gregory

With regard to the inspiration of the book (Revelation), we deem it superfluous to add another word; for the blessed Gregory Theologus and Cyril, and even men of still older date, Papias, Irenæus, Methodius, and Hippolytus, bore entirely satisfactory testimony to it.

Gregory, the worker of wonders and miracles, who was cast into a cave because of [his] love for the martyrdom of Christ and suffered tribulation for fifteen years, said, "When I was in the pit I pondered over this matter, and over the folly of the Kings of Armenia, and I said, `In so far as I can conceive it, [in] what doth the greatness of kings [consist]?

And the Archbishops who were there answered and said to the blessed Gregory, "Behold now, we understand clearly that before every created thing, even the angels, and before the heavens and the earth, and before the pillars of heaven, and the abysses of the sea, He created the Tabernacle of the Covenant, and this which is in heaven goeth about upon the earth."

And the Bishops answered and said unto him (Gregory), "Well hast thou spoken, and thy word is true, and what thou hast expounded and interpreted to us is clear.

And Gregory the Bishop, the worker of wonders, answered and said unto them, "Verily, salvation hath been given unto all of us Christian people, unto those who have believed in our Lady Mary, the likeness of the heavenly Zion.

And the Archbishops (or, Patriarchs) answered and said unto Gregory, the Worker of Wonders, "Behold now, we know well, and thou hast made us to understand that the Kings of Ethiopia have become glorious and great through Zion.

Tell us, for God hath revealed unto thee what hath been, and what shall be, vision and prophecy, like Moses and Elijah."' And Gregory answered and said unto them, "I will reveal unto you concerning the King of Rome when he shall transgress and shall provoke God to wrath in the faith.

And one answered and said unto the Worker of Wonders (i.e. Gregory), "Now when Samalyal cometh, who is the False Christ (Antichrist), will the faith of the people of Ethiopia be destroyed by his attack?"

And Gregory answered and said, "Assuredly not.

And the Archbishops answered and said unto Gregory, the Worker of Wonders, "Behold now, thou hast told us concerning the vanquisher of the enemy of Rome, and now [tell us] of the chariot of Ethiopia and whether it shall remain henceforward, to the Coming of Christ, as thou hast told us concerning Zion, and concerning the faith of the people of Ethiopia, and likewise if their chariot shall remain."

And Gregory said unto them, "It shall assuredly not disappear.

Greeting in God, my most excellent sir, and venerable son Gregory, from Origen. A natural readiness of comprehension, as you well know, may, if practice be added, contribute somewhat to the contingent end, if I may so call it, of that which any one wishes to practise. Thus, your natural good parts might make of you a finished Roman lawyer or a Greek philosopher, so to speak, of one of the schools in high reputation. But I am anxious that you should devote all the strength of your natural good parts to Christianity for your end; and in order to this, I wish to ask you to extract from the philosophy of the Greeks what may serve as a course of study or a preparation for Christianity, and from geometry and astronomy what will serve to explain the sacred Scriptures, in order that all that the sons of the philosophers are wont to say about geometry and music, grammar, rhetoric, and astronomy, as fellow-helpers to philosophy, we may say about philosophy itself, in relation to Christianity.