{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-2360","native_reference":{"book_number":620,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":2,"verse_to":2},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Basil of Caesarea</b>: One does not speak of the Spirit and of angels as if they were equals. The Spirit is the Lord of life. The angels are our helpers, our fellow servants, faithful witnesses of the truth. It is customary for the saints to deliver God's commandments in the presence of witnesses. St. Paul says to Timothy: \"what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men.\" He asks the angels to testify with him, because he knows that angels will be present when the Lord comes in the glory of his father to judge the world in righteousness.<br/><i>— ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 13.29</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: And now the Saviour shows Himself, out of His abundance, dispensing goods to His servants according to the ability of the recipient, that they may augment them by exercising activity, and then returning to reckon with them; when, approving of those that had increased His money, those faithful in little, and commanding them to have the charge over many things, He bade them enter into the joy of the Lord. But to him who had hid the money, entrusted to him to be given out at interest, and had given it back as he had received it, without increase, He said, \"Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to have given my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received mine own.\" Wherefore the useless servant \"shall be cast into outer darkness.\" \"Thou, therefore, be strong,\" says Paul, \"in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.\" And again: \"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.\"</p><p>If, then, both proclaim the Word-the one by writing, the other by speech-are not both then to be approved, making, as they do, faith active by love? It is by one's own fault that he does not choose what is best; God is free of blame. As to the point in hand, it is the business of some to lay out the word at interest, and of others to test it, and either choose it or not. And the judgment is determined within themselves.<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 1</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: [Only] see that you do not give these scriptural teachings over to unbelieving and blasphemous tongues, for that is a danger greatly to be avoided. But impart them to pious and faithful men who desire to live in a holy way and righteously with fear. For it is not to no purpose that the blessed apostle exhorts Timothy, and says, \"O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called; which some professing have erred concerning the faith.\" And again, \"You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me in many exhortations, the same you should commit to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.\" The blessed apostle delivered these things with a pious caution, aware that they could be easily known and distorted by anyone who does not have faith. How much greater will be our danger, if, rashly and without thought, we commit the revelations of God to profane and unworthy men.<br/><i>— TREATISE ON CHRIST AND ANTICHRIST 1</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men\"; to \"faithful\" men, not to questioners nor to reasoners, to \"faithful.\" How faithful? Such as betray not the Gospel they should preach. \"The things which thou hast heard,\" not which thou hast searched out. For \"faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.\" (Rom. x. 17.) But wherefore, \"among many witnesses\"? As if he had said: Thou hast not heard in secret, nor apart, but in the presence of many, with all openness of speech. Nor does he say, Tell, but \"commit,\" as a treasure committed is deposited in safety. Again he alarms his disciple, both from things above and things below. But he says not only \"commit to faithful men\"; for of what advantage is it that one is faithful, if he is not able to convey his doctrine to others? when he does not indeed betray the faith; but does not render others faithful? The teacher therefore ought to have two qualities, to be both faithful, and apt to teach; wherefore he says, \"who shall be able to teach others also.\"<br/><i>— Homily on 2 Timothy 4</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: And the things you have heard from me among many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.</p><p>and the things you have heard from me among many witnesses. That is, I did not tell you in secret, but openly in the presence of many. This, however, speaks about preaching. to faithful men, Paul says, not to curious investigators, nor to those reasoning by conflict, but to those who do not betray what is entrusted to them. However, he does not say: Speak, but, entrust. For what profit is it if they are indeed faithful, but not suitable to bring forth to others the things entrusted to them? For teachers must be both faithful and competent to teach.</p><p>— [PHOTIUS] to faithful men. That is, to bishops, elders, whom Timothy was about to ordain. among many witnesses, that is, of the law and the prophets. [end of the excerpt by Photius O f. 249v; Q f. 119v] —</p><p>— [OECUMENIUS] For indeed, as I think, concerning bishops and elders who are about to be ordained by Paul, these things he commands to him. For he would not have written such things concerning laymen. For how would it be, if he did not find anyone faithful and able to teach, that he would not have brought them into the faith, while Paul himself preached the word without deceit to both murderous Jews and Greeks?</p><p>among many witnesses. That is, of the law and the prophets. For the Apostle made them witnesses of his own preaching. Thus, Clement in the seventh book of \"Hypotyposes.\" [end of the excerpt by Oecumenius A f. 178r anonym; B f. 215v; G f.304r] —</p><p>On living in the present life without anxiety about food that comes without labor.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON 2 TIMOTHY</i></p><p><b>Pelagius</b>: Either \"with many persons present I gave you mandates such as you should teach,\" or \"what I said I have confirmed with many examples and testimonies from the prophets.\"<br/><i>— PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Now what is this commandment, and what is this charge? From the preceding and the succeeding contexts, it will be manifest that there is no mysterious hint darkly suggested in this expression about some far-fetched doctrine. A warning is rather being given against receiving any other doctrine than that which Timothy had heard from Paul, as I take it, publicly: \"Before many witnesses\" is his phrase.<br/><i>— ON PRESCRIPTION AGAINST HERETICS 25</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: What is this deposit? Is it so secret as to be supposed to characterize a new doctrine? or is it a part of that charge of which he says, \"This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy? \" and also of that precept of which he says, \"I charge thee in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus Christ who witnessed a good confession under Pontius Pilate, that thou keep this commandment? \" Now, what is (this) commandment and what is (this) charge? From the preceding and the succeeding contexts, it will be manifest that there is no mysterious hint darkly suggested in this expression about (some) far-fetched doctrine, but that a warning is rather given against receiving any other (doctrine) than that which Timothy had heard from himself, as I take it publicly: \"Before many witnesses\" is his phrase. Now, if they refuse to allow that the church is meant by these \"many witnesses,\" it matters nothing, since nothing could have been secret which was produced \"before many witnesses.<br/><i>— The Prescription Against Heretics</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Nor, again, must the circumstance of his having wished him to \"commit these things to faithful men, who should be able to teach others also,\" be construed into a proof of there being some occult gospel.<br/><i>— The Prescription Against Heretics</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"95aa6b696ea45af9ef8302bc2a89cd5c2e5950e10a64be185bbd10c85dc91842","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":2360,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"ac98bf9db72668829ba391bdb5ceeb966bf9eff4d1e7f98c1ebc28e4f524dc5f","translator":null,"work":null}