John Damascene : "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God; consider the outcome of their life and imitate their faith." Emperors have not preached the word to you, but apostles and prophets, shepherds and teachers. When God gave commands to David concerning the house David intended to build for him, he said to him, "You may not build a house for my name, for you are a warrior and have shed blood." "Pay all of them their dues," the apostle Paul says, "taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due." Political prosperity is the business of emperors; the condition of the church is the concern of shepherds and teachers. Any other method is piracy, brothers. Saul tore Samuel's cloak, and what was the consequence? God tore the kingdom away from him and gave it to David the meek. — ON DIVINE IMAGES, SECOND APOLOGY 12 Origen of Alexandria : Consider whether the story about David and Solomon concerning the temple hints at something like this. For when David, who wages the wars of the Lord and stands firm against many personal enemies and enemies of Israel, wishes to build a temple for God, he is prevented by God through Nathan, who says to him, "You shall not build me a house, because you are a man of blood."Solomon, however, who saw God in a dream and received wisdom in a dream (for the reality [of God] was reserved for him who said, "Behold, a greater than Solomon is here"), who enjoyed the profoundest peace so that each person at that time rested under his own vine and under his own fig tree and who was named after the peace in his time (for Solomon means "peaceful"), because of this peace has time to construct the famous temple for God. The temple for God is also rebuilt in the times of Esdras, when the truth overcomes wine along with the hostile king and the women. — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF John 6.4-5