Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Revelation 6

There are 32 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 493, footnote 5 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXI.—Abraham’s faith was identical with ours; this faith was prefigured by the words and actions of the old patriarchs. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4119 (In-Text, Margin)

... with regard to the dispensations. Thus, in the first place, at his birth, since he laid hold on his brother’s heel, he was called Jacob, that is, the supplanter —one who holds, but is not held; binding the feet, but not being bound; striving and conquering; grasping in his hand his adversary’s heel, that is, victory. For to this end was the Lord born, the type of whose birth he set forth beforehand, of whom also John says in the Apocalypse: “He went forth conquering, that He should conquer.”[Revelation 6:2] In the next place, [Jacob] received the rights of the first-born, when his brother looked on them with contempt; even as also the younger nation received Him, Christ, the first-begotten, when the elder nation rejected Him, saying, “We have no king ...

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 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 6:11] 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 103, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

The Chaplet, or De Corona. (HTML)

Chapter XV. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 443 (In-Text, Margin)

Keep for God His own property untainted; He will crown it if He choose. Nay, then, He does even choose. He calls us to it. To him who conquers He says, “I will give a crown of life.” Be you, too, faithful unto death, and fight you, too, the good fight, whose crown the apostle feels so justly confident has been laid up for him. The angel[Revelation 6:2] also, as he goes forth on a white horse, conquering and to conquer, receives a crown of victory; and another is adorned with an encircling rainbow (as it were in its fair colours)—a celestial meadow. In like manner, the elders sit crowned around, crowned too with a crown of gold, and the Son of Man Himself flashes out ...

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 496, footnote 23 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Against Hermogenes. (HTML)

A Presumption that All Things Were Created by God Out of Nothing Afforded by the Ultimate Reduction of All Things to Nothing. Scriptures Proving This Reduction Vindicated from Hermogenes' Charge of Being Merely Figurative. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6490 (In-Text, Margin)

Besides, the belief that everything was made from nothing will be impressed upon us by that ultimate dispensation of God which will bring back all things to nothing. For “the very heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll;”[Revelation 6:14] nay, it shall come to nothing along with the earth itself, with which it was made in the beginning. “Heaven and earth shall pass away,” says He. “The first heaven and the first earth passed away,” “and there was found no place for them,” because, of course, that which comes to an end loses locality. In like manner David says, “The heavens, the works of Thine hands, shall themselves ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 497, footnote 3 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Against Hermogenes. (HTML)

A Presumption that All Things Were Created by God Out of Nothing Afforded by the Ultimate Reduction of All Things to Nothing. Scriptures Proving This Reduction Vindicated from Hermogenes' Charge of Being Merely Figurative. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6496 (In-Text, Margin)

... passed away,” “and there was found no place for them,” because, of course, that which comes to an end loses locality. In like manner David says, “The heavens, the works of Thine hands, shall themselves perish. For even as a vesture shall He change them, and they shall be changed.” Now to be changed is to fall from that primitive state which they lose whilst undergoing the change. “And the stars too shall fall from heaven, even as a fig-tree casteth her green figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind.”[Revelation 6:13] “The mountains shall melt like wax at the presence of the Lord;” that is, “when He riseth to shake terribly the earth.” “But I will dry up the pools;” and “they shall seek water, and they shall find none.” Even “the sea shall be no more.” Now if any ...

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 3, page 683, footnote 7 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Ethical. (HTML)

On Prayer. (HTML)

The Fourth Clause. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8794 (In-Text, Margin)

... kingdom of God, which we pray may arrive, tends unto the consummation of the age? Our wish is, that our reign be hastened, not our servitude protracted. Even if it had not been prescribed in the Prayer that we should ask for the advent of the kingdom, we should, unbidden, have sent forth that cry, hastening toward the realization of our hope. The souls of the martyrs beneath the altar cry in jealousy unto the Lord, “How long, Lord, dost Thou not avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?”[Revelation 6:10] for, of course, their avenging is regulated by the end of the age. Nay, Lord, Thy kingdom come with all speed,—the prayer of Christians the confusion of the heathen, the exultation of angels, for the sake of which we suffer, nay, rather, for the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 98, footnote 4 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Modesty. (HTML)

From Apostolic Teaching Tertullian Turns to that of Companions of the Apostles, and of the Law. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 961 (In-Text, Margin)

... the house to be plastered with other mortar. For, in coming to the High Priest of the Father—Christ—all impediments must first be taken away, in the space of a week, that the house which remains, the flesh and the soul, may be clean; and when the Word of God has entered it, and has found “stains of red and green,” forthwith must the deadly and sanguinary passions “be extracted” and “cast away” out of doors—for the Apocalypse withal has set “death” upon a “green horse,” but a “warrior” upon a “red”[Revelation 6:4] —and in their stead must be under-strewn stones polished and apt for conjunction, and firm,—such as are made (by God) into (sons) of Abraham, —that thus the man may be fit for God. But if, after the recovery and reformation, the priest again ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 98, footnote 4 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Modesty. (HTML)

From Apostolic Teaching Tertullian Turns to that of Companions of the Apostles, and of the Law. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 961 (In-Text, Margin)

... the house to be plastered with other mortar. For, in coming to the High Priest of the Father—Christ—all impediments must first be taken away, in the space of a week, that the house which remains, the flesh and the soul, may be clean; and when the Word of God has entered it, and has found “stains of red and green,” forthwith must the deadly and sanguinary passions “be extracted” and “cast away” out of doors—for the Apocalypse withal has set “death” upon a “green horse,” but a “warrior” upon a “red”[Revelation 6:8] —and in their stead must be under-strewn stones polished and apt for conjunction, and firm,—such as are made (by God) into (sons) of Abraham, —that thus the man may be fit for God. But if, after the recovery and reformation, the priest again ...

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 251, footnote 18 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

Appendix to the Works of Hippolytus. Containing Dubious and Spurious Pieces. (HTML)

A discourse by the most blessed Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, on the end of the world, and on Antichrist, and on the second coming of our lord Jesus Christ. (HTML)
Section XXXVII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1986 (In-Text, Margin)

... twinkling of an eye; and they shall stand upon the face of the earth, waiting for the coming of the righteous and terrible Judge, in fear and trembling unutterable. For the river of fire shall come forth in fury like an angry sea, and shall burn up mountains and hills, and shall make the sea vanish, and shall dissolve the atmosphere with its heat like wax. The stars of heaven shall fall, the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. The heaven shall be rolled together like a scroll:[Revelation 6:14] the whole earth shall be burnt up by reason of the deeds done in it, which men did corruptly, in fornications, in adulteries, and in lies and uncleanness, and in idolatries, and in murders, and in battles. For there shall be the new heaven and the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 442, footnote 6 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

On the Lapsed. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3254 (In-Text, Margin)

... all, or dares to rescind the Lord’s precepts, not only does it in no respect advantage the lapsed, but it does them harm. Not to have observed His judgment is to have provoked His wrath, and to think that the mercy of God must not first of all be entreated, and, despising the Lord, to presume on His power. Under the altar of God the souls of the slain martyrs cry with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?”[Revelation 6:10] And they are bidden to rest, and still to keep patience. And does any one think that, in opposition to the Judge, a man can become of avail for the general remission and pardon of sins, or that he can shield others before he himself is vindicated? ...

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 ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 663, footnote 2 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Appendix. (HTML)

Anonymous Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian. (HTML)

A Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian by an Anonymous Bishop. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5416 (In-Text, Margin)

... and every mountain and island were moved from their places. And the kings of the earth, and all the great men, and the tribunes, and the rich men, and the strong men, and every slave, and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the caverns of the mountains; saying to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall upon us, and hide us from the sight of the Father that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: because the day of destruction cometh; and who shall be able to stand?”[Revelation 6:12-17] Also in the same Apocalypse John says that this too was revealed to him. “I saw,” says he, “a great throne, and one in white who sat upon it, from whose face the heaven and the earth fled away; and their place was not found. And I saw the dead, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 469, footnote 4 (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 XII. (HTML)
Scriptural References to Death. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5776 (In-Text, Margin)

... “They shall not taste of death,” but in other writers different things are written concerning death, it may not be out of place to bring forward and examine these passages along with the “taste.” In the Psalms, then, it is said, “What man is he that shall live and not see death?” And again, in another place, “Let death come upon them and let them go down into Hades alive;” but in one of the prophets, “Death becoming mighty has swallowed them up;” and in the Apocalypse, “Death and Hades follow some.”[Revelation 6:10] Now in these passages it appears to me that it is one thing to taste of death, but another thing to see death, and another thing for it to come upon some, and that a fourth thing, different from the aforesaid, is signified by the words, “Death ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 195, footnote 23 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Gen. I.) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God. (HTML)

Allegorical Explanation of the Firmament and Upper Works, Ver. 6. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1262 (In-Text, Margin)

16. Or who but Thou, our God, made for us that firmament of authority over us in Thy divine Scripture? As it is said, For heaven shall be folded up like a scroll;[Revelation 6:14] and now it is extended over us like a skin. For Thy divine Scripture is of more sublime authority, since those mortals through whom Thou didst dispense it unto us underwent mortality. And Thou knowest, O Lord, Thou knowest, how Thou with skins didst clothe men when by sin they became mortal. Whence as a skin hast Thou stretched out the firmament of Thy Book; that is to say, Thy harmonious words, which by the ...

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 5, page 368, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

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

Book IV. (HTML)

Prophetic Visions. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2504 (In-Text, Margin)

... 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, 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;[Revelation 6] and lastly, there were the stars falling, and the earth rolled up like a book; nor does the world, in spite of all, then actually collapse. If therefore we understand all these things wisely, although we say they are true apparitions, yet we do not ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 368, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

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

Book IV. (HTML)

Prophetic Visions. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2505 (In-Text, Margin)

... 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, 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;[Revelation 6:13-14] nor does the world, in spite of all, then actually collapse. If therefore we understand all these things wisely, although we say they are true apparitions, yet we do not call them real bodies.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 32, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)

Explanation of the First Part of the Sermon Delivered by Our Lord on the Mount, as Contained in the Fifth Chapter of Matthew. (HTML)

Chapter XXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 228 (In-Text, Margin)

... they might be turned from their error (for in this way prayer is offered rather for them), but that final condemnation might come upon them: not as it was offered against the betrayer of our Lord by the prophet; for that, as has been said, was a prediction of things to come, not a wish for punishment: nor as it was offered by the apostle against Alexander; for respecting that also enough has been already said: but as we read in the Apocalypse of John of the martyrs praying that they may be avenged;[Revelation 6:10] while the well-known first martyr prayed that those who stoned him should be pardoned.

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 1, Volume 8, page 455, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XCII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4339 (In-Text, Margin)

... iniquity, and then thou shalt see that when he was flattering thee, he was thy enemy; but thou hadst not yet knocked, not to raise in his heart what was not there, but that what was there might break out. “Mine eye also hath looked upon mine enemies: and mine ear shall hear his desire of the wicked that rise up against me.” When? In my old age. What is, in old age? In the last times. And what shall our ear hear? Standing on the right hand, we shall hear what shall be said to them that are on the left.[Revelation 6:10]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 574, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXIX (HTML)

Caph. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5250 (In-Text, Margin)

84. “How many are the days of Thy servant? when wilt Thou be avenged of them that persecute me?” (ver. 84). In the Apocalypse,[Revelation 6:10-11] these are the words of the Martyrs, and long-suffering is enjoined them until the number of their brethren be fulfilled. The body of Christ then is asking concerning its days, what they are to be in this world, and that no man might suppose that the Church would cease to exist here before the end of the world came, and that some time would elapse in this world, while the Church was now no more on earth; therefore, when he had ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 419, footnote 4 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

Against Vigilantius. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4958 (In-Text, Margin)

... believed respecting those who are with the Lamb. And while the devil and the demons wander through the whole world, and with only too great speed present themselves everywhere; are martyrs, after the shedding of their blood, to be kept out of sight shut up in a coffin, from whence they cannot escape? You say, in your pamphlet, that so long as we are alive we can pray for one another; but once we die, the prayer of no person for another can be heard, and all the more because the martyrs, though they[Revelation 6:10] cry for the avenging of their blood, have never been able to obtain their request. If Apostles and martyrs while still in the body can pray for others, when they ought still to be anxious for themselves, how much more must they do so when once they ...

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 ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs