Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Ecclesiasticus 27
There are 17 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 448, footnote 11 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Chapter III.—The Objects of Faith and Hope Perceived by the Mind Alone. (HTML)
For they heard, I think, that excellent wisdom, which says to us, “Watch your opportunity in the midst of the foolish, and in the midst of the intelligent continue.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:12] And again, “The wise will conceal sense.” For the many demand demonstration as a pledge of truth, not satisfied with the bare salvation by faith.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 472, footnote 5 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Mortality. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3499 (In-Text, Margin)
... of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be lifted up: for which thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me; and He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for strength is made perfect in weakness.” When, therefore, weakness and inefficiency and any destruction seize us, then our strength is made perfect; then our faith, if when tried it shall stand fast, is crowned; as it is written, “The furnace trieth the vessels of the potter, and the trial of tribulation just men.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:5] This, in short, is the difference between us and others who know not God, that in misfortune they complain and murmur, while adversity does not call us away from the truth of virtue and faith, but strengthens us by its suffering.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 501, footnote 10 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus. (HTML)
That afflictions and persecutions arise for the sake of our being proved. (HTML)
In Deuteronomy, “The Lord your God proveth you, that He may know if ye love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” And again, Solomon: “The furnace proveth the potter’s vessel, and righteous men the trial of tribulation.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:5] Paul also testifies similar things, and speaks, saying: “We glory in the hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 534, footnote 11 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
In Solomon: “The furnace proveth the vessels of the potter, and the trial of tribulation righteous men.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:5] Also in the fiftieth Psalm: “The sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God will not despise.” Also in the thirty-third Psalm: “God is nearest to them that are contrite in heart, and He will save the lowly in spirit.” Also in the same place: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but out of them all the Lord will deliver them.” Of this same matter in Job: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, naked also shall ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 624, footnote 3 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
The Decretals. (HTML)
The Epistles of Pope Pontianus. (HTML)
To All Bishops. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2792 (In-Text, Margin)
... stone in his neighbour’s way will fall thereon; and he that placeth a snare for another will perish therein. He that worketh mischief, it shall fall upon him, and he shall not know whence it cometh on him. Mockery and reproach are from the proud; and vengeance, as a lion, shall be in wait for them. They that rejoice at the fall of the righteous shall perish in the snare, and anguish shall consume them before they die. Anger and wrath are both abominations, and the sinful man shall have them both.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:17-30] “He that will be avenged shall find vengeance from the Lord, and he will surely keep his sins. Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he hath done unto thee, and then shall thy sins be forgiven thee when thou prayest. One man beareth hatred against ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 638, footnote 6 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
The Decretals. (HTML)
The Epistles of Pope Fabian. (HTML)
To Bishop Hilary. (HTML)
On the question of an accused bishop appealing to the seat of the apostles. (HTML)
... in his neighbour’s way shall stumble thereon; and he that setteth a trap for another shall perish in it. He that worketh mischief, it shall fall upon him; and he shall not know whence it cometh on him. Mockery and reproach are from the proud; and vengeance, as a lion, shall lie in wait for them. They that rejoice at the fall of the righteous shall be taken in the snare; and anguish shall consume them before they die. Wrath and fury are both abominations, and the sinful man shall have them both.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:17-30] “He that desireth to be avenged shall find vengeance from the Lord, and He will surely keep his sins in remembrance. Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he hath done thee; so shall thy sins also be forgiven thee when thou prayest. One man ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 477, footnote 7 (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 XIII. (HTML)
Spiritual Epileptics. (HTML)
... another time, into the water, when the king of all the dragons in the waters casts them down from the sphere where they appeared to breath freely, so that they come into the depths of the waves of the sea of human life. This interpretation of ours in regard to the lunatic will be supported by him who says in the Book of Wisdom with reference to the even temperament of the just man, “The discourse of a pious man is always wisdom,” but, in regard to what we have said, “The fool changes as the moon.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:11] And sometimes even in the case of such you may see impulses which might carry away in praise of them those who do not attend to their want of ballast, so that they would say that it was as full moon in their case, or almost full moon. And you might ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 305, footnote 8 (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 1761 (In-Text, Margin)
8. Now mark what is said in Proverbs: “The wise man is fixed like the sun; but the fool changes like the moon.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:12] And who is the wise that has no changes, but that Sun of Righteousness of whom it is said, “The Sun of righteousness has risen upon me,” and of which the wicked shall say, when mourning in the day of judgment that it has not risen upon them, “The light of righteousness hath not shone upon us, and the sun hath not risen upon us”? For that sun which is visible to the eye of sense, God makes to rise upon the evil and the good alike, as He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 474, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
What It is to Have Christ for a Foundation, and Who They are to Whom Salvation as by Fire is Promised. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1576 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Lord, how he may please the Lord.” Would you hear who he is that buildeth wood, hay, stubble? “But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,”—the day, no doubt, of tribulation—“because,” says he, “it shall be revealed by fire.” He calls tribulation fire, just as it is elsewhere said, “The furnace proves the vessels of the potter, and the trial of affliction righteous men.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:5] And “The fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide”—for a man’s care for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord, abides—“which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward,”—that is, he shall reap ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 259, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
The True Sense of the Passage I Cor. III. 11–15 About Those Who are Saved, Yet So as by Fire. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1223 (In-Text, Margin)
... adds: “The fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.” The fire then shall prove, not the work of one of them only, but of both. Now the trial of adversity is a kind of fire which is plainly spoken of in another place: “The furnace proveth the potter’s vessels: and the furnace of adversity just men.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:5] And this fire does in the course of this life act exactly in the way the apostle says. If it come into contact with two believers, one “caring for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord,” that is, building upon Christ the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 54, footnote 2 (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)
Scripture Precepts and Examples of Fortitude. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 116 (In-Text, Margin)
... heart, bore up against tyrant, and executioner, and pain, and sex, and natural affection? Had she not heard, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints?" Had she not heard, "A patient man is better than the mightiest?" Had she not heard, "All that is appointed thee receive; and in pain bear it; and in abasement keep thy patience: for in fire are gold and silver tried?" Had she not heard, "The fire tries the vessels of the potter, and for just men is the trial of tribulation?"[Ecclesiasticus 27:6] These she knew, and many other precepts of fortitude written in these books, which alone existed at that time, by the same divine Spirit who writes those in the New Testament.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 44, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
On the Latter Part of Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Contained in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter IX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 315 (In-Text, Margin)
32. Here, therefore, the prayer is not, that we should not be tempted, but that we should not be brought into temptation: as if, were it necessary that any one should be examined by fire, he should pray, not that he should not be touched by the fire, but that he should not be consumed. For “the furnace proveth the potter’s vessels, and the trial of tribulation righteous men.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:5] Joseph therefore was tempted with the allurement of debauchery, but he was not brought into temptation. Susanna was tempted, but she was not led or brought into temptation; and many others of both sexes: but Job most of all, in regard to whose admirable stedfastness in the Lord his God, those heretical ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 348, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3369 (In-Text, Margin)
... in the midst of the earth. “Thine own is the day.” Who are these? The spiritual. “And Thine own is the night.” Who are these? The carnal.…“Thou hast made perfect sun and moon:” the sun, spiritual men, the moon, carnal men. As yet carnal he is, may he not be forsaken, and may he too be made perfect. The sun, as it were a wise man: the moon, as it were an unwise man: Thou hast not however forsaken. For thus it is written, “A wise man endureth as the sun, but a foolish man as the moon is changed.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:11] What then? Because the sun endureth, that is, because the wise man endureth as the sun, a foolish man is changed like the moon, is one as yet carnal, as yet unwise, to be forsaken? And where is that which hath been said by the Apostle, “To the wise ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 251, footnote 7 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Rusticus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3495 (In-Text, Margin)
... “Man looketh upon the outward appearance but the Lord looketh upon the heart.” And in the proverbs Solomon tells us that as “the north wind driveth away rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.” It sometimes happens that an arrow when it is aimed at a hard object rebounds upon the bowman, wounding the would-be wounder, and thus, the words are fulfilled, “they were turned aside like a deceitful bow,” and in another passage: “whoso casteth a stone on high casteth it on his own head.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:25] So when a slanderer sees anger in the countenance of his hearer who will not hear him but stops his ears that he may not hear of blood, he becomes silent on the moment, his face turns pale, his lips stick fast, his mouth becomes parched. Wherefore ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 390, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4692 (In-Text, Margin)
... of God that pitieth and gives us help that we may be able to reach the goal: so in things wicked and sinful, the seeds within us give the impulse, and these are brought to maturity by the devil. When he sees that we are building upon the foundation of Christ, hay, wood, stubble, then he applies the match. Let us then build gold, silver, costly stones, and he will not venture to tempt us: although even thus there is not sure and safe possession. For the lion lurks in ambush to slay the innocent.[Ecclesiasticus 27:5] “Potters’ vessels are proved by the furnace, and just men by the trial of tribulation.” And in another place it is written: “My son, when thou comest to serve the Lord, prepare thyself for temptation.” Again, the same James says: “Be ye doers of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 88, footnote 2 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Hexæmeron. (HTML)
The creation of luminous bodies. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1597 (In-Text, Margin)
... subject to change, and to take care of the soul, for its good is unmoved. If you cannot behold without sadness the moon losing its splendour by gradual and imperceptible decrease, how much more distressed should you be at the sight of a soul, who, after having possessed virtue, loses its beauty by neglect, and does not remain constant to its affections, but is agitated and constantly changes because its purposes are unstable. What Scripture says is very true, “As for a fool he changeth as the moon.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:11]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 355, footnote 4 (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 VI. Conference of Abbot Theodore. On the Death of the Saints. (HTML)
Chapter IX. The case of Job who was tempted by the devil and of the Lord who was betrayed by Judas: and how prosperity as well as adversity is advantageous to a good man. (HTML)
... straightforward on the king’s highway, and does not swerve from that state of tranquillity as it were to the right hand, when joy overcomes him, nor let himself be driven so to speak to the left hand, when misfortunes overwhelm him, and sorrow holds sway. For “Much peace have they that love Thy law, and to them there is no stumbling block.” But of those who shift about according to the character and changes of the several chances which happen to them, we read: “But a fool will change like the moon.”[Ecclesiasticus 27:11] For just as it is said of men who are perfect and wise: “To them that love God all things work together for good,” so of those who are weak and foolish it is declared that “everything is against a foolish man,” for he gets no profit out of ...