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Dispensations of the Bible Quotes

The dispensations of the Bible are hotly disputed today. What did the early church fathers say the dispensations were?

Ignatius of Antioch, AD 107 or 116

For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived in
the womb by Mary according to a dispensation, of the
seed of David but also of the Holy Ghost; and He was
born and was baptized that by His passion He might
cleanse water. (Letter to the Ephesians, ch. 18)

If Jesus Christ should count me worthy through
your prayer, and it should be the Divine will, in my
second tract, which I intend to write to you, I will
further set before you the dispensation whereof I have
begun to speak, relating to the new man Jesus Christ,
which consists of faith towards him and in love
towards him, in his passion [suffering] and resurrection ... (Letter to the Ephesians, ch. 20)

Anonymous Epistle to Diognetus, c. AD 110-200

For, as I said, this was no mere earthly invention which was delivered to [the Christians], nor is it a mere human system of opinion, which they judge it right to preserve so carefully, nor has a dispensation of mere human mysteries been committed to them, but truly God himself, who is almighty, the Creator of all things, and invisible, has sent from heaven, and placed among men the Truth and the holy and incomprehensible Word, and has firmly established him in their hearts. He did not, as one might have imagined, send to men any servant, or angel, or ruler ... but the very Creator and Fashioner of all things—by whom he made the heavens—by whom he enclosed the sea within its proper bounds—whose ordinances all the stars faithfully observe ... whom the moon obeys, being commanded to shine in the night, and whom the stars also obey ... (ch. 7)

Justin Martyr, c. AD 155

For we do continually beseech God by Jesus Christ to preserve us from the demons which are hostile to the worship of God, and whom we of old time served, in order that, after our conversion by him to God, we may be blameless. For we call him Helper and Redeemer, the power of whose name even the demons do fear; and at this day, when they are exorcised [cast out] in the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, they are overcome. And thus it is manifest to all, that his Father has given him so great power, by virtue of which demons are subdued to His name, and to the dispensation of his suffering. But if so great a power is shown to have followed and to be still following the dispensation of his suffering, how great shall that [dispensation] be which shall follow his glorious advent! For he shall come on the clouds as the Son of man, so Daniel foretold, and his angels shall come with Him. (Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 30-31)

Irenaeus of Lyons, c. AD 185

The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and his manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father to gather all things in one and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race ... (Against Heresies, Bk. I, ch. 10, par. 1)

For the faith being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little diminish it. It does not follow because men are endowed with greater and less degrees of intelligence, that they should therefore change the subject-matter [of the faith] itself, and should conceive of some other God besides Him who is the Framer, Maker, and Preserver of this universe, (as if He were not sufficient for them), or of another Christ, or another Only-begotten. But the fact referred to simply implies this, that one may bring out the meaning of those things which have been spoken in parables, and accommodate them to the general scheme of the faith; and explain the operation and dispensation of God connected with human salvation; and show that God manifested longsuffering in regard to the apostasy of the angels who transgressed, as also with respect to the disobedience of men ... (Against Heresies, Bk. I, ch. 10, par. 2-3)

Such, then, are the first principles of the Gospel: that there is one God, the Maker of this universe; He who was also announced by the prophets, and who by Moses set forth the dispensation of the law, [principles] which proclaim the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and ignore any other God or Father except Him. So firm is the ground upon which these Gospels rest, that the very [gnostic] heretics themselves bear witness to them, and, starting from these [documents], each one of them tries to establish his own peculiar doctrine. (Against Heresies, Bk. I, ch. 10, par. 7)

These things being so, all who destroy the form of the Gospel are vain, unlearned, and also audacious; those who represent the aspects of the Gospel as being either more in number than as aforesaid, or, on the other hand, fewer. The former class, that they may seem to have discovered more than is of the truth; the latter, that they may set the dispensations of God aside. For Marcion, rejecting the entire Gospel, yea rather, cutting himself off from the Gospel, boasts that he has part in the glory of the Gospel. Others, again [the Montanists], that they may set at nought the gift of the Spirit, which in the latter times has been, by the good pleasure of the Father, poured out upon the human race, do not admit that aspect presented by John’s Gospel, in which the Lord promised that He would send the Paraclete [Holy Spirit, called parakletos--"Comforter"--in John 14-16]; but set aside at once both the Gospel and the prophetic Spirit. Wretched men indeed! (Against Heresies, Bk. III, ch. 11, par. 9)