The last judgment in the early church

Ascension of Isaiah 4.18Anonymous · late 1st–2nd century
Epistle of Barnabas 4.12Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · God judges without favoritism; each receives according to deeds.
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.
2 Clement 9.4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Called in the flesh, we will come to judgment in the flesh.
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.
Apocalypse of Peter (Akhmim fragment) 3Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · God will come to the faithful who suffer and will judge the lawless.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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 8.411ff.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.
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 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 184 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · The danger is greater for the judge than for the one on trial.
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 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 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 118.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin urges repentance before the judgment; Christ is judge of living and dead.
Diatessaron, section 17Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 30Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 43Tatian · ca. 160-180
40Anonymous · ca. 161–180 or 249–251 · Carpus speaks of the true judgment seat.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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 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 4.36.3Irenaeus 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 4.36.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The wedding garment is the righteousness on which the Spirit rests; the same God calls the unworthy in kindness and judges those who despise his gift, and all men, even rulers, are his.
Against Heresies 4.37.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God made men and angels free to choose; those who keep the good he gave are rewarded, and those who despise it are justly judged.
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 5.35.2Irenaeus 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.
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 8Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
25Anonymous · ca. 180–185 · One death and one judgment await all.
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.
Prophetic Extracts 40.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · God's judgment is good: it separates believers from unbelievers, prevents worse judgment, and disciplines.
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.
Octavius 34.12Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Many wish there were no afterlife because they fear judgment; God's patience is not indifference.
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 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 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.
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 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 2Tertullian · ca. 197–198 · Common sayings such as “If God wills” and “God will judge between us” show that the soul naturally knows one good God who judges, even while it worships idols.
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.
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.
6 Ezra 16.68Anonymous · 3rd century
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.
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 the Psalms, fragment 3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · On Ps 58:11: there is a God who judges on earth, vindicating the righteous and punishing those who, though they studied the prophecies, would not hear Christ.
Pistis Sophia 124Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 148Anonymous · 3rd century
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 2.32Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The fourth in the furnace was the Word, the judge who drowned the Egyptians and burned Sodom, the 'Angel of great counsel', whom the fire fled and whom Nebuchadnezzar confessed as Son of God.
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 4.12-13Hippolytus 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.
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 2.13Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Once evil entered the world, God's justice became the guardian of goodness: the fear of judgment keeps people from evil, and a God who can both reward and punish is to be loved as Father and feared as Lord.
Against Marcion 2.14Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · When God says “I create evil,” he means the evils of punishment, which are just, not the evils of sin, which come from the devil; the flood, the plagues of Egypt, and other judgments were deserved.
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 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 5.16Tertullian · 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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.
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 2.5.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · The heretics' own definitions fail: the Old Testament punishments must be read spiritually, while the Gospels too show the Father of Christ punishing, as in the parable of the wedding garment.
On First Principles 2.9.8Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · As God will judge each according to merit, so he did before: vessels for honour or dishonour are such as they have cleansed themselves, and God arranges all by the most equitable judgment.
PG 12:1113 (Ps 2 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Some accept painful instruction willingly; the saints “judge the earth” by their example, as the Ninevites and the queen of the south will; service “with fear” may be that of slaves, but sons too serve, out of love, as Christ served his disciples.
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 12:1657 (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 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 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.
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.
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 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 20.351Origen · ca. 230–248 · But John 5:22 says the Father judges no one.
Commentary on John 20.352Origen · ca. 230–248 · John 5:30 helps: the Son judges as he hears from the Father.
Commentary on John 20.353Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Son's judgment is really the Father's, since he judges as he hears.
Commentary on John 20.354Origen · ca. 230–248 · All that is the Son's is the Father's, including his judgment.
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.
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.
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 5.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Jerusalem, which receives all four punishments at once, stands for believers, whose sin after knowing Christ deserves a heavier penalty than any other.
Homilies on Ezekiel 9.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Righteousness and sin are measured by comparison: the lesser sinner is “justified” by the greater, while even the greatest saints are darkness beside Christ, the Sun of righteousness.
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 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 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 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 20.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The exposure of the princes for the people’s sin shows that leaders and teachers must answer for those in their care, and, at a deeper level, that the guardian angels too will be examined at the judgment for the sins of those entrusted to them.
