Fathers

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What the Fathers say

1 Samuel 16:6

Eastern Fathers

Clement of Alexandria

They have gone beyond the limits of impropriety. They have invented mirrors to reflect all this artificial beautification of theirs, as if it were nobility of character or self-improvement. They should, rather, conceal such deception with a veil. It did the handsome Narcissus no good to gaze on his own image, as the Greek myth tells us. …

The Instructor Book 3 ↗

Western Saints

Jerome

He goes to Bethlehem and considers every son of Jesse to be the very person that the Lord was looking for.… He makes the same mistake in each case, and he is reproved in each case, giving evidence of the weakness of the human mind.

Against the Pelagians 1.33 ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

11. And because we have taught through the sacred scriptures that the Lord shows who should be chosen as bishops, let us now see, as the mysteries of this sacred history speak, what kind of men He shows to be worthy and what kind He rejects. There follows: (Verses 6, 7.) "And when they had come in, he saw Eliab and said: Is this the Lord's anointed before Him? And the Lord said to Samuel: Do not look upon his countenance, nor upon the height of his stature, because I have rejected him, nor do I judge according to the sight of men. …

Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 6, Chapter 3 ↗

Bede

And when they had entered, he saw Eliab, etc. He introduces the sons of Jesse, the first, the second, and the third. Among them, none is found worthy to be anointed: because the Synagogue produced doctors of the law, prophets, and psalmists; but all these are participants, in none of them is the author of human salvation found.

Commentary on Samuel ↗