Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Titus 1:15

There are 23 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 504, footnote 10 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXXI.—We should not hastily impute as crimes to the men of old time those actions which the Scripture has not condemned, but should rather seek in them types of things to come: an example of this in the incest committed by Lot. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4229 (In-Text, Margin)

... [before mentioned] was in the habit of instructing us, and saying: “With respect to those misdeeds for which the Scriptures themselves blame the patriarchs and prophets, we ought not to inveigh against them, nor become like Ham, who ridiculed the shame of his father, and so fell under a curse; but we should [rather] give thanks to God in their behalf, inasmuch as their sins have been forgiven them through the advent of our Lord; for He said that they gave thanks [for us], and gloried in our salvation.[Titus 1:15] With respect to those actions, again, on which the Scriptures pass no censure, but which are simply set down [as having occurred], we ought not to become the accusers [of those who committed them], for we are not more exact than God, nor can we be ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 402, footnote 9 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2670 (In-Text, Margin)

... est.” Quid autem adhæc dicunt, qui in legem invehuntur, et in matrimonium, quasi sit solum a lege concessum, non autem etiam in Novo Testamento? Quid ad has leges latas possunt dicere, qui sationem abhorrent et generationem? cure “episcopum” quoque, “qui domui recte præsit,” Ecclesiquoæ ducem constituat; domum autem Dominicam “imius mulieris” constituat conjugium. “Omnia” ergo dicit esse “munda mundis; pollutis autem et infidelibus nihil est mundum, sed polluta est eorum et mens, et conscientia.”[Titus 1:15] De ea autem voluptate, quæ est præter regulam: “Ne erretis,” inquit; “nec fornicatores, nec idololatræ, nec adulteri, nec molles, nec masculorum concubitores, neque avari, neque fures, neque ebnosi, neque maledici, nec raptores, regnum Dei ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 99, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

The Chaplet, or De Corona. (HTML)

Chapter X. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 411 (In-Text, Margin)

... living one as respects the demons to whom the religious rite belongs. “The idols of the heathen,” says David, “are silver and gold.” “They have eyes, and see not; a nose, and smell not; hands, and they will not handle.” By means of these organs, indeed, we are to enjoy flowers; but if he declares that those who make idols will be like them, they already are so who use anything after the style of idol adornings. “To the pure all things are pure: so, likewise, all things to the impure are impure;”[Titus 1:15] but nothing is more impure than idols. The substances are themselves as creatures of God without impurity, and in this their native state are free to the use of all; but the ministries to which in their use they are devoted, makes all the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 354, footnote 3 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)

To Fidus, on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2632 (In-Text, Margin)

4. For, with respect to what you say, that the aspect of an infant in the first days after its birth is not pure, so that any one of us would still shudder at kissing it, we do not think that this ought to be alleged as any impediment to heavenly grace. For it is written, “To the pure all things are pure.”[Titus 1:15] Nor ought any of us to shudder at that which God hath condescended to make. For although the infant is still fresh from its birth, yet it is not such that any one should shudder at kissing it in giving grace and in making peace; since in the kiss of an infant every one of us ought for his very religion’s sake, to consider the still recent ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 648, footnote 1 (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 5322 (In-Text, Margin)

... creation, but had been prohibited by the law. But now Christ, the end of the law, has come, disclosing all the obscurities of the law—all those things which antiquity had covered 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.”[Titus 1:15] 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.” Again, in another place: “The Spirit expressly says that in the last ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 441, 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)
Things Clean and Unclean According to the Law and the Gospel. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5437 (In-Text, Margin)

... when one of the Gentiles acts uprightly his uncircumcision shall be reckoned for circumcision, so those things which are thought to be pure shall be reckoned for impure in the case of him who does not use them fittingly, nor when one ought, nor as far as he ought, nor for what reason he ought. But as for the things which are called impure, “All things become pure to the pure,” for, “To them that are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, since both their minds and their conscience are defiled.”[Titus 1:15] And when these are defiled, they make all things whatsoever they touch defiled; as again on the contrary the pure mind and the pure conscience make all things pure, even though they may seem to be impure; for not from intemperance, nor from love of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 155, footnote 11 (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 903 (In-Text, Margin)

46. Thou hast taught me, good Father, that “unto the pure all things are pure;”[Titus 1:15] 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;” 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 ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 315, footnote 3 (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 1850 (In-Text, Margin)

... 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.” 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.”[Titus 1:15] Read the rest for yourself, and read these passages to others—to as many as you can—in order that, seeing that they have been called to liberty, they may not make void the grace of God toward them; only let them not use their liberty for an occasion ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 157, footnote 1 (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 Opinion Which Devises an Image of the Trinity in the Marriage of Male and Female, and in Their Offspring. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 748 (In-Text, Margin)

