"The Lord is now making trial of your love for Him. Now there is an opportunity for you, through your patience, to take the martyr's lot. The mother of the Maccabees [
2 Maccabees 7] saw the death of seven sons without a sigh, without even shedding one unworthy tear." Basil, To the Wife of Nectarius, Epistle 6:2 (A.D. 358).
"They say that the Father has prescience of all things, as the blessed Susanna says, 'O eternal God, that knowest secrets, and knowest all things before they be'[
Daniel 13:42-Susanna]." Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 4:8 (A.D. 359).
"As you have listened already to Moses and Isaiah, so listen now to Jeremiah inculcating the same truth as they:--'This is our God, and there shall be none other likened unto Him, Who hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob His servant and to Israel His beloved. Afterward did He shew Himself upon earth and dwelt among men'[
Baruch 3:36-38]. Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 4:42 (A.D. 359).
"Such suggestions are inconsistent with the clear sense of Scripture. For all things, as the Prophet says[
2 Maccabees 7:28], were made out of nothing; it was no transformation of existing things, but the creation into a perfect form of the non-existent." Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 4:16 (A.D. 359).
"Then, while the devout soul was baffled and astray through its own feebleness, it caught from the prophet's voice this scale of comparison for God, admirably expressed, 'By the greatness of His works and the beauty of the things that He hath made the Creator of worlds is rightly discerned'[
Wisdom 13:5]." Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, 1:7 (A.D. 359).
" And where the sacred writers say, Who exists before the ages,' and 'By whom He made the ages,'[
Heb 1:2] they thereby as clearly preach the eternal and everlasting being of the Son, even while they are designating God Himself. Thus, if Isaiah says, 'The Everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth '[Is 40:28]; and Susanna said, 'O Everlasting God'[
Daniel 13:42-Susanna]; and Baruch wrote, 'I will cry unto the Everlasting in my days,' and shortly after, 'My hope is in the Everlasting, that He will save you, and joy is come unto me from the Holy One'[
Baruch 4:20,22;]." Athanasius, Discourses Against the Arians, 1:4 (A.D. 362).
"[I]t is written that 'all things were made through the Word,' and 'without Him was not made one thing,'[
John 1:3] and again, 'One Lord Jesus, through whom are all things'[
1 Cor 8:9], and 'in Him all things consist'[
Col 1:17], it is very plain that the Son cannot be a work, but He is the Hand of God and the Wisdom. This knowing, the martyrs in Babylon, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, arraign the Arian irreligion. For when they say, 'O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord'[
Daniel 3:57-Three Youths]." Athanasius, Discourses Against the Arians, 2:71 (A.D. 362).
"Daniel said to Astyages, 'I do not worship idols made with hands, but the Living God, who hath created the heaven and the earth, and hath sovereignty over all flesh;'[
Daniel 14:5-Bel & the Dragon]." Athanasius, Discourses Against the Arians, 3:30 (A.D. 362).
"Passing by the elders in the book of Daniel [
Daniel 13:5-Susanna]; for it is better to pass them by, together with the Lord's righteous sentence and declaration concerning them..." Gregory of Nazianzen, Oration 2, Flight to Pontus 64 (A.D. 362).
"But if this too fails to persuade them, let them tell us themselves, whether there is any wisdom in the creatures or not? If not how is it that the Apostle complains, 'For after that in the Wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God?'[
1 Cor 1:21] or how is it if there is no wisdom, that a 'multitude of wise men'[
Wisdom 6:24] are found in Scripture? for 'a wise man feareth and departeth from evil'[
Prov 14:16]; and 'through wisdom is a house builded'[
Prov 24]; and the Preacher says, 'A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine;' and he blames those who are headstrong thus, 'Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire in wisdom concerning this'[
Eccl 8:1,7:10]. But if, as the Son of Sirach says, 'He poured her out upon all His works; she is with all flesh according to His gift, and He hath given her to them that love Him,'[
Sirach 1:8,9]." Athanasius, Discourses Against the Arians, 2:79 (A.D. 362).
"[T]he Old Testament is reckoned as consisting of twenty-two books...so that of Moses there be five books...with the Lamentations and the Letter[
Baruch 6-Epistle of Jeremiah], and Daniel...bringing the number of the books to twenty-two. It is to be noted also that by adding to these Tobias and Judith, there are twenty-four books, corresponding to the number of letters used by the Greeks." Hilary of Poitiers, Prologue to the Psalms, 15 (A.D. 365).
"There are, then, of the Old Testament, twenty-two books in number; for, as I have heard, it is handed down that this is the number of the letters among the Hebrews; their respective order and names being as follows. The first is Genesis, then Exodus, next Leviticus, after that Numbers, and then Deuteronomy. Following these there is Joshua, the son of Nun, then Judges, then Ruth. And again, after these four books of Kings, the first and second being reckoned as one book, and so likewise the third and fourth as one book. And again, the first and second of the Chronicles are reckoned as one book. Again Ezra, the first and second are similarly one book. After these there is the book of Psalms, then the Proverbs, next Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. Job follows, then the Prophets, the twelve being reckoned as one book. Then Isaiah, one book, then Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the epistle, one book; afterwards, Ezekiel and Daniel, each one book. Thus far constitutes the Old Testament...But for greater exactness I add this also, writing of necessity; that there are other books besides these not indeed included in the Canon, but appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who newly join us, and who wish for instruction in the word of godliness. The Wisdom of Solomon, and the Wisdom of Sirach, and Esther, and Judith, and Tobit, and that which is called the Teaching of the Apostles, and the Shepherd. But the former, my brethren, are included in the Canon, the latter being [merely] read; nor is there in any place a mention of apocryphal writings. But they are an invention of heretics, who write them when they choose, bestowing upon them their approbation, and assigning to them a date, that so, using them as ancient writings, they may find occasion to lead astray the simple. Athanasius, Festal Letters, 39:4,7 (A.D. 367).
"What Scripture says is very true, 'As for a fool he changeth as the moon'[
Sirach 27:11]. Basil, Hexaemeron, 6:10 (A.D. 370).
"[T]he Scripture tells us, 'into the malicious soul Wisdom cannot come'[
Wisdom 1:4]." Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity, 15 (A.D. 371).