Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
1 Timothy 6:10
There are 37 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 34, footnote 1 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Polycarp (HTML)
Epistle to the Philippians (HTML)
Chapter IV.—Various exhortations. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 360 (In-Text, Margin)
“But the love of money is the root of all evils.”[1 Timothy 6:10] Knowing, therefore, that “as we brought nothing into the world, so we can carry nothing out,” let us arm ourselves with the armour of righteousness; and let us teach, first of all, ourselves to walk in the commandments of the Lord. Next, [teach] your wives [to walk] in the faith given to them, and in love and purity tenderly loving their own husbands in all truth, and loving all [others] equally in all chastity; and to train up their children in the knowledge and fear ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 248, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter III.—On Costly Vessels. (HTML)
But now love of money is found to be the stronghold of evil, which the apostle says “is the root of all evils, which, while some coveted, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”[1 Timothy 6:10]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 67, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
On Idolatry. (HTML)
Connection Between Covetousness and Idolatry. Certain Trades, However Gainful, to Be Avoided. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 230 (In-Text, Margin)
If we think over the rest of faults, tracing them from their generations, let us begin with covetousness, “a root of all evils,”[1 Timothy 6:10] wherewith, indeed, some having been ensnared, “have suffered shipwreck about faith.” Albeit covetousness is by the same apostle called idolatry. In the next place proceeding to mendacity, the minister of covetousness (of false swearing I am silent, since even swearing is not lawful)—is trade adapted for a servant of God? But, covetousness apart, what is the motive for acquiring? When the motive for acquiring ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 711, footnote 16 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Patience. (HTML)
The Causes of Impatience, and Their Correspondent Precepts. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 9087 (In-Text, Margin)
... He fore-ministered to patience “loss,” and to opulence “contempt” (as portion); demonstrating, by means of (His own) repudiation of riches, that hurts done to them also are not to be much regarded. Of that, therefore, which we have not the smallest need to seek after, because the Lord did not seek after it either, we ought to endure without heart-sickness the cutting down or taking away. “Covetousness,” the Spirit of the Lord has through the apostle pronounced “a root of all evils.”[1 Timothy 6:10] Let us not interpret that covetousness as consisting merely in the concupiscence of what is another’s: for even what seems ours is another’s; for nothing is ours, since all things are God’s, whose are we also ourselves. And so, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 479, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On Works and Alms. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3551 (In-Text, Margin)
... patrimony. And therefore the apostle well exclaims, and says: “We brought nothing into this world, neither indeed can we carry anything out. Therefore, having food and clothing, let us therewith be content. For they who will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many and hurtful desires, which drown a man in perdition and in destruction. For covetousness is a root of all evils, which some desiring, have made shipwreck from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”[1 Timothy 6:7-10]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 550, footnote 17 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
... of his right hand, he lifted him up.” Also in the first to Timothy: “We brought nothing into this world, but neither can we take anything away. Therefore, having maintenance and clothing, let us with these be content. But they who will become rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many and hurtful lusts, which drown man in perdition and destruction. For the root of all evils is covetousness, which some coveting, have made shipwreck from the faith, and have plunged themselves in many sorrows.”[1 Timothy 6:7-10]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 649, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Novatian. (HTML)
On the Jewish Meats. (HTML)
But, on the Ground that Liberty in Meats is Granted to Us, There is No Permission of Luxury, There is No Taking Away of Continence and Fasting: for These Things Greatly Become the Faithful,--To Wit, that They Should Pray to God, and Give Him Thanks, Not Only by Day, But by Night. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5338 (In-Text, Margin)
... preferring Lazarus in his very hunger and in his sores themselves, and with the rich man’s dogs, He restrained the destroyers of salvation, the belly and the palate, by examples. The apostle also, when he said, “Having food and raiment, we are therewith content,” laid down the law of frugality and continency; and thinking that it would be of little advantage that he had written, he also gave himself as an example of what he had written, adding not without reason, that “avarice is the root of all evils;”[1 Timothy 6:10] for it follows in the footsteps of luxury. Whatever the latter has wasted by vice, the former restores by crime; the circle of crimes being re-trodden, that luxury may again take away whatever avarice had heaped together. Nor yet are there wanting, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 178, footnote 1 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Lactantius (HTML)