... that it is most easy to refute it. For I pass over such a thing, as to think the Holy Spirit to be the mother of the Son of God, and the wife of the Father; since perhaps it may be answered that these things offend us in carnal things, because we think of bodily conceptions and births. Although these very things themselves are most chastely thought of by the pure, to whom all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, of whom both the mind and conscience are polluted, nothing is pure;[Titus 1:15] so that even Christ, born of a virgin according to the flesh, is a stumbling-block to some of them. But yet in the case of those supreme spiritual things, after the likeness of which those kinds of the inferior creature also are made although most ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 261, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

The Enchiridion. (HTML)

The Wicked and the Unbelieving are Not Made Clean by the Giving of Alms, Except They Be Born Again. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1240 (In-Text, Margin)

... Pharisees who have not the faith of Christ all things are clean, if only they give alms in the way these men count almsgiving, even though they have never believed in Christ, nor been born again of water and of the Spirit? But the fact is, that all are unclean who are not made clean by the faith of Christ, according to the expression, “purifying their hearts by faith;” and that the apostle says, “Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”[Titus 1:15] How, then, could all things be clean to the Pharisees, even though they gave alms, if they were not believers? And how could they be believers if they were not willing to have faith in Christ, and to be born again of His grace? And yet what they ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 325, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

A Treatise on Faith and the Creed. (HTML)

Of the Son of God as Neither Made by the Father Nor Less Than the Father, and of His Incarnation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1568 (In-Text, Margin)

10. Neither should the thought of the woman’s womb impair this faith in us, to the effect that there should appear to be any necessity for rejecting such a generation of our Lord for the mere reason that worthless men consider it unworthy (sordidi sordidam putant). For most true are these sayings of an apostle, both that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men,” and that “to the pure all things are pure.”[Titus 1:15] Those, therefore, who entertain this opinion ought to ponder the fact that the rays of this sun, which indeed they do not praise as a creature of God, but adore as God, are diffused all the world over, through the noisomenesses of sewers and every kind of horrible thing, and that they ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 61, footnote 1 (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 143 (In-Text, Margin)

71. With all this, no one is pressed to endure hardships for which he is unfit; nothing is imposed on any one against his will; nor is he condemned by the rest because he con fesses himself too feeble to imitate them: for they bear in mind how strongly Scripture enjoins charity on all: they bear in mind "To the pure all things are pure,"[Titus 1:15] and "Not that which entereth into your mouth defileth you, but that which cometh out of it." Accordingly, all their endeavors are concerned not about the rejection of kinds of food as polluted, but about the subjugation of inordinate desire and the maintenance of brotherly love. They remember, "Meats for the belly, and the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 168, 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 avows his disbelief in the Old Testament and his disregard of its precepts, and accuses Catholics of inconsistency in neglecting its ordinances, while claiming to accept it as authoritative.  Augustin explains the Catholic view of the relation of the Old Testament to the New. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 349 (In-Text, Margin)

... that is, after the seventh day,—their carnal minds would be delivered from the darkness of earthly passions which rests on them; and rejoicing in the circumcision of the heart, they would not ridicule it as prefigured in the Old Testament by circumcision in the flesh, although they should not enforce this observance under the New Testament. But, as the apostle says, "To the pure all things are pure. But to the impure and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their mind and conscience are defiled."[Titus 1:15] So these people, who are so pure in their own eyes, that they regard, or pretend to regard, as impure these members of their bodies, are so defiled with unbelief and error, that, while they abhor the circumcision of the flesh,—which the apostle ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 170, 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 avows his disbelief in the Old Testament and his disregard of its precepts, and accuses Catholics of inconsistency in neglecting its ordinances, while claiming to accept it as authoritative.  Augustin explains the Catholic view of the relation of the Old Testament to the New. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 356 (In-Text, Margin)

... liberation of their souls. Happy vegetables, that, torn up with the hand, cut with knives, tortured in fire, ground by teeth, yet reach alive the altars of your intestines! Unhappy sheep and oxen, that are not so tenacious of life, and therefore are refused entrance into your bodies! Such is the absurdity of your notions. And you persist in making out an opposition in us to the Old Testament, because we consider no flesh unclean: according to the opinion of the apostle, "To the pure all things are pure;"[Titus 1:15] and according to the saying of our Lord Himself, "Not that which goeth into your mouth defileth you, but that which cometh out." This was not said to the crowd only, as your Adimantus, whom Faustus, in his attack on the Old Testament, praises as ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 170, footnote 6 (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 avows his disbelief in the Old Testament and his disregard of its precepts, and accuses Catholics of inconsistency in neglecting its ordinances, while claiming to accept it as authoritative.  Augustin explains the Catholic view of the relation of the Old Testament to the New. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 358 (In-Text, Margin)

... is false, why does this great teacher Adimantus quote it against the Old Testament? If it is true, why, in spite of this, do you believe that eating any flesh will defile you? It is true, if you choose this explanation, that the apostle does not say that all things are pure to heretics, but, "to the pure all things are pure." The apostle also goes on to explain why all things are not pure to heretics: "To the impure and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their mind and conscience are defiled."[Titus 1:15] So to the Manichæans there is absolutely nothing pure; for they hold that the very substance or nature of God not only may be, but has actually been defiled, and so defiled that it can never be wholly restored and purified. What do they mean when ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 233, 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 willing to believe not only that the Jewish but that all Gentile prophets wrote of Christ, if it should be proved; but he would none the less insist upon rejecting their superstitions.  Augustin maintains that all Moses wrote is of Christ, and that his writings must be either accepted or rejected as a whole. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 631 (In-Text, Margin)

