Eschatology in the early church

Didache 9.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · A prayer that the church be gathered into one, like grain into bread.
Didache 10.5Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · A prayer for the church to be kept, perfected, and gathered into God's kingdom.
Didache 10.6Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · A closing prayer for Christ's coming: “Maranatha.”
Didache 16.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Be ready, for the Lord's coming is unknown.
Didache 16.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Meet often; faith must endure to the end.
Didache 16.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · In the last days false prophets will multiply and love will turn to hate.
Didache 16.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The world-deceiver will appear as a son of God, doing signs and wonders.
Didache 16.5Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Many will fall away in the final testing, but those who endure will be saved.
Didache 16.6Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The signs of the end: an opening in heaven, a trumpet, and the resurrection.
Didache 16.7Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The resurrection is of the saints, who come with the Lord.
Didache 16.8Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The world will see the Lord coming on the clouds.
1 Clement 23.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Doubters complain that God's promises have not come true.
1 Clement 23.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Like fruit on a vine, God's promises ripen in their time.
1 Clement 23.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The Lord will come suddenly.
1 Clement 24.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Christ's resurrection is the firstfruit of ours.
1 Clement 24.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Nature shows resurrection.
1 Clement 24.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Day and night picture resurrection.
1 Clement 24.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Sowing pictures resurrection.
1 Clement 24.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Seeds decay and rise to bear fruit.
1 Clement 25.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The sign of the phoenix.
1 Clement 25.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The phoenix dies in a nest of spices.
1 Clement 25.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A new phoenix carries its parent's bones to Egypt.
1 Clement 25.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · It lays them on the altar of the sun.
1 Clement 25.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The priests confirm its five-hundred-year cycle.
1 Clement 26.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · If God shows resurrection through a bird, he will surely raise the faithful.
1 Clement 26.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The Psalms speak of being raised.
1 Clement 26.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Job looked for the resurrection of the flesh.
1 Clement 27.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Hold fast to God, faithful in his promises.
1 Clement 28.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Fear God and flee evil, since he sees all.
1 Clement 34.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The Lord comes with his reward.
1 Clement 34.8Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God has prepared unimaginable things for those who wait for him.
1 Clement 35.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Only God knows what he has prepared.
1 Clement 35.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Strive to be among those who wait for God.
1 Clement 50.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Those perfected in love await Christ's kingdom.
1 Clement 50.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God promises to raise his people from their tombs.
Epistle of Barnabas 4.1Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Flee lawlessness and hate the error of the present age.
Epistle of Barnabas 4.3Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · The final trial is near, as Enoch foretold.
Epistle of Barnabas 4.4Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Daniel's ten kingdoms and the little king.
Epistle of Barnabas 4.5Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Daniel's fourth beast and the little horn.
Epistle of Barnabas 4.9Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · In the last days, resist so that the devil cannot slip in.
Epistle of Barnabas 4.12Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · God judges without favoritism; each receives according to deeds.
Epistle of Barnabas 5.7Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · He fulfilled the promise and prepared a new people.
Epistle of Barnabas 6.13Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · In the last days God makes a new creation like the first.
Epistle of Barnabas 6.19Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · We will rule creation when we are made perfect heirs.
Epistle of Barnabas 7.9Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · At his coming, those who crucified Christ will recognize him.
Epistle of Barnabas 15.4Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · The six days of creation mean six thousand years of history.
Epistle of Barnabas 15.5Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · God's rest on the seventh day is Christ's coming and judgment.
Epistle of Barnabas 15.7Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · We will keep the true Sabbath when all things are made new.
Epistle of Barnabas 15.8Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · God rejects the present sabbaths; the eighth day begins a new world.
Epistle of Barnabas 19.10Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Remember the judgment; seek the saints; work to save souls or give for your sins.
Epistle of Barnabas 20.1Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · The way of darkness: a list of vices leading to eternal death.
Epistle of Barnabas 21.1Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Walk in the Lord's decrees; there will be resurrection and recompense.
Epistle of Barnabas 21.3Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · The day of the Lord and his reward is near.
Epistle of Barnabas 21.6Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Be taught by God and ready for the judgment.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 3.3 (52.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · As in winter, dead and living trees look the same.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 4.2 (53.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · In the age to come, summer for the righteous, the servants of God will be revealed.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 4.4 (53.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Sinners and pagans, like withered trees, will be burned.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5.5.3 (58.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The fences are angels, the weeds are sins, the food is the commandments, the journey is the time until his coming.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5.6.7 (59.7)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · All flesh that keeps the Spirit pure will receive a reward.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 6.2.3 (62.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Those who blaspheme God are given to death, without repentance.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.12.3 (89.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The gate is new because the Son was revealed in the last days.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.16.5 (93.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The apostles, after death, preached to those who had died before and gave them the seal.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.18.2 (95.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Those who knew God and still do evil will be punished doubly.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.18.4 (95.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The cleansed church will be one body, and the Son will rejoice in it.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 10.4.4 (114.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Do good now, before the tower is completed and you are shut out.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 1.3.4 (3.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · A hymn to God the Creator, who made the church and will fulfill his promise.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 2.2.7 (6.7)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Blessed are those who endure the coming tribulation.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.4.2 (12.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The stone-bearers are also angels; all will rejoice when the tower is complete.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.7.6 (15.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · They will find a lesser place after a time of punishment, if they repent.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.8.9 (16.9)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The end will come when the tower is finished, and that will be soon.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.9.5 (17.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Help the hungry now, before it is too late.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 4.1.1 (22.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The fourth vision: a type of the coming tribulation.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 4.2.5 (23.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The beast is a type of the coming great tribulation; repentance and trust will bring escape.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 4.3.3 (24.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Red means the world will perish by blood and fire.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 4.3.5 (24.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · White is the age to come, home of God's elect.
2 Clement 5.4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Jesus: do not fear those who kill the body, but God who judges.
2 Clement 5.5Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Life here is short; Christ's promise of rest and eternal life is great.
2 Clement 6.3Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · This age and the age to come are enemies.
2 Clement 6.5Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · We cannot befriend both ages; renounce this one.
2 Clement 6.7Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Doing Christ's will brings rest; disobedience, eternal punishment.
2 Clement 7.6Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Those who break the seal of baptism face unending punishment.
2 Clement 8.3Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · After death there is no more repentance.
2 Clement 9.1Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The flesh will be judged and will rise.
2 Clement 9.4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Called in the flesh, we will come to judgment in the flesh.
2 Clement 9.5Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Christ became flesh; so we will be rewarded in the flesh.
2 Clement 11.7Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The righteous will receive promises beyond imagining.
2 Clement 12.1Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Wait for God's kingdom hour by hour, for the day is unknown.
2 Clement 12.2Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · A saying of the Lord: the kingdom comes when the two are one.
2 Clement 12.6Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Doing these things brings the Father's kingdom.
2 Clement 14.5Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The flesh joined to the Spirit will share in indescribable life.
2 Clement 16.3Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The day of judgment is coming like a furnace; every deed will be revealed.
2 Clement 17.4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The Lord will come to gather all nations and redeem each by his works.
2 Clement 17.5Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Unbelievers will see Christ's glory and lament; their punishment has no end.
2 Clement 17.6Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The day of judgment will expose those who perverted Christ's commandments.
2 Clement 17.7Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The righteous will glorify God when they see the fate of those who denied Jesus.
2 Clement 19.3Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The obedient may suffer briefly but will reap the fruit of the resurrection.
2 Clement 19.4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The godly who suffer now will live again and rejoice forever.
2 Clement 20.2Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · This life is training; the crown comes in the life to come.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) (title)Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The title of the fragment.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 1Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Christ warns that many false prophets will teach doctrines of destruction.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 2Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The false teachers will become sons of destruction.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 3Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · God will come to the faithful who suffer and will judge the lawless.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 5Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The twelve ask to see one of the righteous dead.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 13Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The Lord says they are the righteous brothers.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 14Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Peter asks where the righteous dwell.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 15Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The Lord shows Peter the radiant land of the righteous.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 19Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The righteous praise God together in equal glory.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 20Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The Lord names it the place of the righteous.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 21Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Peter sees a dark place of punishment opposite.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 22Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Blasphemers of the way of righteousness hang by their tongues over fire.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 23Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Those who turn from righteousness are tormented in a lake of burning mire.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 24Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Adulterous women hang by their hair, and their partners by their feet, over the mire.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 25Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Murderers are tormented by reptiles and worms while their victims watch and praise God's justice.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 26Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Women who procured abortions sit in filth, struck by fire from the children they aborted.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 27Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Persecutors of the righteous burn and are eaten by worms.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 28Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Those who reviled the way of righteousness gnaw their lips and are burned in the eyes.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 29Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · False witnesses gnaw their tongues with fire in their mouths.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 30Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The pitiless rich roll on red-hot stones.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 31Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Usurers stand in a lake of pus, blood and boiling mire.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 32Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Those who practised same-sex intercourse are cast down from a cliff again and again.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 33Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Makers of idols stand in fire beside others who beat one another unceasingly.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 34Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Those who abandoned the way of God are roasted in fire.
5 Ezra 2.10Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century
5 Ezra 2.11Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century
5 Ezra 2.12Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century
5 Ezra 2.13Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century
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5 Ezra 2.48Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century
To the Ephesians 11.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · In the last times, respond to God's patience by fear of judgment or love of grace.
To the Ephesians 11.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius wears his chains as spiritual pearls and hopes to share the Ephesians' lot.
To the Ephesians 16.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Corrupting the faith by false teaching is even worse than bodily sin.
To the Magnesians 5.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Life and death lie before everyone, and each goes to his own place.
To the Magnesians 5.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Like coins, people bear the stamp of either the world or God; Christ's life is in those willing to share his death.
To the Magnesians 9.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · The prophets awaited Christ as their teacher, and he raised them from the dead.
To the Trallians 9.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Christ truly rose, and the Father will raise believers in the same way.
To the Philippians 2.1Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Serve God faithfully, believing in the God who raised Christ, who now reigns and will come to judge the living and the dead.
To the Philippians 2.2Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · God will raise us as he raised Christ if we do his will, love what he loved, and refuse to repay evil for evil.
To the Philippians 5.2Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Deacons must be blameless servants of God, following the Lord who became the servant of all and who promises that the faithful will reign with him.
To the Philippians 6.2Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Those who ask forgiveness must forgive, since all will stand before Christ's judgment seat.
To the Philippians 7.1Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Polycarp condemns those who deny that Christ came in the flesh, who deny the witness of the cross, and who twist the Lord's words to deny resurrection and judgment.
To the Philippians 9.2Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · The martyrs did not run in vain; they are now with the Lord, because they loved Christ rather than this world.
To Diognetus 6.8Anonymous · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · Sojourners among perishable things, awaiting the imperishable.
To Diognetus 7.6Anonymous · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · He will send him again as judge.
To Diognetus 10.7Anonymous · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · Then you will admire the martyrs and fear the real death.
Apology 17Aristides of Athens · ca. 125–145 · Aristides closes by urging the king to worship the Creator and heed his words, so as to escape judgment and inherit eternal life.
Epistle of the Apostles 12Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · The apostles touch the risen Christ, are convinced that he rose in the flesh, and he promises to reveal to them the things of heaven and their resurrection.
Epistle of the Apostles 16Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ tells the apostles that he will return shining like the rising sun, borne on the clouds with his cross before him, to judge the living and the dead.
Epistle of the Apostles 17Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ gives the time of the coming, and explains that he is wholly in the Father and the Father in him.
Epistle of the Apostles 19Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ promises the apostles a rest without food, grief, or decay, and says he put on their flesh and rose in it, as David foretold.
Epistle of the Apostles 21Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ promises that the apostles will rise in the flesh as he did, and says he has received from the Father all authority to bring the lost into light, life, and freedom.
Epistle of the Apostles 22Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · The apostles ask whether the flesh will be judged with the soul and spirit, and Christ rebukes their questioning.
Epistle of the Apostles 24Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ affirms that every body will rise with its soul and spirit, rebukes the apostles' doubt, and bids them keep his commandments on the narrow way.
Epistle of the Apostles 25Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ welcomes the apostles' questions and teaches that the flesh, which perishes, will rise and be healed.
Epistle of the Apostles 26Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ teaches that flesh and soul will rise together to be judged according to their deeds, without favour to rich or poor, and that those who love him will have rest in his Father's kingdom.
Epistle of the Apostles 28Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ promises that the apostles and all who believe through them will be children of light, freed from punishment and lifted into the place the Father has prepared.
Epistle of the Apostles 29Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ foretells false teachers and their judgment, and blesses those who believe without having seen him.
Epistle of the Apostles 32Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ answers that, as fruits differ by nature, so do the rewards, yet promises the same hope to those who believe through the apostles.
Epistle of the Apostles 34Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ describes the signs before the end: portents in the sky, fire from heaven, earthquake, drought, plague, and the breakdown of kinship.
Epistle of the Apostles 35Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ foretells the Father's anger at the wickedness of the last days and applies David's prophecies to the deceivers of the world.
Epistle of the Apostles 36Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ teaches that the sufferings of the last days test the faith of the elect, and that believers who act like sinners are as if they had not believed.
Epistle of the Apostles 37Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ foretells wars, upheavals, and persecution in the last days, and false teachers within the church who serve wealth and favour.
Epistle of the Apostles 39Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ teaches that, as Adam was free to choose the light, every man has the power to believe and live, and that the Word became flesh so that those who keep his commandments may be saved.
Epistle of the Apostles 43Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ interprets the parable of the ten virgins: the wise are faith, love, joy, peace, and hope; the foolish, virtues that slept in believers who did not keep his commandments.
Epistle of the Apostles 44Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ warns that those whose virtues slept remain outside the fold, prey to the wolf and to long torment.
Epistle of the Apostles 45Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · The apostles ask mercy for the five foolish virgins, and Christ answers that this rests with the Father, with whom he agrees.
First Apology 8Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians refuse to lie to save themselves; they expect Christ's judgment, with eternal punishment of body and soul.
First Apology 11Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians expect God's kingdom, not a human one; that is why they confess even at the cost of death.
First Apology 12Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians, believing God sees all and judges all, are the best citizens; Christ foretold what is now happening.
First Apology 17Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians pay taxes and pray for the emperors, worshiping God alone; everyone will answer to God.
First Apology 18Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Pagan practices and writers show souls survive death; Christians go further and expect the resurrection of the body.
First Apology 19Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · The resurrection of the body is no harder to believe than human birth from a small seed.
First Apology 20Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christian teachings resemble Plato, the Stoics, and the poets; why then are Christians alone hated?
First Apology 28Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Satan and his followers will be punished eternally; God delays judgment so that more may repent; humans are free and responsible.
First Apology 43Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Prophecy does not mean fate; humans have free choice, so reward and punishment are just.
First Apology 45Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Psalm 110 foretells Christ's ascension and the preaching of the apostles from Jerusalem.
First Apology 51Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Isaiah foretold that the sufferer's generation is beyond telling; Psalm 24 his ascension; Daniel his coming on the clouds.
First Apology 52Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · The prophets foretold two comings of Christ: the first in suffering, the second in glory, with the resurrection and judgment.
First Apology 57Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · The demons can only stir up hatred; Christians do not fear death, and if their persecutors think death is the end, killing Christians only frees them from this life's troubles.
First Apology 60Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Plato's “world soul set crosswise” and his threefold order came from Moses' bronze serpent and Genesis; even the unlettered among Christians know these things.
First Apology 68Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin closes with a warning of God's judgment and appends Hadrian's letter to Minucius Fundanus requiring proper trials of Christians.
Acts of John 8Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Before Domitian John proclaims the coming of Christ, the eternal king and judge.
Acts of John 36Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John ends his sermon with warnings of judgment and heals all the sick; he then proposes to visit the temple of Artemis.
Martyrdom of Paul 3Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Paul, brought bound before Nero, declares that Christ enlists soldiers from the whole world and will judge it by fire.
Martyrdom of Paul 5Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Nero's slaughter of Christians is checked by the Romans' protest; Paul preaches judgement to Longus and Cestus, refuses their offer of escape, and calls Nero's messengers to faith.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 14Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Demas and Hermogenes advise Thamyris to accuse Paul before the governor, and claim the resurrection has already happened in their children.
Correspondence of Paul and the Corinthians (3 Cor.), the Corinthians' letter to PaulAnonymous · ca. 150-200 · The Corinthian elders write to Paul that two teachers, Simon and Cleobius, deny the prophets, the resurrection of the flesh, God's creation of man and the world, and Christ's coming in the flesh and birth from Mary, and they ask him to come.
Correspondence of Paul and the Corinthians (3 Cor.), Paul's replyAnonymous · ca. 150-200 · Paul replies that he handed on what he received: Christ was truly born of Mary by the Holy Spirit to save the flesh, God made man and the world, and the flesh will rise, as seeds, Jonah, the dead man laid on Elisha's bones and the widow's son show.
Second Apology 6Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · God delays the final judgment for the sake of the Christians; humans and angels act by free choice, not by fate, as the Stoics wrongly teach.
Second Apology 7Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · The demons have always stirred up hatred against those who lived by reason, and much more against Christians, who know the whole Word, Christ.
Second Apology 9Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · The threat of eternal punishment is not a scare tactic: without judgment there would be no God who cares, and no virtue or vice.
Justin, Fr. 4Justin Martyr · ca. 150-165 · Methodius reports Justin's explanation that the flesh is inherited by the kingdom rather than inheriting it.
On the Resurrection 2Justin Martyr · 2nd century (disputed) · The objections: the flesh cannot rise, its rising would be of no use, it would rise with its defects, and Christ himself appeared only in spirit.
On the Resurrection 3Justin Martyr · 2nd century (disputed) · If the members of the body rise, their functions need not be active: some are barren or virgins even now, and Christ was born of a virgin and foretold that marriage ceases in the age to come.
On the Resurrection 4Justin Martyr · 2nd century (disputed) · The flesh will not rise maimed: Christ healed the blind and lame on earth, and will much more make the body whole in the resurrection.
On the Resurrection 5Justin Martyr · 2nd century (disputed) · Against those who say the resurrection is impossible: even the pagans think their gods can do all things; believers have proof in the making of the first man and in human generation, and will argue also from worldly reasons.
On the Resurrection 6Justin Martyr · 2nd century (disputed) · By the principles of Plato, the Stoics and Epicurus alike, nothing perishes into nothing, so God can remake the body from its indestructible elements.
On the Resurrection 7Justin Martyr · 2nd century (disputed) · Against those who despise the flesh: man formed in God's image was fleshly, so the flesh is precious to God; it does not sin alone, and Christ came to call sinners.
On the Resurrection 8Justin Martyr · 2nd century (disputed) · God would not neglect his precious work: he has called the whole man, soul and body, to resurrection; to save the soul alone, a part of himself, would be no act of goodness.
On the Resurrection 9Justin Martyr · 2nd century (disputed) · Christ healed and raised the flesh, rose in the flesh in which he suffered, ate before his disciples and ascended in the flesh: the resurrection of the flesh is the power of God.
On the Resurrection 10Justin Martyr · 2nd century (disputed) · The resurrection is of the flesh that fell; the soul's immortality alone was Plato's teaching, while Christ brought a new hope, and the flesh he disciplines is kept for salvation.
Sibylline Oracles 7.1ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Seventh Book opens with woes on Rhodes, Cyprus, Delos, and Sicily, and recalls the flood from which Noah alone escaped.
Sibylline Oracles 7.21ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells the end of Apis's worship, woe on Laodicea, and a pillar of fire set by God in heaven to destroy evildoers.
Sibylline Oracles 7.111ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl laments Rome, Syria, and Thebes, and foretells a fire on earth as great as the waters.
Sibylline Oracles 7.121ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells the world's destruction by fire and the endless torment of the wicked, who will learn that God's law does not deceive.
Sibylline Oracles 7.131ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl condemns false prophets in sheepskins who pretend to be Hebrews for gain, and foretells a new world after the first ogdoad.
Sibylline Oracles 7.141ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells darkness and sulphur on the wicked, and then a renewed race eating manna, with God among them.
Sibylline Oracles 8.1ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Eighth Book opens with the Sibyl announcing God's wrath in the last age and reviewing the kingdoms since Babel, ending with Rome.
Sibylline Oracles 8.11ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells Rome's universal rule and the final fire, and names love of money as the beginning of all evils.
Sibylline Oracles 8.31ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl condemns the rich who plunder the poor and foretells a heavenly blow that will raze proud Rome.
Sibylline Oracles 8.61ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells mourning at the Tiber and three rulers after Hadrian, the first an old king hoarding the world's wealth.
Sibylline Oracles 8.71ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells the return of the fugitive mother-slayer and the fall of Rome's glory and legions.
Sibylline Oracles 8.81ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells the coming of the Almighty to judge the living and the dead, and the calamities that will befall Rome.
Sibylline Oracles 8.91ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl announces that the end and the last judgment are near, beginning with wrath on Rome, which came naked into the world and will go naked to judgment.
Sibylline Oracles 8.101ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells Rome's burning and descent to Hades, and says that death levels rich and poor, who go naked into the earth.
Sibylline Oracles 8.111ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl lists the ranks, rites, music, and strife of this life that will have no place among the dead.
Sibylline Oracles 8.121ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells, at an appointed time marked by the phoenix, the destruction of Rome's long rule.
Sibylline Oracles 8.131ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells that Rome will last 948 years before its doom comes.
Sibylline Oracles 8.141ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The doom of Rome comes when the number of its name is fulfilled.
Sibylline Oracles 8.151ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl laments Rome's coming day and foretells the return of the emperor who cut through the Isthmus, and his end in Hades.
Sibylline Oracles 8.161ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells the ruin of Thebes, Egypt, Rome, Delos, Samos, and Persia, and the everlasting reign of the holy King who raises the dead.
Sibylline Oracles 8.171ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells famine, plague, and tumult at Rome and portents in nature in the last days.
Sibylline Oracles 8.181ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl describes the shameless and greedy men of the last days and the falling of the stars.
Sibylline Oracles 8.191ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells a comet as a sign of war, and wishes to live not under "the polluted woman" but when heavenly grace reigns and the holy child overcomes evil.
Sibylline Oracles 8.201ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells the cosmic signs of the end, the resurrection of the dead, the healing of the lame, deaf, and blind, and a common life on an undivided earth.
Sibylline Oracles 8.211ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells the earth's abundance in the age to come and begins the acrostic oracle of the judgment: the earth will sweat, and the King will come from heaven to judge all flesh.
Sibylline Oracles 8.231ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The acrostic continues: Christ judges all souls, fire consumes the world and breaks open Hades, the saints rise, and every secret deed is told.
Sibylline Oracles 8.241ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The acrostic concludes with the darkening of sun, moon, and stars, the river of fire, the sign of the cross for the faithful, and the declaration that this is our God, the Savior and immortal King who suffered for us.
Sibylline Oracles 8.311ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells Christ's descent to Hades with hope for the saints, his rising on the third day as the first-fruits of resurrection, and his appearing in the flesh with the marks of the nails.
Sibylline Oracles 8.331ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl bids Zion love Christ, be washed in his blood, and praise him with understanding, and foretells the dissolution of all the elements.
Sibylline Oracles 8.341ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl describes the end of the world: the stars fall, all living creatures perish, the sea roars, and men gnash their teeth.
Sibylline Oracles 8.351ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl foretells the torment of the wicked, who will long for death in vain, though God gave time for repentance, and affirms that God revealed all this to her.
Sibylline Oracles 8.411ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · God foretells that he will test all by fire, raise the dead, destroy the sting of death, and judge the pious and the impious.
Sibylline Oracles 8.421ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · God foretells the judgment of those who silenced the holy for gain, and the endless day of light for the approved; a hymn to the eternal God begins.
On the Sole Government of God 3Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century (disputed) · Sophocles and Philemon are quoted on the coming fiery judgment and the eye of justice that sees all.
Sentences of Sextus 14Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Believe that both the honours and the punishments in the judgment remain immortal for you.
Sentences of Sextus 39Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · When those who live wickedly have gone out of the body, an evil demon will torment them until he exacts from them even the last [penny].
Sentences of Sextus 347Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · According to the pursuits the soul followed while dwelling in the body, such witnesses will it have at the judgment.
Sentence 14 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Consider that at the judgment both the honours and the punishments will be everlasting for you.
Sentence 39 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · After release from the body, an evil demon calls to account one who has lived badly, until he has paid back even the last penny.
Sentence 40 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Blessed is the man whose soul no one will lay hold of as it journeys to God.
Sentence 347 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Whatever the soul practises while dwelling in the body, it departs for the judgment with such witnesses.
Dialogue with Trypho 1.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Such views, Justin says, lead to moral license: the Stoics' endless cycles and the Platonists' untouchable immortal soul.
Dialogue with Trypho 5.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Souls do not die at once: the godly and the wicked await judgment in different places.
Dialogue with Trypho 5.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Only God is uncreated and imperishable; everything else exists by his will, as Plato hints in the Timaeus.
Dialogue with Trypho 6.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Life belongs to God; the soul lives only as long as God gives it life.
Dialogue with Trypho 14.8Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The prophets speak of two comings of Christ: first in humility, then in glory.
Dialogue with Trypho 25.6Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho asks whether no Jew will inherit God's holy mountain.
Dialogue with Trypho 26.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin replies that only the unrepentant who persecute Christ are excluded; believing Gentiles will inherit with the patriarchs.
Dialogue with Trypho 28.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin urges them to believe before Christ returns, quoting Jeremiah on circumcising the heart.
Dialogue with Trypho 31.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · If Christ's passion shows such power, his glorious second coming will show far more, as Daniel foretold.
Dialogue with Trypho 31.6Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Dan 7:23–25.
Dialogue with Trypho 31.7Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Dan 7:26–28.
Dialogue with Trypho 32.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin answers that the Scriptures foretell two comings: one in humiliation and one in glory.
Dialogue with Trypho 32.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Psalm 110 shows the ascension; the Antichrist of Daniel is near.
Dialogue with Trypho 32.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin disputes the Jewish interpretation of Daniel's “time” as a hundred years.
Dialogue with Trypho 35.8Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians pray for their enemies, that they may be saved at Christ's return.
Dialogue with Trypho 39.6Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Fear of persecution may keep Jews from confessing Christ.
Dialogue with Trypho 44.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Isa 66:24.
Dialogue with Trypho 45.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Will Jews who kept the law of Moses be saved at the resurrection?
Dialogue with Trypho 45.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Those who lived under the law will be saved by their own righteousness.
Dialogue with Trypho 45.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The righteous under the law will be saved through Christ, who existed before creation and became flesh to destroy the serpent and death.
Dialogue with Trypho 46.7Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians die rather than sacrifice to idols, hoping in the resurrection.
Dialogue with Trypho 47.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Apostates to the law and unbelieving Jews who curse Christians will not be saved without repentance.
Dialogue with Trypho 47.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · God judges each as he is found: the repentant as righteous, the apostate as a sinner.
Dialogue with Trypho 49.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Elijah is to precede the second coming, the great and terrible day.
Dialogue with Trypho 52.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Since Christ, Israel has had neither prophet nor king; the Gentiles await his return.
Dialogue with Trypho 64.7Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Psalm 19 shows Christ coming from heaven and returning there.
Dialogue with Trypho 69.7Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Some called Christ a magician; his healings promise bodily wholeness at the resurrection.
Dialogue with Trypho 72.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin cites a saying on Christ's descent to the dead, attributed to Jeremiah.
Dialogue with Trypho 76.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Matt 8:11–12.
Dialogue with Trypho 76.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Matt 7:22–23; 25:41.
Dialogue with Trypho 80.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho asks whether Justin really believes Jerusalem will be rebuilt and the saints gathered with Christ.
Dialogue with Trypho 80.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin holds that Jerusalem will be rebuilt, but admits many orthodox Christians do not.
Dialogue with Trypho 80.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Those who deny the resurrection are not Christians, just as some Jewish sects are not true Jews.
Dialogue with Trypho 80.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin expects a resurrection of the flesh and a thousand-year reign in a rebuilt Jerusalem.
Dialogue with Trypho 81.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Isa 65:17–20, read of the thousand years.
Dialogue with Trypho 81.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Isa 65:21–25.
Dialogue with Trypho 81.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · “The days of the tree” mean a thousand years: Adam died within a “day” of a thousand years.
Dialogue with Trypho 81.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · John the apostle, in the Revelation, foretold the thousand years and then the general resurrection and judgment.
Dialogue with Trypho 105.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ's prayer teaches us to pray at death that no evil angel seize our soul.
Dialogue with Trypho 105.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Samuel's appearance through the medium shows that souls survive.
Dialogue with Trypho 105.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ commended his spirit to the Father at death.
Dialogue with Trypho 110.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Micah's prophecy is fulfilled in Christ's first coming and will be completed at his second, when the Antichrist will persecute Christians.
Dialogue with Trypho 110.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians are the afflicted and driven out, whom God will gather at Christ's return.
Dialogue with Trypho 113.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · As Joshua brought Israel into the land, Jesus will give the good land to his people.
Dialogue with Trypho 113.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Joshua gave a temporary inheritance; Jesus, who appeared to the patriarchs, gives an eternal one.
Dialogue with Trypho 113.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ will renew heaven and earth and shine in Jerusalem; he is king and priest after Melchizedek.
Dialogue with Trypho 116.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians are brands plucked from the fire and promised new garments and an eternal kingdom.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Christian thanksgiving over bread and cup remembers Christ's passion; at the resurrection God will vindicate Christians.
Dialogue with Trypho 118.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin urges repentance before the judgment; Christ is judge of living and dead.
Dialogue with Trypho 118.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Nathan's oracle and Ezekiel's prince refer to Christ; at his return the sacrifices will be spiritual praises.
Dialogue with Trypho 119.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · As Abraham was called out of his land, Christians have been called out of their former life.
Dialogue with Trypho 120.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin argues only from acknowledged texts; Isaiah's martyrdom by a wooden saw is a figure of Christ dividing Israel.
Dialogue with Trypho 121.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · If Christ's humble first coming was so powerful, his glorious return will be far more so.
Dialogue with Trypho 130.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The nations rejoice with the righteous of Israel, not with all Israel.
Dialogue with Trypho 138.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Through water, faith, and wood, the repentant escape the coming judgment.
Dialogue with Trypho 139.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ calls all peoples to share the land promised to the saints.
Dialogue with Trypho 139.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Believers, slave or free, will inherit with Christ.
Dialogue with Trypho 140.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Descent from Abraham does not guarantee the kingdom.
Dialogue with Trypho 140.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Isaiah and Ezekiel show that each is judged by his own righteousness.
Dialogue with Trypho 140.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · No one is evil by God's fault, but by his own.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 2.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Looking to eternal life and the good things God has prepared, the martyrs counted their tortures as nothing.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 11.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Threatened with fire, Polycarp contrasted it with the eternal fire of the coming judgment.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 14.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp thanked God for the honor of sharing Christ's suffering and prayed to be received as a sacrifice.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 19.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp now rejoices with the apostles and praises God and Christ.
Oration to the Greeks 6Tatian · ca. 165–172 · The resurrection of the body will happen once, at the end, for judgment by God; nothing of a person is lost, however the body perishes.
Oration to the Greeks 13Tatian · ca. 165–172 · The soul is not immortal by nature; united with the divine Spirit and knowing God it lives, but without the Spirit it dies and is raised only for punishment.
Oration to the Greeks 14Tatian · ca. 165–172 · The demons cannot die, but their immortality will be one of punishment, which those who follow them will share.
Oration to the Greeks 17Tatian · ca. 165–172 · Magic and amulets work only as signals the demons have agreed to answer; God made nothing for evil use.
Oration to the Greeks 25Tatian · ca. 165–172 · The Cynics' claim to self-sufficiency is hollow and the schools contradict each other; Christians hold one consistent teaching, and the charge of cannibalism fits the Greek myths, not them.
Diatessaron, section 41Tatian · ca. 160-180
40Anonymous · ca. 161–180 or 249–251 · Carpus speaks of the true judgment seat.
Martyrdom of Justin, Chariton and Companions (Acts of Justin, recension B) 5Anonymous · ca. 165 · Justin hopes for heavenly reward; all refuse to sacrifice and are condemned.
To Autolycus 1.7Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · God, the Creator and Lord of all, can be seen only by a heart healed by him; the believer will see him when raised immortal in body and soul.
To Autolycus 1.8Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Faith comes first in every human undertaking; the God who made each person from nothing can raise them again.
To Autolycus 1.13Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Nature is full of pictures of resurrection: seasons, seeds, trees, the moon, and recovery from illness.
To Autolycus 1.14Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Theophilus himself was converted by reading the prophets; he urges Autolycus to believe and escape the eternal punishment the prophets foretold.
To Autolycus 2.14Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Plants growing from seeds foreshadow the resurrection; the world is like a salt sea kept alive by God's law and prophets, with the churches as safe harbors and the heresies as deadly reefs.
To Autolycus 2.15Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · The sun and moon are types of God and humanity; the three days before the lights are types of the “Triad” of God, his Word, and his Wisdom; the stars represent the prophets, the righteous, and the apostate.
To Autolycus 2.17Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · The land animals were not blessed, the blessing being reserved for humanity; wild beasts became savage through human sin, and will be restored when humanity is restored.
To Autolycus 2.26Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Expulsion from paradise was a merciful discipline; death breaks the human being like a flawed vessel so that he may be remade whole at the resurrection.
To Autolycus 2.27Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Humanity was created neither mortal nor immortal but free to choose; obedience leads to immortality, which God now gives by grace to those who obey him.
To Autolycus 2.36Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Long quotations from the Sibyl proclaim the one invisible Creator, mock the worship of animals and images, and foretell fire for idolaters and paradise for those who honor the true God.
To Autolycus 2.37Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · The Greek poets themselves bear witness that wrongdoers will be punished and that God sees all things.
To Autolycus 2.38Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · The prophets foretell the fiery judgment, and even the poets confess providence, judgment, and life after death; Theophilus invites Autolycus to further conversation.
Lines 21–30Anonymous · late 2nd or 4th century (disputed) · All the Gospels declare Christ's birth, passion, resurrection, and twofold coming, and John's first epistle confirms that he wrote as an eyewitness.
Fragment 12Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 170–200
Fragment 34Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 170–200
A Plea for the Christians 12Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Christians live pure lives because they expect God's judgment and know the Father, Son, and Spirit; those who deny judgment are called pious, but Christians are not.
A Plea for the Christians 31Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Answering the charges of cannibalism and incest: virtue has always been slandered; Christians, who expect God's judgment and eternal life, would not even think of such sins.
A Plea for the Christians 36Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Belief in the resurrection of the body and in judgment makes cannibalism unthinkable for Christians; the full argument on the resurrection is postponed.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 2Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · Those who deny the resurrection must show that God cannot or will not raise the dead; but God, who knew every element of our bodies before they existed, cannot be ignorant of where they go after death.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 3Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · The God who made human bodies from nothing has the power to raise them, even if they have been devoured by animals.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 4Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · The objection: human bodies eaten by animals, and those animals eaten by other humans, cannot be restored to their owners at the resurrection.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 7Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · Even if some unnatural food were absorbed, it would not become a true part of the body, and so would not rise with it.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 8Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · Human flesh is not natural food for humans and so is never truly absorbed; God will gather every part of each body, however it perished.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 9Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · Comparing God with human craftsmen, who cannot restore broken works, is an insult to God; what is impossible for humans is possible for God.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 10Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · Raising the dead wrongs no one, neither other creatures nor the soul or body of the one raised, and it is not unworthy of God.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 11Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · Summary of the first part and plan of the second: the resurrection will be proved from the purpose of human creation, from human nature, and from God's judgment.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 12Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · God made human beings neither in vain nor for his own need, but for their own sake, to live forever; so the whole human being, soul and body, must endure, and the resurrection is the last of the body's changes.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 13Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · God's purpose in creating human beings, to contemplate him forever, guarantees their continuance and therefore the resurrection.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 14Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · The proper order of proof: first God's purpose in creation and human nature, then the judgment; the resurrection is not only for judgment, since infants too will rise.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 15Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · A human being is a unity of soul and body with one common end; since the rational human being must endure, the body must rise to rejoin the soul.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 16Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · Human continuance is uneven, interrupted by sleep and by death; as waking life after sleep is the same life, so is the life after death and resurrection.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 17Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · No one would believe, without experience, that a whole human body grows from a seed; so reason can be trusted when it shows that the resurrection follows in the natural sequence of human life.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 18Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · The argument from judgment: since the whole person, soul and body, acted, the whole person must be judged, which does not happen in this life or in death; so the body must rise.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 19Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · If there were no judgment, the virtuous would be worse off than beasts; but just judgment does not happen in this life, where the wicked prosper and one death cannot repay great crimes.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 20Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · If death ends everything, there is no judgment; if only the soul survives, a judgment of the soul alone would not be just, since it was the whole person who acted.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 21Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · Rewarding or punishing the soul alone would be unjust: the body shared in the labors of virtue, and most sins arise from the body's needs and passions.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 22Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · The virtues themselves (courage, self-control, prudence, justice) belong to the whole person, body and soul, and cannot be exercised by a soul alone.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 23Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · God's commandments (honor parents, do not commit adultery, do not steal) were given to embodied human beings, not to souls, so the whole person must be judged.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 24Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · The argument from the end: every being has its proper end, and the end of rational human beings cannot be mere freedom from pain or bodily pleasure.
On the Resurrection of the Dead 25Athenagoras · ca. 177–180 (if by Athenagoras) · The end of human life, which belongs to the whole person, is eternal contemplation of God; it requires the resurrection, by which the same souls receive the same bodies.
Fragment 11Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd–early 3rd century · Sayings ascribed to Clement: souls longing for God rise to his bosom at death; all souls, even of the ungodly, are immortal and the wicked suffer endless punishment; do not listen to slander; and the believer is justified not by mere abstention but by purity of thought.
Adumbrations on 1 Peter, paragraph 1Clement of Alexandria · original ca. 200; Latin translation 6th century · On 1 Pet 1: regeneration through Christ's resurrection in us; the soul does not return to a body in this life but rejoins it at the resurrection; the soul becomes incorruptible by grace; the prophets spoke by the Spirit of Christ.
Adumbrations on 1 John, paragraph 4Clement of Alexandria · original ca. 200; Latin translation 6th century · On 1 John 2:1–3: Christ and the Spirit are Paracletes; the first-created powers work through lower angels, as with Moses and Samuel; Christ is the propitiation for the whole world, saving all, some through punishments.
Fragment 71 (Malalas 10; the sixth day of the millennium)Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd-early 3rd century
Fragment 46 (Letters; Sacra Parallela 312)Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd-early 3rd century · In the incorruptible kingdom there is no desire, because every good is present.
The Instructor 1.6.28Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Baptism removes sin like a cataract, freeing the spirit's eye to see God; the believer is already in the light, while the fulfillment of the promise awaits the resurrection.
The Instructor 1.6.29Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Faith already holds eternal life; what it grasps now as promise it receives after the resurrection as rest, while enlightenment dispels the darkness of ignorance.
The Instructor 1.6.36Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Milk, the Word, is the believer's food from beginning to end; the solid food Paul withheld may mean the face-to-face vision in the age to come.
The Instructor 1.6.45Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The milk of the Lord nourishes the reborn and leads to the heavenly Jerusalem; the Word is both food and drink, one substance serving both.
The Instructor 1.7.58Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The same Lord instructed Israel through Moses and now guides the new people directly; he is Instructor and Judge, who rebukes sin so that sinners may repent.
The Instructor 1.7.61Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Prophecy gives the Instructor a rod: persuasion, threat, rod, and finally fire each heal those the previous could not; the Lord's discipline saves from death.
The Instructor 1.8.69Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · God punishes not in anger but for justice, and each sinner chooses his own penalty; the fear of the Lord is the crown of wisdom.
The Instructor 1.8.70Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · God seeks repentance even in his threats; he punishes to correct, but does not seek vengeance, since he teaches us to pray for our enemies.
The Instructor 1.9.83Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Like a physician using both soothing and bitter medicines, the Savior uses fear to heal; all humanity needs Jesus as physician, guide, light, life, shepherd, and instructor.
The Instructor 1.9.84Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Word, the good Shepherd, binds, heals, and seeks his sheep, feeds them on the holy mountain of the church, and will clothe their flesh with incorruption.
The Instructor 1.10.91Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Counsel looks also to the future judgment; the Lord consoles sinners with the hope of salvation and calls them to wisdom and to the good land.
The Instructor 1.10.92Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The beatitude is another form of instruction: the blessed are like a fruitful tree, the ungodly like dust; God calls the wanderer back like a dove to its mate.
The Instructor 2.6.50Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Paul forbids foul and foolish talk; we will give account for every idle word; keeping company with the righteous guards ears and eyes.
The Instructor 2.9.79Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Christians should be like servants awake for their master's return, rising at night to bless God like the watchful angels; the enlightened are awake and alive.
The Instructor 2.10.100Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The light within us is not overcome by darkness; the fornicator is dead to God; modesty must never be put off, and in the resurrection the pure flesh will put on incorruption like the angels.
The Instructor 2.10.104Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · If the Lord removes anxiety even about food and clothing, he condemns cosmetics and finery all the more; the “grass” thrown into the oven is the crowd that loves display.
The Instructor 2.10.105Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The rich man in purple and Lazarus illustrate the fate of the lovers of finery; Sparta allowed ornaments only to courtesans, while effeminate Athenians wore gold.
The Instructor 2.12.119Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The jeweled walls of the heavenly Jerusalem are symbols of the apostles and the Spirit; those who read them literally as an excuse for luxury do not understand God's will.
The Instructor 3.8.44Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The destruction of Sodom for its luxury, adultery, and pederasty is an instruction to us, as Jude teaches with the examples of Israel in the desert and the fallen angels.
The Instructor 3.8.45Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Jude also names Cain, Balaam, and Korah as warnings; punishments and threats hold back from sin those not yet able to bear the freedom of sons.
The Instructor 3.12.86Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Instructor speaks sternly for our salvation, desiring repentance rather than death; earthly goods are named after the true goods that God has prepared for us.
The Instructor 3.12.100Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Word commands the elements and dwells with the humanity he formed; he is both Creator and Instructor, and his children must shine as blameless lights in a crooked generation.
Exhortation to the Greeks 4.53Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Fire has destroyed famous temples, a foretaste of judgment; and the sculptors modeled their gods on their lovers and on courtesans.
Exhortation to the Greeks 8.81Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Psalms and Paul expose the vanity of worshiping creation instead of the Creator; the prophets foretell that heaven itself will pass away.
Exhortation to the Greeks 9.83Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · God wants to make slaves into sons, but many prefer slavery and death; Paul warns against the darkened mind of the Gentiles.
Exhortation to the Greeks 10.90Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Rejecting the Word brings its own reward: the good will be rewarded, the wicked and the devil punished; God gives life, while custom leads to useless regret.
Exhortation to the Greeks 10.95Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · God sets life and death before us; faith in the Good should choose life at once, instead of deliberating only about godliness.
Exhortation to the Greeks 12.123Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · God adopts believers as sons and calls them “gods”; the Christian's intentions, words, deeds, and life agree. Clement ends by setting before his hearers the choice between judgment and grace.
Against Heresies 1.7.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · At the end Achamoth enters the Pleroma as bride of the Saviour, the spiritual become brides of his angels, the righteous rest in the middle, and fire consumes matter.
Against Heresies 1.10.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Church's rule of faith confesses the Holy Spirit who foretold Christ's birth, passion, resurrection, ascension and return to judge and to give eternal life.
Against Heresies 1.17.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · They say the Demiurge, unable to copy eternity, made time, and so his work will perish.
Against Heresies 1.21.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Some 'redeem' the dying with oil and water and give them formulas to escape the powers and the Demiurge after death.
Against Heresies 1.27.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Marcion taught that only the soul is saved and that Christ in Hades saved Cain and the Sodomites but not Abel, Noah, Abraham and the prophets.
Against Heresies 1.30.14Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Ophites say the risen Jesus stayed eighteen months teaching a few disciples, then took his seat to draw holy souls away from Ialdabaoth.
Against Heresies 2.22.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The acceptable year is the whole time from Christ's coming to the end, and the day of retribution is the judgment that follows.
Against Heresies 2.28.7Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The origin of matter, the cause of the fall of some creatures, and the nature of transgressors must be left to God, since we know only in part.
Against Heresies 2.29.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · If souls are saved by righteousness rather than by nature, the bodies that shared in righteousness must be saved too.
Against Heresies 2.29.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Since righteousness is done in the body, the body will share in the reward; God will raise our mortal bodies incorrupt.
Against Heresies 2.29.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · On their own scheme, once body perishes and soul stays in the Middle, nothing of a man is left to enter the Pleroma.
Against Heresies 2.33.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Each person has his own soul as his own body, and at the resurrection all will rise with their own body, soul, and spirit.
Against Heresies 2.34.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The story of the rich man and Lazarus shows that souls persist, keep their form, remember this life, and await judgment in fitting places.
Against Heresies 2.34.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Souls had a beginning, but like all creatures they continue to exist as long as God wills.
Against Heresies 2.34.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Created things endure by God's will; eternal life is God's gift to the grateful, which the ungrateful forfeit.
Against Heresies 2.34.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The soul is not life itself but receives life from God, and continues because God wills it.
Against Heresies 3.7.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul often transposes words, as in Gal 3:19 and 2 Thess 2:8–9; read correctly, 2 Cor 4:4 speaks of the true God.
Against Heresies 3.16.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The risen Lord, the Gospels, and John's letter teach one Christ who was born, suffered, and rose; those who divide him are antichrists.
Against Heresies 3.16.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The one Word of God became flesh as Jesus Christ, recapitulating man in himself, to be head over all things visible and invisible.
Against Heresies 3.19.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Word rested so that the man could suffer, and the man was taken up into the Word in victory; Christ, born of the virgin, rose as head so that his whole body may rise.
Against Heresies 3.23.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God cursed the ground and the serpent, not Adam; the eternal fire was prepared for the devil and his angels, though the unrepentant share it.
Against Heresies 3.23.7Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The seed of the woman, Mary’s son, treads on the serpent; when Adam receives life again, death, the last enemy, is abolished.
Against Heresies 3.25.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God who sends sun and rain on all will judge those who abuse his kindness.
Against Heresies 4.3.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God is not contained by heaven and earth; when they pass away he and his servants endure, as David and Isaiah say.
Against Heresies 4.4.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The one Lord who makes both wheat and chaff will separate them; man, being free, is himself the cause of becoming wheat or chaff.
Against Heresies 4.5.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ’s answer to the Sadducees shows that the God who spoke from the bush is the God of the living, and that Christ with the Father is that God.
Against Heresies 4.6.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Father revealed himself to all by making the Word visible; God’s judgment is just on those who saw but did not believe.
Against Heresies 4.9.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · “Greater than the temple” implies the same kind of thing, not a different God; the fuller gifts of the new covenant come from the same Father, Christ, and Spirit.
Against Heresies 4.16.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Circumcision and the sabbath were given as signs pointing to the circumcision of the heart, constant service of God, and the rest of the kingdom.
Against Heresies 4.18.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As the bread that receives God’s invocation becomes the Eucharist, earthly and heavenly, so our bodies that receive it have the hope of resurrection.
Against Heresies 4.20.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God, invisible in his greatness, is seen through his love: prophetically through the Spirit, adoptively through the Son, and paternally in the kingdom; to see God is life.
Against Heresies 4.22.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ washed the disciples’ feet and roused them from sleep, signs that he came to cleanse and raise the dead, descending to the righteous who had died before him.
Against Heresies 4.22.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ came for all who from the beginning feared God and longed to see him; at his second coming he will raise them first.
Against Heresies 4.27.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ descended to the dead and forgave the righteous of old; we must not judge them but fear for ourselves, since Christ will not die again for those who sin now.
Against Heresies 4.27.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The same God who punished Israel’s sinners judges Christians: the sexually immoral, idolaters, and the unjust will not inherit the kingdom, and he will avenge his elect.
Against Heresies 4.28.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God’s justice is the same in both covenants but more severe in the new; those who set Christ’s mercy against the Old Testament ignore his warnings of judgment.
Against Heresies 4.28.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · In the new covenant both faith and the demands of conduct are greater, and the punishment of unbelief is eternal, not temporal.
Against Heresies 4.30.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The exodus was a type of the Church’s departure from the Gentiles to the inheritance Jesus gives; the end-time plagues will repeat Egypt’s on all nations.
Against Heresies 4.33.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The spiritual disciple judges Gentiles and Jews alike, for the prophets foretold Christ’s two comings, one in weakness and one in glory.
Against Heresies 4.33.11Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophets each foretold part of Christ’s work: his glory, his second coming and judgment, his kingdom, his birth from the virgin as Emmanuel, his coming in Judea and Bethlehem, and his healings.
Against Heresies 4.33.13Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophets foretold Christ’s resurrection and ascension, the persecution of the Church, the shaking of the earth at his return, and his final exaltation over all his enemies.
Against Heresies 4.36.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Lord’s warnings to watch, recalling Noah, Lot, and Capernaum, show one Lord who judged in the past and will bring the final judgment.
Against Heresies 4.36.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The same Word who gives eternal life to believers also judged the generation of the flood and Sodom, and will judge more severely those who rejected his greater grace.
Against Heresies 4.39.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God prepared light for those who seek it and darkness for those who flee it, so that the lost are the cause of their own punishment.
Against Heresies 4.40.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The same Father prepares good things for those who seek him and eternal fire for the devil and the impenitent.
Against Heresies 4.40.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The separation of sheep and goats and the parable of the weeds show one Father who prepared both the kingdom and the fire.
Against Heresies 5.2.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As the cup and bread receive the Word and become the Eucharist of Christ’s body and blood, so our bodies, nourished by it and laid in the earth, will rise by the Word of God.
Against Heresies 5.3.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The God who formed man from clay can much more easily raise the dissolved body, and the flesh that received his wise craftsmanship can receive his power.
Against Heresies 5.3.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The heretics, who live in the flesh while denying that flesh can share in life, refute themselves; the God who now gives the flesh life can give it eternal life.
Against Heresies 5.4.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · A “good” father who gave life only to soul and spirit and abandoned the body would be either powerless or spiteful, and inferior to the Creator who gives life to the whole man.
Against Heresies 5.5.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The long lives of the patriarchs and the translation of Enoch and Elijah in the body show that God can preserve bodies; the translated remain in paradise until the end.
Against Heresies 5.5.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Jonah and the three young men in the furnace show that nothing in nature can resist God’s will, so he can give raised bodies everlasting life.
Against Heresies 5.6.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The perfect man is body and soul receiving the Spirit of God; Paul prays that spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless, because all three are to be saved together.
Against Heresies 5.6.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The body is the temple of God and the members of Christ, so to deny its salvation is blasphemy; God will raise it by his power.
Against Heresies 5.7.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As Christ rose with the marks of the nails in his flesh, so our mortal bodies, which alone die and decay, are what God will raise.
Against Heresies 5.7.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul’s “sown in weakness, raised in power” speaks of dead bodies, which rise as spiritual bodies through the Spirit and will see the Lord face to face.
Against Heresies 5.8.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Spirit we now receive is a pledge that already makes us cry “Abba, Father”; the full grace of the Spirit at the resurrection will make man in God’s image and likeness.
Against Heresies 5.9.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom” refers to those who lack the Spirit; man is flesh, soul, and Spirit, and without the Spirit he is mere flesh and blood.
Against Heresies 5.9.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Flesh without the Spirit is dead and cannot inherit the kingdom, but flesh possessed by the Spirit bears the heavenly image.
Against Heresies 5.9.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The flesh does not inherit but is inherited by the Spirit, as a bride is taken by the bridegroom; without the Spirit, mere flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom.
Against Heresies 5.10.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The grafted wild olive shows that men who receive the Spirit by faith bear fruit and enter God’s paradise, while those who reject him remain mere flesh and blood.
Against Heresies 5.10.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As grafting changes the fruit but not the wood, the Spirit changes man’s works but not his flesh; Paul rejects the lusts of the flesh, not its substance.
Against Heresies 5.12.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Flesh capable of death is also capable of life; as death drove out life, so the life of the Spirit drives out death.
Against Heresies 5.12.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The breath of life given to all is temporary, but the life-giving Spirit given to those who tread down earthly desires is everlasting; the natural comes first, then the spiritual.
Against Heresies 5.12.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The same flesh that died is what Christ came to give life to; Paul bids us put to death not our bodies but the lusts of the flesh.
Against Heresies 5.12.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul, born of a womb, counted life in the flesh the fruit of his work; to strip off the old man is to put away former conduct, while knowledge of God renews the same man.
Against Heresies 5.12.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The same Paul who was born of the womb was renewed by the revelation of Christ, as the healed blind men received sight in their own eyes.
Against Heresies 5.12.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Word who healed bodies member by member would have no reason to do so unless the flesh were to be saved; who gives healing gives life and incorruption.
Against Heresies 5.13.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Jairus’s daughter, the widow’s son, and Lazarus rose in the same bodies in which they died, a pledge that at the last trumpet the dead will rise in their bodies.
Against Heresies 5.13.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul himself says the corruptible and mortal must put on incorruption and immortality and that Christ will transform our lowly body, so “flesh and blood” cannot mean the substance of the body.
Against Heresies 5.13.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul’s words about the life of Jesus made manifest in our mortal flesh, and his argument for the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, concern the body of flesh.
Against Heresies 5.13.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The heretics must either make Paul contradict himself or twist every passage in which he plainly teaches the resurrection of the flesh.
Against Heresies 5.14.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ had real flesh and blood, recapitulating the blood of the righteous from Abel onward, which would be pointless unless flesh and blood were to be saved.
Against Heresies 5.15.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Isaiah and Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones promise the resurrection of the body by the same God who formed man.
Against Heresies 5.18.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Word who made the world and contains it invisibly became flesh and hung on the tree; those who reject him reject life, and he will come openly to judge.
Against Heresies 5.25.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Antichrist, gathering up all the devil’s apostasy, will set himself up as the one idol and claim to be God, as Paul foretold of the man of sin.
Against Heresies 5.25.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul calls the Jerusalem temple the temple of God, showing it was built by the true God; the Antichrist will sit in it, as Jesus foretold.
Against Heresies 5.25.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Daniel’s little horn among the ten horns and Paul’s lawless one describe the Antichrist, who will reign three and a half years before the Lord destroys him.
Against Heresies 5.25.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Antichrist is the “other” who comes in his own name and the unjust judge of the parable; Daniel foretells his desolation of the temple for half a week, three and a half years.
Against Heresies 5.25.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Because Christ confirmed Daniel’s prophecy and the same Gabriel spoke to Daniel and to Mary, the God of the prophets is the Father of Christ.
Against Heresies 5.26.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · John’s ten horns and Daniel’s ten toes signify ten kings among whom the present empire will be divided before Christ, the stone cut without hands, destroys them and sets up an eternal kingdom.
Against Heresies 5.26.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Since Christ, the stone of Daniel, fulfilled what the Creator foretold, those who blaspheme the Creator, like Marcion and the Valentinians, are instruments of Satan, who, as Justin said, began to blaspheme only after learning his condemnation.
Against Heresies 5.27.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · If the Father did not judge, Christ’s coming would be pointless; Christ divides believers from unbelievers, who choose freely, while the Father provides for all.
Against Heresies 5.27.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Communion with God is life and light; those who choose separation from him lose all good, and since God’s goods are eternal, so is their loss.
Against Heresies 5.28.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Word gives each a fitting dwelling: the kingdom for those in the light, the eternal fire for those who have deprived themselves of all good.
Against Heresies 5.28.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Antichrist, sent at God’s foreknown time as judgment on those who refused the truth, is John’s beast with its false prophet and the number 666, summing up six thousand years of apostasy.
Against Heresies 5.28.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As the world was made in six days and a day of the Lord is a thousand years, the world will come to its end in the six-thousandth year.
Against Heresies 5.29.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Creation exists for the sake of man; the unbelieving nations are like chaff serving the wheat, and when the Church is taken up the final tribulation will come.
Against Heresies 5.29.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The number 666 sums up the wickedness before the flood (Noah’s six hundred years) and the idolatry after it (Nebuchadnezzar’s image, sixty by six cubits), all gathered in the Antichrist.
Against Heresies 5.30.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The true number is 666, attested by the ancient copies and by those who saw John; those who adopt the corrupt reading 616 and invent names for the Antichrist risk being deceived by him.
Against Heresies 5.30.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Believers should wait for the tenfold division of the kingdom and then recognize the Antichrist, who, according to Jeremiah, will come from the tribe of Dan.
Against Heresies 5.30.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Irenaeus notes that Euanthas, Lateinos, and especially Teitan add up to 666 but declines to name the Antichrist, since John, who saw the vision late in Domitian’s reign, did not.
Against Heresies 5.30.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Antichrist will reign three and a half years until the Lord comes from heaven, casts him into the lake of fire, and brings the just the kingdom, the hallowed seventh day of rest.
Against Heresies 5.31.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Against those who say the soul rises to heaven at death, Christ himself remained three days among the dead before rising and ascending.
Against Heresies 5.31.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As Christ stayed among the dead until the third day and then rose bodily, so the souls of the faithful wait in an invisible place until the resurrection of their bodies.
Against Heresies 5.32.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The just will rise first and reign in this renewed creation, in which they suffered, before the final judgment, as Paul says creation awaits its liberation.
Against Heresies 5.32.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God promised the land to Abraham, who never possessed it; he and his seed, the Church of believers, will receive it at the resurrection of the just.
Against Heresies 5.33.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · At the Last Supper Christ promised to drink the fruit of the vine new with his disciples in the kingdom, which shows a renewed earth and a bodily resurrection.
Against Heresies 5.33.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The rewards promised for feeding the poor and leaving all for Christ will be given in the kingdom, the hallowed seventh day, the true sabbath of the just.
Against Heresies 5.33.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Isaac’s blessing of Jacob was never fulfilled in Jacob’s life and so refers to the kingdom, when, as the elders heard from John, the earth will bear marvellous abundance.
Against Heresies 5.33.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Papias, hearer of John, records the same teaching, and Isaiah’s peaceable animals are to be taken literally of the renewed creation, not only allegorically of converted nations.
Against Heresies 5.34.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah foretell the resurrection of the just and the gathering of God’s people, the Church as Abraham’s seed, to dwell in their land.
Against Heresies 5.34.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Isaiah’s fruitful earth and healed wound, Christ’s promise to serve his watchful servants, John’s first resurrection, and Daniel’s kingdom of the saints all point to the kingdom of the just.
Against Heresies 5.34.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Jeremiah’s promises to the islands, the churches of the nations, of plenty and joy on Mount Zion signify the feast of the renewed creation in the kingdom of the just.
Against Heresies 5.34.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Isaiah foretells a righteous king in Jerusalem, rebuilt with precious stones, where the people will live long, build, and plant in peace.
Against Heresies 5.35.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophecies cannot be allegorized away; they will be fulfilled after the Antichrist in the resurrection of the just, when they reign in a restored Jerusalem, as the prophet (Baruch) foretells.
Against Heresies 5.35.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · These promises concern the earth in the times of the kingdom; afterwards come the general judgment and the new heaven and earth, with the new Jerusalem descending, all to be taken literally, not allegorically.
Against Heresies 5.36.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Creation is not annihilated but renewed; in the new heaven and earth the saved will dwell in heaven, in paradise, or in the city, according to their worth, and everywhere see God.
Against Heresies 5.36.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The elders teach that the saved receive different dwellings according to their fruitfulness and ascend through the Spirit to the Son and through the Son to the Father, until God is all in all.
Against Heresies 5.36.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · John, the prophets, the Lord, and Paul agree on the resurrection of the just and the kingdom, in which one God brings his handiwork, united to the Son, to the image and likeness of God.
25Anonymous · ca. 180–185 · One death and one judgment await all.
30Anonymous · ca. 180–185 · Apollonius values eternal life above this life.
37Anonymous · ca. 180–185 · A summary of Christ's moral teaching and Christian hope.
42Anonymous · ca. 180–185 · Even if Christian hope were a delusion, it teaches a good life.
Hortatory Address to the Greeks 1Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century (disputed) · The author proposes to compare the teachers of Greek religion with those of the Christians, to free the Greeks from ancestral error.
Hortatory Address to the Greeks 8Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century (disputed) · The Hebrew prophets, older than the Greek teachers, received their knowledge from God and taught in perfect agreement.
Hortatory Address to the Greeks 14Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century (disputed) · The Greeks should examine their own teachers, for Orpheus, Homer, Solon, Pythagoras, and Plato learned from Moses in Egypt and changed their views.
Hortatory Address to the Greeks 26Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century (disputed) · Plato attributes true knowledge to "men dear to God", meaning the prophets, and from them learned of judgment after death.
Hortatory Address to the Greeks 27Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century (disputed) · Plato's myth of Er, with Ardiaeus punished in body, shows he learned judgment and even bodily resurrection from the prophets.
Hortatory Address to the Greeks 35Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century (disputed) · The Greeks should abandon ancestral error and read the plain-spoken prophets, who teach the way to eternal life.
Prophetic Extracts 11.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The elders were distressed when they did not suffer bodily, fearing that unpunished sins would be punished all at once hereafter.
Prophetic Extracts 12.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · We already have a pledge of eternal goods and hope for the rest; the beatitudes are our provisions for the journey.
Prophetic Extracts 12.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · We groan to be clothed with incorruption.
Prophetic Extracts 17.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · God, who made us from nothing, saves us by grace if we are fit; otherwise he lets us go to our end.
Prophetic Extracts 25.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The seeds of life are gathered like wheat; the material perishes when separated; the Spirit separates and the fire consumes.
Prophetic Extracts 25.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Spirit corresponds to the bodiless soul, fire to what is material; this fire is not evil but a good power that cleanses, which is why the prophets call it wise.
Prophetic Extracts 26.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Christ's fire cleanses the holy; the heretics say it destroys the material, but Clement says it disciplines.
Prophetic Extracts 39.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · An elder taught that there are punishments for evil words, and that women who adorn their hair for immorality are punished by the power set over hair, which gave Samson his strength.
Prophetic Extracts 40.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · God's judgment is good: it separates believers from unbelievers, prevents worse judgment, and disciplines.
Prophetic Extracts 41.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Scripture says exposed infants are given to a guardian angel to be raised, and will be like the long-faithful.
Prophetic Extracts 41.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Apocalypse of Peter says fire leaps from those infants to strike the eyes of the women who exposed them,
Prophetic Extracts 41.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · since the righteous will shine like sparks through stubble and judge nations.
Prophetic Extracts 48.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Apocalypse of Peter says aborted infants are given to a guardian angel, to receive knowledge and a better dwelling.
Prophetic Extracts 48.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Others will receive salvation alone, pitied as wronged, without punishment.
Prophetic Extracts 49.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Apocalypse of Peter says that the congealed milk of mothers who killed their children breeds beasts that devour them, teaching that punishments arise from sins.
Prophetic Extracts 49.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Punishments are born from sins, as Israel was bitten by snakes for unbelief.
Prophetic Extracts 56.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · “In the sun he set his tent” should be read after the verses about the bridegroom's coming, as referring to the second coming.
Prophetic Extracts 56.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · “He set” refers to the future: at the end Christ will come to the faithful, who form one body with many members,
Prophetic Extracts 56.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · and they will be set in the sun, shining like the sun, since a ruling angel is in the sun;
Prophetic Extracts 56.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · the sun rules the day, as the moon the night.
Prophetic Extracts 56.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The saved will be ranked with the sun's angels and in time rule the days, as each angel advances to a higher office, rising to the first abode.
Prophetic Extracts 56.7Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · In the past sense, God set the highest angels in rest and contemplation, and the others advance in rank.
Prophetic Extracts 57.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The first-created angels are the “thrones,” because God rests in them, as he does in believers.
Prophetic Extracts 57.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · God rests on each one's knowledge of him, and knowledge makes the knower eternal.
Prophetic Extracts 57.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Those far above every power are the perfected, raised into the nature of the highest angels.
Prophetic Extracts 57.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Those who become angels are taught for a thousand years, then teach others, rising by periods to higher rank.
Prophetic Extracts 60.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · God's judgments are firm and just, restoring the righteous to the unity of faith.
Excerpts from Theodotus 4.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Clement: at the Transfiguration Christ revealed his glory for the church's sake, to show its future after death.
Excerpts from Theodotus 9.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Faith differs in degree: the called may be led astray by the Antichrist, but not the elect.
Excerpts from Theodotus 9.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Some sayings are addressed to the called: the prodigal son, and those called from the roads to the wedding feast.
Excerpts from Theodotus 9.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · All are called equally, but those who believe more are chosen, to whom Christ speaks as his own.
Excerpts from Theodotus 11.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · As are the angels who see the Father's face, so will the elect be when perfected; and the pure in heart will see God.
Excerpts from Theodotus 11.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The apostle speaks of heavenly bodies; spiritual beings with different names must have forms.
Excerpts from Theodotus 14.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Demons are called bodiless only by comparison with the spiritual bodies of the saved; they have a shape and can feel punishment.
Excerpts from Theodotus 14.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Angels and souls are bodies of a kind, as Paul speaks of a psychic and a spiritual body.
Excerpts from Theodotus 14.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Souls must be bodies of some kind, since they are punished; Christ speaks of casting soul and body into Gehenna.
Excerpts from Theodotus 14.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The parable of Lazarus and the rich man, with its fingers and tongue, shows the soul has a kind of body.
Excerpts from Theodotus 15.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Paul's “image of the heavenly” shows that there are spiritual bodies.
Excerpts from Theodotus 15.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Seeing “face to face” implies form and body, since figure is seen by figure.
Excerpts from Theodotus 18.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · After rising, Christ preached to the righteous at rest and transferred them; his coming on earth was a shadow of his glory, a shadow that illuminates.
Excerpts from Theodotus 27.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The high priest's laying aside of the golden plate before entering the Holy of Holies signifies the purified soul laying aside its body, having the Name engraved within.
Excerpts from Theodotus 27.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The soul's body is laid aside in the intelligible world, beside the angels who offer up prayers.
Excerpts from Theodotus 27.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The stripped soul passes into the spiritual realm and becomes high-priestly, animated directly by the Word, as the archangels are high priests of the angels.
Excerpts from Theodotus 27.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The purified soul, seeing God face to face, no longer needs Scripture and study.
Excerpts from Theodotus 27.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The perfected soul passes beyond written teaching to direct knowledge, dwelling with the Bridegroom among the first-created as friend, son, and brother.
Excerpts from Theodotus 27.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Wearing the body and learning belong to the present plan; the final gift is to become God-bearing, the Lord's own body.
Excerpts from Theodotus 37.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Valentinians say the righteous descendants of Adam are held with the Demiurge, the others in darkness feeling the fire.
Excerpts from Theodotus 38.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · A river of fire flows from the Demiurge's throne into Gehenna; the Demiurge himself is fiery.
Excerpts from Theodotus 51.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Christ's warning about destroying soul and body in Gehenna refers to these two.
Excerpts from Theodotus 61.8Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The psychic are raised; the believing spiritual are saved beyond them, their souls being wedding garments. The psychic Christ sits at the Demiurge's right hand,
Excerpts from Theodotus 63.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The spiritual rest with Wisdom in the Ogdoad; other faithful souls are with the Demiurge until the end, when they too enter the Ogdoad.
Excerpts from Theodotus 63.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Then all the saved share the wedding feast; afterward the spiritual put off their souls,
Excerpts from Theodotus 64.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · and, with Wisdom and their angel bridegrooms, enter the bridal chamber and see the Father, becoming Aeons in eternal union.
Excerpts from Theodotus 86.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The sealed are the children already in bed and the wise virgins who enter the prepared good things, while the others are shut out.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 2.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Some rich people, hearing that a camel passes through a needle's eye more easily, despair of salvation and give themselves entirely to this world.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 3.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The rich believer should neither exclude himself from salvation nor expect it without effort.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 3.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The rich believer should train under Christ, with the new covenant as food and the commandments as exercise, so as to win the crown of heaven at the last trumpet.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 6.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The question concerns the very purpose of his coming: the gift of eternal life, which is the gospel's theme.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 13.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · No one could feed the hungry or clothe the naked, as Christ commands on pain of judgment, if he had nothing himself.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 18.7Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Our final destiny depends on the soul's disposition: obedience and purity, or transgression and vice.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 19.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · By exchanging the passions for spiritual wealth, one gains treasure in heaven.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 23.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Christ promises rest and the unimaginable good things God has prepared for those who love him.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 24.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Whatever causes one to stumble, even an eye or life itself, must be given up for Christ's sake, to be saved in the life to come.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 25.8Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Visible things are temporary; eternal life belongs to the age to come.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 30.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Christ blesses those who fed, gave drink to, and welcomed him in the needy.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 30.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · they did to him; and those who neglected them are condemned as having neglected him.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 31.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The Father gives the kingdom to the little flock.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 32.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Giving buys an eternal dwelling: a divine exchange of perishable things for incorruption.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 32.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The poor believer, imitating God, gives the heavenly kingdom in return for small gifts.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 33.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · By testing too closely one may neglect God's friends and incur punishment; by giving to all one surely finds some who can intercede with God.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 36.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The world was made for the sake of these saints and will be dissolved when they are gathered in.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 37.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · John says that whoever does not love his brother is a murderer, a child of Cain, cut off from the vine and awaiting the fire.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 38.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Faith and hope end when God is seen and promises are fulfilled, but love grows to fullness.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 40.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · God will judge each person as he finds him at the end.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 40.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The end is decisive: a good life that ends in vice is wasted, while a bad life can be redeemed by later repentance.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.16Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · At death the repentant one is welcomed by rejoicing angels and by the Savior himself, who leads him to the Father and eternal life.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.17Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Whoever trusts the Scriptures and lives by them will see their truth proved at death.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.18Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Whoever repents now will not regret it at death or fear the judgment; whoever refuses forgiveness has only himself to blame.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.19Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The heavenly Father will grant true cleansing and unchanging life to those who seek salvation earnestly.
Miscellanies 1.21.125Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks, fulfilled from the Babylonian captivity, is quoted in full.
Miscellanies 1.21.126Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement interprets the seventy weeks: the temple rebuilt in seven weeks, Christ anointed within the sixty-two, and the last week ending with Nero and the destruction of Jerusalem under Vespasian.
Miscellanies 1.21.146Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Basilidians celebrate Christ's baptism on 15 or 11 Tybi and date his passion variously; Clement applies Daniel's 2,300 days to the years from Nero's desecration to the fall of Jerusalem.
Miscellanies 2.9.43Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The calling of the Gentiles was foretold because of Israel's disobedience, yet God's goodness seeks Israel's repentance; the Shepherd of Hermas knows righteous people among Gentiles and Jews even before the law.
Miscellanies 2.9.44Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Hermas says the apostles, after death, preached to the righteous dead and gave them the seal of baptism, so that they too were built into the tower; Gentiles who keep the law by nature are a law to themselves.
Miscellanies 2.22.131Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Plato makes the goal twofold, the Good itself and likeness to it in virtuous men; happiness is likeness to God, being just and holy with prudence; so some Christians say the image is given at creation and the likeness at perfection.
Miscellanies 2.22.134Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Christian goal is an endless end: obedience to God, likeness to right reason, and perfect adoption through the Son; Paul calls it eternal life and the fulfillment of hope through the love poured out by the Spirit.
Miscellanies 2.22.136Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · We wait in faith for the hope of righteousness, and Proverbs says the one who hears Wisdom will dwell confident; Paul bids us imitate him as he imitates Christ, and Christ God; the aim is likeness to God, the goal the fulfillment of the promise.
Miscellanies 3.6.47Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The seed of the sanctified is holy, and spouses sanctify each other; Christ forbade divorce except for sexual immorality, citing “the two shall be one flesh”; that there is no marriage after the resurrection, like the end of food, does not license indulgence now.
Miscellanies 3.6.48Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · If the ascetics have already received the resurrection, they should stop eating too; abstinence alone proves nothing, since pagans and the Magi practice it; the kingdom is not food and drink, and self-control is a hidden virtue of the soul.
Miscellanies 3.8.62Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · All must appear before Christ's judgment for deeds done in the body; in Christ one is a new creation, washed from the old life; righteousness has no fellowship with lawlessness, so we must cleanse ourselves in holiness.
Miscellanies 3.9.64Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ's answer, “as long as women bear children,” means as long as desires are active, since sin is the soul's death; death follows birth by God's order, and woman, bearing children, is also the source of life.
Miscellanies 3.9.65Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Eve was called Life as mother of all, righteous and unrighteous; Paul did not despise life in the flesh but saw it as thankful endurance for others, while departure to be with Christ is love's perfection.
Miscellanies 3.11.77Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul attributes his evil deeds to indwelling sin, from which the law of the Spirit sets him free through the Son; the body, dead through sin, becomes a temple when the Spirit who raised Jesus dwells in it.
Miscellanies 3.12.87Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · “They neither marry nor are given in marriage” does not reject marriage but corrects hopes of fleshly pleasure in the resurrection; “call no one father on earth” means the earthly father is only a servant of birth, God the true Father.
Miscellanies 4.3.11Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The fear produced by the law is not a passion, for the law is holy and spiritual; death is not an evil; the end of sin is death, but God's gift is eternal life in Christ.
Miscellanies 4.6.36Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The meek are those who have ended the war of anger and desire within; there are many rewards and dwelling places according to one's life; the laborers in the vineyard show both differing merit and equal salvation.
Miscellanies 4.6.37Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The saved will serve in dwelling places proportioned to their merit; Plato describes the purified dwelling above; “blessed are those who mourn” refers to repentance, whether from fear or from conscience, here or hereafter.
Miscellanies 4.7.44Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Unbelievers think martyrdom the most violent death, not knowing it is the gate of true life; even their own writers, Theano and Plato, teach rewards and punishments after death.
Miscellanies 4.16.104Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Wisdom teaches that martyrdom is a glorious purification: God tests the martyrs like gold and accepts them as a burnt offering; they will shine and judge the nations.
Miscellanies 4.18.112Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Confessing Christ for reward, giving to be repaid, or great faith without love count for nothing compared with the knowing martyr; those perfected in love will be revealed at the coming of Christ's kingdom.
Miscellanies 4.18.114Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Rewards differ: the knower receives what eye has not seen, the simple believer a hundredfold; Clement recalls a self-styled Gnostic who taught that desire alone is not sin unless it is acted out, even in imagination.
Miscellanies 4.18.116Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Looking with desire is sin even without imagined intercourse, if one admires flesh lustfully; but one who looks with pure love sees the soul's beauty and rises through it to the Creator, bearing the Spirit's anointing to the angels at the ascent.
Miscellanies 4.18.117Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Moses' face shone with a glory the people could not bear; at the soul's ascent the heavenly toll-collectors hold back those laden with worldly passions but send on the one full of knowledge and righteousness, like the tree of Psalm 1.
Miscellanies 4.22.141Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Sleep and death both withdraw the soul, as Heraclitus says; Paul calls us to wake, for salvation is near, and to put on the weapons of light, that is, the Son's precepts; hence washing before prayer.
Miscellanies 4.22.144Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Doing right only for reward is no better than doing it from fear; yet the hope of reward and punishment after death is taught by Scripture and by Pythagoreans, Socrates, and Heraclitus.
Miscellanies 4.25.155Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Euripides blesses the contemplative, and Plato calls the one who contemplates the Ideas a god among men; the soul that rises above becoming becomes like an angel and dwells with Christ, while the rest are shadows and the dead.
Miscellanies 4.25.159Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Perfect purification is faith leading through law and prophets to the gospel, and propitiation is obedient purity until the soul's release; whether the seven are periods or heavens and the eighth the fixed sphere, the knower must rise above becoming and sin.
Miscellanies 4.25.160Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Job's “naked I shall depart” means leaving free of sin, as Christ calls us to become like children, pure as when born of the womb of water in baptism; the lamp of the ungodly will be quenched.
Miscellanies 4.26.166Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The knower uses bodily and external goods like a traveler uses inns, caring for them without attachment and leaving gladly, thankful for his stay and longing for the heavenly dwelling, as Paul says.
Miscellanies 4.26.167Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul aims to please the one God, creator of all; Epicharmus and a lyric poet also teach that pious souls go to heaven and the ungodly suffer; the soul was not sent down from heaven as punishment, but the righteous soul rises from earth to heaven.
Miscellanies 4.26.172Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Euripides longs for golden wings to reach Zeus; Clement prays for the Spirit of Christ to lift him to his Jerusalem; the Stoics call heaven the true city, and the church, governed by the Word, is God's city on earth, of which the poets' and Plato's ideal cities are images.
Miscellanies 5.1.7Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · We are saved by grace, but not without good works and a sound will; we need grace, right teaching, and the Father's drawing; God cannot be seen clearly in this life, as Paul, Plato, and Moses say, but the pure in heart will see him; so the Savior was sent as divine teacher.
Miscellanies 5.1.9Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Empedocles praises faith; Paul wants faith to rest on God's power, not human wisdom; Heraclitus, taught by barbarian (biblical) philosophy, knew of judgment by fire, which the Stoics made the conflagration; Plato speaks of cleansings by fire and flood.
Miscellanies 5.2.14Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Plato's Socrates, in the Crito and Phaedrus, speaks of hope of another life after death and of the soul winged by love reaching the goal of hope and eternal life.
Miscellanies 5.6.40Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The perfected knower, purified in word and life, receives the unseen inheritance, becomes son and friend, and sees God face to face; the high priest's changing of robes signifies both Christ's incarnation and the believer's putting on the holy garment.
Miscellanies 5.14.90Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Greek ideas of formless matter, chance, and providence reaching only to the moon came from misreading Scripture, and the Greek pictures of punishment by fire after death, as in Plato's Republic, came from the same source.
Miscellanies 5.14.91Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Punishment after death implies that the soul is immortal; Plato knew of rivers of fire and Tartarus, which Scripture calls Gehenna, and of guardian spirits, as Scripture speaks of the angels of the little ones.
Miscellanies 5.14.103Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement reads Plato's “king of all” with a second and a third as a hint of the Trinity, and Plato's tale of Er, whom he identifies with Zoroaster, as a hint of the resurrection or the soul's ascent; Empedocles speaks of a final change of all things into fire.
Miscellanies 5.14.104Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Heraclitus taught both an everlasting world of fire and a world that comes to be and is dissolved again into fire.
Miscellanies 5.14.105Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Stoics follow Heraclitus on the world's conflagration; Plato calls our daylight night and the soul's entry into the body sleep, and David's “I slept and awoke” foretells Christ's incarnation and resurrection.
Miscellanies 5.14.106Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ's command to watch means separating the soul from the body; Plato's souls who rise on the eighth day from the meadow point to the Lord's day and the soul's ascent beyond the planets to heaven.
Miscellanies 5.14.121Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Verses ascribed to Diphilus teach that there is judgment after death with two paths for the righteous and the ungodly, and a tragic poet foretells the burning of the world by fire.
Miscellanies 5.14.122Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Tragic and Orphic verses speak of the world's destruction and restoration, and Empedocles of the blessed life with the immortals; no one is too great or too small to escape justice.
Miscellanies 5.14.138Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · True learning leads to knowledge of the heavens, as Parmenides and Metrodorus promise, and finally to the blessed vision of which Plato speaks, free from the body.
Miscellanies 5.14.139Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Pythagorean “counter-earth” is the promised land of the heavenly inheritance; Clement now stops citing examples so as not to turn a side-issue into his main work.
Miscellanies 6.6.44Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The law was given to the Hebrews and philosophy to the Greeks as preparation for the gospel; the righteous of both lacked faith, and so the Lord preached also to those in Hades.
Miscellanies 6.6.45Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The dead in Hades heard the Lord's voice; the Lord and then the apostles preached there to Hebrews and Gentiles who had lived righteously but imperfectly, so that they too might be saved.
Miscellanies 6.6.46Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ went to Hades to preach; if to all, believing Gentiles are saved, since God's punishments are meant to correct; if only to the Jews, the apostles preached to the Gentiles there, as the Shepherd says.
Miscellanies 6.6.47Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The righteous under the law and the righteous among the Greeks do not differ as righteous; those who lived rightly outside the law heard the Lord in Hades and believed, for God's saving power works everywhere.
Miscellanies 6.6.48Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · As the apostles were sent to all the living, so the preaching reached the dead in Hades, since it would be unjust to condemn those who never heard; God sets life and death before all to choose.
Miscellanies 6.6.49Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God offers a choice through Isaiah, and the psalm spoken for every believer of every age promises that the soul will not be left in Hades.
Miscellanies 6.6.51Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The psalms show God's help to the afflicted nations; since he preached to the living so that none be condemned unjustly, he must also have preached to those who died before his coming.
Miscellanies 6.6.52Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The flood was a corrective punishment that could not harm souls; even Valentinus admits that much of what is in public books is found in the church.
Miscellanies 6.9.75Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · One perfected by love and feasting on contemplation cannot return to petty pleasures; though still in the body, he has departed to the Lord, not by ending his life but by withdrawing his soul from the passions.
Miscellanies 6.13.106Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Anyone who lives the gospel perfectly can be counted among the apostles; he is a true presbyter and deacon, made so by righteousness rather than ordination, and will sit on the twenty-four thrones; there is one saving covenant for Jews and Greeks.
Miscellanies 6.13.107Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Jews and Greeks form one elect people, and the most perfect among them are the twenty-four elders; the church's bishops, presbyters, and deacons imitate the angelic order, and the perfected advance in glory from deacons to presbyters.
Miscellanies 6.14.108Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The perfect will rest on God's holy mountain, the highest church, passing beyond the Sabbath rest to the eighth day; the Lord's other sheep have other folds, and “Your faith has saved you” does not mean salvation without works.
Miscellanies 6.14.109Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The believer must put off the passions; knowing is more than believing, and the one who sinned after baptism bears the pain of seeing others receive what he lacks, a grief that remains even when purifying punishments end.
Miscellanies 6.14.114Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Dwelling places differ by merit, as the thirty, sixty, and hundredfold show; likeness to God is not bodily shape nor an equal virtue with God, but the disciple's likeness to the Teacher in adoption and friendship with God.
Miscellanies 7.2.10Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God's commandments reward those who choose the good, and the soul advances step by step through ever better places until it reaches the eternal contemplation nearest to the Lord.
Miscellanies 7.2.12Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God arranges everything for salvation without forcing free choice and is never the cause of evil; virtuous souls rise to better dwellings, while disciplines and judgments press the hardened to repent.
Miscellanies 7.3.13Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The souls of those who know rise beyond every heavenly rank to see God face to face forever; on earth the one who knows converses with God through Christ, shapes himself into God's likeness, and serves others.
Miscellanies 7.10.56Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Knowledge, given to those prepared for it, leads beyond the discipline that purifies us of sin to a final restoration in which the pure in heart contemplate God forever and are called gods, enthroned beneath the Savior.
Miscellanies 7.10.57Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Knowledge leads the pure in heart to see God face to face; the two saving changes are from paganism to faith and from faith to knowledge, which ends in friendship with God and, after this life, an unchanging dwelling in the Father's house.
Miscellanies 7.11.68Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Love makes the one who knows a friend and son of God, grown to full maturity; the pure soul will see God face to face forever and rest in the spiritual church.
Miscellanies 7.12.78Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows shares others' sufferings, gives even from his own need, lives as a stranger on earth ready for death, does everything in holiness whether eating, drinking, or marrying, and prays together with the angels and saints.
Miscellanies 7.13.83Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows is troubled by nothing, unafraid of death, and uses the world with thanksgiving; those who receive the Word loftily will stand like the towers of Zion in faith and knowledge.
Miscellanies 7.16.102Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Ignorance is cured by knowledge from Scripture, weakness by disciplined practice; Clement hopes the heretics will repent, and if not, that God's fatherly chastisements, which are corrective, not vengeful, will bring them to repentance before the final judgment.
Octavius 8.5Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Christians scorn present tortures out of fear of future punishment and hope of resurrection.
Octavius 11.1Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Caecilius ridicules the Christian belief that the world will end in fire.
Octavius 11.2Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Christians believe the dead will rise from their ashes.
Octavius 11.3Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · They predict the end of the stars but eternity for themselves.
Octavius 11.4Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Christians reject cremation, though every body decays anyway.
Octavius 11.5Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Christians promise heaven to themselves and hell to others, yet they themselves believe everything is determined.
Octavius 11.7Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Caecilius asks what kind of body could rise again.
Octavius 11.8Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · No one has ever come back from the dead.
Octavius 11.9Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · The resurrection is a poets' fable that Christians have borrowed.
Octavius 34.1Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Octavius turns to the end of the world by fire.
Octavius 34.2Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · The Stoics too teach that the world will end in fire.
Octavius 34.3Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · The Epicureans agree that the world will perish.
Octavius 34.4Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Plato says the world is indestructible only by God's will.
Octavius 34.5Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · The philosophers' ideas echo the prophets, from whom they borrowed a distorted shadow of truth.
Octavius 34.6Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Pythagoras and Plato taught a garbled version of the resurrection.
Octavius 34.7Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · They taught that only souls survive and move into new bodies.
Octavius 34.8Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Transmigration into animals is a ridiculous idea.
Octavius 34.10Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · God who made man from nothing can remake him; no body is lost to God, whatever happens to it.
Octavius 34.11Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Nature's cycles of death and renewal point to the resurrection.
Octavius 34.12Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Many wish there were no afterlife because they fear judgment; God's patience is not indifference.
Octavius 35.1Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Pagan poets and writers too speak of fiery punishment after death.
Octavius 35.2Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Even Jupiter swears by the river of hell, fearing its punishment.
Octavius 35.3Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · The fire of punishment torments without end and without consuming.
Octavius 35.4Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Ignorance of God, the Father of all, deserves punishment as much as offending him.
Octavius 38.4Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Christians await an unfading crown from God and live in hope of the resurrection.
Apology 18Tertullian · ca. 197 · God has also revealed himself through the prophets, whose writings were translated into Greek for Ptolemy Philadelphus and are read openly by the Jews every Sabbath.
Apology 20Tertullian · ca. 197 · The fulfillment of prophecy in present events proves the Scriptures divine and grounds Christian confidence about the future.
Apology 23Tertullian · ca. 197 · Tertullian challenges the magistrates to test it: before a Christian, the spirits worshiped as gods confess that they are demons and fear Christ the judge.
Apology 32Tertullian · ca. 197 · Christians pray for the empire because its continuance delays the end of the age, and they swear by the emperors' welfare, not by their genii, which are demons.
Apology 41Tertullian · ca. 197 · The pagans, not the Christians, bring disasters on the world; God sends good and ill on all alike until the final judgment, as admonition to Christians and punishment to others.
Apology 45Tertullian · ca. 197 · Christians alone are truly innocent, because their law, taught by God, forbids even anger, lust of the eyes, and retaliation, and they fear his eternal judgment.
Apology 47Tertullian · ca. 197 · The philosophers and poets drew on the older Scriptures and distorted them, as heretics have since distorted the Christian rule of truth; their judgment, Pyriphlegethon, and Elysium are copies of Christian teaching.
Apology 48Tertullian · ca. 197 · The resurrection of the same person, body and soul, for judgment is more credible than transmigration; God who made man from nothing can remake him, and the world is full of images of resurrection.
On the Dress of Women 2.7Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Elaborate hairstyles and wigs defy Christ's word and may use hair from the damned; God commands women to be veiled, and nothing artificial will rise at the resurrection.
On the Dress of Women 2.9Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Rich clothing serves vanity; like those who renounce marriage or wine for God, Christian women should use wealth as if not using it, since the time is short.
Against the Jews 11Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · Citing Ezekiel's vision of the sign Tau, Moses' warning of a life “hanging on a tree,” and Daniel's seventy weeks, the author argues that Christ's coming and suffering have sealed and fulfilled prophecy.
Against the Jews 14Tertullian · ca. 197–207 · The author explains Jewish unbelief by Christ's two comings, the first in humility and the second in glory, prefigured in Zechariah's high priest Jesus and the two goats of the Day of Atonement, and concludes that the prophecies have been fulfilled in Christ.
To the Nations 1.7Tertullian · 197 · The charges of ritual murder and incest rest only on rumor, which has never been proved in all the years Christians have been watched and arrested; no one would buy eternal life at such a price.
To the Nations 1.19Tertullian · 197 · Christian courage rests on hope of resurrection and judgment, beliefs that pagans mock though their own poets and philosophers teach the return of souls and a judgment after death.
On the Shows 28Tertullian · ca. 197–202 · The Christian's feast is still to come; for now believers mourn while the world rejoices, and their true pleasure is to depart and be with the Lord.
On the Shows 29Tertullian · ca. 197–202 · Christians have their own better shows: forgiveness, freedom, victory over demons, the race toward the end, and the contests of virtue, in which they are crowned.
On the Shows 30Tertullian · ca. 197–202 · The greatest show is still to come: Christ's return, the new Jerusalem, and the judgment, when persecutors, philosophers, and performers will burn and those who mocked Christ will see him.
The Testimony of the Soul 4Tertullian · ca. 197–198 · The soul's habits of pitying, cursing, or blessing the dead, fearing death, and seeking posthumous fame show that it knows it survives death and faces judgment, and even hints at resurrection.
The Testimony of the Soul 6Tertullian · ca. 197–198 · The soul's testimony is the same in every nation, so every soul will stand at the judgment both as witness to the truth and as defendant for rejecting it.
On Prayer 5Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Praying for God's kingdom to come means longing for the end of the world and the final vindication of the martyrs, not asking for the world to be prolonged.
On Repentance 12Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The fires of volcanoes foreshadow Gehenna; since exomologesis is the second remedy after baptism, the sinner should use it, like Nebuchadnezzar, and not reject it, like Pharaoh.
On Patience 9Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Christians should not grieve impatiently for the dead, since, believing in the resurrection, they know that death is only a departure to Christ, whom they too will soon follow.
On Patience 16Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Pagan “patience” in pursuit of money and pleasure is a devilish counterfeit; Christians should repay Christ's patience with patience of spirit and body, believing in the resurrection of both.
To His Wife 1.1Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Tertullian writes to his wife, urging her not to remarry if he dies first, since there is no marriage in the resurrection.
To His Wife 1.5Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Children and posterity are no reason for Christians to remarry, since the end is near and encumbrances hinder; the time is short.
Acts of Thomas 22Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Gad dies, and angels show him in heaven the palace Thomas built for the king; he asks to return and buy it from his brother.
Acts of Thomas 28Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas preaches against sexual immorality, greed, and gluttony, quotes the Lord's sayings on anxiety, and calls all to repent before the coming judgment.
Acts of Thomas 41Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The colt dies at the city gate; Thomas frees a woman from a demon that has abused her for five years, seals her and gives the Eucharist; then a youth who killed his lover for refusing continence is convicted by the Eucharist and healed, and the woman, raised, describes the punishments she saw in the place of the dead.
Acts of Thomas 58Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The raised woman begs to be spared the punishments; Thomas warns the crowd that worse punishments await unless they turn to God, who forgives and cleanses.
Acts of Thomas 148Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas prays that, having overcome the passions and kept watch, he may pass the hostile powers and tax collectors of the heavenly ascent unharmed and stand before the judge.
Didascalia 5.7–9 (Latin)Anonymous · first half of the third century · The resurrection is taught by the prophets, foreshadowed even by the Sibyl and by the phoenix, and guaranteed by Christ's resurrection, so believers should welcome martyrdom, for which a greater glory is promised.
Didascalia 6.23Anonymous · first half of the third century · The apostles close the Teaching, defending its severity as the physician's knife, and end with a creed-like doxology to Christ.
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On Christ and Antichrist 5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Hippolytus lists the questions about Antichrist and the end that the treatise will answer from Scripture.
On Christ and Antichrist 6Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Antichrist will imitate Christ in everything: lion, king, lamb, apostles, seal, and temple.
On Christ and Antichrist 9Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Christ is the expectation of the nations, whom believers await from heaven.
On Christ and Antichrist 14Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Antichrist will come from the tribe of Dan, called a lion's whelp and a serpent.
On Christ and Antichrist 15Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Samson only partly fulfilled the prophecy that Dan shall judge his people; it will be fulfilled in Antichrist.
On Christ and Antichrist 16Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Isaiah's oracle against the boastful king of Assyria is applied to Antichrist.
On Christ and Antichrist 17Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Isaiah's taunt over the fallen king of Babylon, the Morning Star, is applied to Antichrist.
On Christ and Antichrist 18Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Ezekiel's oracle against the prince of Tyre who called himself God is applied to Antichrist.
On Christ and Antichrist 19Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Hippolytus quotes Daniel's account of Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great image.
On Christ and Antichrist 20Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Hippolytus quotes Daniel's vision of the four beasts and the little horn.
On Christ and Antichrist 21Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The quotation continues with Daniel's vision of the Ancient of Days and the judgment of the beast.
On Christ and Antichrist 22Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The quotation ends with the coming of one like a son of man to receive the everlasting kingdom.
On Christ and Antichrist 23Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The lioness is Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, humbled and brought to repentance.
On Christ and Antichrist 24Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The bear is Persia and the four-headed leopard is Alexander's Greek kingdom, divided into four.
On Christ and Antichrist 25Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The fourth beast is Rome; the ten toes and horns are future kings, and the little horn is Antichrist.
On Christ and Antichrist 26Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The stone from heaven is Christ, to whom the Father has given all authority in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.
On Christ and Antichrist 27Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The ten toes and ten horns signify future kingdoms still to come.
On Christ and Antichrist 28Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · A summary table: the image and the beasts are Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, the coming kingdoms, Antichrist, and Christ.
On Christ and Antichrist 29Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Hippolytus turns, with caution, to what will befall the harlot Babylon before the judgment.
On Christ and Antichrist 30Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Isaiah's prophecy of Jerusalem's desolation has been fulfilled under Roman rule; Isaiah himself was sawn in two.
On Christ and Antichrist 32Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Daniel's visions of the bear, leopard, ram and he-goat have all been fulfilled.
On Christ and Antichrist 33Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The iron fourth beast, Rome, already rules and subdues all.
On Christ and Antichrist 34Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Hippolytus quotes Isaiah's oracle against the virgin daughter of Babylon.
On Christ and Antichrist 36Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · John on Patmos is called to tell of Babylon, and his vision of the harlot on the scarlet beast is quoted.
On Christ and Antichrist 37Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The quotation continues: the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and the beast that was and is not.
On Christ and Antichrist 38Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The quotation continues with the angel's interpretation of the seven heads and ten horns.
On Christ and Antichrist 39Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The quotation continues: the beast and the ten horns will turn on the harlot, the great city.
On Christ and Antichrist 40Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The quotation of Revelation continues with the angel's cry that Babylon is fallen.
On Christ and Antichrist 41Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The quotation of Revelation continues with the lament of kings, merchants, and sailors over Babylon.
On Christ and Antichrist 42Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The quotation ends with the millstone cast into the sea and the silence of fallen Babylon.
On Christ and Antichrist 43Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Daniel's last week of years is the end of the world; Enoch and Elijah will preach during its first half.
On Christ and Antichrist 44Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · As Christ has two comings, one humble and one glorious, so he has two forerunners; the first was John the Baptist.
On Christ and Antichrist 46Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Christ, the first to rise, will come as Judge, and his forerunners must appear before him, as Malachi foretold of Elijah.
On Christ and Antichrist 47Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The two witnesses prophesy for half the week until the beast, Antichrist, kills them and wars against the saints.
On Christ and Antichrist 48Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Hippolytus quotes John's vision of the second beast from the earth and the number 666.
On Christ and Antichrist 49Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The second beast is Antichrist's kingdom, which will revive Roman rule and force sacrifice on all, as Antiochus Epiphanes did.
On Christ and Antichrist 50Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Hippolytus cautiously suggests names whose letters make 666, especially Lateinos, without claiming certainty.
On Christ and Antichrist 51Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Edom, Moab, and Ammon, whose descendants still exist, will escape Antichrist, as Daniel and Isaiah foretell.
On Christ and Antichrist 52Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Antichrist will conquer Egypt, Libya, and Ethiopia, then exalt himself against God and attack Tyre and Berytus first.
On Christ and Antichrist 53Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · After his conquests Antichrist will proclaim himself God, as Ezekiel and Isaiah foretold.
On Christ and Antichrist 54Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Antichrist will gather the Jewish people from the dispersion, promising to restore their kingdom, like Jeremiah's partridge.
On Christ and Antichrist 55Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Like the partridge that lures another bird's young, Antichrist will lure humanity, promising a redemption he cannot give.
On Christ and Antichrist 56Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Antichrist, called on by those who reject the saints, will persecute them; the parable of the unjust judge is quoted.
On Christ and Antichrist 57Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The unjust judge is Antichrist and the widow is Jerusalem, which rejected her true Bridegroom and Saviour.
On Christ and Antichrist 58Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · As Moses foresaw, the people who rejected Christ will seek vengeance on the saints through Antichrist, who will decree their death.
On Christ and Antichrist 60Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · John's vision of the woman clothed with the sun, pursued by the dragon, is quoted.
On Christ and Antichrist 61Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The woman is the Church, always bearing Christ; her flight on eagle's wings is the persecuted Church's refuge in faith in the crucified Christ.
On Christ and Antichrist 62Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The Lord's words on the abomination of desolation and the great tribulation are joined to Daniel's numbered days.
On Christ and Antichrist 63Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Paul's warning about the man of sin who will seat himself in the temple of God is quoted.
On Christ and Antichrist 64Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · After the last week, Christ will appear from heaven to bring the conflagration and judgment.
On Christ and Antichrist 65Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Scripture's promises of resurrection to life for the saints and of eternal fire for the lawless are gathered.
On Christ and Antichrist 66Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Paul's teaching on the resurrection of those who sleep in Christ and the meeting with the Lord in the air is quoted.
On Christ and Antichrist 67Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Hippolytus closes by urging Theophilus to keep the Scriptures in faith and await the appearing of Christ.
Against the Greeks 1Hippolytus of Rome · 3rd century (disputed) · Hades holds the souls of the righteous in light at Abraham's bosom and the unrighteous near Gehenna, separated by a great chasm, until the judgment.
Against the Greeks 2Hippolytus of Rome · 3rd century (disputed) · God will raise the same bodies, pure and incorruptible for the righteous, unchanged for the unrighteous, as seed rises from the earth.
Against the Greeks 3Hippolytus of Rome · 3rd century (disputed) · Christ the Word, not Minos or Rhadamanthys, will judge all; the wicked suffer endless fire, while the righteous enjoy a kingdom free of night, toil, and death.
On Proverbs, fragment 18Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · On Prov 11:30: Christ is the fruit of righteousness and tree of life whose fruit gives eternal life, while the souls of the lawless are cut off in torment.
On Proverbs, fragment 25Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · On Prov 30:21–23: the earth is shaken by the threefold coming through law, prophets and gospel, and cannot bear the fourth, the coming of the judge.
On Proverbs, fragment 46Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · On Prov 25:25b: the good news from afar is the message of the resurrection and the promises.
On the Raising of Lazarus (homily), part 2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · The second part of the Lazarus homily: Christ's tears teach ordered sympathy, the Jews roll away the stone as witnesses, and the voice that created the world raises Lazarus, a mirror of our own resurrection.
On the Resurrection and Incorruption, fragmentHippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · In the resurrection men will be like angels, incorruptible and free from all bodily needs and sufferings.
Heads against Gaius, fragment I (on Rev 8:8)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Against Gaius, who denied that the plagues of the Revelation could precede a sudden coming of the Lord, Hippolytus compares them to the plagues of Egypt, now extended to the whole world.
Heads against Gaius, fragment II (on Rev 8:12)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Against Gaius's appeal to the suddenness of the flood, Hippolytus argues that at the end the order of heaven and earth must dissolve gradually, as Joel and Luke foretell.
Heads against Gaius, fragment III (on Rev 9:2-3)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Against Gaius, Hippolytus explains that the locusts of the Revelation strike only the ungodly persecutors, while the sealed saints have rest, as the Hebrews did in Egypt.
Heads against Gaius, fragment IV (on Rev 9:14-15)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Against Gaius, Hippolytus interprets the four angels bound at the Euphrates as the angels of four nations, held back by the Word until the Antichrist comes.
Heads against Gaius, fragment V (on Rev 11:2-12)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · On Rev 11:2 and Matt 24:15–20, the forty-two months are read as the half-week of Daniel, and Hippolytus applies the abomination of desolation to the Antichrist rather than to the fall of Jerusalem.
Heads against Gaius, fragment VI (on Matt 24:15-22)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus argues that the great tribulation and the abomination of desolation refer not to Vespasian's siege but to the Antichrist, against whom Enoch and Elijah, the two witnesses, will prophesy before they are killed and raised.
Heads against Gaius, fragment VII (on Rev 20:2-3)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Against Gaius, who held that Satan is already bound, Hippolytus argues that the devil still tempts and fights, and reads the thousand years of Rev 20 as one perfect day at the Lord's coming.
On the resurrection, to the Empress Mammaea, Syriac fragment IHippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · From Hippolytus's sermon on the resurrection to the empress Mammaea: the Nicolaitan sect began with the deacon Nicolaus, who taught that the resurrection had already happened in faith and baptism.
On the resurrection, to the Empress Mammaea, Syriac fragment IVHippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus interprets the treasure in earthen vessels as the knowledge and gift of the Spirit placed in our fragile flesh.
On the resurrection, to the Empress Mammaea, Syriac fragment VHippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus argues that the body that has received the Spirit does not finally perish, citing Rom 8:10–11.
On the resurrection, to the Empress Mammaea, Syriac fragment VIHippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus concludes that the Spirit dwelling in the flesh makes the body incorruptible through faith in Christ, the firstfruits of the resurrection.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 1 (on Rev 7, 4—8)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · An Arabic commentator on Rev 7:4–8 reads the sealed of the twelve tribes as Jewish believers, the firstfruits, and says Hippolytus held the same view.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 2 (on Rev 10, 1—7)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · The commentator reports that Hippolytus applied the prophecy to the dead who rise, not to the Maccabees.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 4 (on Apok Jeh312. 1)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus reads the woman of Rev 12:1 as the church, the sun as Christ, the moon as John the Baptist, and the twelve stars as the apostles.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 6 (on Rev 12, 3. 4)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus explains the seven heads of the dragon as seven kingdoms ending with Rome and the Antichrist, and the ten horns as ten kings.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 11 (on Rev 13, 3)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · On Rev 13:3 Hippolytus explains the healed wound of the beast as the contempt shown to the Antichrist at first, overcome when false signs win obedience to him.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 12 (on Rev 13, 11)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · The commentator, against Hippolytus, holds that the beast from the earth comes after the Antichrist rather than before him.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 13 (on Rev 13, 11)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus interprets the beast's two lamb-like horns as the law and the prophets, a gentle appearance hiding a ravening wolf.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 14 (on Rev 13, 16)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus explains the mark on the hand as prostration and the mark on the forehead as wearing it like a crown.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 15 (on Rev 13, 18)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · The commentator reports that Hippolytus proposed four names whose letters add up to the number of the beast, including Teitan, Euanthas, and Lateinos.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 17 (on Rev 16, 12)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · On Rev 16:12 the commentator poses four questions about the kings of the east and reports Hippolytus's view that they are followers of the Antichrist who come to help him.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 18 (on Rev 16, 16)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus identifies Armageddon with the valley of Jehoshaphat.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 19 (on Rev 17, 4 — 7)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · On Rev 17:3–6 the commentator identifies the beast ridden by the woman with the power of the Latins, claiming Hippolytus's authority for this reading.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 20 (on Rev 17, 8)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus identifies the scarlet beast of Rev 17 with the beast from the sea of Rev 13.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 21 (on Rev 17, 10)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus interprets the five fallen heads of Rev 17:10 as the kingdoms from Nebuchadnezzar to Alexander's successors, the one that is as Rome, and the one to come as the Antichrist.
Pistis Sophia 86Anonymous · 3rd century
On Mount Sinai and Mount Zion 5Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · The names of Abel, Enoch, Job, and Abraham foretold their destinies, including Enoch's return to confront the Antichrist.
On Mount Sinai and Mount Zion 11Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · The two mountains stand for the two testaments and the two peoples: the earthly Jews who received the land, and the heavenly Christians who will receive the kingdom.
Against Hermogenes 11Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · If matter is eternal it cannot be evil, and if evil were eternal it could never be overcome; but Scripture promises an end of evil, so evil has a beginning.
Against Hermogenes 34Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Scripture foretells that heaven and earth will pass away; what ends in nothing began from nothing, and God's promise to raise our flesh shows he makes the greater from the lesser.
Prescription against Heretics 13Tertullian · ca. 203 · Tertullian states the rule of faith: one Creator God, his Word and Son born of the virgin Mary, crucified, risen, ascended, sending the Spirit, and coming to judge, with the resurrection of the flesh.
Prescription against Heretics 33Tertullian · ca. 203 · Many heresies were already present or foreshadowed in the apostles' day and condemned by them: denial of the resurrection, Judaizing, forbidding marriage, endless genealogies, the Nicolaitans, docetism, and Simon's magic.
Prescription against Heretics 44Tertullian · ca. 203 · At the judgment heretics will have no excuse, since Christ warned against false teachers; Tertullian ironically imagines Christ recanting his teaching, and closes by promising treatises against particular heresies.
On the Great Ode (Deut 32), fragment 2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-235 · Those who now reject the incarnate Son will recognize him when he comes as judge in glory.
Commentary on Daniel 2.12Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The four parts of the image are Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, and the ten toes are the divided rule still to come.
Commentary on Daniel 2.13Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The stone cut without hands is Christ, who will come from heaven to end the kingdoms of the world and set up the everlasting kingdom of the saints.
Commentary on Daniel 2.28Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The youths' garments, unharmed in the fire, prove against the heretics that the flesh, sanctified by a holy soul, will rise incorruptible.
2.37Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Better to die a martyr than to be rescued and sin; the youths' faith wins glory from God and king and spreads the knowledge of God; Book 2 closes, and Book 3 opens with Nebuchadnezzar's proclamation (Dan 4:1–3).
Commentary on Daniel 3.12Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Nebuchadnezzar's two dreams and Daniel's vision of the four beasts agree, and as past prophecies have come true, so will those still to be fulfilled.
Commentary on Daniel 3.31Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 6:25–27: Darius's decree; the den read as Hades and the lions as punishing angels, with an exhortation to imitate Daniel; Book 3 closes and Book 4 opens with Daniel 7:1.
4 (continued)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 7:2–4: the beasts are the world's kingdoms; the winged lioness is Babylon, and its plucked wings and human heart are Nebuchadnezzar's fall and restoration.
4.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 7:5–6: the bear is Persia, its three ribs the Medes, Assyrians and Babylonians; the four-headed leopard is Alexander's Greek kingdom, divided among four successors.
Commentary on Daniel 4.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The lemma of Daniel 7:7–12: the fourth beast with ten horns, the little horn, and the judgment before the Ancient of Days.
Commentary on Daniel 4.5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The fourth beast is Rome, from which ten horns and then the Antichrist will arise; believers should neither try to fix the time nor doubt that it will come.
Commentary on Daniel 4.6Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · As fire fell on Sodom when its sins were complete, so the end will come when lawlessness has multiplied and the iron empire has split into ten horns.
Commentary on Daniel 4.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Recalling his treatise On the Antichrist, Hippolytus matches the metals of the image to the four beasts: Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and the ten toes to the ten divided kingdoms.
Commentary on Daniel 4.8Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Daniel named the beasts of Babylon, Persia and Greece because each was one nation, but left the fourth unnamed because Rome gathers its armies from every nation.
Commentary on Daniel 4.10Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 7:17–18: when the fourth kingdom is removed, earthly rule ends and Christ, God incarnate, will come from heaven as judge and give the kingdom to the saints.
Commentary on Daniel 4.11Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 7:13–14: the Son of Man receives an everlasting kingdom from the Ancient of Days, the Father; he is firstborn from God, before the angels, from the virgin, and from the dead.
Commentary on Daniel 4.12-13Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 7:19–28: the little horn is the Antichrist, who will rise from the divided Roman kingdom, kill three kings and war against the saints, until the kingdom is given to the saints of the Most High.
Commentary on Daniel 4.14Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The angel's explanation to Daniel covers the division of the fourth kingdom, the Antichrist's three and a half years of war on the saints, the judgment, and the eternal kingdom given to the saints.
Commentary on Daniel 4.15Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Readers should not seek to fix the time of the end; Ecclesiastes' picture of old age and death figures the apostasy before the end, and Christ hid the day to keep his people watchful.
4.15 (continued)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Christ gave signs instead of a date: as Jerusalem's fall was foretold, so the abomination of desolation must appear first; wars and famines are only the beginning, and the gospel must first be preached to all nations.
4.18Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · A church leader in Syria, misreading the Lord's warnings, led his flock into the desert to meet Christ and nearly brought persecution on all; Christ's second coming will be open and from heaven.
Commentary on Daniel 4.19Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · A church leader in Pontus, trusting his own dreams over Scripture, predicted the judgment within a year; when it did not come, his people were scandalized and impoverished.
Commentary on Daniel 4.21Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Paul agrees with the Lord: the apostasy and the man of sin must come first; what restrains him is the fourth beast, Rome; to long for the day of the Lord is to court danger.
Commentary on Daniel 4.22-23Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Instead of calculating the end, be patient like the martyrs under the altar; Hippolytus nonetheless reckons Christ's birth in the year 5500 from Adam, so that the six thousand years before the sabbath rest of the saints are not yet complete.
Commentary on Daniel 4.24Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Hippolytus proves Christ's birth in the year 5500 from the ark's dimensions (5½ cubits) and John's 'sixth hour', and reckons that the Roman kingdom will last five hundred years before the Antichrist and Christ's return.
Commentary on Daniel 4.26Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The ram is Darius, the he-goat Alexander, the four horns his successors, and the little horn Antiochus Epiphanes, who profaned the temple for 1,300 days until Judas Maccabaeus restored it.
Commentary on Daniel 4.27-28Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Gabriel's interpretation of the vision (Dan 8:15–27) confirms the reading of the beasts; Hippolytus then turns to the seventy weeks, beginning with Daniel's prayer of confession (Dan 9:1–7).
Commentary on Daniel 4.30Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 9:23–25: angels are swift as birds; the first seven of the seventy weeks (49 years) end with the return from exile under Joshua son of Jozadak, the 'anointed prince', a type of Christ the true King and Priest.
Commentary on Daniel 4.31-34Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The sixty-two weeks (434 years) run from the return to Christ's birth; Christ is the Holy of holies who wipes out sins for believers and seals them for unbelievers, and the Lamb who opens the sealed book of the prophets.
Commentary on Daniel 4.35-37Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 9:25–27 and 10:1–19: the last week, with Elijah and Enoch and the Antichrist; the vision by the great river of the Word in the form of a man, his robe, girdle and body interpreted, and his strengthening of Daniel.
4.49Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The Antichrist foretold by all Scripture will conquer Tyre, Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia, rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, gather the Jews and be worshipped as the Christ by the disobedient.
4.51Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The great tribulation under the Antichrist, Christ's warnings and his coming in glory; Antiochus's abomination and the Antichrist's; Edom, Moab and Ammon as his first followers; the 1,290 and 1,335 days; and the resurrection of the righteous to life and of the Antichrist's followers to shame.
Commentary on Daniel 4.57-58Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 12:5–7: the two men by the river are the law and the prophets, the man above the water is Christ; his outstretched hands show the Passion, the 'time, times and half a time' the Antichrist's three and a half years, and the 'scattering' the dispersion of the Jews before the end.
Commentary on Daniel 4.59Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 12:8–13: the things after the resurrection are sealed until the end; the chosen, the whitened and the tried by fire are those found worthy, cleansed by baptism and the Spirit, and proved through trials.
Commentary on Daniel 4.60Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The conclusion: what was sealed is now proclaimed, the book of life spread on the cross, so that believers may be found worthy and watchful for Christ's appearing; doxology.
Antidote for the Scorpion's Sting 12Tertullian · ca. 211–213 · The apostles, who knew Christ's meaning best, taught martyrdom: Peter bids Christians rejoice in suffering, John says perfect love casts out fear, and the Apocalypse promises its rewards to victors who shed their blood, while the fearful go to the lake of fire.
Exhortation to Chastity 6Tertullian · ca. 208 · The patriarchs' many wives belonged to the time of “increase and multiply,” which God has now recalled at the end of the ages, as the Gospel supersedes the old law.
On the Flesh of Christ 1Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · Those who deny the resurrection of the flesh also deny that Christ had real human flesh; Marcion denied both his flesh and his birth, and Tertullian sets out to examine them.
On the Flesh of Christ 12Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · The soul was never ignorant of itself, for it naturally knows God and his judgement; Christ came not to show the soul to itself but to save it.
On the Flesh of Christ 15Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · Scripture everywhere calls Christ a man; the Valentinian objections to his earthly flesh are the same as the heathen's, and our flesh's resurrection simply awaits Christ's final victory.
On the Flesh of Christ 24Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · The prophets and apostles already struck at each heresy about Christ's flesh; the one Christ who suffered in the flesh is the same who will return in that flesh.
Against the Valentinians 26Tertullian · ca. 206–208 · The Valentinians teach that flesh perishes, the psychic may be saved, and the spiritual is saved by nature; their Saviour had no material body, which denies salvation to our flesh.
Against the Valentinians 31Tertullian · ca. 206–208 · At the end, the Valentinians say, Achamoth will enter the Pleroma as the Saviour's bride and the Demiurge will move up into her place.
Against the Valentinians 32Tertullian · ca. 206–208 · In the Valentinian end, flesh perishes, psychic souls stay with the Demiurge, and the spiritual become brides of angels in the Pleroma; Tertullian prefers the Creator's promise, where there is no marrying.
Against Marcion 1.24Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's god saves only a few, and saves only their souls, abandoning the flesh that bears baptism, celibacy, and martyrdom; and he leaves his followers suffering under the Creator's hand, so his goodness is not perfect.
Against Marcion 1.27Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · A god who forbids sin but never punishes it invites every vice; the Marcionites themselves still fear sin, and their teaching that sinners are “cast away” implies a judgment after all.
Against Marcion 1.28Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's god hands sinners over to the Creator's fire, and his baptism makes no sense: he forgives sins he never charged, frees from a death he never imposed, and washes flesh he will not save.
Against Marcion 2.10Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The devil was created a good angel and became evil by his own free choice, as Ezekiel's lament over the prince of Tyre shows; God delays his destruction so that man, by the same free will, may defeat him and return to paradise.
Against Marcion 3.7Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The prophets foretold two comings of Christ, one in humility and one in glory; the Jews looked only for the glorious one and so missed the first.
Against Marcion 3.8Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · If Christ's flesh was a phantom, as Marcion holds, then his works, sufferings, death, and resurrection were unreal, and our faith and resurrection are empty.
Against Marcion 3.24Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian describes the thousand-year kingdom in a heavenly Jerusalem after the resurrection, then the heavenly kingdom, and shows that the Creator promised both earthly and heavenly blessings.
Against Marcion 4.29Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's teaching on anxiety, watchfulness, the faithful steward, the fire he came to cast, and just judgment all point to the Creator who provides, judges, and repays.
Against Marcion 4.30Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's defense of healing on the sabbath, the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, and the shut door of judgment all belong to the Creator, who both rules the kingdom and judges.
Against Marcion 4.31Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's command to invite the poor and his parable of the great dinner follow the Creator's long history of inviting Israel through the fathers and prophets and then calling the gentiles in their place.
Against Marcion 4.34Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian argues that Christ's saying on divorce and remarriage forbids putting away a wife in order to marry another, allows divorce for adultery as Moses did, and was aimed at Herod's unlawful marriage; the parable of the rich man and Lazarus likewise upholds Moses and the prophets.
Against Marcion 4.35Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's warnings about causing stumbling, his teaching on rebuke and forgiveness, the healing of the ten lepers, and his sayings on the kingdom and the days of Noah and Lot all follow the Creator's law and prophets.
Against Marcion 4.38Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's questions about John's baptism, his answer about Caesar's coin, his reply to the Sadducees on marriage and the resurrection, and his words on David's son and Lord all belong to the Creator's Christ.
Against Marcion 4.39Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The false Christs, the signs of the end, the persecutions of the disciples, and the coming of the Son of Man in Luke 21 all follow the prophets, so that both the troubles before his coming and the blessings after it belong to the Creator's Christ.
Against Marcion 5.9Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Those who denied the resurrection denied the resurrection of the body, which the very words “dead” and “rise again” require; and Christ, who reigns until his enemies are subdued, is the Christ of Psalms 110 and 72, not Hezekiah or Solomon.
Against Marcion 5.10Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Paul's arguments against those who denied the resurrection, his analogies of seed and body, the first and last Adam, and the change of the flesh at the end all assume the resurrection of the body, which Marcion denies.
Against Marcion 5.11Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · In 2 Corinthians 1–4 the Father of mercies, the new covenant of the Spirit, the veil of Moses, the “god of this age,” and the treasure in earthen vessels all point to the Creator and to the resurrection of the body.
Against Marcion 5.12Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · In 2 Corinthians 5–13 Paul's hope of being clothed over, the judgment seat of Christ, the new creation, and his thorn in the flesh and threats of discipline point to the Creator and to the resurrection of the body.
Against Marcion 5.14Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, not in a phantom body; God will raise mortal bodies as he raised Christ; and Paul's lament over Israel's ignorance, his praise of God's riches, and his moral precepts in Romans 8–14 all come from the Creator's Scriptures.
Against Marcion 5.15Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · In 1 Thessalonians the Jews' guilt for killing both the prophets and the Lord, the call to holiness in marriage, the rapture to meet the Lord, the command not to quench the Spirit, and the prayer for spirit, soul, and body all fit only the Creator.
Against Marcion 5.16Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · In 2 Thessalonians the Lord who comes in flaming fire to punish, even those who do not know God, and who sends deceit through the man of sin on those who rejected the truth, is the Creator; so the gospel and salvation are his too.
Against Marcion 5.20Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · In Philippians the differing motives of preachers show no difference of doctrine; Christ, found in the form of a servant, truly became man and truly died; and the promised transformation of our lowly body means the body will rise.
On the Soul 7Tertullian · ca. 210 · The Gospel story of the rich man and Lazarus, whose souls suffer and are comforted in the underworld, proves that the soul has a kind of body.
On the Soul 33Tertullian · ca. 210 · Transmigration as reward and punishment would make divine judgment weaker than human courts; God will judge once and finally, with souls returning to their own bodies.
On the Soul 35Tertullian · ca. 210 · Carpocrates used transmigration to excuse every sin, twisting Christ's parable of the adversary; nor does John the Baptist's being “Elijah” mean reincarnation, since he came only in Elijah's spirit and power.
On the Soul 42Tertullian · ca. 210 · Against Epicurus and Seneca, death does concern us, since it is what the whole man undergoes; the treatise now turns to death and to sleep, its image.
On the Soul 43Tertullian · ca. 210 · Sleep is natural, a rest for the body but not the soul; God made it an image of death and of resurrection, as Adam's sleep prefigured Christ's death and the church born from his side.
On the Soul 50Tertullian · ca. 210 · Death is the debt of nature for all; Menander's claim that his baptism exempts from death is refuted, for even Enoch and Elijah will die, and the apostle John died.
On the Soul 51Tertullian · ca. 210 · Death separates the whole soul from the body at once; reports of corpses that seem to move are signs from God, not proof that part of the soul remains.
On the Soul 53Tertullian · ca. 210 · In a slow death the soul only seems to decline because its bodily instruments fail; at the moment of release it sees clearly and perceives, from the angel who summons it, what awaits it.
On the Soul 54Tertullian · ca. 210 · The philosophers send only the souls of the wise upward and the rest to an underworld; their schemes are inconsistent.
On the Soul 55Tertullian · ca. 210 · All souls go to the underworld to await the resurrection, as Christ himself descended there; only martyrs enter paradise at once.
On the Soul 56Tertullian · ca. 210 · Neither the unburied nor those who die young or violently linger on earth; every soul goes at once to the underworld and remains at the age it died until the resurrection.
On the Soul 57Tertullian · ca. 210 · Magic's claim to summon the dead is demonic deceit, as with the witch of Endor; no soul returns from the underworld except when God raises the dead bodily.
On the Soul 58Tertullian · ca. 210 · All souls wait in the underworld, where they already taste punishment or comfort before the final judgment and the resurrection of the flesh.
On Monogamy 10Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · A widow is even more bound to her dead husband than a divorced wife to hers: she prays and offers for him, will rise with him, and to take another man would divide her heart between two husbands.
On Monogamy 16Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Remarriage is not weakness but appetite; Christians who remarry for support, company, or heirs will be judged at the end by the continence of saints and even of pagans, and should at least follow the first Adam, who married once.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 1Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Christians hope in the resurrection of the dead; pagans mock it yet feed their dead, and even the philosophers who teach transmigration half-glimpse it.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 2Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Heretics who deny another God than the Creator attack the resurrection of the flesh first; Tertullian, having written against Marcion and on Christ's flesh, now defends the flesh's resurrection itself.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 3Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Common human notions may support the truth, but heretics who borrow the pagans' denial of life after death should be made to argue from Scripture alone.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 4Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Heretics and pagans alike scorn the flesh as vile and ask mockingly whether a body devoured and dissolved, with all its needs and defects, could ever return.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 9Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · God will not abandon the flesh he made, adorned, and loves; its very weakness, sin, and condemnation are what his mercy came to heal.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 11Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Those who deny the resurrection live most carnally; God, who made the world out of nothing (or even from matter), can surely remake the flesh.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 12Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Nature teaches resurrection before Scripture does: day and night, the seasons, and seeds all die and return, so the flesh for whose sake they exist will not perish.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 13Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The phoenix, which dies in fire and rises again, is a living example of resurrection, and Scripture itself says the righteous will flourish like the phoenix.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 14Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The cause of the resurrection is God's judgment: since the whole man, body and soul, lived and acted, the whole man must be raised to be judged.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 15Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Flesh and soul act together even in thought, so God, as a just judge, must reward or punish the flesh along with the soul.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 16Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The flesh is not a mere tool like a cup or a sword but the soul's partner from the womb, which Paul calls both a vessel and the outer man; it therefore shares in judgment and reward.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 17Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Though the soul is itself corporeal and already suffers or is comforted in the underworld, it must be judged with the flesh, through which it performed its deeds.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 18Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The phrase “resurrection of the dead” itself points to the flesh: only what falls can rise, and it is the body, not the soul, that falls in death and is buried.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 19Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Some heretics turn the resurrection into a figure for coming to knowledge or escaping the body, and deceive believers by saying one must “rise in this flesh.”
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 21Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The resurrection cannot be merely figurative, because the plain texts must govern the obscure and a hope on which faith and martyrdom depend must have been announced clearly.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 22Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Christ's discourse on the last things shows that the resurrection comes at his return, after the signs of the end, not now in the knowledge of the truth or at death.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 23Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Paul speaks of a spiritual rising with Christ in baptism, but he and John and Peter place the real resurrection in the future, at Christ's appearing.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 24Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Paul's letters to the Thessalonians place the resurrection at the Lord's coming, after the removal of the Roman state and the revealing of the antichrist.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 25Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Revelation sets the resurrection at the end of the age; a spiritual rising at conversion may be granted, but only because the bodily one is promised at the end.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 26Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Prophetic promises and threats addressed to “the earth” may be read of the flesh, taken from the earth; so figurative speech itself supports the resurrection of the body.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 27Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Scriptural garments can signify the flesh, and Isaiah's “storerooms” in which God's people hide until his wrath passes are the tombs from which bodies will come forth.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 28Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Moses' signs, God's promise to require the blood of the slain, and the word “I will kill and make alive” all point to the raising of the flesh.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 29Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones, clothed with sinews, flesh, and skin and brought to life, names the bodily substances explicitly.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 30Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Even if Ezekiel's vision figures Israel's restoration, a figure drawn from bones implies that bones will really rise, and God's testing of the prophet shows that the bodily resurrection is meant.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 31Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Israel doubted a bodily resurrection, not its political fortunes, and the prophets promise the rising of the dead to all nations, not to Israel alone.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 32Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · God will restore even bodies devoured by beasts and fish, as Jonah shows; if what Scripture says of the soul is taken literally, so must be what it says of the body.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 33Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Christ did not speak only in parables, and even his parables are explained; his plain statements about judgment, the kingdom, and resurrection must be taken literally.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 34Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Christ came to save the whole man who was lost, and he promised to lose nothing the Father gave him but to raise it on the last day; so the flesh too will be saved.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 35Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Christ's warning about God who can destroy body and soul in Gehenna, the numbered hairs, the gnashing of teeth, and the wedding feast all presuppose a bodily resurrection.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 36Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Christ's answer to the Sadducees about the woman with seven husbands confirms a real resurrection of the flesh, which will then be changed and made like the angels.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 37Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · “The flesh profits nothing” in John 6 refers to giving life, which belongs to the Spirit and the Word; the same Gospel says that all in the tombs will hear the Son's voice and come forth.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 38Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The dead whom Christ raised were a foretaste and pledge of the bodily resurrection, though they were raised only to die again, not to glory.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 39Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The apostles preached the same bodily resurrection the Pharisees believed and the Sadducees denied, and the Athenians mocked Paul precisely because he preached a bodily one.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 40Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Paul's “outer man” that is being corrupted means the flesh worn down by persecution in this life, not flesh destined to perish; flesh and soul that suffer together will be glorified together.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 41Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Paul's promise of a heavenly house when the earthly tent is dissolved rewards the flesh that suffers; the wish to be “clothed over” belongs to those alive at Christ's coming, who will be changed without dying.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 42Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The change Paul promises, in which the mortal is swallowed up by life, requires that the flesh be present; the dead will receive their flesh back and then, like the living, be clothed with immortality.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 43Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Paul's longing to be away from the body and at home with the Lord speaks of a temporary absence, and the judgment of all “through the body” implies a bodily resurrection.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 44Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The treasure of Christ's life carried in earthen vessels, and the life of Jesus to be manifested in our mortal body after death, show that the flesh will be raised like Christ's.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 45Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The “old man” and “new man” are not flesh and soul but the former and the renewed way of life; Paul condemns sinful works, not the body.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 46Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · In Romans 8 Paul condemns the works and mind of the flesh, not the flesh itself, and promises that God will raise our mortal bodies through his indwelling Spirit.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 47Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The old man crucified with Christ is sinful conduct, not the body; Paul promises the members of the body sanctification and eternal life, and baptism in the flesh points to its resurrection.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 48Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Before turning to “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom,” Tertullian shows that 1 Corinthians 15 models our resurrection on Christ's bodily resurrection and assumes that bodies will rise.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 49Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · In the context of 1 Corinthians 15, “flesh and blood” that cannot inherit the kingdom means the earthly way of life of the old Adam, not the substance of the body.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 50Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Even taken literally, “flesh and blood” are denied the kingdom only on their own; all flesh will rise, and in the saved it will be changed and clothed with immortality so that it can inherit the kingdom.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 51Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Christ sits in heaven in the flesh as a pledge that ours will follow; Paul's “this corruptible” and “this mortal” point to the very flesh that must put on incorruption and immortality.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 52Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Paul's image of the seed shows that the same flesh that is sown in death rises, clothed by God with a new glory, just as grain rises as the same kind of plant, fuller and adorned.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 53Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The “animal body” that is sown and raised a “spiritual body” is the flesh, not the soul, as the examples of Lazarus and of the first and last Adam show.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 54Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Paul’s “swallowed up by life” means that the mortal flesh is taken into and clothed with immortality, not destroyed; it is death that is swallowed up for destruction.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 55Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · To be changed is not to be destroyed: Scripture shows people transformed yet remaining themselves, and so the flesh will be changed at the resurrection without ceasing to be the same flesh.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 56Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · It would be unjust for one flesh to suffer or sin and another to be rewarded or punished, and the risen person must remember being the one who is judged.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 57Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The flesh will rise not with its injuries and defects but whole, as a freed slave keeps the same body yet no longer suffers a slave’s punishments.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 58Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Scripture promises the end of pain and death, and its examples of preserved garments and bodies (Israel in the desert, the three young men, Jonah, Enoch and Elijah) foreshadow the flesh made whole.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 59Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Isaiah’s “all flesh is grass” and “all flesh shall see God’s salvation” distinguish the destinies of the same flesh, not two different kinds of flesh.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 60Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Even if the bodily organs lose their present functions in the resurrection, they will still exist, since the whole man must stand before God’s judgment, as a restored ship remains a ship even when laid up.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 61Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The bodily organs have higher uses than eating and procreation, and fasting, continence, and virginity already show that they can be idle without the person ceasing to be whole.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 62Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Jesus said the risen will be “like angels,” not angels: they keep their flesh while being freed from its bodily needs, just as angels who ate with Abraham remained spirits.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 63Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The whole, same flesh will rise, kept safe with God by Christ, who unites flesh and spirit, and the Paraclete’s New Prophecy has cleared away the ambiguities that heretics exploited.
Against Praxeas 4Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Because the Son comes from the Father's substance and will hand the kingdom back to the Father, as Paul says, the Trinity preserves the monarchy; the same passage shows that Father and Son are two.
Against Praxeas 30Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · Christ's cry “My God, why have you forsaken me?” shows that the Son, not the Father, suffered and died; the Son rose, ascended, sits at the Father's right hand, and poured out the Holy Spirit, the third person.
On the Crown 15Tertullian · 211 · Christians should keep their heads for the crown God gives the faithful, seen in the visions of Revelation; even initiates of Mithras refuse a crown for their god's sake, to the shame of crowned Christians.
To Scapula 3Tertullian · 212 · Tertullian points to disasters and to the miserable deaths of persecuting governors as signs of God's wrath and warns Scapula that judgment is coming.
On First Principles 1.0.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The church teaches judgment of the soul after death, the resurrection of the body, and free will against astrological fatalism, but has not settled the origin of the soul.
On First Principles 1.6.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Origen offers his view of the end as discussion, not definition: God's goodness through Christ will bring the whole creation, even his enemies, to one end, and their subjection to Christ means their salvation.
On First Principles 1.6.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The end will be like the beginning: from one beginning rational beings were ranked by their own merits, the human race arising from those who fell but not beyond remedy, and all will be restored to the unity Christ prayed for.
On First Principles 1.6.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Some fallen beings became the devil and his angels, opponents of humanity; whether they can ever be converted Origen leaves to the reader, while others are restored through long corrections, every rational being able to rise or fall by free choice.
On First Principles 1.6.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · At the end the visible world will not be annihilated but transformed; Origen cannot conceive created beings without bodies, though bodies may become pure as ether, and leaves the certainty to God.
On First Principles 1.7.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The creation subjected to vanity (Rom 8) is the heavenly bodies bound to material bodies to serve humanity; like Paul they long to be with Christ, and will be freed when Christ hands the kingdom to the Father.
On First Principles 2.2.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Since only the Trinity can live without a body, matter was made for rational natures and changes with their merits, gross for the lower and glorious for the blessed.
On First Principles 2.3.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Origen asks whether there were worlds before this one and will be others after it, and whether any world could be exactly like another.
On First Principles 2.3.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · To learn whether matter exists only at intervals, Origen asks whether anyone can live without a body, and explains how “this corruptible will put on incorruption” when the soul, clothed with Christ, clothes the body.
On First Principles 2.3.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Those who think rational beings may live without bodies argue that bodily nature will be destroyed when all are subject to God; Origen answers that, since free will remains, bodies and a varied world may be needed again.
On First Principles 2.3.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · This world is the consummation of many ages, and other ages will follow; beyond them lies something greater, when God will be in all.
On First Principles 2.3.7Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Origen leaves the reader to choose among three views of the end: an incorporeal life, bodies transformed into an ethereal state, or a higher “good land” and heaven where the purified dwell and progress.
On First Principles 2.10.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Before discussing punishment, Origen argues against heretics that the body rises, our own body, but changed from a soulish into a spiritual and incorruptible body.
On First Principles 2.10.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Against heretics who deny bodily resurrection, Origen reads Paul's comparison of heavenly and earthly bodies as describing the differing glory of the saints and the condition of unpurified sinners.
On First Principles 2.10.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Against a low idea of the resurrection, Origen explains that the body rises spiritual and incorruptible from a principle preserved in it, as a grain grows into an ear.
On First Principles 2.10.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Each sinner kindles his own fire, fed by his sins as fever by bad food; the punishment is conscience recalling all its crimes and becoming its own accuser.
On First Principles 2.10.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The punishment of sinners may consist in the torment of their own passions, or in the soul's being torn from its proper harmony, which the fire then restores.
On First Principles 2.10.6Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · God, the physician of souls, uses painful remedies, even fire, to purify them, as images in Scripture show.
On First Principles 2.10.7Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The unfaithful steward “cut in two” may mean the withdrawal of the Spirit's gift, the separation of the better part of the soul, or the withdrawal of one's guardian angel.
On First Principles 2.10.8Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The “outer darkness” is deep ignorance, perhaps shown outwardly in the dark bodies of the impious after the resurrection.
On First Principles 2.11.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Every living being, and still more a rational one, is always active; as people in this life seek pleasure, the common good or wisdom, Origen asks what the life of the world to come will be.
On First Principles 2.11.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Some Christians, reading the letter only, expect after the resurrection bodily pleasures, marriage, a rebuilt earthly Jerusalem and earthly rule, misreading prophecies meant figuratively.
On First Principles 2.11.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The saints will feed on the bread of wisdom, be restored to God's image, and continue to be taught in the heavenly Jerusalem; its “rulers” are those who instruct others.
On First Principles 2.11.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · God has implanted in the mind a natural desire to know the reasons of his works, which must be fulfilled; study in this life is like an artist's preliminary sketch, to be completed with true colours hereafter.
On First Principles 2.11.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Paul desired to depart and be with Christ, knowing that he would then understand the reasons of all things on earth: the soul, Israel, the law, the powers and providence.
On First Principles 2.11.6Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The departed saints are first taught in paradise, a school of souls, and the pure in heart then ascend through the spheres of heaven, learning what is done there and why, following Christ.
On First Principles 2.11.7Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · In the heavens the saints will learn the nature of the stars and of invisible things, and the rational nature, growing in mind, will come to perfect knowledge, seeing the causes of things face to face.
On First Principles 3.1.13Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · God's patience with sinners serves their healing, as a physician lets a wound drain before closing it, for God cares for immortal souls over all ages, not only this short life.
On First Principles 3.1.14Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · As a farmer sows rocky ground late so the crop may root, God delays the healing of some souls; his providence toward Pharaoh did not end even at his drowning.
On First Principles 3.1.23Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The one lump refutes the doctrine of different natures; vessels may change from honour to dishonour or the reverse in later ages, as rational beings rise or fall through immeasurable ages.
On First Principles 3.5.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Scripture (Moses, Jacob, the Psalms, Christ and Paul) teaches that the world had a beginning in time and will come to an end.
On First Principles 3.5.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · To the question what God did before the world, Origen answers that there were other worlds before this one and will be others after it, though not several at once.
On First Principles 3.5.6Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · In the last times the Son himself came, emptying himself to teach obedience and to restore true rule; his final subjection to the Father includes all the saved in him.
On First Principles 3.5.7Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The Son's subjection to the Father is good, the crowning of his work; so the subjection of his enemies to him means their salvation and the restoration of the lost.
On First Principles 3.5.8Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The subjection of all to God will come about not by force but by teaching, persuasion and fitting threats, in ways known only to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
On First Principles 3.6.1Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The end of all things is likeness to God: the image given at creation is to be completed as likeness through our own efforts, and Christ prays that the saints may be one with the Father and the Son.
On First Principles 3.6.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · God will be “all in all” at the end, not in beasts, stones or malice; although God is everywhere now, he is not yet “all” in those in whom he is.
On First Principles 3.6.3Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · God will be “all” in each purified mind, which will perceive and think nothing but God; the end will restore the state before the knowledge of good and evil, when death and evil are nowhere.
On First Principles 3.6.4Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The spiritual body will be of a purity and glory beyond all visible bodies; our body can be brought to it, and when all are one there will be no more diversity.
On First Principles 3.6.5Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The last enemy, death, will be destroyed not in its substance, which God made, but in its hostile will; so too the flesh is changed by death, not annihilated, and rises again.
On First Principles 3.6.6Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · All our bodily substance will be brought to the glory of a spiritual body gradually, over immeasurable ages, as all rational souls are restored and God becomes all in all.
On First Principles 3.6.7Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · There are two general natures: the invisible rational nature, which changes in purpose, and bodily nature, which changes in substance at the Creator's will.
On First Principles 3.6.8Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · When God is all in all, bodily nature may take one splendid quality, and the heaven and earth of the beginning become the dwelling of the godly, where the true forms of the law's worship are found.
On First Principles 3.6.9Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · In the restoration the saints will advance by stages until Christ subjects them to the Father and God is all in all; Origen leaves to the reader the choice between the views on the body.
On First Principles 4.3.10Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · As the dead go to the underworld or Abraham's bosom, so souls “die” from higher places into this world and are born according to merit; prophecies and histories about the nations refer to such souls.
On First Principles 4.3.13Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · As Deuteronomy is a clearer law, so Christ's glorious second coming will fulfil the shadow of his first and bring the saints from the temporal to the eternal Gospel.
On First Principles 4.4.9Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Since rational beings share, in differing degrees, in the intellectual light of the eternal Trinity, the human soul is of one nature with the heavenly powers and is immortal, always keeping seeds of renewal.
Fragments on Genesis, column 139Origen · ca. 220-254 · God used the brothers' sin to save many; the goods of Egypt belong to Israel; the promise “I will bring you up” points to life after death; the names Jacob and Israel distinguished.
Fragments on Job, column 75Origen · ca. 220-254 · The unkindled fire of Job 20 is an invisible inward punishment like fever, and the Overseer of Job 20:29 is God, whose image good bishops strive to bear.
Fragments on Luke, column 323Origen · ca. 220-254 · Zacharias's tongue, freed from unbelief, prophesies, and the patriarchs and prophets too shared in Christ's coming through his descent into Hades.
Fragments on Luke, column 363Origen · ca. 220-254 · The excuses in the parable of the great supper are false doctrine, love of the senses and love of pleasure; God is likened to a man only for our sake, until we can see him as he is.
Fragment on Matthew 13:44Origen · ca. 220-254 · The parables of the hidden treasure, the pearl, and the net (Matt 13:44–50) are read as Christ hidden in the Scriptures and the gathering of the nations.
Fragments on Proverbs, column 193Origen · ca. 220-254 · Wisdom is an invincible weapon against demons; the impure must be cleansed by learning God's commandments so as to see him; enemies of God become friends through the righteous.
Fragments on Proverbs, column 243Origen · ca. 220-254 · The merciful will reign over the envious; the ungodly "perish" by becoming righteous, as Matthew did; healing is possible after the fire of passion is quenched; the Father rejoices in those who imitate Christ.
PG 12:1091 (Ps 1 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On Ps 1:5 Origen examines the simpler believers’ view of the resurrection of the same flesh, raising the problems of bodily flux and of bodies eaten by other bodies; they appeal to God’s omnipotence and to Ezekiel’s dry bones.
PG 12:1093 (Ps 1 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Origen’s answer: the material substrate of the body is always in flux, but the bodily form that makes Peter or Paul himself remains, and it is this form, changed for the better into a spiritual body suited to heaven, that rises.
PG 12:1095 (Ps 1 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The spiritual body keeps the form but not the flesh; Ezekiel’s dry bones signify the restoration of the captive people, and the “gnashing of teeth” cannot be taken literally.
PG 12:1097 (Ps 1 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The gnashing of teeth is the soul’s anguish at conviction; Paul’s words on the mortal body made alive and the seed show that the form, not the same matter, rises; a further note on the bodies of the righteous and the ungodly at the judgment.
PG 12:1127 (Ps 3 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Sleep also means the soul’s inattention; applied to Christ, “I lay down” is his death and “I slept” the separation of his soul from the body, during which his soul was active for the salvation of souls, as 1 Peter 3:19 shows.
PG 12:1149 (Ps 4 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Love “hopes all things,” the promised beatitudes; on Ps 4:6, “Who will show us good things?” is the cry of those who long to understand the promises, which only the wise, like Paul, can show; then an extract from Origen’s tome on the question what the good things are.
PG 12:1159 (Ps 4 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The literal reading would make health and wealth higher than virtue and leads to crude hopes of eating and begetting after the resurrection; Origen’s own view: the unchosen good is the Lord’s power that cooperates with our building and guarding.
PG 12:1189 (Ps 9 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On Ps 9:10–17 (LXX 9:11–18): God dwells in the soul that is a Zion; the deeds to be declared are Christ’s miracles and the saving cross; the gates of death are mortal sins; the nations stuck fast in the body; Hades, the place where the souls awaited the soul of Jesus descending.
PG 12:1195 (Ps 9 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The end of LXX Psalm 9 (Ps 10:9–18): God “punishes” by breaking the sinner’s arm, freeing him from sin; Christ reigns until his enemies become friends; the land of the Lord is the contemplation of creation; God hears the desire of the poor, which is effective prayer.
PG 12:1217 (Ps 16 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On Ps 17:1–7 (LXX 16:1–7): God alone is Master of righteousness; judgment comes from the Son, the Father’s face; the prayer for uprightness as the restoration of all things; God’s testing by fire, the night of affliction, the narrow way of practice; the cry of great prayers and God’s wonderful mercies.
PG 12:1251 (Ps 20 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · End of the notes on Ps 20 LXX (21):9–14: the punishment of the wicked, which destroys their evil works but not their being, and the face prepared for them among the remnants.
PG 12:1259 (Ps 21–22 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · End of Ps 21 LXX (22):27–32 (the turning of all the ends of the earth) and beginning of Ps 22 LXX (23): the shepherd, the paths of righteousness, and walking through the shadow of death.
PG 12:1263 (Ps 22 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 22 LXX (23):5–6: the table of mystical teaching in the age to come, the oil and the cup of wisdom, and Mercy (Christ) who pursues.
PG 12:1309 (Ps 33–34 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · End of Ps 33 LXX (34):18–22 (the broken heart, death as punishment that frees from wickedness, ransom) and beginning of Ps 34 LXX (35): God judging and fighting for the good of those he fights, and his armour transformed after the punishments.
PG 12:1317 (Ps 36 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 36 LXX (37):8–20: the end of the wicked as the end of their sin (not of their being), the meek inheriting knowledge, and the bread of heaven.
PG 12:1319 (Ps 36 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · A short note on Ps 36 LXX (37):20: sinners perish by ceasing to be sinners, not by ceasing to exist.
PG 12:1441 (Ps 48 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 48 LXX (49):9–12: the toil of repentance rewarded with true life (with Symmachus and Aquila), the death of the worldly wise, and tombs as unclean souls.
PG 12:1453 (Ps 51 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 51 LXX (52):3–7: vaunting in wickedness, Doeg’s tongue serving his heart, and Doeg’s evil building pulled down at the end, when death is abolished.
PG 12:1477 (Ps 60 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 60 LXX (61):2–6: Christ the rock and guide, the hope of the nations, the eternal tent and the state beyond it in the Trinity, and the inheritance of those who fear God.
PG 12:1519 (Ps 71 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 72:1–11 (LXX 71): Christ the king who will hand over the kingdom, the judgment of the poor, the moon taken away, and every rational nature serving Christ.
PG 12:1587 (Ps 118 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 119:16–25 (LXX 118): meditating on the statutes by doing them, the law unveiled by allegory, and the soul that cleaves to the ground now and to the Lord in the resurrection.
PG 12:1593 (Ps 118 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 119:47–55 (LXX 118): meditation that ends in action, hope as comfort, the resurrection as the soul's true life, and the remembrance of God's name at night.
PG 12:1657 (Ps 138–139 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on the end of Psalm 139 (LXX 138) and on Psalm 140 (LXX 139): awakening from vice, the demons' warfare through thoughts and the thought of listlessness, and the judgment to come.
Refutation of All Heresies 1.19.11Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Those who hold Plato's soul immortal point to his teaching on judgment after death.
Refutation of All Heresies 1.19.13Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Others say Plato taught that souls receive places by desert, some with the gods and some in eternal punishment.
Refutation of All Heresies 1.22.5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Epicurus taught that the soul dies with the body and denied judgment after death.
Refutation of All Heresies 4.48.12Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · As the Dog Star shows which plants live, the Word judges the living and the dead.
Refutation of All Heresies 5.8.23Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · They read "whitewashed tombs" and the dead leaving the tombs as bodies without and with the spiritual Man.
Refutation of All Heresies 5.8.24Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Resurrection for them is entry through the heavenly gate, by which one becomes a god.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.42.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The restoration of all things comes when all letters sound as one, pictured in the common “Amen”; the sounds are the angels who see the Father's face.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.54.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Because truth escaped the Demiurge, they say, his work is false and will be dissolved when its times are complete.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.26.10Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The world lasts until the whole third Sonship follows Jesus, is purified, and rises like the first.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.27.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · When the whole Sonship has ascended, God will bring a great ignorance on the world, so that nothing desires what is beyond its nature.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.27.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Souls below will know nothing higher, so that they are not tormented by impossible longings, like a fish wanting to graze with sheep.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.27.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Things stay incorruptible in their own place; ignorance will spare the lower Archon grief and sighing.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.27.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Ignorance will also seize the great Archon, and all things will be restored to their natural places in their own seasons.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.32.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Carpocratians teach reincarnation until a soul has committed every sin, after which all souls are freed and saved.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.10.6Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Heraclitus calls mortals and immortals one, and Hippolytus reads him as speaking of a bodily resurrection caused by God.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.10.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Heraclitus teaches that an intelligent fire steers all things and will judge the world in a conflagration.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.27.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus says the Essenes believe in the resurrection of the flesh and a bright resting place for souls until the judgment.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.27.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Pythagoras and the Stoics learned from them; the Essenes expect judgment, a world-burning, and eternal punishment, and practice prophecy.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.28.5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Pharisees hold both fate and free will under God's will, and believe in bodily resurrection, judgment, and eternal punishment.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.29.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Sadducees deny resurrection and the survival of the soul, saying one lives on only in one's children.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.30.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · They expect a Messiah of David's line born naturally, a warrior-king who will gather Israel and restore Jerusalem.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.30.8Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · They expect this Messiah to fall in battle, followed by the end of the world, the resurrection, and judgment according to deeds.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.10.5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The two higher parts will be saved through Christ; the third, the particular world, will perish.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.13.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Valentinians deny the salvation of the flesh, calling it a “garment of skin.”
Refutation of All Heresies 10.14.10Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Basilides' followers claim to be the sons who purify souls and will rise with the Sonship; the world lasts until all souls ascend.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.19.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcion denies the resurrection of the flesh and calls marriage corruption, to spite the Creator.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · God made the human being from all the elements to rule creation; he made a man, not a god, but one who obeys him may become a god and be entrusted with greater things.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.17Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Christ endured weariness, hunger, thirst, sleep, suffering, and death, and rose as the first fruits, so that suffering humans may hope for the same resurrection.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.34.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Knowing the true God, the hearers will escape the fire of judgment, dark Tartarus, the lake of Gehenna, the punishing angels, and the undying worm.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.34.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Those who know God will receive an immortal body and soul, the kingdom of heaven, and a share as co-heirs with Christ.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.34.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus says the believer will be made divine, born immortal; truly knowing oneself means knowing one's Maker and being known by him.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.34.5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus closes: Christ, the God over all, washes away sin and renews humanity; whoever obeys and imitates him will be made like him, a god by grace for his glory.
Fragment 39 on John 3:18Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 3:17–19: Christ came both to judge and to save, but judges for the sake of saving, as a physician cuts to heal; the believer is not judged, the unbeliever is self-condemned.
Fragment 40 on John 3:19Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 3:19–21: the coming of the light removes the plea of ignorance and brings a judgment by works; men love darkness because their works are evil, by their own choice, not by nature, as some heretics claim.
Fragment 86 on John 12:26Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 12:26: to follow Christ is to serve him, and the servant will be where the Word is, not locally but spiritually, though perhaps also in pure ethereal regions where the risen saints contemplate the Word.
Fragment 88 on John 12:31Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 12:31: Christ's suffering on the cross, triumphing over the powers and reconciling all things, is the judgment of this world.
Fragment 89 on John 12:81Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 12:31–34: the passion revealed those who will judge the world and cast out its ruler; the crowd, knowing only that the Christ remains for ever, did not understand his death and first coming.
Fragment 104 on John 14:3Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 14:2–3: the Father has already prepared the goods by foreknowledge, yet Christ becomes their preparer by opening the way to heaven, and at his second coming will take his own to be with him.
Commentary on John 1.74Origen · ca. 230–248 · Good deeds and sins alike are recorded in the gospel for eternal life or eternal shame.
Commentary on John 1.83Origen · ca. 230–248 · At the end an angel will announce an eternal gospel to every nation.
Commentary on John 1.84Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen quotes Revelation's angel with an eternal gospel.
Commentary on John 1.91Origen · ca. 230–248 · “Beginning” can mean the start of a way: the way to God begins with just action and ends in contemplation and the final restoration.
Commentary on John 1.92Origen · ca. 230–248 · At the end all will contemplate God and be formed into sons, as the Son alone now knows the Father.
Commentary on John 1.93Origen · ca. 230–248 · No one yet fully knows the Father; that knowledge comes when all become one as the Son and the Father are one.
Commentary on John 1.170Origen · ca. 230–248 · The world may be the creation awaiting freedom with the children of God.
Commentary on John 1.174Origen · ca. 230–248 · Union with Christ is promised to humans; creation is promised freedom, not necessarily glory.
Commentary on John 1.178Origen · ca. 230–248 · Creation serves unwillingly because futility is against its nature; it will be freed at the world's end.
Commentary on John 1.234Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ is continually taking away sin until every enemy, even death, is abolished.
Commentary on John 1.235Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ removes sin from each person until the whole world is ready to be handed to the Father and God is all in all.
Commentary on John 1.253Origen · ca. 230–248 · The heretics' distinction between a just Creator and a good Father can be rightly applied to the Son as righteousness and the Father as goodness.
Commentary on John 1.258Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ is the great high priest because he restores all things to the Father's kingdom.
Commentary on John 2.62Origen · ca. 230–248 · The heavenly armies follow and imitate the Word, and at the end all obscurity will vanish.
Commentary on John 2.110Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Word within will judge us, though this reading stretches the meaning of “Word” in John's prologue.
Commentary on John 2.119Origen · ca. 230–248 · “The land of the living” means the rank or place of the saints, where true well-pleasing belongs.
Commentary on John 2.140Origen · ca. 230–248 · The life of Christ cannot belong to humans alone, since we shall be equal to the angels.
Commentary on John 2.224Origen · ca. 230–248 · John witnessed to Christ from the womb, went before him even in death, and points to his second coming.
Commentary on John 2.227Origen · ca. 230–248 · We do not yet fully share in Christ's life, which is hidden with him in God until he is revealed.
Commentary on John 2.229Origen · ca. 230–248 · Before Christ's second coming John or Elijah may testify to Christ's life, Word, and wisdom; Book 2 ends here.
Commentary on John 6.29Origen · ca. 230–248 · The prophets longed to see the incarnation as an apostle might long to see the second coming, without knowing less than those who see it.
Commentary on John 6.78Origen · ca. 230–248 · Perhaps they asked figuratively whether John was the end-time forerunner, which he denied.
Commentary on John 6.175Origen · ca. 230–248 · Psalm 16 speaks of the descent into Hades, and 1 Peter of Christ preaching to the spirits in prison.
Commentary on John 6.296Origen · ca. 230–248 · When all things, even death, are subjected to Christ and he to the Father, we see how the Lamb takes away the world's sin.
Commentary on John 6.297Origen · ca. 230–248 · Deep-rooted sin is taken away only through painful purification by the Word, sharper than a sword and hotter than fire.
Commentary on John 6.298Origen · ca. 230–248 · God's fire burns only the thorns of sin; the Lamb takes away sin in many ways, some hidden from most people.
Commentary on John 6.299Origen · ca. 230–248 · Among the ways to faith and forgiveness are suffering, sickness, and even evil spirits; who knows what follows after this life?
Commentary on John 6.300Origen · ca. 230–248 · Knowing that God disciplines everyone in love, we should live so as not to need painful correction.
Commentary on John 6.302Origen · ca. 230–248 · Perhaps Christ is the light of the church and the disciples the light of those who call on him; if the church lights the whole race, that must be shown or referred to the end.
Commentary on John 6.303Origen · ca. 230–248 · Believers are the salt of the earth that preserves the world; when that salt loses its savor and love grows cold, the end will come.
Commentary on John 10.43Origen · ca. 230–248 · Does “until the end of the age” mean Christ will not be with us afterward?
Commentary on John 10.44Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ being “with” disciples differs from his being “in” them.
Commentary on John 10.45Origen · ca. 230–248 · When the world is crucified to them, Christ is in them and they say, “Christ lives in me.”
Commentary on John 10.46Origen · ca. 230–248 · The “I” who is with the disciples until the end may be Christ in the form of a servant.
Commentary on John 10.47Origen · ca. 230–248 · After the end, the Son in his prior glory is with them until all enemies are subdued; then the Father himself will be with them.
Commentary on John 10.83Origen · ca. 230–248 · Either “our” simply means “for us,” or the true feasts of the Lord will be kept in the age to come.
Commentary on John 10.84Origen · ca. 230–248 · Hosea, Hebrews, and Colossians point to heavenly feasts, of which earthly ones are shadows.
Commentary on John 10.85Origen · ca. 230–248 · How we will keep the heavenly feasts, and what the food laws signify, only hidden wisdom can reveal.
Commentary on John 10.87Origen · ca. 230–248 · If the Passover belongs also to the coming age, how is Christ sacrificed both now and hereafter?
Commentary on John 10.91Origen · ca. 230–248 · Since the feasts are shadows of heavenly things, there may be a third, heavenly Passover.
Commentary on John 10.108Origen · ca. 230–248 · This food serves only for the night of this life; none of it is to be kept for the day that follows.
Commentary on John 10.109Origen · ca. 230–248 · After this life comes the unleavened bread and then the angels' manna; each of us must sacrifice the lamb rightly.
Commentary on John 10.111Origen · ca. 230–248 · A third, heavenly Passover among the angels need not be discussed now.
Commentary on John 10.182Origen · ca. 230–248 · Perhaps the city is the heavenly Jerusalem, once occupied by hostile spiritual powers, into which Christ leads Jewish and Gentile believers.
Commentary on John 10.187Origen · ca. 230–248 · Their being sent back may hint at a mystery: saints becoming angels, sent in the next age to serve others.
Commentary on John 10.229Origen · ca. 230–248 · The church, Christ's body, though scattered by persecution, will be raised on the “third day” of the new creation, as Christ's resurrection foreshadows.
Commentary on John 10.230Origen · ca. 230–248 · As Christ was crucified and raised, so his whole body, the saints, are crucified with him to the world.
Commentary on John 10.232Origen · ca. 230–248 · Believers have risen with Christ in pledge, walking in newness of life, while awaiting the full resurrection.
Commentary on John 10.233Origen · ca. 230–248 · The mystery of resurrection appears in Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones.
Commentary on John 10.234Origen · ca. 230–248 · God says the bones are the whole house of Israel, who have lost hope.
Commentary on John 10.235Origen · ca. 230–248 · The bones addressed are the house of Israel, Christ's body, of which he said “my bones are scattered,” though his physical bones were not.
Commentary on John 10.236Origen · ca. 230–248 · At the resurrection Christ's members, now like dry bones, will be joined together into the perfect man.
Commentary on John 10.237Origen · ca. 230–248 · The many members will be one body, and God alone will assign each its place.
Commentary on John 10.238Origen · ca. 230–248 · God will honor the lesser members so the body has no division, all sharing each other's joy.
Commentary on John 10.241Origen · ca. 230–248 · The temple of Christ's body is destroyed by his enemies and raised on the third day; then the disciples' faith is perfected.
Commentary on John 10.242Origen · ca. 230–248 · Each purified soul is destroyed and raised by Jesus, and the text says “in three days,” not “on the third day.”
Commentary on John 10.243Origen · ca. 230–248 · The raising unfolds over the three days: resurrection has begun and will be completed.
Commentary on John 10.244Origen · ca. 230–248 · The resurrection happens in stages: Christ, then his people at his coming, then the end.
Commentary on John 10.245Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ's own resurrection had stages: paradise, the appearance to Mary, and its completion in going to the Father.
Commentary on John 10.249Origen · ca. 230–248 · Heracleon calls the third day the spiritual day of the church's resurrection.
Commentary on John 10.267Origen · ca. 230–248 · When all enemies and death are subdued, Christ will be the true Solomon, the man of peace.
Commentary on John 10.268Origen · ca. 230–248 · In the final temple each believer will be a stone placed according to the worth of his life, from foundation to outer altar.
Commentary on John 10.269Origen · ca. 230–248 · Angels of various ranks, prefigured by Solomon's overseers and workers, will manage this heavenly temple.
Commentary on John 10.271Origen · ca. 230–248 · The chronology from Abraham to the temple gives a “sabbatical” 770 years; Christ, the true Solomon, has his sons shape precious stones for the foundation.
Commentary on John 10.277Origen · ca. 230–248 · Living stones are shaped quietly outside, so that they come ready to their place.
Commentary on John 10.288Origen · ca. 230–248 · Can the temple's history (such as its destruction) apply to the spiritual house?
Commentary on John 10.289Origen · ca. 230–248 · If the spiritual temple could fall like the earthly one, hearers would object that eternal goods cannot be lost.
Commentary on John 10.291Origen · ca. 230–248 · If the prophets' promises are not about the earthly city, the spiritual temple too must have its captivity and restoration.
Commentary on John 10.292Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen tentatively wonders whether such falls could recur in future cycles.
Commentary on John 10.293Origen · ca. 230–248 · Isaiah promises a Jerusalem built of precious stones, whose children are taught by God.
Commentary on John 10.294Origen · ca. 230–248 · Isaiah 60 promises Jerusalem glory, peace, and God himself as everlasting light.
Commentary on John 10.295Origen · ca. 230–248 · These promises concern the age to come for the captive “Israel”; those restored will be precious stones in God's temple, never to leave.
Commentary on John 10.299Origen · ca. 230–248 · Spiritually, at the resurrection of Christ's whole body the disciples will see what Scripture foreshadowed and believe fully.
Commentary on John 10.304Origen · ca. 230–248 · Those who see are more blessed, like Simeon holding the infant Christ; perfect faith will come at the resurrection of the whole church.
Commentary on John 10.305Origen · ca. 230–248 · As knowledge is now partial, so is every good, including faith.
Commentary on John 10.306Origen · ca. 230–248 · Faith now is partial, but will be perfected by sight. Next lemma: John 2:23–25.
Commentary on John 10.308Origen · ca. 230–248 · Jesus promises that whoever believes in him, not merely in his name, is not judged.
Commentary on John 10.312Origen · ca. 230–248 · Those who believe in his name may still share the kingdom, which has many dwelling places.
Commentary on John 13.20Origen · ca. 230–248 · The spring is fulfilled in those blessed for hungering and thirsting for righteousness.
Commentary on John 13.85Origen · ca. 230–248 · In the fullness of time, true worship will be in spirit and truth, beyond even the church's present forms.
Commentary on John 13.87Origen · ca. 230–248 · The first “hour” is worship after this bodily life; the second is the growing worship of those being perfected now.
Commentary on John 13.112Origen · ca. 230–248 · True worship is present now in the pledge of the Spirit and will be complete when the whole Spirit is received.
Commentary on John 13.113Origen · ca. 230–248 · Now we worship as through a mirror; in the coming hour worship will be face to face.
Commentary on John 13.138Origen · ca. 230–248 · God as consuming fire burns up the wood, hay, and stubble of sin in the soul, causing spiritual pain.
Commentary on John 13.221Origen · ca. 230–248 · The whole mystery of calling and election is the food of the great supper.
Commentary on John 13.222Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Gospels' supper parables and Isaiah's promises speak of this food.
Commentary on John 13.225Origen · ca. 230–248 · As we advance we eat better food, perhaps one day the Son's own food. Next lemma: John 4:33.
Commentary on John 13.242Origen · ca. 230–248 · When perfected, each can say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight.”
Commentary on John 13.245Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ perfects all rational beings: the obedient by the Word alone, the disobedient through hardships that bring them back to the Word.
Commentary on John 13.262Origen · ca. 230–248 · The disciples may mean that truth is attainable only after we pass beyond the four elements of this bodily life.
Commentary on John 13.263Origen · ca. 230–248 · They say the harvest of truth comes after the present “four.”
Commentary on John 13.267Origen · ca. 230–248 · Perhaps they thought truth would be reached after passing the sphere of fire into the pure ether, if not consumed by sin.
Commentary on John 13.268Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ corrects this: the fields are already white for harvest.
Commentary on John 13.276Origen · ca. 230–248 · The rich man in torment lifted his eyes to see Abraham and Lazarus above.
Commentary on John 13.286Origen · ca. 230–248 · In Matthew the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are angels.
Commentary on John 13.288Origen · ca. 230–248 · A third sense: Paul calls this life's deeds a sowing and their recompense a harvest.
Commentary on John 13.298Origen · ca. 230–248 · The wages are the future reward; the fruit is the immediate joy that contemplation brings to the mind.
Commentary on John 13.304Origen · ca. 230–248 · When the work is complete, sower and reaper rejoice together as God gathers all to one end.
Commentary on John 13.309Origen · ca. 230–248 · All agree that sower and reaper will rejoice together in the age to come.
Commentary on John 13.318Origen · ca. 230–248 · The sower shares the reaper's wages and fruit and so rejoices with him.
Commentary on John 13.349Origen · ca. 230–248 · Heracleon notes Jesus stayed “with” not “in” them, and reads the two days as two ages or as before and after the passion.
Commentary on John 13.351Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen objects that Heracleon ignores the ages beyond the age to come, and that Christ never leaves his disciples.
Commentary on John 13.357Origen · ca. 230–248 · Paul's words: at home in the body we are away from the Lord, and we would rather be at home with the Lord.
Commentary on John 13.391Origen · ca. 230–248 · Jesus' two visits to Cana may signify his two comings: first to gladden, then to save one near death.
Commentary on John 13.392Origen · ca. 230–248 · The official may be Abraham or Jacob, whose son Israel will be saved at the end; or the two visits are the Word's two comings to the soul.
Commentary on John 13.418Origen · ca. 230–248 · Heracleon holds the soul is not immortal by nature but can put on immortality.
Commentary on John 13.425Origen · ca. 230–248 · Heracleon questions whether the angels who went to the daughters of men will be saved, and sees the Demiurge's people's ruin in Matt 8:12.
Commentary on John 13.429Origen · ca. 230–248 · The soul is mortal in that it can die by sin, but not in the sense of annihilation; putting on incorruption is not the same as changing into it.
Commentary on John 13.430Origen · ca. 230–248 · Likewise the mortal puts on immortality rather than changing into it.
Commentary on John 13.437Origen · ca. 230–248 · The two visits to Cana symbolize Christ's two comings to the earth, “Cana” meaning his possession.
Commentary on John 13.439Origen · ca. 230–248 · At his second coming, at the judgment, Christ will fully heal the official's son.
Commentary on John 19.77Origen · ca. 230–248 · The word is near, in the heart; likewise the kingdom of God is within.
Commentary on John 19.78Origen · ca. 230–248 · While we keep the seeds of truth, the Word stays; if wickedness corrupts us, he leaves and we die in our sin.
Commentary on John 19.87Origen · ca. 230–248 · “You cannot come” may apply only to the present age: those addressed cannot now reach where Jesus is, that is, truth and wisdom.
Commentary on John 19.88Origen · ca. 230–248 · Some are held by sin in this age and the next, as with blasphemy against the Spirit, but not necessarily in the ages beyond.
Commentary on John 19.140Origen · ca. 230–248 · There are degrees of “below”; even those in Hades will bow before Christ.
Commentary on John 19.141Origen · ca. 230–248 · All will bow at the name of Jesus, some sooner, some later.
Commentary on John 19.142Origen · ca. 230–248 · The worse are subjected last, as death is the last enemy destroyed.
Commentary on John 19.143Origen · ca. 230–248 · There may also be degrees among the things above.
Commentary on John 19.146Origen · ca. 230–248 · Beyond the visible world is an invisible, intelligible world, which the pure in heart will see, and so come to see God.
Commentary on John 20.47Origen · ca. 230–248 · Now we see the Father in the Son, his image; one day some may see the Father directly, as the Son does.
Commentary on John 20.48Origen · ca. 230–248 · This will be the end, when God is all in all.
Commentary on John 20.79Origen · ca. 230–248 · Everyone goes to his own spiritual fathers at death; only the saints go in peace, and the perfect in a good old age.
Commentary on John 20.83Origen · ca. 230–248 · A false word can be destroyed by God; Christ will consume the opposing word that exalts itself.
Commentary on John 20.173Origen · ca. 230–248 · Rather, the “lie” is the Antichrist, the opposite of the Truth, whose father is the devil.
Commentary on John 20.174Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Antichrist is a lie not by nature but by his own choice, as Ezekiel says of one who “became destruction.”
Commentary on John 20.192Origen · ca. 230–248 · The man of sin does his father's works; our works too are either God's or the devil's.
Commentary on John 20.222Origen · ca. 230–248 · At a deeper level, Origen gathers the Gospel sayings that God is the God of the living.
Commentary on John 20.223Origen · ca. 230–248 · The patriarchs now live, having risen from spiritual death; one can only be dead who once lived.
Commentary on John 20.231Origen · ca. 230–248 · Some are “dead in Christ” and will rise first, as Paul says.
Commentary on John 20.232Origen · ca. 230–248 · The “living” in Christ are the perfect; the “dead in Christ” are believers who still sin from ignorance or weakness.
Commentary on John 20.233Origen · ca. 230–248 · Paul counted himself among the “living”; the “dead in Christ” must rise first.
Commentary on John 20.236Origen · ca. 230–248 · Through envy death entered, until death, the last enemy, is destroyed.
Commentary on John 20.282Origen · ca. 230–248 · By diligence we too may face the devil at death with a clean conscience.
Commentary on John 20.306Origen · ca. 230–248 · Now we are God's sons only in part; perfect sonship will come.
Commentary on John 20.311Origen · ca. 230–248 · Why call him a Samaritan, when Samaritans deny the resurrection he taught?
Commentary on John 20.312Origen · ca. 230–248 · Perhaps it was mere insult, or they suspected he secretly shared the Samaritans' denial of an afterlife.
Commentary on John 20.350Origen · ca. 230–248 · God seeks Christ's glory in each believer, and judges those in whom he does not find it.
Commentary on John 20.357Origen · ca. 230–248 · Or the Son, imitating the Father, seeks the Father's glory and judges as Son of Man.
Commentary on John 20.364Origen · ca. 230–248 · This is the death Paul describes in Romans 5, which reigned from Adam until Christ.
Commentary on John 20.393Origen · ca. 230–248 · They thought the prophets dead, as Samuel seemed to be at Endor, and so built their tombs, not knowing they live.
Commentary on John 20.410Origen · ca. 230–248 · All three Synoptics promise that some “standing” will not taste death.
Commentary on John 28.43Origen · ca. 230–248 · He knew he was heard because he saw Lazarus' soul return to his body.
Commentary on John 28.44Origen · ca. 230–248 · Lazarus' soul was not waiting beside his corpse; it was sent back from elsewhere.
Commentary on John 28.61Origen · ca. 230–248 · Lazarus' bonds of death differ from the bonds of judgment on the guest without a wedding garment.
Commentary on John 28.63Origen · ca. 230–248 · Will the guest cast into outer darkness remain bound forever? Scripture does not say.
Commentary on John 28.64Origen · ca. 230–248 · Nothing is written about his release.
Commentary on John 28.65Origen · ca. 230–248 · Origen declines to pronounce on the matter.
Commentary on John 28.154Origen · ca. 230–248 · Or it was true in a deeper sense: Christ tasted death for everyone.
Commentary on John 28.155Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ is Savior of all and takes away the sin of the whole world.
Commentary on John 28.184Origen · ca. 230–248 · He died to gather God's children into one flock, fulfilling his prayer for unity.
Commentary on John 32.26Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Father gave all things into the Son's hands, as Psalm 110 foresees.
Commentary on John 32.27Origen · ca. 230–248 · Even Christ's enemies are among the “all things”; compare “in Christ all will be made alive.”
Commentary on John 32.28Origen · ca. 230–248 · All will be made alive, but each in his own order, so justice is kept.
Commentary on John 32.29Origen · ca. 230–248 · The orders of resurrection lead to the end, when Christ hands the kingdom to the Father after abolishing every power.
Commentary on John 32.30Origen · ca. 230–248 · These powers are those we wrestle against; when abolished, the struggle ends.
Commentary on John 32.31Origen · ca. 230–248 · Paul's words show that these powers are Christ's enemies, the last being death.
Commentary on John 32.32Origen · ca. 230–248 · Paul says all things are subjected to Christ, except the Father who subjected them.
Commentary on John 32.33Origen · ca. 230–248 · Even the stiff-necked enemy will finally yield to the Word and be subjected to Christ.
Commentary on John 32.35Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son went out from God for the sake of those who had gone out, to lead them back to God.
Commentary on John 32.37Origen · ca. 230–248 · The same will be said to all given to the Son: “you will follow later.”
Commentary on John 32.38Origen · ca. 230–248 · Each will follow at a different time.
Commentary on John 32.39Origen · ca. 230–248 · So too with the powers to be abolished, each in its time, until death.
Commentary on John 32.124Origen · ca. 230–248 · Those who call Jesus “Lord” at the judgment without doing his will do not say it well.
Commentary on John 32.125Origen · ca. 230–248 · Jesus rejects those who call him Lord without righteousness.
Commentary on John 32.184Origen · ca. 230–248 · God's recompense and salvation will be proportioned to each person's faith.
Commentary on John 32.189Origen · ca. 230–248 · One must believe in the Holy Spirit and in free will with judgment.
Commentary on John 32.266Origen · ca. 230–248 · Countless souls can rest in Abraham's bosom at once, sharing what was revealed to him.
Commentary on John 32.392Origen · ca. 230–248 · Since both Jesus and his hearers would die and go to Hades, the saying cannot simply mean death.
Commentary on John 32.393Origen · ca. 230–248 · Jesus went to paradise, where those dying in sin could never come, but the disciples could later.
Commentary on John 32.395Origen · ca. 230–248 · Some thought “Today you will be with me in paradise” contradicted the three days and was a forgery.
Commentary on John 32.396Origen · ca. 230–248 · Either Jesus brought the thief to paradise first, or “today” means the whole present age, as elsewhere in Scripture.
Commentary on John 32.397Origen · ca. 230–248 · “Today” promises the thief a place with Christ within the present age.
On Prayer 11.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · The departed saints, perfected in love of neighbor, care for those still struggling on earth even more than they did in this life, as Christ counts believers' sufferings as his own.
On Prayer 25.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The kingdom of God is within us; to pray “your kingdom come” is to ask that God's rule may grow and be perfected in our souls, displacing the rule of sin.
On Prayer 25.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · We keep praying “hallowed be your name” and “your kingdom come” because we grow toward perfection only by degrees, until God is all in all.
On Prayer 25.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · God's kingdom cannot coexist with sin's; if we put sin to death and bear the Spirit's fruit, Christ reigns in us until every enemy, even death, is defeated.
On Prayer 26.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Whoever sins is “earth” and whoever does God's will is “heaven”; the petition asks that God's will transform all that is earthly until everything becomes heaven.
On Prayer 27.13Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen prefers his derivation of “daily” from “being” to one from “the coming day,” and explains that in Scripture “today” can mean this whole age and “yesterday” the past age.
On Prayer 27.14Origen · ca. 233–234 · The feasts, sabbaths, and jubilees of the law may be shadows of the ordering of whole ages, known fully only to God.
On Prayer 27.15Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen conjectures that the present age is the end of one “year” of ages, after which further ages will come in which God will show the riches of his grace.
On Prayer 27.16Origen · ca. 233–234 · Whoever glimpses God's vast ordering of the ages will not be petty about the present, but will prepare to receive the daily bread “today” and “each day,” and more than he can ask or imagine.
On Prayer 28.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · Every unpaid debt of duty is written on the soul as a bond against us, to be read at the judgment seat of Christ.
On Prayer 29.15Origen · ca. 233–234 · Idolaters given up to shameful passions receive the penalty of their error; but the purifying fire and prison of God's judgment are a benefit, cleansing sinners so that they may freely turn from evil.
Homily on Luke 15Origen · ca. 233–250 · Simeon, led by the Spirit, held the Christ who alone frees from the prison of the body, so that he could depart in peace; whoever comes to the church in the Spirit may likewise take Jesus in his arms.
Homily on Luke 22Origen · ca. 233–250 · The filling of valleys and levelling of mountains is fulfilled when Christ comes into the soul; John’s warning to the “brood of vipers” is addressed to catechumens; and the stones from which God raises children to Abraham are the Gentiles, once hardened by idolatry.
Homily on Luke 23Origen · ca. 233–250 · The axe at the root signifies the cutting off of unbelieving Israel; the two tunics are the old and new man; and the tax collectors point to the powers who will examine souls after death, while angels too are present in the church and are taught by its preaching.
Homily on Luke 24Origen · ca. 233–250 · Christ’s baptism with the Spirit is invisible, and his baptism with fire is a purifying river after death, given only to those who have kept their baptism of water and the Spirit.
Homily on Luke 35Origen · ca. 233–250 · The parable of the adversary on the way is read of the demon who accompanies each person, the angelic rulers of nations, Christ the judge, and the prison after death where debts of sin must be paid unless forgiven, so we must free ourselves from the adversary while still on the way.
Homily on Luke 39Origen · ca. 233–250 · Against the Sadducees, the risen do not marry but are like the angels, and the blessings of children promised in Scripture are spiritual; “render to Caesar” means casting off the earthly image and restoring God’s image, which God asks of us in order to give back more.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 2Origen · 235 · The sufferings of the present are light compared with the eternal glory God generously gives those who compete lawfully and love him with their whole soul.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 3Origen · 235 · Those who love God with their whole soul long to be freed from the body, like Paul's cry in Romans 7 and the psalmist's thirst for God in Psalm 42.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 13Origen · 235 · Martyrs will pass through the heavens behind Christ and know face to face things greater than Paul heard in paradise and greater than the angels have seen.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 14Origen · 235 · Addressing the wealthy Ambrose, Origen says those who leave the most for Christ in martyrdom receive a hundredfold, even becoming fathers of holier children in heaven.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 16Origen · 235 · Christ's promise of a hundredfold reward does not include a wife, because in the resurrection there is no marriage.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 24Origen · 235 · The second brother was flayed and, refusing to eat idol sacrifices, told the tyrant that God would raise them to eternal life.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 25Origen · 235 · The third to sixth brothers endured their tortures in hope of the resurrection and warned Antiochus that he was fighting against God.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 31Origen · 235 · The martyrs' blessedness begins with a wintry trial; only those who endure it will hear the words of the Song of Songs, “the winter is past.”
Exhortation to Martyrdom 36Origen · 235 · Ambrose and Protoctetus, carrying Christ's cross before rulers, will pass the cherubim and flaming sword into paradise, which hold back only those who have built with denial.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 47Origen · 235 · The soul, akin to God, naturally longs for him; so we should not hesitate to lay aside the body in martyrdom and rest with Christ, contemplating the Word.
On the Witch of Endor 2Origen · ca. 240 · Unlike some Old Testament stories, the account of Samuel and the medium concerns everyone, since it raises the question whether after death even a prophet's soul could fall under a demon's power.
On the Witch of Endor 3Origen · ca. 240 · Some Christians deny that Samuel was really brought up, holding that the demon in the medium lied, since it is unthinkable that so holy a prophet, or any prophet, should be in Hades.
On the Witch of Endor 6Origen · ca. 240 · Christ, greater than all prophets, himself went down to Hades to conquer death, as the Psalms and Acts say; so it is not absurd that the prophets, including Samuel, went there before him as physicians to proclaim his coming.
On the Witch of Endor 7Origen · ca. 240 · The medium saw “gods” coming up, perhaps other holy souls or angels with Samuel; the saints go wherever souls need salvation, and John the Baptist went to Hades before Christ to announce him, his question from prison meaning “Will you come even to Hades?”
On the Witch of Endor 8Origen · ca. 240 · As Christ remained Christ when he descended to Hades, so the prophets and Samuel, going down there to help the souls, remained holy, below in place but above in purpose; a demon could not have prophesied David's kingship.
On the Witch of Endor 9Origen · ca. 240 · Samuel kept his prophetic gift after death and used it for the souls in Hades, who needed to hear of Christ's coming; before Christ no one, not even Abraham, could pass the flaming sword to paradise, so the saints waited for him who is the way.
On the Witch of Endor 10Origen · ca. 240 · Since Christ has opened the way, Christians who die well no longer go down to Hades to wait, as the ancients did, but pass through the flaming sword into paradise, receiving their wages first though they came last.
Homilies on Exodus 6.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The first song of Scripture is sung after victory with a timbrel, the crucified flesh, and “gloriously honoured” points to Christ, glorified humbly in his incarnation and cross but gloriously at his second coming.
Homilies on Exodus 6.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The wicked sink like stone and lead into the deep, while the saints walk on the water; all must pass through the refining fire, which burns away the lead of sin and leaves the gold of good works.
Homilies on Exodus 6.13Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · “And beyond” shows that God's reign extends past every age, however long.
Homilies on Exodus 8.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Against heretics who reject a God who punishes children for their fathers' sins, Origen reads the “fathers” as the devil and his angels and the “children” as those they beget through sin, whom God chastises in this life so that they may be purified for the age to come.
Homilies on Exodus 9.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Each believer can build the tabernacle within himself, with silver pillars of patience, an inner altar for sacrificing pride, anger, and lust, a lampstand of watchfulness, and a ruling mind that serves as high priest.
Homilies on Ezekiel 1.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · God’s anger is a remedial discipline, like a father’s or a physician’s, and those punished in this life may thereby be spared in the future.
Homilies on Ezekiel 1.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · The fiery figure of Ezek 1:27 shows that God’s fire is remedial, consuming only the works of sin, and the captivity is a figure of the soul’s fall into sin through free choice.
Homilies on Ezekiel 1.11Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · The many elements of the vision are deep mysteries; truths about God must be spoken with care, and the Church, like a net or a threshing floor, holds good and bad until Christ’s judgment.
Homilies on Ezekiel 1.13Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · God removes evils by spirit or, failing that, by fire, which smelts away the base metals of vice, and each grievous element of the vision is paired with a pleasant one.
Homilies on Ezekiel 2.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Every teacher will be judged for his words and deeds, weighed on God’s scale; false prophets follow their own heart and spirit and so cannot see the truth.
Homilies on Ezekiel 4.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Ezekiel’s “sinful land” leads Origen to suggest tentatively that the earth itself is a living being, capable of good and evil and subject to judgment, and also that the land is the soul.
Homilies on Ezekiel 4.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · No one is saved by the righteousness of parents or saints; Noah, Daniel, and Job are named, following a Jewish interpreter, because each saw times of joy, sorrow, and joy restored.
Homilies on Ezekiel 5.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · The sword, like the fiery sword of paradise, both burns and cuts, as a surgeon treats cancer; God’s punishments are rational remedies, not mere torture.
Homilies on Ezekiel 10.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · God will restore Sodom (the Gentiles) first, Samaria (the heretics) second, and sinful Jerusalem (unfaithful believers) last; punishment is measured to sin, and anger is not in God but is provoked by sinners.
Homilies on Ezekiel 10.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Sodom and Samaria, figures of the sinful and heretical soul, are restored only after ages of punishment; how much longer, then, for the sinner who was Jerusalem?
Homilies on Ezekiel 10.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Restoration comes only after sins are drained by long punishment, as a quick injury needs a long cure; even when forgiven, the sinner remains ashamed, so believers must stand firm in persecution.
Homilies on Ezekiel 11.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · The eagle, though unclean in the law, is used in Scripture in both bad and good senses; the cherubim and the peace of Isa 11 show unclean creatures cleansed in Christ.
Homilies on Ezekiel 12.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · The sinner falls under the devil’s covenant of curse; but punishment accepted patiently, like the handing over to Satan in 1 Cor 5:5, saves the spirit, while seeking escape through “Egypt” brings ruin.
Homilies on Ezekiel 13.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · God laments even the fallen prince of Tyre; believers are called to rise to the place from which such powers fell, receiving Christ’s seal and the soul’s true beauty, and must beware of falling through pride.
Homilies on Joshua 6.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Jericho, taken by trumpets, is the world that will fall at the trumpet of Christ’s coming, from which only the church, once a harlot and now a chaste bride, will be saved by his blood.
Homilies on Joshua 8.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The devil, though conquered on the cross, still attacks, because what Christ’s first coming foreshadowed will be completed at his second coming, when death, the last enemy, is destroyed.
Homilies on Joshua 8.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The burning of Ai, left uninhabited forever, figures the final judgment, when the place of the demons is emptied and God provides for every soul until all Israel is saved.
Homilies on Joshua 11.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ lengthens the day of salvation, delaying the end until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in and all Israel is saved; when love grows cold, the days will be shortened.
Homilies on Joshua 14.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · From the meanings of their names, the kings allied with Jabin (“understanding”) of Hazor (“court”) are read as the devil and the powers that deceive souls by bitterness, false hearing, fleeting goods, great and small sins, ambush, and heresy; they will be wholly destroyed at the end of the age.
Homilies on Joshua 16.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Joshua took all the land and yet much land remains: Christ took the world by sowing his word at his first coming, and at his second coming he will subject all the rest; blessed are those won now.
Homilies on Joshua 25.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · If the order of the Levites’ lots is hard to follow even literally, its mystery is deeper still: in the resurrection God will order the saints like the stars, each in his place in the kingdom of heaven.
Homilies on Judges 6.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Deborah's song is the church's victory song at the end of the age, when death is destroyed and Israel too is saved; Origen will comment on a few verses.
Homilies on Leviticus 7.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ does not yet drink the wine of gladness because, as our advocate at the heavenly altar, he mourns our sins; he, the apostles, and the saints await the perfection of the whole body, when all are subject to God and the new wine is drunk in the kingdom.
Homilies on Leviticus 8.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The 'week' of impurity is this life, and the eighth day the age to come, when the manly soul is purified at once; Mary's offering of the poor man's victim shows Christ's chosen poverty.
Homilies on Leviticus 8.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The six kinds of leprosy signify kinds of sin, some curable and some not, in this life and after it, judged by Christ the high priest; the scar is the trace sin leaves even in a healed soul, and leprosy reappears when old sin breaks out again after conversion.
Homilies on Leviticus 9.11Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · 'There shall be no man' in the tabernacle means that those who follow Christ into heaven become like angels; the soul is mortal or immortal according to whether it shares in death or in life.
Homilies on Leviticus 14.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen consoles habitual slanderers with the many degrees of blessedness and the graded fire that tests wood, hay, and stubble, but urges them to reform; one 'goes out' of the church by sin, not by an unjust sentence.
Homilies on Leviticus 14.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The law gives death to the one who 'names' the Name but only 'sin' to the one who curses God because death in this life purges sin, while unpunished sin is carried to eternal punishment; hence penitents should welcome bodily affliction.
Homilies on Numbers 1.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The ordered tribes and camps of Numbers prefigure the ranks of the resurrection, and the land distributed by Joshua points to the inheritance Jesus Christ gives.
Homilies on Numbers 8.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God's threat after the spies' report shows Moses' intercession and foretells a new people, and the “year for a day” of punishment is explained as the long healing of repeated wounds of the soul, which repentance shortens.
Homilies on Numbers 9.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Aaron standing with his censer between the living and the dead prefigures Christ, who stood between them in his incarnation and death and will again at the judgment.
Homilies on Numbers 9.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The rod's sprout, leaves, blossoms, and nuts figure the fourfold glory of the resurrection body and show that God's promised goods surpass all that can be seen or imagined.
Homilies on Numbers 11.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Each angel will bring the souls in its care to the judgment and offer the best as firstfruits; nations and churches have their angels, and Christ himself is the firstfruits of firstfruits offered to God.
Homilies on Numbers 11.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · As God once divided the nations among the angels and kept Israel as his own portion, so at the resurrection he will divide humanity again, and believers should strive to be the Lord's portion rather than the portion of demons.
Homilies on Numbers 16.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The promise of no toil or grief in Jacob refers to the life to come, granted to the true Israel according to the spirit, like Lazarus, not to the rich man.
Homilies on Numbers 17.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Balaam’s seeing that it was good to bless Israel foreshadows Israel’s future recognition of the spiritual Israel when the veil is removed and it no longer seeks auspices from animals.
Homilies on Numbers 19.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The last oracle foretells the blessedness of those who see Christ’s victory, the struggle of the people who “cross over” with the demonic “Assyrians,” and the final perishing of Assur, whom Origen doubts can ever be recovered like the lost sheep.
Homilies on Numbers 21.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The second census, made for the generation that would inherit, signifies the Gentile people who receive the inheritance from Jesus, not Moses; the Levites, whose inheritance is the Lord, signify those devoted wholly to God’s wisdom, while others receive the higher “land of the living.”
Homilies on Numbers 21.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Since some received their inheritance outside the lot, Origen infers that in the kingdom of heaven Christ will give outstanding saints a special share beyond the common lot, as he promised his disciples.
Homilies on Numbers 23.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Christian keeps the Sabbath by ceasing from worldly works and giving himself to spiritual ones, carrying no burden of sin and remaining in Christ; the true Sabbath, when God rests from his works, is the age to come.
Homilies on Numbers 23.11Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God keeps the feast of Tabernacles over the soul that lives as a stranger on earth, hastening to its true homeland; in this life all festivals are kept only “in part,” and the perfect festival awaits the world to come, with Christ as its bridegroom.
Homilies on Numbers 25.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The heavier vengeance on the Midianites shows that causing another to stumble is graver than sinning oneself; and God’s word that Moses will be “added to his people” proves, against the Samaritans, that there is life after death.
Homilies on Numbers 25.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Eleazar speaks only to “men of valour,” those who strive in the contest of self-control and study of God’s word; in this life’s war the angels watch what spoils each brings back, and our dwelling hereafter will be assigned according to the work tested by fire.
Homilies on Numbers 25.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Even the victorious soldiers needed purification after the battle, so everyone who leaves the battle of this life, even the apostles who fought demons, needs purification before entering the holy city of God, whose door is Christ.
Homilies on Numbers 27.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The list of stations, written by the word of the Lord, must profit us; it signifies both the soul’s progress from paganism to the knowledge of God and its passage through the “many dwellings” after death, Christ being the door to each.
Homilies on Numbers 27.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · After death the soul journeys through the dwellings prepared with the Father toward its homeland, paradise; the stations of the exodus, with their pursuits, songs, wars, and temptations, describe in mystery this ascent, which only those whose portion is the Lord complete.
Homilies on Numbers 27.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The stations bear mystical names; after death the soul, led by the Son and the Holy Spirit, is illuminated more at each dwelling until it can bear the true light, while in this life the soul passes through trial after trial, going “from strength to strength.”
Homilies on Numbers 27.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The list of stations is given twice to show the soul’s two ways, its advance in virtue in this life and its illumination through the dwellings after the resurrection; the “hand” of Moses and Aaron signifies the knowledge of the law joined with the works that please God.
Homilies on Numbers 28.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · As the earthly land had named places, so the heavenly Jerusalem has regions in which the saints will receive their inheritance through Jesus according to their merits; the priests’ lands and the cities of refuge for involuntary sins will also have their heavenly counterparts.
Homilies on Numbers 28.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Just as earthly lands differ greatly in fertility, climate, and civilization by God’s hidden judgment, so in the heavens Christ will assign each one a dwelling according to merit, including “cities of refuge.”
Homilies on Numbers 28.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · As the nations were distributed at the beginning according to the angels or sons of Israel, so at the end Christ, the last Adam, will distribute his own according to merit; Origen longs for the highest lot, to keep the true festivals in the heavenly Jerusalem and to reign with Christ.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 2.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · To be subject to the Lord is shown by deeds, not words; Christ, whose members we are, will be “subject” to the Father when all his members are subject to God, and we should cease from sin before asking pardon for past sins.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 2.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The prosperity of the wicked tempts weak souls to doubt Providence, but the present age belongs to those without hope, while the righteous wait for the lasting goods of the age to come.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 2.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Wickedness is willed malice, distinct from other sins, as the devil is “the evil one”; the land promised to those who wait for the Lord is the true land, of which the earth bears only the name, and the Lord himself is our patience.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 2.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen calls “a little while, and the sinner will not be” a mystery beyond him: sin and the sinner’s place, the passing world, will pass away, while those who do God’s words remain.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 3.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Only those able to sin bear arms, of God or of the devil; it is best not to have the sword of sin, or at least to sheathe it; all must pass through the fire of judgment, but only sinners will be harmed by it, as the Egyptians were drowned in the sea the Hebrews crossed.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 3.9Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Lord “knows” only what is good; the days of the spotless are the days of truth, love, and righteousness that each makes for himself, and ultimately the eternal days lit by the sun of righteousness.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 3.10Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The righteous will not be shamed at the judgment and will be satisfied in the famine of the word of God; the honors of the wicked vanish like smoke; the sinner “borrows and does not repay” when he hears God’s word and does not do it, while heretics lend counterfeit coin.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 4.7Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Lord does nothing without judgment; he will preserve his saints for ever, and for a few decades of labor they receive the land as an inheritance for ever and ever.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 5.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The mouth of the righteous should speak only wisdom, which is Christ; even the unlearned share in wisdom by faith and prayer and must not despise those who study, and the future tense points to the age to come, when all will be disciples of wisdom.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 5.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The tongue of the righteous speaks judgment by speaking with right judgment or about the coming judgment, and will fully speak God’s judgments when we see face to face; the law must be rooted in the heart, not only on the lips.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 5.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The sinner watches the righteous to kill them, as was done to Christ and the martyrs and as the devil does daily, but the Lord will not abandon them; those who wait for him will be exalted to inherit the land above, the “earth” of the higher heaven.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 5.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The righteous will see sinners perish; the exalted ungodly vanish for one who “passes by” in mind from the visible and temporal to the eternal, and the heretics who set another God above the Creator vanish when the letter of the law is passed over for its spiritual sense.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 5.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Innocence harms no one; the “remains” of the peaceable man are his body raised incorruptible; the salvation of the righteous is with the Lord, who protects them in tribulation and delivers them from the demons that meet the soul at death; one must hope in God alone.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 7.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The penitent sinner asks to be scourged in this life by sickness, loss, or bereavement rather than be reserved for eternal punishment, for God scourges every son he receives.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 8.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The prophet asks to know his “end,” the goal of human life (completed with God in heaven), and the number of his days, which are not years of this life but the days of a soul’s journey and the days made in the heart by Christ, the sun of righteousness.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 8.10Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Human substance, created from nothing, is nothing before God, though not in comparison with other creatures; “every man living” is vanity in this present life, even for Moses and the prophets, who know only in part, so we should hasten in mind toward the true life of heaven.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 9.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Sin makes the soul coarse and fleshly, virtue makes it fine; God’s rebukes thin it “like a spider,” and those who will not be amended by the rod of correction in this life will be refined in the fire, like the flesh in Ezekiel’s cauldron.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 9.12Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The soul truly “is” only while it clings to God, who truly is; departing from him, it becomes as one who is not, though its substance is not destroyed.
Homilies on Jeremiah 2.3Origen · ca. 240 · Christ baptizes the holy with the Spirit, but sinners after baptism need the purifying fire; so we should live by Scripture and become pure before we die.
Homilies on Jeremiah 4.3Origen · ca. 240 · In the age of the martyrs Christians were few but true; now the church is large but has few real believers, as Christ foretold for the end of the age.
Homilies on Jeremiah 5.4Origen · ca. 240 · The Gentiles confess the falsehood of idols, and of Israel they say that its salvation will come through God after the fullness of the nations has come in; Origen hints at a still later salvation of all.
Homilies on Jeremiah 5.15Origen · ca. 240 · The foreskin of the heart is the false opinions everyone forms in youth, which the Word must cut away; otherwise God's wrath burns like fire, fed by our wicked practices.
Homilies on Jeremiah 6.2Origen · ca. 240 · God's rebukes scourge the conscience; blessed are those who feel the pain, for insensibility is a sign of a deadened soul, and those who reject God's instruction waste all he has done for them.
Homilies on Jeremiah 7.1Origen · ca. 240 · God punishes little by little so that sinners may turn back; Israel's punishments are shadows of the true punishments to come, and the final end came on Jerusalem only after it rejected Christ.
Homilies on Jeremiah 7.2Origen · ca. 240 · Just as God added plagues step by step to Israel, sinners receive graded punishments, some more, some fewer, and the final end comes only at God's appointed day.
Homilies on Jeremiah 8.6Origen · ca. 240 · The many treasuries of God may be the different resting places of the ranks of the risen, all contained in the one treasure, Christ.
Homilies on Jeremiah 9.3Origen · ca. 240 · The church, born all at once from the Gentiles, is God's new people; God is the God only of the living, those who have turned from dead works, and the promised land is the one Christ promised to the meek.
Homilies on Jeremiah 10.5Origen · ca. 240 · The heretics who blaspheme the Creator, like Marcion, Basilides, and Valentinus, seem to flourish and have many followers, but they name Jesus without having him; God's punishments are meant to purify.
Homilies on Jeremiah 12.2Origen · ca. 240 · Every soul is a wineskin filled with wine: the wicked drink the unmixed cup of punishment, the mixed in character drink a cup mixed in proportion to their good and bad deeds, and the righteous drink Christ's cup of the new covenant.
Homilies on Jeremiah 12.3Origen · ca. 240 · God spares no sinner, not even priests; presbyters and deacons who sin will be punished, and sinners are scattered from one another as a discipline, while the blessed are gathered together.
Homilies on Jeremiah 12.5Origen · ca. 240 · Against heretics who call the Creator cruel, Origen compares God to a judge who does not pardon a murderer and a surgeon who must cut: punishment, including in church discipline, serves the good of the whole.
Homilies on Jeremiah 12.10Origen · ca. 240 · The “darkness” in which no one can glorify God is the age of punishment after the end of the world; God's “little while” may be a whole age for us, as some sins are not forgiven in this age or the next.
Homilies on Jeremiah 14.18Origen · ca. 240 · The prophet's severe wound foreshadows the cross, followed by healing in the resurrection; God's promise “I will restore you” implies a return to where we once were, pointing to the restoration of all things.
Homilies on Jeremiah 15.3Origen · ca. 240 · “Judged in all the earth” fits Christ, who will stand before the Father at the judgment; his lament over the scanty harvest of virtue, found even in the churches, should make each of us examine our own fruit.
Homilies on Jeremiah 16.4Origen · ca. 240 · Moses saw God in the angel of the burning bush; those who stay on the “mountains” and lay up treasure in heaven, unlike the rich fool, will be taken to rest; they need not hide from God as Adam did, nor go out from his face like Cain.
Homilies on Jeremiah 16.5Origen · ca. 240 · The reading “I will repay first their sins double” (lost in the Septuagint but found in the other versions) shows that believers who sin after baptism must first receive the purifying consequences of their sins before the reward of their good works.
Homilies on Jeremiah 16.6Origen · ca. 240 · God, a consuming fire, burns away not the soul made in his image but the “wood, hay, and straw” built on it; so the punishment of sins comes first and then the reward, as God always kills before he makes alive.
Homilies on Jeremiah 16.7Origen · ca. 240 · Christians receive their sins back “double” because, like the servant who knew his master's will, they sin with knowledge of the truth.
Homilies on Jeremiah 16.10Origen · ca. 240 · Jeremiah's “sin of Judah engraved on the heart” (not in the Septuagint) applies to Christians who sin: sins leave an indelible imprint on the soul that will be laid bare at the judgment.
Homilies on Jeremiah 17.4Origen · ca. 240 · At the end of time the devil's worldly wisdom will be shown to be folly; Christ is the exalted “throne of glory,” our sanctification and endurance, and whoever sins forsakes him, “written on the earth” instead of in heaven.
Homilies on Jeremiah 17.6Origen · ca. 240 · Following Christ takes away all weariness; and we should desire not the “day of man,” clinging to this life when sick, but the day of the resurrection.
Homilies on Jeremiah 18.1Origen · ca. 240 · The clay vessel that can be reshaped is the soul in this life, which can still be remade; the fired earthenware flask that cannot be mended is the soul after this life, when change is no longer possible.
Homilies on Jeremiah 18.4Origen · ca. 240 · Scripture is a spring to simple readers and a well to deeper ones; some interpret the potter who remakes the fallen vessel as God raising our bodies in the resurrection.
Homilies on Jeremiah 19.14Origen · ca. 240 · Pashhur (“Blackness of mouth”) is the false interpreter who throws Scripture's prophetic words into a dungeon; sinners, even in the church, are handed over to the “king of Babylon,” the devil, who takes away all the labors and honor of those who fall after long struggle.
Homilies on Jeremiah 19.15Origen · ca. 240 · God “deceives” as adults deceive children for their good, threatening punishments to turn them, as with Nineveh; the law's punishments (stoning for adultery) suited Israel's infancy, while the Gospel threatens punishments beyond description for those who sin knowing the truth.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.3Origen · ca. 240 · Like a physician hiding the knife under a sponge, God conceals from the many the full truth that every sin will be purged by fire after death, so that they do not lose heart; such deception from God heals, unlike the serpent's.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.4Origen · ca. 240 · A widow who stays unmarried because she wrongly fears that remarriage means damnation profits from the “deception”: remarriage is not damning, but remaining once-married is more blessed; so too the fear of eternal punishment keeps many from sin, while some who reject it grow worse.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.6Origen · ca. 240 · Laughter is a promise for those who weep now, as Isaac's name shows; a preacher's bitter words, which move sinners to weep for their sins, end in the laughter of the blessed.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.8Origen · ca. 240 · Jeremiah's resolve to stop prophesying was a sin, at once burned away by God's word like fire in his heart; that inner fire of repentance, which Christ kindles, is better than any punishment, and the sinner who grieves long over his sin has hope, unlike the one who does not care.
Lines 121–142Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The eternal God made the world for his glory; what lies beyond our sight we leave aside and hold to the promise of the resurrection, of which the phoenix is an example.
Lines 143–166Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · In the resurrection the body will be restored without pain; man fell through the devil, an angel set over the earth, and after Cain and the flood the builders of the tower sinned again.
Lines 309–332Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Christ descended into death to raise Adam and overcame the devil by the cross, the true tree of life, from which believers receive life.
Lines 741–764Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Idolaters will be punished in unending fire, and those who live for pleasure, holding that there is nothing after death, reject God's mercy.
Lines 789–812Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · At the end of six thousand years the dead will rise incorrupt and see what was promised; the end will begin with the seventh persecution, the Goths' invasion, and King Apollyon.
Lines 813–836Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The barbarian king takes Rome and spares the Christians; then Nero returns from the dead as a new Cyrus, Elijah prophesies, and Nero is worshiped by Romans and Jews.
Lines 837–860Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Elijah prophesies, seals the faithful, and brings drought and plagues; the senate, incited, asks Nero to kill the prophets, and at their martyrdom an earthquake strikes the city.
Lines 861–884Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The two prophets rise and ascend; Nero with two Caesars then persecutes the Christians throughout the world, demanding sacrifice to the images.
Lines 885–908Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · After Nero's three and a half years, Rome falls, and a king from the east comes with many nations, taking Tyre and Sidon, amid signs in heaven and the drying of the Euphrates.
Lines 909–932Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The king from the east defeats Nero's Caesars, sacks and burns Rome, and goes on to Judea, where he works signs and claims to be immortal.
Lines 933–956Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Two Antichrists end history, Nero for the Christians and the eastern king for the Jews; when the Jews turn to God, he brings back the hidden tribes from beyond the river, who live in perfect righteousness.
Lines 957–978Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The hidden people return through a dried-up river, led by an angel, with nature rejoicing before them, and conquer the nations by God's leave.
Lines 979–1002Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The tyrant and his false prophet are defeated by angels and cast into the lake of fire; the saints enter the holy city, the first resurrection follows, and God judges the world by fire.
Lines 1003–1026Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The day of fire comes: the sun is darkened, fire and thunder fall from heaven, the stars fall, and only those marked by Christ are spared.
Lines 1027–1058Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The world is shaken and cleansed by fire, Christ comes from heaven with his angels, the righteous dead rise to meet him in the air, and his crucifiers see his glory before being returned to the depths.
Instructions 1.24Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Commodian warns those who go both to the synagogue and to the temples that they will perish, since punishment and reward await after death.
Instructions 1.26Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · This life is full of misery, while God, who required Abel's blood of Cain, will reward the good and punish the wicked after death.
Instructions 1.27Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Death does not end existence; the dead remember their deeds and will be judged, so honor God and believe that Christ raises the dead.
Instructions 1.28Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The righteous will rise; the wicked, who fear earthly judges, will not escape God's punishment after death.
Instructions 1.29Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The rich unbeliever, ungrateful to God who gives him everything, will suffer eternal punishment.
Instructions 1.33Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Commodian, once a pagan himself, invites the Gentiles into the shelter of the church and the hope of resurrection.
Instructions 1.34Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The Gentile should tame himself like a trained horse, leave idols and games, and believe, to gain the golden ages after death.
Instructions 1.35Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Death entered through the tree of Eden, and life comes from the tree of the cross; after six thousand years believers will be immortal.
Instructions 1.41Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · At the end Nero will return from hell as Antichrist, reigning half of seven years after Elijah, and will deceive the Jews at Jerusalem.
Instructions 2.1Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · At the end Christ will bring back the hidden people of the lost tribes, who will overthrow the Antichrist and free Jerusalem before the judgment by fire.
Instructions 2.2Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · At the end of the age the Lord will judge the wicked by fire, sparing the righteous, while some nations are kept to serve the saints for a thousand years.
Instructions 2.3Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · In the first resurrection the heavenly city descends and the saints and martyrs live in abundance, marrying and begetting children, for a thousand years.
Instructions 2.4Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · At the final judgment fire will consume heaven and earth, a new creation will be made, and the wicked will go into the second death.
Instructions 2.39Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The last poem summarizes the resurrection, the thousand years, and the final judgment, and hides the author's name in its acrostic.
Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes 3Gregory Thaumaturgus · 3rd century · Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 3: a time for everything; God's works are fixed and he will judge; man seems no better than the beasts.
Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes 8Gregory Thaumaturgus · 3rd century · Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 8: wisdom, obedience to the King, and the certainty of God's delayed but just judgment.
Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes 9Gregory Thaumaturgus · 3rd century · Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 9: the speaker rejects as error the view that all end alike and that pleasure is the only good; wisdom is mightier than power.
Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes 11Gregory Thaumaturgus · 3rd century · Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 11: be generous, work in season, and remember the judgment of God against the pleasures of youth.
Metaphrase of Ecclesiastes 12Gregory Thaumaturgus · 3rd century · Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 12: remember God before the fearful day of judgment; the conclusion is to fear God and keep his commandments.
On the Trinity 1Novatian · ca. 240–250 · The rule of truth begins with faith in God the Father, the Creator of heaven, earth, sea, and man, whom he made free and gave a command, and of unseen realms above and below.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 0.66Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The inner man has his own food, drink, barrenness and fruitfulness; so besides carnal love there is a spiritual love that sows in the spirit.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 0.84Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Solomon is a figure of Christ; the three titles correspond to Christ reigning in Israel (Proverbs), in the heavenly Jerusalem (Ecclesiastes), and as the Peaceable One when God is all in all (the Song).
Commentary on the Song of Songs 2.147Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The soul should ask whether it was created with the body or before it, whether it takes a body more than once (which the end of the world excludes in this life), and whether it shares the angels' substance or may become like them by grace.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.205Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The mountains are the saints, or the New Testament and the hills the Old; at the end those of lofty life will be found on the mountains with the Word.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.210Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Each item in Wisdom's list has a visible and a hidden sense: the world, the elements, the times, the years, and the stars as the saints and the glory of the resurrection.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.227Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The vines are the Churches, whose 'own fragrance' shows the soul's free choice restored by grace; or the angelic powers; or the verse foretells the Church's call at the resurrection.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.228Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Read eschatologically, the flowers are the first promises, the pruning the final judgement, the turtledove Christ teaching face to face; then the literal sense of Song 2:13–14 is given.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 3.233Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The outer wall is the stronger defence of hope in the age to come; for the Church, Christ's call is the gospel of resurrection, and she 'sleeps among the lots' between Israel's first and final calling.
Letter to Africanus 9Origen · ca. 240–245 · Origen identifies the two elders with Ahab and Zedekiah of Jeremiah 29 and explains their sawing and splitting as punishment in the judgment after death.
On the Singleness of Clerics 40Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Solitary chastity makes clerics spiritual eunuchs and anticipates the angelic life of the resurrection, in which there is no marriage.
On the Computation of Easter 13Anonymous · 243 · The author reckons the seventy years of captivity through the Babylonian kings to Cyrus and quotes Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks.
On the Computation of Easter 14Anonymous · 243 · The last of Daniel's seventy weeks is the seven years at the end of the world, when Enoch and Elijah will preach and the Antichrist will rule for 1,260 days before Christ destroys him.
On the Computation of Easter 15Anonymous · 243 · The first seven weeks (49 years) cover the rebuilding of Jerusalem and of the temple, which was later destroyed under Vespasian; the shortened war is the reign of the Antichrist.
On the Computation of Easter 17Anonymous · 243 · The forty-nine years signify Christ's thirty-one years and the name of Jesus (18), and also the fire prepared for sinners, figured by the furnace of Babylon; from the exodus to the rebuilding of Jerusalem are 1,114 years.
On the Computation of Easter 21Anonymous · 243 · The moon's phases after its creation foreshow Christ's death on the fifteenth of the moon, his rest in the earth, and his resurrection on the third day, and our own resurrection at the end of the world.
Against Celsus 1.7Origen · ca. 248 · Christian preaching is known everywhere, not secret; like philosophy and the mysteries it has deeper teachings for the prepared, which is no fault.
Against Celsus 1.56Origen · ca. 248 · The prophets foretold two comings of Christ, one humble and one glorious; Psalm 45 calls the anointed one God, anointed by his God.
Against Celsus 1.67Origen · ca. 248 · The sons of gods in Greek myth did nothing to compare with the work of Jesus, whose churches fill the world and whose name still heals and transforms.
Against Celsus 2.5Origen · ca. 248 · The Jew says the resurrection and judgment are nothing new, but Jesus taught that the kingdom would pass to the nations, and Christians read the prophets as pointing to a heavenly citizenship.
Against Celsus 2.29Origen · ca. 248 · Since Christ's two comings have been explained, Origen answers only the insult that Jesus was a “pest”: no pest turns so many people from vice to virtue.
Against Celsus 2.42Origen · ca. 248 · Origen says no witness records anything blameworthy in Jesus, his fulfilled predictions confirm faith, and his sufferings are a noble example, not a disgrace, except to one who thinks pain the greatest evil.
Against Celsus 2.43Origen · ca. 248 · Origen affirms that Jesus persuaded many during his life and that after death, as a soul without a body, he preached to the souls of the dead.
Against Celsus 2.49Origen · ca. 248 · Origen shows that Jesus warned not against wonder-workers in general but against false christs, and that his warning, far from reducing his own miracles to sorcery, presupposes their divine character.
Against Celsus 2.50Origen · ca. 248 · Origen shows from 2 Thessalonians that the deceptive signs foretold belong to the Antichrist, and that Christ's miracles, like Moses' against Egypt's magicians, are proven divine by their fruit in changed lives.
Against Celsus 2.60Origen · ca. 248 · Origen replies to Celsus's claim that the resurrection appearances were waking dreams: even appearances of the dead imply that the soul survives, and nothing in the Gospel suggests the witnesses were deranged.
Against Celsus 2.65Origen · ca. 248 · Origen explains that even the apostles could not always behold the risen Christ, whose appearances were given to those able to see them, and that Christ died and rose to be Lord of both dead and living.
Against Celsus 2.77Origen · ca. 248 · Origen notes that the Jew in Celsus himself believes in bodily resurrection, yet ignores that Jesus is “the firstborn from the dead,” and answers his demand to see Jesus by asking where the God of the prophets can now be seen.
Against Celsus 3.16Origen · ca. 248 · Origen answers that the only “terrors” Christians teach are the doctrine of God's judgment, which Celsus himself admits must not be rejected, and that it is not a misunderstanding of ancient teaching.
Against Celsus 3.22Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus contrasts the deified Greek heroes with the risen Jesus; Origen asks whether Celsus thinks those heroes exist at all, and argues from their own stories that they could not have become gods.
Against Celsus 3.31Origen · ca. 248 · Origen contrasts the purposeless marvel of Abaris riding an arrow with Jesus' ascension in glory, which served to commend his teaching and turn people to God.
Against Celsus 3.75Origen · ca. 248 · The only “physicians” Christians turn people from are philosophers with harmful doctrines, such as Epicureans, Peripatetics, Stoics, and believers in transmigration; Christians never despise knowledge and point pupils to God and Jesus, not to themselves.
Against Celsus 3.78Origen · ca. 248 · Christianity attracts mainly simple people, not the wicked; moved by fear of punishment, they practice self-control, generosity, and even endure torture and death, which no wicked will could produce.
Against Celsus 3.79Origen · ca. 248 · Like a wise lawgiver, God gave the many the best teaching they could receive, including real, corrective punishments whose purpose is partly concealed from them.
Against Celsus 3.80Origen · ca. 248 · If Christian hope of blessed life is empty, so are the hopes of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle about the soul; only an Epicurean, who expects the soul to perish, could say so, and his own hope rests on pleasure of the flesh.
Against Celsus 3.81Origen · ca. 248 · The blessed life belongs to those who worship God through Jesus, and nothing is better than to entrust oneself to God through his living Word; so ends the third book.
Against Celsus 4.9Origen · ca. 248 · Christ came after the prophets to correct the whole world by teaching rather than punishment; the learned must prove the doctrine of the end and judgment, while simpler believers may trust the Savior's word.
Against Celsus 4.10Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not frighten people with bogeymen like the Bacchic mysteries; they seek to correct humanity by warning of real punishments and promising the kingdom of God to the good.
Against Celsus 4.11Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus claims Jews and Christians borrowed the idea of world floods and conflagrations from the Greeks; Origen answers that Moses is far older than the Greek sources, as Josephus showed.
Against Celsus 4.12Origen · ca. 248 · The flood and the coming conflagration are caused by overflowing wickedness, not by star cycles; and when Scripture says God “comes down,” it speaks figuratively of his condescension to human affairs.
Against Celsus 4.13Origen · ca. 248 · God is a “consuming fire” that burns up wickedness, the “wood, hay, and straw” built by the wicked, and refines the soul like gold and silver.
Against Celsus 4.20Origen · ca. 248 · There is nothing absurd in God sending one to purify a world overflowing with wickedness; the Greeks too, like Plato, speak of periodic purification by flood.
Against Celsus 4.21Origen · ca. 248 · Moses' account of the tower of Babel and of Sodom is far older than the Greek myths of the Aloadae and Phaethon that Celsus says he copied; the prophets, proved true about the past, are to be trusted about the purifying fire to come.
Against Celsus 4.23Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus mocks Jews and Christians as bats, ants, frogs, and worms arguing in the mud, each claiming that God cares for them alone and made the world for their sake.
Against Celsus 4.29Origen · ca. 248 · Christians know that angels and heavenly powers surpass humans, though the righteous hope to become like angels and like God; if anyone says “after God come we,” it can only mean rational and virtuous beings.
Against Celsus 4.30Origen · ca. 248 · Humanity was made in God's image but not yet in his likeness, so Christians do not claim to be wholly like God; and Origen refuses to mock the philosophers as Celsus mocks Christians, while noting that they knew God yet fell into idolatry.
Against Celsus 4.57Origen · ca. 248 · Paul teaches that bodies differ in glory and that the resurrection body is raised in incorruption and power; God can change the qualities of matter, and even the popular belief that animals arise from corpses does not prove that bodies are not God's work.
Against Celsus 4.64Origen · ca. 248 · Though the nature of the universe is one, its states vary, as a man's moral state varies, so evils increase and decrease, and providence cleanses the world by flood and fire.
Against Celsus 4.99Origen · ca. 248 · Against Celsus, Origen holds that the world was made chiefly for rational beings, whom God cares for, warns, and corrects so that he may turn the whole creation back to himself; Book 4 ends with a prayer.
Against Celsus 5.10Origen · ca. 248 · God allotted the heavenly bodies to the nations but chose Israel for himself; his people, promised to shine like stars in the resurrection and possessing the true light of Christ, have no reason to worship sun, moon, or stars.
Against Celsus 5.13Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not regard the heavenly bodies as nothing: Scripture calls them to praise God and says they too await creation's liberation, but they are not to be worshipped.
Against Celsus 5.14Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus ridicules the Christian hope of bodily resurrection as 'the hope of worms,' calling it impossible and unworthy of God, who cannot act against reason.
Against Celsus 5.15Origen · ca. 248 · The final fire is not God cooking the world but a purifying and healing fire that burns away only the 'wood, hay, and straw' of sin, as Paul, Malachi, Ezekiel, and Isaiah indicate.
Against Celsus 5.16Origen · ca. 248 · Simple believers take the fire of judgment literally, which suits them as fear suits children; in truth only the fully purified escape the fire, and the rest pass through it toward an end fitting creatures made in God's image.
Against Celsus 5.17Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus misunderstood the Christian teaching on the last day; Paul's words in 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians about the dead raised and the living changed carry a hidden meaning.
Against Celsus 5.18Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not teach that the dead rise in the same unchanged flesh; Paul compares the resurrection to a seed that dies and is given a new body by God.
Against Celsus 5.19Origen · ca. 248 · Paul teaches that the resurrection body is spiritual, incorruptible, and glorious, not the rotted flesh, and speaks of it as a 'mystery'; Christians hope that the mortal will be clothed with immortality and death's sting destroyed.
Against Celsus 5.20Origen · ca. 248 · The Stoic doctrine of endlessly repeated world-cycles, in which Socrates is born, tried, and condemned again and again, is far more absurd than the Christian resurrection, yet Celsus does not mock it.
Against Celsus 5.22Origen · ca. 248 · Origen distances himself from Christians who deny the resurrection: following Paul's seed image, he holds that God raises a transformed, incorruptible body, and that the 'words' of things, rooted in the divine Word, never pass away.
Against Celsus 5.23Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not claim the decayed body returns as it was, as the Stoics do; like wheat from a grain, a new incorruptible body rises from a principle in the old; and God's power, though limitless, never acts shamefully or against reason.
Against Celsus 5.24Origen · ca. 248 · Origen agrees that God does nothing shameful and gives the soul eternal life; human corpses deserve honorable burial because of the soul that lived in them, and what God makes eternal is the new body raised from the seed.
Against Celsus 5.42Origen · ca. 248 · Against Celsus, Origen praises the ancient Jewish commonwealth: no games or prostitution, children taught to seek God beyond the material world and to believe in the soul's immortality and judgment, and prophecy instead of divination.
Against Celsus 6.19Origen · ca. 248 · Christians did not borrow the idea of a realm above the heavens from Plato; David, Paul, and the prophets spoke of it first, and Plato may even have learned it from the Hebrews.
Against Celsus 6.20Origen · ca. 248 · Paul, longing for unseen eternal things, found all affliction light, and Christians hope through Jesus, the high priest who passed through the heavens, to contemplate God face to face.
Against Celsus 6.25Origen · ca. 248 · Origen describes the Ophite diagram, with its world-soul called Leviathan, and explains the biblical meaning of Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom, as pointing to purifying punishment.
Against Celsus 6.26Origen · ca. 248 · Origen says the deeper teaching on punishment is not for everyone, since most people need the simple fear of eternal punishment, and he refuses to defend the Ophite diagram, which no Christian holds.
Against Celsus 6.29Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus accuses Christians of both honouring and cursing the Creator; Origen answers that Christians always worship the one God of the Jews, and that the resurrection body is not the same flesh and blood that was sown.
Against Celsus 6.36Origen · ca. 248 · Origen gives biblical meanings for some of Celsus's phrases, such as death being destroyed and the gates of righteousness, and points out that the tree of life comes from Genesis, not from Jesus' trade.
Against Celsus 6.45Origen · ca. 248 · Just as Jesus is the height of goodness, the Antichrist will be the height of evil, working false wonders with the devil's help, as the prophets and Paul foretold.
Against Celsus 6.46Origen · ca. 248 · Origen quotes Paul on the “man of sin” and Daniel's prophecy of a fierce king and the abomination of desolation as the Scripture's teaching on the Antichrist.
Against Celsus 6.51Origen · ca. 248 · Origen declines to repeat his earlier commentary on the six days and dismisses Celsus's jibes about the Creator borrowing light as attacks on heretical sects that Christians themselves reject.
Against Celsus 6.59Origen · ca. 248 · Those who died in the flood were taken not out of the universe but out of earthly life, for Scripture often calls the earth “the world.”
Against Celsus 6.61Origen · ca. 248 · God's “rest” on the seventh day does not mean he was tired; it points to the eternal sabbath of the blessed, and God's “hands” and “commands” are figurative expressions.
Against Celsus 6.72Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus attacks views Christians do not hold, such as that the Son's spirit would be defiled by a body; God is a “consuming fire” only in that he burns away sin.
Against Celsus 6.80Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus praises Chaldeans, Magi, Egyptians, Persians, and Indians as inspired nations while predicting the Jews' ruin, not seeing God's plan by which Israel's stumbling brought salvation to the Gentiles until all Israel is saved.
Against Celsus 7.5Origen · ca. 248 · The spirits behind the oracles resemble evil souls that haunt tombs and feed on sacrifices; a true god at Delphi would have chosen a wise man, not an ordinary woman, as his prophet.
Against Celsus 7.9Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus claims to have heard wandering prophets in Phoenicia and Palestine who called themselves God or God's son, threatened fire, promised salvation, and then babbled nonsense.
Against Celsus 7.28Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus claims Christians borrowed their hope of a better land from Homer's Elysian plain and Plato's pure earth, but Origen answers that Moses, older than all Greek writing, promised a good land that is not earthly Judaea.
Against Celsus 7.29Origen · ca. 248 · The good land promised by Moses is not earthly Judaea, which shares in the curse on the earth, but the heavenly Jerusalem that the Psalms promise to the meek and righteous.
Against Celsus 7.30Origen · ca. 248 · Plato's picture of precious stones in the higher earth probably came from Isaiah's description of God's jewelled city; Christians did not borrow from Plato, and Haggai distinguishes “the earth” from the “dry land” we live on.
Against Celsus 7.31Origen · ca. 248 · Like Celsus with Plato's myth, Origen defers the full explanation of the holy land to his commentaries, noting that Scripture uses the same names for true, heavenly realities as for their earthly counterparts.
Against Celsus 7.32Origen · ca. 248 · The resurrection is not a borrowing from reincarnation: the incorporeal soul receives a body suited to each place, and at the resurrection the mortal “puts on” incorruption and immortality like a garment.
Against Celsus 8.5Origen · ca. 248 · Christians rise above the gods of the nations and even the “gods” of Scripture, serving the one Lord Jesus Christ; separating from those outside God's covenants to belong to the heavenly Jerusalem is not sedition.
Against Celsus 8.19Origen · ca. 248 · Christians' temples are their bodies, and above all Christ's body, which he raised; believers are living precious stones in God's temple, as Peter, Paul, and Isaiah teach.
Against Celsus 8.30Origen · ca. 248 · The apostles forbade idol offerings and blood because they feed demons; Christians may abstain from meat for self-control, not because of Pythagorean transmigration, and they honour the bodies of the dead with burial because of the resurrection.
Against Celsus 8.39Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus retorts that Christ's persecutors go unpunished; Origen says the retort fails, since Christians do not mock statues, Christ is God's Word and not a demon, and judgment will come on the incurably wicked in due time.
Against Celsus 8.40Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus's pagan priests threaten that the gods punish descendants late; Scripture teaches better, through Ezekiel and Deuteronomy, that each person dies for his own sin.
Against Celsus 8.48Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says the mystery priests threaten eternal punishment just as Christians do; Origen replies that the true teaching is the one that actually leads people to live righteously, and that the prophets' foreknowledge proves God's Spirit was in them.
Against Celsus 8.49Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus mocks Christians for both longing for the body's resurrection and consigning bodies to punishment, but agrees that the righteous will be happy and the wicked punished for ever; Origen answers that Christians value the rational soul above the body, and God is not a body as the Stoics say.
Against Celsus 8.50Origen · ca. 248 · Christians long only for what God promises the righteous, including the resurrection; the body is honoured when it suffers for virtue and dishonoured by vice, and a true lover of mankind would reason even with the simple rather than despise them.
Against Celsus 8.51Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus agrees that the righteous will be happy and the wicked punished for ever, yet his attack on Christianity would destroy that belief in Christians; Chrysippus more wisely healed people using even doctrines he rejected.
Against Celsus 8.52Origen · ca. 248 · Christians try to win everyone to their whole teaching, but at least try to persuade outsiders of reward and punishment, since all can see the Creator's order in the world and all share common notions of right and wrong.
Against Celsus 8.72Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus thinks it impossible for all peoples to agree under one law; Origen answers that the Word will one day heal every rational soul and destroy wickedness, as Zephaniah foretells one tongue and one yoke, perhaps after this bodily life.
Against Celsus 8.74Origen · ca. 248 · Christians serve their country as commanders of prayer, offered in secret, and benefit it more than others by teaching piety and preparing citizens for the heavenly city.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 8Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · God makes Christ's enemies his footstool not to destroy them but to save them, as the Scriptures on the “footstool” and Paul on the final subjection show.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 16Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · On the proselyte made twice a son of Gehenna, degrees of punishment, oaths by the temple and altar read as Scripture and the heart, and tithing small things while neglecting judgment, mercy, and faith.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 29Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · When Christ left the temple, the kingdom passed from the Jews to the Gentiles; each believer is a temple that Christ will leave desolate if he sins.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 30Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Figuratively, the saints intercede for the human temple; the sinner is a temple destroyed little by little; and the Old Testament's letter is a temple to be rebuilt more spiritually, while heresies sit in it like Antichrist.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 32Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The Mount of Olives figures the Church of the Gentiles; the disciples who ask privately are the more advanced, and Christ's twofold coming is also his coming into the soul, first in humility and then in glory to the perfect.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 33Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The many who come saying “I am the Christ” are above all false interpretations of Scripture and feigned virtues; doctrinal error, even among churchmen, is worse than moral failure, and every counterfeit of truth or virtue is Antichrist.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 35Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Figuratively, the battles and reports of battles are the conflicts of heresies and philosophies that the advanced Christian must hear and discern without alarm before the Word's glorious coming into the soul.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 36Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · On the bodily sense, the world, having a beginning and an end, sickens before its dissolution, and scarcity breeds wars among nations.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 37Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Wars, famines, and pestilences return when Christians cease to be the salt and light that restrain the adverse powers; God judges in parts to give room for repentance, and the coming pains are meant to destroy the seeds of sin in the ungodly.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 38Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Figuratively, the wars among nations are rival heresies, the famines a lack of understanding in reading Scripture, and the pestilences the teachings of Marcion, Valentinus, and Basilides, which the one awaiting Christ's coming in the soul must see without harm.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 39Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Persecutions and the preaching of the Gospel to all nations are still to be fully completed before the end, since many peoples have not yet heard it; figuratively, the one advancing to perfection suffers tribulations and false teachings, and is saved by holding to the apostolic tradition.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 40Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Origen interprets Daniel's seventy weeks, reckoning a week as seventy years, of the period from Christ's coming to the destruction of Jerusalem, which will remain desolate until the end; he denies that earthly Jerusalem will be rebuilt except for Antichrist.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 41Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · On the literal sense, Christ's warnings about flight, the great tribulation, and false christs are fulfilled in the Roman siege of Jerusalem.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 42Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Spiritually, the holy place is Scripture, in which the false word of heresy stands as the abomination of desolation; the reader must flee from the letter to the mountains of spiritual sense and not turn back to what he has left.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 48Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · On the literal sense, Origen reports views of how the heavenly lights will fail at the end, whether by fire or by exhaustion, and of the sign of the cross appearing in heaven, with parallels from Isaiah, Joel, and Zechariah.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 49Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Figuratively, the darkened sun is the devil, the moon the church of heretics, and the falling stars false teachers and fallen Christians; the mourning tribes of Zechariah are grades of sinners among laity, teachers, and clergy.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 50Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · On Christ's coming on the clouds, Origen weighs literal, combined, and spiritual readings, suggesting living and rational clouds and the Word's daily coming in Scripture; the angels gather the elect, living and dead, from earth and from successive heavens.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 52Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The great trumpet of the angels is illuminated by the silver trumpets of Numbers that gathered and moved Israel's camps from the four quarters, a shadow of the word's great voice and of the last trumpet in Paul.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 53Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The fig tree that buds in spring figures the soul and the world in which Christ's hidden life comes forth, the Church as its tender branch, and the barren people of the circumcision; the coming of Christ is near to those who bear fruit.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 54Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · “This generation” is not only Christ's contemporaries but the generation of the Church, which will not pass until all is fulfilled in each believer; Christ's words never pass because they are always being fulfilled.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 55Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Origen offers explanations of why the Son is said not to know the day and hour: his human growth before his exaltation, the Father's not fixing the times in advance, and the Son's sharing the ignorance of his body the Church until all know together.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 56Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The end will come suddenly, in a time of peace, like the flood and the fire of Sodom; what matters is each one's own end, for which one must always watch; of the two in the field, the good is taken and the bad left, though the spirit returns to God.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 58Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The two in one bed are two bodies of the same matter, one taken and one left; body, soul, and mind correspond to the bed, the mill, and the field.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 59Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Watching for the Lord's coming means watching for both one's death and his coming into the soul; the thief is the devil breaking into the negligent soul, to be caught before sin is done, while the lamp of the Word guides those still advancing.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 60Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The watches of the night are the stages of life at which people begin to watch for the Lord; the faithful and wise servant is the bishop or steward who serves rather than lords it, feeds his fellow servants rightly, and administers church funds for the poor with honesty and discernment.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 62Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Faithful stewards will share Christ's rule over all his possessions, each over a part, while bad stewards who abuse fellow servants under pretext of church service will be “cut in two,” their spirit returning to God and soul and body punished.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 64Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The midnight cry is the angels rousing the senses; the wise could not spare their oil because they had enough teaching for their own lives but not to teach others, so the foolish must go to the teachers, and those who put off learning until death are shut out.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 69Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · God can take the capacity from one who neglects it and give it to one who multiplies it, since every virtue is nothing without God's grace; the useless servant is cast into an outer darkness that may lie outside the world.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 70Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The judgement of the nations is not merely an exhortation to generosity: at Christ's second coming his divinity will be manifest to all everywhere, not in one place, his throne is the saints or angelic powers, the sheep are the gentle and the goats the wicked, and the “laying down” of the world is a mystery not to be written down.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 72Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The works of mercy stand for every virtue, bodily and spiritual: Christ is fed, clothed, received, and visited in his weak and imprisoned members; the Father blesses, but each person is the author of his own curse, and the eternal fire, invisible, was prepared not for men but for the devil and his angels.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 73Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · As the soul feels the body's hunger, the impassible Saviour suffers in his members; the judge lists the good deeds of the righteous one by one but shortens the faults of the wicked, and his true brothers are the perfect who imitate him.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 86Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Christ will eat and drink the renewed Passover with his disciples in the kingdom, not bodily but as true spiritual food; he always takes the bread and cup from the Father and gives them to the worthy, drinking with them, since he is in each, and his blood poured into the heart remits sins.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 111Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Christ's “sitting at the right hand of power” means his royal establishment in all power, fulfilled from his resurrection on, and seen at last even by his enemies; the clouds on which he comes are the prophets and apostles who reign with him.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 138Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Christ's last loud cry was “Into your hands I commend my spirit”; to commit one's spirit to God in death belongs only to the saints, whom God will raise as he raised Christ; the tearing of the outer veil reveals the mysteries hidden until Christ, while the inner veil will be removed when what is perfect has come.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 139Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The earthquake signifies all flesh shaken by the new covenant; the split rocks are the prophets, whose hidden mysteries are opened in Christ; the opened tombs are bodies of souls dead to God, raised to faith after Christ's resurrection; these wonders happen daily in the soul, and seeing them spiritually is greater than seeing them bodily.
Commentary on Matthew 10.2Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen reads the good seed as sound thoughts sown in the soul by the Word and the weeds as wicked doctrines sown by the devil, to be burned at the end of the age.
Commentary on Matthew 10.3Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen reconciles Daniel and Paul, who speak of differing glory among the righteous, with Jesus' saying that they will shine as one sun.
Commentary on Matthew 10.12Origen · ca. 246–248 · The net is Scripture, woven of law, prophets, Gospels and apostles, cast into the sea of human life, which angels will draw ashore at the end to separate good and bad.
Commentary on Matthew 10.13Origen · ca. 246–248 · Saved humans are not therefore above all angels; the church on earth contains the wicked until the angels separate them, and the bad will go into the furnace of which Ezekiel speaks.
Commentary on Matthew 12.29Origen · ca. 246–248 · The Son of Man came first without form or beauty to bear our sins, and will come in the Father’s glory, restored to the form of God and making his disciples conformed to it.
Commentary on Matthew 12.30Origen · ca. 246–248 · To beginners the Word has the form of a servant, but to the perfect he comes in glory with his angels, the words of the prophets; at Christ’s judgment seat the perfect have their sins wiped out, apostates lose their former good deeds, and those in between receive both.
Commentary on Matthew 12.33Origen · ca. 246–248 · Christ is the life and the living bread, death his enemy and the dead bread; the soul feeds on one or the other through the doctrines it accepts, and those who stand firm in virtue, like Peter and the sons of thunder, do not even taste death.
Commentary on Matthew 12.34Origen · ca. 246–248 · “Until” does not set a limit after which the opposite happens, as Christ’s “I am with you until the end of the age” shows; so those who have seen the Son of Man in his kingdom will not taste death afterward either.
Commentary on Matthew 12.35Origen · ca. 246–248 · Scripture speaks of seeing, tasting, being followed, overtaken, and swallowed by death as degrees of evil; to see the Son of Man in his kingdom and glory is to see the Word triumph over falsehood and reign within the perfect.
Commentary on Matthew 13.1Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen explains the disciples' question about Elijah and argues at length that “Elijah” in John cannot mean a transmigrated soul, since transmigration contradicts the Scriptures on the end of the world.
Commentary on Matthew 13.17Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen explains who are the “little ones” who can be made to stumble, and gives interpretations of the donkey millstone as a healing punishment, the heavy body of the wicked, or the body taken up by hostile powers.
Commentary on Matthew 13.21Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen argues that the woe on the world does not touch true disciples, who are not of the world, but does touch nominal disciples who love worldly life.
Commentary on Matthew 14.8Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen asks who the king's servants are, likens good and bad deeds to profit and loss weighed by God alone, and places the settling of accounts at the judgment seat of Christ.
Commentary on Matthew 14.9Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen explains that at the judgment God will bring to each person's memory all his deeds at once, so that the judgment, like the resurrection, takes place in a moment.
Commentary on Matthew 14.10Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen explains why the debtor of many talents comes first at the start of the reckoning, links the debt to grave sins, and suggests he may be the man of sin or the devil.
Commentary on Matthew 14.12Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen explains why the evangelists left the parables unexplained and places the king's reckoning at the final judgment, comparing the parables of the talents and of the minas.
Commentary on Matthew 15.22Origen · ca. 246–248 · Taken figuratively, Peter left everything in which he had been a sinner and followed Christ as righteousness, wisdom, and truth; the twelve thrones belong to the regeneration at the resurrection.
Commentary on Matthew 15.23Origen · ca. 246–248 · Baptism, the washing of regeneration, is the prelude to the final regeneration, the baptism of Spirit and fire, when the Son of Man sits on his throne, death is abolished, and the saints share his glory.
Commentary on Matthew 15.24Origen · ca. 246–248 · In the final restoration the Word returns to his glory with the Father, the man Jesus being one with him; the apostles and those who live like them will judge an Israel noble by birth but unbelieving.
Commentary on Matthew 15.27Origen · ca. 246–248 · The first and last may be angels and men: fallen angels, including the devil, become last, while believers renewed in baptism become first; the parable of the labourers that follows shows that both first and last are saved.
Commentary on Matthew 15.31Origen · ca. 246–248 · The “day” of the parable may be the whole present age, short compared with the life of God; Origen hints at a sequence of ages, of which the feasts and sabbatical years of the Law may be figures.
Commentary on Matthew 16.5Origen · ca. 246–248 · Christ’s sitting on his throne is his restoration to his kingdom when sin and every hostile power are abolished; the right and left may be the invisible and visible creation; the places are the Father’s to give.
Commentary on Matthew 16.22Origen · ca. 246–248 · The three kinds driven from the temple are worldly church members, deacons who enrich themselves from funds for the poor, and bishops and presbyters who appoint unworthy rulers over the flock; Christ will judge them at his second coming.
Commentary on Matthew 17.16Origen · ca. 246–248 · The apostles called Gentiles bad and good alike to the wedding, but all must put on the wedding garment of the virtues, or be cast into the outer darkness.
Commentary on Matthew 17.19Origen · ca. 246–248 · God is likened to a man, a panther, a lion, or a consuming fire only for the sake of sinners; at the restoration of all things he will be seen as he is, as light.
Commentary on Matthew 17.24Origen · ca. 246–248 · The guest without the wedding garment is one who kept the vices he had before faith; bound and cast out, he will weep and gnash his teeth, and the churches too have many called but few chosen.
Commentary on Matthew 17.29Origen · ca. 246–248 · The Sadducees, like the Samaritans and some Corinthians, denied not only the resurrection of the flesh but any survival of the soul; Origen argues that Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15 are aimed at that denial.
Commentary on Matthew 17.30Origen · ca. 246–248 · The Sadducees’ fable of seven brothers assumed that the risen keep male and female bodies; Jesus answered that the risen neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels, and Origen leaves aside the question whether some angels were once human.
Commentary on Matthew 17.33Origen · ca. 246–248 · The Sadducees’ story wrongly assumes that earthly relations continue after the resurrection; in the new age there will be no marriage or fleshly kinship, and the only marriage is the spiritual one of the bridegroom, the king’s son.
Commentary on Matthew 17.35Origen · ca. 246–248 · Since the Old Testament teaches the absence of marriage in the resurrection only figuratively, reading it literally leads to absurdities; Jesus proved the resurrection to the Sadducees from God’s words at the bush, for he is God of the living, and the patriarchs live to him.
Commentary on Romans 2.4Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Hardness of heart refuses to do good and thickness of heart refuses spiritual understanding; every person stores up treasure in heaven, on earth, or in wrath; and the prophets show the 'day of wrath' to be the day of judgment.
Commentary on Romans 2.5Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · All secrets will be revealed on the day of judgment, which is fixed at the world's end because the good and evil influence of the dead continues until then; God renders to each by works, not by nature; and Origen explains glory, honor, incorruption, and eternal life as the knowledge of God and Christ.
Commentary on Romans 2.7Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Jews come first for both punishment and reward because they knew God's will; Origen distinguishes Christians, who alone have eternal life, from unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, whose good works will still receive glory, honor, and peace, since believers too are judged for their deeds.
Commentary on Romans 2.10Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · At the judgment the marks that our present thoughts leave on the heart will accuse or defend us before Christ, which refutes Marcion and others who make salvation a matter of the soul's nature.
Commentary on Romans 4.8Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Peace with God through Christ means abandoning the enmity of sin and fighting the devil, which itself brings peace; Christ is the door to grace through which only the truthful, righteous, and humble can pass; and the 'hope of the glory of God' looks beyond the glory seen in Moses and in Christ's earthly coming to the Father's glory at his return, for which we prepare by contemplation now.
Commentary on Romans 5.3Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen shows that the gift exceeds the loss, explains over whom the righteous will reign, and argues that the present is a time of war in which Christ prepares his kingdom.
Commentary on Romans 5.7Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen answers “shall we remain in sin?” by explaining what it is to live and to die to sin, warns against relapse, and argues that death’s kingdom cannot be eternal like life’s.
Commentary on Romans 5.10Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains dying and living with Christ, the threefold death in believers, why death no longer rules Christ, rejects the idea that Christ must suffer again in future ages, and teaches that love will keep free choice from falling.
Commentary on Romans 7.3Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains why present sufferings cannot compare with the glory to come and interprets the creation subjected to vanity as rational creatures, including the soul bound to the body and the heavenly bodies and angels, who groan in sympathy and await the revelation of God’s sons.
Commentary on Romans 7.5Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains the groaning of those who have the “firstfruits of the Spirit,” offering three readings of the phrase (the Holy Spirit above ministering spirits, the apostles’ highest gifts, or the Spirit as firstfruits of many spirits), and teaches that adoption and redemption are now held in hope.
Commentary on Romans 8.9Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Israel has stumbled but not fallen beyond recovery, as the devil has; its trespass enriches the world and the Gentiles, God turning even sins to others' profit, and Israel's coming to faith at the end will complete the fullness of the Lord's portion.
Commentary on Romans 8.10Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Paul makes his ministry illustrious by ministering well, as deacons, presbyters, bishops, widows, virgins and all believers must; if Israel's casting away reconciled the world, its reception at the end will mean the resurrection of the dead and the world's incorruption.
Commentary on Romans 8.12Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Israel's partial blindness, brought on by the jealous angels of the nations and permitted by God, made room for the Gentiles; when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, Israel will seek Christ and be saved, while those not purified by the gospel face the purifying fire of Gehenna, a mystery not to be spread among the imperfect.
Commentary on Romans 8.13Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Israel, an enemy as regards the gospel but beloved for the fathers, will obtain mercy after the fullness of the Gentiles; God permits evil, even from its origin, so that others may profit from it, and Paul's cry 'O the depth' and 'from him, through him, in him' points to the Trinity, whose counsels no creature can search.
Commentary on Romans 9.32Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · The soul too can sleep when it neglects the things of God; Paul announces the day, both the general day of the age to come, which draws nearer daily, and the day Christ makes in each believer's heart.
Commentary on Romans 9.41Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Judging a brother usurps Christ's judgment seat, before which every heart will be laid bare; the 'judgment seat of Christ' and 'of God' may differ as the time of Christ's reconciling reign and its completion when he hands the kingdom to the Father; at the judgment each is weighed by whether good or evil prevails, and none should put a stumbling block before new believers.
Commentary on Romans 10.1Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · To press converts from Judaism or Encratism to eat all foods as if salvation required it brings the faith into disrepute; the kingdom of God, where there is no food or drink, consists in righteousness, peace and joy in the Spirit, the virtues by which we serve Christ.
To Donatus 15Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246 · Donatus should pray and read Scripture, adorning his soul, the temple of the Holy Spirit, which will last into the resurrection.
That Idols Are Not Gods 12Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246–250, if by Cyprian · The prophets foretold two comings of Christ, in humility and in power; the Jews, blinded by their sins, recognized only the second.
That Idols Are Not Gods 14Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246–250, if by Cyprian · As foretold, Christ died by his own will, rose on the third day, stayed forty days with his disciples, ascended, and will return as judge, while the disciples spread his teaching.
To Quirinus 1.23Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Jesus foretold that many from east and west would enter the kingdom while the sons of the kingdom are cast out.
To Quirinus 2.28Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · The prophets, the Psalms, the demons' outcry, and the words of Jesus and Paul show that Christ will come as Judge.
To Quirinus 2.30Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · The Psalm, the rider on the white horse, and the parable of the sheep and goats show Christ as both Judge and King.
To Quirinus 3.31Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Unbelief is already its own judgment.
To Quirinus 3.45Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Hope looks to future things, so faith must wait patiently for what God has promised.
To Quirinus 3.56Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Nothing people do is hidden from God, who sees the heart and will judge all.
To Quirinus 3.58Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Christians should not grieve at death, since life is toil and danger while death brings peace and the sure hope of resurrection.
To Quirinus 3.89Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · The end will come suddenly, at a time no one can know.
To Quirinus 3.99Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · God judges each according to his time: those before the law by natural equity, those after Moses by the law.
To Quirinus 3.112Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Those with greater worldly power will face a stricter judgment.
To Quirinus 3.118Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · The Antichrist will come in the form of a man.
Fragment Z IV (on Rev 22:3)Dionysius of Alexandria · ca. 248–265 · On Rev 22:4: the blessed will see God face to face, as the apostles did, according to Dionysius.
Letter 6.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian urges the confessors to think only of immortality, quoting Scripture that the righteous suffer but will judge and reign with Christ, whose sufferings they share.
Letter 30.7Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · God is both merciful and just; until Rome has a bishop, the lapsed must wait, except the truly penitent who are dying, who may be helped with caution.
Letter 37.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Those already martyred are blessed, but the long endurance of the surviving confessors earns an even loftier crown, as they live already for the world to come.
Letter 55.20Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Pardon for the lapsed no more weakens martyrdom than pardon for adulterers weakens virginity; there is a great difference between waiting for pardon and receiving the martyr's crown.
Letter 58.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Unable to visit Thibaris, Cyprian writes to prepare the people for a fiercer persecution at the approaching end of the age: those who drink Christ's cup daily must be ready to shed their blood for him.
Letter 58.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Christ and Peter foretold the persecutions of the last times; they test believers, and Christ promises a great reward to those who suffer for him.
Letter 58.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Christians enlisted as soldiers of a Lord who suffered first; since death is certain anyway, they should embrace a death that brings immortality.
Letter 58.7Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Antichrist is coming, but Christ follows to avenge his people; fear God, not persecutors, for the worshipers of the beast face eternal punishment.
Letter 58.10Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · On the day of judgment the faithful will see God and share the joy of the saints, while persecutors and deserters are condemned to unquenchable fire.
Letter 58.11Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Meditating constantly on punishment and reward, the soldier of Christ will meet persecution ready for the crown.
Letter 59.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Threats are no reason to relax discipline; Scripture shows that the proud, who speak from the spirit of Antichrist, are brought low, and the tongue is punished for what it has spoken.
Letter 59.18Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · It would be absurd for those outside the church, the lapsed and guilty, to judge its bishop and force their way in by threats; bishops will not yield, but pray for their enemies' conversion.
Letter 61.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The Roman people's joy at Lucius's return foreshadows the joy of Christ's coming; the African church prays that he may complete his confession by martyrdom before his own people.
Letter 62.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The church of Carthage has gladly collected 100,000 sesterces to ransom the captives, for Christ will reward those who free him from captivity.
Letter 63.18Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Persisting in the error after warning is spiritual theft and adultery against the Lord's words; priests must follow Christ, the light of the world, who pardons past error and commands obedience to all he taught.
Letter 63.19Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Priests must keep the Lord's tradition in mixing and offering the cup, so that at his coming he may find them doing what he did.
Letter 67.7Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Failures of faith and concord among some were foretold for the last times and should not disturb the faithful.
Letter 76.7Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian describes the confessors' joy in awaiting death and glory, and asks their prayers that he too may complete his confession.
On the Dress of Virgins 17Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · At the resurrection God may not recognize a face he did not make; virgins who use cosmetics should be kept apart from the others lest they corrupt them.
On the Dress of Virgins 22Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Virgins escape the curse on Eve and already share the angelic life of the resurrection that Christ promised; they should persevere and seek the adornment of character.
Martyrdom of Conon 5Anonymous · ca. 250 · Conon rebukes the governor and defies his threats.
Acts of Achatius (Disputation of Achatius) 3Anonymous · ca. 250–251 · Achatius compares the threat to brigandage and appeals to Christ's judgment.
On the Lord's Prayer 13Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Your kingdom come' asks for the heavenly kingdom promised to believers; Christ himself can be understood as that kingdom.
On the Lord's Prayer 36Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christians, living in Christ's light, should pray at night too, anticipating the endless day of the kingdom.
Martyrdom of Pionius and Companions 4Anonymous · 250 (the text may be later) · Pionius's speech to the Greeks and Jews of Smyrna on mockery, apostasy, and the coming judgment by fire.
Martyrdom of Pionius and Companions 5Anonymous · 250 (the text may be later) · The crowd urges Pionius to live; he answers that a better life and light await.
Martyrdom of Pionius and Companions 7Anonymous · 250 (the text may be later) · Sabina laughs at the threats; Pionius warns of fire after death.
Martyrdom of Pionius and Companions 14Anonymous · 250 (the text may be later) · From Saul and the medium of Endor Pionius argues that demons, not the dead, appear at necromancy, and urges the lapsed to repent.
Martyrdom of Pionius and Companions 21Anonymous · 250 (the text may be later) · Pionius is nailed to the stake and dies in the fire beside a Marcionite presbyter.
Letter 4Anonymous · uncertain · A spurious letter consoles a father on the death of his daughter, arguing that Christian hope in the resurrection forbids excessive mourning, since she has gone home to God.
In Praise of Martyrdom 11Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Death is to be despised, since the martyr's single confession is answered by Christ's everlasting confession of him, while fire awaits those who deny.
In Praise of Martyrdom 13Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · In a world nearing its end, martyrdom is all the more to be desired, and it frees martyrs from paying “to the last farthing.”
In Praise of Martyrdom 19Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · The writer turns to the benefit of martyrdom, which is understood by comparing the rewards of the saints with the punishments of the wicked.
In Praise of Martyrdom 20Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · The writer describes the punishments of gehenna: darkness, fire, crushing weights, falls, chains, wheels, and crowding.
In Praise of Martyrdom 21Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · The writer describes the paradise that awaits those who have sought God, where the martyrs receive still higher rewards.
In Praise of Martyrdom 27Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Salvation is not found only in martyrdom, since there are many dwellings with the Father, but martyrdom's glory is the greatest, and the nearness of the end calls for endurance.
In Praise of Martyrdom 30Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · The writer asks the future martyrs to remember him, and pictures them beneath the heavenly altar, robed in white, following Christ in glory.
On the Lapsed 17Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Only Christ can forgive sins against God; the martyrs' merits will count with the Judge, but only at the last judgment, not as a present substitute for penance.
On the Lapsed 23Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · If the lapsed do not fear future judgment, let them fear the present punishments that have already struck some who denied Christ.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 16Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · The spread of heresy and schism fulfils Paul's prophecy of the last days.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 26Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Christians now give less than the first believers, showing that faith has weakened, as Christ foretold.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 27Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian urges believers to stay awake and ready for the Lord's sudden return.
Against Novatian 16Anonymous · after 251 (disputed) · The faithful should wake up, seek what they have lost, and confess their sins before the impartial Judge who is coming with his angels.
Against Novatian 17Anonymous · after 251 (disputed) · Daniel's vision of the Ancient of Days and John's visions of the sixth seal and the great white throne describe the coming judgment.
To Demetrian 3Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · The world's troubles come not from Christians but from its old age: nature, resources, and virtues are all declining, as everything that rises must set.
To Demetrian 4Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Just as the old cannot blame Christians for their weakness, so the decline of all things reflects the world's own old age; human life itself has shortened.
To Demetrian 5Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Wars, famines, and plagues were foretold for the last times and come not because Christians neglect the gods but because pagans neglect God.
To Demetrian 9Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Since the plagues do not turn people to God, eternal punishment awaits; Hosea shows that God is angry because there is no knowledge of him on earth.
To Demetrian 18Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Christians share in public disasters but do not suffer from them as pagans do, for their hope is in the future and their troubles only strengthen them.
To Demetrian 19Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Christians share bodily hardships with pagans in this world, but bear them patiently, so what punishes pagans is not a punishment to them.
To Demetrian 21Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Though Christians share earthly hardships, God foretold that his anger would fall on the unrighteous and that he would avenge his persecuted people.
To Demetrian 22Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · The day of judgment is coming, when only those reborn and marked with Christ's sign will escape, as Ezekiel's sign on the forehead and the Passover blood foreshadowed.
To Demetrian 23Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Since the end is near, pagans should recognize God's anger in their troubles, seek and know God even late, and believe Christ.
To Demetrian 24Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · At the judgment unbelievers will suffer eternal punishment, and their persecutors, seeing the righteous saved, will lament too late, as Isaiah and Wisdom describe.
To Demetrian 25Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Returning goodwill for hatred, Cyprian urges Demetrian to repent while there is time, for no repentance is too late in this life, but none is possible after death.
On Mortality 2Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Christ foretold wars, famines, and plagues before the end; since these are happening, his kingdom is near, and only those without hope fear death.
On Mortality 3Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · The righteous live by faith and should welcome being called to Christ, as Simeon gladly awaited death after seeing the infant Christ.
On Mortality 5Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Rather than cling to a life of daily struggle, Christians should long for the joy of seeing Christ, which he promised no one could take away.
On Mortality 6Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Fear of death comes from lack of faith; we would trust an honorable man's promise, yet doubt God's promise of immortality.
On Mortality 7Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Christ told his disciples to rejoice at his going to the Father, and Paul called death gain; so we should rejoice when loved ones leave the world.
On Mortality 8Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Christians share the plague with pagans because they share the same flesh; until the resurrection, bodily ills fall on all alike, as famine and shipwreck do.
On Mortality 14Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Cyprian describes the plague's symptoms, which test faith; only those not reborn in baptism and facing the second death have reason to fear dying.
On Mortality 15Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · For Christians the plague is a release: virgins, youths, and matrons escape future dangers, while the fear it brings rouses the lukewarm and wins converts.
On Mortality 18Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · We pray daily that God's will be done and his kingdom come, so we should not resist when he calls us from this world.
On Mortality 19Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Cyprian tells of a dying fellow bishop who prayed for more time and was rebuked in a vision by a radiant young man: “You fear to suffer, you do not want to go out.”
On Mortality 20Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Cyprian has been told in revelations to teach that the Christian dead are not lost but sent ahead, so they should not be mourned in black as the pagans mourn.
On Mortality 21Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Paul forbids grieving like those without hope, and Christ promises that believers will live; so we should neither fear death nor mourn the faithful dead.
On Mortality 22Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Death is not an end but a passage to eternal life, where Christ will transform our bodies and has prayed that we be with him in glory.
On Mortality 23Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Enoch was taken because he pleased God; Wisdom teaches that God takes the righteous early to spare them from evil, and the psalmist longs for God's courts.
On Mortality 24Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Since the world hates Christians and is passing away, we should not love it but be ready for God's will, neither mourning our dead nor fearing our own death.
On Mortality 25Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · As one leaves a collapsing house or a ship in a storm, Christians should welcome an early departure from a world that is nearing its end.
On Mortality 26Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Christians are strangers here whose homeland is paradise, where loved ones, apostles, prophets, martyrs, virgins, and the merciful await them; they should long to go there.
On Works and Almsgiving 23Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 253 · The rich have no excuse, for Christ has foretold that at the judgment he will reward or condemn each according to what they did for the least of his brothers.
On Jealousy and Envy 18Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 256 · Cyprian closes by urging the reader to think of paradise, the kingdom, and God's watching eye, and to please God now by peace and concord.
To Fortunatus 0.1Cyprian of Carthage · 253 or 257 · Cyprian explains that Fortunatus asked him for Scripture passages to strengthen believers for persecution as the time of Antichrist approaches.
To Fortunatus 3Cyprian of Carthage · 253 or 257 · Scripture threatens destruction and eternal punishment for those who sacrifice to idols.
To Fortunatus 11Cyprian of Carthage · 253 or 257 · Christ foretold that the world would hate and persecute his followers, and the righteous have always suffered, from Abel to the three youths, the seven Maccabean brothers and their mother, and Eleazar.
To Fortunatus 12Cyprian of Carthage · 253 or 257 · Scripture promises the righteous and the martyrs immortality, vindication, and a share in Christ's reign, and the same reward awaits those who stayed faithful without being killed.
To Fortunatus 13Cyprian of Carthage · 253 or 257 · The glory to come far outweighs present suffering, and even those who die in peace with a faith prepared for martyrdom will be rewarded.
On the Good of Patience 4Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · God shows patience by giving his gifts to good and bad alike and delaying judgment so that sinners may repent.
On the Good of Patience 13Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Christ requires endurance to the end; since we hope for what is unseen, patience is needed to persevere in good works until we receive the crown.
On the Good of Patience 21Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Christians should not seek quick revenge on persecutors but wait for God's day of vengeance, as even the martyrs in the Apocalypse are told to wait.
On the Good of Patience 22Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Malachi, the Psalms, and Isaiah foretell the day when God will come as judge in fire to avenge the righteous.
On the Good of Patience 23Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · The one who kept silent is Christ, silent in his passion as the prophets foretold, who will not be silent when he comes again in power.
On the Good of Patience 24Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Christ, worshiped in heaven, is not yet avenged on earth; Christians should imitate his patience, await his coming, and keep his commands.
Opinions of the Bishops 39Cyprian of Carthage · 1 September 256 · Sattius of Sicilibba argues that if heretical baptism forgave sins, heretics would have no need of the church.
Opinions of the Bishops 80Cyprian of Carthage · 1 September 256 · Secundianus of Thambeae warns that heretics admitted without baptism would blame the bishops at the judgment.
Acts of Fructuosus, Augurius and Eulogius 6Anonymous · 259 (21 January) · The Christians gather the martyrs' ashes, but Fructuosus appears to them and tells them to return them so that they may be buried together.
Passion of Marian and James 6Anonymous · 259 · Marian's vision: Cyprian seats him beside the heavenly judge and gives him water from a spring.
Passion of Marian and James 8Anonymous · 259 · Aemilian's vision: his pagan brother questions him about the martyrs' rewards.
Passion of Marian and James 12Anonymous · 259 · The executions by the river; the martyrs see white horsemen and Marian prophesies vengeance.
Passion of Montanus and Lucius 11Anonymous · 259 · Montanus's vision of the stains of unreconciled discord; closing exhortation of the letter.
Passion of Montanus and Lucius 19Anonymous · 259 · Flavian's pagan friends urge him to sacrifice; he answers them.
Symposium 1.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Christ is the chief virgin; Revelation's 144,000 virgins who follow the Lamb are few compared with the countless saints; Marcella hands over to Theophila.
Symposium 3.7Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Man stands between life and death and becomes what he inclines to; in Christ he became a harmonious instrument on which the Lord sings the resurrection.
Symposium 4.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The virgins, who set their hopes on heaven, are the heavenly Jerusalem that God promises to set first at the beginning of joy after the resurrection.
Symposium 5.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · One must dedicate oneself wholly; Abraham's three three-year-old animals and the three night watches of Luke 12 stand for keeping chaste through childhood, prime, and old age.
Symposium 5.7Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The tabernacle was a shadow of the church, and the church is an image of the heavenly city, which we shall see face to face after the resurrection.
Symposium 6.3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The five wise virgins are the five senses kept pure; the flesh is a five-lighted lamp carried to Christ at the resurrection, and the oil is wisdom and righteousness.
Symposium 6.4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The lamp of the old law gave way to the Sun of righteousness; the parable's delay, sleep, midnight, and cry signify the time before Christ's coming, death, the Antichrist's reign, and the resurrection trumpet.
Symposium 6.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Agathe ends with the virgins' reward, betrothal to the Word and a place in Christ's heavenly chorus, and urges the young to fill their lamps and meet the Bridegroom.
Symposium 7.3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · All believers will be rewarded in ranks, but the virgins, whose lifelong contest is like martyrdom, are the first rank, the one chosen dove of the Song among queens and concubines.
Symposium 7.6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The eighty concubines are the prophets from Abraham, whose circumcision on the eighth day foretold the spiritual “eighth day” of resurrection; the countless maidens are the righteous multitudes.
Symposium 7.9Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Psalm 45 shows the virgins following the bride into the King's presence, second only to her.
Symposium 8.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Virgins, winged by their longing for the heavenly meadows, despise earthly goods and even torture, and at death angels escort them first to their reward.
Symposium 8.3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · In heaven the virgins behold and eat from the living trees of the virtues themselves, as Adam once did in paradise.
Symposium 8.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The woman clothed with the sun is the church, our mother, the Jerusalem of Isaiah 60, clothed with the light of the Word and crowned with stars.
Symposium 9.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Tysiane, the ninth speaker, reads the feast of Tabernacles as a figure of the resurrection in the seventh millennium, when the faithful will rejoice with God in the new creation.
Symposium 9.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The law is a shadow, the gospel an image, and the resurrection the truth; God allowed death so that sin might die with the body, which will rise immortal.
Symposium 9.3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The “beautiful fruit” of Tabernacles is not the citron but Christ, the tree of life, and faith in him; without it one cannot share the first resurrection.
Symposium 9.4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The branches of Tabernacles are faith, study of Scripture, love, righteousness, and above all chastity, which virgins bear in full and chaste married people in smaller measure.
Symposium 9.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · As Israel went from Egypt to the booths and then to the promised land, the faithful rise to celebrate the thousand-year rest with Christ and then pass into heaven; Domnina is called on last.
Symposium 10.4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · When the Mosaic law also failed, God sent chastity as the fourth and final law; after it comes only judgment and fire.
Symposium 11.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Led by Thecla, the virgins sing an alphabetical hymn to Christ the Bridegroom, with the refrain “I keep myself pure for you,” recalling chaste figures from Abel to Mary and ending in praise of the Father.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 2.4Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The letter to Thyatira rebukes those who grant forbidden reconciliation and heed new prophecies, and promises the conquerors the first resurrection.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 6.1Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The first seal's white horse is the preaching of the Gospel with the Holy Spirit after Christ's ascension; the other horses are famine, war, and pestilence.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 6.2Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The black horse is famine and the red horse war, both foretold in the Gospel.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 6.3Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The pale horse is plague and death, followed by hell.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 6.4Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The souls under the altar are the martyrs resting under the earth, awaiting the final judgment, comforted meanwhile by the Spirit.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 7.1Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The angel from the east is Elijah, who will come before the Antichrist to restore the churches and turn the Jews to faith.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 8.1Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The church's prayers and the seven trumpets mean the archangels sent to strike the Antichrist's kingdom, as the Gospel foretells.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 8.2Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The trumpets and bowls describe the same events twice, since the Spirit recapitulates; one must seek the sense, not the order.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 8.3Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The eagle in mid-heaven is the Holy Spirit warning through the two prophets.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 11.2Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The court left to the nations is the useless members of the church; the two witnesses will preach for three and a half years, and the Antichrist will reign as long.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 11.3Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The two witnesses are Elijah and Jeremiah, who did not die and must still fulfill Jeremiah's call to be a prophet to the nations.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 11.4Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The Antichrist, rising from the abyss, will kill the two witnesses; he was once among the Caesars, as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Paul show.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 11.5Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The witnesses rise on the fourth day, not the third, and Revelation must be read by its sense, since the Spirit repeats and reorders events.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 12.3Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The child caught up to God is Christ's ascension; the red dragon is the devil, a murderer from the beginning, and his heads and horns are kings.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 12.4Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The woman's flight on eagle's wings is the church's flight in the last time, aided by Elijah and his fellow prophet, for three and a half years.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 12.5Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The serpent's flood is the Antichrist's army; the woman's childbirth is past, but her flight is still to come.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 12.6Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The war in heaven marks the beginning of the Antichrist's coming, after Elijah's three and a half years of preaching.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 13.1Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The leopard-like beast from the sea is the Antichrist's kingdom of mixed peoples, bloodthirsty in its commands.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 13.2Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The seven heads are Rome's hills and the emperors from Galba to Nerva; the beast, of the seven and the eighth, is Nero returning as Antichrist.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 13.3Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The head healed of its mortal wound is Nero, who will return under another name as a false Christ to the Jews, with the number 666.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 13.4Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The beast from the earth is the false prophet, who will work false wonders, set up the Antichrist's image in the Jerusalem temple, and impose his mark.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.1Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The angels flying in mid-heaven are Elijah and his companion prophet; the fall of Babylon is foretold.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.2Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The harlot drunk with the blood of the saints is Rome, whose senate decreed the persecutions; Babylon in Isaiah and Tyre in Ezekiel are the same city.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 14.3Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The vintage of the earth is the destruction of the nations at Christ's coming, which ends the Antichrist's kingdom and opens that of the saints.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 19.1Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The rider on the white horse is Christ coming to reign; the nations fall, some being kept to serve the saints until the devil's final release.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 20.1Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The devil is bound for the thousand years in which the saints of the first resurrection reign with Christ, then released before the universal judgment.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 20.2Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · Paul's trumpet in Thessalonians is the first resurrection of the saints, and his last trumpet in Corinthians the resurrection of the rest after a thousand years.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 21.1Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The holy city of the first resurrection, with its river and tree of life, needs no sun, for the Lamb is its light.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 21.2Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The holy city is the land promised to Abraham, from the Euphrates to Egypt, which will be cleansed and covered with heavenly light at Christ's coming.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 21.3Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · Isaiah, the Psalms, and Daniel's stone that becomes a mountain foretell the everlasting kingdom of the saints.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 21.4Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The kingdom of which Paul speaks is where those who kept their baptism and confession will rejoice.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 21.5Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · In the kingdom Christ will repay the saints and martyrs a hundredfold, and creation will yield its riches to them.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 21.6Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · Christ's promise to drink new wine in the kingdom, the precious stones, and the pearl gates signify the faithful, the apostles, and the grace given through them.
On the Making of the World 6Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · Joshua, Mattathias, and the prophets set aside the Sabbath; the true Sabbath is the seventh millennium, when Christ will reign with his elect.
Against the Manichaeans 12Alexander of Lycopolis · ca. 280–320 · Alexander answers the claim that the divine power is gradually overcoming evil by pointing out that evils have not lessened since Cain, as had been answered to Zeno's conflagration.
Against the Manichaeans 26Alexander of Lycopolis · ca. 280–320 · Alexander argues that the dark fire outside the world is simply matter, and that it can neither destroy nor be destroyed as the Manichaeans claim.
Book 3, chapter 14Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · Macarius answers that Christ before his death spoke of his bodily departure, but after the resurrection, as God, is present everywhere, as he already was on the cross when he took the thief into paradise that very day.
Book 4, chapter 1Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · The pagan philosopher ridicules Paul's saying that the form of the world is passing away, arguing that it makes the Creator either a destroyer of what is well founded or a maker of an imperfect world.
Book 4, chapter 2Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · The pagan philosopher mocks Paul's teaching that believers will be caught up in the clouds as against the natural order, and as proved false since three hundred years have passed without its happening.
Book 4, chapter 3Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · The pagan philosopher argues that the Gospel has been preached everywhere yet the end Matthew predicted has not come.
Book 4, chapter 5Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · The pagan philosopher argues that Christ's prediction of many false Christs has not come true in three hundred years, unless Apollonius of Tyana is counted.
Book 4, chapter 6Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · The pagan philosopher objects to the Apocalypse of Peter's teaching that heaven will be judged with the earth, since the unchanging heavens have never sinned.
Book 4, chapter 7Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · The pagan philosopher attacks the prophecy that heaven will be rolled up and the stars fall, and Jesus' saying that heaven and earth will pass away, as impious toward God's own creation and throne.
Book 4, chapter 11Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · Macarius answers that the passing form of the world is shown in the brevity of life, the fall of rulers and empires, and the cycle of the seasons, so that Paul rightly bids those who have to live as though they had not.
Book 4, chapter 12Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · Macarius answers that the cloud in 1 Thessalonians stands for the angels, who will lift risen humanity as clouds lift water, and that Paul said “we” because he identified himself with the whole human race.
Book 4, chapter 13Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · Macarius answers that the Gospel has already brought an end to the old evils of the world, while the bodily end still awaits the preaching of the Gospel to peoples not yet reached, and God lengthens the time for men's sake as a thousand years are one day to him.
Book 4, chapter 16Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · Macarius answers that heaven and earth, made for man, will pass away with fallen man only to be renewed with him, like a silver vessel remade by the smith, and that God's throne does not depend on them; allegorically, man himself is heaven and earth, soul and body.
Book 4, chapter 24Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · The pagan philosopher argues that bodily resurrection is unworthy of God and impossible, since bodies eaten by fish, beasts, and birds cannot be reassembled and the earth could not hold all the risen dead.
Book 4, chapter 27Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · Macarius answers that the angels' freedom from marriage and death is held up for imitation, not for making images, and that Scripture's talk of God's finger and the angels' human form at Abraham's table describes visions adapted to human weakness.
Book 4, chapter 30Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · Macarius answers that God, who created from nothing, will raise and renew the dissolved body as fire recovers scattered metals, that the resurrection's timing wrongs no one, and that those sealed with faith in Christ will escape judgment, while virtue without faith lacks its end; the manuscript breaks off mid-sentence.
Cib. 13Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The dead man in the house means the soul dead in sin, whose ways defile those who enter; dead bodies themselves are not unclean, since God will raise them.
Lepr. 10Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Christ's law for his servants is to do the Father's will and keep watch with lamps burning, to enter the eternal bridal chamber.
Res. 1.4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Aglaophon, stating the case against bodily resurrection, argues that the 'garments of skins' given after the fall are our bodies, a fetter and tomb of the soul that clouds its knowledge.
Res. 1.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Aglaophon argues that Adam lived incorruptibly before the fall without the flesh, and that Paul's lament in Romans 7 shows the body to be a prison and punishment.
Res. 1.6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Aglaophon reads Psalm 66 as speaking of souls tested in the body and mocks the idea that the soul would take up the body's yoke again in the kingdom of light.
Res. 1.7Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Aglaophon objects that a resurrection of the same members would bring back eating, drinking and intercourse, whereas Christ said the risen will be like the angels.
Res. 1.8Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Aglaophon argues that since heaven, earth and the elements will pass away, bodies made from them cannot survive, having no place left to exist.
Res. 1.9Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Aglaophon argues from the physiology of digestion and the constant flux of bodily matter that no identical body persists to be raised.
Res. 1.10Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Aglaophon concludes that a body in constant flux cannot be preserved, and urges hope to look to the things above rather than to earthly corruption.
Res. 1.11Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Aglaophon asks which of a man's successive bodies would be judged, if the bodies he lived in chastely and in immorality are no longer the same.
Res. 1.12Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Aglaophon closes his case with Scripture that laments the body as a burden of the soul, concluding with 1 Corinthians 15:50 that flesh and blood will not inherit God's kingdom.
Res. 1.14Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Proclus argues that at death the body dissolves into the four elements and its parts cannot be recovered and distinguished to form the same flesh again.
Res. 1.15Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Proclus illustrates with wine poured into the sea that bodily matter dispersed into the elements cannot be retrieved unmixed for a resurrection.
Res. 1.16Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Proclus argues that matter returned to the elements is mixed beyond recovery, so a body re-formed from the elements, like a statue recast from pooled wax, would not be the same body.
Res. 1.17Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Proclus argues that a soul cannot justly be rewarded or punished in a different body, so the risen body must be spiritual, and introduces Origen's teaching as the strongest statement of this view.
Res. 1.19Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Proclus presents Origen as a learned churchman who firmly rejected the resurrection of the same flesh, and introduces a quotation from his commentary on the first Psalm.
Res. 1.20Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Origen, quoted by Methodius in his comment on Psalm 1:5, presses the simpler believers with the problem of bodily flux and of bodies eaten by animals and men.
Res. 1.21Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Aglaophon reports that the defenders of bodily resurrection appeal to God's omnipotence and to Ezekiel's dry bones, the Gospel sayings on bodily punishment, and Romans 8:11.
Res. 1.22Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Origen, quoted by Methodius, argues that the body's matter is always in flux like a river, and that what rises is the same bodily form, changed into a spiritual body suited to heaven.
Res. 1.23Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Origen, still quoted, argues that the risen body keeps the bodily form but not its matter, and reads Ezekiel's dry bones, the gnashing of teeth and Paul's seed analogy in that light.
Res. 1.25Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Proclus explains Origen's view with the image of a waterskin that keeps its shape while water flows in and out, and answers the appeal to Christ's risen flesh by stressing the difference between his virginal conception and ours.
Res. 1.29Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator shows that Aglaophon contradicted himself: if the soul sinned before receiving the 'garments of skins', the body cannot be the cause of sin, and Aglaophon concedes.
Res. 1.30Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator presses Aglaophon to defend his claim that the body is a fetter and prison of the soul, restating his charges against the body before refuting them.
Res. 1.31Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · By a Socratic exchange the narrator shows that a fetter prevents wrongdoing, whereas the body serves the soul for good or evil, so the body is not a punitive fetter; Scripture's appeal to free choice confirms it.
Res. 1.34Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator argues that man, fashioned by God's own hands as a body-and-soul whole, was made immortal, since what immortality makes is immortal.
Res. 1.35Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator argues that man, made in the image of the only-begotten Image, was meant to be immortal, and takes up the objection about where death and the devil's envy come from.
Res. 1.38Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator argues that death was given as a remedy, the 'garments of skins' being mortality rather than bodies, so that sin might be destroyed root and all in the body's dissolution and the body raised pure, like a temple freed of a fig tree.
Res. 1.42Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator cites Paul's struggle with indwelling sin to show that sin's root remains until death, and compares death and resurrection to a craftsman recasting a damaged statue or a potter remaking a vessel.
Res. 1.44Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · God, like a potter, remoulds man through death to raise each to honour or dishonour, while our part is to keep the root of sin from bearing fruit, for which we are answerable.
Res. 1.45Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · No one may blame God for the punishment he chose by his own free will; death, like bitter medicine, serves our good, as the song of Deuteronomy confirms.
Res. 1.46Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · God's word 'I will kill and I will make alive' shows that the body dies in order to rise again, and nothing can snatch it from his hand, as Paul says in Romans 8.
Res. 1.47Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator refutes the argument that whatever is born must perish, and maintains that the world will be purified by fire and renewed, not destroyed, citing Wisdom, Romans 8 and Isaiah.
Res. 1.48Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator explains that Scripture calls the world's renewal 'passing away', and that the risen will be 'as angels' in incorruption without ceasing to be men, since each order of creatures keeps its own nature.
Res. 1.50Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · God did not make man by mistake or intend him to become an angel; he made man body and soul, and since man is immortal, the body does not perish.
Res. 1.51Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Christ's answer to the Sadducees shows that the risen will be 'as angels' in not marrying, not in lacking flesh; 'resurrection' itself means the rising of what has fallen, the body.
Res. 1.52Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Christ taught the soul's immortality in the story of the rich man and Lazarus and at the transfiguration, as does Wisdom 3; therefore 'resurrection' must refer to the body, which falls, not to the soul.
Res. 1.53Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The resurrection is of the fallen flesh, the 'tent' of the soul, as the images of sleeping and waking and of seeds that die and spring up again show.
Res. 1.54Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator rejects the reading of Psalm 66 as souls falling from heaven into bodies, argues from Paul's two raptures that paradise is on earth, and reads the psalm as the thanksgiving of the martyrs tested by fire.
Res. 1.57Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator refutes the claim that Paul's 'I was once alive apart from the law' refers to souls living without bodies, and shows that Paul's 'flesh' in Romans 7-8 means a fleshly way of life, not the body.
Res. 1.59Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Paul's 'mind of the flesh' is the flesh's impulse toward sin, not the flesh itself, which can be brought under God's law, as virginity, self-control and Paul's commands about the body show.
Res. 1.61Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Paul's words on sexual immorality concern this visible body, which can be a temple of the Spirit and so will be raised and clothed with immortality.
Res. 1.62Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Scripture, Plato and the physicians all call this visible flesh 'body', so Paul's statements about the body refer to it, and the narrator promises to show that Paul consistently teaches the resurrection of the flesh.
Res. 2.10Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator's companion argues that God formed the body from a mixture of the four elements, as Christ's healing of the man born blind with earth and spittle and the painter's four colours illustrate.
Res. 2.11Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · A fragment on cut-off members not growing back from food.
Res. 2.12Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The speaker argues that food turns only into the body's various juices, which come and go, while the substance of flesh, bone and sinew remains, as the vessel of a river remains while the water flows through it.
Res. 2.13Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The speaker distinguishes the body's substance from its changing juices, citing blood-letting, menstruation, scars that remain, and Scripture's assumption that the same person is born, called and baptized.
Res. 2.14Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · If constant change destroyed the identity of the body, it would destroy that of the soul too; and the opponents, who give the soul another spiritual body, make God unjust by their own standard.
Res. 2.15Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Methodius interprets 2 Corinthians 5:1-7: the 'earthly house' is our short life in the body, not the body itself, and what we long to put on is immortality.
Res. 2.16Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The speaker shows from 2 Corinthians 4-5 that Paul expects the life of Jesus to appear in this mortal flesh, and from Paul's and Moses' usage that 'flesh and blood' in 1 Corinthians 15:50 means a fleshly way of life.
Res. 2.18Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Methodius explains that 'flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom' refers to the flesh's impulses and to corruption, not to the body, which God restores to incorruption, as Justin Martyr also taught.
Res. 2.19Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · If God makes a man from a drop of seed, much more can he remake a man from a body that already existed.
Res. 2.20Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The growth of a child from a tiny seed, preserved in the womb by God's wisdom, and the clothes of Israel that did not wear out in the desert, show God's power to raise the body.
Res. 2.21Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The feast of Tabernacles prefigures the resurrection, when God will fix our fallen 'tents', our bodies, together again for ever.
Res. 2.22Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The human body, though more honourable than those of animals, is short-lived now, which shows that its lasting existence belongs to the time after the resurrection.
Res. 2.23Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · A plant flourishing unburned beside a natural fire on Mount Olympus in Lycia prefigures the righteous passing unharmed through the final fire; and since even humble images of a king are honoured, God will not let his images perish but raised them up through the incarnate Word.
Res. 2.25Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The story of Jonah is read as a figure of man's fall, his swallowing by time and death, and his resurrection after the three intervals of time, as Christ's three days in the earth also teach.
Res. 2.26Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Memianius restates Proclus's objection that a body dissolved into the elements cannot be separated out again unmixed, like statues melted into one mass of wax.
Res. 2.27Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Fragments: God, who is more powerful than men who can separate mixtures, will give back each person's own body; the sea, Hades and death of Revelation 20:13 are the elements returning their portions; Origen imagined a risen body of pure air and fire.
Res. 2.29Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Since even visible nature shows that mixed waters can be separated, those who deny bodily resurrection measure God's power by their own and invent airy or luminous bodies instead.
Res. 2.30Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The speaker rejects the atomists and those who hold that the elements change into one another, arguing that God, who holds all things together, can give each body its own form again.
Res. 3.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · At the beginning of Book 3 the narrator, satisfied that mixed elements can be separated, turns to the prophets' witness to the resurrection: Daniel, the Psalms and 2 Maccabees.
Res. 3.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator states Origen's view that only the bodily form, not the flesh, rises in a spiritual body, and quotes Origen's own words again.
Res. 3.3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator turns to refute Origen's own account of the resurrection, beginning with his image of the waterskin, and objects that the bodily form changes with age more than the flesh does.
Res. 3.4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · A spiritual body merely like the present one, as a gold statue replaces a bronze one, would not be a resurrection of the body that died.
Res. 3.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · If Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration had already risen in the bodily form, Christ would not be 'the firstborn of the dead'; so the resurrection must be of the flesh, and those raised before Christ died again.
Res. 3.6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Since a form cannot subsist apart from its matter, as the shape of a melted statue perishes with it, Origen's risen 'form' in a spiritual body would only be a likeness of the person, not the person himself.
Res. 3.7Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Greek phrases of Origen quoted in Book 3, chapters 7-8.
Res. 3.8Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Against Origen's spiritual reading of the 'gnashing of teeth', the narrator argues that Scripture speaks sometimes literally and sometimes spiritually, as its uses of 'garments' show, so bodily teeth are meant here.
Res. 3.9Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The return from Babylon did not fulfil Ezekiel's promise, since Jerusalem was repeatedly captured afterwards, as Josephus records.
Res. 3.10Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Origen's seed analogy, quoted again in Book 3, chapter 10.
Res. 3.11Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Origen cannot consistently give the saints glorious new bodies while the punished sinners must also have incorruptible bodies to endure torment.
Res. 3.12Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Against Origen's claim that the risen Christ showed the disciples a body adapted to their sight rather than his real one, the narrator insists from Luke 24 and John 20 that Christ rose in the same body of flesh and bones.
Res. 3.13Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · If the disciples could see Christ's glory as novices at the transfiguration, they could have seen it after the resurrection; instead Christ showed them his flesh and bones, as Paul's creed also teaches.
Res. 3.14Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The 'body of humiliation' was once a body of glory before the fall, and it is this same body that will rise glorified.
Res. 3.15Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Methodius asks what shape Origen's risen body would have if not the human one, which bears God's image, and explains 'spiritual body' as a body filled with the Holy Spirit, not one made of air.
Res. 3.17Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Origen's argument from the rich man and Lazarus and from Samuel's appearance that the soul after death has a body-like shape.
Res. 3.18Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Origen's claim that the soul after death has a body-shaped vehicle contradicts itself: souls are themselves rational bodies shaped in members, so the body that belongs to them must take the same form.
Res. 3.19Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · If, as the opponents admit, bodiless angels sinned, a spiritual body would not keep souls from sin; so there is no advantage in denying the resurrection of this body.
Res. 3.20Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator rejects the argument that 'all flesh shall see the salvation of God' would imply the resurrection of animals, since Scripture's 'all flesh' elsewhere plainly means human beings.
Res. 3.21Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Romans 14:9: the living are the souls, the dead the bodies.
Fragment on Job, no. 6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · God's patience does not mean the punishment of the ungodly is postponed forever.
Apostolic Church Order 14Anonymous · ca. 300 · Do good while there is time, for the day of the Lord is near; keep what you have received without adding or taking away.
Against the Nations 2.4Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Since the future cannot be proved, it is wiser to believe the promise that offers hope than to reject it and risk losing salvation.
Against the Nations 2.13Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Platonists mock Christian teaching on God, resurrection, and the soul's salvation, though Plato taught similar things.
Against the Nations 2.14Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Arnobius holds that souls are of a middle nature, neither immortal nor mortal by themselves: those who do not know God are finally destroyed in fire, while those who turn to God's mercy are saved.
Against the Nations 2.30Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · If souls are immortal and incorruptible, punishments cannot touch them and virtue is pointless; if they simply perish, as Epicurus held, virtue is equally without reward.
Against the Nations 2.32Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Since souls can gain lasting life only by knowing God, Christians reasonably entrust themselves to their Deliverer, as people take precautions against lesser dangers.
Against the Nations 2.33Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Unlike philosophers who trust in their own divinity to rise to the stars, Christians trust God alone for life beyond death.
Against the Nations 2.34Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · If Plato could have secured escape from death, people would rightly worship him; Christ promised it and proved it by his mighty works.
Against the Nations 2.53Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Arnobius restates that human souls are naturally mortal but can receive everlasting life from God if they hope in him.
Against the Nations 2.61Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Christ bids his hearers leave speculative questions to God and attend to the salvation of their souls, which without knowledge of God face a slow and painful destruction.
Against the Nations 2.62Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Neither philosophers' claims of divine birth, nor the prayers of the magi, nor Etruscan rites can save souls; only almighty God can grant them lasting life.
Against the Nations 2.63Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · To the question of souls who lived before Christ, Arnobius answers that God's mercy reached them too, though how is beyond present knowledge.
Against the Nations 2.78Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Arnobius urges his readers to stop raising idle objections and entrust themselves to God before death overtakes them.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 38Anonymous · 4th century · The Easter night is kept in vigil until dawn; baptized Christians must stay watchful and fervent rather than rest on their baptism; the collection closes with a blessing and a colophon.
Church History 1.2.24Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Daniel foresaw the Ancient of Days enthroned in judgment.
Church History 1.2.25Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Daniel saw one like a son of man receive an everlasting kingdom.
Church History 2.23.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Hegesippus (quoted): some believed through James; the sects denied the resurrection and the coming judge.
Church History 2.23.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Hegesippus (quoted): James proclaimed that Jesus, the Son of Man, sits at God's right hand and will come on the clouds.
Church History 3.7.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Christ foretold the siege's woes for pregnant and nursing women and an unmatched tribulation.
Church History 3.7.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Christ also foretold the sword, captivity, and Jerusalem trodden down by the nations.
Church History 3.20.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Hegesippus (quoted): they said Christ's kingdom is heavenly and will come at the end, when he judges the living and the dead.
Church History 3.26.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The devil used such sorcerers to discredit Christian teaching on immortality and resurrection.
Church History 3.28.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Gaius (quoted): Cerinthus forged revelations teaching an earthly thousand-year kingdom of fleshly pleasures.
Church History 3.28.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius (quoted): Cerinthus gave his fiction a trustworthy name and taught an earthly kingdom of Christ.
Church History 3.28.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius (quoted): Cerinthus's kingdom was a dream of food, drink, marriage, and sacrifices.
Church History 3.31.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Polycrates of Ephesus (quoted) names the great saints buried in Asia: Philip at Hierapolis with his daughters.
Church History 3.39.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Papias taught an earthly thousand-year kingdom after the resurrection, which Eusebius thinks misreads the apostles' figurative language.
Church History 3.39.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Eusebius thinks Papias unintelligent but influential, leading Irenaeus and others into the same view.
Church History 4.15.24Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Martyrdom (quoted): threatened with fire, Polycarp pointed to the eternal fire of judgment and told the proconsul to do as he wished.
Church History 4.15.33Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Martyrdom (quoted): Polycarp blessed God for counting him worthy to share Christ's cup among the martyrs.
Church History 4.17.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Justin (quoted): a formerly dissolute woman, converted, urged her licentious husband to reform, warning of eternal punishment.
Church History 5.1.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Satan's attack began with Christians being barred from homes, baths, the market, and every public place.
Church History 5.1.26Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Under torture Biblis repented, denied the slander of cannibalism, confessed Christ, and joined the martyrs.
Church History 5.1.63Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The pagans destroyed the bodies to mock the Christian hope of resurrection.
Church History 5.8.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus defends the number 666 in the Apocalypse as found in the best copies and attested by John's hearers.
Church History 5.8.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus refuses to name the Antichrist and dates John's vision to the end of Domitian's reign.
Church History 5.16.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Thirteen years after Maximilla's death, no war had come, but peace for Christians.
Church History 5.17.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · If the Montanist women inherited prophecy, who inherited it from them? None has appeared in fourteen years since Maximilla's death.
Church History 5.20.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus adjures future copyists to check their copies carefully and to copy his oath too.
Church History 5.24.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Polycrates: Asia's great dead, including the apostle Philip and his daughters, await the resurrection.
Church History 5.24.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Polycrates adds Sagaris, Papirius, and Melito of Sardis.
Church History 6.7.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · A writer named Jude, commenting on Daniel's seventy weeks, thought the Antichrist was near.
Church History 6.24.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Origen's works written at Alexandria also included commentaries on Genesis 1–8, Psalms 1–25, Lamentations, and On the Resurrection.
Church History 6.37.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · In Arabia some taught that the soul dies with the body until the resurrection; Origen persuaded them otherwise at a synod.
Church History 7.10.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius applies the beast of Revelation 13 to Valerian.
Church History 7.21.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Yet people do not tremble at humanity's decline.
Church History 7.24.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius wrote On Promises against Bishop Nepos, who taught a literal thousand-year earthly kingdom.
Church History 7.24.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Nepos based his view on the Apocalypse and wrote a Refutation of the Allegorists.
Church History 7.24.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius's first book states his view; the second deals with the Apocalypse.
Church History 7.24.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius respects Nepos's faith and hymns but puts truth first and will correct his errors.
Church History 7.24.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Because Nepos's book leads simple believers to hope only for earthly pleasures, Dionysius must answer it in writing.
Church History 7.24.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · In Arsinoe, where the doctrine had split churches, Dionysius called a public examination.
Church History 7.24.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · For three full days he examined Nepos's book with them.
Church History 7.24.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The leader Coracion renounced the doctrine, and all rejoiced at the agreement.
Church History 7.25.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Cerinthus reportedly imagined Christ's kingdom as one of bodily pleasures.
Church History 10.1.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The martyrs gained heaven; the living, amazed at God's generosity, confirm the truth of the prophecies.
Church History 10.4.46Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · As Christ passed from death to glorified, incorruptible flesh, so the church shares his renewal and longs for the resurrection and the kingdom of heaven.
Church History 10.4.70Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · No mortal can worthily praise the heavenly Jerusalem where angels and the firstborn worship God, for it surpasses all human sight and thought.
Acts of Archelaus 13Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century · Mani’s teaching on the end of the world and the mission of his three disciples.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 41Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus argues that the "perfect" Paul awaited is Christ at his coming in glory, when prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will be done away, and that Manes has done away nothing.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 42Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus contrasts Manes with earlier heretics who never claimed to be the Paraclete, and argues from Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and the Last Judgment that Manes cannot be the perfect one to come.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 58Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus argues that denying Christ's birth from Mary destroys his passion, resurrection, the resurrection of the dead, and the judgment, and asks Manes on whom the Spirit descended at the baptism.
Homilies 1.4Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Clement weighs whether to fear punishment after death and resolves that it is safer to live piously, though he lacks certainty.
Homilies 1.7Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · A preacher in Rome announces the Son of God in Judea and calls for repentance before judgment.
Homilies 2.12Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter states that the Prophet alone knows the truth, which is that the one Creator God will judge each person by his deeds.
Homilies 2.13Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter argues that God's justice requires the immortality of the soul and a judgment after death.
Homilies 2.17Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter applies the rule of pairs: John before Jesus, Simon before Peter among the Gentiles, a false gospel before the true, and Antichrist before Christ.
Homilies 2.28Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Nicetes recalls how he and Aquila urged Simon to stop claiming divinity and to fear God's judgment.
Homilies 2.31Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Aquila argues from Simon's own practice that souls are immortal and that a judgment is coming; Simon threatens them with death.
Homilies 2.46Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter says that the good God is also the righteous judge who will judge every offender at the end.
Homilies 3.6Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The one God saves the repentant after due punishment, while the unrepentant are punished in fire for a set time and then cease to exist.
Homilies 3.28Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Hearing any teacher but the true Prophet is spiritual adultery, for which the Spirit departs and the soul is judged after death.
Homilies 3.31Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Those who reject the apostles fare worse than Sodom; to receive peace one must refuse to do wrong and bear wrong, trusting God’s justice.
Homilies 4.14Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Belief in the all-seeing God as judge encourages self-control even if it were a myth, and if true it brings eternal reward.
Homilies 4.22Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Because adultery ruins households and cities, Clement turned to the God and Law of the Jews, trusting in God’s just judgment.
Homilies 7.4Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter calls the people to repentance: to pray, abstain from sacrificial food, carrion, and blood, to purify themselves, and to treat their neighbour as they wish to be treated.
Homilies 7.7Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter sets out the two ways, broad and narrow, and teaches that God judges intentions and will extinguish those who neglect his appointed religion.
Homilies 8.23Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter urges the crowd to be baptized, to abandon idols and sin, and warns of eternal fire, then invites the sick to stay for healing.
Homilies 9.9Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Demons enter people through food offered to idols, mingle with their souls, and drag them into eternal punishment in the fire at the end.
Homilies 11.10Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Impiety against God is punished more severely, as all creation, indignant, withholds its goods from blasphemers even now.
Homilies 11.11Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The soul is immortal and the ungodly face endless punishment in unquenchable fire, and Peter must warn of this even at the risk of seeming to frighten.
Homilies 11.17Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter asks his hearers to listen with a love of truth, since he offers them a share in the good things he believes in.
Homilies 11.23Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · All creation was ordered to serve man, so his ingratitude toward the Creator earns a greater punishment by fire.
Homilies 12.27Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter explains that God's judging is itself an act of love for humanity, and that only one with foreknowledge can judge rightly.
Homilies 13.8Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Faustinus tells how they nearly fell under Simon Magus's influence until Zacchaeus brought them to Peter, and urges their mother to share their faith.
Homilies 13.10Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter explains that Mattidia's wish to have her benefactress baptized shows faith, and rebukes the baptized who do not urge their families to baptism.
Homilies 13.19Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter declares that one adultery is many murders of the soul, defiling the breath of God within a person and leading to eternal fire.
Homilies 15.2Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The father denies punishment after death; Peter asks him at least to examine the arguments fairly for his family's sake.
Homilies 15.7Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter explains that God gave the present world to an evil king and the age to come to a good one, and each person chooses between them.
Homilies 16.20Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter points to God's patience with Simon's blasphemy and warns of the judgment God has stored up.
Homilies 17.10Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter calls God the rest of all things, near and far, into whose bosom loving souls are drawn after death.
Homilies 17.16Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter argues that no one can see God, the Son, or an angel in their fleshless form, so that apparitions come from demons.
Recognitions 1.4Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Clement weighs whether to live piously in case there are punishments after death, but cannot be certain of anything.
Recognitions 1.24Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Clement recites Peter's teaching on the eternal source of all things, the two kingdoms, and the coming judgment.
Recognitions 1.49Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter teaches the two comings of Christ, the first in humility and the second in glory, both foretold by the prophets.
Recognitions 1.51Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter teaches that Christ came at the end of the world to invite the righteous to the heavenly Jerusalem, while the wicked will be punished.
Recognitions 1.52Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter explains that Christ was present to the righteous of every generation; some were translated to paradise, and the souls of others await the resurrection in happy regions.
Recognitions 1.56Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · In the temple debate Andrew answers a Sadducee who denies the resurrection.
Recognitions 1.57Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · James and John, the sons of Zebedee, answer two Samaritans on the resurrection and on whether Jesus is the prophet like Moses.
Recognitions 2.13Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Aquila tells how Simon claimed to work his magic through the soul of a murdered boy, and how Niceta challenged him with the coming judgment.
Recognitions 2.68Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter teaches that above the visible firmament is an eternal higher heaven, which will appear to the saints when the visible one passes away.
Recognitions 3.26Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter argues that goodness requires freedom, and describes the end of the world, the resurrection, and the judgment foretold by the true Prophet.
Recognitions 3.27Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter explains that the visible heaven was made to veil God's dwelling during the time of contest; Simon objects that a good God would not destroy a good world.
Recognitions 3.28Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter compares the visible heaven to an eggshell that must break so that the heavenly kingdom may appear.
Recognitions 3.30Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter explains that God is seen by the spirit, as men will see him when made like angels at the resurrection; Simon leaves, demanding a proof of the soul's immortality.
Recognitions 3.38Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter explains that God is good in giving sun and rain to all now, and just in separating the righteous from the wicked at the judgment.
Recognitions 3.40Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter argues that the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the righteous in this life require the soul's immortality if God is just.
Recognitions 3.41Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter argues that the injustice of this life proves a coming judgment; Simon accuses him of evading the question of the soul's immortality.
Recognitions 3.42Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter denounces Simon as armed with the serpent's cunning and describes the moral chaos that denying the soul's immortality would bring.
Recognitions 3.60Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter explains that the evil one's signs are useless, while those of the good heal and save, though at the end of the world the evil one will imitate good signs.
Recognitions 3.61Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter lists the ten pairs of evil and good figures from Cain and Abel to Antichrist and Christ.
Recognitions 4.14Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter offers the ancestral worship of God as freedom from demons and warns that those who reject it face eternal punishment, since God is just as well as good.
Recognitions 4.15Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Demons who enter people through sin come to control them, and souls that obey them will share their eternal fire.
Recognitions 5.3Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Suffering comes from unbelief, which ignores the coming judgment, while faith keeps from sin and gives power over demons.
Recognitions 5.7Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The ignorant are not judged for their ignorance, but those who reject the truth once heard are, while those who accept it devote themselves to good works in hope of seeing God.
Recognitions 5.18Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The serpent persuades people that ignorance excuses them, but willful ignorance is itself guilt and destroys the soul.
Recognitions 5.28Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The souls of the impious are immortal and suffer eternal fire, which Peter must proclaim in order to reconcile his hearers to God and make them his friends.
Recognitions 5.34Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · True worshipers of God keep his law and are free from sufferings, while sinful believers are chastised in this life to pay their debt of sin before the judgment.
Recognitions 5.35Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter preaches what he believes saving so that his hearers may share the age to come, and says the truth of it is proved by obedience and its outcome.
Recognitions 6.9Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Baptism fulfills God's command and cuts off the frailty of natural birth; its waters, over which mercy has hovered from the beginning, quench the fire to come.
Recognitions 7.35Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter explains that Mattidia's wish to have her hostess baptized shows her faith, and rebukes believers who do not urge baptism on those they love.
Recognitions 8.6Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The crowd recognizes Peter, and Niceta states his thesis that the one just God governs the world by providence and will judge each by his deeds.
Recognitions 8.12Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Niceta argues that belief in fixed fate contradicts prayer and sacrifice and abolishes worship, and asserts that God made the world and will dissolve it to reveal the eternal world.
Recognitions 8.39Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The old man accurately summarizes Niceta's argument: an ordered world implies a wise maker and providence, and a just God who will judge.
Recognitions 9.3Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Clement explains that God, through his Son, made a two-storied world and raises humans as a bride for the Son, while the prince of this world, like an adulterer, seduces them.
Recognitions 9.11Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Sinners must be baptized and then curb desire by fear of judgment; just as fear of execution kills lust, full faith in eternal fire produces fear that keeps one from sin.
Recognitions 9.13Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · God punishes those who sin from weakness quickly in this life, but defers the punishment of deliberate sinners to eternal fire, where repentance will be impossible.
Recognitions 9.14Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Keeping future punishment in view would curb sin, for knowledge of heavenly things outshines desire as the sun outshines the stars.
Recognitions 10.2Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · To Niceta's fear that their father might die unsaved, Peter replies that God judges motives and foreknows his own, and suggests they discuss useful topics in his hearing.
Recognitions 10.48Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The philosophers' ethics differ from Christian teaching because they lack a God who judges secret deeds, they still honor demons as gods, and they wrongly deny that God is angry with the wicked.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 75–99Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · Through Eve's sin and the serpent's envy death and evil spread; God, dwelling in unapproachable light, keeps souls after death in darkness or refreshment until the resurrection and judgment.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 100–125Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · The God who made all things from nothing can surely raise the dead, however they perished, as dead seed rises in a new harvest.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 126–149Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · Day and night, the phoenix and the trees show renewal; at the divine voice the Judge comes with countless angels, and the earth trembles to give back the dead.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 150–173Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · At God's command the tombs open, bodies are rebuilt and souls restored, and every age, nation and rank rises and stands before him.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 174–199Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · The Lord sits enthroned among martyrs, prophets and priests, separates the just from the wicked, and sends the just to an eternal land of light.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 200–224Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · The land of the blessed is full of matchless flowers, gems, spices, gold and trees.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 225–249Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · In the land of the blessed the trees never fade, honey and milk flow, four rivers spring from one fountain, there is no night, and no evil, fear or toil can enter.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 250–274Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · The pious, the merciful and the honest rejoice and praise God in the land of the blessed; then the wicked come forward, lamenting their crimes.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 275–299Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · The angels forbid the wicked to pray, and they are reproached for ignoring God's gifts in creation, rejecting him, and killing his messengers, and are sentenced to fire.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 300–326Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · The Lord sends the wicked into eternal fire; the elements turn to flame, and the poet describes the fiery place of punishment at the end of the earth.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 327–352Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · In the place of punishment the wicked weep and gnash their teeth and confess their sins: idolatry, adultery, child-killing, robbery, murder, poisoning and theft.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 353–377Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · The prophets foretold this judgment; Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones shows the resurrection to come, so all should know and fear the true Lord who holds power over life and death.
Poem 6 (To Flavius Felix on the Resurrection of the Dead), lines 378–406Anonymous · 4th-5th cent. (disputed) · The poet urges his readers to repent while there is time, to wash away their guilt, keep the new life, and pray, so as to reach the eternal rewards.
Lines 64–80Anonymous · 4th-5th century · The memory of the passion will keep the reader from trusting the passing world, sustain him with hope amid suffering, and lead his soul after death to reign with Christ among angels and saints.
Testament of Our Lord 1.8Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Prophetic Extracts 3.4Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius interprets Ecclesiastes' poor and wise youth as Christ, the old and foolish king as the devil, and the second youth as the Antichrist.
Prophetic Extracts 3.17Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius takes Micah's vision of the Lord coming down on the heights of the earth as Christ's second coming.
Prophetic Extracts 3.20Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Zephaniah's “wait for me for the day of my resurrection” as Christ's resurrection and the gathering of the Gentile churches.
Prophetic Extracts 3.28Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius takes Zechariah's coming of the Lord with all his holy ones as Christ's second coming.
Prophetic Extracts 3.31Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Malachi's sudden coming of the Lord and the angel of the covenant, like a refiner's fire, as Christ's second coming in judgment.
Prophetic Extracts 3.40Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies Ezekiel's promise of “my servant David” as shepherd and a covenant of peace to Christ the good shepherd, ruling after the judgment when death is destroyed.
Prophetic Extracts 3.41Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies Ezekiel's promise of one shepherd, “David my servant,” ruling for ever over a reunited people to Christ and the spiritual Israel, not to a restored earthly kingdom.
Prophetic Extracts 3.42Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Daniel's stone cut without hands, which crushes the kingdoms, as the Word and his everlasting kingdom at the end of the ages.
Prophetic Extracts 3.44Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius identifies Daniel's son of man coming on the clouds to the Ancient of Days with Christ, his ascension in a cloud, and his second coming.
Prophetic Extracts 4.3Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Isaiah's “the Lord will come into judgment with the elders of the people” as Christ, the Word, judging those who led the people astray against him.
Prophetic Extracts 4.9Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads the throne set right with mercy in the tent of David as Christ's judgment at his second coming in the church of the firstborn.
Prophetic Extracts 4.14Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads “the name of the Lord comes from afar with burning wrath” as the Word's second coming.
Prophetic Extracts 4.18Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads “Behold your God… his reward is with him” as the coming of the Word, especially his second coming as judge.
Prophetic Extracts 4.33Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies Isaiah's signal for the nations to the apostles' preaching and the one coming from Edom in red garments to Christ, who bore our sins and alone trampled the hostile powers.
Divine Institutes 1.7.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Apollo himself admitted that demons are subject to God's scourge and punishment.
Divine Institutes 1.11.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Whoever is ruled by lust is subject to eternal death.
Divine Institutes 1.19.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · They were not even good men, and their deeds lead to eternal death.
Divine Institutes 2.1.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Believing God does not care or that death ends all, people run after pleasures into death's snares.
Divine Institutes 2.2.22Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Bowing to earthly things sinks people toward death and the underworld.
Divine Institutes 2.10.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God resolved to create souls for an eternal kingdom.
Divine Institutes 2.10.22Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A race of mortals had a beginning and will end.
Divine Institutes 2.10.25Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Aristotle's eternal world fails; if it began, as Plato and Epicurus say, it will also end.
Divine Institutes 2.12.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Soul and body contend in man; if the soul wins he gains eternal light, if the body, eternal death.
Divine Institutes 2.12.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The second death punishes unjust souls forever rather than annihilating them.
Divine Institutes 2.12.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The first death separates soul and body; the second is eternal punishment, which animals do not face.
Divine Institutes 2.12.19Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God expelled man from Paradise and guarded it with fire until the just return at the final judgment.
Divine Institutes 2.17.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God permits evil so that good may be tested, and he will judge the living and the dead at the end.
Divine Institutes 2.17.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God waits until the end to pour out his wrath, as the prophets warn.
Divine Institutes 2.17.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God's anger will be treated elsewhere; worshippers of demons will share their eternal darkness and punishment.
Divine Institutes 2.17.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Worshippers of the dead, of earth, or of demons abandon reason and will be punished.
Divine Institutes 3.12.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The soul's combat is for eternal life.
Divine Institutes 3.12.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virtue's reward must be heavenly: immortality.
Divine Institutes 3.12.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Euclides grasped its nature; the highest good is immortality, which never changes.
Divine Institutes 3.12.18Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Immortality alone meets all the conditions of the highest good.
Divine Institutes 3.12.21Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Life without end and without evil would be the perfect good.
Divine Institutes 3.12.23Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virtue despises this brief life to gain an everlasting one.
Divine Institutes 3.12.25Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Those who held the soul immortal should have seen that virtue leads souls back to God.
Divine Institutes 3.12.34Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Happiness comes to man not in the body but after the soul is freed from it.
Divine Institutes 3.12.36Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The highest good is found only in the religion that brings hope of immortality.
Divine Institutes 3.13.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Following philosophy rather than truth risks eternal punishment.
Divine Institutes 3.18.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The truth is that souls are born and do not perish.
Divine Institutes 3.19.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Scripture teaches that souls are either rewarded or punished forever.
Divine Institutes 3.19.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Justice requires that the wicked be punished and the just rewarded after death.
Divine Institutes 3.19.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Cicero's Consolation distinguishes the fates of pure and stained souls, contradicting his other argument.
Divine Institutes 3.19.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Whether death is good or evil depends on the life lived.
Divine Institutes 3.19.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Death is good for the godly and evil for others.
Divine Institutes 3.27.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Only God rewards virtue, with immortality; looking to heaven means religion and hope of immortality.
Divine Institutes 3.27.16Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · An upright body is useless without an upright mind fixed on God and eternal life.
Divine Institutes 4.4.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Philosophers lose the inheritance of immortality; idolaters suffer everlasting death.
Divine Institutes 4.7.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · His kingdom is heavenly and everlasting; now to his first birth.
Divine Institutes 4.10.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God's plan was that the Son should come as a mortal man, teach, die and rise to give hope of immortality.
Divine Institutes 4.12.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Daniel's vision of the Son of Man receiving an eternal kingdom.
Divine Institutes 4.12.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christ comes twice: first to proclaim God, then to reign.
Divine Institutes 4.12.21Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · At his return he will judge all and bring a just and peaceful golden age.
Divine Institutes 4.19.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Immortality comes only by believing in Christ and taking up the cross.
Divine Institutes 4.25.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God showed the way to overcome the flesh, rewarding victors with immortality.
Divine Institutes 4.26.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Raising the dead signified bringing the nations to immortal life.
Divine Institutes 4.26.41Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The figure foreshadows the protection of God's people at the end.
Divine Institutes 5.17.16Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Without eternal reward, virtue would be folly.
Divine Institutes 5.18.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Disbelief in life after death makes justice seem foolish.
Divine Institutes 5.18.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · If death ends all, one should maximize this life.
Divine Institutes 5.18.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Since a better life follows, the wise despise this one.
Divine Institutes 5.18.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virtue will receive its reward from God.
Divine Institutes 5.18.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virtue's goodness shows the soul is immortal.
Divine Institutes 5.18.16Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Deserters of God face the eternal fire.
Divine Institutes 5.23.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Abusers of power will be punished by God.
Divine Institutes 5.23.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God will avenge his people and judge each by his deeds.
Divine Institutes 6.3.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Not knowing the soul is immortal, philosophers judged by earthly rewards.
Divine Institutes 6.3.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The ways belong to this life; their ends to what follows death.
Divine Institutes 6.3.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The two ways lead to immortality or eternal punishment.
Divine Institutes 6.3.17Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The good way faces the sunrise, the evil the sunset and darkness.
Divine Institutes 6.4.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The way of virtue leads to heaven, the left way to Tartarus.
Divine Institutes 6.4.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The broad way ends suddenly in an abyss.
Divine Institutes 6.4.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Those who live for present goods are condemned after death.
Divine Institutes 6.4.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Patient endurance wins the crown of immortality.
Divine Institutes 6.4.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God's way puts brief evils before eternal goods; the other the reverse.
Divine Institutes 6.4.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Earthly goods and evils are brief; spiritual ones eternal.
Divine Institutes 6.4.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Better brief evils and eternal goods than the reverse.
Divine Institutes 6.6.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God's goods lead to immortality; the devil's evils to eternal punishment.
Divine Institutes 6.9.18Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Without immortality, virtue is vanity.
Divine Institutes 6.9.20Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · If souls are mortal, virtue makes no sense.
Divine Institutes 6.9.22Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virtue needs a greater hope to be a good.
Divine Institutes 6.9.23Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Only God gives the eternal life that makes virtue worthwhile.
Divine Institutes 6.21.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Pleasure for its own sake leads to death.
Divine Institutes 6.21.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Choosing the temporal forfeits the eternal.
Divine Institutes 6.24.20Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Live as under God's eye, who will judge.
Divine Institutes 6.25.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The just will serve God forever.
Divine Institutes 7.1.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Everything depends on the reward of eternal happiness.
Divine Institutes 7.1.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · This book treats the heavenly reward.
Divine Institutes 7.1.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He will argue from Scripture and reason.
Divine Institutes 7.1.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Plato was wrong that the world will last forever.
Divine Institutes 7.1.23Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The last theme is God's judgment at Christ's return.
Divine Institutes 7.1.24Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christ's second coming, which the Jews await in vain.
Divine Institutes 7.1.25Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Those who crucified Christ will face his judgment.
Divine Institutes 7.2.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · This unjust age will end, and a golden age will follow under God's reign.
Divine Institutes 7.3.22Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The world was made and will be dissolved.
Divine Institutes 7.5.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God set souls in bodies between good and evil so they would earn immortality.
Divine Institutes 7.5.15Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Mortality allows many souls and the testing of virtue.
Divine Institutes 7.5.16Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Man has two lives, temporal and eternal.
Divine Institutes 7.5.17Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Eternal life is gained by virtue, not nature.
Divine Institutes 7.5.18Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · This life is the testing ground for eternal life.
Divine Institutes 7.5.19Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The highest good lies in spiritual life.
Divine Institutes 7.5.20Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Immortality is the reward of virtue, not a natural endowment.
Divine Institutes 7.5.26Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Good now, evil forever; or evil now, good forever.
Divine Institutes 7.5.27Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God rewards piety with eternal blessedness.
Divine Institutes 7.6.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The whole plan: world, birth, knowledge, worship, immortality, service.
Divine Institutes 7.7.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Pherecydes and Plato taught the soul's immortality.
Divine Institutes 7.7.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Zeno taught separate abodes after death; Epicurus denied them.
Divine Institutes 7.8.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Immortality is the highest good.
Divine Institutes 7.8.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Plato's arguments for immortality are incomplete.
Divine Institutes 7.8.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Plato's argument from self-motion.
Divine Institutes 7.8.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Plato: the mind's powers show it is divine.
Divine Institutes 7.8.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The subtle soul returns to heaven when freed from the body.
Divine Institutes 7.8.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Pythagoras and Pherecydes held the same.
Divine Institutes 7.8.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Opponents of immortality had equal authority.
Divine Institutes 7.8.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Cicero confessed he did not know.
Divine Institutes 7.9.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · New arguments for the soul's eternity.
Divine Institutes 7.9.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · An unseen soul need not perish.
Divine Institutes 7.9.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · If gods live without bodies, so can souls.
Divine Institutes 7.9.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Religion, unique to man, shows the soul is eternal.
Divine Institutes 7.9.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Man's upright form looks to God (theoptia).
Divine Institutes 7.9.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Seeking the eternal God, the soul is eternal.
Divine Institutes 7.9.15Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virtue harms this life, so it must aim beyond it.
Divine Institutes 7.9.18Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virtue must aim at eternity.
Divine Institutes 7.10.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Perpetual virtue implies a perpetual soul.
Divine Institutes 7.10.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virtue's reward is everlasting, unlike vice's.
Divine Institutes 7.10.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virtue's reward lies in the future.
Divine Institutes 7.10.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virtue's reward comes after death.
Divine Institutes 7.10.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Cicero: death brings the highest good or no evil.
Divine Institutes 7.10.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The wicked suffer the eternal second death.
Divine Institutes 7.10.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Two lives and two deaths.
Divine Institutes 7.11.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · When bodily death ends, souls rise to everlasting life.
Divine Institutes 7.11.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The soul's death is eternal punishment.
Divine Institutes 7.11.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Those happy now will be wretched forever.
Divine Institutes 7.11.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Those who suffer for justice will be happy forever.
Divine Institutes 7.11.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The soul's lasting works show it is immortal.
Divine Institutes 7.11.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The soul desires eternal things.
Divine Institutes 7.11.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The soul can act without the body, so it survives.
Divine Institutes 7.11.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The unseen soul is immortal.
Divine Institutes 7.12.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Lucretius: the soul, born with the body, dies with it.
Divine Institutes 7.12.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Body and soul differ in nature; the soul is from heaven.
Divine Institutes 7.12.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The intangible soul cannot be destroyed by blows.
Divine Institutes 7.12.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · At death body returns to earth and soul endures.
Divine Institutes 7.12.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Lucretius unwittingly admitted the soul returns to heaven.
Divine Institutes 7.12.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The soul, with an eternal origin, endures.
Divine Institutes 7.12.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The soul remains constant through life.
Divine Institutes 7.12.15Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virtue defends the soul; pleasure makes it liable to death.
Divine Institutes 7.12.16Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The soul's death is eternal torment, not annihilation.
Divine Institutes 7.12.19Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Separated from the body, the soul is free of frailty.
Divine Institutes 7.12.25Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The soul is itself life and sensation.
Divine Institutes 7.12.29Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The dying speak of departing, showing the soul survives.
Divine Institutes 7.13.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Witnesses to the soul's immortality.
Divine Institutes 7.13.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Hermes: man is set between the immortal and the mortal.
Divine Institutes 7.13.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Apollo's oracle and the Sibyl affirm the soul's survival.
Divine Institutes 7.13.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Necromancy refutes the materialists.
Divine Institutes 7.14.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · When is immortality granted?
Divine Institutes 7.14.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Only justice brings eternal life, and only God gives it.
Divine Institutes 7.14.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Deified heroes earned hell; the judgment is near.
Divine Institutes 7.14.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Scripture teaches the world's beginning and end.
Divine Institutes 7.14.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The world is nearing six thousand years, when the end comes.
Divine Institutes 7.14.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Six days of creation mean six thousand years of history.
Divine Institutes 7.14.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Truth labors for six thousand years under wickedness.
Divine Institutes 7.14.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A thousand-year reign of justice will follow.
Divine Institutes 7.14.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Small things foreshadow great ones.
Divine Institutes 7.14.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · In the sixth age God forms a holy people.
Divine Institutes 7.14.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The perfected people will rule the world for a thousand years.
Divine Institutes 7.14.15Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Scripture reveals the end.
Divine Institutes 7.14.16Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Pagan prophets also foretell the end.
Divine Institutes 7.14.17Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He will gather the prophecies of the end.
Divine Institutes 7.15.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Exodus prefigures the final deliverance.
Divine Institutes 7.15.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · At the end the whole world will be struck to free God's people.
Divine Institutes 7.15.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Portents will announce the end.
Divine Institutes 7.15.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Things will get far worse before the end.
Divine Institutes 7.15.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Justice will vanish and the good suffer.
Divine Institutes 7.15.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Force will rule and all order collapse.
Divine Institutes 7.15.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Universal war; Egypt first punished.
Divine Institutes 7.15.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Rome will fall and power return to the East.
Divine Institutes 7.15.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · All human empires are mortal.
Divine Institutes 7.15.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Rome, like earlier empires, will fall, and more heavily.
Divine Institutes 7.15.17Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Rome's death will follow its old age.
Divine Institutes 7.15.18Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Sibyls foretell Rome's fall for persecuting God's people.
Divine Institutes 7.15.19Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Hystaspes foretold Rome's end.
Divine Institutes 7.16.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Ten kings will divide the world.
Divine Institutes 7.16.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Their armies will devour everything.
Divine Institutes 7.16.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A northern enemy will destroy three kings and rule the rest.
Divine Institutes 7.16.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He will change laws and move the seat of empire.
Divine Institutes 7.16.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Cities will perish by war, earthquake, flood, and famine.
Divine Institutes 7.16.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Weather and harvests will fail.
Divine Institutes 7.16.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Waters will dry up or turn to blood.
Divine Institutes 7.16.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Animals will die and portents fill the sky.
Divine Institutes 7.16.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Sun and moon will be darkened and seasons confused.
Divine Institutes 7.16.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Time will be shortened and stars fall.
Divine Institutes 7.16.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Mountains will fall and a trumpet sound from heaven.
Divine Institutes 7.16.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God's wrath will bring terror; people will long for death.
Divine Institutes 7.16.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The earth will be desolate.
Divine Institutes 7.16.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Few will survive; a tested third of believers will remain.
Divine Institutes 7.17.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A great prophet will come before the end.
Divine Institutes 7.17.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The prophet does wonders; then a king from Syria arises.
Divine Institutes 7.17.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The prophet is killed, rises on the third day, and ascends.
Divine Institutes 7.17.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The false king claims to be God and does signs.
Divine Institutes 7.17.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He will bring fire from heaven and make an image speak.
Divine Institutes 7.17.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He will persecute the just in unprecedented tribulation.
Divine Institutes 7.17.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · His followers receive his mark; refusers flee or die.
Divine Institutes 7.17.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He will burn the just with the Scriptures and rule forty-two months.
Divine Institutes 7.17.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · All order and piety will collapse.
Divine Institutes 7.17.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The just flee; the Antichrist besieges them.
Divine Institutes 7.17.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God will send a great King from heaven to rescue them.
Divine Institutes 7.18.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Prophets and pagan seers alike foretold these things.
Divine Institutes 7.18.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Hystaspes foretold the rescue, but ascribed it to Jupiter.
Divine Institutes 7.18.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Hermes foretold a divine restoration.
Divine Institutes 7.18.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Hermes: God will cleanse and restore the world.
Divine Institutes 7.18.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Sibyls foretell the sending of the Son of God.
Divine Institutes 7.18.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A Sibyl: a king sent from God will destroy the great kings.
Divine Institutes 7.18.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A Sibyl: God will send a king to end war.
Divine Institutes 7.18.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A Sibyl: a gentle one will lift the yoke of slavery.
Divine Institutes 7.19.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Only God can overthrow the final tyranny.
Divine Institutes 7.19.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The deliverer descends at night like lightning.
Divine Institutes 7.19.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Easter vigil anticipates Christ's return.
Divine Institutes 7.19.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christ is deliverer, judge, king, and God.
Divine Institutes 7.19.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christ descends with angels and destroys the Antichrist's army.
Divine Institutes 7.19.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Antichrist is defeated in the fourth battle.
Divine Institutes 7.19.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The tyrants are brought bound for judgment.
Divine Institutes 7.19.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The world will rest from its long slavery.
Divine Institutes 7.19.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Idols will be burned.
Divine Institutes 7.20.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The dead rise for Christ's judgment.
Divine Institutes 7.20.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Sibyl foretells the great judgment.
Divine Institutes 7.20.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · All will come before God's judgment seat.
Divine Institutes 7.20.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Sibyl: God will raise the dead and judge them.
Divine Institutes 7.20.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Only those within God's religion are judged; unbelievers are already condemned.
Divine Institutes 7.20.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Believers' good and evil deeds will be weighed.
Divine Institutes 7.20.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Objection: an immortal soul cannot suffer.
Divine Institutes 7.20.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Stoics: just souls return to heaven.
Divine Institutes 7.20.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Stoics: wicked souls, stained by the flesh, can suffer.
Divine Institutes 7.20.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virgil on the purgation of souls after death.
Divine Institutes 7.20.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The soul is ungraspable to us, but not to God.
Divine Institutes 7.21.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God can punish even incorporeal beings.
Divine Institutes 7.21.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Spirits can be handled only by God.
Divine Institutes 7.21.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The wicked will rise in indestructible bodies for eternal fire.
Divine Institutes 7.21.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The divine fire needs no fuel and has no smoke.
Divine Institutes 7.21.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The divine fire burns and restores endlessly.
Divine Institutes 7.21.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The just too will be tested by fire.
Divine Institutes 7.21.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Souls await the judgment in a common custody.
Divine Institutes 7.21.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The approved receive immortality; the condemned are cast into darkness.
Divine Institutes 7.22.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Some dismiss these things as poets' fictions.
Divine Institutes 7.22.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The poets distorted a rumor of the resurrection.
Divine Institutes 7.22.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The poets turned the Son of God as judge into Jupiter's sons.
Divine Institutes 7.22.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virgil's thousand-year cycle of souls.
Divine Institutes 7.22.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The dead will rise to reign with God a thousand years.
Divine Institutes 7.22.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Objection: no one has ever risen.
Divine Institutes 7.22.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The resurrection cannot occur while injustice rules.
Divine Institutes 7.22.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A risen person would only be killed again.
Divine Institutes 7.22.15Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The resurrection happens once, when evil is gone.
Divine Institutes 7.23.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The just will rise in bodies, remembering their lives.
Divine Institutes 7.23.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Pythagoras taught transmigration.
Divine Institutes 7.23.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Chrysippus: we will be restored to our present form.
Divine Institutes 7.23.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Sibyl: God will judge, and the pious will live again on earth.
Divine Institutes 7.23.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Creator can restore the dead.
Divine Institutes 7.24.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Son of God will come to judge the living and the dead.
Divine Institutes 7.24.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christ will reign among men for a thousand years.
Divine Institutes 7.24.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · In the millennium the living will beget holy offspring; the risen will judge.
Divine Institutes 7.24.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Some nations will remain in servitude to the just.
Divine Institutes 7.24.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The devil will be bound for the thousand years.
Divine Institutes 7.24.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A holy city will be established in the midst of the earth.
Divine Institutes 7.24.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The earth will be renewed in abundance and light.
Divine Institutes 7.24.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Animals will live in peace.
Divine Institutes 7.24.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The poets' golden age is really the future millennium.
Divine Institutes 7.24.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Pagans misread prophecies as past events.
Divine Institutes 7.24.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virgil's golden-age verses describe the millennium.
Divine Institutes 7.24.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Sibyl on peace among animals.
Divine Institutes 7.24.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Sibyl on the abundance of the earth.
Divine Institutes 7.24.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Honey and milk will flow for the just.
Divine Institutes 7.24.15Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Kings of the nations will honor the great King.
Divine Institutes 7.25.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The end comes at six thousand years.
Divine Institutes 7.25.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Signs show the end is near.
Divine Institutes 7.25.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Chronographers place the end within two hundred years.
Divine Institutes 7.25.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The end is restrained while Rome stands.
Divine Institutes 7.25.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · When Rome falls, the end will come.
Divine Institutes 7.25.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christians pray that Rome's fall be delayed.
Divine Institutes 7.26.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · At the end of the millennium the devil is loosed and besieges the holy city.
Divine Institutes 7.26.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God's final wrath destroys the besieging nations.
Divine Institutes 7.26.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God's people hide for three days.
Divine Institutes 7.26.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The impious perish; for seven years their weapons are burned.
Divine Institutes 7.26.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · After the millennium the world is renewed and the just become like angels.
Divine Institutes 7.26.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The second, general resurrection raises the unjust to eternal torment.
Divine Institutes 7.26.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The devil and the impious are burned forever.
Divine Institutes 7.26.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christians keep this teaching quietly and do not dispute with scoffers.
Divine Institutes 7.27.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Heaven's reward far outweighs present sufferings.
Divine Institutes 7.27.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The old should prepare to meet the Judge in purity.
Divine Institutes 7.27.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Turn to God before the day of judgment.
Divine Institutes 7.27.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The virtuous will be raised to eternal life.
Divine Institutes 7.27.15Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Wealth and power cannot make one immortal.
Divine Institutes 7.27.16Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Close: serve God as soldiers to win the promised reward.
On the Workmanship of God 2.9Lactantius · ca. 303–305 · Man, being immortal, was armed inwardly in the soul rather than with bodily defenses.
On the Workmanship of God 4.2Lactantius · ca. 303–305 · God made humans frail so that they could die, since mortality requires a body that can be dissolved.
On the Workmanship of God 4.14Lactantius · ca. 303–305 · Denying providence forced them to hold that souls die with bodies, and to look for supposed flaws in creation.
On the Workmanship of God 8.2Lactantius · ca. 303–305 · God made man alone upright to look toward heaven, his origin, while the beasts, with no hope of immortality, face the ground.
On the Workmanship of God 17.1Lactantius · ca. 303–305 · Though its nature is unknown, the soul is immortal, since what moves itself and is invisible must be eternal.
On the Workmanship of God 19.10Lactantius · ca. 303–305 · Whoever gives in to the flesh falls to earth; whoever keeps his upright state and masters earthly things will merit eternal life.
Martyrdom of Dasius 4Anonymous · 303–304 · Dasius resolves to die for Christ rather than for Cronos.
Acts of Phileas and Philoromus 1.6Anonymous · ca. 306-311
Canonical Epistle, canon 4Peter of Alexandria · AD 306 · For those who lapsed and refuse to repent, the curse on the barren fig tree and Isaiah's undying worm and fire are set out.
Apology for Origen 0Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · An anonymous prologue, Rufinus's preface with his creed, and Pamphilus's preface, which defends Origen's humility as an inquirer and announces a defence from Origen's own words.
Apology for Origen 1.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Pamphilus quotes Origen's summary of the apostolic rule of faith (On First Principles, preface) and his definition of a heretic from the lost Commentary on Titus, to show that Origen held the Church's teaching as the test of truth.
Apology for Origen 5.7Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · The seventh charge: that Origen denied the resurrection and the punishment of sinners.
Apology for Origen 7.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Pamphilus answers the charge that Origen denied the resurrection with passages from his books On the Resurrection and his commentaries: the same body will rise, transformed, and Christ carried his flesh into heaven.
Apology for Origen 8.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Pamphilus answers the charge that Origen denied the punishment of sinners with his teaching on the fire of judgment as a remedy and on the pains of the risen body, and begins his defence of Origen's views on the soul.
Apology for Origen 10.1Pamphilus of Caesarea · ca. 308–310 (Rufinus's Latin about 397) · Pamphilus answers the charge that Origen taught the transmigration of souls with passages in which Origen rejects it as foreign to the Church and contrary to Scripture's teaching that the world will end.
On the Anger of God 13.23Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · God can remove evil but does not, because he gave wisdom, which leads to knowing God and to immortality, the highest good.
On the Anger of God 19.2Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · When the soul masters desire, man is truly like God, which shows the soul is immortal.
On the Anger of God 20.3Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · No one escapes God's judgment, alive or dead; he can humble the living and punish the dead forever.
On the Anger of God 21.9Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · God's anger does not remain against the repentant, since he commands reconciliation before sunset; it remains only against those who never cease sinning.
On the Anger of God 23.3Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Another Sibyl announces God's great wrath coming on a disobedient world.
On the Anger of God 23.5Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · The Sibyl foretells a future burning of the world in God's wrath, as Ovid also says of Jupiter:
On the Anger of God 23.6Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Ovid: fate foretells a time when sea, earth, and heaven will burn.
On the Anger of God 23.14Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Where there is no anger there is no rule; therefore let no one despise God, but love him as Father, fear him as Lord, live righteously, share wealth, and keep the heart as his temple, so as to have him always gracious and never angry.
Martyrs of Palestine (shorter recension) 11.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 311–314 · He named Jerusalem as his homeland, meaning the heavenly Jerusalem of Paul.
Martyrs of Palestine (shorter recension) 11.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 311–314 · He said it was the homeland of the godly alone, lying toward the sunrise.
Preparation for the Gospel 1.4.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Christian martyrs, even women and children, prove the soul's immortality by deeds and surpass the philosophers' talk about death.
Preparation for the Gospel 1.4.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Christ's teaching instructs all nations in God's providence and judgment and in a careful life.
Preparation for the Gospel 2.3.37Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Heraclitus threatened initiates with fire after death because the mysteries are unholy.
Preparation for the Gospel 5.1.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Christ, honored everywhere after his death, shows the reality of life beyond death.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Fatalism destroys God's judgment, punishment, and reward.
Preparation for the Gospel 7.10.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Mindful of their earthly bodies and godlike souls, people should live purely and long to return to paradise.
Preparation for the Gospel 7.18.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Man's goal is to return by piety to the paradise from which he fell.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.8.50Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The reward of the law-keeper is resurrection to a better life.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.3.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · In the Roman war the Essenes died cheerfully, believing in the immortality of the soul.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.27.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Does the soul perish when it leaves the body?
Preparation for the Gospel 11.27.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The pure soul, practised in philosophy, departs free of the body.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.27.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The pure soul goes to the divine and lives happily with the gods.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.27.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The soul devoted to the body departs impure.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.32.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Scripture teaches that the world will pass away and be renewed.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.32.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato: the cosmos can be dissolved only by its maker.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.32.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato: time and heaven began together and may end together.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.33.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · In that age the earth-born race returned from the earth.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.33.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The dead rise from the earth, except those God has taken to another lot.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.33.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato on the end of the world.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.34.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato: at the end of the age the divine helmsman lets go of the cosmos.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.34.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The cosmos reverses with great upheaval and destruction.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.34.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · God takes the helm again and makes the cosmos immortal and ageless.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.35.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato’s Republic: greater things await the just and unjust after death.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.35.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The story of Er, who returned to life and told of the afterlife.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.35.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Er saw two openings in the earth and two in heaven.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.35.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Judges send the just up to the right and the unjust down to the left.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.35.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Er was told to report what he saw.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.36.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plutarch: Antyllus, taken by mistake, returned to life, while Nicandas died.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.36.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Scripture promises a heavenly land of precious stones; Plato’s Phaedo describes the like.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.37.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Socrates will describe the true earth as he believes it to be.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.37.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · If we could rise above the air, we would see the true heaven, light, and earth.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.37.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The true earth seen from above is many-coloured.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.37.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Its colours surpass all we know.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.37.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Its stones are like jewels, of which ours are fragments.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.37.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The true earth is adorned with pure stones and metals, a sight for the blessed.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.38.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Daniel foretells God’s judgment with a river of fire; Plato agrees.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.38.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato’s third river of the underworld flows through fire.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.38.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Pyriphlegethon and Cocytus, the rivers of fire and lament.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.38.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The dead are judged: the middling purified, the incurable cast forever into Tartarus.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.38.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Curable sinners are punished until those they wronged forgive them.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.38.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The holy rise to a pure dwelling, the philosophers to still fairer ones.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.38.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato’s indescribable dwellings echo 1 Cor 2:9.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.38.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Scripture’s many mansions and eternal fire parallel Plato.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.38.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato’s eternal punishment and blessedness match Scripture.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.38.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato’s vessels may mean bodies, raised with souls for judgment; Book 11 ends.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato’s Gorgias: Socrates tells a true account of judgment.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The just go to the Islands of the Blessed, the unjust to Tartarus.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The dead are judged stripped of everything, by a judge who sees the soul itself.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Death is the separation of soul and body.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The body after death keeps the marks of life.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Scars and injuries remain on the dead body.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · So too the soul after death bears the marks of its life.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Rhadamanthys sees the scars of injustice on a king’s soul and sends it to punishment.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Punishment either reforms or serves as an example.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Curable sinners are healed through suffering.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The incurable suffer forever as examples to others.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Most of the incurable are tyrants and rulers.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Homer’s eternally punished are kings, not commoners.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Rhadamanthys sends the wicked to Tartarus, marked curable or incurable.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The pious philosopher’s soul is sent to the Islands of the Blessed.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Aeacus, Rhadamanthys, and Minos judge the dead.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Socrates resolves to present a healthy soul to the judge.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Callicles will be helpless before the judge.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Scripture: all will stand before God’s judgment seat.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.6.24Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Paul on God’s impartial judgment of all.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.29.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The unjust will not be received in the pure place after death.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.52.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · God, like a draughts-player, moves better souls to better places and worse to worse.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.52.27Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Souls rise or sink by their own choices to fitting places.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.52.28Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Divine justice: like goes to like, in life and after death.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.52.29Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · No one escapes divine justice, in earth, heaven, or Hades.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.10.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Scripture too teaches obedience to God over men and the blessed life of the righteous after death.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.13.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Clement: Plato’s fiery punishers in the Myth of Er are Scripture’s angels.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.13.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Clement: Plato knew of hell’s fires and of guardian angels.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.13.47Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Diphilus, like Scripture, teaches that God sees all and judges after death.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.13.48Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · A tragic poet foretells a final conflagration and renewal.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.13.49Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Orphic verses and Empedocles speak of renewal and of eternal blessedness for the just.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.16.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Eusebius: Plato’s transmigration is Egyptian, and contradicts his teaching on eternal punishment.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.16.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato (Phaedo) describes judgment, purification, and eternal punishment in Tartarus.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.16.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato (Gorgias): the just go to the islands of the blessed, the incurably wicked suffer forever as examples.
Preparation for the Gospel 15.20.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Stoics: souls survive for a time, the good until the conflagration.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 22.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · God expelled man from Paradise and guarded it with fire.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 24.11Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · God allowed evils as a contest in which the virtuous win immortality.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 30.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Since virtue suffers in this life, its reward must be immortality.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 30.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · True happiness requires incorruptibility, hence immortality.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 30.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Immortality is the highest good, for which we were born.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 30.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · God offers virtue as the way to eternal reward.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 31.6Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · All witnesses refute Epicurus, who alone equated man with beasts.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 36.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · God gave humans reason so they would honour and fear him and gain immortality.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 37.9Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · He is called Jesus (Saviour) and Christ (King), who will return to judge and reign forever.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 42.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Daniel foresaw the Son of Man coming on the clouds to receive an eternal kingdom.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 43.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Those who rejected Christ can hope only if they repent and trust in him.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 47.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The only hope is to know God, reject idols and philosophy, and embrace true religion.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 52.6Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · He seems foolish only to those who deny life after death.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 52.7Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · If there is eternal life after death, the just man rightly despises this life.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 52.9Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Idolaters face eternal punishment; those who suffer for God gain eternal life.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 52.10Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Christians await God's judgement, when they will judge their judges.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 54.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Poets placed the two ways of the just and the wicked in the underworld.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 54.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The two ways of life and death are in this life, leading to heaven or eternal punishment.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 62.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · True worship earns immortality; now he refutes those who say the soul dies with the body.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 63.8Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Plato affirmed immortality but not its purpose or means.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 63.9Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Plato's transmigration replaces God's judgement with an endless, pointless cycle.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 64.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The world exists for humans, humans to know and worship God, and worship leads to immortality and eternal service.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 64.7Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Worship of God is rewarded with immortality.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 65.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Plato argued the soul is immortal because it is self-moving and has godlike powers.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 65.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Virtue, unique to humans and contrary to self-interest, implies immortality.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 65.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Virtue that accepts suffering and death makes sense only if the soul is immortal.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 65.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Only humans know God and look upward, proof that they are immortal.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 65.6Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Scripture, the Sibyls, and even oracles attest the soul's immortality.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 65.7Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · At the appointed time, which is near, the world will end and be renewed.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 65.8Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Scripture shows the philosophers wrong in thinking the world eternal or very old.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 65.9Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · When six thousand years are complete, evil will end and justice reign.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Near the end, wickedness will prevail and every virtue will vanish.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Family love will fail and wars of every kind will spread.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Ten kings will divide the world, then a more wicked one will overthrow three and rule all.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Earthquakes, floods, plagues, famine, and waters turned to blood will devastate the earth.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.5Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Signs in the sun, moon, and stars will terrify the world.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.6Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Time itself will be shortened, the world's old age, before God returns.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.7Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · An impious king, enemy of God, will arise and devastate the earth.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.8Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The Antichrist will persecute for 42 months, claim to be Christ, and work false wonders.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.9Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Those refusing his mark will be tortured; two-thirds will perish and a third flee.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.10Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · When the Antichrist besieges the righteous, God will send them a deliverer.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Christ will descend from heaven with his angels, destroy the wicked, and cast the Antichrist into fire.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The devil will be chained so the earth may have peace.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Christ will judge, raise the righteous, and reign with them on earth for a thousand years.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · In the millennium the heavens will shine brighter and the earth yield without labour.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.5Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The earth will overflow with plenty and wild beasts will become tame.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.6Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · After the thousand years the devil is loosed and the nations attack the holy city.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.7Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · God will destroy the rebel nations with fire and earthquake; the righteous will be hidden and then emerge.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.8Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · God will renew the world, make the righteous like angels forever, and raise the wicked to eternal punishment.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 68.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Prophets, Hermes, Hystaspes, and the Sibyls agree: salvation lies only in the religion of God.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 68.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Whoever does not receive Christ and keep God's law will be punished.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 68.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Despise the temporal to gain the eternal.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 68.5Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Know the one God, shun pleasures, do good, and gain the crown of faith or immortality.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 2.8Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Lactantius rejects the belief, drawn from the Sibyl, that Nero lives on and will return before Antichrist.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 16.11Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Donatus's martyr's crown, though not yet received, is kept for him in God's kingdom.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 49.5Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Blinded, he began to see God judging him.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.1.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The same oracles foretold his resurrection, appearances, gift of the Spirit, ascension, enthronement, and second coming.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.6.73Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Moses promised a land; Christ offers the kingdom of heaven.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The patriarchs lived at the beginning of human history; Christians live near its end.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Early humanity needed to multiply; now the end is near and the gospel proclaims a coming new age.
Demonstration of the Gospel 2.2.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Creation rejoices as the Lord comes to judge; next heading: Genesis 49.
Demonstration of the Gospel 2.2.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Zephaniah’s oracle of the day of resurrection, one language of worship, and sacrifices from Ethiopia; next heading: Zechariah.
Demonstration of the Gospel 2.3.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · God will prepare a feast for all nations and wipe away every tear; next heading: Isaiah 43.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Moses promised the holy land; Christ promised a heavenly land, the kingdom of heaven.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.3.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Creation and the world’s future renewal are Hebrew doctrines shared by leading philosophers.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.3.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ’s teaching on judgment and reward urges people to virtue, not deception.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.1.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christians hold that Christ has come once and will come again; his story has a recent part and an eternal part.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.12.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · At Christ’s resurrection many saints rose with him, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy that death would be swallowed up.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.12.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophets present the victorious Christ taunting death and freeing its captives.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.12.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Fifth, his death and resurrection gave his disciples visible proof of life after death and courage to preach.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.13.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Word’s touch raised the dead and clothed the mortal with immortality.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.14.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · In the resurrection the humanity was taken up into the Word’s divinity as the firstfruits of our hope of immortality.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.16.38Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The seizure of the Christ fits his first coming, not his glorious second coming, which the Jews confuse with it.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.16.39Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophecies of glory and of humiliation cannot refer to the same coming.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.16.40Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The humble prophecies were fulfilled at Christ’s first coming; the glorious ones await his second.
Demonstration of the Gospel 5.28.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The angel and the Lord are the same, and his coming in glory is the second coming.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.3.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Since Christ, all nations are called and Jewish worship has ceased; the psalm may also refer to the second coming. The next heading introduces Psalm 84.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.5.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The psalm ends with the Lord coming to judge the earth.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.6.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · One God justifies Jew and Gentile by faith; the psalm may also refer to the second coming. The next heading introduces Psalm 107.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.15.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The verse may also refer to the second coming from the south of heaven.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.15.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The word going before him is the gospel spreading everywhere; the second coming will fulfill the rest. The next heading introduces Zechariah.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.18.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lord’s feet stand on the Mount of Olives, which splits in two.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.18.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Living water flows from Jerusalem, and the Lord becomes king over all the earth.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.18.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christian pilgrims now flock to the Mount of Olives, where Christ taught about the end and ascended, as Acts records.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.18.24Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Acts records the angels’ promise that Jesus will return as he ascended.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.25.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophecies are partly fulfilled at Christ's first coming and will be completed at his second; next comes the manner of his first coming.
Demonstration of the Gospel 7.1.141Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Those who took the garments are the crucifiers of Psalm 22, who will regret their impiety at the judgment.
Demonstration of the Gospel 7.3.24Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Only Christ, the pre-existent Word, fits the psalm: his reign endures, he came down like dew, and righteousness lasts until the end.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.1.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jacob summons his sons to hear what will befall them in the last days.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.1.22Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The blessing concerns the last days and does not fit Judah himself.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Daniel 9:25–27: the weeks until Christ the ruler, the cutting off of the anointing, and the desolation of city and temple.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Eusebius summarizes Gabriel’s message: Jerusalem would be renewed, then after a fixed time destroyed for good, and a new covenant would replace the Mosaic worship.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.125Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The desolation will likely last until the end of the age, as Daniel says.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.126Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ confirmed Daniel’s prophecy of the abomination of desolation.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.3.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Micah 4:1–3: in the last days the nations will come to the Lord’s mountain, and the law will go out from Zion.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.4.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Zechariah 14:1–4: all nations will take Jerusalem, and the Lord will stand on the Mount of Olives.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.8.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The former exactors will be made to repay to the last penny and burned with fire.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.15.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ neither crushed the repentant nor forcibly quenched the wicked, reserving their punishment for the final judgment.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.17.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Riding on a donkey signifies Christ’s humble first coming; Daniel describes his glorious second coming with the clouds.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.17.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Daniel 7:13–14: the Son of Man receives an everlasting kingdom.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.17.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The gentle rider on a donkey marks the humble first coming; the clouds of heaven and eternal kingdom mark the divine second coming.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.17.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Those who expect one coming must explain how the Messiah can both ride a donkey and come on the clouds at once.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.17.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Comparing the prophecies shows some refer to the first coming and others to the second.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.17.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The peace has only begun and will be complete when the fullness of the nations comes in; next comes Psalm 117.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.8.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Psalm 22:26–31 (LXX 21): the ends of the earth will turn to the Lord, and future generations will declare his righteousness.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.8.64Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ descended to free the souls in Hades, breaking its gates; many saints rose and entered the holy city with him.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 1.1Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Constantine opens his Good Friday speech to the assembly of the saints by celebrating the day of the passion as the prelude to the resurrection.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 9.7Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Plato rightly taught that good souls go to heaven after death and the wicked are swept along the rivers of the underworld.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 10.2Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · The poets tell of divine judges of the dead, yet also of gods who fight, grieve, and cannot help even their own children.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 11.1Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Whoever repents and turns to God will live forever; Constantine strives to bring his subjects to faith, and confesses that he himself came to the truth only in maturity, counting repentance his salvation.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 11.7Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Christ, God and Son of God, forgave his foolish accusers; pagans, meanwhile, indulge their pleasures, ignorant that the Father appointed the Son to judge and give eternal life.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 12.2Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Human perversity hindered Christ's teaching; obedience would have earned eternal life, the true life.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 13.1Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Some blame God for making things and characters different; but diversity serves the world, while human character depends on free choice: reason ruling the passions leads to virtue and reward, vice to unquenchable fire.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 14.2Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · To liken God to men or beasts, or to seek a power rivalling his, is madness; those who live by God's law will dwell in immortal mansions.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 18.3Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Inspired, the Sibyl foretold Christ's coming in an acrostic poem spelling 'Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, Cross,' beginning with the signs of the judgment.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 18.4Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · The acrostic continues with the resurrection, cosmic upheaval and the last judgment, ending with the cross as the sign of salvation and Christ the Saviour who suffered for us.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 19.6Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Constantine interprets the virgin as the one who conceived by the Holy Spirit and remains ever a virgin, returning when Christ comes again.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 20.4Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Before Christ the serpent crushed human hope; through his passion and resurrection the resurrection was revealed, sins were washed away in baptism, and believers given hope.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 20.5Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Death and the serpent's power ended; the 'Assyrian balsam' blooming everywhere signifies the multitude of believers, branches from one root.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 20.10Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · When the child comes to manhood, the earth will yield all things without labour; he will receive the sceptre from his father, and all creation will rejoice, a theme the poet longs to sing.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 21.2Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · The Sibyl longs to be kept until Christ's coming; Virgil's closing lines tell of the child who knew neither marriage bed nor feast.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 23.2Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · True religion leads to eternal life; the one who confesses God does not die but completes his service, and his endurance wins God's favour.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 23.3Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · God, more than any human benefactor, rewards virtue, partly now and fully at death, when the soul is judged: eternal life for the righteous, punishment for the wicked.
On the Incarnation 10.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christ's sacrifice ended the law of death and began new life; as in Adam all die, in Christ all will be made alive.
On the Incarnation 21.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Since Christ's death, believers no longer die under condemnation but are only dissolved for a time, to gain a better resurrection.
On the Incarnation 21.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Believers are like seeds sown for resurrection, as 1 Corinthians 15 promises.
On the Incarnation 22.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christ's public death served his resurrection, a trophy over death and a pledge of the resurrection of all.
On the Incarnation 27.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Once feared even by the saints, death is now trampled by believers who prefer to die rather than deny Christ.
On the Incarnation 47.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Where the philosophers persuaded few, Christ through simple men has persuaded multitudes everywhere to despise death and seek immortality.
On the Incarnation 50.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Faith in Christ made barbarians peaceful and assured people of immortality.
On the Incarnation 50.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · The Greeks never claimed resurrection for their gods, leaving that power to Christ.
On the Incarnation 56.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christ will come again in glory to raise and judge all, giving the kingdom to the good and eternal fire to the wicked.
On the Incarnation 56.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Jesus foretold his coming on the clouds in the Father's glory.
On the Incarnation 56.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Believers must be ready, since all will stand before Christ's judgment seat.
On the Incarnation 57.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · To grasp the Scriptures one must purify one's life and imitate the saints, so as to share the good things prepared for those who love God; the work ends with a doxology to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Letter 1.10Alexander of Alexandria · ca. 319–324 · Alexander completes his creed (the one church, the resurrection, Christ's true incarnation from Mary the God-bearer, his death, resurrection, and ascension) and asks his fellow bishops to reject Arius and his excommunicated followers.
Testament of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste 1Anonymous · ca. 320 · The Forty ask to be buried together at Sarein and that their relics not be divided.
Testament of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste 2Anonymous · ca. 320 · An exhortation to flee worldly glory, repent while there is time, and love one another.
On the Witch of Endor 14Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Citing the lying spirit sent to deceive Ahab, Eustathius argues that the devil engineers the ruin of the wicked, and that the apparition's “tomorrow you will be with me” blasphemously mimics Christ's promise to the thief, since, as the parable of Lazarus shows, the wicked Saul could not be with Samuel.
On the Witch of Endor 15Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius argues that Saul, who disobeyed God, persecuted David, killed the priests and consulted a medium, could not be with Samuel, so the promise “tomorrow you will be with me” was a lie, and that the faithful Jonathan could not share his father's lot.
On the Witch of Endor 17Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius insists that the question is not whether Samuel was in Hades but whether a demon can summon righteous souls, and attacks Origen's claim that Christ in Hades was “above in purpose”, saying it treats Christ as a mere man, whereas the Word is everywhere by his Godhead and Christ's soul freed the souls in Hades.
On the Witch of Endor 18Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius argues that Christ's soul descended to Hades and on the same day brought the penitent thief into paradise, and that sayings in John about the Son of Man in heaven and the Son in the Father's bosom show him present everywhere as God while on earth in the body.
On the Witch of Endor 20Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius ridicules Origen's suggestion that the souls of other prophets and angels came up with Samuel, arguing that this puts the saints under a demon's power and that angels stand before God, while only Christ descended to Hades and freed its captives.
On the Witch of Endor 22Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius criticizes Origen's allegories built on names, since the righteous and wicked often share names, refers to Methodius's refutation of Origen's view of the resurrection, and notes that Origen alone refused to allegorize the medium's words.
On the Witch of Endor 30Eustathius of Antioch · ca. 324–337 · Eustathius concludes that the woman of Endor's oracle was a myth from the belly, staged by a shape-shifting demon who mimics the dead, and that only God and his Son can bring souls up from Hades; the text breaks off.
Preface, lines 1–27Juvencus · ca. 330 · Juvencus's preface: the world will burn, but a true poem on Christ's deeds may win lasting fame and help its poet at the judgment.
Book 1, lines 692–717Juvencus · ca. 330 · False prophets known by their fruits; not all who say 'Lord' enter the kingdom; the house on the rock.
Book 2, lines 648–671Juvencus · ca. 330 · The believer passes from death to life; the dead will hear the Son's voice; the Father and the works bear witness to the Son.
Book 3, lines 1–25Juvencus · ca. 330 · The parable of the darnel explained: the harvest is the end of the world; Jesus is rejected in his home town.
Book 3, lines 522–547Juvencus · ca. 330 · The camel and the needle; with God salvation is possible; the apostles will sit on twelve thrones; a hundredfold reward.
Book 3, lines 745–773Juvencus · ca. 330 · The invited guests refuse and are punished; strangers fill the hall; the man without a wedding garment is cast out.
Book 4, lines 26–50Juvencus · ca. 330 · In the resurrection there is no marriage; God is God of the living; the two great commandments; David's son and Lord.
Book 4, lines 76–99Juvencus · ca. 330 · The lament over Jerusalem; the temple's destruction foretold; the disciples ask about the end; warnings against deceivers and wars.
Book 4, lines 100–123Juvencus · ca. 330 · The beginning of birth pains; persecution, false prophets, endurance to the end, the gospel to all nations, and Daniel's prophecy.
Book 4, lines 124–148Juvencus · ca. 330 · Flight from Judaea; the great tribulation shortened for the elect; false Christs; the coming like lightning.
Book 4, lines 149–173Juvencus · ca. 330 · Signs in heaven; the Son of man comes with the clouds and gathers the elect; heaven and earth pass but his words remain; the day is unknown; as in the flood.
Book 4, lines 174–199Juvencus · ca. 330 · Two in one bed, one taken; keep watch like the householder; the faithful and the wicked servant; the ten maidens begin.
Book 4, lines 200–223Juvencus · ca. 330 · The parable of the ten maidens: the wise have oil and enter with the bridegroom; the foolish are shut out.
Book 4, lines 224–247Juvencus · ca. 330 · Watch, for the hour is unknown; the parable of the talents.
Book 4, lines 248–271Juvencus · ca. 330 · The lazy servant punished; the Son of man comes to judge and separates the sheep from the goats; the righteous are welcomed.
Book 4, lines 272–294Juvencus · ca. 330 · The judge tells the righteous they served him in the needy, and condemns the unrighteous to the fire prepared for the devil.
Book 4, lines 295–315Juvencus · ca. 330 · The end of the judgment scene; the sisters of Lazarus send word that he is dying.
Book 4, lines 342–366Juvencus · ca. 330 · Jesus is the resurrection and the life; Martha confesses him as Christ, the Son of God; Mary comes.
Letter to Marcellinus 8Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · The Psalms foretell Christ's ascension, session at God's right hand, judgment, and the calling of the nations.
Letter to Marcellinus 21Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Psalms for praise, teaching on the resurrection, mercy, the prosperity of the wicked, God's anger, confession, shaming pagans and heretics, distress, the desecration of God's house, and feasts.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 3.2Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Constantine's sons were made Caesars at successive decennials, fulfilling Daniel's prophecy that the saints would receive the kingdom.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 6.9Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · God handed the governance of the universe to his only-begotten Word, who teaches a blessed life beyond this age and a judgment according to deeds.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 6.10Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · God rewards the virtuous; for the pious emperor greater rewards are prepared, foreshadowed by this festival of perfect numbers.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 6.18Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Constantine's thirtieth year foreshadows the good things of the heavenly kingdom, full of lights brighter than the sun.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 6.19Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · In heaven life is endless and free of grief, lit not by sun or moon but by the Word himself.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 6.20Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Scripture calls the Word the Sun of righteousness, who will receive pious souls into himself.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 6.21Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · What God has prepared for the pious is beyond knowing; Constantine, shown Christ's saving sign, has used it to conquer enemies and demons.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 7.3Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Pagans deified generation (Aphrodite) and death (Pluto) and, expecting no judgment, lived wickedly.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 7.10Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · God received the martyrs into heaven and preserved others on earth as witnesses of his judgment on the persecutors.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 10.7Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Constantine steers the empire like a helmsman under God, who will give him still greater blessings beyond human telling.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 13.13Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Believing the soul perished with the body, they lived like beasts with no thought of judgment.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 15.9Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · The first reason for the resurrection was to show death powerless; the second, to prove that Christ, unlike deified mortals, is the true God who conquered death.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 17.6Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Even amid persecution Christ raised up ascetics and lifelong virgins everywhere, persuaded multitudes to feed on Scripture, and taught even slaves and barbarians to despise death and expect judgment.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 17.13Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · No god or hero of the nations ever taught eternal life, enlightened the whole earth, abolished all other gods, and was acknowledged by all nations as God alone, as Christ has.
Against Marcellus 1.1.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus makes Christ alone lose his kingdom and abandon his flesh at the end.
Against Marcellus 2.1.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus's Christ begins at the incarnation and ceases after the judgment.
Against Marcellus 2.1.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Gabriel and Daniel both foretold that Christ's kingdom would have no end.
Against Marcellus 2.1.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Daniel and Isaiah foretell an eternal kingdom for the Son of Man.
Against Marcellus 2.1.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Isaiah promises the endless reign of David's son.
Against Marcellus 2.1.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus deprives Christ, the high priest, of the kingdom the saints will share.
Against Marcellus 2.1.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus makes the author of life lose life itself, ignoring angel and prophets.
Against Marcellus 2.1.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Even the Jews expect an eternal Messiah; Paul promises that we shall reign with Christ.
Against Marcellus 2.1.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Paul says Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more.
Against Marcellus 2.1.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Our hope is to share Christ's glory and kingdom, which requires that he live and reign.
Against Marcellus 2.1.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Fellowship with Christ means being raised and seated with him in the ages to come.
Against Marcellus 2.2.39Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says the Word came forth for creation and after the judgment will be in God as before.
Against Marcellus 2.2.41Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says Christ calls himself Son of Man so that humans may become sons by adoption, and the Word will return into God.
Against Marcellus 2.3.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus applies Col 1:15–17 to the flesh, yet says the flesh profits nothing and will not remain with the Word.
Against Marcellus 2.3.33Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus reads John 12:28 as the glorification of the assumed man at the resurrection.
Against Marcellus 2.3.38Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says Christ's kingdom had a beginning and is for abolishing the devil's power.
Against Marcellus 2.4.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says Paul teaches an end to Christ's kingdom when all are subjected to him.
Against Marcellus 2.4.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says a kingdom begun four hundred years ago will be handed back to God.
Against Marcellus 2.4.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says the Word is separated from the Father by activity only until the judgment.
Against Marcellus 2.4.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus asks whether the Word will keep the flesh after the judgment.
Against Marcellus 2.4.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus argues from John 6:63 that the flesh will not remain with the Word.
Against Marcellus 2.4.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus reads “until” in Ps 110:1 as fixing a limit to Christ's session at God's right hand.
Against Marcellus 2.4.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says 1 Cor 15:25 shows a limit to Christ's human kingdom.
Against Marcellus 2.4.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says Christ's partial kingdom ends when the Word reigns with the Father.
Against Marcellus 2.4.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus reads Acts 3:21 as a time limit for the union of the man with the Word.
Against Marcellus 2.4.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says creation will pass from slavery to freedom at the restoration.
Against Marcellus 2.4.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus concludes that the incarnation has a beginning and an end.
Against Marcellus 2.4.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus says the partial kingdom ends, and that immortality does not make the flesh worthy of God.
Against Marcellus 2.4.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus declines to say what becomes of the immortal flesh, since Scripture does not teach it.
Against Marcellus 2.4.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus repeats his creed: the Word, having come forth, returns into God after the judgment.
Against Marcellus 2.4.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Eusebius asks where Marcellus learned this and what becomes of the immortal body.
Against Marcellus 2.4.28Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 336–337 · Marcellus leaves Christ worse off than the prophets, who will live and reign for ever.
Demonstration 2.14Aphrahat · 337-345 · A thousand years are as a day to God; the world will last six thousand years, followed by God's sabbath rest.
Demonstration 7.27Aphrahat · 337-345 · Repentance is open while grace lasts in this world, but the time is near when justice will reign and repentance will no longer be found.
Demonstration 13.13Aphrahat · 337-345 · The sabbath pleasing to God is giving rest to the weary and keeping one's hands from evil; Christians keep God's sabbath by doing his will and look to the eternal sabbath rest.
Demonstration 14.22Aphrahat · 337-345 · Desire led Adam to sin though all paradise was his; the righteous will rest in paradise and the land of life when this earth and firmament pass away.
Demonstration 14.49Aphrahat · 337-345 · Good and evil are mixed in this world until the final separation; the readers, sons of peace, are urged to love peace and share the peacemakers' blessing.
Demonstration 20.5Aphrahat · 337-345 · In the parable of the last judgment, Christ blesses those who served him in the poor and condemns those who did not.
Demonstration 20.12Aphrahat · 337-345 · Abraham's bosom is the kingdom of heaven; the great abyss means no repentance after death, and Israel's refusal of Moses and the risen Jesus is foreshadowed.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.8.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus's creed: the Word went forth for creation and returns into God after the judgment.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.8.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus makes God's Word go out of God and return into him, a grave difficulty.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.9.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus's view implies the Word will again be idle after the end.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.9.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Daniel foresees myriads before God's throne at the end.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.9.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · At the end all the saints will hear Christ's invitation to the kingdom.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.9.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Why should the Word fall silent when the saints live for ever?
On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.9.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus's view makes God deprive the saints of his Word in the kingdom.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 2.20.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ revealed to his disciples mysteries not found in Moses or the prophets.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.8.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus says the flesh will be abandoned by the Word at the end.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.9.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus repeats that the servant's form cannot remain with the Word.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.10.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ's glorified body and ours, conformed to it, refute Marcellus's view of the flesh.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.10.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius quotes Marcellus's refusal to say what becomes of the flesh.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.10.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus pleads ignorance about the flesh, citing 1 Cor 13:12.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.10.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus calls the flesh a crown of victory, yet says it will be left lifeless.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.11.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus misreads John 6:63 as a rejection of Christ's own flesh.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.13.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus reads Acts 3:21 as limiting Christ's kingdom.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.13.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus takes “until” in Ps 110:1 and 1 Cor 15:25 as a limit.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.13.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius quotes Marcellus's argument for a limited kingdom.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.13.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus says the incarnation will end when the kingdom is handed over.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.14.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · “Until” in Scripture does not imply an end, as Matt 28:20 shows.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.14.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · “Until” refers to Christ's session before his second coming, after which the saints will be with him for ever.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.14.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The saints will share Christ's kingdom for ever; Marcellus misreads 1 Cor 15.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.14.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus wrongly reads the Son's subjection as the Word's reunion with God.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.15.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Paul says all things will be subjected to the Son, and the Son to the Father.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.15.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · God “all in all” does not mean the Son's absorption into the Father.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.15.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · If subjection meant union, all the saved would be fused with the Son and God.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.15.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus's reading leads to absurdity.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.15.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son's subjection means honour and willing obedience, not union.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.15.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Meanwhile the Son reigns, correcting and healing, until his enemies are subdued.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.15.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · When the worthy live for ever, death, the last enemy, will be idle.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.15.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The saints, subjected to the Son, will share his life, wisdom, holiness, and even divinity.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.15.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The saints will be co-heirs with Christ and receive heavenly bodies.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.15.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ's power to subject all things will transform our bodies to his glorious body.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.15.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · If our bodies are glorified, Christ's body even more will share his kingdom and divinity.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.15.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son's subjection is his offering of all the saved to the Father in glory.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.16.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · “God all in all” means God dwelling in all the worthy in the age to come.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.16.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · God will be all in all the saints, and the Son will reign for ever as Gabriel foretold.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.16.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Handing over the kingdom means presenting his subjects to the Father, not ceasing to reign.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.16.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son, like a high priest, will present the perfected saints to the Father.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.16.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · As the Father is in the Son, so he will be in all perfected by the Son.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.16.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · God will be all things to all, according to the divine powers in him.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.16.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · God will be all to each by capacity, but the Son alone will keep the unique fatherly glory.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Ezekiel's prophecy of God seeking and saving his sheep confirms the account.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Ezekiel foretells David as shepherd and God as their God.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · In Ezekiel God is their God and “David,” meaning Christ, their eternal shepherd and ruler.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Daniel foretells the Son of Man receiving an eternal kingdom from the Ancient of Days.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The Son of Man, distinct from the Ancient of Days, receives an unending kingdom.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus makes Father and Son one hypostasis and limits Christ's kingdom.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus says Christ's kingdom began and will end.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus argues a recent kingdom can be handed back.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Against Marcellus, the prophets give Christ an unending rule after the judgment.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · After the judgment in Daniel 7 the Son of Man receives the incorruptible kingdom.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Matthew 25 matches Ezekiel: the Son of Man as King after judgment, God as his Father.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The King of Matthew 25 is the “David” of Ezekiel, shepherding under God.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.13Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Ezekiel's destruction of wild beasts corresponds to Paul's abolition of hostile powers.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.17.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · In the new age the Son of Man is King and shepherd, while God is God over both sheep and shepherd.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.18.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · God will give himself to all, as Christ prayed that his own be one in the Father and the Son.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.18.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ gives his disciples the glory the Father gave him, that they may be one.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.18.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ's prayer asks that we share his glory and be one, by perfection in virtue, not by fusion of substance.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.18.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Perfected by Christ, the saints become lights and sons of God by sharing his divinity.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.19.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · We become one with Father and Son as they are one, by shared glory, not by fusion.
Life of Constantine 1.2.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius pictures Constantine's soul with God and leaves his worthy praise to the divine Word.
Life of Constantine 1.3.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · God gives the godly a foretaste here of greater rewards to come.
Life of Constantine 2.27.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Persecution brought war and want, and its authors suffered death or disgrace and feared punishment hereafter.
Life of Constantine 3.46.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Helena died with Constantine at her side, passing to heavenly life.
Life of Constantine 4.29.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · His speeches refuted polytheism and taught the one God, providence, the incarnation, and judgment.
Life of Constantine 4.29.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine rebuked greedy officials and warned that all must give account to God.
Life of Constantine 4.48.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine rebuked a cleric who said he would reign with Christ, asking instead for prayer that he be a worthy servant.
Life of Constantine 4.55.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Shortly before his death Constantine spoke on immortality and judgment, and even a pagan sage approved.
Life of Constantine 4.63.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · He told his weeping officers that he now had true life and was eager to go to God.
Life of Constantine 4.64.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine died at noon on the day of Pentecost.
Life of Constantine 4.67.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Government went on in Constantine's name until his sons arrived, a sign of his soul's immortal reign.
Oration II Against the Arians 63Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · “Firstborn of all creation” sets the Son apart from creation; he is firstborn among brothers by the flesh, from the dead by the resurrection, and of creation by the Father's love that will set creation free.
Oration II Against the Arians 69Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · No creature could save creation; the Son took flesh, died for all, and in his flesh destroyed sin and death, so that we, joined to him, shall be free of the serpent and of death.
Oration II Against the Arians 76Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Our election, adoption, and inheritance “before the foundation of the world” were founded in the Word, so that when the world passes away our life, prepared in Christ, will endure.
Oration III Against the Arians 42Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius turns to Mark 13:32; the creator of times cannot be ignorant of a day, and Christ, who foretold the signs before the end, must know the end itself.
Oration III Against the Arians 43Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Christ said “nor the Son” of the last day as man, because of his flesh: as Word he knows the end of all things, as man he does not, and he did not say “the Son of God,” lest the Godhead seem ignorant.
Oration III Against the Arians 44Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Christ does not say “nor the Spirit,” showing that his not knowing is human; as the one who knows the Father, creates and determines all things, and has all that is the Father's, the Son knows the day.
Oration III Against the Arians 45Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Christ tells the disciples “you do not know,” never “I do not know” as God; and as the one who brought the flood and foretold it to Noah, he knows the day of his own coming.
Oration III Against the Arians 46Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · In the parable of the virgins the ignorance is the disciples'; Christ, the coming judge and bridegroom, knows the hour, as he knew where Lazarus lay and what Peter would confess, though he asked in human fashion.
Oration III Against the Arians 48Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Christ said “I do not know” for our profit, to end fruitless questions without lying, since he spoke as man; after the resurrection, with his flesh deified, he said instead, “It is not for you to know” (Acts 1:7).
Oration III Against the Arians 49Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Christ's “not even the Son knows” protects believers against demons and the Antichrist who claim to know the end, and keeps them watchful, since neither the world's end nor one's own death is known.
Oration IV Against the Arians 12Athanasius of Alexandria · 4th century (disputed) · The author argues that the idea of the Word going forth from God for creation and returning at the end would make God change and creation come and go without end.
Epistle to the Monks 7Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · The monks live like angels, free of civic burdens, taxes, courts, debts, and trade.
Epistle to the Monks 11Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · The monks are soldiers of the consubstantial Trinity; their prayers sustain the world, and they will see the saints and Christ.
Epistle to the Monks 12Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · At the judgment the monks will be welcomed into the kingdom, while the enemy and his followers are cast out.
Epistle to the Monks 15Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · Serapion urges the monks to persevere to the end, so as to say with Paul that they have kept the faith.
Historical Fragments 1.4.1.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Easterners denounce Marcellus of Ancyra for teaching that Christ's kingdom had a beginning and will end.
Historical Fragments 2.1.1.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Hilary opens his work with Paul's faith, hope, and love, which alone remain when other gifts pass away.
Historical Fragments 2.1.1.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Faith, hope, and love alone continue into eternity, while prophecy, tongues, and knowledge pass.
Historical Fragments 2.1.2.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Hope gives up present goods for the hundredfold reward and eternal life.
Catechetical Lecture 4.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ will come again from heaven, not as the antichrists from the earth, and his kingdom has no end; the Holy Spirit, one and indivisible, is honored with the Father and the Son.
Catechetical Lecture 4.30Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The resurrection of the body is credible: God who made us from nothing, and who renews wheat and trees each year, can raise the dead.
Catechetical Lecture 4.31Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · All will rise in eternal bodies, the righteous to glory and sinners to torment; baptism’s repentance removes the burden of sin.
Catechetical Lecture 12.18Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Psalm 2's rod of iron is Rome, and Daniel's stone cut without hands is the everlasting kingdom set up in the days of those kingdoms.
Catechetical Lecture 13.36Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The cross that has gathered believers from all nations and still heals and drives out demons will appear again before Christ at his return.
Catechetical Lecture 14.19Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · When Christ descended into Hades, death fled, and the prophets and righteous ran to him and were redeemed.
Catechetical Lecture 14.30Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ has always held the throne at the Father's right hand; Cyril prays that the candidates may hold fast, be written in the book of life, and be presented by the present Christ to the Father.
Catechetical Lecture 15.1Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ has two comings: the first in humility to suffer, the second in glory to judge those who judged him.
Catechetical Lecture 15.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Malachi and Paul speak of Christ's two comings; at the second this world will be renewed, though no one may know the time, and Christ himself warned the apostles against deceivers.
Catechetical Lecture 15.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The first sign of the end, false christs, has already been fulfilled in part by Simon Magus and Menander.
Catechetical Lecture 15.6Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Wars, such as the Persian war over Mesopotamia, and famines and earthquakes are signs already being fulfilled.
Catechetical Lecture 15.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Church's own sign of the end is division and hatred among bishops, clergy and laity, which Christ foretold.
Catechetical Lecture 15.8Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The gospel has already been preached almost everywhere, as Christ said would happen before the end.
Catechetical Lecture 15.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Division among Christians prepares for the Antichrist; the apostasy Paul foretold is already present in the heresies that confuse Father and Son or make the Son a creature.
Catechetical Lecture 15.10Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The true Christ will come not from the earth but openly from heaven, like lightning, with his angels.
Catechetical Lecture 15.11Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · As the devil prepared pagan myths to discredit the virgin birth, so he will raise up the Antichrist, a sorcerer claiming to be Christ, to forestall the second coming.
Catechetical Lecture 15.12Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Antichrist will arise at the end of the Roman empire after ten kings, rule by deceit and cruelty for three and a half years, and be destroyed by Christ at his coming.
Catechetical Lecture 15.13Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Daniel's fourth beast is the Roman empire, and its eleventh horn the Antichrist, as the Church's interpreters teach.
Catechetical Lecture 15.14Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Satan will work in person through the Antichrist, deceiving the crowds with false miracles.
Catechetical Lecture 15.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Antichrist will seat himself in the ruined Jewish temple, claiming to rebuild it as David's heir, and will persecute the saints.
Catechetical Lecture 15.16Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ allows the weak to flee the Antichrist while the strong may stand; Daniel limits his reign to three and a half years.
Catechetical Lecture 15.17Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The martyrs under the Antichrist will be the greatest of all, for they will fight Satan in person; God permits the persecution in order to crown them.
Catechetical Lecture 15.18Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril urges the candidates to remember and pass on the signs of the Antichrist, for he fears the wars, schisms and hatreds of his own day.
Catechetical Lecture 15.19Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · At Christ's coming the dead in Christ will rise and the living faithful will be caught up to meet him.
Catechetical Lecture 15.20Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril reads the closing poem of Ecclesiastes as a prophecy of the darkening of the heavens, Christ's coming, and the resurrection of the body.
Catechetical Lecture 15.21Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · At his coming Christ will appear in fire and glory to judge, preceded by the luminous sign of the cross, and his angels will gather the elect.
Catechetical Lecture 15.23Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Judge shows no partiality to rich or poor; every good deed, including faithful marriage and chastity, and every sin committed after baptism is recorded.
Catechetical Lecture 15.24Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · All humanity, with the countless angels, will stand before the Father, Son and Spirit at the judgment, where each will be convicted by his own conscience.
Catechetical Lecture 15.25Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · As a shepherd knows sheep from goats by their coats, Christ will judge by the deeds that clothe each person; the baptized must keep their robe unstained.
Catechetical Lecture 15.26Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The way to the kingdom is the works of mercy of Matthew 25 and faithful stewardship of every gift.
Catechetical Lecture 15.27Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Against the recent Galatian heresy that Christ's kingdom will end and the Word be resolved into the Father, Gabriel and Daniel proclaim his everlasting kingdom.
Catechetical Lecture 15.33Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril concludes: worship Christ as the everlasting King, flee the Antichrist, and keep the faith by good works to inherit the kingdom.
Catechetical Lecture 18.1Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Hope of the resurrection is the root of good works and of bodily purity; it is denied by Greeks, Samaritans, and heretics alike.
Catechetical Lecture 18.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Greeks and Samaritans object that a body rotted, eaten, or burned and scattered cannot be gathered again.
Catechetical Lecture 18.3Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Distance is nothing to God, who holds the earth in his hand; if a man can sort mixed seeds in his hand, God can gather and restore bodies.
Catechetical Lecture 18.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Justice requires a judgment after this life, since many evildoers die unpunished; like a president of games, God awards the crowns at the end.
Catechetical Lecture 18.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Even unbelievers' punishment of grave-robbers shows an unbroken awareness of the resurrection.
Catechetical Lecture 18.6Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Trees, harvests, transplanted shoots, and sown seed all come back to life; how much more will man, for whose sake they exist.
Catechetical Lecture 18.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The yearly revival of trees in spring, and of drowned insects and hibernating dormice, are images of the resurrection.
Catechetical Lecture 18.8Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The phoenix, said to rise from its own decay every five hundred years, is offered to the Greeks as a sign of the resurrection.
Catechetical Lecture 18.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The daily wonder of human generation from weak and shapeless matter shows that God can raise the fallen body.
Catechetical Lecture 18.10Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The waxing of the moon and its recovery after an eclipse are proofs of the resurrection for those who do not accept Scripture.
Catechetical Lecture 18.11Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Against the Samaritans, who accept only the Law, Cyril argues from "I am the God of Abraham" and from Abraham's words on the judge of all the earth.
Catechetical Lecture 18.12Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · From the Law itself: if Moses' rod became a serpent, Aaron's rod budded, Lot's wife became salt, and Moses' hand was changed, God can raise bodies.
Catechetical Lecture 18.13Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Genesis, which the Samaritans accept, shows God forming man from dust and all creatures from nothing; he can therefore raise man.
Catechetical Lecture 18.14Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Texts that seem to deny the resurrection mean that the ungodly rise to condemnation and that repentance is possible only in this life.
Catechetical Lecture 18.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Job's words on the tree that blossoms again, read as a question, and texts of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel teach the resurrection.
Catechetical Lecture 18.16Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Scripture records many raisings of the dead, culminating in Christ's; even Elisha's dead body raised a corpse.
Catechetical Lecture 18.17Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Elisha's bones raised a dead man to show that a power remains in the bodies of the saints, as Paul's handkerchiefs healed the sick.
Catechetical Lecture 18.18Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The apostles raised the dead, and Paul teaches that this very body will rise, transformed and incorruptible; glow-worms show that God can make the righteous shine.
Catechetical Lecture 18.19Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · All will rise with eternal bodies, the righteous to live with angels and sinners to endure eternal fire, because the body shared in every deed.
Catechetical Lecture 18.29Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Church has every gift and virtue; once persecuted, she is now honored by kings and her power is unbounded; in her we inherit eternal life.
Catechetical Lecture 18.30Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Eternal life comes from the Father through the Son in the Spirit; Cyril closes the Lenten lectures and announces the lectures on the mysteries to be given in Easter week.
Catechetical Lecture 23.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The liturgy commemorates the saints, asking their intercession, and prays for the departed faithful.
Catechetical Lecture 23.10Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · An illustration of a king moved by a crown offered for exiles defends praying for the departed, for whom Christ sacrificed is offered.
Twelve Chapters on the Faith 12Gregory Thaumaturgus · 4th–5th century (disputed) · The twelfth anathema condemns saying that Christ appeared only in seeming; the explanation recounts his human life and passions, and an epilogue urges believers to glorify Father and Spirit, avoid disputes, and believe the mystery of the incarnation without prying into it.
Long recension, Ephesians 11Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · In the last times Ignatius urges the Ephesians to fear God and find their only joy in Christ, for whose sake he bears his chains.
Long recension, Tarsians 7Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius cites Christ and Paul for the resurrection of the body.
Long recension, Tarsians 8Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Without the resurrection we would live like beasts; Ignatius urges the Tarsians to put away vice and keep good order under bishop, presbyters and deacons.
Cento, lines 469–492Proba · ca. 360 · Christ teaches justice, mercy and faith, warns of the punishments awaiting the greedy and wicked after death, and forbids idol worship.
Cento, lines 493–516Proba · ca. 360 · Christ warns of the coming judgment and the destruction of the world by fire; a rich young man kneels before him and asks what more he must do.
Letter to Constantius 3Cyril of Jerusalem · 7 May 351 · Cyril reports the luminous cross seen over Golgotha on 7 May (351), which the whole city saw, and links it to Christ's prophecy of the sign of the Son of man.
Commentary on Matthew 5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary treats secret prayer, fasting, treasure in heaven, the eye as lamp, the two masters, freedom from anxiety (applied to the resurrection body), the lilies as angels, the grass as the nations destined for fire, and judging and the beam in the eye.
Commentary on Matthew 14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary treats the scribe of the kingdom, Jesus rejected at Nazareth, John’s death as the law silenced by Israel’s pleasure and unbelief, the feeding of the five thousand as the law and prophets turned into gospel food, and the walking on the water as Christ’s return to the storm-tossed church, with Peter’s faith and fall.
Commentary on Matthew 17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds the transfiguration (six days as six thousand years, Moses and Elijah as law and prophets), Elijah and John, the epileptic boy and the mustard-seed faith, the second passion prediction, and the temple tax as a figure of Stephen, the first martyr.
Commentary on Matthew 20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds the disciples’ fear and the apostles’ thrones in the regeneration, the laborers in the vineyard (hours as covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and the incarnation), the request of the sons of Zebedee (with Moses and Elijah as the two witnesses), humility in leadership, and the two blind men of Jericho as the nations.
Commentary on Matthew 22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds the wicked tenants (vineyard as Israel, winepresses as prophets, tower as law, the son as Christ cast out) and the wedding feast (the resurrection, the bulls as martyrs, the guests as Israel then the nations, the wedding garment as the Spirit’s glory).
Commentary on Matthew 23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary treats the tribute to Caesar (we owe God body, soul, and will), the Sadducees’ question (in the resurrection women will be like angels; God of the living), the great commandment (the neighbor is Christ; love of Father and Son equal), and David’s Lord as showing unity of substance.
Commentary on Matthew 25Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds Matthew 24:1–28: the temple’s destruction, false Christs (Simon Magus) and false prophets (Nicolaus), the fall of Jerusalem after the gospel is preached, the abomination of desolation as Antichrist, and the flight, housetop, pregnant women, and winter flight read as figures of the soul, with the eagles gathered at the place of the passion.
Commentary on Matthew 26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds Christ’s coming in glory (Matt 24:29–44): the fig tree’s branch as Antichrist, the passing of heaven and earth, the Son’s “ignorance” of the day as a merciful silence, the two in the field, at the mill, and in the bed (believers and unbelievers, believing and unbelieving Jews, catholics and heretics), and the call to watch.
Commentary on Matthew 27Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary applies the faithful and unfaithful servant to bishops, interprets the ten virgins (bridegroom and bride as the divine Spirit and the flesh in Christ, lamps as souls shining from baptism, oil as good works), and, after a gap in the text, the servant who hid his talent as the people of the law.
Commentary on Matthew 28Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · In the judgment of the sheep and goats, Christ is fed, clothed, and visited in his least ones; then he foretells his passion as the Jews plot his death.
Commentary on Matthew 33Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds the passion and resurrection: Pilate’s wife as the believing nations, Barabbas as Antichrist, the mocking robes as martyrs and prophets, the cross at the center of the earth, the cry of dereliction as the voice of the body, the vinegar as Adam’s soured immortality, the burial as Christ entering the hearts of the nations, and the women as first witnesses of the resurrection.
Life of Antony 19Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Living as though each day were one’s last guards against sin, greed, grudges, and lust, and keeps the soul mindful of judgment.
Life of Antony 65Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · In a vision Antony was led up through the air, where hostile powers demanded an account of his life since he became a monk, but could prove nothing against him.
Life of Antony 66Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · In another vision Antony saw souls ascending past a giant figure, the enemy, who seized those subject to him while the faithful passed beyond; he told such things only when pressed, for others’ benefit.
Life of Antony 91Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Dying on the inner mountain, Antony charged his two disciples to persevere, to avoid schismatics and Arians, to bury him in secret, and to divide his few garments between Athanasius and Serapion.
On the Trinity 1.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Reason suggests that God did not create man only to perish, and that piety looks for a reward of immortality.
On the Trinity 1.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Secure in hope, Hilary regarded bodily life as training for immortality and preached this faith to others in his ministry.
On the Trinity 1.33Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Book 11 will answer the Arian use of “my God and your God” and of the Son's final subjection in 1 Corinthians 15.
On the Trinity 3.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Son prays that the flesh he assumed may be raised into the eternal glory he always had with the Father.
On the Trinity 5.28Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Isaiah foretells that the name Israel will pass to God's chosen ones; Paul calls those who walk by Christ's rule the Israel of God.
On the Trinity 6.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The heresy is deadlier than earthquakes, wars, and plagues, for God will deny those who deny him.
On the Trinity 6.46Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Denying the Son, whom the Father, the Son himself, Peter, John, and Paul proclaim, is not ignorance but hatred, preparing the way for the Antichrist.
On the Trinity 6.47Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Martha's confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of God,” shows that eternal life depends on this faith.
On the Trinity 7.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The Father has given all judgment to the Son so that all may honor the Son as the Father; equal honor shows one nature, given by birth.
On the Trinity 9.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In John 5:40–44 Christ comes in the Father's name and gives life, while the one coming in his own name is the antichrist.
On the Trinity 9.58Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The heretics use Mark 13:32 on the Son's not knowing the day and hour to deny his perfect divinity.
On the Trinity 9.59Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · It is incredible that Christ, through whom and in whom all things are and who knows hearts, should be ignorant of the day of his own coming.
On the Trinity 9.60Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Ignorance of the day would make the Son imperfect and the Father envious, both of which are impious.
On the Trinity 9.62Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Col 2:2–3 places all treasures of knowledge in Christ, hidden but present, so his not knowing is a dispensation, not ignorance.
On the Trinity 9.65Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's "I do not know you" to evildoers and foolish virgins (Matt 7:23; 25:12) is a refusal of the will, not ignorance.
On the Trinity 9.67Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The knowledge of the day is hidden in Christ so that believers will keep watch (Col 2:3; Matt 24:43–46).
On the Trinity 9.71Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "Only the Father knows" means the Father does not keep the day hidden from the Son, while the Son keeps silent about it.
On the Trinity 9.75Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · After the resurrection Christ does not say he is ignorant of the times, but that knowing them is not for the apostles (Acts 1:6–7).
On the Trinity 10.34Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ's commending of his spirit was not fear of the underworld, since he promised the thief paradise that very day (Luke 23:42–43, 46).
On the Trinity 11.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Some take the subjection, handing over of the kingdom, and end in 1 Cor 15:24–28 as loss of the Son's divinity or rule.
On the Trinity 11.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary quotes 1 Cor 15:21–28 in full.
On the Trinity 11.25Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary names the three points in dispute: the end, the handing over of the kingdom, and the subjection.
On the Trinity 11.26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In Paul's order the kingdom is handed over, then the Son is subjected, and the end is that God may be all in all.
On the Trinity 11.27Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary asks whether the end means failure, handing over means loss, and subjection means weakness.
On the Trinity 11.28Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · "End" in Scripture means completion, not ceasing to exist: Christ is the end of the law as its fulfilment (Rom 10:4; Matt 5:17).
On the Trinity 11.29Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Handing over the kingdom is no loss, just as the Father lost nothing in handing all things to the Son (Matt 11:27; 28:18).
On the Trinity 11.30Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Since the Son already obeys the Father (John 6:38; Phil 2:8), the future subjection of 1 Cor 15:28 is not a new obedience but part of the dispensation.
On the Trinity 11.31Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Eph 1:19–22 speaks of all things already subjected to Christ, since what is future is already secure in him, though still to be worked out in time.
On the Trinity 11.32Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Making the hostile powers void, as with the devil's destruction (Matt 25:41), differs from subjection, which is obedience.
On the Trinity 11.34Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The enemies to be subjected include Israel, now hardened but beloved, who will be delivered (Rom 11:25–28).
On the Trinity 11.35Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The defeat of death is the resurrection (1 Cor 15:53–55); subjection also means our transformation into the likeness of Christ's glorious body (Phil 3:21).
On the Trinity 11.36Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · As we are subjected to the glory of Christ's body, so he, reigning in that body, will be subjected to the Father (1 Cor 15:27–28).
On the Trinity 11.37Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The transfiguration (Matt 16:28–17:2) showed the apostles the glory of Christ's body coming in his kingdom.
On the Trinity 11.38Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Matt 13:40–43 shows Christ reigning until the stumbling blocks are removed, and the righteous then shining in the Father's kingdom.
On the Trinity 11.39Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ hands over the kingdom by presenting to the Father the redeemed, glorified like him, who are themselves the kingdom (Matt 25:34; Luke 17:21).
On the Trinity 11.40Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ reigns in his glorified body until all enemies are subdued; then his humanity, not cast off but glorified, will be wholly taken into God, so that God is all in all.
On the Trinity 11.41Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Hilary will confirm from the Lord's own words in the Gospels what he has drawn from Paul.
On the Trinity 11.42Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John 13:31–32 distinguishes the Son of Man's glory at the resurrection from the later glory in which God glorifies him in himself, the final subjection.
On the Trinity 11.43Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · If Christ will glorify us, he can glorify his own humanity into God; the heretics wrongly read 1 Cor 15:28 as the Father gaining perfection through the Son's subjection.
On the Trinity 11.49Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · God being all in all is the advance of the humanity Christ took up, and through it we are renewed as the image of our Creator (Col 3:9–10).
On Saint Athanasius 1.32Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer contrasts, in the words of Wisdom 3–6, the blessed end of the righteous whom the emperor persecutes with the remorse and judgment awaiting him among the unjust kings.
On Saint Athanasius 2.17Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer applies Christ's parables of the tares and the warnings against causing little ones to stumble to the emperor, whom he calls cut off from the church like a stream from its spring.
On Saint Athanasius 2.23Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer argues that even ignorance of the true faith could not excuse the emperor's use of the sword against the innocent, and applies John 3 on those who love darkness and fear the light, and 2 Corinthians 5 on the judgment seat of Christ.
That One Must Die for the Son of God 8Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer recalls Constantius's killings at Alexandria, charges that he now tortures without killing to deny the bishops martyrdom, and answers with Psalm 27 and Paul's armour of God, trusting in the resurrection of the tortured body.
That One Must Die for the Son of God 14Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer tells Constantius that whatever death he inflicts will bring the martyr immortality and bodily resurrection, while the emperor, unless he confesses the eternal Son and the one Godhead of the Trinity, faces the undying worm and outer darkness.
That One Must Die for the Son of God 15Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Closing his work, Lucifer says that those who love God gladly endure brief evils for eternal rewards, that the bishops' power to bind condemns the emperor rather than he them, and that Constantius's repentance after death will be in vain.
On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 21Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer calls Constantius a second Bar-Jesus, resisting the faith as the false prophet did, and quotes the fourth, fifth and sixth Maccabean brothers' defiance of Antiochus as precedents for his own words.
On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 30Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · To justify calling Constantius the forerunner of Antichrist, Lucifer quotes in full Daniel's vision of the four beasts and the little horn that makes war on the saints.
On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 31Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer explains that he quoted Daniel's whole vision to show that persecuting tyrants are called beasts, and argues that Constantius, speaking against God by calling the Son a creature, is either Antichrist or his forerunner.
On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 32Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer warns Constantius of the river of fire, defends calling him a beast by Paul's words on the Cretans, and answers the emperor's appeal to the duty of obeying kings with Paul's command to Titus to rebuke with all authority.
Letters to Serapion 4.22Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · The Pharisees, worse than Pharaoh’s magicians, and the Arians alike deny Christ’s Godhead and incur the unpardonable sin; the pious, confessing him God and man, will reign with him.
History of the Arians 46Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius laments the exile of Liberius, Hosius, and many others, which proves that the charges against all of them were pretexts, and calls the persecution a prelude to Antichrist.
History of the Arians 70Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius describes Constantius as the slave of his advisers, condemns the order handing all the churches of Egypt and Libya to the Arians as worse than any persecution, and begins to list the original Arians now restored.
History of the Arians 73Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius applies Daniel’s vision of the Antichrist to Constantius, who wars against the saints, overthrew three rulers, and changes the Church’s laws by imposing bishops from afar.
History of the Arians 76Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius recounts how at the Council of Milan Constantius made himself Athanasius’s accuser and exiled the bishops who protested that an absent man could not be tried.
History of the Arians 77Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius calls Constantius’s presiding over the church and handing it to the Arians the “abomination of desolation”, and warns that the heresy may be the apostasy preceding Antichrist.
History of the Arians 78Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius describes the Meletians chosen as bishops: pagans and councillors seeking tax immunity, uncatechized and ready to become Arians at the emperor’s word.
Letter 5Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil consoles Nectarius on the death of his only son, urging him to accept God's wise ordering, like Job, in the hope of reunion.
Letters 145, 146Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil begs Eusebius to visit the church of Caesarea before Basil dies; then (Letter 146) he greets Eusebius's nephew Antiochus and urges him to live mindful of Christ's judgment seat.
Letter 174Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil counsels a widow to keep the day of judgment before her eyes, to pray, and not to despair of God's goodness.
Letter 264Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil writes to the exiled Barses of Edessa asking his prayers that God will soon restore peace to the persecuted Churches, wondering whether the present troubles are the prelude to the Antichrist.
Letter 301Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil consoles Maximus on the death of his wife, praising their harmonious marriage, reminding him that death is the common law of nature, and pointing him to the hope of the resurrection.
Against Arius 1.38Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus expounds 1 Corinthians 15:24–28, arguing that the Son subjects all things by the Father's power and the Father subjects them to the Son, which shows that both are one action and one substance.
Against Arius 1.39Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus explains that the Word, acting by the Father's power, made and governs all things from creation to the final abolition of death, after which his activity rests and God is all in all.
Against Arius 1.64Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus ends Book 1 by suggesting that man was made in the image of God even in the body, since the Word was to take flesh, rise and ascend, and our bodies will become spiritual.
To Justinus the Manichaean 8Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · The author concludes that contraries do not require two principles, that the one Creator of the world is his maker, and he calls the flesh to rejoice that, redeemed by the cross, it will be clothed with immortality.
Oratio (Ephemeris 3), lines 24-43Decimus Magnus Ausonius · ca. 360-390 · Ausonius prays, through the Son, for a mind proof against the serpent and for the way to heaven taken by Elijah and Enoch.
Homilies on the Psalms 7.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 7:6–8 Basil applies the prayer to God's vindication of the commandment Absalom broke and distinguishes the senses of “judgment” in Scripture: testing, condemnation, and God's own entering into judgment with sinners.
Homilies on the Psalms 7.5Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains that judgment is weighed against each person's advantages: those raised in piety and the law are judged more strictly than those raised in vice, and the good deeds of barbarians condemn Christians; he begins on Ps 7:8.
Homilies on the Psalms 7.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains Ps 7:8–12: the psalmist asks to be judged by human righteousness and pardoned for inexperience, prays that sinners' wickedness may end, and teaches that God tries heart and reins, helps the upright, and delays punishment out of patience.
Homilies on the Psalms 28.5Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains Ps 29:6–11: Christ is the “unicorn” as having the one power of the Father; God's voice divides the fire of judgment into light and burning, makes the desert fruitful, prepares the “deer” (the saints) and uncovers the thickets of sin; he rebukes chatter in church, and reads the flood as baptism.
Homilies on the Psalms 29.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains Ps 30:4–7: “confession” here means thanksgiving; God's “wrath” is his judgment and “anger” its execution, as a physician decides and then cuts; God wills life for all; weeping in the evening and joy in the morning point to the passion and resurrection; and he begins on “strength to my beauty” by citing the philosophers' account of virtue.
Homilies on the Psalms 32.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains that on earth God's mercy works without judgment, since Christ came to save, while at the judgment there will be no judgment without mercy.
Homilies on the Psalms 33.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 34:11 Basil distinguishes the enemy fear, born of unbelief, from the saving fear of God, and teaches it through a vivid picture of Christ's judgment seat, the dark fire, the worms and eternal shame.
Homilies on the Psalms 33.9Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 34:12–13 Basil teaches that the true life is Christ and the good days are those of the age to come, not this evil age, and that the first commandment of that life is to restrain the tongue, source of the readiest and most varied sins.
Homilies on the Psalms 33.11Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 34:15–16 Basil explains God's “eyes” and “ears” as the angelic powers that oversee and hear the righteous, and his “face” as Christ's manifest coming in judgment, to be seen by the righteous after the resurrection.
Homilies on the Psalms 33.13Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil asks how Ps 34:20 can say the bones of the righteous are not broken, since the martyrs' bones were broken.
Homilies on the Psalms 44.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains the title of Psalm 44 (45): “those who will be changed” are human beings, changing in body and soul and finally at the resurrection; the song is for the beloved, Christ, known only by perfect love; and he reads verses 1–2 as the prophet's own word, inspired by the Spirit, the swift scribe.
Homilies on the Psalms 48.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil sets the Christian end of life, the blessed life under God's rule in the age to come, against the philosophers' ends (knowledge, action, pleasure), relates the psalm title “to the end” to the victory of Christ, and begins on Ps 49:1–2, a summons to all nations, earthborn and sons of men, rich and poor.
Homilies on the Psalms 48.9Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 49:14–15 Basil reads death as the shepherd given the captives by the devil, from Adam to Moses, until the Good Shepherd laid down his life, led them out of Hades into the morning of the resurrection, and handed them to the angels; the psalmist's hope that God will redeem his soul from Hades foretells Christ's descent into Hades.
Homilies on the Psalms 114.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 116:1–9 Basil teaches that God “inclines his ear” in condescension, hearing even the unspoken groans of Moses and the blood of Abel; the saint calls on God all his days, and in the pangs of death and Hades willingly adds affliction to affliction out of love, or, as a penitent, the hardship of repentance; God's mercy and justice go together; he guards infants in the womb and the humble; and the soul's rest is the land of the living, where there is no death, change, sin, tears or want, unlike this world, where human beings die many times as they pass through the ages of life.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's first rule: believers must repent first, now is the time for repentance, repentance must be heartfelt and bear fruit, and after death there is no more time for good deeds.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 17Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's seventeenth rule: Christians should read the signs of the times shown in Scripture and arrange their lives accordingly.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 67Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's sixty-sixth rule, that those who struggle for godliness must not be abandoned and must be prayed for, and his sixty-seventh, that those assured of the resurrection should not grieve over the dead.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 68Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's sixty-eighth rule: the life of the resurrection is angelic and free from need, and the Lord's coming will not be local or fleshly but in glory over the whole world at once.
On the Holy Spirit 41Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · Exposition of Rom 8:10-13: when the body is dead to sin, Christ gives the Spirit of life, and the Spirit dwelling in believers will raise their mortal bodies.
Apology 3Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius says he will set out the truth openly, fearing God's judgment more than any earthly loss.
Apology 27Eunomius of Cyzicus · ca. 360 · Eunomius confesses the Son as obedient minister of the Father, incarnate, crucified, risen, and coming as judge, subject with all things to the Father, and closes by urging his hearers to judge rightly before Christ's judgment seat.
Tractate 3, section 4Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · Ishmael's cry and the well shown to Hagar figure the Jews who will repent and be baptized; only a remnant, to be gathered under Elijah, will believe, while the rest receive Antichrist.
Tractate 5, section 4Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · Pharaoh's seven good years figure the seven gifts of the Spirit and the lean years the famine under Antichrist; Joseph's chariot, herald, name, ring and robe figure Christ's exaltation.
Tractate 5, section 5Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The famine figures the end-time famine of the word under Antichrist; Isaac's blessing of Jacob points to the renewed earth in the kingdom of God.
Tractate 8, section 4Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The true sabbath is a whole life at rest from sin, fulfilled in the seventh millennium, the kingdom of the saints, when the devil is bound; the law's sabbath was a shadow ended by Christ.
Tractate 17, section 1Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · On Ezekiel's dry bones, Gregory defends the resurrection of the flesh against heretics who read the vision only of Israel's return from exile and who misuse 'flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom'.
Tractate 17, section 2Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · Ezekiel's opened tombs and Paul's arguments in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians prove the resurrection of the flesh, modeled on Christ's own bodily resurrection.
Tractate 17, section 3Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · Paul excludes from the kingdom not the substance of the flesh but its works; Christ rose in the flesh, the flesh shares the sacraments and will share the reward, and nature itself foreshadows resurrection.
Tractate 17, section 4Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · All will rise, the wicked to unending punishment in the fire that burns without consuming, as burning mountains show; so believers should persevere in good deeds to rise to glory.
Tractate 18, section 2Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The devil spoke through Nebuchadnezzar to name the Son of God in the furnace; the golden statue, sixty by six cubits, prefigures Antichrist and his number 666; the world's six thousand years will be followed by the kingdom of the saints.
Letter 181Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory rejects the view that Christ has put off his flesh: he will return in the body, as seen at the Transfiguration.
Letter 191Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory rejects the Apollinarians' expectation of a restored Judaism and their graded Trinity (great, greater, greatest), confessing Father, Son and Spirit as one in nature, essence and power.
Letter 197Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory shows how the Apollinarians misread “the mind of Christ”, “he became man” and “in the likeness of men”, at times making Christ's flesh gross and carnal, at times a mere appearance.
Letter 293Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory urges Eudoxius to choose God above all, since the prize of virtue is to become god and to be lit by the light of the Trinity.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.5.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Eve's creation from bone and flesh foreshadows bodily resurrection.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.5.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones shows the same order of resurrection.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.5.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The mystery hidden for ages is the Gentiles' inclusion in Christ's body and the glorifying of our bodies.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.5.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The church, like Eve, is formed from the risen Christ, in whom the resurrection of all flesh is already accomplished.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.20.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Esau's contempt for his birthright prefigures the first people losing the hope of resurrection through carnal desire.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.22.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Believers, renouncing present pleasures, take the inheritance the first people lost.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.23.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Since Scripture cannot lie, Jacob's blessing is fulfilled in the faithful people he prefigured.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.24.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Isaac foresaw by the Spirit the blessing of the younger people in the eternal world.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.31.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The hand made white in Moses' bosom signifies the glorification of the faithful at rest.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.31.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The hand's restoration shows the glory is still future; water turned to blood signifies baptism leading to the Eucharist.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.40.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Manna gathered beyond measure signifies teaching beyond the heavenly gift, corrupted and destroyed at Christ's judgment.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.41.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The double portion on the sixth day signifies preparing good works for the eternal rest.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.41.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The sixth day signifies the sixth millennium, in which we must prepare for the coming rest.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.41.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · In the eternal rest we will have only what we prepared beforehand.
Treatise on the Mysteries 2.10.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Jericho prefigures the world, which will fall at the last trumpet while the church is saved.
Treatise on the Mysteries 2.10.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The six days signify six thousand years; the world will be dissolved in the seventh and the church preserved.
Treatise on the Mysteries 2.15.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · A final fragment: Elijah will turn the fathers to the faith already held by the sons.
Tractates on the Psalms 0.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The three fifties of the Psalter correspond to rebirth through forgiveness, the kingdom of the heavenly Jerusalem, and the final praise of God in the Father's kingdom.
Tractates on the Psalms 0.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · "For the end" in a heading marks psalms about the final, eternal goods in which faith comes to rest.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The Spirit opens the Psalter with exhortation, the mystery of the incarnation, promise of glory, warning of judgment, and the difference in the resurrection.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Hilary turns to the image of the tree, trivial to worldly readers but glorious in prophetic teaching.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The blessed man will be like the tree of life when planted in paradise; its fruit, given at the fullness of times, is the transformation of our body into the likeness of Christ's glorified body.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Unlike Adam, who lost immortality, the redeemed will be like the tree of life, and all in them will prosper eternally.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The ungodly will be like dust driven by the wind: not annihilated but reduced to a state fit only for punishment.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The ungodly will rise, but not to judgment; they will remain to suffer punishment, as John 3 explains.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · John 3:18–19 seems to leave no one to be judged; Hilary prepares to resolve the difficulty.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Judgment is for the mixed: church members who love Christ yet love darkness more, being neither simply believers nor unbelievers.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Psalm 1:5 agrees: the ungodly are already judged, sinners will be judged and are excluded from the counsel of the righteous.
Tractates on the Psalms 1.24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God "knows" the righteous by acknowledging them, as he acknowledged Abraham and not the sinner Adam; the ungodly, already judged, perish.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God's anger is not a passion in him but the appointed punishment as felt by those who suffer it.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God does not change; his "anger" in Psalm 7 is the judgment he has decreed for the unrepentant, announced in advance and delayed to allow repentance.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The Sion over which Christ reigns is the heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly city that killed him.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.41Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Breaking the potter's vessel also signifies death and the resurrection of the same body transformed, and our dying with Christ in baptism.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.42Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The kings told to understand are not earthly rulers, who belong to the devil's realm, but believers who rule themselves and in whom God's kingdom reigns.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.44Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The judges of the earth are the saints, whose faith condemns the unrepentant by comparison, like the Ninevites and the queen of the South.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.48Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Without discipline we will perish from the just way on the day of the Lord's anger.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.49Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Punishment begins immediately at death, as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus shows, while final judgment awaits.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.50Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalm ends with the blessedness of those who trust firmly in the Lord.
Tractates on the Psalms 9.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · "For the end" in a title means the psalm concerns the last things; "hidden things" are what only God knows or reveals.
Tractates on the Psalms 9.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The end is the consummation of 1 Corinthians 15: resurrection, glorification of the saints, destruction of death, and the Son's handing over the kingdom so that God may be all in all.
Tractates on the Psalms 14.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The mountain of the Lord is Christ's assumed body, on which the church is built and in which the redeemed will rest with the angels.
Tractates on the Psalms 51.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ's kingdom is open to all through his assuming human nature, but the unbelieving uproot themselves from the land of the living.
Tractates on the Psalms 51.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The faithful dead live to God, who decreed death and can decree life; he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the living.
Tractates on the Psalms 51.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The righteous, seeing the fall of a people once so blessed, both fear the example and rejoice in their own righteousness, joy and fear tempering each other.
Tractates on the Psalms 51.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The prophet is a fruitful olive in God's house, the church, never cut off like the unbelieving branches; his hope reaches beyond death to the resurrection.
Tractates on the Psalms 51.23Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Righteous works need God's mercy to attain eternal life; confession is possible only in this life, since after death the will is no longer free.
Tractates on the Psalms 52.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Psalm 52 (53) resembles Psalm 13 (14), but its title "for the end, understanding, to that David" shows that it concerns the end and is addressed to Christ.
Tractates on the Psalms 52.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Bones signify the hope of eternity, as in Christ's unbroken bones and Ezekiel's vision; God guards the bones of the righteous and scatters those of men-pleasers.
Tractates on the Psalms 52.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · All will rise, but the despised will rise to shame without being changed into glory.
Tractates on the Psalms 54.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The punishment of descending alive into the underworld falls on all who share the betrayer's wickedness.
Tractates on the Psalms 54.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Those who refused to believe even in the risen Christ will rise but not be changed into glory; they defiled the covenant and were scattered.
Tractates on the Psalms 54.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The wicked are led to the pit of destruction, fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem; Christ rose from the pit, and full days are kept for those who hope in the Lord.
Tractates on the Psalms 55.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The saint does not fear the world's power; knowing the coming judgment, he hopes in God, while his persecutors have cause to fear.
Tractates on the Psalms 55.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Those "saved for nothing" will be raised but not changed into glory, rising only to punishment, while those justified by Christ's blood are saved from wrath.
Tractates on the Psalms 55.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · When Christ calls on God, his enemies are turned back to punishment.
Tractates on the Psalms 55.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ is lord of his own resurrection; the same body will rise, changed rather than newly created, and he will please the Father in the reconciliation of the world.
Tractates on the Psalms 56.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God's mercy reaching the heavens and truth the clouds refer to the resurrection, when the saints meet Christ in the clouds and creation is freed from corruption.
Tractates on the Psalms 57.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God breaks the persecutors' teeth; they flow away like useless water and melt like wax in the fire of judgment, never seeing the sun of righteousness.
Tractates on the Psalms 57.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The wicked are not annihilated: their souls are punished even before the resurrection, like the rich man in the Gospel, and their raised bodies will bear the thorns of their sins.
Tractates on the Psalms 57.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The righteous, at rest like Lazarus, rejoice at God's judgment, their hands clean of the blood that rests on the persecutors.
Tractates on the Psalms 57.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The righteous have their reward; believers are not judged and unbelievers are already judged, so judgment remains for those between sin and faith.
Tractates on the Psalms 58.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God does not destroy Israel but scatters it, keeping a remnant for mercy; when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, Israel will be saved and know the God of Jacob as Lord of the earth.
Tractates on the Psalms 59.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The prophet longs for the heavenly Jerusalem but knows that first Edom, the failing elder people, must be reached; God, who abandoned Israel's armies, will at the last save its remnant.
Tractates on the Psalms 59.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Human help is vain; with God's help believers overcome sin, Satan, and death through Christ.
Tractates on the Psalms 60.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Psalm 60 (61) is a simple hymn of the righteous man's eternal hope and thanksgiving.
Tractates on the Psalms 60.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The inheritance is eternal life for all who fear God; the king's reign until his enemies are subdued spans the generations up to the regeneration, while he himself remains eternally before God.
Tractates on the Psalms 60.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · When the redeemed are filled with God's fullness, they will no longer need to seek mercy and truth, as Christ promised joy that no one will take away.
Tractates on the Psalms 60.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The saint will praise God for ever, rendering his vows in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Tractates on the Psalms 62.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Both soul and flesh thirst for God; the body, often thought incapable of salvation, shares in the hope of eternity if it lives by the Spirit; the saint longs to appear before God.
Tractates on the Psalms 62.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God's mercy is better than this life, which ends in death; like a seed that dies and rises, those who die with Christ live in him.
Tractates on the Psalms 62.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The saint praises God by word and by deeds ("lifting up hands"); God's mercy surpasses both this life and the life in Abraham's bosom.
Tractates on the Psalms 62.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Persecutors cannot destroy the soul; they will descend to punishment, separated from the saints, and share the lot of the foxes, figures of Herod and the demons.
Tractates on the Psalms 63.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The arguments of philosophers fail before the faith: God is creator and governor, the soul is from God's breath and survives death, the body will rise, and God judges human life.
Tractates on the Psalms 63.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The arrows of the little ones wound the adversaries, who fear when they recognize their error and God's judgment, while the righteous rejoice in God's works.
Tractates on the Psalms 64.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Many are called but few chosen, the chosen being those in the wedding garment of baptism; there are many mansions of differing glory, and all the worthy share heavenly honour.
Tractates on the Psalms 64.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The "year of kindness" is the eternal age of recompense; its crown is Christ's victory over corruption and death, surrounded by his saints.
Tractates on the Psalms 64.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The fields are the faithful under the law, the desert the Gentile church, the hills the martyrs, and the rams the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles clothed with immortality.
Tractates on the Psalms 64.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The valleys abounding with grain are believers of humbler faith, who will still receive life though not the highest glory.
Tractates on the Psalms 64.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Because they cry out and sing, the fields, hills, and valleys are clearly people praising God for their rewards.
Tractates on the Psalms 65.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ’s rule over the age in his glorified body comes at the end, when every power and death itself are destroyed.
Tractates on the Psalms 65.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalm’s fire, water, snare, and burdens describe the martyrs’ sufferings, through which they pass into the refreshment of the resurrection.
Tractates on the Psalms 67.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Like smoke and melting wax, the power of the wicked dissolves at God’s judgment.
Tractates on the Psalms 67.35Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ’s voice of power, shown in his miracles, will above all raise the dead and clothe them with incorruption.
Tractates on the Psalms 67.36Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God’s glory rests on the spiritual Israel caught up in the clouds; all will rise, but some to life and some to judgment.
Tractates on the Psalms 67.37Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God is wonderful in his saints, whom he will raise, conform to Christ’s glorious body, and bring into unity with the Father and eternal life.
Tractates on the Psalms 69.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · His enemies will be shamed by his resurrection, kept from meeting Christ in the clouds, and sent back to judgment; all will rise, but not all will be changed.
Tractates on the Psalms 91.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The true Sabbath is eternal rest, prepared for now by prayer, reading, fasting, humility, good works, chastity, and patience, as the Jews prepare on the eve of the Sabbath.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.3.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · "I shall live" points to the future life of the resurrection, since now we dwell in a body of death, hidden with Christ until he appears.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.3.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The law's uncleanness from touching the dead is a figure, not a bodily rule, as Moses, Elisha, and Christ show; it signifies that we are made clean only in the resurrection.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.3.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Even after baptism a further cleansing remains: by the Spirit, by the fire of judgment, by death, and by martyrdom.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.3.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Like "I shall live", "I will keep your words" is fully true only in the future life, when we see face to face.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.3.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist asks to see the spiritual realities behind the law's Sabbath, Passover, jubilee, and priesthood, which are prefigured in its bodily observances.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.3.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Desiring God's judgment is dangerous, since no one is clean before him; even Mary, Job, and the apostles could not bear it.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.5.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Turning the eyes from vanity leads to life in God's way, the future life hidden in Christ.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.6.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist will keep the law now and forever, since the law's shadow points to its eternal reality in the age to come.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.6.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · There are eternal laws for the dead, for the resurrection, and for the angels, which the psalmist hopes to keep in the age to come.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.7.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Remembering God's judgments in every action strengthens the psalmist to endure the world's trials.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.8.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Though no one may see God's face and live, the pure in heart will see him; the psalmist entreats God's face while knowing it is now beyond bodily sight.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.8.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · As people long to see kings, the psalmist burns to see God, whose sight will transform the saints from glory to glory.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.10.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist hopes for the true life of the age to come through God's mercy, since present life is a body of death; meditation on the law prepares for it.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.11.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist's eyes are those of the mind, longing for the encouragement Christ brought when he descended to the dead, as Peter testifies.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.11.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Knowing his days are few, the psalmist asks for judgment now on his spiritual persecutors, the devil and his powers, as Christ later gave his apostles power over the enemy.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.12.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · "For the age" means for this present world, which will pass away, not for eternity; the word established in creation abides for this age.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.12.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The founded earth that abides may be the physical earth set on the waters by God's wisdom, but also the earthly bodies of the faithful, which are being prepared for heavenly glory.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.12.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The day that continues is the light of the saints, which will last when all things finally serve God and Christ's enemies are under his feet.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.12.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · These verses point to the new heaven and earth and the glorified body, while the ordered courses of the present creation also witness to God's greatness.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.12.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Reading the Greek, Hilary takes the psalmist to see beyond every consummation: the end of the law, the incarnation, the resurrection, Christ's kingdom, and the judgment.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.15.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Though mocked for fasting, continence, and giving up wealth, the psalmist prays not to be shamed in his hope of the life hidden in Christ.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.15.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist asks not to be spared enemies but to be helped against them, and looks to final salvation in the resurrection.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.15.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Meditation on God's justifications will continue forever, as the angels are always occupied in God's service.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.17.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist asks for the light of God's face, which will transform the saints as Moses' face shone, so that they may see God face to face.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.18.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The church, persecuted for its confession, keeps meditating on God's commandments; and (section 10) the psalmist hopes for God's eternal testimonies, like Lazarus rather than the rich man.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.19.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · From Adam to Joshua, God's testimonies in the lives of the patriarchs are the foundation on which the heavenly Jerusalem is built.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.20.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist loves God's commandments rather than fearing them, yet still relies on God's mercy for the life to come.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.20.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The beginning of God's words about man, "Let us make man in our image", is truth, fulfilled when the one reborn in Christ bears the image of the heavenly Adam.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.22.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Born in sin, the psalmist looks for true life in the age to come, where he will praise God, delivered from death into the land of the living.
Tractates on the Psalms 119.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God's answer to the deceitful tongue is the sharp arrows and burning coals of his word, which pierce falsehood and warn of judgment.
Tractates on the Psalms 119.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Truly to value heaven is to long for it, so the psalmist grieves that his sojourning on earth is prolonged.
Tractates on the Psalms 119.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Like Paul and the saints, the psalmist longs to leave the body and dwell with God, praying for the coming of the kingdom.
Tractates on the Psalms 120.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The promise points to the age to come, eternal day under the sun of righteousness, prefigured by the pillar of cloud and fire in the desert.
Tractates on the Psalms 120.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God keeps the soul's going out at death, to rest in Abraham's bosom, and its coming into the kingdom through Christ, the door.
Tractates on the Psalms 121.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Hilary begins Psalm 121 [122]: whoever hopes for the heavenly Jerusalem, built of living stones, rejoices at what was said to him.
Tractates on the Psalms 121.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The joy is that we shall go into the Lord's house, the free and heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly city.
Tractates on the Psalms 121.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · "Built as a city" shows that earthly Jerusalem was a figure; the heavenly city is being built through all ages until the fullness of the nations and Israel's salvation.
Tractates on the Psalms 121.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Israel will be judged by the apostles and by the Ninevites and the queen of the south, figures of the church of the nations.
Tractates on the Psalms 122.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The rich man and Lazarus show the reversal of fortunes: the poor sufferer is comforted, the self-indulgent rich man tormented.
Tractates on the Psalms 122.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The verse expresses the gospel reversal: either the despised faithful will later abound, or the proud and rich will be shamed at the judgment.
Tractates on the Psalms 124.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Those who trust in the Lord are like Zion, beholding their resurrection in Christ's; dwelling now in the church, the earthly form of the heavenly Jerusalem, they must stand firm.
Tractates on the Psalms 125.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · We are now only "as those comforted", having the Spirit, the other Comforter, while full comfort awaits the revelation of the sons of God.
Tractates on the Psalms 125.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Sowing in tears is the spiritual sowing of repentance and confession, which Paul contrasts with the sowing of the flesh; those who sow so will reap joy at the judgment.
Tractates on the Psalms 126.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Because the return from Babylon was followed by worse ruin, the psalm must speak of eternal hopes: the heavenly Jerusalem and the Lord's kingdom.
Tractates on the Psalms 126.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ's word about the cities of Israel and Paul's about the fullness of the Gentiles show that the Lord builds his city until it is complete.
Tractates on the Psalms 126.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Philosophy cannot build God's house; those not built by the Lord will not share the glory of the resurrection begun in Christ.
Tractates on the Psalms 126.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The command 'Rise after you have sat' shows that the city is not of stone but of those who will rise from the rest of death.
Tractates on the Psalms 126.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 'sleep' given to the beloved is the death of the saints; resurrection follows when the fullness of the Gentiles and the remnant of Israel are complete.
Tractates on the Psalms 127.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The full goods of Zion and Jerusalem await the age to come, when we shall see face to face and enjoy peace after the devil's defeat.
Tractates on the Psalms 128.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Zion, meaning 'watchtower', is the church, the body of Christ; those who hate her will be put to shame and lose the glory of the resurrection.
Tractates on the Psalms 131.26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The priests' clothing with salvation and the saints' full exultation signify the resurrection, when our bodies are conformed to Christ's glorious body.
Tractates on the Psalms 131.27Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 'horn of David' is Christ's eternal kingdom in God's rest, the kingdom of heaven promised to the poor in spirit.
Tractates on the Psalms 134.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The promised land, since lost by Israel, signifies our bodies, freed from vices and glorified, the inheritance of the true Israel who bear the heavenly image.
Tractates on the Psalms 138.24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Wings signify the transformation of bodies into heavenly nature at the resurrection; Christ's wings are his own, given by his nature and power after his voluntary passion.
Tractates on the Psalms 139.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 'head' of Christ's encirclers is the devil, who moved Judas and the crowd; their own curses and the fire of judgment will cover them.
Tractates on the Psalms 139.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The upright who dwell with God's face are the transformed saints, whom Christ will hand over to the Father in the kingdom.
Tractates on the Psalms 140.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The rock is Christ; at his coming the wicked and their prince, the man of lawlessness, will be swallowed up as death is swallowed in victory.
Tractates on the Psalms 141.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The apostles' faith trembled until the resurrection; Christ was sorrowful 'unto death' for them. His reward is exaltation, and the righteous await their own transformation into his glory.
Tractates on the Psalms 142.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 'face of God' is Christ, the image of the invisible God; without him one would be like those who descend to the punishment of the pit.
Tractates on the Psalms 142.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 'mercy in the morning' is the resurrection, which the prophet hoped for and in which the apostles rejoiced.
Tractates on the Psalms 143.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The devil's power, subjected at Christ's coming, 'smokes' now but is not yet consumed; it is being prepared for the eternal fire.
Tractates on the Psalms 143.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Psalm 149's new song celebrates the saints' share in God's final judgment over the nations, as Paul says the saints will judge the world.
Tractates on the Psalms 144.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Many praise God as Creator, but few confess him as the coming King and Judge; the psalmist blesses him now and will bless him in the age to come.
Tractates on the Psalms 144.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Creation confesses God's majesty, the saints proclaim his eternal kingdom, and an eternal reign implies eternal subjects who will share it.
Tractates on the Psalms 145.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The soul praises God now; the whole person will praise him in true life after the resurrection, since present life is a kind of death; meanwhile the body serves him in good works.
Tractates on the Psalms 145.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The Zion where the Lord reigns for ever is not the earthly city but the heavenly mother, built of living stones and filled with saints of both law and faith.
Tractates on the Psalms 146.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The gathering of Israel's dispersed is the final gathering of the elect by the angels; the building comes first because God now builds us up for that city.
Tractates on the Psalms 146.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ came to heal the contrite of heart; this healing has begun but will be complete in the resurrection, when the soul returns to the rest lost through Adam.
Tractates on the Psalms 146.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The stars God numbers and names are the saints, Abraham's promised seed, whom Christ will call by name from their tombs and make shine.
Tractates on the Psalms 146.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God's greatness, power, and wisdom appear in gathering, healing, and naming the saints; he exalts the meek to starry glory and casts sinners down.
Tractates on the Psalms 147.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Jerusalem, 'city of peace', is the united assembly of the saints; it is also Zion, 'watchtower', because it beheld by faith in Christ's body the glory to which it will be conformed.
Tractates on the Psalms 147.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The strengthened gates, blessed sons, peaceful borders, and rich wheat describe the eternal city promised to the meek, secure against every enemy.
Tractates on the Psalms 147.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Snow, frost, and ice signify the troubles and ignorance of this life along the narrow way; God's word and Spirit will melt them into the calm of eternal rest.
Tractates on the Psalms 147.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · In the eternal kingdom there will be no grief or change, but good things beyond sight, hearing, and thought, when God's Spirit melts all the winter of this world.
Tractates on the Psalms 148.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The three preceding psalms follow the order of Christian hope: resurrection, gathering of the saints, and life in the completed heavenly city.
Tractates on the Psalms 148.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · In Psalm 148 all creation, freed from bondage to vanity and sharing the glory of God's children, joins the heavenly powers in praise, as Paul and Peter foretold.
Tractates on the Psalms 148.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God's name will be exalted alone when the devil is bound and death abolished; then, in the new heaven and earth, he will raise the horn of his people in immortality.
Tractates on the Psalms 148.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The hymn belongs to the saints, the true Israel, who through Christ's kingdom will be handed over to the Father's kingdom; this 'handing over' is not Christ's loss but our advancement.
Tractates on the Psalms 149.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The saints, once lowly and persecuted, will rejoice in glory and share Christ's judgment over the kings and nations that oppressed them, the 'two-edged sword' of his word.
Tractates on the Psalms 150.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 150 psalms, divided by the translators into three fifties, trace the stages of salvation: baptism and forgiveness, resurrection to judgment, and spiritual glory and praise, which the last psalm completes.
Tractates on the Psalms 150.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The last psalm praises God in his saints, raised to incorruption, renewed in his image, and filled with his fullness, so that they praise him no longer as flesh but as spirit.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 11Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian urges sinners to use the remedy of penance as animals use healing herbs, and warns of the eternal fire that awaits the unrepentant in body and soul.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 12Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian closes with an appeal to do penance now, while there is time, promising God’s forgiveness to those who return like the prodigal son.
Titus of Bostra, Against the Manichees 1.37Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · On the Manichaean view salvation is God recovering his own, which makes God dependent on hope and punished by delay.
Titus of Bostra, Against the Manichees 1.40Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · The doctrine that the light is slowly being freed and matter will finally be burned into a clod is incoherent and contradicted by the unchanged order of the world.
Titus of Bostra, Against the Manichees 1.41Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · The Manichaean teaching that sinful souls are fixed in the final clod makes God punish his own nature, and the picture of God filling the abyss with earth is absurd.
Titus of Bostra, Against the Manichees 2.22Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Wars arise from greed and are permitted by God; death itself is no evil but a natural transition that ends sin for the wicked and begins crowns for the righteous.
Titus of Bostra, Against the Manichees 2.23Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Death, appointed for all, is good, ending the toil of the righteous and the sins of the wicked; the blame for war lies with human purpose, not with God.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 71Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · The abyss was made later as a corrective punishment; since the demons can suffer and fear, they cannot be unbegotten.
Commentary on Ephesians 1.10Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · God’s ordered dispensation reaches its sum in the fullness of times, when all that is in Christ, in heaven and on earth, is restored, each in its order.
Commentary on Ephesians 4.9Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Only one who came down from heaven can ascend there, as spirit returns to its source, so Christ who ascended first descended, even into the underworld, to free souls.
Commentary on Galatians 6.10Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Since time is short, believers must do good to all without exception, but especially to fellow believers who hold to faith alone in Christ.
Commentary on Philippians 3.10Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Faith in Christ means knowing him, sharing his sufferings even to death, and so sharing the power of his resurrection, in which believers come to meet him.
Commentary on Philippians 3.12Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul is not yet perfected while he lives, but pursues Christ through sharing his sufferings to the end, so as to go out to meet him at the resurrection, laying hold of Christ as Christ laid hold of him through those sufferings.
Commentary on Philippians 3.20Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Unlike those who mind earthly things, believers have their citizenship in heaven, from which Christ came in the flesh and from which they await him as Savior and Judge.
Commentary on Philippians 3.21Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · At the resurrection Christ will transform the lowly body into the likeness of his glorious, spiritual body by the power of God working through him, and will subject all things to God, to whom, as 1 Cor 15:28 says, the Son himself is subject.
Commentary on Philippians 4.4Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · United in heart, the Philippians should rejoice in the Lord and let their moderation, a humble keeping within their measure, be known to all, since the Lord and his judgment are near.
Commentary on Philippians 4.7Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Those who pray rightly receive God’s peace, which brings full understanding of God and guards their hearts, and their bodies are kept in Christ for the resurrection.
Oration 2.36Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Teaching on the last things and above all the Trinity is most dangerous, between fusing the three and dividing them.
Oration 5.38Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Julian will suffer worse than the punished of myth; Gregory and Basil, kept for last in his persecution, now answer him; Christian martyrs under Julian equalled the ancient heroes of faith.
Oration 7.17Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory offers his oration as a funeral gift in place of pagan honours, and prays that Caesarius may rest with Abraham and see God.
Oration 7.20Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Death has freed Caesarius from life's troubles; Gregory looks to the resurrection, examines himself, and contemplates the destiny of man in Christ.
Oration 7.21Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory ends with a prayer commending Caesarius and the mourners to God.
Oration 8.18Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gorgonia's healing and her longing for death, whose day was revealed to her in a vision.
Oration 8.21Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gorgonia prepared for death, gave her last charges, and fell asleep full of days according to God.
Oration 8.22Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · As Gorgonia died, her spiritual father heard her murmuring the psalm, “In peace I will lie down and sleep.”
Oration 14.30Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · It is not clear that the sufferings of the poor come from God; prosperity and affliction here may test or expose, God’s wisdom is unsearchable, and the true reward and punishment belong to the age to come.
Oration 14.39Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Christ’s purse for the poor, the apostles’ agreement, and the command to the rich young man show that kindness is a law, not advice; the goats at the judgment are condemned for neglecting Christ in the needy.
Oration 16.7Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory recalls Scripture’s threats of God’s sword and wrath, and warns that purification is possible only in this life, since after death comes judgment, not correction.
Oration 16.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory asks what we will do on the day of judgment, when God sets our sins before us against his benefits and we stand self-condemned.
Oration 16.9Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · At the last judgment there will be no advocate or second chance; the righteous will see the Trinity, which Gregory calls the kingdom of heaven, and the wicked will suffer separation from God and endless shame.
Oration 18.3Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory asks Basil to praise the dead man, console the family with teaching on life and death, and comfort the flock.
Oration 18.42Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory consoles his mother by contrasting changeable human life with true life in God, calling sin the only real death, and urging her to bear widowhood with hope.
Oration 19.15Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory reminds the assessor of God’s final enrolment in the book of life and asks him to spare the monks and clergy, the treasure of the Church.
Oration 22.7Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory laments the Church’s self-inflicted sickness and warns that its divisions may open the way for Antichrist.
Oration 39.19Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory rejects the Novatianist refusal to readmit the repentant, warns of the final baptism of fire, and ends with the hope that the baptized will become perfect lights before the Trinity.
Oration 40.2Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · There are three births, from the body, from baptism and from the resurrection, and Christ honoured all three in himself.
Oration 40.20Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Of those who die unbaptized, those who despise baptism will be punished, those who delay will be punished less, and those who could not receive it, such as infants, will be neither glorified nor punished; desire alone does not equal baptism.
Oration 40.36Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Scripture speaks of the light of the righteous and of a cleansing fire that Christ brings, but also of a punishing fire for the wicked, the unquenchable fire with the sleepless worm.
Oration 40.45Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory writes on the hearts of the candidates a “new decalogue” of faith: creation from nothing, evil not created by God, the incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension and return of the Son, judgment, and good works; the rest is taught after baptism.
Oration 40.46Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The rites after baptism (standing before the sanctuary, psalmody, lamps) foreshadow heaven; Gregory warns, with the parable of the virgins and the wedding feast, against carelessness that would shut the baptized out.
Oration 44.5Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Through the devil's envy death entered, and God became man to restore us; the Sunday after Easter is the birthday of the new creation, the eighth day pointing to the life to come.
Oration 45.22Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory asks to whom the ransom of Christ's blood was paid: not to the devil, nor as a price demanded by the Father, but accepted by the Father for the economy of salvation. He urges hearers to keep the Pascha spiritually by sacrificing themselves and sharing in every stage of Christ's passion and resurrection.
Tractates 1.2.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno begins a discourse on hope, faith and love, showing that without hope no human labour, and no Christian faith, has any point.
Tractates 1.9.5Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno shows that gold, the idol of the nations, can neither heal nor save nor go with its owner into the grave.
Tractates 1.9.6Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno praises his congregation as God's living gold and describes the heavenly city where all is common and no one fears theft.
Tractates 1.12.8Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno shows the frailty of the flesh, whose strength and beauty disease and death soon destroy.
Tractates 1.12.9Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno urges his hearers, who have put on Christ, to choose the soul over the flesh, since the choice of life or death is given to the will.
Tractates 1.16.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno begins a sermon on the resurrection: even the wisest pagan held that the soul survives the body's prison, so a Christian should not doubt.
Tractates 1.16.2Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno argues that souls survive death and are punished or refreshed, citing pagan rites, philosophers and Virgil's two ways in the underworld.
Tractates 1.16.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno argues from exorcisms, in which possessing spirits name themselves as dead persons, that the souls of the dead live.
Tractates 1.16.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno proves the survival of souls from Samuel's appearance to Saul, Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration, and the rich man and Lazarus.
Tractates 1.16.5Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno argues from Christ's promise to the penitent robber, his resurrection, Paul and Ezekiel that the dead live and will rise.
Tractates 1.16.6Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno rebukes Christians, especially widows, who mourn the dead like pagans and then quickly remarry, as if they did not believe in the resurrection.
Tractates 1.16.7Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno teaches that the dead will be raised to judgment and argues that it is easier for God to restore what was than to create from nothing.
Tractates 1.16.8Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno illustrates resurrection from nature: falling stars, the daily death and rising of the sun, and the moon's monthly waning and renewal.
Tractates 1.16.9Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno takes the phoenix, reborn from its own ashes, as a sign that Christians will rise the same and better.
Tractates 1.16.10Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno illustrates the resurrection by the seed that dies and rises, quoting 1 Corinthians 15:36, 42–44.
Tractates 1.16.11Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno distinguishes two resurrections: of the saints to the kingdom, and of the ungodly to everlasting punishment.
Tractates 1.16.12Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno reconciles 'flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom' with the creed's resurrection of the flesh: the flesh is renewed in baptism by the seed of the Spirit and will rise glorious.
Tractates 1.16.13Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno compares the resurrection to the grafting of a wild olive, which becomes a true olive, and cites Galatians 6:8 and the parable of the weeds.
Tractates 1.16.14Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno explains that the risen will be recognised, since only what is useless in the body is changed, and that death brings the just into rest.
Tractates 2.6.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno explains 1 Corinthians 15:24: the kingdom handed to the Father is the temporal kingdom of the assumed man, while as God the Son always reigns with the Father in one kingdom.
Tractates 2.21.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno reconciles Psalm 101 with John 3:18: believers are not judged and unbelievers are already condemned, while sinners stand between.
Tractates 2.21.2Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno identifies those reserved for judgment as half-hearted Christians, who profess God but serve the world.
Tractates 2.21.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno distinguishes three judgments, of the just, the ungodly and sinners, illustrated by how a householder treats faithful, criminal and fraudulent slaves.
Tractates 2.51.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · A sixth form of the Easter address: the day that sets and rises is an example of resurrection, but the baptized never fall into darkness.
Hexaemeron 1.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Astronomers who chart the heavens precisely failed to recognize God as Creator and Judge, and mock the doctrine of the world's end.
Hexaemeron 2.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Day and night first came from the primal light; Moses says "one day," not "first day," to fix the measure of a day and to point to the one eternal day, the Lord's day of the resurrection.
Hexaemeron 3.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · God spread water over the earth in seas, springs, and great rivers so that it could hold out against fire until the end.
Hexaemeron 5.10Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · The first command still works in the earth like the first blow that keeps a top spinning, until the end of the world; Basil closes the homily.
Hexaemeron 6.3Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Light and the body of a luminary are distinct, as the burning bush and the phases of the moon show; night is the shadow of the earth, and sun and moon were set to rule day and night.
Hexaemeron 6.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · The lights serve as signs of weather useful to sailors, travelers, and farmers, and will be signs of the end of the world.
Hexaemeron 8.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Basil closes the homily on birds, points to the silkworm's metamorphosis as an image of the resurrection, and urges his hearers to spend their fast on spiritual food rather than dice.
Hexaemeron 9.3Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Each animal has its own nature and an untaught instinct for self-preservation and foresight, as the ant shows; humans too have a natural law of good and evil.
Homilies 4.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Christ's tears are a measure, not a license, for grief; Job and the hope of resurrection teach Christians to bear bereavement and loss calmly and so to rejoice always.
Homilies 7.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Basil sets the judgment seat of Christ before the greedy rich and exposes gold and gems as mere stones; the plea that wealth is needed for children is a pretext for greed.
Homilies 8.9Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Basil closes with the certainty of the resurrection and the judgment, when each will receive what he deserves.
Homilies 12.14Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · The bodily senses stand for powers of the soul trained by Proverbs; it also gives understanding of judgment and the promises, and makes even the wise wiser.
Homilies 13.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Like the Ethiopian eunuch, the hearer should be baptized without delay; the devil's trick is to say “today for me, tomorrow for God,” but the Christian life, though demanding, is easier than the toils of sin.
Homilies 21.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Life is a road on which the devil lies in ambush among worldly delights; wealth, food, lust and power cannot be truly ours, but only the soul, the body as its vehicle, and the virtues.
Homilies 21.12Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Job received back double wealth but only the same number of children, since the dead children still live; Basil urges the victims of the fire to bear their loss in the same way.
Homilies 22.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Disdain for the body frees one from love of wealth, flattery and the craving for reputation; virtue is the provision for the endless age to come.
Against Auxentius 5Hilary of Poitiers · 364–365 · Hilary sees the age of antichrist in the Arian disputes, carried on by Valens, Ursacius, Auxentius, Germinius, and Gaius.
Against Auxentius 12Hilary of Poitiers · 364–365 · Hilary urges the faithful to leave Auxentius and the church buildings he holds, preferring the wilderness to communion with antichrist.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 5.10Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Against Parmenian's reading of the wedding parable, Optatus says the wedding garment is Christ, put on once in baptism; the rebaptized will rise, but stripped of it.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 7.2Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The Catholics receive the Donatists because no one is sinless and Christ forbade separating the tares from the wheat before the harvest; judgment belongs to Christ alone.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The revelation of Christ is the coming judgment, which will confound unbelievers and surprise believers with good.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:20Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Jews and gentiles alike scorn the idea that God has a Son, and astrologers and those who deny providence are made foolish by God's coming judgment.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The fire of judgment will expose bad teaching and show who taught well.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:14Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A faithful teacher will pass through the fire unharmed like the three youths and receive eternal life.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 3:15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A believer who taught falsely will be saved, but only after suffering a purifying punishment by fire, unlike unbelievers in eternal fire.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 4:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul is not subject to human courts; a 'human day' of judgment points by contrast to the fixed day of the Lord's judgment.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 4:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Judgment must wait for the Lord's coming, when all hidden deeds and thoughts will be exposed and true praise given.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 4:9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul compares the apostles' sufferings with those of Enoch and Elijah, the two end-time witnesses of Revelation who will be killed and made a spectacle.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The saints will judge even the fallen spiritual powers by the example of their faith.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Food and belly will pass away, but the body belongs to the Lord, who will raise it to immortality.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:14Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ, God's power, raised his own body and will raise ours.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:29Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul speaks of the end as near to keep readers watchful; married believers should live as if not married, abstaining even from lawful things to prepare for the final trials.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:30Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Because the end is near, weeping, rejoicing and buying must all be held loosely, with care for the eternal soul.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:31Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The world's form, not its substance, will pass away, so its goods must be used lightly.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 9:25Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · If athletes discipline themselves for a fading wreath, Christians should do more for an eternal crown.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 10:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Israel's history was recorded to warn Christians of the last age, whose greater knowledge brings greater accountability.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 13:4–8Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Love, which is God, surpasses every gift and lasts forever; partial gifts will end when perfection fills up what is lacking.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 13:7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Present knowledge is childlike and partial; in the life to come believers will see the realities face to face.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:38Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Whoever ignores the Lord's commands through Paul will be unknown by the Lord at the judgment.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:1–2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · All Christian hope rests on the resurrection; abandoning Paul's teaching on it would make faith vain.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ's burial and third-day resurrection fulfil Isa 53 and Hos 6, the latter spoken in the people's name because all rise in him.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:12–14Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Denying the resurrection, as the false apostles did, would make Christ unrisen and the Corinthians' faith empty and shameful.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · If there is no resurrection, the apostles are false witnesses and believers remain in their sins.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:18Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Denying the resurrection would mean that departed loved ones and martyrs have perished.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Without the future life, Christian fasting, purity and martyrdom would be pitiable.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:20–21Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ, a true man, rose as the firstfruits; as death came by Adam's sin, resurrection came by Christ's righteousness.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:22Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · As all die through Adam, all will rise through Christ, believers to life and unbelievers to endless punishment in their bodies.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:23Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ rose first; those who are his rise at his coming, which includes both the saints raised at his resurrection and those raised at his return.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:24–26Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Son's handing over the kingdom does not end his reign; it means showing, once all worship him, that the Father is the source from whom all things are.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:27–28Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Son's final subjection means showing himself God from God, so that the Father remains the one principle and all creation confesses one God; it is not a creature's subjection.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:29Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul cites those who were baptized on behalf of the unbaptized dead, not approving the practice but showing their firm belief in the resurrection.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:30–31Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Those baptized for the dead were not catholics, and their act, like Jephthah's vow, is cited only for its faith; the apostles face daily danger in hope of the resurrection.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:32Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul faced the beasts at Ephesus only because of hope in the resurrection; without it, the gluttons' motto in Isaiah would be right.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:35Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul quotes the doubters' question about the resurrection body.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:36Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul answers sceptics from nature: seed dies and comes to life multiplied.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:37–38Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · As a bare seed rises clothed and multiplied, the dead will rise in their own body, improved but not replaced.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:39Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · As one matter yields different kinds of flesh, people of one flesh will differ in glory at the resurrection according to merit.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:40Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Risen bodies are heavenly like Christ's; present bodies are earthly like Adam's.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:41Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Like sun, moon and stars, the risen will differ in glory: the hundredfold, sixtyfold and thirtyfold, then sinners, and the faithless in darkness.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:42Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The body buried in decay will rise incorruptible.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:43Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The decaying, helpless corpse will rise glorious and strong.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:44Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The present body lives by food; the risen spiritual body will need nothing and suffer no weakness or decay.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:45Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Adam became a living soul needing food; through resurrection humanity becomes life-giving spirit that cannot die.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:46Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The natural comes from Adam first, the spiritual through Christ.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:47–48Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Adam's earthly descendants are mortal; believers in the sinless, heavenly Christ will share his deathless life, while unbelievers rise dark.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:49Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Having borne Adam's mortal image through sin, believers must bear Christ's image by righteous living.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:50Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · 'Flesh and blood' means unbelief and sensual living, which exclude from the kingdom; all rise immortal, but the corrupt to punishment.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:51Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · All will rise, but not all will be transformed into glory.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:52Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The last trumpet sounds for the final battle against Satan after Christ's thousand-year reign on earth; then the dead rise and the saints are transformed into glory.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:53Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The ungodly rise only to perish, while sinners are judged and do not rise with the saints.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:55Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · All rise immortal; sinning believers suffer punishment until their debt is paid, the impious eternally; at Christ's coming the living are caught up, and death, the devil, is mocked as defeated.
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4:12–13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christians who die in faith are not to be mourned like those without hope, since God will raise them with Jesus; only unbelievers are truly to be mourned.
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4:14–17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul sets out the order of the Lord’s coming: Christ, the archangel who is God, descends to fight the Antichrist; the dead in Christ rise first, and the living, after a momentary death, are caught up to meet him.
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 5:1–5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ will come suddenly, like a thief, when the followers of the Antichrist feel secure after killing Enoch and Elijah, and will destroy them.
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 5:4–5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christians, as children of the day, must stay watchful, armed with faith, hope, and love, since Christ died so that living or dead they may live with him.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 2:13–15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Because the man was created first and the woman was deceived, she is to be humble; she will be saved through the birth of children reborn in faith, since the resurrection waits until all the predestined believe.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 5:24–25Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Some sins are plain now and others come to light after death or at the judgment; the steward of Christ must avoid known sinners, and hypocrites are worse than the openly wicked.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 6:13–16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul charges Timothy and his successors to keep the commandment until Christ’s coming; the Father alone dwells in unapproachable light and has never been seen, while the Son, sharing all the Father has, is the one who appears.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 6:17–19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The rich must hope in God, not wealth, and share their goods, gaining through this image of life the true and eternal life shown in Christ’s resurrection.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 1:14Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul and the Corinthians will be each other's glory at the day of judgment if they persevere.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Sharing the spirit of faith, Paul speaks and suffers in hope of the resurrection, which Christ's rising guarantees for all believers together.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Present light afflictions earn an eternal and immeasurable glory.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:18Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Seen things are temporal figures of the eternal unseen realities, so the righteous do not fear to leave this world.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:1Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers need not fear death, for an immortal body, already shown in the risen Lord, awaits them in heaven.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:2–3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers pray to be clothed with heavenly glory at the resurrection; those who keep their baptism, having put on Christ, will not be found naked.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers pray to persevere so that at the resurrection they may be clothed with immortality and glory, which is to be swallowed up by life.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:8Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Trusting God's promise, the apostles would rather leave the body and rest under God's altar until the resurrection.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · All will be judged in the body before Christ, so Paul persuades people to a good life, his sincerity being known to God and to the Corinthians.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 12:3–5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul was caught up a second time into the heavenly paradise; like John, he speaks of himself indirectly and boasts only in his weaknesses.
Prologue to the Commentary on 2 ThessaloniansAmbrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The prologue says the second letter speaks, veiledly, of the end of the Roman empire, the Antichrist, and some idle brothers.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 1:6–9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · At his coming Christ will give rest to the persecuted saints and eternal, unending punishment by fire to pagans and unbelieving Jews.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:1–4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul warns against claims that the Lord’s day has come, even in forged letters, since the Roman empire must first fall and the Antichrist appear, probably a Jew, claiming to be God.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:5–6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · What restrains the Antichrist is the Roman empire; when it fails and he appears, the Lord’s coming will follow.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The mystery of iniquity has worked through persecuting emperors from Nero to Diocletian and Julian, and will last as long as the Roman empire stands.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:8–9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · After Rome falls, Satan, cast down from heaven, will work through a man who imitates Christ with lying signs to be worshiped as the highest god, until Christ destroys him.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Antichrist’s deceptions succeed only with those who rejected the truth preached by the apostles and are therefore abandoned by God.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Those who refused the light are given over to believe the lie, so that their condemnation is beyond dispute.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 3:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul prays that their hearts may advance in God’s love and await Christ’s coming.
Commentary on 2 Timothy 1:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ destroyed death and brought eternal life to light through the gospel Paul preaches.
Commentary on 2 Timothy 2:18Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Hymenaeus and Philetus denied the future resurrection, claiming, as another source says, that it occurs in one’s children.
Commentary on 2 Timothy 2:19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Faith in God’s promises is a firm foundation that heretics cannot shake; God knows his own, as Moses told Korah’s rebels.
Commentary on 2 Timothy 3:1–5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul prophesies the vices of the last days, which Ambrosiaster applies to heretics and Jews who claim godliness but deny its power by their deeds.
Commentary on 2 Timothy 4:6–7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul has fought the good fight and kept the faith, and awaits the crown the righteous Judge will give him and all who love Christ’s coming.
Commentary on Colossians 1:11–13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers should grow in knowledge and patience, giving thanks to God, who rescued them from the darkness of the underworld into his Son's kingdom; since Christ's victory, the faithful who die are led to heaven.
Commentary on Colossians 3:1Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Those risen with Christ in baptism set their minds on heaven, where Christ reigns as judge; resurrection comes first for the soul, then for the body.
Commentary on Colossians 3:4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · When Christ, the author of life, returns as judge, believers will appear with him in glory.
Commentary on Colossians 3:6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God's judgment will come on those who pursue these sins.
Commentary on Ephesians 2:7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers, gentiles included, will be where Christ their head is.
Commentary on Ephesians 2:8Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · In the age to come God will show the unimaginable riches prepared for believers.
Commentary on Ephesians 4:20–21Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Those who truly learned Christ know the resurrection to life or judgment and hope beyond death.
Commentary on Galatians 6:8Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Sowing to the flesh by forbidden acts reaps corruption; sowing to the Spirit by self-restraint reaps eternal life, which is life without punishment, in glory.
Commentary on Philippians 1:22–26Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Though Paul longs to depart and be with Christ, he chooses, out of love, to remain for the Philippians' progress.
Commentary on Philippians 3:20–21Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christians live in heaven by their spiritual concerns and await Christ, who will transform their bodies to his glory and subdue all powers.
Commentary on Romans 2:4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God’s patience is not indifference: judgment is reserved for the life to come, where repentance will bear no fruit.
Commentary on Romans 2:5–6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The impenitent store up wrath for the day when God’s judgment, now denied, will be revealed and each will be repaid according to his works.
Commentary on Romans 2:7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · To those who persevere in good works God will give glory and honour made incorruptible, which is eternal life.
Commentary on Romans 2:8Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Unbelievers who deny God’s judgment will meet wrath, indignation and distress; God is called angry not because he suffers passion but because he will punish.
Commentary on Romans 2:9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The punishment of unbelievers is of the soul, and the Jew is first in punishment as in honour because of the promise to the fathers.
Commentary on Romans 2:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster explains the accusing and defending thoughts as conscience at the judgment, applying them especially to heretics and schismatics who knew the catholic teaching was true and did not follow it, while one who sincerely erred will have a lighter case.
Commentary on Romans 6:22Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Those freed from sin and serving God bear fruit in holiness and end in eternal life.
Commentary on Romans 6:23Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Sin earns death, but the grace of God, faith in Christ, gives eternal life without disquiet.
Commentary on Romans 8:6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The prudence of the flesh, whether sinful cunning or a worldly reason that mocks the virgin birth and resurrection, is death; the prudence of the spirit is life and peace.
Commentary on Romans 8:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Those in whom the Spirit dwells will be given life in their whole person, as Christ was raised.
Commentary on Romans 8:18Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Present sufferings are small beside future glory; if sailors and soldiers risk death for little, believers should suffer for Christ, who rewards greatly and gives strength.
Commentary on Romans 8:19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Creation waits for the full number of God’s sons, when it too will be freed from corruption.
Commentary on Romans 8:21Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Creation, subjected for God’s purposes, hopes for rest when all who will believe have believed.
Commentary on Romans 10:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers in Christ will not be shamed at the judgment, when their faith, thought foolish, is shown to be true and wise.
Commentary on Romans 13:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Now that we know God, we must wake from ignorance and negligence and live well, since salvation is near.
Commentary on Titus 2:11–12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God’s grace revealed in Christ teaches us to confess the Creator in the unity of the Trinity and to live godly lives, awaiting the glory to be revealed at Christ’s judgment; faith without good works is vain.
Epigram 9Damasus I of Rome · 366–384 · Damasus's own epitaph: the Christ who walked on the sea and raised Lazarus will raise Damasus.
Question 4, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Because the law is flouted with impunity in this life, justice requires a future judgment in which the oppressed are rewarded and the powerful wicked punished.
Question 13, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The children’s death punished their parents only in this life; the children themselves are neither glorified nor guilty, and were spared a long punishment and a corrupt upbringing.
Question 28, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The world cannot be eternal, since it is composite, changeable, and subject to decay, whereas the eternal is simple and unchanging.
Question 32, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The rich should share with the poor, since God gave the earth to all, so as to be rich in heaven; the godly poor will be rich there when the worldly rich are in want.
Question 34, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · “Good and evil, life and death are from God” means that God judges: punishment is “evil” to those who suffer it, and death is from sin, God being its judge, not its author.
Question 47, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Even the faithful under the law needed cleansing from personal and ancestral sin; through faith in Christ they are freed from the underworld and enter paradise, and the heavenly powers too need Christ’s name.
Question 68, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The martyrs’ souls “cry out” for vengeance as Abel’s blood did, not from impatience but to show that God will avenge them, warning persecutors and consoling sufferers.
Question 70, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The “adversary” with whom one must agree on the way is the law, hostile to sinners; one must be reconciled to it by good conduct before it accuses one at the judgment.
Question 105, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The darkening of the sun at the crucifixion fulfilled Amos and prefigures the darkening of sun and moon at Christ’s second coming foretold by Christ and Joel.
Question 105, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Isaiah’s day when sun and moon shine brighter is the day of redemption hailed by Zechariah, and the fallen “towers” are the Jewish leaders who rejected Christ.
Question 105, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Redemption in the passion freed both the living and the dead; since sun and moon are darkened at both comings, Isaiah’s brighter sun and moon must stand for the saints.
Question 105, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Those who leave everything for Christ receive sevenfold now and greater glory in the resurrection, shining like the sun and moon of Isaiah, with differences of glory among the saints remaining.
Question 106, section 19Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The six days of creation prefigure six thousand years of history, with Christ coming in the sixth millennium and the seventh bringing rest; the tree of life is the Lord’s body and the tree of knowledge the law.
Question 110, section 11Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The fruit of keeping God’s law will be given at Christ’s judgment.
Question 110, section 15Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The ungodly will be scattered like dust, cast out by the angels from the presence of God, without whom there is no life.
Question 110, section 16Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The ungodly will not rise to be judged by a law they never accepted, but only to see the truth they rejected and to perish.
Question 110, section 17Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Psalm 1 distinguishes the ungodly, who are not judged but perish, sinners, who are judged and corrected, and the righteous, who are rewarded.
Question 110, section 18Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God “knows” the righteous who do good works, but disowns the negligent.
Question 111, section 7Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Those innocent in deed and pure in faith ascend to heaven at death and return with the heavenly Jerusalem at the judgment, while the ungodly and sinners cannot bear the sight of the Lord in glory.
Question 114, section 22Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Seeds that die and spring up make the resurrection credible, and even now demons and pagan oracles are silenced by the name of Christ’s cross.
Question 115, section 6Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Praising good nature like good wine does not answer the problem, since Scripture promises real rewards and punishments, which would be unjust if conduct were fixed by nature.
Question 115, section 50Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christians who envy the prosperous or listen to astrologers show weak faith, since God made the world a testing ground and promised Christians their reward in heaven, not on earth.
Question 115, section 53Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christians oppressed for doing right should rejoice, for the coming judgment will exalt them and humble their unjust oppressors.
Question 115, section 54Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Belief in fate denies the coming judgment and makes praise and blame meaningless, yet no criminal in court dares plead fate.
Question 115, section 55Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Those who evade human justice will not escape God’s judgment, of which earthly law is only an image.
Question 115, section 56Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God, who gave the world a law and appointed leaders, must judge whether rulers and people kept it.
Question 115, section 57Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Astrologers who deny judgment and say character is fixed at birth nevertheless punish their own slaves, contradicting themselves.
Question 122, section 24Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Son is invisible by nature like the Father, but in heaven the saints will see the Father in the Son, God in his image.
Question 123, section 9Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Adam was placed on earth to work and live on food, but Christ grants a resurrection life needing no food and a dwelling in heaven.
Question 123, section 13Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Those who die with the Spirit go to heaven, not the underworld, which shows that the Old Testament saints, who went to the underworld, did not have the Spirit as Christians do.
Question 126, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · At the judgment the faithful, despised in this world, will be glorified with Christ, and unbelievers, now prosperous, will be humbled and repent too late.
Question 126, section 13Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · A pagan who believes sincerely on his deathbed is forgiven and spared the underworld, but without the reward of those who served Christ through life.
Question 126, section 14Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Those who live as soldiers of Christ will be crowned, while those who believed only at death will regret not having lived as Christians.
On Virginity 13Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Bodily birth leads to death, but spiritual birth through virginity halts death’s advance, as it was shattered against the virginity of Mary; the virgin already shares the angelic life of the resurrection.
Letter 10.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome praises the vigorous health of Paul of Concordia, nearly a hundred years old, as a foretaste of the resurrection.
Letter 14.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome closes with the day of judgment, when the despised Christ will be revealed as Judge and the humble believer will rejoice.
Letter 21.35Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome voices Israel's complaint that no redeemer died for it, answers that Christ the Lamb has been offered to it too, and warns of the Antichrist.
Letter 22.41Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome closes by picturing the heavenly welcome of the virgin by Mary, Thecla, and Christ the Bridegroom, with the virgins who follow the Lamb.
Letter 23.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome contrasts Lea's heavenly reward with the fate of the pagan consul Praetextatus, likening them to Lazarus and the rich man.
Letter 30.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reads "good beginning" as meaning that present knowledge is partial and will give way to direct knowledge in heaven.
Letter 39.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues that death is universal and that Blesilla has gone to Christ, and imagines Christ rebuking Paula for her excessive grief and self-starvation.
Letter 39.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers the biblical examples of mourning, arguing that under the gospel, which has opened paradise, Christians should not grieve like those without hope.
Letter 39.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome imagines Blesilla speaking from heaven, urging her mother not to grieve but to please Christ.
Letter 51.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Epiphanius attacks Origen's teachings on the devil's restoration, the coats of skins as bodies, a heavenly paradise, and the waters above the firmament.
Letter 55.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains that the Son's subjection to the Father in 1 Corinthians 15:28 means the subjection of his body, the church and humanity, so that God may be all in all.
Letter 59.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers Marcella that the things 'eye has not seen' are spiritual realities beyond present human knowledge, which Paul did not necessarily reveal to others.
Letter 59.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome denies having identified the sheep and goats with Christians and pagans and refers to his discussion in Against Jovinian.
Letter 59.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains that believers alive at Christ's return will meet him in bodies transformed without death, and declines to read the Apocalypse literally.
Letter 60.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome struggles between grief and Christian hope, and addresses death as conquered by Christ, the true Jonah.
Letter 60.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome gives thanks to Christ for conquering death and opening paradise, which before him was closed even to the patriarchs.
Letter 60.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome turns from pagan examples to Christian hope, which changes mourning into joy.
Letter 60.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome admits that grief is natural, as Christ wept for Lazarus, but asks Heliodorus to moderate it and to hear Nepotian's praises.
Letter 65.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains 'for those who will be changed' of the resurrection and of the Christian's continual renewal, and 'the beloved' and 'the victor' of Christ.
Letter 75.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome consoles Theodora on the death of her husband Lucinius: Christ has conquered death, and the dead are only asleep.
Letter 75.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Theodora to rejoice that Lucinius reigns with Christ, and teaches that in the resurrection people remain human, 'like' the angels.
Letter 84.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes how the Origenists speak of the resurrection of the 'body' or 'flesh' while mocking the idea that the same flesh, with its members, will rise.
Letter 84.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome mocks the Origenists' denial of the bodily resurrection and urges them, if they followed him into error, to follow him in correcting it.
Letter 84.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome says he would still praise Origen's talent if others did not praise his errors, lists those errors, and contrasts his own practice with Rufinus's claim to have 'corrected' Origen.
Letter 92.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus lists doctrines ascribed to Origen (the Son inferior to the Father, the end of Christ's kingdom, the devil's restoration, prayer to the Father alone, a non-lasting resurrection body, angels fallen into their offices) for which his books were condemned.
Letter 93.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The Palestinian bishops reject the Origenist teachings that Christ's kingdom will end and that the devil will be restored.
Letter 96.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus rejects the Origenist teaching that Christ's kingdom will end, citing Christ's unity with the Father.
Letter 96.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus condemns Origen for following philosophy rather than Scripture and argues from the Gospels and Paul that Christ's kingdom is everlasting.
Letter 96.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus argues that to end Christ's kingdom would be to end his divinity, and affirms the eternal unity of Father and Son.
Letter 96.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus attacks Origen's teaching that the devil will be restored and Christ's reign end, citing Christ's promise of an everlasting kingdom.
Letter 96.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus compares Origen's denial of Christ's eternal kingship to the Jews' objection to Pilate's title, and rejects the idea that the saved may fall again.
Letter 96.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus rejects the idea that risen bodies will again be mortal, since Christ has conquered death.
Letter 96.15Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus argues from Romans 6 and 1 Corinthians 15 that risen bodies will be incorruptible and immortal, not dissolved into nothing.
Letter 98.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus rejects Origen's teaching that the material world and bodies came into being because of the fall of rational beings.
Letter 98.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus affirms that risen bodies will never die again, since Christ saved the whole human being.
Letter 98.20Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus urges that knowledge and faith be completed in good works, for which all will give account at the judgement.
Letter 100.16Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus urges faith in the one Godhead of Father, Son, and Spirit and in the incorruptible resurrection, prayer for the emperors, and fasting through which virtue governs the body and lifts the soul to heaven.
Letter 108.22Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Paula has finished her course and now enjoys the reward she longed for, having exchanged earthly tears for heavenly joy.
Letter 108.23Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome tells how an Origenist questioner tried to unsettle Paula about the resurrection body and the pre-existence of souls, and how Jerome confronted him, arguing that the same bodies, with their sex, will rise, though without marriage.
Letter 108.24Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome continues his argument from the risen Christ, who had a real male body that could be touched and could eat, explaining the closed doors and the walking on water as God's power, not a change of the body's nature.
Letter 108.25Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome ends his argument by appealing to God's unsearchable judgments and teaching that all will rise at the age of Christ's fullness; Paula thereafter publicly rejected the questioner and his fellow Origenists.
Letter 118.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Julian not to be half monk and half worldling, reminding him that life is short and that Lazarus, not the rich man, was comforted after death.
Letter 119.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome states the two readings of 1 Cor 15:51 and quotes Theodore of Heraclea, who held that the saints alive at the end will be changed without dying.
Letter 119.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Diodore of Tarsus suggests that incorruption is common to all but the change into glory belongs to the righteous.
Letter 119.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Apollinaris agrees with Theodore that some will pass into the future life without dying.
Letter 119.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome translates Didymus, who reads 'we shall all sleep, but not all be changed' and explains the moment, the last trumpet, and the difference between incorruption and immortality.
Letter 119.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome quotes Acacius of Caesarea on the reading 'we shall all sleep': all rise incorruptible, but only the saints are changed into glory.
Letter 119.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Acacius discusses the other reading, 'we shall not all sleep,' rejects the view that Paul expected to survive to the end, interprets sleep as sin after baptism, and still prefers the first reading.
Letter 119.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · On 1 Thess 4:15-17 Jerome quotes Diodore, who holds that many will be found alive in the body when Christ comes.
Letter 119.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome translates Origen, who reads 'we who are alive' of those who have put their flesh to death, or of the believing remnant of Israel.
Letter 119.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Continuing Origen, Jerome gives an allegorical reading of 1 Thess 4:15-17: the sleeping and dead are those who sinned and repented, the trumpets and archangel prepare Christ's way, and the clouds are the prophets and apostles.
Letter 120.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome rejects a millenarian reading of Matt 26:29 and interprets the new wine as the Eucharist drunk in the church.
Letter 121.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome notes the literal reading of Matt 24:19-20 (the Antichrist, or the Roman siege of Jerusalem) and gives a spiritual one: souls newly pregnant with faith are endangered by heresy in the church.
Letter 121.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains 2 Thess 2: before Christ's return the Roman empire must fall and the Antichrist appear, whom Christ will destroy by his coming.
Letter 123.15Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome turns to the barbarian invasions of Gaul, listing the peoples and the ruined cities, as signs of the approaching end.
Letter 124.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reports Origen’s teaching that rational beings fell into bodies through negligence and can pass repeatedly between angel, human and demon in successive worlds.
Letter 124.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reports Origen’s views that bodies will be dissolved or refined, that the stars are ensouled, and that fallen beings may even pass into animal bodies, which Origen offered only as speculation.
Letter 124.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome quotes book 2 of On First Principles on successive worlds, the possible dissolution of all bodies when all are subject to God, and three possible accounts of the end.
Letter 124.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reports that Origen placed the fire of hell in the sinner’s conscience and spoke of rebirth into other worlds and of a final bodiless perfection.
Letter 124.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome quotes Origen on worlds before and after this one, on the fall of rational creatures into bodies, on the stars as ensouled ministers, and on an incorporeal end in which the saints share God’s life.
Letter 124.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome quotes Origen on the renewal of matter and worlds after intervals of time, on a future devil drawn from the most wicked, and on bodily nature being taken up into the divine substance.
Letter 124.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reports Origen’s view in book 4 that souls descend from the heavenly Jerusalem as if dying into lower worlds, so that hell and heaven are relative, and that the saints will fight hostile powers at the end.
Letter 129.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Answering Dardanus, Jerome argues that the true land of promise is the “land of the living” of the Psalms and the Beatitudes, not the land of Judaea that David already ruled.
Letter 129.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome identifies the land of the living with paradise, opened by Christ's blood, and supports a spiritual reading from Malachi, Isaiah, the Psalms, Ezekiel, and Proverbs.
Letter 129.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recounts Israel's past captivities and deliverances and attributes the present long ruin of Jerusalem to the rejection of Christ, until all Israel is saved.
Letter 131.21Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine argues from 1 Cor 15:22 that no one is made alive except in Christ, so unbaptized infants remain under Adam's condemnation.
Letter 131.23Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine rejects that suggestion from the resurrection of all to life or judgment, and cites Cyprian's ruling that infants may be baptized at once to save their souls.
Letter 140.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · On Ps 90:4 Jerome explains that a thousand years are as a night watch to God, and mentions the reckoning of the world's ages as six thousand years followed by the seventh and eighth.
Letter 140.18Jerome · ca. 370–419 · On Ps 90:14 Jerome notes that the Greek puts future petitions in the past, and reads the 'morning mercy' as the hope of resurrection.
Letter 140.19Jerome · ca. 370–419 · On Ps 90:15 Jerome teaches that present afflictions will be rewarded with joy after the resurrection.
Letter 144.16Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine says he would rather know the time of Christ's coming than the origin of his soul, and is not even sure it is given us to know the latter.
Letter 148.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer says Christians, who expect Christ's judgment, must live apart from the vices of unbelievers.
Letter 148.31Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer sets the rewards of the righteous and the judgment of the careless before Celantia, urging watchfulness.
Book of Rules 3Tyconius · ca. 380 · Tyconius’s third rule: the promise (given by faith) and the law (given to multiply sin and drive men to grace) never contradict each other; the righteous of old were justified by faith through the Spirit, and the promises to Abraham’s seed are firm because God foreknew those who would believe, while the church contains both sons of promise and sons of the slave woman.
Book of Rules 4Tyconius · ca. 380 · Tyconius’s fourth rule: Scripture speaks of a species (a particular city or person, such as Jerusalem, Solomon, Nineveh, Egypt, Tyre, Babylon) while meaning the genus (the whole church, good and bad), passing back and forth between them; he illustrates this at length from the prophets.
Book of Rules 5Tyconius · ca. 380 · Tyconius’s fifth rule: numbers and times in Scripture are often figurative, by synecdoche (part for whole) or by “legitimate” numbers such as seven, ten, and twelve, which signify perfection or the whole time from Christ’s passion to the end; he applies this to the sojourn in Egypt, the three days of the burial, the Sabbath, and the flood.
Book of Rules 6Tyconius · ca. 380 · Tyconius’s sixth rule: Scripture often recapitulates, telling of the same whole time again in parts, or describing a present event as the likeness of a future one; and he warns that the Antichrist is recognized by works, not words, since denying Christ in the flesh means hating his members.
Book of Rules 7Tyconius · ca. 380 · Tyconius’s seventh rule: as with Christ and his body, Scripture passes from the devil to his body (the wicked, within and without the church); he illustrates this from the fall of the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14 and of the king of Tyre in Ezekiel 28, and ends with the coming departure of the church from the mystery of iniquity.
Homilies, Migne column 59Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · The end of Oration 2 cites Ezekiel's sign on the foreheads; Oration 3, on Lazarus, begins: of all Christ's miracles, the raising of Lazarus four days dead alone could not be slandered by his enemies.
Homilies, Migne column 61Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · Christ delayed so that the raising of Lazarus might be undeniable; he answers Martha's grief and half-faith with 'I am the resurrection and the life', and asks where Lazarus lies so that the whole crowd may follow and witness.
Homilies, Migne column 63Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · Martha protests that Lazarus already stinks; Christ weeps to reveal the crowd's thoughts, has the stone rolled away so that the stench proves real death, and calls Lazarus out with authority.
Homilies, Migne column 65Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · Christ raised Lazarus with a single word, restoring his body and recalling his soul from Hades, and had him unbound before witnesses; the homily ends with the Palm Sunday acclamation. Oration 4, on the sinful woman, begins.
Homilies, Migne column 89Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · Oration 4 ends with a call to clothe oneself in chastity; Oration 5, for Holy Saturday, celebrates Christ's descent to Hades to free the dead, and the signs of mourning in creation at the crucifixion.
Homilies, Migne column 91Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · Christ prayed for those who crucified him; Amphilochius taunts those who sealed and guarded the tomb of a dead man, arguing that if Christ were a mere man there would be nothing to fear, and that he who raised Lazarus will surely rise himself.
On the Holy Spirit 16.40Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · At the judgment the Spirit will be the reward of the righteous, and to be cut off from him will be the punishment of sinners.
CreedAnonymous · ascribed to 381; first attested 451 · The creed associated with the Council of Constantinople (381), expanding the Nicene creed above all on the Holy Spirit.
Ancoratus 16.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Angels do not search God's depths; the saying about the day is introduced.
Ancoratus 17.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Whoever knows the Father must know the lesser thing, the day.
Ancoratus 19.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son spoke of the day in a figurative sense.
Ancoratus 21.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father knows the day both by awareness and by act, having committed judgment to the Son.
Ancoratus 21.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son knows the day, for he brings it.
Ancoratus 21.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · It is absurd that the Son who brings the day should not know it.
Ancoratus 21.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Father knows the day in both senses.
Ancoratus 21.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Son knows the day but has not yet “known” it by carrying it out.
Ancoratus 22.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Angels do not know the appointed times, but the Son shares the Father's authority.
Ancoratus 22.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Angels know the day in neither sense, for they have not yet been sent to reap.
Ancoratus 22.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · This explains “only the Father” in Mark 13:32.
Ancoratus 39.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ cites God's words to Moses on the resurrection.
Ancoratus 48.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Souls remain individual in God's many mansions.
Ancoratus 54.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Paul rose to heaven, then went down into paradise.
Ancoratus 61.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God can make earthly things incorruptible.
Ancoratus 61.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ showed that corruptible flesh can become incorruptible.
Ancoratus 61.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Our earthly bodies share the hope shown in Christ's body.
Ancoratus 63.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Scripture is true; heresies lack the Spirit of the church's tradition.
Ancoratus 65.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ will transform our bodies; in him dwells all the Godhead.
Ancoratus 66.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ and his Spirit dwell in the righteous.
Ancoratus 74.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · He turns to the incarnation and the resurrection.
Ancoratus 82.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Some ascetics say another flesh, not this one, will rise.
Ancoratus 83.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Unbelievers deny the resurrection; misbelievers distort it.
Ancoratus 83.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The pagans deny the resurrection but will rise.
Ancoratus 83.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Day and night picture death and resurrection.
Ancoratus 83.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Harvest, seeds, and locusts picture resurrection.
Ancoratus 83.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Hair and nails that regrow are signs of resurrection.
Ancoratus 84.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Animals that seem to die and revive.
Ancoratus 84.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The dung beetle as an image of revival.
Ancoratus 84.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The phoenix of Heliopolis.
Ancoratus 84.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The phoenix burns itself.
Ancoratus 84.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A cloud quenches the flames.
Ancoratus 84.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The phoenix revives on the third day.
Ancoratus 85.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Pagan myths themselves speak of resurrection.
Ancoratus 85.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Alcestis and Pelops.
Ancoratus 85.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · More myths of return from death.
Ancoratus 85.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Myths of punishment in Tartarus imply bodies after death.
Ancoratus 85.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Punishments by rock and wheel require bodies.
Ancoratus 86.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Manichaeans and pagans say only the soul rises.
Ancoratus 86.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A soul cannot “rise” since it did not fall.
Ancoratus 86.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Resurrection belongs to what fell: the body.
Ancoratus 86.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Pagan funerary offerings betray belief in the dead's return.
Ancoratus 86.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Pagans call on the dead at their tombs.
Ancoratus 86.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Their custom implies souls awaiting their bodies.
Ancoratus 86.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Otherwise their custom makes no sense.
Ancoratus 86.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Souls in storehouses, bodies in tombs: all agree, yet unbelievers deny.
Ancoratus 87.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Enough examples have been given.
Ancoratus 87.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Origenists say another flesh, not this one, is raised.
Ancoratus 87.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Raising another body would make God's judgment unjust.
Ancoratus 87.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A soul judged alone could blame the body.
Ancoratus 87.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The soul could plead that it sinned only through the body.
Ancoratus 87.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God's judgment would be void; Paul denies God is unjust.
Ancoratus 88.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God can raise bodies, as Ezekiel shows.
Ancoratus 88.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Ezekiel's dry bones moved with understanding.
Ancoratus 88.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Each bone found its proper place.
Ancoratus 88.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God showed he can raise even soulless bodies.
Ancoratus 88.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The bodies were assembled first, then the souls entered.
Ancoratus 88.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A body alone could not be justly judged.
Ancoratus 88.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The body alone could blame the soul.
Ancoratus 88.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Body and soul will be judged together.
Ancoratus 89.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · He turns to those who say another body rises.
Ancoratus 89.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The resurrection of the flesh grounds every good work.
Ancoratus 89.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Hope of resurrection motivates self-control and alms.
Ancoratus 89.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Faith, love, and martyrdom rest on the resurrection of the flesh.
Ancoratus 89.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Two clear testimonies establish the resurrection.
Ancoratus 90.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · “This corruptible” must put on incorruption.
Ancoratus 90.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The seed image speaks of the glory of the raised saints.
Ancoratus 90.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's saying about the grain of wheat.
Ancoratus 90.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's own body, sown like a grain, rose.
Ancoratus 90.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Gospels show the same body risen.
Ancoratus 90.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Believers confess the same body rose.
Ancoratus 91.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The risen body kept its wounds yet was spiritual.
Ancoratus 91.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Entering through shut doors shows the body transformed.
Ancoratus 91.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · He kept the scars to refute unbelievers.
Ancoratus 91.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · What suffered is what rose.
Ancoratus 91.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The whole body rose, none of it saw corruption.
Ancoratus 91.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ showed his flesh and bones.
Ancoratus 92.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's unique conception does not make his body unlike ours.
Ancoratus 92.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ as firstfruits implies our bodies rise like his.
Ancoratus 92.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Others were raised before Christ.
Ancoratus 92.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ, unlike them, rose never to die again.
Ancoratus 94.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Scripture hints at resurrection; Christ fulfills it.
Ancoratus 94.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Abel, Enoch, and Noah point to resurrection.
Ancoratus 94.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Isaac's birth from the “dead” is a sign of resurrection.
Ancoratus 94.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Isaac's return from the altar proclaimed resurrection.
Ancoratus 94.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Jacob's care for his bones shows hope of resurrection.
Ancoratus 94.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Joseph's command about his bones implies resurrection.
Ancoratus 94.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God is the God of the living patriarchs.
Ancoratus 95.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Aaron's rod, dry for years.
Ancoratus 95.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · In one night the rod budded: a likeness of resurrection.
Ancoratus 95.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The resurrection happens in a moment.
Ancoratus 95.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · What takes months in nature happens instantly at the resurrection.
Ancoratus 96.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Moses' rod illustrates God's power.
Ancoratus 96.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The rod became a living serpent.
Ancoratus 96.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · It was the same rod that came alive.
Ancoratus 96.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · No substitution took place.
Ancoratus 96.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The whole rod was changed, a pledge of resurrection.
Ancoratus 97.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Moses' blessing of Reuben shows hope of resurrection and escape from the second death.
Ancoratus 98.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Testimonies to the resurrection are abundant.
Ancoratus 98.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A partial resurrection would make God partial.
Ancoratus 98.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Elijah and Elisha raised whole bodies.
Ancoratus 98.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Lazarus came out whole.
Ancoratus 98.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ raised whole persons.
Ancoratus 98.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Enoch and Elijah, taken up bodily, show a complete resurrection.
Ancoratus 98.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Uncircumcised Enoch and circumcised Elijah show the resurrection is for all.
Ancoratus 98.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Virgin Elijah and married Enoch both live on.
Ancoratus 99.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Dathan and Abiram went down bodily to Hades.
Ancoratus 99.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Job, the Psalms, and Isaiah speak of resurrection.
Ancoratus 99.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Job means the resurrection waits for the end of the world.
Ancoratus 99.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · At the end the dead will be raised.
Ancoratus 99.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Ezekiel's vision of the bones and the spirits.
Ancoratus 99.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Ezekiel spoke because those bones would die again; God's own word is final.
Ancoratus 100.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's miracles foreshadow the universal resurrection.
Ancoratus 100.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · At Christ's resurrection many saints rose.
Ancoratus 100.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Whole bodies of recently dead saints rose.
Ancoratus 100.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Jairus's daughter was raised by a word.
Ancoratus 100.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The widow's son was raised by a touch.
Ancoratus 100.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Lazarus was raised by a call alone.
Ancoratus 100.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's miracles show the hope of resurrection.
Ancoratus 101.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · In short, the one hope of resurrection is proclaimed throughout.
Ancoratus 101.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · A prayer for those who reject the resurrection.
Ancoratus 118.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The creed: baptism, resurrection, and the life to come.
Ancoratus 119.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The second creed: passion, resurrection, ascension, and return in the same body.
Ancoratus 119.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The second creed: church, baptism, resurrection, judgment, and life.
Ancoratus 119.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The anathemas of the second creed.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 9.3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Abel's blood crying out shows the hope of bodily resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 9.3.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Enoch and Sarah point to resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 9.3.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jacob's and Joseph's care for their bones points to resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 9.3.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Aaron's budding rod and Moses' rod signify resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 9.3.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Moses' blessing of Reuben shows life after death and judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 14.3.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jesus refutes the Sadducees from Exodus.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 16.3.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If judgment exists, fate has no standing.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 21.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Simon denied the resurrection of the flesh; the Gnostics begin with him.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 23.1.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Only the spark is saved; the body perishes.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 24.9.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's death conquered death and emptied Hades.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.9.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They deny the resurrection of the flesh.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.10.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Only souls with this knowledge pass the rulers.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.15.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They deny the law, judgment, and resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 28.6.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul answered those who denied the resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 28.6.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul's argument that Christ's resurrection guarantees the resurrection of the dead.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 28.6.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Two explanations of baptism on behalf of the dead.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 28.6.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Two errors about the resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 28.6.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul's chapter on the resurrection refutes all these errors.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 28.6.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul refutes both errors on the resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.7.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Valentinians deny the resurrection of the body and say only spiritual and righteous psychic people are saved.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.7.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Each kind of substance returns to its source.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.7.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Psychics may be saved by effort; the material perish body and soul.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.7.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The spirituals are saved in an inner 'spiritual body'.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.7.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Righteous psychic souls, without bodies, become brides of Christ's angels.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.20.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The material perishes; the psychic goes where it inclines.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.20.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The end comes when all spiritual people are perfected in knowledge.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.21.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · At the end Achamoth enters the Pleroma as the Saviour's bride.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.21.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The spiritual become brides of the Saviour's angels.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.21.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Demiurge and righteous souls rest in the Middle.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.21.14Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A fire will then consume all matter and itself.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.23.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The earthly perish; the psychic's fate depends on their choice.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.23.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The spiritual seeds become brides of the angels; their souls stay in the Middle.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.30.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · And in the Holy Spirit, who foretold Christ's birth, passion, resurrection, ascension and return.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.30.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Every knee will bow to Christ, who will judge all justly.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.30.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The wicked spirits and wicked people will be sent into eternal fire.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.30.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The righteous and the repentant will receive life, incorruption and glory.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.31.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · It unfolds Scripture on the end and the inclusion of the Gentiles.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.31.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · It proclaims the resurrection and God's call of those who were not his people.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.11.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ himself speaks of severe punishment at the judgement.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.3.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Through their 'redemption' they claim immunity and recite a formula before the judge.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.3.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The formula asks the Mother to plead their case.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.3.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Mother makes them invisible and brings them to the bridal chamber.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.4.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The final restoration is like the congregation's joint Amen.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.14.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Demiurge's work will end in dissolution.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 37.1.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God, like a potter, remakes the cracked vessel.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 37.1.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The resurrection restores the vessel.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 37.1.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The repentant rise in bodies remade from the earth.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 38.6.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God's wrath is not a passion.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 38.6.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Prophecy warns us to repent and escape judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 38.8.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Judas's 'own place' is perdition.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 40.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They deny the resurrection of the flesh.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 40.8.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · John 2:19 shows the bodily resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 40.8.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Salvation needs no passwords, only the Lord's grace, works, and faith.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 40.8.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Hymenaeus and Philetus held similar views.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.3.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcion denies bodily resurrection and teaches the salvation of the soul only.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.4.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcion teaches salvation of souls only and the transmigration of souls.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.5.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius argues that resurrection applies to what has fallen, not to the soul.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.5.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The body, called a 'fallen thing', is what falls and rises.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.5.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Bodies, not souls, are buried with the hope of resurrection, like seed.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.5.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul and Jesus both use the grain of wheat as an image of resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.5.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul calls the doubter of the resurrection a fool, since a seed must die to live.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.5.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Scripture shows that resurrection is of the buried body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.5.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Since soul and body act together, justice requires that both be judged and raised.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.6.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God's goodness does not reward the unrepentant at the end, though he gives sun and rain to all now.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.6.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A just and good God cannot reward the wicked with salvation.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.9.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They also show the resurrection of the flesh and the salvation of the patriarchs.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.10.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Others confess the resurrection and the one Creator God.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.11.17Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius repeats each of his 78 excerpts from Marcion's gospel and refutes Marcion from it, chiefly on Christ's real flesh, the unity of God, and the Old Testament.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.12.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius repeats each of his 40 excerpts from Marcion's Pauline letters and refutes Marcion from them, arguing that Paul upholds the Law, the prophets, the one Creator and the resurrection of the body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 43.2.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God's patience now gives room for repentance before the judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 43.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Those who persist in error face judgment after death, though God does not judge in anger.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 43.2.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Each person causes his own condemnation; God is not to blame.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 44.3.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If the body was only for temporary use, it should have been left on earth.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 44.4.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Like Marcion, Apelles denies the resurrection of the dead.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 44.5.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ ascended bodily and will return in the same way.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 44.6.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul teaches that the mortal body will put on immortality.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 44.6.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's death and resurrection in the body are our pledge of resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.3.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's raisings of the dead show his power to save Adam.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.3.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's descent to the dead shows his will to save them.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Adam is saved; Christ came to grant amnesty to the living by repentance and to the dead in Hades by mercy.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.5.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The saints' bodies, not only souls, rose at Christ's death.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.2.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Maximilla prophesied that after her would come the end.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.2.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Maximilla's prophecy of the end has failed.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.2.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Some 290 years have passed without the end Maximilla foretold.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.8.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul prophesied about the last days.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.10.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Montanus promised that the saved would outshine sun and moon a hundredfold.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.10.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ alone gives glory to the saints' faces and raises their bodies.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.10.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The same bodies will be raised and glorified by Christ.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.10.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ promised faces shining like the sun, not Montanus's hundredfold.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.14.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Montanists revere Pepuza, where they expect the heavenly Jerusalem to descend.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 49.1.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The prophetess said Christ appeared to her as a woman and revealed Pepuza as holy.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.26.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The resurrection fell on the equinox, 22 March.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.32.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The prophets were trumpets; the gospel is the great trumpet.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.32.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul too speaks of the last trumpet.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.34.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The angels restrain the nations until God's judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.34.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The angels will be released for judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 56.2.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Bardesanes adopted Valentinian emanations and denied the resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 56.2.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A brief defense of the resurrection begins.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 56.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Accepting both Testaments convicts him.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 56.2.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ died and rose as the pledge of our resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 56.2.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The angels testify to the resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 56.2.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul, Isaiah, and the Lord teach bodily resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 56.2.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Abel’s blood crying out shows the body matters.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 56.2.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Bardesanes’ denial is refuted.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 58.2.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · In the resurrection all members rise.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 58.2.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If the offending member stayed behind, none would rise.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 58.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Without bodily resurrection their act is pointless.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 58.2.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Maimed bodies would be unfit for the kingdom’s glory.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 58.2.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The severed member, having not sinned, would deserve to rise first.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.5.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Judgment awaits the Lord’s coming.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.9.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Repentance is possible only before death.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.10.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · After death there is no repentance or merit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.10.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · After harvest nothing changes.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.10.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The heavenly storehouse is safe, but no repentance after death.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.10.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The parable of Lazarus shows no change after death.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.10.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · After death the contest is over.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.7.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Their profession is before God, who sees in secret.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.6.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The angels at the ascension speak of Jesus returning.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 62.7.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ is “first” in his coming and “after” in judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.4.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen is charged with wavering on the resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.9.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen’s view on the resurrection will be examined.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.9.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The refutation will use his Psalm 1 comments.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.10.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen comments on Ps 1:5.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.10.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen criticizes simple believers’ view of resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.10.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen says believers cannot explain the resurrection consistently.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.10.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Believers say the present bodies rise.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.10.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen presses questions about blood, flesh, and hair.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.10.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Believers appeal to God’s will or to the last state.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.10.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Some say the body at death rises.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.11.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius explains why he quoted Origen.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.11.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen mocks those who hold a firm resurrection hope.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.11.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · He argued from nature against the resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.11.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius will quote Methodius’s On the Resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.12.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Methodius quotes Origen on simple believers.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.12.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen’s argument, as excerpted by Methodius.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.12.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Believers say the whole present body rises.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.12.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen raises questions about lost blood and hair.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.12.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Some appeal to God’s power; others to the final body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.12.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Bodies constantly change through food.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.12.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Bodies pass into animals and back.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.12.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen: whose body will a shared body be?
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.13.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Believers appeal to God’s omnipotence and to Scripture.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.13.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They cite Ezekiel’s valley of bones.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.13.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The quotation of Ezekiel 37 continues.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.13.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God promises to reclothe the bones.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.13.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They also cite gospel texts and Rom 8:11.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.14.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen proposes a better account of the resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.14.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Living bodies never keep the same matter.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.14.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The body is like a river, yet its form stays the same.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.14.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Bodily features persist through change.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.14.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The bodily form, not its matter, rises.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.14.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The present and future form are the same.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.14.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Souls need bodies fit for their places.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.14.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Heirs of heaven need spiritual bodies.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.14.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The transfiguration shows form preserved in glory.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.15.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Matter changes even now, so this is no objection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.15.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · What is sown differs from what is raised.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.15.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul contrasts natural and spiritual bodies.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.15.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The saint’s risen body is spiritual, not flesh.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.15.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Taken literally, Ezekiel would raise only bones and skin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.15.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The dry bones speak, so they are figurative.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.16.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen questions literal teeth in Gehenna.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.16.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Gnashing of teeth belongs to the soul.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.16.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Matt 10:28 implies punishment with a body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.16.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The mortal form is made spiritual by the Spirit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.16.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · 1 Cor 15:35 shows the matter itself will not rise.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.16.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The seed’s principle transforms matter into a greater ear.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.17.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Proclus summarizes Origen’s view.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.17.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Proclus: the resurrection is of a spiritual body keeping the same form.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.17.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Only the form will be preserved.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.17.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A waterskin keeps its shape as water flows.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.17.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Added water takes the same shape.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.17.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Food takes the shape of the body’s form.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.17.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Identity lies in the form, not the flesh.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.17.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The form will be glorified as at the transfiguration.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.18.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · An objection from Christ’s bodily resurrection is raised.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.18.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Proclus: Christ’s body differs from ours in origin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.18.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Sirach and the Psalm are cited against bodily resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.19.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Methodius, the narrator, turns to Auxentius after Proclus’s speech.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.19.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Aglaophon, Proclus, and Origen are the opponents.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Methodius restates Aglaophon’s thesis.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Aglaophon held the coats of skin are bodies.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Aglaophon blamed the body for sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · He said the soul must be freed from the body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Without a body the soul cannot sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Aglaophon contradicted himself about the soul’s sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · He now blames the body for the soul’s sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · He had earlier said the soul sinned before the body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Both claims cannot stand together.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.14Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The coats came after the sin, to cover nakedness.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.17Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The soul, not the body, is the cause of sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.18Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The argument against bodily resurrection fails.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.21.19Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Aglaophon concedes the coats of skin are not bodies.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.22.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Methodius questions the body as the soul’s prison.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.22.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The positions are compared.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.22.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Aglaophon called the body a prison and tomb.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.22.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · He blamed the body for the passions.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.23.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A bond restrains; it does not cause sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.23.18Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The body is the soul’s helper, not its prison.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.24.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · History of sin shows the body is no restraining bond.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.24.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The body is not a prison.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.24.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · It is absurd to exclude the body from eternal life.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.24.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Their conclusion falls with their premise.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.25.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Methodius, addressing Theophilus, moves to the next point.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.26.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · What God makes by his hand is immortal.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.26.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Man, God’s own work, is immortal.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.26.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Man is the union of soul and body, made immortal.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.27.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God surely made his own image immortal.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.28.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · An objection: how could an immortal become mortal?
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.30.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Death is a corrective, the separation of soul and body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.30.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Bodily death is a good correction.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.30.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The coats of skin are mortality, to let sin die.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.31.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Adam was expelled so that sin might not become immortal.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.31.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Death destroys sin so man may rise pure.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.32.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Denying the flesh immortality is foolish.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.32.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The prohibition shows embodied immortality was possible.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.32.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The body dies so sin dies with it.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.32.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God made man mortal to end sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.32.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Death uproots sin entirely.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.33.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God dissolves the body so it may rise free of sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.33.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Sin’s roots remain while the body lives.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.33.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Now we prune sin; then it will vanish.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.34.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Sin will perish with the body’s death.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.34.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Death is God’s remedy against everlasting sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.34.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Death purifies soul and body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.35.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A craftsman recasts a damaged statue.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.35.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Recasting removes all damage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.35.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The statue is restored; the damage is lost.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.35.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God dissolves man to remold him without blemish.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.35.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Death is recasting; resurrection is reshaping.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.35.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jeremiah’s potter illustrates the resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.36.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God’s hand remolds its damaged work.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.36.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Rom 9:21 is read of the resurrection to honor or dishonor.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.36.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Daniel foretells the resurrection of all.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.36.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · We restrain sin; God uproots it at death.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.37.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Death serves good; now the resurrection is considered.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.37.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Death is a bitter but helpful medicine.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.38.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Deut 32:39 teaches death and resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.38.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The body is broken to be remade whole.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The opponent argues that the born cannot be immortal.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · By this logic angels and souls would perish too.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Created beings can be immortal by God’s will.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The world will be purified by fire, not destroyed.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God made the world to last.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Creation will be freed from corruption.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “Creation” means the visible world.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Renewed creation will rejoice at the resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Creation will be freed when we are.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Creation and believers await redemption.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Isaiah foretells a lasting new creation.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Earth and heaven will exist after the conflagration.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.39.14Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The universe will be neither dissolved nor destroyed.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.40.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · An objection from texts about heaven passing away.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.40.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Scripture calls transformation “destruction.”
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.40.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The form, not the world, passes away.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.40.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The world will be renewed, not destroyed.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.40.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The renewed earth will have immortal inhabitants.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.40.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The objection about the environment fails.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.41.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Aglaophon inferred bodiless resurrection from being like angels.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.41.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Man will remain man.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.41.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ restores man’s original nature.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.42.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Man will always be soul and body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.42.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The body does not perish, since man is soul and body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.43.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Sadducees denied the resurrection of the flesh.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.43.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ rejected the Sadducees’ denial.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.43.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Being like angels means not marrying, not lacking flesh.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.43.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “As angels” means close to angels.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.43.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The saints will be near to angels.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.43.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “Resurrection” itself implies bodies rising.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.43.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Only what has fallen can rise.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.43.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Denying the flesh’s resurrection denies resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.44.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Lord taught the soul’s immortality.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.44.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Wisdom 3 on the souls of the righteous.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.44.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Resurrection is of the body, since the soul does not die.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.44.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A resurrection of the soul would require its death first.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.44.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Either Christ spoke truly of the soul’s immortality or falsely.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.44.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The transfiguration shows souls are immortal.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.45.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The flesh, David’s fallen tent, will be raised.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.45.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The tabernacle is the flesh, not a building.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.45.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Sleep and waking image death and resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.45.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Life follows death as waking follows sleep.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.45.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Resurrection follows naturally from death.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.45.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Seeds show the resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.46.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Aglaophon read Ps 66:11 of souls trapped in flesh.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.46.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Souls had bodies before the fall.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.48.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Methodius prays to pass unharmed through the fire of the last day.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.48.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God’s promise of protection through water and fire.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.49.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Their view makes the future judgment superfluous.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.50.14Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit gives life to mortal bodies; only the body’s evil impulses die.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.52.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul’s teaching on the body as Christ’s members and the Spirit’s temple.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.53.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The body, kept pure, can receive immortality.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.53.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The sanctified body can inherit the kingdom.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.53.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God will give life to mortal bodies.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.53.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul speaks of this mortal body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.54.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Origenists make Paul contradict himself.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.55.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Methodius will show Paul consistent with the resurrection of the flesh.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.60.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Death was given to destroy sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.62.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Spirit frees from sin and will give life to mortal bodies.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.63.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Without bodily resurrection faith and hope are empty.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.63.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A soul, which does not fall, cannot “rise again.”
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.63.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Resurrection means the rising of the buried body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.63.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Resurrection belongs to buried bodies.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.63.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The body cannot rise only in part.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.63.14Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The natural and spiritual body are the same body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.63.16Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The raised body follows the Spirit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.63.17Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · In the resurrection there is no marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.64.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Enoch was taken up bodily without seeing death.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.64.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Elijah lives in spiritual flesh, fed by God.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.64.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ rose in the same body, made spiritual.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.64.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The risen body had flesh and bones.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.64.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ, the firstfruits, dies no more.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.65.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ is firstfruits because he dies no more.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.65.19Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God, like a potter, will remould man at the resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.65.26Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God returns man to earth to remake him at the regeneration.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.67.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen’s discussion of the resurrection on Psalm 1.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.67.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The simple believe the whole body rises.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.67.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Origen’s argument from bodily flux; Methodius refuted it.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.67.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The cleaned garment is the same, without its dirt.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.67.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God will restore the body whole, without its waste.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.67.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ did not raise only part of himself.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.68.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · As Christ rose bodily, so will we.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.68.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul grounds our hope in Christ’s resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.68.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “This” perishable body will put on imperishability.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.68.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ confirmed his word by rising.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.68.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul uses the grain for the saints’ glory.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.68.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul calls the doubter a fool.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.68.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The seed analogy of 1 Corinthians 15.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.68.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · What is sown is what rises.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.69.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Moses’s body foreshadowed the spiritual body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.69.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Sown in weakness, raised in power.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.69.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The buried body is weak and dishonoured.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.69.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The glory of the raised body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.69.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · All will rise, to life or to judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.70.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The deliverer will come and the dead will rise.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.70.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The living and the raised share one hope in the same body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.70.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The living and the dead will rise together in body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.70.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius introduces the Apocryphon of Ezekiel.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.70.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The parable of the lame and the blind man begins.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.70.15Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The king sets one on the other and they are convicted.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.70.17Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Soul and body will be judged together.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.70.20Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God’s unsearchable wisdom raises the dead.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.70.21Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God renews and raises what was sown.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Psalm 30 foretells the resurrection of the body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Proverbs urges preparation for the “field.”
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The “field” is the grave for all.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “Rebuild your house” points to resurrection.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ, Wisdom, will rebuild scattered bodies.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God, who created from nothing, can restore the body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If only the soul is rewarded, bodily asceticism is pointless.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God will reward the body that toiled with the soul.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A soul judged alone could blame the body.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Ezekiel’s dry bones show God can assemble bodies.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A body judged alone could blame the soul.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.13Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God raises body and soul together for judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.15Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Many bodies of the saints rose with Christ.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.16Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Scripture says “bodies” of the saints rose.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.17Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The raised saints fulfilled Psalm 68.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.71.19Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The raised appeared in the city; Adam buried at Golgotha.
On Cain and Abel 2.1Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The soul must not only conceive but bring forth and nourish its good thoughts in good works before the day of judgment.
On Cain and Abel 2.9Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Redeeming the ass's firstborn means freeing the soul from fruitless worldly labours, whose victories and glories never truly end; true freedom is in God.
On Cain and Abel 2.31Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · God hears the blood of the righteous, who live to him even in death, but turns from the ungodly, whose souls are buried in their flesh; cursed by the earth, Cain is condemned by heaven too.
On Cain and Abel 2.35Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The sign on Cain was a kindness inviting correction, yet also a punishment for asking only bodily life; death, which ends sin and suffering, is a remedy rather than a penalty.
On Cain and Abel 2.36Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · For those with good hope, death is a departure: the soul is incorruptible and returns to its higher home; likewise the prophets shared Israel's captivity to keep the people faithful.
On Cain and Abel 2.37Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Abel's early death and Cain's long, prosperous life refute those who think this life is the only one; Cain's long life was itself a punishment, while the righteous live on.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.13.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Since death is uncertain and there is no repentance after it, one must not sin counting on later repentance.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.13.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Believers must be prepared in good works for death, unlike the foolish virgins.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.17.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop must prevent sin and proclaim reward and judgment, lest Hosea’s rebuke fall on him.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.19.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · God will judge bishops, laymen and rulers each against their peers.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.52.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Just judges will be rewarded by God and unjust ones punished.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.12.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A widow in name only who does the devil’s works will be shut out of the kingdom.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.4.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The miser is like a serpent guarding treasure, and his wealth will not help him on the day of wrath.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.4.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · He who denies Christ to avoid men's hatred becomes God's enemy and chooses eternal fire.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.6.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · One who denies Christ to save his life may die soon of disease and lose both this life and eternal life.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · God will raise all the dead through Christ in their present form, but incorruptible.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · However the body perishes, God's power will raise it.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Gabriel's prophecy to Daniel of the resurrection is quoted.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · All, righteous and unrighteous, will rise to be judged according to their deeds.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · God answered Israel's unbelief in the resurrection through Ezekiel's vision of the bones.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Isaiah's prophecy of the resurrection is quoted.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · Scripture says much about the resurrection, the glory of the righteous and the punishment of the ungodly.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · Enoch and Elijah, and the dead raised by Elijah and Elisha, show God's power to give life.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Death is not in itself a punishment, since the saints and Christ himself underwent it.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.10Anonymous · ca. 380 · God allows death for a short time so that at the resurrection he may reject or crown each person.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.11Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Creator who formed Adam's body from earth will raise the bodies of all.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.12Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christ, who raised others and himself and delivered Jonah, the three youths and Daniel, can raise us.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.13Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Sibyl too foretells the resurrection and the judgment.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.7.14Anonymous · ca. 380 · Even pagan stories of the phoenix and the Scriptures' witness to God as Creator show that God can and will raise the dead, as the apostles who saw Christ risen testify.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.20.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Ascension is kept on the fortieth day; Christ sits at the Father's right hand until he comes to judge.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.11.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · The church confesses the resurrection, and Christ as God the Word and man, the expected one of Genesis 49.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.14.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The catholic teaching: worship the one God through Christ in the Spirit, use the Scriptures, and expect the resurrection and judgment.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.18.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Heretics will multiply before the end; the apostles healed some and cast out the incurable.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.26.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Some heretics condemn marriage and food and deny the bodily resurrection.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.30.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Believers who die are not dead, for God is the God of the living.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.30.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · The book closes with a doxology to God who speaks through Christ, crucified, risen and coming again.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.31.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Watch, for the Lord will come at an unexpected hour.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.31.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Stay sober and faithful to the end.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.32.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · In the last days false prophets will multiply and love grow cold.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.32.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The deceiver of the world will appear and be slain by Christ.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.32.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The sign of the Son of Man and the trumpet will precede the resurrection.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.32.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Lord will come with his saints on the clouds to judge.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.32.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The wicked go to punishment, the righteous to eternal life.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.34.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · God punished man's disobedience with death but promised rebirth through Christ.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.38.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · God forms man in the womb, gives him an immortal soul, and promises resurrection.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.41.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · The creed confesses Christ's incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension and coming.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.41.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · The creed confesses the Holy Spirit, the church, the resurrection, forgiveness and eternal life.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.41.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayers for the departed ask that they rest with the patriarchs, and the bishop blesses the living.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.42.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The dead are commemorated on the third day.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.43.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Alms do not profit the ungodly dead.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.43.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · God's judgment on the ungodly does not change after death.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.43.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God judges each by his works.
On the Christian Faith 5.6Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that the request of James and John for seats beside Christ was impossible for any creature, since even angels and the Seraphim stand before God, and that Christ’s “not mine to give” was said according to his humanity.
On the Christian Faith 5.12Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose explains the parable of the nobleman who went to receive a kingdom (Luke 19) and Paul’s statement that the Son will hand over the kingdom (1 Cor 15:24–28) as referring to believers, the kingdom Christ won and presents to the Father, while the kingdom of Father and Son remains one.
On the Christian Faith 5.13Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose explains the Son’s future subjection to the Father (1 Cor 15:28) not as a subjection of his divinity, nor as his being absorbed into the Father, but as his subjection in his body, the Church, when all believers are subject to God.
On the Christian Faith 5.14Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose explains that Christ will be subject to the Father in the human nature he took, as he was subject to Mary and obedient unto death, and in his members, when all believers are subject to God and God is all in all.
On the Christian Faith 5.15Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose sums up that the Son’s subjection belongs to his obedience and humanity, shows that he himself subjects all things by his divine power (Phil 3:21), and reads Ps 62 and Rom 8:35–39 in the same sense.
On the Christian Faith 5.16Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers the Arian use of Mark 13:32 (“nor the Son”) by noting that older Greek manuscripts of Matthew lack the words, by explaining them of Christ’s human nature, and by arguing that the Creator of the ages, who foretold the signs, the place, and the order of the end, cannot be ignorant of the day.
On the Christian Faith 5.17Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose argues that Christ withheld the day of judgment for our profit, so that we should always be watchful, and that Scripture often speaks of God as asking or not knowing what he knows, as with the Father’s “perhaps they will respect my Son.”
Anathema 15Anonymous · ca. 378–382 (traditionally 382) · Anathema on whoever denies that Christ sits at the Father's right hand in the flesh he assumed and will come in it to judge.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 15Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Asked what is most painful about death, Gregory describes the dead body and the disappearance of the soul, which no element shows to have gone anywhere.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 17Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina asks whether Gregory fears that the soul perishes with the body; he admits that faith in its survival rests on command rather than reason, and she replies that such doubt destroys virtue.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 19Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory, at Macrina’s request, states the materialist objection: when the body dissolves into its elements, the soul either is one of them and so perishes, or has nowhere to be.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 21Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina answers that such arguments are those of the Stoics and Epicureans who opposed Paul at Athens; Epicurus, denying providence, thought life a bubble because he trusted only the senses.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 23Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina argues that those who deny the soul because it is unlike the elements must also deny that the living body has a soul, and even that God, who is unlike them, sustains the world.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 43Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina argues that, as God is present in all things though unlike them, the soul, though unlike the elements, can exist and remain present to the scattered elements of its body after death.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 45Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory objects that when the body’s elements scatter, the soul, being indivisible, could cling to only one of them, like a shipwrecked sailor clutching a single plank.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 47Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina argues that the indivisible soul, like the art that fused gold and silver, remains present to the separated elements without being divided. Gregory objects that her definition leaves out desire and anger.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 67Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory asks where Hades is; Macrina explains that Hades means the soul’s passage into the invisible, and that even if it is under the earth this does not harm the doctrine, since the spherical earth is surrounded alike on every side.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 69Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina declines to fix Hades in any place, since the soul is incorporeal; Gregory raises Phil 2:10, and Macrina begins to explain that the “heavenly, earthly, and under the earth” are three states of rational beings, not places.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 71Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina reads Phil 2:10 as the final harmony of all rational beings (angels, the living, the dead, and even the demons) in confessing Christ, when evil has been destroyed. Gregory, satisfied that the soul survives, asks to return to the main argument.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 73Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory asks how the soul will recognize its elements once the body’s form is gone; Macrina answers with the image of a painter who can unmix colours and still recognize each and remix them.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 75Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · The soul, like the painter who knows each separated colour, remains with each of its body’s elements until they come together again in the resurrection; Macrina states the objection that a body made of other matter would be a new man, not the same one.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 77Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory concludes that the soul guards its elements and at God’s signal will draw them together again like ropes tied to one point; Macrina adds the example of a potter’s vessels owned by different masters.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 79Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · As owners know their own broken vessels, the soul knows its body’s remains. Gregory raises the rich man and Lazarus; Macrina argues that the story’s bodily details (eyes, tongue, finger, chasm) cannot be literal for incorporeal souls and must be read spiritually.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 81Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina begins to interpret the details of the parable: Abraham’s words about each having received his share in life point to a deeper doctrine.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 83Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina interprets the chasm as the gulf made by contrary choices in life, Abraham’s bosom as the haven of goods awaiting those who endured hardship as he did, and the flame as the soul’s deprivation of those goods.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 85Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · The soul’s presence to its scattered elements explains the bodily terms (finger, eye, tongue) in the parable; Hades is a formless state of life, not a place; the parable also shows the rich man’s concern for his living brothers.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 87Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina teaches that one should be detached from the flesh by virtue during life, so as not to need a further cleansing after death; souls attached to the flesh carry its foulness with them, as ghosts seen near tombs suggest. Gregory notes a difficulty about the passions.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 89Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory objects that if desire is removed by purification the soul can no longer long for God; Macrina answers that the purified soul’s contemplative power is drawn by the beautiful itself, and so is united with God.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 93Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · God, being the good itself, needs neither hope nor memory and has nothing outside him but evil, which is non-being; the purified soul, freed from desire, keeps only love and is united with God, being formed ever anew by what it finds.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 95Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · The purified soul, lacking nothing, has no further need of desire, hope, or faith; only love remains, as Paul says, and love is the very life of God, who never tires of the beautiful.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 97Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Since the good is limitless, love has no end; God draws every soul, as his own, to himself; souls nailed to material things suffer as they are pulled free, like bodies dragged from earthquake ruins, but this pain is not God’s revenge, only the cost of being drawn to good.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 99Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Like gold refined by fire, or a clay-coated rope pulled through a narrow hole, the soul suffers while its vice is burned or scraped away; God’s judgment aims only at good, and the pain is proportioned to the amount of vice.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 101Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Evil, existing only in choice, will vanish when every choice is in God. Gregory fears long suffering; Macrina urges keeping sins few and curable, since, as the Gospel’s debtors show, each will pay in torment until all is paid, and then be free.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 103Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Freed from vice, all will be in God, who will become “all in all”: everything we now need will be supplied by God himself, and therefore evil will no longer exist at all.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 105Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina tells the faint-hearted that all things are ordered toward union with God, and that rational souls were made as free vessels for God’s goods, ever growing as more is poured in.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 107Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina promises that the body will be rewoven finer and more beautiful; Gregory asks for reasoned support for the resurrection; Macrina reviews pagan views of transmigration, accepting only what agrees with the resurrection, that the soul is again joined to a body made of the world’s elements.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 109Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Pagans and Christians agree the soul returns to a body of the world’s elements, but transmigration into animals and plants confuses all natures into one, which is absurd.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 127Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Soul and body begin together, the soul’s powers unfolding with the body’s growth; when humanity reaches its full number, birth and death will cease and a stable, indissoluble life will follow.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 129Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory, fearing Macrina will soon die, asks her to address the doctrine of the resurrection itself, which Scripture teaches will follow when humanity is complete.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 131Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina finds the resurrection in Ps 104:29–30 (the Spirit’s return renews the dead) and in Ps 118:27, where the feast of Tabernacles “with thick branches” prefigures the rebuilding of the body’s tent; the temple’s graded courts introduce her next point.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 133Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · The graded courts of the temple image the ranks of rational beings, with humanity shut out by vice; at the resurrection the barriers will fall and all, even those now outside, will share one feast within the sanctuary.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 135Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Phil 2:10–11 states the same universal harmony plainly; Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones and Paul’s teaching on the last trumpet show the resurrection, which Christ also performed in deed.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 137Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina recalls Christ’s miracles of raising the dead and his own resurrection. Gregory grants that the resurrection is believed but asks whether bodies will rise as they died, old, wasted, or diseased, which would make resurrection a misfortune.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 139Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory presses the dilemma: if bodies rise as they were (mutilated, diseased, infant), the resurrection is a misfortune; if they rise different, it is not the same person who rises.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 141Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory adds a stronger objection: the body is always in flux like a flame, never the same from day to day, so a resurrected body containing all its states would make one man a crowd.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 143Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory continues the objections: which body will be judged, since the body of the sinner and the penitent keep changing? And what use will the organs of eating and procreation have in a life without marriage or food?
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 145Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory ends his objections; Macrina praises their rhetorical skill but says the truth will be shown by the event itself, like sunrise ending talk of the sun; she begins by defining the aim of the resurrection.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 147Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina defines the resurrection as the restoration of human nature to its first state, which had no age, disease, or misery; these came with sin, symbolized by the “garments of skin,” and will be cast off with it.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 149Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · The resurrection requires only that a man was born; how long he lived or how he died bears on judgment, not on resurrection; when God restores nature to its first state, the objections about age and disease fall away.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 151Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · God’s single aim is to bring all humanity, once complete, into the good beyond sight and hearing: some purified in this life, others healed afterward by fire, the length of healing matching each one’s vice. Paul’s answer to the Corinthians silences those who measure God by their own power.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 153Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Macrina explains Paul’s seed analogy: the grain dies and is dissolved, yet God brings from it an ear both the same and more glorious; so the risen body will be restored and enriched, raised in incorruption, power, glory, and spirit.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 155Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · As the grain becomes an ear, human nature will shed the marks of passion and rise incorruptible and spiritual; and since in Genesis the plant came before the seed, the resurrection is a return to the first state of grace.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 157Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Adam was the first ear; through sin humanity was scattered like grain, and at the resurrection all will rise; the virtuous at once in full form, the vicious only after the tares within them are burned away by fire, when, after long ages, they too will regain the original form.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 159Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · The difference between the good and the wicked at the resurrection is not bodily but in joy or deprivation of good; once the passions of vice have been cleansed by fire, incorruption, life, honour, and glory will take their place in human nature, God’s image.
On the Making of Man 17Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · Had man not sinned, humanity would have multiplied in some angelic way without marriage, as the resurrection life shows; God, foreseeing the fall, added the animal mode of reproduction.
On the Making of Man 18Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · The passions came to man through his kinship with the animals; reason can turn them into vices or virtues, and the divine image shows in the virtuous; in the resurrection man will be freed from the need to eat.
On the Making of Man 19Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · The food of paradise was spiritual: the “every tree” is the Good itself, the tree of life, while the forbidden tree bore a mixed fruit of good and evil that the serpent made attractive.
On the Making of Man 21Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · Because evil has a limit while the good is infinite, the ever-moving human nature, having run through evil, must turn back to the good; so the restoration of paradise and the image is to be expected.
On the Making of Man 22Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · The resurrection waits until the full number of humanity, foreseen by God, has been born; then time will end and all will be changed at once; meanwhile we should prepare by good living, not calculate times.
On the Making of Man 25Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · The fulfilment of Christ’s predictions (such as the fall of Jerusalem) makes his promise of resurrection credible, and his graded miracles of raising the dead, culminating in Lazarus and his own risen body, demonstrate it.
On the Making of Man 26Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · Objections from bodies burned or eaten fail, because every element of the dissolved body remains within the world, which God holds in his hand and knows exactly.
On the Making of Man 27Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · The soul keeps the stamp of its body’s form and recognizes its own elements, so at the resurrection God can easily restore to each his own, as owners sort a mixed herd or scattered quicksilver flows together.
Life of Macrina, part 6Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · Gregory dreams of shining martyrs' relics, finds Macrina dying on a plank, hears her discourse on the soul and the resurrection, and her thanksgiving for God's blessings on their family.
Life of Macrina, part 7Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · On her last day Macrina, freed from fear of death, turns toward the east and prays to Christ, who has destroyed death, crushed the dragon and given the sign of the cross.
1.3Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius describes Lazarus's sufferings and the rich man's hardness, explains Abraham's bosom as an image pointing to Christ, and says that poverty is praised only when joined to humility.
1.4Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius explains that only the humble poor are blessed, contrasts the funerals of Lazarus and the rich man, and teaches from Abraham's refusal and the great chasm that punishment after death is not lessened.
2.3Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius compares death to the steward's dismissal, urging the faithful to prepare their account, and cites the rich fool and Paul's longing to depart.
2.4Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius contrasts Paul's longing for death with the steward's grief, explains that after death there is no more work or begging, and interprets the steward's remission of debts as almsgiving with the Master's goods.
10.2Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius describes Christians bringing their troubles, sick children, weddings and voyages to the martyrs' shrines as intercessors, contrasts the martyrs' lasting honour with the oblivion of their persecutors, and says every day of the year has its martyrs.
14.4Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius rebukes those who evade the fast with contrived luxuries, points to the hardy water-drinking barbarians to show that self-control is a matter of habit, and teaches the faster to answer the belly with words of hope and of Christ.
14.5Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius cites Daniel's companions and Samson to show that fasting does not weaken, then attacks Jewish fasts and feasts as empty of meaning without Christ, reading the Day of Atonement, Tabernacles and Trumpets as types of Christ's death, the Church and the resurrection.
20.2Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius sets the necessity of baptism beside that of circumcision, explains the title “for the end” from the psalm's ending, and reads “the eighth” as the day of Christ's resurrection, prefigured by the eight saved in the ark.
To a Young Widow, section 3John Chrysostom · ca. 380-386 · Chrysostom tells the widow that her husband Therasius has gone to a better life, and urges her to keep his bed untouched by another man and to live as he did, so as to be with him in the age to come.
To a Young Widow, section 7John Chrysostom · ca. 380-386 · Chrysostom urges the widow to store her wealth in heaven, reminds her that her husband's hoped-for prefecture was uncertain and dangerous, and promises that by imitating his life she will be joined to him again in a union better than marriage.
Causes of Monastic Matters, chapter 9Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · In the cell remember death, Hades, the judgment, hell and heaven.
Theological Oration 1 (Or. 27), Against the Eunomians 8Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · In a mock dialogue Gregory shows that there are many ways to God, so it is folly to reduce the Christian life to argument alone.
Theological Oration 2 (Or. 28), On the Doctrine of God 17Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · No one has found what God is in his substance; that knowledge awaits the life to come, when we shall know as we are known.
Theological Oration 4 (Or. 30), On the Son 4Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · “He must reign until…” does not mean Christ’s reign will end; his universal kingship is endless, while his work of bringing us into subjection is completed.
Theological Oration 4 (Or. 30), On the Son 6Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Christ’s learning obedience and his prayers belong to his servant form and are for our sake; “God all in all” describes our final perfection, not the Son’s absorption into the Father.
Theological Oration 4 (Or. 30), On the Son 15Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · The Son’s not knowing the last day refers to his human nature; as God and Wisdom he knows all things.
On the Beatitudes 1209Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The earth promised after the kingdom of heaven is not this earth but the land above the heavens; Christ uses familiar words like “kingdom” and “earth” because the goods beyond sense cannot be named in their own terms.
On the Beatitudes 1211Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · David, the meekest of men, spoke of “the land of the living,” the heavenly earth free of death and sin; but since speed and vigour are praised elsewhere, as in Paul’s running and boxing, Gregory asks what kind of meekness is blessed.
On the Beatitudes 1221Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The fear of judgment, like a stinging remedy, brings the callous sinner to feel and mourn his sin, as Paul did with the incestuous man; but since Christ blesses those who always mourn, and the sinless too are blessed, the beatitude must mean more than repentance.
On the Beatitudes 1231Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Homily 3 ends: those who accept grief now will have endless joy from the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Homily 4 opens: as a purged stomach regains its appetite, so the soul must be cleansed of false fullness to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
On the Beatitudes 1255Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Good and evil depend on our own choice, for evil has no existence apart from choice; God’s judgment, like a mirror, returns to each what he has chosen, as the sheep and the goats and the rich man and Lazarus show.
On the Beatitudes 1259Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Insensibility keeps us from pitying ourselves, enslaved as we are to lust and greed; one who knows himself will pity himself and others, and God will judge each as he judged those beneath him; at Christ’s judgment the merciful will be praised by those they helped.
On the Beatitudes 1261Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · At the last judgment, before the throne and the angels, the merciful man will be praised by those he helped, a reward worth more than all gold; the miser who buried his wealth will be dragged to the dark fire and reproached by those he neglected.
On the Lord's Prayer 1157Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · When God’s kingdom comes, the passions vanish like smoke and melt like wax, as darkness before light; the soul prays that God’s angelic forces may overthrow the enemy, so that grief gives way to life and peace.
On the Lord's Prayer 1165Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Because human nature, weakened by sin, cannot return to the good unaided, we pray “Thy will be done”; “as in heaven, so on earth” refers to the two kinds of rational beings, angels in heaven and humans on earth, perhaps so joined that the human body may share at last in heaven.
Homily 2.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Christ comes at night to scatter the Antichrist's darkness, and the two in one bed show that each will rise according to the merit of his life.
Homily 57.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · On Easter the psalm “This is the day the Lord has made” calls all creation to rejoice, for Christ the day shines in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld; even sinners should hope for pardon.
Homily 81.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Local martyrs, whose relics the city holds, deserve special honor: they suffered for their fellow citizens, guard them in life, receive them at death, and burial near their bones protects from hell, provided their faith is imitated.
Homily 83.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The creed, like the password of Judges 12, distinguishes the faithful from heretics; the preacher explains each article in turn: God the Father, the only Son, the virgin birth, the cross, burial, resurrection, ascension, session, judgment, the Spirit, the Church, forgiveness, and the resurrection of the flesh.
Homily 86.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Wars signal the nearness of Christ's kingdom; the city's gates should be defended by the 'gates of justice' and the Christian's spiritual armour, as David defeated Goliath with a stone that figures Christ.
Sermon 9.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Explaining the word Epiphany as Christ's “appearing” to faith, Maximus interprets the miracle at Cana as a sign of the resurrection, in which cheap, pale, cold human nature is changed into precious, glowing immortality.
Sermon 29.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · An Easter sermon: the resurrection is proved even by the Jewish guards at the tomb; all have risen in Christ, who shares our flesh and blood, so even sinners may hope, and Easter is a better day than the first day of creation.
Sermon 30.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · At Easter the paschal lamb, the grain of wheat, the reviving spring, the clearing sky, the sun and full moon all celebrate Christ's resurrection, prefigured in Adam's sleep, Noah's drunkenness and Jonah; believers should answer with holy lives.
Sermon 31.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Christ descended to the underworld, defeated death, raised the saints with him, and rose in the same flesh, as he showed the disciples and Thomas, refuting pagans who mock the crucified.
Sermon 32.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Thomas touched the risen Christ's wounds not from doubt but to remove all doubt for others, and since Christ, the firstborn from the dead, has risen, believers too will rise.
Sermon 32.2Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Thomas touched the risen Christ's wounds to remove all doubt for later believers; Christ is the firstborn from the dead, and death, swallowed up in its own victory over him, will be destroyed for all who rise.
Sermon 33.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · On Easter day the newly baptized, in their white garments, are an image of the future resurrection; baptism is a resurrection now from sin, as the final resurrection will be from death.
Sermon 34.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The resurrection was prefigured in Eve's creation from sleeping Adam, Noah's waking from drunkenness, Moses' rod turned to a serpent and back, and Jonah; Christians should imitate it by dying to vice and rising to new life.
Sermon 34.2Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The resurrection was foreshadowed in Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses' rod and Jonah, and is matched by the timing of Easter at the spring equinox and full moon; Christians share it by dying to vice and rising to new life.
Sermon 35.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · An Easter sermon celebrating the redemption won by Christ's death and resurrection, by which those condemned through Adam are restored and freed without prior merit; heaven, earth, angels and sun rejoice.
Sermon 38.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · At Easter heaven and earth share one joy; the day the Lord made specially is the day of the resurrection, and the lowly acts of Christ's life and passion were not in vain but for our salvation, to be grasped by faith and matched by life.
Sermon 42.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The mysteries of the virgin birth and the cross are hidden from the worldly wise and revealed to the simple; Christ feared death through the weakness of the flesh he took, but by divine power rose and showed his real body, keeping his wounds for our faith.
Sermon 47.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · At the Ascension Christ's flesh is enthroned at the Father's right hand, opening the new way into heaven; believers, deprived of his visible presence, should long like eagles for the vision of his face.
Sermon 80.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The Maccabean martyrs show that the same Spirit inspires both Testaments: before Christ's passion they died for God's law in hope of the resurrection, and their mother urged the youngest to follow his brothers in death.
Sermon 86.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · After Easter the Church shares the joy of the resurrection with the martyrs, who shared Christ's passion; Christ made known the way of life, and the martyrs, who know what he did among the dead, will share his resurrection.
Sermon 86.2Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The martyrs share Christ's resurrection already in merit, the first resurrection from sin; perhaps some rise bodily with him each Easter, as the saints rose at his resurrection and as the apostle John's body was not found in his tomb.
Sermon 98.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The priests' trumpets at Jericho figure the preaching of priests, whose words break down the soul's defences of sin; the seven days figure the seven thousand years of the world before judgment.
Tractate 2.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The second instruction explains the font: the renunciation, the water made effective by the Holy Spirit, the threefold questioning on the creed and the Trinity, the meaning of the Church and the resurrection of the flesh, and the threefold immersion as burial with Christ.
Chapter 2Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas applies each title of Christ to the believer’s need, from ignorance and fear to sin, death and despair, ending with the promise of the kingdom.
Chapter 6Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas explains the resurrection, ascension, session at the Father’s right hand and Christ’s coming to judge the living and the dead.
Chapter 10Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas explains the church as the one communion of all the saints and angels, distinct from heretical churches, then the forgiveness of sins in baptism, the resurrection of the flesh and eternal life.
Chapter 11Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Against heretics who deny bodily resurrection, Nicetas cites Isaiah, Christ and Paul; the soul awaits judgment in light or darkness until the resurrection, when the righteous will shine and the wicked go into darkness.
Chapter 12Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas illustrates the resurrection by the seed that dies and rises (1 Cor 15:36) and says eternal life is for the faithful who live chastely, not for pagans, unbelievers or vicious Christians.
Chapter 4Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas lists the moral teaching of the Psalms and their prophecies of Christ, from his generation and passion to his resurrection, session, return in judgment and the eternal kingdom.
Chapter 13Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas shows that the Father, the Son and the Spirit all convict and judge, the Spirit slaying the Antichrist and judging every creature.
Liber Orsiesii 10Orsiesius · ca. 380-390 · Those in charge of brothers must answer at Christ's judgment for themselves and for those entrusted to them.
Book of Heresies 26.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Demons deceive by appearances of truth, as Ahab was deceived.
Book of Heresies 55.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · They make angels the creators of souls and deny the future resurrection.
Book of Heresies 59.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Chiliasts expect a carnal thousand-year reign.
Book of Heresies 59.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Lord answered those who expected such things.
Book of Heresies 59.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Christ and Paul show that the kingdom is not carnal.
Book of Heresies 71.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The angels at the ascension promised his return.
Book of Heresies 80.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Some deny that the world will be changed.
Book of Heresies 80.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The elements will be changed into a new creation.
Book of Heresies 80.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The elements will be restored, though God could destroy them.
Book of Heresies 80.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · God's power could destroy the world, but what he made does not perish.
Book of Heresies 80.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · As in the resurrection of the body, what God made comes to greater glory.
Book of Heresies 80.6Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Paul teaches that creation will share the glory of God's children.
Book of Heresies 80.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The elements will pass into greater glory.
Book of Heresies 80.8Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Christ's power appears in the glorifying of the elements.
Book of Heresies 96.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · This earth will be renewed.
Book of Heresies 106.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Some reckon 365 years from Christ's coming to the end.
Book of Heresies 106.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · More than four hundred years have already passed.
Book of Heresies 107.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Philastrius disputes reckonings of the end and appeals to a period of about five hundred years.
Book of Heresies 107.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Daniel's seventy weeks lead to Christ.
Book of Heresies 107.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · A similar number of years runs after the incarnation.
Book of Heresies 107.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Christ foretold signs of the end and spoke to Peter in a riddle.
Book of Heresies 107.8Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Daniel's 490 years led to Christ, and a similar span leads to the end.
Book of Heresies 107.9Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The seventy weeks are 490 years, linked with the jubilee.
Book of Heresies 107.10Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · A greater jubilee of about five hundred years marks Christ's coming and the end.
Book of Heresies 107.11Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Spiritually, the period ends with the Jews deceived by the Antichrist.
Book of Heresies 107.12Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The remnant of Israel will then turn to Christ.
Book of Heresies 107.13Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Christ and Paul foretell Israel's salvation.
Book of Heresies 107.15Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Christ declared Isaiah fulfilled; Daniel's prophecy points to his coming.
Book of Heresies 115.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Man was readier to repent than the devil, who awaits greater judgment.
Book of Heresies 115.9Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The unrepentant devil is kept for the eternal fire.
Book of Heresies 124.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Some teach transmigration of evil souls into animals.
Book of Heresies 124.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Each soul will be judged for its own deeds.
Book of Heresies 125.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Some say the dead could be saved by confessing in the underworld.
Book of Heresies 125.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Lighter punishment does not mean salvation.
Book of Heresies 125.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Pagan poets and philosophers cannot be saved after death.
Book of Heresies 125.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Repentance belongs to this life; the impious will not appear.
Book of Heresies 125.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · After death comes judgment, not a second chance.
Book of Heresies 125.6Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Those who believed in the Father before Christ escape judgment.
Book of Heresies 125.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Punishments vary with sin, even for those of Noah's flood.
Book of Heresies 134.6Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Worldly things pass, so heavenly glory is to be desired.
Book of Heresies 134.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Angelic glory comes through Christ.
Book of Heresies 137.6Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The faithful will share the angels' glory.
Book of Heresies 137.8Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Paul and Christ promise heaven to the faithful.
Book of Heresies 141.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The eighth festival signifies the Lord's day and resurrection.
Book of Heresies 141.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The eighth day points to the resurrection glory.
Book of Heresies 150.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Rewards differ according to faith and labour.
Book of Heresies 150.9Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · There are degrees of future reward.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 11Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Visible things are temporal, invisible eternal; those who hope only in this life are most miserable.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 82Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · At the resurrection the saints' bodies will shine with differing glory; flesh and blood will not reign.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 83Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Christ is the firstfruits of the resurrection and sits above every power at the Father's right hand.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 85Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · God will judge through Christ; each will be repaid by his works, even his thoughts.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 87Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Before the judgment the 'son of sin,' the Antichrist, will come.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 88Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · The final judgment will be by fire and wrath, coming like a thief at Jesus' return.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 89Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · The world's happiness is brief and harmful and its wisdom folly; death will be destroyed and the righteous vindicated.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 90Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · The righteous will reign for ever with God and Christ in incorruptible bodies.
Eleven Tractates 2.45Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · The creed continues with forgiveness and the resurrection of the flesh; baptism in the one name of Father, Son, and Spirit shows the one God in threefold power.
Eleven Tractates 6.111Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · At the judgment believers will be a book of heavenly teaching, sealed among the twelve thousand, and like the angels, who neither marry nor beget.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 33.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · In the cave the bishop reads Christ's discourse on the end.
On the Complaints of Job and David 1.15Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Christ walking on the sea and the ships of Tarshish show that the flesh is the soul’s ship, shattered unto judgment or to good contrition.
On the Complaints of Job and David 1.24Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · The dead will not rise until the heavens are no longer “sewn,” that is, until they are renewed in the new creation.
On the Complaints of Job and David 1.25Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · The Spirit revealed to Job that the dead would rise only when Christ came to make all things new.
On the Complaints of Job and David 1.26Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Job, foreseeing Christ’s descent to the dead, asks to be hidden until God’s wrath passes and to be called back to life.
On the Complaints of Job and David 1.27Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Job foresees his resurrection at Christ’s passion and prays that the earth not cover his blood, so his prayer may rise to God.
On the Complaints of Job and David 2.19Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · The wicked man is laid in the tomb without rest, while the one who truly lives is not sought among the dead.
On the Complaints of Job and David 3.7Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · The wicked find no “reclining” or rest in death, but those who die with Christ, especially martyrs, rise with him.
On the Complaints of Job and David 3.8Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · The rich man in torment could find no rest, for chastisement is of no use after death.
On the Complaints of Job and David 3.20Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · The saint learns at the last, in the end when the kingdom is handed to the Father, what is lacking to his perfection.
On the Complaints of Job and David 4.6Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Like the thirsting deer, David longed to be freed from the body and to see God face to face, for death is gain to the just.
On the Complaints of Job and David 4.35Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · David, renewed, goes to God’s altar: we are renewed by baptism, by the Spirit, and at the resurrection, made whiter than snow.
Expositio fidei 4Eunomius of Cyzicus · 383 · Eunomius confesses the bodily resurrection and the final judgment, and ends by declaring that he has added nothing and omitted nothing from what he learned.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 16Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · These present punishments confirm the eternal punishments Scripture threatens on prevaricators, so those who refuse communion with them should not be blamed.
Second Apology of David 43Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · In the Song, Christ invites his bride the church: faith marks marriage, not adultery; winter is past and the flower, Christ from Jesse’s root, has appeared.
Second Apology of David 60Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · David’s verdict on the rich man is the Jewish people’s self-condemnation, while the fourfold restoration is the Christian people’s greater good in the resurrection.
Second Apology of David 67Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Our sins, written on our hearts, will be laid bare at the judgment; so let us now flee to Christ, who breaks the iron gates and blots out sin.
Apology of the Prophet David 22Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Christ took up our flesh and offered it in sacrifice; Nathan’s verdict and the fourfold restitution point to his death and the resurrection.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 8Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus reads the words as Christ’s warning against the Antichrist, citing Zechariah’s worthless shepherd.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 45Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Simon asks about the fig leaves; Theophilus reads the fig as both the old man and the spiritual life, then expounds Christ’s humility from Isaiah 53 and 50, the Passover lamb, the mark on the forehead in Ezekiel 9, Rahab’s scarlet cord, and Hosea’s wife.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 47Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus explains the church as open to all, the synagogue as divorced, Wisdom 2 as prophecy of the Passion, and cites many passages for Christ’s resurrection, ascension, session and second coming.
Altercatio, chapter 3, speech 2Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus answers that the Sabbath was a figure, broken at Jericho and by the Maccabees and rejected by Isaiah, that the food laws forbid sinful deeds rather than foods, and he turns the charge of unclean wine against the Jews.
Catechetical Oration 8Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Death is a mercy: like a potter breaking and remoulding a vessel, God dissolves the body to refashion it free of evil in the resurrection, and the judgment heals the soul; only the Creator could restore fallen man.
Catechetical Oration 16Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Birth and death are natural movements, not the passion of vice; Christ shared them, and by reuniting his own soul and body in the resurrection he began the resurrection of all humanity.
Catechetical Oration 26Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · The deceiver was justly deceived in turn, but for his good as well as ours: like gold refined by fire, all creation, even the adversary, will be purified and will join in thanksgiving at the final restoration.
Catechetical Oration 35Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Triple immersion imitates Christ's three days in the tomb and begins the destruction of evil; the baptized pass to blessedness in the resurrection, while the unpurified must be purified by fire over long ages until their nature is restored pure to God.
Catechetical Oration 40Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Baptism without a changed life is only water: the baptized must show the character of God who begot them, restoring what they have taken, since the goods and punishments to come, the unquenchable fire and undying worm, are beyond description.
On the Life of Moses 349Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The plague of darkness shows that light and darkness come from our own choice, not from compulsion; the Egyptians’ return to light after three days figures repentance through knowledge of the Crucified; the boils from the furnace figure Gehenna, from which Christ’s outstretched hands can heal; the remaining plagues are caused by each person’s own choice.
On the Life of Moses 351Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · Each person stores up his own punishment, as a bad diet produces the humour the physician purges; the death of the Egyptian firstborn cannot be read only as history, since punishing infants for their fathers’ sins would be unjust, so it must teach a doctrine.
On the Life of Moses 369Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The equal portions of manna teach contentment with daily need; hoarded manna breeding worms is the undying worm of greed; the double portion kept for the Sabbath is the treasure laid up in this life, the “preparation,” for the rest of the life to come.
On the Life of Moses 387Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The holy of holies signifies the truth of being, which is beyond comprehension and must be believed rather than pried into; the priestly vesture signifies the adornment of the soul by virtue, the sky-blue robe a life made light and airy, ready to be caught up to the Lord.
On the Life of Moses 407Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The hole in the rock is the heavenly house prepared for those who finish the race; the rock is Christ, in whom all good is found, and God’s hand is the only-begotten Son; to see God’s back is to follow behind God, as the Psalms and Christ’s call “Follow me” teach.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.15Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · The parable of the rich man and Lazarus and Paul’s crown show that rewards and punishments are given after death, after the contest of this life.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.16Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Rewards come after the contest, as the Beatitudes promise; the prosperity of the wicked only removes their excuse at the judgment, as with Judas.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.48Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Those wronged fall into three classes—the weak who retaliate, the advancing who keep silent, and the perfect who bless—and David under Shimei’s curses reached the third, looking to the perfection of the life to come.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.14.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · There is also the baptism of martyrdom and a baptism of fire at the gate of paradise, the fiery sword set after the fall.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.15.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ alone baptizes with this fire, as John the Baptist foretold.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.15.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The baptism of fire comes at the end of the age, and even saints like Peter and John pass through it.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.15.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ, the great Baptist, will wave the fiery sword before paradise and bid those without grave sins enter.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.16.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Ambrose prays that the fire may purify us both now and at the gate of paradise, so that we enter God’s rest.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.17.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The purifying fire for lesser sins differs from the eternal fire prepared for the devil, in which the rich man burned.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.28.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The true rest, foreshadowed in the law, is revealed in Christ’s promise that his own will be with him.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.31.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The true pilgrim longs to be with Christ, lays up heavenly treasure, and does not return to Egypt.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.34.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The devil wished to be like God; his disciple, the man of iniquity, will exalt himself above God.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.19.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · There are many mansions with the Father, on the royal road of wisdom.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.45.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Believers, even if sinners, rise in the judgment with hope of pardon, for whoever believes is not judged.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.45.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Unbelievers are condemned by their own ungodliness, not by Christ; his judgment, preceded by mercy, is sweet.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.47.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · True life is life by God’s righteousness; some living men are dead and some dead men live.
Exposition of Psalm 118 6.11.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · We should stand on the mountains of Scripture, ready to be gathered by the Lord’s fishers, hunters, and reapers.
Exposition of Psalm 118 6.29.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · On verse 44: the law is kept here in shadow and hereafter in the full face of truth.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.10.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Many are tempted by the prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the righteous, forgetting that reward lies in the world to come.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.11.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The temptation is overcome only by looking to what is to come.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.12.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The righteous rejoice at life’s end and look for the crown of righteousness.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.13.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God’s law forbids even hidden doubts about his justice, which conscience will expose at the judgment.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.17.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · As the innocent welcome a trial and the guilty dread it, so the righteous gladly await God’s judgment.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.11.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God gives himself at once as reward, as Christ promised the thief paradise “today.”
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.12.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ promises paradise to all who confess him, but “today” to the martyr.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.12.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · When the believer is freed from this body of death, Christ will say to him too, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.19.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Knowing the glory of the resurrection, Moses rightly longed to see God, whom he would see after death.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.28.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God is light to guide and fire to burn away worthless works, saving us by loss.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.53.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Rise and keep watch, for Christ calms the storm in the watchful heart and the bridegroom comes at midnight.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.11.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God does not punish his own image but the sin by which a man has lost it.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.11.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · If God’s image is kept, it is crowned; the sinner is condemned for what he has become.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.17.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Both soul and flesh are saved: the soul by knowing God, the flesh by resurrection.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.18.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Man is twofold: the body from clay, which will rise, and the soul from God’s Spirit, which rules creation.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.26.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ will judge us not only for neglecting the poor but for injuring them, for what is done to the least is done to him.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.40.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The true life he asks for is the future life in the land of the living.
Exposition of Psalm 118 11.13.5Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ’s snow-white garments signify the resurrection life, in which there is no marrying.
Exposition of Psalm 118 11.16.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · On verse 84: life is short, yet beset by persecutors; the psalmist asks for God’s judgment.
Exposition of Psalm 118 11.16.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · He asks God to judge for him against his persecutors, who will not stand in the judgment.
Exposition of Psalm 118 11.27.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · On verse 88: the psalmist asks for eternal life, which cannot be found in this body.
Exposition of Psalm 118 12.11.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Heaven passes away so that a new heaven and earth may come and we may see God face to face.
Exposition of Psalm 118 12.27.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The abiding day points to the future when God himself will be the light and night will be no more.
Exposition of Psalm 118 12.27.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · At the end, when the kingdom is handed over to the Father, all will serve God.
Exposition of Psalm 118 12.27.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Now many serve sin, but when all believe, all will serve God; the prophet speaks of the future as present.
Exposition of Psalm 118 12.43.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The dying martyr sees the angels and Christ waiting to escort and crown him.
Exposition of Psalm 118 12.45.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ is the end of all things; “consummation” has several senses.
Exposition of Psalm 118 12.46.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · According to Paul the end follows the consummation of the age and the resurrection.
Exposition of Psalm 118 14.33.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ sought no worldly glory; Wisdom’s right hand gives eternal length of life.
Exposition of Psalm 118 14.40.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Conscience will force confession before Christ, who knows all.
Exposition of Psalm 118 14.42.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The resurrection, Christ’s inheritance, is the remaking of the whole human race.
Exposition of Psalm 118 14.43.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Keep Christ’s testimonies, in which is the joy of the kingdom where tears and death end.
Exposition of Psalm 118 15.26.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The one taken up by Christ lives for ever, even more than Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom.
Exposition of Psalm 118 15.28.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · One who trusts in Christ will not be ashamed; our expectation is eternal life and the kingdom.
Exposition of Psalm 118 15.29.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · He asks for continual help; true salvation is in paradise among the angels.
Exposition of Psalm 118 16.9.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The verse announces Christ’s judgment; the eye should foresee it and avert it by tears and correction.
Exposition of Psalm 118 18.4.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Plato put it in a dialogue; Christ declared it more fully in the story of the rich man and Lazarus.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.12.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · All who return to paradise must pass the fiery sword, even John the beloved disciple.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.12.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Even Peter and John pass through the fire, though love has already purified John.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.13.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Love’s fire here frees from the fire hereafter; Peter will be tried as silver, Ambrose as lead.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.13.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Ambrose fears the fire, hoping only in Christ’s mercy and the grace given through his ministry.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.14.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ’s death opened the way to martyrdom and paradise; all must hope only in his mercy at judgment.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.15.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Even those who think themselves gold will be tested in the fire; let them be humble.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.15.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Keep humility now so as to pray at the judgment, “See my humiliation and deliver me.”
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.19.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ makes the risen like angels and seats humanity at God’s right hand.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.22.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God judges his saints first and apart from the devil’s companions.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.22.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Judgment begins with God’s house so that the punished may be quickly acquitted.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.23.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · If human justice gives hope, how much more Christ’s; the devil’s judgment is deferred to his torment.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.23.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The rich man in Hades suffers; the devil awaits judgment in perpetual fear.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.24.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The ungodly do not come to judgment but are condemned already, like enemy barbarians.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.24.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ chastens his own and condemns strangers; yet all may hope for mercy through his word.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.40.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God weighs each person’s works and gives grace and mercy by measure.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.42.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · No one merits heaven; God’s decrees toward us proceed from mercy, not merit.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.58.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · All will stand before Christ’s judgment seat to receive for their deeds.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.58.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Do not bring wood and stubble to judgment; such work burns, though the person may be saved through fire.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.58.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Let us examine all our works so that, when weighed, guilt does not prevail.
Exposition of Psalm 118 21.8.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The martyr amid tortures trembles more at the thought of eternal punishment.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.24.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · He means the future life; this life is the dust of death.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.24.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Paul longed to depart and be with Christ; life under death’s shadow is not true life.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.24.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Our life is now hidden; it will be free in the land of the living.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.25.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Full praise belongs to the life to come, when we are conformed to Christ’s glorious body.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.26.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God’s judgments help the saints by reward and help sinners differently.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.26.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Judgment proves saints and purifies sinners; faith wins pardon.
Against the Academics 1.23Augustine of Hippo · 386 (autumn) · Licentius defines wisdom as both the knowledge, which belongs to God, and the diligent search, which belongs to man, of the things pertaining to the happy life, and argues that the seeker is wise and happy now and blessed hereafter.
Against the Academics 3.20Augustine of Hippo · 386 (autumn) · Augustine contrasts an honest teacher, who says wisdom is with God and attainable after this life, with the Academic who promises wisdom without knowledge of it.
Letter 36.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Saturday, the day Christ rested in the tomb, is kept by some with fasting and by others with relaxation, but all fast on Holy Saturday.
Letter 55.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that our passage from death to life begins now in faith and baptism and will be completed in the resurrection of the body.
Letter 55.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains against those who said the resurrection had already happened that our rising with Christ is now in hope, with the body's redemption still to come.
Letter 55.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine shows from Scripture that the moon signifies the church in its mortal pilgrimage, and Jericho ('moon') falling at the seventh circuit signifies the end of worldly hope.
Letter 55.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains the sabbath as a figure of eternal rest, which is active and untroubled, and the Lord's day, the eighth and first, as the restored, eternal life.
Letter 55.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that the Lord's day, the eighth and first, was revealed by Christ's resurrection and signifies the glorified activity of the risen body.
Letter 55.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine interprets the breadth, height, length, and depth of the cross as cheerfulness in good works, hope of reward, patience, and the hidden sacrament, and the burial and resurrection as held in faith.
Letter 55.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine warns against expecting full blessedness in this life: the new life is begun in faith and hope and will be completed at the resurrection.
Letter 55.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine interprets the 153 fish of John 21 as the triangular number of seventeen, the law's ten plus the Spirit's seven, signifying the saints at rest in the end.
Letter 78.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine reminds his people that Scripture foretold offences and the cooling of love before the end, so that they might persevere.
Letter 92.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine consoles the widow Italica with Christian hope of reunion with the departed in the life to come.
Letter 92.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that in the resurrection hearts will be open to one another in the light of God, who is seen by purified minds, not bodily eyes.
Letter 92.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that God, who is not in place, cannot be seen by bodily eyes, but will be seen by the inner man as he is renewed in God’s likeness.
Letter 92.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine refutes those who claim that God will be seen with bodily eyes, even by the wicked, arguing from Scripture that only the pure in heart will see God, and that with the inner man.
Letter 92.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Italica to answer such views with his letter, since faith purifies the heart for the vision of God, which a mind fixed on the flesh cannot attain.
Letter 94.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Love, strong as death, makes us die to the world in imitation of Christ, whose risen body is the pledge of our own glorification.
Letter 94.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paulinus suggests that the risen saints will praise God with real tongues and voices, perhaps in the unutterable angelic speech Paul heard in paradise.
Letter 94.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paulinus asks Augustine how angels and the blessed speak, whether “tongues of angels” means literal organs or kinds of speech.
Letter 95.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine holds that risen bodies will be spiritual and incorruptible, able to eat by power and not necessity, as Christ did after his resurrection.
Letter 95.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine leaves open whether angels have bodies, but holds that in the city of the saints praise will be voiced harmoniously in spiritual bodies, with no thought hidden.
Letter 102.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The first pagan question asks whether the promised resurrection resembles Christ's or Lazarus's, and why the risen Christ ate and showed wounds.
Letter 102.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ's resurrection, not Lazarus's, is the pattern, since he dies no more; a different birth makes no difference to death or resurrection.
Letter 102.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Animals born from the earth and from parents live and die alike, so bodies of different origin can rise alike.
Letter 102.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Raising long-dissolved bodies is as easy to God as raising Christ's on the third day; nature, like the seed holding the tree, is full of greater wonders.
Letter 102.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The risen body, like angels who ate with Abraham, will be able to eat by power without needing to.
Letter 102.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ showed real scars, not wounds, to prove the same body had risen, as a soldier might keep scars as badges of honour.
Letter 102.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The fourth question claims that Christ's eternal punishment contradicts his saying about being repaid by the same measure.
Letter 102.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Not every measure is one of time; even the sun, which pagans think everlasting, has a measure, so eternal punishment can be measured.
Letter 102.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The saying about measure need not mean identical or equal-length punishment; it may be as great in force while longer in duration.
Letter 102.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The measure differs from what is measured, and in context Christ means that each will be judged in the very will and judgment by which he acted.
Letter 102.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Sin is measured by the will, not by duration; so punishments may be equally eternal yet differ in severity.
Letter 102.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Eternal punishment answers the sinner's will to enjoy sin eternally, so it is consistent with the saying about measure.
Letter 104.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Poverty is never a sin and cannot cause eternal misery; death ends evils only for the righteous, as the better philosophers and Scripture agree.
Letter 118.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that the highest good cannot be in the body, since the mind is better than the body, and notes the Epicureans who placed it there.
Letter 120.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes past things, believed only; future things, believed and hoped for; and eternal things, some invisible and seen by understanding, some visible like Christ's risen body.
Letter 120.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that the divinity cannot be something other than the Trinity, since the three are one God by being of one and the same substance or essence.
Letter 121.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paulinus asks Augustine to send again, or rewrite, an earlier letter on the form of the resurrection body.
Letter 122.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine writes to his clergy and people at Hippo, asking them not to be saddened by his absence and urging them to persevere in good works in view of eternal life.
Letter 127.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine contrasts the great efforts made to prolong this brief and uncertain life with the far greater reason to strive for eternal life.
Letter 127.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine warns that excessive love of this life leads many to offend God and lose eternal life.
Letter 130.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · In this dark life the Christian soul should count itself desolate and keep praying, looking to Scripture until it sees God in the true life to come, where prayer will give way to contemplation.
Letter 130.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The one thing, eternal contemplation of God, may be asked with certainty, yet even it surpasses understanding, so we know only what it is not.
Letter 140.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Above all people desire to prolong this life; even the devout, though longing to be with Christ, shrink from death and wish to be clothed with immortality without dying.
Letter 140.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Earthly deliverance belongs to the old man descended from Adam; the new 'sons of men' in Christ hope for the eternal salvation that Psalm 36 distinguishes from the safety shared with beasts.
Letter 140.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · James contrasts Job's endurance, rewarded with temporal goods, with 'the end of the Lord', teaching Christians to hope for eternal goods; the veil of the Old Testament is removed in Christ.
Letter 140.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · 'You brought me into the dust of death' cannot mean that Christ's body decayed; it refers to the martyrs of his body awaiting resurrection, or figuratively to his persecutors as dust.
Letter 140.54Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those who reject God's righteousness, if they spurn correction, will go into the 'outer darkness'; God is light and love, and the darkness is hatred and pride, into which the devil fell.
Letter 140.57Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Unbelievers are darkness, believers become light; the outer darkness is the penal company of the devil and his angels, opposite to the inner joy of the Lord, understood not spatially but in terms of the will.
Letter 140.58Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The outer darkness brings 'weeping and gnashing of teeth'; it may also mean bodily punishment, which alone servile fear dreads, whereas chaste fear clings to God.
Letter 140.63Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine expounds Ephesians 3:13–19: rooted and grounded in love by God's free grace, believers grasp its breadth, length, height, and depth, until in the age to come love contemplates and praises God for ever.
Letter 140.76Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · That all the virgins slept means that both kinds of believers die, death being called sleep because of the resurrection; they await the coming of the bridegroom, Christ.
Letter 140.78Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The bridegroom comes at midnight, when his coming is hidden; the cry is the trumpet of the resurrection, and the virgins trimming their lamps prepare to give account of their works.
Letter 140.79Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · At the judgment human praise will vanish; the foolish virgins, who trusted in their own righteousness, find no oil, while the wise trust only in God's mercy and glory in the Lord.
Letter 140.80Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Wisdom mocks the foolish virgins, who still crave empty glory, while the wise, glorying in the Lord, enter the wedding feast and the joy of their Lord.
Letter 140.81Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The foolish virgins seek mercy too late; 'I do not know you' means they did not know God, for knowing God is itself his gift, as he makes us righteous, his workmanship in Christ.
Letter 147.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · We may rightly say we 'know' God can be seen, as John says 'we know … we shall see him as he is,' though this knowledge rests on believing Scripture.
Letter 147.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The godly long to see God not in the forms he assumes but in his own substance, as Moses asked; this is promised for the next life, when we shall see him as he is.
Letter 147.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If angels see God as he is, we shall too when made equal to them; Ambrose's 'form is seen, power is declared' points to an ineffable vision of the mind.
Letter 147.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Ambrose's 'we lack the grace of seeing God' refers to this age, when God appeared only to a few; in the age to come all who inherit the kingdom will see him.
Letter 147.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Ambrose says that only the worthy, the pure in heart, will see God in the resurrection; all will rise, but the wicked to judgment.
Letter 147.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Only the pure in heart see God, so the devil's coming 'into God's sight' in Job means he was seen by God, not that he saw God.
Letter 147.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine glosses each phrase of Ambrose's description of the future vision, contrasting it with God's appearances to Abraham, Moses, Jacob, and Adam.
Letter 147.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Only God can make the mind grasp an invisible reality seen by the pure heart; this vision belongs to the righteous in eternal life, which is to know the one true God.
Letter 147.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · At the judgment the wicked will see Christ in his human form, but only the pure in heart will see him in the form of God, which is why that beatitude alone promises the sight of God.
Letter 147.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine summarizes: God is invisible by nature but appears in chosen forms; his children will see him as he is, as the angels do, with the eyes of the heart.
Letter 147.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine lists the truths of faith about God's invisibility, the Trinity, and the resurrection body, from which the spiritually mature have learned that mental sight surpasses bodily sight.
Letter 147.48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God is called invisible so that he will not be thought a body; pure hearts will contemplate his substance, and Augustine follows Ambrose in denying this to bodily eyes even after the resurrection.
Letter 147.49Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine is open to discussion of the resurrection body but rejects those who think God a body; the view that the risen body becomes spirit is more tolerable and still leaves bodily eyes unable to see God.
Letter 147.50Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The question of the spiritual body remains, but vision cannot belong only to bodies, since the Father sees the Son, God saw creation before the incarnation, and prophets are called seers.
Letter 147.51Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine leaves open the nature of the spiritual body but holds that 'face to face' refers to the inner face of the heart, unveiled in Christ, not a bodily face.
Letter 148.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If someone holds that the risen body will be able to see the incorporeal God, Augustine will learn from him; that view, being about the body rather than God, is tolerable and does not contradict his letter.
Letter 148.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Either the risen body remains essentially the same and cannot see God, or it is so transformed that its eyes are no longer 'the eyes of this body'; either way Augustine's statement holds.
Letter 148.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God's invisibility, like his incorruptibility, is eternal; the children of God will see him, but as invisible things are seen, by the eyes of the heart.
Letter 148.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Ambrose taught that only the pure in heart will see God in the resurrection; the wicked do not truly wish to see him, since they will not cleanse their hearts by faith working through love.
Letter 148.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine confesses he has found no satisfactory teaching on the nature of the spiritual body, though he inclines to think it will remain bodily in substance.
Letter 148.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Whatever the risen body's powers, the vision of God by the inner man is certain, since God will be all in all and fill the saints within.
Letter 148.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The inner man, who now sees love and peace, will see God; the resurrection of the body is certain, its qualities still open; Augustine again asks Fortunatianus to win him pardon.
Letter 155.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christians endure this life in the hope of eternal happiness, as Christ's passion and resurrection teach; even Cicero called this life a death.
Letter 155.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Civic virtues become true when referred to the worship of God, and in eternal life the four virtues will be one: clinging to God.
Letter 157.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Death reigned even over those who had not personally sinned because of Adam's transgression; Augustine discusses two interpretations and a textual variant in Rom 5:14.
Letter 158.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · A widow dreamed of a palace being prepared in heaven for the young man and his body being taken up, with roses springing from his tomb.
Letter 158.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Evodius asks whether the soul after death keeps some body of air or ether, since without bodies souls could not be in distinct places like the rich man and Lazarus.
Letter 158.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Evodius suggests that souls may keep a subtle body, citing angels, Samuel, Moses at the Transfiguration, and an apocryphal Moses writing, and that the soul may take bodily heat with it.
Letter 158.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Evodius hopes the freed soul is more alert and recognizes friends, but fears it may be in a kind of dreamless sleep.
Letter 158.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Evodius asks whether departed souls have senses, citing demons, reported apparitions of the dead, and nocturnal prayers heard in basilicas.
Letter 158.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Evodius argues that only God is wholly bodiless, and that the soul freed from the body is more alert, as a dream of the departed Servilius suggested.
Letter 159.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells how the physician Gennadius, once doubting life after death, dreamed of a youth leading him to hear the hymns of the saints.
Letter 159.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · In a second dream the youth showed Gennadius that he was seeing without his bodily eyes, teaching him that life and perception continue after death.
Letter 162.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · As the soul in dreams sees without bodily eyes and without a body, so at death it departs from the body without taking any body with it.
Letter 163.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Evodius asks Augustine about the origin of Christ's human soul and about the spirits in prison to whom Christ preached according to 1 Peter 3.
Letter 164.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks why, if Christ preached in the underworld, Peter mentions only those who disbelieved in Noah's time and not the countless others who died in ignorance of God.
Letter 164.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine would gladly believe that admired pagan poets and philosophers were freed from hell, but human feeling is not the measure of God's justice.
Letter 164.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · There is no clear authority that Christ emptied hell; the loosing of its pains may refer to Christ himself or to some, not all, of those held there.
Letter 164.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Almost the whole church holds that Christ freed Adam from the underworld, a view supported by Wisdom 10; some add the patriarchs and prophets.
Letter 164.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Abraham's bosom, where Lazarus rested, was not in torment nor part of the underworld, since a great gulf separated them, so it is unclear what Christ's descent did for the righteous there.
Letter 164.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ was in the underworld in his human soul and freed some from its pains, while by his divinity he was always in paradise with the righteous.
Letter 164.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine questions the view that the saints raised at Christ's death already received the final resurrection, citing Christ as firstborn from the dead, Peter on David's tomb, and Hebrews 11.
Letter 164.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine cannot see how the dead in the underworld could be "judged in the flesh," nor why Peter singles out Noah's generation.
Letter 164.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The view that Christ emptied hell of those who had not heard the gospel fails, since many have died since his resurrection without hearing it.
Letter 164.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If people could believe in the underworld after death, preaching the gospel in this life would be pointless or even harmful, which is absurd.
Letter 164.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine proposes that Peter's words refer not to the underworld but to Noah's time as a type of the present, with the ark as the church and the flood as baptism.
Letter 164.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · "The dead" to whom the gospel was preached can be understood as the spiritually dead in this life, who on believing are judged in the flesh by trials but live in the spirit.
Letter 166.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine holds that the soul fell by its own will and can be freed only by God's grace through Christ the mediator, without whom it will be punished.
Letter 166.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine rejects the hypothesis, since Scripture knows only the resurrection of life and of judgment, and the church baptizes infants for their souls, as Cyprian taught.
Letter 184.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Unbaptized infants are condemned, though with the lightest punishment; there is no middle place between kingdom and punishment.
Letter 184.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Against those who deny God or his providence, the City of God will show that God exists and cares for human affairs.
Letter 185.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · No one may claim to be righteous of himself or sinless in this life; the church will be without spot only at the resurrection.
Letter 185.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The church is now being cleansed and will be perfect at the resurrection; Christ justifies only his body, which the Donatists should enter.
Letter 185.41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Wis 5:1 promises vindication only to the righteous: Naboth against Ahab, the Catholic against the heretic, not the reverse.
Letter 187.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine is unsure whether Abraham's bosom belongs to hell, but suggests 'paradise' may be any place of blessed life, including that region visited by Christ's soul.
Letter 187.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ's risen body, immortal but still a body, is in heaven, not everywhere; he is everywhere as God and in heaven as man.
Letter 187.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Spirit builds his temple in the baptized secretly and completes it only in the life to come; salvation is now in hope.
Letter 189.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · By love the saints and martyrs pleased God, and believers advance toward the vision of God, which surpasses all created beauty.
Letter 193.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Enoch and Elijah, who did not die, do not disprove that bodily death is the punishment of sin; God may remit the penalty to some.
Letter 193.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Death entered through sin, so that no one dies except because of sin, even if God spares some from dying, just as no one is justified except through Christ.
Letter 193.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The real difficulty is why the baptized still die, which Augustine treated in his books on infant baptism; that the justified Elijah did not die is no difficulty.
Letter 193.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Enoch and Elijah were removed from this life precisely because no one lives here without sin, and they will probably die at the world's end.
Letter 193.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paul seems to say that some found alive at Christ's coming will not die but be changed and caught up, though this does not help the Pelagians.
Letter 193.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine would welcome correction from more learned interpreters, since other texts suggest all must die before resurrection, and his own writings have no canonical authority.
Letter 193.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If Paul means that some will not die, this fits the creed's 'living and dead' as those alive or dead at Christ's coming, and the other texts must then be reconciled.
Letter 193.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Whatever the answer, bodily death would not have come without sin, and the resurrection of the righteous shows grace more wonderfully than exemption from death.
Letter 193.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Mercator to send anything definite he finds on whether some will not die, since he loves learning more than teaching and God alone gives growth.
Letter 194.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · When God crowns our merits he crowns his own gifts; even eternal life, given for merits, is grace because the merits themselves were given.
Letter 197.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sends Hesychius Jerome's expositions of the prophecies, holding that Daniel's weeks refer to past events and that the time of Christ's return cannot be calculated.
Letter 197.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that Christ's words in Acts 1:7 forbid calculating even the times, explaining the difference between the Greek words chronos and kairos.
Letter 197.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says the apostles asked about the opportune time for the kingdom, and that computing the date of the end is wanting to know what Christ said no one can know.
Letter 197.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine notes the end will not come before the gospel is preached to all nations, but even that would not tell us how much time remains.
Letter 197.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that he wrote because of someone who referred Daniel's weeks to Christ's second coming, and he prefers cautious ignorance to false knowledge.
Letter 198.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hesychius argues that the older reading of Acts 1:7 ("it is not yours to know") restricts the apostles' role rather than forbidding all knowledge of the times.
Letter 198.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hesychius gathers Scripture passages in which the Lord and the apostles urge believers to recognize the times.
Letter 198.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hesychius argues from Scripture that Christ's coming is to be loved and awaited.
Letter 198.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hesychius holds that the date cannot be calculated but that most of the signs of Christ's coming foretold in the Gospels have been fulfilled in his own time.
Letter 198.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hesychius argues that the gospel has already been preached throughout the world, its growth slowed by persecution but quickened under the Christian emperors.
Letter 198.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hesychius questions whether Daniel's weeks were fulfilled at Christ's birth and passion, since Christ himself spoke of the abomination of desolation as still to come.
Letter 199.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine praises Hesychius for urging love of Christ's coming and argues that ignorance of its time does not prevent the faithful from longing for it.
Letter 199.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes innocent ignorance of the end's timing from moral negligence, and says each person's last day determines how the last day of the world will find him.
Letter 199.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Christ's command to all to watch applies to every Christian because each person's death fixes the state in which he will be judged.
Letter 199.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine objects that even if Acts 1:7 meant only that the apostles should not teach the times, no later teacher could presume to know or teach what they were not given.
Letter 199.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that if the prophets had revealed the date, the apostles would have known and taught it, so God withheld the knowledge because it would not be profitable.
Letter 199.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine replies that Christ's warnings about the faithful servant and about discerning the time call for constant watchfulness and recognition of his first coming, not calculation of the second.
Letter 199.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine notes that Paul's mention of perilous last times does not reveal how long those times will last.
Letter 199.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine observes that 1 Thessalonians 5 describes how the end will come, not when, and that the cry of "peace and security" is not yet heard.
Letter 199.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that Paul told the Thessalonians only what they needed, namely that the Lord's hour will come like a thief, and so kept within Christ's words to the apostles.
Letter 199.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine notes that the obscure prophecy of 2 Thessalonians 2 says nothing about how long the mystery of iniquity will work.
Letter 199.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says 2 Thessalonians 2 foretells the Antichrist's appearance and destruction but says nothing of when.
Letter 199.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine replies that Christ's rebuke of Jerusalem and the saying "the times are fulfilled" concern his first coming and the fall of Jerusalem, not the second coming.
Letter 199.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Hesychius to show how the visions of Daniel 7 reveal the time of Christ's coming, if he can.
Letter 199.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine restates the Scripture passages Hesychius cited on the blessedness of those who love Christ's coming.
Letter 199.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that love of Christ's coming lies in awaiting it with faith, hope, and love, not in asserting that it is near or far.
Letter 199.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Hesychius whether he thinks the time of the end can be defined at least approximately, and if so, on what grounds.
Letter 199.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine notes that John's "last hour" has already lasted centuries, and mentions those who treat six thousand years as a day of twelve hours.
Letter 199.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine shows that the schemes dividing world history into hours fail on their own terms, and that John's "hour" means an unknown time.
Letter 199.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that the shortening of the days cannot mean that Daniel's numbered weeks would be falsified, since the prophecy itself would then be untrue.
Letter 199.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine reasons that if Daniel's weeks referred to the second coming, one could confidently say it would come within seventy to a hundred years, since shortening could only make the time less.
Letter 199.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that most expositors have shown Daniel's weeks fulfilled at Christ's first coming, especially in the anointing and slaying of the Messiah.
Letter 199.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine agrees that the end grows nearer daily, but notes that Paul's descriptions of the last times already applied in his own day.
Letter 199.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that the wicked of the last days will multiply as the end approaches, and that Peter already spoke of "the last days" at Pentecost.
Letter 199.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine concludes that every generation since the apostles lives in the last days, but how far off the final day is cannot be known.
Letter 199.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Christ's discourse in the Synoptic Gospels concerns three things: the destruction of Jerusalem, his coming through the Church, and his final coming.
Letter 199.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine warns that the signs in Christ's discourse must be carefully assigned to the fall of Jerusalem, his coming in the Church, or his final coming.
Letter 199.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine shows from Luke's parallel that the warning to pregnant and nursing women, ambiguous in Matthew and Mark, refers to the destruction of Jerusalem.
Letter 199.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine compares the three Gospel accounts to show that Luke places the abomination of desolation at the Roman siege of Jerusalem.
Letter 199.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that the shortening of days for the elect refers to the siege of Jerusalem, where God's chosen among the Jews were spared unbearable suffering.
Letter 199.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine holds that Luke shows the shortened days and the abomination belong to Jerusalem's fall, citing Josephus on the unparalleled sufferings of that siege.
Letter 199.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine agrees with Hesychius that the abomination was not fulfilled before Christ's passion, but argues it was fulfilled at the fall of Jerusalem rather than at the end of the age.
Letter 199.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine interprets the command not to go back for one's goods spiritually, as a warning against falling back from spiritual progress in any tribulation.
Letter 199.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that if Daniel's weeks were fulfilled in Christ, this explains why the apostles were told it was not theirs to know the time of the end.
Letter 199.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that the heavenly signs of his day are no greater than past ones, and that the darkening of the sun at the crucifixion was uniquely miraculous because it occurred at full moon.
Letter 199.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine notes that wars have always afflicted the world, as under Gallienus, and that Christ's prophecy may refer to the struggle of Christ's and the devil's kingdoms.
Letter 199.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks how present calamities can be sure signs of the end when Paul says the end will come while people say "peace and security."
Letter 199.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine suggests that the foretold tribulation will fall on the Church alone while its persecutors feel secure, whereas present evils afflict good and wicked alike amid continuing revelry.
Letter 199.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine observes that even faithful Christians still marry, farm, trade, and govern, which will not be so when the foretold signs of the end come.
Letter 199.39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine interprets the darkened sun, moon, and falling stars as the Church obscured in the last persecution, when many who seemed to shine will fall away.
Letter 199.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that the "distress of nations" refers to the wicked who will oppress the Church, present among all peoples alongside the oppressed faithful.
Letter 199.41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says the Son of Man's coming in a cloud can mean either his coming in the Church or his bodily return as he ascended.
Letter 199.42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine notes that in Luke the Son of Man's coming in a cloud is followed by the words "the kingdom of God is near," suggesting it is not the final coming itself.
Letter 199.43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine shows that Mark keeps the same order, placing the coming in the clouds and the gathering of the elect before the nearness of the end.
Letter 199.44Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from Matthew's "all these things" that the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds is itself a sign that the end is near.
Letter 199.45Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine proposes that much of the Gospels' language about Christ's coming may refer to his continual coming in the Church, except for passages like Matthew 25 that clearly describe the final judgment.
Letter 199.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that the gospel has not yet reached the whole world, citing the many unevangelized peoples of the African interior.
Letter 199.47Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from God's promise to Abraham and from the Psalms that the Church must spread to every nation and island, including those beyond Roman rule.
Letter 199.48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that the Church must exist in every nation, though not all in each will believe, so that both the elect and those who hate them are found among all peoples.
Letter 199.49Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Christ's commission to witness to the ends of the earth, like his promise to be with them always, was addressed to the apostles but applies to the whole Church.
Letter 199.50Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Paul, like the prophets, used the past tense of things still to come, so Romans 10:18 does not mean the gospel had already reached the whole world.
Letter 199.51Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says Paul's words in Colossians describe the gospel's ongoing growth, and since no one knows when it will fill the world, no one knows when the end will come.
Letter 199.52Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine introduces three good servants, one expecting the Lord soon, one later, and one admitting ignorance, to ask which best agrees with the gospel.
Letter 199.53Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine concludes that the servant who confesses ignorance of the time agrees best with the gospel, and warns of the danger to faith in predicting an early end.
Letter 205.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine answers Consentius that Christ's risen body is in heaven as it was when he ascended, with flesh and bones, preserved from corruption by God's power.
Letter 205.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from the three young men in the furnace that God can preserve the features of a body while removing all corruption from it.
Letter 205.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that in 1 Corinthians 15:50 "flesh and blood" means the corruption of flesh, not its substance, since Christ's risen flesh cannot wither.
Letter 205.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains Paul's seed analogy: if God can add to a bare seed what it lacked, he can much more restore what belonged to the human body.
Letter 205.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine interprets Paul's comparisons of flesh and heavenly bodies as showing that the risen will differ in glory according to their merits.
Letter 205.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that since believers will rise incorruptible, glorious, powerful, and spiritual, Christ's own risen body cannot be less.
Letter 205.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine concludes that Christ's body, once mortal and taken from Adam, is now incorruptible, glorious, and spiritual, and explains the difference between an animal and a spiritual body.
Letter 205.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine rejects the view that the spiritual body becomes spirit, holding that Christ's risen flesh is a true body, and that Adam would have passed to a spiritual body without death had he not sinned.
Letter 205.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Christ took a mortal body to heal us by humility, and interprets the first and last Adam as the living soul and the life-giving spirit.
Letter 205.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine interprets the earthly and heavenly man as mortals through Adam and immortals through Christ, who became mortal without changing his divine nature.
Letter 205.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine shows that Paul's added phrase "nor will corruption possess incorruption" explains "flesh and blood" as mortal corruption.
Letter 205.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that all will rise, but only the righteous will be changed into incorruption, while the wicked rise to everlasting torment.
Letter 205.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that all will rise with whole bodies, but only the righteous will put on incorruption and immortality, while the wicked remain subject to the pain of punishment.
Letter 205.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine illustrates by the two senses of "temptation" how flesh in substance will inherit the kingdom while flesh as corruption will not.
Letter 205.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine refers Consentius to his book on whether baptized persons dying unrepentant in grave sin will eventually be pardoned.
Letter 214.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine writes to the monks of Hadrumetum, having heard that some deny free will and judgment according to works, and approves those who hold that grace helps free will.
Letter 214.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges the monks to agree, holding both grace, by which Christ saves the world, and free will, by which he judges it, while denying that anything good can be done without grace.
Letter 215.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells the monks of Hadrumetum that grace is not given for merit, yet all who can use free will are judged by their works, while unbaptized infants are condemned for original sin alone.
Letter 216.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Valentinus professes the monastery's faith that grace heals the free will now, while at the judgment God will reward each according to works, a faith he says Florus also holds.
Letter 217.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sets out twelve propositions of Catholic faith on original sin, grace, judgment, infant baptism, free will, and prayer for unbelievers.
Letter 217.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that perseverance to the end is God's gift, since God controls the end of each life.
Letter 217.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine rejects the view that God gives or withholds grace from dying infants according to foreseen future wills, since all are judged by deeds done in the body, as Cyprian's On Mortality presupposes.
Letter 232.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine warns that the judgment foretold in Scripture will surely come like the rest, and no one can plead ignorance, since everyone speaks of Christ.
Letter 259.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that Cornelius's chaste wife would not want him to share the punishment of adulterers, and urges him to love her by amending his life.
Letter 263.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine consoles Sapida over her brother Timothy's death: their love is stored safely with Christ, and she should set her mind, as her name suggests, on things above.
Letter 263.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says Christians may grieve for the dead, as Christ wept for Lazarus, but not long or like those without hope.
Letter 263.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine assures Sapida that her brother's body will rise, not a hair perishing, and that he is now clothed with immortality, a better garment than the tunic she made.
Letter 270.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · An unknown writer tells a friend, apparently a bishop, of his sorrow at missing him at Leges, asks his prayers, and points him to the day of judgment.
On Order 2.51Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Augustine describes the soul's vision of God, the source and Father of truth and the beauty by which all else is beautiful, which frees it from trouble over the apparent disorders of life, seen as parts of a harmonious whole.
Soliloquies 1.7Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Reason explains that once the soul sees God, faith and hope are no longer needed and only love remains, though in this life all three are still required.
Soliloquies 2.19Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Reason concludes that since the true figures of geometry, and so truth, are in the mind as in a subject, the soul is immortal, and defers the question of the untaught mind to another book.
Soliloquies 2.20Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Reason explains the difference between true figures known by the intelligence and the images formed by thought, using the kinds of forgetting and remembering, and closes by promising that God will grant a blessed life full of truth after this body.
Homilies on Matthew 4.11John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The three youths served God from love, not for reward, and prayed for their whole people; today the golden image is mammon, and Christians should prefer the furnace of poverty to its worship, as Lazarus did, rather than face the furnace of sin.
Homilies on Matthew 4.14John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Closing exhortation of Homily 4: almsgiving is the dew that joins us to the poor in their furnace and quenches the fire of hell; the poor who give thanks are like the three youths; despising the world makes one worthier than the world.
Homilies on Matthew 6.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ wept but never laughed; we will give account for every sin, so dissipation is folly; frivolity comes from the devil, who built the theaters; spectators who applaud blasphemous and lewd mimes are more guilty than the actors and dishonor marriage.
Homilies on Matthew 10.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · If John, the greatest of the prophets, lived so austerely, our luxury is inexcusable; his preaching of heaven, not of earthly wars, drew all Judea to confession; now is the time of confession for catechumens and baptized alike, for the judgment is near.
Homilies on Matthew 10.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The end comes when the Gospel has been preached to all, as testimony against unbelievers; we must wake from present dreams and repent by doing the opposite of our sins; peace with God must be pursued by cutting off anger and excess.
Homilies on Matthew 11.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Homily 11 opens with Matt 3:7: the Pharisees came to John with hostile intent and did not truly believe; John, knowing their hearts, rebuked their pride in ancestry, mixing praise with rebuke, and first spoke to them of the wrath to come.
Homilies on Matthew 11.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · 'Brood of vipers' fits their parricidal history; John demands fruits of repentance and forbids trust in Abraham, since God can raise children from stones as from Sarah's womb; the axe at the root threatens without despair; bearing fruit needs only the will, and Christ's baptism with the Spirit and fire gives every grace.
Homilies on Matthew 11.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John speaks of fire to recall Israel's theophanies; he first names the gift of the Spirit, then the Lamb who takes away sin; to keep the hearers from slackness he adds the winnowing fork and unquenchable fire, and the fulfilled promise of the Spirit guarantees the threatened judgment.
Homilies on Matthew 11.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Spirit's visible gift makes the coming judgment credible; baptism is not enough without virtue, for after baptism the winnowing fork divides believers; John spoke of the Spirit rather than miracles because that gift includes all the blessings and points to what could not yet be seen.
Homilies on Matthew 11.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · While on the threshing floor we can still change from chaff to wheat; humility, not display, survives the fire; almsgiving escapes the unquenchable fire, and faith without life will not save; Chrysostom laments that hearers carry home blank tablets, letting the devil overwrite his teaching.
Homilies on Matthew 12.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Spirit appeared as a dove for gentleness and to recall the dove of the flood, bringing adoption instead of an olive leaf; it took a form, not a nature, so is not inferior to Christ; Christian baptism, unlike John's, gives the Spirit and makes us sons of God, so we must live as citizens of heaven and store our treasure there.
Homilies on Matthew 12.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Closing exhortation of Homily 12: Christians who build mansions and buy estates contradict their claim to be bound for heaven and confirm pagans in worldliness; as salt and light they will be judged for others' ruin; love of money must be broken.
Homilies on Matthew 13.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The faithful must reject harmful counsel even from those closest to them, and the reality of future judgment is defended against those who live for the present, from the demons’ confessions, God’s justice, and his providence.
Homilies on Matthew 20.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Men labor for an earthly future they will not enjoy yet complain of waiting for heavenly reward; the end is near, as the signs show and the days of Noah and Sodom warn, so oil must be gathered now.
Homilies on Matthew 23.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The false prophets are known by their fruits, since a bad man bears no good fruit while he remains bad; the loss of the kingdom is a punishment worse than hell itself.
Homilies on Matthew 23.8John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · No loss is so great as falling from the glory of Christ; at the judgment he will mention not his countless benefits but only the sin, showing his gentleness even then.
Homilies on Matthew 28.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The souls of the dead do not wander on earth but are led away to await the judgment; Christ let the demons enter the swine to show their malice, the limits God sets on them, and his own power.
Homilies on Matthew 31.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ delays so that the girl’s death may be certain and her raising undeniable; he praises the woman’s faith, and at the ruler’s house he calls death sleep, teaching the disciples not to fear it.
Homilies on Matthew 31.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ raises the girl with her parents as witnesses and has her fed, proving both death and resurrection; Christians must therefore not mourn their dead like pagans, still less hire pagan mourners, for death is sleep and a calm harbor.
Homilies on Matthew 31.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Excessive mourning shames the dead, scandalizes unbelievers and contradicts the prayers offered for the departed; the property of the dead should be given in alms on their behalf, and Christ’s death and resurrection forbid lament.
Homilies on Matthew 31.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The dead child has been freed from the evils of life and will be received back in glory; the bereaved, and the widow, are to bear their loss with philosophy, as having returned a deposit to God.
Homilies on Matthew 34.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ consoles the apostles against slander by his own sharing in it and by the promise that time will reveal the truth; he bids them preach boldly, fear only him who can destroy soul and body, trust his providence, and confess him; the corruption of bodies after death is shown to be a benefit.
Homilies on Matthew 36.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John sent his jealous disciples to learn from Christ’s works who he was; Chrysostom rejects the view that John did not know of the passion or of a preaching in Hades, insists that there is no repentance after death, and warns his hearers who partake of the mysteries unworthily.
Homilies on Matthew 41.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ refutes the charge that he casts out demons by Beelzebul with four answers (the divided kingdom, the exorcisms of their own sons, the binding of the strong man, and “he who is not with me is against me”), then explains why blasphemy against the Spirit is unpardonable; Chrysostom urges his hearers to judge and condemn their own sins now.
Homilies on Matthew 42.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Every idle word will be judged, and we are judged by our own words, not by others’ words about us; Chrysostom shows from David and Saul and from Jacob and Laban that to suffer wrong makes one stronger, and to do wrong weaker.
Homilies on Matthew 43.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The queen of the south will also condemn this generation; the parable of the returning unclean spirit foretells worse calamities for the Jews after AD 70, and warns baptized Christians who relapse; Chrysostom describes the fire of Gehenna and rejects the comfort of being punished with many.
Homilies on Matthew 43.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom defends preaching about Gehenna as a healing, urges his hearers to live so that pagans see the kingdom in them, and insists that marriage, children, work and city life are no obstacle to virtue.
Homilies on Matthew 46.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The tares are not to be uprooted, so that saints may not be killed with them and so that some may still become wheat, though heretics may be restrained; the mustard seed and the leaven show that the small band of disciples will transform the world.
Homilies on Matthew 47.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ spoke to the crowds only in parables, as the psalm foretold, to rouse them to ask; the disciples ask privately about the tares, and he explains it as the end of the age, when the angels will gather the wicked out of his kingdom.
Homilies on Matthew 47.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Harvest and sowing name different things; the treasure and the pearl teach that the preaching must be preferred to everything, and the net warns that faith without a good life does not save; the scribe of the kingdom brings out old and new, and Chrysostom draws the members of virtue, whose head is humility.
Homilies on Matthew 53.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The four thousand are fed with a different number of remnants so the disciples will remember both miracles; Christ refuses the Pharisees a sign from heaven, explaining that his first coming is as physician and the heavenly signs are kept for his coming as judge.
Homilies on Matthew 53.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ refuses heavenly signs to those who would not believe the lesser ones, rebukes the disciples’ anxiety over bread so as to free them from the food laws, and Chrysostom teaches that every life mixes grief and joy, and that only virtue and a good conscience give lasting joy, especially at death.
Homilies on Matthew 54.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · God’s commands to the merciful are easy, and the prize of Isaiah’s promised “early light” unfolds into all the joys of heaven and deliverance from Gehenna, so no sacrifice should keep us from showing mercy.
Homilies on Matthew 55.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Those who toil for wealth while neglecting the soul are like slaves in the mines; Christ’s coming in the Father’s glory shows the Son’s one glory and essence with the Father, and his judgment, rewarding each by his deeds, should make us repent more than the Ninevites.
Homilies on Matthew 56.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The disciples fell before the glory on the mountain, and Christ bade them keep silence until the resurrection, after which the Spirit and the signs would confirm their preaching; at his second coming he will appear in far greater glory as judge, and only deeds will count.
Homilies on Matthew 57.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ resolves the scribes’ teaching that Elijah must come first by distinguishing his two comings: John, called Elijah for sharing his ministry, preceded the first, and Elijah the Tishbite will come before the second, fearful coming to turn the Jews to faith.
Homilies on Matthew 64.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · On Peter’s “we have left everything,” Chrysostom says Peter asked on behalf of the poor, and explains the promise of twelve thrones by God’s rule in Jeremiah that promises and threats depend on the hearer’s conduct, so that Judas is excluded.
Homilies on Matthew 64.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The thrones mean sharing Christ’s glory and condemning unbelieving Israel; leaving wife means preferring godliness, not breaking marriages; the parable of the laborers teaches that late converts can receive the full reward, while faith without a worthy life and even one neglected virtue can shut one out of heaven.
Homilies on Matthew 69.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The parable shows the call widened to all comers, but warns believers too: the wedding garment is a life kept clean after the grace of the call, and the man without it is cast into darkness; Chrysostom urges his hearers to adorn the soul rather than the body.
Homilies on Matthew 70.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ answers the tax question from the coin itself, rendering to Caesar what does not harm godliness and to God what is God’s; he then refutes the Sadducees’ story of the seven brothers from Scripture and God’s power, and Chrysostom turns to the monks who already live like the angels, having slain the desires of the belly.
Homilies on Matthew 74.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ’s lament over Jerusalem is that of a rejected lover who has tried again and again to gather her; the desolation of her house and the fulfillment of his other predictions guarantee his second coming, when repentance will come too late.
Homilies on Matthew 75.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ foretells the total destruction of the temple and, answering the disciples’ question, warns first of deceivers, the Jewish war and persecutions, assuring them that the gospel will be preached in the whole world before the end of Jerusalem, which the abomination spoken of by Daniel will signal.
Homilies on Matthew 76.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The days were cut short for the believers among the Jews, and the end of the temple hinted at the end of the law; turning to his second coming, Christ warns against false christs and the Antichrist and describes his sudden, universal appearing, the darkened heavens, the sign of the cross that will convict his crucifiers, and the gathering of the elect.
Homilies on Matthew 76.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The angels gather the risen saints and the clouds catch them up; Chrysostom laments that the parables that follow threaten us with the loss of heaven for want of a little effort, and urges his hearers to give to Christ what they must lose anyway, since he repays more than any borrower.
Homilies on Matthew 76.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ offers himself to us for everything—adornment, armor, food, home, kinship—while worldly glory ends in bones and dust and only our sins survive to be judged; the sufferings of some in this life prove a judgment to come for those who escape here.
Homilies on Matthew 77.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The fig tree shows that the coming will follow close upon the tribulation; “this generation” is that of the believers, which nothing will destroy; and Christ’s saying that the Son does not know the day is meant to stop the disciples’ curiosity, not to confess ignorance, since he made the ages and knows the Father.
Homilies on Matthew 77.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Claiming to know God’s essence while denying the Son knowledge of the day is absurd; Christ withholds the day for our good, and the examples of Noah, of those taken and left, and of the thief show that he will come suddenly upon a world at ease, so that we must always be ready.
Homilies on Matthew 79.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · In the last judgment, set before the whole world, the sheep are distinguished from the goats by their fruitfulness in mercy; the condemned are without excuse, since the requests were light, the one asking was Christ himself in the poor, and every believer in need is his brother.
Homilies on Matthew 79.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The blessed are judged by comparison with their fellow servants and receive a kingdom prepared for them from the beginning, the cursed a fire prepared not for them but for the devil, so that both the justice of the sentence and the grace of the reward appear; Christ then foretells his passion at the Passover.
Homilies on Matthew 81.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The covetous go about the city naked of virtue, unashamed because so many are like them; they live in a moral desert, are themselves tombs carrying dead souls, wound themselves with cares, and at the judgment will be punished in every parable of Christ.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:29Jerome · ca. 386 · Jerome explains that husbands must provide for their wives, and allegorically that the soul must nourish the body with the sacraments toward the angelic life of the resurrection.
On Elijah and Fasting 77Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Isaiah's announcement that the Lord comes to lay waste the world shows the coming judgment as present, to call us to conversion.
On Elijah and Fasting 78Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The world's end is not loss but rest, as an emptied stadium after the games brings rest to athletes and spectators.
On Elijah and Fasting 80Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Ambrose prays for Christ's coming, which will free creation from vanity and bring the new heaven where the faithful see his glory.
Hexameron (Exameron) 1.10Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · That a circle has no visible beginning does not mean the world had none; Christ teaches that it will end.
Hexameron (Exameron) 1.37Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Scripture says “one day,” not “first day,” to set the twenty-four-hour day as a unit and to point to the one eternal day.
Hexameron (Exameron) 4.10Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · God's fire consumes only sins: it lights the righteous and burns the wicked.
Hexameron (Exameron) 4.12Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The lights divide the times and serve as signs, as Christ said of the signs of the end.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.15Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Humans are fish in the gospel net; the good fish, caught by Christ's hook, bear in their mouth the confession that pays Christ's tribute.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.78Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Natural transformations point to the resurrection change Paul describes, not to speculative theories of change.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.79Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The phoenix, reborn from its own remains, is an example teaching belief in the resurrection.
On the Blessings of the Patriarchs 32Ambrose · ca. 387-392 · The serpent from Dan signifies the Antichrist, and the fallen rider signifies Christ, betrayed by Judas, who fell in order to raise up all.
On the Blessings of the Patriarchs 34Ambrose · ca. 387-392 · Moses' blessing of Dan, 'from Bashan' (confusion), signifies that the tribe of Dan will be freed from confusion by confessing Christ.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.20.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Evil thoughts will accuse us at the judgment.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.38.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Return to paradise is through the fiery sword and through water.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.40.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ gives fruit wisely, in due season: its fullness in the resurrection.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.40.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The fruit is given in the resurrection, when we are incorruptible.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.43.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The leaves of Adam and Eve foretold the resurrection: the leaf that does not fall.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.47.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Does Scripture teach that the ungodly will be annihilated?
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.48.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The adversaries cease to be adversaries but remain, converted; God punishes to purify.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.48.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Fire purifies rather than annihilates; God wills all to be saved.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.51.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The ungodly rise, but not to judgment: they are already judged.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.51.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The apparent conflict between Ps 1:5 and 2 Cor 5:10 is resolved: unbelievers are already judged.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.51.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · John 3:18–19 shows that unbelievers are already judged.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.51.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Paul's "all" means believers, who will give account; all rise, the just are changed.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.51.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Daniel foretells the judgment and resurrection.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.52.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The opened books are our consciences, laid bare before Christ.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.52.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ knows hidden thoughts; the books are written in the traces of our sins.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.52.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The books include the tablets of the heart written by the Spirit.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.52.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Do not blot out the Spirit's writing on the heart with your sins.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.53.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Daniel and Christ both teach a resurrection to life and to judgment.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.53.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · We should fear the judgment, at which our hidden sins will be exposed.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.54.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · There are two resurrections; those not in the first are burned until the second.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.54.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The saints who rose at Christ's death entered the heavenly city.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.55.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · We must rise from the death of sin now, like Lazarus, to rise in glory then.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.56.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The just rise in their council without judgment; sinners rise to judgment.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.56.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · A third order, the ungodly unbelievers, rise straight to punishment.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 35.29.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · "There" may also refer to the judgment to come.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.16.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ will be subject when he offers the whole church to the Father as high priest.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.20.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The land promised is the heavenly land of the living.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.20.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The heavenly land, like paradise, endures for those who keep God's word.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.21.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The sinner's place is on this passing earth and will not be found.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.26.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · All will be tried by fire, as Malachi foretells of the Lord's coming.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.26.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Some pass through the fire unharmed, like the three youths; others remain in it.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.26.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Even the saved pass through fire, as Israel passed through the sea while Egypt drowned.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.26.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Follow the pillar of fire now, so as to pass through the fire to come.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.32.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The evil day is the day of judgment, when the just will grieve for the punished.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.41.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Paul now proclaims in heaven what he could not on earth.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.45.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The land the just possess is the heavenly land flowing with milk and honey.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.45.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The honey of that land is the end of sorrow; its milk is the light of God.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.67.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Speak even in death, as the souls under the altar do.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.67.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Even after death and resurrection the just will speak wisdom in God's house.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.75.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The land promised is the higher land of eternal promise.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.81.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The "remains" of the peaceable man are what survives for the resurrection.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.81.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The true remains are hope, faith and love; the remnant is saved by grace.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.82.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · What remains of the ungodly, their sin, will be blotted out.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.2.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Lay down sins now, to reach the rest of the future sabbath.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.2.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Penance is flight from the wrath to come.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.13.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The penitent must offer himself to punishment now rather than later.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.29.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Iniquity festers when it rules the head; its height is the man of iniquity to come.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.51.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · David, though king, did not blush to do penance; false shame will be regretted at the judgment.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.51.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Amend now while you can, as the parable of the rich man warns.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.16.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The "end" David asks about is the end of 1 Cor 15, not his death.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.16.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The end is the abolition of death and sorrow, which Paul worked toward by rebuke.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.16.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The end is the end of all; David speaks as representative man.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.17.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The number of days is that of the many mansions in the Father's house.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.17.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ prepares a fitting mansion for each and is the way to it.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.17.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The saints ascend by stages through the heavens.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.18.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The saint rejoices in the Lord's new day and its light.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.26.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · In heaven we shall see face to face the true light and the perfected saints.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.30.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Bear Christ's reproach like Moses; David confesses his own reproaches.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.34.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · A purifying fire awaits sinners; crush the heart now in penance.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.36.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Inhabitant, stranger, sojourner: in the body we are exiles from the Lord.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.36.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Paul's words show desire for the Lord, not yet attainment.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.36.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · We strive to please God now and at the judgment.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.36.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Like Adam in exile we weep; Christ has opened our way home.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.38.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Without remission here there is no rest, life or being hereafter.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 39.19.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ took on flesh to make it immortal; those who follow him will hear, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 39.19.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · In paradise with Christ there is no fear of falling as Adam fell.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 39.19.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The redeemed will be where Christ is, safe from Satan, who is cast down and bound.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 39.20.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Adam fell, but his fall is repaired for the better; in paradise there will be no marriage, and those with Christ need not fear the serpent.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.7.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The day of judgment is called evil because it condemns many, for the way of virtue is narrow and few walk it.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.7.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ speaks of the day of judgment with our dread, for it lays open hidden things and condemns many.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.7.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ himself, the Judge, calls the day of judgment evil out of compassion for those who will be condemned.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.8.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The “evil day” may also be the present evil age, in which we must be freed from sin so as to be free from punishment hereafter.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.20.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The “adding” is the grace given to man to live again after death, as years were added to Hezekiah.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.25.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Dan’s prophecy points beyond Samson to the Antichrist, who will come from that tribe.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.25.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Dan (“judgment”) points to the Antichrist, who will judge only the people of impiety; the believer is not judged.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.1.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · We contend to the end, when Christ hands the kingdom to the Father and death is destroyed, so that God may reign in us.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.7.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ’s saying that the days will be shortened for the elect must be read with what precedes it.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.7.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The elect must not follow false prophets but await Christ, who will come like lightning in full majesty.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.7.8Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · When Christ comes, all will be full of his light; we must not believe the Antichrist’s heralds but the signs Christ foretold.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.8.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The “half-days” are the days of faithlessness under the Antichrist, not short days, for David lamented that his sojourning was prolonged.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.15.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The fire that did not consume the bush signifies the glory of the risen body.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.22.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Sinners will be put to shame still more at the resurrection.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.47.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Not all will be changed at the resurrection; lighter sins may be relieved by good works, but grave sins have no exchange.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.81.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God searches hearts and will reveal their hidden counsels at his coming.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.81.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The “hidden things of darkness” are the secrets of the heart, known to Christ and revealed at the judgment.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 45.10.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The depths are the evil powers; from the abyss the beast, the Antichrist, will rise against God’s witnesses.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 47.15.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · What was heard outside is seen in the city of God, whose light is God himself and whose foundation is eternal.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 47.20.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The daughters of confession cover their sins and will rejoice to know God’s judgments face to face.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 47.23.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The “steps” are the many dwellings of heaven, assigned by order of merit.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.18.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The righteous are pilgrims on earth; the luxurious, not believing in the resurrection, live as in their tombs.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.21.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Those who refuse Christ the good shepherd are fed upon by death, the hireling.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.21.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · At the resurrection the powerful of this world will serve, as Esau served Jacob, while the righteous shine in the morning.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.24.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Lazarus the poor man rests in Abraham’s bosom; the rich man, once blessed in his lifetime, is tormented.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.26.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Followers of the earthly father never see light; those who follow Christ, the light of every man, see eternal light.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 61.8.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ will be subject to the Father “in us”, when all are united in faith and God is all in all.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 61.27.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Denied burial, the emperor yet has his everlasting rest with God.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 61.35.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God will render to each according to his works, by their number and their quality.
On Free Choice of the Will 3.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–395 · God rightly made every grade of creature, as the moon beside the sun; not sin but souls able to sin complete the universe, and just punishment fits sinful souls into its order, while the proud who refuse the humility shown by Christ share the punishment of the fallen angels.
On Free Choice of the Will 3.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–395 · Temporal things that pass away are not to be blamed, but a rational creature's failing is voluntary and blameworthy; the soul must pay its debt to God either by doing justice or by suffering misery, with no interval between.
On the Catholic Way of Life and the Manichaean Way of Life 1.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–389 · Living well is loving God wholly, which the four virtues express; eternal life, the knowledge of God, is the reward of that love, so love and authority must come before knowledge and reason.
On the Catholic Way of Life and the Manichaean Way of Life 1.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–389 · Augustine challenges the Manichaeans to compare their life with that of true catholics, not with nominal Christians, such as those who venerate tombs and pictures or feast over the dead, whom the Church condemns and tries to correct until the final separation.
On the Greatness of the Soul 33Augustine of Hippo · 387–388 · Augustine describes the soul's power in seven steps: animating the body, sensation, the human arts, virtue, tranquillity, the approach to God, and the contemplation of truth, in which the soul knows God, the truth of the Church's teaching, and the certainty of the resurrection.
On Genesis against the Manichaeans 1.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 388–390 · Augustine compares the six days of creation with six ages of world history, from Adam to Noah, Abraham, David, the exile, Christ, and the present age, each with its morning and evening, to be followed by the seventh day of rest without evening.
On Genesis against the Manichaeans 1.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 388–390 · Augustine explains the numbers of generations in the ages (ten, fourteen, and none for the last) by the five senses, the addition of knowledge and action, and the two sexes, and says the last age is unnumbered so the last day stays hidden.
Sermon on the Eight Beatitudes 6Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · Chromatius explains the sixth step: those who have climbed the earlier steps are pure in heart and will see God's brightness without hindrance.
Tractates on Matthew 3.4Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains the blessing of the meek, following Christ and Moses, who will inherit the land of the future life, and especially their own glorified bodies.
Tractates on Matthew 3.6Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains the blessings of the merciful, who will receive mercy, and of the pure in heart, who will see God face to face in the kingdom.
Tractates on Matthew 8.3Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius prefers the view that the adversary is the Holy Spirit, who opposes the flesh, and whom we must obey in this life to escape the prison of Gehenna.
Tractates on Matthew 14.3Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that in praying 'your kingdom come' we ask for the coming of the heavenly kingdom promised to us, for which we must make ourselves worthy.
Homily 6.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John the Baptist was sent from God to bear witness not because Christ needed it but so that the Jews might believe through a man like themselves; the evangelist adds “he was not the light” to keep anyone from thinking the witness greater than the one witnessed to.
Homily 10.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Grace is God’s part and faith man’s; baptism gives the new birth “of God,” but keeping it pure depends on our effort, lest we be cast out like the foolish virgins or the guest without a wedding garment.
Homily 12.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Creation recognized its Master at Christ’s birth, baptism, miracles, conversions and even his passion and resurrection, which all show “glory as of the Only-begotten”; to see his greater glory hereafter we must live worthily, since nothing else will save us from the fire.
Homily 25.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The baptized must live worthily, and catechumens must hasten to baptism, for they are strangers to the faithful and in danger of Gehenna if death finds them uninitiated; Chrysostom urges lending to Christ in the poor while the season for sowing lasts.
Homily 28.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Against those who deny future punishment, Chrysostom shows that God’s love appears in forgiving sins at baptism and giving time for repentance, while the baptized who sin incur heavier judgment; Christ’s first coming was to save, his second will be to judge.
Homily 28.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Unbelievers condemn themselves by loving darkness, fleeing a Christ who came to pardon, because they will not give up their wicked deeds; Chrysostom doubts that pagans truly live virtuously and explains that Christ spoke of the general case.
Homily 31.5 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · If a Samaritan woman listened so patiently, we have no excuse for impatience with God's word; life is given for preparing for the life to come.
Homily 34.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Like the Samaritan woman we should not hide our sins from men but repent before God, applying remedies opposite to our sins, because the judgment and the end are near.
Homily 38.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Sin often brings bodily disease as a remedy for the soul; the paralytic's long suffering shows that punishment is measured by the nature of sin, not its duration, and we must bear every blow with thanksgiving.
Homily 38.5 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The love of precedence and vainglory breeds heresy and unbelief; we should seek the glory that comes from God and stop living as slaves to earthly cares.
Homily 39.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ is judge of all so that all may honor the Son as the Father; “has given” means “begot”, and his lofty and humble sayings are mixed for his hearers' sake.
Homily 39.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Humble expressions are condescension; whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father; the Son, who has life in himself, will raise and judge all, as the raising of Lazarus foreshadows.
Homily 41.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ sends the Jews to search the Scriptures, which testify to him; he needs no human glory, and their readiness to receive the Antichrist will show that they do not love God.
Homily 41.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Jews seek glory from one another rather than from God; Moses, whom they claim to follow, wrote of Christ and will be their accuser.
Homily 44.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · We should ask God for spiritual goods, which endure, rather than for the passing goods of this life.
Homily 45.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ, the bread of life, first speaks of his divinity; the Jews' offence comes from losing hope of bodily bread; all whom the Father gives will come to him and be raised to life.
Homily 45.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Faith needs both God's drawing and our free choice; the Son's will is one with the Father's; the constant remembrance of the resurrection and judgment restrains sin and refutes belief in fate.
Homily 47.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ insists that eating his flesh and drinking his blood are necessary for eternal life; those who eat abide in him and will live the glorious life after the resurrection, as the manna could not give.
Homily 56.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom reconciles Paul’s and Christ’s uses of “night” and urges his hearers to build houses in heaven by giving to the poor rather than spending on splendid houses on earth.
Homily 62.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Martha and Mary believe in Christ but not yet as God; Christ answers Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life,” lifting her mind from the request for prayer to faith in him as the giver of life.
Homily 62.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom rebukes the excessive and theatrical mourning of Christian women as a denial of the resurrection, permitting quiet tears but urging mourning for sins and help for the dead through almsgiving and offerings.
Homily 66.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Greeks come seeking Jesus, and he declares that the hour of his glorification on the cross has come, like a grain of wheat that dies; Chrysostom defends the bodily resurrection against heretics and pagan philosophers.
Homily 77.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Looking to Christ and to the crowns makes suffering, chastity, and almsgiving easy; those who turn away and insult the hungry poor will answer for it at the judgment, as the rich man did for Lazarus.
Homily 79.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ prepares the disciples for his departure with the image of a woman's labor pains turned to joy, foretelling his death and resurrection and the power of prayer in his name.
Homily 79.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ will speak plainly after the resurrection; the disciples' faith is still imperfect, but he has conquered the world, so Christians, as strangers and sojourners, should not be troubled by death or by insults.
Homily 84.3 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Remembering the mockery Christ bore should quench our anger; Chrysostom warns that faith without a matching life condemns, and urges daily use of Scripture and provision for death.
Homily 85.5 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Since Christ rose naked, costly burial is vainglory that profits the dead nothing; the true grave clothes are almsgiving, which rises with the dead.
Homily 85.6 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Restraint at funerals shows Christ's power over death; the dying should leave Christ as heir through almsgiving, the best grave clothes for the resurrection.
Homily 87.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Thomas, demanding to touch, is met by Christ, who shows his wounds out of condescension and blesses those who believe without seeing.
Homily 87.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John wrote only what suffices for faith; at the sea of Tiberias the risen Christ provides a miraculous catch and a meal; Chrysostom turns to the longing to see Christ and against love of money.
On True Religion 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine explains that the soul that loves bodies becomes carnal and suffers pain, but the soul that conquers its desires by God's grace is restored, loves God and neighbor, and will receive back its body made pure in the resurrection.
On True Religion 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine concludes that no nature is evil, that the restored soul will possess the world rather than be possessed by it, and that the universe remains beautiful through the condemnation of sinners, the testing of the just, and the perfection of the blessed.
On True Religion 27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine applies the old and new man to the whole human race, divided into the impious and the people of God, whose history in the Old Testament prefigures the New, until the resurrection and judgment.
On True Religion 44Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine explains that the rational soul, made toward God, will have all lower things serve it if it serves its Creator, and will rule a sanctified body in the resurrection.
On True Religion 52Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · The mind should turn from the beauty it perceives through the senses to the eternal law by which it judges, for curiosity, pride, and pleasure are distorted longings for knowledge, power, and rest found only in God.
On True Religion 53Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Those who love the true ends of knowledge, action, and bodily life, namely truth, peace, and health, receive a foretaste of them now and their perfection after the resurrection.
On True Religion 54Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Those who misuse the mind for visible things, contests, and bodily appetites are bound and cast into outer darkness, while those who use the senses and mind to know and love God enter the joy of their Lord, as the parable of the talents shows.
Homily 15Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390–394 · On Song 6:1–9 Gregory, beginning from Philip leading Nathanael to Christ, reads the bride's directions to the young women as the gospel of the Word who came down to replant humanity as his garden, "I am my beloved's" as the soul become a clear mirror of Christ, the bride's praised features as ranks in the church, and the sixty queens, eighty concubines, and countless young women as souls advancing by love, by fear, or as beginners, all meant to become the one perfect dove, united by the Spirit until God is all in all.
Matthaei, chapter 38Nemesius of Emesa · ca. 390-400 · Nemesius reports Plato's account of fate as subordinate to providence and contingent on our choices, insists against it that providence acts contingently and that God is lord of necessity, and rejects the Stoic doctrine of endless cosmic restoration.
Monastic Exercise, chapter 50Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · The latticed temple windows teach guarding the senses with the thought of judgment; Ahaziah's fall through the lattice shows what happens otherwise.
Monastic Exercise, chapter 63Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Monks cling to worldly things like children to toys because they do not grasp how much greater the eternal goods are.
Monastic Exercise, chapter 67Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · The perfect soul is carefree like the lily among thorns; the ungodly spend all their life caring for the body and none for the soul.
Monastic Exercise, chapter 75Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · As a strong passion absorbs the mind, so love of philosophy should absorb it in contemplation; the monk seeks praise from God, not from men.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 12Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Human verdicts count for nothing at God's judgment, which sees deeds and thoughts as they are, so it is vain to labor for the good opinion of gossiping people.
Sermon 4.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Esau stands for those who live or hope carnally; spiritual faith hopes for the life of the angels.
Sermon 4.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The angels' joy is in seeing the Creator, not his creation.
Sermon 5.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Jacob's withered thigh signifies wicked Christians, who make the Church lame until the judgment separates them from the good.
Sermon 9.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God is merciful and long-suffering but also "true": his present mercy must not breed presumption, for his judgment is coming.
Sermon 9.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Settle your case with God before judgment, for whatever the time until the world's end, each person's own last day is uncertain and may come any day.
Sermon 9.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine plays the "ten-stringed psaltery" of the Decalogue instead of frivolous songs: three strings belong to God, the third being the sabbath, the everlasting rest promised in the Holy Spirit.
Sermon 9.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · "I am keeping it for my children" is often a cloak for avarice: a parent who loses a child should send that child's share ahead to Christ by giving it to the poor.
Sermon 9.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Avarice and lavish gifts to performers are both condemned; Christ in the poor asks for what we have, and by good works, prayer, fasting and alms, forgiving as we are forgiven, we walk safely on Christ the way to the eternal sabbath.
Sermon 10.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · When iniquity abounds and love grows cold, pretence claims the good and blames the innocent; Solomon's two sentences signify Christ's testing of the Church now and his crowning of her at the end.
Sermon 11.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Works of mercy are possible only in this life, where there are hungry, naked, strangers and sick; God lets his saints be in need so that the rich may share with them and be received with them into eternal life.
Sermon 11.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The widow's unfailing flour and oil were a sign of the endless reward to come, not a payment; we should do good expecting our harvest in eternity, not here.
Sermon 14.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A beggar objects that the kingdom belongs to the poor like Lazarus, not to the rich like the man who feasted and was tormented.
Sermon 16.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · "Who is the man who wants life and to see good days?" refers to eternal life; the commands of the Psalm lead to the peace the world does not have, while this present life, however long, slips away even as it comes.
Sermon 16.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · People love their estates to be good more than their lives; a good life should be preferred to a long one, for eternal life follows, and here we must redeem the time, even at temporal cost.
Sermon 16.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Psalm cannot mean present life, since keeping its commands, such as refusing false witness under threat of death, may cost that life; it means eternal life, which those who obey even unto death obtain.
Sermon 16.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The "good days" of the Psalm are not the feasting days for which flatterers lie, but the days of the land of the living, for which one keeps from deceit even under threat of death.
Sermon 16.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whoever wants eternal life and good days must do the work: seek peace with good works, in tribulation, before God.
Sermon 17.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ, silent when he came to be judged, will come manifestly to judge and not keep silent; even now he speaks through Scripture, readers, preachers and singers, but must be heard with the ears of the heart.
Sermon 17.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Habitual sins such as drunkenness deaden the conscience; the Church is slow to excommunicate, but God, silent now while Christ is in heaven, will not keep silent when he comes to judge.
Sermon 17.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God, now silent, will rebuke the sinner by setting him before his own face at the judgment; now is the time of mercy, when daily sins are washed by the Lord's Prayer before communion.
Sermon 17.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even if the judgment is far off, one's own death is near and uncertain, for we are more fragile than glass; Augustine wants deeds, not applause.
Sermon 18.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ came hidden to be judged and silent, and will come manifest to judge; meanwhile, because good and bad share the same fortunes, carnal people deny providence and mock God's commands.
Sermon 18.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God judges some things now, so that his existence is not doubted, and reserves others for the judgment, patiently waiting for sinners to repent; those who despise his patience store up wrath.
Sermon 18.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · All our deeds are laid up in a treasury: the good know they are storing works of mercy with a faithful and powerful keeper; the wicked do not know that they are storing up wrath.
Sermon 18.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At the judgment Christ will open each person's treasury: those who gave to his needy members will receive the kingdom, those who did not will find nothing; late repentance will be useless, but God counts a sincere will to do good as done.
Sermon 19.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Recovering, the psalmist asks what he has in heaven and what he wanted on earth: earthly riches are worthless beside heaven, whose reward is God himself, more beautiful than all creation.
Sermon 19.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine urges a good life without earthly reward, citing recent earthquakes in the East and at Sitifis, after which thousands were baptized; the world is an olive press, and all should be oil, not dregs, before death comes suddenly.
Sermon 21.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The righteous rejoice in the Lord even now in hope, before they see him; unlike earthly loves, which disappoint when obtained, God when seen will surpass all that hope imagined.
Sermon 22.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God warns through Scripture and scourges through tribulation so that we may repent now; the repentance of the damned will be fruitless, but even the thief on the cross was allowed to change.
Sermon 22.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since everything foretold about the Church has come true, its worldwide spread, heresies, persecution, the martyrs' harvest, the fall of the idols, the foretold judgment will certainly come too.
Sermon 22.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God is both merciful and just: he spares and pardons the repentant now and will judge by deserts; his "repentance" is a change of sentence when the sinner changes, so we should all seek pardon, not acquittal.
Sermon 22.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Adam and Eve begot us to death, Christ and the Church beget us to eternal life; Christ has received the inheritance in his flesh as head, and the whole Christ, head and body, will receive it, as the ungodly will receive eternal fire.
Sermon 23.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We shall see God as he is, not in a passing appearance as at Mamre or Sinai, and this by grace, not merit.
Sermon 31.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The tears of the just belong to this road and end in the joy of harvest; the wicked go from weeping to eternal weeping in the outer darkness, which will hold no pleasures.
Sermon 36.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul counsels the rich to hope in God and be rich in good works, giving readily; the rich man and Lazarus show where the false life of riches ends.
Sermon 37.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Looking ahead in faith and hope, the Church endures the night of tribulation to buy the eternal field, whose glory outweighs every trouble.
Sermon 37.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ, though now absent, need not be anxious for his household, since he knows those he has predestined; when he comes, he will separate the faithful ministers from the wicked who abuse his delay.
Sermon 37.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The absent husband will appear openly “in the gates” at the judgment, sitting with the saints as judges; meanwhile the Church should keep working and await him without fear.
Sermon 37.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · After the Church’s labors in this life of poverty, her children will rise and be made truly rich in the resurrection, beside which earthly riches are only props for weakness.
Sermon 37.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The heresies keep only false graces; the Church, wise through the fear of the Lord, will receive the kingdom as the fruit of her works of mercy.
Sermon 37.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · When the Church’s labors are over, works of mercy will cease, for there will be no misery; her whole activity will be to see and praise God.
Sermon 38.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since the true rewards and punishments appear only at the end, this is the time of faith, not of sight.
Sermon 38.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We are troubled because faith, like Christ in the boat, is asleep; God has already fulfilled so much of what he promised and foretold that we should believe the rest will come.
Sermon 38.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even a world in turmoil is loved; we should leave it in heart and, with endurance and continence, long for the heavenly homeland.
Sermon 40.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The preacher, as watchman, cannot promise safety where God threatens judgment; our only security is to heed God’s commands and pray for righteousness rather than worldly things.
Sermon 41.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The rich man would not keep faith with Lazarus in his poverty, and so could not share his rest; his mocking of the prophets is answered by Abraham.
Sermon 41.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The rich man received his good things in this life, which he took for his only life; Lazarus’s good things were deferred to the life hidden with Christ, which the rich man now sees but cannot share.
Sermon 44.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The “rich” in Isaiah is Joseph of Arimathea, the “wicked” the guards who sold a lie about the resurrection; Augustine closes by urging thanks for Christ’s mercy and fear of his coming judgment.
Sermon 45.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Obscure passages of Scripture must be read by clear ones; the promised land is the land of the living, sown here by alms to the poor, whose bread is Christ.
Sermon 45.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The holy mountain is Christ with his body the Church, one man, head and members; the head rose first, as women first announced, so that the members might hope to rise and dwell on the mountain forever.
Sermon 45.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Our flesh, though it is grass, will be changed into gold, made like the angels; then there will be no more labor or groaning, only praise, which we now possess in hope.
Sermon 47.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God speaks now in his commands and is silent in judgment; unlike a human judge who writes his sentence in secret, he has told us beforehand what his final sentence will be.
Sermon 47.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The he-goats are mixed with the sheep and the weeds with the wheat until the judgment; the servants are not to separate them before the harvest, though discipline must still be exercised.
Sermon 47.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Because God himself judges and cannot be deceived, the good may long for his judgment; the Lord’s Prayer is the medicine for sin, if we forgive others.
Sermon 48.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Faith enters God’s sanctuary and trusts that God is not unjust; at the end the good and the wicked will be separated, and what is hidden now will be made plain.
Sermon 49.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Believers are day compared with unbelievers but still night compared with the day of resurrection; until then they walk by the lamp of Scripture and must not judge one another’s hearts.
Sermon 50.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Haggai’s prophecy points to Christ’s comings and to the Church; the gold and silver are wisdom and God’s word, which belong to the Lord, so that no one in the Church may boast of them as his own.
Sermon 50.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The peace promised “in this place” is the peace of the resurrected body, when flesh and spirit no longer war against each other.
Sermon 53.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Earthly comforts bring new fears; true comfort will be given to those who now mourn their exile, a comfort that cannot be lost.
Sermon 53.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Only the clean of heart are promised the vision of God, the end that perfects all our desire; the heart’s eyes, enlightened now by faith, will then see God face to face.
Sermon 55.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s warning that whoever calls his brother a fool is liable to hell frightens believers, especially since, as James says, no man can tame the tongue.
Sermon 55.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We should bear God’s taming, even his whip, for unlike a man with his horse he rewards the tamed with himself as their inheritance, resurrection, and life with the angels.
Sermon 56.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Praying “Your kingdom come” is asking that we may live so as to be found in God’s coming kingdom on the right hand.
Sermon 56.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first three petitions concern eternal life; the last four the needs of this life, which will cease when we are equal to the angels.
Sermon 57.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If we pray so earnestly for rain to put off death a little, how much more should we pray to reach the life where there is no death.
Sermon 57.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God’s kingdom has no beginning or end; in praying “Your kingdom come” we ask to be among his kingdom, the redeemed, when he comes to raise the dead and set the blessed on his right.
Sermon 57.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Your will be done” has many senses: angels and us, saints and sinners, Church and enemies, spirit and flesh; the first three petitions concern eternity. Daily bread is bodily food, and also the eucharist, the word preached, the readings, and the hymns, needed for this pilgrimage.
Sermon 58.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God’s name is hallowed when we are made holy; praying for his kingdom to come is asking to be made good, so that it comes to us and not only to others.
Sermon 58.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The petition is a binding pact; candidates and faithful alike must forgive from the heart in these holy days, lest Christ, the Sun of justice, set on their anger.
Sermon 58.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first three petitions concern eternity, the last four this life; the Lord’s Prayer is said daily at the altar, so the newly baptized will learn it by hearing it.
Sermon 58.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At the Easter Vigil the candidates will recite the Creed; they should say it daily as a mirror of their faith and a garment for the soul, until faith gives way to the vision of God.
Sermon 59.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We pray for the kingdom to come so that we may be among the saints to whom it comes.
Sermon 59.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Of the seven petitions, three concern eternal life and four the present life, where temptation and evil require us to pray.
Sermon 60.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The world in its troubles should take counsel from Christ; present evils pass, but we should take more care to escape the evils that last for ever.
Sermon 60.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As the world is falling, God counsels us to move our treasure to heaven by giving to the poor, as a friend would counsel moving grain from damp ground to higher ground.
Sermon 60.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At the judgment Christ names only works of mercy as the reason for reward or punishment, passing over all other virtues and crimes.
Sermon 60.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ names alms alone at the judgment because alms redeem sins: the saved are not sinless but have redeemed their sins by mercy, while the condemned failed to.
Sermon 60.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Repentance without works of mercy is barren; John the Baptist’s “fruits worthy of repentance” are sharing clothing and food, and only one who forgives and gives will be heard.
Sermon 62.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s prophecy that many will come from east and west while the sons of the kingdom are cast out is now fulfilled, as the nations are called to the heavenly banquet.
Sermon 65.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A persecutor is a mortal man threatening a mortal man, and can touch only the body; the martyr, fearing God, does not fear, for the soul is untouched and the body will rise immortal.
Sermon 65.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The soul is immortal in its own way, since it gives life to the body and never ceases to live; but only God has true immortality, unchangeableness, and the soul can be killed, as Christ says.
Sermon 65.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The death of the soul is to be mourned more than that of the body; the martyr should fear not the sword but his own tongue, lest by denying Christ he kill his soul.
Sermon 65.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In Gehenna the body suffers everlasting punishment and the soul the absence of God; the soul should fear its own death, and the martyrs, fearing it, won their crowns.
Sermon 73.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The parable of the weeds teaches that bad Christians are mixed with the good in the Church until the harvest at the end of the age.
Sermon 73.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Good Christians must bear with the bad until the angels separate them at the harvest, remembering that there are weeds among the clergy as well as the people.
Sermon 75.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who think Christ’s threats of punishment are not real also treat him as a phantom; his promises and his threats are equally true.
Sermon 77.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The banquet of the kingdom is not fleshly feasting; true riches are needing nothing, and true health is immortality.
Sermon 77.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mortality is an incurable disease; in the kingdom the mind, not the belly, will be filled.
Sermon 78.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Seeing Jesus alone after rising from the ground signifies the resurrection, when the law and prophecy will cease and God himself will be our reward.
Sermon 81.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ foretold the troubles of the world, which is growing old; faith must be woken like Christ asleep in the boat, for he came to make us new in the world’s old age.
Sermon 84.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If this miserable life is loved so much, eternal life should be loved far more; people who ask for death in trouble flee it when it comes.
Sermon 84.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The days of this life are evil and shrinking, yet loved; true life is the eternal, blessed day of the resurrection, the reward of good work.
Sermon 86.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ bids us keep and provide for an eternal future; a dead Christian child is alive with Christ, so his share of the inheritance should be sent to him by giving it to the poor.
Sermon 86.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The rich man and Lazarus show the reversal that awaits the luxurious rich after death.
Sermon 87.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · All the righteous, from Abel to the Christians at the end of the age, receive the resurrection together, but the last receive it after a shorter wait.
Sermon 87.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The denarius is eternal life, equal for all, though the saints will shine with different degrees of glory.
Sermon 93.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The virgins’ sleep is not the cooling of love, since the wise persevered to the end, but the sleep of death, which all undergo.
Sermon 93.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who expect the judgment soon go out to meet the bridegroom in thought, but he delays and they die first; they must persevere in love until that sleep.
Sermon 93.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Midnight means the time no one expects; calculations of six thousand years since Adam come and go, but the Lord will come when it is not known.
Sermon 93.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The midnight cry is the last trumpet at which all the dead will rise; the oil carried in the vessels is the testimony of a good conscience within the heart, a gift of God.
Sermon 93.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · While the foolish look for praise and find none, the bridegroom comes with his glorified church, the door is shut, and they knock too late.
Sermon 93.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Knocking is answered now, in the time of mercy, not at the judgment; the bridegroom’s “I do not know you” means that he disowns those whose vices his art does not commit but condemns.
Sermon 93.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine urges the congregation to be among the wise, keeping watch with faith, hope, love, and works, so that after death they rise with lamps that never go out.
Sermon 97.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Rather than asking when the world will end, each should prepare for his own last day, since as he dies so he will be found at the judgment; the Son’s not knowing the day does not mean the Father knows what the Son does not.
Sermon 97.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Everything in life is uncertain except death, which begins at birth; what follows death depends on what we choose and sow here, as the rich man and Lazarus show.
Sermon 102.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A good or bad death is not judged by funerals or by the manner of dying, as fleshly people think; Christ teaching within the heart shows what it means.
Sermon 102.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The rich man and Lazarus show that a splendid funeral can be a very bad death, while the beggar’s miserable end was a good one.
Sermon 102.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Only what follows death shows whether a death was bad; seen with the heart, the poor man carried by angels died well, while the rich man lost everything and remained in torment.
Sermon 103.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the homeland there will be no one to serve, only the feast Mary chose, where Christ, having passed over through his Passion, will make his servants recline and will serve them.
Sermon 105.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even if Rome, the city of our birth, should fall, the heavenly city remains, built and guarded by God; earthly kingdoms were foretold to perish, but Christ’s kingdom will have no end.
Sermon 105.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · All earthly kingdoms will end; Christians should set their hearts above and shelter their hope, the egg, under the wings of Christ, the hen of the Gospel, against the scorpion of blasphemers.
Sermon 108.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ, who came, departed, and will come again, warns us to wait for the end with girded loins, abstaining from unlawful desires, and with lamps burning in good works, for we became Christians in hope of another world.
Sermon 109.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Life is the way, which ends at each one’s hour; years are subtracted, not added; so we must agree with God’s word now, and then the judge becomes a father, the officer an angel, and the prison paradise.
Sermon 110.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The judgment will surely come, since God has already fulfilled so many prophecies, of Christ, the church, the fall of idols, and even heretics; God is our debtor only by his promises.
Sermon 110.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God has paid most of what he promised, so we can trust him for the kingdom; the barren should repent and the bent, looking only at earthly happiness, should call on God to raise them as Christ raised the woman.
Sermon 111.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The three measures of meal are the human race descended from Noah’s three sons; the saved are few compared with the lost, but many in themselves, a heap of grain that will fill the barn of heaven, a multitude no one can number.
Sermon 117.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Creator transcends every likeness and can be seen only by a cleansed heart; for those not yet cleansed, the Word became what we are, and John promises that we shall see him as he is.
Sermon 119.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As a spoken word reaches the hearer without leaving the speaker’s heart, the Word came forth in flesh without leaving the Father; unlike our fleeting voice, he raised his flesh, his garment, vehicle, beast of burden, and temple, to the Father’s right hand, as our hope.
Sermon 122.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At the end all Israel, the children of the present Jews, will believe, and both peoples, made one, will see God face to face as Israel; Nathanael, the true Israelite, was promised the fulfillment of Jacob’s dream in Christ.
Sermon 125.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Jews took God’s sabbath rest literally, as if he had tired, but he who created by a word does not labor; his rest signifies the future rest of the saints after the six ages of the world, and he still works by governing creation without effort.
Sermon 125.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Forty signifies the fulfillment of the law, the ten commandments spread to the four corners of the world, which is restraint from love of the world, taught alike by Moses, Elijah, and Christ in their forty-day fasts; Lent figures this life of labor, and the fifty days after Easter, forty plus the denarius of reward, figure the eternal praise of the resurrection.
Sermon 127.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christians are not made for present goods but for what eye has not seen; like an infant who cannot believe he will grow up, we must believe what we do not yet see.
Sermon 127.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since people labor so hard to postpone death for a few days, how much more should they labor for eternal life, which is not merely to live always but to live blessedly.
Sermon 127.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even life without sickness and pain would be worth buying with oneself, but eternal life is more than can be said; Christ, through whom all times were made, is the Son always begotten and always with the Father.
Sermon 127.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The eternal begetting of the Son cannot be seen or spoken; it must be believed and worshiped until we pass from faith to sight.
Sermon 127.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God will be food that nourishes without being diminished, as light feeds many eyes without growing less.
Sermon 127.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The hour that “now is” is the resurrection of souls: unbelievers, dead though they walk about, are raised by the word to live by faith.
Sermon 127.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · All will rise in the body, but only those who have first risen in the soul by faith will rise to life; the others rise to punishment.
Sermon 127.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ will judge in the form of a servant, which both good and bad will see; the form of God is kept for the pure in heart.
Sermon 127.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The supreme happiness of the good is not health or deathlessness but the sight of God, granted to those who rose in heart by obedience.
Sermon 127.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The wicked will see Christ’s human form but not the glory of God, which he promised to show to those who love him.
Sermon 127.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Eternal life is to know and see God after the resurrection, as Christ says in John 17:3.
Sermon 127.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The hour of the bodily resurrection lies at the end of the world, when all in the tombs, good and bad, will hear Christ’s voice and come forth.
Sermon 127.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The God who made us from nothing can surely raise our dust and bones; whoever believes this rises now in soul and will rise in the flesh to life.
Sermon 128.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “So that you do not do what you will” means that the saints, who want no evil desire at all, cannot yet be rid of such desires; full victory comes only in the resurrection.
Sermon 130.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God becoming man and dying is more incredible than man living forever; since the greater has been done, we must believe the lesser, and rejoice that we are Christians, belonging to Christ.
Sermon 130.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christians boast in their patron Christ, who is their head; in the heavenly Jerusalem, with its gates barred, they will be secure forever.
Sermon 131.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Psalm 103 lists God’s benefits in order: forgiveness in baptism, the healing of weakness now, redemption from corruption at the resurrection, and finally the crown, which is given in mercy, since even our merits are God’s gifts.
Sermon 132.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those vowed to continence live the life of angels on earth; in the resurrection virginity, married chastity, and widowhood will shine differently, but all will share heaven.
Sermon 144.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Believers share Christ’s righteousness in going to the Father, now by faith and hope and fully at the resurrection; as Christ and his members are one, so the devil and the ungodly are one body under judgment.
Sermon 150.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since life or punishment follows death, as the rich man in purple learned, Christians should say not “Let us eat and drink” but “Let us fast, pray, and give alms, for tomorrow we die”; giving matters more than fasting.
Sermon 150.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The happy life means truth without deception and life without death or pain, which alone deserves the name of life; the philosophers missed the way to it, but Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, has come to us.
Sermon 151.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The saint does good in not consenting, but does not accomplish good, which would be not to desire; the enemy does evil in stirring desire, but does not accomplish it; this war lasts until the resurrection removes sin, death’s sting, which the Law only made more guilty.
Sermon 154.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine asks whether Paul had desires he resisted and notes that Paul himself confesses he had not yet reached the righteousness of the angels promised in the resurrection.
Sermon 154.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine distinguishes the wholly carnal man who consents to desire from the fighter who desires but does not follow his desires, whose victory comes only in the resurrection.
Sermon 154.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Deliverance by grace is not mere bodily death, which pagans also undergo, but the resurrection to life, while the wicked rise again to the body of death forever.
Sermon 154.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Christian is delivered from the body of this death not by losing the body but by receiving it raised and immortal, through Christ, the second man who undoes Adam's death.
Sermon 155.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who have Christ's Spirit still have a body dead because of sin, but they should not despair of it, as the next verse will show.
Sermon 155.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit who raised Jesus will give life to our mortal bodies; deliverance is from the body of death, not from the body, which the spirit loves as a husband his wife.
Sermon 156.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even a soul living by itself is carnal and cannot rise without God's outstretched arm; living by the flesh leads to the second death, not merely bodily death.
Sermon 156.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit is an earnest, part of the promised whole, who bears witness that we are God's sons; our inheritance is God himself, shared with Christ.
Sermon 157.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine exhorts his hearers to hope for the unseen eternal things God promises, not the deceiving world's present pleasures, and to ignore those who mock them with “Let us eat and drink.”
Sermon 157.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Temporal goods inflame, corrupt, and torment those who hope in them; Christians use them on pilgrimage without fixing their joy there, hoping for the eternal things that remain.
Sermon 157.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ, who raised Lazarus, rose himself, and told of Lazarus and the rich man, answers those who ask who has returned from the dead; the fulfilled promise to Abraham guarantees the rest.
Sermon 158.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Good works should seek only God himself as reward, who alone satisfies; faith working through love belongs to this life and will give way to sight.
Sermon 158.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Hope sustains the pilgrim on the way and will cease when the reality comes; in this hope the martyrs endured for Christ, who now dwells in hearts by faith.
Sermon 158.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the end God will be all in all, replacing every good sought here; faith and hope will give way to sight and reality, but love will remain and be perfected.
Sermon 161.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Our bodies are Christ's members and the Spirit's temple; the adulterer honors his wife's bedroom but not God's temple, and though he outlives the chaste, he will be cut off from the land of the living.
Sermon 161.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · There are only two dwellings, eternal fire and the eternal kingdom; people who run to the bishop in terror of prison or death should fear hell's fire far more.
Sermon 161.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No enemy can kill the soul, but a man can kill his own soul by lying; from what people fear on earth they should learn to fear hell and eternal death.
Sermon 161.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · One who refrains from adultery only for fear of hell is not yet to be praised, though Christ commands that fear; such fear is a guard and tutor that keeps the place for love, which makes one not want to sin.
Sermon 161.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A lustful lover fears only that his beloved will not see him; if we loved God, the thought of not seeing his face would terrify us, and if not, let us at least fear hell.
Sermon 163.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Victory over desire will come at the resurrection; meanwhile God delays his help so that we feel the struggle and are not proud, yet he is present even in delaying.
Sermon 163.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The triumphant cry over death belongs to the resurrection; until then the humble fighter must pray “Forgive us our debts” and confess truthfully that he is not without sin.
Sermon 166.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Believers are called not to be mere men but sons of God, made gods by grace and adoption, not by nature; truthfulness is God's gift, and the whole person, deified, will cling to unchanging truth in the resurrection.
Sermon 169.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The “power of Christ's resurrection” is not only the raising of his flesh, which ours will even surpass by rising from ashes, but our justification, the true circumcision by Christ the rock.
Sermon 169.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul, conformed to Christ's death by baptism, confessed that he was not yet perfect: the one thing he lacked was to dwell in the Lord's house and contemplate his delight.
Sermon 170.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Compared with the angels' righteousness in the resurrection, where there will be no desire, present righteousness is loss and dung; whoever thinks he has fulfilled it stops on the way, and a humble sinner is better than a proud righteous man.
Sermon 170.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Perfect righteousness comes only when we see God's face, whose sweetness overcomes all desire; until then believers must wait patiently, for little time remains compared with the ages that have passed.
Sermon 170.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ rose on the first day, we on the last; each person's last day is near, so desire should be only for eternal life, of which the Spirit is now a pledge, not for self-satisfied comparison with others.
Sermon 172.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Grief at the death of loved ones is natural, since death is a punishment from which nature recoils, but Christians grieve with the hope of resurrection, not as those without hope.
Sermon 172.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Funerals and monuments console the living, but the Church's prayers, the eucharistic sacrifice, and alms help the faithful dead, though only those who lived so as to be helped; no new merit is gained after death.
Sermon 172.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mourners may weep with healable grief and should be comforted by others; burial is a good work praised in Scripture, but offerings, prayers, and alms that help the dead matter much more.
Sermon 173.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At commemorations of the dead we should hope and fear: the righteous will hear “Come, blessed,” the wicked “Go into the fire”; Christ's promise means that believers who die in body live in spirit and will not die forever.
Sermon 173.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Faith in the resurrection distinguishes Christians from pagans; grief is human and Christ himself wept, not for Lazarus but for death, the penalty of the soul's desertion of God; death is so bitter that martyrs' courage is great.
Sermon 173.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christians must grieve, but not as those without hope: the departed soul leaves the body lifeless, yet Paul's promise of resurrection and of being always with the Lord consoles, for Christ too passed through death.
Sermon 178.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God's “Fool” is a sentence of damnation; and the rich man of Luke 16 was condemned not for robbery but only for his lack of mercy to Lazarus, so robbers can expect worse.
Sermon 178.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Alms given from robbery are not accepted by God: the robber feeds one Christian by despoiling another, and if those who failed to clothe Christ go into eternal fire, what of those who stripped him?
Sermon 178.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Chaste love desires to see God himself: whoever would be terrified if God, removing every threat of punishment, said only “I will deny you my face” loves freely, and that spark should be nourished until it burns up carnal desires.
Sermon 179.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Martha's service of bodily needs will cease when mortality ends, though its reward remains; Christ deigned to hunger so that those who fed him might be rewarded, while Mary's part will never be taken away.
Sermon 179.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Bodily service will pass, but the food of truth grows into the full banquet of the kingdom, where Christ will serve his saints; the hearers' present delight in truth, though they see no bodily form, foreshadows that sweeter joy.
Sermon 182.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Only Christ is the true light; we are lamps to be lit, and our evils are vices, not natures, to be healed until we become wholly light in the resurrection, when death and sin will be no more.
Sermon 194.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The riches hidden in Christ's poverty will be revealed when we see God; then we shall be like him and fully satisfied.
Sermon 210.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · This life is the “little while” of sorrow and labor before the joy no one can take away; meanwhile we fast and pray in hope, with the Spirit as pledge.
Sermon 213.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ who will come as judge is now our advocate, so believers need not fear his coming but should long for it.
Sermon 213.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The resurrection of the flesh will bring an end without end, free of every bodily ill; God will possess us as his field, which only he, the almighty farmer, can make grow.
Sermon 214.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ will come to judge in the human form in which he ascended and was judged; all will see that form, but only the pure in heart will see the form of God.
Sermon 214.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Our mortal flesh will rise incorruptible; Christ, who took and laid down and took back soul and flesh, will give eternal life to both.
Sermon 215.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The risen Christ ascended and sits at the Father's right hand as our advocate, and will come as judge.
Sermon 217.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ wills that his own be with him in the secure home of heaven; we reach that good place by feeding, sheltering, and welcoming the needy in this bad place.
Sermon 217.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ has prepared the good place; Lent signifies the toil of this passing world and the Easter season the one eternal day to come.
Sermon 223.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The present Church is a threshing floor of grain and chaff; the good must bear with the wicked and not separate themselves before the final winnowing, while the chaff may still become grain.
Sermon 231.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Happiness is not found on earth, as Christ, who found only our misery here, showed; he invites us to his heavenly table and gives his death as a pledge of his life.
Sermon 233.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Death has died in Christ the head and will die in his members at the resurrection, when believers will taunt death; but it will live on in the damned.
Sermon 235.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ withdrew his bodily presence so that faith might grow; what we do not see will come, to the joy of believers and the confusion of unbelievers.
Sermon 236.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ, recognized as a guest in the breaking of bread, is received in every needy Christian; in heaven all need will end, and our whole business will be the praise of God.
Sermon 240.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even pagans admit that God is almighty; to deny that he can raise the dead is to detract from his almightiness.
Sermon 240.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Our bodily miseries come from sin; Christ shared the punishment without the sin and will raise the flesh incorruptible and free of every defect.
Sermon 240.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Platonist philosophers taught the soul's immortality but also its endless return into bodies; God has made such wisdom foolish, and believers in the Mediator will receive their bodies back for glory.
Sermon 241.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The philosophers came to know the Creator from his works, as Romans 1 teaches, and so are without excuse for not glorifying him.
Sermon 241.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine mocks the Platonist notion that purified souls in the stars forget their past miseries and yet desire to return to bodies.
Sermon 241.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even Virgil's Aeneas recoiled from the doctrine of souls returning to bodies; such souls would be happy only by error, whereas the Truth gives true freedom.
Sermon 241.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If souls return from heavenly happiness to bodily misery, the philosophers' hope makes present misery hopeful and future happiness hopeless; and love of bodies would be a stain in purified souls.
Sermon 241.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against Porphyry's maxim that all body is to be fled, Augustine points to the philosophers' own teaching that the world is an eternal living being with a soul forever joined to its body.
Sermon 241.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Plato's Timaeus has God promise the star-gods that they will never leave their bodies, which refutes the Platonists' claim that all body must be fled.
Sermon 242.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The risen Christ let his disciples see and handle his body; men argue against this because they believe only what they are used to seeing, but God, the author, did it.
Sermon 242.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The risen Lord ate not from need but from power, as the angels ate when Abraham received them, though they were not corruptible.
Sermon 242.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ kept his scars by choice, not necessity, so that the scar in his flesh might heal the wound of the disciples’ unbelief.
Sermon 242.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Scripture does not settle whether dead infants rise as infants; it is more reasonable to hold that all rise at full age, without the weakness of childhood or old age.
Sermon 242.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Philosophers argue from the order of the elements that an earthly body cannot be in heaven; but the answer cannot be that we shall stay on earth, since the Lord ascended with his body.
Sermon 242.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ, Word, soul, and body in one person, ascended with the flesh taken from earth; even Plato makes God keep created gods from dissolving by his will, so God can do what is otherwise impossible.
Sermon 242.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If a craftsman can make lead float, God can give the risen body what the craftsman gives lead; and water itself hangs in the clouds above the air.
Sermon 242.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A heavy, healthy man runs while a light, sick man barely walks; if health gives such ease of movement, immortality will give far more.
Sermon 242.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The risen body is called spiritual not because it becomes spirit but because it will obey the spirit perfectly, with no more war between flesh and spirit.
Sermon 243.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ showed his risen body to confirm the resurrection; opponents then ask what use teeth, stomach, and sexual organs will be where there is no eating or begetting.
Sermon 243.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Teeth serve speech as well as eating; the other members will exist for beauty, and the hidden harmony of the body’s proportions will then be known.
Sermon 243.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the resurrection thoughts will be open to all, for no one will think evil; the saints will know one another, even those never seen, by a knowledge like the prophets’.
Sermon 243.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Some members serve no use even now, such as the beard and a man’s nipples, but only beauty; so the risen members, including those now shameful, will exist for beauty.
Sermon 243.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The risen body will lack nothing of beauty, and its order, already admirable now, will be far greater where there is no lust or corruption.
Sermon 243.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The fifty days after Easter signify the life to come, in which the saints will stand, see, love, and praise God with Alleluia without weariness.
Sermon 248.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The two miraculous catches of fish, before the passion and after the resurrection, figure the Church as it is now, good and bad mixed, and as it will be, the good alone in a fixed number.
Sermon 248.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The second catch, on the right side, figures the Church after the resurrection, the good alone in a fixed number; the 153 fish stand for countless saints, as the Apocalypse shows.
Sermon 250.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The second catch, on the right, figures the saints after the resurrection, unbroken in unity; 153 is the sum to 17, the ten commandments with the sevenfold Spirit, without whom the letter kills.
Sermon 251.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The catch on the right signifies the fixed number of saints who will reign with Christ; many now in the Church are beyond the number, so believers must not imitate bad Christians.
Sermon 251.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The nets drawn to shore signify the end of the world; in the present Church, also called the kingdom of heaven, one who teaches well and lives badly is “least,” yet still useful, like the scribes on Moses’ seat.
Sermon 252.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The 153 fish signify the future Church in the heavenly Jerusalem, where hearts will lie open and no bad person can enter.
Sermon 252.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The fifty days of Alleluia after Easter signify the eternal rest, whose whole activity will be the praise of God without weariness.
Sermon 252.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Forty years in the desert signify this life; the denarius of the parable of the vineyard (ten) added to forty makes fifty, the Church to come; fifty times three, plus the three of the Trinity, makes 153.
Sermon 254.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The fifty days of Alleluia signify the endless praise of God in his heavenly house; it must be praised by life as well as by tongue.
Sermon 255.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Alleluia means “Praise God”; now it is the traveler’s song on the hard road, and in the homeland it will be the only activity left.
Sermon 255.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To the sons of men belongs hope under God’s wings and the promise of the abundance of his house; now love sings Alleluia in hope and hunger, then it will sing in enjoyment.
Sermon 255.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Martha’s life of necessity stretches us apart, Mary’s one thing stretches us out toward God; in the end that one thing, God himself, will be all things to us, and the ungodly will not see his glory.
Sermon 255.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The carnal soul fears a heaven without food or marriage, but such desires are like a sick man’s cravings, which health removes; immortality will remove them all, and God will be all in all.
Sermon 256.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against those who say the flesh is no part of a man, Paul shows that he is delivered not from his body but from its mortality: the same body will rise incorruptible, and death will be swallowed up in victory.
Sermon 256.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even amid temptation Alleluia must be sung, for God is faithful; then the risen body will be immortal and the praise secure, but now we sing like travelers, to console our labor as we walk on in good.
Sermon 259.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The octave day signifies eternal life with the angels, which we cannot be shown but must believe; Christ showed his scars to Thomas to instruct those who would believe without seeing.
Sermon 259.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The seventh day signifies the saints’ future sabbath rest with the Lord on a cleansed earth after the judgment, at the end of six world ages; the eighth signifies the eternal life that returns to the beginning, and 153 is again explained from fifty.
Sermon 261.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The resurrection is our hope and the ascension our glorification; we must lift our hearts with the ascending Christ, but to the Lord, for a heart lifted to him is refuge and one lifted elsewhere is pride.
Sermon 263.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We see the ascension by faith and should ascend with Christ in heart; no one ascends but he who descended, yet we ascend in him as his members, if sins do not weigh the spirit down.
Sermon 264.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “The Father is greater than I” rebuked and consoled disciples fixed on Christ’s flesh: he is less as man, equal as God, unchanged by taking flesh as a senator by prison clothes; he withdrew outwardly to fill them inwardly.
Sermon 264.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The same flesh will rise, the wicked to punishment and the good to be changed into a heavenly body; Christ, true flesh, rose first as the firstfruits, and those who would believe a risen grandfather refuse to believe the risen Lord.
Sermon 265.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The angels foretold that Christ will return in the same form, as God and man, to judge; his death is to be marveled at, his resurrection praised, and his coming awaited with readiness.
Sermon 265.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The disciples, like us, longed to know when Christ would come; their question “Will you be present at this time?” referred to his appearing at the judgment, when the kingdom will be given to those on the right.
Sermon 265.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ answered that it is not for us to know the times; curiosity must give way to piety, and we should live as if he were coming today, attending instead to what he chose to tell us.
Sermon 270.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first catch signifies the present Church of good and bad, torn by schisms; the catch of 153 large fish on the right signifies the risen Church of the good, those who fulfill the law (ten) by the grace of the Spirit (seven), seventeen being the seed of 153.
Sermon 275.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The devil, working through the governor, was more tortured than Vincent, as the judge’s rage betrayed; if martyrs have such joy in dying, what will the saints’ reign be, and what will the wicked suffer at the judgment?
Sermon 275.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God honored Vincent’s body with a miracle so that what the enemy tried to hide was found and venerated; such miracles at the saints’ remains show that nothing that dies perishes for God.
Sermon 277.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Had Vincent denied Christ to spare his body, he would only have postponed eternal punishment for that body; all will rise, but those who denied Christ to the resurrection of judgment, that is, eternal punishment.
Sermon 277.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Martyrs did not despise their bodies, as the philosophers who call the body a prison do, but secured them eternal glory; even present health, the concord of the body’s elements, is a great good, though nothing to the angelic health promised in the resurrection.
Sermon 277.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Health is to perceive nothing of the body, though animals surpass us in every sense, and stones and corpses too perceive nothing.
Sermon 277.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No present body, not even a bird’s, is as swift as desire; the spiritual body of the resurrection will obey the will with perfect ease and speed.
Sermon 277.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Taking Vincent’s passion as occasion to speak of the spiritual body, Augustine notes that health is not feeling one’s organs, and that the sun’s and the angels’ swiftness, though beyond our experience, hints at the ease of the risen body.
Sermon 277.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul compared the resurrection to the eye’s ray, “in the twinkling of an eye”: the body that took years to form and to decay will be restored in an instant.
Sermon 277.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If the resurrection itself will be instantaneous, the spiritual body will move with wonderful ease; the risen Christ even passed through shut doors, and he will conform our bodies to his glorious body.
Sermon 277.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We should not define the spiritual body rashly; but God is not a body, is not seen in a place, and is whole everywhere at once, as the Word is whole with the Father, in the Virgin, and in the infant.
Sermon 277.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whether spiritual eyes will see God is not settled in Scripture as far as Augustine knows; but eyes that see only across space cannot see God, who is in no place, unless they are given another power.
Sermon 277.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Until the question is settled we must hold firmly that the body will rise spiritual and that the Trinity is invisible as it is immortal and incorruptible; meanwhile we should cleanse our hearts to see God.
Sermon 277.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “All flesh will see the salvation of God” proves only that all, just and unjust, will see Christ in his human body at the judgment; the vision of his divinity is promised to those who love him, and the ungodly will not see God’s glory.
Sermon 277.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Simeon saw God’s salvation both with the heart and with his eyes in the infant Christ; and the angels at the ascension promised that Christ will return visibly, so that all flesh will see him.
Sermon 277.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine does not deny that the risen flesh may see God, but finds no clear testimony; what must be held firmly is that God is not a body or in a place, and that the body will rise spiritual and immortal.
Sermon 279.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Death cannot be avoided, but eternal punishment can, by living well; Christ’s death and resurrection show both, so believers should confess him without shame, as Paul, who seized in the morning, divided the food of the word in the evening.
Sermon 280.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since people labor so hard merely to postpone death, the martyrs’ reward of a life without death must be valued all the more, and their contest seen as great.
Sermon 280.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The martyrs’ present happiness is only a foretaste; at the resurrection the whole person, body included, receives reward or punishment, as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus shows.
Sermon 288.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · ‘He must increase, I must decrease’ means that all voices, prophets, apostles and Scriptures, fall away as we advance to seeing the Word as he is, which the deaths and birthdays of John and Christ also signify.
Sermon 293.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · ‘All die in Adam, all are made alive in Christ’ means that no one comes to death except through Adam and no one to life except through Christ.
Sermon 294.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Pelagians agree that infants are to be baptized, but say it is for entry to the kingdom of heaven, not for salvation and eternal life, which they claim sinless infants have anyway; Augustine asks whether eternal life exists outside the kingdom.
Sermon 294.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · There is no middle place between the kingdom on the right and eternal fire on the left at the judgment; since the kingdom is eternal life, an infant excluded from the kingdom cannot have eternal life.
Sermon 294.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul warns sinners only that they will not possess the kingdom, which implies eternal fire; salvation comes only in the name of Jesus Christ, and to promise infants salvation without Christ endangers the promiser’s own.
Sermon 294.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If infants have no original sin, the Pelagians cannot justly exclude them from the kingdom, since even exile from it would be a punishment inflicted on the innocent; denying original sin leaves them no answer.
Sermon 294.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · ‘Whoever does not believe is already condemned’ and ‘the wrath of God remains upon him’ leave no eternal life outside faith; baptized infants are counted among believers, while original fault, become nature in Adam’s descendants, is healed only by Christ.
Sermon 296.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christians are called to suffer temporal evils and hope for eternal goods; God foretold wars and famines before the end, so believers should not murmur when they come.
Sermon 296.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If the world suffers more now, it is because God’s will has been made known by the Gospel and is despised; the servant who knows his master’s will and stores treasure on earth, not in heaven where the Goth cannot take it, is beaten with many stripes.
Sermon 297.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If we love life, let us choose a good one now and a happy one later; we want everything good except ourselves, and those who sin, even kill or remarry adulterously, to preserve this wretched life lose eternal life.
Sermon 298.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul rejoiced to be ‘sacrificed’, longing to be dissolved and be with Christ; he passed through narrow sufferings to the place of breadth, and the crown owed to him follows the grace, not owed, that made the persecutor an apostle.
Sermon 299.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul spoke of being ‘sacrificed’ to God, repaying with his blood the cup of salvation he had received; the crown is promised to all who love Christ’s appearing, and those who say they want the judge to come should fear his manifest coming in fire.
Sermon 299.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whoever keeps the faith may await the crown as owed, since God made himself a debtor by his promise; the rest of the paragraph is badly damaged in the digital text.
Sermon 299.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul too shrank from death: groaning under the burden of the body, he wished not to be stripped but clothed over, so that the mortal might be swallowed up by life at the resurrection, when death’s contention and sting are no more.
Sermon 299.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Bodily death comes from sin, the sting of death; God leaves it even to the justified as a contest for faith, though he took up Enoch and Elijah by special grace to show his power.
Sermon 299.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the Pelagian claim that death is natural, citing Enoch and Elijah, Augustine replies that their survival tells against nature as much as sin; their fault was ended, and Revelation’s two witnesses, probably they, will yet die.
Sermon 301.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God was present both to the three young men, whom he delivered visibly, and to the Maccabees, whom he crowned invisibly by ending their life of temptation; those who think happiness is in this world have not ‘passed by’ in heart, and so the impious seem great to them.
Sermon 301.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The wicked have a place in this world but none in the next; the world is a goldsmith’s furnace in which the same tribulation purifies the righteous like gold and burns the impious like straw.
Sermon 301.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who live by faith should grieve at the false happiness of the wicked; as in Psalm 73, the puzzle of the wicked prospering and the good suffering is solved only by entering God’s sanctuary and understanding the last things.
Sermon 301.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · What awaits the righteous in heaven cannot be explained; so believers should not envy the wicked or count worldly riches happiness, which is a burden and a danger, but pass beyond everything changeable to the unchangeable God.
Sermon 301.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Life is short and uncertain, even Adam’s long life now nothing; let us live as pilgrims by faith, knowing that all passes but the word of the Lord abides forever.
Sermon 302.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · On the feast of Lawrence, Augustine notes that temporal favors granted through the martyr are like toys for children; he describes the misery of this life, which is still loved so much, and asks his hearers to love eternal life at least as much as worldlings love this one.
Sermon 302.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · People do everything to delay death by a day, yet hardly anything for eternal life; they should do something so as never to die.
Sermon 302.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · People will give up all their goods to the treasury to live a little longer, but not superfluities to Christ to live forever; begging in this world and reigning with Christ cannot even be weighed against each other.
Sermon 302.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christians should love the life God has prepared, which is God himself, beyond anything eye has seen; this life is a vapor, and the martyrs, lovers of the eternal one, paved the way to it by their sufferings.
Sermon 302.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine warns his people away from bloody deeds; an evil man’s death calls for double grief, since he dies both in time and in eternity, and their part is to grieve, not to rage.
Sermon 303.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Heavenly rewards are promised not only to martyrs but to all who follow Christ in faith and love; meditating on the glory of reigning with Christ makes the mind unconquerable, and faith ready for martyrdom is crowned even in peace.
Sermon 305.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ is the grain that died and multiplied, and Lawrence is one of the grains scattered from it; but not all in the crop reach the barn, and now, before the final winnowing, is the time to separate ourselves by our conduct.
Sermon 306.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Scripture calls only the blessed life ‘life’: the wicked will exist in torment but that is the ‘second death’, not life, so ‘the resurrection of life’ and ‘the fountain of life’ mean happy life.
Sermon 306.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The rich young man asked for eternal life, thinking he already had a happy one, but Christ answered ‘if you want to come to life’, since only a life that is both eternal and happy deserves the name.
Sermon 306.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Life and health that might end are not true life, for fear torments; true life is both eternal and happy, certain to last, in God’s just and everlasting kingdom, which the good seek confidently by keeping the commandments.
Sermon 306.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the life to come there will be no deceit or false suspicion, which now causes many evils; Christ commanded love of enemies so that we would not hate even friends we wrongly suspect.
Sermon 306.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even if death and sickness were taken away, we would still want truth, to know one another’s hearts without suspicion; the happy life is life with truth, and to reach the life where no one is deceived we must now live without deceiving.
Sermon 311.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · There is another life after this one: Christians who hear ‘Lift up your heart’ daily should send their treasure ahead to heaven, the rich by doing good and the poor by not murmuring, for having God is everything.
Sermon 328.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Fulfilled prophecy guarantees the coming judgment, when each will rise with his cause, the wicked to greater punishment in the body and the righteous to the kingdom.
Sermon 328.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The martyrs are already happy with Christ, but their glory after the resurrection, in the very bodies that suffered, will be greater.
Sermon 330.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God's gifts of nature, life and food are common to good and bad, but he keeps for the good what no eye has seen, to which the heart must rise.
Sermon 330.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God keeps himself as the reward of the good; the martyrs endured for God as the greedy endure for gold, but with a different cause and result.
Sermon 334.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The martyrs could say “If God is for us, who is against us?” amid every torture, since the Lord who numbers their hairs upholds their souls and will restore their bodies.
Sermon 334.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ given to us is to be our possession and inheritance; at the end God will be all in all, giving himself in place of everything for which people now sin.
Sermon 337.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As the visible church is built for gathering, believers are being built as God's temple, with toil now and gladness at its dedication when Christ comes.
Sermon 337.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The psalmist's longing to dwell in God's house is ours; those who dwell in God's house are themselves his house, built now in hope and patience.
Sermon 337.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The basilica, built for a time through works of mercy, is a good temporal work leading to the eternal house; believers are to build in themselves a house of faith, hope and love.
Sermon 339.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pleasure is sweet for a time and bitter afterwards, so Christians should toil briefly on the road to reach eternal joy in the homeland.
Sermon 343.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As God freed Susanna, he freed Mary from Joseph's benevolent suspicion; virginal and conjugal chastity both please God, with unequal rewards in one eternal life, and married people must carry Christ's light yoke.
Sermon 344.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Love of the world and love of God contend in every temptation; Christ came to change our love, and the martyrs, burning with love of God, overcame the flesh, which will be honoured in the resurrection.
Sermon 344.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Everyone must suffer the first death, but the second death awaits only the wicked; as people pay ransom to barbarians for a short life, they should seek justice and the blood of Christ to be ransomed from the second death.
Sermon 344.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · People spend everything to gain a few uncertain days, and some even deny Christ, losing eternal life for a little time; Christians should rather despise those days.
Sermon 345.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · On Easter Augustine warns the rich that this life and its riches are a dream, like a beggar dreaming of treasure; the rich man of the parable woke in flames with nothing in his hands.
Sermon 346.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Only eternal life is true and blessed life; Christ is both the way and the goal, and the rich are told to lay hold of true life through almsgiving.
Sermon 346.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In this pilgrimage Christ is the way, walked by faith, and the truth and life, seen at the end; we must abide in his word and be cleansed by faith before we can see.
Sermon 348.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Epicureans and Stoics boast of fearlessness, but the one loves vain pleasure and the other a pitiless numbness, which is not health but death of the soul without God.
Sermon 348.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The fear of punishment, which love casts out, differs from the chaste fear of losing God, which abides for ever.
Sermon 349.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Family must be loved, but Christ more; where love of Christ is still weak, fear of being without him should lead the way, like a slave escorting a child to the teacher.
Sermon 351.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The second repentance lasts through the whole of life, for the baptized still long to be freed from this mortal, tempted existence, which Job calls a temptation and a shadow.
Sermon 351.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The third repentance, for grave sins, requires the sinner to judge himself, weep, and accept exclusion from the eucharist by church discipline, so as not to be excluded from the heavenly altar.
Sermon 351.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who persist in grave sin cannot hope for salvation outside the kingdom, for at the judgment all not judging with Christ will be divided into sheep and goats, though the baptized were washed from such sins.
Sermon 354.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Not all who receive the sacrament of Christ's body will be among his members at the judgment; the worst enemies are those inside the Church who love the world and envy the faithful.
Sermon 359.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Concord among Christians, love of every neighbour, and the Church's union with Christ answer Sirach's three goods; Augustine urges the congregation of the new basilica Florentia to be their bishop's true Florentia and to hope for the resurrection Christ showed in his flesh.
Sermon 361.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine takes as his starting point the congregation's reaction to Paul's quotation of those who deny the resurrection: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Sermon 361.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christian faith and hope rest on the resurrection of the dead; denying it is unbelief, imagining a carnal life after it is the error of carnal Christians, and Christians, accepting the apostle's authority, may then inquire what risen life will be like.
