Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
1 Timothy 4
There are 148 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 53, footnote 3 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to the Ephesians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)
Chapter VIII.—Renewed praise of the Ephesians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 541 (In-Text, Margin)
... holy Church of the Ephesians, which is so famous and celebrated throughout the world. They that are carnal cannot do those things which are spiritual, nor they that are spiritual the things which are carnal; even as faith cannot do the works of unbelief, nor unbelief the works of faith. But ye, being full of the Holy Spirit, do nothing according to the flesh, but all things according to the Spirit. Ye are complete in Christ Jesus, “who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe.”[1 Timothy 4:10]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 59, footnote 4 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to the Magnesians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)
Chapter I.—Reason of writing the epistle. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 635 (In-Text, Margin)
Having been informed of your godly love, so well-ordered, I rejoiced greatly, and determined to commune with you in the faith of Jesus Christ. For as one who has been thought worthy of a divine and desirable name, in those bonds which I bear about, I commend the Churches, in which I pray for a union both of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, “who is the Saviour of all men, but specially of them that believe;”[1 Timothy 4:10] by whose blood ye were redeemed; by whom ye have known God, or rather have been known by Him; in whom enduring, ye shall escape all the assaults of this world: for “He is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which ye are able.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 60, footnote 12 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to the Magnesians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)
Chapter III.—Honour your youthful bishop. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 654 (In-Text, Margin)
... groves, for they were dedicated to demons, and not to God. And he slew the false priests, as the corrupters and deceivers of men, and not the worshippers of the Deity. Wherefore youth is not to be despised when it is devoted to God. But he is to be despised who is of a wicked mind, although he be old, and full of wicked days. Timothy the Christ-bearer was young, but hear what his teacher writes to him: “Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word and in conduct.”[1 Timothy 4:12] It is becoming, therefore, that ye also should be obedient to your bishop, and contradict him in nothing; for it is a fearful thing to contradict any such person. For no one does [by such conduct] deceive him that is visible, but does [in reality] ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 113, footnote 8 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to Hero, a Deacon of Antioch (HTML)
Chapter I.—Exhortations to earnestness and moderation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1273 (In-Text, Margin)
... flesh, for these things are not to be viewed with abhorrence, since [the Scripture] saith, “Ye shall eat the good things of the earth.” And again, “Ye shall eat flesh even as herbs.” And again, “Wine maketh glad the heart of man, and oil exhilarates, and bread strengthens him.” But all are to be used with moderation, as being the gifts of God. “For who shall eat or who shall drink without Him? For if anything be beautiful, it is His; and if anything be good, it is His.” Give attention to reading,[1 Timothy 4:13] that thou mayest not only thyself know the laws, but mayest also explain them to others, as the earnest servant of God. “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 114, footnote 2 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to Hero, a Deacon of Antioch (HTML)
Chapter III.—Exhortations as to ecclesiastical duties. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1282 (In-Text, Margin)
... orphans; for God is “the Father of the fatherless, and the Judge of the widows.” Do nothing without the bishops; for they are priests, and thou a servant of the priests. They baptize, offer sacrifice, ordain, and lay on hands; but thou ministerest to them, as the holy Stephen did at Jerusalem to James and the presbyters. Do not neglect the sacred meetings [of the saints]; inquire after every one by name. “Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example to the believers, both in word and conduct.”[1 Timothy 4:12]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 349, footnote 2 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book I (HTML)
Chapter XXIV.—Doctrines of Saturninus and Basilides. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2941 (In-Text, Margin)
... powers wished to annihilate his father, Christ came to destroy the God of the Jews, but to save such as believe in him; that is, those who possess the spark of his life. This heretic was the first to affirm that two kinds of men were formed by the angels,—the one wicked, and the other good. And since the demons assist the most wicked, the Saviour came for the destruction of evil men and of the demons, but for the salvation of the good. They declare also, that marriage and generation are from Satan.[1 Timothy 4:3] Many of those, too, who belong to his school, abstain from animal food, and draw away multitudes by a feigned temperance of this kind. They hold, moreover, that some of the prophecies were uttered by those angels who made the world, and some by ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 390, footnote 2 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book II (HTML)
Chapter XXI.—The twelve apostles were not a type of the Æons. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3120 (In-Text, Margin)
... knowledge of the Demiurge, to give forth profound and unspeakable mysteries to itching ears. And not only did their Mother bring it about that this mystery should be declared by Hesiod; but very skilfully also by means of the lyric poet Pindar, when he describes to the Demiurge the case of Pelops, whose flesh was cut in pieces by the Father, and then collected and brought together, and compacted anew by all the gods, did she in this way indicate Pandora and these men having their consciences seared[1 Timothy 4:2] by her, declaring, as they maintain, the very same things, are [proved] of the same family and spirit as the others.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 196, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
Exhortation to the Heathen (HTML)
Chapter IX.—“That Those Grievously Sin Who Despise or Neglect God’s Gracious Calling.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 967 (In-Text, Margin)
... entered into the rest, because of unbelief, till, having followed the successor of Moses, they learned by experience, though late, that they could not be saved otherwise than by believing on Jesus. But the Lord, in His love to man, invites all men to the knowledge of the truth, and for this end sends the Paraclete. What, then, is this knowledge? Godliness; and “godliness,” according to Paul, “is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”[1 Timothy 4:8] If eternal salvation were to be sold, for how much, O men, would you propose to purchase it? Were one to estimate the value of the whole of Pactolus, the fabulous river of gold, he would not have reckoned up a price equivalent to salvation.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 196, footnote 7 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
Exhortation to the Heathen (HTML)
Chapter IX.—“That Those Grievously Sin Who Despise or Neglect God’s Gracious Calling.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 968 (In-Text, Margin)
Do not, however, faint. You may, if you choose, purchase salvation, though of inestimable value, with your own resources, love and living faith, which will be reckoned a suitable price. This recompense God cheerfully accepts; “for we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those who believe.”[1 Timothy 4:10]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 203, footnote 3 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
Exhortation to the Heathen (HTML)
Chapter XI.—How Great are the Benefits Conferred on Man Through the Advent of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1011 (In-Text, Margin)
... And the one whole Christ is not divided: “There is neither barbarian, nor Jew, nor Greek, neither male nor female, but a new man,” transformed by God’s Holy Spirit. Further, the other counsels and precepts are unimportant, and respect particular things,—as, for example, if one may marry, take part in public affairs, beget children; but the only command that is universal, and over the whole course of existence, at all times and in all circumstances, tends to the highest end, viz., life, is piety,[1 Timothy 4:8] —all that is necessary, in order that we may live for ever, being that we live in accordance with it. Philosophy, however, as the ancients say, is “a long-lived exhortation, wooing the eternal love of wisdom;” while the commandment of the Lord is ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 249, footnote 4 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter IV.—How to Conduct Ourselves at Feasts. (HTML)
... in his thanksgiving to God. “Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; praise is comely to the upright,” says the prophecy. “Confess to the Lord on the harp; play to Him on the psaltery of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song.” And does not the ten-stringed psaltery indicate the Word Jesus, who is manifested by the element of the decad? And as it is befitting, before partaking of food, that we should bless the Creator of all; so also in drinking it is suitable to praise Him on partaking of His creatures.[1 Timothy 4:3-4] For the psalm is a melodious and sober blessing. The apostle calls the psalm “a spiritual song.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 294, footnote 7 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Chapter XII.—Continuation: with Texts from Scripture. (HTML)
“Nourish yourselves up in the words of faith. Exercise yourselves unto godliness: for bodily exercise profiteth little; but godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life which now is, and that which is to come.”[1 Timothy 4:6-8]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 390, footnote 10 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2506 (In-Text, Margin)
... advesarios in aliquibus opem tulisset, postquam id perfecisset, lepide a se dictum jusjurandum exsequens, cum curasset imaginem ejus quam simillimam depingi, eam Cyrenæ statuit, ut scribit Ister in libro De proprietate certaminum. Quare nec castitas est bonum, nisi fiat propter delectionem Dei. Jam de iis, qui matrimonium abhorrent, dicit beatus Paulus: “In novissimis diebus deficient quidam a fide, attendentes spiritibus erroris, et doctrinis dæmoniorum, prohibentium nubere, abstinere a cibis.”[1 Timothy 4:1] Et rursus dicit: “Nemo vos seducat in voluntaria humilitatis religione, et parcimonia corporis.” Idem autem ilia quoque scribit: “Alligatus es uxori? ne quæras solutionem. Solutus es ab uxore? ne quæras uxorem.” Et rursus: “Unusquisque autem suam ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 390, footnote 10 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2506 (In-Text, Margin)
... advesarios in aliquibus opem tulisset, postquam id perfecisset, lepide a se dictum jusjurandum exsequens, cum curasset imaginem ejus quam simillimam depingi, eam Cyrenæ statuit, ut scribit Ister in libro De proprietate certaminum. Quare nec castitas est bonum, nisi fiat propter delectionem Dei. Jam de iis, qui matrimonium abhorrent, dicit beatus Paulus: “In novissimis diebus deficient quidam a fide, attendentes spiritibus erroris, et doctrinis dæmoniorum, prohibentium nubere, abstinere a cibis.”[1 Timothy 4:3] Et rursus dicit: “Nemo vos seducat in voluntaria humilitatis religione, et parcimonia corporis.” Idem autem ilia quoque scribit: “Alligatus es uxori? ne quæras solutionem. Solutus es ab uxore? ne quæras uxorem.” Et rursus: “Unusquisque autem suam ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 397, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2588 (In-Text, Margin)
... hominibus merito aperte “dicit Spiritus, quod in posterioribus temporibus deficient quidam a fide, attendentes spiritibus erroris, et doctrinis dæmoniorum, in hypocrisi falsiloquorum, cauteriatam habentium conscientiam, et prohibentium nubere, abstinere a cibis quos Deus creavit ad participationem cum gratiarum actione fidelibus, et qui agnoverunt veritatem, quod omnis creatura Dei bona est, et nihil est rejiciendum quod sumitur cure gratiarum actione. Sanctificatur enim per verburn Dei et orationem?”[1 Timothy 4:1-5] Omnino igitur non est prohibendum jungi matrimonio, neque carnibus vesci, aut vinum bibere. Scriptum est enim: “Bonum est carnero non coinedere, nec vinum bibere, si quis comedat per offendiculum.” Et: “Bonum est manere sicut ego.” Sed et qui ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 427, footnote 14 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter XVI.—Passages of Scripture Respecting the Constancy, Patience, and Love of the Martyrs. (HTML)
... “Little children, let us not love in word, or in tongue,” says John, teaching them to be perfect, “but in deed and in truth; hereby shall we know that we are of the truth.” And if “God be love,” piety also is love: “there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” And again, to him who desires to become a Gnostic, it is written, “But be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in love, in faith, in purity.”[1 Timothy 4:12] For perfection in faith differs, I think, from ordinary faith. And the divine apostle furnishes the rule for the Gnostic in these words, writing as follows: “For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be abased, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 518, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Chapter XVII.—Philosophy Conveys Only an Imperfect Knowledge of God. (HTML)
And to speak comprehensively, all benefit appertaining to life, in its highest reason, proceeding from the Sovereign God, the Father who is over all, is consummated by the Son, who also on this account “is the Saviour of all men,” says the apostle, “but especially of those who believe.”[1 Timothy 4:10] But in respect of its immediate reason, it is from those next to each, in accordance with the command and injunction of Him who is nearest the First Cause, that is, the Lord.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 243, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Prescription Against Heretics. (HTML)
Introductory. Heresies Must Exist, and Even Abound; They are a Probation to Faith. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1852 (In-Text, Margin)
The character of the times in which we live is such as to call forth from us even this admonition, that we ought not to be astonished at the heresies (which abound) neither ought their existence to surprise us, for it was foretold that they should come to pass;[1 Timothy 4:1-3] nor the fact that they subvert the faith of some, for their final cause is, by affording a trial to faith, to give it also the opportunity of being “approved.” Groundless, therefore, and inconsiderate is the offence of the many who are scandalized by the very fact that heresies prevail to such a degree. How great (might their offence have been) if they ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 246, footnote 7 (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 1911 (In-Text, Margin)
These are “the doctrines” of men and “of demons”[1 Timothy 4:1] produced for itching ears of the spirit of this world’s wisdom: this the Lord called “foolishness,” and “chose the foolish things of the world” to confound even philosophy itself. For (philosophy) it is which is the material of the world’s wisdom, the rash interpreter of the nature and the dispensation of God. Indeed heresies are themselves instigated by philosophy. From this source came the Æons, and I known not what infinite forms, and the trinity of man in the system ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 259, footnote 6 (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 2196 (In-Text, Margin)
