Ante-Nicene Volume 1

Ignatius, A.D. 30 - 107

... From his power Jesus Christ will deliver you, who has founded you upon the rock, as being chosen stones, well fitted for the divine edifice of the Father ... .
The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians, chapter IX (longer version)

... This was first fulfilled in Syria; for "the disciples were called Christians at Antioch," when Paul and Peter were laying the foundations of the Church....
The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians, chapter X:

... through the Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His own will, has firmly established His Church upon a rock, by a spiritual building, not made with hands, against which the winds and the floods have beaten, yet have not been able to overthrow it ... .
The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians, The Salutation (longer version)

... The Comforter is holy, and the Word is holy, the Son of the Father, by whom He made all things, and exercises a providence over them all. This is the Way which leads to the Father, the Rock, the Defence, the Key, the Shepherd, the Sacrifice, the Door of knowledge ... .
The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians, Chapter IX (longer version)

Epistle of Barnabas, A.D. 100

... And again the prophet says, "Since as a mighty stone He is laid for crushing, behold I cast down for the foundations of Zion a stone, precious, elect, a cornerstone, honourable." Next, what says He? "And he who shall trust in it shall live for ever." Is our hope, then, upon a stone? Far from it. But [the language is used] inasmuch as He laid his flesh [as a foundation] with power; for He says, "And He placed me as a firm rock." And the prophet says again, "The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner."...
The Epistle of Barnabas, Chapter VI

Justin Martyr, A.D. 110 - 165

... For Christ is King, and Priest, and God, and Lord, and angel, and man, and captain, and stone, and a Son born ... .
Dialogue of Justin, Chapter XXXIV

Then he replied, "Let these things be so as you say—namely, that it was foretold Christ would suffer, and be called a stone ... ."
Dialogue of Justin, Chapter XXXVI

... For [Christ] called one of His disciples—previously known by the name of Simon—Peter; since he recognised Him to be Christ the Son. of God, by the revelation of His Father ... .
Dialogue of Justin, Chapter C

... For I have shown that Christ was proclaimed by the prophets in parables a Stone and a Rock....
Dialogue of Justin, Chapter CXIII

... And our hearts are thus circumcised from evil, so that we are happy to die for the name of the good Rock, which causes living water to burst forth for the hearts of those who by Him have loved the Father of all, and which gives those who are willing to drink of the water of life....
Dialogue of Justin, Chapter CXIV

"But if you knew, Trypho," continued I, "who He is that is called at one time the Angel of great counsel, and a Man by Ezekiel, and like the Son of man by Daniel, and a Child by Isaiah, and Christ and God to be worshipped by David, and Christ and a Stone by many, and Wisdom by Solomon, and Joseph and Judah and a Star by Moses, and the East by Zechariah, and the Suffering One and Jacob and Israel by Isaiah again, and a Rod, and Flower, and Corner-Stone, and Son of God, you would not have blasphemed Him who has now come, and been born, and suffered, and ascended to heaven ... ."
Dialogue of Justin, Chapter CXXVI

Irenaeus, A.D. 120 - 202

... Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church....
Against Heresies, Book III, Chapter I, § 1

2. Since, however, it would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the successions of all the Churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; [we do this, I say,] by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its pre-eminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as the apostolical tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere.
{see here the note of the Edinburg Editors.}
Against Heresies, Book III, Chapter III, § 2

The Lord Himself, too, makes it evident who it was that suffered; for when He asked the disciples, "Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" and when Peter had replied, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God;" and when he had been commended by Him [in these words], "That flesh and blood had not revealed it to him, but the Father who is in heaven," He made it clear that He, the Son of man, is Christ the Son of the living God. "For from that time forth," it is said, "He began to show to His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the priests, and be rejected, and crucified, and rise again the third day." He who was acknowledged by Peter as Christ, who pronounced him blessed because the Father had revealed the Son of the living God to him, said that He must Himself suffer many things, and be crucified; and then He rebuked Peter, who imagined that He was the Christ as the generality of men supposed [that the Christ should be], and was averse to the idea of His suffering ... .
Against Heresies, Book III, Chapter XVIII, § 4

Alienated thus from the truth, they do deservedly wallow in all error, tossed to and fro by it, thinking differently in regard to the same things at different times, and never attaining to a well-grounded knowledge, being more anxious to be sophists of words than disciples of the truth. For they have not been founded upon the one rock, but upon the sand ... .
Against Heresies, Book III, Chapter XXIV, § 2

... as also Paul says: "For they drank of the rock which followed them: and the rock was Christ."...
Against Heresies, Book IV, Chapter XIV, § 3

The sacred books acknowledge with regard to Christ, that as He is the Son of man, so is the same Being not a [mere] man; and as He is flesh, so is He also spirit, and the Word of God, and God. And as He was born of Mary in the last times, so did He also proceed from God as the First-begotten of every creature; and as He hungered, so did He satisfy [others]; and as He thirsted, so did He of old cause the Jews to drink, for the "Rock was Christ" Himself: thus does Jesus now give to His believing people power to drink spiritual waters, which spring up to life eternal....
Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus, Fragment LII


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