Sermon on All Saints · §2 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

The devil caught on his own hook, and heaven opened

The devil, who brought death into being, is undone by death: swallowing the bait of Christ's humanity, he is caught on the hook of His Godhead. Christ brings Adam up from Hades, shuts its gates, opens heaven, and, unlike the angels on Jacob's ladder, comes down and goes up without ever leaving any place, for He fills all things.

Just as Goliath had his head cut off with his own sword (1 Samuel 17:51), so too the devil, who gave birth to death, is routed through death. He finds that the easy method of his own deceit is a strong instrument of his own destruction. Impaled on the Godhead as on a hook, having swallowed the familiar bait and seized God instead of a man, the one who thought he was catching is plainly caught.

This is why martyrs leap upon the dragon's head and look down on every kind of torture. For from the time the second Adam brought the first Adam up from the depths of Hades (1 Corinthians 15:45–47), as He brought Jonah up from the sea monster (Jonah 1:17–2:10), and to the shame of the deceiver made the deceived a citizen of heaven, from that time the gates of Hades have been shut and the gates of heaven opened, granting unhindered entrance to those who go up in faith.

Long ago Jacob saw a ladder set up and reaching to heaven, and the angels of God going up and coming down (Genesis 28:12). But now the Lover of mankind, who became man for the sake of man, has kicked the enemy of mankind with the foot of the Godhead, has carried man in the hand of His kindness, and has made it possible to walk the untrodden heights of the sky on human feet.

Then the angels went up and came down; but now the Angel of Great Counsel (Isaiah 9:6) does not go up and come down. For from where, and to where, would He move, who is present everywhere, who fills all things, and who holds the ends of the world in His hand (Psalm 95:4)? For He came down once and went up once, not by any shift of His nature, but by the condescension of His kindness and love for mankind: the Word seated with the Father, the Word dwelling in the womb, the Word found everywhere, and never separated from the God of all.

Greek

Καὶ καθάπερ ὁ Γολιὰθ τῷ οἰκείῳ ξίφει τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀπετμήθη, οὕτω καὶ ὁ διάβολος θάνατον γεννήσας, διὰ θανάτου τροποῦται· καὶ τὴν εὐχερῆ μέθοδον τῆς οἰκείας ἀπάτης, ὄργανον ἰσχυρὸν τῆς ἰδίας ἀπωλείας εὑρίσκει· καθάπερ ἄγκιστρον περιπαρεὶς τῇ Θεότητι, καὶ τὸ σύνηθες δέλεαρ καταπιὼν ἀγρεύεται σαφῶς ὁ ἀγρεύειν οἰόμενος· καὶ Θεὸν ἀντὶ ἀνθρώπου κρατήσας. Διὰ τοῦτο μάρτυρες σκιρτῶσιν τὴν τοῦ δράκοντος κεφαλήν· καὶ πᾶν εἶδος βασάνων ὑπερορῶσιν. Ἀφ' οὗ γὰρ ὁ δεύτερος τὸν πρῶτον Ἀδὰμ ἐκ τοῦ πυθμένος τοῦ ᾅδου ὡς τὸν Ἰωνᾶν ἐκ τοῦ κήτους ἀνήγαγεν, καὶ τὸν ἀπατηθέντα, εἰς ἐντροπὴν τοῦ ἀπατήσαντος, οὐρανοπολίτην ἀνέδειξεν· ἐξ ἐκείνου πύλαι ᾅδου ἐκλείσθησαν· καὶ πύλαι οὐρανοῦ ἀνεῴχθησαν· ἀκώλυτον τοῖς μετὰ πίστεως ἀνιοῦσιν παραχωροῦσαι τὴν εἴσοδον. Πάλαι μὲν Ἰακὼβ κλίμακα ἐστηριγμένην ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐθεάσατο, καὶ τοὺς ἀγγέλους τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀναβαίνοντας καὶ καταβαίνοντας· νυνὶ δὲ διὰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἄνθρωπος γενόμενος ὁ φιλάνθρωπος τὸν ἀπάνθρωπον λακτίσας τῷ ποδὶ τῆς θεότητος, καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον βαστάσας τῇ χειρὶ τῆς χριστότητος, τὸν ἄβατον αἰθέρα ποσὶν ἀνθρωπίνοις πεζεύσασθαι παρεσκεύασεν. Τότε οἱ ἄγγελοι ἀνέβαινον καὶ κατέβαινον· νυνὶ δὲ ὁ τῆς μεγάλης βουλῆς Ἄγγελος οὐκ ἀναβαίνει καὶ καταβαίνει· καὶ πόθεν γὰρ ποῦ μεταστήσεται ὁ πανταχοῦ παρών, καὶ τὰ πάντα πληρῶν, καὶ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ συνέχων τὰ [κόσμου] πέρατα; Ἅπαξ γὰρ κατέβη καὶ ἅπαξ ἀνέβη· οὐ μεταβάσει χρησάμενος φύσεως, ἀλλὰ συγκαταβάσει φιλανθρώπου χριστότητος· ὁ Λόγος τῷ Πατρὶ συγκαθήμενος, καὶ ὁ Λόγος ἐν τῇ μήτρᾳ αὐλιζόμενος, καὶ ὁ Λόγος πανταχοῦ εὑρισκόμενος, καὶ [τοῦ] τῶν ὅλων [Θεοῦ] μηδέποτε χωριζόμενος.

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About this text

A sermon for All Saints, attributed to Gregory Thaumaturgus, in a fresh English translation of the whole sermon. Scholars dispute the attribution.

Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270) was a third-century bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus. He studied with Origen in Caesarea in Palestine for about five years before returning to his native city, where Phaedimus, bishop of Amasea, sought him out and ordained him bishop even though Gregory initially tried to hide from the responsibility. During the Decian persecution of 250–251 he withdrew with his community into the mountains, and after peace was restored he instituted liturgical celebrations honoring the martyrs who had died.

This homily was delivered at a festal assembly in honor of the holy martyrs, a crowded gathering of believers celebrating their victory over death and the devil. The preacher begins by wishing to remain silent because his speech is unpolished, but the splendor of the festival and the zeal of the congregation compel him to speak.

The sermon presents the martyrs as those who strengthen the weak and draw all ages to the celebration. They leap against death, laugh at swords, plunder the tyrant's rage, and make victory their own in their very fall, scattering their own limbs in order to bind their own souls. The opening reaches its climax in the victory of Christ over Hades and death, quoting the taunt, 'Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, your victory?' The sermon goes on to tell how the devil, who brought death in, was caught on the hook of Christ's Godhead when he swallowed the bait of His humanity, how Christ brought Adam up from Hades and opened heaven, and how the devil's three days of laughter turned to endless grief. It ends by calling the hearers to rout him by choosing the opposite of what he chose, and closes with a doxology. A reader should know that 'Hades' is kept as the name for the realm of the dead, not hell, and that the quoted taunt echoes Hosea 13:14 and 1 Corinthians 15:55. The phrase 'the infant age crawling here' means babies and young children brought to the festival.

Datec. 240–270 AD (attribution disputed)

English follows the MGR Greek extract for the whole sermon. ANF 6 was consulted only as a sense check for the opening; the rest was translated from the Greek alone.

Printed text used

Translated from MGR / Documenta Catholica Omnia extract (Greek · Whole sermon; sections 2 – 3 read from this print)
Translated from Greek text of the opening (Greek · Section 1)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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