Sophia Scriptura

On the Making of Man 18–22

Gregory of Nyssa · On the Making of Man · 379 · Nyssa · 5 passages

Greek text: PG 44.English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0). Compare: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 5 (1893), "On the Making of Man".

Chapter 18

18PG 44:192a–196b

’Ότι τὰ ἐν ἡμῖν πάθη,ἐκᾼτῆς πρὸς τὴν ἄλογον φύσιν συγγενείας τὰς ἀφορμὰς ἔχει. Οἶμαι γὰρ ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς ταύτης καὶ τά καθʼ ἓκα- “ στον πάθη, οἷον ἐκ τινος πηγῆς συνδοθέντα πλημμυρεῖν ὲν τῇ ἀνθρωπίνη ζωῇ. Τεκμήριον δὲ τῶν λόγων, ἡ τῶν παθημάτων συγγένεια, κατά τὸ ἴσον ήμίν τε καὶ τοῖς ἀλόγοις ἐμφαινομένη. οὐ γὰρ δὴ θέμις τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει, τῇ κατά τὸ θεῖον εἶδος μεμορφωμένῃ, τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς διαθέσεως προσμαρτυρεῖν τὰς πρώτας ἀρχάς. Ἀλλʼ ἐπειδὴ προεισῆλθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον ή τῶν ἀλόγων ζωὴ, ἔσχε δέ τιι διὰ τὴν εἰρημένην αἰτίαν τῆς ἐκεῖθεν φύσεως καὶ ό ἄνθρωπος, τὸ κατά τὴν γένεσιν λέγω, συμμετεσχε διά τούτου καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν τῶν ὲν ὲκείνῃ θεωρουμένων τῇ φύσει. Οὐ γάρ κατὰ τὸν θυμόν ἐστι τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ή πρὸς τὸ Θεῖον ὁμοίωσις, οὔτε διὰ τῆς ἡδονῆς ή ὑπερέχουσα χαρακτηρίζεται φύσις, δειλία τε καὶ θράσος, καὶή τοῦ πλείονος ἔφεσις, καὶ τὸ πρὸς τὸ ἐλαττοῦσθαι μῖσος, καὶ πάντα τά τοιαῦτα πόρρω τοῦ θεοπρεποῦς χαρακτῆρός ἐστι. Ταῦτα τοίνυν ἐκ τοῦ ἀλόγου μέρους ὴ ἀνθρωπίνη φύσις πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ἐφειλκύσατο. οἷς γάρ ὴ ἄλογος ζωὴ πρὸς συντήρησιν ἑαυτῆς ἡσφαλίσθη, ταῦτα πρὸς τὸν ἀνθρώπινον μετενεχθέντα βίον, πάθη ἐγένετο.. Θυμῷ μὲν γὰρ συντηρεῖται τὰ ὠμοβόρα· φιληδονία δὲ τὰ πολυγονοῦντα τῶν ζώων σώζει · τὸν ἄναλκιν ή δειλία, καὶ τὸν εὐάλωτον τοῖς ἰσχυροτέροις ὁ φόβος, τὸν δὲ πολύσαρκον ἡ λαιμαργία. Καὶ τδ διαμαρτεῖν οὑτινοσοῦν τῶν καθʼ ἡδονὴν, λύπης ὑπόθεσις ὲν τοῖς ἀλόγοις ἐστί. Ταῦτα πάντα καὶ τά τοιαῦτα διὰ τῆς κτηνὼδους γενέσεως συνεισῆλθε τῇ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κατασκευῇ. Καί μοι συγκεχωρήσθω κατά τινα πλαστικὴν θαυματοποιῒαν διαγράψαι τῷ λόγῳ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην εἰκόνα. Καθάπερ γάρ ἐστιν ἰδεῖν έν τοῖς πλάσμασι τὰς διγλύφους μορφὰς, ἃς μηχανῶνται πρὸς ἔκπληξιν τῶν ἐντυγχανόντων οἱ τά τοιαῦτα φιλοτεχνοῦντες, μιᾷ κεφαλῇ δύο μορφὰς προσώπων ὑπχαράσσοντεςυ οὓτω μοι δοκεί διπλῆν φέρειν ό ἄνθρωπος πρὸς τά ἐναντία τὴν ὁμοιότηταο τῷ μὲν θεοειδεῖ τῆς διανοίας πρὸς τὸ θεῖον κάλλος μεμορφωμένος, ταῖς δὲ κατά πάθος ὲγγινομέναις ὁρμαῖς πρὸς τὸ κτηνῶδες φέρων τὴν οἰκειότητα. Πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ὁ λόγος ἀποκτηνοῦται διά τῆς πρὸς τὸ ἄλογον ῥοπῆς τε καὶ διαθέσεως, συγκαλύπτων τὺ κρεῖττον τῷ χείρονι. Ἐπειδὰν γάρ τις πρὸς ταῦτα τὴν διανοητικὴν ἐνέργειαν καθελκύσῃ, καὶ ὑπηρέτην γενέσθαι τῶν παθῶν τὸν λογισμὸν ὲκὸιάσηται, παραο τροπή τις γίνεται τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ χαρακτῆρος πρὸς τὴν ἄλογον εἰκόνα, πάσης πρὸς τοῦτο μεταχαρασσομένης τῆς φύσεως, καθάπερ γεωργοῦντος τοῦ λογισμοῦ τὰς τῶν παθημάτων ἀρχὰς, καὶ διʼ ὀλίγων είς πλῆθος ὲπαύξοντος. Τὴν γάρ παρʼ ἑαυτοῦ συνεργίαν χρήσας τῷ πάθει, πολύχουν καὶ ἀμφιλαφῆ τὴν τῶν ἀτόπων γένεσιν ἀπειργάσατο. Οὕτως ἡ φιληδονία τὴν μὲν ἀρχὴν ἔσχεν ἐκ τῆς πρὸς τὺ ἄλογον ὁμοιώσεως, ἀλλʼ ὲν τοῖς ἀνθρωπίνοις πλημμελήμασι προσηυξήθη, τοσαύτας διαφορὰς τῶν κατά τὴν ἡδονὴν ἁμαρτανομένων γεννήσασα, ὅσας ὲν τοῖς ἀλόγοις οὐκ ἔστιν εὑρεῖν. Οὕτως ὴ πρὸς τὴν θυμὸν διανάστασις συγγενὴς μὲν ἐστι τῇ τῶν ἀλόγων ὁρμῇ, αὔξεται δὲ τῇ τῶν λογισμῶν συμμαχίᾳ. Ἐκεῖθεν γὰρ ἡ μῆνις, 6 φθόνος, τὸ ψεῦδος, ἡ ἐπιβουλὴ, ἡ ὑπόκρισις. Ταῦτα πάντατῆς πονηρᾶς τοῦ νοῦ γεωργίας ἐστίν. Et γὰρ γυμνωθείη τῆς ὲκ τῶν λογισμῶν συμμαχίας τδ πά·θος, ὠκύμορός τις καὶ ἄτονος 6 θυμὸς καταλείπεται, πομφόλυγος δίκην όμοῦ τε γινόμενος, καὶ εὐθὺς ἀπολλύμενος. Οὕτως ὴ τῶν συῶν λαιμαργία τὴν πλεονεξίαν εἰσήνεγκε, καὶ τὸ τοῦ ἵππου γαῦρον γέγονε τῆς ὑπερηφανίας ἀρχήο καὶ τὰ καθʼ ἕκαστον πάντα τῆς κτηνώδους ἀλογίας ἀφορμηθέντα, διὰ τῆς πονηρᾶς τοῦ νοῦ χρήσεως κακία ἐγένετο, ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ τὸ ἔμπαλιν, εἴπερ 6 λογισμὸς τῶν τοιούτων κινημάτων ἀπιμεταλάὅοι τὸ κράτος, εἰς ἀρετῆς εἶδος ἕκαστον τούτων ἀντιμεθίσταται. Ποιεῖ γὰρ 6 μὲν θυμὸς τὴν ἀνδρίαν, τὸ δὲ δειλὸν τὴν ἀσφάλειαν, καὶ ό φόβος τὴν εὐπείθειαν, τὸ μῖσος δὲ τὴν τῆς κακίας ἀποστροφὴν, ἡ δὲ ἀγαπητικὴ δύναμις τὴν πρὸς τὸ ἀληθῶς καλὸν ἐπιθυμίαν. Τὸ δὲ γαῦρον τοῦ ἤθους ὑπεραίρει τῶν παθημάτων, καὶ ἀδούλωτον ὑπὸ τοῦ κακοῦ διαφυλάσσει τὸ φρόνημα.“ Ἐπαινεῖ δὲ τδ τοιοῦτον τῆς ὲπάρσεως εἶδος καὶ ὁ μέγας Ἀπόστολος, συνεχῶς ἐγκελευόμενος τά ἄνω φρονεῖν. Καὶ οὕτως ἐστιν εὖ· ρείν, ὅτι πᾶν τὸ τοιοῦτον κίνημα τῷ ὑψηλῷ» τῆς διανοίας συνεπαιρόμενον, τῷ κατὰ τὴν θείαν εἰκόνα κάλλει συσχηματίζεται. Ἀλλʼ ἐπειδὴ βαρεῖά τίς ἐστι καὶ κατωφερὴς ἡ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ῥοπὴ, πλεῖον τὸ ἕτερον γίνεται· μᾶλλον γὰρ τῷ βάρει τῆς ἀλόγου φύσεως συγκατασπᾶται τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν τῆς ψυχῆς, ἥπερ τῷ ὕψει τῆς διανοίας τὸ βαρύ τε καὶ χοῖκὸν ἀνυψοῦται. Διά τοῦτο πολλάκις ἀγνοεῖσθαι ποιεῖ τὸ θετον δῶρον ἡ περὶ ἡμᾶς ἀθλιότης, οἷον προσωπεῖον εἰδεχθὲς τῷ κατά τὴν εἰκόνα κάλλει τὰ πάθη τῆς σαρκὸς ὲπιπλάσσουσα. Οὐκοῦν συγγνωστοὶ πώςέίσιν οί πρὸς τὰ τοιαῦτα βλέποντες, εἶτα τὴν θείαν μορφὴν ὲν τούτοις εἶναι οὐκ εὐχερῶς συντιθέμενοι. Ἀλλά διὰ τῶν κατωρθωκότων τὸν βίον, ἔξεστι τὴν θείαν ὲν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις εἰκόνα βλέπειν. Εἰ γὰρ ἐμπαθῆς τις καὶ σάρκινος ὣν ἀπιστεῖσθαι ποιεῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὡς θείῳ κάλλει κεκοσμημένον · 6 ὑψηλὸς πάντως τὴν ἀρετὴν καὶ καθαρεύων ὲκ μολυσμάτων βεβαιώσει σοι τὴν πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον ἐπὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὑπόληψιν. Οἷον κρεῖττον γὰρ ὲν ὑποδείγματι δεῖξαι τὸν λόγον ο ἀπήλειψε τῷ τῆς πονηρίας μολύσματι τὸ τῆς φύσεως κάλλος τις τῶν ἐπὶ κακίᾳ γνωρίμων, Ἰεχονίας τυχὸν, ἢ et τις ἕτερος ἐπὶ κακῷ μνημονεύεται· ἀλλʼ ὲν Μωῠσῇ καὶ τοῖς κατʼ ἐκεῖνον καθα ρὰ διεφυλάχθη ή ςῆς εἰκόνος μορφή. Ἐν οἷς τοίνυν οὑκ ὴμαυρώθη τὸ κάλλος, ὲν τούτοις ἐναργὴς ἡ τῶν λεγομένων πίστις ἐστὶν, ὅτι ἄνθρωπος τοῦ Θεοῦ μίμημα γέγονεν. Ἀλλʼ ἐπαισχύνεται τις τυχὸν, τῷ διά βρώσεως ἡμῖν καθʼ ὁμοιότητα τῶν ἀλόγων τὴν ζωὴν συνεστάναι, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἀνάξιον ἡγεῖται τὸν ἄνθρωπον τοῦ κατʼ εἰκόνα Θεοῦ πεπλάσθαι δοκεῖν. Ἀλλʼ ἐλπιζέτω τῆς λειτουργείας ταύτης ἀτέλειαν δοθήσεσθαι τῇ φύσει ποτὲ, κατά τὴν προσδοκωμένην ζωήν. Ού γάρ ἐστι, καθώς φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, ἠ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ βρῶσις καὶ πόσις· οὐδὲ ἐπʼ ἄρτῳ μόνῳ ζήσεσθαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὁ Κύριος προηγόρευσεν, ἀλλʼ ὲν παντὶ ῥήματι ὲκπορευομένῳ διὰ στόματος Θεοῦ. Ἀλλά καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ίσάγγελον ἡμῖν ὕποδεικνυούσης τὸν βίον, βρώσεως δὲ παρά τοῖς ἀγγέλοις οὐκ οὔσης, ἱκανὴ ιτίστις τοῦ ἀπαλλαγήσεσθαι τῆς τοιαύτης λειτουρ- πίας τὸν ἄνθρωπον, τὸν καθʼ ὁμοιότητα τῶν ἀγγέλων ζη σό μενον.

