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1 Timothy 4:3

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them who believe and know the truth.
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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
The fact that the Lord was invited and came to the wedding, even without considering the mystical meaning, was meant to affirm what he himself created. For there were going to be those, about whom the apostle spoke, who would forbid marriage and say that marriage is an evil and that the devil created it, although the same Lord in the Gospel, when asked whether a man is allowed to divorce his wife for any reason, replied that he is not allowed except in the case of fornication.
< 1 min1/15
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Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
The church of God, established in the midst of much chaff and much cockle, tolerates many things, yet it does not approve or accept in silence or practice those things that are contrary to faith and good living. Therefore, what you wrote of certain brothers refraining from meat because they believe it to be unclean is very clearly against faith and sound doctrine. ..
< 1 min2/15
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Basil the Great

AD 379
It should also be laid down as essential that continency is inexoably demanded of combatants fo godliness, so that they may bing the body into subjection, “fo evey athlete execises selfcontol in all things.” Howeve, to avoid being classed with the enemies of God who ae seaed in thei conscience and, theefoe, abstain fom food which God has made fo the faithful to patake of with thanksgiving, we should taste each dish when occasion offes so as to indicate to those looking on that “all things ae clean to the clean” and that “evey ceatue of God is good and nothing to be ejected that is eceived with thanksgiving; fo it is sanctified by the wod of God and paye.” The aim of continency must nevetheless be kept in mind also, to the extent that we satisfy ou need with the plaine foods and those necessay to sustain life, avoiding the evil of taking ou fill of them and abstaining absolutely fom those foods whose sole pupose is to give delight. The Long Rules, q...
1 min3/15
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Clement Of Alexandria

AD 215
It follows that celibacy is not particularly praiseworthy unless it arises through love of God. The blessed Paul says of those who show a distaste for marriage, “In the last days people will abandon the faith, attaching themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demonic powers that they should abstain from food, at the same time forbidding marriage.” Again he says, “Do not let anyone disqualify you in forced piety of selfmortification and severity to the body.” … Well? Did not the righteous of past days share gratefully in God’s creation? Some of them married and produced children without loss of selfcontrol.
1 min4/15
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Clement Of Alexandria

AD 215
"And does not the ten-stringed psaltery indicate the Word Jesus, who is manifested by the element of the decad? And as it is befitting, before partaking of food, that we should bless the Creator of all; so also in drinking it is suitable to praise Him on partaking of His creatures.
< 1 min5/15
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Cyril of Jerusalem

AD 386
Do not abhor meats as if they were taboo. The apostle evidently knew people like that, since he says that there are those “who forbid to marry and command to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe.” If therefore you are abstaining from these things, let it not be as from things abominated, or your reward is lost, but as good things let them be transcended, in the quest of the fairer spiritual rewards that are set before you.
< 1 min6/15
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George Leo Haydock

AD 1849
Forbidding to marry, to abstain from meats Here says St. Chrysostom are foretold and denoted the heretics called Encratites, the Marcionites, Manicheans who condemned all marriages as evil, as may be seen in St. Iren us, Epiphanius, St. Augustine, Theodoret These heretics held a god who was the author of good things, and another god who was the author or cause of all evils; among the latter they reckoned, marriages, flesh meats, wine The doctrine of Catholics is quite different, when they condemn the marriages of priests and of such as have made a vow to God to lead always a single life; or when the Church forbids persons to eat flesh in Lent, or on fasting-days, unless their health require it. We hold that marriage in itself is not only honourable, but a sacrament of divine institution. We believe and profess that the same only true God is the author of all creatures which are good of themselves; that all eatables are to be eaten with thanksgiving, and none of them to be rejected, as ...
3 mins7/15
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Gregory of Nyssa

AD 394
Let no one think … we are disregarding the institution of marriage. We are not ignorant of the fact that this also is not deprived of God’s blessing. But since there is sufficient support for it and since the common nature of man, bestowed on all who come to birth through marriage, automatically inclines in this direction—whereas virginity somehow goes against nature—it would be superfluous to go to the trouble of writing a plea for marriage or a eulogy of it. It is pointless to emphasize its indisputable inducement, I mean pleasure, unless there should be need of such words because of some people who tamper with the teachings of the church on marriage, whom the apostle calls “those having their conscience branded.”
1 min8/15
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Hippolytus of Rome

AD 235
Others, however, styling themselves Encratites, acknowledge some things concerning God and Christ consistently with the church. In respect, however, of their ascetic mode of life, they pass their days inflated with pride. They suppose that by their choice of foods they magnify themselves. They abstain from animal food, [and] being water drinkers, forbid to marry, devoting themselves during the remainder of life to habits of asceticism. But persons of this description are viewed more as cynics than as Christians, inasmuch as they do not attend to the words spoken against them by the apostle Paul.
< 1 min9/15
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Hippolytus of Rome

AD 235
You forbid marriage, the procreation of children, (and) the abstaining from meats which God has created for participation by the faithful, and those that know the truth. , and each receives from these a sufficient portion. No one, however, tastes these before the priest utters a blessing,
< 1 min10/15
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Irenaeus of Lyons

AD 202
And since the demons assist the most wicked, the Saviour came for the destruction of evil men and of the demons, but for the salvation of the good. They declare also, that marriage and generation are from Satan.
< 1 min11/15
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Jerome

AD 420
Have I not, I would ask, in the very forefront of my work set the following preface: “We are no disciples of Marcion or of Manichaeus, to detract from marriage. Nor are we deceived by the error of Tatian, the chief of the Encratites, into supposing all cohabitation unclean. For he condemns and reprobates not marriage only but foods also which God has created for us to enjoy. We know that in a large house there are vessels not only of silver and of gold but of wood also and of earth. We know, too, that on the foundation of Christ which Paul the master builder has laid, some build up gold, silver and precious stones; others, on the contrary, hay, wood and stubble.”
1 min12/15
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John Chrysostom

AD 407
“Well,” someone says, “what do you expect us to do? To live in the mountains and become monks?” This question saddens me for this reason, that some think only monks to be truly concerned with decency and chastity. Yet surely Christ made his laws to apply to everyone…. Indeed, I do not “forbid marriage,” nor do I mean to block your access to pleasure, but I want you to have it in a chaste way, not shamefully or in a way deserving reproach and subject to endless misgivings. I do not insist that you live in the mountains and the deserts but that you be good and moderate and chaste, while dwelling in the midst of the city.
1 min13/15
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Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
The apostle set a brand upon those who were inclined entirely to forbid marriage and who were determined to lay an interdict on meats which God has created. We, however, do not do away with marriage if we disavow its repetition, nor do we condemn meats if we fast oftener than others. It is one thing to regulate but another thing to do away with altogether.
< 1 min14/15
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Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
Thus runs Hebion's heresy. Such also as "forbid to marry "he reproaches in his instructions to Timothy. Now, whence comes this halving of salvation, if not from a failure of goodness? What could have been a better proof of a perfect goodness, than the recovery of the whole man to salvation? Totally damned by the Creator, he should have been totally restored by the most merciful god. I rather think that by Marcion's rule the body is baptized, is deprived of marriage. -(the apostle, I say), that detester of such as, in like manner as they prohibit marrying, so bid us abstain from meats created by God.
1 min15/15
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Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

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