Repentance in the early church

Turning from sin to God, its necessity, and whether and how it is possible after baptism. Part of Salvation.

Didache 4.14Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Confess your sins in the assembly and pray with a clean conscience.
1 Clement 7.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Christ's precious blood won the grace of repentance for the world.
1 Clement 7.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God has always given opportunity to repent.
1 Clement 7.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Noah preached repentance.
1 Clement 7.7Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The Ninevites repented and were saved.
1 Clement 8.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The prophets spoke of repentance by the Spirit.
1 Clement 8.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God swore that he desires repentance, not death.
1 Clement 8.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God promises to hear all who turn to him, however great their sins.
1 Clement 8.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Isaiah's call to repentance: though your sins are scarlet, they will be white as snow.
1 Clement 8.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God wills all his beloved to repent.
1 Clement 18.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · David's prayer of repentance (Psalm 51) begins.
1 Clement 18.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Wash me from my sin.”
1 Clement 18.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Against you only have I sinned.”
1 Clement 18.17Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God accepts a broken and contrite heart.
1 Clement 48.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Repent quickly and seek God's mercy.
1 Clement 48.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Repentance is a gate to life.
1 Clement 52.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God needs nothing but our confession.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.2.2 (30.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Repentance itself is great understanding.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.3.1 (31.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Some teachers say there is no repentance after baptism.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.3.5 (31.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · In mercy God appointed this repentance, entrusted to the Shepherd.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.3.6 (31.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · After baptism there is one repentance; repeated sin and repentance is of no use.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 12.3.3 (46.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas is given the ministry of calling to repentance.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 6.1.3 (61.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Repentance is vain without keeping the commandments.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 6.2.3 (62.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Those who blaspheme God are given to death, without repentance.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 6.2.4 (62.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Those corrupted but not blasphemous can still repent.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 7.4 (66.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Repentance must be proved by humility and endurance of affliction.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.3.5 (69.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Transgressors are left to the Shepherd for repentance.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.6.1 (72.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Many have repented, showing God's great compassion.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.6.2 (72.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Repentance is given to the sincere, not to the hypocrites.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.6.3 (72.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas asks for the meaning, so that those who broke their baptismal seal may repent.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.6.6 (72.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Repentance brings life; refusing it brings death.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.7.2 (73.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Doubting slanderers may still repent.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.7.3 (73.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Quick repentance leads to the tower, slower to the walls.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.8.3 (74.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The doubters may still repent.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.11.1 (77.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Tell everyone to repent; God, being patient, wills all the called to be saved.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.11.3 (77.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The wholehearted penitent are healed; those who keep sinning condemn themselves.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.14.1 (91.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Can they return if they repent?
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.14.2 (91.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · They may return if they repent; the building paused to give them time.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.19.3 (96.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · They did not blaspheme or betray, so they may repent, though they will be punished.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.26.6 (103.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Repentance is offered for past denials, not for those who deny now.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.26.8 (103.8)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Slanderers can still be saved by repentance.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.32.1 (109.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Repent while the tower is being built.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.33.1 (110.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The Shepherd's message: repent and live.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 2.2.5 (6.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · For believers there is a limited time for repentance; for the Gentiles, until the last day.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.5.5 (13.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Rejected stones near the tower are sinners who may still repent while the tower is being built.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.7.5 (15.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The rejected stones can repent, but will not fit into this tower.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.13.4 (21.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Those who fully repent will be young again; the revelation is complete.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 5.7 (25.7)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Keeping the commandments brings God's promises; the Shepherd is the angel of repentance.
2 Clement 8.1Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Repent while on earth.
2 Clement 8.2Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Like clay before firing, we can still be reshaped: repent now.
2 Clement 8.3Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · After death there is no more repentance.
2 Clement 9.8Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The repayment God wants is sincere repentance.
2 Clement 13.1Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Repent, and live so that outsiders do not blaspheme God's name.
2 Clement 16.1Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · While there is time, turn back to God who receives us.
2 Clement 19.1Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The preacher reads an appeal after the scripture reading: repent with the whole heart.
To the Philadelphians 8.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · God forgives those who repent and return to the church's unity.
To the Smyrnaeans 4.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Avoid the false teachers entirely, but pray for their repentance.
To the Philippians 11.4Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Polycarp prays that Valens and his wife repent and urges the church to restore them as straying members rather than treat them as enemies.
Acts of John 54Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John rebukes the young man's self-mutilation and accepts his repentance; the Smyrnaeans invite John; and John answers a priest who scorned him for watching a partridge.
Dialogue with Trypho 47.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Apostates to the law and unbelieving Jews who curse Christians will not be saved without repentance.
Dialogue with Trypho 95.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Repentance brings forgiveness even to those who killed Christ.
Dialogue with Trypho 107.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Nineveh repented at Jonah's preaching.
Dialogue with Trypho 108.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ offered the sign of Jonah so that Israel might repent.
Dialogue with Trypho 141.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · God foresees but does not cause sin; forgiveness comes through repentance, not mere knowledge of God.
Dialogue with Trypho 141.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Even David was forgiven only after repentance.
Diatessaron, section 26Tatian · ca. 160-180
To Autolycus 3.11Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · God sent the prophets to call Israel to repentance; Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah show that God desires the sinner's return, not his death.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 3Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Paul celebrates a eucharist of bread and water, an adulteress is struck down, he exhorts the new believers, prays, and is escorted to the harbour to sail for Spain.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 10Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Marcellus repents of following Simon, who had mocked Peter's doubt on the water, and Peter prays for his restoration.
Fragment 12Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd–early 3rd century · Sayings ascribed to Clement on prompt repentance, on the instability of a soul that alternates between mourning and pleasure, on flattery and true praise, on moderation, on reproof and knowledge, and on doing good rather than merely avoiding evil.
The Instructor 1.2.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Moses's law of the Nazirite, read allegorically, teaches quick repentance for sin; the prophets' “therefore thus says the Lord” shows that judgment follows sin.
The Instructor 1.8.70Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · God seeks repentance even in his threats; he punishes to correct, but does not seek vengeance, since he teaches us to pray for our enemies.
The Instructor 1.9.81Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Ridicule and indignation also serve the Instructor's purpose: his use of fear is a spring of salvation, and mercy and reproof go together, calling sinners to repentance.
The Instructor 1.10.93Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · God's justice calls to repentance; Clement sets aside the Stoic argument that only the perfect deserve praise, since some deny that the Blessed One is concerned with anyone at all.
Exhortation to the Greeks 10.93Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Let us repent and desert to God; the inheritance of those who serve the Lord is a treasure no moth or thief can touch.
Exhortation to the Greeks 10.99Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Ignorance breeds idolatry; wash in the water of the Word, recognize your Father, and like the Ninevites repent and be saved.
Against Heresies 3.9.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Matthew shows that John the Baptist preached the God of Abraham, who sent his Word incarnate to be seen by all flesh.
Against Heresies 3.23.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Adam, unlike Cain, feared God and showed repentance by his rough covering of fig leaves, and God had mercy on him.
Against Heresies 4.27.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · An elder taught that the Scriptures’ own rebukes suffice for the sins of the ancients, such as David’s with Bathsheba and Solomon’s idolatry in old age.
Against Heresies 4.41.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As disobedient sons are disinherited, so those who disobey God cease to be his sons and are called by the names of beasts, of Sodom, and of the devil, though they could repent.
4Anonymous · ca. 180–185 · Apollonius distinguishes true repentance from apostasy.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 38.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Whoever grows in love and repents sincerely can repair past sins.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 39.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · who has no place in heaven; and one who has sinned after baptism, through ignorance or weakness, should not think God has condemned him forever.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 39.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The Father gladly receives every truly repentant son; true repentance means uprooting the sins one has condemned in oneself.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 39.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · There is great joy in heaven over one repentant sinner.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 40.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · God forgives past sins; future ones each person must avoid; repentance is condemning past deeds and asking the Father, who alone can undo them, for forgiveness.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 40.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The end is decisive: a good life that ends in vice is wasted, while a bad life can be redeemed by later repentance.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 40.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Repentance means abandoning each sin, restoring what was stolen, and curbing the passions, so as to be reconciled before one's death.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.15Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · John assured him of Christ's forgiveness, kissed his right hand, and restored him to the church through prayer, fasting, and teaching: an example of true repentance.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.18Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Whoever repents now will not regret it at death or fear the judgment; whoever refuses forgiveness has only himself to blame.
Miscellanies 2.13.56Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Those forgiven must sin no more; the first repentance cleanses the life of ignorance; but the Lord foresaw human weakness and the devil's jealous schemes against the forgiven.
Miscellanies 2.13.57Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God in mercy allows one second repentance after baptism for those overcome by temptation; but repeated repentance followed by the same sins is no better than unbelief, since such a person sins knowingly.
Miscellanies 2.13.58Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Converts receive forgiveness once in baptism; one who sins afterward and repents may be pardoned but should feel shame, since there is no second washing; the reborn must abandon their old works, not repent of the same sin again and again.
Miscellanies 2.13.59Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Repeated requests for pardon for repeated sins are only a show of repentance; Scripture blesses those who fear the Lord; passions are excessive impulses disobedient to reason, and since obedience is in our power, voluntary acts are judged.
Miscellanies 2.15.70Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Greek maxims such as “Follow God,” “Pardon is better than punishment,” and “Give a pledge and ruin is at hand” come from Scripture; Enoch after Cain shows that repentance brings pardon, understood as healing; “Know yourself” means seeing God in one's brother.
Miscellanies 4.21.131Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The perfect Christian relies on God's power, enduring affliction and persecution without despair, commending himself to God by patience, purity, knowledge, and love, cleansing himself and perfecting holiness; godly grief leads to repentance and salvation.
Miscellanies 6.12.97Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Man was made in God's image for incorruption, and the knower strives toward perfection; he is pure even in speech, understands the nature of sin itself, and so has the higher repentance that prevents sin rather than follows it.
On Baptism 10Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · John's baptism was divine in commission but human in nature: a baptism of repentance preparing for the forgiveness and gift of the Spirit that come only through Christ.
On Baptism 20Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Candidates should prepare for baptism with prayer, fasting, vigils, and confession of sins; after baptism they should pray for spiritual gifts and remember Tertullian in their prayers.
On Repentance 1Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Pagans know repentance only as a natural feeling of regret, without reason, and so they even repent of their good deeds.
On Repentance 2Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · God himself instituted repentance after Adam's fall, calling Israel to it through the prophets and John the Baptist, so that the heart might be cleansed for salvation; it belongs to sins only, never to good deeds.
On Repentance 3Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Sins are both bodily and spiritual, of deed and of will; body and soul share guilt and need repentance alike, and Christ taught that sinful desire is itself sin.
On Repentance 4Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · God promises pardon to all who repent and even swears to it; the sinner should cling to repentance like a plank in a shipwreck, obeying because God commands.
On Repentance 5Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Repentance once made must not be undone by returning to sin: this is contempt and ingratitude toward God and a triumph for the devil; nor may anyone claim that inward fear of God excuses outward sin.
On Repentance 6Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Catechumens must not put off repentance, presuming on baptism to wash away sins committed meanwhile; true repentance must come before baptism, which seals a faith already changed.
On Repentance 7Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · After baptism, God has left open one further repentance for grave sin, but only once; the sinner should not abuse it, nor despair, but gratefully accept the remedy.
On Repentance 8Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The letters to the seven churches, the prophets, and the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son show that God welcomes the sinner who repents and confesses.
On Repentance 9Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The second repentance must be shown outwardly in exomologesis, public confession with sackcloth, ashes, fasting, weeping, and kneeling before the presbyters and the faithful, through which God pardons.
On Repentance 10Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Many avoid public penance out of shame, but among fellow Christians the sinner is before Christ himself, who prays for him; hiding sin from men does not hide it from God.
On Repentance 11Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Tertullian mocks those who shrink from the discomforts of penance, comparing them to candidates for office who endure worse for a single year's honor.
On Repentance 12Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The fires of volcanoes foreshadow Gehenna; since exomologesis is the second remedy after baptism, the sinner should use it, like Nebuchadnezzar, and not reject it, like Pharaoh.
Acts of Thomas 58Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The raised woman begs to be spared the punishments; Thomas warns the crowd that worse punishments await unless they turn to God, who forgives and cleanses.
Didascalia 2.13 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.14 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.14 (Latin)Anonymous · first half of the third century · A long quotation of Ezekiel 18: each person lives or dies by his own righteousness or iniquity, and God desires the wicked to turn and live.
Didascalia 2.15 (Latin)Anonymous · first half of the third century · The quotation of Ezekiel 18 ends with God's call to turn and live, and the author points to God's mercy.
Didascalia 2.15 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.16Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.23 (Latin)Anonymous · first half of the third century · Manasseh's prayer is heard and he is restored, showing that even idolatry may be forgiven to the penitent, whereas Amon, who sinned counting on later repentance, was swiftly destroyed.
Didascalia 2.39Anonymous · first half of the third century
Arabic Pentateuch fragment XVI (on Num 5:5–7; 11–28. 6)Hippolytus of Rome · unknown (transmitted in a medieval Arabic catena) · Hippolytus is cited on Num 5–6: the law of restitution teaches confession and repentance, the ordeal of the suspected wife figures the testing of the pure and impure soul, and the Nazirite vow teaches the guarding of soul and faith.
Arabic Pentateuch fragment XXIHippolytus of Rome · unknown (transmitted in a medieval Arabic catena) · The catena reads the three cities of refuge as a figure of the Holy Trinity, and recounts legends of how the land east of the Jordan passed from people to people until Israel took it from Sihon.
Pistis Sophia 33Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 35Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 36Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 37Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 38Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 39Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 41Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 44Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 46Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 47Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 57Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 104Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 105Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 106Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 118Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 119Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 120Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 121Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 122Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 123Anonymous · 3rd century
Commentary on Daniel 3.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Nebuchadnezzar's boasting did not save him; Daniel, like a good physician, counselled him with tears, his face changing between fear and angelic glory, and gave him hope that his kingdom would be restored.
Against Marcion 2.17Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The Creator's judgments serve his goodness: he sends rain on good and evil, spares the repentant (Nineveh, Hezekiah, David), and gave laws of justice and kindness long before any pagan lawgiver.
Against Marcion 4.18Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The centurion's faith, the raising of the widow's son, John the Baptist's question, and the sinful woman who anointed Jesus all show that Christ belonged to the Creator and had a real body.
Against Marcion 4.32Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin fit only the Creator, to whom man belongs and who long ago said he prefers a sinner's repentance to his death.
On Fasting 7Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Examples from Israel, Hezekiah, Nineveh, Ahab, Hannah, and Daniel show fasting reconciling God, averting danger, and winning knowledge of mysteries.
On Modesty 2Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Against appeals to God's mercy, Tertullian sets God's justice and Scripture's warnings, and distinguishes remissible sins from irremissible ones, the “sins unto death.”
On Modesty 10Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Repentance belongs above all to the heathen; Tertullian rejects the idea of a second repentance for adulterers and the Shepherd of Hermas, which teaches it, in favor of John's call to amended life.
On Modesty 13Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Tertullian argues that 2 Corinthians 2 does not pardon the incestuous man of 1 Corinthians 5, mocks the public penance of adulterers in the bishop's church, and reads “destruction of the flesh” as final exclusion.
On Modesty 18Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Old Testament and apostolic texts forbid communion with the sexually immoral without any time limit; God's mercy to the repentant applies to those before baptism, while after baptism only lighter sins can be pardoned by the bishop and graver ones by God alone.
On Modesty 20Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Hebrews, which Tertullian ascribes to Barnabas, denies a second repentance, and the laws of the leper, the leprous house, and the betrothed slave woman prefigure that relapse after baptism cannot be cleansed.
Fragments on Genesis, column 103Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Gen 5–6: Adam's form and image; Enoch's repentance; man made in God's image is not wiped out altogether; years before pleasing God are not counted.
Fragments on Luke, column 337Origen · ca. 220-254 · The swine and the anointing woman picture stages of the soul's healing, and Jairus's daughter and the bleeding woman stand for the synagogue and the church of the nations.
Fragments on Proverbs, column 241Origen · ca. 220-254 · God's law, unlike the lawless law of the demons, gives life and freedom from passion; temptations sown by the evil one should be confessed to God or a God-loving person; vices are the revenues of the evil king.
PG 12:1105 (Ps 2 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The first verses of Psalm 2 are the angels’ words and the reply is the Son’s, who breaks the bonds of sin; God speaks in wrath to bring sinners to repentance, as at Nineveh; anger and wrath are distinguished.
PG 12:1109 (Ps 2 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Christ is the rod for the more beastlike and the flower for those worthy of kindness; the shattering of the nations “like a potter’s vessel” is the beneficial breaking of the proud spirit and heart, as in Psalm 50 (LXX).
PG 12:1271 (Ps 24 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 24 LXX (25):7–18: sins of youth confessed, God’s remembering, law for sinners, and toil that removes sins.
PG 12:1301 (Ps 30–31 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · End of Ps 30 LXX (31):10–24 (lots, deceitful lips, the soul as a walled city breached in David’s sin) and beginning of Ps 31 LXX (32): sins forgiven in baptism and covered by repentance.
PG 12:1441 (Ps 48 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 48 LXX (49):9–12: the toil of repentance rewarded with true life (with Symmachus and Aquila), the death of the worldly wise, and tombs as unclean souls.
PG 12:1451 (Ps 50 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 50 LXX (51):1–12: God’s mercy on a weak nature, baptism surpassing the cleansings of the law, “against you only,” and the pure heart that God alone creates.
PG 12:1493 (Ps 64–65 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · End of Ps 64 LXX (65) (the year of the Lord’s favour after the incarnation, the fruitful desert) and beginning of Ps 65 LXX (66): a shout of resurrection after repentance, and the fearful works of God.
Commentary on John 6.122Origen · ca. 230–248 · Those who come to baptism without repentance are fruitless trees that the living Word will cut down.
Commentary on John 6.134Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Pharisees and Sadducees were rebuked because, unlike the crowds, they did not confess their sins.
Commentary on John 6.140Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Pharisees are told to bear “fruit,” the crowds “fruits,” of repentance.
Commentary on John 6.141Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Pharisees must bear the one fruit of faith in the Son; the crowds must bear all the fruits of repentance.
Commentary on John 6.149Origen · ca. 230–248 · The multitudes confessed their sins at baptism, but those rebuked are not said to have confessed.
Commentary on John 6.165Origen · ca. 230–248 · Only Matthew adds “for repentance,” showing that baptism benefits only those who truly repent.
Commentary on John 10.102Origen · ca. 230–248 · The bitter herbs are godly grief in repentance, or the hardships of seeking truth.
Commentary on John 28.26Origen · ca. 230–248 · The tax collector's downcast eyes suit the penitent, not everyone, just as godly grief must be in proportion.
Commentary on John 28.35Origen · ca. 230–248 · Susanna could look up with boldness; the elders, had they repented, should have prayed like the tax collector.
Commentary on John 28.57Origen · ca. 230–248 · The repentant sinner lives, but is still bound by his past sins.
Commentary on John 32.241Origen · ca. 230–248 · Judas was not wholly evil: a remnant of good led him to repent and return the money, though he then hanged himself.
Commentary on John 32.242Origen · ca. 230–248 · Judas's repentance was not pure; had it been, he would have gone to the Savior like the penitent thief.
Commentary on John 32.243Origen · ca. 230–248 · Had Judas been utterly evil, he would not have repented at all.
Commentary on John 32.244Origen · ca. 230–248 · Returning the money and confessing show that some good remained in Judas.
On Prayer 13.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Every believer can recount answered prayers: barren souls made fruitful, spiritual enemies scattered, temptations passed through unharmed, and sinners rescued from death through repentance.
On Prayer 13.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · The deliverances in Scripture are types of spiritual gifts; Christians should pray not for earthly things but for fruitfulness of soul and deliverance from spiritual enemies.
Homily on Luke 21Origen · ca. 233–250 · Luke dates John’s call by Roman and Jewish rulers because the Gospel was for the nations and for Israel; the desert is the soul without peace, and the way to be prepared for the Lord is the spacious human heart.
Homily on Isaiah 4Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen returns to Isaiah's vision: God's beginning and end are hidden, the seraphim proclaim the threefold holiness, God's glory fills the earth through holy lives, and the burning coal from the altar is Christ's purifying word.
Homily on Isaiah 5Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen calls Christ the living righteousness of Isa 41:2, then returns to Isaiah's vision, urging his hearers to let the “Uzziah” of sin die within them, as the reign of Pharaoh had to end before Israel could cry to God.
Homily on 1 Samuel 1.7Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Eli, “outsider,” is the one who neglects discipline; his sons Hophni and Phinehas are read as warnings against refusing conversion and against priests whose mouths are stopped by ignorance or sin.
Homily on 1 Samuel 1.15Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Sinners excuse themselves and blame others, but the righteous accuse themselves first, as one becomes righteous by repenting and accusing oneself.
Homilies on Exodus 4.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Morally, the plagues are the stages by which the law of God purges a soul living in Egypt, ending with the destruction of its first sinful impulses, unless it persists in unbelief.
Homilies on Exodus 11.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Jethro comes to Moses with his family; only proven athletes can go down into Egypt and grow there, as Abraham and Jacob did, unlike Jeroboam, and sinning before God's face differs from leaving his presence.
Homilies on Ezekiel 5.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Sinners in the Church are punished according to their rank, clergy most of all; and like a vine branch, a believer who bears no fruit is worse than any other wood and is cut off for the fire.
Homilies on Ezekiel 6.7Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Those who sin after baptism are like Jerusalem cast out on the field on the day of her birth, yet God in mercy comes to them again.
Homilies on Ezekiel 10.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · After sin, the second remedy is shame and the humble acceptance of disgrace, as with a deposed cleric who submits instead of causing schism; God restores those who accept his judgment.
Homilies on Joshua 1.7Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The nations of Canaan are the vices within us, which only Jesus can drive out; the hearers are urged to meditate on Scripture, attend church, repent, and receive the second circumcision that removes the reproach of Egypt.
Homilies on Joshua 10.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Church members whose faith never changes their conduct share the Gibeonites’ lot; the law freeing a Hebrew slave in the seventh year urges the baptized who have fallen into sin to hasten back to freedom.
Homilies on Judges 3.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Pride can infect even the clergy; God punishes in measure, and those who repent and cry to him of their own accord are delivered.
Homilies on Judges 3.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Ehud's right-handed deed shows that God sends heavenly powers, as at the exodus and against Sennacherib, to free those who cry to him in tearful repentance.
Homilies on Leviticus 2.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Against the fear that Christians have only one forgiveness (baptism), Origen lists seven remissions of sins in the Gospel (baptism, martyrdom, almsgiving, forgiving others, converting a sinner, love, and penance) and matches them to the Levitical sacrifices.
Homilies on Leviticus 3.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The oath 'to do evil' is the vow to chastise the flesh for the sake of the spirit; the command to 'declare' one's sin means accusing oneself first, before the devil accuses.
Homilies on Leviticus 5.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · An 'offence' is lighter than a 'sin'; the fat offered signifies the grossness within that must be burned away, and the priest's portion is in the sinners he brings to repentance.
Homilies on Leviticus 5.12Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Only the healed may offer the peace offering, by the 'hands' of good works; the priest's portion, the breast and right shoulder, signifies the converted heart and right-handed works of sinners brought back by the priest's labour.
Homilies on Leviticus 8.11Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The repeated 'and he shall be clean' shows stages of purification after sin; the shaving, washing, offerings, and anointing of the cleansed leper signify the penitent's progress to full reconciliation, the oil being the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit.
Homilies on Leviticus 9.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The altar's fire purges the saints, while sinners face the fire of their own kindling; Christ fills his hands with the 'fine compounded incense' of virtues and spiritual understanding offered by believers.
Homilies on Leviticus 12.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ alone fits the description of the great priest: anointed with the oil of gladness, with perfected hands, never laying aside his head, God, and never entering a soul dead in sin.
Homilies on Leviticus 14.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The law gives death to the one who 'names' the Name but only 'sin' to the one who curses God because death in this life purges sin, while unpunished sin is carried to eternal punishment; hence penitents should welcome bodily affliction.
Homilies on Leviticus 15.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The houses are the heavenly dwelling built by fear of God and right living; lighter sins can always be redeemed by repentance, while for graver crimes repentance is granted only once.
Homilies on Leviticus 15.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The priest's and Levite's house, always redeemable, is the perfect soul which, like David, repents at once; the sins of the patriarchs are redeemed by figurative interpretation.
Homilies on Leviticus 16.7Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The 'five' who rout a hundred are the wise teachers who overcome unbelief with the sword of God's word; God's look restores, as with Peter, and the old law gives way to the new, so that God dwells in the renewed heart.
Homilies on Numbers 8.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God's threat after the spies' report shows Moses' intercession and foretells a new people, and the “year for a day” of punishment is explained as the long healing of repeated wounds of the soul, which repentance shortens.
Homilies on Numbers 16.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Discussing whether God always does what he says, Origen examines Jonah’s preaching to Nineveh and Gad’s message to David, distinguishes God’s words from a prophet’s (as with Moses’ permission of divorce), and finally prefers Jeremiah’s teaching that God relents.
Homilies on Numbers 23.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The offerings God commands are his own gifts returned to him; God’s true feast days are the conversions of sinners, in which the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the angels rejoice, while sin brings mourning, though such language about God is figurative, since the divine nature is impassible.
Homilies on Numbers 25.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Twelve thousand repentant Israelites defeat the Midianites who had earlier overcome a far larger sinful Israel, showing that righteousness, prayer, and repentance conquer; the death of Balaam confirms that his counsel caused Israel’s fall.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 1.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · “Reveal your way to the Lord”: the sinner hides his way, but whoever confesses his sins to the Lord may hope for pardon and healing, and the pure reveal their way to God, not to men.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 4.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The righteous may fall but are not laid prostrate, for they repent, like Peter and David, while those who despair after sin are; Origen urges sinners to rise and do penance, and compares Christians to athletes, some crowned even as boys, like Daniel, Jeremiah, Jacob, and the Holy Innocents.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 6.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · As God gave medicines for the body, he gave Scripture as medicine for the soul, with Christ as chief physician and the Church’s ministers as physicians; Psalm 37 (38) teaches the sinner to accept rebuke from teachers, angels, and the law rather than God’s own anger, to let the arrows of God’s word pierce him to repentance, and to let the mind of the flesh be put to death.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 6.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Unlike those who forget their sins, the penitent keeps his sins before him, and, recognizing the “face” of each, has no peace in his bones until he repents.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 6.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Only the penitent, who has come to loathe his sins, feels them as a burden over his head and smells their stench, like one who has ceased to be a swine wallowing in dung.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 6.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The penitent is bowed down by his sins like the tax collector and mourns them; sins of the flesh are the devil’s strength “in the loins”; the one who falls from the Church after enlightenment is like a rich man exiled to a barren island, groaning before God.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 7.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The penitent who confesses his sins openly is abandoned and mocked by friends who think themselves clean, but he should not fear them; it is better to accuse oneself before God, who sees all, and to repay with good those who seek one’s harm.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 7.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The righteous man is one who accuses himself by confession rather than waiting for the devil to accuse him, and who, when slandered, turns a deaf ear rather than seeking revenge.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 7.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Confession relieves the soul as vomiting relieves the stomach; one should choose a wise and merciful “physician” to confess to, who will judge whether public confession before the Church is needed; and no one should approach the Eucharist carelessly while conscious of sin.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 8.7Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The word of God should kindle a fire in the meditation of the one who studies it, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus, Jeremiah, and the apostles at Pentecost, burning away sin through repentance and then becoming a light.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 9.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God forgives in the measure of one’s conversion and penance: complete penance washes away every sin, partial penance obtains partial absolution; the prophet asks boldly to be delivered from all his iniquities.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 9.7Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God’s scourges are outward afflictions and the inward scourges of conscience, which are a sign that conversion is near; yet even these must have measure, lest the sinner be overwhelmed by sorrow.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 9.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Sin makes the soul coarse and fleshly, virtue makes it fine; God’s rebukes thin it “like a spider,” and those who will not be amended by the rod of correction in this life will be refined in the fire, like the flesh in Ezekiel’s cauldron.
Homilies on Jeremiah 1.3Origen · ca. 240 · God kept sending Jeremiah right up to the captivity so that people might still repent; so too sinners today are handed over to Satan, the spiritual Nebuchadnezzar.
Homilies on Jeremiah 1.4Origen · ca. 240 · Sin hands us over to spiritual captivity, but all of Scripture calls us to repent, and God promises to relent if we do.
Homilies on Jeremiah 1.16Origen · ca. 240 · God's word first uproots and demolishes sin and then builds and plants, just as “I will kill and make alive” describes conversion, not cruelty, as the heretics claim.
Homilies on Jeremiah 4.6Origen · ca. 240 · Judah turned back to God only half-heartedly; true conversion means reading the Old and New Testaments, imitating the righteous, and living by what we read.
Homilies on Jeremiah 5.5Origen · ca. 240 · Shame for past sins is the beginning of good; those who boast of their immoralities cannot be freed from them until they are ashamed.
Homilies on Jeremiah 5.10Origen · ca. 240 · “We have sinned” is the confession of those who have stopped sinning; conversion takes time, like the healing of a wound.
Homilies on Jeremiah 13.2Origen · ca. 240 · The soul that has become “Jerusalem” by conversion but then falls into grave sin or apostasy does to Christ spiritually what Jerusalem did to him bodily, and must fear that no one will intercede for it.
Homilies on Jeremiah 18.8Origen · ca. 240 · Christians who return to their old sins after conversion say in deed what Judah said in word, “we will go after our turnings away”; the “horrible things” done by Israel are the killing of Christ, to whom the nations turned.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.6Origen · ca. 240 · Laughter is a promise for those who weep now, as Isaac's name shows; a preacher's bitter words, which move sinners to weep for their sins, end in the laughter of the blessed.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.8Origen · ca. 240 · Jeremiah's resolve to stop prophesying was a sin, at once burned away by God's word like fire in his heart; that inner fire of repentance, which Christ kindles, is better than any punishment, and the sinner who grieves long over his sin has hope, unlike the one who does not care.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 2.124Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The 'skins of Solomon' are the goat-hair coverings of the tabernacle, black yet adorning it, or the coverings of the heavenly tabernacle; the one bride is the many churches, or the repentant soul.
Against Celsus 2.11Origen · ca. 248 · Only one disciple, Judas, betrayed Jesus, and even he was not wholly lost to Jesus' teaching, as his repentance shows; the betrayal was prophesied in the Psalms.
Against Celsus 2.76Origen · ca. 248 · Origen answers that Jesus' “woes” are no different from God's in the prophets and the curses of the Law, spoken to bring people to repentance, and that even Greek sages could not persuade everyone.
Against Celsus 3.59Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus mocks Christians for inviting sinners, unlike the pagan mysteries; Origen answers that the sick are first called to healing, and only those purified are then initiated into the deeper mysteries.
Against Celsus 3.61Origen · ca. 248 · Christians call the wicked not to the mysteries but to healing, as a physician calls the sick; unlike a robber, they call sinners in order to bind up their wounds.
Against Celsus 3.62Origen · ca. 248 · Christ came as physician to sinners and as teacher to the purified; no one except Jesus has been sinless from the beginning, and God receives the sinner who repents and lives well.
Against Celsus 3.63Origen · ca. 248 · God is not swayed by flattery; the penitent's humble confession turns sinners back, and since all sin, Christ calls all who labor to find rest in him.
Against Celsus 3.65Origen · ca. 248 · Origen denies that Christians attract only the worst people: most converts come from decent lives, while hardened sinners, held by conscience and habit, find conversion harder.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 37Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Wars, famines, and pestilences return when Christians cease to be the salt and light that restrain the adverse powers; God judges in parts to give room for repentance, and the coming pains are meant to destroy the seeds of sin in the ungodly.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 113Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The spitting and blows fulfil Isaiah 50 and are a further humiliation for which God exalted Christ; Peter, who denied in the night before the Spirit was given, could be forgiven, but believers who deny after receiving the Spirit have no excuse; the maidservants figure the synagogue, the Gentiles, and heresies, and Peter wept only once outside the courtyard.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 117Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Judas's repentance refutes those who teach fixed natures that perish, for it came from the seed of virtue in every soul; but he repented without knowledge, gave way to the devil's excessive grief, and took his own life instead of awaiting God's mercy; the potter's field buries those who remain strangers to God; the prophecy attributed to Jeremiah is found in Zechariah or in a secret writing, as Paul too cites secret books.
Commentary on Matthew 13.30Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen discusses whether Matthew's steps of reproof apply to all sins or only lesser ones, notes that the Gospel leaves undecided the fate of one who does not listen, and urges repentance after any number of sins.
Commentary on Matthew 15.37Origen · ca. 246–248 · On the simpler reading the vineyard is the church; those who fall away after being called cannot plead “no one hired us,” though they may still repent and return; Origen ends by asking his readers’ pardon.
Commentary on Romans 2.1Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Only God judges according to truth, because he alone sees whether mind and deed agree; and he judges truly even in forgiving the baptized, the penitent, and martyrs, because a reformed soul is no longer the soul that sinned.
Commentary on Romans 2.3Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · God's goodness is seen in his daily kindness to sinners, but his forbearance (toward the weak) and patience (toward the obstinate) have a fixed limit, so no one should delay repentance.
Commentary on Romans 5.7Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen answers “shall we remain in sin?” by explaining what it is to live and to die to sin, warns against relapse, and argues that death’s kingdom cannot be eternal like life’s.
Commentary on Romans 9.15Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Christians should rejoice only with joys worthy of heaven, such as good works and conversions, and weep not over worldly losses but with those who weep for their sins and long for Christ.
To Quirinus 3.35Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · God's patience is meant to lead sinners to repentance, not to presumption.
To Quirinus 3.114Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Confession and repentance must be made in this life, since there is none after death.
Letter 19.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian approves of his clergy's counsel of patience to the lapsed; true penance is humble obedience and good works.
Letter 30.6Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · All should pray for peace; the lapsed should knock humbly at the church's door, not break it down, and plead with tears rather than agitation.
Letter 31.6Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The confessors praise Cyprian for caring for his flock from hiding and for rebuking premature readmissions: penance, humility, and patience, not numbers, heal the sin of the lapsed.
Letter 31.7Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The lapsed must cleanse their defiled hands and mouths with good works, tears, and true penance; a wound healed too quickly reopens.
Letter 36.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The Roman clergy urge Cyprian to keep healing the lapsed with patience; their demands were probably stirred up by others, and they should instead show penance and humility.
Letter 55.22Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Scripture everywhere calls sinners to penance and promises pardon: Revelation, Tobit, the Gospel, Wisdom, Joel, and the Psalms.
Letter 55.23Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · If an earthly father welcomes a reformed son, how much more God; but those who did no penance until death threatened are not to be reconciled on their deathbed.
Letter 59.13Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The schismatic presbyters, by offering the lapsed a false peace without penance, block their true healing, turn them against the clergy, and despise God's anger, for which priests must answer.
Letter 59.16Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Felicissimus's companions avoid Carthage because of the charges against them; yet the church there is open to any who return with penance, and Cyprian is almost too lenient in receiving them.
Letter 59.20Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The faithful should shun the schismatics' company, as Scripture commands; if they come with penance they will be heard, if with threats rejected.
Prayer 2 2Anonymous · uncertain · The petitioner confesses his sins and asks God to hear him as he heard Jonah, the Ninevites, David, the three young men, Daniel, Tobit and Sarah, Susanna, Hezekiah, and Thecla.
On the Lapsed 29Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian urges the lapsed to confess their sin while still alive and to return to God with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
On the Lapsed 30Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian rebukes lapsed men and women who live in luxury, bathing, feasting, and adorning themselves, instead of mourning their spiritual death with true penance.
On the Lapsed 31Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Even the innocent three youths in the furnace and Daniel confessed their sins to God with fasting and humility.
On the Lapsed 35Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · The lapsed must do long and earnest penance with prayer, fasting, mourning, and generous almsgiving, spending on the poor the property that caused their fall.
On the Lapsed 36Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · God can forgive the truly penitent and even restore them to fight again and win the martyr's crown.
Against Novatian 9Anonymous · after 251 (disputed) · Novatian reads only the severe texts and ignores the prophets' calls to repentance and their promises of mercy.
Against Novatian 10Anonymous · after 251 (disputed) · Psalm 89, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah show that God punishes his people's sins but does not withdraw his mercy, and restores those who repent.
Against Novatian 13Anonymous · after 251 (disputed) · Scripture warns against pride and judging others; Novatian, once compassionate, now drives the lapsed back to paganism, though Christ in Revelation calls even sinful churches to repent.
Against Novatian 15Anonymous · after 251 (disputed) · The parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin show heaven's joy over a repentant sinner, while the Galileans and the tower of Siloam warn the unrepentant.
Against Novatian 16Anonymous · after 251 (disputed) · The faithful should wake up, seek what they have lost, and confess their sins before the impartial Judge who is coming with his angels.
To Demetrian 25Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Returning goodwill for hatred, Cyprian urges Demetrian to repent while there is time, for no repentance is too late in this life, but none is possible after death.
On the Good of Patience 4Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · God shows patience by giving his gifts to good and bad alike and delaying judgment so that sinners may repent.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 1.8Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The seven letters address seven kinds of Christians, calling all to repentance.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 3.3Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The letter to Laodicea rebukes lukewarm, learned, wealthy believers without works and calls them to repentance.
Against Porphyry, fragment 4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Repentance blots out sin only if it is immediate, uprooting evil before it takes root.
Cib. 14Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The field of the dead, the bone, and the grave signify incontinence, apostates, and hypocrites; the seventh day is the end of life, and the ashes signify repentant humility.
Lepr. 6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Each kind of leprosy is a vice; the sinner must show his sore to Christ in prayer and, if it persists, confess to the bishop, who may separate him from communion, examine him, and cast out the impenitent.
Church History 3.7.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · God patiently waited for repentance and sent portents of what would come, recorded by Josephus.
Church History 3.23.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Clement (quoted): John assured him of forgiveness, brought him back to the church with prayer and fasting, and restored him, an example of true repentance.
Church History 5.1.26Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Under torture Biblis repented, denied the slander of cannibalism, confessed Christ, and joined the martyrs.
Church History 5.28.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Scourged by angels in the night, Natalius repented in sackcloth and was with difficulty readmitted by Zephyrinus.
Church History 6.9.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The third confessed and wept until he went blind.
Church History 6.34.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Report has it that the emperor Philip, a Christian, was made to do public penance before joining the Easter vigil.
Church History 6.46.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius wrote to the Egyptians on repentance, distinguishing degrees of lapse.
Fragment 7Peter of Alexandria · ca. 300–311 · A penitent laments that he forgot that God sees the mind, sinned while presuming on God's mercy, and despised forgiveness because punishment did not come at once.
Homilies 1.7Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · A preacher in Rome announces the Son of God in Judea and calls for repentance before judgment.
Homilies 7.4Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter calls the people to repentance: to pray, abstain from sacrificial food, carrion, and blood, to purify themselves, and to treat their neighbour as they wish to be treated.
Recognitions 3.45Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Exposed, Simon asks to repent, but Peter predicts his relapse and explains that he learned Simon's secret from his former associates, not by prophecy.
Recognitions 6.3Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter calls for a just anger against oneself for past sins, a fire that burns out evil desire and prepares the heart for God's word.
Recognitions 10.43Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter urges Faustinianus, given the shortness of life, to repent, adorn his soul with virtue, keep the company of believers, pray, and help his repentance by almsgiving.
Divine Institutes 4.11.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God sent prophets to rebuke Israel and call it to repentance.
Divine Institutes 4.17.17Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Circumcision signifies repentance: confessing sins to God brings pardon.
Divine Institutes 5.13.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Repentance makes faith firmer.
Divine Institutes 6.13.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Repentance means resolving to sin no more.
Divine Institutes 6.24.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The fallen can be restored through repentance.
Divine Institutes 6.24.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Cicero doubted that repentance could correct a life; it can.
Divine Institutes 6.24.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Repentance (metanoia) is coming to one's senses.
Divine Institutes 6.24.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God gave repentance as a harbor for frail humanity.
On the Anger of God 20.12Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · God's patience leads many to repent, abandon idols, and acknowledge the one God.
On the Anger of God 21.9Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · God's anger does not remain against the repentant, since he commands reconciliation before sunset; it remains only against those who never cease sinning.
On the Anger of God 21.10Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · God is appeased not by sacrifices but by changed lives; he delays punishment so that sinners may repent.
On the Anger of God 23.7Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · The Sibyl also says God is appeased by repentance and will cease his wrath if people practice piety.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.46Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · God's calls to repentance through the prophets show foreknowledge imposes no necessity.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.11.47Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · God speaks of 'perhaps' so that announced foreknowledge will not discourage repentance.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 43.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Those who rejected Christ can hope only if they repent and trust in him.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 49.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Those forced to sacrifice return to God with penance and are forgiven.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 62.1Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Since no one is sinless, the remedy is repentance, which God will not refuse.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 62.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Repentance heals sin; without it there is no way of life.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.10.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ said he came as a physician to call sinners to repentance.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.5.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · John’s voice called the crowds a brood of vipers and straightened crooked souls by calling for fruits of repentance.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 11.1Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · Whoever repents and turns to God will live forever; Constantine strives to bring his subjects to faith, and confesses that he himself came to the truth only in maturity, counting repentance his salvation.
On the Incarnation 7.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Athanasius considers whether repentance alone could restore humanity.
On the Incarnation 7.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Repentance would neither keep God truthful nor undo natural corruption; it only stops sinning.
Letter 1.1Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony describes three ways by which souls come to God: by the law implanted at creation, as Abraham did, by the written law, and by afflictions that bring hard hearts to repentance.
Testament of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste 2Anonymous · ca. 320 · An exhortation to flee worldly glory, repent while there is time, and love one another.
Theophany 4.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Letter to Marcellinus 10Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Unlike the other books, the Psalter portrays the movements of each reader's soul and gives him the very words with which to repent, endure, give thanks, and praise.
Letter to Marcellinus 20Athanasius of Alexandria · uncertain, after 335 · Psalms for repentance, slander, betrayal, hiding from a persecutor, escape, false friends, hypocrites, flight to the desert, and enemies who lie in wait.
Demonstration 2.10Aphrahat · 337-345 · God foreknew the true length of the times but announced longer or shorter ones to give room for repentance, as Ezekiel and Jeremiah show.
Demonstration 3.6Aphrahat · 337-345 · The men of Jezreel shared Jezebel's guilt and were punished; by contrast the Ninevites' fast pleased God because they turned from their evil ways.
Demonstration 3.10Aphrahat · 337-345 · The fast of Mordecai and Esther turned Haman's plot back on him; Haman, an Amalekite of Agag's line, sought revenge on Saul's descendant Mordecai.
Demonstration 7.2Aphrahat · 337-345 · Repentance is the medicine for those wounded in the spiritual contest; the church's physicians must apply it, since God does not reject penitents.
Demonstration 7.3Aphrahat · 337-345 · One struck by Satan should confess and seek repentance rather than hide the wound, which otherwise festers beyond healing.
Demonstration 7.4Aphrahat · 337-345 · Those who administer penance must give it freely and keep confessed sins confidential, so as not to expose the church to its enemies.
Demonstration 7.5Aphrahat · 337-345 · Those who hide their wounds cannot be blamed on the physicians; returning to battle unhealed, they perish in disgrace.
Demonstration 7.6Aphrahat · 337-345 · One healed by repentance must guard against falling again, for a second wound on the scar heals hardly.
Demonstration 7.8Aphrahat · 337-345 · God offered repentance to Adam, Cain, and Noah's generation; their refusal to confess brought death and judgment.
Demonstration 7.9Aphrahat · 337-345 · God received the repentant Ninevites and called Israel through Jeremiah to repent, even setting aside the law on taking back a remarried wife.
Demonstration 7.10Aphrahat · 337-345 · Ezekiel and Jeremiah show that God warns the righteous and offers hope to sinners who turn; those who hold the keys must open the doors to penitents gently.
Demonstration 7.12Aphrahat · 337-345 · Penitents should not deny themselves the remedy of confession; the father of the prodigal son received him with joy and no reproach.
Demonstration 7.13Aphrahat · 337-345 · Christ came to call sinners to repentance; heaven rejoices over one penitent, and Christ died for sinners.
Demonstration 7.14Aphrahat · 337-345 · God forgave David when he confessed, and forgave Israel at Moses' intercession.
Demonstration 7.15Aphrahat · 337-345 · Aaron, David, and Peter confessed their sins and were received; Peter, after denying Christ, wept and was made the Church's rock.
Demonstration 7.16Aphrahat · 337-345 · Penitents should not, like Adam and Cain, hide or deny their sin, but humble themselves as Abraham and David did.
Demonstration 7.17Aphrahat · 337-345 · The assurance of repentance must not make anyone careless; it is better not to sin than to be healed, for the scars of sin remain.
Demonstration 7.23Aphrahat · 337-345 · Assurance of pardon must not encourage sin, but the fallen should confess with lasting sorrow, as the prodigal, the sinful woman, and Zacchaeus did.
Demonstration 7.25Aphrahat · 337-345 · Some ascetics who fall refuse to confess, and some clergy refuse repentance to those who do; Aphrahat urges the clergy to grant it and leave the final separation to the Lord.
Demonstration 7.27Aphrahat · 337-345 · Repentance is open while grace lasts in this world, but the time is near when justice will reign and repentance will no longer be found.
Demonstration 19.8Aphrahat · 337-345 · Daniel, knowing Jeremiah's prophecy of seventy years against the false prophets' promise of two, prayed his great confession for the return from Babylon.
Demonstration 20.12Aphrahat · 337-345 · Abraham's bosom is the kingdom of heaven; the great abyss means no repentance after death, and Israel's refusal of Moses and the risen Jesus is foreshadowed.
Historical Fragments 2.4.1.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Those who repent and profess the Nicene faith are to be received; the obstinate are to be punished by the church.
Catechetical Lecture 0.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The church has opened its doors to all; the candidates have forty days to put off their sins, become “faithful,” and prepare their souls for the heavenly bridegroom.
Catechetical Lecture 2.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The devil, created good, fell by his own choice and drew others after him; yet repentance is always possible, for God’s mercy is greater than any sin.
Catechetical Lecture 2.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · God’s patience with Adam, Cain, Noah’s generation, Rahab, the people who made the calf, and Aaron shows that repentance is always welcomed.
Catechetical Lecture 2.11Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · David, rebuked by Nathan for his sin, confessed at once without anger and was quickly forgiven.
Catechetical Lecture 2.12Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Though forgiven, David continued his repentance with sackcloth, ashes, tears, and fasting, and forgave Shimei who cursed him.
Catechetical Lecture 2.13Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Solomon, Ahab, Jeroboam, Manasseh, and Hezekiah all show that confession and repentance obtain God’s mercy, even reversing a pronounced sentence.
Catechetical Lecture 2.14Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The three young men’s confession in the furnace quenched the flames, showing that repentance can quench even the fire of Gehenna.
Catechetical Lecture 3.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · John the Baptist, greatest of those born of women, stands at the turn of the covenants; his baptism with confession points to repentance and the putting off of the old life.
Defence against the Arians 58Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · Athanasius quotes the recantation of Ursacius and Valens to Julius, with their anathema of Arius, and their letter of peace to himself, and prepares to recount the affair from its beginning.
Long recension, Philadelphians 8Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius urges unity, forgiveness for the penitent, and faith in the Gospel, whose authentic archive is Christ's cross, death and resurrection.
Long recension, Smyrnaeans 9Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius urges repentance while there is time.
Commentary on Matthew 2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary reads Joseph’s return as a figure of the apostles turning to the Gentiles, interprets John the Baptist’s desert, clothing, food, and preaching, and explains Christ’s baptism as the pattern of ours.
Commentary on Matthew 21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds the triumphal entry (the donkey and colt as Samaritans and nations), the cleansing of the temple (sellers of doves as those who sell the Spirit’s gift), the children’s praise, the cursed fig tree as the synagogue, the question about John’s baptism, and the two sons.
On Saint Athanasius 2.1Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Opening the second book, Lucifer quotes Romans 8 on the good that persecution brings the faithful and Jeremiah's threats against those who shed innocent blood, and calls on the emperor to repent and anathematize the Arian formulas.
On Saint Athanasius 2.33Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer urges the emperor to repent as the Ninevites and their king did at Jonah's preaching, and so obtain God's mercy.
On Saint Athanasius 2.34Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer ends by holding up Paul, once a persecutor who acted in ignorance and found mercy, and promises the emperor a place among the saints if he confesses the Son's eternity and the one Godhead of Father, Son and Spirit.
On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 26Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer compares Constantius with Judas Iscariot, arguing that the emperor, who has had the Nicene faith condemned and bought support with money, is worse than Judas, who at least repented and betrayed Christ only to unbelievers.
On Apostate Kings 10Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer says God bears with Constantius as with Manasseh only to test and crown the faithful, quotes the psalm on the sinner praised by flatterers, and cites Wisdom on God's slow judgment of the Canaanites.
On Apostate Kings 12Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer ends by urging Constantius to repent, confess the true Son of God, and receive pardon, citing the prophets, Sirach, the Psalms and Romans on God's patience.
Letters to Serapion 4.13Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Heb 6:4–6 forbids a second baptism, not repentance, as Paul’s readmission of the Corinthian penitent shows against the Novatianists.
Letter 44Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil laments the fall of a monk who had been a teacher, and urges him to repent and return, since grace still awaits him.
Letter 45Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil recalls the austere life of a monk he had known in Jerusalem, laments the report of his adultery and perjury, and calls him to repent and return.
Letters 46, 47Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil laments a consecrated virgin's fall, rebukes her seducer, and calls her to repentance; a fragment of a second letter asks a bishop to come and help choose a sound bishop for Caesarea.
Hymns on the Trinity 2Marius Victorinus · ca. 357–362 · Victorinus's second hymn is a litany of “Have mercy, Lord; have mercy, Christ”, confessing the Son's consubstantial life and asking for help in turning from the world to God.
Homilies on the Psalms 29.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains Ps 30:7–12: God turns his face away to test us; true crying is for heavenly things; we should not pamper the flesh, which buries the mind; the Lord turns mourning into joy for those who lament their sins; and the glory that sings is the Spirit in the just.
Homilies on the Psalms 114.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 116:1–9 Basil teaches that God “inclines his ear” in condescension, hearing even the unspoken groans of Moses and the blood of Abel; the saint calls on God all his days, and in the pangs of death and Hades willingly adds affliction to affliction out of love, or, as a penitent, the hardship of repentance; God's mercy and justice go together; he guards infants in the womb and the humble; and the soul's rest is the land of the living, where there is no death, change, sin, tears or want, unlike this world, where human beings die many times as they pass through the ages of life.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's first rule: believers must repent first, now is the time for repentance, repentance must be heartfelt and bear fruit, and after death there is no more time for good deeds.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 52Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's fifty-second rule: Christians must grieve over sinners, rebuke them, keep company with them only to call them to repentance, and treat the obstinate as outsiders.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · In Isaiah 1 God's anger turns to an offer of cleansing; his anger troubles in order to bring repentance.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.21Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · In the New Testament too God's anger aims at salvation: John's call to repentance, Christ's invitation, and the conversion of Saul.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.38Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The Greek "crush" points to the contrite heart God desires; breaking like a potter's vessel aims at restoration.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.39Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Jeremiah's potter shows that God breaks in order to remake: he shatters vices and reshapes us in virtue.
Tractates on the Psalms 2.40Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God's "repentance" means that he ceases to punish those who cease to sin; as a potter remakes a vessel, God restores the repentant.
Tractates on the Psalms 66.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The repeated call to confess means first confession of sins, then confession of praise because the earth has given its fruit.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.4.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Declaring his ways means confessing his sins, after which the psalmist can ask to be taught God's justifications.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.8.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God's mercy fills even a corrupt earth, for he sends sun and rain on just and unjust and patiently gives time for repentance.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.10.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The psalmist wants God-fearers to turn to him, so that by his teaching they may repent of past sins.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.17.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Weeping rivers of tears, David continues to repent of his old sin, confessing it always while having ceased from it.
Tractates on the Psalms 125.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Sowing in tears is the spiritual sowing of repentance and confession, which Paul contrasts with the sowing of the flesh; those who sow so will reap joy at the judgment.
Tractates on the Psalms 128.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God patiently waits for repentance, but at last cuts the stiff necks of persistent sinners; necks bowed to Christ's yoke are spared.
Tractates on the Psalms 135.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · 'Confess' means both praising God and confessing sin; confession is not informing God but acknowledging one's error, which implies ceasing from it.
Tractates on the Psalms 135.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The righteous always confess their past sins, as Paul did; we confess confidently to a God who is good and never ceases to be merciful.
Tractates on the Psalms 137.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Confession means either praising God, as when Christ confesses to the Father, or confessing sins, as at John's baptism.
Tractates on the Psalms 137.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Confession of sin does not inform God but acknowledges, through knowledge of God's teaching, that what one did is sin.
Tractates on the Psalms 137.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Confession means ceasing from sin; to confess 'with the whole heart' one must abandon all sins, not trade one vice for another.
Tractates on the Psalms 137.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Confessing God's mercy refutes rigorists who deny pardon to penitent sinners.
Tractates on the Psalms 144.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God upholds those who are falling, stopping them through repentance before they fall completely.
Tractates on the Psalms 144.19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Those 'dashed down' by temptation, ignorance, or weakness and who repent are raised; those who sin willfully and without repentance are not.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 1.1Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian complains that Sympronian has not said what he holds, lists the many heresies, and notes that Sympronian sides with those who reject penance.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 1.5Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian argues from the prophets, the Psalms, David, Nebuchadnezzar, the parables, the letters to the seven churches, and Paul that God offers penance to the baptized who sin.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 1.6Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian argues that the power to bind and loose given to the apostles has passed to the bishops along with baptism and chrism.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 1.7Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian defends the bishop’s authority to forgive as derived from the apostles and says the pardon of penance is granted only after long and careful testing.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.1Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian sums up the Novatian treatise (no repentance after baptism; the church cannot forgive mortal sin) and asks by what authority Novatian, so late, could teach a new gospel.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.4Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian interprets the images of the church as body, temple, virgin, and spotless bride to show that heretics, not repentant sinners, are the church’s spot and wrinkle.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.7Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian answers that bishops who discipline penitents do not acknowledge deniers but correct them, and that it is God, through them, who forgives.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.8Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian distinguishes baptism, a free gift, from penance, a labour of the few who fall, and argues that Scripture calls the baptized to repentance.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.9Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian answers that offering penance does not encourage sin, since penance is hard, and that Christ who died for sinners remains their advocate after baptism.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.10Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian cites Peter’s repentance after his denial and Thomas’s confession after his doubt as examples of believers restored by repentance.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.14Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian applies the figures of the parables to the church: the lost sheep, coin, and son stand for the sinner who repents.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.16Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian answers the texts on the barren branch, Eli’s saying, and the “sin unto death” by arguing that they concern unrepented sins, and that God changes his sentence for those who repent.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.17Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian argues that the commands to cut off the offending hand and to remove the evil person concern those who persist in sin and lead others astray, not penitents.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.22Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian calls the heretical congregation the adulterous woman and shows that Cyprian’s On the Lapsed, cited by Sympronian, concerns those who refuse to repent.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 1Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian introduces his exhortation on penance, fearing that, as with his earlier tract against the “Little Stag” festivities, censure may teach vice rather than restrain it.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 2Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian asks to be heard in love, says his sermon on penance concerns the whole church, and sets out its four parts.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 6Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian warns those who receive communion after grave sin without penance, citing the death of Uzzah and the law on eating sacrifices while unclean.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 8Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian urges sinners not to endanger the community and the priest by hiding their sins, but to confess them, as the sick show their wounds to physicians, since the church grieves with them.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 9Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian rebukes those who confess but will not perform the works of penance, and holds up David and Nebuchadnezzar as examples of severe penance that God accepted.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 10Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian rebukes penitents who live in luxury and describes the works of public penance: weeping before the church, squalid clothing, fasting, prayer, almsgiving, and abstaining from baths and banquets.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 11Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian urges sinners to use the remedy of penance as animals use healing herbs, and warns of the eternal fire that awaits the unrepentant in body and soul.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 12Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian closes with an appeal to do penance now, while there is time, promising God’s forgiveness to those who return like the prodigal son.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 74Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Pharaoh’s requests for prayer and Nebuchadnezzar’s recognition of God show that even the worst men had some good, which refutes the idea of evil natures sprung from an evil root.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 96Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Paul’s blinding of Bar-Jesus and Peter’s judgement on Ananias and Sapphira show that the apostles too used severe rebukes; and the Law, like the Gospel, has examples of forgiveness after repentance.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 97Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · David’s pardon after repentance matches Peter’s, and the Law and Prophets call all people to repentance as the Gospel does, as Nineveh shows.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 98Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · God spared Nineveh and even Ahab at the slightest repentance; the Law is a shadow and tutor leading to Christ. Titus turns to the Manichaean claim that the human body was made by the evil one.
Commentary on Ephesians 4.28Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · The sin lies in persisting, not in having sinned, since there is room for repentance; the thief, and every secret sinner, must stop, and work with his hands so as to share with those in need.
Oration 5.28Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory now laments the fall of the persecutors and hopes for their repentance.
Oration 16.10Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory imagines God reproaching the people, who were not corrected by the hailstorm as Egypt was by the plagues, warns of worse to come, and offers a prayer of confession for priest and people.
Oration 16.13Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory urges the people and clergy to repent with tears, fasting, and common mourning as Joel commanded, trusting that God’s nature is mercy, and warns them not to look back like Lot’s wife.
Oration 16.15Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Sinlessness belongs to God alone, but turning back from sin is human; Gregory recalls Scripture’s threats against those who are not corrected by God’s blows, describes the ruined harvest, and calls for honest self-examination.
Oration 39.16Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Christ rises from the water, the heavens open, and the Spirit comes as a dove; after a gap, Gregory names the baptisms of martyrdom and of tears.
Oration 39.18Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Against the Novatianists, Gregory defends the readmission of the repentant, citing David, Peter, the Corinthian offender, and Paul's permission for young widows to remarry.
Oration 40.7Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Baptism cleanses body and soul by water and Spirit, and is a covenant with God for a new life; since there is no second regeneration, the baptized must guard its grace, though repentance with tears can heal, if with scars.
Oration 40.9Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · It is better to keep baptismal grace than to rely on the uncertain remedy of later penance; the baptized, armed with the seal, can repel the devil's temptations as Christ did.
Tractates 2.17.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno allegorises Jonah: the ship is the synagogue, Jonah's sleep Christ's passion, the whale the underworld, and Nineveh the church of the nations, whose repentance Christians should imitate.
Homilies 1.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Basil opens the Lenten fast: it is to be welcomed cheerfully, practised without display, and it is older than the law.
Homilies 5.9Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Christians should weep only for sin, as Paul and Jeremiah did, and not use grief as an excuse for drunkenness; Basil closes his exposition of 1 Thess 5:16-18.
Homilies 8.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Basil opens his homily in a time of famine with Amos's call to repentance, praying that his hearers will listen better than Israel did.
Homilies 8.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Drought and famine are God's fatherly chastisement for the hard-heartedness of the rich toward the poor; Basil rebukes the half-hearted prayer of the city and holds up the repentance of Nineveh.
Homilies 8.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · True repentance would show itself in tears, hospitality and the cancelling of debts; drought tests rich and poor alike, and God, whose power and goodness have not failed, feeds those who trust him.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 1:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God is called “Father of mercies” to assure the rebuked Corinthians that repentance brings not only pardon but restoration.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 2:6–7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The incestuous man, now grieving, should be forgiven and restored lest despair drive him back into sin; true repentance is ceasing from sin.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 2:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The repentant must be consoled lest the devil use their despair to drive them back to worldly pleasures.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 7:9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul rejoices that his letter saddened the Corinthians to repentance, with shame rather than anger.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 7:10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Godly sorrow over sin leads to repentance and salvation; worldly sorrow, fearing only punishment, leads to death.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 7:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Corinthians' godly sorrow produced earnestness, confession, fear, longing, zeal, and self-punishment.
Commentary on Romans 2:4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God’s patience is not indifference: judgment is reserved for the life to come, where repentance will bear no fruit.
Question 5, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Like the unforgiving servant, Cain was spared for a time to give him room for repentance, and God’s sevenfold threat against his killer made him the more aware of his crime.
Question 18, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God accepted David’s confession and rejected Saul’s because he saw David’s contrite heart and Saul’s lack of repentance.
Question 102, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · If the old law, with lesser grace, pardoned the penitent, the new law must too; Novatian’s use of “whoever denies me” to exclude the lapsed is rejected.
Question 102, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christ forgave Peter’s denial after his bitter tears; Novatian, by equating denial with the sin against the Holy Spirit, offers penance in name only.
Question 102, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · David was forgiven murder and adultery and restored, Ahab was spared, and Nineveh was saved, all through repentance, which shows that repentance brings real pardon.
Question 102, section 8Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The warning to Nineveh, the long building of the ark, the Wisdom books, and Christ’s lament over Jerusalem all show that God wants sinners to repent and live.
Question 102, section 11Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Since no one is free of sin, denying repentance would mean no one could be saved, contrary to the joy in heaven over a penitent sinner.
Question 110, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Since no one can avoid all sin, the blessed person is the one who does not persist in it but repents; ungodliness is deadly, while sin admits amendment.
Question 112, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · David calls his sin iniquity and excuses nothing, for genuine grief at sin moves the judge to mercy, while prayer without it mocks him.
Question 112, section 24Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · As Samuel told Saul, sacrifice cannot replace repentance; God is appeased by a soul that grieves over its sin.
Question 112, section 26Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God accepts a contrite heart as the sacrifice for sin, for as wounds heal only through pain, so sin is healed only through sorrow.
Letter 2.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome compares himself to the lost sheep and to the prodigal son who has not yet returned.
Letter 21.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome rejects Tertullian's Montanist claim that the tax collectors were Gentiles and holds that they stand for sinners of every kind, Jew and Gentile.
Letter 21.18Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome says we return to God as soon as we turn from sin in repentance.
Letter 60.17Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome attributes the barbarian victories to the sins of the Romans and calls for repentance, citing biblical deliverances.
Letter 61.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome mocks Vigilantius's learning and denounces his interpretation of the mountain in Daniel 2 as the devil, calling him to repentance.
Letter 77.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes Fabiola's public penance in the Lateran basilica after her second husband's death and cites biblical examples of forgiven penitents.
Letter 77.12Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome closes his memorial by answering critics of praising a penitent: Christ carries back the fallen, and the one forgiven more loves more.
Letter 79.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Salvina that penitence is no substitute for keeping chastity, and argues that second marriage is only a concession to prevent worse sin.
Letter 84.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome mocks the Origenists' denial of the bodily resurrection and urges them, if they followed him into error, to follow him in correcting it.
Letter 98.25Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus closes with an exhortation to repentance and virtue and announces the dates of Lent and Easter for 402.
Letter 100.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus's paschal letter opens by calling the faithful to prepare for Easter by fasting, confession, and repentance, which cut off vices before they grow.
Letter 100.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus answers the sinner who wants to change: cease from sin, fast, and meditate on the law, since we are free to do good and the law both punishes and invites the penitent back.
Letter 122.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · At the request of Hedibia and of Artemia, Rusticus’s wife, Jerome urges Rusticus to repent, gathering prophetic calls to return and warning that despair is itself unbelief.
Letter 122.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · God’s mercy calls sinners back even after great sins, as Jeremiah, Isaiah, Joel, Hosea and David show.
Letter 122.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Scripture’s examples—David, Ahab, Nineveh, the prodigal son, the sinful woman—show that repentance restores even great sinners, since no one is without sin.
Letter 122.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recounts how Rusticus broke the vow of continence he shared with Artemia and failed to follow her to the holy places, and urges him to keep his oath and repent.
Letter 130.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Demetrias to guard her heart with the sign of the cross; penance is the plank after shipwreck, but a virgin should keep the ship whole.
Letter 140.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · On Ps 90:3 Jerome explains both the Hebrew ('turn man back to contrition') and the Greek, as God's sentence of death and his call to repentance.
Letter 147.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome begins his rebuke of the deacon Sabinianus, comparing him to Pharaoh and to the prosperous wicked of Psalm 73.
Letter 147.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Sabinianus from Amos, Ezekiel and Isaiah that God pardons the penitent but turns away from the impenitent.
Letter 147.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Sabinianus to repent, citing the healings of Christ and examples from Genesis, Numbers, Samuel and Kings.
Ancoratus 38.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God asked Cain to give him room for repentance.
Ancoratus 114.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · God gave Canaan time to repent.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 9.4.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Peter's call to repentance and baptism at Pentecost.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 17.2.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Only repentance and the one baptism cleanse sins.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.3.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Brought back, she spent her life in penitence.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 38.6.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Prophecy warns us to repent and escape judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 38.7.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Judas's remorse shows he knew he had done evil.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 43.2.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God's patience now gives room for repentance before the judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 54.2.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's saying safeguards the salvation of repentant blasphemers.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.1.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Novatus denied restoration to those who fell after baptism.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.1.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The church too confesses one baptismal repentance but keeps God’s mercy.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.1.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The church offers a way back after a fall.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.1.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Cain, the paralytic, and Peter show God restores sinners.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · No second baptism, but penitents are not cut off from salvation.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.2.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Repentance after baptism is a second, lesser, but saving remedy.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul grants repentance after a fall.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.5.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Those who fall and repent are admitted.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.5.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God accepts repentance after baptism.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.6.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God is merciful to those who repent wholeheartedly.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.7.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Manasseh and Peter show repentance is accepted.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.8.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Peter’s restoration shows repentance is open in this life.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.9.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “Arise, come” is a call from sin to repentance.
On Cain and Abel 2.24Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · "You have sinned; be still" teaches that, having sinned, we should confess in shame rather than defend ourselves, since the guilt is our own.
On Cain and Abel 2.38Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · God spared Cain to teach judges patience and moderation and to leave room for repentance, while exiling him; Lamech, who sinned after Cain's example, was punished more heavily.
On Paradise 41Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · God is not unjust in permitting evil, since he left remedies through repentance, and grace returns more richly to the one who recovers what he lost.
On Paradise 70Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · "Where are you?" is not a question about place but a rebuke about Adam's state; that God calls is a sign that he will heal those who hide in shame.
On Paradise 71Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Eve's confession made her fault pardonable and her sentence healing, unlike Cain, who lied to God and was left to the devil's judgment.
On Paradise 75Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Unlike the serpent, Adam is to eat earth "in sorrow"; godly sorrow leads to repentance and salvation, as the groaning Hebrews in Egypt received spiritual food.
Apostolic Canon 52Anonymous · ca. 380 · Clergy who refuse a penitent are deposed.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.7.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · One who sins after baptism and does not repent will be condemned.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.10.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Seeing no fault in the church, the sinner leaves in tears, repents and has hope, and the flock learns from him.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.12.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop judges with authority but must receive the penitent, to whom God has sworn forgiveness.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.12.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Ezekiel shows God desires the sinner’s repentance, not his death.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.12.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God’s promise gives sinners hope, so that they repent rather than despair.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.13.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Since death is uncertain and there is no repentance after it, one must not sin counting on later repentance.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.14.14Anonymous · ca. 380 · Ezekiel 18 is quoted at length: each soul is judged for its own sin, and the repentant wicked man lives.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.22.0Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop should judge as God does with sinners and penitents, as David, Jonah and Hezekiah show; the story of Manasseh’s sins begins.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.22.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The judgment on Manasseh, his captivity in Babylon, and his prayer of repentance (the Prayer of Manasseh).
Apostolic Constitutions 2.22.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God heard Manasseh, freed him miraculously and restored him; he reformed his worship, but his son Amon did evil.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.23.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Manasseh shows that God forgives even idolatry upon genuine repentance and restores the penitent.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.24.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christ received Matthew, Peter and Paul despite their past, so the penitent must be received.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.39.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Matthew, once a tax collector, became an apostle through repentance.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.41.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · David’s prayer after his sin shows that God restores penitents to their former dignity.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.55.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · In every age God has called people to repentance, through righteous men, prophets, Christ, John and the apostles.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.7.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Peter rebuked Simon and called him to repentance.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.35.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · God is great and patient, calling sinners to repentance.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop prays to God, who wills the sinner's repentance.
On Virgins 3.5Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose reads the bed watered with tears (Ps 6) both literally and of the body, explains the Lord’s “bed of pain,” urges that all be done in Christ’s name, and warns virgins against dancing, which cost John the Baptist his life.
On Noah 42Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · The seven days before the flood recall creation and gave the people time to repent, showing God's readiness to forgive.
On Noah 67Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · The dove's return at evening with an olive leaf signifies virtue bringing a token of hope, amendment, and peace to those who repent.
On Noah 102Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · God's providence keeps the flood of passions from destroying every soul, so that even sinners should not despair but turn back, as Zacchaeus did.
Psalm 50Apollinaris of Laodicea · uncertain (fourth to sixth century) · A paraphrase of Psalm 50 of the Septuagint (Psalm 51), introduced by iambic lines on David’s sin with Bathsheba: a prayer for cleansing and a new heart.
On the Beatitudes 1219Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Homily 3 opens on the third beatitude, which worldly people mock as praising misfortune; Gregory first takes it of godly grief for sin, which, like returning feeling in a paralysed limb, is a sign of healing.
On the Beatitudes 1221Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The fear of judgment, like a stinging remedy, brings the callous sinner to feel and mourn his sin, as Paul did with the incestuous man; but since Christ blesses those who always mourn, and the sinless too are blessed, the beatitude must mean more than repentance.
On the Lord's Prayer 1143Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · God would reject the sinner who calls him Father; “Father in heaven” recalls our lost fatherland, as in the parable of the prodigal son, whose confession, robe, ring, and kiss signify repentance and the restoration of the first state.
Liber Orsiesii 1Orsiesius · ca. 380-390 · Orsiesius opens with Baruch's call to exiled Israel, read as God's fatherly correction that leads to repentance.
Liber Orsiesii 33Orsiesius · ca. 380-390 · God calls the monks through the prophets and Christ to return to him with all their heart.
Liber Orsiesii 37Orsiesius · ca. 380-390 · God's mercy toward repentant Israel is held out to the monks if they wake and serve him.
Liber Orsiesii 45Orsiesius · ca. 380-390 · The monks are urged to repent with the words of Hosea, so that God may heal them and make them fruitful.
Liber Orsiesii 49Orsiesius · ca. 380-390 · God still calls to repentance, and those who return he will build up by his Spirit.
Book of Heresies 82.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Novatians deny repentance after baptism.
Book of Heresies 82.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The prophet and Christ speak of a second baptism of repentance.
Book of Heresies 82.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Christ's baptism of the passion shows that repentance is granted after baptism.
Book of Heresies 82.6Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Through repentance the fallen may rise and win.
Book of Heresies 82.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Paul grieved over the unrepentant.
Book of Heresies 89.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Hebrews does not exclude repentance but distinguishes ranks.
Book of Heresies 115.6Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Christ judged Adam fairly and left the devil room to repent.
Book of Heresies 115.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Man was readier to repent than the devil, who awaits greater judgment.
Book of Heresies 115.8Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Adam repented and was pardoned.
Book of Heresies 125.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Repentance belongs to this life; the impious will not appear.
Book of Heresies 132.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · God offered Cain repentance as an example for all.
Book of Heresies 132.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · God desires the sinner's return.
Book of Heresies 132.6Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Cain showed no fruit of repentance.
On the Complaints of Job and David 1.19Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Job’s words teach that sinners should confess, the wicked lament, and the just avoid pride.
On the Complaints of Job and David 1.20Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · The just man accuses himself and confesses at once; the unjust hides his sin in many words.
On the Complaints of Job and David 4.7Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Tears of longing for righteousness are true bread, like bread cast on the waters, and repentance is consoled.
Second Apology of David 7Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · David did sin, as all humans do, but unlike kings he repented with tears and sackcloth.
Second Apology of David 55Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Ambrose retells Nathan’s parable, his rebuke, David’s confession, and the death of the child.
Apology of the Prophet David 5Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Unlike most, David confessed at once when rebuked by Nathan, and his deep repentance won swift pardon.
Apology of the Prophet David 7Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · God allowed the saints to fall so that we might see them as fellow human beings and learn repentance from them.
Apology of the Prophet David 9Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · As God tested Job by suffering, he tested David by showing how he would amend his fall, to teach us repentance.
Apology of the Prophet David 15Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Taken literally, David sinned as kings do but repented as kings do not, confessing publicly; falling is human, but such confession is rare virtue.
Apology of the Prophet David 25Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · David covered his sin with love and constant tears, as Peter’s threefold confession and bitter weeping covered his denial.
Apology of the Prophet David 37Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · After the census, David chose to fall into God’s merciful hands rather than men’s, and the Lord relented.
Apology of the Prophet David 46Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Few truly acknowledge their sin; many boast of it, unlike a good horse that lies still after a fall.
Apology of the Prophet David 47Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · The wise man keeps his sin always before him, accusing himself; feeling the wound of sin is a sign of life and the way to healing.
Apology of the Prophet David 50Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Some refer the two verses to baptism and penance: Peter, already baptized, covered his denial by threefold love and was charged to feed the sheep.
Apology of the Prophet David 76Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · God’s teaching can convert the wicked; repentant sinners like David are models for those who fall.
On the Life of Moses 413Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The cluster of grapes carried on a pole figures Christ hung on the wood, whose blood is the drink of believers; repentance lets those who fell away find the rock again; the bronze serpent on the pole figures the cross, by looking to which we are healed of the poison of desire.
On Naboth 70Ambrose · ca. 386-390 · God's promise to delay punishment after Ahab's repentance was not broken; Jezebel turned Ahab back, and God did not keep the promise for one who abandoned repentance.
On the Duties of the Clergy 3.18Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · The hidden fire that became water is read as a type of the Holy Spirit, who burns away and washes away sins in baptism and penance.
Exposition of Psalm 118 2.3.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · It is better to take up the yoke in youth than to repent of youth’s sins later.
Exposition of Psalm 118 2.9.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ will be reconciled to the synagogue when she repents and opens her windows to his light.
Exposition of Psalm 118 2.14.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · To know oneself is to confess one’s sins quickly before death leaves no remedy.
Exposition of Psalm 118 4.11.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · By confessing his sins first, the righteous man silences the devil, his accuser.
Exposition of Psalm 118 4.11.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Confession makes the sinner begin to be righteous, but he must also ask God to teach him.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.43.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Sins after baptism require penance; only the penitent can rightly ask God to remove his reproach.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.44.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God’s judgments are sweet to those who confess and repent.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.18.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Paul wanted the fallen to grieve only as far as repentance.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.18.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Paul’s severity aimed at repentance and restoration, as the psalm teaches.
Exposition of Psalm 118 7.32.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The penitent washes his bed with tears; we should give most of the night to reading and prayer.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.31.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The psalmist asks mercy as a sinner and justice as one who has repented, for God’s word promises pardon to the converted.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.32.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · On verse 59: thinking on his past sinful ways, the psalmist turns his feet to God’s testimonies.
Exposition of Psalm 118 9.5.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Humbled Jerusalem is told that her iniquity has ended, as it is for every penitent.
Exposition of Psalm 118 9.5.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Compunction shuts out love of sin and shame; David confessed and was forgiven.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.47.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The heart is cleansed by confession of sins, as the tax collector was justified.
Exposition of Psalm 118 11.1.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Caph means “bowed down”; the penitent must bow not only his neck but his heart.
Exposition of Psalm 118 14.36.8Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Those caught in the devil’s snare can break free through repentance.
Exposition of Psalm 118 15.30.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Meditating on God’s statutes means always confessing our sins; the Pharisees refused this.
Exposition of Psalm 118 15.30.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The penitent justifies God by confessing, like the tax collector.
Exposition of Psalm 118 15.31.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God repels no one; sinners depart by refusing to confess, as the prodigal son did until he repented.
Exposition of Psalm 118 16.19.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The eye of punishments, foreseeing judgment, calls to repentance, as John the Baptist did.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.6.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · David himself was pardoned on confession; the soul that believes God’s testimonies advances.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.32.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The psalmist’s eyes “go down in streams” in the tears of repentance.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.34.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Tears of repentance, like the sinful woman’s, win the outpouring of grace.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.38.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · David wept not for his misfortunes but for his sin, as when Nathan rebuked him.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.38.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · David fasted and wept for his sin when his son was sick and after the census.
Exposition of Psalm 118 18.2.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · A third consolation is for those who wash away sin with tears.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.30.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ, the Sun of righteousness, waits to be met in repentance and prayer.
Exposition of Psalm 118 21.5.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The fallen should run to Christ the Samaritan, whose call to repentance binds the soul’s wounds.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.27.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Confess your sins; all sin, and whoever acknowledges his straying is not lost.
Letter 104.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · True repentance looks to God's judgment; Christians involved in the riot were reconciled by penance, but pagans who mock the faith are restrained for their own good, and Augustine prays for their conversion.
Letter 111.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine answers those who ask why God's servants suffer by quoting the confession of sins made by Azariah in the furnace.
Letter 111.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine quotes Daniel's prayer of confession in captivity to show that even the holiest acknowledge that God justly chastises them for their sins.
Letter 153.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those whom bishops rescue from the sentence are still barred from the altar to do penance, and if God is patient even with the impenitent, bishops should be merciful to those who promise amendment.
Letter 153.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Even those who relapse after the church's once-only public penance are not beyond God's patience, and their repentance still profits them for the life to come.
Letter 153.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · True repentance requires restoring stolen property when possible; bishops intercede for debtors only to prevent needless cruelty, not to block restitution.
Letter 211.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine rebukes the nuns for seeking to replace their long-serving prioress and urges them to repent like Peter rather than Judas.
Letter 220.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says he can give no worldly advice for Boniface's safety, but counsels him according to God to stop loving the world and to repent.
Letter 265.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Peter's repentance for his denial was not the formal penance of the Church's penitents.
Letter 265.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says the claim that the apostles gave penance instead of baptism, with no penance after baptism, is foreign to Catholic faith, whether or not Novatianists hold it.
Letter 265.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes penance before baptism, as in Acts 2:38, from the public penance of baptized sinners, as in 2 Cor 12:21 and the case of Simon Magus.
Letter 265.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine describes the daily penance of the faithful for small sins through the Lord's Prayer, fasting and almsgiving, comparing small sins to water seeping into a ship.
Homilies on Matthew 5.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · James and the Lord's kinsmen gained nothing from kinship until they showed virtue; the prayers of saints avail only if we repent, as Scripture's examples show (Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah, Noah, Job, Daniel, Abraham); God prefers to give grace to us directly.
Homilies on Matthew 6.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Moral section of Homily 6: Christians are cold where Paul and the first believers burned; the spiritual fire produces compunction and tears that unite us to God, as with the sinful woman and Hannah, provided they are not for display.
Homilies on Matthew 10.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Homily 10 opens with Matt 3:1–2: 'in those days' is an indefinite phrase; Christ was baptized at thirty after fulfilling the whole law; John's baptism did not remit sins but led the self-righteous Jews to acknowledge their sins and seek Christ's remission, and gathered crowds to witness his manifestation.
Homilies on Matthew 10.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · If John, the greatest of the prophets, lived so austerely, our luxury is inexcusable; his preaching of heaven, not of earthly wars, drew all Judea to confession; now is the time of confession for catechumens and baptized alike, for the judgment is near.
Homilies on Matthew 10.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The end comes when the Gospel has been preached to all, as testimony against unbelievers; we must wake from present dreams and repent by doing the opposite of our sins; peace with God must be pursued by cutting off anger and excess.
Homilies on Matthew 11.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · 'Brood of vipers' fits their parricidal history; John demands fruits of repentance and forbids trust in Abraham, since God can raise children from stones as from Sarah's womb; the axe at the root threatens without despair; bearing fruit needs only the will, and Christ's baptism with the Spirit and fire gives every grace.
Homilies on Matthew 14.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The sinner must feel and confess his sins before the judgment while there is time, and the rich in particular are shown to be prisoners bound by the love of money.
Homilies on Matthew 15.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Humility is the foundation of the new life because pride is the root of all evil; then those who mourn for sin, the meek, and those who hunger for righteousness are called blessed, with rewards both present and to come.
Homilies on Matthew 22.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Anxiety gains nothing, since God provides; we must seek the kingdom first and the rest is added; tomorrow’s trouble is not to be added to today’s; delay of judgment should be used for repentance, as Manasseh’s case shows.
Homilies on Matthew 22.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · No sin is beyond the power of repentance and Christ’s grace, but God saves only the willing; persistent prayer, like that of the Syrophoenician woman, the importunate friend, the widow, and the prodigal son, is never refused.
Homilies on Matthew 22.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · God’s love is roused by the smallest spark of repentance and pours out its gifts to those who ask continually, so Christians, though sinning daily, should never despair but always come to him in prayer.
Homilies on Matthew 26.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · No one standing should be confident and no one fallen despair, against the Manichaean claim that wickedness cannot change; David’s adultery and murder are set out in full to show the greatness of his recovery.
Homilies on Matthew 26.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · David is admirable because, after so grave a fall late in a glorious life, he rose at once and repented so fully that God honored him even after death; his example should produce fear, not carelessness.
Homilies on Matthew 29.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ heals soul and body and does not rebuke the slow crowds; so we must correct blasphemers and enemies of the truth with gentleness, as God himself does, and not with anger.
Homilies on Matthew 51.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · One who would not pray with filthy hands should not pray with a tongue soiled by insult and anger; Chrysostom urges that the tongue be cleansed by repentance, bridled, and adorned with gentleness, before approaching the awesome God.
Homilies on Matthew 67.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ meets the question about his authority with the question about John’s baptism, and by the parable of the two sons makes the Jewish leaders condemn themselves; Chrysostom then tells of a famous actress of his own day who became a model of repentance and asceticism.
Homilies on Matthew 67.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Neither the sinner should despair nor the virtuous grow careless, since Scripture shows great reversals (Manasseh, Solomon, Judas, Matthew, Paul, Simon), and Christ still bids the paralytic of sin rise and take up his bed.
Homilies on Matthew 67.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The labor of repentance and virtue is short and its reward eternal and partly enjoyed even now, while worldly labor brings uncertain, late and short-lived fruit.
Homilies on Matthew 85.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Mark’s second cock-crow agrees with Matthew; Judas repented only when his sin was complete, and his suicide, the devil’s work, condemns the priests, who in turn are troubled only after the crucifixion, while their “See to it yourself” convicts them.
Homilies on Matthew 86.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Passions once admitted are hard to expel, and the devil leads men from small sins to great ones—as with Saul, Cain and Judas—then to despair, and also deceives under a guise of piety, as when wives refuse their husbands for the sake of continence, or men abhor foods or grieve immoderately; Scripture arms us against each of these ways.
On 1 Cor 7:39, section 4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom explains that Paul permits a widow's second marriage “in the Lord” while ranking widowhood higher, and calls those who resort to prostitutes to true repentance with tears, prayer and almsgiving.
On what sort of wives to marry, section 1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom recalls that his previous sermon, which called it adultery to cast out a wife or to marry a woman cast out while her husband lives, moved many to grief, and urges those about to marry to choose with great care, since a wife cannot be sent back without adultery.
On Fleeing the World 34Ambrose · ca. 387-391 · Repentance, grace, and the desert are good flights; Elijah fled not Jezebel but the world, to Horeb and the brook Cherith.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.88Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The cock's crow brings hope, rouses prayer, and recalled Peter to repentance after his denial.
Hexameron (Exameron) 6.50Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Knowing oneself as God's image means guarding thoughts, eyes, and speech, using one's powers to save others, and seeking repentance when wounded.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.10.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The psalms kindle love, reveal mysteries, and teach both avoiding sin and repenting of it.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.32.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Tribulation leads to repentance; gladness often to error, as with Israel.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.48.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Evil is an accident in the soul, burned away by repentance; the soul's nature is precious.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.51.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The fallen just man must do penance and rise again; forgiveness is repeated.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.1.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · After his two books On Repentance, Ambrose will show from Psalm 37 (38) how penance should be done.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.1.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Like empirical medicine, penance is learned from experience; David, a king, humbled himself.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.1.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · All the psalms teach penance, but Psalm 37 (38) most strongly.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.2.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The title "for remembrance" defines penance as remembering and confessing sins.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.2.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Penance is flight from the wrath to come.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.4.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Penance is the medicine taught by Christ the physician.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.10.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · After baptism, sin is washed by the water of tears.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.10.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The church, like Rachel, weeps for the sinner until he returns.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.11.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · First the water of baptism, then the water of tears.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.11.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Tears become bread; the one forgiven much loves much.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.11.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Confession turns sin's venom into a remedy.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.13.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The penitent must accept rebuke, for condemnation now is absolution later.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.13.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The penitent must offer himself to punishment now rather than later.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.14.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · David confessed his sin in numbering the people before the prophet came.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.31.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Foolishness that sees its sores is better than the world's wisdom; David found penance, Judas did not.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.38.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The penitent should list his sins, not his good deeds.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.51.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · David, though king, did not blush to do penance; false shame will be regretted at the judgment.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.51.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Those ashamed to confess Christ will be shamed; David confessed openly.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.51.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Amend now while you can, as the parable of the rich man warns.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.59.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Penance with prayer and tears is light compared with the glory to come.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.22.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Grace strips sin off; penance covers it with labor; both are blessed.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.34.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · A purifying fire awaits sinners; crush the heart now in penance.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.14.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · In spiritual combat we must confess our sins, since the physician demands confession before he heals.
On Genesis against the Manichaeans 2.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 388–390 · Read as prophecy, Adam's labor, the forbidden food (heretical deceit), and the garments of skin (carnal phantasms) describe the Christian led into heresy, who can still reach the tree of life through tribulation and love.
Sermon on the Eight Beatitudes 3Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · Chromatius explains the third step: mourning for one's sins, which the meek soul begins when it examines itself, and which brings God's consolation.
Tractates on Matthew 3.3Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that the blessed mourners are those who weep for their own sins or for the sins of others, like David, Samuel, Jeremiah, Daniel and Paul.
On Two Souls 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391–392 · The Manichaeans admit that repentance is useful, but neither a soul incapable of evil nor one incapable of good can repent, so their two kinds of souls are refuted.
On Two Souls 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391–392 · Augustine fears that a friend still attached to the Manichaeans would rather deny the known usefulness of repentance than accept the conclusion, and laments the power of the habit of sin.
Sermon 13.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whoever seeks judicial power, even by purchase, must first judge himself in the court of his conscience, punishing his sins by repentance, and then judge his neighbor in the same way.
Sermon 19.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The penitent acknowledges his own sins instead of judging others'; sin must be punished either by God or by the sinner himself in repentance, which is anger against oneself.
Sermon 19.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God no longer wants animal sacrifices, which all prefigured Christ (ram, lamb, bull, goat), the same faith being held by the fathers; the sacrifice he now wants is a contrite heart, crushed so that a clean one may be created.
Sermon 20.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The soul can wound itself by sin but cannot heal itself; it must pray, with the penitent of Psalm 51, for God to create a clean heart, and not despair.
Sermon 20.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The sinner must accuse himself, not excuse himself by blaming fortune, fate or the devil; God turns his face from the sins of one who acknowledges them, for sin must be punished either by the penitent or by God.
Sermon 20.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The penitent must guard against despair, which drives a sinner to indulge every lust as if already lost, and against presumption, which delays conversion because God promises pardon at any hour.
Sermon 20.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against presumption Scripture warns, "Do not delay to turn to the Lord": the one who postpones conversion, counting on tomorrow, wants all his goods to be good except his own life.
Sermon 22.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God warns through Scripture and scourges through tribulation so that we may repent now; the repentance of the damned will be fruitless, but even the thief on the cross was allowed to change.
Sermon 22.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God is both merciful and just: he spares and pardons the repentant now and will judge by deserts; his "repentance" is a change of sentence when the sinner changes, so we should all seek pardon, not acquittal.
Sermon 22.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The proud, who defend their sins, vanish like rising smoke; the penitent, who confess them and struggle against them, are forgiven what remains, so long as the last day finds them still fighting.
Sermon 29.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Confessing sin heals, while excusing it by blaming the devil, fortune, or fate lets the accuser triumph; we should say, “I have sinned against you.”
Sermon 40.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who refuse correction perish either by despair, forgetting that God does not want the sinner’s death, or by presumption, forgetting that his patience is meant to lead them to repentance.
Sermon 40.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one has been promised tomorrow; Augustine, as a watchman who dares neither erase nor keep silent about Scripture’s warning, urges his hearers not to delay their conversion.
Sermon 47.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God’s silence is his patience, meant to lead us to repentance; those who sin unpunished and think God is like them will hear his rebuke.
Sermon 47.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Confess today and clean your heart, so that God may come into it, while he still warns instead of judging.
Sermon 60.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Repentance without works of mercy is barren; John the Baptist’s “fruits worthy of repentance” are sharing clothing and food, and only one who forgives and gives will be heard.
Sermon 67.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Confessing sin is a sign that the sinner has been raised from death by Christ, as Lazarus was, so self-accusation is praise of God.
Sermon 71.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The unforgivable blasphemy against the Spirit is impenitence: the hard heart that refuses the forgiveness given by the Spirit in the Church.
Sermon 71.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one can be judged guilty of final impenitence while still alive, so no one is to be despaired of.
Sermon 72.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The barren fig tree visited for three years stands for the three ages of the human race; repentance, humble and lowly, is the digging and dung that make it fruitful.
Sermon 73.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In Scripture’s figures one thing can have many names: the poor soils of the sower parable are the weeds, bad Christians, who are urged to repent while there is time.
Sermon 82.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Many perish by saying “tomorrow, tomorrow” like the raven; God promises pardon to the penitent but not a tomorrow, so we must correct ourselves today.
Sermon 87.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one should delay conversion because the wage is the same, for no one is promised another hour; Christ, now known throughout the world through the Church, has gone out to call workers.
Sermon 87.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The opposite danger is perverse hope that delays conversion; God promises pardon but not tomorrow, and Scripture warns against delay.
Sermon 96.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Self-love was man’s first ruin and drives him out to love external things, like the prodigal son; to return he must come back to himself and go on to the Father, denying himself and trusting God, not man.
Sermon 98.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The three dead signify three kinds of sinners: sin consented to in the heart, sin carried out in the deed, and sin buried under habit; Christ raises all three.
Sermon 98.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Sin advances in four steps, pleasure, consent, deed, and habit, like Lazarus four days dead; God alone gives life inwardly, while the disciples, the church’s ministers, unbind the one revived.
Sermon 109.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ rebukes those who read the sky but not the time of faith; now is the time of mercy to repent, for each person’s end is near, human life being more fragile than glass.
Sermon 110.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The barren fig tree is the human race through three ages, before the law, under the law, and under grace; the saints intercede for it, and the trench and dung of repentance are applied before the judgment.
Sermon 110.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God has paid most of what he promised, so we can trust him for the kingdom; the barren should repent and the bent, looking only at earthly happiness, should call on God to raise them as Christ raised the woman.
Sermon 128.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The three dead whom Christ raised, the girl in the house, the young man carried out, and Lazarus in the tomb, stand for sin decided in the heart, sin committed, and sin become habit; none is beyond Christ’s power to raise.
Sermon 137.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To enter by the door is to enter through Christ in humility, as the tax collector did; the Gospel names three persons, the shepherd to be loved, the hireling to be tolerated, and the thief to be guarded against.
Sermon 142.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God rebukes the soul to heal her shame: the soul that left God for self and the world must be shown her sins, forget herself by loving God rather than the world, and return.
Sermon 142.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The psalmist’s prayer that sinners be put to shame is a prayer for their good: God hates the sins we have made but loves us whom he made, and bids us turn to him so that he may turn to us.
Sermon 175.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pierced by Peter's preaching, Christ's killers asked what to do and were told to repent and be baptized in the name of the one they had killed; they were healed, the answer to Christ's prayer for them.
Sermon 175.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul, the worst of sinners, was healed as a sign that no one should despair; but sinners must not stay in sin's bed, rising instead to health and crediting it to God, since self-praise makes one sicker.
Sermon 181.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Confession, humility, prayer, and tears heal the daily sins we cannot avoid, though a good Christian does not commit the deadly sins; God forgives our debts on the fixed condition that we forgive others.
Sermon 216.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The candidates must guard against pride, persist in repentance, and humble themselves in fasting, as was signified when they stood on sackcloth during their examination.
Sermon 224.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Sinners must not put off amendment with the crow's “cras, cras”; the newly baptized are adjured not to imitate them.
Sermon 232.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine rebukes public penitents who go on sinning or stay in the order of penitents without amendment, urging them to change before sudden death.
Sermon 254.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Sadness is like dung, filth in the house but fertilizer in the field; sadness over sin, as Paul says, works repentance unto a salvation that will never be repented of.
Sermon 254.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Sadness over lost money or prayer for an enemy’s death is dung in the wrong place; sadness over sin and mortal temptation is fruitful.
Sermon 278.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Grave sins after baptism are forgiven through the Church’s keys by earnest penance; light, unavoidable sins overwhelm by their number, and God forgives them too, but only if we forgive others.
Sermon 296.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Rather than murmur, praise God who corrects his children; the apostles’ tombs were not meant to preserve Rome’s theaters, and the prosperity of the unpunished wicked is a sign of God’s greater anger.
Against Jovinianus 1.8Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues that Paul's permission to resume marital relations is an indulgence, not a command, and that the gifts of virginity and marriage differ.
Against Jovinianus 2.3Jerome · 393 · Jerome gathers New Testament texts showing that the baptized can be tempted, fall, and repent, against Jovinian, Montanus, and Novatian.
Against Jovinianus 2.31Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the claims that all sins and all martyrdoms are equal and that the penitent equals the righteous, using the parables of Luke 15 and Ezekiel.
Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 394 · Augustine answers the charge that God's jealousy and punishment of children in Exodus 20 contradict Christ's teaching on kindness and forgiveness, arguing that both Testaments teach God's patience, pardon of the penitent, and justice.
On the Faith against the Manichaeans 42Evodius of Uzalis · ca. 400-424 · Evodius urges the deceived to repent, since even unbelief is a sin and cannot be blamed on the race of darkness.
On Christian Doctrine 3.21Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · David's grief for Absalom and his repentance over Bathsheba show the patriarchs' temperance with women, whereas Solomon was ruled by lust.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.66Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine lists David's virtues alongside his sins: repentance, mercy to Saul, patience under Shimei's curses, love for his people, reverence for the Lord's anointed, and grief for Absalom.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.67Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine contrasts David's “I have sinned,” which God accepted, with Saul's same words, which he did not, because God saw their different hearts.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.68Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine notes that the demons confessed Christ in the same words as Peter, and that sinners who repent, like Peter and David, may surpass those who never fell, as a cleared field can outyield one that never had thorns.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.86Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine interprets Tamar's disguise and pledges as the church of the Gentiles, made fruitful through repentance and confession, sealed by calling, justification, and glorification.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.97Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine says that those who use David's sin as an excuse for sinning abuse a record meant to bring sinners to repentance, as madmen misuse medical instruments.
On the Nature of the Good 48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · Augustine closes with a prayer to the patient and merciful God that more Manichaeans may be freed through baptism or repentance, since the keys of the kingdom in the church leave no one beyond hope.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.61Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The variations in the Pharisees' objection and Christ's answer at Levi's feast convey one sense; Luke's 'to repentance' explains why Christ calls sinners.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · In the case of the incestuous man at Corinth, Paul joined the rod with love: he called the church to mourn, handed the sinner to Satan for his salvation, told them to correct him as a brother, and later to forgive and comfort him, lest Satan break the bond of peace.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · The church excommunicates a member guilty of a notorious sin when no schism threatens and with love for his correction; when the whole congregation shuns him, he is shamed and healed.
Commentary on Daniel 4, scholion 27Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · God gave the king a year to repent, but he forgot his fear and grew proud.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 78–79Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · David, restored by repentance, remained after God's heart, so Christ could descend from Bathsheba, though the child of the adultery died; and Josiah's violent death punished his disobedience to the prophet's warning, while his idolatrous sons' captivity refutes pagan claims of the gods' revenge.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 97Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The law's repeated washings and sacrifices only cleansed ritual faults and punished real crimes without mercy, while grace offers sinners repentance as a physician for every sin, so grace is the more loving.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 104Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · David's pardon for adultery and murder came not from the law, which grants none for such crimes, but from grace, which offers repentance and leads sinners back to obedience; pardon is above the law and on its behalf.
On Holy Virginity 42Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virginity is God's gift, and Scripture's prayers for obedience and repentance show that even what God commands is done only by his grace.
Apology against Jerome 1.22Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus mocks Jerome's claim to have repented of his former praise of Origen, saying true repentance weeps and keeps silent rather than accusing others.
Apology against Jerome 1.44Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus concludes Book 1: if Origen's repentance, reported in his letter to Fabian, did not earn him pardon, neither can Jerome's.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · 'No guile' does not mean that Nathanael was sinless, but that he had no double heart: as a sinner he confessed himself a sinner, and so the physician judged him curable.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Pharisees who thought themselves healthy rejected the physician, while the sinful woman, who had no guile, confessed her sins at his feet and was healed; this absence of guile Christ praised in Nathanael.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 12.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Doing the truth means confessing and accusing one's own sins, which is the beginning of good works and is itself the work of God's light in us.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 12.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine urges watchfulness and daily confession even of small sins, which if neglected sink the soul like water seeping into a ship.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 33.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who love the Lord's gentleness must fear his truth and justice, and not presume on long life while delaying repentance.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 33.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Men are endangered both by presumptuous hope and by despair; God offers forgiveness to the despairing and makes the day of death uncertain for the presumptuous.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The three dead whom Christ raised figure three deaths of the soul: sin in thought, sin in deed, and sin hardened by habit, from which even Lazarus' sister was raised.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ’s groaning signifies the groaning of faith in a sinner who accuses himself; waking faith is like waking Christ asleep in the storm-tossed boat.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 66.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Peter truly denied Christ, for to deny Christ the man is to deny Christ himself; his tears refute those who would excuse him.
On the Christian Life 2Fastidius · ca. 411-430 · God's patience with sinners is not indifference but mercy that waits for their conversion, as the prophets show.
City of God 14.8Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine examines the Stoic doctrine of three good feelings in the sage and no sadness, showing that Scripture and classical authors use will, gladness, and even sadness in both good and bad senses, as with godly sorrow.
On Faith and Works 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Peter's call at Pentecost included “Repent,” which means putting off the old life; repentance is fruitless for one who persists in adultery.
On Faith and Works 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Peter's call to repent and to be rescued from a crooked generation required a change of life before baptism, not only faith.
On Faith and Works 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · The Red Sea typology supports repentance before baptism: leaving Egypt signifies renouncing sin, and the law given after the crossing included both the worship of God and moral commands.
On Faith and Works 36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · The right order is faith in the Trinity, repentance from dead works, and forgiveness in baptism, which forgives sin but does not permit it.
Commentary on Jeremiah 1.30Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Repentance and the church's rebuke wash away light sins, but grave sins need heavier purging; God sees the stain even when men do not.
Commentary on Jeremiah 1.40Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God's chastisements of Israel and the slaughter of its false prophets failed to bring the people to repentance.
Commentary on Jeremiah 1.63Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God gladly receives the penitent like the prodigal's father, though our return, while willed by us, needs his drawing and help to save us.
Commentary on Jeremiah 1.64Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The penitent abandons the proud high places and confesses that salvation is in God alone.
Commentary on Jeremiah 1.79Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God calls Jerusalem to wash its heart with the water of baptism and repentance and to be rid of wicked thoughts.
Commentary on Jeremiah 1.86Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The prophet sees the land returned to emptiness under God's anger, a warning meant to bring repentance; God's “repenting” means withdrawing a threatened sentence, as at Nineveh.
Commentary on Jeremiah 2.27Jerome · ca. 414-419 · With flight cut off, Judah's only defence is repentance, mourning as for an only son; God shares in what falls on his people.
Commentary on Jeremiah 2.49Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God still invites the fallen to rise and return; one who turns back can turn aside God's anger by prayer.
Commentary on Jeremiah 2.50Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Israel stubbornly refuses to repent and rushes into sin like a horse into battle; even migrating birds know their seasons, but God's people does not know his judgment.
Commentary on Jeremiah 2.68Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The balm of Gilead is repentance; Jerusalem's wounds stay open because it lacks true prophets and priests to heal them.
Commentary on Jeremiah 3.17Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Judah must give glory to God and repent before captivity, and all must repent before the darkness of judgment.
Commentary on Jeremiah 3.33Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Fasting, prayers and sacrifices avail only with repentance; for those set on persisting in sin, intercession is useless.
Commentary on Jeremiah 5.36Jerome · ca. 414-419 · This earlier oracle shows the prophets do not keep historical order; God's 'perhaps they will listen' preserves human free choice, since his foreknowledge does not cause what happens, and his threats are conditional on repentance (Jer 26:1–3).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.20Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Ephraim's lament shows that even repentance requires God first to turn us; he strikes his thigh in shame for the sins of his youth and, having repented, shows God to others (Jer 31:18–19).
On Nature and Grace 40Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine agrees with Pelagius that the sins of the saints are recorded to teach repentance and to guard against despair.
Apologetic Book 14.1Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Repentance begins salvation but does not make one sinless.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.43.18Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The detractors should repent and believe.
The Institutes 9.9John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · A worse dejection leads not to repentance but to despair, as with Cain and Judas.
The Institutes 9.10John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Sadness is useful only when it comes from penitence, desire for perfection, or longing for heaven.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 82Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Even doing penance requires God's mercy, since shame often prevents it.
The Conferences 9.29John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Isaac distinguishes kinds of tears: of repentance, of longing for heaven, of fear of judgment, of grief for others’ sins, and of the righteous oppressed by the hardships of this life.
The Conferences 17.25John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Joseph gives many scriptural examples of saints who deceived for a good end and of decisions changed for a better reason, including God's own threats to Hezekiah, Nineveh and Saul.
The Conferences 20.3John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus says the height of Pinufius’s teaching has cast them into despair and asks to learn the end of repentance and the sign that satisfaction has been made.
The Conferences 20.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Pinufius praises their humility, notes that many have written on the power of repentance, and agrees to speak on what others have neglected: its end and the sign of satisfaction.
The Conferences 20.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Pinufius defines repentance as never committing the sins again, and the sign of forgiveness as the disappearance of all affection for them, even their memory and image.
The Conferences 20.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Pinufius answers that remembering sins belongs to those still doing penance; once tears and purity of heart have removed the sting of memory, forgiveness is complete.
The Conferences 20.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Pinufius lists the many means of forgiveness after baptism and martyrdom, among them love, almsgiving, tears, confession, affliction, amendment, the prayers of the saints, converting others, forgiving others, and above all God’s mercy, and urges mortification.
The Conferences 20.11John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Satisfaction is complete only when the inner movements toward sin are removed, which requires cutting off each sin’s cause, such as familiarity with women, excess of wine, love of money, or pride.
The Conferences 20.12John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Pinufius limits the forgetting of sins to grave crimes; for daily small faults repentance never ends, and the perfect must also press on to positive virtue and love.
The Conferences 22.13John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The righteous still fall daily in seven kinds of lesser faults without ceasing to be righteous, as Peter shows, who erred and denied Christ yet remained holy through repentance and grace.
The Conferences 23.15John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas argues that grave sins after baptism are cleansed only by long penance or punished eternally, so the daily “law of sin” in Romans 7, cured by Christ’s daily grace, must be the distraction of the saints from contemplation, which makes them wretched rather than guilty.
On Rebuke and Grace 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · One who refuses rebuke must be rebuked for that very refusal; rebuke, like preaching and prayer, is a means God uses, though he can correct without it, as with Peter and Paul.
Sermon on the Barbarian Time 1Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · God’s wrath shown in the barbarian invasion calls for repentance, yet the city still throngs the shows; all are guilty, preachers and hearers alike, and should stop slandering one another.
Sermon on the Barbarian Time 2Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · God’s word calls all to repent and bear fruit before the axe falls; his delay is patience, as in the parable of the barren fig tree, for which Paul intercedes.
Sermon on the Barbarian Time 6Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · Job conquered temptation and blessed God when he lost everything; (chapter 7) in the parable of the prodigal son the younger son is the repentant robber on the cross and the elder son Peter, who denied and was restored, and all may enter paradise through Christ’s opened side.
Part 1, chapter 30Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Joseph’s brothers coming to buy grain from the brother they sold, his demand for Benjamin, and Simeon’s binding figure the Jews who crucified Christ coming to repent, Paul of Benjamin, and Peter’s power to bind and loose.
Part 2, chapter 5Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The calf, lamb, sheep, ram, and kid of the sacrifices figure Christ; the turtledove and dove the Church and the baptized infants; the offerings for sins of ignorance figure penitence, as in Peter; and the true votive offering is praise and almsgiving.
Part 2, chapter 26Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · David, king over all Israel, who mourned Saul, figures Christ who loves his enemies; his adultery and murder, his penance, and the troubles of his house warn that prosperity is more dangerous than adversity.
Part 2, chapter 33Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The captivity of Judah for its sins, Zedekiah’s blinding, and the plundered temple vessels warn the author’s own afflicted times to repent; Daniel’s first four visions (Susanna, the king’s food, the statue of four kingdoms, the furnace) figure Christ and his Church.