How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.
From the early Church Fathers to now.
A.D. 390A.D. 804
3 Patristic witnesses · 1 Medieval witness
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Patristicbefore A.D. 750
Ticonius · d. A.D. 390A.D. 390
“They say that death is a rest. And so, they seek death, not that they may die but that they might have rest from evil things while the evil vices die away. They desired to die, that is, that they might die to the world and, as the apostle says, live again to God. "They seek death but will not find it," it says. They desire to be changed to better things, so that they might have rest after the labor of sins.… Therefore, "death will flee" while life is close by and we are truly dying while we are being freed from the chains of sins.”
247 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Andreas of Caesarea · c. A.D. 563–637A.D. 637
“Through these words the magnitude of the evils is revealed. For it is common among those in severe troubles to call upon death. But it is from the judgments of God that death does not come to those in the midst of trouble who seek it. For he considers it beneficial to use the bitterness of tribulations to make hateful that sin which was the mother and patron of their torments.”
“And in those days men will seek death, and will not find it. Preferring to end a miserable life with a quick death. As blessed Cyprian lamented under the Decian storm: "To those willing to die, he says, it was not permitted to be killed."”
“And in those days men shall seek death, and shall not find it: they shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them. The days in question run all the way from the Lord's coming to the end of the world. Indeed the elect seek death when they want to stick to God through a retired way of life; but death flies from them because they are bound either by the indissoluble chain of a responsibility of government or by that of an inferior status.”
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