Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
2 Timothy 2:14
There are 8 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 311, footnote 4 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter X.—To Act Well of Greater Consequence Than to Speak Well. (HTML)
... who desire to be saved, is the best thing, and not to compose paltry sentences like gewgaws. “And if,” says the Pythagorean in the Politicus of Plato, “you guard against solicitude about terms, you will be richer in wisdom against old age.” And in the Theœtetus you will find again, “And carelessness about names, and expressions, and the want of nice scrutiny, is not vulgar and illiberal for the most part, but rather the reverse of this, and is sometimes necessary.” This the Scripture[2 Timothy 2:14] has expressed with the greatest possible brevity, when it said, “Be not occupied much about words.” For expression is like the dress on the body. The matter is the flesh and sinews. We must not therefore care more for the dress than the safety of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 311, footnote 9 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter X.—To Act Well of Greater Consequence Than to Speak Well. (HTML)
... only one hearer is found for him. You may hear therefore Pindar the Bœotian, who writes, “Divulge not before all the ancient speech. The way of silence is sometimes the surest. And the mightiest word is a spur to the fight.” Accordingly, the blessed apostle very appropriately and urgently exhorts us “not to strive about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers, but to shun profane and vain babblings, for they increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker.”[2 Timothy 2:14]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 261, footnote 12 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Prescription Against Heretics. (HTML)
Heretics Not Being Christians, But Rather Perverters of Christ's Teaching, May Not Claim the Christian Scriptures. These are a Deposit, Committed to and Carefully Kept by the Church. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2249 (In-Text, Margin)
... fountain? By what power, Apelles, are you removing my landmarks? This is my property. Why are you, the rest, sowing and feeding here at your own pleasure? This (I say) is my property. I have long possessed it; I possessed it before you. I hold sure title-deeds from the original owners themselves, to whom the estate belonged. I am the heir of the apostles. Just as they carefully prepared their will and testament, and committed it to a trust, and adjured (the trustees to be faithful to their charge),[2 Timothy 2:14] even so do I hold it. As for you, they have, it is certain, always held you as disinherited, and rejected you as strangers—as enemies. But on what ground are heretics strangers and enemies to the apostles, if it be not from the difference of their ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 182, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He continues his explanation of the first Chapter of Genesis according to the Septuagint, and by its assistance he argues, especially, concerning the double heaven, and the formless matter out of which the whole world may have been created; afterwards of the interpretations of others not disallowed, and sets forth at great length the sense of the Holy Scripture. (HTML)
What Error is Harmless in Sacred Scripture. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1133 (In-Text, Margin)
27. All which things having been heard and considered, I am unwilling to contend about words, for that is profitable to nothing but to the subverting of the hearers.[2 Timothy 2:14] But the law is good to edify, if a man use it lawfully; for the end of it “is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” And well did our Master know, upon which two commandments He hung all the Law and the Prophets. And what doth it hinder me, O my God, Thou light of my eyes in secret, while ardently confessing these things,—since by these words many things may be understood, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 596, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
Truth is More Important Than Expression. What is Meant by Strife About Words. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2016 (In-Text, Margin)
... his very speech even he prefers to please by matter rather than by words; thinks that a thing is well said in proportion as it is true in fact, and that a teacher should govern his words, not let the words govern him. This is what the apostle says: “Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.” To the same effect also is what he says to Timothy: “Charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.”[2 Timothy 2:14] Now this does not mean that, when adversaries oppose the truth, we are to say nothing in defence of the truth. For where, then, would be what he says when he is describing the sort of man a bishop ought to be: “that he may be able by sound doctrine ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 312, footnote 5 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)
To the Soldiers. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2010 (In-Text, Margin)
Repeat these passages to your opponents, and if they are convinced, praise the good Lord for that, by means of your zeal, He has benefited them. If they remain unconvinced, enter into no discussion with them about doctrines, for it is forbidden by the divine apostle to “strive about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers.”[2 Timothy 2:14] But do you keep inviolate the teaching of the Gospels, that in the day of His appearing you may bring to the righteous Judge what has been entrusted to you with its due interest, and may hear the longed for words “Well done good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee ruler over many ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 579, 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)
Personal Letters. (HTML)
To John and Antiochus. (HTML)
I was glad to receive your letter just now, the more so as you wrote from Jerusalem. I thank you for informing me about the brethren that there assembled, and about those who wish, on account of disputed points, to disturb the simple. But about these things let the Apostle charge them not to give heed to those who contend about words, and seek nothing else than to tell and hear some new thing[2 Timothy 2:14]. But do you, having your foundation sure, even Jesus Christ our Lord, and the confession of the fathers concerning the faith, avoid those who wish to say anything more or less than that, and rather aim at the profit of the brethren, that they may fear God and keep His commandments, in order that both ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 106, footnote 1 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Letters. (HTML)
To Leo Augustus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 606 (In-Text, Margin)
... the faithful have a just claim to this result, that all the fulness of the Church shall remain secure in the completeness of her unity, and that nothing whatever of what has been well laid down shall be reconsidered, because, after constitutions have been legitimately framed under Divine guidance, to wish still to wrangle is the sign not of a peace-making but of a rebellious spirit, as says the Apostle, “for to strive with words is profitable for nothing, but for the subverting of them that hear[2 Timothy 2:14].”