’Oti ta en hēmin pathē,ekĄtēs pros tēn alogon physin syngeneias tas aphormas echei. Oimai gar ek tēs archēs tautēs kai ta kathʼ heka- “ ston pathē, hoion ek tinos pēgēs syndothenta plēmmyrein en tę̄ anthrōpinē zōę̄. Tekmērion de tōn logōn, hē tōn pathēmatōn syngeneia, kata to ison ēmin te kai tois alogois emphainomenē. ou gar dē themis tę̄ anthrōpinę̄ physei, tę̄ kata to theion eidos memorphōmenę̄, tēs empathous diatheseōs prosmartyrein tas prōtas archas. Allʼ epeidē proeisēlthen eis ton kosmon touton ē tōn alogōn zōē, esche de tii dia tēn eirēmenēn aitian tēs ekeithen physeōs kai o anthrōpos, to kata tēn genesin legō, symmetesche dia toutou kai tōn loipōn tōn en ekeinę̄ theōroumenōn tę̄ physei. Ou gar kata ton thymon esti tou anthrōpou ē pros to Theion homoiōsis, oute dia tēs hēdonēs ē hyperechousa charaktērizetai physis, deilia te kai thrasos, kaiē tou pleionos ephesis, kai to pros to elattousthai misos, kai panta ta toiauta porrō tou theoprepous charaktēros esti. Tauta toinyn ek tou alogou merous ē anthrōpinē physis pros heautēn epheilkysato. hois gar ē alogos zōē pros syntērēsin heautēs hēsphalisthē, tauta pros ton anthrōpinon metenechthenta bion, pathē egeneto.. Thymǭ men gar syntēreitai ta ōmobora; philēdonia de ta polygonounta tōn zōōn sōzei ; ton analkin ē deilia, kai ton eualōton tois ischyroterois ho phobos, ton de polysarkon hē laimargia. Kai td diamartein houtinosoun tōn kathʼ hēdonēn, lypēs hypothesis en tois alogois esti. Tauta panta kai ta toiauta dia tēs ktēnōdous geneseōs syneisēlthe tę̄ tou anthrōpou kataskeuę̄. Kai moi synkechōrēsthō kata tina plastikēn thaumatopoiïan diagrapsai tǭ logǭ tēn anthrōpinēn eikona. Kathaper gar estin idein en tois plasmasi tas diglyphous morphas, has mēchanōntai pros ekplēxin tōn entynchanontōn hoi ta toiauta philotechnountes, mią kephalę̄ dyo morphas prosōpōn hypcharassontesy houtō moi dokei diplēn pherein o anthrōpos pros ta enantia tēn homoiotētao tǭ men theoeidei tēs dianoias pros to theion kallos memorphōmenos, tais de kata pathos enginomenais hormais pros to ktēnōdes pherōn tēn oikeiotēta. Pollakis de kai ho logos apoktēnoutai dia tēs pros to alogon rhopēs te kai diatheseōs, synkalyptōn ty kreitton tǭ cheironi. Epeidan gar tis pros tauta tēn dianoētikēn energeian kathelkysę̄, kai hypēretēn genesthai tōn pathōn ton logismon ekoiasētai, parao tropē tis ginetai tou agathou charaktēros pros tēn alogon eikona, pasēs pros touto metacharassomenēs tēs physeōs, kathaper geōrgountos tou logismou tas tōn pathēmatōn archas, kai diʼ oligōn eis plēthos epauxontos. Tēn gar parʼ heautou synergian chrēsas tǭ pathei, polychoun kai amphilaphē tēn tōn atopōn genesin apeirgasato. Houtōs hē philēdonia tēn men archēn eschen ek tēs pros ty alogon homoiōseōs, allʼ en tois anthrōpinois plēmmelēmasi prosēuxēthē, tosautas diaphoras tōn kata tēn hēdonēn hamartanomenōn gennēsasa, hosas en tois alogois ouk estin heurein. Houtōs ē pros tēn thymon dianastasis syngenēs men esti tę̄ tōn alogōn hormę̄, auxetai de tę̄ tōn logismōn symmachią. Ekeithen gar hē mēnis, 6 phthonos, to pseudos, hē epiboulē, hē hypokrisis. Tauta pantatēs ponēras tou nou geōrgias estin. Et gar gymnōtheiē tēs ek tōn logismōn symmachias td pa;thos, ōkymoros tis kai atonos 6 thymos kataleipetai, pompholygos dikēn omou te ginomenos, kai euthys apollymenos. Houtōs ē tōn syōn laimargia tēn pleonexian eisēnenke, kai to tou hippou gauron gegone tēs hyperēphanias archēo kai ta kathʼ hekaston panta tēs ktēnōdous alogias aphormēthenta, dia tēs ponēras tou nou chrēseōs kakia egeneto, hōsper oun kai to empalin, eiper 6 logismos tōn toioutōn kinēmatōn apimetalaooi to kratos, eis aretēs eidos hekaston toutōn antimethistatai. Poiei gar 6 men thymos tēn andrian, to de deilon tēn asphaleian, kai o phobos tēn eupeitheian, to misos de tēn tēs kakias apostrophēn, hē de agapētikē dynamis tēn pros to alēthōs kalon epithymian. To de gauron tou ēthous hyperairei tōn pathēmatōn, kai adoulōton hypo tou kakou diaphylassei to phronēma.“ Epainei de td toiouton tēs eparseōs eidos kai ho megas Apostolos, synechōs enkeleuomenos ta anō phronein. Kai houtōs estin eu; rein, hoti pan to toiouton kinēma tǭ hypsēlǭ» tēs dianoias synepairomenon, tǭ kata tēn theian eikona kallei syschēmatizetai. Allʼ epeidē bareia tis esti kai katōpherēs hē tēs hamartias rhopē, pleion to heteron ginetai; mallon gar tǭ barei tēs alogou physeōs synkataspatai to hēgemonikon tēs psychēs, hēper tǭ hypsei tēs dianoias to bary te kai choikon anypsoutai. Dia touto pollakis agnoeisthai poiei to theton dōron hē peri hēmas athliotēs, hoion prosōpeion eidechthes tǭ kata tēn eikona kallei ta pathē tēs sarkos epiplassousa. Oukoun syngnōstoi pōseisin oi pros ta toiauta blepontes, eita tēn theian morphēn en toutois einai ouk eucherōs syntithemenoi. Alla dia tōn katōrthōkotōn ton bion, exesti tēn theian en tois anthrōpois eikona blepein. Ei gar empathēs tis kai sarkinos hōn apisteisthai poiei ton anthrōpon hōs theiǭ kallei kekosmēmenon ; 6 hypsēlos pantōs tēn aretēn kai kathareuōn ek molysmatōn bebaiōsei soi tēn pros to kreitton epi tōn anthrōpōn hypolēpsin. Hoion kreitton gar en hypodeigmati deixai ton logon o apēleipse tǭ tēs ponērias molysmati to tēs physeōs kallos tis tōn epi kakią gnōrimōn, Iechonias tychon, ē et tis heteros epi kakǭ mnēmoneuetai; allʼ en Mōysę̄ kai tois katʼ ekeinon katha ra diephylachthē ē sēs eikonos morphē. En hois toinyn houk ēmaurōthē to kallos, en toutois enargēs hē tōn legomenōn pistis estin, hoti anthrōpos tou Theou mimēma gegonen. Allʼ epaischynetai tis tychon, tǭ dia brōseōs hēmin kathʼ homoiotēta tōn alogōn tēn zōēn synestanai, kai dia touto anaxion hēgeitai ton anthrōpon tou katʼ eikona Theou peplasthai dokein. Allʼ elpizetō tēs leitourgeias tautēs ateleian dothēsesthai tę̄ physei pote, kata tēn prosdokōmenēn zōēn. Ou gar esti, kathōs phēsin ho Apostolos, ē basileia tou Theou brōsis kai posis; oude epʼ artǭ monǭ zēsesthai ton anthrōpon ho Kyrios proēgoreusen, allʼ en panti rhēmati ekporeuomenǭ dia stomatos Theou. Alla kai tēs anastaseōs isangelon hēmin hypodeiknyousēs ton bion, brōseōs de para tois angelois ouk ousēs, hikanē itistis tou apallagēsesthai tēs toiautēs leitour- pias ton anthrōpon, ton kathʼ homoiotēta tōn angelōn zē so menon.

