Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

1 Timothy 1:9

There are 16 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 481, footnote 10 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XVI.—Perfect righteousness was conferred neither by circumcision nor by any other legal ceremonies. The Decalogue, however, was not cancelled by Christ, but is always in force: men were never released from its commandments. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3994 (In-Text, Margin)

3. Why, then, did the Lord not form the covenant for the fathers? Because “the law was not established for righteous men.”[1 Timothy 1:9] But the righteous fathers had the meaning of the Decalogue written in their hearts and souls, that is, they loved the God who made them, and did no injury to their neighbour. There was therefore no occasion that they should be cautioned by prohibitory mandates (correptoriis literis), because they had the righteousness of the law in themselves. But when this righteousness and love to God had passed into oblivion, and became ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 411, footnote 1 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter III.—The True Excellence of Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2689 (In-Text, Margin)

... lusts of the body, and besides these, from toil and fear, although we have shown that patience and fear belong to the good man. For if “by the law is the knowledge of sin,” as those allege who disparage the law, and “till the law sin was in the world;” yet “without the law sin was dead,” we oppose them. For when you take away the cause of fear, sin, you have taken away fear; and much more, punishment, when you have taken away that which gives rise to lust. “For the law is not made for the just man,”[1 Timothy 1:9] says the Scripture. Well, then, says Heraclitus, “They would not have known the name of Justice if these things had not been.” And Socrates says, “that the law was not made for the sake of the good.” But the cavillers did not know even this, as the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 525, footnote 5 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book VII (HTML)
Chapter II.—The Son the Ruler and Saviour of All. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3520 (In-Text, Margin)

For this was the law from the first, that virtue should be the object of voluntary choice. Wherefore also the commandments, according to the Law, and before the Law, not given to the upright (for the law is not appointed for a righteous man[1 Timothy 1:9]), ordained that he should receive eternal life and the blessed prize, who chose them.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 204, footnote 5 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Archelaus. (HTML)

The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes. (HTML)

Chapter XXXI. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1737 (In-Text, Margin)

... fulfilling it. Thus, then, He redeemed them from that curse of the law which belongs to the present life; and from this fact has come the appellation “the curse of the law.” This is the whole account which needs be given of that mode of speech. But, again, why the law is called the “strength of sin,” we shall at once explain in brief to the best of our ability. Now it is written that “the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners.”[1 Timothy 1:9] In these times, then, before Moses, there was no written law for transgressors; whence also Pharaoh, not knowing the strength of sin, transgressed in the way of afflicting the children of Israel with unrighteous burdens, and despised the Godhead, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 89, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

How the Law Was Not Made for a Righteous Man. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 766 (In-Text, Margin)

Because “for a righteous man the law was not made;” and yet “the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.”[1 Timothy 1:9] Now by connecting together these two seemingly contrary statements, the apostle warns and urges his reader to sift the question and solve it too. For how can it be that “the law is good, if a man use it lawfully,” if what follows is also true: “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man?” For who but a righteous man lawfully uses the law? Yet it is not for him that it is made, but for the unrighteous. Must then the unrighteous ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 89, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

How the Law Was Not Made for a Righteous Man. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 767 (In-Text, Margin)

Because “for a righteous man the law was not made;” and yet “the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.” Now by connecting together these two seemingly contrary statements, the apostle warns and urges his reader to sift the question and solve it too. For how can it be that “the law is good, if a man use it lawfully,” if what follows is also true: “Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man?”[1 Timothy 1:9] For who but a righteous man lawfully uses the law? Yet it is not for him that it is made, but for the unrighteous. Must then the unrighteous man, in order that he may be justified,—that is, become a righteous man,—lawfully use the law, to lead him, as by the schoolmaster’s hand, to that grace ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 277, footnote 6 (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 XI. 1–54. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 994 (In-Text, Margin)

... Himself, cometh to the tomb.” May His groaning have thee also for its object, if thou wouldst re-enter into life! Every man who lies in that dire moral condition has it said to him, “He cometh to the tomb.” “It was a cave, and a stone had been laid upon it.” Dead under that stone, guilty under the law. For you know that the law, which was given to the Jews, was inscribed on stone. And all the guilty are under the law: the right-living are in harmony with the law. The law is not laid on a righteous man.[1 Timothy 1:9] What mean then the words, “Take ye away the stone”? Preach grace. For the Apostle Paul calleth himself a minister of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit; “for the letter,” he says, “killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” The ...

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

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm I (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 9 (In-Text, Margin)

2. “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law will he meditate by day and by night (ver. 2). The law is not made for a righteous man,”[1 Timothy 1:9] says the Apostle. But it is one thing to be in the law, another under the law. Whoso is in the law, acteth according to the law; whoso is under the law, is acted upon according to the law: the one therefore is free, the other a slave. Again, the law, which is written and imposed upon the servant, is one thing; the law, which is mentally discerned by him who needeth not its “letter,” is another thing. “He will meditate by ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 369, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXVIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3561 (In-Text, Margin)

... Apostle, “sin was dead: but I lived sometime without the Law: but at the coming in of the commandment sin revived.” Behold that which hath been raised up by the testimony, which is the Law, so that what was lying hidden might appear, as he saith a little afterwards: “But sin, that it might appear sin, through a good thing hath wrought in me death.” But “He hath set a law,” hath been said, as though it were a yoke upon sinners, whence hath been said, “For upon a just man law hath not been imposed.”[1 Timothy 1:9] It is a testimony then, so far forth as it doth prove anything; but a law so far forth as it doth command; though it is one and the same thing. Wherefore just as Christ is a stone, but to believers for the Head of the corner, while to unbelievers a ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 381, footnote 4 (Image)

