Patristic A.D. 407
“But that you may learn that there is no absolute necessity for offences, hear what follows, If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, & c. This is not said of the limbs of the body, but of friends whom we esteem as limbs necessary to us; for nothing is so hurtful as evil communications.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of Matthew, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Matthew 18:7-9
PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1841) ↗