87 Joel iii. 18; The Hebrew word rendered "rushes" by the LXX is in our Hebrew text Shittim - acacia trees.
89 i.e. when there is no danger.
91 "All the City was moved." A.V., lit. "shaken as by earthquake."
93 i.e., the reasons why He was not baptized till He was thirty.
94 Here is an indication that the Forty Days of Lent were a well known observance in S. Gregory's time. At the Council of Nicaea this period was taken for granted. The Great Fast of the Eastern Church begins on the Monday after the Sunday corresponding to our Quinquagesima, and the Fast is kept to some extent even on Sunday.
95 Note the rule of Fasting Communion here recognized as universal.
97 Note that this allusion implies that Communion in both Kinds was given separately, as in the Anglican Church, not by intinction, as in the present Orthodox Eastern Church.
103 Luke xiii. 11, which S. Gregory has apparently mixed with a recollection of Matt. xv. 21.
120 Ps. lxxxiv. 6. So LXX. and Vulgate. Various interpretations are given of these Steps, but they differ only by indicating different virtues and good works as especially intended, and may well be summed up under the three heads of the purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways of salvation. A man can set in his heart such a "going up" by the co-operation of grace and free will - Neale & Littledale in Pss..
130 Anagoge is one of the three methods of mystical interpretation, according to the distich,
Littera scripta docet: Quid credas allegoria:
Quid speres anagoge: Quid agas tropologia.
137 i.e. To view the Fire there spoken of as Temporal punishment, with a purpose of correcting and reforming the sinner. This is not S. Gregory's own view of the meaning of the passage, though he admits it to be tenable.
139 A strange paraphrase of the last clause of Ps. cxxxix. 11, in the LXX.., "And I said, then the darkness shall swallow me, and night is enlightenment in my luxury."
140 Thus LXX. in Hosea x. 12, where we read "Break up your fallow ground."