Ten Commandments and the Gospel in Early Christianity

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Direct teaching

"Fear the Lord," he said, "and keep His commandments." Ecclesiastes 12:13 For if you keep God's commandments, you will be strong in everything you do, and everything you do will be beyond compare. For by fearing the Lord, you will do everything well. This is the fear you ought to have, so that you may be saved. But do not fear the devil. For if you fear the Lord, you will rule over the devil, because there is no power in him. But someone in whom there is no power should never be feared. He in whom there is glorious power is the one who is truly to be feared. For everyone who has power ought to be feared, but he who has no power is despised by all. Therefore, fear the deeds of the devil, because they are evil. For if you fear the Lord, you will not do these deeds, but will hold back from them. For there are two kinds of fear. If you do not want to do what is evil, fear the Lord, and you will not do it. But again, if you want to do what is good, fear the Lord, and you will do it. Therefore the fear of the Lord is strong, great, and glorious. Fear the Lord, then, and you will live to Him, and all who fear Him and keep His commandments will live to God. "Why," I said, "sir, did you say

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Direct teaching

...will walk in them, for I will strengthen you in them. These commandments are useful for those who intend to repent. For if they do not walk in them, their repentance is in vain. Therefore, you who repent, throw away the wickedness of this world that wears you out. And by putting on all the virtues of a holy life, you will be able to keep these commandments, and you will no longer add to the number of your sins. Walk, therefore, in these commandments of mine, and you will live to God. All these things have been spoken to you by me." After he had said these words, he said to me, "Let us go into the fields, and I will show you the shepherds of the flocks." "Let us go, sir," I replied. And we came to a certain plain, and he showed me a young man, a shepherd, dressed in a set of yellow clothes. He was herding a great many sheep, and these sheep were feeding in a luxurious way, as it were, and riotously, and were merrily skipping here and there. The shepherd himself was cheerful because of his flock, and the shepherd's appearance was joyful, and he was running about among his flock. And I saw other sheep rioting and living luxuriously in one place, but not leaping about.

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Supporting witness

...will accomplish much. For you will find favor among those who are going to repent, and they will listen to your words, because I will be with you and will compel them to obey you." I said to him, "Sir, these commandments are great, good, and glorious, and they are able to make glad the heart of the person who can keep them. But I do not know whether a human being can keep these commandments, because they are extremely hard." He answered and said to me, "If you settle it in your mind that they can be kept, then you will keep them easily, and they will not be hard. But if you begin to think that they cannot be kept by man, then you will not keep them. Now I say to you, if you do not keep them, but neglect them, you will not be saved, nor your children, nor your household, since you have already decided for yourself that these commandments cannot be kept by man."

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Supporting witness

...hen, man is lord over the creatures of God and rules over all, is he not able to be lord over these commandments also? For," he says, "the man who has the Lord in his heart can also be lord over all, and over every one of these commandments. But for those who have the Lord only on their lips, Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8, while their hearts are hardened, John 12:40; 2 Corinthians 3:14, and who are far from the Lord, the commandments are hard and difficult. Therefore, you who are empty and unstable in your faith, put the Lord in your heart, and you will know that nothing is easier, sweeter, or more manageable than these commandments. Return, you who walk in the commandments of the devil, in harsh and bitter and savage licentiousness, and do not fear the devil. For he has no power against you, because I will be with you, the angel of repentance, who am lord over him. The devil has only fear, but his fear has no strength. So do not fear him, and he will flee from you."

Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Supporting witness

...y and foolishly. But he answered and said to me, "Do not be troubled, but receive strength from the commandments that I am going to give you. For I have been sent," he said, "to show you again all the things that you saw before, especially those that are useful to you. First of all, then, write down my commandments and similitudes, and you will write the other things as I show you. For this reason," he said, "I command you to write down the commandments and similitudes first, so that you may read them easily and be able to keep them." Accordingly, I wrote down the commandments and similitudes exactly as he had ordered me. If, then, when you have heard these things, you keep them and walk in them, and practice them with pure minds, you will receive from the Lord all that He has promised you. But if, after you have heard them, you do not repent, but continue to add to your sins, then you will receive from the Lord the opposite things. The shepherd, that is, the angel of repentance, commanded me to write all these words.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

Now the law is the Decalogue, which the Lord proclaimed to them with an audible voice before the people made that calf which represented the Egyptian Apis. And the law is righteous, and therefore it is called law, because judgments are made from it according to the law of nature. The followers of Simon misuse this, thinking they will not be judged by it and so will escape punishment. This law is good and holy, and it places no compulsion in positive matters. For He says, "If you will make me an altar, you shall make it of earth." He does not say, "Make one," but, "If you will make." He does not impose necessity, but gives permission to their own free choice. For God does not need sacrifices, since by nature He is above all need. But He knew that in former times Abel, beloved by God, and Noah and Abraham, and those who came after them, offered sacrifice to God from a thankful mind, without being required, but moved only by themselves through the law of nature. So now He permitted it to the Hebrews, not commanding it, but allowing it if they wished. And if they offered from a right intention, He showed Himself pleased with their sacrifices. Therefore He says: If you desire to offer,

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

...red their ways in the wilderness, and gave them all kinds of good things. You gave them the law, or Decalogue, which was spoken by Your voice and written by Your hand. You commanded them to observe the Sabbath, not to give them an excuse for idleness, but an opportunity for godliness, for the knowledge of Your power, and for the forbidding of evils. You set bounds around them, as within a holy circle, for the sake of instruction and for rejoicing on the seventh period. For this reason, one week was appointed, and seven weeks, and the seventh month, and the seventh year, and the cycle of these, the Jubilee, which is the fiftieth year for remission, so that people might have no excuse to claim ignorance. For this reason, He permitted people to rest every Sabbath, so that no one should even be willing to send out one word from his mouth in anger on the day of the Sabbath. For the Sabbath is the cessation of creation, the completion of the world, the inquiry after laws, and the thankful praise of God for the blessings He has given to men. But the Lord's day surpasses all these and shows the Mediator Himself, the Provider, the Lawgiver, the Cause of the resurrection, the First-born o

Didache, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles Supporting witness

And the second commandment of the Teaching; You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, Exodus 20:13-14 you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, Exodus 20:15 you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching

For He says in the Gospel, recapitulating, and confirming, and fulfilling the ten commandments of the law: It is written in the law, You shall not commit adultery: but I say unto you, that is, I said in the law, by Moses.

Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness

...matters that have come up so often must be set aside. I regret that I still have to argue about the law, after I have so often proved that its replacement by the gospel gives no argument for another god. For this was indeed predicted in Christ, and ordained for His Christ in the Creator's own plans. But I must return to that discussion as far as the apostle leads me, because this very epistle looks very much as if it abolishes the law. We have, however, often shown before now that God is declared by the apostle to be a Judge; and that in the Judge an Avenger is implied; and in the Avenger, the Creator. And so, in the passage where he says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek; for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith," Romans 1:16-17, he undoubtedly ascribes both the gospel and salvation to Him whom, according to our heretic's own distinction, I have called the just God, not the good one. It is He who removes men from confidence in the law to faith in the gospel. That is, to His own law and His own gospel. When, again, he declares that "the wr

Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness

...e one in which the apostle instructs the Galatians. For we fully admit the abolition of the ancient law. And we hold that it actually proceeds from the divine arrangement of the Creator. This is a point we have already treated many times in the course of our discussion, when we showed that the change was foretold by the prophets of our God. Now if the Creator did indeed promise that the ancient things should pass away, to be replaced by a new course of things that should arise, and if Christ marks the time of separation when He says, "The law and the prophets were until John," Luke 16:16, thus making the Baptist the boundary between the two divine arrangements, with the old things then ending and the new things then beginning, then the apostle, coming as he does in Christ, who was revealed after John, could of course do nothing else than set aside the old things and confirm the new. Yet by this he still advances faith in no god other than the Creator, at whose direction it was foretold that the ancient things should pass away. Therefore both the abrogation of the law and the establishment of the gospel support my argument even in this letter. In it, both refer to the mistaken as

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Supporting witness

...Lord also says to the disciples, “Every scribe instructed for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.” He did not mean that one person brought out the old and another brought out the new, but that they were one and the same. For the Lord is the good householder, who governs the entire house of His Father; who delivers a law suited for both slaves and the undisciplined; provides fitting precepts to those who are free and justified by faith; and opens His inheritance to those who are sons. He called His disciples “scribes” and “teachers of the kingdom of heaven;” about whom He also says elsewhere to the Jews: “Behold, I send you wise men, scribes, and teachers; and some of them you will kill and persecute from city to city.” Clearly, He refers to the things brought out from the treasure as the two covenants; the old, the law given in the past; and He identifies as the new, the manner of life required by the Gospel, as David says, “Sing a new song;” and Isaiah, “Sing a new hymn. His beginning, His name is glorified from the height of the earth: they declare His powers in the islands.” And Jeremiah says: “Behold, I will make a n

Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness

If the gospel has not fulfilled the law, then all I can say is, the law has fulfilled the gospel.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness

Let us walk after the law and the prophets by the Gospel.

Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness

for these are the two covenants, or the two exhibitions (of the divine plans), as we have found the word interpreted, the one from the Mount Sinai, in relation to the synagogue of the Jews, according to the law, which genders to bondage — the other genders (to liberty, being raised) above all principality, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come, which is the mother of us all, in which we have the promise of (Christ's) holy church;

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness

...rything: "As you would want people to do to you, do the same to them." Luke 6:31. We can sum up the commandments in two, as the Lord says: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength; and your neighbor as yourself." Then from these He concludes, "On these hang the law and the prophets." Further, to the one who asked, "What good thing shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?" He answered, "You know the commandments?" And when the man replied, "Yes," He said, "Do this, and you shall be saved." The love of the Instructor is especially clear in the different commands that bring salvation, so that discovery may be easier through the richness and arrangement of the Scriptures. We have the Ten Commandments given by Moses. By a basic principle, simple and of one kind, they identify sins in a way that leads to salvation: "You shall not commit adultery. You shall not worship idols. You shall not corrupt boys. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother." Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5. And so on. These things must be kept, along with whatever else is commanded in reading the Bible. And by

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Direct teaching

3. As in the law, therefore, and in the Gospel [likewise], the first and greatest commandment is, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, and then there follows a commandment like to it, to love one’s neighbour as one’s self;

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

Matthew 12:29-31 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Ignatius of Antioch, Connection to Matthew 22:40 Supporting witness

And again, "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Ignatius, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans (Long Version) Supporting witness

For, “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself.” And the Lord says, “This is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.” And again, “A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another.

Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness

...raised to our first definition, because it would include books that are not called Gospels. For the Law and the Prophets also are, to our eyes, books containing the promise of things which, because of the benefit they will bring to him, naturally make the hearer rejoice as soon as he takes in the message. To this it may be said that before the sojourn of Christ, the Law and the Prophets, since He had not yet come who interpreted the mysteries they contained, did not convey such a promise as belongs to our definition of the Gospel. But when the Savior sojourned with men and caused the Gospel to appear in bodily form, by the Gospel He caused all things to appear as Gospel. Here I would not think it beside the purpose to quote the example of Him who said a few things, and yet all. For when He had taken away the veil that was present in the Law and the Prophets, and by His divinity had proved to the sons of men that the Godhead was at work, He opened the way for all those who desired it to be disciples of His wisdom, and to understand what things in the law of Moses were true and real, of which things those of old worshiped the type and the shadow, and what things were real in the t

Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness

But the Gospel, which is the new covenant, having delivered us from the oldness of the letter, lights up for us, by the light of knowledge, the newness of the spirit, a thing which never grows old, which has its home in the New Testament, but is also present in all the Scriptures.

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness

...What came before the coming and suffering of Christ—that is, the Law and the Prophets—is called the Old. But the things written after His resurrection are called the New Testament. The Jews use the Old; we use the New. Yet they are not in conflict, for the New is the fulfillment of the Old. And in both there is the same testator, that is, Christ. Having suffered death for us, He made us heirs of His everlasting kingdom, while the people of the Jews were deprived and disinherited. As the prophet Jeremiah testifies when he speaks these things: Jeremiah 31:31-32, "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new testament with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the testament which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my testament, and I disregarded them, says the Lord." Also in another place he says in the same way: Jeremiah 12:7-8, "I have forsaken my house, I have given up my heritage into the hand of its enemies. My heritage has become to me like a lion in the forest. It has cried out against me; therefore I have hated it." Since the inher

Barnabas, The Epistle of Barnabas Supporting witness

and their covenant was broken, in order that the covenant of the beloved Jesus might be sealed upon our heart, in the hope which flows from believing in Him.

Barnabas, Connection to Jeremiah 31:31 Supporting witness

Having renewed us by the remission of our sins, He has made us after another pattern... He has created us anew by His Spirit.

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness

You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity. This is my new covenant written in the old letter.