Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

1 Timothy 1:4

There are 13 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 57, footnote 2 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Ignatius (HTML)

Epistle to the Ephesians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)

Chapter XVIII.—The glory of the cross. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 609 (In-Text, Margin)

Let my spirit be counted as nothing for the sake of the cross, which is a stumbling-block to those that do not believe, but to us salvation and life eternal. “Where is the wise man? where the disputer?” Where is the boasting of those who are styled prudent? For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment[1 Timothy 1:4] of God, conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Ghost. He was born and baptized, that by His passion He might purify the water.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 62, footnote 4 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Ignatius (HTML)

Epistle to the Magnesians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)

Chapter VIII.—Caution against false doctrines. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 677 (In-Text, Margin)

Be not deceived with strange doctrines, “nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies,”[1 Timothy 1:4] and things in which the Jews make their boast. “Old things are passed away: behold, all things have become new.” For if we still live according to the Jewish law, and the circumcision of the flesh, we deny that we have received grace. For the divinest prophets lived according to Jesus Christ. On this account also they were persecuted, being inspired by grace to fully convince the unbelieving that there is one God, the Almighty, who has manifested ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 315, footnote 2 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book I (HTML)

Preface. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2656 (In-Text, Margin)

1. Inasmuch as certain men have set the truth aside, and bring in lying words and vain genealogies, which, as the apostle says,[1 Timothy 1:4] “minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith,” and by means of their craftily-constructed plausibilities draw away the minds of the inexperienced and take them captive, [I have felt constrained, my dear friend, to compose the following treatise in order to expose and counteract their machinations.] These men falsify the oracles of God, and prove themselves evil interpreters of the good word of ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 574, footnote 14 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus (HTML)

XXXVI. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4867 (In-Text, Margin)

... lang="EL">ἀσχημάτιστος); and “the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart,” as the same apostle declares, being easy of comprehension to those who are obedient. For it renders us like to Christ, if we experience “the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.” For this is the affinity of the apostolical teaching and the most holy “faith delivered unto us,” which the unlearned receive, and those of slender knowledge have taught, not “giving heed to endless genealogies,”[1 Timothy 1:4] but studying rather [to observe] a straightforward course of life; lest, having been deprived of the Divine Spirit, they fail to attain to the kingdom of heaven. For truly the first thing is to deny one’s self and to follow Christ; and those who do ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 183, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

A Treatise on the Soul. (HTML)

The Christian Has Sure and Simple Knowledge Concerning the Subject Before Us. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1506 (In-Text, Margin)

... inquirers about the soul, and wearied with their interminable questions, he declared that he had certainly not explored the limits of the soul, although he had traversed every road in her domains. To the Christian, however, but few words are necessary for the clear understanding of the whole subject. But in the few words there always arises certainty to him; nor is he permitted to give his inquiries a wider range than is compatible with their solution; for “endless questions” the apostle forbids.[1 Timothy 1:4] It must, however, be added, that no solution may be found by any man, but such as is learned from God; and that which is learned of God is the sum and substance of the whole thing.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 246, footnote 19 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Prescription Against Heretics. (HTML)

Pagan Philosophy the Parent of Heresies. The Connection Between Deflections from Christian Faith and the Old Systems of Pagan Philosophy. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1923 (In-Text, Margin)

... From enthymesis and ectroma. Unhappy Aristotle! who invented for these men dialectics, the art of building up and pulling down; an art so evasive in its propositions, so far-fetched in its conjectures, so harsh, in its arguments, so productive of contentions—embarrassing even to itself, retracting everything, and really treating of nothing! Whence spring those “fables and endless genealogies,”[1 Timothy 1:4] and “unprofitable questions,” and “words which spread like a cancer?” From all these, when the apostle would restrain us, he expressly names philosophy as that which he would have us be on our guard against. Writing to the Colossians, he ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 259, footnote 9 (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 2199 (In-Text, Margin)

... resurrection. Writing also to the Galatians, he inveighs against such men as observed and defend circumcision and the (Mosaic) law. 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 was past already.” Such an opinion did the Valentinians assert of themselves. When again he mentions “endless genealogies,”[1 Timothy 1:4] one also recognises Valentinus, in whose system a certain Æon, whosoever he be, of a new name, and that not one only, generates of his own grace Sense and Truth; and these in like manner produce of themselves Word and Life, while these again ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 505, footnote 3 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Against the Valentinians. (HTML)

