Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Revelation 6:9

There are 13 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 265, footnote 4 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Instructor (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
Chapter XI.—On Clothes. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1530 (In-Text, Margin)

... inflaming them to senseless blindness. But for those who are white and unstained within, it is most suitable to use white and simple garments. Clearly and plainly, therefore, Daniel the prophet says, “Thrones were set, and upon them sat one like the Ancient of days, and His vesture was white as snow.” The Apocalypse says also that the Lord Himself appeared wearing such a robe. It says also, “I saw the souls of those that had witnessed, beneath the altar, and there was given to each a white robe.”[Revelation 6:9] And if it were necessary to seek for any other colour, the natural colour of truth should suffice. But garments which are like flowers are to be abandoned to Bacchic fooleries, and to those of the rites of initiation, along with purple and silver ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 188, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

A Treatise on the Soul. (HTML)

Other Platonist Arguments Considered. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1539 (In-Text, Margin)

... with an equally strong power (of vision). The sun is indeed a bodily substance, because it is (composed of) fire; the object, however, which the eaglet at once admits the existence of, the owl denies, without any prejudice, nevertheless, to the testimony of the eagle. There is the selfsame difference in respect of the soul’s corporeality, which is (perhaps) invisible to the flesh, but perfectly visible to the spirit. Thus John, being “in the Spirit” of God, beheld plainly the souls of the martyrs.[Revelation 6:9]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 231, footnote 11 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

A Treatise on the Soul. (HTML)

The Christian Idea of the Position of Hades; The Blessedness of Paradise Immediately After Death. The Privilege of the Martyrs. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1808 (In-Text, Margin)

... When the world, indeed, shall pass away, then the kingdom of heaven shall be opened. Shall we then have to sleep high up in ether, with the boy-loving worthies of Plato; or in the air with Arius; or around the moon with the Endymions of the Stoics? No, but in Paradise, you tell me, whither already the patriarchs and prophets have removed from Hades in the retinue of the Lord’s resurrection. How is it, then, that the region of Paradise, which as revealed to John in the Spirit lay under the altar,[Revelation 6:9] displays no other souls as in it besides the souls of the martyrs? How is it that the most heroic martyr Perpetua on the day of her passion saw only her fellow-martyrs there, in the revelation which she received of Paradise, if it were not that the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 563, footnote 4 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)

St. John, in the Apocalypse, Equally Explicit in Asserting the Same Great Doctrine. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7455 (In-Text, Margin)

In the Revelation of John, again, the order of these times is spread out to view, which “the souls of the martyrs” are taught to wait for beneath the altar, whilst they earnestly pray to be avenged and judged:[Revelation 6:9-10] (taught, I say, to wait), in order that the world may first drink to the dregs the plagues that await it out of the vials of the angels, and that the city of fornication may receive from the ten kings its deserved doom, and that the beast Antichrist with his false prophet may wage war on the Church of God; and that, after the casting of the devil into the bottomless pit for a while, the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 573, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)

Christ, by Raising the Dead, Attested in a Practical Way the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7534 (In-Text, Margin)

... impossible to have shown the resurrection of an invisible soul except by the resuscitation of a visible substance. They have but a poor knowledge of God, who suppose Him to be only capable of doing what comes within the compass of their own thoughts; and after all, they cannot but know full well what His capability has ever been, if they only make acquaintance with the writings of John. For unquestionably he, who has exhibited to our sight the martyrs’ hitherto disembodied souls resting under the altar,[Revelation 6:9-11] was quite able to display them before our eyes rising without a body of flesh. I, however, for my part prefer (believing) that it is impossible for God to practise deception (weak as He only could be in respect of artifice), from any fear of seeming ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 646, footnote 7 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Scorpiace. (HTML)

Chapter XII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8301 (In-Text, Margin)

... God a pillar with the inscription on it of the name of God and of the Lord, and of the heavenly Jerusalem; now a sitting with the Lord on His throne,—which once was persistently refused to the sons of Zebedee. Who, pray, are these so blessed conquerors, but martyrs in the strict sense of the word? For indeed theirs are the victories whose also are the fights; theirs, however, are the fights whose also is the blood. But the souls of the martyrs both peacefully rest in the meantime under the altar,[Revelation 6:9] and support their patience by the assured hope of revenge; and, clothed in their robes, wear the dazzling halo of brightness, until others also may fully share in their glory. For yet again a countless throng are revealed, clothed in white and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 159, footnote 13 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

Appendix (HTML)

Five Books in Reply to Marcion. (HTML)
Of Marcion's Antitheses. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1597 (In-Text, Margin)

Upon their slaughter.[Revelation 6:9-10] There, meantime, is rest.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 490, footnote 6 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

On the Advantage of Patience. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3632 (In-Text, Margin)

... seal, I saw under the altar of God the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for their testimony; and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And there were given to them each white robes; and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until the number of their fellow-servants and brethren is fulfilled, who afterwards shall be slain after their example.”[Revelation 6:9-11]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 538, footnote 12 (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 the benefits of martyrdom. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 4298 (In-Text, Margin)

... the souls of them that were slain on account of the word of God and His testimony. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And unto every one of them were given white robes; and it was said to them, that they should rest still for a short time, until the number of their fellow-servants, and of their brethren, should be fulfilled, and they who shall afterwards be slain, after their example.”[Revelation 6:9-11] Also in the same place: “After these things I saw a great crowd, which no one among them could number, from every nation, and from every tribe, and from every people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb; and they were clothed ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 587, footnote 2 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

Treatises Attributed to Cyprian on Questionable Authority. (HTML)

On the Glory of Martyrdom. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4867 (In-Text, Margin)

30. Therefore, beloved brethren, although this is altogether of the Lord’s promise and gift, and although it is given from on high, and is not received except by His will, and moreover, can neither be expressed in words nor described by speech, nor can be satisfied by any kind of powers of eloquence, still such will be your benevolence, such will be your charity and love, as to be mindful of me when the Lord shall begin to glorify martyrdom in your experience. That holy altar[Revelation 6:9] encloses you within itself, that great dwelling-place of the venerable Name encloses you within itself, as if in the folds of a heart’s embrace: the powers of the everlasting age sustain you, and that by which you shall ever reign and shall ever conquer. O ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 368, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin. (HTML)

Book IV. (HTML)

Prophetic Visions. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2502 (In-Text, Margin)

... not real bodies, though they seem to be such, are all those appearances which you read of in the Holy Scriptures in the visions even of the prophets, without, however, understanding them; by which are also signified the things which come to pass in all time—present, past, and future. You make mistakes about these, not because they are in themselves deceptive, but because you do not accept them as they ought to be taken. For in the same apocalyptic vision where “the souls of the martyrs” are seen,[Revelation 6:9] there is also beheld “a lamb as it were slain, having seven horns:” there are also horses and other animals figuratively described with all consistency; and lastly, there were the stars falling, and the earth rolled up like a book; nor does the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 384, footnote 11 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3723 (In-Text, Margin)

... himself.[Revelation 6:9] that they may be avenged in the judgment of God. Where then is the, “Love your enemies, do good unto them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute you”? Where is also the, “Not rendering evil for evil, nor cursing for cursing:” and, “unto no ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 301, footnote 13 (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 XIV. Of the continuance of the soul. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1117 (In-Text, Margin)

... herself to pleasure is dead while she liveth.” There are then many who while still living in this body are dead, and lying in the grave cannot praise God; and on the contrary there are many who though they are dead in the body yet bless God in the spirit, and praise Him, according to this: “O ye spirits and souls of the righteous, bless ye the Lord:” and “every spirit shall praise the Lord.” And in the Apocalypse the souls of them that are slain are not only said to praise God but to address Him also.[Revelation 6:9-10] In the gospel too the Lord says with still greater clearness to the Sadducees: “Have ye not read that which was spoken by God, when He said to you: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead but ...

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