desideria deceptionis. Renovamini autem spiritu mentis vestræ, et induatis novum hominem, qui creatus est secundum Deum in justitia et sanctitate veritatis,”[Ephesians 4:20-24] ad Dei similitudinem. “Efficimini ergo Dei imitatores, ut filii dilecti, et ambulate in dilectione, sicut Christus quoque dilexit nos, et tradidit seipsum pro nobis oblationem et hostiam Deo in odorem suavitatis. Fornicatio autem, et omnis ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 526, footnote 8 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book VII (HTML)
Chapter III.—The Gnostic Aims at the Nearest Likeness Possible to God and His Son. (HTML)
For “to bring themselves into captivity,” and to slay themselves, putting to death “the old man, who is through lusts corrupt,” and raising the new man from death, “from the old conversation,” by abandoning the passions, and becoming free of sin, both the Gospel and the apostle enjoin.[Ephesians 4:22-24]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 578, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
The Old Man and the New Man of St. Paul Explained. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7580 (In-Text, Margin)
But in their blindness they again impale themselves on the point of the old and the new man. When the apostle enjoins us “to put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and to be renewed in the spirit of our mind; and to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness,”[Ephesians 4:22-24] (they maintain) that by here also making a distinction between the two substances, and applying the old one to the flesh and the new one to the spirit, he ascribes to the old man—that is to say, the flesh—a permanent corruption. Now, if you follow the order of the substances, the soul cannot be the new man because it comes ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 107, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Fasting. (HTML)
Examples of a Similar Kind from the New. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1062 (In-Text, Margin)
By and by the Lord Himself consecrated His own baptism (and, in His own, that of all) by fasts; having (the power) to make “loaves out of stones,” say, to make Jordan flow with wine perchance, if He had been such a “glutton and toper.” Nay, rather, by the virtue of contemning food He was initiating “the new man” into “a severe handling” of “the old,”[Ephesians 4:22-23] that He might show that (new man) to the devil, again seeking to tempt him by means of food, (to be) too strong for the whole power of hunger.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 536, footnote 13 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
... 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 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 159, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
After premising the difference between wisdom and knowledge, he points out a kind of trinity in that which is properly called knowledge; but one which, although we have reached in it the inner man, is not yet to be called the image of God. (HTML)
How Man is the Image of God. Whether the Woman is Not Also the Image of God. How the Saying of the Apostle, that the Man is the Image of God, But the Woman is the Glory of the Man, is to Be Understood Figuratively and Mystically. (HTML)
12. For, as not only most true reason but also the authority of the apostle himself declares, man was not made in the image of God according to the shape of his body, but according to his rational mind. For the thought is a debased and empty one, which holds God to be circumscribed and limited by the lineaments of bodily members. But further, does not the same blessed apostle say, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which is created after God;”[Ephesians 4:23-24] and in another place more clearly, “Putting off the old man,” he says, “with his deeds; put on the new man, which is renewed to the knowledge of God after the image of Him that created him?” If, then, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind, and he is the new ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 195, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
He speaks of the true wisdom of man, viz. that by which he remembers, understands, and loves God; and shows that it is in this very thing that the mind of man is the image of God, although his mind, which is here renewed in the knowledge of God, will only then be made the perfect likeness of God in that image when there shall be a perfect sight of God. (HTML)
How the Image of God is Formed Anew in Man. (HTML)
... conformed to this world, are formed anew from the world, when they hearken to the apostle, saying, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye formed again in the renewing of your mind;” that that image may begin to be formed again by Him by whom it had been formed at first. For that image cannot form itself again, as it could deform itself. He says again elsewhere: “Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”[Ephesians 4:23-24] That which is meant by “created after God,” is expressed in another place by “after the image of God.” But it lost righteousness and true holiness by sinning, through which that image became defaced and tarnished; and this it recovers when it is ...
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 5, page 369, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin. (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
He Passes on to the Second Question About the Soul, Whether It is Called Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2512 (In-Text, Margin)
... flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.” What he designates mind in the former place, he must be understood to call spirit in the latter passage. Not as you interpret the statement, “The whole mind is meant, which consists of soul and spirit,”—a view which I know not where you obtained. By our “mind,” indeed, we usually understand nothing but our rational and intellectual faculty; and thus, when the apostle says, “Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind,”[Ephesians 4:23] what else does he mean than, Be ye renewed in your mind? “The spirit of the mind” is, accordingly, nothing else than the mind, just as “the body of the flesh” is nothing but the flesh; thus it is written, “In putting off the body of the flesh,” ...