The Divine Institutes (HTML)
Book VI. Of True Worship (HTML)
Chap. XII.—Of the kinds of beneficence, and works of mercy (HTML)
... laden with booty, and you bear spoils which may excite the minds even of your own relatives. Why, then, do you hesitate to lay that out well which perhaps a single robbery will snatch away from you, or a proscription suddenly arising, or the plundering of an enemy? Why do you fear to make a frail and perishable good everlasting, or to entrust your treasures to God as their preserver, in which case you need not fear thief and robber, nor rust, nor tyrant? He who is rich towards God can never be poor.[1 Timothy 6:8-10] If you esteem justice so highly, lay aside the burthens which press you, and follow it; free yourself from fetters and chains, that you may run to God without any impediment. It is the part of a great and lofty mind to despise and trample upon ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 57, footnote 26 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Two Epistles Concerning Virginity. (HTML)
The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle. (HTML)
Virgins, by the Laying Aside of All Carnal Affection, are Imitators of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 364 (In-Text, Margin)
... talkativeness, babbling; threatenings, gnashing of teeth, readiness to accuse, jarring, disdainings, blows; perversions of the right, laxness in judgment; haughtiness, arrogance, ostentation, pompousness, boasting of family, of beauty, of position, of wealth, of an arm of flesh; quarrelsomeness, injustice, eagerness for victory; hatred, anger, envy, perfidy, retaliation; debauchery, gluttony, “overreaching (which is idolatry),” “the love of money (which is the root of all evils);”[1 Timothy 6:10] love of display, vainglory, love of rule, assumption, pride (which is called death, and which “God fights against”). Every man with whom are these and such like things—every such man is of the flesh. For, “he that is born of the flesh is flesh; and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 621, footnote 3 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
The Decretals. (HTML)
The Epistle of Pope Urban First. (HTML)
Of the engagement made in baptism, and of those who have given themselves to the life in common. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2774 (In-Text, Margin)
... according to the apostle, we may discern (sapiamus) rather things above, and not things on the earth; for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For to what, most dearly beloved, does the wisdom of this world urge us, but to seek things that are hurtful, and to love things that are to perish, and to neglect things that are healthful, and to esteem as of no value things that are lasting? It commends the love of money, of which it is said, The love of money is the root of all evil;[1 Timothy 6:10] and which has this evil in especial, that while it obtrudes the transitory, it hides from view the eternal; and while it looks on things that are outside, it does not look in upon things that lurk within; and while it seeks after strange things, it ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 439, footnote 2 (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)
Explanation of “Corban.” (HTML)
... Judas on behalf of the poor, but takes away what is put therein, let there be assigned to him the portion along with Judas who did these things; on account of which things eating like a gangrene into his soul, the devil cast it into his heart to betray the Saviour; and, when he had received the “fiery dart,” with reference to this end, the devil afterwards himself entered into his soul and took full possession of him. And perhaps, when the Apostle says, “The love of money is a root of all evils,”[1 Timothy 6:10] he says it because of Judas’ love of money, which was a root of all the evils that were committed against Jesus.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 7, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Augustin censures the pagans, who attributed the calamities of the world, and especially the recent sack of Rome by the Goths, to the Christian religion, and its prohibition of the worship of the gods. (HTML)
That the Saints Lose Nothing in Losing Temporal Goods. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 55 (In-Text, Margin)
... said, “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which, while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”[1 Timothy 6:6-10]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 160, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
After premising the difference between wisdom and knowledge, he points out a kind of trinity in that which is properly called knowledge; but one which, although we have reached in it the inner man, is not yet to be called the image of God. (HTML)
The Same Argument is Continued. (HTML)
... to itself. And that apostatizing pride, which is called “the beginning of sin,” whereas it might have been most excellently governed by the laws of God, if it had followed Him as its ruler in the universal creature, by seeking something more than the whole, and struggling to govern this by a law of its own, is thrust on, since nothing is more than the whole, into caring for a part; and thus by lusting after something more, is made less; whence also covetousness is called “the root of all evil.”[1 Timothy 6:10] And it administers that whole, wherein it strives to do something of its own against the laws by which the whole is governed, by its own body, which it possesses only in part; and so being delighted by corporeal forms and motions, because it has not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 51, footnote 7 (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)
Description of the Duties of Temperance, According to the Sacred Scriptures. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 96 (In-Text, Margin)
... which turn us away from the laws of God and from the enjoyment of His goodness, that is, in a word, from the happy life. For there is the abode of truth; and in enjoying its contemplation, and in cleaving closely to it, we are assuredly happy; but departing from this, men become entangled in great errors and sorrows. For, as the apostle says, "The root of all evils is covetousness; which some having followed, have made shipwreck of the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows."[1 Timothy 6:10] And this sin of the soul is quite plainly, to those rightly understanding, set forth in the Old Testament in the transgression of Adam in Paradise. Thus, as the apostle says, "In Adam we all die, and in Christ we shall all rise again." Oh, the depth ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 120, footnote 1 (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 243 (In-Text, Margin)
... such as is He who made them. For it is unjust and foolish to believe that works are equal to the workman, things made to the maker. Wherefore if it is reverential to believe that God made all good things, than which nevertheless He is by far more excellent and by far more pre-eminent; the origin and head of evil is sin, as the apostle said: "Covetousness is the root of all evils; which some following after have made shipwreck of the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows."[1 Timothy 6:10] For if you seek the root of all evils, you have the apostle saying that covetousness is the root of all evils. But the root of a root I cannot seek. Or if there is another evil, whose root covetousness is not, covetousness will not be the root of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 223, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On the Grace of Christ. (HTML)
The Two Roots of Action, Love and Cupidity; And Each Brings Forth Its Own Fruit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1828 (In-Text, Margin)
... capable, at the planter’s own choice, of either shedding a beautiful bloom of virtues, or of bristling with the thorny thickets of vices.” Scarcely heeding what he says, he here makes one and the same root productive both of good and evil fruits, in opposition to gospel truth and apostolic teaching. For the Lord declares that “a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit;” and when the Apostle Paul says that covetousness is “the root of all evils,”[1 Timothy 6:10] he intimates to us, of course, that love may be regarded as the root of all good things. On the supposition, therefore, that two trees, one good and the other corrupt, represent two human beings, a good one and a bad, what else is the good man ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 258, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
Of the agreement of the evangelists Matthew and Luke in the generations of the Lord. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1814 (In-Text, Margin)
... occurs this probable reason, for that the number ten implies the perfection of all righteousness, and blessedness, when the creature denoted by seven cleaves to the Trinity of the Creator; whence also the Decalogue of the Law was consecrated in ten precepts. Now the “transgression” of the number ten is signified by the number eleven; and sin is known to be transgression, when a man, in seeking something “more,” exceeds the rule of justice. And hence the Apostle calls avarice “the root of all evils.”[1 Timothy 6:10] And to the soul which goes a-whoring from God, it is said, in the Person of the same Lord, “Thou wast in hope, if thou didst depart from Me, that thou wouldest have something more.” Because the sinner then has in his transgression, that is, in his ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 297, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, Matt. vii. 7, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you;’ etc. An exhortation to alms-deeds. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2152 (In-Text, Margin)
10. What follows then? “Having food and covering, let us be therewith content; for they who wish to be rich fall into temptation, and many and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For avarice is the root of all evil, which some following after, have erred from the faith.”[1 Timothy 6:8-10] Now consider what they have abandoned. Grieved thou art that they have abandoned this, but see now in what they have entangled themselves. Hear; “They have erred from the faith, and entangled themselves in many sorrows.” But who? “They who wish to be rich.” It is one thing to be rich, another to wish to become rich. He is rich, who is born of rich ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 333, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xii. 33, ‘Either make the tree good, and its fruit good,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2498 (In-Text, Margin)
4. Let each one then be a good tree; let him not suppose that he can bear good fruit, if he remain a corrupt tree. There will be no good fruit, but from the good tree. Change the heart, and the work will be changed. Root out desire, plant in charity. “For as desire is the root of all evil,”[1 Timothy 6:10] so is charity the root of all good. Why then do men fret and contend one with another, saying, “What is good?” O that thou knewest what good is! What thou dost wish to have is not very good; this is good which thou dost not wish to be. For thou dost wish to have health of body; it is good indeed; yet thou canst not think that to be any great good, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 368, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xix. 17, ‘If thou wouldest enter into life, keep the commandments.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2814 (In-Text, Margin)
... rich.” “Who wish to be,” not who are. For they who are so, well and good. They have heard their lesson, that they be “rich in good works, that they distribute easily, that they communicate.” They have heard already. Do ye now hear who are not yet rich. “They who wish to be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many hurtful and foolish lusts.” Do ye not fear? Hear what follows; “which drown men in destruction and perdition.” Dost thou not now fear? “for avarice is the root of all evil”?[1 Timothy 6:10] Avarice is the wishing to be rich, not the being rich already. This is avarice. Dost thou not fear to be “drowned in destruction and perdition”? Dost thou not fear “avarice the root of all evil”? Thou pluckest up out of thy field the root of thorns, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 508, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John IV. 12–16. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2407 (In-Text, Margin)
6. For in this the proud soul has passed bounds, and, in a manner, become avaricious. For, “The root of all evils is avarice;”[1 Timothy 6:10] and again it is said, “The beginning of all sin is pride.” And we ask, it may be, how these two sentences agree: “The root of all evils is avarice;” and, “The beginning of all sin is pride.” If pride is the beginning of all sin, then is pride the root of all evils. Now certainly, “the root of all evils is avarice.” We find that in pride there is also avarice, (or grasping;) for man has passed bounds: and what is it to be avaricious ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 36, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm IX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 375 (In-Text, Margin)
... 14), that I may declare all Thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion”? For man is exalted in Him, not that Man only which He beareth, which is the Head of the Church; but whichsoever one of us also is among the other members, and is exalted from all depraved desires; which are the gates of death, for that through them is the road to death. But the joy in the fruition is at once death itself, when one gains what he hath in abandoned wilfulness coveted: for “coveting is the root of all evil:”[1 Timothy 6:10] and therefore is the gate of death, for “the widow that liveth in pleasures is dead.” At which pleasures we arrive through desires as it were through the gates of death. But all highest purposes are the gates of the daughter of Sion, through which ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 546, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5003 (In-Text, Margin)
... But that transitory promises were given in that Old Testament is proved by the fact itself: however, “He hath commended His covenant for ever.” But what, but the New? Whosoever dost wish to be heir of this, deceive not thyself, and think not of a land flowing with milk and honey, nor of pleasant farms, nor of gardens abounding in fruits and shade: desire not how to gain anything of this sort, such as the eye of covetousness is wont to lust for. For since “covetousness is the root of all evils,”[1 Timothy 6:10] it must be cut off, that it may be consumed here; not be put off, that it may be satisfied there. First escape punishments, avoid hell; before thou longest for a God who promiseth, beware of one who threateneth. For “holy and reverend is His Name.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 565, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXIX (HTML)
He. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5169 (In-Text, Margin)
36. He next saith, “Incline mine heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to covetousness” (ver. 36). This then he prayeth, that he may profit in the will itself. …But the Apostle saith, “Avarice is a root of all evils.”[1 Timothy 6:10] But in the Greek, whence these words have been rendered into our tongue, the word used by the Apostle is not πλεονεξία, which occurs in this passage of the Psalms; but φιλαργυρία, by which is signified “love of money.” But the Apostle must be understood to have meant genus by species when he used this word, that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 367, footnote 4 (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)
Introduction to Proverbs viii. 22 continued. Contrast between the Father's operations immediately and naturally in the Son, instrumentally by the creatures; Scripture terms illustrative of this. Explanation of these illustrations; which should be interpreted by the doctrine of the Church; perverse sense put on them by the Arians, refuted. Mystery of Divine Generation. Contrast between God's Word and man's word drawn out at length. Asterius betrayed into holding two Unoriginates; his inconsistency. Baptism how by the Son as well as by the Father. On the Baptism of heretics. Why Arian worse than other heresies. (HTML)
35. They then afresh, as if forgetting the proofs which have been already urged against them, ‘pierce themselves through[1 Timothy 6:10] ’ with these bonds of irreligion, and thus argue. But the word of truth confutes them as follows:—if they were disputing concerning any man, then let them exercise reason in this human way, both concerning His Word and His Son; but if of God who created man, no longer let them entertain human thoughts, but others which are above human nature. For such as he that begets, such of necessity is the offspring; and such as is the Word’s ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 36, footnote 15 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 593 (In-Text, Margin)
“The love of money is the root of all evil,”[1 Timothy 6:10] and the apostle speaks of covetousness as being idolatry. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.” The Lord will never allow a righteous soul to perish of hunger. “I have been young,” the psalmist says, “and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.” Elijah is fed by ministering ravens. The widow of Zarephath, who with her sons expected to die the same night, went without food herself that she ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 245, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Rusticus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3408 (In-Text, Margin)
All this means that I take you by the hand and do my best to impress certain facts upon your mind; that, like a skilled sailor who has been through many shipwrecks, I am anxious to caution an inexperienced passenger of the risks before him. For on one side is the Charybdis of covetousness, “the root of all evil;”[1 Timothy 6:10] and on the other lurks the Scylla of detraction girt with the railing hounds of which the apostle says: “if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” Sometimes, you must know, the quicksands of vice suck us down as we sail at ease through the calm water; and the desert of this world is not untenanted ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 382, footnote 4 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
On Pentecost. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4247 (In-Text, Margin)
... Counsel, of Fear (which are ascribed to Him) by Whom the Father is known and the Son is glorified; and by Whom alone He is known; one class, one service, worship, power, perfection, sanctification. Why make a long discourse of it? All that the Father hath the Son hath also, except the being Unbegotten; and all that the Son hath the Spirit hath also, except the Generation. And these two matters do not divide the Substance, as I understand it, but rather are divisions within the Substance.[1 Timothy 6:10]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 57, 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 XVII. What virtues ought to exist in him whom we consult. How Joseph and Paul were equipped with them. (HTML)
89. Therefore the man of good counsel says: “I have learnt in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.” For he knew that the root of all evils is the love of money,[1 Timothy 6:10] and therefore he was content with what he had, without seeking for what was another’s. Sufficient for me, he says, is what I have; whether I have little or much, to me it is much. It seems as though he wanted to state it as clearly as possible. He makes use of these words: “I am content,” he says, “with what I have.” That means: “I neither have want, nor have I too much. I have no want, for I seek nothing more. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 170, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1475 (In-Text, Margin)
55. What, then, shall I say of his economy, a kind of continence regarding possessions? For he who takes care of his own does not seek other men’s goods, nor is he puffed up by abundance who is contented with his own. For he did not wish to recover anything except his own, and that rather that he might not be cheated than that he might be richer. For he rightly called those who seek other men’s goods hawks of money. But if avarice be the root of all evils,[1 Timothy 6:10] he who does not seek for money has certainly stripped himself of vices.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 249, footnote 1 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)
Book VII. Of the Spirit of Covetousness. (HTML)
Chapter II. How dangerous is the disease of covetousness. (HTML)
But this disease coming upon us at a later period, and approaching the soul from with out, as it can be the more easily guarded against and resisted, so, if it is disregarded and once allowed to gain an entrance into the heart, is the more dangerous to every one, and with the greater difficulty expelled. For it becomes “a root of all evils,”[1 Timothy 6:10] and gives rise to a multiplicity of incitements to sin.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 250, footnote 1 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)
Book VII. Of the Spirit of Covetousness. (HTML)
Chapter VI. How difficult the evil of covetousness is to drive away when once it has been admitted. (HTML)
Wherefore let not this evil seem of no account or unimportant to anybody: for as it can easily be avoided, so if it has once got hold of any one, it scarcely suffers him to get at the remedies for curing it. For it is a regular nest of sins, and a “root of all kinds of evil,” and becomes a hopeless incitement to wickedness, as the Apostle says, “Covetousness,” i.e. the love of money, “is a root of all kinds of evil.”[1 Timothy 6:10]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 251, footnote 1 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)
Book VII. Of the Spirit of Covetousness. (HTML)
Chapter XI. That under pretence of keeping the purse women have to besought to dwell with them. (HTML)
... refuse to acquiesce in that saying of the Apostle, that “having food and clothing they should be content” with that which the thrift of the monastery supplied, but “wishing to become rich they fall into temptation and the snare of the devil, and many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money,” i.e. covetousness, “is a root of all kinds of evil, which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.”[1 Timothy 6:8-10]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 288, footnote 2 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)
Book XII. Of the Spirit of Pride. (HTML)
Chapter XXVII. A description of the faults which spring from the evil of pride. (HTML)
The mind then that is hardened by such feelings, and which begins with this miserable coldness is sure to go daily from bad to worse and to conclude its life with a more hideous end: and while it takes delight in its former desires, and is overcome, as the apostle says, by impious avarice (as he says of it “and covetousness, which is idolatry, or the worship of idols,” and again “the love of money,” says he, “is the root of all evils”[1 Timothy 6:10]) can never admit into the heart the true and unfeigned humility of Christ, while the man boasts himself of his high birth, or is puffed up by his position in the world (which he has forsaken in body but not in mind) or is proud of his wealth which he retains to his ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 341, footnote 5 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X. (HTML)
Conference V. Conference of Abbot Serapion. On the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)
Chapter VI. Of the manner of the temptation in which our Lord was attacked by the devil. (HTML)
... words “If Thou art the Son of God, cast Thyself down,” we can understand this of the feeling of pride, so that that earlier one, which Matthew places third, in which, as Luke the evangelist says, the devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and promised them to Him, may be taken of the feeling of covetousness, because after His victory over gluttony, he did not venture to tempt Him to fornication, but passed on to covetousness, which he knew to be the root of all evils,[1 Timothy 6:10] and when again vanquished in this, he did not dare attack Him with any of those sins which follow, which, as he knew full well, spring from this as a root and source; and so he passed on to the last passion; viz., pride, by which he knew that those ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 189, footnote 5 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Sermons. (HTML)
On the Lord's Ascension, II. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1136 (In-Text, Margin)
... has been banished? Against his plots every believer must keep careful watch that he may crush his foe on the side whence the attack is made. And there is no more powerful weapon, dearly-beloved, against the devil’s wiles than kindly mercy and bounteous charity, by which every sin is either escaped or vanquished. But this lofty power is not attained until that which is opposed to it be overthrown. And what so hostile to mercy and works of charity as avarice from the root of which spring all evils[1 Timothy 6:10]? And unless it be destroyed by lack of nourishment, there must needs grow in the ground of that heart in which this evil weed has taken root, the thorns and briars of vices rather than any seed of true goodness. Let us then, dearly-beloved, resist ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 189, footnote 6 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Sermons. (HTML)
On the Lord's Ascension, II. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1137 (In-Text, Margin)
... escaped or vanquished. But this lofty power is not attained until that which is opposed to it be overthrown. And what so hostile to mercy and works of charity as avarice from the root of which spring all evils? And unless it be destroyed by lack of nourishment, there must needs grow in the ground of that heart in which this evil weed has taken root, the thorns and briars of vices rather than any seed of true goodness. Let us then, dearly-beloved, resist this pestilential evil and “follow after charity[1 Timothy 6:10],” without which no virtue can flourish, that by this path of love whereby Christ came down to us, we too may mount up to Him, to Whom with God the Father and the Holy Spirit is honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.