... because he used locusts and honey, while the other is said to eat simply because he used bread and vegetables. But whatever may be thought of the eating, certainly no one could be called a wine-bibber unless he used wine. Why then do you call wine unclean? It is not in order to subdue the body by abstinence that you prohibit these things, but because they are unclean, for you say that they are the poisonous filth of the race of darkness; whereas the apostle says, "To the pure all things are pure."[Titus 1:15] Christ, according to this doctrine, taught that all food was alike, but forbade His disciples to use what the Manichæans call unclean. Where do you find this prohibition? You are not afraid to deceive men by falsehood; but in God’s righteous ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 320, 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 seeks to bring into ridicule the orthodox claim to believe in the infinity of God by caricaturing the anthropomorphic representations of the Old Testament.  Augustin expresses his despair of being able to induce the Manichæans to adopt right views of the infinitude of God so long as they continue to regard the soul and God as extended in space. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 998 (In-Text, Margin)

... in several places in answer to ignorant reproaches. The Manichæans would find nothing to ridicule in this sign if they would view it as appointed by God, to be an appropriate symbol of the putting off of the flesh. They ought thus to consider the rite with a Christian instead of a heretical mind; as it is written, "To the pure all things are pure." But, considering the truth of the following words, "To the unclean and unbelieving nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled,"[Titus 1:15] we must remind our witty opponents, that if circumcision is indecent, as they say it is, they should rather weep than laugh at it; for their god is exposed to restraint and contamination in conjunction both with the skin which is cut and with the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 561, footnote 3 (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 52 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2138 (In-Text, Margin)

... man the sacrifice that is offered partakes of the character of him who approaches to offer it, or approaches to partake of it; and that those eat of the sacrifices of such men, who in approaching to them partake of the character of those who offer them. Therefore, if a bad man offer sacrifice to God, and a good man receive it at his hands, the sacrifice is to each man of such character as he himself has shown himself to be, since we find it also written that "unto the pure all things are pure."[Titus 1:15] In accordance with this true and catholic judgment, you too are free from pollution by the sacrifice of Optatus, if you disapproved of his deeds. For certainly his bread was the bread of mourners, seeing that all Africa was mourning under his ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 2, page 247, footnote 5 (Image)

Socrates: Church History from A.D. 305-438; Sozomenus: Church History from A.D. 323-425

The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

Account of St. Spyridon: His Modesty and Steadfastness. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1097 (In-Text, Margin)

... provide such things at the time of the fast, Spyridon first prayed and asked forgiveness, and bade her to cook some salt pork which chanced to be in the house. When it was prepared, he sat down to table with the stranger, partook of the meat, and told him to follow his example. But the stranger declining, under the plea of being a Christian, he said to him, “It is for that very reason that you ought not to decline partaking of the meat; for the Divine word shows that to the pure all things are pure.”[Titus 1:15] Such are the details which I had to relate concerning Spyridon.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 556, 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)

Personal Letters. (HTML)
Letter to Amun. Written before 354 A.D. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4585 (In-Text, Margin)

... being saved,’ as the Apostle says. But since the devil’s darts are varied and subtle, and he contrives to trouble those who are of simpler mind, and tries to hinder the ordinary exercises of the brethren, scattering secretly among them thoughts of uncleanness and defilement; come let us briefly dispel the error of the evil one by the grace of the Saviour, and confirm the mind of the simple. For ‘to the pure all things are pure,’ but both the conscience and all that belongs to the unclean are defiled[Titus 1:15]. I marvel also at the craft of the devil, in that, although he is corruption and mischief itself, he suggests thoughts under the show of purity; but with the result of a snare rather than a test. For with the object, as I said before, of distracting ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 27, footnote 3 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Eustochium. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 429 (In-Text, Margin)

... tripping feet and heads in the air. Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. 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;’[Titus 1:15] 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?” And when they wish to appear agreeable and entertaining they first drench ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 35, footnote 9 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Eustochium. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 574 (In-Text, Margin)

... lisp, and purposely clip their words, because they fancy that to 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,”[Titus 1:15] and “nothing is to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving,” 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 12, page 157, footnote 4 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Sermons. (HTML)

On Lent, IV. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 929 (In-Text, Margin)

... Maker of the universe is one, “Who made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them.” Of which whatever is granted to man for food and drink, is holy and clean after its kind. But if it is taken with immoderate greed, it is the excess that disgraces the eaters and drinkers, not the nature of the food or drink that defiles them. “For all things,” as the Apostle says, “are clean to the clean. But to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean, but their mind and conscience is defiled[Titus 1:15].”

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs