Salvation in the early church · Sophia Scriptura

How human beings are saved and what salvation is.

2 Clement 1.4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Christ gave light, made us sons, and saved us.
2 Clement 1.6Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Once blind idol-worshipers, we have been given sight.
2 Clement 1.7Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · God saved us out of mercy when we had no hope.
2 Clement 2.4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Another scripture: Christ came to call sinners.
2 Clement 2.5Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The perishing must be saved.
2 Clement 2.6Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · The greatness of saving what is falling.
2 Clement 2.7Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Christ came to save the perishing, and called us.
Dialogue with Trypho 45.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Those who lived under the law will be saved by their own righteousness.
Dialogue with Trypho 45.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The righteous under the law will be saved through Christ, who existed before creation and became flesh to destroy the serpent and death.
Dialogue with Trypho 46.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Can Jewish believers in Jesus who keep the law be saved?
Dialogue with Trypho 46.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin asks whether the patriarchs and matriarchs, who kept none of these laws, will be saved.
Dialogue with Trypho 46.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Trypho admits the patriarchs are saved without the Mosaic law.
Dialogue with Trypho 47.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · A Jewish believer who keeps the law will be saved, Justin thinks, so long as he does not impose it on Gentile believers.
Dialogue with Trypho 64.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin persists out of fear of God's judgment, not judging which Jews may be saved.
Dialogue with Trypho 64.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Jews who are saved are saved through Christ.
Dialogue with Trypho 92.6Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · God wills that the Jews be saved with Christ.
Diatessaron, section 31Tatian · ca. 160-180
Exhortation to the Greeks 11.117Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Word, who regenerates human beings and makes them God's temple, calls them to purify that temple and offer themselves to God.
Against Heresies 3.10.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Gabriel's announcement, Mary's Magnificat, and Zechariah's Benedictus proclaim the God of the fathers, whose Son became man that man might become son of God.
Against Heresies 3.20.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Emmanuel is the sign that salvation comes from God, not from ourselves, as Paul and Isaiah testify.
Against Heresies 3.23.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ had to save Adam himself, or the serpent would have defeated God; the captor was taken captive and man was set free.
Against Heresies 3.23.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Adam, the first-formed man, must be saved along with his descendants, as a just liberator would free the captives themselves and not only their children.
Against Heresies 5.14.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ had real flesh and blood, recapitulating the blood of the righteous from Abel onward, which would be pointless unless flesh and blood were to be saved.
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 97Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
On Baptism 12Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Tertullian answers those who question the apostles' salvation because they were not baptized with Christian baptism: they probably received John's baptism, and in any case their faith and close following of Christ could stand in its place.
Didascalia 2.55–56Anonymous · first half of the third century
On the Flesh of Christ 14Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · Christ did not take an angel's nature: he came to save man, not angels, and though called “the angel of great counsel” he is the Lord himself, not a messenger like the prophets.
Against Marcion 4.37Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Zacchaeus fulfilled Isaiah's commands of mercy and was saved, Christ came to save the whole man, flesh as well as soul, and the parable of the entrusted money shows a God who judges.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 34Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Christ came to save the whole man who was lost, and he promised to lose nothing the Father gave him but to raise it on the last day; so the flesh too will be saved.
Fragments on Luke, column 359Origen · ca. 220-254 · Believers become one spiritual bread; the workers in the vineyard stand for those called at every age of life, or in every age of history, all receiving the one denarius of God's image.
PG 12:1247 (Ps 19 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Ps 19 LXX (20):4–9: the burnt offering made fat, salvation as the Son and the cross, and the fall of the opposing powers.
Homily on Luke 10Origen · ca. 233–250 · Zechariah, taught by the hidden presence of Christ during Mary’s stay, prophesies of Christ and John; Christ delivers us from spiritual enemies without fear, and benefited even the patriarchs and the heavenly powers.
Homily on Luke 37Origen · ca. 233–250 · The tied colt is the soul bound by sins and ridden by no rational master until Christ’s disciples loose it for him; the apostles’ garments are their teaching and works, and if believers fall silent the stones will cry out.
Homilies on Joshua 10.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Gibeonites, saved but made servants, figure believers who serve the church yet never amend their lives, saved only with a mark of disgrace, like the fruitless elm that supports the vine in the Shepherd of Hermas.
Homilies on Numbers 21.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · In the heavenly inheritance the “few” are the more blessed, as the narrowing ark shows; the priests receive God alone as their inheritance; alternatively, one righteous man counts as many and the wicked, however numerous, as few.
Homilies on Jeremiah 17.5Origen · ca. 240 · Only Christ, the physician of souls, can truly be asked “heal me and I shall be healed,” as the woman with the hemorrhage found; the one who renounces every earthly boast can say to God, “you are my boast.”
Against Celsus 6.68Origen · ca. 248 · The Word became flesh so that those bound to the flesh might receive him, and then leads them up, as on the mount of Transfiguration, to see his divine glory.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 8Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · God makes Christ's enemies his footstool not to destroy them but to save them, as the Scriptures on the “footstool” and Paul on the final subjection show.
Commentary on Matthew 15.20Origen · ca. 246–248 · Jesus says a rich man enters the kingdom with difficulty, not that he cannot; the camel and the needle’s eye show the narrowness of the entry, which God alone can make passable.
Commentary on Matthew 15.34Origen · ca. 246–248 · The hours correspond to the works needed in each age, the new covenant being the last; the denarius is salvation; and the idleness of the eleventh-hour workers hints at a secret doctrine about the soul.
Commentary on Matthew 15.35Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen suggests that the place outside the vineyard is the state of souls before the body, that the vineyard extends beyond this life, that the eleventh-hour workers are Christ’s own, and that the vineyard is the kingdom of God.
Commentary on Romans 8.3Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · The same Lord is rich toward all who call upon him, but calling upon the Lord without fitting works, or too late, does not save; in Scripture 'calling upon the name of the Lord' is said of great men such as Enosh, Moses, Aaron and Samuel.
Against the Nations 2.64Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · Christ calls all equally, but God compels no one; those who refuse his offer of salvation have only themselves to blame.
Against the Nations 2.65Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · God does not force belief; salvation is given through Christ alone, whom God the Father appointed as the only door of life.
Recognitions 2.58Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Simon says his good God saves those who know him, not those who keep the law; Peter answers that such a God would save the wicked and neglect the good.
Recognitions 10.2Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · To Niceta's fear that their father might die unsaved, Peter replies that God judges motives and foreknows his own, and suggests they discuss useful topics in his hearing.
Oration II Against the Arians 46Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Scripture often uses “create” for renewal (a clean heart, the new man, a new people), so “the Lord created me” refers to the humanity of the Word, not his substance.
Oration II Against the Arians 54Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Christ speaks of his divinity without giving any reason, but of his incarnation he gives the reason: the need of human beings for life, light, truth, and deliverance from the devil.
Oration II Against the Arians 55Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The Word came for our sake, to die, raise us, and condemn sin; as he creates in himself the “one new man,” he can say “he created me” of himself, as he is said to become sin and a curse for us.
Oration II Against the Arians 75Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · “Before the age” refers to God's eternal purpose of salvation prepared in the Word before creation, since God foreknew the fall, as 2 Tim 1:9–10 and Eph 1:3–5 teach.
Oration II Against the Arians 77Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Like an architect who provides for repairs before building, God founded our renewal in Christ before creation; Athanasius then introduces a further sense of Prov 8:22.
Long recension, Smyrnaeans 6Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius insists that eternal life depends on believing in Christ's life in the flesh and his saving blood, and describes the lovelessness of those who teach otherwise.
On the Trinity 10.68Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Romans 10:6–9 forbids anxious questions and makes salvation the confession of Jesus as Lord, as Abraham's faith was reckoned as righteousness.
On the Trinity 10.70Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Salvation is the simple confession that Jesus is Lord and belief that God raised him (Rom 10:8–9), not curious questioning.
Homilies on the Psalms 7.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil explains Ps 7:1–6: only one who hopes in God alone can pray this verse; salvation is for the sick, deliverance for captives; “repayment” can mean a first gift; and the enemy tramples the soul of the one who lives by the flesh.
Homilies on the Psalms 61.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 62:1–5 Basil teaches that the soul must be subject to God, its Maker, from whom comes salvation, Christ himself; the righteous are shaken only humanly by trials, while the devil's servants assault man until, like a leaning wall, he falls, yet God rebuilds him for the resurrection. He discusses the variant “in thirst” and “in a lie,” and condemns those who flatter vice by giving it the names of virtues.
On the Holy Spirit 46Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · No envoy or angel, not even Moses, could save Israel, but God himself, who spared his creatures and gave his Son to redeem them from the devil.
Letter 183Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory argues that Christ assumed a complete human nature, mind included, since the whole of Adam fell and the whole must be saved; intelligible realities can coexist without crowding one another.
Letter 187Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory argues that the mind, which first sinned in Adam, most needed salvation and so was assumed by Christ; the Apollinarians misread “the Word became flesh”.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.3.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Hilary reads 1 Tim 2:15 of the church saved through her faithful children, rejecting salvation by childbearing.
Tractates on the Psalms 13.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · "Salvation" is a name of the Lord promised to the nations, as Isaiah, the Psalms, and Simeon show; it is announced to the Gentiles rather than to carnal Israel.
Commentary on Galatians 1.10Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul seeks not to please men but God, since to be Christ’s servant is to have been redeemed from the slavery of the world into the full freedom of serving Christ.
Oration 32.26Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory argues that salvation by faith and confession must be open to all, not only the learned, and prefers the simple believer to the clever arguer who empties the cross.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 2:1–4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The church prays for rulers so that believers may live godly lives in peace; God wills all to be saved, but only those who freely come to him in faith.
Letter to Epictetus 7Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius insists that the incarnation was real, not a mere appearance, so that the whole man, soul and body, is saved, and he cites the risen Lord's words in Luke.
On the Holy Spirit 15.35Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Baptism imitates Christ's death and burial: the water gives the image of death, and the Spirit gives new life.
Ancoratus 78.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Excluding Christ's mind makes salvation deficient.
Ancoratus 78.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ took the whole man to save the whole man.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.2.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If Adam is not saved, none of his descendants can be.
On Cain and Abel 2.11Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Our redemption price is Christ's blood; he is the true Levite who redeems all, offering healing so that those who perish do so by their own fault, while the righteous, like the ten for Sodom, save others.
On the Beatitudes 1239Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Christ did not condemn hunger but the luxury that the devil adds to it; he himself hungered for the Father’s will, which is our salvation, so we should hunger for our own salvation; and righteousness is desired as both food and drink.
On the Lord's Prayer 1163Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Christ, the true physician, heals our sickness, which came from separation from God’s will, by union with that will; to pray “Thy will be done” is to confess the past and ask that virtue, above all love, drive out the vices; we need God’s help because it is harder to recover than to fall.
Book of Heresies 153.5Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Salvation comes from faith in the Trinity.
Letter 102.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The second question, taken from Porphyry, asks what became of all the souls who lived before Christ came.
Letter 102.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · All who believed in Christ and lived piously from the beginning of the human race were saved through him; one true religion has existed under different signs.
Letter 102.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Believers in Christ existed in every age and even outside Israel; the true religion was never lacking to anyone worthy of it.
Homilies on Matthew 55.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · To save one’s life wrongly is to lose it beyond recovery, for neither the whole world nor any kingdom can buy back a lost soul, as no wealth can cure an incurable body; so all our zeal belongs to the soul.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.83.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Salvation is from the Lord alone, who remains when heaven passes.
Sermon 27.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s words “I have made known to you all that I heard from my Father” speak of the future as already done, as Scripture often does, just as we are “saved in hope.”
Sermon 111.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The three measures of meal are the human race descended from Noah’s three sons; the saved are few compared with the lost, but many in themselves, a heap of grain that will fill the barn of heaven, a multitude no one can number.
Sermon 163.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The new song belongs to the new man and the New Testament; Christ is God's salvation, longed for by the righteous of old and seen by Simeon, and the apostles, the heavens, proclaimed him to all the earth.
Sermon 176.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God made us and also saves us, for no one re-creates but the Creator; his grace goes before even our good will, so we should go before his anger by confessing that all good is from him and all evil from ourselves.
Sermon 185.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Truth that holds the world sprang from the earth for our salvation; without his birth and death we would have perished.
Sermon 190.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The psalms and Simeon's song proclaim Christ as God's salvation; the infant in the manger who holds the world shows the humility of God for our sake.
Sermon 233.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Bodily safety, shared even with animals, is not the salvation Christ promises; the true salvation is the lasting life of which he is the fountain.
Sermon 254.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God became our debtor by promising, not because we gave him anything; the psalmist looks for something to repay and finds only that he will take the cup of salvation, receiving still more.
Sermon 292.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The voice baptized the Word, the creature the Creator, the lamp the sun of justice; John confessed his own need of Christ the Savior of all, and Christ was baptized to fulfill all justice by humility.
Sermon 294.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul warns sinners only that they will not possess the kingdom, which implies eternal fire; salvation comes only in the name of Jesus Christ, and to promise infants salvation without Christ endangers the promiser’s own.
Sermon 299.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · ‘Jesus’ means Savior, who came to save sinners; Paul, the ‘first’ sinner, was owed punishment but received mercy, so that no sinner should despair; now he can confidently claim the crown as owed.
Sermon 315.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Jewish people will be delivered through Christ in the end, but not those who blaspheme him now, just as the Gentiles are now being saved while their idol-worshiping ancestors perished.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 2.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Unlike a human father who prefers an only son, God sent his only Son to make many adopted sons and co-heirs, who possess him as he possesses them.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Simon Magus was baptized yet, full of 'gall', had no part in the faith; so baptism alone, outside the dove's love and unity, does not save.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 17.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ healed only one of the many sick at the pool, since his miracles aimed at the eternal salvation of souls and signified unity, not mere bodily health.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 34.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ is the light that made the sun; as Psalm 36 says, God in his manifold mercy gives health to men and beasts alike.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 45.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who live outwardly good lives without Christ, the door, do not truly live well, for they do not reach eternal life.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 55.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Pascha means "passing over": Christ passed from the world to the Father, and his members pass with him from the devil to his kingdom.
City of God 10.32Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine answers Porphyry's search for a universal way of liberating the soul by presenting the Christian religion, promised to Abraham and foretold by the prophets, as that way, and closes the first ten books.
City of God 21.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view that all the baptized who have received Christ's body, even heretics, will eventually be saved.
City of God 21.20Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view that those baptized in the catholic church, even if they later fall into heresy or idolatry, will eventually be saved.
City of God 21.21Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view that catholics who persevere in the church, however wicked their lives, will be saved “through fire” because they have Christ as their foundation.
City of God 21.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · To have Christ as foundation is to put nothing before him; those who love lawful earthly things without preferring them to Christ are saved “through fire,” the fire of tribulation, while those who live wickedly have no such foundation; Augustine does not rule out a purifying fire for some spirits between death and judgment.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 103Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · “God wills all men to be saved” means that no one is saved unless God wills it, or that he wills people of every kind to be saved; it cannot mean that God's will fails.
The Conferences 3.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · There are three kinds of calling: directly from God, as with Abraham and Antony; through another person, as Israel through Moses; and through necessity or disaster, as in Judges and the Psalms.
The Conferences 13.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · God wills all to be saved and calls all without exception; whoever perishes does so against his will, and he fosters every spark of good will, whether he struck it himself or found it in us.
The Conferences 13.15John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · God calls people to salvation in countless ways, as the gospel calls and healings show: some unasked, some at their request, some against their will, according to each person’s faith and capacity.
The Conferences 13.17John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · God saves in countless unsearchable ways, sometimes compelling the unwilling, sometimes helping the willing, sometimes inspiring the first desire; no one can fathom these ways, and God’s love surpasses even a mother’s.