Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible all around.
All Commentaries on Job 41:14 Go To Job 41
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
46. The ‘gates of his face’ are wicked teachers, who are called the gates of his face for this reason, because, every one enters through them, in order that this Leviathan may be seen, as it were, in the princedom of his power. For as sacred Scripture is wont to call holy men gates of Sion, [Ps. 87, 2] (for Sion is by interpretation, ‘watching,’ and we deservedly call holy preachers the gates of Sion, because by their life and doctrine we enter the secrets of heavenly contemplation,) so also are the teachers of errors signified by the gates of this Leviathan; for when their false preaching is received, the way of perdition is opened to their wretched hearers. But these gates are generally opened before the eyes of men, in order to admit, but yet are closed in order to seize; because in appearance they present right things, but in their doings they persuade evil things. They are closed therefore in order to seize, because they are kept by outward hypocrisy from being discerned within. But yet the Lord opens them with wonderful power; because He makes the hearts of hypocrites comprehensible to His Elect. Who, therefore, will open the gates of His face? Thou understandest, except Myself, Who make manifest with clear understanding to My Elect the teachers of errors who are concealed beneath the semblance of sanctity. And because Antichrist, who rages with a twofold error, and endeavours both to draw the hearts of men to himself by sending his preachers, and to bend them by exciting the powers of the world, will also gain possession of these chief powers, the Lord well added concerning this Leviathan, saying,
In a circle is the terror of his teeth.
47. For He wished to change the expression, and, in another phrase, to call these his ‘teeth,’ whom He had above called ‘gates.’ For false preachers are his ‘gates,’ because they open the entrance to perdition. They are his ‘teeth,’ because they break down from the solidity of truth those whom they seize in error. For as by the teeth of Holy Church we understand those who crush by their preachings the hardness of sinners, (whence it is said to her by Solomon, Thy teeth as flocks of sheep that have been shorn, coming up from the washing; [Cant. 4, 2] and they are deservedly compared to shorn and washed sheep, because when assuming an innocent life they laid aside the old fleeces of their former conversation in the laver of Baptism,) so also the teachers of errors are typified by the teeth of this Leviathan. Because they mangle with their bite the life of the reprobate, and offer them, when withdrawn from the integrity of truth, in the sacrifice of falsehood. Their preaching might easily be despised by their hearers, but the additional terror of worldly powers exalts it in the judgment of men.
48. It is, therefore, rightly said, In a circle is the terror of his teeth, that is, the corrupted powers of this world protect the wicked preachers of Antichrist. For many of the powerful strive to alarm by cruelty those whom they seek to seduce with their words. In a circle, therefore, is the terror of his teeth. As if it were openly said, These false preachers crush some by their persuasions, because there are others around them, who afflict with their terrors the minds of the weak. What a season of persecution will that appear, then, when some rage with words, and others with swords, to pervert the piety of the faithful? For who would not despise, even if he were weak, the teeth of this Leviathan, if terror did not defend them by a circle of worldly powers? But they are proceeded against with twofold cunning, because that which is said to them by some with nattering words, is enforced by others with the blows of swords. And the conduct of both of these, that is, of the powerful, and the persuasive [‘potentium atque loquentium’], is summed up in the Apocalypse of John, in a short sentence, wherein it is said, The power of the horses was in their mouth, and in their tails. [Rev. 9, 19] For by the ‘mouth’ is typified the knowledge of the learned, but by the ‘tail’ the power of men of the world. For by the ‘tail’ which is behind is designated the temporal condition of this world which must be put behind us, of which the Apostle Paul says, But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. [Phil. 3, 13] For every thing which passes by, is behind; but every thing which coming abides, is before. The power therefore of these horses, that is, of most evil preachers, who are hurrying on every where by carnal impulse, is in their mouth and their tail. Because they themselves indeed preach perverse things in their persuasion, but, by relying on temporal powers, exalt themselves by means of those things which are behind. And because they themselves may possibly appear despicable, they exact respect to themselves from their wicked hearers, by means of those, by whose patronage they are supported. Whence in this place also fear is rightly described as being in the circle of his teeth, because it is caused by many terrors that temporal power, though not the sentence of truth, is certainly dreaded in their perverse preachings. Whence the Psalmist well described this same Antichrist, saying, Under his tongue is labour, and sorrow: he sitteth in ambush with the rich in secret places. [Ps. 10, 7, 8] For, on account of his perverse doctrines, labour and sorrow is under his tongue. But on account of his display of miracles he sitteth in ambush; but on account of the glory of secular power, with the rich in secret places. But because he uses at the same time both the craft of miracles, and earthly power, he is said to sit both in secret places, and with the rich.