That our irrational passions have their occasions from our kinship with irrational nature. For I think that from this beginning the particular passions too, issuing as from a spring, flood human life. A proof of my words is the kinship of the passions, which appears alike in us and in the irrational creatures. For it is not right to ascribe the first beginnings of the passionate disposition to human nature, which was formed in the divine likeness. But since the life of the irrational creatures entered this world first, and man too, for the reason stated, took something of their nature (I mean the manner of generation), he thereby shared also in the other things seen in that nature. For the likeness of man to the divine is not in anger, nor is the transcendent nature marked by pleasure; cowardice and boldness, the desire for more, hatred of being worsted, and all such things are far from the stamp that befits God. These, then, human nature drew to itself from the irrational part. For the things by which irrational life was secured for its own preservation became passions when they were transferred to human life. For carnivorous animals are preserved by anger, and love of pleasure preserves the prolific animals; cowardice preserves the weak, and fear the one easily caught by stronger animals, and gluttony the bulky. And failing to obtain anything pleasant is an occasion of pain in the irrational creatures. All these and such things entered along with the brutish manner of generation into the constitution of man. And let me be allowed to sketch the human image in words by a kind of sculptor’s marvel. For as one can see in sculptures those double-carved figures which those who practise such arts contrive to astonish the beholder, carving two faces on one head, so man seems to me to bear a double likeness to opposites: formed by the godlike element of his understanding toward the divine beauty, and bearing kinship with the brutish by the impulses that arise from passion. And often reason itself is made brutish by its inclination and disposition toward the irrational, covering the better with the worse. For when someone drags the activity of his understanding down to these things and forces his reasoning to become the servant of the passions, a kind of perversion of the good stamp into the irrational image takes place, the whole nature being re-stamped toward it, reason as it were cultivating the beginnings of the passions and increasing them from few to many. For by lending its own cooperation to the passion, it has produced an abundant and luxuriant crop of absurdities. So love of pleasure had its beginning from our likeness to the irrational, but grew in human transgressions, producing so many varieties of sins of pleasure as are not to be found among the irrational creatures. So the rising toward anger is akin to the impulse of the irrational creatures, but it grows by the alliance of our reasonings. For from there come resentment, envy, falsehood, treachery, hypocrisy; all these are the fruit of the mind’s evil cultivation. For if the passion were stripped of the alliance of the reasonings, the anger left would be short-lived and feeble, like a bubble, coming to be and at once perishing. So the gluttony of swine brought in greed, and the high spirit of the horse became the beginning of pride; and all the particular things that took their start from brutish irrationality became vice through the evil use of the mind. So too, conversely, if reason takes command of such movements, each of them is changed into a form of virtue. For anger produces courage, cowardice caution, fear obedience, hatred aversion from vice, and the power of love the desire for what is truly beautiful. High spirit in the character lifts it above the passions and keeps its mind unenslaved by evil. The great Apostle too praises this kind of elevation, constantly urging us to set our minds on the things above. And so one may find that every such movement, lifted up along with the loftiness of the understanding, is conformed to the beauty of the divine image. But since the inclination of sin is heavy and downward-tending, the other result happens more often; for the ruling part of the soul is dragged down by the weight of the irrational nature more than the heavy and earthy is lifted up by the height of the understanding. For this reason our misery often causes the divine gift to go unrecognized, plastering the passions of the flesh like an ugly mask over the beauty of the image. Those who look at such things, then, and do not readily agree that the divine form is in them, are in a way pardonable. But one can see the divine image in human beings through those who have lived upright lives. For if someone who is passionate and fleshly makes it hard to believe that man has been adorned with divine beauty, the man lofty in virtue and pure from defilements will surely confirm for you the higher estimate of human beings. For example (for it is better to show the argument by an example), one of those notorious for wickedness, Jeconiah perhaps, or anyone else remembered for evil, has smeared over the beauty of his nature with the defilement of wickedness; but in Moses and those like him the form of the image was kept pure. In those, then, in whom the beauty has not been obscured, the proof of what is said is plain: that man has become an imitation of God. But perhaps someone is ashamed that our life, like that of the irrational creatures, is sustained by eating, and for this reason thinks man unworthy to be considered formed according to the image of God. Let him hope that exemption from this service will one day be given to our nature in the life we look for. For, as the Apostle says, “the kingdom of God is not food and drink”; and the Lord declared that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Moreover, since the resurrection shows us a life equal to the angels, and there is no eating among the angels, there is sufficient ground for believing that man, who will live like the angels, will be freed from such a service.

Col 3:2 (allusion, high confidence) · Rom 14:17 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 4:4 (quotation, high confidence) · Deut 8:3 (allusion, medium confidence) · Luke 20:36 (allusion, medium confidence) · Jer 22:24 (allusion, low confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: The passions came to man through his kinship with the animals; reason can turn them into vices or virtues, and the divine image shows in the virtuous; in the resurrection man will be freed from the need to eat.

  • The opening sentence is the chapter’s heading as printed in the edition. References: Col 3:1–2 (“the things above”); Rom 14:17; Matt 4:4 (Deut 8:3); Luke 20:36 (life equal to the angels). Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) is named as an example of wickedness (2 Kgs 24:9; Jer 22:24–30).

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR debris (ὠμοβόρα, carnivorous)): Θυμῷ μὲνγὰρ σῦντηρεῖται τάὧμόὸόραί φιληδονία → Θυμῷ μὲν γὰρ συντηρεῖται τὰ ὠμοβόρα· φιληδονία.

Topics: Ethics, Eschatology

Cite (SBL): Gregory of Nyssa, Hom. opif. 18 (PG 44:192a–196b; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/gregory-nyssa-hominis-opificio/18/#p-18). (abbreviation not yet checked)

BibTeX · RIS (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-gregory-nyssa-hominis-opificio-18) · Report an error

Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Migne's Patrologia Graeca (scan OCR, corrections logged; lines lost in the scan marked …), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of NPNF² 5 (Moore and Wilson, 1893); differences checked against the Greek.

Chapter 19

19PG 44:196b–197c

Πρὸς τοὺς λέγοντας, πάλιν ἐν,βρώσεμ καὶ ἐν πόσει εἶναι. τῷν ἐλπιζομένων ἀγαθῶν pqr ἀπόλαυσιν, διὰ τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ τεοτράφθαι διὰ τούτων τὸν ἄνθρωπον ζῇν. Ἀλλʼ ἴσως τις οὐκ είς τὸ αὐτὸ πάλιν τῆς ζωῆς εἶδος ἐπανελεύσεσθαι λέγει τὸν ἄνθρωπον, εἴγε πρότερον μὲν ἒν τῷ ἐσθίειν ἦμεν, μετά ταῦτα δὲ τῆς· τοιαύτης λειτουργίας ἀφεθησόμεθα. Ἀλλʼ ἐγὼ τῆς ἁγίας ἀκούων Γραφῆς, οὐ μόνον σωματικὴν επίσταμαι βρῶσιν, οὐδὲ τὴν διά σαρκὸς εὐφροσύνην, ἀλλά τινα καὶ ἑτέραν οἶδα τροφὴν, ἀναλογίαν τινὰ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ σώματος ἔχουσαν, ἧς ή ἀπόλαυσις ἐπὶ μόνην τὴν ψυχὴν διαβαίνει. Φάγετε τῶν ἐμῶν ἄρτων, ἡ Σοφία τοῖς πεινῶσι διακελεύεται καὶ μακαρίζει τοὺς τὴν τοιαύτην βρῶσιν πεινῶντας ὁ Κύριος.‹1(αὶ “ εί τις διψᾷ, φησιν, ἐρχέσθω πρὸς μὲ, καὶ πινέτω. ι Καὶ ὁ μέγας Ἡσαΐας, Πίετε εὐφροσύνην, τοῖς δυνατοῖς ἐπαΐειν τῆς μεγαλοφυῒας αὐτοῦ ὲγκελεύεται. Ἐστι δέ τις καὶ ἀπειλὴ προφητικὴ κατὰ τῶν τιμωρίας ἀξίων, ὡς λιμῷ κολασθησομένων · ὁ δὲ λιμὸς οὐκ ἄρτου τίς ἐστιν ἀπορία καὶ ὓδατος, ἀλλὰ λόγου ἐπίλειψις. Οὐ λιμὸν γὰρ ἄρτου φησὶν, ἢ δίψαν ὓδατος, ἀλλά λιμὸν τοῦ ἀκοῦσαι λόγων Κυρίου. Οὐκοῦν τῆς τοῦ“Θεοῦ φυτείας τῆς ἐν Ἐδὲμ (τρυφὴ δὲ ἡ Ἐδὲμ ἑρμηνεύεται) ἄξιόν τινα τὸν καρπὸν ἐννοῆσαι προσ. ήκει, καὶ τρέφεσθαι διὰ τούτου μὴ ἀμφιδάλλειν τὸν ἄνθρωπον · καὶ μὴ πάντως τὴν παροδικὴν καὶάπόρσ ρυτον ταύτην τροφὴν ἐπὶ τῆς τοῦ παραδείσου διαγωγῆς ὲννοεῖν.ι Ἀπὸ παντὸς, φησὶ, ξύλου τοῦ ὲν τῷ παραδείσῳ βρώσει φάγῃ.» Τίς δώσει τῷ ὑγιεινῶς πεινῶντι τὸ ξύλον ἐκεῖνο, τὸ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ, τδ παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ περιληπτικὸν, ᾧ ὄνομά ἐστι τὸ πᾶν, οὗ χαρίζεται τῷἀνθρώπῳ τὴν μετουσίαν 6 λόγος; τῷ γὰρ γενικῷ τε κα) ὑπερκειμένῳ λόγῳ πᾶσα τῶν ἀγαθῶν ίδέα πρδς ἑαυτὴν συμφυῶς ἔχει, καὶ ἓν τι τὸ ὅλον ὲστί. Τίς δέ με τῆς συμμιγοῦς τε καὶ ἐπαμφοτεριζούσης τοῦ ξύλου γεύσεως ἀποστήσει; πάντως γάρ οὐκ ἄδηλον τοῖς διορατικωτέροις, τί τὸ πᾶν ἐκεῖνο, οὗ καρπὸς ή ζωὴ, καὶ πάλιν, τί τὸ ἐπίμικτον τοῦτο, οὗ πέρας 6 Θάνατος. '0 γάρ τοῦ παντὸς τὴν ἀπόλαυσιν ἀφθόνως προθεὶς, λόγῳ τινι πάντως καὶ προμηθείᾳ τῆς τῶν ἐπικοίνων μετουσίας ἀπείργει τὸν ἄνθρωπον. Καί μοι δοκεῖ τὸν μέγαν Δαβὶδ, καὶ τὸν σοφὸν Σολομῶντα διδασκάλους τῆς τοῦ λόγου τούο του παραλαβεῖν ἐξηγήσεως. Ἀμφότεροι γὰρ τῆς συγκεχωρημένης τρυφῆς μίαν ἡγοῦνται τὴν χάριν, αὐτὸ τὸ όντως ἀγαθὸν, ὃ δὴ καὶ πᾶν ἐστιν ἀγαθόν. Δαβὶδ μὲν λέγων, Κατατρύφησον τοῦ Κυρίου·»Σολομὼν δὲ τὴν σοφίαν αὐτὴν, «ἥτις ἐστὶν 6 Κύριος, ξύλον ζωῆς όνρμάςων. Οθκοῦν ταύτόν ἐστι τῷ τῆς ζωῆς ξύλῳ τὸ πᾶν ξύλον, οὗ τὴν βρῶσιν τῷ κατὰ Θεὸν πλασθέντι ό λόγος δίδωσιν. Ἀντιδιαιρεῖται δὲ τῷ ξύλῳ τούτῳ ἕτερον ξύλον, οὗ ἡ βρῶσις καλοῦ καὶ-κακού γνῶσίς ὲστιν, οὐκ ἰδιαζόντως ἑκάτερον τῶν κατὰ τὸ ἐναντίον σημαινομένων ὲν μέρει καρποφοροῦντος ο ἀλλά τινα συγκεχυμένον καὶ σύμμικτον καρπὸν ὲξανθοῦντος ταῖς ἐναντίαις συγκεκραμένον ποιότησιν, οὗ κωλύει μὲν τὴν βρῶσιν ὁ ἀρχηγὸς τῆς ζωῆς, συμβουλεύει δὲ όῦφις, ίνα τῷ θανάτῳ κατασκευάσῃ τὴν εἴσοδον. Καὶ. πιθανὸς γίνεται συμβουλεύσας, εύχροίᾳ τινὶ καὶ τὸν. καρπὸν περιχρώσας, ὡς ἂν ὀφθείη τε ἡδέως, καὶ τὴν δρεξιν πρὸς τὴν γεῦσιν ὑπερεθῐσειεν.

Pros tous legontas, palin en,brōsem kai en posei einai. tǭn elpizomenōn agathōn pqr apolausin, dia to ex archēs en tǭ paradeisǭ teotraphthai dia toutōn ton anthrōpon zę̄n. Allʼ isōs tis ouk eis to auto palin tēs zōēs eidos epaneleusesthai legei ton anthrōpon, eige proteron men en tǭ esthiein ēmen, meta tauta de tēs; toiautēs leitourgias aphethēsometha. Allʼ egō tēs hagias akouōn Graphēs, ou monon sōmatikēn epistamai brōsin, oude tēn dia sarkos euphrosynēn, alla tina kai heteran oida trophēn, analogian tina pros tēn tou sōmatos echousan, hēs ē apolausis epi monēn tēn psychēn diabainei. Phagete tōn emōn artōn, hē Sophia tois peinōsi diakeleuetai kai makarizei tous tēn toiautēn brōsin peinōntas ho Kyrios.‹1(ai “ ei tis dipsą, phēsin, erchesthō pros me, kai pinetō. i Kai ho megas Hēsaïas, Piete euphrosynēn, tois dynatois epaïein tēs megalophyïas autou enkeleuetai. Esti de tis kai apeilē prophētikē kata tōn timōrias axiōn, hōs limǭ kolasthēsomenōn ; ho de limos ouk artou tis estin aporia kai hydatos, alla logou epileipsis. Ou limon gar artou phēsin, ē dipsan hydatos, alla limon tou akousai logōn Kyriou. Oukoun tēs tou“Theou phyteias tēs en Edem (tryphē de hē Edem hermēneuetai) axion tina ton karpon ennoēsai pros. ēkei, kai trephesthai dia toutou mē amphidallein ton anthrōpon ; kai mē pantōs tēn parodikēn kaiapors ryton tautēn trophēn epi tēs tou paradeisou diagōgēs ennoein.i Apo pantos, phēsi, xylou tou en tǭ paradeisǭ brōsei phagę̄.» Tis dōsei tǭ hygieinōs peinōnti to xylon ekeino, to en tǭ paradeisǭ, td pantos agathou perilēptikon, hǭ onoma esti to pan, hou charizetai tǭanthrōpǭ tēn metousian 6 logos? tǭ gar genikǭ te ka) hyperkeimenǭ logǭ pasa tōn agathōn idea prds heautēn symphyōs echei, kai hen ti to holon esti. Tis de me tēs symmigous te kai epamphoterizousēs tou xylou geuseōs apostēsei? pantōs gar ouk adēlon tois dioratikōterois, ti to pan ekeino, hou karpos ē zōē, kai palin, ti to epimikton touto, hou peras 6 Thanatos. '0 gar tou pantos tēn apolausin aphthonōs protheis, logǭ tini pantōs kai promētheią tēs tōn epikoinōn metousias apeirgei ton anthrōpon. Kai moi dokei ton megan Dabid, kai ton sophon Solomōnta didaskalous tēs tou logou touo tou paralabein exēgēseōs. Amphoteroi gar tēs synkechōrēmenēs tryphēs mian hēgountai tēn charin, auto to ontōs agathon, ho dē kai pan estin agathon. Dabid men legōn, Katatryphēson tou Kyriou;»Solomōn de tēn sophian autēn, «hētis estin 6 Kyrios, xylon zōēs onrmasōn. Othkoun tauton esti tǭ tēs zōēs xylǭ to pan xylon, hou tēn brōsin tǭ kata Theon plasthenti o logos didōsin. Antidiaireitai de tǭ xylǭ toutǭ heteron xylon, hou hē brōsis kalou kai-kakou gnōsis estin, ouk idiazontōs hekateron tōn kata to enantion sēmainomenōn en merei karpophorountos o alla tina synkechymenon kai symmikton karpon exanthountos tais enantiais synkekramenon poiotēsin, hou kōlyei men tēn brōsin ho archēgos tēs zōēs, symbouleuei de ouphis, ina tǭ thanatǭ kataskeuasę̄ tēn eisodon. Kai. pithanos ginetai symbouleusas, euchroią tini kai ton. karpon perichrōsas, hōs an ophtheiē te hēdeōs, kai tēn drexin pros tēn geusin hyperethiseien.

To those who say that the enjoyment of the goods we hope for will again consist in eating and drinking, because Scripture says that man at the beginning lived by these in paradise. But perhaps someone will say that man will not return to the same form of life, if formerly we lived by eating and afterward shall be released from such a service. But when I listen to Holy Scripture, I do not know only bodily food or the enjoyment that comes through the flesh; I know another kind of nourishment too, having a certain analogy with that of the body, whose enjoyment passes to the soul alone. “Eat of my bread,” Wisdom bids the hungry; and the Lord blesses those who hunger for such food, and says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” And the great Isaiah bids those able to hear his sublimity, “Drink joy.” There is also a prophetic threat against those who deserve punishment, that they will be punished with famine; but the famine is not a lack of bread and water, but a failure of the word. For he does not speak of a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. It is fitting, then, to think of a fruit worthy of God’s planting in Eden (Eden means “delight”), and not to doubt that man is nourished by it, and not at all to think of this transitory and perishing food in connection with the life in paradise. “From every tree in the paradise,” he says, “you may eat for food.” Who will give to one who hungers healthily that tree in paradise, which embraces every good, whose name is “every,” in which the word grants man a share? For in the general and transcendent word every form of good is naturally united with itself, and the whole is one. And who will keep me from tasting the mixed and ambiguous tree? For it is certainly not unclear to the more discerning what that “every” is, whose fruit is life, and again what this mixed thing is, whose end is death. For he who generously set before man the enjoyment of “every” tree, by some reason and providence certainly keeps man from sharing in the things that are mixed. And I think I should take the great David and the wise Solomon as teachers of the interpretation of this saying. For both consider the grace of the permitted delight to be one, the truly good itself, which is indeed every good: David saying, “Delight yourself in the Lord,” and Solomon naming Wisdom itself, which is the Lord, “a tree of life.” The “every tree,” then, whose food the word gives to the one formed according to God, is the same as the tree of life. Set over against this tree is another tree, whose food is the knowledge of good and evil, not bearing each of the opposites separately as fruit, but blossoming with a confused and mixed fruit blended of opposite qualities. The author of life forbids eating it, but the serpent counsels it, in order to prepare the entrance for death. And he becomes persuasive in his counsel by colouring the fruit with a fair appearance, so that it might be seen with pleasure and provoke the appetite to taste it.

Prov 9:5 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 5:6 (allusion, high confidence) · John 7:37 (quotation, high confidence) · Isa 65:13 (allusion, low confidence) · Amos 8:11 (quotation, high confidence) · Gen 2:16 (quotation, high confidence) · Gen 2:8 (allusion, medium confidence) · Ps 37:4 (36:4 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Prov 3:18 (quotation, high confidence) · Gen 2:17 (allusion, high confidence) · Gen 3:6 (allusion, high confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: The food of paradise was spiritual: the “every tree” is the Good itself, the tree of life, while the forbidden tree bore a mixed fruit of good and evil that the serpent made attractive.

  • The chapter heading is partly garbled in the scan and translated by sense. Quotations and allusions: Prov 9:5; Matt 5:6; John 7:37; Isa 65:13–14 (paraphrased as “drink joy”); Amos 8:11; Gen 2:16 (Septuagint, read as “every tree”); Ps 37:4 (36:4 LXX); Prov 3:18. “Eden means delight” follows the Septuagint’s rendering (τρυφή). Gregory reads “every” (τὸ πᾶν) as the name of the Good itself.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR debris): Δαβὶδ μεν λέγωνμιξατατρύφησον τοῦ Κυρίου → Δαβὶδ μὲν λέγων, Κατατρύφησον τοῦ Κυρίου.

Topics: Eschatology

Cite (SBL): Gregory of Nyssa, Hom. opif. 19 (PG 44:196b–197c; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/gregory-nyssa-hominis-opificio/18/#p-19). (abbreviation not yet checked)

BibTeX · RIS (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-gregory-nyssa-hominis-opificio-19) · Report an error

Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Migne's Patrologia Graeca (scan OCR, corrections logged; lines lost in the scan marked …), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of NPNF² 5 (Moore and Wilson, 1893); differences checked against the Greek.

Chapter 20

20PG 44:197c–201a

Τίς ἡ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ ζωὴ. καὶ τί τὸ ἀπηγορευμένον ξύλον. Τί οὖν ἐκεῖνό ἐστιν, ὃ καλοῦ τε καὶ κακοῦ συγκεκραμένην ἔχει τὴν γνῶσιν, ταῖς διʼ αἰσθήσεως ἡδοναῖς ὲπηνθισμένον; Ἀρα μὴ πόρρω τῆς ἀληθείας παραστοχάσομαι, τῇ τοῦ γνωστοῦ διανοίᾳ εἰς ἀφορμὴν τῆς θεωρίας συγχρώμενος. Οίμαι γὰρ οὐκ ἐπιστήμην ὲνταῦθα παρὰ τῆς Γραφῆς νοεῖσθαι τὴν γνῶσιν, ἀλλά τινα διαφοράν ὲκ τῆς γραφικῆς συνηθείας εὑρίσκω, γνώσεώς τε καὶ διακρίσεως. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ διακρίνειν ἐπιστημόνως τὸ καλὸν ὲκ τοῦ κακοῦ, τελειοτέρας ἕξεως εἷναί φησιν 6 Ἀπόστολος, καὶ γεγυμνασμένων αἰσθητηρίων · διὸ καὶ πρόσταγμα ποιεῖται πάντα δοκιμάζειν, καὶ τοῦ πνευματικοῦ τὺ διακρίνειν ἴδιον εἷναί φησιν. Ἠ δὲ γνῶσις ού πανταχοῦ τὴνῗὲπιστή μη· τε καί εἴδησιν ὑφηγεῖται κατὰ τὸ σημαινόμενον ἀλλὰ τὴν πρὸς τὸ κεχαρισμένον διάθεσιν · ὠςμἜγνιι Κύριος τοὺς ὄντας αύτοῦί ι καὶ πρὸς τὸν Μωῦσέα φησὶν, ὅτι ιʼΈγνων σε παρὰ πάντας ’ν ι περί δὲ τῶν ὲε κακίᾳ κατεγνωσμένων λέγει 6 τά πάντα εἰδὼς, ὅτ ι Οὐδέποτε ἔγνων ὑμᾶς, Οὐκοῦν τὸ ξύλον, ἀφʼ οἳ ἡ σύμμικτος γνῶσις καρποφορεϊται, τῶν ἀπηγορευμένων ὲστί. Μέμικται δὲ διά τῶν ἐναντίων 6 καρπὸς ἐκεῖνος, 6 συνήγορον ἔχων ἑαυτοῦ τὸν ὅφιν, τάχα κατά τδν λόγον τοῦτον, ὅτι ού γυμνὸν πρόκειται τὺ κακὸν αὐτὸ ἐφʼ ἑαυτοῦ κατά τὴν ἰδίαν φύσιν φαινόμενον. Ἦ γὰρ ἂν ἄπρακτος ἦν ή κακία, μηδενὶ προσκεχρωσμένη καλῷ τῷ πρὸς ὲπιθυμίαν αὐτῆς ἐφελκομένῳ τὸν ἀπατώμενον. Νυνὶ δὲ σύμμικτός πῶς ἐστιν ή τοῦ κακοῦ φύσις. ὲν μὲν τῷ βάθει τὸν δλεθρον, οἷόν τινα δόλον ἐγκεκρυμμένον ἔχουσα, ὲν δὲ τῇ κατά τὸ φαινόμενον ἀπάτη καλοῦ τινα φαντασίαν παραδεικνύου σα. Καλὸν δοκεῖ τοῖς φιλαργύροις ή τῆς ὕλης εὔχροιαο ἀλλά ῥίζα πάντων τῶν κακῶνή φιλαργυρία γίνεται. Τίς δʼ ἂν ἐπὶ τὸν δυσώδη βόρβορον τῆς ἀκολασίας κατώλισθεν, εἰ μὴ τὴν ήδονὴν καλόν τι καὶ αἱρετὸν ᾦετο 6 τῷ δελέατι τούτῳ πρὸς τὸ πάθος κατασυρόμενος; Οῦτω καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἐγκεκρυμμὲνην ἔχοντα τὴν διαφθορὰν, αἱρετά παρὰ τὴν πρώτην δοκεῖ, διά τινος ἀπάτης τοῖς ἀνεπισκέπτως ἀντʼ ἀγαθοῦ σπουδαζόμενα. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν οί πολλοὶ τὸ καλὸν ὲν τῷ τὰς αἰσθήσεις εὐφραίνοντι κρίνουσι, καί τίς ἐστιν ὁμωνυμία τοῦ τε ὄντος καὶτοῦ δοκοῦντος εἶναι καλοῦ · τούτου Ῑχάριν ή πρὸς τὸ κακὸν ὡς πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν γινομένη ἐπιθυμία, καλοῦ καὶ κακοῦ γνῶσις ὑπὸ τῆς Γραφῆς ὠνομάσθη, συνδιάθεσίν τινα καὶ ἀνάκρασιν ὲρμηνευούσης τῆς γνώσεως. Οὔτε ἀπολύτως κακὸν, διότι περιήνθισται τῷ καλῷ, οὔτε καθαρῶς ἀγαθὸν, διότι ὑποκέκρυπται τὸ κακόν ’ ἀλλά σύμμικτον διʼ ἑκατέρων τοῦ ἀπηγορευμένον ξύλου τὸν καρπὸν εἷναί φησιν, οὗ τὴν γεῦσιν είς θάνατον ἄγειν εῐπε τοὺς ἁψαμένους. μονονουχὶ φανερῶς τὸ δόγμα βοῶν, ὅτι τὸ ὅντως ἀγαθὸν ἁπλοῦν καὶ μονοειδές ἐστι τῇ φύσει, πάσης διπλόης καὶ τῆς πρὸς τὸ ἐναντίον συζυγίας ἀλλότριον. Τὸ δὲ κακὸν ποικίλον τε καὶ κατεσχηματισμένον ἐστὶν, ἄλλο τι νομιζόμενον, καὶ ἕτερον διὰ τῆς πείρας ἀνακρινόμενον, ού τὴν γνῶσιν, ' τουτέστι, τὴν διὰ τῆς πείρας ἀνάληψιν, θανάτου καὶ διαφθορᾶς ἀρχήν τε καὶ ὑπόθεσιν γίνεσθαι. Διά τοῦτο προδείκνυσιν 6 ὄφις τὸν πονηρὸν τῆς ἁμαρτίας καρο πδν, οὐχ ὡς εἶχε φύσεως τὸ κακὸν ἐκ τοῦ προφανοῦς ἐπιδείξας · οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἠπατήθη 6 ἄνθρωπος τῷ προσ δήλῳ κακῷ · ἀλλά διά τινος ὧρας τὸ φαινόμενον ἀγλαΐσας, καί τινα κατά τὴν αἴσθησιν ήδονήν ὲγγοητεύσας τῇ γεύσει, πιθανὸς ἐφάνη τῇ γυναικὶ, καθώς φησιν ἡ Γραφή · «Καὶ εἶδε γὰρ ὴ γυνὴ, φησὶν, ὃτι καλὸν τὸ ξύλον εἱς βρῶσιν καὶ ὅτι ἀρεστὸν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ίδείν, καὶ ὡραῖόν ἐστι τοῦ κατανοῆσαι · »καὶ λαβοῦσα τοῦ καρποῦ αὑτοῦ ἔφαγεν. Ἡ δὲ βρῶσις ἐκείνη θανάτου μήτηρ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις γέγονεν. Ᾱῦτη τοίνυν ἡ σύμμικτός tem καρποφορία, σαφῶς τοῦ λόγου τὸν νοῦν ὲρμηνεύοντος, καθʼ ὂν καλοῦ τε καὶ κακοῦ γνωστὸν ὠνομάσθη τὸ ξύλον ἐκεῖνο, ὅτι κατά τὴν τῶν δηλητηρίων κακίαν τῶν παραρτυθέντων τῷ μέλιτι, καοὸ μὲν καταγλυκαίνει τὴν αἴσθησιν, καλὸν εἶναι δοκεῖ, καθὸ δὲ φθείρει τὸν προσαπτόμενον, κακοῦ παντὸς ἔσχατον γίνεται. Ἐπεὶ οὖν ἐνήργησε κατά τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ζωῆς τὸ πονηρὸν δηλητήριον · τότε 6 ἇνθρωπος, τὺ μέγα καὶ πρᾶγμα καὶ ὄνομα, τὸ τῆς θείας prisca); ἀπεικὸνισμα, τῇ ματαιότητι, καθώς φησιν ό Προφήτης, ὡμοιώθη. Οὐκοῦν ή μὲν εἰκὼν πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον τῶν ὲν ἡμῖν νοουμένων ᾡκείωται· τὰ δὲ, ὅσα περὶ τὸν βίον λυπηρά τε καὶ ἄθλια, πόρρω τῆς πρὸς τὸ Θετόν ἐστιν ὁμοιώσεως.

Tis hē en tǭ paradeisǭ zōē. kai ti to apēgoreumenon xylon. Ti oun ekeino estin, ho kalou te kai kakou synkekramenēn echei tēn gnōsin, tais diʼ aisthēseōs hēdonais epēnthismenon? Ara mē porrō tēs alētheias parastochasomai, tę̄ tou gnōstou dianoią eis aphormēn tēs theōrias synchrōmenos. Oimai gar ouk epistēmēn entautha para tēs Graphēs noeisthai tēn gnōsin, alla tina diaphoran ek tēs graphikēs synētheias heuriskō, gnōseōs te kai diakriseōs. To men gar diakrinein epistēmonōs to kalon ek tou kakou, teleioteras hexeōs heinai phēsin 6 Apostolos, kai gegymnasmenōn aisthētēriōn ; dio kai prostagma poieitai panta dokimazein, kai tou pneumatikou ty diakrinein idion heinai phēsin. Ē de gnōsis ou pantachou tēnïepistē mē; te kai eidēsin hyphēgeitai kata to sēmainomenon alla tēn pros to kecharismenon diathesin ; ōsmEgnii Kyrios tous ontas autoui i kai pros ton Mōysea phēsin, hoti iʼEgnōn se para pantas ’n i peri de tōn ee kakią kategnōsmenōn legei 6 ta panta eidōs, hot i Oudepote egnōn hymas, Oukoun to xylon, aphʼ hoi hē symmiktos gnōsis karpophoreïtai, tōn apēgoreumenōn esti. Memiktai de dia tōn enantiōn 6 karpos ekeinos, 6 synēgoron echōn heautou ton hophin, tacha kata tdn logon touton, hoti ou gymnon prokeitai ty kakon auto ephʼ heautou kata tēn idian physin phainomenon. Ē gar an apraktos ēn ē kakia, mēdeni proskechrōsmenē kalǭ tǭ pros epithymian autēs ephelkomenǭ ton apatōmenon. Nyni de symmiktos pōs estin ē tou kakou physis. en men tǭ bathei ton dlethron, hoion tina dolon enkekrymmenon echousa, en de tę̄ kata to phainomenon apatē kalou tina phantasian paradeiknyou sa. Kalon dokei tois philargyrois ē tēs hylēs euchroiao alla rhiza pantōn tōn kakōnē philargyria ginetai. Tis dʼ an epi ton dysōdē borboron tēs akolasias katōlisthen, ei mē tēn ēdonēn kalon ti kai haireton ǭeto 6 tǭ deleati toutǭ pros to pathos katasyromenos? Outō kai ta loipa tōn hamartēmatōn enkekrymmenēn echonta tēn diaphthoran, haireta para tēn prōtēn dokei, dia tinos apatēs tois anepiskeptōs antʼ agathou spoudazomena. Epeidē toinyn oi polloi to kalon en tǭ tas aisthēseis euphrainonti krinousi, kai tis estin homōnymia tou te ontos kaitou dokountos einai kalou ; toutou Icharin ē pros to kakon hōs pros to agathon ginomenē epithymia, kalou kai kakou gnōsis hypo tēs Graphēs ōnomasthē, syndiathesin tina kai anakrasin ermēneuousēs tēs gnōseōs. Oute apolytōs kakon, dioti periēnthistai tǭ kalǭ, oute katharōs agathon, dioti hypokekryptai to kakon ’ alla symmikton diʼ hekaterōn tou apēgoreumenon xylou ton karpon heinai phēsin, hou tēn geusin eis thanaton agein eipe tous hapsamenous. mononouchi phanerōs to dogma boōn, hoti to hontōs agathon haploun kai monoeides esti tę̄ physei, pasēs diploēs kai tēs pros to enantion syzygias allotrion. To de kakon poikilon te kai kateschēmatismenon estin, allo ti nomizomenon, kai heteron dia tēs peiras anakrinomenon, ou tēn gnōsin, ' toutesti, tēn dia tēs peiras analēpsin, thanatou kai diaphthoras archēn te kai hypothesin ginesthai. Dia touto prodeiknysin 6 ophis ton ponēron tēs hamartias karo pdn, ouch hōs eiche physeōs to kakon ek tou prophanous epideixas ; ou gar an ēpatēthē 6 anthrōpos tǭ pros dēlǭ kakǭ ; alla dia tinos hōras to phainomenon aglaïsas, kai tina kata tēn aisthēsin ēdonēn engoēteusas tę̄ geusei, pithanos ephanē tę̄ gynaiki, kathōs phēsin hē Graphē ; «Kai eide gar ē gynē, phēsin, hoti kalon to xylon heis brōsin kai hoti areston tois ophthalmois idein, kai hōraion esti tou katanoēsai ; »kai labousa tou karpou hautou ephagen. Hē de brōsis ekeinē thanatou mētēr tois anthrōpois gegonen. Autē toinyn hē symmiktos tem karpophoria, saphōs tou logou ton noun ermēneuontos, kathʼ on kalou te kai kakou gnōston ōnomasthē to xylon ekeino, hoti kata tēn tōn dēlētēriōn kakian tōn parartythentōn tǭ meliti, kaoo men kataglykainei tēn aisthēsin, kalon einai dokei, katho de phtheirei ton prosaptomenon, kakou pantos eschaton ginetai. Epei oun enērgēse kata tēs tou anthrōpou zōēs to ponēron dēlētērion ; tote 6 hanthrōpos, ty mega kai pragma kai onoma, to tēs theias prisca)? apeikonisma, tę̄ mataiotēti, kathōs phēsin o Prophētēs, hōmoiōthē. Oukoun ē men eikōn pros to kreitton tōn en hēmin nooumenōn hǭkeiōtai; ta de, hosa peri ton bion lypēra te kai athlia, porrō tēs pros to Theton estin homoiōseōs.

What the life in paradise was, and what the forbidden tree was. What, then, is that which has the knowledge of good and evil blended together, decked out with the pleasures of sense? Perhaps I shall not miss the truth by much if I use the meaning of “knowable” as a starting point for the contemplation. For I think that “knowledge” is not to be understood here by Scripture as science; rather, I find from the usage of Scripture a certain difference between “knowledge” and “discernment.” For the Apostle says that to discern the good from the evil with understanding belongs to a more perfect habit and to trained senses; that is why he gives the command to test all things, and says that discernment is proper to the spiritual man. But knowledge does not everywhere indicate understanding and information in its meaning, but a disposition toward what is pleasing; as in “The Lord knew those who are his,” and he says to Moses, “I knew you above all”; while of those condemned for wickedness he who knows all things says, “I never knew you.” The tree, then, from which mixed knowledge is borne as fruit is among the forbidden things. And that fruit, which has the serpent as its advocate, is mixed of opposites, perhaps for this reason: that evil is not set out bare, appearing by itself in its own nature. For vice would be ineffective if it were not coloured with some good that draws the deceived person to desire it. But as it is, the nature of evil is in a way mixed, having destruction hidden in its depth like a snare, while in the deceit of its appearance it displays an image of something good. The beautiful colour of the material seems good to lovers of money; but the love of money becomes the root of all evils. Who would slip into the foul mire of licentiousness, if the one dragged into the passion by this bait did not think pleasure something good and desirable? So too the other sins, which have their ruin hidden, seem desirable at first, and through some deceit are pursued as good by the unwary. Since, then, the many judge the good to be what delights the senses, and there is a certain sameness of name between what is good and what seems good, for this reason the desire that arises toward evil as toward good was named by Scripture “knowledge of good and evil,” “knowledge” expressing a kind of disposition toward and blending with. It says that the fruit of the forbidden tree is neither absolutely evil, because it is decked with good, nor purely good, because evil lies hidden beneath it, but mixed of both, and it said that the taste of it leads those who touch it to death; all but openly crying out the doctrine that the truly good is simple and uniform in nature, foreign to all duplicity and to union with its opposite, while evil is varied and adorned, thought to be one thing and proved by experience to be another; and the knowledge of it, that is, the taking of it up by experience, becomes the beginning and occasion of death and corruption. For this reason the serpent points out the evil fruit of sin, not showing the evil openly as it was by nature (for man would not have been deceived by evil that was manifest), but making what appeared bright with a certain beauty and bewitching the taste with some pleasure to the senses, he seemed persuasive to the woman, as Scripture says: “And the woman saw,” it says, “that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes to see and beautiful to contemplate”; and taking of its fruit she ate. And that eating became the mother of death for human beings. This, then, is the mixed fruit-bearing, the word clearly explaining the sense in which that tree was named the tree of what is knowable of good and evil: that, like the malice of poisons seasoned with honey, inasmuch as it sweetens the sense it seems good, but inasmuch as it destroys the one who touches it, it becomes the extreme of all evil. When, then, the evil poison had worked against the life of man, then man, that great thing and name, the image of the divine nature, became like vanity, as the Prophet says. The image, then, is akin to the better of the things we perceive in ourselves; but whatever in life is painful and miserable is far from the likeness to the divine.

Heb 5:14 (allusion, high confidence) · 1 Thess 5:21 (allusion, high confidence) · 1 Cor 2:15 (allusion, high confidence) · 2 Tim 2:19 (quotation, high confidence) · Exod 33:17 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 7:23 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Tim 6:10 (quotation, high confidence) · Gen 3:6 (quotation, high confidence) · Gen 2:17 (allusion, high confidence) · Ps 144:4 (143:4 LXX) (allusion, high confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: The forbidden tree bore a “mixed” fruit: evil disguised as good, attractive to sense but deadly; by tasting it man, God’s image, became like vanity.

  • The opening sentence is the chapter’s heading as printed in the edition. References: Heb 5:14; 1 Thess 5:21; 1 Cor 2:15; 2 Tim 2:19; Exod 33:12, 17; Matt 7:23; 1 Tim 6:10; Gen 3:6 (Septuagint); Ps 144:4 (143:4 LXX). One word in the phrase “the image of the divine nature” is garbled in the scan and translated by sense.

Topics: Ethics

Cite (SBL): Gregory of Nyssa, Hom. opif. 20 (PG 44:197c–201a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/gregory-nyssa-hominis-opificio/18/#p-20). (abbreviation not yet checked)

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Migne's Patrologia Graeca (scan OCR, corrections logged; lines lost in the scan marked …), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of NPNF² 5 (Moore and Wilson, 1893); differences checked against the Greek.