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

The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)

Homily VI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1280 (In-Text, Margin)

... from the army, you place the soldiers bound in the hands of the enemy; so if you deprive the city of its rulers, we must lead a life less rational than that of the brutes, biting and devouring one another; the rich man, the poorer; the stronger man, the weaker; and the bolder man, him who is more gentle. But now by the grace of God none of these things happen. For they who live in a state of piety, require no correction on the part of the magistrates; for “the law is not made for a righteous man,”[1 Timothy 1:9] saith one. But the more numerous being viciously inclined, if they had no fear of these hanging over them, would fill the cities with innumerable evils; which Paul knowing, observed, “There is no power, but of God, the powers that be are ordained of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 392, footnote 2 (Image)

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

The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)

Homily VII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1349 (In-Text, Margin)

... punishing us, He were but half good. But this is not the case. God forbid! Among men this may probably happen, when they inflict punishments in anger and passion; but God being free from passion, whether He exercise kindness, or whether He punish, He is alike good. Nor less does the threat of hell serve to show His goodness, than the promise of the kingdom. But how? I answer. If He had not threatened hell, if He had not prepared punishment, there are not many who would have attained the kingdom.[1 Timothy 1:9] For the promise of good things doth not so strongly induce the multitude to virtue; as doth the threat of evil things compel by fear, and arouse them to the care of the soul. So that, although hell be the opposite of the kingdom of heaven, yet each ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 120, footnote 4 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To the Cæsareans.  A defence of his withdrawal, and concerning the faith. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1838 (In-Text, Margin)

... creature, but is made a “way” according to the œconomy. Being made and being created signify the same thing. As He was made a way, so was He made a door, a shepherd, an angel, a sheep, and again a High Priest and an Apostle, the names being used in other senses. What again would the heretics say about God unsubjected, and about His being made sin for us? For it is written “But when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him.”[1 Timothy 1:9] Are you not afraid, sir, of God called unsubjected? For He makes thy subjection His own; and because of thy struggling against goodness He calls himself unsubjected. In this sense too He once spoke of Himself as persecuted—“Saul, Saul,” He says, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 95b, footnote 11 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)

An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)

Book IV (HTML)
Against the Jews on the question of the Sabbath. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2646 (In-Text, Margin)

... in order that on it they, who do not dedicate their whole life to God, and who do not make their desire subservient to the Master as though to a Father, but are like foolish servants, may on that day talk much concerning the exercise of it, and may abstract a small, truly a most insignificant, portion of their life for the service of God, and this from fear of the chastisements and punishments which threaten transgressors. For the law is not made for a righteous man but for the unrighteous[1 Timothy 1:9]. Moses, of a truth, was the first to abide fasting with God for forty days and again for another forty, and thus doubtless to afflict himself with hunger on the Sabbaths although the law forbade self-affliction on the Sabbath. But if they should ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 72, footnote 4 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)

Book III. (HTML)
Chapter V. The upright does nothing that is contrary to duty, even though there is a hope of keeping it secret. To point this out the tale about the ring of Gyges was invented by the philosophers. Exposing this, he brings forward known and true examples from the life of David and John the Baptist. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 634 (In-Text, Margin)

31. Give, says Plato, this ring to a wise man, that when he commits a fault he may by its help remain unnoticed; yet he will be none the more free from the stain of sin than if he could not be hid. The hiding-place of the wise lies not in the hope of impunity but in his own innocency. Lastly, the law is not laid down for the just but for the unjust.[1 Timothy 1:9] For the just has within himself the law of his mind, and a rule of equity and justice. Thus he is not recalled from sin by fear of punishment, but by the rule of a virtuous life.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 385, footnote 12 (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 VIII. The Second Conference of Abbot Serenus. On Principalities. (HTML)
Chapter XXIV. Of the fact that they were justly punished, who sinned before the flood. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1569 (In-Text, Margin)

... certainly cannot happen to the infinite foreknowledge of God, nor can these assertions be made about Him by the mad folly of heretics without grievous blasphemy, as Ecclesiastes says: “I have learnt that all the words which God hath made from the beginning shall continue forever: nothing can be added to them, and nothing can be taken away from them,” and therefore “the law is not made for the righteous, but for the unrighteous, and insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the wicked and profane.”[1 Timothy 1:9] For as they had the sound and complete system of natural laws implanted in them they had no need of this external law in addition, and one committed to writing, and what was given as an aid to that natural law. From which we infer by the clearest of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 515, footnote 5 (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 XXI. The First Conference of Abbot Theonas. On the Relaxation During the Fifty Days. (HTML)
Chapter XXIX. How those who are perfect go beyond the fixed rule of Lent. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2214 (In-Text, Margin)

... really perfect who do not take advantage even of those things which the law allows. And in this way, though it is said of the Mosaic law that “the law brought nothing to perfection,” we read that some of the saints in the Old Testament were perfect because they went beyond the commands of the law and lived under the perfection of the Gospel: “Knowing that the law is not appointed for the righteous but for the unrighteous and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the wicked and defiled, etc.”[1 Timothy 1:9-10]

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs