Matt. 7:24-29 (Part 2)
ARCHELAUS: I now take the place of Diodorus, not on account of any impossibilities attaching to him, but because I came to know this person here at a previous time, when he made his way with his wicked designs into the parts where I reside, by the favor of Marcellus, that man of illustrious name, whom he endeavored to turn aside from our doctrine and faith, with the object, that is to say, of making him an effective supporter of this impious teaching. Nevertheless, in spite of all his plausible addresses, he failed to move him or turn him aside from the faith in any one particular. For this most devout Marcellus was only found to be like the rock on which the house was built with the most solid foundations; and when the rain descended, and the floods and the winds burst in and beat upon that house, it stood firm: for it had been built on the most solid and immoveable foundations. The Disputation of Archelaus and Manes, 6.221-222.
7:25 IRENAEUS: But since parables admit of many interpretations, what lover of truth will not acknowledge, that for them to assert God is to be searched out from these, while they desert what is certain, indubitable, and true, is the part of men who eagerly throw themselves into danger, and act as if destitute of reason? And is not such a course of conduct not to build one’s house upon a rock which is firm, strong, and placed in an open position, but upon the shifting sand? Hence the overthrow of such a building is a matter of ease. Against Heresies, 1.399.
ORIGEN: “For neither death nor life nor angels nor other things can separate us from the love of Christ.” Neither can the flooding of rivers, as in the lands of Egypt and Assyria, do harm. Only those are harmed who build on sand, who practice the wisdom of the world. The winds that blow are like the false prophets. All these, coming together in one place, “beat upon” the house. If it is founded on rock, they do no harm. “The way of a snake upon a rock” is not to be found. But in the form of temptations and persecutions, which may mount into a flood, they beat upon even the one who seems to be well-founded. The house falls if it does not have Christ as its basis and foundation. But the truly wise person builds one’s house “upon a rock.” This is the way the Lord builds his church—upon the rock, with steadfastness and strength. This is why “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” All the persecutions that fall upon that house accomplish nothing. The house is founded upon the rock. Fragment 153.23
7:26 ANONYMOUS: The Lord made known the future destruction in the Gospel in these words, saying, “He who hears my words and does not do them, I will liken him to a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand: the tempests came and beat upon that house, and it fell; and great was its destruction.” A Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian by an Anonymous Bishop. 5.659
7:28ff JUSTIN MARTYR: Brief and concise utterances fell from Him, for He was no sophist [a paid teacher of philosophy and rhetoric in ancient Greece, associated in popular thought with moral skepticism and specious reasoning.], but His word was the power of God.
The First Apology, 1.167.
TERTULLIAN: But “they were all astonished at His doctrine.” Of course they were; for, Luke says, “His word was with power” —not because He taught in opposition to the law and the prophets. No doubt, His divine discourse gave forth both power and grace, building up rather than pulling down the substance of the law and the prophets. Otherwise, instead of “astonishment,” they would feel horror. It would not be admiration, but aversion, prompt and sure, which they would bestow on one who was the destroyer of law and prophets, and the greater propounder as a natural consequence of a rival god; for he would have been unable to teach anything to the disparagement of the law and the prophets, and so far of the Creator also, without premising the doctrine of a different and rival divinity. Inasmuch, then, as the Scripture makes no other statement on the matter than that the simple force and power of His word produced astonishment, it more naturally shows that His teaching was in accordance with the Creator by not denying that it was so, than that it was in opposition to the Creator, by not asserting such a fact. And thus He will either have to be acknowledged as belonging to Him, in accordance with whom He taught; or else will have to be adjudged a deceiver since He taught in accordance with One whom He had come to oppose. Against Marcion, 3.352-353.