Category: Ante-Nicene Fathers

Quotes from Church Fathers prior to the Council of Nicea in 325

Jesus — the constant source of our life

For as one who has been thought worthy of the most honorable of all names, in those bonds which I bear about, I commend the Churches, in which I pray for a union both of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, the constant source of our life, and of faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred, but especially of Jesus and the Father, in whom, if we endure all the assaults of the prince of this world, and escape them, we shall enjoy God.

Ignatius of Antioch
Epistle to the Magnesians
Chapter I

Eucharist—the medicine of immortality

Especially will I do this if the Lord make known to me that you come together man by man in common through grace, individually, in one faith, and in Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David according ot the flesh, being both the Son of man and the Son of God, so that you obey the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking on and the same bread, which is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying, but which causes that we should live forever in Jesus Christ.

Ignatius of Antioch
Epistle to the Ephesians
Chapter XX

God manifested in human form

Hence every kind of magic was destroyed, and every bond of wickedness disappeared; ignorance was removed, and the old kingdom abolished, God Himself being manifested in human form for the renewal of eternal life. And now that took a beginning which had been prepared by God. Henceforth all things were in a state of tumult, because He mediated the abolition of death.

Ignatius of Antioch
Epistle to the Ephesians
Chapter XIX

Begotten before time

For the Son of God, who was begotten before time began, and established all things according to the will of the Father, He was conceived in the womb of Mary, according to the appointment of God, of the seed of David and by the Holy Spirit.

Ignatius of Antioch
Epistle to the Ephesians
Chapter XVIII

Our God Jesus Christ was conceived

For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment of God, conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Spirit. He was born and baptized, that by His passion He might purify the water.

Ignatius of Antioch
Epistle to the Ephesians
Chapter XVIII

He is in us as God

Let us therefore do all things as those who have Him dwelling in us, that we may be His temples, and He may be in us as God. Let Christ speak in us, even as He did in Paul. Let the Holy Spirit teach us to speak the things of Christ in like manner as He did.

Ignatius of Antioch
Epistle to the Ephesians
Chapter XV

Paul and the saints pray for us

You are initiated into the mysteries of the Gospel with Paul, the holy, the martyred, inasmuch as he was “a chosen vessel;” at whose feet may I be found, and at the feet of the rest of the saints, when I shall attain to Jesus Christ, who is always mindful of you in His prayers.

Ignatius of Antioch
Epistle to the Ephesians
Chapter XII

Trinitarian Illustration

…being stones of the temple of the Father, prepared for the building of God the Father, and drawn up on high by the instrument of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, making use of the Holy Spirit as a rope, while your faith was the means by which you ascended, and your love the way which led up to God.

Ignatius of Antioch
Epistle to the Ephesians
Chapter IX