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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