Gregory the Dialogist

In his own words on Revelation

• Revelation 1:8

  Concerning which it is rightly added: "You shall consume the head with the feet and the entrails," because our Redeemer is the Alpha and Omega, that is, God before the ages and man at the end of the ages. And as we have already said, brothers, we have learned from Paul's testimony that God is the head of Christ. Therefore, to consume the head of the lamb is to receive His divinity by faith. To consume the feet of the lamb is to seek out the footsteps of His humanity by loving and imitating.

  Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 22

• Revelation 5:3

  Touching this point I dare not rashly define anything: for some have been of opinion that hell was in some place upon the earth; and others think that it is under the earth: but then this doubt ariseth, for if it be therefore called hell, or an infernal place, because it is below, then as the earth is distant from heaven, so likewise should hell be distant from the earth: for which cause, perhaps, the Prophet saith: Thou hast delivered my soul from the lower hell; so that the higher hell may seem to be upon the earth, and the lower under the earth: and with this opinion that sentence of John agreeth, who, when he had said, that he saw a book sealed with seven seals: and that none was found worthy, neither in heaven, nor in earth, nor under the earth, to open the book, and loose the seals thereof: he added forthwith: and I wept much: which book, notwithstanding, afterward he saith was opened by a lion of the tribe of Juda. By which book, what else can be meant but the holy scripture, which our Saviour alone did open: for being made man, by his death, resurrection, and ascension, he did reveal and make manifest all those mysteries which in that book were closed and shut up. And none in heaven, because not any Angel; none upon earth, because not man living in body; not any under the earth was found worthy: because neither the souls departed from their bodies could open unto us, beside our Lord himself, the secrets of that sacred book. Seeing, then, none under the earth is said to be found worthy to open that book, I see not what doth let, but that we should believe that hell is in the lower parts, under the earth.

  Dialogues, Book 4, Chapter 42

• Revelation 5:5

  Forasmuch as the nature of every thing is compounded of different elements, in Holy Writ different things are allowably represented by any one thing. For the lion has magnanimity, it has also ferocity: by its magnanimity then it represents the Lord, by its ferocity the devil. Hence it is declared of the Lord, Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David hath prevailed. Hence it is written of the devil, Your adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.

  Morals on the Book of Job, Book 5, Section 21

• Revelation 12:7

  Michael indeed means "Who is like God." And whenever something of wondrous power is accomplished, Michael is said to be sent, so that from the act itself and the name it may be understood that no one can do what God is able to do. Hence that ancient enemy, who through pride desired to be like God, saying: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven, I will sit on the mountain of the covenant, on the sides of the north, I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High," when at the end of the world he is left to his own power to be destroyed by the final punishment, is said to be about to fight with the archangel Michael, as it is said through John: "There was a battle with the archangel Michael," so that he who proudly raised himself to the likeness of God, slain by Michael, might learn that no one rises to the likeness of God through pride.

  Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 34

• Revelation 20:2

  Concerning this abyss it is said by John, And I saw an Angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled. For by the number of a thousand, he denoted not the quantity of time but the universality, with which the Church exercises dominion. Now the old serpent is bound with a chain and cast into the bottomless pit, because being tied up from the hearts of the good, while he is shut up in the minds of lost sinners, he rules over them with worse cruelty. And a little while afterwards he is described as brought up out of the hollow of the bottomless pit, in that from the hearts of the wicked which now rage secretly, having then gotten power against the Church, he shall break out into the violence of open persecution.

  Morals on the Book of Job, Book 18, Section 42

• Revelation 22:9

  This is why Lot and Joshua worshipped angels and were not forbidden to worship; but John in his Apocalypse wished to worship an angel, yet that same angel restrained him from worshipping him, saying: See that you do not do this, for I am your fellow servant and of your brethren. Why is it that before the Redeemer's coming angels are worshipped by men and remain silent, but afterward they refuse to be worshipped, unless it is that our nature, which they had previously despised, they now fear to see prostrate before them after they behold it assumed above themselves? Nor do they now dare to scorn as weak what is beneath them, since they venerate it above themselves in the King of heaven. Nor do they disdain to have man as a companion, since they adore man as God above themselves.

  Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 8