Gregory the Great, on 1Sam 2:12

“Now the sons of Heli were children of Belial, not knowing the Lord,”

“3. Supply "were." For who else are the sons of Eli, if not the Israelites according to the flesh, who knew the Sacred Scripture published by the fathers, and yet did not know the one whom Scripture had promised? Whom indeed Truth itself rebukes in the Gospel, saying: "Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it, and was glad" (John 8:56). And again: "If you believed Moses, you would certainly believe me also, for he wrote about me" (John 5:46). Therefore they did not know the Lord, who spurned the Redeemer coming in our flesh. Whence He complains through Isaiah, saying: "The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger; but Israel has not known me" (Isaiah 1:3). As if to say: I opened to him the ways of my incarnation long before through the prophets, and yet he did not accept what I had promised when it was presented. For this reason he also did not know the duty of the priests toward the people. For he would have recognized the priestly office if he had preached that the one who had been promised by the law and the prophets had already come for the redemption of the human race. Because indeed he not only did not believe in Him, but even raged in persecuting Him, he neither knew the Lord nor the duty of the priests toward the people. Yet his malice would have been less if he who refused to benefit the lesser ones by preaching the coming of the Redeemer had at least feared to do harm. It follows therefore, and says: 67 (Verses 13, 14.) But whenever anyone had offered a sacrifice, the servant of the priest would come while the flesh was being cooked, and he had a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the basin, or the kettle, or the pot, or the cauldron, and whatever the fork brought up, he would take for the priests.”

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