Sermon 361.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Because pagan mockers of the resurrection influence weak Christians, Augustine will first treat whether the dead rise and then, if time allows, what the life of the just will be like.
Sermon 361.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who say “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” do not really reckon with death; funerals briefly prompt reflection, but afterwards people return to greed and pleasure, even using death as an argument for indulgence.
Sermon 361.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mockers ask who has returned from the dead and argue that offerings at tombs benefit only the living; Augustine notes that funerary meals are a pagan custom, and that Tobit's instruction about the tombs of the just refers to Christian acts of charity at the memorials.
Sermon 361.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christians tempted by mockers to drunken festivity are like the disciples in the storm: Christ, who dwells in them by faith, is asleep, and they must wake him by remembering what they believe.
Sermon 361.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To the demand that someone return from the dead, the Christian answers that the Lord of all has risen, shown himself bodily to his disciples, and been proclaimed through the whole world.
Sermon 361.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Grieving the buried dead is like a farmer ignorant of farming lamenting the seed he has sown; those who know the harvest rejoice even at the sowing.
Sermon 361.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ the grain of wheat, sleep and waking, the phases of the moon, and the yearly return of leaves all point to the resurrection; even what rots, like manure, returns as the life of the tree.
Sermon 361.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Decay does not make resurrection impossible, as if only embalmed Egyptian mummies could rise: God, who made us from nothing, can remake what was.
Sermon 361.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Believers should hold fast to the way, for Christ the head has risen as the pattern for his members, and he called blessed those who believe without seeing.
Sermon 361.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pagans who dare not attack Christ attack Christians, but the body is joined to the head, as Christ's cry to Saul and the tongue's cry for the trodden foot show; Augustine warns against the claim that resurrection was allowed to Christ alone.
Sermon 361.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Unbelievers praise Christ as unique in order to make Christians despair of their own resurrection; the awakened faith will answer through Christ dwelling within.
Sermon 361.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ could rise because he is God, but he died and rose in the form of a servant he took from us; sinless, he bore our mortality as Jacob wore borrowed skins, so his resurrection gives hope to his members.
Sermon 361.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ's mortality was real but came from mercy, not sin; since he died and rose in the form of a servant taken from us, the servants may hope to rise, and even those who see him only as a just man must trust his promise.
Sermon 361.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine sums up his arguments for the resurrection from nature, from God's omnipotence, and from Christ's resurrection in the form of a servant, and turns the mockers' slogan into “Let us fast and pray, for tomorrow we shall die.”
Sermon 361.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Postponing the second question, Augustine warns against the pagan festival days: the last day will come as in Noah's time, and the Church should long for Christ her bridegroom and repent like the Ninevites.
Sermon 361.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The building of Noah's ark figures the present building of the Church by Christ; those who ignore it now are more culpable, and Christians should fast and pray so as to die secure, awaiting the Lord.
Sermon 362.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine takes up the second half of a promised discussion of the resurrection: what the life of the righteous will be like.
Sermon 362.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Recalling the previous sermon's rebuke of those who deny the resurrection, Augustine compares hearers to fields and the blessed life of the righteous to hidden barns.
Sermon 362.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The barns and the vessels of the parable of the net both signify the hidden dwelling of the saints, the "hiding place of God's face," which is not to be pictured carnally.
Sermon 362.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As pilgrims who walk by faith and not by sight, neither Augustine nor even Paul can describe the hidden life to come as one who already knows it.
Sermon 362.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine will speak of the life to come as one who believes, not as one who knows; even Christ withheld what his disciples could not yet bear.
Sermon 362.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No Christian may doubt the resurrection; the question now is what bodies and what life the saints will have, since some think only souls will rise.
Sermon 362.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The flesh will rise, though not for the same mortal life; the passing events of Christ's life were like builders' machines that raised the lasting building of his risen humanity.
Sermon 362.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Unlike earthly buildings, the heavenly Jerusalem has its foundation above: Christ, its head and foundation, has gone ahead into heaven.
Sermon 362.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · With Christ as foundation in the heart, Christians must build gold rather than straw; Augustine wonders that people fear earthly fire yet despise the fire of judgment.
Sermon 362.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christians should hope for a resurrection like Christ's, who rose in the body that was buried and ate on earth, as angels also truly ate with Abraham and Tobias.
Sermon 362.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Humans eat from the need of a failing, mortal body, as a lamp needs oil; the angel with Tobias truly ate, but from power, to suit himself to mortals, not from need.
Sermon 362.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the resurrection there will be the power to eat but not the need; the risen Christ ate and showed his scars to convince his disciples, not from hunger.
Sermon 362.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Some object from 1 Cor 15:50 that the flesh will not rise; but the gospel shows that Christ's true flesh, taken from Mary, died, was buried, and rose.
Sermon 362.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A quick answer to the objection: flesh does not possess but is possessed; risen, we shall carry and rule the flesh, and carnal-minded people, who are "flesh and blood," will not possess the kingdom.
Sermon 362.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Read in context, 1 Cor 15:47–50 contrasts the earthly man, whose image all mortals bear, with the heavenly man, whose image believers now bear by faith as members of their risen head.
Sermon 362.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ is called "from heaven" though his body came from Mary, because he was born without earthly desire or sin and his citizenship never left heaven; his members ascend in him.
Sermon 362.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · By "flesh and blood" Paul means corruption, not the body's form; Christ's answer to the Sadducees shows that the risen will not marry or die but be equal to the angels.
Sermon 362.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul removes the misunderstanding of "flesh and blood" by announcing a mystery: all will rise, but only the faithful will be changed, and that for the better.
Sermon 362.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine explains the "atom" of time and the "twinkling of an eye": the dead will rise in an indivisible instant, and the change of the faithful will be for the better.
Sermon 362.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The change is the putting on of incorruption and immortality; the risen flesh is no longer properly called "flesh and blood," names of mortality, but a heavenly body.
Sermon 362.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Some, already in the apostles' time, said the resurrection had already happened; Augustine explains that death will not depart but be swallowed up in the body itself.
Sermon 362.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · There is a spiritual resurrection now through faith, turning from sin to good works, and a bodily one to come; the wicked will rise whole but only for unending pain.
Sermon 362.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Scripture speaks of both resurrections, spiritual and bodily (Rom 8:10–11); the heretics of 2 Tim 2:18 kept the first and denied the second.
Sermon 362.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · John 5:24–29 shows both resurrections: the present one of souls through faith ("the hour is coming and now is"), and the future rising of all bodies from the tombs, to life or to judgment.
Sermon 362.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine discourages curious questions about the shape of risen bodies: it is enough that they rise in human form like the Lord's, without corruption, to the life of angels.
Sermon 362.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The life to come is easier described by what it lacks: no marriage, growth, eating, business, or even works of mercy, since there will be no misery; it will be a perpetual sabbath of rest.
Sermon 362.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In heaven there will be no sleep, and the saints' whole activity will be Amen and Alleluia, said not with passing sounds but with insatiable delight in the truth seen face to face.
Sermon 362.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The heavenly banquet is a figure: the saints' food will be truth itself, their reclining everlasting rest, their feast the eternal life of knowing God.
Sermon 362.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The life to come will be delightful contemplation: freed from labor and need, the saints will be still, see God as he is, and praise him for ever; the sermon ends with a prayer.
Sermon 366.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The house of the Lord is paradise and its length of days eternal life, free of toil and grief; the candidates are urged to lay hold of what they believe by good conduct.
Sermon 367.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The rich man is refused mercy in torment because he refused mercy to Lazarus on earth; God repays with the same measure.
Sermon 378.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A Pentecost sermon: the Holy Spirit, poured out on the hundred and twenty, is the earnest (not a returnable pledge) of eternal life, given to pilgrims to make them long for their heavenly homeland.
Sermon 388.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the judgment scene of Matthew 25 Christ names only almsgiving, given or withheld, not because other deeds are not judged, but to admonish us, since alms redeem sins.
Sermon 395.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · An Ascension sermon: "Lift up your heart" means seeking the things above; hope belongs to this life and ends happily when its object, the life to come, is possessed.
Sermon 396.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At a bishop's death the preacher consoles the people and himself: human weakness grieves, but hope consoles; the bishop did not live too little, for his works filled a short life, and life with God has no end.
Sermon 396.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The people should honor their dead bishop by holding fast to his teaching and example, making their memory his living tomb; grief is human, but must not become faithless despair.
Homily 1.3 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The joy of the Spirit in affliction made the Thessalonians examples to others; Chrysostom warns against spiritual sleep and teaches that the prayers of the saints help only those who also strive.
Homily 2.1 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The fame of the Thessalonians’ faith spread everywhere, as Macedonia’s fame had spread under Alexander; their conversion and waiting for the risen Christ is comfort under persecution.
Homily 6.2 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul comforts the Thessalonians about the dead; Chrysostom rebukes Christian widows and mothers who mourn like pagans, answering their reasons and saying that God, who is jealous for our love, takes those on whom we lean.
Homily 6.3 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · God takes husbands and children because we love them more than him; widows who love God more will not feel widowhood, for God gave them everything, and widowhood frees them and gives them power over demons, while God is father of orphans.
Homily 6.4 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The end of Homily 6 consoles widows (God is father to their children and their companion); Homily 7 explains the resurrection of those asleep in Jesus and answers objections from nature; Homily 8 describes Christ’s descent, the rapture and the last trumpet, and proves the reality of Gehenna from Sodom, the flood and God’s past judgments.
Homily 9.1 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul refuses to write about the times of the end: each person’s death is his own consummation, and God hides both days so that we may live in virtue, not delay baptism, and merit reward; the day will come suddenly like labour pains.
Homily 9.3 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Those who live in the dark sins of night will be overtaken by the day; the faithful, sons of light, must keep awake and sober and arm themselves with faith, love and hope, since God, who gave his Son to death, destined them for salvation. Wickedness is death and sleep; it begins in carelessness, and the narrow road between precipices demands constant watchfulness.
Homily 9.5 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The road to life is narrow, and luxury makes it narrower; Chrysostom laments those who laugh while heading for judgment and urges them to pity themselves by showing mercy to the poor.
Homily 10.3 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom urges Christians to win pagans by their lives, laments that worldliness keeps them away, and argues that sharing punishment with others brings no consolation in hell.
Homily 15.2 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains the “double honour” due to presbyters who preside well and teach, the rules for accusing and rebuking presbyters, and then urges fear of Gehenna, contempt for passing things, and imitation of God's generosity.
Homily 1.6 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom consoles bereaved parents: the dead child is not lost but laid up safely, will rise more splendid, and should be sought where Christ the King is, not in the tomb.
Homily 2.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul names his near-fatal affliction in Asia, explains the ‘sentence of death’ as an expectation God did not allow to be fulfilled, and teaches that deliverance from danger is a daily proof of the resurrection and a fruit of the Corinthians’ prayers.
Homily 3.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul and the Corinthians are each other’s boast before Christ’s judgment; Paul explains that he did not come as planned because he was ruled by the Spirit, not by fleshly fickleness, while his preaching, being God’s, is never ‘yes and no’.
Homily 9.1 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul’s unbroken endurance in constant afflictions shows God’s power; the daily ‘dying of Jesus’ in the apostles proves the resurrection, while their sufferings bring life to the Corinthians, and they speak in the same spirit of faith as the psalmist.
Homily 9.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Faith in the resurrection, shared with the Old Testament saints, renews the inner man as the outer wastes away; the unseen things are eternal, so it is folly to say ‘give me today’; God’s justice, attested even by conscience and by pagans, guarantees a judgment, and even now the virtuous are happier than the self-indulgent.
Homily 9.4 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · God’s long-suffering is not to be abused; as men toil long for uncertain worldly gain, Christians should toil briefly for the certain kingdom, since at the judgment no one can help them and the punishments there are endless.
Homily 10.1 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul encourages the afflicted: the decay of the body, the earthly tent, leads to an eternal dwelling from heaven, the incorruptible body, which we should long for; but only those clothed with glory will not be found ‘naked’, for all rise, though not all to honor.
Homily 10.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul groans not to be rid of the body but for its corruption to be swallowed up by life, as God intended from creation and pledged by the Spirit; Christians can therefore face death with courage, desiring to be at home with the Lord, though what matters most is to please him whether here or there.
Homily 10.3 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Departing the body is not enough without virtue, for all must appear before Christ’s judgment seat to receive according to what they did in the same body that rises; Chrysostom bids his hearers picture that judgment, where loss of glory and the torments of Gehenna await the unrepentant.
Homily 10.4 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · In Gehenna no one can bring comfort, and not even righteous relatives can intercede, so no one should trust in righteous ancestors; the thought of judgment should be used as a remedy against each passion, kindling love for the things to come.
Homily 12.1 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The Corinthians must not receive God’s grace in vain by falling back into sin, for the present is the acceptable time of grace and salvation, which will end at Christ’s second coming.
Homily 23.5 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains that Paul refused support at Corinth to deprive the false apostles of their one boast (2 Cor 11:12), then reminds the rich of the funeral and judgment that end all pomp, and comforts the poor: wrongs borne patiently are counted against our debt of sin, as the Babylonian captivity and David's patience with Shimei show.
Homily 1.1 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Homily 1 (the argument) explains why Paul wrote again: deceivers claimed the day of the Lord had come and forged letters, so Paul reveals the sign of the Antichrist; Chrysostom then warns against pride, the beginning of sin. Homily 2 begins on 2 Thess 1:1–6: God’s favour, illustrated by Joseph, and the Thessalonians’ growing faith and undivided love under persecution, evidence of God’s just judgment.
Homily 1.3 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The persecutors will be punished in flaming fire at Christ’s revelation; Chrysostom urges believers not to gloat but to keep the thought of Gehenna constantly before them, since fear of judgment keeps the soul from sin.
Homily 1.4 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Bearing hard words trains us to bear hard deeds; the soul takes the shape of its conversation, so children and households should be taught about judgment, and believers who prepare carefully for human courts should prepare for Christ’s judgment seat.
Homily 3.1 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Gehenna is eternal; at his coming Christ will be glorified in the persecuted saints; Paul prays that God may count them worthy of their calling, since something is still lacking in this life.
Homily 3.2 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Believers are glorified when God is glorified in them; Paul warns against forged letters and teaches that the day of the Lord will not come before the apostasy and the man of sin, the Antichrist; Chrysostom explains the need for repetition by the parable of the seed and calls wealth a thorn, rebuking the rich who come to church for display.
Homily 4.1 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · What restrains the Antichrist is the Roman empire, which Paul names obscurely to avoid needless danger; Nero was a type of the Antichrist; when the empire falls the lawless one will come, and Christ will destroy him by his mere coming.
Homily 4.4 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The Antichrist’s false signs will convict unbelievers who rejected Christ; Elijah will come to strengthen the faithful; God chose the Thessalonians for salvation through sanctification and faith; unwritten tradition is as trustworthy as letters; Paul asks prayer, and Chrysostom begs his people to pray for their bishop, with whom they share the same table, baptism and Spirit.
Homily 3.2 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom shows that one can share in the crowns of saints living and departed, refutes Marcionite use of “the Lord … from the Lord,” describes the fearful judgment as an act of God's love meant to rouse us, and warns that we who blame greedy officials are equally guilty, since God judges the will and not the size of the deed.
Homily 4.4 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Concluding Homily 4, Chrysostom argues that Paul's chains outshone Nero's crown, that Paul's honoured tomb in Rome against Nero's forgotten grave proves what glory awaits him at the resurrection, and urges imitation of Paul in life as well as faith.
Homily 5.1 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · On 2 Tim 2:11–13, Chrysostom explains that those who share Christ's death, in baptism and in suffering, will share his life, that endurance to the end is needed, and that denying Christ brings his denial in return.
Homily 5.2 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains that our denial cannot harm the unchanging God, warns against fighting about words and novel doctrine such as the claim of Hymenaeus and Philetus that the resurrection is past, interprets God's “seal” as departure from unrighteousness, and shows that injustice torments the conscience of those who commit it.
Homily 5.4 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Closing Homily 5, Chrysostom describes how the unjust are tormented by fear, the contempt of others and, above all, by the approach of death and judgment, and encourages his hearers that repeated preaching bears fruit in the end, like the blows that finally fell a tree.
Homily 7.1 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · On 2 Tim 3:1–7, Chrysostom says that the evil of the last times lies in people, not the times, traces the vices Paul lists back to disregard of one's neighbour and self-love, shows from Cain, Esau and others that despising one's brother leads to despising God, and describes the lover of money as incurably ungrateful.
Homily 8.1 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · On 2 Tim 3:1–7, Chrysostom shows that falsehood has always stood beside the truth, from the serpent to the antichrist, explains the vices Paul lists, and argues that a “form of godliness” without power is right faith without works, a dead image.
Homily 8.4 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom warns against prying into God's unsearchable ways, sets out “rules” (virtue alone is good, poverty and sickness indifferent, the righteous afflicted to be crowned, not all sinners punished here) by which the Scripture-taught Christian is never scandalized, and explains that soothsayers' predictions come true only because those who believe them have put themselves in the devil's power.
Homily 8.5 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Concluding Homily 8, Chrysostom mocks soothsayers and magicians, who could not even foresee the plundering of their own temples, warns Christians that consulting them is slavery and idolatry, and contrasts their petty predictions with the sure promises of resurrection and eternal life revealed by Christ.
Homily 9.1 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · On 2 Tim 3:16–4:3, Chrysostom explains that Paul offers the consolation of the inspired Scriptures, which make the man of God complete, before announcing his death, and teaches how to preach at all times, joining reproof and rebuke with exhortation, patience and love.
Homily 9.2 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · On 2 Tim 4:3–8, Chrysostom explains that Paul foretells false teachers so that Timothy may be sober and endure, and that Paul's words about the good fight, the finished course and the crown of righteousness are a dying father's consolation to a grieving son.
Homily 9.3 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Concluding Homily 9, Chrysostom explains that those who love Christ's appearing receive him now by keeping his commandments, urges his hearers to rise from worldly things and stand on the rock of spiritual things, and teaches that suffering borne with thanksgiving, as by Job, is suffering for Christ.
Homily 10.4 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom teaches that God's grace is gained, as a trusted servant gains his master's favour, by caring for God's affairs rather than one's own, and urges his hearers to be “greedy” and “violent” for the kingdom of heaven, which, unlike earthly goods, grows the more it is seized.
Homily 10.5 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Concluding the homilies on 2 Timothy, Chrysostom urges his hearers to seize the kingdom of heaven by violence, with the wakefulness of soldiers and the speed of robbers who flee with their prize, keeping far from the devil until they are safe.
Homily 1.6 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom ends Homily 1 by contrasting the end of the two tables, here and at Christ's judgment, and urges his hearers to spend everything on almsgiving rather than divide between luxury and charity.
Homily 2.4 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom urges constant remembrance of God's gifts and readiness for death, comparing the present life to a swallows' nest that will fall on the day of judgment, and blames unbelief in judgment on soft living.
Homily 2.5 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom rebukes Christians who deny the judgment to excuse their sins, argues that denying judgment denies God's justice and existence, and urges sinners to repent and warn others rather than corrupt them.
Homily 2.6 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom answers the excuse of debating with pagans, argues from conscience and from the common belief of Greeks and Jews that there will be a judgment, and contrasts the just doctrine of resurrection with the doctrine of fate.
Homily 5.4 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom shows from Jonah, the grain, Elijah, and Enoch that even visible wonders need faith, and explains how God trained his people little by little through types: barren women and Eve's formation foreshadow the Son's birth from the Father and from the Virgin, and Enoch, Elijah, and Jonah foreshadow the resurrection.
Homily 3.2 on PhilemonJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Ending Homily 3, Chrysostom warns that the priest's blessing helps only those who show mercy, and argues against those who think God will save all (and against a Marcionite) that God's demanding an account of sins and preparing Gehenna are themselves marks of his goodness.
Homily 3.3 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul's real life is Christ, so death is gain; yet living in the flesh bears fruit and must not be despised; death itself is neither good nor evil, so we should mourn sinners and rejoice over the righteous, living or dead.
Homily 3.4 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · We should weep, with restraint, not for the dead as such but for those who die in sin or unbaptized, and help the faithful departed by prayer, alms, and remembrance at the Eucharist, as Job provided for his children by sacrifice.
Homily 4.1 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul, though he longed to depart and be with Christ, chose to remain for the Philippians' sake; Chrysostom marvels at a soul that set the good of others above its own crown, and compares Paul to a sun brighter than the sun.
Homily 6.6 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · God and mammon give opposite commands, yet mammon's cruel orders are obeyed; Chrysostom explains that he speaks of Gehenna to drive his hearers toward the kingdom, and argues from God's justice that judgment and resurrection must come.
Homily 8.4 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Like stars in the night, Christians shine by staying blameless among the crooked; Paul, ready to be poured out as a libation, calls the Philippians to rejoice with him, and Chrysostom forbids excessive mourning for the dead.
Homily 11.3 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Although all will rise, Paul, despite all his sufferings, presses on toward the glorious resurrection with Christ without presuming he has attained it, conscious that Christ first laid hold of him as he fled.
Homily 12.2 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The prize, the kingdom of heaven, lies above and must be pursued like a disciplined runner; perfection is not to think oneself perfect, and Paul bids the Philippians hold fast to the concord they have reached and imitate those who live as he does.
Homily 13.2 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Gluttons serve the belly as their god, but Christians, citizens of heaven, await a Saviour who will transform their humble bodies to be like his glorious body; mixed into this part of the scan is Chrysostom's comment on the women Paul commends in Phil 4:2–3.
Homily 13.4 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Christ himself will come on the clouds with all the angelic hosts to take his own to his kingdom; falling from that glory is worse than Gehenna, so we must labour now; mixed into this part of the scan is Chrysostom's comment on Phil 4:1–3, praising Euodia and Syntyche as leading women of the church.
On Illustrious Men 18Jerome · 392–393 · Papias of Hierapolis wrote five books on the Lord's sayings, distinguishes John the apostle from John the elder, and taught a thousand-year reign.
On Illustrious Men 50Jerome · 392–393 · Sextus wrote on the resurrection.
On Illustrious Men 52Jerome · 392–393 · Jude wrote on Daniel's seventy weeks and wrongly expected Antichrist in his own day.
On Illustrious Men 69Jerome · 392–393 · Dionysius of Alexandria, Origen's pupil, wrote many letters, including one urging Novatian to end his schism, and books against Nepos's millenarianism.
On Faith and the Creed 13Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Christ's body ascended into heaven as a spiritual body, wholly subject to the spirit; where and how it is there is not to be asked.
On Faith and the Creed 15Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead; his temporal dispensation, unlike his eternal generation, is, was, and will be.
On Faith and the Creed 23Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Spirit, soul, and body are restored in order; the resurrection of the flesh means that this visible flesh itself will rise.
On Faith and the Creed 24Augustine of Hippo · 393 · The risen flesh will become a heavenly body; since even the philosophers grant that every body can change into every other, God can transform it in an instant.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine interprets the judge, officer, prison, and last farthing of Matt 5:25–26, leans toward reading the punishment as eternal, and asks whether the adversary is the devil, a man, the flesh, God, or God’s commandment, preferring the last two.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine reconciles Christ’s ban on putting away a wife with the command to hate one’s wife: the Christian loves the spouse as a human being and fellow heir, while hating the temporal and mortal bond that will not exist in the resurrection.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains “your kingdom come” as the manifestation of God’s reign at the judgment, and gives several readings of “your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth”: angels and men, righteous and sinners, spirit and flesh, Christ and the church.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine distinguishes the first three petitions, which begin in this life but last forever, from the last four, which belong only to this temporal life.
Letter 1.117Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Christ did not ignore the day of judgment but declined to reveal it, so that we may watch every day; a second letter rebukes the presbyters Zosimus and Maron for defiling the priesthood.
Letter 1.210Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The flight to the mountains in the last days is read spiritually: the godly must keep to their lofty refuge and not return to the passions or the old self.
Letter 1.211Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The woe to pregnant and nursing women applies to souls too timid to confess God or too immature to endure persecution.
Letter 1.413Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Paul's "let those with wives be as though they had none" does not forbid lawful marriage, as the Manichees claim, but restrains indulgence because time is short.
Letter 3.408Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore laments that the church, once full of the Spirit's gifts, has lost its virtue through simony and strife, and urges a monk to keep his lamp burning for the Bridegroom.
Letter 4.63Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Paul's comparison of present sufferings with future glory both encourages and humbles those who struggle, since the glory, already real but hidden, far outweighs them in kind and duration.
Letter 5.329Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The end of the world and of each life is near, so we should care for the immortal soul rather than pamper the body; a second letter advises that a settled false opinion must be undermined gradually before being opposed directly.
Letter 5.479Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Many unsung people were better than the celebrated; at the end God will reveal the truly glorious, so the envied should not lose heart.
Against Jovinianus 1.36Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the objections that universal virginity would end the human race and that the genital organs show we are made for intercourse.
Against Jovinianus 1.40Jerome · 393 · Jerome applies 2 Peter to Jovinian's luxurious life, cites John's letters and Revelation 14 on the virgins who follow the Lamb, and explains Christ's presence at Cana.
Against Jovinianus 2.18Jerome · 393 · Jerome sets out Jovinian's fourth proposition: there are only two orders, the righteous and sinners, with one reward and one punishment.
Against Jovinianus 2.20Jerome · 393 · Jovinian's argument continues: the stars of 1 Cor 15, the members of the body, the prodigal son, and the laborers in the vineyard show equal reward.
Against Jovinianus 2.22Jerome · 393 · Jerome grants the division between good and evil but argues from Ezekiel and Paul that there are differences of merit and reward among the righteous themselves.
Against Jovinianus 2.23Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues from Paul's teaching on gifts, the ranks of the Church, and the different glories of sun, moon, and stars that there will be degrees of reward among the saved.
Against Jovinianus 2.24Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues that Jovinian's examples of equal fortune in this life prove nothing about the final judgment, where merit will be distinguished.
Against Jovinianus 2.25Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's arguments from the equal manna, the parables, the flood, and the Passover: these concern the division between good and bad, not equality among the good.
Against Jovinianus 2.26Jerome · 393 · Jerome refutes Jovinian's claim that the Gospels promise "sevenfold" and defends the threefold yield as degrees of reward.
Against Jovinianus 2.27Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues from the indwelling of Christ, the least and greatest in the kingdom, and Jacob's ladder that there are degrees among the saved and that one can fall.
Against Jovinianus 2.28Jerome · 393 · Jerome rejects Jovinian's reading of the "many dwellings" as churches and argues from the priesthood, Ezekiel, and the angelic orders that there are ranks in heaven.
Against Jovinianus 2.30Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues from the members of the body, the difference between sins, and the two Adams that there are degrees among the righteous and among sinners.
Against Jovinianus 2.31Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the claims that all sins and all martyrdoms are equal and that the penitent equals the righteous, using the parables of Luke 15 and Ezekiel.
Against Jovinianus 2.32Jerome · 393 · Jerome interprets the denarius paid to all the laborers as the one deliverance through baptism, after which rewards differ by works.
Against Jovinianus 2.33Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues from the Gospels (the debtors, talents, minas) and Old Testament examples (cities of refuge, Gibeonites, Jonathan) that there are degrees of merit and reward.
Against Jovinianus 2.34Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues from the division of the land, the temple, the Psalms of Ascents, and the orders of priesthood that there are ranks in the Church and in heaven.
Against Jovinianus 2.35Jerome · 393 · Jerome summarizes his answers to Jovinian's four propositions.
Poem 7, lines 1–32 (VII)Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · A verse paraphrase of Psalm 1, expanded to describe the judgment: the impious rise only to punishment, while sinners who are not impious rise to be examined.
Poem 7, lines 33–51Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The fire of judgment rewards what survives it; the believing sinner is saved as through fire without glory; so all should walk the narrow way now.
Poem 8, lines 1–32 (VIII)Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · A verse paraphrase of Psalm 2: the nations rage against the Lord and his Christ, the Father declares him his Son and heir, and rulers are urged to serve God with fear and joy before the judgment.
Poem 10, lines 278–303Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus declares that he has vowed himself to Christ for eternal rewards and does not mind seeming foolish to men, since he fears Christ's coming judgment more than human reproach.
Poem 10, lines 304–331Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus fears that the last day may find him weighed down by cares and unable to rise to meet Christ in the air, so he has given up his cares now; Ausonius may rejoice or leave him to Christ.
Poem 14, lines 96–135Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus describes the lamps and garlands at Felix's tomb and asks Felix to commend his servants to Christ, so that at the judgment they may be placed among the sheep on the right.
Poem 17, lines 281–312Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · God has bound Paulinus to Niceta by a love that no distance or death can break; Paulinus hopes to stand near him in heaven.
Poem 17, lines 313–340Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus asks Niceta, in Abraham's bosom, to cool the flames for him at the judgment, bids him remain present in spirit, and wishes him the crown of the just.
Poem 18, lines 65–96Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Having told Felix's life in earlier poems, Paulinus explains that souls live on after death and will be reunited with their bodies, and that Christ shows Felix alive through the wonders done at his tomb.
Poem 18, lines 190–218Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · If the saints' ashes do so much, their risen bodies will shine gloriously; farmers bring even sick cattle to Felix; Paulinus will tell one of his many miracles.
Poem 21, lines 618–649Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · In the presence of the presbyters the tomb was opened and found intact; it was resealed so that Felix's bones might rest until the resurrection.
Poem 24, lines 129–160Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Those marked by faith were saved, along with some unbaptized who clung to the Christians, prefiguring the separation at the end of the world; the captain, already shipwrecked in faith, drowned through greed.
Poem 24, lines 891–922Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The boy will nourish his parents, and at the resurrection they will fly with the saints to Christ, while the rich, weighed down by their wealth, will be left on the ground to perish.
Poem 24, lines 923–942Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus urges Cytherius and his family to strip themselves of the world so that they may be lifted on the clouds to meet Christ and live for ever like the angels.
Poem 26, lines 346–378Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Felix sweetens the possessed as the cross sweetened Marah and devours Satan's arts as Moses' rod devoured the serpents; the saints of both testaments differ in works but share one glory and one God.
Poem 28, lines 218–250Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The buildings, at once old and new, figure the Christian's renewal now and the transformation of the risen body; believers should put off the old life and flee even contemplated sin.
Poem 31, lines 31–62Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Celsus died of a throat swelling; Paulinus urges his parents not to grieve excessively for a soul with God, and turns to Christ, who took the form of a servant to free humanity.
Poem 31, lines 127–158Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · On the cross Christ suffered as man and acted as God, giving paradise to the believing robber; he rose in the same body and let Thomas touch it, so that believers may be sure of their own bodily resurrection.
Poem 31, lines 159–188Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · In Paulinus's paraphrase the risen Christ shows his wounds and declares that he has conquered death in the body and restored Adam; no greater consolation is possible.
Poem 31, lines 189–220Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Since Christ has conquered death and opened paradise, believers should put away grief and believe in the bodily resurrection, which faith, like grace, holds without seeing.
Poem 31, lines 221–252Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Nature everywhere shows the pattern of resurrection: day and night, sleep and waking, the seasons, and seed that dies and rises multiplied.
Poem 31, lines 253–286Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · If the earth returns seed, God, who made us from nothing, can restore us from our dust; however bodies are dispersed, drowned or eaten, all remain in the Creator's keeping for the resurrection.
Poem 31, lines 287–314Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Only human flesh, as the vessel of a rational soul, will rise; at the trumpet soul and body will be reunited to share reward or punishment, as Ezekiel's vision shows.
Poem 31, lines 315–346Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Ezekiel saw dry bones rise; Christ, the life, proved it when at his death he harrowed hell, the tombs opened, the sun was darkened and the temple veil was torn, foreshadowing the temple's destruction.
Poem 31, lines 377–408Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus urges the parents to leave grief to those without hope and to take comfort from Scripture, which shows Christ ascending bodily and promises his return, for which all should prepare.
Poem 31, lines 441–474Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus prefers the tears of penitence now to reap eternal joy, choosing to be like the prodigal son restored and like Lazarus at the rich man's gate rather than the rich man in the flames.
Poem 31, lines 475–506Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Not the myths of the underworld but the gospel's story of the rich man and Lazarus teaches the reversal after death; the rich who despise the poor are inwardly filthier than the beggar's sores.
Poem 31, lines 539–570Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The parents should use their wealth for the poor so as to rejoin Celsus; following Paul, they should not grieve without hope, for the dead in Christ will rise first, while the wicked will rise to punishment.
Poem 31, lines 571–604Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The wicked will suffer without end, the godly be conformed to Christ; Celsus rests in Abraham's bosom or with the Holy Innocents, and Paulinus recalls his own infant son, also named Celsus.
Poem 32, lines 221–255Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · God, knowing human frailty, will be more merciful than just, granting pardon to those who ask and to the repentant, so that the faithful may reach eternal life, as the passing storm shows his restraint.
Poem 33, lines 33–62Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Baptized at the last like the penitent thief or the eleventh-hour labourer, Baebianus refuses his wife's plea to pray for recovery, lest he lose his baptismal innocence, and falls into a deathlike trance after a vision of light.
Poem 33, lines 63–96Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · For two days Baebianus lay as if dead while an angel showed him heaven; reviving, he described, during the next morning's liturgy, the angelic hosts, Christ reigning with the Father, and the jewelled city.
Poem 33, lines 97–132Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Baebianus died declaring that he and his wife were one; the poem foretells that when his widow Apra dies, he and their dead son will welcome her into heaven, where their marriage continues in a better union.
Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 394 · Augustine answers Adimantus's attack on the law's “the blood is the soul”: it concerns beasts, not human souls, and is a sign like “the rock was Christ,” while 1 Cor 15:50 refers to the transformation of the body at the resurrection.
Letters 13.8Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus draws the lesson that we should care for our own journey rather than mourn without end for those who have gone ahead to God.
Letters 13.9Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus urges that mourning be held within faith, since the dead in Christ are asleep and will rise.
Letters 13.24Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus tells Pammachius to console himself by anticipating in faith the rewards promised by God’s unchanging truth.
Letters 13.25Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus rejects pagan teachings on the afterlife, such as transmigration of souls, and grounds Christian hope in Christ’s promise and his bodily resurrection.
Letters 13.26Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus says the resurrection is certain because the Spirit is God’s pledge in us and Christ’s flesh our pledge in God, Christ bridging the gap between mortal and divine.
Letters 25.6Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Youth passes like grass; the prophet longs instead for the eternal dwellings of the risen body.
Letters 28.1Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus sends back Victor, the tireless courier of their letters, blessing his feet, and prays that Christ’s fire may purify rather than punish him.
Letters 28.2Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus prays that their work may stand the fire, being founded on Christ, who is the foundation, tower, gate, bread, and city of the heavenly Jerusalem.
Letters 34.6Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · God made some poor to test the rich; the poor at the door are Christ’s guests, and the rich man and Lazarus show that the reckoning will be reversed.
Letters 36.3Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks prayer that he may not die in his sins, but may agree with God’s word while there is time, lest he be condemned like the fool with dead faith.
Letters 40.12Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus warns of the eternal punishment of hell, from which only Christ, the mighty Lord, delivers, and asks Sanctus’s prayers.
Letters 45.4Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Before answering Augustine’s question on the life of the blessed, Paulinus asks to learn how to die to the world as Augustine has.
Letters 45.5Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Love, strong as death, makes us die to the world in Christ’s death, so that we may share his resurrection and praise God for ever in his house.
Letters 45.6Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus suggests that the risen saints, with real though spiritual bodies like Christ’s, will praise God with tongues and voices, perhaps in the unspeakable language of angels.
Letters 50.14Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus asks Augustine to resend or rewrite a short letter on the resurrection body that he had written him earlier.
On Continence 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · God made man able not to sin, so that not sinning would be merit and being unable to sin its reward, as the saints will be at the end.
On Continence 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Continence turns us from evil and righteousness does good, both aiming at the perfect peace of Christ's return.
On Continence 19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · The flesh is part of ourselves, not an enemy; only its fault is to be resisted, and at the resurrection it will become spiritual and wholly subject to the spirit.
On Continence 20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · In this life we avoid accomplishing evil by refusing consent, but good is fully accomplished only in eternal life, when continence will no longer need to struggle.
On Continence 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · The conflict of flesh and spirit is a division of one nature caused by sin, not a mixture of two natures; evil is not a substance and will be wholly removed.
On Continence 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · The comparison of flesh and church holds: the church is subject to Christ yet, in its carnal members and daily sins, not yet without spot, until final healing.
On the Faith against the Manichaeans 7Evodius of Uzalis · ca. 400-424 · Mani himself speaks of sinful souls, and Christ's warning of fire for the devil and his angels presupposes real sinners.
On the Faith against the Manichaeans 40Evodius of Uzalis · ca. 400-424 · Against the Manichaean denial of the resurrection of the flesh, Evodius cites Paul: the body will be changed, not discarded.
On the Christian Struggle 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · The sufferings of the righteous do them no real harm, while the wicked, like a fish that swallows the hook, are destroyed by the goods they love; even evil men and angels serve providence unknowingly.
On the Christian Struggle 26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Christ rose in the same body that was buried, as his words 'Handle me and see' show; his entering through shut doors no more disproves it than his walking on water.
On the Christian Struggle 28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · The Father's 'right hand' is not a bodily side but the everlasting happiness promised to the saints, as the catch on the right side and the sheep at the right hand signify.
On the Christian Struggle 29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Augustine answers those who deny a day of judgment on the basis of John 3:18: 'judgment' there means condemnation, and Scripture often speaks of certain future events in the past tense.
On the Christian Struggle 34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · The resurrection of the flesh is not denied by 1 Cor 15:50, because the risen flesh will be changed into a heavenly body.
On Christian Doctrine 1.15Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Christ's resurrection, ascension, and coming judgment strengthen hope, and the gift of the Spirit is a foretaste of the reward to come.
On Christian Doctrine 1.19Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · As repentance is a death of the soul leading to renewal, so bodily death will be followed by a better, incorruptible resurrection body.
On Christian Doctrine 1.20Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Those who do not die to the world will rise only to punishment.
On Christian Doctrine 1.21Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Faith holds that neither soul nor body is wholly destroyed, but the wicked rise to punishment and the godly to eternal life.
On Christian Doctrine 1.38Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Faith will give way to sight and hope to possession, but love will grow, since eternal goods, unlike temporal ones, surpass all expectation when attained.
On Christian Doctrine 2.32Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · The rules of valid inference are discovered, not invented, as Paul's argument for the resurrection shows.
Life of Saint Martin 24Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · After noting false prophets and messiahs as signs of the Antichrist, Sulpicius tells how the devil appeared to Martin as a royal Christ and was unmasked.
Confessions 6.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Only fear of death and judgment held Augustine back from deeper sensuality; he would have given the palm to Epicurus but for belief in the soul's afterlife, and God was drawing near to carry him.
Confessions 9.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Nebridius, later baptized, lived and died a faithful Christian and now lives in "Abraham's bosom."
Confessions 9.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · At Ostia, Augustine and Monica talk together at a window about the eternal life of the saints.
Confessions 9.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Mother and son ascend in thought beyond all creatures and their own minds and for a moment touch eternal Wisdom.
Confessions 9.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · If all creatures fell silent and God alone spoke, eternal life would be like that moment of understanding.
Confessions 9.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Monica no longer cared to be buried beside her husband, trusting God to raise her from anywhere; she died aged fifty-six.
Confessions 9.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · At Monica's death Augustine and the household hold back their tears, since she did not die wretchedly or wholly.
Confessions 13.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · We live by faith, not sight; Paul, as the Bridegroom's friend, calls the church to hope and purity until we see God as he is.
Confessions 13.50Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine prays for the peace of the sabbath without evening, since this world will pass away.
Confessions 13.51Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · The seventh day has no evening; God's rest foretells our rest in him in the sabbath of eternal life.
Confessions 13.52Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · God, always working and always at rest, will rest in us as he now works in us.
Confessions 13.53Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Things exist because God sees them; our rest will be in him, and understanding must be asked, sought, and knocked for from God alone.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 4.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that the Old Testament’s temporal promises were figures of the New, that the patriarchs and prophets looked to the New Testament, and that the Manichaeans deny the bodily resurrection and imagine a land of light of their own.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 5.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine mocks the Manichaean promise to hearers of rebirth as elect or as food eaten by the elect, by rewriting Christ’s words at the judgment to fit it.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 11.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine shows that Faustus rejects Paul’s teaching on Adam and Christ, on Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection, and on the resurrection of the body, despite claiming to accept the apostle.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 11.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that “flesh” in 2 Cor 5:16 means mortality and corruption, which Christ has put off in his resurrection and believers have put off in hope, not the substance of the body.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 11.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · From the context of 2 Cor 5 and parallels in Ephesians and Romans, Augustine shows that Paul speaks of Christ’s risen, immortal state and of believers’ hope, not of a denial of Christ’s flesh.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine reads the raven and the dove as figures of those lost through rebaptism outside the church and of those brought back to unity, and of the final rest of the saints.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine briefly lists further figures in the end of the flood narrative: the opened roof, the dry earth, the order of entering and leaving, and the clean sacrifices.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine reads the exile in Babylon, Jeremiah’s letter, the return after seventy years, and the high priest Joshua in Zechariah as figures of the church among the nations and its return to the heavenly Jerusalem.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 15.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine says the church trusts God's final promise of eternal praise because his earlier promises, such as the blessing of all nations and Psalm 45's bride, are fulfilled, and calls the Manichaeans to return.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 16.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine reads Christ's Sabbath rest in the tomb and his rising on the eighth day as fulfilling the Sabbath and circumcision, which signifies the stripping off of mortality, and explains the woe on the proselyte as about imitating the Pharisees.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine sums up that Christ fulfilled the law by grace and truth, and notes that the Old Testament teaches eternal life and resurrection but never names the “kingdom of heaven,” which belongs to the New Testament.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 32.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine interprets the Paraclete texts of the Gospel and 1 Corinthians 13 of the Holy Spirit and of eternal life, and says the Manichaeans reject Gospel passages only because they dislike them.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 33.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus concedes that the patriarchs may be in heaven through Christ’s mercy after release from the underworld, but holds that their lives were wicked and asks why the same is not said of gentile ancestors.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 33.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus claims the Gospels were compiled long after the apostles by disagreeing “Semi-Jews” who added words to Christ’s sayings, but says the passage does not harm the Manichaeans whether true or false.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 33.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that the Manichaean god, still defiled, fares worse than the patriarchs, and that the state of the righteous dead before Christ must be sought from Scripture, not from heretics.
Canon 21.10Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Anathema on those who deny the resurrection of the body.
Tractates 10Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · On the 'first day' and 'seventh day' of the Passover law: God's rest does not end his working; Christ rested in the tomb on the Sabbath while his soul freed the saints below, made the first day holy by his resurrection, and points to the seventh millennium as the saints' final rest.
Letters 2.1Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Alone in his cell, Sulpicius is overcome by thoughts of judgment and of his sins.
Letters 2.7Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Though Martin has received the crown of righteousness, Sulpicius cannot keep from grief.
Letters 2.8Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Martin is now among the apostles, prophets, and martyrs who follow the Lamb.
Letters 2.17Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · The vision shows that heaven is open to Martin’s followers, but Sulpicius fears his sins will keep him from following.
Letters 3.17Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · At his death Martin’s face shone like an angel’s and his body appeared already glorified.
Letters 3.21Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Martin’s funeral surpasses a Roman triumph: his escort is those who conquered the world, and he enters heaven rich.
Homily 1.1 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 1:1–4, Chrysostom shows the Son’s superiority to the prophets and angels, explains Paul’s alternation of lofty and lowly language about Christ, and urges purity of speech, fear of hell, and almsgiving.
Homily 4.4 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 2:14–15, Chrysostom shows that Christ truly shared our flesh and by death destroyed the devil, freeing us from slavery to the fear of death.
Homily 4.5 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom rebukes loud mourning and hired wailers at Christian funerals as a denial of the resurrection, and threatens to exclude from the church those who hire mourners.
Homily 5.4 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 2:17–3:6, Chrysostom explains Christ’s merciful and faithful high priesthood and his superiority to Moses as Son over servant, then urges patience: the wicked may prosper here, but rewards and punishments come hereafter, and Christians should neither seek nor flee trials.
Homily 6.1 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 3:7–13, Chrysostom distinguishes three rests (the Sabbath, Canaan, and the kingdom of heaven), retells Israel’s unbelief in the wilderness, and argues that Ps 95 points to the heavenly rest.
Homily 6.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 3:13–4:13, Chrysostom explains the “today” of Ps 95, the remaining Sabbath rest of God’s people, and the danger of unbelief, then describes the joys of the heavenly rest.
Homily 7.1 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 4:11–14, Chrysostom teaches that faith must be joined by a right life, warns from Israel’s example, and explains the piercing word of God before whom all things lie bare.
Homily 9.1 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 6:1–3, Chrysostom explains why he repeats the same teaching to inattentive hearers, and identifies the “foundation” as repentance and faith in the resurrection and judgment, on which a life must be built.
Homily 10.1 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 6:7–12, Chrysostom urges fear of God’s word, explains the parable of the land that bears thorns, and shows how Paul tempers rebuke with praise and hope.
Homily 21.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Expounding Heb 10:35–11:1, Chrysostom encourages the Hebrews, like athletes awaiting their crown, to keep their boldness and endure the short delay, and explains faith as the substance of things hoped for and the proof of things unseen.
Homily 21.3 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom applies Heb 10:37 to the faint-hearted, proves from Christ's fulfilled prophecies that judgment will come, and warns against slander and gossip, urging his hearers to confess their own sins to God and judge themselves rather than others.
Homily 23.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom explains that the patriarchs saw the promises from afar and sought the heavenly city, praises Sarah's faith, then breaks into a lament over his congregation's greed, slander and indifference to the good things God has prepared for those who love him.
Homily 28.1 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Expounding Heb 11:37–12:1, Chrysostom describes Elijah and the persecuted saints wandering homeless in deserts, and explains that the righteous of old still wait to be crowned together with believers today, so that the whole body may be glorified at once.
Homily 31.4 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom urges his hearers to remember and confess their sins now so that they are not exposed before all at the judgment, describes the public judgment and the fire from which no one can deliver, and insists that everyone, however poor, can and must give alms.
Homily 32.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom explains the trumpet, fire and gloom at Sinai and shows the new covenant to be both greater and gentler, warns that this shaken world will pass, and urges his hearers to build their eternal homes through almsgiving, which he praises as a queen and a golden dove that intercedes before God's throne.
Homily 3.5 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · Since the heaven is a tent, the sun does not pass under the earth at night but circles behind the northern waters, which explains the varying lengths of days; the waxing and waning moon and the night are images of death and resurrection.
Homily 5.4 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · The image of God lies in virtues like holiness, righteousness, and mercy, and in authority over the creatures; God “formed” man's body for beauty and use from dust as a sign of the resurrection, and gave the soul separately, which does not return to the earth.
Homily 5.5 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · Christ renews Adam's creation by forming eyes from clay and breathing the Spirit on the apostles; paradise in the east foreshadows the setting and rising of mankind in death and resurrection, and Adam's “work” in paradise was keeping God's commandment.
On Catechizing the Uninstructed 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · After the narration the catechist should present the resurrection, the last judgment, and the heavenly city, and prepare the hearer for temptations, for scandal from bad Christians, and against placing his hope in any human being.
On Catechizing the Uninstructed 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · The model address continues: true Christians seek eternal rest and come to love God more than they fear hell; God's seventh-day rest signifies the saints' rest in him after six ages, made possible by Christ who became man.
On Catechizing the Uninstructed 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · The narration continues with the spread of the Church through the blood of martyrs, the conversion of the persecuting empire, the pruning of heresies and schisms, the fulfilment of prophecy as ground for faith, and the coming judgment.
On Catechizing the Uninstructed 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · The model address ends with the resurrection of the body, eternal punishment and the eternal vision of the Trinity, and warnings against temptations from pagans, heretics, Jews, and especially bad Christians within the Church, urging the candidate to join the good and hope in God alone.
On Catechizing the Uninstructed 27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–405 · The short model address recounts the fulfilment of prophecy from the flood and Abraham to Christ, the Church, its persecutions and heresies, then the coming judgment and resurrection, and urges the candidate to love God freely, join the good, bear with the bad, and hope in God alone.
Against Secundinus the Manichaean 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · Augustine explains the spiritual struggle of Eph 6:12 without Manichaean dualism: the evil powers are fallen creatures, God permits them power to test the faithful, and the body will be changed in the resurrection, not absorbed into a Manichaean “globe”.
On the Nature of the Good 38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · Even the eternal fire is not an evil nature; its torment is an evil only to the damned, as light pains sore eyes.
On the Nature of the Good 39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · The eternal fire is not eternal as God is, since it had a beginning and is changeable; only God's unchangeable immortality is true eternity.
On the Trinity 1.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that the Son's being 'subjected' to the Father and 'handing over the kingdom' (1 Cor 15) mean that Christ will bring believers to the contemplation of God, in which Father, Son and Spirit are seen together, since none of them can be shown or enjoyed apart from the others.
On the Trinity 1.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that when Christ hands over the kingdom, believers will pass from faith to the contemplation of the whole Trinity, prefigured by Mary of Bethany, and Christ as priest will no longer need to intercede for them.
On the Trinity 1.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine argues that at the judgment Christ will appear to good and wicked alike in the form of the Son of Man, while the vision of his divine form, the highest good and eternal life, is reserved for the pure in heart; this explains 'the Father judges no one' and 'no one is good but God alone.'
On the Trinity 4.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains how Christ's single death and resurrection, in his body alone, answer our double death of soul and body: they are a sacrament of the inner man's death to sin and renewal, and an example of the outer man's bodily death and future resurrection.
On the Trinity 4.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine argues that philosophers who know God's eternal reasons are not therefore authorities on the resurrection or the course of history, since they learn natural and historical facts from experience and cannot foresee the future as prophets do.
On the Trinity 13.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · In this life faith is needed, for only in the life to come will the good live as they will; the philosophers' boast of living as they will is pitiable, and happiness requires immortality.
On the Trinity 13.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Since no one can be happy who loses life against his will or is indifferent to losing it, true happiness must be everlasting.
On the Trinity 13.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Philosophers barely reached the soul's immortality, but faith promises immortality to the whole man, made credible by the Word becoming flesh.
On the Trinity 14.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The trinity formed by remembering, contemplating, and loving our faith is not yet the image of God, because faith will pass away when we see face to face.
On the Trinity 14.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · With Cicero's Hortensius Augustine asks whether the four virtues continue in the life to come, holding that justice and in some form the others remain, though their present works will pass.
On the Trinity 14.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Baptism forgives all sins at once, but the renewal of God's image proceeds gradually, by God's help, until it is perfected in the sight of God.
On the Trinity 14.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · John's “we shall be like him” may refer to the full sight of God or to the immortal body, in which we are conformed to the incarnate Son alone.
On the Trinity 14.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The image of the Trinity will be perfected by the sight of God after the judgment, which is eternal life; Cicero's praise of contemplative philosophy falls short without faith in the Mediator.
On the Trinity 15.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The Son is called God's Word, not God's thought, since nothing in God revolves or takes form; even in glory our likeness to God will never be equality of nature.
On the Trinity 15.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The trinity of one human person is only an unequal image of the three-personed God, whose persons are more inseparable than the mind's three powers; we see the Trinity now through the image, later face to face.
On the Trinity 15.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Those who belong to Christ, freed by his blood from the devil's power, rest in peace until the resurrection and will then see clearly why the Holy Spirit is not a Son, a question Augustine admits he could not illustrate adequately.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 4.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Enemies of God and antichrists exist within the church too and still perform sacred acts; Cyprian’s statement about adversaries applies to both, and the Lord will separate the chaff at the end.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 4.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Each of the vices Paul lists, not only heresy, excludes from the kingdom; punishments differ in degree, but all excluded go to the left hand and the eternal fire.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 7.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · The opinion of Sattius of Sicilibba: if heretics’ baptism forgave sins, they would have no reason to come to the church.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 7.86Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · The opinion of Secundianus of Thambeae: heretics not baptized in the church would blame the bishops at the judgment.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.140Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The questions about tribute to Caesar and the woman with seven husbands follow in the same order in all three.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.145Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Christ's words 'you will not see me until you say, Blessed is he who comes' refer mystically to his coming in glory; Luke either anticipated them or Christ said them twice.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.147Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · In the eschatological discourse, given in one setting by all three, any differences must be shown not to be contradictions; the order of sayings does not matter.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.148Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Mark's 'first' before the end means the same as Matthew's 'and then the end will come.'
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.149Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Matthew's 'holy place,' Mark's 'where it ought not,' and Luke's Jerusalem surrounded by armies all describe the abomination of desolation.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.150Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Luke's 'let those in its midst depart' and the others' 'let him on the housetop not come down' agree when taken spiritually, as warnings not to cling to this life.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.151Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Luke's warning against cares and drunkenness explains Matthew's flight 'not in winter or on the Sabbath'; other parallels with Luke reflect anticipation or repetition.
The Harmony of the Gospels 3.86Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · 'Galilee' means 'passing over' (Christ's grace passing to the nations) and 'revelation' (the vision of Christ in his divine form in eternity).
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.54Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · If association with Optatus did not make the Donatists thieves, association cannot make Catholics traitors; if it did, they convict themselves.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.72Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Petilian divides baptism into three stages, John's water, Christ's Spirit, and the Paraclete's fire, and denies the Catholics all three.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.198Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Petilian says the Catholics sow tares and will be burned.
On the Work of Monks 40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Augustine rejects the claim that celibate monks are no longer men and so may wear long hair, explaining that the unveiled head of the man and the veiled head of the woman figure the mind ruling desire, while in the renewed mind there is no male or female.
Homily 1, section 3Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · The world's circular motion does not prove it eternal: what began in time will end, and the philosophers who made the world coeternal with God became fools.
Homily 1, section 4Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · Astronomers who measure the stars minutely failed to see that God made the world and will judge it, and mock the Christian hope of its renewal.
Homily 2, section 8Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · Evening and morning make one day of twenty-four hours; Moses says 'one day' rather than 'first' to point to the single, unending eighth day, the Lord's day of the resurrection.
Homily 3, section 6Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · The great rivers of the known world show how abundantly God stored water against fire, until the end when fire will dry up the deep.
Homily 6, section 3Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · Light and the body of the sun are distinct, as the burning bush and the moon's phases show; the lights divide day from night, the moon ruling the night when full.
Homily 6, section 4Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · The lights serve as signs of weather useful to sailors, travellers and farmers, and finally as signs of the end of the world.
Homily 8, section 8Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · The silkworm's transformation is a natural pledge of the resurrection; in Lent the hearers should feast their souls on God's word rather than dice and idle talk.
Opusculum 1.114Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Unpunished, unrepentant sin faces merciless judgment after death.
Opusculum 2.36Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Against listlessness, remember death and judgment.
Opusculum 2.132Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Fear of hell and longing for paradise, given by God, sustain patience.
Opusculum 2.137Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · The sabbath figures rest through renunciation; the kingdom begins within through the Spirit's grace.
Opusculum 3.1Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · All Christ's commandments come down to repentance; the kingdom is near in the power of his word.
Opusculum 3.2Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Having received so much, we are worse than beasts if we sin without fear after faith.
Opusculum 5.4Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Outward asceticism without inner purity is like the foolish virgins, who were shut out.
Opusculum 6.13Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Fear, hope of reward, and love mark three stages; love makes the mind blind to all but God.
Opusculum 6.25Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · The many dwellings differ in spiritual quality, not place.
Commentary on Daniel 2, scholion 45Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · God's kingdom, unlike the others, will last for ever and prevail over all opposition.
Commentary on Daniel 7, scholion 35Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Polychronius reads the scene as a heavenly law court with judge, attendants, and recorders.
Commentary on Daniel 7, scholion 36Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · The opened books expose evil deeds.
Commentary on Daniel 7, scholion 52Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · The holy ones are Christ's believers, who share his kingdom if they share his sufferings.
Commentary on Daniel 7, scholion 64Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · The saints' kingdom is universal, under the eternal God.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 23Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Polychronius explains that the seventy weeks reveal the course of Jewish history after the return, up to the destruction of the city.
Commentary on Daniel 9, scholion 38Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · The 'flood' is the complete destruction of Jerusalem, as Christ foretold.
Commentary on Daniel 12, scholion 5Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Polychronius reads the awakening of the dead as the restoration of the captives, not the bodily resurrection.
Commentary on Daniel 12, scholion 30Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel will share in the general resurrection and receive his reward.
Verses to the Grace of the Lord 31–60Pomponius · 5th century(?) · Tityrus sings that souls are of heavenly origin and are called back by God at the resurrection, and Meliboeus, persuaded, asks to be taught the way to heaven.
Verses to the Grace of the Lord 61–90Pomponius · 5th century(?) · Tityrus teaches that contempt of wealth and faith lead to the blessed abodes while the greedy are punished, and then begins to sing of the Father's work from the creation.
Poem, lines 751–780Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Lazarus comes out alive, his body restored; only the creator could do this; death is called to confess Jesus as God; Christ, true God, assumed the whole man, body and soul, and redeems the whole; an objector asks whether the God-breathed soul can suffer.
Poem, lines 1021–1050Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Christ would not disdain human flesh, having formed Adam from clay with his own hands when all else was made by command; he made the earth his own so that it might become incorruptible; Christ is our flesh: in his death and burial the believer sees himself, and in his resurrection sees God.
Poem, lines 1051–1085Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · If Christ’s humanity were a phantom, so would be his divinity; his true death and resurrection prove him both man and God; the believer’s body will rise in Christ whole and the same, restored from every loss, so the poet bids his limbs fear nothing and follow the risen Christ.
Hymn 1, lines 1–32Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The cock’s crow before dawn is a figure of Christ the Judge, who calls sleepers to rise, for sleep is an image of the death that sin brings.
Hymn 2, lines 1–32Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · As dawn drives out night, so Christ’s coming will expose every hidden sin; in daylight thieves, frauds and adulterers are ashamed.
Hymn 3, lines 161–203Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Christ, the dove and the Lamb, tames the beasts; the poet prays for temperance at table, affirms that the God-breathed soul does not die, and confesses the resurrection of the body after the pattern of Christ’s own return from the dead.
Hymn 5, lines 97–128Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · God gave quails and manna to the fathers and feeds Christians with mystic food; he leads the weary to the paradise of the righteous, and on the night of Christ’s resurrection even the punished souls below have a respite.
Hymn 6, lines 65–96Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams and became ruler of Egypt; John in his revelation saw the slain Lamb open the sealed book and bear a two-edged sword, judge of soul and body, yet merciful.
Hymn 6, lines 97–128Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Christ, given the Father’s judgment seat and the name above every name, will destroy the Antichrist, the beast John saw; ordinary sinners should be content with peaceful sleep and remember their baptism and anointing.
Hymn 9, lines 65–111Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Christ heals all sickness, descends to Tartarus and breaks its gates, darkens the sun at his death; from his side flow blood and water, the serpent is crushed, the saints rise with him, and he ascends to the Father’s right hand as judge, praised by all people and all creation.
Hymn 10, lines 1–32Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · God made man of soul and body; death separates them, but God shows the way to the resurrection of the flesh, and a soul that resists earthly desires carries its body with it to heaven.
Hymn 10, lines 33–64Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The dead body is only asleep and will soon be reunited with its soul; that is why Christians bury the dead with care, linen and myrrh, and why burying the unburied is a work done for Christ.
Hymn 10, lines 65–96Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Tobit left his meal to bury the dead and was rewarded when God restored his sight with the fish’s gall; through suffering and death the righteous reach heaven, and their bodies will return renewed.
Hymn 10, lines 97–128Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · In the resurrection the body will be young and healthy, while disease itself is punished; mourners should stop weeping, for death renews life as buried seed grows into grain; the earth is asked to keep the body safe.
Hymn 10, lines 129–170Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · However completely the body is reduced to dust, the earth must give it back intact; meanwhile the soul rests in Abraham’s bosom like Lazarus, and paradise is open to the faithful as to the penitent thief; the mourners adorn the grave with flowers and perfume.
Hymn 11, lines 97–116Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The Child born in the manger will return on the clouds as judge when the last trumpet sounds and the world burns, giving everlasting light to some and Gehenna to others; then Judea will know whom it gave over to death.
Quatrain 40: Domus CaiphaePrudentius · ca. 400–410 · The ruined house of Caiaphas, where Christ was struck, is a sign of sinners’ end.
Quatrain 43: Sepulcrum ChristiPrudentius · ca. 400–410 · Christ rises, conquering death; the saints rise with him, and he shows himself to many.
Quatrain 49: Apocalypsis IoannisPrudentius · ca. 400–410 · The twenty-four elders with harps, bowls and crowns praise the slain Lamb who alone can open the sealed book.
Poem, lines 721–750Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Lot and his family are told not to look back at burning Sodom, a figure of the world doomed to fire; Lot’s wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt, which herds lick but never wear away, a lasting monument of her sin.
Poem, lines 811–840Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Souls come pure from heaven, but most are snared by earthly pleasures; for them God has prepared an everlasting hell of fire and worms, since the soul made from his breath cannot die, while for pure souls who did not look back he has prepared the rewards of Paradise.
Poem, lines 841–870Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The pure soul rises to heaven, where Faith welcomes it to the delights of Paradise; like Lazarus, it may see the rich man in the flames across the great gulf, for the sight of souls is not limited like bodily eyes.
Poem, lines 901–930Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · John in his vision saw the end of the world while still in the body; much more will the soul, freed from the body, see; the damned and the righteous see each other across the gulf, as did Lazarus and the rich man; the poet’s closing prayer to God begins.
Poem, lines 931–965Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The poet confesses his sins and asks Christ that at death no demon may drag his soul into hell; he does not ask for the heavenly mansions of the chaste and the virgins, but only that, if he must suffer fire, his punishment may be light.
Hymn 2, lines 257–288Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The prefect, a worshiper of demons, is himself diseased; the poor he despises will rise whole and crowned in heaven, while the powerful will appear in the soul’s true state, ragged and foul, for nothing is more hideous than a sinner.
Hymn 4, lines 1–32Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Saragossa keeps the eighteen martyrs in one tomb; at the judgment each city will bring its martyrs to Christ: Carthage Cyprian, Cordoba Acisclus and Zoellus, Tarragona Fructuosus and his two deacons, Gerona Felix, Calahorra its two.
Hymn 4, lines 161–203Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Four martyrs named Saturninus complete the eighteen, whose names are written in the book of heaven; Engratia, Vincent, and the confessors Caius and Crementius are added; the martyrs beneath the altar pray for the city’s sins, and the poet calls the city to prayer at their tombs.
Hymn 5, lines 193–224Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Vincent warns Datian of the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah; the furious governor orders the gridiron, and Vincent climbs onto it willingly.
Hymn 5, lines 545–578Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Vincent, victor in death and after it, is asked to present the people’s prayers before the Father’s throne so that Christ may forgive them, and the poet prays that the flesh, which shared the martyr’s labors, may share his glory in the resurrection.
Hymn 6, lines 129–162Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The faithful collect the martyrs’ ashes, but the martyrs appear in white and command that the relics be laid together in one tomb; Tarragona rejoices in its three patrons, and the poet hopes Fructuosus will protect the city and himself at the judgment.
Hymn 10, lines 449–480Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · From the rack Romanus proclaims Christ, God and sharer of our nature, who gives everlasting salvation to the soul, which either shines in glory or is cast into darkness; the body must fall anyway, and torture is no worse than disease.
Hymn 10, lines 513–544Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · All flesh perishes, so its loss should be made glorious; the martyr’s spirit will enjoy God’s light, and when the heavens are rolled up God and the righteous will remain; Asclepiades orders Romanus’ face and mouth to be torn.
Hymn 10, lines 609–640Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The Cross was foreshadowed by kings, prophets and judges and fulfilled before witnesses; because Christ raised his dead body and took it to the Father, believers trust in their own resurrection; Christ, of twofold nature, died and conquered death; Romanus proposes that a child be asked to judge.
Hymn 10, lines 1089–1125Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Romanus is strangled in prison; the prefect’s records perish with time, but an angel recorded every word and wound in the heavenly book to be read at the judgment, and the poet hopes that Romanus will intercede to move him from the goats to the lambs.
Christian Questions to the Greeks 1Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The Christian asks whether God should deliver humanity from ignorance of him, the greatest evil; a Greek answers that no greatest evil exists and that God must keep the world as it is; the Christian refutes the answer point by point and defends the re-creation of the world.
Christian Questions to the Greeks 5Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The Christian asks how God can dwell in an unbegotten heaven that is not his; the Greek answers that God does not dwell in heaven at all, explaining Homer's language as a figure; the Christian replies that the heaven is called God's house and throne to mark it as his creature, imperishable now by his will until the renewal of all things.
Greek Questions to the Christians 1.0Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The Greek questions: whether there is an incorporeal being, what God is and how he makes, whether what is made can be imperishable, and how the dead can rise if their flesh has been eaten by others.
Greek Questions to the Christians 2.4Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · God made, sustains, and will renew the world by his will, decided before creation; that he made one sun when he could have made many shows that he acts by will.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.1Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Bodies eaten by fish or by other bodies are dissolved into their elements, from which God, who has already raised Christ, can re-create them as he created them in the beginning.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.3Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Disbelief in the resurrection rests either on the impious denial of God's power or on the ridiculous claim that imperishability would not benefit the risen.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.4Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · God creates by command, and the dead need nothing but his command to rise.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.5Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The poet's line that God finds a way for the unexpected tells against disbelief in the resurrection.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.6Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The re-creation, ending all disputes about God, crowns creation; denying it makes creation itself evil.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.7Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The resurrection is impossible only in the relative sense in which all things are possible for God; and without the hope of the future, piety and impiety would not differ.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.9Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Since individual human beings are created, so is humanity and the world; an eternal world would admit no re-creation, but the world is not eternal.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.11Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Imperishable life is the divine goal for which humanity was made, and the martyrs' willingness to die confirms the truth of the resurrection.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.14Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Against eyewitness testimony to Christ's resurrection the Greeks offer only a puzzle, not a proof, and no syllogism can overturn what has been shown to have happened.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.15Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Those who wrongly hold the sun to be eternal, though its positions change, are no reliable judges of the resurrection.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.16Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The sun's changing position shows it once did not exist; those ignorant of this cannot be trusted against the resurrection, of which Christ is already the firstborn.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.17Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · If God can raise any dead person he can raise all, even one eaten by fish; his works are not to be measured by human reasoning.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.18Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Christ could not be Lord of the dead if he lacked power to raise them.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.19Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · God who made mortal bodies has equal power to make them imperishable.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.20Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · It is absurd to reject the attested resurrection while believing in the transmigration of souls into ants.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.24Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Since bodies return to their elements, it is not impossible for them to be formed again from them.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.25Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · God, master of every limit, can make human beings come to be without perishing.
Greek Questions to the Christians 3.26Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Twenty-three short arguments for the resurrection: God's irrevocable gifts, his power to remake as he made, the dead lying in potency in the elements, the justice owed to martyrs, and the failure of all Greek opposition to the teaching.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 6–12Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Several questions: why the risen will be impassible though they feel joy or pain (their state is fixed and unchanging); why comparing rest and punishment changes nothing in the age to come; why God is not the author of evil (free choice, not knowledge, makes us good or bad); how biblical anthropomorphism differs from pagan myth; and why God, who contains all things, is greater than all and preserves no evil by nature.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 13Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Infants and the unborn will rise too: God who gives them incorruption can give them perception of the goods prepared, he made nothing in vain, and Scripture speaks of the vengeance for the infants slain by Herod.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 22Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · That the wheat seems almost to have failed while tares multiply was foretold by Christ and the apostles; yet the wheat will last to the end, for the sake of the elect, and tares imply wheat.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 39Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Christ's drawing of all to himself will be fulfilled at the end, when every power is abolished; and the Father draws to the Son by giving the Son power to draw all, so the two sayings agree.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 43–45Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Three questions: the animals entered the ark in pairs and sevens of each sex; Isaiah's vision shows Christ and the cleansing power of his flesh in the Eucharist, while Ezekiel's living creatures foretold Nebuchadnezzar's fate and the end of Israel's captivity; and Ezekiel is called “son of man” because his vision of dry bones prefigures the resurrection by the Son of man.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 53–54Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The risen keep their sexual organs as a reminder of how God's wisdom preserved the race through birth; and Moses' warnings were set to song because melody shapes the soul's disposition to the words.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 56Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Infants who die baptized receive the goods of baptism through the faith of those who brought them; unbaptized infants do not.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 60–61Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The dead will rise in their own recognizable forms, to show God's knowledge, to prove that the same persons rise, and so that judgment may be just; the story of Lazarus and the rich man teaches that no benefit can be gained after death; and God alone has immortality by his own essence.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 71Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The answer finds in Scripture's language of “the last days” and “the fullness of time,” spoken in the sixth millennium, support for the view that the world will last six thousand years.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 73–74Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Evil is a turning from the good, not its necessary contrast, and what preceded the world was simply nothing; and paganism cannot return as true religion did, since the end is the judgment by fire through Christ, whose kingdom is everlasting, and persecution only strengthened Christianity.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 75Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · At death the souls of the just are led by angels to paradise, where they see angels and Christ, and the souls of the unjust to Hades; both await there the resurrection and the final requital.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 76–77Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The penitent thief's soul in paradise perceives its joys by an intellectual perception that does not need the body; and the soul separated from the body is not dead or insensible, since death belongs to the ensouled body, not to the soul.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 82–88Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Seven questions: demons' names (Beelzebul, Belial) were learned from the demons through magic; sacrifices before the law were accepted but not commanded, and Abraham's served as prophecy; Elisha's double portion meant greater power, shown in raising two dead; the saints raised at the crucifixion rose complete and remain immortal; Origen's work explains Hebrew words and measures; Herod heard of Jesus' miracles late; and infants, unable to choose, do not sin, so Scripture's “no one is sinless” does not touch them or Christ.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 93–94Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The waters above the firmament protect it from the luminaries' heat, steady it, and temper the air; at the end the present heaven and earth will pass away for a new creation, as Scripture's images of the rolled-up scroll and worn-out garment show, refuting those who call the heaven eternal.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 95–96Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · In the new creation the air will remain for movement, as believers will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air; and the infants slain by Herod and the children who sang Hosanna are rightly praised, since they suffered and sang by God's grace, and God avenges their sufferings.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 109Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Christ will judge “the living” who are alive at his coming and “the dead” who rise from their tombs, as Paul and John say.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 110–111Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The hundredfold reward is fulfilled in spiritual kin and in the Church's abundance, as when the wealthy supported desert monks; and God, whose power is not measured like nature's, can raise even bodies that have been cut up or burned.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 112Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Christ did not confirm the apostles' hope of an earthly kingdom; the Spirit later taught them that the risen life has no food, drink, or marriage, and that God's kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 117Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The risen Christ entered through shut doors with his real body, as he walked on the sea, by divine power and not by becoming spirit; the stone was rolled away only so that the empty tomb and grave clothes could be seen.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 118–124Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Seven questions run together: why Christians pray facing east (as the more honored direction, received from the apostles); why Cain's offering was rejected (he kept the better for himself); why sinners who rise do not inherit God's kingdom (the kingdom belongs to the just only); anathema and katathema (fragmentary); Christ's “hour” (God's providence, not fate); why man, who can become evil, is still the best of creatures; and why the pious receive no earthly reward (their reward is future, though God has shown his providence in history).
On the Good of Marriage 10Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Answering the objection that universal continence would end the race, Augustine says it would only hasten the city of God, and that now only the incontinent should marry.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 3.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine says it does not matter if animals devour the dead, since God will re-form the body, and Christians should not fear any manner of death.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 6.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Was Adam's first body animal or spiritual? Paul (1 Cor 15:44–49) cites Genesis 2:7 to show the first body was animal; the spiritual body comes at the resurrection.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 6.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · If Adam had an animal body, how do we recover the immortality he lost? Some therefore held that Adam's body was changed into a spiritual one in paradise.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 6.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · We recover the righteousness Adam lost, renewed in mind after God's image, but our body will be renewed into something better, a spiritual body, which Adam did not yet have.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 6.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Adam's body was mortal by nature but able not to die by the gift of the tree of life; through sin it became not mortal (as it was) but dead.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 6.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · We recover in the mind the image of God that Adam lost; the spiritual body is something better that Adam never had, and he “lost” it only in failing to attain it.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 7.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · If the soul pre-existed, why was it sent into the body? Augustine weighs whether it inclined to the body by its own will or came at God's bidding, in light of Rom 9:11.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 8.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The tree of life was a real tree signifying Christ as Wisdom, and also strengthened the body in lasting health; Augustine leaves open whether souls after death are in bodily places.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Had they not sinned, Adam and Eve, after having children, could have been taken to a better state without death, as Enoch and Elijah were.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · No Scripture says souls come from angels or elements; Ezekiel's spirit from the four winds is a figure of resurrection, as Christ's breath signified the Holy Spirit without being his substance.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 11.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The view that the devil was created evil contradicts the goodness of creation and divine justice; it is his own will, not his nature, that is punished.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 11.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine leaves the time and manner of the devil's fall open but holds firmly that the fallen angels are kept for judgment and that the eternal life of the holy angels, and ours, is certain.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 12.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Beyond spiritual visions, the soul may be raised to intellectual vision, where truth is seen without images, virtue is simply to love what one sees, and God's glory is seen “mouth to mouth,” as with Moses.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 12.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · If the third heaven is intellectual vision, there God's glory is seen face to face by the pure in heart; Paul may have been shown the eternal life to come, which may also be called paradise.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 12.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · After death souls are carried, not to bodily places, but to spiritual places resembling bodily ones, of punishment or of rest; these are real, and the underworld exists, though its substance is spiritual.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 12.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The underworld is real and receives souls after death; Christ descended to free some from its pains; but Augustine finds no place where Scripture calls the rest of the righteous, Abraham's bosom, the underworld.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 12.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Paradise may mean any place where souls fare well—a good conscience, the church, Abraham's bosom; the underworld is pictured as “below” because it is the place of sorrow; the third heaven, the vision of God by the mind, may be the paradise of paradises.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 12.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Souls need their bodies at the resurrection because a natural appetite to govern a body holds them back from the full vision of God; the spiritual body will be no burden but a glory.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 12.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · In the resurrection all three kinds of vision will remain, free of error; even Paul lacked the angels' full knowledge, which the saints will have when the mortal puts on immortality.
On Holy Virginity 22Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Paul's words about pleasing the Lord and being holy in body and spirit show that continence aims at the kingdom of heaven, not present ease.
On Holy Virginity 24Augustine of Hippo · 401 · The eunuchs promised a better place than sons and daughters in Isa 56 are those who renounce marriage for the kingdom, whose reward is eternal.
On Holy Virginity 25Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Isaiah's 'eternal name, which will never fail' shows that the reward of the continent is eternal and distinct from others'.
On Holy Virginity 26Augustine of Hippo · 401 · The equal denarius of the parable is eternal life, common to all the saints, while the many mansions mark their different glories.
On Holy Virginity 27Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine exhorts consecrated virgins to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, sharing joys proper to them, as in Revelation 14.
On Holy Virginity 29Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virgins alone follow the Lamb on the way of virginity; others will rejoice with them without envy, since God will be all in all.
Apology against Rufinus 1.6Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome explains that Pammachius's letters made him translate On First Principles literally, since Rufinus had softened only the passages on the Trinity and kept Origen's other errors.
Apology against Rufinus 1.25Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome defends his comment on Eph 3:1 as a set of three views (his own, Origen's, Apollinaris's) and argues that calling the body the soul's chain until the resurrection is not absurd.
Apology against Rufinus 1.26Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome quotes the end of his comment on Eph 4:16, on the restoration of the scattered body of the church, which Rufinus had attacked as his strongest charge.
Apology against Rufinus 1.27Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome explains that his comment on Eph 4:16 contrasted two heresies about the final restoration and did not state his own view.
Apology against Rufinus 1.28Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome quotes the passage of Origen's commentary on Eph 5:28–29 which he had reported, including the words about wives turned into men and bodies into souls that Rufinus attacked.
Apology against Rufinus 1.29Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome explains that his words about wives becoming men meant beginning now the chastity of the angelic life, not abolishing the sexes or bodies in the resurrection.
Apology against Rufinus 2.5Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome demands that Rufinus say plainly whether the risen will keep their sex and their flesh and blood forever, instead of using Origen's ambiguous formula.
Apology against Rufinus 2.6Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome quotes Rufinus's statement on the devil's eternal punishment and mocks its Latin style.
Apology against Rufinus 2.7Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome argues that Rufinus's formula blames the devil for all sin, denying free will, and is compatible with Origen's view of eternal fire as remorse; he should have used Scripture's plain words of the devil's final ruin.
Apology against Rufinus 2.12Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome lists the doctrines in Origen's works that he holds heretical and challenges Rufinus to show where Origen contradicts them.
Apology against Rufinus 2.18Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome translates more of Origen's letter to friends at Alexandria than Rufinus did, to show that it attacks the bishops who condemned him and that Rufinus cut its context.
Apology against Rufinus 2.19Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome explains that Origen alleged falsification only about his dialogue with Candidus, and ridicules Rufinus's stories of Hilary's falsified book and Cyprian's On the Trinity, which is Novatian's.
Apology against Rufinus 3.15Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome doubts Rufinus's claim that the bishops of Italy accepted his statement on the resurrection, since Rome had rejected it.
Apology against Jerome 1.4Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus recalls his baptism at Aquileia about thirty years earlier and sets out his faith in the Trinity, the incarnation, and the resurrection of this same flesh.
Apology against Jerome 1.5Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus appeals to the Creed of Aquileia, which confesses "the resurrection of this flesh," and complains that his accuser still demands every limb be named.
Apology against Jerome 1.6Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Christ's risen body, which the disciples could touch, is the pattern: we shall rise in this same flesh, freed from corruption and made spiritual.
Apology against Jerome 1.7Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus mocks Jerome's caricature of Origenist women who reject a frail resurrection body and argues from Paul that the risen body is not frail.
Apology against Jerome 1.8Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · The risen flesh is this same flesh with all its members but without corruption, frailty, or sexual use; the church's faith walks between two errors.
Apology against Jerome 1.9Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus sums up his statement of faith, especially on the resurrection, as complete and unambiguous.
Apology against Jerome 1.10Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus quotes Jerome's charge that he translated Origen's teaching on universal restoration and pre-existent souls, and undertakes to explain why he translated On First Principles.
Apology against Jerome 1.13Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus quotes his preface to Pamphilus's Apology, with its confession of the Trinity and of the resurrection of this flesh, as taught by Bishop John of Jerusalem.
Apology against Jerome 1.23Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus turns to Jerome's Commentary on Ephesians and quotes its statement that wives will be turned into men and bodies into souls.
Apology against Jerome 1.24Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus argues that Jerome's own words on the sexes and on bodies becoming souls are more open to suspicion than anything the women he mocks ever said.
Apology against Jerome 1.31Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus offers Jerome a way out, supposing the second "other" is Jerome himself, and quotes the commentary's view that all, even the devil and his angels, will be subjected to Christ, some willingly and some by necessity.
Apology against Jerome 1.32Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus concludes that Jerome's second exposition promises lesser rewards even to the devil and his angels, a view harsher than the opinion Jerome condemns in Origen.
Apology against Jerome 1.33Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus sums up: Jerome's own chosen commentaries teach both the pre-existence of souls and a final reward even for the devil, the doctrines he condemns in Origen.
Apology against Jerome 1.34Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus quotes Jerome's comment on Eph 2:6–7 that the fallen angels and Lucifer will at the end be governed by the will of Christ and his saints, and argues that this implies their final blessedness.
Apology against Jerome 1.35Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus quotes Jerome's comment on Eph 1:21 that in the age to come beings will rise and fall from one rank to another.
Apology against Jerome 1.39Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus argues that Jerome's commentary makes souls and angels one nature to be reunited in one flock, the very view of the "little women" he ridicules, and mocks Jerome's claim that Paul only hinted at it.
Apology against Jerome 1.41Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus quotes Jerome's own demand to be judged only by what he says in his own person, and then cites the Ephesians commentary, without any "other," on the restoration of all things to their original state.
Apology against Jerome 1.42Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus quotes Jerome's comment on Eph 4:16, which pictures the restoration of all rational creatures, the fugitive angel included, into one body like a dismembered body reassembled.
Apology against Jerome 1.43Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus parodies Jerome by putting into his mouth a speech that excuses every earlier teacher but condemns Origen alone for the doctrines Jerome's own commentary teaches.
Apology against Jerome 2.9Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus argues that the views Jerome condemns as pagan, the pre-existence of souls and a final end of punishment, are not impious if held to defend God's justice.
Apology against Jerome 2.41Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus begins his summary: his faith, Jerome's errors on the resurrection, the reasons for his translation, and the forged passage.
Apology against Jerome 2.42Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus continues his summary: Jerome's own commentaries contain the Origenist views he condemns, he broke his oath against secular books, and he praised Origen in many prefaces.
Apology against Jerome 2.47Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus closes: if a synod condemns books containing Origen's views with their authors, Jerome's commentaries must fall too, and Rufinus will follow the judgment of the catholic church either way.
Book 2, lines 91–120Prudentius · ca. 402-403 · Faith answers Symmachus: human reason cannot fathom God, but Faith believes in the Almighty who promises eternal goods, since the eternal God must give eternal gifts, not perishable ones.
Book 2, lines 151–180Prudentius · ca. 402-403 · Since God promises eternal goods, no wise man prefers brief pleasures; what separates man from beast is hope beyond sight, and if there were no life after death, nothing would restrain a man from adultery, fraud and murder, since human law can be evaded.
Book 2, lines 181–210Prudentius · ca. 402-403 · God declares that the soul will not die but will be punished or rewarded, and that he will raise the body too, as seeds rise from the earth after dying, so that body and soul together receive their deserts for ever.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 29Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · Christ's resurrection reveals the glory hidden in his weakness; he rose victorious, led out the dead, and set our flesh at God's right hand.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 33Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · Christ's coming to judge should make us watchful daily; 'the living and the dead' means souls and bodies.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 34Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The prophets foretold Christ's coming to judge and his endless kingdom, and warned of Antichrist, who will imitate his coming.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 41Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The resurrection of the flesh, denied by Valentinus and the Manichees, is taught by Isaiah, Daniel, and Christ, and brings the pure into the angels' fellowship.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 42Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · Against unbelievers, the resurrection of scattered flesh is shown by Paul's seed and by the craftsman who finds hidden metals in the earth.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 43Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · Each body will be restored as its own, like seeds sown together; hence Aquileia's Creed says 'this flesh', and Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians confirms it.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 44Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · Ezekiel and Job also foretold the resurrection, Job by contrasting the tree that sprouts again with man.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 45Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · 'This flesh' is confirmed by Job and by Paul's 'this corruptible': the same body will rise, changed in quality, for the righteous to glory and for sinners to punishment.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 46Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The glorified bodies of the righteous will be caught up to meet Christ, conformed to his glorious body, shining like the sun, spiritual bodies fit for the angels' company.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 47Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · As earth became a natural body, the natural body can become spiritual; sinners too will rise incorruptible, but to lasting shame.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 48Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · Rufinus sums up the Creed's teaching and closes with a prayer to keep the faith and rise to eternal life.
Against Felix the Manichaean 1.11Augustine of Hippo · December 404 · Augustine reads 1 Corinthians 13 to show that knowledge “in part” belongs to this life and full knowledge to the life to come, and asks Felix whether he now sees God face to face.
Against Felix the Manichaean 2.8Augustine of Hippo · December 404 · Felix charges the catholic doctrine of eternal fire with the same cruelty; Augustine replies that the damned are those who by free choice refused repentance and healing, while sin is not possible at all on Manichaean premises.
Dialogues 1.7Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · A passage of Origen on the redemption of the devil provokes a riot; the prefect expels the monks; Postumianus notes Jerome’s change of mind and leaves Alexandria.
Dialogues 2.14Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Martin foretold that Nero would return in the West and Antichrist, already born, would rule from Jerusalem; the conversation breaks off at the arrival of the presbyter Refrigerius.
Letter to the Catholics on the Sect of the Donatists (On the Unity of the Church) 35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 405 · Scripture shows good and wicked mixed in the church until the end: the lily among thorns, Ezekiel's marked mourners, the wheat and tares growing in the world until harvest, the net of good and bad fish.
Letter to the Catholics on the Sect of the Donatists (On the Unity of the Church) 38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 405 · 'Will he find faith on the earth?' expresses the weakness of believers amid abounding iniquity, not the apostasy of the world; good and wicked remain mixed everywhere until the end, the good suffering grief of heart like Lot.
Letter to the Catholics on the Sect of the Donatists (On the Unity of the Church) 43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 405 · Wheat and tares grow in the whole world until the end, and the gospel has not yet reached all nations; so the Donatist claim that all nations believed and then fell away except Africa is impossible.
Letter to the Catholics on the Sect of the Donatists (On the Unity of the Church) 75Augustine of Hippo · ca. 405 · Augustine's people should demand from the Donatists a plain Scripture for their party; those who disbelieve Moses, the prophets, and the risen Lord about the worldwide church are like the rich man in torment.
1 Corinthians 1:7Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Wisdom brings every grace; he truly awaits Christ who is ready in all things.
1 Corinthians 3:13Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The fire of judgment will test each teacher's work.
1 Corinthians 3:14Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Lemma of 1 Cor 3:14.
1 Corinthians 3:15Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · A careless teacher is saved only as through fire; worse awaits those who scandalize.
1 Corinthians 4:5Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Only God, who sees the heart, can rightly praise.
1 Corinthians 5:5Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Handing over to Satan afflicts the flesh so that the sinner may repent and his spirit be saved.
1 Corinthians 6:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ's promise of judging extends to all who imitate the apostles.
1 Corinthians 6:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Saints holy in the flesh will judge the angels who sinned.
1 Corinthians 6:14Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Union with a prostitute cuts a man off from Christ's body; his guilt equals hers.
1 Corinthians 7:31Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · This world passes like a shadow, an image of the world to come; the wise learn from the deaths of others.
1 Corinthians 13:8Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Love alone endures.
1 Corinthians 13:10Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The perfect is the saints' future reward.
1 Corinthians 13:12Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Now we see through the law's mirror; then we will know as we are known.
1 Corinthians 13:13Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Only love will remain in the age to come.
1 Corinthians 15:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul turns to those Corinthians who denied the resurrection of the flesh.
1 Corinthians 15:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Without the resurrection, Christian labour and fasting would be pointless.
1 Corinthians 15:11Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ rose first to open the way of resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:12Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ's rising is itself a resurrection of the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:13Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ's resurrection and ours stand or fall together.
1 Corinthians 15:14Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Resurrection belongs to the body that fell, not to the soul.
1 Corinthians 15:16Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Certainty about Christ's resurrection extends to ours.
1 Corinthians 15:19Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Without hope beyond this life, Christians are most miserable.
1 Corinthians 15:20Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ the head has risen; the members must follow.
1 Corinthians 15:21Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Lemma of 1 Cor 15:21.
1 Corinthians 15:22Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Adam is the pattern of the dying, Christ of the rising; only those joined to Christ will be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:23Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The resurrection follows an order of time or honour.
1 Corinthians 15:24Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Handing over the kingdom does not make the Son lesser; the hostile powers are overcome when sin is removed.
1 Corinthians 15:25Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · “Until” does not set an end to Christ's reign.
1 Corinthians 15:26Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The last enemy, death, is the devil.
1 Corinthians 15:28Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Son's subjection is an act of love, not inferiority; various explanations are offered.
1 Corinthians 15:29Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Baptism into Christ's death is pointless without eternal life.
1 Corinthians 15:34Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Pleasure-seekers doubt the resurrection; the righteous do not sin.
1 Corinthians 15:35Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The resurrection restores the body whole, not its defects.
1 Corinthians 15:36Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Nature itself teaches resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:37Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The body rises more glorious, as a seed grows into an ear.
1 Corinthians 15:38Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Each rises in its own body, not another's.
1 Corinthians 15:39Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Creator who made all bodies can restore man's.
1 Corinthians 15:40Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The maker of the heavens can restore the human body.
1 Corinthians 15:41Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · He who made all from nothing can restore one kind.
1 Corinthians 15:42Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The righteous differ in glory by degrees of virtue.
1 Corinthians 15:43Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The body rises in splendour and power.
1 Corinthians 15:44Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The spiritual body will always have the Spirit and can meet Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:50Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · “Flesh” means fleshly works, or flesh not yet made immortal.
1 Corinthians 15:51Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · All will rise, but only the saints will be changed into glory.
1 Corinthians 15:52Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The resurrection is instant; sinners rise for punishment, the saints are changed into glory.
1 Corinthians 15:53Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The same body puts on immortality as a garment.
1 Corinthians 15:54Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Death vanishes when its causes are removed.
1 Corinthians 15:55Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The righteous taunt death.
1 Corinthians 15:58Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Sure of the resurrection, they should persevere in good works.
1 Corinthians 16:22Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ will condemn those who do not love him; Maranatha means “our Lord has come”.
1 Thessalonians 1:10Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ freed believers from coming wrath by forgiveness, teaching, and example.
1 Thessalonians 2:19Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Thessalonians are Paul's hope and crown.
1 Thessalonians 3:13Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul prays that they be blameless before God and begins his exhortation to walk worthily of Christ.
1 Thessalonians 4:13Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The dead in Christ are asleep, sure to rise, so believers should not grieve as others do.
1 Thessalonians 4:14Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Belief in Christ's resurrection grounds belief in the resurrection of his members.
1 Thessalonians 4:15Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The living will not precede the dead, whose resurrection will be as swift as the taking up of the living.
1 Thessalonians 4:16Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The terror of the Lord's coming calls for a clear conscience.
1 Thessalonians 4:17Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The risen dead and the living saints will meet Christ together and share his glory.
1 Thessalonians 5:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Lemma of 1 Thess 5:1.
1 Thessalonians 5:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Lord's day will come unexpectedly, as the gospel teaches.
1 Thessalonians 5:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Destruction comes when no one fears it.
1 Thessalonians 5:4Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Believers know to be always ready.
1 Thessalonians 5:10Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ died so that believers, living or dead, may live with him.
1 Thessalonians 5:23Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul prays God sanctify them by grace or teaching, and keep them whole until judgment.
1 Timothy 4:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Spirit foretold that some would abandon the faith.
2 Corinthians 4:14Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · God will raise those who die for Christ as he raised Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The dissolved body will be raised incorruptible and spiritual.
2 Corinthians 5:4Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Mortality will be swallowed by life, as iron glows with fire.
2 Corinthians 5:10Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · All will be judged by Christ for what they did in the body.
2 Corinthians 6:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · This life is the only time for salvation; after judgment no one can work or repent.
2 Corinthians 11:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · As the serpent deceived Eve, false teachers deny the reality and eternity of hell.
2 Thessalonians 1:5Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Their endurance shows faith in God's just judgment and makes them worthy of his kingdom.
2 Thessalonians 1:6Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · God will surely repay persecutors and give rest to the persecuted.
2 Thessalonians 1:7Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Rest awaits the afflicted at Christ's coming with his angels.
2 Thessalonians 1:8Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Hell's fire is real and can punish in degrees, against those who reduce it to remorse of conscience.
2 Thessalonians 1:9Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The punished will exist to suffer punishment and will be condemned before the Lord.
2 Thessalonians 1:10Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ will be glorified in his shining saints, and the wicked will marvel at their salvation.
2 Thessalonians 2:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul appeals to them by Christ's coming and the gathering of the elect.
2 Thessalonians 2:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The man of lawlessness will set himself above God, try to restore the temple and its law, and be received by the Jews in place of Christ.
2 Thessalonians 2:5Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Antichrist will be revealed when the present empire is removed, and Christ will destroy him at his coming.
2 Thessalonians 2:9Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Lemma of 2 Thess 2:9.
2 Thessalonians 2:10Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Antichrist's false signs deceive those who do not love the truth; God permits rather than sends the error.
2 Thessalonians 2:12Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Those who believe the Antichrist's tricks will have no excuse for having rejected Christ's works.
2 Timothy 2:8Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ's resurrection in the flesh refutes those who deny the resurrection or his coming in the flesh.
2 Timothy 2:16Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Heretics who deny the resurrection remove the fear of judgment and lead to every crime.
2 Timothy 2:18Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Hymenaeus and Philetus said the resurrection was past, perhaps reading Ezekiel's bones as the return from exile.
2 Timothy 3:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Worsening times in the last days should not surprise Timothy.
2 Timothy 3:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · In the last days people will be self-loving, greedy, proud, and ungrateful.
2 Timothy 4:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul adjures Timothy by Christ the judge of living and dead.
2 Timothy 4:8Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The crown is owed not to persons but to labour, and awaits all who love Christ's coming.
2 Timothy 4:18Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Lord who rescues Paul now will bring him into his kingdom.
Colossians 3:4Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Believers' glory will appear with Christ, so they must not seek it now.
Ephesians 6:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The promised land of long life is the land promised to the meek, not this earth.
Philippians 3:11Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul strives for the resurrection of the perfect, not the general resurrection all must share.
Philippians 3:12Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul has not yet reached perfection but presses on to the merit of his apostleship.
Philippians 3:20Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The believer's citizenship is in heaven, from which Christ will come.
Philippians 3:21Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ will transform believers' bodies, as the transfiguration showed for the living and the dead.
Romans 2:16Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · On judgment day our own thoughts will accuse or excuse us.
Romans 8:11Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · God will raise the bodies in which his Spirit dwells.
Romans 8:18Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · No suffering can compare with the promised glory, which is now hidden.
Romans 8:19Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Pelagius lists interpretations of "creation": the whole world, the angels, Adam and Eve, or the righteous before Christ.
Romans 14:9Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · At his coming Christ will find the living and raise the dead.
Titus 2:13Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul calls Christ the great God, whose coming believers await.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 3.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The law commands the same as the Gospel but promised earthly rewards; to Christians is promised eternal life, the vision of God that the psalmist longed for.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 3.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As we love the righteous for invisible beauty, not bodily appearance, so Christians must love God freely for himself, not for temporal rewards, longing to contemplate him without hunger or weariness.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 4.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ, who came hidden and silent to be judged and crucified, paying the price of our redemption, will come again manifest and speaking as judge.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 4.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · John denied being Elijah, while Christ said he was Elijah; both spoke truly, for John was in the spirit of Elijah, herald of the first coming as Elijah will be of the second.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 4.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · John came 'in the spirit and power of Elijah': figuratively he was Elijah, properly he was not, so both he and the Lord spoke truly; his greatest merit was his humility in refusing to be taken for the Christ.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The six jars signify the six ages of the world, from Adam to the present age that began with John the Baptist, all filled with prophecy that becomes wine when Christ is understood in it; in the sixth age, as on the sixth day, man is renewed in God's image.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 15.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The prophets and patriarchs sowed, and the apostles reaped the ripe harvest in Judea; from it the whole world was sown for a harvest that angels will reap at the end, and sowers and reapers will rejoice together.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Father and Son give life to the same people with one power and will, which raises the question how the Father “judges no one.”
Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Believers already pass from the death of unbelief and sin to the life of faith, a present resurrection.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ speaks of a resurrection to eternal life that happens now, before the final resurrection at the end of the world.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The same believers rise twice, now in the mind by obedient faith and at the end in the flesh; “hearing” Christ's voice means obeying it.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The present resurrection of minds, which even false religions admit, must not be made the only resurrection, as Hymenaeus and Philetus did.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son of God raises souls; as son of man he received power to judge and will raise bodies; the Word having man is one Christ, as soul and body are one man.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ will judge in the form of a servant, visible to just and unjust alike, which is why “the Father judges no one.”
Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “All who are in the tombs” shows that Christ now speaks of the bodily resurrection of just and unjust, not of the present rising of minds.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · At the bodily resurrection the good and the wicked will be openly separated, and after judging in the form of a servant Christ will show the form of God to those who love him.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The dead whom Father and Son give life are not those raised as miracles, but all who will rise to eternal life at the final judgment.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father “judges no one” because only the Son will appear at the judgment, visibly, in the risen human body in which he ascended.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · At the judgment all will see Christ's human form; the form of God, equal to the Father, is kept for the righteous who go into eternal life.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ promised to show himself, in the form of God, to those who love him; eternal life is to know the one true God and Jesus Christ.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The passage from death to life happens now, in the heart, when one hears and believes; the present life is not yet true life, which is eternal.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's promise that believers will not come into judgment seems to clash with Paul's statement that all must appear before Christ's judgment seat.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “Judgment” sometimes means discernment, before which all appear, and sometimes condemnation, into which believers will not come.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Believers still pay bodily death as Adam's penalty, but now pass by faith from the death of unbelief to the life of faith.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The “hour” in which the dead hear Christ's voice is the whole present age; the sinner rises by believing, comes forth by confessing, and is loosed by the apostles' ministry, as Lazarus was.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As Son of God he has life in himself; as son of man, the crucified one, he received the power to judge, appearing at the judgment in his human form.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Against those who say the resurrection is past, Augustine notes that the bodily resurrection is spoken of without “and now is,” because it comes at the end of the world.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “All who are in the tombs … will come forth” describes the bodily resurrection of good and evil, unlike the present rising of believers, which makes no such division.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ is Word, rational soul, and flesh; souls rise from sin through Christ as God, and bodies rise from corruption through Christ as man.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The “greater works” the Father will show the Son, as man made in time, are the resurrection of bodies.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The resurrection of souls is the joint work of the Father and the Son in their one substance; the resurrection of bodies is the Son's work as man, in whom he is honored but not “as” the Father.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father raises souls through the Son's divine substance, but raises bodies and judges through the son of man, who judges “as he hears,” seeking the Father's will.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 25.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ, already king, fled because the crowds wanted to anticipate the time of his kingdom, which will be manifest after the judgment.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 25.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Like the Emmaus disciples and the apostles asking about Israel's kingdom, the crowd wanted the kingdom too soon; Christ first ascends and gathers the nations.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 25.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · With Christ, the high priest, gone up on high, the boat in the dark is the church at the world's end, where hatred darkens love and slanders toss the ship.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 25.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The ship of the church makes headway amid storms; the twenty-five and thirty stadia signify the Law (five times five) fulfilled by the gospel (five times six), to whom Jesus comes treading the waves.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 25.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christians fear when the world's heights are crushed, but Christ, who foretold it, says “It is I; do not be afraid,” and brings the ship to land.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 25.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · None of the humble whom the Father gave to Christ will be lost; they rise now by faith and will be raised in the flesh on the last day.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Here we hunger for righteousness; we will be filled at the resurrection on the last day.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who eat Christ's flesh still die in the body; they have eternal life now in the spirit and will receive it in the body at the resurrection.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Unlike those who ate manna and died, those who eat Christ, though they die in time, live for ever, because he is eternal life.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 28.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's time is the time of judgment; now his body must live justly and bear with the wicked until justice is turned into judgment.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 28.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As people disputed whether Christ was good or a deceiver, so they dispute about his servants, whose life is hidden like a tree in winter until the summer of judgment.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 29.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Antichrist will seek his own glory; Christ, though equal to the Father, sought the Father's glory and so gives us an example of humility.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 30.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · We too are warned not to judge by persons; the Jews sought earthly promises of the Old Testament, while we, made new, hope for an eternal homeland.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 31.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The woman with the flow of blood figured the Gentile Church, which touched Christ without seeing him; the cross, between the two robbers, foreshadowed his judgment.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 32.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit was given after the resurrection to show the eternal life we hope for and to turn our love from the world, since Christ promises not earthly goods but eternal life.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 34.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Following is present, having the light is future: now we follow by faith, then we shall see; meanwhile we desire God, who alone sees that desire and gives himself.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 34.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ, who healed the man born blind with spittle and earth, enlightens us by faith; he is the way, as man, to the truth and life that he is with the Father.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 34.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · In this life we strive with others and within ourselves, flesh against spirit; following Christ in hope leads to the perfect peace of immortality.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 35.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · When Christ comes, Scripture's lamps will no longer be needed; we shall see the Word himself, the light from which every ray now reaches us.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 36.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “I judge no one” means either not yet, since Christ came first in mercy, even to the death of the cross, or not according to the flesh.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 36.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · God is both witness and judge: he sees us now and cannot be deceived when he judges; those who obey will receive what he promised.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 36.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son alone will appear in the judgment, in the human form in which he suffered, though the Father is with him; the vision of God himself is the reward of the just.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 37.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ did not come down from the cross, deferring his power to teach patience; that hidden power will be manifest at the judgment, for he is one Christ, God and man.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 39.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ will judge in the future, having come first to save; by giving glory to the Father, though equal, he rebukes the pride of servants.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 40.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · We believe in order to know: faith in what is not seen will be rewarded with the sight of the truth, when God's image, worn away in us like a coin's, is stamped anew.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 40.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · We must stretch out our desire for the glory to come, loving God more than money and using the world like an inn on a journey, trusting him who called us.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 41.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Perfect freedom will come when death is swallowed up in victory; meanwhile the Church is the inn where Christ, the Good Samaritan, has us cared for.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ promised that whoever keeps his word will not “see” or “taste” death, that is, will not experience it; the Jews mocked, citing the deaths of Abraham and the prophets.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The death Christ promised to spare us is the second, eternal death of damnation; bodily death is only a departure.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Many, fearing bodily death, fell into eternal death by worshiping idols; we must fear the death of Gehenna, as the three young men and the martyrs did, keeping Christ's word in faith.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Abraham and the prophets, though dead in body, live, for God is the God of the living; it was Christ's accusers who were truly dead.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 44.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The night in which no one can work is the condemnation of the ungodly, which each unbeliever enters at death, as the rich man in Luke 16 shows.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 45.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · To go in through Christ is to enter the Church and the life of faith; to go out is to pass by faith at death to the more abundant life where the shepherd has gone before.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 48.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The pasture of Christ's sheep is eternal life, entered by faith and reached by dying as believers.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The raising of Lazarus is no wonder for the Creator; it is a sign given so that we may believe and prepare for the final resurrection to life.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Lazarus was asleep to the Lord who could wake him; all the dead sleep until the resurrection, but they are held in different conditions according to their merits, as Luke 16 shows.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · At death souls receive rest or torment, but all the saints will receive together at the resurrection the fullness that God has promised.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Faith is the life of the soul: the believer who dies in the flesh lives, and the unbeliever who lives in the flesh is already dead.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 52.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The present judgment of the world is the separation of believers from the devil's dominion through Christ's blood, distinct from the final judgment.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 54.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ does not judge now because this is the time of mercy; judgment will come later.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 54.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The word Christ spoke, which is himself, will judge on the last day; those who heard and despised will be judged differently from those who never heard.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 57.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Church laments that her great preachers of old, who have put off the body, cannot return to preach now; they will be clothed again only at the resurrection.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 63.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Judas's departure, leaving only the clean with Christ, prefigures Christ's glorification when the wicked will be separated from the righteous.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 67.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The many dwelling places are different degrees of glory within the one eternal life, shared by all through love without envy.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 67.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine rejects the view that some of the many dwelling places lie outside the kingdom of heaven as a place of blessedness for unbaptized infants.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 68.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The dwelling places already exist in God's predestination but are still being prepared in his working, as the disciples were chosen both before the world and when they were called.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 68.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father's house is the church, God's temple and kingdom, which now exists in name and hope and will reign when the wicked are gathered out of it.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 68.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ goes away to prepare the place by making us live by faith, which cleanses the heart for the sight of God; the dwelling places differ as merits differ.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 75.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · "I live" points to Christ's resurrection soon to come, "you will live" to ours at the end of the age; as death came through Adam, life comes only through Christ.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 75.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · What we now believe, that Christ is in the Father, we in him, and he in us, we shall know by sight in the day of the resurrection.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 76.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The world will see Christ at the judgment; "a little while" refers to the end of the age, after which only those who love him will see him.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 77.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ leaves peace now, by which we overcome the enemy and love one another, and will give his own peace in the age to come; he himself is our peace.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 83.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's joy over us, full from eternity in his foreknowledge, begins in us when we are called and will be filled in the resurrection; God's blessedness does not increase from us.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 86.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ says he has made all things known because he speaks of the future fullness of knowledge as already done, as Scripture speaks of salvation already received in hope.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 89.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who died without hearing the gospel have an excuse for unbelief but do not thereby escape condemnation.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 89.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who heard and rejected Christ are not among those "judged by the Law"; all not saved in Christ perish, though punishments differ as sins differ.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 95.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The devil, ruler of the unbelieving world, has been judged; the world that imitates him is convicted of sharing his judgment, and must believe in Christ to escape it.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 101.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The joy no one will take away is the eternal vision of God, the fruit of contemplation to which all action is directed, which the church now travails to bring forth.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 101.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The "little while" until we see Christ is the whole present age; Christ's going to the Father is why he is not now seen, and the church waits in joyful hope.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 102.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The promised hour of plain speech cannot simply be the age to come, since there will be no asking there, where all desire is satisfied.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 105.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Eternal life is knowing the one true God, the Trinity; the Son glorifies the Father by making him known, and God's highest glorification will be the full knowledge of him in eternal life.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 107.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's joy, to be fulfilled in the disciples, is their being one as he and the Father are, the peace and blessedness of the age to come.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 110.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · "I in them and you in me" is said as mediator; "perfected into one" points to the final blessedness, when the world will know by sight what it now believes.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 110.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · That Christ died for humans and not for fallen angels shows God's mercy, not human superiority; by grace, as members of Christ, we will be made equal to the holy angels.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 111.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · To be with Christ means to be in heaven with the risen Christ and, beyond all bodily images, to see him as God, which the blessed alone enjoy.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 111.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Seeing Christ's glory is the reward of faith reserved for the pure in heart; we shall be with Christ in the Father, a 'place' to be thought of without bodily images.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 111.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Our life is already hidden with Christ in God by faith and will appear in glory, as God predestined before the world was made.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 120.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · John's witness invites belief, and two Scriptures are fulfilled: no bone of the Passover lamb broken, and the pierced one to be looked upon at his coming.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 122.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · John's apparent conclusion serves as a preface to the appearance by the sea of Tiberias, whose catch of fish figures the Church at the last resurrection.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 122.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The seven disciples and the shore signify the end of the age, as the parable of the net shows.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 122.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The earlier catch (Luke 5) figures the present Church of good and bad, this one the Church of the good alone at the end of the age, in a fixed number.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 122.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The large fish are those who do what they teach; those who teach but do not do will not enter the kingdom at the end.
Against Vigilantius 6Jerome · 406 · Jerome argues that the martyrs are with Christ and can pray for others, and rejects Vigilantius's appeal to an apocryphal Ezra.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · It is the last hour because many antichrists have already come, though the Antichrist is still to come.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Antichrists are those contrary to Christ; heretics and schismatics who leave the Church were never truly of it, and some inside are like bad humours in the body.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The liar denies that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed; those who stumble at Christ in his humility will be crushed by him when he comes in judgment.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The reward for abiding in what we heard from the beginning is eternal life, a promise of the Truth that cannot fail; the alternative is eternal fire.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 4.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · We believe in Christ through the apostles' witness and must abide in him so as not to be shamed at his coming; his promise is sure if we keep faith.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 4.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · We are already God's children, but what we shall be is not yet seen; the pure in heart will see Christ as God, while the wicked will see only the form of a servant at the judgment.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 8.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Whoever acknowledges God above him is acknowledged by lower creatures, as the lions acknowledged Daniel; God visibly delivers some and not others, but spiritually delivers all, and at the end creation will be subject to his children.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 8.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The Father sent the Son as Saviour, an almighty physician for incurable ills; we are healed in hope now and will be fully healed at the resurrection.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Love is perfected when we have confidence on the day of judgment; fear is its beginning, and as love grows, fear of Christ's coming turns into desire for it.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Two wives both 'fear' their husband, one lest he come and catch her in adultery, the other lest he leave her; so servile fear differs from chaste fear.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The soul with chaste fear longs for Christ's coming like a lily among thorns, fearing only to be deserted by him; thus the two Scriptures about fear agree.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 10.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · All things short of God are stopping-places on the way; the end is seeing God, and the 'broad commandment' is love, which no one can take away and which delights more than worldly pleasures.
Dialogue 19Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 408 · The bishop answers charges that John was proud and insulting, lists John's exiled and persecuted supporters, reflects on the last times and on vice and virtue, and Theodore closes with a reproach to John's persecutors and a blessing on John, to which the bishop adds a final denunciation of those who sold the priesthood.
Commentary on Isaiah 54:1-3Jerome · ca. 408-410 · Jerome interprets Isa 54:1–3 of the church of the Gentiles, the barren woman who outnumbers the Synagogue, the wife who received a bill of divorce, and rejects a millenarian reading.
Summary of the Collation with the Donatists 3.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 411–412 · The Catholics answer that the church is mixed now but will be pure in the age to come, illustrated by the two catches of fish and by Noah’s ark.
Summary of the Collation with the Donatists 3.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 411–412 · The Catholics deny teaching two churches: the one church is mixed and mortal now and will be pure and immortal at the resurrection.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.21Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Unbaptized infants will suffer the mildest condemnation of all; Adam's disobedience brought shameful desire and mortality, so all generated in the flesh need spiritual regeneration in baptism.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.55Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · There is no middle place: an unbaptized infant is not with Christ and so is against him, which can only be because of original sin; Christ saves all who are saved, as Adam condemns all who are born.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.49Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Adam's sin brought bodily death to all, but Christ's redemption brings resurrection to eternal life, so his benefit outweighs Adam's harm even though believers still die.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.50Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · God lets believers die so that faith may be real faith in unseen things, not a desire to escape death; only those alive at Christ's return will be changed without dying.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.20Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · 1 Corinthians 15:53–57 shows that sin is the sting by which bodily death came; at the resurrection death will be swallowed up and sin, its sting, overcome through Christ.
On the Christian Life 5Fastidius · ca. 411-430 · When the righteous die early they are freed and brought to rest, while the wicked are taken away to punishment.
To the Donatists after the Collation (Against the Party of Donatus after the Proceedings) 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 412 · Texts promising a pure church describe the age to come, and texts about sons bearing parents’ sins apply only to imitators; the Donatists set Scripture against itself.
To the Donatists after the Collation (Against the Party of Donatus after the Proceedings) 11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 412 · The Donatists themselves admitted hidden bad fish within the church’s nets, so Isaiah’s promise of a church without the unclean refers to the age to come.
To the Donatists after the Collation (Against the Party of Donatus after the Proceedings) 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 412 · The Donatists’ own admission proves that the church is mixed now and will be pure only after the resurrection.
To the Donatists after the Collation (Against the Party of Donatus after the Proceedings) 27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 412 · God himself separates the wicked visibly at his judgment; the guest without a wedding garment stands for the many bad who share the Lord’s table now with the few good.
To the Donatists after the Collation (Against the Party of Donatus after the Proceedings) 34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 412 · The church at Corinth, praised as lacking no grace, contained deniers of the resurrection, yet the faithful were not yoked with them.
To the Donatists after the Collation (Against the Party of Donatus after the Proceedings) 35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 412 · Paul did not order bodily separation from the many Corinthians who denied the resurrection, as he did with the incestuous man, but warned against consenting to them.
On the Spirit and the Letter 37Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The reward of the new covenant is God himself, known and seen in eternal life, when believers will be like him; this likeness now begins to be restored.
On the Spirit and the Letter 38Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The present renewal is small compared with the perfection to come, as childhood is compared with manhood in 1 Cor 13.
On the Spirit and the Letter 39Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Jeremiah's promise that no one will need to teach “Know the Lord” refers to the eternal reward of the new covenant, the vision of God, since preaching still goes on now.
On the Spirit and the Letter 41Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The old covenant's reward was the promised land; the new covenant's reward is the contemplation of God, when partial knowledge will cease and all will know him, from the least to the greatest.
On the Spirit and the Letter 48Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Even if the gentiles of Rom 2 are unbelievers with remnants of God's image, the new covenant's distinctiveness stands; their good works cannot save them, though punishment will differ in degree.
On the Spirit and the Letter 49Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Whichever reading of Rom 2:14 is taken, the new covenant's grace is the Spirit writing the law on hearts and leading to the vision of God.
On the Spirit and the Letter 51Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The law's promise of life is fulfilled only by the justified, and justification comes from faith, which obtains the Spirit's sweetness so that one acts from love rather than fear.
On the Spirit and the Letter 58Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Augustine first proposes that the will to believe arises from God-given free choice when God calls; unbelievers resist God's will but cannot escape his judgment.
On the Spirit and the Letter 59Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Augustine reads Ps 103:2–5 as the order of grace: forgiveness in baptism, healing in this life, resurrection, merciful judgment, and final satisfaction in the vision of God.
On the Spirit and the Letter 64Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The command to love God with all one's heart will be fulfilled only in the vision of God; in this life, the one who progresses most is the one who knows how far he is from perfection.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 1, part 7Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril applies God’s abandonment of Jerusalem also to the sinful soul, and reads the “seed” left in Isa 1:9 as the remnant of Israel saved through Christ, with the promise that Israel will turn to God at the end.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 3, part 20Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril explains Hades as the prison of souls, recalls Josephus’ account of the famine in the siege of Jerusalem, and says the leaders, who led the people into ruin, will be the first to go down.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 4, part 15Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril reads Isa 6:11–12 also of the end and the resurrection, and Isa 6:13 of later devastations of the surviving tenth of the Jews, likened to a leafless terebinth and an acorn fallen from its husk.
Commentary on Isaiah 2, Tome 5, part 15Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Isaiah 24 sums up the judgments on the nations that mocked God at Jerusalem's fall as a ruin of the “world”; since some read it of the end of the age, Cyril will explain each verse both ways (Isa 24:1).
Commentary on Isaiah 2, Tome 5, part 16Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril reads Isaiah 24:1–4 both of the nations' devastation, when war erases every rank, and of the last judgment, when Christ will separate the sheep from the goats and wealth and rank will save no one.
Commentary on Isaiah 2, Tome 5, part 17Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The mourning earth is the land laid waste by war, and in the general sense the earth burned at the consummation; it is cursed because its inhabitants broke the law and the everlasting covenant, including the natural law God engraved on humanity (Isa 24:4–6).
Commentary on Isaiah 2, Tome 5, part 18Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Humanity, enlightened by Christ and given the law, turned to the flesh, so the earth was cursed and few will be saved, as “many are called but few chosen”; the luxury of Israel, which feasted instead of repenting, ends in desolation (Isa 24:6–12).
Commentary on Isaiah 2, Tome 5, part 19Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · At the judgment all worldly luxury will end; as harvesters glean every olive, so the enemy left none, and so at the end no impious person will escape the angels' search, as in Christ's parable of the net (Isa 24:11–13).
Commentary on Isaiah 2, Tome 5, part 20Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · God does not destroy the righteous with the wicked, as Ezekiel's Noah, Daniel and Job and the marked ones show; those spared will rejoice in the glory of the Lord, who is Christ, the glory of the Father (Isa 24:14–15).
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 1, part 4Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · God wiping away every tear means the resurrection, confessed at baptism: Christ, firstfruits of the dead, abolished death's reign, so believers do not grieve without hope; Israel's faithful will confess the incarnate Son as their God, and the church is the mountain of rest (Isa 25:8–10).
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 1, part 14Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The spirit of salvation the saints bore is the gospel preaching in the Spirit; though death still reigns for a time, Christ the firstfruits guarantees the resurrection, and the “dew” that heals the dead is the life-giving Spirit (Isa 26:18–19).
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 1, part 15Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The dew is the life-giving Spirit, or the Word himself, who will raise the bodies sown in the earth; the people bidden to hide in their chambers are the saints, whose tombs are resting-places until the wrath that brought death passes at the resurrection (Isa 26:19–21).
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 1, part 16Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · God will avenge the slain saints, the Son executing judgment; the holy sword, the Word, will slay the dragon Satan; then the prophet turns to Israel, the fair vineyard and strong city that God watered in vain (Isa 26:21–27:3).
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 2, part 5Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · God frees the afflicted from the law's burden by the cornerstone, justification by faith; judgment belongs to the Son, who will show mercy in due measure; the scoffers who thought judgment would come after their death will themselves be trampled, and soon (Isa 28:16–19).
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 2, part 19Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · At the end of the age Israel too will be called through faith and follow the nations, when the fullness of the nations has come in; seeing the nations believe and idolatry destroyed, they will sanctify God's name, gain understanding, and those who murmured against Christ will learn to confess him (Isa 29:22–24).
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 3, part 16Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The nations far off and the believing part of Israel near at hand came to know Christ's strength, while the lawless in Zion face the eternal fire (Isa 33:13–14); the righteous man of Isa 33:15–16 dwells safely on the rock, the church founded on Peter's confession.
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 3, part 22Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The rolling up of heaven in Isa 34:4 points to the renewal of creation at the end, and the sword drunk in heaven to the punishment of the evil spirits; in Isa 34:5–6 “Idumea,” the earthy, is Judea, punished for its impiety toward Christ.
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 5, part 21Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Christ, born of Israel according to the flesh, gave the new covenant and became a light to the nations, showing himself God by nature; he preached to the spirits in Hades and freed the imprisoned (Isa 42:6–7); God gives his glory to no creature, yet gives it to the Son, consubstantial with him, one nature in three hypostases (Isa 42:8); his promises of the life to come will be fulfilled as the old ones were (Isa 42:9). Doxology.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 2, part 27Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Jewish and Gentile believers are renewed in worship, leaving types and idols for spiritual worship; God promises the true Israel, by flesh and by promise, an eternal salvation free of sin, Satan and death (Isa 45:17).
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 4, part 16Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril reads Zion’s walls as the apostles, says the Jewish disciples rebuilt the Zion that the Jewish leaders had pulled down, and reads Isa 49:18 as the future return of Israel to Christ to form one flock with the church of the nations.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 5, part 6Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril reads the fire and flame of Isa 50:11 as the punishment that the Jews kindled against themselves by killing the prophets and Christ, fulfilled in the fall of Jerusalem and awaiting those who die without Christ’s redemption.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 5, part 8Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril explains the hewn rock and dug pit (Isa 51:1–2) as the miraculous birth of Isaac from aged Abraham and barren Sarah, and reads the comfort of Zion (Isa 51:3) as the spiritual flourishing of the church, whose worship is in spirit and truth.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 5, part 12Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril reads Isa 51:6 as a lesson that heaven and earth, being creatures, will grow old and be renewed, while God’s salvation and righteousness, the eternal Son and Word, will never fail.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 5, part 14Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril reads the call “Awake, Jerusalem” (Isa 51:9) as the future conversion of Israel to Christ after the full number of the nations has come in, when the natural branches will be grafted back into their own olive tree.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 5, part 21Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril reads the removal of the cup of wrath from Jerusalem (Isa 51:21–22) as the end of Israel’s judgment when it is called to faith in Christ in the last days, and explains “cup” in Scripture as the lot allotted to each.
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 1, part 19Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The nations 'give an offering for sin' by repaying Christ, who died for them, with their own lives, preferring him even to parents; in return they share the long-lived seed of the saints and the hope of resurrection.
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 3, part 18Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Through Christ both Israel, once near, and the nations, once far, have peace with God and one another; Israel will be called, though some will follow the Antichrist and find no rest. Isa 58 then rebukes those who, under threat of war, feigned piety and fasting while sinning.
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 4, part 4Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Those filled with God's mysteries become like a well-watered garden and an unfailing spring, as the apostles were; the bones springing up like grass point to the resurrection, and also to the soul's powers renewed by the Holy Spirit (Isa 58:11).
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 5, part 2Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Some refer the sun and moon that no longer shine to the end of the age, when Christ's glory will light the saints; Cyril accepts this and adds that the light Christ gives the mind through the Holy Spirit never sets, for he is the light of the world (Isa 60:19–20).
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 5, part 3Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Mourning ends for the sinner who turns to the Lord and is justified by faith; Christ himself grafted the gentiles into his olive, and the saints, hidden and least now, will be gathered at his coming and given rule over many (Isa 60:20–22).
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 6, part 7Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · As unbelieving Israel was punished while the remnant was saved, so among the nations those who cling to idols face endless fire, while God's servants feast at Christ's life-giving table, eating the bread of life and the divine drink (Isa 65:11–15).
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 6, part 9Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The converted nations forget the misery of serving countless cruel gods; the new heaven and earth are new thoughts about creation, no longer worshipped as gods, though some interpreters refer the promise to the renewal of creation after this age, and both readings may be held (Isa 65:16–20).
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 6, part 19Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · God will nurse the immature in the church like a mother, and in the end their bones will flourish in the resurrection by the life-giving Spirit and the power of Christ; but Christ will come with fire and angels to cast the disobedient into eternal fire (Isa 66:12–17).
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 6, part 22Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The church, the seed brought to God by the apostles, will last like the new heaven and earth and keep growing as pagans and, at the end, the Jews come in; the undying worm and fire refer either to the Jews' sufferings under Rome or to the final punishment, from which Christ will deliver us (Isa 66:22–24).
Commentary on Luke 9:26Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Those ashamed of Christ will be shamed at his glorious coming, while the faithful will be rewarded; to encourage the disciples he showed three of them a foretaste of his glory, with Moses and Elijah, the law and prophets, speaking of his passion; Peter’s proposal of tents was untimely, since the passion was still to come.
Commentary on Luke 9:29Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The transfiguration gave a pattern of the resurrection body: not a change of human form but a clothing of the flesh with divine glory, as the righteous will shine in the kingdom.
Commentary on Luke 11:2 (part 2)Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · “Hallowed be your name” asks not that God become holier but that we and all the world confess his holiness and become holy; “Your kingdom come” is fitting only for those ready to face Christ’s return in judgment; “Your will be done” asks that men on earth live like the angels and that sin be removed.
Commentary on Luke 12:34Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Girded loins and burning lamps signify a mind ready for good works and awake to await the Lord, as Israel ate the Passover dressed for travel; the faithful must expect Christ’s return in glory, when he will serve them his spiritual gifts.
Commentary on Luke 12:38Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · In his gentleness Christ gives repentance and blesses those found watching in the second or third watch, that is, in youth or old age, childhood not being called to account; since the day of the Lord comes like a thief, we must be found holy at any hour.
Commentary on Luke 12:54Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Those who read the weather should have discerned the time of salvation foretold by the law, the prophets and the Song, and the coming fire of judgment, and should have been persuaded by Christ’s signs or by the coming fall of Jerusalem; we must settle with our accuser, Satan, through Christ’s grace before we reach the judge.
Commentary on Luke 16:19Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The rich man and Lazarus is a parable, not an account of judgement already given, since judgement follows the resurrection at Christ’s return; it warns the rich, unable to give up everything, at least to help the poor, lest they share the nameless rich man’s fate, while Lazarus is carried to Abraham’s bosom.
Commentary on Luke 17:22Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ prepares the disciples for the tribulation before his return, when they would long for even one day of his company, for their later sufferings would exceed even the hostility he met from his enemies.
Commentary on Luke 17:24Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ’s second coming will be sudden and glorious like lightning, unlike his humble first coming; he must first suffer, abolish death and sin, ascend, and then come to judge; as in the days of Noah and Lot, the end will find people unprepared, so we must always keep watch.
Commentary on Luke 17:31Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · At the end, those in ease and wealth must disregard their possessions, and those labouring for spiritual fruit must not turn back, lest they be like Lot’s wife; each must look only to saving his soul.
Commentary on Luke 17:34Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The night is the unexpected judgement; of those in wealth or in poverty, the kind, compassionate and orthodox will be taken and the wicked left for punishment; the eagles gathering to the body are the saints, lifted above earthly things, whom the angels will gather to meet Christ.
Commentary on Luke 18:8Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The question whether the Son of Man will find faith foretells apostasy in the last times; we may pray against heretics and against Satan, whom the incarnate Word cast out; the parable is not to be allegorized curiously, and “will he find faith?” signals that few will keep it.
Commentary on Luke 20:27Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Against the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, Christ teaches that the risen are like angels, needing no marriage, since marriage and childbearing were given after Adam’s fall to preserve the race; in the resurrection we shall have spiritual bodies held fast to God’s will by the Spirit.
Commentary on Luke 20:37Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · God’s words at the bush, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” prove the resurrection, for he is the God of the living.
Commentary on Luke 21:5Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ predicts the temple’s destruction by Rome after the cross; the disciples take it to mean the end of the age, so he speaks of false christs before his glorious second coming, which unlike his hidden first coming will be manifest, and of the signs of the end, interweaving the fall of Jerusalem.
Commentary on Luke 21:25Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · As creation begins to change, terror will grip the nations so that many die of fear; then the Son of Man will come in a cloud.
Commentary on Luke 21:27Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · At his second coming Christ will come on the clouds in the great power and glory of the Godhead, as God always appears, to raise the dead and clothe them in incorruption; the judgement given by the Father to the Son is his by nature, as God from God, inseparable from the Father as light from the sun.
Commentary on Luke 21:29Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The fig tree’s leaves show the end is near but not yet; “this generation” means those of like character; Christ’s words cannot fail; we must stay watchful and sober; he taught daily in the temple, turning the types to spiritual worship, and lodged on the Mount of Olives as a pattern for us.
Commentary on Luke 24:4 (3)Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · A scholion on Christ’s last words: through him the souls of the justified no longer go to Hades but into God’s hands, as Stephen and Peter show; then, on the women at the tomb: for their love they saw angels who announced that the living one, who tasted death as the death of death, had risen, as angels had announced his birth.
Commentary on Luke 24:36Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The risen Christ appears to the longing apostles, calms their fear with “Peace to you,” shows he is God by knowing their thoughts, and proves the same body that suffered has risen by showing his wounds, letting them touch him and eating fish; the “spiritual body” is one subject to the Spirit, not a non-bodily one, and heretical denials of bodily resurrection are refuted.
Letter 81 (Cyril to the monks in Phua (fragments))Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Fragments of Cyril's letter to the monks at Phua against those who deny the resurrection of the body: the denial comes from Origen's teaching that souls pre-existed and were embodied as punishment, which Scripture and the judgment 'for what was done through the body' refute.
Book 2, chapter 7Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Lev 7, Hesychius treats the guilt offering as repentance for sins against God, which needs part of Christ's sacrifice; the priest's portions as patience, theology and good works completed by grace; the ban on eating peace offerings on the third day as a rebuke of those who expect an earthly thousand-year kingdom after the resurrection; and the bans on fat and blood as the offering of desire to God and the refusal to harm one's neighbour.
Book 6, chapter 23Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On the feasts of Lev 23, Hesychius reads the six working days and the Sabbath as good works now and rest in the age to come; Passover and unleavened bread as Christ's passion and a life free of the old leaven; the sheaf offered on the day after the Sabbath as the risen Christ and the lamb with it as the eucharistic sacrifice of the intelligible Melchizedek; Pentecost, kept on the Lord's day, as the coming of the Spirit; and the feasts of trumpets, atonement and tabernacles as resurrection, humility, and life lived as sojourners.
Book 7, chapter 25Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Lev 25, Hesychius reads the sabbatical year and the jubilee as the rest of the age to come, when no more work is possible, and the jubilee trumpet as the trumpet of the resurrection; the laws of sale and redemption become rules for teachers and disciples, for restoring a fallen brother by repentance, and for the synagogue, sold for good after rejecting Christ, and the church of the nations, always redeemable; slavery and lending laws teach mildness toward penitents and the weak, with Zacchaeus and the Ninevites as models of full repentance.
Homily 1 (On the Nativity (fragment))Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · A chronological fragment dates Christ's birth to 25 December in Augustus's forty-second year and places his coming in the sixth millennium, matching the six days of creation.
City of God 1.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues that the manner of death does not matter to those who have lived well, since only what follows death makes it evil.
City of God 1.12Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues that lack of burial does no harm to Christians, since funerals comfort the living and God will raise every body wherever its remains have gone.
City of God 1.35Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine notes that future citizens of the city of God are hidden among its enemies and false members within the church, since the two cities are mixed until the last judgment, and announces his plan to treat their origin, progress, and ends.
City of God 5.16Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine contrasts the Romans' reward with the eternal city of the saints, for whom Roman examples serve as a spur to greater love of the heavenly country.
City of God 6.1Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine turns from those who worship the gods for this life to those who worship them for the life after death, and argues that gods too petty even for earthly goods cannot give eternal life.
City of God 6.12Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine concludes that since the gods of civil theology cannot give happiness, they cannot give eternal life, which is happiness without end.
City of God 7.30Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine lists the works that Varro divided among many gods and ascribes them all to the one true God, present everywhere, from whom alone eternal life is hoped.
City of God 9.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine rejects the Platonist view that human souls become demons — lares, larvae, or Manes — after death, as an encouragement to wickedness.
City of God 10.30Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine commends Porphyry for correcting Plato by rejecting transmigration into beasts and the endless cycle of souls, and holds that souls return once to their own bodies in the resurrection.
City of God 10.32Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine answers Porphyry's search for a universal way of liberating the soul by presenting the Christian religion, promised to Abraham and foretold by the prophets, as that way, and closes the first ten books.
City of God 11.12Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Adam in paradise had greater present delight, but the righteous now, though suffering, have the surer hope of eternal happiness.
City of God 12.14Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine rejects the philosophers' doctrine of eternal recurrence, which denies the soul true happiness and misreads Ecclesiastes, since Christ died once and the saints will be with the Lord forever.
City of God 12.20Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Whatever “ages of ages” means, it gives no support to cyclical recurrence, which the eternal life of the saints refutes.
City of God 12.21Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The doctrine that the blessed must return to misery in endless cycles is impious and destroys love and hope; even Porphyry rejected it, and the souls' final freedom shows that genuinely new things happen, such as man's creation.
City of God 13.2Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The soul dies when God forsakes it, the body when the soul leaves it; the second death is the eternal punishment of body and soul, good to no one.
City of God 13.8Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The martyr accepts the first death to escape the second; after death the souls of the godly rest and those of the wicked are punished until the resurrection.
City of God 13.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The moment of death cannot be located, and even Latin cannot properly “decline” the verb to die; but by Christ's grace we can “decline” the second death, an endless dying.
City of God 13.18Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The weight of earthly bodies is no objection to their being in heaven: God can make them light and incorruptible, as even art makes metal float and Plato's gods kept fire's light without its heat.
City of God 13.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Had the first humans not sinned, they would never have died; the Platonists, who give their gods everlasting bodies and even let the wise return to bodies, cannot reasonably scorn Christian faith in the resurrection of incorruptible bodies.
City of God 13.20Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The saints' bodies will rise spiritual, better even than Adam's before sin, which needed food and was kept from aging by the tree of life, a sacrament of God's wisdom; the forbidden tree was not evil but a test of obedience.
City of God 13.22Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Risen bodies will need no food but may eat, as the angels did with Abraham and Tobit and as the risen Christ did; they will be spiritual yet remain true bodies.
City of God 13.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Adam was created with an animal body, mortal only through sin, not a spiritual one; the spiritual body is Christ's risen body, which believers receive now in sacrament and hope and fully at the resurrection.
City of God 14.25Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · No one lives as he wills unless he is happy and righteous and secure from death, deception, and harm; resignation to what one can have is not happiness, which must be loved above all and willed to be eternal.
City of God 15.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Enoch, seventh from Adam and translated to God, prefigures the future 'dedication' of the whole house of God at the resurrection, already accomplished in Christ the head.
City of God 16.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine interprets Abraham's covenant sacrifice (Gen 15) as a figure of Israel, the undivided spiritual faithful, the end-time tribulation, and the fire of judgment.
City of God 16.30Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Sodom's destruction by fire prefigures the final judgment, and Lot's wife warns against looking back; at Gerar God again protected Sarah.
City of God 17.4Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Hannah's song (1 Sam 2:1–10) goes beyond thanks for Samuel: it prophesies the Church, the humbling of the proud, Christ's death and resurrection, his ascension and judgment, and the new priesthood.
City of God 17.13Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The promised secure peace was not Solomon's, since the judges' times had longer peace; it is the eternal peace of the heavenly Jerusalem.
City of God 18.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine gives a Latin version of the Erythraean Sibyl's acrostic poem on the judgment, whose Greek initials spell “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour” and form the word ichthys (“fish”), and gathers the Sibylline prophecies of Christ's passion quoted by Lactantius.
City of God 18.35Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reads Haggai's shaking of the nations, Zechariah's humble king and the blood of the covenant, and Malachi's pure offering among the nations, the angel of the covenant, and the day of judgment as prophecies of Christ and the church.
City of God 18.48Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues that Haggai's promised greater glory belongs to the church built of living stones, which will appear fully when only the chosen remain.
City of God 18.52Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine rejects the scheme of exactly ten persecutions matching the ten plagues of Egypt, pointing to persecutions under Herod, Julian, Valens, the Goths, and the Persians, and leaves the number of future persecutions undecided.
City of God 18.53Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine warns against calculating the date of the last persecution and Christ's return, and ridicules a pagan oracle claiming that Peter's sorcery had fixed the duration of Christianity at 365 years.
City of God 18.54Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine refutes the pagan oracle by dating the 365 years from Pentecost to the consulship of Honorius and Eutychianus (AD 398), noting that the next year the temples of Carthage were overthrown and the church grew, and concludes Book 18.
City of God 19.4Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine answers that eternal life is the supreme good and eternal death the supreme evil, and argues that the miseries of this life, the constant war of virtue against vice, and even the Stoic defence of suicide show that happiness here can only be held in hope.
City of God 19.10Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine says that the saints' struggle with temptation makes them long for the final peace, in which body and soul will be perfected and virtue will no longer fight, and that true virtue refers everything to that end.
City of God 19.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine explains that the end of the city of God may be called peace as well as eternal life, and best “peace in eternal life” or “eternal life in peace,” since Jerusalem means “vision of peace.”
City of God 19.13Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine defines the peace of body, soul, household, city, and the heavenly city, and of all things as “the tranquillity of order,” showing that even the wretched and the devil remain within God's order, and that temporal peace, rightly used, leads to eternal peace.
City of God 19.20Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine says that the citizens of the heavenly city may be called happy now only in hope, since all present goods without that hope are false happiness.
City of God 19.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine says that in this life the peace and righteousness of the saints consist more in the forgiveness of sins than in perfect virtue, as the Lord's Prayer shows, while in the final peace God will rule the whole person without conflict.
City of God 19.28Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine describes the end of the wicked as the second death, an unending war between will and passion and between pain and bodily nature, and announces that the next book will treat the last judgment.
City of God 20.1Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine explains that God always judges, but this book concerns the final judgment, when Christ comes to judge the living and the dead.
City of God 20.3Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Ecclesiastes laments that the same things befall good and bad in this life, and ends by pointing to God's judgment of every work.
City of God 20.5Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine gathers Christ's sayings in the Gospels that foretell a judgment at the end of the age, with the resurrection of the dead and the separation of good and bad.
City of God 20.6Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The first resurrection is the present raising of souls from sin through faith; the second is the raising of bodies at the end, to life or to condemnation.
City of God 20.7Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine rejects a literal, carnal reading of the thousand years of Revelation 20 and explains the binding of the devil as the restraint of his power over the church during the present age.
City of God 20.8Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The binding of the devil restrains his power to tempt during the church's age; at the end he will be loosed for three and a half years, yet the church will endure and even grow.
City of God 20.9Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The reign of the saints for a thousand years is the present reign of the church, living and dead, with Christ; the thrones are its leaders, the beast the ungodly city, and the first resurrection the rising of souls from sin.
City of God 20.10Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Resurrection can be spoken of souls as well as bodies, since souls also fall; and all believers, not only clergy, are the priests who reign with Christ.
City of God 20.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Gog and Magog are not particular barbarian peoples but the ungodly throughout the world, who in the last persecution will besiege the church everywhere.
City of God 20.12Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The fire from heaven in Revelation 20:9 is either the saints' firmness that torments their persecutors or Christ's blow at his coming, not the final punishment.
City of God 20.13Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues that the saints reign with Christ even during Antichrist's three-and-a-half-year persecution, so the thousand years either measure the devil's binding only or round off that short span.
City of God 20.14Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine explains Revelation 20:10–13: the devil's condemnation, the passing of the world's form, the books opened at judgment, and the book of life as God's power recalling each person's deeds.
City of God 20.15Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The sea that gives up its dead is this world, giving up those still alive at Christ's coming; death and hell give back the departed; the book of life is God's infallible foreknowledge of the predestined.
City of God 20.16Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · After the judgment the present world will be transformed by fire into a new heaven and earth fitted to immortal bodies; the vanished sea may figure the stormy life of this world.
City of God 20.17Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The new Jerusalem without tears or death belongs to the world to come, not to the present reign of the church, whose saints still weep and sin.
City of God 20.18Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Peter's second letter foretells that the present heavens and earth, restored after the flood, will be destroyed by fire at the judgment; the saints, immortal, will be untouched by that fire.
City of God 20.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reads 2 Thessalonians 2 as foretelling Antichrist before the day of the Lord, confesses he does not know what “holds him back”, and reports without endorsing the views that it is the Roman empire or hidden evil within the church.
City of God 20.20Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Commenting on 1 Thessalonians 4, Augustine suggests that those alive at Christ's coming will die and rise in an instant as they are caught up, so that all die and rise; how it will happen is known only then.
City of God 20.21Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reads Isaiah 26 and 65–66 as foretelling the resurrection of good and wicked, the comfort of the heavenly Jerusalem, the gathering of the nations into the church, and eternal punishment.
City of God 20.22Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The saints will “go out” to see the punishment of the wicked not by moving bodily but by knowledge; Augustine notes different views on the fire and the worm and defers the question.
City of God 20.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Daniel foretells Antichrist's short and savage reign of three and a half years before the judgment and the saints' everlasting kingdom, and the resurrection of many to life or to shame.
City of God 20.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Psalm 102 foretells the perishing of the heavens, against Porphyry's mockery of the Christian belief in the world's end; Psalm 50 foretells Christ's open coming to judge and gather the righteous.
City of God 20.25Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Malachi 3 foretells the last judgment and seems to indicate purifying punishments for some, which will cleanse the church so that it offers itself to God in perfect righteousness; Augustine defers the question.
City of God 20.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The sacrifices “as in the days of old” that the purified saints will offer are themselves, sinless as in paradise before the Fall, not a return to the animal sacrifices of the Law; the Lord will be a swift witness against the wicked.
City of God 20.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Malachi's day burning like an oven, when the sun of righteousness rises on those who fear God, shows the final separation of the righteous and the wicked.
City of God 20.28Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Those who read the law of Moses carnally murmured that serving God was useless; the last judgment will openly show the misery of the wicked and the happiness of the righteous.
City of God 20.29Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Elijah, who is still living, will come before the judgment and, by expounding the law spiritually, will bring the Jews to believe in Christ.
City of God 20.30Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Old Testament passages where the Lord God speaks as judge are shown, from Isaiah and Zechariah, to refer to Christ; Augustine lists the events of the end: Elijah, the Jews' faith, Antichrist, Christ's judgment, resurrection, separation, and the world's burning and renewal.
City of God 21.1Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine explains that he will treat the eternal punishment of the wicked before the happiness of the saints, since bodily endurance in torment seems harder to believe.
City of God 21.2Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · To unbelievers who demand examples, Augustine points to creatures that live in fire and hot springs: if living in fire without pain is believed, living in pain is not harder to believe.
City of God 21.3Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Pain is a sign of life, not proof of death: the soul feels pain yet is immortal, and so the risen bodies of the damned can suffer without dying.
City of God 21.8Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · A portent is not against nature but against what is known of nature; God, who changed the course of Venus, stopped the sun, and turned Sodom into a waste, can change the nature of human bodies as he has foretold.
City of God 21.9Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The unquenchable fire and undying worm of Gehenna may both be bodily, or the fire bodily and the worm the mind's grief; Augustine leaves the choice open but insists that the bodies of the damned will truly feel the fire.
City of God 21.10Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The bodily fire of Gehenna can torment demons, whether they have airy bodies or are incorporeal spirits bound to the fire in a wonderful way, just as souls are bound to bodies.
City of God 21.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Punishments in human law are not measured by the time a crime took but by its gravity, so eternal punishment for sins done in time is not unjust; “the same measure” means requital, not equal duration.
City of God 21.12Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Eternal punishment seems unjust only because we cannot perceive how great the first sin was; the whole human race is a condemned mass, from which some are freed by undeserved grace to show both mercy and justice.
City of God 21.13Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Against the Platonist view that all punishment after death purifies, Augustine holds that some punishments purify and others do not, that some suffer temporary punishments after death before the judgment, and that not all of these come to eternal punishment.
City of God 21.16Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Baptized children who die before the age of reason suffer no punishment after death; older believers must fight their vices by grace; purifying punishments occur only before the last judgment, and eternal fire varies with deserts.
City of God 21.17Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine turns to “tender-hearted” Christians who think the punishment of the damned will end; he notes that the church rejected Origen's view that even the devil would be restored and that souls cycle endlessly between bliss and misery.
City of God 21.18Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view of some that at the judgment the saints' intercession will obtain mercy for all human beings, with their arguments from Psalm 77, Nineveh, Psalm 31, and Romans 11, and notes that they are pleading their own case.
City of God 21.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view that all the baptized who have received Christ's body, even heretics, will eventually be saved.
City of God 21.20Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view that those baptized in the catholic church, even if they later fall into heresy or idolatry, will eventually be saved.
City of God 21.21Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view that catholics who persevere in the church, however wicked their lives, will be saved “through fire” because they have Christ as their foundation.
City of God 21.22Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view that those who give alms and forgive others, however wicked their lives, will escape eternal punishment, relying on James 2:13, Matthew 25, and the Lord's Prayer.
City of God 21.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The church rejected the restoration of the devil because Scripture calls his punishment eternal and “for ever and ever”; the same word “eternal” in Matthew 25:46 must mean the same for punishment as for life.
City of God 21.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The saints will not pray for the damned at the judgment, as the church does not pray for the devil or for the ungodly dead; some of the regenerate dead are helped by prayer, but the threat of eternal punishment is true, and Psalm 77, Nineveh, Psalm 31, and Romans 11 do not teach otherwise.
City of God 21.25Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Neither heretics nor lapsed catholics nor catholics living wickedly will be saved by the sacraments alone: those who do the works of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom, and only those who abide in Christ truly eat his body.
City of God 21.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · To have Christ as foundation is to put nothing before him; those who love lawful earthly things without preferring them to Christ are saved “through fire,” the fire of tribulation, while those who live wickedly have no such foundation; Augustine does not rule out a purifying fire for some spirits between death and judgment.
City of God 21.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Almsgiving and the Lord's Prayer forgive daily sins of those who are changing their lives, but cannot buy impunity for continued crimes; there is a hidden class of lesser sins pardoned through the intercession of holy friends, but deliverance keeps one from eternal fire, never releases one from it.
City of God 22.3Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · As God's promise to Abraham is now seen fulfilled in Christ, so his prophetic promises of resurrection, a new heaven and earth, and the everlasting kingdom will also be fulfilled.
City of God 22.4Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Against Cicero's claim that earthly bodies cannot be in heaven, Augustine argues that the union of incorporeal souls with earthly bodies is a greater wonder than the raising of earthly bodies to heaven.
City of God 22.5Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues from three “incredible” facts, Christ's bodily resurrection and ascension, the world's belief in it, and its persuasion by a few unlearned fishermen, backed by the apostles' miracles, that the promised resurrection of the flesh is credible.
City of God 22.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine answers the Platonist argument from the natural order and weights of the elements, showing from birds, the soul's union with the body, Varro's story of the Vestal's sieve, and fire on earth that God can make risen bodies fit to dwell in heaven.
City of God 22.12Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine sets out the pagans' mocking questions about the resurrection of the flesh: aborted fetuses, infants, stature, hair and nails, fatness, dissolved bodies, deformities, and flesh eaten by others.
City of God 22.13Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine neither affirms nor denies that fetuses who died in the womb will rise, though he cannot see why they would be excluded from the resurrection of the dead.
City of God 22.14Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Infants will rise with the full stature they would have reached, since the measure of each body is present in principle from conception and God can supply whatever is lacking.
City of God 22.15Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The dead will not all rise to the size of Christ's body; each will receive the stature of his own youth, and Paul's “measure of the age of Christ's fullness” refers either to the whole church or to the age of about thirty.
City of God 22.16Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Being “conformed to the image of the Son” refers to inner renewal or to immortality, and if to the risen body, to the age of youth, though Augustine will not contend with those who think each rises at the age of death.
City of God 22.17Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Against the view that all will rise male, Augustine holds that both sexes will rise, without lust, marriage, or childbearing, since woman is God's creature and Christ denied marriage, not women, in the resurrection.
City of God 22.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · In the resurrection deformities will be removed without loss of substance, all bodies will have beauty of proportion and radiance, and the martyrs may bear their scars as marks of honour, with lost members restored.
City of God 22.20Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · God can recall all scattered matter of dead bodies; flesh eaten by another will be restored to its first owner, and all will rise with the proportions of youth, free of every deformity and corruption.
City of God 22.21Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The risen flesh will be spiritual, wholly subject to the spirit yet still flesh; to glimpse its glory Augustine proposes to consider God's gifts even in this troubled life.
City of God 22.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Even in condemned humanity God preserves fruitfulness, forms each body, and endows the mind and body with gifts and the world with beauty; if these console the condemned, the rewards of the blessed will be far greater.
City of God 22.25Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The world has believed the resurrection of the flesh as God foretold; since God cannot lie, what he promised will happen, and nothing in it is evil or unworthy of him.
City of God 22.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Against Porphyry's demand that the blessed soul flee all bodies, Augustine cites Plato's Timaeus, where the supreme God promises the created gods an impossible immortality in their bodies, so God can likewise raise incorruptible flesh.
City of God 22.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · If Plato's view that souls return to bodies were combined with Porphyry's that purified souls never return to evils, both would reach the Christian faith in the eternal, evil-free resurrection body.
City of God 22.28Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine notes Plato's myth of a man returned to life, Labeo's tale of two revived men, and Varro's report of a rebirth of the same body and soul after 440 years, and argues that combining these pagan views yields the Christian resurrection.
City of God 22.29Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine discusses how the saints will see God: certainly with the spirit, and perhaps also through their spiritual bodies, which may see God present in all things as we now see life in living bodies.
City of God 22.30Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine concludes the work with the eternal happiness of the city of God: the praise of God who is all in all, a freedom that can no longer sin, and the final seventh-day Sabbath and eternal eighth day of rest, vision, love, and praise.
On Faith and Works 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · 2 Peter warns that some twisted Paul's hard sayings to neglect good living, and urges holy conduct in view of the new heavens and earth.
On Faith and Works 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Augustine introduces 1 Cor 3:11–15, which his opponents read as promising salvation through purgatorial fire to believers who live wickedly.
On Faith and Works 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · If faith alone saved through fire, even persistent adulterers and prostitutes should be baptized, and the many texts excluding the wicked from God's kingdom and the judgment of Matthew 25 would be false.
On Faith and Works 26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Since the plain texts are true, 1 Cor 3:11–15 must be interpreted otherwise, as one of Paul's hard sayings.
On Faith and Works 27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Augustine's own interpretation: the foundation is faith working through love; gold and silver are wholehearted devotion to God, while wood and hay are carnal attachments to lawful goods, lost with painful “fire”; grave sin destroys the foundation itself.
On Faith and Works 29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Augustine's interpretation, whether the purifying pain is in this life or after it, avoids promising salvation to the unrepentant wicked.
On Faith and Works 42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Rom 2:12 offers no milder fate: “judgment” in Scripture can mean eternal damnation, as John 5:28–29 divides the risen by their deeds.
On Faith and Works 43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · “Judgment” cannot mean temporary purgation, since unbelievers too are “already judged”; those who sin knowingly under the law are worse off, not better.
Commentary on Jeremiah 2.77Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The land perished because the people forsook God's law for their own will and their fathers' Baals; their dispersion among the nations is still being fulfilled.
Commentary on Jeremiah 3.17Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Judah must give glory to God and repent before captivity, and all must repent before the darkness of judgment.
Commentary on Jeremiah 3.64Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The promised return from the north, partly fulfilled after the exile, is fulfilled more fully in Christ and in Israel's final salvation, and in the church's deliverance from the persecutions.
Commentary on Jeremiah 4.15Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The breaking of the flask foretells the permanent ruin of Jerusalem after the Roman wars; Jerome declines but does not condemn the hope of an earthly golden Jerusalem held by many churchmen and martyrs (Jer 19:10–13).
Commentary on Jeremiah 4.46Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The new exodus, missing from the Septuagint, is Christ's gathering of God's people from the whole world, to be completed when all Israel is saved (Jer 23:7–8).
Commentary on Jeremiah 4.57Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God did not send the false prophets, who flatter the people with claims of sinlessness; heretics show their unbelief in the resurrection by self-indulgence. God is both near and far and fills heaven and earth (Jer 23:21–24).
Commentary on Jeremiah 5.27Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Sheshach is Babel written in the reversed alphabet (atbash), a concealment Jerome compares to Paul's veiled reference to the Roman empire as the restrainer of the Antichrist; he rejects the allegorists' reading (Jer 25:26).
Commentary on Jeremiah 5.31Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The Lord roars in judgment over all nations, each judged by its deserts; the slain will lie unburied across the earth; shepherds and rich 'rams' will howl, with no escape for the unrepentant. Jerome rejects allegorists who turn these threats into good (Jer 25:30–35).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.1Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jerome opens Book 6: the promises of restoration, which Jews and judaizing Christians expect at the end of the world, are fulfilled spiritually in Christ and the church, the true seed of Abraham.
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.2Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jeremiah is told to write down the promise of restoring Israel and Judah, to be fulfilled not soon but after a long time, as in Ezekiel's prophecy of the two rods and the one shepherd David (Jer 30:1–3).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.13Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God's everlasting love will rebuild virgin Israel, fulfilled in the church, not in a golden earthly Jerusalem; the apostles are the watchmen calling all to go up to Zion; only the remnant of Israel is saved (Jer 31:3–7).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.17Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The nations are told that God, who scattered Israel, will gather and redeem it by his blood from the stronger hostile powers; the grain, wine, and oil, the watered garden, the rejoicing virgins, young and old, and the priests drunk with fatness are spiritual gifts in the church, given now in part and in full at the resurrection (Jer 31:10–14).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.19Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Rachel is told to cease weeping because her sons will return; spiritually this is Israel's salvation from all the world, and better, the martyred infants' reward in the kingdom and their resurrection to the perfect man (Jer 31:16–17).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.23Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Restored Judah will bless 'the holy mountain,' who is Christ, fulfilled spiritually in his comings; God satisfies the thirsty and hungry soul, and the people wake from a sweet sleep, as Christ slept and rose (Jer 31:23–26).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.25Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God will rebuild and replant Israel and Judah, fulfilled in part at Christ's first coming and fully at his second, not in a millennial kingdom; each will die for his own sin. The new covenant written on the heart, quoted in Hebrews, was fulfilled in the gospel, offered first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles (Jer 31:27–34).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.27Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Israel's seed will last as long as the fixed order of nature; since the heavens will pass away, Jerome argues against a perpetual ethnic Israel and finds the lasting Israel in the believing remnant (Jer 31:35–36).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.29Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jerome rejects the millenarian reading of the rebuilt city's boundaries as a future earthly Jerusalem and expounds the place names as stages of the church's pilgrimage, whose corners, ruins, and region of death show that no one is sinless in this life (Jer 31:38–40).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.50Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The promises of return, one heart, an everlasting covenant, and God's fear placed in the heart were not fulfilled after the exile, since Israel was conquered again and again, but in Christ and the believing remnant; the buying of fields figures the church's spiritual possessions (Jer 32:37–44).
Reminder concerning the Error of the Priscillianists and Origenists 3Orosius · 414 · Orosius reports how Origenist teachings came into Spain through the two Aviti and lists the doctrines they taught.
On Patience 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Bodily suffering borne patiently for righteousness also serves the body, which will rise whole and incorruptible.
On Patience 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Schismatics may receive some gifts of God, like the gifts Abraham gave the sons of his concubines, but not the inheritance; the patience of Christ's poor heirs will bear eternal fruit.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · God wills man sinless, but full righteousness, like full health and full love, comes only when we see God face to face.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The righteous run perfectly but are not yet perfect; the command to love God wholly shows the goal, reached only when desire is gone in the life to come.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The righteous are found righteous in judgment through forgiveness and almsgiving; to be blameless is possible in this life, to be sinless belongs to Christ alone.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · “Who will boast of a chaste heart?” refers to the moment when the righteous King judges, before whom even unnoticed faults appear.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The church will be without spot or wrinkle only when she is glorious at the resurrection; now Christ cleanses and heals her step by step.
Apologetic Book 13.3Orosius · ca. 415–416 · All must await God's judgment.
Apologetic Book 13.4Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Sins are judged only at the end.
Apologetic Book 13.6Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Christ alone judges.
Apologetic Book 15.1Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Some do not fear the coming judgment.
Apologetic Book 15.2Orosius · ca. 415–416 · The self-righteous will be rejected.
Apologetic Book 15.7Orosius · ca. 415–416 · The book is the book of judgment, given to the Son.
Apologetic Book 16.2Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Pelagius as forerunner of Antichrist.
Apologetic Book 18.7Orosius · ca. 415–416 · All must appear before Christ's judgment seat.
Apologetic Book 18.8Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Pelagius does not need the judge's mercy.
Apologetic Book 18.9Orosius · ca. 415–416 · The righteous are humble; Pelagius is sure.
Apologetic Book 21.10Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Such praise is not God's final verdict.
Apologetic Book 25.7Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Christ creates, redeems, and judges.
Apologetic Book 27.4Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Peter on the hope of salvation.
Apologetic Book 28.4Orosius · ca. 415–416 · God will judge in his time.
Apologetic Book 28.8Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Even Antichrist comes in his time.
Apologetic Book 28.9Orosius · ca. 415–416 · The days shortened for the elect.
Apologetic Book 28.12Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Even the demons know the appointed time.
Apologetic Book 29.4Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Anathema to anyone who calls God's creation evil.
Apologetic Book 32.7Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Sinlessness belongs to the hidden future glory.
Apologetic Book 32.8Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Sinlessness is a future gift.
Apologetic Book 32.9Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Victory over sin comes at the resurrection.
Apologetic Book 32.10Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Perfection belongs to the resurrection.
Apologetic Book 32.11Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Let him show perfection, not claim it.
Apologetic Book 33.5Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Sinlessness awaits paradise.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 1.0.15Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The exception is the tribulation of the last days foretold by Christ.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 1.0.16Orosius · ca. 417–418 · In those last days the saints will be tested and the wicked destroyed.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 4.6.42Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Christians should endure more for eternal life.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.3.11Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Christ's prophecy of wars and persecution.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.27.15Orosius · ca. 417–418 · A final persecution awaits before the judgment.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.27.16Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Antichrist and his followers will perish in the lake of fire.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 9Augustine of Hippo · 417 · The charge that all sinners will burn eternally was accepted because Pelagius cited the gospel, and no one pressed him to distinguish those saved through fire.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 10Augustine of Hippo · 417 · The synod approved condemning Origen's view that the damned and the devil will finally be freed, but did not rule on those saved through fire.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 11Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Scripture describes the one judgment in many images; since Pelagius did not say that all sinners burn forever, the bishops rightly approved his statement, though his real view remains unclear.
Letter 3, chapter 7Zosimus, bishop of Rome · 417–418 · Zosimus reproaches Heros and Lazarus for accusing by letter instead of appearing, and reminds all of Christ’s judgment seat.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.44Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Concupiscence remains in the baptized but no longer harms them, while it makes their offspring guilty until they too are reborn; its full removal awaits the resurrection, to which baptism leads.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The desire for children cannot excuse remarriage after dismissing an adulterous wife, any more than it could justify dismissing a barren one.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine applies Christ's saying on eunuchs for the kingdom to those who, after divorce, must remain continent to avoid adultery and so to enter the kingdom.
Against Gaudentius, Bishop of the Donatists 1.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · The martyrs foretold in Rev 6 include countless true martyrs since John and the Catholics killed by Donatists; those who kill themselves will have their blood avenged on themselves.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Paul’s present tense “gives” in Acts 17:25 does not show God gives souls always or without propagation, just as God clothes the grass that grows from seed.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor rightly holds that souls are judged at death, but his claim that the soul seeks food only for the body cannot explain the rich man’s thirst in Luke 16.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor separates paradise and the Father’s mansions from the kingdom of heaven to give unbaptized infants a blessed place, citing the thief and Dinocrates.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor goes further, allowing unbaptized souls the kingdom of heaven after the resurrection while admitting that Christ’s words in John 3:5 oppose it.
On the Soul and Its Origin 3.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · God will not give souls forever, since generation will end, though God himself always is.
On the Soul and Its Origin 3.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Ninth error: the mansions of the Father’s house cannot lie outside the kingdom of God.
On the Soul and Its Origin 3.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Augustine states a possible objection distinguishing the kingdom of God from the kingdom of heaven.
On the Soul and Its Origin 3.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Christ’s words to Nicodemus exclude the unreborn from the kingdom of God itself, so no mansion of God’s house is open to them.
On the Soul and Its Origin 3.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Eleventh error: promising paradise and later the kingdom to the unbaptized, which even Pelagius did not dare.
On the Soul and Its Origin 3.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Augustine lists Victor’s eleven errors.
On the Soul and Its Origin 4.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Abraham’s bosom is the hidden place of rest, not a bodily lap.
On the Soul and Its Origin 4.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · The truest knowledge of a person is of life and will, not bodily form; so the rich man could recognize Abraham.
On the Soul and Its Origin 4.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Augustine repeats the eleven errors, urges Victor to learn not to know, and restates his own positions.
The Institutes 5.17John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Paul is the model athlete of Christ, who ran with his eyes on the prize, disciplined his body, and awaited the crown.
The Institutes 7.30John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Remembering Ananias, Gehazi, and Judas, and the coming day of the Lord, monks must keep, acquire, and take back nothing.
The Institutes 8.22John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The cure for anger: never to allow it for any cause, remembering that it darkens the mind, drives out the Spirit, bars prayer, and brings eternal punishment.
The Institutes 9.13John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Dejection is overcome by meditating on the promised blessedness, so that neither misfortune nor prosperity moves us.
The Institutes 12.12John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Compared with eternal glory, the present life and its sorrows vanish like smoke.
Commentary on Hosea, Joel and Amos 2.2.11Julian of Eclanum · ca. 420-440 · Julian holds that Peter used Joel only for the Gospel and that the prophecy also has its historical sense: the outpouring of the Spirit, dreams, and darkened sun and moon describe Judah’s terror and deliverance under Hezekiah, and are fulfilled more fully at Christ’s passion and the end of the world.
Commentary on Hosea, Joel and Amos 2.3.5Julian of Eclanum · ca. 420-440 · Joel’s picture of a holy Jerusalem with mountains dripping sweetness describes the joy of deliverance, and Julian applies it to the Church, kept holy by Christ, and to the apostles, from whom saving teaching flowed like honey, before closing with the judgment on Egypt and Edom and the promise fulfilled in Christ.
Commentary on Hosea, Joel and Amos 3.5.11Julian of Eclanum · ca. 420-440 · Those who mockingly ‘desire the day of the Lord’ to prove the prophets false will find it a day of darkness in which every escape leads to worse danger, like fleeing a lion only to meet a bear and a serpent.
Commentary on Hosea, Joel and Amos 3.9.8Julian of Eclanum · ca. 420-440 · The promise to raise David’s fallen tent refers historically to the restoration after exile, foreshadowed under Hezekiah, and, as James taught in Acts, to Christ’s body raised from death and the resurrection of the faithful.
Commentary on Hosea, Joel and Amos 3.9.11Julian of Eclanum · ca. 420-440 · God promises to plant Israel in its land for good; Julian explains that the promise depended on Israel’s conduct, which later failed, and is fully realized in the Church at the resurrection.
Lausiac History 21Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Cronius tells how Antony judged the case of Eulogius, who had nursed an abusive cripple for fifteen years, and recounts Antony's vision of souls rising past a giant.
Lausiac History 54Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Melania the Elder, after decades of generosity in Palestine, returns to Rome at sixty to bring her family to the ascetic life, shortly before the sack of Rome.
Lausiac History 71Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Palladius closes with the virtues of a brother long his companion (probably himself), then asks Lausus to pray for him and commends his steadfastness at court.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that baptism forgives all sins but does not remove the weakness that remains, which will be removed only in the final regeneration at the resurrection.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that sinlessness and perfect wisdom after the resurrection are not new commandments to be fulfilled but the reward for keeping the commandments now.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that righteousness and love of God will be perfected only when God is seen, and that Paul in Philippians 3 confesses he has not yet attained it.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine distinguishes the small righteousness of faith in this life, which merits, from the full righteousness of the resurrection, which is its reward.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine affirms that the Holy Spirit made the ancient saints good and that they were truly righteous, yet all confessed their sins, and full righteousness is the reward of the life to come.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine cites Cyprian's On Mortality and On Patience, which speak of paradise lost and of the whole human race bound by the sentence passed on Adam.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that Cyprian, while praising the saints, taught that no one is sinless in this life and that perfect righteousness, peace, and joy belong to the kingdom to come.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine cites Ambrose to show that no one is perfectly sinless in this life and that full purity and the vision of God belong to the life to come.
Commonitorium 1.241–270Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · The law of retaliation was just, though Christ's grace teaches patience and leaves vengeance to God; the reader should live for the life to come and believe that the same bodies will rise, gathered from wherever they lie.
Commonitorium 1.271–300Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · At the Lord's trumpet the same bodies will rise to receive punishment or glory, as the seasons' renewal of woods, vines and grain shows; every man will live forever.
Commonitorium 1.301–330Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · Hell's fire, like burning mountains and ever-flowing springs, punishes forever without consuming; the reader should therefore trample on the world, and above all avoid looking at beautiful faces, since no one handles fire unburned.
Commonitorium 2.1–30Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · Book 2 opens: whoever follows these admonitions will tread on the serpent and meet Christ the judge; the chief task is to despise human praise, seek approval from Christ alone, and return no evil for evil, as Christ, Stephen and James prayed for their killers.
Commonitorium 2.121–150Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · Worldly honour ends and is forgotten; labour for Christ bears lasting fruit, for God promises rewards no eye has seen, greater even than the fragrant gifts he gives sinners on earth.
Commonitorium 2.151–180Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · Heaven's rewards surpass anything the mind can picture; life is short and the end is near, as the barbarian invasions show, which spared no place and brought death by treachery, violence, hunger and fire.
Commonitorium 2.211–240Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · However long life lasts, it ends, and at death a short life and a long one are the same; yet the old cling to life and watch others die as if death did not concern them.
Commonitorium 2.241–270Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · Death takes parents, wives, brothers and sons out of order, yet men put off thinking of it; happy is he who can face the judgment unafraid, whereas there the powerful and luxurious, whose god was their belly, will stand.
Commonitorium 2.271–300Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · Those who neglected God will suffer punishments fitted to their deeds in gehenna, darkness, fire and ice, each sin paid for separately, unlike earthly justice, which can kill only once.
Commonitorium 2.301–330Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · The wicked are punished even before the judgment, and idolaters most of all, with undying worms and smoke; the gentle and charitable will shine like the sun in white robes, above all those who kept their baptism chaste.
Commonitorium 2.331–360Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · The martyrs, priests and monks will follow the Lamb in shining glory; at the trumpet of the judgment the earth will split, fire and hail fall, and all generations will assemble, each line led together.
Commonitorium 2.361–390Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · All souls from the beginning of the world will be gathered before Christ, enthroned in the flesh he took to heaven, and he will pronounce the final sentence on the just and the wicked.
Commonitorium 2.391–418Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · Orientius confesses that he should have taught by his life, promises heaven to those who keep his counsels and believe in the Trinity, and asks every reader to pray for him.
On Care for the Dead 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Augustine reconciles prayers for the dead with judgment according to deeds: such help profits only those whose life in the body made them fit to be helped.
On Care for the Dead 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Augustine cites Maccabees and the church's custom of commending the dead at the altar, rejects Virgil's belief that the unburied cannot cross the river of the dead, and introduces a passage from The City of God.
On Care for the Dead 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · In a passage quoted from The City of God, Augustine argues that lack of burial cannot harm Christians, since funeral rites comfort the living rather than help the dead and God will raise every body.
On Care for the Dead 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · What helps the dead is not the place of burial but the living prayers it prompts, just as bodily gestures of prayer stir up the heart; where burial in a holy place is impossible, prayer must go on.
On Care for the Dead 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · The dead do not know the affairs of the living, as Augustine's own mother's absence from his dreams, the psalm, Isaiah, and God's promise to Josiah show.
On Care for the Dead 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · The rich man's concern for his brothers shows care, not knowledge, and Abraham could have learned of earthly things from Lazarus after his death.
On Care for the Dead 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · The dead may learn of earthly things from those who die after them, from angels, or by revelation, and Scripture shows some of the dead sent to the living, such as Samuel and Moses.
On Care for the Dead 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Only the church's sacrifices, prayers, and alms reach the dead, and only those whose lives made them fit to be helped; burial is a humane duty and a witness to the resurrection, and burial at a martyr's shrine helps only by increasing prayer.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · God willed that part of the human race be restored to fill the places in the heavenly city left by the fallen angels, a number known to God alone.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 54Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Christ's coming to judge belongs not to the present life but to the end of the age.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 55Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · “The living and the dead” may mean those alive and dead at Christ's coming, or the just and the unjust, since God's judgment can mean condemnation or vindication.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 63Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The peace of heaven, which surpasses all understanding, will be known to us when we are equal to the angels; but God's own peace surpasses even the angels' understanding.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 66Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Forgiveness looks chiefly to the final judgment; in this life even the baptized suffer, and some sins are punished now, others reserved for later.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 67Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Against those who hold that baptized catholics who die unrepentant in grave sin will be saved through a temporary fire, Augustine argues from Paul and James that faith without works does not save.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 68Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The wood, hay, and straw of 1 Cor 3 are lawful worldly attachments whose loss brings grief; whoever keeps Christ as foundation is saved through the fire of such trials.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 69Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Augustine allows as a possibility, to be inquired into, that some of the faithful are purified by fire after death, but not those guilty of the crimes that exclude from the kingdom, unless they did fitting penance.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 84Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Every Christian must believe that the flesh of all people will rise to eternal life, though the questions raised are many.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 85Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Whether miscarried fetuses rise is uncertain; Augustine dares neither deny nor affirm that the resurrection will complete what was unformed.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 86Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · When life begins in the womb may be unknowable, but whoever has lived can die and so will share in the resurrection.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 87Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Malformed births will rise with nature corrected, conjoined twins as two separate persons, each soul with its own complete body.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 88Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · No matter of the body is lost to God; whatever becomes of it, it returns in an instant to the soul that first animated it.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 89Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · In the resurrection God, like a sculptor recasting a statue, will restore the body from its whole matter without each particle returning to its former place.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 90Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Risen bodies will keep each person's recognizable features, and any differences among them will be harmonious, with nothing unseemly.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 91Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The saints' risen bodies will be spiritual, free of all defect and corruption, yet truly flesh in substance, in full harmony with the spirit.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 92Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Those not freed by the Mediator will rise in their own flesh to be punished with the devil; their unending suffering is the second death.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 93Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Both deaths result from sin; the mildest punishment will be for those with only original sin, and others will be punished in proportion to their sins.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 94Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Seeing the reprobate punished, the saints will know more fully the grace given them: freedom by undeserved mercy, condemnation by deserved judgment.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 105Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Man was first made able to will good or evil; in the life to come he will be unable to will evil and so be freer, as the lesser immortality of being able not to die gives way to being unable to die.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 109Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Between death and resurrection souls dwell in hidden places, at rest or in affliction according to their earthly life.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 110Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The Eucharistic sacrifice and alms offered for the baptized dead help those whose lives merited such help, as thanksgiving for the very good, propitiation for the not very bad, and consolation to the living for the very bad.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 111Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · After the judgment the two cities, of Christ and of the devil, will last forever, with degrees of happiness in the one and of misery in the other.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 112Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Against those who soften the eternity of punishment, Augustine argues it is as eternal as the saints' life, allowing only that its torments may be eased at intervals; loss of God alone is the greatest punishment.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 113Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The eternal death of the damned, estrangement from God, will be common to all of them, as eternal life is to all the saints.
Prologue 14Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The eleventh discourse treats the end and judgment.
Discourse 1.65Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Socrates says he believes what he has heard about judgment in Hades.
Discourse 1.118Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Heaven awaits those who live by the truth; unending punishment awaits the rest.
Discourse 1.119Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Phaedo says the uninitiated lie in mire in Hades.
Discourse 4.42Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Timaeus says time and heaven began together and may end together.
Discourse 5.23Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Views on the soul's survival after death.
Discourse 5.32Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Laws says each person's character depends on his own will.
Discourse 5.33Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Free choice determines the soul's character and its final place.
Discourse 5.43Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Phaedo argues that the soul goes to God and does not perish.
Discourse 5.69Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Even simple Christians know more of the soul and of virtue than Plato and Aristotle.
Discourse 5.80Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Punishment by God and by human law proves that sin is freely chosen.
Discourse 6.23Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Diphilus speaks of Justice's all-seeing eye and judgment in Hades.
Discourse 6.24Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Because justice is incomplete here, a coming judgment is foretold.
Discourse 6.28Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Gorgias: punishment either reforms or makes an example.
Discourse 6.70Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plotinus says the good will have a good life laid up hereafter.
Discourse 8.35Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Pindar says the souls of the godly dwell in heaven.
Discourse 8.36Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Pindar and Empedocles support the heavenly lot of the godly.
Discourse 8.41Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Only those who die for godliness merit honor; Heraclitus says the dead meet the unexpected.
Discourse 8.42Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Phaedo says the holy go to pure dwellings above.
Discourse 8.44Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato says the purified soul wins eternal life.
Discourse 8.45Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato calls philosophy a practice of death.
Discourse 8.49Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Epinomis agrees with Scripture that the righteous are blessed after death.
Discourse 8.54Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Socrates in the Apology says death is not to be feared.
Discourse 8.70Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Theodoret urges his readers to follow the martyrs to God.
Discourse 9.67Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Christ promised rewards after life and persecution in it.
Discourse 11.17Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Epicurus's atomism denied providence and judgement, but Plato describes the judgement and punishments after death.
Discourse 11.18Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Theodoret quotes Plato's myth of Er on the punishment of the wicked tyrant and others.
Discourse 11.19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Phaedo describes the fiery river that winds beneath the earth into Tartarus.
Discourse 11.20Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Phaedo describes Pyriphlegethon and the Stygian river and their courses into Tartarus.
Discourse 11.21Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Theodoret refers readers to the Phaedo for Plato's account of graded punishments and quotes a few lines.
Discourse 11.22Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato distinguishes incurable sinners, cast into Tartarus for ever, from curable ones who are released after a year.
Discourse 11.23Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato describes the curable sinners begging their victims for pardon, and then turns to the abodes of the righteous.
Discourse 11.24Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Phaedo promises the holy a pure dwelling above and the philosophers still finer abodes, as the prize of virtue.
Discourse 11.25Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · In the Gorgias Plato tells as true the account of the righteous going to the Isles of the Blessed and the unjust to punishment.
Discourse 11.26Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato says the dead must be judged stripped of everything by a judge who looks at the bare soul, so that the judgement may be just.
Discourse 11.27Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Theodoret claims Plato learned of judgement after death from the Hebrew prophets in Egypt, citing Daniel's river of fire and Isaiah's undying worm and fire.
Discourse 11.28Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato mixed what he took from the prophets with Greek myth, as in the Gorgias passage on Rhadamanthys judging souls.
Discourse 11.29Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Socrates resolves to present a healthy soul to the judge and urges Callicles to the contest of a good life.
Discourse 11.30Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato warns Callicles of his helplessness before the judge Aeacus and says no one can show a better life than the just one.
Discourse 11.31Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato urges care for what frees from punishment hereafter, and in the Crito the laws tell Socrates to put justice first so as to answer for himself in Hades.
Discourse 11.32Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · In the Apology Plato's Socrates argues that death is either nothingness or a migration of the soul, and so may be a good.
Discourse 11.33Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's teaching on judgement deserves praise, though mixed with myths and with the error that souls are punished without bodies, which he may be pardoned for lacking the apostles' teaching.
Discourse 11.43Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Theodoret turns to Plato's serious teaching, the myth of Er, who returned to life and reported what he saw after death.
Discourse 11.44Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · In the myth of Er, judges send the just upward to the right and the unjust downward to the left, marked with their deeds, and Er is made a messenger to men.
Discourse 11.45Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's myth of Er, sending the good to heaven and the wicked to Hades, is worthy of philosophy and shows that his reincarnation tales were jest.
Discourse 11.46Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plutarch's On the Soul tells of Antyllus, brought before the judge by mistake for the shoemaker Nicandas and sent back, which shows belief in judgement after death.
Discourse 11.52Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The heavenly kingdom is beyond words; even Paul, who saw it, could not describe it.
Discourse 11.53Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Paul makes eternal life the end for those freed from sin and enslaved to God.
Discourse 11.57Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Paul looks to reign with Christ and to the crown of righteousness laid up for all who love his appearing.
Discourse 11.58Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Paul teaches the resurrection of the body, sown in corruption and raised incorruptible.
Discourse 11.59Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Paul on the trumpet, the incorruptible resurrection, and the transformation of our body into the likeness of Christ's glorious body.
Discourse 11.60Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Christ himself foretold that all in the tombs will hear his voice and rise, to life or to judgement.
Discourse 11.61Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Christ's prophecy of the signs of the end and of the mourning of the tribes of the earth, which Theodoret takes as the lament of unbelievers.
Discourse 11.62Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Theodoret recalls the parables of the virgins and of the talents before Christ's account of the last judgement.
Discourse 11.63Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Theodoret quotes Christ's account of the last judgement and the blessing of those who served him in the needy.
Discourse 11.64Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The righteous modestly deny their good deeds, but Christ counts what they did for the least as done for him, and sends the cursed into eternal fire.
Discourse 11.65Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The condemned did none of the works of mercy, and unlike the modest righteous they claim to have done them, so they are refuted and punished.
Discourse 11.67Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's judges, Aeacus, Minos and Rhadamanthys, were flawed men; Christians await as judge their Creator, who knows even their thoughts.
Discourse 11.68Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Christ will judge in the human nature he assumed, since the Godhead is invisible; hence he calls himself Son of Man, and Paul told the Athenians God will judge by a man raised from the dead.
Discourse 11.69Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Theodoret argues that Christ's fulfilled predictions about this life prove his predictions about the life to come.
Discourse 11.78Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Christ's fulfilled predictions are proofs that his promises about the life to come will also be fulfilled.
Discourse 11.81Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · God's true promises make Christian teaching profitable: the kingdom and endless life for the obedient, eternal punishment for unbelievers.
Discourse 11.82Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Christ's explanation of the parable of the tares: the lawless cast into the furnace, the righteous shining like the sun.
Discourse 12.16Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Paul warns that wilful sin after knowing the truth leaves only fearful judgement.
Discourse 12.17Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Hebrews argues from the law of Moses to the worse punishment of those who trample on the Son of God.
Discourse 12.18Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Paul warns of falling into God's hands and of standing before Christ's judgement seat to be repaid for deeds.
Discourse 12.94Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Sardanapalus's epitaph is false: the dead keep nothing of their pleasures, only the stench of a lawless life that torments the soul.
Book 1, lines 211–232Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · Man's creation from dust guarantees the resurrection of the body; God then plants paradise in the east, a grove of eternal spring and endless fruit.
Sermon 24Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On Luke 12:35–38, Chrysologus praises vigilance, explains the girded loins as chastity and the lamps as good works, marvels that Christ will serve his servants in heaven against the heretics who belittle him, and reads the watches as Christ's birth, resurrection, and return.
Sermon 47Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On the parables of the pearl and the net (Matt 13:45–50), Chrysologus describes the virtuous merchant who buys eternal life, and reads the net as the Church gathering good and bad until the near judgment, urging the faithful not to be disturbed by the disorders of the last times.
Sermon 63Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus begins expounding the raising of Lazarus (John 11), showing why Christ delayed four days and how he leads Martha from half-belief to faith.
Sermon 64Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus explains why Martha, standing for Eve, meets Christ first, and why Christ wept at Lazarus's tomb: not from grief but from joy at the coming resurrection of all.
Sermon 65Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On the raising of Lazarus, Chrysologus explains Christ's groaning and his thanksgiving to the Father, and imagines Tartarus protesting to heaven until the Son pleads for the dead and Lazarus is released.
Sermon 66Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus contrasts the rich man's inhumanity with Abraham's hospitality, explains the reversal of their fates, and shows from the plot to kill the raised Lazarus that unbelief, not lack of evidence, keeps people from believing.
Sermon 74Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · In his first sermon after the Easter vigil Chrysologus reads Matthew's account of the empty tomb: the women undo Eve's fall, the earthquake marks the defeat of death, and the angel seated on the stone teaches the resurrection.
Sermon 76Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus reads the two Marys as the church, argues from Christ's wounds that we will rise in our own flesh, reconciles Christ's greeting to the women with “Do not touch me,” and denounces the bribing of the guards.
Sermon 77Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Explaining his silence during the passion, Chrysologus reads the resurrection account as the reversal of the fall: the evening turns to light, the sabbath yields to the Lord's day, and the woman who brought death now brings the news of life.
Sermon 81Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus explains Christ's “Peace to you” as calming the war of faith and doubt in the disciples' hearts, and his showing of his wounds as proof that he rose in a real body.
Sermon 82Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On Mark's resurrection account Chrysologus explains the women's spices and fear, the sun rising early, the young man in white as a picture of the risen body, and Christ's appearing “in another form.”
Sermon 83Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus explains that the eleven “reclining” when Christ appeared were not feasting but prostrate in grief, and expounds the commission to preach, the faith required for baptism, and the signs that follow believers.
Sermon 95Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Reading the anointing in the Pharisee's house allegorically, Chrysologus takes the house as the synagogue where Christ gave the sacrament of his body and blood and was betrayed, and the sinful woman as the church of the Gentiles, whose sins will be fully forgiven at Christ's return.
Sermon 97Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Continuing the parable of the weeds, Chrysologus explains the servants' anxiety and the master's patience, which leaves time for repentance until the judgment, citing Matthew, Paul and the martyr Euphemia.
Sermon 101Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus urges Christians not to fear those who kill the body, contrasts the philosophers' consolations with the Christian hope, and answers the question why God allowed death: as heaven and earth will be dissolved and renewed, so man returns to dust to learn his origin and rise again in gratitude.
Sermon 103Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · From the raising of the widow's son Chrysologus argues for the resurrection of all bodies, likening the trumpet of God's voice to the word that created the world and renews nature, and before Christmas urges generous offerings for the poor and captives.
Sermon 106Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus applies the parable of the barren fig tree to the unfruitful man and to the synagogue, which received Christ's visits through the law, the prophets and his presence, and is given one more year, the time of the gospel, before judgment.
Sermon 117Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Expounding 1 Cor 15:45–50, Chrysologus contrasts the first Adam, formed from mud, with Christ, the last Adam born of the Virgin without pain or loss of virginity, and urges the reborn to bear the image of the heavenly man in conduct.
Sermon 118Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On 1 Cor 15, Chrysologus urges Christians to keep the resurrection always in mind, personifies death and her companions despair, unbelief and corruption, rejects the philosophers' praise of death, and points to the seed that dies and rises as a proof of the resurrection.
Sermon 122Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Continuing Luke 16:23–24, Chrysologus explains that the rich man's plea to Abraham is too late, that his wish to have Lazarus sent comes from old envy, and that his burning tongue is punished for refusing a crumb and a drop to the poor.
Sermon 123Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Concluding Luke 16:25–31, Chrysologus explains Abraham's answer, describes the underworld before Christ broke its gates and freed the saints, and urges giving to the poor, since those who reject Moses and Christ will not believe even one risen from the dead.
Sermon 124Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Taking up the rich man and Lazarus once more, Chrysologus sets the two men side by side as contestants in an arena, explains that God placed each before the other so that the rich man might be cured by mercy, and urges his hearers to exchange earth for heaven.
Sermon 131Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Showing that God, though invisible, often appeared in human form, Chrysologus expounds John 8:51–59, explaining that “he will not see death forever” promises resurrection, that Christ is greater than Abraham, and that the Father's “let us make man” is spoken to the Son.
Sermon 176Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Explaining why Christ healed the blind man of Bethsaida in two stages (Mark 8:22–26), Chrysologus draws lessons on serving the poor with one's own hand and on the resurrection, and reads the blind man as the Jewish people led out of the Synagogue to see first the passing shadow of the law and then the eternal light of grace, as Paul did.
7.9Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Julian's attempt to rebuild the Jerusalem temple to disprove Christ's prophecy is stopped by fire and earthquake.
Book 2, lines 279–300Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · God leads no one into temptation but abandons those who love the world's snares; the narrow way leads to the kingdom, the right-hand path to Abraham's bosom, the left to hell; Book 2 ends with the flock escaping the wolf.
Retractations 1.16Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing On Faith and the Creed, given before the African bishops at Hippo, Augustine corrects his statement that the risen body will no longer be flesh and blood.
Retractations 2.3Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing On the Christian Combat, Augustine explains that “flesh and blood” will not inherit the kingdom means corruption or fleshly works, not the substance of flesh.
Retractations 2.41Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine notes his book On Seeing God and a related memorandum to Fortunatianus, referring the question of seeing God in the resurrection body to City of God 22.
The Conferences 1.10John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Moses answers that the reward of good works remains, but the works themselves, which exist because of bodily need and human inequality, will cease, while love and contemplation continue for ever.
The Conferences 1.11John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Even the higher spiritual gifts will pass away, but love never fails and will cling to God more intensely in the age to come.
The Conferences 1.13John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Constant contemplation is impossible in the flesh, but the mind must keep returning to God; the kingdom of God is within, as righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The Conferences 1.14John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Each person will share hereafter in the kingdom he serves now; Moses shows from Scripture and reason that souls after death remain conscious and live more fully, and rejects a heretical punctuation of Luke 23:43.
The Conferences 3.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Vices and virtues are the soul's true possessions, which go with it after death and determine its beauty or foulness.
The Conferences 7.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Clinging to God is possible for those who die to worldly desires; the labor must not be abandoned, for the kingdom suffers violence, and only those who taste God's being all in all now will possess it fully hereafter.
The Conferences 7.25John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Those enslaved by vices are worse off than the possessed; God sometimes hands even saints over to Satan or illness for slight faults, to purify them fully in this life.
The Conferences 7.31John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The truly wretched are sinners who suffer no chastisement in this life, for they are storing up wrath; the Psalms, Jeremiah, and Isaiah lament such incurable prosperity.
The Conferences 8.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Plain teachings may be stated firmly, but obscure passages allow more than one reasonable interpretation, as with Elijah in John the Baptist and the abomination of desolation.
The Conferences 8.14John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The fallen powers are called principalities because they rule over nations or lesser demons; Christ will abolish their rule at the end.
The Conferences 9.19John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The petition “Thy kingdom come” asks either for Christ’s present reign in the soul through the virtues or for the future kingdom promised to the saints, which only a good conscience can desire.
The Conferences 24.26John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Abraham explains the promised hundredfold in this life as the far greater spiritual love, possessions, and honor that monks receive in place of what they renounced, and Cassian closes the Conferences commending them to the holy brothers.
On Rebuke and Grace 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · The number of the predestined is fixed; it is hidden from each believer for the sake of humility, so that some who are not predestined live faithfully for a time and then fall; the rest are justly judged for original sin, added sins, or failing to persevere.
On the Predestination of the Saints 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Infants and Christ himself refute merit before grace; the suggestion that infants are baptized or not according to merits they would have had if they had lived is absurd, since judgment is according to what one did in the body.
On the Predestination of the Saints 14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Defending Wis 4:11 (“he was snatched away lest wickedness should change his understanding”), long read in the church with divine authority, Augustine shows with Cyprian's On Mortality that the righteous who die early are spared, and that no one is judged for deeds he would have done.
Instructions 1.12Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 428-434 · Christ's coming “from now on” is his coming in the church, his body; the coming on the last day is his own coming as head.
Instructions 1.32Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 428-434 · The Lord's cup is mixed with mercy and judgment; its dregs are the final judgment still to come.
Instructions 1.35Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 428-434 · Striking the enemies “in the hinder parts” is literally the Philistines' plague and spiritually the last judgment.
Instructions 1.58Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 428-434 · Psalm 127 is read of the resurrection: the nations are Christ's inheritance, and the apostles are arrows, “sons” of the prophets.
Instructions 1.65Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 428-434 · The saints' two-edged swords punish body and soul; the despised saints will judge nations and kings.
Commonitorium 14Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Marius argues that Julian's denial of original sin empties infant baptism of meaning, since every title of Christ (Saviour, Redeemer, Reconciler, Regenerator, Life) presupposes sin; he defends the twofold death from Adam with 1 Corinthians 15 and closes with Augustine's authority.
On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 3.7John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · The Christ who spoke in Paul must be God; and since Scripture speaks interchangeably of the judgment seat of Christ and of God, and of the Spirit of God and of Christ, Christ is God.
On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 6.17John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Denying Christ’s Godhead overthrows the whole creed: the Father, the birth, passion, resurrection, ascension and judgment all stand or fall together.
Celestine, ACO I.2, letter 25.17Celestine I, bishop of Rome · 430-432 · Celestine exhorts the people of Constantinople to build on Christ the foundation with gold, silver, and precious stones, to be of one mind, and to enter the narrow gate.
Verses on the Birthday of the Maccabees 91–120Hilary of Arles · ca. 430-449 · The second son dies cheerfully; the mother warns the king of God's judgment, and the third son is brought forward.
Verses on the Birthday of the Maccabees 211–240Hilary of Arles · ca. 430-449 · The mother tells the king that his victims live in glory; the furious king orders the remaining sons to the flames.
Verses on the Birthday of the Maccabees 241–270Hilary of Arles · ca. 430-449 · The fifth son is brought forward; his mother, unable to embrace him, urges him to keep God's law given through Moses and promises him the resurrection.
Verses on the Birthday of the Maccabees 361–390Hilary of Arles · ca. 430-449 · The mother promises her youngest son eternal peace in the kingdom to come and pleads with him not to remain alone; he turns to God in prayer.
Sermon on the Life of Honoratus 14Hilary of Arles · ca. 430 · In Greece Venantius died at Methone and was buried with psalms by Hebrews, Greeks, and Latins alike.
Sermon on the Life of Honoratus 32Hilary of Arles · ca. 430 · On his deathbed Honoratus exhorted the officials of Arles not to fear death, to war against the vices of the body, and to despise riches.
Sermon on the Life of Honoratus 34Hilary of Arles · ca. 430 · Honoratus died peacefully in his sleep; many had visions of the saints coming to meet him, and the church filled at midnight to receive his body.
Oration 8.2Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · Peter's offer to build three tents wrongly made the Master equal to his servants, who did nothing like Christ's works; earth is no place to stay, and the Transfiguration foreshows our own transformation and Christ's coming in glory.
Oration 11.1Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · Celebrating Christ's death and descent into Hades, Proclus proclaims that the dead Christ, swallowed as a man, despoiled Hades as God, freed the captives from Adam onward, and opened paradise to the robber.
Chapter 21Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · By quoting “obedient to death” Nestorius convicts himself, since the one in God's form is the one who died; the creed teaches that God the Word suffered in his flesh, and comes as our kinsman to judge the living and the dead.
Letter to Valerian, paragraph 11Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 432 · Men see death every day and forget it; generations break on death like waves on the shore; those reconciled to Christ, who long to be with him, await the last day without fear.
Letter to Valerian, paragraph 21Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 432 · The world is in its last age, full of famine, plague, war and portents, as the apostle said the ends of the ages have come; those who neither enjoy this life nor hope for the next are most to be pitied.
Psalm 100Prosper of Aquitaine · after 432, before 455 · Psalm 101 (100) is read as a song of God's mercy and judgment, the conduct of the righteous, and the coming day of judgment.
Psalm 118, CaphProsper of Aquitaine · after 432, before 455 · Psalm 119:81–88 (118) is read of the saints' longing for Christ's coming, the martyrs' cry for judgment, and their victory by dying for the truth.
Tome to the Armenians 32Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 435-437 · Proclus calls for the worship of Christ as God and points to the coming judgment.
Epigram 5: De ultione DeiProsper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · God punishes in this life out of mercy, so that sinners may be corrected and not punished eternally.
Epigram 37: De æternis gaudiisProsper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · The joys of the heavenly city are eternal and unchanging, since God himself is their cause and all share one light and one love.
Epigram 50: De morte.auctarumProsper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · Death is not evil after a good life; what matters is not how one dies but where one goes after death.
Epigram 73: De laudando Deum (Migne also numbers it LXX)Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · God is to be praised both for his kindness and for his threats of judgment, since both serve to correct and save, while there is still time to repent.
To the Church 1.7Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The hoarder’s soul is weighed down to the earth, and in eternity each keeps what he chose here.
To the Church 1.9Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Earthly and heavenly treasure are named for where the givers and hoarders will end up.
To the Church 1.34Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · James threatens the rich with eternal fire for greed alone, apart from any other sin.
To the Church 1.36Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Hoarding in the last days adds unbelief to covetousness.
To the Church 2.10Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · No one can be sure of his standing at God’s judgment.
To the Church 2.11Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Though the holy differ greatly from sinners, none can be secure of salvation.
To the Church 2.47Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The religious chose their way of life in view of the judgment and hell.
To the Church 2.48Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · They also considered the glories of the new creation and life with God.
To the Church 2.51Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Scripture praises giving and threatens the greedy with eternal fire.
To the Church 2.52Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The condemned of Matt 25 are punished for greed and lack of mercy alone.
To the Church 2.69Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · It is madness for the rich not even at death to give for their own salvation.
To the Church 3.11Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · It is grievous that a dying man thinks only of his heir’s feasting, not of his own soul.
To the Church 3.13Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · At the judgment only a good conscience, repentance, and abundant alms will help.
To the Church 3.15Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · While judgment awaits, the dying man dwells on his heir’s feasting.
To the Church 3.45Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Riches left to children cannot help parents after death.
To the Church 3.46Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The rich man of Luke 16 left wealth to his brothers but could not obtain a drop of water.
To the Church 3.47Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The rich man’s relatives, whom he remembered even in torment, could not help him.
To the Church 3.48Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The rich man begged relief through the very Lazarus he had despised.
To the Church 3.49Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The rich man now longed for the touch of the poor man he had despised.
To the Church 3.51Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · In torment, the rich man’s pain far outweighed any pleasure in his heirs’ wealth.
To the Church 3.52Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Given the choice, the rich man would have given all his wealth to escape torment.
To the Church 3.53Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · He would have paid anything for even an hour’s relief.
To the Church 3.54Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Repentance after death is too late.
To the Church 3.55Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The dead sinner cannot even remember God to pray to him.
To the Church 3.61Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The cause of such conduct is unbelief in judgment and resurrection.
To the Church 3.64Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Not preparing for God’s judgment shows lack of belief.
To the Church 3.69Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Paul teaches that what one sows in this life one reaps after death.
To the Church 3.75Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The hundredfold reward is eternal, which makes it worth even more.
To the Church 3.78Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The dying should give at least to escape eternal punishment.
To the Church 3.79Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Failing to give at death shows unbelief in judgment and resurrection.
To the Church 3.81Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · At death, the only refuge is to offer one’s goods, yet the dying think of legatees.
To the Church 3.82Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Neglecting one’s soul at death shows contempt for the Judge.
To the Church 3.95Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The dying man should resist his flatterers and provide for his own eternal life.
To the Church 4.11Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Whoever ranks God last will be ranked last by God.
To the Church 4.19Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · God needs our gifts not in himself but in his poor, as Matt 25 shows.
To the Church 4.28Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Religious profession increases guilt, since judgment begins with God’s house.
To the Church 4.39Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Christ’s bond and sureties are the surest, yet he is refused credit; as one chooses, so one will receive.
To the Church 4.47Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The way to the kingdom is hard, but nothing compares with future glory.
On 1 Cor 7:7.29Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret reads “the time has been shortened” as the nearness of the end of the present age.
On 1 Cor 7:7.30Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret applies 1 Cor 7:29–31 to the use of wealth, citing Ezekiel's rams and Isaiah's levelling of ranks in the age to come.
Psalm 1:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 1:5: the ungodly rise not to be tried but to be condemned, and lawless sinners will be far from the assembly of the righteous.
Psalm 1:7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 1:6: God knows the way of the righteous without proofs, while the way of the ungodly is destroyed.
Psalm 2:13Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 2:12b: at the judgment the wicked kindle God's anger, while those who trust in him receive true blessedness.
Psalm 4:9–10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 4:8: David will die in peace in hope of the resurrection; recompense for the wronged comes after death.
Psalm 6:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · The title of Psalm 6, "for the eighth," refers to the age to come; since repentance is impossible after death, David seeks healing now.
Psalm 6:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 6:5: there is no repentance after death, so healing must be sought now; our own effort must accompany God's mercy.
Psalm 9:7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 9:6–8: the devil is disarmed and his cities turned to true religion; God reigns for ever and will judge the world.
Psalm 9:15Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 9:13b–14: God raises humanity from the gates of death; the churches are the gates of the heavenly Zion.
Psalm 9:39Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 10:18: punishing the arrogant deters others; the psalm shows humanity's plight, Christ's healing, and judgment at his second coming.
Psalm 11:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · The title of Psalm 12 (Greek 11): against double-dealers who betrayed David to Saul; "the eighth" again refers to the final judgment.
Psalm 20:5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 21:4: Hezekiah received the life he asked for; "for ever" points also to eternal life.
Psalm 21:30Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 22:29: those fed by the immortal food worship Christ, and after the resurrection all will bow to him, willingly or not.
Psalm 26:14Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 27:14: courage overcomes the passions and awaits God's promises, which soul and body will inherit in the land of the living.
Psalm 28:7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 29:7: the fire of the Spirit enlightened the apostles without burning them; in the age to come fire will enlighten the virtuous and burn the wicked.
Psalm 29:11–13Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 30:10–12: God turns mourning into joy, so Christians, who hope for the resurrection, should not grieve the dead as some do in sackcloth.
Psalm 36:37Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 37:37: the peaceable should look past present troubles to the reward to come.
Psalm 36:38Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 37:38: at the judgment the lawless will perish together.
Psalm 40:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 41:1: the poor one is Christ, who became poor for us; whoever understands his poverty will be rescued on the day of judgment.
Psalm 48:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 49, title: the apostles exhort the nations to join virtue to faith, teaching the vanity of wealth and worldly wisdom and foretelling the judgment.
Psalm 48:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 49:5: the speaker fears the evil day of judgment, when the deceit of his life will surround him, as Paul also calls it the day of wrath.
Psalm 48:8–9Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 49:7–11: no one can buy salvation after death; the toiler for virtue lives, while the worldly wise and the rich perish, leave their wealth to others, and lose even the names on their lands.
Psalm 48:15Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 49:14: the wicked are shepherded by death, and the upright they wronged will rule over them, as in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.
Psalm 48:16Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 49:15: the speaker trusts God to redeem his soul from Hades.
Psalm 49:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 50:1: the psalm of Asaph foretells the judgment and the new covenant; the "gods" are those entrusted with judging, or properly those who keep God's image undefiled.
Psalm 49:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 50:2–3: Christ, whose beauty was shown in Zion, will come again openly as judge, surrounded by fire as Daniel saw.
Psalm 54:16Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 55:15: the sudden death foretold is Judas's hanging and the Jews' death in the Roman war; the present life is a sojourn.
Psalm 54:24Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 55:23: the bloodthirsty and deceitful are cast into the pit of punishment and die early, while the psalmist hopes in God.
Psalm 60:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 61:5: the restored land given to the returning exiles is a type of the true inheritance, eternal life.
Psalm 61:12–13Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 62:11-12: God has declared the certain judgment, punishing the wicked and showing mercy to the pious, as in the law and (in an addition) the Gospel's last judgment.
Psalm 64:14Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 65:13: the clothed rams are the rich and powerful who come to baptism; Theodoret rejects readings of the psalm as the post-exilic harvests or a future restoration of Jerusalem.
Psalm 68:28Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 69:27-28: the oppressors are to receive due punishment and be excluded from the book of the living, as in Psalm 1 and Daniel.
Psalm 71:11Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 72:11: all kings will worship Christ, some willingly now and all after the resurrection; every nation has heard the gospel.
Psalm 81:8Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 82:8: the prophet calls on Christ, heir of the nations, to judge the earth and take the nations as his inheritance.
Psalm 83:2–3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 84:1-2: the longing for God's dwellings fits the exiles and above all the church, with its many altars; soul and body rejoice in the living God, who gives the hope of resurrection.
Psalm 86:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 87:2: Zion is the heavenly Jerusalem, and its gates are the churches on earth, which God loves more than the dwellings of Jacob.
Psalm 86:7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 87:7: the heavenly city is a dwelling of pure, everlasting joy.
Psalm 89:11Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 90:11: if God's mild indignation is so heavy, no one can grasp the punishment of his full anger, eternal punishment.
Psalm 90:16Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 91:16: God gives long life and salvation to those who trust him, as Hezekiah received fifteen more years.
Psalm 91:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 92, title: the Sabbath, a rest from bodily labor for spiritual work, figures the rest of the life to come, when the just are honored and the unjust punished.
Psalm 91:8Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 92:7: the wicked flourish like grass only to be destroyed forever.
Psalm 91:15–16Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 92:14-15: the fruitful old age of the righteous is the perfection of the life to come, when God's justice will be manifest.
Psalm 93:13Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 94:13: discipline now spares the righteous in the judgment, while the wicked fall into the pit of eternal punishment.
Psalm 95:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 96, title and verses 1-2: the added title about the rebuilt temple fits only the surface; the psalm calls the whole world to a new song for Christ's two comings and the salvation of the nations.
Psalm 95:13Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 96:13: the Lord's two comings: the first brought knowledge of God, the second will bring just judgment.
Psalm 96:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 97, title and verse 1: the added title is not prophetic; the psalm foretells Christ's two comings, and "the Lord has reigned" means his eternal kingship made known.
Psalm 96:3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 97:3: the fire before God belongs to his second coming in judgment, as Daniel saw.
Psalm 96:4Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 97:4: God's fire lights the saints and burns the wicked; Christ's coming will be like lightning, and the earth will tremble at the judgment.
Psalm 96:5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 97:5: the mountains melting are the powerful, who will fear the judgment most because they must give the greatest account.
Psalm 96:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 97:6: the heavens, meaning the angels, proclaimed God's righteousness at Christ's birth and will do so again at his second coming.
Psalm 97:8Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 98:8-9: the teachers clap like rivers and the lofty-minded rejoice like mountains at Christ's coming; his first coming brought mercy, his second will bring just judgment.
Psalm 101:26–27Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 102:25–26: the unchanging Creator will renew the aging creation and make it incorruptible, as Paul teaches.
Psalm 103:30Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 104:30: the sending of the Spirit foretells the resurrection, foreshadowed when Elijah and Elisha raised children by breathing on them.
Psalm 103:33Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 104:33: praise must be given in this life, for after death it is too late, as the foolish virgins found.
Psalm 105:47Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 106:47: the hoped-for gathering of the Jews is their future conversion to Christ, foretold by Paul and linked by Theodoret with Elijah's coming, not the restoration of Jerusalem and the law.
Psalm 109:3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 110:3: Christ's power will be shown at his second coming when the saints shine; 'from the womb before the morning star' teaches his eternal begetting and consubstantiality with the Father.
Psalm 109:5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 110:5: Christ will judge resisting rulers; the psalm alternates sayings fitting his humanity and his divinity, and 'the Lord at your right hand' signifies the divinity inseparably united to his humanity.
Psalm 109:6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 110:6: Christ will punish the ungodly at the judgment, and disciplines them even in this life.
Psalm 114:7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 116:7: the faithful encourage themselves that death for piety leads to the 'rest' of a painless life.
Psalm 114:8–9Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 116:8–9: 'the land of the living' is the life to come, free of pain and sin, which encourages the faithful to despise death.
Psalm 118:44Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 119:44: 'for ever and ever' refers to the life to come, where God's laws will be kept perfectly.
Chapter 4Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · At the judgment the devil will claim as his own any baptized person who after renouncing him went back to the circus, theater, and amphitheater, so the candidates must keep their profession.
Chapter 16Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · The Sibyl is called as a third Gentile witness: her acrostic verses on the judgment spell “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior,” and other verses foretell his passion and resurrection.
Chapter 20Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · True faith and salvation are found only in the Catholic Church; the heretic will rise to damnation, while (chapter 21) the faithful will enter a life of truth, peace, and joy without fear.
On the Governance of God 1.17Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · The opponent argues that God reserves all justice for the last judgment.
On the Governance of God 1.18Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · God judges now as well as at the end, because governance is itself judgment.
On the Governance of God 1.38Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · The destruction of Sodom was a judgment that prefigures the last judgment.
On the Governance of God 2.28Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · The psalmist distinguishes God’s present judgment from his future judgment.
On the Governance of God 4.36Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Every sin wrongs God; each sinner kindles the fire that will punish him.
On the Governance of God 4.37Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Sinners fill up the measure of their sins until they perish.
On the Governance of God 4.38Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · When their sins were complete, Sodom burned in the fire it had kindled.
On the Governance of God 4.39Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Christ says those who neglect the gospel are worse than Sodom.
On the Governance of God 5.49Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · God punishes less than we deserve so that we may repent.
Church History 1.3Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Constantine, before his war with Maxentius, sees the sign of the cross with the words “Conquer by this,” and Christian priests explain to him Christ, the resurrection, baptism and repentance.
Church History 2.10Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · On Good Friday Symeon of Seleucia-Ctesiphon is executed after encouraging a hundred clergy put to death before him.
Part 1, chapter 2Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The death foretold for eating the forbidden fruit passed to all Adam’s descendants and signifies the second, eternal death, from which those who keep Christ’s word are free.
Part 1, chapter 6Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Cain and Abel prefigure the Jewish people and Christ the shepherd killed by them; Enoch, taken up with Elijah, will be one of the two witnesses at Christ’s return.
Part 1, chapter 7Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The ark prefigures the Church and the cross: its measures, built from the numbers five and six, stand for hope, love, and patience, its three decks for faith, hope, and love, and its one cubit for unity and perfection.
Part 1, chapter 16Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Abraham’s intercession and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah foreshadow the day of judgment; Lot’s wife warns believers not to look back, and those who glory in the cross await that day without fear.
Part 2, chapter 34Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Daniel’s fifth to eighth visions (Nebuchadnezzar’s tree, the four beasts, the ram and goat, Belshazzar’s feast) show God humbling and restoring the proud, the Antichrist to come, and the judgment on kings who profane sacred vessels.
Part 2, chapter 35Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Daniel’s ninth to twelfth visions (the lions’ den, the seventy weeks, the end time, Bel and the Dragon) figure Christ delivered from his enemies, mark the time of his coming against the Jews, and show the overthrow of idols.
Part 2, chapter 36Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones shows the resurrection, and his shut eastern gate Mary’s perpetual virginity; Ezra’s return and the sending away of foreign wives figure Christians who leave all, even wife and children, for Christ.
Part 2, chapter 40Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Maccabean martyr mother and her seven sons, and Judas’s offering for the dead, figure the Church’s martyrs and hope of resurrection; the end of Judah’s rulers under Herod fulfils Jacob’s prophecy of the coming of Christ, born in the census under Augustus; the second part of the book ends.
Part 3, chapter 28Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Isaiah’s prophecy that the dead will rise is fulfilled in the saints who rose from their tombs at Christ’s death, with Paul, Peter, and the Sibyl as witnesses.
Part 3, chapter 29Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Hosea’s third day and the Psalms’ rising before the dawn are fulfilled in the resurrection, the sign of Jonah, and the empty tomb; Christ is the first fruits because, unlike others raised, he dies no more.
Part 3, chapter 30Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Hosea’s roaring lion and Jacob’s sleeping lion are fulfilled in the risen Christ rebuking the disciples’ unbelief and showing Thomas his wounds, attested by John and Paul, with Virgil as witness.
Part 3, chapter 40Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The prophecies that all nations will worship God and offer a pure sacrifice will be fulfilled when the gospel has reached all nations, and then the end will come, as the prophets, Christ, and even pagan writers attest; the third part of the book closes.
Part 4, chapter 3Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The prophets, Christ, Peter, and the Apocalypse describe the devil cast down from heaven to the earth and the underworld, having a short time for his deceits before the end.
Part 4, chapter 4Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The binding of the dragon for a thousand years in the Apocalypse is explained as the present age of the Church since Christ’s victory, prepared by Daniel’s seventy weeks; afterwards the devil will be loosed for a short time.
Part 4, chapter 5Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The mark of the beast is to imitate and glory in the devil’s works under the name of Christ; the many antichrists are the heretics, especially the Arians, who tear the Church’s unity, while the Catholic is the one in communion with the apostolic Church of Jerusalem, Ephesus, Asia, and Rome.
Part 4, chapter 6Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Job, Paul, and Christ foretell the lying signs of the Antichrist; the author adds recent devilish signs he knew: a possessed young nun at Carthage healed at the Eucharist, a false monk with fraudulent cures, and an impostor near Naples expelled while Pope Leo was suppressing the Manichaeans and Pelagians.
Part 4, chapter 7Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The harlot Babylon on the beast in the Apocalypse is the worldly city spread through the world, drunk with the martyrs’ blood and claiming eternity, from which God’s people must come out; Paul foretells the lawless one whom Christ will destroy.
Part 4, chapter 8Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The seven heads and ten horns of the beast in the Apocalypse and Daniel are kings who persecute the Church, including the Arians who rebaptize; the Antichrist, the eighth, is by some identified with a returning Nero.
Part 4, chapter 9Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Daniel’s vile king who exalts himself above every god and Jacob’s blessing of Dan as a serpent show that the Antichrist will come from the Jews, of the tribe of Dan, after the fall of the worldly empire; the unbelieving will believe him.
Part 4, chapter 10Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Daniel’s vision of the persecutor who profanes the sanctuary, against whom the people who know God stand firm and Michael arises, is applied to the Antichrist’s persecution, foreshadowed by the Arians; Christ and the Apocalypse confirm it, and the martyrs of the end will complete the number of the elect.
Part 4, chapter 11Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Ezekiel’s prince who says “I am God,” Paul’s man of sin seated in God’s temple, and the beast with lamb’s horns and its three froglike spirits describe the Antichrist’s pride and his heralds’ signs in Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Part 4, chapter 12Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Antichrist will be known not to be Christ because he will come in pride and will not fulfil the prophecies of humility, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and the gift of the Spirit that Christ fulfilled; his end is the lake of fire.
Part 4, chapter 13Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Malachi’s Elijah and the two witnesses of the Apocalypse are Elijah and Enoch, who will expose the Antichrist, as Moses and Aaron withstood Jannes and Jambres and Peter and Paul withstood Simon Magus; the forty-two months of trampling are already begun by the Arian Goths and Moors.
Part 4, chapter 15Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The beast will kill the two witnesses, Elijah and Enoch, and the impious will rejoice over their unburied bodies, but sudden destruction will come on them.
Part 4, chapter 16Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · After three and a half days the two witnesses will rise and ascend to meet Christ, who will destroy the Antichrist and reign for ever.
Part 4, chapter 17Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalms, Malachi, Isaiah, the Gospel, the Apocalypse, Paul, and the Sibyl foretell Christ’s coming in glory with cosmic signs, joy to the good and destruction to the wicked; therefore let us amend while there is time.
Part 4, chapter 18Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Ezekiel’s dry bones, Isaiah, Christ, Paul, and the Apocalypse foretell the resurrection of the flesh; even bodies eaten by beasts will be restored by the Creator, and the impious rise not to judgment but to punishment.
Part 4, chapter 19Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalms, Christ’s parable of the sheep and goats, Paul, the Apocalypse, Isaiah, and the Sibyl describe the last judgment, where mercy to the poor decides; (chapter 20) a purifying fire will purge certain of the faithful and renew the elements, while the impious repent in vain.
Part 5, chapter 1Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The new heaven and new earth promised in the Apocalypse and by Peter are the land of the living, which the impious will not see.
Part 5, chapter 2Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The saints of every age and both sexes will be changed into the perfect man, the age of Christ’s fullness, which the author takes as about thirty.
Part 5, chapter 3Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The new Jerusalem, our mother above, will have no night, death, or pain; the impious will not see its glory.
Part 5, chapter 4Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The just will shine like the sun, equal to the angels, a glory the impious will not see.
Part 5, chapter 5Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · As stars differ in glory, so the saints will shine with different honors, martyrs, virgins, widows, and the married, without envy.
Part 5, chapter 6Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The virgins who follow the Lamb wherever he goes have a place the impious will not see.
Part 5, chapter 7Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · What God has prepared for those who love him, beyond eye and ear and heart, the impious will not see.
Part 5, chapter 8Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The saints will see God the Trinity face to face, which the impious will not see.
Part 5, chapter 9Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The saints, beholding the Lord’s glory with unveiled face, will be transformed into his image, which the impious will not see.
Part 5, chapter 10Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Son’s handing over of the kingdom to God the Father the impious will not see.
Part 5, chapter 11Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The saints’ unending Alleluia the impious will neither hear nor see.
Part 5, chapter 12Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The renewal of all things and the saints’ food from the tree of life and drink from Christ the fountain the impious will not see.
Part 5, chapter 13Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · When God is all in all, the saints alone will enjoy the heavenly Jerusalem, reigning with Christ in a kingdom without end.
Antony 33Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Antony urges the fear of God, hatred of the world, and a life of hunger, vigil, and mourning.
Arsenius 41Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Poemen blesses Arsenius, who wept all his life, since one must weep either here or in torment hereafter.
Agathon 24Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · One should always keep God’s judgment in mind.
Agathon 29Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Agathon, dying, stands in spirit before God’s judgment, unsure whether his work has pleased God.
Dioscorus 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Dioscorus warns monks to be found clothed in the heavenly wedding garment at the judgment.
Evagrius 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Evagrius teaches meditation on death, Hades, judgment, punishment, and the joys of the righteous.
Evagrius 4Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Remembering death and judgment keeps the soul from sin.
Elijah 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Elijah fears death, meeting God, and God’s sentence.
Theophilus the archbishop 4Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Theophilus describes the soul’s trial by demons and angels at death and its eternal outcome.
Theophilus the archbishop 5Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Dying, Theophilus calls Arsenius blessed for always remembering death.
Ischyrion 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Ischyrion foretells declining generations of monks, but says those tested in the last trial will surpass their fathers.
Cronius 3Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Humility comes through the fear of God, which comes from withdrawal, labor, and remembering death and judgment.
Macarius the Egyptian 34Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · At Nitria Macarius’s only word is a call to weep now, before the tears of hell.
Macarius the Egyptian 38Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · A pagan priest’s skull tells Macarius that his prayers bring some relief to the damned, and that apostates suffer worse.
Matoes 12Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Cut off contention and mourn, for the time is near.
Poemen 181Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Poemen says the fear of God cannot coexist with stored delicacies; and (saying 182) that people are judged in the state in which death finds them.
Sisoes 14Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · At his death Sisoes’ face shines as Antony, the prophets, the apostles, and Christ come for him.
Sisoes 19Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Sisoes, who trusts God’s mercy, envies monks kept from sin by fear of hell.
Sisoes 49Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Dying, Sisoes asks the angels for time to repent, content even to groan a little over his soul.
Silvanus 2Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · After a vision of many monks condemned and many laymen saved, Silvanus mourns and hides his face from the world.
Amma Syncletica 7Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Syncletica teaches that the devil’s trials, especially illness, purify sinners and perfect the righteous.
Hyperechius 7Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Meditate always on the kingdom of heaven and you will soon inherit it.
Om 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Hor and Theodore abandon their building work, weeping at the thought of God’s sudden visitation.
Life of Syncletica 82Anonymous · 5th–6th century · Fatalists blame their sins on the stars, which ends in despair and abolishes God’s judgment, since only voluntary sins are punishable.
Life of Syncletica 88Anonymous · 5th–6th century · The devil’s shifting suggestions, fate, chance, the mortality of the soul, betray their falsehood; a servant of God carefully observed the sequence and duration of his thoughts.
Life of Syncletica 90Anonymous · 5th–6th century · This life is like a second womb compared to the kingdom to come; having known earthly food and light, we should long for heavenly ones.
Life of Syncletica 91Anonymous · 5th–6th century · The righteous pass from this life to a higher one as infants to birth, sinners to deeper darkness; there are three births: bodily, baptismal, and that of repentance.
Life of Syncletica 98Anonymous · 5th–6th century · The devil afflicts with sickness those he cannot tempt with pleasure; the sinner should accept illness as chastisement, the righteous as refining, like Paul’s thorn, looking to the refreshment to come.
Life of Syncletica 113Anonymous · 5th–6th century · Near death she saw angels, virgins and the light of paradise, foretold her death in three days, and departed to the Lord.
Numbers Question 3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Judah, the royal tribe of Christ, was largest and camped on the east; Dan, from which the Antichrist is expected, on the north.
Deuteronomy Question 34Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Israel, unable to grasp promises of the life to come, was given earthly blessings and curses; Theodoret explains the ceremony on Gerizim and Ebal and reads the curses as foretelling Israel's later disasters.
1 Kingdoms Question 63Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Neither the medium nor a demon brought up Samuel: God himself pronounced through an apparition in Samuel's form a true sentence on Saul, as the Chronicler and the order of events show.
2 Kingdoms Question 35Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · David mourned Absalom out of fatherly love and because, dead, his son could no longer repent.
3 Kingdoms Question 43Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Jeroboam's self-made feast was condemned by the man of God from Judah, who was later killed by a lion for disobeying God's command after being deceived by the old prophet of Bethel, whom Theodoret regards as a true prophet who lied out of desire for a blessing.