Gregory the Great, on 1Sam 2:3

“Do not multiply to speak lofty things, boasting: let old matters depart from your mouth: for the Lord is a God of all knowledge, and to him are thoughts prepared.”

“As if to say: While you perceive incomparably new things, you reproachfully bring forth the deeds of the ancients. For those things had preceded as a shadow, as it were. But now the faithful openly and reverently adore these works of our Redeemer, because what was shadowed there by the concealment of the sacrament became manifest at the coming of the Redeemer, having awaited the body of the truth to be revealed. Therefore, if they are referred to the new things, they are not old, because understood in the Holy Spirit, they receive no oldness. Concerning that Spirit indeed who renews all things, the Psalmist prays, saying: "Send forth your spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth" (Psalm 103:30). Therefore they are old, if they are compared with the works of the Redeemer; but when we bring forth those things spiritually to confirm these, they are renewed by the same Spirit by which we understand these. Therefore when holy Church reproves the Jews concerning the narration of old things, what else is indicated than that they understand carnally the spiritual deeds of the Fathers? For the Synagogue raises itself against holy Church all the more rashly, the more proudly it is exalted by knowledge of the law and the prophets, which it learned was divinely inspired to its fathers, but exhibited to itself only materially. Hence follows: "Do not multiply speaking lofty things, glorying." And that they might cease to be puffed up, she adds, saying: "Let old things depart from your mouth." For those things are now old to her which, as I said, are not understood through the renewing Spirit. Therefore it is as if to say: It is fitting that you be silent from the narration of those things whose new and splendid meanings you do not know. And even if you understand these things subtly, they ought not to furnish you the swelling of arrogance, because God is the Lord of knowledge. For the Redeemer of the human race, because He is the Word of the most high Father, is indeed the Lord of all knowledge. For Isaiah spoke lofty and great things, Jeremiah spoke great things; but surely they would have said nothing if this Word, the Lord of knowledge, had not indicated knowledge to them before they spoke. Hence also it is frequently read in the books of the same prophet Isaiah: "The word that was made to Isaiah the prophet." Frequently also it is written in the book of Jeremiah: "The word that was made to Jeremiah the prophet." John, beholding this Word, the Lord of knowledge, in the most high bosom of the supreme Father, says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Hence Paul, intimating that our Redeemer is the Lord of knowledge, says: "Because in him dwells all the fullness of the divinity bodily" (Colossians 2:9). Therefore when she says: "Let old things depart from your mouth, because God is the Lord of knowledge," what else is it to say, except to show to the Synagogue by clear reason that she ought to be silent all the more carefully, inasmuch as she does not know not only what those things are which she says, but also from whom they are? As if to say: That knowledge which you assert belonged to your fathers ought not to have given you arrogance, inasmuch as it was not theirs but of the only-begotten Son of God, and you do not understand that very same knowledge. Therefore she says: "Let old things depart from your mouth." So that the Jews may by no means corrupt what they are unable to understand rightly. "God," she says, "is the Lord of knowledge," so that what they prove to be truly of God, they may not falsely ascribe to men. But while Judea is reproved for words of boasting, because she is not stung by any fear, torments are also announced to her concerning the hidden movements of faithless hearts.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.