Matthew 13:17

Irenaeus Against Heresies Book IV

But that it was not only the prophets and many righteous men, who, foreseeing through the Holy Spirit His advent, prayed that they might attain to that period in which they should see their Lord face to face, and hear His words, the Lord has made manifest, when He says to His disciples, "Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them."[131]

Irenaeus Against Heresies Book IV

in reference to whom He did also declare to the disciples: "Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see and hear what ye do see and hear."[332]

Cyprian Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews

Also in the same place: "Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them."[294]

Clementine Homily III

And in addition to this, willing to convict more fully of error the prophets from whom they asserted that they had learned, He proclaimed that they died desiring the truth, but not having learned it, saying, `Many prophets and kings desired to see what ye see, and to hear what you hear; and verily I say to you, they neither saw nor heard.'[50]

Origen Commentary on John Book VI

s he not teach us that he was before Abraham, and that Abraham rejoiced and was glad to see his day? The words "Of his fulness all we received," and "Grace for grace," show, as we have already made clear, that the prophets also received their gift from the fulness of Christ and received a second grace in place of that they had before; for they also, led by the Spirit, advanced from the introduction they had in types to the vision of truth. Hence not all the prophets, but many of them,[7]