Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Malachi 2:7

Western Saints

Jerome

For the lips of the priest preserve knowledge, and people seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. LXX: For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Almighty. The lips of the priest shall keep knowledge: they shall not say, pronounce, but shall keep, so that they may speak at the proper time, and give food to the servants in due season, and seek the law from his mouth. …

Commentary on Malachi ↗

Gregory the Dialogist

For in sacred language teachers are sometimes called prophets, in that, by pointing out how fleeting are present things, they make manifest the things that are to come. And such the divine discourse convinces of seeing false things, because, while fearing to reprove faults, they vainly flatter evil doers by promising security: neither do they at all discover the iniquity of sinners, since they refrain their voice from chiding. …

The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 2, Chapter 4 ↗