Genesis 3:24 (WEB)
So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Catechism · 1
“…hand; communicated the law by their ministry; led the People of God; announced births and callings; and assisted the prophets, just to cite a few examples.” — Catechism footnote: Cf. Job 38:7 (where angels are called "sons of God"); Gen 3:24; 19; 21: 17; 22:11; Acts 7:53; Ex 23:20-23; Judg 13; 6:11-24; Is 6:6; 1 Kings 19:5.
Fathers and councils · 11
Origen
- Origen, Against Celsus VI.49Book VI
“…of them (in general), but to this in particular, “He placed the cherubim, and the flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life,” and say whether Moses wrote these words with no serious object in view, but in the spirit of the writers of the old Comedy, who have sportively related that…” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 24.
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Irenaeus of Lyons
“For this reason were four principal (καθολικαί) covenants given to the human race: one, prior to the deluge, under Adam; the second, that after the deluge, under Noah; the third, the giving of the law, under Moses; the fourth, that which…” — editor's note: A portion of the Greek has been preserved here, but it differs materially from the old Latin version, which seems to represent the original with greater…
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Cyril of Jerusalem
“Fear not the flaming sword; it shrinks from its Lord.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 24. S. Ambrose (Ps. cxix. Serm. xx. § 12): “All who desire to return to Paradise must be tried by fire: for not in vain the Scripture saith that when…
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Ambrose of Milan
“At once the fallen were severed from all their enjoyments that they might do penance; at once God clothed them with garments of skins, not of silk.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 21, 24.
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Jerome
“…did so because Christ had not yet broken open the door of paradise, nor quenched with his blood the flaming sword and the whirling of the guardian cherubim.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 24: cf. Ezek. i. 15–20. Here as in his Comm. on Eccles. iii. 16–22, Jerome follows Origen, who, in his homily de Engastrimytho, lays down that until…
Read the whole comment““He placed…cherubims and a flaming sword…to keep the way of the tree of life.”” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 24.
Read the whole comment“The flaming sword that keeps the way of paradise and the cherubim that are stationed at its doors are alike quenched and unloosed by the blood of Christ.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 24.
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Tertullian
“For, sinner as I am of every dye, and born for nothing save repentance, I cannot easily be silent about that concerning which also the very head and fount of the human race, and of human offence, Adam, restored by exomologesis to his own paradise, is not silent.” — editor's note: Cf. Gen. iii. 24 with Luke xxiii. 43, 2 Cor. xii. 4, and Rev. ii. 7. [Elucidation IV.]
Read the whole comment“Then and there hastening to forecover what, in his newly made body, it was not yet due to modesty (to forecover), he surrounds himself meantime with fig-leaves: subsequently, on being driven from the confines of his birthplace because he had sinned, he went, skinclad, to the world as to a mine.” — editor's note: i.e., a place which he was to work, as condemned criminals worked mines. Comp. de Pu., c. xxii. sub init.; and see Gen. ii. 25 (in LXX. iii. 1), iii. 7, 21–24.
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Gregory of Nazianzus
“XVI. But further—Jesus goeth up out of the water…for with Himself He carries up the world…and sees the heaven opened which Adam had shut against himself and all his posterity, as the gates of Paradise by the flaming sword.” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 24.
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Hippolytus of Rome
“This, he says, is “the flaming sword, which turned to guard the way of the tree of life.”” — editor's note: Gen. iii. 24.
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Cross-references · 13
Cited together in Concerning Repentance II.11.
Cited together in Concerning Repentance II.11.
Cited together in Concerning Repentance II.11.
Cited together in Concerning Repentance II.11.
Cited together in Concerning Repentance II.11.
Cited together in Concerning Repentance II.11.
Cited together in Concerning Repentance II.11.
Cited together in Concerning Repentance II.11.
Cited together in Concerning Repentance II.11.
Cited together in Concerning Repentance II.11.
Cited together in Concerning Repentance II.11.
Cited together in Concerning Repentance II.11.
Cited together in The Refutation of All Heresies VI.12.