Early Christian Quotes on Marriage and Divorce

The Shepherd of Hermas 

(1st or 2nd Century)

Commandment 4, Chapter 1:

 

I said to the angel, "Sir, if anyone has a wife who trusts in the Lord, and if he suspects she has been unfaithful, does the man sin if he continues to live with her?"

 

And he said to me, "As long as he remains ignorant of her sin, the husband commits no transgression in living with her. If the husband knows his wife has been unfaithful, and if the woman does not repent but persists in her sexual relations outside her marriage, and the husband continues to live with her, then he is also guilty of her crime and has a sharer in her adultery."

 

And I said to him, "What then, sir, is the husband to do if his wife continues in her unholy practices?"

 

And he said, "The husband should divorce her and remain by himself. But if he divorces his wife and marries another, he also commits adultery."

 

And I said to him, "What if the divorced woman repents and wants to return to her husband: will she not be taken back by her husband?"

 

And he said to me, "Surely. If the husband does not take her back, he sins and brings a great sin upon himself; for he ought to take back the sinner who has repented. But not many times; for there is but one repentance to the servants of God. The husband should not remarry, in the event that the divorced wife repents. In this matter, man and woman are to be treated exactly the same. Also, adultery is committed not only by those who pollute their flesh, but by those who imitate the heathen in their actions. So, if anyone continues in adulterous affairs and does not repent, remove yourself from them and do not live with them. Otherwise, you are a sharer in their sin.”

 

 

Athenagoras’ Plea for the Christians

(Late 2nd Century)

Chapter 33:

 

Having the hope of eternal life, we despise the things of this life, even turning away from the desires of the soul, each of us accounting for the wife he has married, according to the laws laid down by us, and only for the purpose of having children. For as the husbandman throwing the seed into the ground awaits the harvest, not sowing more than necessary upon it, so to us, the procreation of children is the limit of our indulgence in the sexual appetite.

 

In fact, you would find many among us, both men and women, growing old and unmarried in the hope of living in closer communion with God. But if the remaining in virginity and in the state of a eunuch brings us nearer to God, while the indulgence of carnal thought and desire leads away from Him, in those cases in which we shun the thoughts, much more do we reject the deeds. For we do not give our attention to the study of words, but on the demonstrating and teaching of actions--that a person should either remain as he was born or be content with one marriage; for a second marriage is nothing more than adultery. "For whosoever puts away his wife," says He, "and marries another, commits adultery." He does not permit a man to send away a woman if he has taken her virginity, nor does He allows him to marry again. For he who deprives himself of his first wife, even though she be dead, is a disguised adulterer if he marries again. He is resisting the hand of God, because in the beginning, God made one man and one woman.

 

 

Clement of Alexandria’s Miscellanies, Book 2

(Early 3rd Century)

Chapter 13, Paragraphs 2-3:

 

We ask if we ought to marry; which is one of the points we consider relative. For some must marry, and a man must be in some condition, and he must marry someone in some condition. For every one is not to marry, nor always. But there is a time in which it is suitable. And there is a person for whom it is suitable. And there is an age up to which it is suitable. Neither should everyone take a wife, nor is every woman suitable to take. But only he who is in certain circumstances should marry, and such a one and at such time as is necessary, and for the sake of children. And the woman should be in a similar situation and should be not forced or compelled to love the husband who loves her…

 

But those who approve of marriage say, “Nature has adapted us for marriage, as is evident from the structure of our bodies, which are male and female.” And they constantly proclaim that command, "Increase and replenish."…By all means, we must marry, both for our country's sake and for the succession of children…But it is the diseases of the body that principally show marriage to be necessary. For a wife's care and her loyal efforts appear to exceed the endurance of all other relations and friends, excelling in compassion; and most of all, she takes kindly to patient watching. And in truth, according to Scripture, she is a necessary help.

 

Early Christian Quotes on Worship

 

 

Justin Martyr’s First Apology 

(Mid-2nd Century)

Chapter 67:

 

On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read for as long as time permits. Then, when the reader has finished, the president verbally instructs and encourages the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and when our prayer is over, we share bread and wine and water, and the president offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen. There is a distribution to each and participation of the elements. A portion is sent by the deacons to those who are absent.

 

And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit. What is collected is deposited with the president, who helps the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in need. A portion is given to those in prison and the strangers staying among us. This takes care of all who are in need.

 

But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly because it is the first day on which God, having made a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ, our Savior, rose from the dead on the same day. He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday). On the day after that of Saturn (Saturday), which is the day of the Sun (Sunday), He appeared to His apostles and disciples.

 

 

Fragments of Irenaeus

(Late 2nd Century)

Paragraph 7:

 

The custom of not kneeling on Sunday is a symbol of the resurrection, through which we have been set free from sins and death. This was done by the grace of Christ, who put our sins to death. This custom gained popularity in the days of the apostles, as the blessed Irenaeus, the martyr and bishop of Lyons, declares in his essay On Easter, in which he makes mention of Pentecost. He mentions the feast, during which we do not kneel, because it is of equal significance with the Lord's day.

 

Early Christian Quotes on Conscience

Justin Martyr’s Dialog with Trypho (Mid-2nd Century) Chapter 93:

For [God] sets before every race of mankind that which is always and universally just, as well as all righteousness; and every race knows that adultery, and fornication, and homicide, and such like, are sinful; and though they all commit such practices, yet they do not escape from the knowledge that they act unrighteously whenever they so do, with the exception of those who are possessed with an unclean spirit, and who have been debased by education, by wicked customs, and by sinful institutions, and who have lost, or rather quenched and put under, their natural ideas. For we may see that such persons are unwilling to submit to the same things which they inflict upon others, and reproach each other with hostile consciences for the acts which they perpetrate.

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Early Christian Quotes on the Trinity

Odes of Solomon 

(1st or 2nd Century)

19:1-2:

 

A cup of milk was offered to me, and I drank it in the sweetness of the Lord's kindness. The Son is the cup, and the Father is He who was milked, and the Holy Spirit is She who milked Him.

 

 

Justin Martyr’s Dialog with Trypho

(Mid-2nd Century)

Chapter 61:

 

God begat a Beginning before all creatures. This Beginning was an intelligent power proceeding from Himself. This Beginning is sometimes called the Holy Spirit, or the Glory of the Lord, or the Son, or Wisdom, or an Angel, or God, or Lord and Logos. And on another occasion, He called Himself Captain, when He appeared in human form to Joshua, the son of Nun.

 

For He can be called by all those names since He carries out the Father's will and is begotten of the Father by an act of will. It’s like what happens with us. When we speak a word, we beget the word without causing any loss in ourselves. Or take fire for an example. The first fire is not reduced when we use it to kindle another fire. And that second fire exists separately from the first.

 

 

Hippolytus’ Against the Heresy of One Noetus

(Early 3rd Century)

Paragraph 11:

 

There appeared another beside Himself. But when I say another, I do not mean that there are two Gods, but that it is only as light from light, or as water from a fountain, or as a ray from the sun.

 

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Find more of what the early Christians thought on my Christian History page!