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 7, page 373, footnote 10 (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 XVI. 12, 13. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1574 (In-Text, Margin)
... Spirit’s agency that makes such impure and detestable things possible to be borne. The evil things which no human modesty whatever can endure are of one kind, and of quite another are the good things which man’s little understanding is unable to bear: the former are wrought in unchaste bodies, the latter are beyond the reach of all bodies; the one is perpetrated in the filthiness of the flesh, the other is scarcely perceivable by the pure mind. “Be ye therefore renewed in the spirit of your mind,”[Ephesians 4:23] and “understand what is the will of God, which is good, and acceptable, and perfect;” that, “rooted and grounded in love, ye may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the length, and breadth, and height, and depth, even to know the love of ...
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 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 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)
... that He might redeem those who are under the law, that we might obtain the adoption of sons. And so He is God’s own Son, Who is made in human form and of human origin; nor is He only made but also created, as it is said: Even as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put away according to your former manner of life, that old man, which becomes corrupt according to the lusts of deceit. However, be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put ye on that new man, which is created according to God[Ephesians 4:21-24]. So the new man is to be put on Who has been created according to God. For He Who was Son of God was born also Son Man. This was not the birth of the divinity, but the creating of the flesh; the new Man taking the title of the race, and being ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 123, footnote 2 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter VII. The Holy Spirit is no less the author of spiritual creation or regeneration than the Father and the Son. The excellence of that creation, and wherein it consists. How we are to understand holy Scripture, when it attributes a body or members to God. (HTML)
... he that is born after the flesh persecutes him that is after the Spirit.” Again certainly is understood from what has gone before, is born after the Spirit. He then who is born after the Spirit is born after God. Now we are born again when we are renewed in our inward affections and lay aside the oldness of the outer man. And so the Apostle says again: “But be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man which is created according to God in truth and righteousness and holiness.”[Ephesians 4:23-24] Let them hear how the Scripture has signified the unity of the divine operation. He who is renewed in the spirit of his mind has put on the new man, which is created according to God.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 144, footnote 6 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter X. The Divinity of the Holy Spirit is supported by a passage of St. John. This passage was, indeed, erased by heretics, but it is a vain attempt, since their faithlessness could thereby more easily be convicted. The order of the context is considered in order that this passage may be shown to refer to the Spirit. He is born of the Spirit who is born again of the same Spirit, of Whom Christ Himself is believed to have been born and born again. Again, the Godhead of the Spirit is inferred from two testimonies of St. John; and lastly, it is explained how the Spirit, the water, and the blood are called witnesses. (HTML)
64. Who is he who is born of the Spirit, and is made Spirit, but he who is renewed in the Spirit of his mind?[Ephesians 4:23] This certainly is he who is regenerated by water and the Holy Spirit, since we receive the hope of eternal life through the laver of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And elsewhere the Apostle Peter says: “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” For who is he that is baptized with the Holy Spirit but he who is born again through water and the Holy Spirit? Therefore the Lord said of the Holy Spirit, Verily, verily, I say unto ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 346, footnote 2 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Repentance. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter II. A passage quoted by the heretics against repentance is explained in two ways, the first being that Heb. vi. 4 refers to the impossibility of being baptized again; the second, that what is impossible with man is possible with God. (HTML)
... very words in which it is stated that it is impossible to renew unto repentance those who were fallen, inasmuch as we are renewed by means of the laver of baptism, whereby we are born again, as Paul says himself: “For we are buried with Him through baptism into death, that, like as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we, too, should walk in newness of life.” And in another place: “Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man which is created after God.”[Ephesians 4:23] And elsewhere again: “Thy youth shall be renewed like the eagle,” because the eagle after death is born again from its ashes, as we being dead in sin are through the Sacrament of Baptism born again to God, and created anew. So, then, here as ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 359, footnote 5 (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 XIV. The answer to the point raised by the questioner. (HTML)
Theodore: It is needful that one must either, as the Apostle says, “be renewed in the spirit of the mind,”[Ephesians 4:23] and daily advance by “pressing forward to those things which are before,” or, if one neglects to do this, the sure result will be to go back, and become worse and worse. And therefore the mind cannot possibly remain in one and the same state. Just as when a man, by pulling hard, is trying to force a boat against the stream of a strong current he must either stem the rush of the torrent by the force of his arms, and so mount to ...