The Folly of This Heresy.  It Dissects and Mutilates the Deity.  Contrasted with the Simple Wisdom of True Religion. To Expose the Absurdities of the Valentinian System is to Destroy It. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6652 (In-Text, Margin)

... amongst the lullabies she sang to you about the towers of Lamia, and the horns of the sun? Let, however, any man approach the subject from a knowledge of the faith which he has otherwise learned, as soon as he finds so many names of Æons, so many marriages, so many offsprings, so many exits, so many issues, felicities and infelicities of a dispersed and mutilated Deity, will that man hesitate at once to pronounce that these are “the fables and endless genealogies” which the inspired apostle[1 Timothy 1:4] by anticipation condemned, whilst these seeds of heresy were even then shooting forth? Deservedly, therefore, must they be regarded as wanting in simplicity, and as merely prudent, who produce such fables not without difficulty, and defend them only ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 72, footnote 2 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
Council held at Sardica. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 495 (In-Text, Margin)

From this letter may be learnt the duplicity of the calumniators, and the injustice of the former judges, as well as the soundness of the decrees. These holy fathers have taught us not only truths respecting the Divine nature, but also the doctrine of the Incarnation[1 Timothy 1:4].

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 294, footnote 11 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Arian History. (Historia Arianorum ad Monachos.) (HTML)

Arian History. (Historia Arianorum ad Monachos.) (HTML)

Persecution in Egypt. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1733 (In-Text, Margin)

... means of external power. And herein one may especially admire the novelty as well as wickedness of their device, and how they go beyond all other heresies. For these support their madness by persuasive arguments calculated to deceive the simple; the Greeks, as the Apostle has said, make their attack with excellency and persuasiveness of speech, and with plausible fallacies; the Jews, leaving the divine Scriptures, now, as the Apostle again has said, contend about ‘fables and endless genealogies[1 Timothy 1:4];’ and the Manichees and Valentinians with them, and others, corrupting the divine Scriptures, put forth fables in terms of their own inventions. But the Arians are bolder than them all, and have shewn that the other heresies are but their younger ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 196, footnote 6 (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 X (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1188 (In-Text, Margin)

... unaided, God’s mode of action (for then our judgment were keener to discern than God is mighty to effect), writes to his true son according to the faith, who had received the Holy Scripture from his childhood, As I exhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus, when I was going into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine, neither to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, the which minister questionings, rather than the edification of God which is in faith[1 Timothy 1:3-4]. He bids him forbear to handle wordy genealogies and fables, which minister endless questionings. The edification of God, he says, is in faith: he limits human reverence to the faithful worship of the Almighty, and does not suffer our weakness to ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 241, footnote 1 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Chapter XV. St. Ambrose deprecates any praise of his own merits: in any case, the Faith is sufficiently defended by the authoritative support of holy Scripture, to whose voice the Arians, stubborn as the Jews, are deaf. He prays that they may be moved to love the truth; meanwhile, they are to be avoided, as heretics and enemies of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2083 (In-Text, Margin)

... what is true, and not assailing all truth. For it is written that we pay no heed to “endless fables and genealogies, which do rather raise disputes than set forward the godly edification, which is in faith. But the aim of the charge is love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, whence some have erred and betaken themselves to empty babbling, desirous of being teachers of the law, without understanding the words they say, nor the things whereof they speak with assurance.”[1 Timothy 1:4] In another place also the same Apostle saith: “But foolish and ignorant questionings do thou avoid.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 269, footnote 14 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter V. Continuing the exposition of the disputed passage, which he had begun, Ambrose brings forward four reasons why we affirm that something cannot be, and shows that the first three fail to apply to Christ, and infers that the only reason why the Son can do nothing of Himself is His Unity in Power with the Father. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2389 (In-Text, Margin)

61. Yet I would still enquire what it is that the Son cannot do, unless He see the Father doing it. I will take the fool’s line, and propound some examples drawn from things of a lower world. “I am become a fool; ye have compelled me.” What indeed is more foolish than to debate over the majesty of God, which rather occasions questionings, than godly instruction which is in faith.[1 Timothy 1:4] But to arguments let argu ments reply; let words make answer to them, but love to us, the love which is in God, issuing of a pure heart and good conscience and faith unfeigned. And so I stickle not to introduce even the ludicrous for the confutation of so vain a thesis.

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