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 3.10Origen · 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 5.2Origen · 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 5.5Origen · 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 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 16.10Origen · 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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 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 4.13Origen · 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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 14.12Origen · 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 15.24Origen · 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 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 Romans 2.2Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Paul's warning is aimed at the church's own leaders who judge others, for judgment begins with God's house, and no one should even wish to escape a judgment that is really a cure.
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 2.10Origen · 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 9.26Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Paul means ordinary authorities, not persecutors; the apostolic decree forbade only what human law left untouched, since the civil judge, as God's minister, punishes the other crimes, and the law-abiding will have praise from God at the judgment, while those who do good from love live under the law of the spirit.
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.
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.
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.
Acts of Achatius (Disputation of Achatius) 3Anonymous · ca. 250–251 · Achatius compares the threat to brigandage and appeals to Christ's judgment.
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.
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 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 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.
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 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.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 1.4Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The two-edged sword from Christ's mouth is the word of the two testaments, by which all will be judged.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 4.2Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The jasper and sardius around God's throne signify the judgments by water and by fire; the sea of glass is baptism offered before the judgment.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
Recognitions 3.37Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter teaches that men will be judged on doing the good within their power, and must know God as both good and 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 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.
Testament of Our Lord 1.12Anonymous · ca. 350–500
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.
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 5.23.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God will avenge his people and judge each by his deeds.
Divine Institutes 7.1.25Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Those who crucified Christ will face his judgment.
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 7.20.5Lactantius · 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 7.21.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The approved receive immortality; the condemned are cast into darkness.
Divine Institutes 7.23.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Sibyl: God will judge, and the pious will live again on earth.
Divine Institutes 7.24.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Son of God will come to judge the living and the dead.
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.
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.
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 6.11.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Fatalism destroys God's judgment, punishment, and reward.
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 11.38.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Daniel foretells God’s judgment with a river of fire; Plato agrees.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.38.4Eusebius 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 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 12.6.8Eusebius 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 12.6.23Eusebius 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.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 52.10Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Christians await God's judgement, when they will judge their judges.
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 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 9.13.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Having received judgment from the Father, Christ punished those who rejected him and saved all who came to him.
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 56.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Believers must be ready, since all will stand before Christ's judgment seat.
Theophany 4.34Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 5.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
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.
Demonstration 1.12Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 4.14Aphrahat · 337-345 · Works that give God rest, like relieving the weary and needy, are themselves prayer; one should not put off a needed act of mercy for the hour of prayer.
Demonstration 8.20Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 14.5Aphrahat · 337-345 · God himself enters into judgment with his people and explains his judgments, as with Sodom, Ezekiel, Jonah, and the vineyard of Isaiah, rather than condemning without hearing.
Demonstration 14.39Aphrahat · 337-345 · Christ is the Chief Shepherd and, in a series of Gospel images, the pearl, the treasure, the fountain, the true vine, the bridegroom, the ladder, and the judge; the only fitting return is thanksgiving and love.
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 22.6Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 22.15Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 22.18Aphrahat · 337-345
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.
Oration II Against the Arians 6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · A “work” is judged, but the Son is the judge; and “faithful” in Heb 3:2 means trustworthy, as it does of God, not believing, as it does of human beings.
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 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.
Long recension, Magnesians 11Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius sets out the faith in Christ, from his eternal begetting to his coming in judgment, to guard the Magnesians against error.
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.
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 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.
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 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 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 Apostate Kings 11Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · From Wisdom and from Job's complaint that the wicked prosper, Lucifer argues that God's long patience with the persecuting emperor reserves him for judgment unless he repents.
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.
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 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 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 33.11Basil 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 48.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 49:3–7 Basil joins heart and mouth (belief and confession), reads the psaltery as a life in harmony with words, and the evil day as the judgment when each sin will stand as its own accuser; to the strong and the rich he declares that no brother can ransom a soul from the devil, for every man is himself a captive of sin, and only the redemption in Christ sets free.
Homilies on the Psalms 61.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 62:7 Basil calls blessed the one who glories only in God and in the cross of Christ, unlike those who glory in bodily strength or in the killing of war.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 9Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's ninth rule, on attentive learning of God's will, with Rules 10 (the end of sin is death, of the commandment life) and 11 (God's judgments must be feared), whose headings the scan lost.
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.
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 2.18Hilary 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 2.44Hilary 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 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 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 57.7Hilary 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 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 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 118.11.5Hilary 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 139.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ, poor in his humanity, will judge those who wronged him, while God avenges the poor who followed him, the martyrs crying beneath the altar.
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 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.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 7Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian applies Paul’s warning against eating the Lord’s body unworthily to sinners who receive communion without penance.
Oration 16.4Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory asks his father to speak briefly to the people about the hailstorm, explaining God’s just judgments, in which mercy and wrath are measured and wrath is tempered for those who repent.
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 16.9Gregory 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.
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.
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.
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 3:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The fire of judgment will expose bad teaching and show who taught well.
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 6:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · This world is an image of a higher one; the saints will judge it by the example of their faith, and so are fit to judge small worldly matters.
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 2 Corinthians 5:9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers should strive by good works to please Christ in this life and at his judgment.
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 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 Romans 2:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster argues that a judge who does the same evils will not escape God’s judgment, since the good Creator cares for his work and will reward and condemn.
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 2:16Ambrosiaster · 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 9:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God’s mercy depends on his judgment, not the asker’s will: David, forgiven, remained humble and patient in trouble, while Saul, refused, turned to idols, which shows that God’s foreknowledge judges justly.
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 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 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 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.
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 22.30Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome tells of his famous dream, in which Christ the Judge condemned him as "a Ciceronian, not a Christian" for his love of the classics.
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.
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.
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 88.6Epiphanius 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.
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 26.15.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They deny the law, judgment, and resurrection.
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 33.11.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ himself speaks of severe punishment at the judgement.
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 43.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Those who persist in error face judgment after death, though God does not judge in anger.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.14.14Anonymous · ca. 380 · Ezekiel 18 is quoted at length: each soul is judged for its own sin, and the repentant wicked man lives.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.1.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christ's words on the judgment of the nations are quoted.
On the Christian Faith 2.12Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose appeals to Christ as judge: his session at the Father’s right hand is honor, not inferiority, Father and Son hand everything over to each other in love, and the Seraphim’s threefold “Holy” is praise of one Trinity.
On Noah 96Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · Calling the murderer a brother aggravates his crime and warns him that he cannot escape God's eternal judgment.
On Noah 97Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · Allegorically, we must guard against our own thoughts and words, for which we too will give account to God.
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 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.
Not Three Gods, to Ablabius, part 5Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–385 · Since the one life and every divine work is worked by Father, Son, and Spirit together, as one movement of the good will from the Father through the Son to the Spirit, they are not three life-givers or three Gods; Gregory illustrates this from the Father who judges all through the Son.
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.
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 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.
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 88Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · The final judgment will be by fire and wrath, coming like a thief at Jesus' return.
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.
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) 15Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · Potamius died on the way to the estate he had been given for his subscription, and Florentius of Emerita, who knowingly communicated with Ossius and Potamius, was thrown from his throne three times and died; the petitioners present both as God's judgment.
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 24Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Our deeds are weighed in a balance; the just, whose good works go before, have their sins covered by love and by the cross.
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 Duties of the Clergy 1.12Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Answering those who doubt God’s justice because the wicked prosper, Ambrose shows from Job that the wicked are wretched within and the just blessed in conscience.
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.
Exposition of Psalm 118 1.13.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The devil who drives men to sin will be blamed by them at the judgment, but, as with Eve, that will not acquit them.
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 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 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 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 20.22.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The innocent hasten to judgment; the righteous do not fear God’s merciful judgment.
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 20.24.1Ambrose · 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 20.30.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God’s judgment of our frailty is joined with mercy.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.40.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God’s judgment is just and always joined with mercy.
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 20.40.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Paul says some sins and good deeds are evident now, others later.
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 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.
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 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 140.81Augustine 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 147.28Augustine 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 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 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 217.22Augustine 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 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.
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 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 23.8John 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 24.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ requires doing the Father’s will, not only professing faith, and quietly reveals himself as the judge who will reject even those who worked miracles without a good life.
Homilies on Matthew 37.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Jews found fault both with John’s fasting and with Christ’s eating and drinking, so wisdom is justified; Christ then reproaches Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum as worse than Tyre, Sidon and Sodom.
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 75.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Prosperity in sin increases punishment, as David’s case shows; the same sin, such as sexual immorality, is punished differently according to time, office, wealth, baptism, knowledge, warnings received, place and kind, so that God’s judgment is exact.
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 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.
On 1 Cor 7:39, section 3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom urges hearers neither to put away their spouses nor to marry those put away, since such unions are adultery punished at the judgment, calls a married man's resort to prostitutes adultery too, and explains 1 Cor 7:39 for wives and widows.
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.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.20.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Evil thoughts will accuse us at the judgment.
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 1.53.1Ambrose · 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 1.56.1Ambrose · 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 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 36.32.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The evil day is the day of judgment, when the just will grieve for the punished.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 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 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.
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 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 17.5Augustine 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 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 19.6Augustine 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 90.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The one guest without a wedding garment stands for the many bad, as Christ’s words “many are called, but few are chosen” show, while the good are many in themselves but few beside the bad.
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 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 125.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Temptation tests whether one possesses innocently, as recent troubles showed when some who had listened gladly turned to abuse; Augustine must pay out God’s word or be condemned as the lazy servant, and God, not the preacher, will question each heart.
Sermon 170.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Since no one alive can fulfil “You shall not desire,” the Psalmist asks to be heard in God's righteousness, not his own, and not to be judged, for no one living is justified in God's sight, though one may be in men's.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 252.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The nets are the word of God and the sea this world, as the parable of the dragnet shows; the first catch figures the present Church, the second the Church after the resurrection.
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 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 262.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Be exalted above the heavens, O God” is said not to the Father but to the Son, who was born, nursed, wearied, betrayed, and crucified for us and now sits in heaven, to come as judge with his apostles.
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 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 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 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.
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 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.
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 2.24Jerome · 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.
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.
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.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine reads Lot's rescue as a figure of the church saved from the final judgment, his wife as those who look back, and his drunkenness with his daughters as the law misused.
Letters 2.1Sulpicius Severus · ca. 397–406 · Alone in his cell, Sulpicius is overcome by thoughts of judgment and of his sins.
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 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.'
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · ‘What has chaff to do with wheat?’ will be fulfilled in the barn, not in the field or on the threshing floor, as the sheep and goats and the good and bad fish are separated only at the end; now the difference is that the wheat has its heart in heaven.
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.
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.
Apology against Rufinus 2.6Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome quotes Rufinus's statement on the devil's eternal punishment and mocks its Latin style.
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.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 12.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ came to save, not to judge, but whoever refuses to believe in him has already been judged.
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 19.16Augustine 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 19.18Augustine 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 21.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “The Father judges no one” seems to contradict texts where the Father judges; Augustine presses the difficulty and asks for understanding.
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 21.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · After the judgment the Son will appear equal to the Father, so that all honor the Son as the Father; whoever despises the Son dishonors the Father who sent him.
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 22.11Augustine 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 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 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 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 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 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 43.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine raises the question how the Father both “judges” and “judges no one.”
Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As there are two kinds of temptation and of fear, so there are two kinds of judgment.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 43.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “Judgment” can mean condemnation or distinction; the Father “judges” by distinguishing the Son's glory, even in his servant form, from the glory of sinful men.
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 44.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who confess their blindness and seek the physician are made to see, while the proud who claim to see remain blind; this separation is the judgment Christ came to bring now.
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 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 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 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 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.
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 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.
On the Christian Life 3Fastidius · ca. 411-430 · God's patience is no ground for security: the wicked, especially unjust judges who plundered widows and orphans, are often punished even in this life.
On the Christian Life 4Fastidius · ca. 411-430 · Each sinner is judged when the measure of his sins is full, as with Sodom and the Amorites; God loves the righteous, not the wicked.
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.
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.
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 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 20.2Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Although in this life good and evil fall on good and bad people without visible order, God's judgment is present and will be shown to be just on the last day.
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 20.14Augustine 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 20.16Augustine 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 20.18Augustine 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 20.21Augustine 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 20.24Augustine 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 20.30Augustine 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.
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 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 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).
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.
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 18.7Orosius · ca. 415–416 · All must appear before Christ's judgment seat.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.27.15Orosius · ca. 417–418 · A final persecution awaits before the judgment.
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.
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.
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.
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) 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.