... 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. Thus runs Hebion’s heresy. Such also as “forbid to marry” he reproaches in his instructions to Timothy.[1 Timothy 4:3] 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 ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 290, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book I. Wherein is described the god of Marcion. He is shown to be utterly wanting in all the attributes of the true God. (HTML)
The Goodness of Marcion's God Only Imperfectly Manifested; It Saves But Few, and the Souls Merely of These. Marcion's Contempt of the Body Absurd. (HTML)
... salvation—that is, they are saved only so far as the soul is concerned, but lost in their body, which, according to him, does not rise again. Now, whence comes this halving of salvation, if not from a failure of goodness? What could have been a better proof of a perfect goodness, than the recovery of the whole man to salvation? Totally damned by the Creator, he should have been totally restored by the most merciful god. I rather think that by Marcion’s rule the body is baptized, is deprived of marriage,[1 Timothy 4:3] is cruelly tortured in confession. But although sins are attributed to the body, yet they are preceded by the guilty concupiscence of the soul; nay, the first motion of sin must be ascribed to the soul, to which the flesh acts in the capacity of a ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 23, footnote 11 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On the Apparel of Women. (HTML)
II (HTML)
Excess in Dress, as Well as in Personal Culture, to Be Shunned. Arguments Drawn from I Cor. VII. (HTML)
... If, then he shows plainly that even wives themselves are so to be had as if they be not had, on account of the straits of the times, what would be his sentiments about these vain appliances of theirs? Why, are there not many, withal, who so do, and seal themselves up to eunuchhood for the sake of the kingdom of God, spontaneously relinquishing a pleasure so honourable, and (as we know) permitted? Are there not some who prohibit to themselves (the use of) the very “creature of God,”[1 Timothy 4:4-5] abstaining from wine and animal food, the enjoyments of which border upon no peril or solicitude; but they sacrifice to God the humility of their soul even in the chastened use of food? Sufficiently, therefore, have you, too, used your riches and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 56, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Exhortation to Chastity. (HTML)
Application of the Subject. Advantages of Widowhood. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 557 (In-Text, Margin)
... sustain the loss. What if you come to feel that what we have called a loss is a gain? For continence will be a mean whereby you will traffic in a mighty substance of sanctity; by parsimony of the flesh you will gain the Spirit. For let us ponder over our conscience itself, (to see) how different a man feels himself when he chances to be deprived of his wife. He savours spiritually. If he is making prayer to the Lord, he is near heaven. If he is bending over the Scriptures, he is “wholly in them.”[1 Timothy 4:15] If he is singing a psalm, he satisfies himself. If he is adjuring a demon, he is confident in himself. Accordingly, the apostle added (the recommendation of) a temporary abstinence for the sake of adding an efficacy to prayers, that we might know ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 71, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Monogamy. (HTML)
Unfairness of Charging the Disciples of the New Prophecy with Harshness. The Charge Rather to Be Retorted Upon the Psychics. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 682 (In-Text, Margin)
What harshness, therefore, is here on our part, if we renounce (communion with) such as do not the will of God? What heresy, if we judge second marriage, as being unlawful, akin to adultery? For what is adultery but unlawful marriage? The apostle sets a brand upon those who were wont entirely to forbid marriage, who were wont at the same time to lay an interdict on meats which God has created.[1 Timothy 4:1-3] We, however, no more do away with marriage if we abjure its repetition, than we reprobate meats if we fast oftener (than others). It is one thing to do away with, another to regulate; it is one thing to lay down a law of not marrying, it is another to fix a limit to marrying. To speak plainly, if ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 75, footnote 11 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Modesty. (HTML)
God Just as Well as Merciful; Accordingly, Mercy Must Not Be Indiscriminate. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 719 (In-Text, Margin)
“But,” say they, “God is ‘good,’ and ‘most good,’ and ‘pitiful-hearted,’ and ‘a pitier,’ and ‘abundant in pitiful-heartedness,’ which He holds ‘dearer than all sacrifice,’ ‘not thinking the sinner’s death of so much worth as his repentance’, ‘a Saviour of all men, most of all of believers.’[1 Timothy 4:10] And so it will be becoming for ‘the sons of God’ too to be ‘pitiful-hearted’ and ‘peacemakers;’ ‘giving in their turn just as Christ withal hath given to us;’ ‘not judging, that we be not judged.’ For ‘to his own lord a man standeth or falleth; who art thou, to judge another’s servant?’ ‘Remit, and remission shall be made to thee.’” Such and so great ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 103, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Fasting. (HTML)
Arguments of the Psychics, Drawn from the Law, the Gospel, the Acts, the Epistles, and Heathenish Practices. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1009 (In-Text, Margin)
... duty, and very much akin to heathenish superstition, like the abstemious rigours which purify an Apis, an Isis, and a Magna Mater, by a restriction laid upon certain kinds of food; whereas faith, free in Christ, owes no abstinence from particular meats to the Jewish Law even, admitted as it has been by the apostle once for all to the whole range of the meat-market —(the apostle, I say), that detester of such as, in like manner as they prohibit marrying, so bid us abstain from meats created by God.[1 Timothy 4:3] And accordingly (they think) us to have been even then prenoted as “in the latest times departing from the faith, giving heed to spirits which seduce the world, having a conscience inburnt with doctrines of liars.” (Inburnt?) With what fires, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 103, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Fasting. (HTML)
Arguments of the Psychics, Drawn from the Law, the Gospel, the Acts, the Epistles, and Heathenish Practices. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1010 (In-Text, Margin)
... abstinence from particular meats to the Jewish Law even, admitted as it has been by the apostle once for all to the whole range of the meat-market —(the apostle, I say), that detester of such as, in like manner as they prohibit marrying, so bid us abstain from meats created by God. And accordingly (they think) us to have been even then prenoted as “in the latest times departing from the faith, giving heed to spirits which seduce the world, having a conscience inburnt with doctrines of liars.”[1 Timothy 4:1-2] (Inburnt?) With what fires, prithee? The fires, I ween, which lead us to repeated contracting of nuptials and daily cooking of dinners! Thus, too, they affirm that we share with the Galatians the piercing rebuke (of the apostle), as “observers of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 110, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Fasting. (HTML)
Of the Need for Some Protest Against the Psychics and Their Self-Indulgence. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1092 (In-Text, Margin)
... wealth and satiety” —not making inroads upon such sins as fasts diminish, nor feeling need of such revelations as xerophagies extort, nor apprehending such wars of your own as Stations dispel. Grant that from the time of John the Paraclete had grown mute; we ourselves would have arisen as prophets to ourselves, for this cause chiefly: I say not now to bring down by our prayers God’s anger, nor to obtain his protection or grace; but to secure by premunition the moral position of the “latest times;”[1 Timothy 4:1-2] enjoining every species of ταπεινοφρόνησις, since the prison must be familiarized to us, and hunger and thirst practised, and capacity of enduring as well the absence of food as anxiety about it acquired: in ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 178, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Minucius Felix. (HTML)
The Octavius of Minucius Felix. (HTML)
Argument: Besides Asserting the Future Conflagration of the Whole World, They Promise Afterwards the Resurrection of Our Bodies: and to the Righteous an Eternity of Most Blessed Life; To the Unrighteous, of Extreme Punishment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1746 (In-Text, Margin)
“And, not content with this wild opinion, they add to it and associate with it old women’s fables:[1 Timothy 4:7] they say that they will rise again after death, and ashes, and dust; and with I know not what confidence, they believe by turns in one another’s lies: you would think that they had already lived again. It is a double evil and a twofold madness to denounce destruction to the heaven and the stars, which we leave just as we find them, and to promise eternity to ourselves, who are dead and extinct—who, as we are born, so also perish! It is for this ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 285, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
... attention to what is advanced by us; and entertaining unworthy ideas of His divinity, have delivered themselves over to errors and deceits, being depraved by a spirit of error, rather than instructed by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, according to the declaration of the apostle, “Following the doctrine of devils, forbidding to marry, to the destruction and ruin of many, and to abstain from meats, that by an ostentatious exhibition of stricter observance they may seduce the souls of the innocent.”[1 Timothy 4:1-3]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 508, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XXVIII (HTML)
... the mercy of the Lord,” and that “the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh;” and that God, being good, “maketh His sun to arise upon the evil and the good, and sendeth His rain upon the just and the unjust;” and that He encourages us to a similar course of action, in order that we may become His sons, and teaches us to extend the benefits which we enjoy, so far as in our power, to all men? For He Himself is said to be the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe;[1 Timothy 4:10] and His Christ to be the “propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” And this, then, is our answer to the allegations of Celsus. Certain other statements, in keeping with the character of the Jews, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 572, footnote 4 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Chapter LXIV (HTML)
Celsus appears to me to have misunderstood the statement of the apostle, which declares that “in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them who believe;”[1 Timothy 4:1-3] and to have misunderstood also those who employed these declarations of the apostle against such as had corrupted the doctrines of Christianity. And it is owing to this cause that Celsus has said that “certain among the Christians are called ‘cauterized in the ears;’” and also that some ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 652, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VIII (HTML)
Chapter XXXII (HTML)
... the precept of the word, which says, “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” And again, in another place it is written, “Do all things in the name of God.” When, therefore, we eat and drink and breathe to the glory of God, and act in all things according to what is right, we feast with no demons, but with divine angels: “For every creature is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”[1 Timothy 4:4-5] But it could not be good, and it could not be sanctified, if these things were, as Celsus supposes, entrusted to the charge of demons.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 112, footnote 3 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)
Book VII. (HTML)
Source of Marcionism; Empedocles Reasserted as the Suggester of the Heresy. (HTML)
... to be. You affirm that the Demiurge of the world is evil—why not hide your countenance in shame, (as thus) teaching to the Church the doctrines of Empedocles? You say that there is a good Deity who destroys the works of the Demiurge: then do not you plainly preach to your pupils, as the good Deity, the Friendship of Empedocles. You forbid marriage, the procreation of children, (and) the abstaining from meats which God has created for participation by the faithful, and those that know the truth.[1 Timothy 4:3] (Thinkest thou, then,) that thou canst escape detection, (while thus) enjoining the purificatory rites of Empedocles? For in point of fact you follow in every respect this (philosopher of paganism), while you instruct your own disciples to refuse ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 124, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)
Book VIII. (HTML)
The Doctrines of the Encratites. (HTML)
... latter times certain will depart from sound doctrine, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, uttering falsehoods in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, to abstain from meats, which God has created to be partaken of with thanksgiving by the faithful, and those who know the truth; because every creature of God is good, and nothing to be rejected which is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”[1 Timothy 4:1-5] This voice, then, of the blessed Paul, is sufficient for the refutation of those who live in this manner, and plume themselves on being just; (and) for the purpose of proving that also, this (tenet of the Encratites) constitutes a heresy. But even ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 135, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)
Book IX. (HTML)
The Tenets of the Esseni Continued. (HTML)
... they perform ablutions in cold water; and after being thus cleansed, they repair together into one apartment,—now no one who entertains a different opinion from themselves assembles in the house,—and they proceed to partake of breakfast. And when they have taken their seats in silence, they set down loaves in order, and next some one sort of food to eat along with the bread, and each receives from these a sufficient portion. No one, however, tastes these before the priest utters a blessing,[1 Timothy 4:3-5] and prays over the food. And after breakfast, when he has a second time offered up supplication, as at the beginning, so at the conclusion of their meal they praise God in hymns. Next, after they have laid aside as sacred the garments in ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 301, footnote 3 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
To the Clergy, on the Letters Sent to Rome, and About the Appointment of Saturus as Reader, and Optatus as Sub-Deacon. A.D. 250. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2285 (In-Text, Margin)
... since it behoved me to write by clergy, while I know that very many of ours are absent, and the few that are there are hardly sufficient for the ministry of the daily duty, it was necessary to appoint some new ones, who might be sent. Know, then, that I have made Saturus a reader, and Optatus, the confessor, a sub-deacon; whom already, by the general advice, we had made next to the clergy, in having entrusted to Saturus on Easter-day, once and again, the reading; and when with the teacher-presbyters[1 Timothy 4:17] we were carefully trying readers—in appointing Optatus from among the readers to be a teacher of the hearers;—examining, first of all, whether all things were found fitting in them, which ought to be found in such as were in preparation for the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 366, footnote 9 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
To Rogatianus, Concerning the Deacon Who Contended Against the Bishop. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2733 (In-Text, Margin)
... schismatics;—to please themselves, and with swelling haughtiness to despise him who is set over them. Thus they depart from the Church—thus a profane altar is set up outside—thus they rebel against the peace of Christ, and the appointment and the unity of God. But if, further, he shall harass and provoke you with his insults, you must exercise against him the power of your dignity, by either deposing him or excommunicating him. For if the Apostle Paul, writing to Timothy, said, “Let no man despise thy youth,”[1 Timothy 4:12] how much rather must it be said by your colleagues to you, “Let no man despise thy age? And since you have written, that one has associated himself with that same deacon of yours, and is a partaker of his pride and boldness, you may either restrain ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 641, footnote 10 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Novatian. (HTML)
A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. (HTML)
He Next Teaches Us that the Authority of the Faith Enjoins, After the Father and the Son, to Believe Also on the Holy Spirit, Whose Operations He Enumerates from Scripture. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5275 (In-Text, Margin)
... Of this says the same apostle: “We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God.” Concerning Him he exultingly says: “And I think also that I have the Spirit of God.” Of Him he says: “The Spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets.” Of Him also he tells: “Now the Spirit speaketh plainly, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, doctrines of demons, who speak lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience cauterized.”[1 Timothy 4:1] Established in this Spirit, “none ever calleth Jesus anathema;” no one has ever denied Christ to be the Son of God, or has rejected God the Creator; no one utters any words of his own contrary to the Scriptures; no one ordains other and sacrilegious ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 648, footnote 2 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Novatian. (HTML)
On the Jewish Meats. (HTML)
But There Was a Limit to the Use of These Shadows or Figures; For Afterwards, When the End of the Law, Christ, Came, All Things Were Said by the Apostle to Be Pure to the Pure, and the True and Holy Meat Was a Right Faith and an Unspotted Conscience. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5323 (In-Text, Margin)
... with the clouds of sacraments. For the illustrious Master, and the heavenly Teacher, and the ordainer of the perfected truth, has come, under whom at length it is rightly said: “To the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” Moreover, in another place: “For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused which is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.”[1 Timothy 4:4-5] Again, in another place: “The Spirit expressly says that in the last days some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 648, footnote 3 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Novatian. (HTML)
On the Jewish Meats. (HTML)
But There Was a Limit to the Use of These Shadows or Figures; For Afterwards, When the End of the Law, Christ, Came, All Things Were Said by the Apostle to Be Pure to the Pure, and the True and Holy Meat Was a Right Faith and an Unspotted Conscience. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5324 (In-Text, Margin)
... refused which is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.” Again, in another place: “The Spirit expressly says that in the last days some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving by them which believe and those who know God.”[1 Timothy 4:1-3] Moreover, in another passage: “Everything that is sold in the market-place eat, asking nothing.” From these things it is plain that all those things are returned to their original blessedness now that the law is finished, and that we must not ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 649, footnote 4 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Novatian. (HTML)
On the Jewish Meats. (HTML)
But There Was a Limit to the Use of These Shadows or Figures; For Afterwards, When the End of the Law, Christ, Came, All Things Were Said by the Apostle to Be Pure to the Pure, and the True and Holy Meat Was a Right Faith and an Unspotted Conscience. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5334 (In-Text, Margin)
... for the meat which endureth to life eternal, which the Son of man will give you; for Him hath the Father sealed.” By righteousness, I say, and by continency, and by the rest of the virtues, God is worshipped. For Zecharias also tells us, saying: “If ye eat or drink, is it not ye that eat or drink?” —declaring thereby that meat or drink attain not unto God, but unto man: for neither is God fleshly, so as to be pleased with flesh; nor is He careful for these pleasures, so as to rejoice in our food.[1 Timothy 4:4] God rejoices in our faith alone, in our innocency alone, in our truth alone, in our virtues alone. And these dwell not in our belly, but in our soul; and these are acquired for us by divine awe and heavenly fear, and not by earthly food. And such ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 95, footnote 14 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Dionysius. (HTML)
Extant Fragments. (HTML)
Containing Various Sections of the Works. (HTML)
The Epistle to Bishop Basilides. (HTML)
... their precipitation, for it is a wise man’s word, “That is not little in life which is within a little.” And those who hold out and continue for a very long time, and persevere even on to the fourth watch, which is also the time at which our Saviour manifested Himself walking upon the sea to those who were then on the deep, we receive as noble and laborious disciples. On those, again, who pause and refresh themselves in the course as they are moved or as they are able, let us not press very hard:[1 Timothy 4:8] for all do not carry out the six days of fasting either equally or alike; but some pass even all the days as a fast, remaining without food through the whole; while others take but two, and others three, and others four, and others not even one. And ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 209, footnote 9 (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 XXXV. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1809 (In-Text, Margin)
... given us very clear indication when he says: “Now in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving.”[1 Timothy 4:1-4] The Spirit in the evangelist Matthew is also careful to give note of these words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Take heed that no man deceive you: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. But if any man shall say unto ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 264, footnote 2 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Peter of Alexandria. (HTML)
The Genuine Acts of Peter. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2255 (In-Text, Margin)
“Wherefore take heed unto yourselves, and the whole flock over which the Holy Ghost has appointed you as overseers in succession—thee Achillas in the first place, and next to thee Alexander. Behold with living voice I protest to you, that after my death men will arise in the Church speaking perverse things,[1 Timothy 4:1] and will again divide it, like Meletius, drawing away the people after their readiness. So I have told you before. But I pray you, mine own bowels, be watchful; for ye must undergo many tribulations. For we are no better than our fathers. Are ye ignorant what things my father endured from the Gentiles, he who brought me up, the most holy ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 298, footnote 11 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Alexander of Alexandria. (HTML)
Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius. (HTML)
Epistle Catholic. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2466 (In-Text, Margin)
... Saviour, afterwards became a traitor and an apostate. Moreover, concerning these very men, warnings are not wanting to us, for the Lord foretold: “Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in My Name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.” Paul, too, having learnt these things from the Saviour, wrote, “In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils which turn away from the truth.”[1 Timothy 4:1]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 495, footnote 8 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Arnobius. (HTML)
The Seven Books of Arnobius Against the Heathen. (Adversus Gentes.) (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
Chapter XIV. (HTML)
... they should, being uncovered, be dispersed in the bosom of the earth, did she indeed wash and anoint them with fragrant gums before wrapping and covering them with his dress? For whence could the violet’s sweet scent have come had not the addition of those ointments modified the putrefying smell of the member? Pray, when you read such tales, do you not seem to yourselves to hear either girls at the loom wiling away their tedious working hours, or old women seeking diversions for credulous children,[1 Timothy 4:7] and to be declaring manifold fictions under the guise of truth? Acdestis appealed to Jupiter to restore life to his paramour: Jupiter would not consent, because he was hindered by the fates more powerful than himself; and that he might not be ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 465, footnote 5 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book VII. Concerning the Christian Life, and the Eucharist, and the Initiation into Christ (HTML)
Sec. I.—On the Two Ways,—The Way of Life and the Way of Death (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3348 (In-Text, Margin)
... your face the way of life and the way of death;” and added, “Choose life, that thou mayest live.” Elijah the prophet also said to the people: “How long will you halt with both your legs? If the Lord be God, follow Him.” The Lord Jesus also said justly: “No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” We also, following our teacher Christ, “who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe,”[1 Timothy 4:10] are obliged to say that there are two ways—the one of life, the other of death; which have no comparison one with another, for they are very different, or rather entirely separate; and the way of life is that of nature, but that of death was ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 503, footnote 9 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book VIII. Concerning Gifts, and Ordinations, and the Ecclesiastical Canons (HTML)
The Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3796 (In-Text, Margin)
53. If any bishop, or presbyter, or deacon does not on festival days partake of flesh or wine, let him be deprived, as “having a seared conscience,”[1 Timothy 4:2] and becoming a cause of scandal to many.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 255, footnote 6 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
The Epistles of Clement. (HTML)
The Second Epistle of Clement. (HTML)
He Who Saves and He Who is Saved. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4400 (In-Text, Margin)
I think not that I counted trivial counsel concerning continence; following it, a man will not repent thereof, but will save both himself and me who counselled.[1 Timothy 4:16] For it is no small reward to turn back a wandering and perishing soul for its salvation. For this recompense we are able to render to the God who created us, if he who speaks and hears both speak and hear with faith and love. Let us, therefore, continue in that course in which we, righteous and holy, believed, that with confidence we may ask God who saith, “Whilst thou art still speaking, I will say, Here I am.” For ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 333, footnote 8 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Epistle to Gregory and Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
How No One is Righteous or Can Truly Be Said to Live in Comparison with God. (HTML)
... considerations to a higher level when we take the words before our minds, “I live, saith the Lord.” Life, in the full sense of the word, especially after what we have been saying on the subject, belongs perhaps to God and none but Him. Is this the reason why the Apostle, after speaking of the supreme excellency of the life of God and being led to the highest expression about it, says about God (showing in this a true understanding of that saying, “I live, saith the Lord”); “who only hath immortality.”[1 Timothy 4:16] No living being besides God has life free from change and variation. Why should we be in further doubt? Even Christ did not share the Father’s immortality; for He “tasted death for every man.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 378, footnote 3 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Epistle to Gregory and Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)
Book VI. (HTML)
Of the Effects of the Death of Christ, of His Triumph After It, and of the Removal by His Death of the Sins of Men. (HTML)
... reason the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things, —what and how great things must be said of the Lamb of God, who was sacrificed for this very reason, that He might take away the sin not of a few but of the whole world, for the sake of which also He suffered? If any one sin, we read, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for those of the whole world,” since He is the Saviour of all men,[1 Timothy 4:10] especially of them that believe, who blotted out the written bond that was against us by His own blood, and took it out of the way, so that not even a trace, not even of our blotted-out sins, might still be found, and nailed it to His cross; who ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 380, footnote 5 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Epistle to Gregory and Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)
Book VI. (HTML)
The World, of Which the Sin is Taken Away, is Said to Be the Church. Reasons for Not Agreeing with This Opinion. (HTML)
... world here is to be taken intellectually of the Church, and the taking away of sin is limited to the Church. In that case what are we to make of the saying of the same disciple with regard to the Saviour, as the propitiation for sin? “If any man sin,” we read, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world?” Paul’s dictum appears to me to be to the same effect, when he says,[1 Timothy 4:10] “Who is the Saviour of all men, especially of the faithful.” Again, Heracleon, dealing with our passage, declares, without any proof or any citation of witnesses to that effect, that the words, “Lamb of God,” are spoken by John as a prophet, but the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 415, footnote 12 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)
Book X. (HTML)
Concerning the Parable of the Treasure Hidden in the Field. The Parable Distinguished from the Similitude. (HTML)
“ Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid. ” The former parables He spoke to the multitudes; but this and the two which follow it, which are not parables but similitudes in relation to the kingdom of heaven, He seems to have spoken to the disciples when in the house. In regard to this and the next two, let him who “gives heed to reading”[1 Timothy 4:13] inquire whether they are parables at all. In the case of the latter the Scripture does not hesitate to attach in each case the name of parable; but in the present case it has not done so; and that naturally. For if He spoke to the multitudes in parables, and “spake all these things in parables, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 422, footnote 18 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)
Book X. (HTML)
The Householder and His Treasury. (HTML)
... has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder who bringeth forth out of his treasury things new and old,” it clearly follows, by “conversion of the proposition,” as it is called, that every one who does not bring forth out of his treasury things new and old, is not a scribe who has been made a disciple unto the kingdom of heaven. We must endeavour, therefore, in every way to gather in our heart, “by giving heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching,”[1 Timothy 4:13] and by “meditating in the law of the Lord day and night,” not only the new oracles of the Gospels and of the Apostles and their Revelation, but also the old things in the law “which has the shadow of the good things to come,” and in the prophets who ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 443, footnote 8 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)
Book XI. (HTML)
Why the Pharisees Were Not a Plant of God. Teaching of Origen on the “Bread of the Lord.” (HTML)
... disciples to sanctify. And the saying is I think, not to be despised, and on this account, demands clear exposition, which seems to me to be thus; as it is not the meat but the conscience of him who eats with doubt which defiles him that eateth, for “he that doubteth is condemned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith,” and as nothing is pure to him who is defiled and unbelieving, not in itself, but because of his defilement and unbelief, so that which is sanctified through the word of God and prayer[1 Timothy 4:5] does not, in its own nature, sanctify him who uses it, for, if this were so, it would sanctify even him who eats unworthily of the bread of the Lord, and no one on account of this food would become weak or sickly or asleep for something of this kind ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 506, footnote 10 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)
Book XIV. (HTML)
Concerning the Pharisees and Scribes Tempting Jesus (by Asking) Whether Was Lawful for a Man to Put Away His Wife for Every Cause. (HTML)
... together by God both mind and keep the precept, “Husbands love your wives, as Christ also the church.” The Saviour then commanded, “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder,” but man wishes to put asunder what God hath joined together, when, “falling away from the sound faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron, forbidding,” not only to commit fornication, but “to marry,”[1 Timothy 4:1-3] he dissolves even those who had been before joined together by the providence of God. Let these things then be said, keeping in view what is expressly said concerning the male and the female, and the man and the woman, as the Saviour taught in the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 75, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Then follows a period of nine years from the nineteenth year of his age, during which having lost a friend, he followed the Manichæans—and wrote books on the fair and fit, and published a work on the liberal arts, and the categories of Aristotle. (HTML)
While Writing, Being Blinded by Corporeal Images, He Failed to Recognise the Spiritual Nature of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 330 (In-Text, Margin)
... Yet the very power of truth forced itself on my gaze, and I turned away my throbbing soul from incorporeal substance, to lineaments, and colours, and bulky magnitudes. And not being able to perceive these in the mind, I thought I could not perceive my mind. And whereas in virtue I loved peace, and in viciousness I hated discord, in the former I distinguished unity, but in the latter a kind of division. And in that unity I conceived the rational soul and the nature of truth and of the chief good[1 Timothy 4:8] to consist. But in this division I, unfortunate one, imagined there was I know not what substance of irrational life, and the nature of the chief evil, which should not be a substance only, but real life also, and yet not emanating from Thee, O my ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 155, footnote 13 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Having manifested what he was and what he is, he shows the great fruit of his confession; and being about to examine by what method God and the happy life may be found, he enlarges on the nature and power of memory. Then he examines his own acts, thoughts and affections, viewed under the threefold division of temptation; and commemorates the Lord, the one mediator of God and men. (HTML)
About to Speak of the Temptations of the Lust of the Flesh, He First Complains of the Lust of Eating and Drinking. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 905 (In-Text, Margin)
46. Thou hast taught me, good Father, that “unto the pure all things are pure;” but “it is evil for that man who eateth with offence;” “and that every creature of Thine is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with, thanksgiving;”[1 Timothy 4:4] and that “meat commendeth us not to God;” and that no man should “judge us in meat or in drink;” and that he that eateth, let him not despise him that eateth not; and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth. These things have I learned, thanks and praise be unto Thee, O my God and Master, who dost knock at my ears and enlighten my heart; deliver me out of all ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 241, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
To Bishop Aurelius (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1490 (In-Text, Margin)
... praise and honour than is offered to him: at the same time neither accepting all nor refusing all that is rendered to him by those who honour him; and as to the portion which he does accept, receiving it not for his own sake, seeing that he ought to live wholly in the sight of God and to despise human applause, but for the sake of those whose welfare he cannot promote if by too great self-abasement he lose his place in their esteem. For to this pertains that word, “Let no man despise thy youth;”[1 Timothy 4:12] while he who said this says also in another place, “If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 252, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
To Jerome (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1520 (In-Text, Margin)
... finding fault with the Apostle Peter, he said: “If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?”—if, indeed, Peter seemed to him to be doing what was right, and if, notwithstanding, he, in order to soothe troublesome opponents, both said and wrote that Peter did what was wrong; —if we say thus, what then shall be our answer when perverse men such as he himself prophetically described arise, forbidding marriage,[1 Timothy 4:3] if they defend themselves by saying that, in all which the same apostle wrote in confirmation of the lawfulness of marriage, he was, on account of men who, through love for their wives, might become troublesome opponents, declaring what was ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 293, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
To Publicola (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1675 (In-Text, Margin)
... assure you we have no duty beyond observing what the apostle taught concerning them. Study, therefore, his words on the subject, which, if they were obscure to you, I would explain as well as I could. He does not sin who, unwittingly, afterwards partakes of food which he formerly refused because it had been offered to an idol. A kitchen-herb, or any other fruit of the ground, belongs to Him who created it; for “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” and “every creature of God is good.”[1 Timothy 4:4] But if that which the earth has borne is consecrated or offered to an idol, then we must reckon it among the things offered to idols. We must beware lest, in pronouncing that we ought not to eat the fruits of a garden belonging to an idol-temple, we ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 315, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
To Januarius (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1849 (In-Text, Margin)
... that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”[1 Timothy 4:1-5] Again, in another place, he says, concerning these things: “Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” Read the rest for yourself, and read these ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 585, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
Human Directions Not to Be Despised, Though God Makes the True Teacher. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1960 (In-Text, Margin)
... makes them teachers, he may as well say that we need not pray, since our Lord says, “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him;” or that the Apostle Paul should not have given directions to Timothy and Titus as to how or what they should teach others. And these three apostolic epistles ought to be constantly before the eyes of every one who has obtained the position of a teacher in the Church. In the First Epistle to Timothy do we not read: “These things command and teach?”[1 Timothy 4:11] What these things are, has been told previously. Do we not read there: “Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father?” Is it not said in the Second Epistle: “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me?” And is he not be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 596, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
The Man Whose Life is in Harmony with His Teaching Will Teach with Greater Effect. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2013 (In-Text, Margin)
... say with their lips: Why do you not do yourself what you bid me do? And thus they cease to listen with submission to a man who does not listen to himself, and in despising the preacher they learn to despise the word that is preached. Wherefore the apostle, writing to Timothy, after telling him, “Let no man despise thy youth,” adds immediately the course by which he would avoid contempt: “but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”[1 Timothy 4:12]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 425, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Of Holy Virginity. (HTML)
Section 24 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2068 (In-Text, Margin)
... what more full of phrensy than this assertion? For, although at times the Church, even that which is at this time, is called the kingdom of heaven; certainly it is so called for this end, because it is being gathered together for a future and eternal life. Although, therefore, it have the promise of the present, and of a future life, yet in all its good works it looks not to “the things that are seen, but to what are not seen. For what are seen are temporal; but what are not seen, are eternal.”[1 Timothy 4:8]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 61, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
On the Morals of the Catholic Church. (HTML)
Another Kind of Men Living Together in Cities. Fasts of Three Days. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 151 (In-Text, Margin)
... the greatest propriety and moderation to people of languid temperament, and, in short, to all who cannot have bodily health without it. When some foolishly refuse it, they counsel them as brothers not to let a silly superstition make them weaker instead of making them holier. They read to them the apostle’s precept to his disciple to "take a little wine for his many infirmities." Then they diligently exercise piety; bodily exercise, they know, profiteth for a short time, as the same apostle says.[1 Timothy 4:8]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 121, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Acts or Disputation Against Fortunatus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Disputation of the Second Day. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 252 (In-Text, Margin)
... Lord, that free choice may be there signified, that these two trees are not natures but our wills, He Himself says in the gospel: "Either make the tree good, or make the tree evil." Who is it that can make nature? If therefore we are commanded to make a tree either good or evil, it is ours to choose what we will. Therefore concerning that sin of man and concerning that habit of soul formed with the flesh the apostle says: "Let no one seduce you;" "Every creature that has been made by God is good."[1 Timothy 4:4] The same apostle whom you also have cited says: "As through the disobedience of the one the many were constituted sinners; so also through the obedience of the one the many are constituted righteous." "Since through man is death, through man also is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 210, 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 abhors Moses for the awful curse he has pronounced upon Christ. Augustin expounds the Christian doctrine of the suffering Saviour by comparing Old and New Testament passages. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 532 (In-Text, Margin)
10. If the Manichæans disapprove of Moses on this account, let them confess that they are worshippers of idols and devils. This, indeed, may be the case without their being aware of it. The apostle tells us that "in the last days some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and to doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy."[1 Timothy 4:1-2] Whence but from devils, who are fond of falsehood, could the idea have come that Christ’s sufferings and death were unreal, and that the marks which He showed of His wounds were unreal? Are these not the doctrines of lying devils, which teach that Christ, the Truth itself, was a deceiver? Besides, the Manichæans openly ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 210, footnote 3 (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 abhors Moses for the awful curse he has pronounced upon Christ. Augustin expounds the Christian doctrine of the suffering Saviour by comparing Old and New Testament passages. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 534 (In-Text, Margin)
... an unconscious worship of idols and devils in the fanciful legends of the Manichæans, so they knowingly serve the creature in their worship of the sun and moon. And in what they call their service of the Creator they really serve their own fancy, and not the Creator at all. For they deny that God created those things which the apostle plainly declares to be the creatures of God, when he says of food, "Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it is received with thanksgiving."[1 Timothy 4:4] This is sound doctrine, which you cannot bear, and so turn to fables. The apostle praises the creature of God, but forbids the worship of it; and in the same way Moses gives due praise to the sun and moon, while at the same time he states the fact ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 219, 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 rejects the Old Testament because it leaves no room for Christ. Christ the one Bridegroom suffices for His Bride the Church. Augustin answers as well as he can, and reproves the Manichæans with presumption in claiming to be the Bride of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 565 (In-Text, Margin)
... explicit in the apostle. For example: "The Spirit," he says, "speaketh expressly, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and to doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared, forbidding to marry, abstaining from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by believers, and those who know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving."[1 Timothy 4:1-4] The fulfillment of this in the Manichæans is as clear as day to all that know them, and has already been proved as fully as time permits.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 260, 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 repels the charge of sun-worship, and maintains that while the Manichæans believe that God’s power dwells in the sun and his wisdom in the moon, they yet worship one deity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are not a schism of the Gentiles, nor a sect. Augustin emphasizes the charge of polytheism, and goes into an elaborate comparison of Manichæan and pagan mythology. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 743 (In-Text, Margin)
... with the sacrifice of cruelty. Such altars the Lord destroys; for in words quoted from the law He tells us what offering pleases God: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." Observe on what occasion the Lord uses these words. It was when, in passing through a field, the disciples plucked the ears of corn because they were hungry. Your doctrine would lead you to call this murder. Your mind is an altar, not of God, but of lying devils, by whose doctrines the evil conscience is seared as with a hot iron,[1 Timothy 4:2] calling murder what the truth calls innocence. For in His words to the Jews, Christ by anticipation deals a fatal blow to you: "If ye had known what this meaneth, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless."
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 261, 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 repels the charge of sun-worship, and maintains that while the Manichæans believe that God’s power dwells in the sun and his wisdom in the moon, they yet worship one deity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are not a schism of the Gentiles, nor a sect. Augustin emphasizes the charge of polytheism, and goes into an elaborate comparison of Manichæan and pagan mythology. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 750 (In-Text, Margin)
... and not sacrifice." At our love-feasts the poor obtain vegetable or animal food; and so the creature of God is used, as far as it is suitable, for the nourishment of man, who is also God’s creature. You have been led by lying devils, not in self-denial, but in blasphemous error, "to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving."[1 Timothy 4:3-4] In return for the bounties of the Creator, you ungratefully insult Him with your impiety; and because in our love-feasts flesh is often given to the poor, you compare Christian charity to Pagan sacrifices. This indeed, is another point in which you ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 328, 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 repels the insinuation that the prophecy of Paul with reference to those that should forbid to marry, abstain from meats, etc., applies to the Manichæans more than to the Catholic ascetics, who are held in the highest esteem in the Church. Augustin justifies this application of the prophecy, and shows the difference between Manichæan and Christian asceticism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1017 (In-Text, Margin)
1. said: You apply to us the words of Paul: "Some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to lying spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their consciences seared as with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, abstaining from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by believers."[1 Timothy 4:1-3] I refuse to admit that the apostle said this, unless you first acknowledge that Moses and the prophets taught doctrines of devils, and were the interpreters of a lying and malignant spirit; since they enjoin with great emphasis abstinence from swine’s flesh and other meats, which they call unclean. This case must first be settled; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 330, footnote 2 (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 repels the insinuation that the prophecy of Paul with reference to those that should forbid to marry, abstain from meats, etc., applies to the Manichæans more than to the Catholic ascetics, who are held in the highest esteem in the Church. Augustin justifies this application of the prophecy, and shows the difference between Manichæan and Christian asceticism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1023 (In-Text, Margin)
... you left out the words, and then say that you do not know what we mean or intend by the quotation; for it suited you better to omit the account of our intention than to express it. For, after speaking of abstaining from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by believers, the apostle goes on, "And by them who know the truth; for every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer."[1 Timothy 4:3-5] This you deny; for your idea, and motive, and belief in abstaining from such food is, that they are not typically, but naturally, evil and impure. In this assuredly you blaspheme the Creator; and in this is the doctrine of devils. You need not be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 358, footnote 16 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans. (HTML)
That Sin is Not the Striving for an Evil Nature, But the Desertion of a Better. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1128 (In-Text, Margin)
Likewise because sin, or unrighteousness, is not the striving after evil nature but the desertion of better, it is thus found written in the Scriptures: "Every creature of God is good."[1 Timothy 4:4] And accordingly every tree also which God planted in Paradise is assuredly good. Man did not therefore strive after an evil nature when he touched the forbidden tree; but by deserting what was better, he committed an evil deed. Since the Creator is better than any creature which He has made, His command should not have been deserted, that the thing forbidden, however good, might be touched; since the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 446, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
Augustin undertakes the refutation of the arguments which might be derived from the epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus, to give color to the view that the baptism of Christ could not be conferred by heretics. (HTML)
Chapter 19 (HTML)
... garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them. My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before thine idols for a sweet savor: and this thou hast done." For she turns all the sacraments, and the words of the sacred books, to the images of her own idols, with which her carnal mind delights to wallow. Nor yet, because those images are false, and the doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy,[1 Timothy 4:1-2] are those sacraments and divine utterances therefore so to lose their due honor, as to be thought to belong to such as these; seeing that the Lord says," Of my gold, and my silver, and my broidered garments, and mine oil, and mine incense, and my ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 594, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist. (HTML)
In which Augustin replies to all the several statements in the letter of Petilianus, as though disputing with an adversary face to face. (HTML)
Chapter 107 (HTML)
... by reason of your pride, whilst, by reason of your humility, you are unwilling to communicate with the whole world. For, in the first place, this was not spoken to a layman; and, in the second place, you are wholly ignorant in what sense it was spoken. The apostle, writing to Timothy, gives this warning to none other than Timothy himself, to whom he says in another place, "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery."[1 Timothy 4:14] And by many other proofs it is made clear that he was not a layman. But in that he says, "Be not partaker of other men’s sins," he means, Be not partaker voluntarily, or with consent. And hence he immediately subjoins directions how he shall obey ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 61, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Sanctification Manifold; Sacrament of Catechumens. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 609 (In-Text, Margin)
... is not of merely one measure; for even catechumens, I take it, are sanctified in their own measure by the sign of Christ, and the prayer of imposition of hands; and what they receive is holy, although it is not the body of Christ,—holier than any food which constitutes our ordinary nourishment, because it is a sacrament. However, that very meat and drink, wherewithal the necessities of our present life are sustained, are, according to the same apostle, “sanctified by the word of God and prayer,”[1 Timothy 4:5] even the prayer with which we beg that our bodies may be refreshed. Just as therefore this sanctification of our ordinary food does not hinder what enters the mouth from descending into the belly, and being ejected into the draught, and partaking of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 197, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)
The Eleventh Item of the Accusation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1697 (In-Text, Margin)
... healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” What then? shall we say that the Apostle Paul did not possess all these gifts himself? Who would be bold enough to assert this? The very fact that he was an apostle showed, of course, that he possessed the grace of the apostolate. He possessed also that of prophecy; for was not that a prophecy of his in which he says: “In the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils?”[1 Timothy 4:1] He was, moreover, “the teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.” He performed miracles also and cures; for he shook off from his hand, unhurt, the biting viper; and the cripple stood upright on his feet at the apostle’s word, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 391, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Introduction; The Pelagians Impeach Catholics as Manicheans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2622 (In-Text, Margin)
... view except, a horrible heresy being presented to them, whose adversaries they profess themselves to be, to lie hid as the enemies of grace in praise of nature? For who at any time has stirred any question of these matters against them? or what catholic is displeased because they condemn those whom the apostle foretold as departing from the faith, having their conscience seared, forbidding to marry, abstaining from meats that they think unclean, not thinking that all things were created by God?[1 Timothy 4] Who at any time constrained them to deny that every creature of God is good, and there is no substance which the supreme God has not made, except God Himself, who was not made by any? It is not such things as these, which it is plain are catholic ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 445, footnote 22 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
The Divine Commands Which are Most Suited to the Will Itself Illustrate Its Freedom. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2980 (In-Text, Margin)
... I do this willingly, I have a reward;” while in another passage he says, “Be ye sober and righteous, and sin not;” and again, “As ye have a readiness to will, so also let there be a prompt performance;” then he remarks to Timothy about the younger widows, “When they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they choose to marry.” So in another passage, “All that will to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution;” while to Timothy himself he says, “Neglect not the gift that is in thee.”[1 Timothy 4:14] Then to Philemon he addresses this explanation: “That thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but of thine own will.” Servants also he advises to obey their masters “with a good will.” In strict accordance with this, James says: “Do not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 63, footnote 1 (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 II. 1–11. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 198 (In-Text, Margin)
2. The Lord, in that He came to the marriage to which He was invited, wished, apart from the mystical signification, to assure us that marriage was His own institution. For there were to be those of whom the apostle spoke, “forbidding to marry,”[1 Timothy 4:3] and asserting that marriage was an evil, and of the devil’s institution: notwithstanding the same Lord declares in the Gospel, on being asked whether it be lawful for a man to put away his wife for any cause, that it is not lawful save for the cause of fornication. In His answer, if you remember, He said, “What God hath joined together let not man put asunder.” And they ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 332, footnote 1 (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)
Again on the Same Passage. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1307 (In-Text, Margin)
... gratified with the food that was wanting, but to have their own dislike removed, and be made themselves to receive aright the food that was provided. For when evil becomes our delight, and what is good the reverse, we ought to be entreating God rather to win us back to the love of the good, than to grant us the evil. Not that it is wrong to eat flesh, for the apostle, speaking of this very thing, says, “Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused which is received with thanksgiving;[1 Timothy 4:4] but because, as he also says, “It is evil for that man who eateth with offense;” and if so, with offense to man, how much more so if to God, to whom it was no light offense, on the part of the Israelites, to reject what wisdom was supplying, and ask ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 129, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XLI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1190 (In-Text, Margin)
4. “The Lord help him” (ver. 3). But when? Haply in heaven, haply in the life eternal, that so it remain to worship the devil for earthly needs, for the necessities of this life. Far be it! Thou hast “promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”[1 Timothy 4:8] He came unto thee on earth, by Whom were made heaven and earth. Consider then what He saith, “The Lord help him, on his bed of pain.” The bed of pain is the infirmity of the flesh; lest thou shouldest say, I cannot hold, and carry, and tie up my flesh; thou art aided that thou mayest. The Lord help thee on thy bed of pain. Thy bed did carry thee, thou carriedst not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 498, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4609 (In-Text, Margin)
13. For not because I have fallen, hast Thou grown old: for Thou art strong to set me free, who hast been strong to humble me. “But Thou, O Lord, endurest for ever: and Thy remembrance throughout all generations” (ver. 12). “Thy remembrance,” because Thou dost not forget: “throughout all generations,” forasmuch as we know the promise of life, both present and future.[1 Timothy 4:8]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 604, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXXVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5500 (In-Text, Margin)
... them as was fitting, and said unto the crowds whom He had called unto Him, “Hear ye all, and understand: not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.” What is this? when He said, what goeth into the mouth, He meant only the mouth of the body. For meat goeth in, and meats defile not a man; because, “All things are clean to the clean;” and, “every creature of God is good, and none to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving.”[1 Timothy 4:4] …
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 68, footnote 5 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 178 (In-Text, Margin)
8. Hear also what he says in his charge to his disciple:[1 Timothy 4:13] “Give heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching,” and he goes on to show the usefulness of this by adding, “For in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee.” And again he says, “The Lord’s servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing;” and he proceeds to say, “But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a babe thou hast ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 68, footnote 6 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 179 (In-Text, Margin)
8. Hear also what he says in his charge to his disciple: “Give heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching,” and he goes on to show the usefulness of this by adding, “For in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee.”[1 Timothy 4:16] And again he says, “The Lord’s servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing;” and he proceeds to say, “But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation,” and again, “Every ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 339, 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 I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1039 (In-Text, Margin)
... reward enough, to love the object of his love; and he seeks nothing besides, nor accounts anything greater than this. And if such be the case with regard to a man, much more in relation to God; which therefore that God might demonstrate, He gave more than the devil asked; for the latter said, “Put forth thine hand, and touch him;” but God said not thus, but, “I deliver him unto thee.” For just as in the contests of the outer world, the combatants that are vigorous, and in high condition of body,[1 Timothy 4:8] are not so well discerned, when they are enwrapt all around with the garment soaked in oil; but when casting this aside, they are brought forward unclothed into the arena; then above all they strike the spectators on every side with astonishment at ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 245, footnote 1 (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 XL on Acts xviii. 18. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 925 (In-Text, Margin)
how the Law was breaking up; see how they were bound by conscience. This, namely, was a Jewish custom, to shear their heads agreeably with a vow. But then there ought to be also a sacrifice (ch. xxi. 26), which was not the case here.[1 Timothy 4:19] —“Having yet tarried:” after the beating of Sosthenes. For it was necessary that he should yet tarry, and comfort them concerning these things. “He sailed for Syria.” Why does he desire again to come to Syria? It was there that “the disciples were ordered to be called Christians” (ch. xi. 26): there, that he had been “commended to the grace of God” (xiv. 26): there, that he had ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 147, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians. (HTML)
Homilies on Ephesians. (HTML)
Ephesians 5:22-24 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 430 (In-Text, Margin)
... travail. Such also was that of Isaac. Hear how the Scripture saith, “And it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.” (Gen. xviii. 11.) Yea, a marriage it is, not of passion, nor of the flesh, but wholly spiritual, the soul being united to God by a union unspeakable, and which He alone knoweth. Therefore he saith, “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” (1 Cor. vi. 17.) Mark how earnestly he endeavors to unite both flesh with flesh, and spirit with spirit. And where are the heretics?[1 Timothy 4:3] Never surely, if marriage were a thing to be condemned, would he have called Christ and the Church a bride and bridegroom; never would he have brought forward by way of exhortation the words, “A man shall leave his father and his mother”; and again ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 191, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. (HTML)
Homilies on Philippians. (HTML)
Philippians 1:8-11 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 551 (In-Text, Margin)
Wherefore, I beseech you, let us give thanks to God for all things, since he hath both lightened our toil, and increased our reward. For such as among them live in virginity enjoy not the rewards, which they do who among us live chastely in wedlock; but they who live as virgins among the heretics are subject to the condemnation of the fornicators. All this springs from their not acting with a right aim, but as accusing God’s creatures,[1 Timothy 4] and His unspeakable Wisdom.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 319, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. (HTML)
Homilies on Colossians. (HTML)
Colossians 4:12,13 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 923 (In-Text, Margin)
I know that many are ashamed at what is said, and the cause of this is what I spoke of, your own lasciviousness, and unchasteness. The fact of marriages being thus performed, thus depraved, hath gained the thing an ill name: for “marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled.” (Heb. xiii. 4.) Why art thou ashamed of the honorable, why blushest thou at the undefiled? This is for heretics,[1 Timothy 4:3] this is for such as introduce harlots thither. For this cause I am desirous of having it thoroughly purified, so as to bring it back again to its proper nobleness, so as to stop the mouths of the heretics. The gift of God is insulted, the root of our generation; for about that root there is much dung ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 323, footnote 3 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. (HTML)
Homilies on First Thessalonians. (HTML)
1 Thessalonians 1:1-3 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 930 (In-Text, Margin)
... truly for your state” (ver. 20.); but here he does associate him with himself? It seems to me, that he was about to send him immediately, and it was superfluous for him to write, who would overtake the letter. For he says, “Him therefore I hope to send forthwith.” (Philip. ii. 23.) But here it was not so; but he had just returned to him, so that he naturally joined in the letter. For he says, “Now when Timothy came from you unto us.” (1 Thess. iii. 6.) But why does he place Silvanus before him,[1 Timothy 4:12] though he testifies to his numberless good qualities, and prefers him above all? Perhaps Timothy wished and requested him to do so from his great humility; for when he saw his teacher so humble-minded, as to associate his disciple with himself, he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 2, page 5, footnote 5 (Image)
Socrates: Church History from A.D. 305-438; Sozomenus: Church History from A.D. 323-425
The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Division begins in the Church from this Controversy; and Alexander Bishop of Alexandria excommunicates Arius and his Adherents. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 140 (In-Text, Margin)
... afterwards deserted him and became his betrayer. Nor were we without forewarning respecting these very persons: for the Lord himself said: ‘Take heed that no man deceive you: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ: and shall many deceive many’; and ‘the time is at hand; Go ye not therefore after them.’ And Paul, having learned these things from the Saviour, wrote, ‘That in the latter times some should apostatize from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits, and doctrines of devils,’[1 Timothy 4:1] who pervert the truth. Seeing then that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has himself enjoined this, and has also by the apostle given us intimation respecting such men, we having ourselves heard their impiety have in consequence anathematized them, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 2, page 72, footnote 9 (Image)
Socrates: Church History from A.D. 305-438; Sozomenus: Church History from A.D. 323-425
The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Of Eustathius Bishop of Sebastia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 441 (In-Text, Margin)
... been long before deposed by Eulalius, his own father, who was bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, for dressing in a style unbecoming the sacerdotal office. Let it be noted that Meletius was appointed his successor, of whom we shall hereafter speak. Eustathius indeed was subsequently condemned by a Synod convened on his account at Gangra in Paphlagonia; he having, after his deposition by the council at Cæsarea, done many things repugnant to the ecclesiastical canons. For he had ‘forbidden marriage,’[1 Timothy 4:3] and maintained that meats were to be abstained from: he even separated many from their wives, and persuaded those who disliked to assemble in the churches to commune at home. Under the pretext of piety, he also seduced servants from their masters. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 476, footnote 1 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)
The Apology of Rufinus. Addressed to Apronianus, in Reply to Jerome's Letter to Pammachius. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Has the Church had spurious Scriptures? (HTML)
34. But let us grant that the Apostle Peter was unable to do what our friend has lately done. Was Paul illiterate? we ask; He who was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, touching the law a Pharisee, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel? Could not he, when he was at Rome, have supplied any deficiencies of Peter? Is it conceivable that they, who prescribed to their disciples that they should give attention to reading,[1 Timothy 4:13] did not give them correct and true reading? These men who bid us not attend to Jewish fables and genealogies, which minister questioning rather than edification; and who, again, bid us beware of, and specially watch, those of the circumcision; is it conceivable that they could not foresee ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 71, footnote 6 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Deposition of Arius. (Depositio Arii.) (HTML)
Deposition of Arius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 382 (In-Text, Margin)
... an apostate. And concerning these same persons, we have not been left without instruction; for our Lord has forewarned us; “Take heed lest any man deceive you: for many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ, and the time draweth near, and they shall deceive many: go ye not after them;” while Paul, who was taught these things by our Saviour, wrote that “in the latter times some shall depart from the sound faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, which reject the truth[1 Timothy 4:1].”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 233, footnote 5 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Circular to Bishops of Egypt and Libya. (Ad Episcopos Ægypti Et Libyæ Epistola Encyclica.) (HTML)
To the Bishops of Egypt. (HTML)
Chapter II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1260 (In-Text, Margin)
... the true faith. And if they venture to advance the opinions of Arius, when they see themselves proceeding in a prosperous course, nothing remains for us but to use great boldness of speech, remembering the predictions of the Apostle, which he wrote to forewarn us of such like heresies, and which it becomes us to repeat. For we know that, as it is written, ‘in the latter times some shall depart from the sound faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, that turn from the truth[1 Timothy 4:1];’ and, ‘as many as will live godly in Christ shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.’ But none of these things shall prevail over us, nor ‘separate us from the love of Christ,’ ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 234, footnote 7 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Circular to Bishops of Egypt and Libya. (Ad Episcopos Ægypti Et Libyæ Epistola Encyclica.) (HTML)
To the Bishops of Egypt. (HTML)
Chapter II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1269 (In-Text, Margin)
... great toil, in their teachings against this impiety, and now enjoy in Christ the glorious reward of their confession! Wherefore, let us also, considering that this struggle is for our all, and that the choice is now before us, either to deny or to preserve the faith, let us also make it our earnest care and aim to guard what we have received, taking as our instruction the Confession drawn up at Nicæa, and let us turn away from novelties, and teach our people not to give heed to ‘seducing spirits[1 Timothy 4:1],’ but altogether to withdraw from the impiety of the Arian madmen, and from the coalition which the Meletians have made with them.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 248, footnote 2 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Apology to the Emperor. (Apologia Ad Constantium.) (HTML)
Apology to the Emperor. (Apologia Ad Constantium.) (HTML)
How Athanasius acted when this took place. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1359 (In-Text, Margin)
... reasonably imputed to me this neglect of them, and have said, ‘He that had the oversight of us fled, and we were neglected, there being no one to put us in mind of our duty?’ When they said this, what could I have answered? Such a complaint was made by Ezekiel against the Pastors of old; and the blessed Apostle Paul, knowing this, has charged every one of us through his disciple, saying, ‘Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery[1 Timothy 4:14].’ Fearing this, I wished not to flee, but to receive your commands, if indeed such was the will of your Piety. But I never obtained what I so reasonably requested, and now I am falsely accused before you; for I resisted no commands of your Piety; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 310, footnote 16 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Discourse I (HTML)
The Importance of the Subject. The Arians affect Scripture language, but their doctrine new, as well as unscriptural. Statement of the Catholic doctrine, that the Son is proper to the Father's substance, and eternal. Restatement of Arianism in contrast, that He is a creature with a beginning: the controversy comes to this issue, whether one whom we are to believe in as God, can be so in name only, and is merely a creature. What pretence then for being indifferent in the controversy? The Arians rely on state patronage, and dare not avow their tenets. (HTML)
... whence or from whom did the abettors and hirelings of the heresy gain it? who thus expounded to them when they were at school? who told them, ‘Abandon the worship of the creation, and then draw near and worship a creature and a work?’ But if they themselves own that they have heard it now for the first time, how can they deny that this heresy is foreign, and not from our fathers? But what is not from our fathers, but has come to light in this day, how can it be but that of which the blessed Paul[1 Timothy 4:1-2] has foretold, that ‘in the latter times some shall depart from the sound faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, in the hypocrisy of liars; cauterized in their own conscience, and turning from the truth?’
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 373, footnote 3 (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)
... not simply that He who is said to be created, is at once in His Nature and Essence a creature. And this difference divine Scripture recognises, saying concerning the creatures, ‘The earth is full of Thy creation,’ and ‘the creation itself groaneth together and travaileth together;’ and in the Apocalypse it says, ‘And the third part of the creatures in the sea died which had life;’ as also Paul says, ‘Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving[1 Timothy 4:4];’ and in the book of Wisdom it is written, ‘Having ordained man through Thy wisdom, that he should have dominion over the creatures which Thou hast made.’ And these, being creatures, are also said to be created, as we may further hear from the Lord, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 467, footnote 10 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia. (De Synodis.) (HTML)
On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia. (De Synodis.) (HTML)
History of Arian Opinions. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3602 (In-Text, Margin)
32. The forementioned parties then had proceeded thus far, when they were stopped and deposed. But well I know, not even under these circumstances will they stop, as many as have now dissembled,[1 Timothy 4:2] but they will always be making parties against the truth, until they return to themselves and say, ‘Let us rise and go to our fathers, and we will say unto them, We anathematize the Arian heresy, and we acknowledge the Nicene Council;’ for against this is their quarrel. Who then, with ever so little understanding, will bear them any longer? who, on hearing in every Council some things taken away and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 508, footnote 4 (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)
... It is required that not only with the body should we fast, but with the soul. Now the soul is humbled when it does not follow wicked opinions, but feeds on becoming virtues. For virtues and vices are the food of the soul, and it can eat either of these two meats, and incline to either of the two, according to its own will. If it is bent toward virtue, it will be nourished by virtues, by righteousness, by temperance, by meekness, by fortitude, as Paul saith; ‘Being nourished by the word of truth[1 Timothy 4:6].’ Such was the case with our Lord, who said, ‘My meat is to do the will of My Father which is in heaven.’ But if it is not thus with the soul, and it inclines downwards, it is then nourished by nothing but sin. For thus the Holy Ghost, describing ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 511, footnote 9 (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 330. Easter-day xxiv Pharmuthi; xiii Kal. Mai; Æra Dioclet. 46; Coss. Gallicianus, Valerius Symmachus; Præfect, Magninianus; Indict. iii. (HTML)
... feasts, but rather introducing days of mourning than of gladness; ‘For there is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord.’ And as Wisdom saith, ‘Gladness and joy are taken from their mouth.’ Such are the feasts of the wicked. But the wise servants of the Lord, who have truly put on the man which is created in God, have received gospel words, and reckon as a general commandment that given to Timothy, which saith, ‘Be thou an example to the believers in word, in conversation, in love, in faith, in purity[1 Timothy 4:12].’ So well do they keep the Feast, that even the unbelievers, seeing their order, may say, ‘God is with them of a truth.’ For as he who receives an apostle receives Him who sent him, so he who is a follower of the saints, makes the Lord in every ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 513, footnote 15 (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 331. Easter-day xvi Pharmuthi; iii Id. April; Æra Dioclet. 47; Coss. Annius Bassus, Ablabius; Præfect, Florentius; Indict. iv. (HTML)
... entrance of the unclean spirit. There is, moreover, the apostolic injunction, that the grace given us should not be unprofitable; for those things which he wrote particularly to his disciple, he enforces on us through him, saying, ‘Neglect not the gift that is in thee. For he who tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread; but the paths of the slothful are strewn with thorns;’ so that the Spirit forewarns a man not to fall into them, saying, ‘Break up your fallow ground, sow not among thorns[1 Timothy 4:14].’ For when a man despises the grace given him; and forth with falls into the cares of the world, he delivers himself over to his lusts; and thus in the time of persecution he is offended, and becomes altogether unfruitful. Now the prophet points out ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 526, 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 335. Easter-day iv Pharmuthi, iii Kal. April; xx Moon; Ær. Dioclet. 51; Coss. Julius Constantius, the brother of Augustus, Rufinus Albinus; Præfect, the same Philagrius; viii Indict. (HTML)
... were not able to partake of such bread, being yet babes, and like babes they drank milk. ‘For every one that partaketh of milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness,’ according to the words of that divine man. The Apostle exhorts his beloved son Timothy, in his first Epistle, ‘to be nourished with the word of faith, and the good doctrine whereto he had attained.’ And in the second, ‘Preserve thou the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus[1 Timothy 4:6].’ And not only here, my brethren, is this bread the food of the righteous, neither are the saints on earth alone nourished by such bread and such blood; but we also eat them in heaven, for the Lord is the food even of the exalted spirits, and the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 534, footnote 1 (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 339. Coss. Constantius Augustus II, Constans I; Præfect, Philagrius the Cappadocian, for the second time; Indict. xii; Easter-day xvii Kal. Mai, xx Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 55. (HTML)
... Whom we acknowledge and worship. The Apostle therefore, as was meet, sent to different people, but his own son he especially reminded, ‘that he should not despise the things in which he had been instructed by him,’ and enjoined on him, ‘Remember Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my Gospel.’ And speaking of these things being delivered to him, to be always had in remembrance, he immediately writes to him, saying, ‘Meditate on these things: be engaged in them.[1 Timothy 4:15] ’ For constant meditation, and the remembrance of divine words, strengthens piety towards God, and produces a love to Him inseparable and not merely formal; as he, being of this mind, speaks about himself and others like-minded, saying boldly, ‘Who ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 535, footnote 18 (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 339. Coss. Constantius Augustus II, Constans I; Præfect, Philagrius the Cappadocian, for the second time; Indict. xii; Easter-day xvii Kal. Mai, xx Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 55. (HTML)
... accusation of adultery. Hence meditation on the law is necessary, my beloved, and uninterrupted converse with virtue, ‘that the saint may lack nothing, but be perfect to every good work.’ For by these things is the promise of eternal life, as Paul wrote to Timothy, calling constant meditation exercise, and saying, ‘Exercise thyself unto godliness; for bodily exercise profiteth little; but godliness is profitable for all things, since it has the promise of the present life, and of that which is eternal[1 Timothy 4:7-8].’
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 536, 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 339. Coss. Constantius Augustus II, Constans I; Præfect, Philagrius the Cappadocian, for the second time; Indict. xii; Easter-day xvii Kal. Mai, xx Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 55. (HTML)
... adding, ‘Thou, therefore, continue in the things thou hast learned, and hast been assured of.’ And as when brother is helped by brother, they become as a wall to each other; so faith and godliness, being of like growth, hang together, and he who is practised in the one, of necessity is strengthened by the other. Therefore, wishing the disciple to be exercised in godliness unto the end, and to contend for the faith, he counsels them, saying, ‘Fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life[1 Timothy 4:7].’ For if a man first put away the wickedness of idols, and rightly confesses Him Who is truly God, he next fights by faith with those who war against Him.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 536, footnote 9 (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 339. Coss. Constantius Augustus II, Constans I; Præfect, Philagrius the Cappadocian, for the second time; Indict. xii; Easter-day xvii Kal. Mai, xx Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 55. (HTML)
10. For of these two things we speak of—faith and godliness—the hope is the same, even everlasting life; for he saith, ‘Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life.’ And, ‘exercise thyself unto godliness, for it hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come[1 Timothy 4:7-8].’ For this cause, the Ario-maniacs, who now have gone out from the Church, being opponents of Christ, have digged a pit of unbelief, into which they themselves have been thrust; and, since they have advanced in ungodliness, they ‘overthrow the faith of the simple;’ blaspheming the Son of God, and saying that He is a creature, and has His being from ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 540, footnote 7 (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 341.) Coss. Marcellinus, Probinus; Præf. Longinus; Indict. xiv; Easter-day, xiii Kal. Maii, xxiv Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 57. (HTML)
... those whose actions are not restrained by law, who know of nothing beyond eating and drinking and dying, account trials as danger. They soon stumble at them, so that, being untried in the faith, they are given over to a reprobate mind, and do those things which are not seemly. Therefore the blessed Paul, when urging us to such exercises as these, and having before measured himself by them, says, ‘Therefore I take pleasure in afflictions, in infirmities.’ And again, ‘Exercise thyself unto godliness[1 Timothy 4:7].’ For since he knew the persecutions that befel those who chose to live in godliness, he wished his disciples to meditate beforehand on the difficulties connected with godliness; that when trials should come, and affliction arise, they might be able ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 559, footnote 1 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)
The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)
Personal Letters. (HTML)
Letter to Dracontius. Written A.D. 354 or 355. (HTML)
... of mind, how will the Churches be able to hold together? Or do your advisers think that you have received nothing, that they despise it? If so surely they are wrong. For it is time for them to think that the grace of the Font is nothing, if some are found to despise it. But you have received it, beloved Dracontius; do not tolerate your advisers nor deceive yourself. For this will be required of you by the God who gave it. Have you not heard the Apostle say, ‘Neglect not the gift that is in thee[1 Timothy 4:14]?’ or have you not read how he accepts the man that had doubled his money, while he condemned the one that had hidden it? But may it come to pass that you may quickly return, in order that you too may be one of those who are praised. Or tell me, whom ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 5, page 86, footnote 1 (Image)
Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises. (HTML)
Against Eunomius. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Defence of S. Basil's statement, attacked by Eunomius, that the terms 'Father' and 'The Ungenerate' can have the same meaning. (HTML)
What, too, does Paul, the follower of Christ, say? He, too, in his deep wisdom teaches the same. He, who declares that “everything is good, and nothing to be rejected, if it be received with thanks[1 Timothy 4:4],” on some occasions, because of the ‘conscience of the weak brother,’ puts some things back from the number which he has accepted, and commands us to decline them. “If,” he says, “meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth.” Now this is just what our follower of Paul did. He saw that the deceiving power of those who try to teach the inequality of the Persons was ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 27, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 430 (In-Text, Margin)
... Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder. Yet it is these who say: “‘Unto the pure all things are pure;’ my conscience is sufficient guide for me. A pure heart is what God looks for. Why should I abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving?”[1 Timothy 4:3] And when they wish to appear agreeable and entertaining they first drench themselves with wine, and then joining the grossest profanity to intoxication, they say “Far be it from me to abstain from the blood of Christ.” And when they see another pale ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 35, footnote 10 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 575 (In-Text, Margin)
... pronounce them naturally is a mark of country breeding. Accordingly they find pleasure in what I may call an adultery of the tongue. For “what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?” How can Horace go with the psalter, Virgil with the gospels, Cicero with the apostle? Is not a brother made to stumble if he sees you sitting at meat in an idol’s temple? Although “unto the pure all things are pure,” and “nothing is to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving,”[1 Timothy 4:4] still we ought not to drink the cup of Christ, and, at the same time, the cup of devils. Let me relate to you the story of my own miserable experience.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 67, footnote 7 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Pammachius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1044 (In-Text, Margin)
... the other; to speak more plainly still, while I close with Jovinian in hand-to-hand combat, Manichæus stabs me in the back. Have I not, I would ask, in the very forefront of my work set the following preface: “We are no disciples of Marcion or of Manichæus, to detract from marriage. Nor are we deceived by the error of Tatian, the chief of the Encratites, into supposing all cohabitation unclean. For he condemns and reprobates not marriage only, but foods also which God has created for us to enjoy.[1 Timothy 4:3] We know that in a large house there are vessels not only of silver and of gold, but of wood also and of earth. We know, too, that on the foundation of Christ which Paul the master builder has laid, some build up gold, silver, and precious stones; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 73, footnote 7 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Pammachius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1126 (In-Text, Margin)
“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity.” But if all created things are good,[1 Timothy 4:4] as being the handiwork of a good Creator, how comes it that all things are vanity? If the earth is vanity, are the heavens vanity too?—and the angels, the thrones, the dominations, the powers, and the rest of the virtues? No; if things which are good in themselves as being the handiwork of a good Creator are called vanity, it is because they are compared with things which are better still. For example, compared with a lamp, a lantern is good for ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 97, footnote 14 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Paulinus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1414 (In-Text, Margin)
... God to the pulling down of strongholds;” armed with these we war “casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and being in a readiness to revenge all disobedience.” He writes to Timothy who had been trained in the holy writings from a child exhorting him to study them diligently and not to neglect the gift which was given him with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.[1 Timothy 4:14] To Titus he gives commandment that among a bishop’s other virtues (which he briefly describes) he should be careful to seek a knowledge of the scriptures: A bishop, he says, must hold fast “the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 105, footnote 6 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Furia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1571 (In-Text, Margin)
9. In saying this, I do not of course condemn food which God created to be enjoyed with thanksgiving,[1 Timothy 4:4] but I seek to remove from youths and girls what are incentives to sensual pleasure. Neither the fiery Etna nor the country of Vulcan, nor Vesuvius, nor Olympus, burns with such violent heat as the youthful marrow of those who are flushed with wine and filled with food. Many trample covetousness under foot, and lay it down as readily as they lay down their purse. An enforced silence serves to make amends for a railing tongue. The outward ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 166, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Salvina. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2438 (In-Text, Margin)
... good work.” Here you learn the roll of the virtues which God requires of you, what is due to the name of widow which you bear, and by what good deeds you can attain to that second degree of chastity which is still open to you. Do not be disturbed because the apostle allows none to be chosen as a widow under threescore years old, neither suppose that he intends to reject those who are still young. Believe that you are indeed chosen by him who said to his disciple, “Let no man despise thy youth,”[1 Timothy 4:12] your want of age that is, not your want of continence. If this be not his meaning, all who become widows under threescore years will have to take husbands. He is training a church still untaught in Christ, and making provision for people of all ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 166, footnote 16 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Salvina. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2450 (In-Text, Margin)
... pheasants be seen upon your table, or plump turtledoves or black cock from Ionia, or any of those birds so expensive that they fly away with the largest properties. And do not fancy that you eschew meat diet when you reject pork, hare, and venison and the savoury flesh of other quadrupeds. It is not the number of feet that makes the difference but delicacy of flavour. I know that the apostle has said: “every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving.”[1 Timothy 4:4] But the same apostle says: “it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine,” and in another place: “be not drunk with wine wherein is excess.” “Every creature of God is good”—the precept is intended for those who are careful how they may please ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 173, footnote 11 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2534 (In-Text, Margin)
... and complete by the mystery of Christ’s assumed manhood. Let him call to mind the ancient law, and he will see that after his twenty-fifth year a Levite might be chosen to the priesthood; or if in this passage he prefers to follow the Hebrew he will find that candidates for the priesthood must be thirty years old. And that he may not venture to say that “old things are passed away; and, behold, all things are become new,” let him hear the apostle’s words to Timothy, “Let no man despise thy youth.”[1 Timothy 4:12] Certainly when my opponent was himself ordained bishop, he was not much older than my brother is now. And if he argues that youth is no hindrance to a bishop but that it is to a presbyter because a young elder is a contradiction in terms, I ask him ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 288, footnote 14 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Evangelus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3935 (In-Text, Margin)
... Writing to Titus the apostle says: “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain presbyters in every city, as I had appointed thee: if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God.” And to Timothy he says: “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.”[1 Timothy 4:14] Peter also says in his first epistle: “The presbyters which are among you I exhort, who am your fellow-presbyter and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of Christ …taking the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 392, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4721 (In-Text, Margin)
... fleeces. What is the use of swine if we may not eat their flesh? of roes, stags, fallow-deer, boars, hares, and such like game? of geese, wild and tame? of wild ducks and fig-peckers? of woodcocks? of coots? of thrushes? Why do hens run about our houses? If they are not eaten, all these creatures were created by God for nothing. But what need is there of argument when Scripture clearly teaches that every moving creature, like herbs and vegetables, were given to us for food, and the Apostle cries aloud[1 Timothy 4:5] ‘All things are clean to the clean, and nothing is to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving,’ and tells us that men will come in the last days, forbidding to marry, and to eat meats, which God created for use? The Lord himself was called ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 392, footnote 2 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4722 (In-Text, Margin)
... such like game? of geese, wild and tame? of wild ducks and fig-peckers? of woodcocks? of coots? of thrushes? Why do hens run about our houses? If they are not eaten, all these creatures were created by God for nothing. But what need is there of argument when Scripture clearly teaches that every moving creature, like herbs and vegetables, were given to us for food, and the Apostle cries aloud ‘All things are clean to the clean, and nothing is to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving,’ and[1 Timothy 4:3] tells us that men will come in the last days, forbidding to marry, and to eat meats, which God created for use? The Lord himself was called by the Pharisees a wine-bibber and a glutton, the friend of publicans and sinners, because he did not decline ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 400, footnote 20 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4812 (In-Text, Margin)
16. The Apostle does indeed[1 Timothy 4:3] blame those who forbade marriage, and commanded to abstain from food, which God created for use with thanksgiving. But he has in view Marcion, and Tatian, and other heretics, who inculcate perpetual abstinence, to destroy, and express their hatred and contempt for, the works of the Creator. But we praise every creature of God, and yet prefer leanness to corpulence, abstinence to luxury, fasting to fulness. “He that laboureth laboureth for himself, and he is eager to his own ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 25, footnote 9 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Ten Points of Doctrine. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 731 (In-Text, Margin)
... joy in the world to come. Despise not therefore them that eat, and because of the weakness of their bodies partake of food: nor yet blame these who use a little wine for their stomach’s sake and their often infirmities: and neither condemn the men as sinners, nor abhor the flesh as strange food; for the Apostle knows some of this sort, when he says: forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe[1 Timothy 4:3]. In abstaining then from these things, abstain not as from things abominable, else thou hast no reward: but as being good things disregard them for the sake of the better spiritual things set before thee.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 132, footnote 5 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
Continuation of the Discourse on the Holy Ghost. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2221 (In-Text, Margin)
33. And that the Holy Ghost subsists, and lives, and speaks, and foretells, I have often said in what goes before, and Paul writes it plainly to Timothy: Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in later times some shall depart from the faith[1 Timothy 4:1],—which we see in the divisions not only of former times but also of our own; so motley and diversified are the errors of the heretics. And again the same Paul says, Which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto His Holy Apostles and Prophets in the Spirit. And again, Wherefore, as saith the Holy Ghost; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 21, footnote 5 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
Objection that some were baptized unto Moses and believed in him, and an answer to it; with remarks upon types. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1001 (In-Text, Margin)
... of the truth, by means of the shadow and the types, endeavour to bring contempt and ridicule on the “rejoicing” of our “hope,” and the rich gift of our God and Saviour, who through regeneration renews our youth like the eagle’s? Surely it is altogether childish, and like a babe who must needs be fed on milk, to be ignorant of the great mystery of our salvation; inasmuch as, in accordance with the gradual progress of our education, while being brought to perfection in our training for godliness,[1 Timothy 4:7] we were first taught elementary and easier lessons, suited to our intelligence, while the Dispenser of our lots was ever leading us up, by gradually accustoming us, like eyes brought up in the dark, to the great light of truth. For He spares our ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 238, footnote 5 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2707 (In-Text, Margin)
XXVIII. It has seemed to me ridiculous that any one should make a vow to abstain from swine’s flesh. Be so good as to teach men to abstain from foolish vows and promises. Represent the use to be quite indifferent. No creature of God, received with thanksgiving, is to be rejected.[1 Timothy 4:4] The vow is ridiculous; the abstinence unnecessary.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 296, footnote 4 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To Optimus the bishop. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3146 (In-Text, Margin)
2. You have asked for a solution of that famous passage which is everywhere interpreted in different senses, “Whosoever slayeth Cain will exact vengeance for seven sins.” Your question shews that you have yourself carefully observed the charge of Paul to Timothy,[1 Timothy 4:13] for you are obviously attentive to your reading. You have moreover roused me, old man that I am, dull alike from age and bodily infirmity, and from the many afflictions which have been stirred up round about me and have weighed down my life. Fervent in spirit as you are yourself, you are rousing me, now benumbed like a beast in his den, to some little wakefulness ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 182, 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 X (HTML)
... whom they have ferreted out and gathered together, may satisfy them with the doctrines of their own tumultuous desires. And if these madmen in their godless folly do not know with what spirit they reject the sound, and yearn after the corrupt doctrine, let them hear the words of the same Apostle to the same Timothy, But the Spirit saith expressly that in the last days some shall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils through the hypocrisy of lying talk[1 Timothy 4:1-2]. What advancement of doctrine is it to discover what one fancies, and not what one ought to learn? Or what piety in doctrine is it not to desire what one ought to learn, but to heap up doctrine after our desires? But this is what the promptings of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 31, footnote 11 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XXXVI. One of the duties of fortitude is to keep the weak from receiving injury; another, to check the wrong motions of our own souls; a third, both to disregard humiliations, and to do what is right with an even mind. All these clearly ought to be fulfilled by all Christians, and especially by the clergy. (HTML)
... with the using.” And further: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, not those things which are on the earth.” And again: “Mortify, therefore, your members which are on the earth.” This, indeed, is meant for all the faithful. But thee, especially, my son, he urges to despise riches and to avoid profane and old wives fables—allowing nothing but this: “Exercise thyself unto godliness, for bodily exercise profiteth a little, but godliness is profitable unto all things.”[1 Timothy 4:8]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 47, footnote 8 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter VI. On what is useful: not that which is advantageous, but that which is just and virtuous. It is to be found in losses, and is divided into what is useful for the body, and what is useful unto godliness. (HTML)
23. But we do not reckon usefulness by the value of any gain in money, but in acquiring godliness, as the Apostle says: “But godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”[1 Timothy 4:8] Thus in the holy Scriptures, if we look carefully we shall often find that what is virtuous is called useful: “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not profitable” [useful]. Before that he was speaking of vices, and so means: It is lawful to sin, but it is not seemly. Sins rest in one’s own power, but they are not virtuous. To live wantonly is easy, but it is not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 48, footnote 4 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter VI. On what is useful: not that which is advantageous, but that which is just and virtuous. It is to be found in losses, and is divided into what is useful for the body, and what is useful unto godliness. (HTML)
27. There is therefore a usefulness connected with the body, and also one that has to do with godliness, according to the Apostle’s division: “Bodily exercise profiteth a little, but godliness is profitable unto all things.”[1 Timothy 4:8] And what is so virtuous as integrity? what so seemly as to preserve the body unspotted and undefiled, and its purity unsullied? What, again, is so seemly as that a widow should keep her plighted troth to her dead husband? What more useful than this whereby the heavenly kingdom is attained? For “there are some who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 57, footnote 2 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter XVII. What virtues ought to exist in him whom we consult. How Joseph and Paul were equipped with them. (HTML)
87. Such was Paul, who gave counsel to virgins, guidance to priests,[1 Timothy 4:12] so as to offer himself as a pattern for us to copy. Thus he knew how to be humble, as also Joseph did, who, though sprung from the noble family of the patriarchs, was not ashamed of his base slavery; rather he adorned it with his ready service, and made it glorious by his virtues. He knew how to be humble who had to go through the hands of both buyer and seller, and called them, Lord. Hear him as he humbles himself: “My lord on my account knoweth not what is in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 241, footnote 3 (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)
134. Such men, who sow disputes—that is to say, heretics—the Apostle bids us leave alone. Of them he says in yet another place, that “certain shall depart from the faith, giving heed to deceitful spirits, and the doctrines of devils.”[1 Timothy 4:1]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 299, footnote 6 (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 I. First Conference of Abbot Moses. (HTML)
Chapter X. The answer that not the reward, but the doing of them will come to an end. (HTML)
... hereafter, when “this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,” and the body which is now “a natural body” shall have risen “a spiritual body” and the flesh shall have begun to be such that it no longer lusts against the spirit? And of this the blessed Apostle also clearly speaks, when he says that “bodily exercise is profitable for a little: but godliness” (by which he certainly means love) “is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.”[1 Timothy 4:8] This clearly shows that what is said to be useful for a little, is not to be practised for all time, and cannot possibly by itself alone confer the highest state of perfection on the man who slaves at it. For the term “for a little” may mean either ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 374, footnote 6 (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 VII. First Conference of Abbot Serenus. On Inconstancy of Mind, and Spiritual Wickedness. (HTML)
Chapter XXXII. Of the different desires and wishes which exist in the powers of the air. (HTML)
... ourselves can testify as we have heard a demon openly confessing that he had proclaimed a wicked and impious doctrine by the mouths of Arius and Eunomius. And the same thing we read that one of them openly proclaimed in the fourth book of Kings: “I will go forth,” he said, “and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.” On which the Apostle, when reproving those who are deceived by them, adds as follows: “giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisy.”[1 Timothy 4:1-2] And that there are other kinds of devils which are deaf and dumb the gospels testify. And that some spirits incite to lust and wantonness the prophet maintains saying: “The spirit of fornication deceived them and they went astray from their God.” In ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 429, footnote 10 (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 XIII. The Third Conference of Abbot Chæremon. On the Protection of God. (HTML)
Chapter XII. That a good will should not always be attributed to grace, nor always to man himself. (HTML)
... commanded saying: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” had he not known that it could be advanced or neglected by us. But that men might not fancy that they had no need of Divine aid for the work of Salvation, he subjoins: “For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do, of His good pleasure.” And therefore he warns Timothy and says: “Neglect not the grace of God which is in thee;” and again: “For which cause I exhort thee to stir up the grace of God which is in thee.”[1 Timothy 4:14] Hence also in writing to the Corinthians he exhorts and warns them not through their unfruitful works to show themselves unworthy of the grace of God, saying: “And we helping, exhort you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain:” for the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 464, 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 XIV. The discourse of the Elder showing how the plan of action may be changed without fault provided that one keeps to the carrying out of a good intention. (HTML)
... will be no hindrance, if only no change in that first purpose follows. For a change of instrument does not imply a desertion of the work, nor does the choice of a shorter and more direct road argue laziness on the path of the traveller. And so in this matter an improvement in a short-sighted arrangement is not to be reckoned a breach of a spiritual promise. For whatever is done out of the love of God and desire for goodness, which has “promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come,”[1 Timothy 4:8] even though it may appear to commence with a hard and adverse beginning, is most worthy, not only of no blame, but actually of praise. And therefore the breaking of a careless promise will be no hindrance, if in every case the end, i.e., the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 473, footnote 1 (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 XXVIII. The answer telling in what cases the determination is to be kept fixedly, and in what cases it may be broken if need be. (HTML)
... this should be done for the preservation of love, for which all things else should be disregarded lest the beauty and perfection of its calm should suffer a stain. In the same way we must swear for the purity of our chastity, and we ought to do the same for faith, and sobriety and justice, to all of which we must cling with unchangeable persistence, and to forsake which even for a little is worthy of blame. But in the case of those bodily exercises, which are said to be profitable for a little,[1 Timothy 4:8] we must, as we said, decide in such a way that, if there occurs any more decided opportunity for a good act, which would lead us to relax them, we need not be bound by any rule about them, but may give them up and freely adopt what is more useful. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 508, footnote 2 (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 XIII. What kind of good fasting is. (HTML)
... intentions, so as to think that we fall into sin by taking food, we shall not only gain no advantage by our abstinence but shall actually contract grievous guilt and fall into the sin of impiety, as the Apostle says: “Abstaining from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful and those who know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it is partaken of with thanksgiving.” For “if a man thinks that a thing is common, to him it is common.”[1 Timothy 4:3-4] And therefore we never read that anyone is condemned simply for taking food, but only when something was joined with it or followed afterwards, for which he deserved condemnation.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 179, footnote 6 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Sermons. (HTML)
On the Passion, XVI.: delivered on the Sunday. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1077 (In-Text, Margin)
Therefore, dearly-beloved, by this unspeakable restoration of our health no place is left us for pride or for idleness: because we have nothing which we did not receive[1 Timothy 4:14], and we are expressly warned not to treat the gifts of God’s grace with negligence. For He that comes so timely to our aid justly urges us with precept, and He that leads us to glory mercifully incites us to obedience. Wherefore the Lord Himself is rightly made our way, because save through Christ there is no coming to Christ. But through Him and to Him does he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 179, footnote 7 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Sermons. (HTML)
On the Passion, XVI.: delivered on the Sunday. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1078 (In-Text, Margin)
Therefore, dearly-beloved, by this unspeakable restoration of our health no place is left us for pride or for idleness: because we have nothing which we did not receive, and we are expressly warned not to treat the gifts of God’s grace with negligence[1 Timothy 4:14]. For He that comes so timely to our aid justly urges us with precept, and He that leads us to glory mercifully incites us to obedience. Wherefore the Lord Himself is rightly made our way, because save through Christ there is no coming to Christ. But through Him and to Him does he take his way who treads the path of His endurance and ...