Chapter 21

21PG 44:201a–204a

Ὀτι ἡ ἀνάστασις οῡντοσοῦᾲτον ἐκ τοᾷ κηρύγματος τοῦ Γραφικοῦ, ὅσον ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς ἀνάγκης τῶν πραγμάτων ἀκολούθως ἐλπίζεται. Ἀλλʼ οὐχ οὕτως ἐστὶν ἰσχυρὸν ἡ κακία, ὡς τῆς ἀγαθῆς ὑπερισχύσαι δυνάμεως · οὐδὲ κρείττων καὶ μονιμωτέρα τῆς Θεοῦ σοφίας ήτῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν ἀβουλία. Οὐδὲ γάρ ἐστι δυνατὸν τὸ τρεπόμενόν τε καὶ ἀλλοιούμενον, τοῦ ἀεὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχοντος, καὶ ὲν τῷ ἀγαθῷ πεπηγότος, ὲπικρατέστερόν τε καὶ μονιμώτε-ιρον εἶναι ο ἀλλʼ ἡ μὲν θεία βουλὴ πάντη τε καὶ πάντως τὸ ἀμετάθετον ἔχει, τὸ δὲ ’πρεπτὸν τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν οὐδὲ ὲν τῷ κακῷ πάγιον μένει. Τὸ γὰρ ἀεὶ πάντως κινούμενον, εἰ μὲν πρὸς τὸ καλὸν ἔχοι τὴν πρόοδον, διὰ τὸ ἀόριστον τοῦ διεξοδευομένου πράγματος οὐδέποτε λήξει τῆς ἐπὶ τὰ πρόσω φορᾶς. Uti-6k γὰρ εὑρήσει ζητουμένου πέρας οὐδὲν, οὗ δραξάμενον στήσεταί ποτε τῆς κινήσεως. Εἰ δὲ πρὸς τὸ ἐναντίον τὴν ῥοπὴν σχοίη, ἐπειδὰν διανύσῃ τῆς κακίας τὸν δρόμον, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ ἀκρότατον τοῦ κακοῦ μέτρον ἀφίκηται ’ τότε τὸ τῆς ὁρμῆς ἀεικίνητον οὐδεμίαν ἐκ φύσεως στάσιν εὑρίσκον, ἐπειδὰν διαδράμῃ τὸ ἐν κακίᾳ διάστημα, κατʼ ἀνάγκην ἐπὶ τὸ ἀγαθὸν τρέπει τὴν κίνησιν. Μὴ γὰρ προϊούσης κακίας ἐπὶ τὸ ἀόριστον, ἀλλʼ ἀναγκαίοις πέρασι κατειλημμένης, ἀκολούθωςή τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ διαδοχὴ τὸ πέρας τῆς κακίας ἐκδέχεται. Καὶ οὕτω, καθὼς εἴρηται, τὸ ἀεικίνητον ἡμῶν τῆς φύσεως πάλιν ὕστατον ἐπὶ τὴν ἀγαθὴν ἀνατρέχει πορείαν, τῇ μνήμῃ τῶν προδεδυστυχημέ- ’νων τὸ μὴ πάλιν εναλῶναι τοῖς ίσοις σωφρονιζόμενον. Οὐκοῦν ἔσται πάλιν ὲν καλοῖς ό δρόμος ἡμῖν, διὰ τὸ πέρασιν ἀναγκαίοις περιωρίσθαι τῆς κακίας τὴν φύσιν. Καθάπερ γὰρ oi δεινοὶ τὰ μετέωρα, τοῦ μὲν φωτὸς πάντα λέγουσι τὸν κόσμον εἶναι κατά· nkeow, τὸ δὲ σκότος τῇ ἀντιφράξει τοῦ κατὰ τὴν γῆν σώματος ἀποσκιαζόμενον γίνεσθαι (ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ σφαιροειδοῦς σώματος, κατὰ νώτου τῆς ἡλιακῆς ἀκτῖνος κωνοειδῶς κατακλείεσθαι, τὸν δὲ ἥλιον πολλαπλασίονι τῷ μεγέθει τὴν γῆν ὑπερβάλλοντα, πανταχόθεν αὐτὴν ταῖς ἀκτῖσιν ὲν κύκλῳ περιπτυσσόμενοι), συνάπτειν κατὰ τὸ πέρας τοῦ κὼνον τὰς τοῦ φωτὸς συμβολὰς, ὥστε καθʼ ὑπόθεσιν, εἰ γένοιτό τινι δύναμις διαὸῆναι τὸ μέτρον, είς ὅσον ἐκτείνεται ἡ σκιὰ, πάντως ἂν ὲν φωτὶ γενέσθαι μὴ διακοπτομὲνῳ ὑπὸ τοῦ σκότους) · οὕτως οἶμαι δεῖν καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν διανοεῖσθαι, δτι διεξελθόντες τὸν τῆς κακίας ὅρον, ἐπειδὰν ὲν τῷ ἄκρῳ γενώμεθα τῆς κατά τὴν ἁμαρτίαν σκιᾶς, πάλιν ἐν φωτὶ βιοτεύσομεν, ὡς κατά τὸ ἀπιροπλάσιον πρὸς τδ τῆς κακίας μέτρον τῆς τῶν ἀγαθῶν φύσεως περιττευούσης. Πάλιν οὗν 6 παράδεισος, πάλιν τὸ ξύλον ἐκεῖνο. 6 δὴ καὶ ζωῆς ἔστι ξύλον, πάλιν πῆς εἰκόνος ἠ χάρις, xa't ἡ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἀξία. Οὔ μοι δοκεῖ τούτωνούδὲν, ὅσα νῦν πρὸς τὴν τοῦ βίου χρείαν παρά τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ὑπέζευκται ἀλλʼ ἑτέρας τινος βασιλείας ἐστὶν ἠ ἐλπὶς, ἦς 6 λόγος ἐν ἀπορρήτοις μένει.

Oti hē anastasis ountosouąton ek toą kērygmatos tou Graphikou, hoson ex autēs tēs anankēs tōn pragmatōn akolouthōs elpizetai. Allʼ ouch houtōs estin ischyron hē kakia, hōs tēs agathēs hyperischysai dynameōs ; oude kreittōn kai monimōtera tēs Theou sophias ētēs physeōs hēmōn aboulia. Oude gar esti dynaton to trepomenon te kai alloioumenon, tou aei hōsautōs echontos, kai en tǭ agathǭ pepēgotos, epikratesteron te kai monimōte-iron einai o allʼ hē men theia boulē pantē te kai pantōs to ametatheton echei, to de ’prepton tēs physeōs hēmōn oude en tǭ kakǭ pagion menei. To gar aei pantōs kinoumenon, ei men pros to kalon echoi tēn proodon, dia to aoriston tou diexodeuomenou pragmatos oudepote lēxei tēs epi ta prosō phoras. Uti-6k gar heurēsei zētoumenou peras ouden, hou draxamenon stēsetai pote tēs kinēseōs. Ei de pros to enantion tēn rhopēn schoiē, epeidan dianysę̄ tēs kakias ton dromon, kai epi to akrotaton tou kakou metron aphikētai ’ tote to tēs hormēs aeikinēton oudemian ek physeōs stasin heuriskon, epeidan diadramę̄ to en kakią diastēma, katʼ anankēn epi to agathon trepei tēn kinēsin. Mē gar proïousēs kakias epi to aoriston, allʼ anankaiois perasi kateilēmmenēs, akolouthōsē tou agathou diadochē to peras tēs kakias ekdechetai. Kai houtō, kathōs eirētai, to aeikinēton hēmōn tēs physeōs palin hystaton epi tēn agathēn anatrechei poreian, tę̄ mnēmę̄ tōn prodedystychēme- ’nōn to mē palin enalōnai tois isois sōphronizomenon. Oukoun estai palin en kalois o dromos hēmin, dia to perasin anankaiois periōristhai tēs kakias tēn physin. Kathaper gar oi deinoi ta meteōra, tou men phōtos panta legousi ton kosmon einai kata; nkeow, to de skotos tę̄ antiphraxei tou kata tēn gēn sōmatos aposkiazomenon ginesthai (alla touto men kata to schēma tou sphairoeidous sōmatos, kata nōtou tēs hēliakēs aktinos kōnoeidōs katakleiesthai, ton de hēlion pollaplasioni tǭ megethei tēn gēn hyperballonta, pantachothen autēn tais aktisin en kyklǭ periptyssomenoi), synaptein kata to peras tou kōnon tas tou phōtos symbolas, hōste kathʼ hypothesin, ei genoito tini dynamis diaoēnai to metron, eis hoson ekteinetai hē skia, pantōs an en phōti genesthai mē diakoptomenǭ hypo tou skotous) ; houtōs oimai dein kai peri hēmōn dianoeisthai, dti diexelthontes ton tēs kakias horon, epeidan en tǭ akrǭ genōmetha tēs kata tēn hamartian skias, palin en phōti bioteusomen, hōs kata to apiroplasion pros td tēs kakias metron tēs tōn agathōn physeōs peritteuousēs. Palin houn 6 paradeisos, palin to xylon ekeino. 6 dē kai zōēs esti xylon, palin pēs eikonos ē charis, xa't hē tēs archēs axia. Ou moi dokei toutōnouden, hosa nyn pros tēn tou biou chreian para tou Theou tois anthrōpois hypezeuktai allʼ heteras tinos basileias estin ē elpis, ēs 6 logos en aporrētois menei.

That the resurrection is hoped for as a consequence, not so much from the proclamation of Scripture as from the very necessity of things. But vice is not so strong as to prevail over the power of the good, nor is the folly of our nature stronger and more lasting than the wisdom of God. For it is not possible that what is changeable and altering should be more powerful and lasting than what is always the same and fixed in the good. Rather, the divine counsel has unchangeableness in every way and altogether, while the changeableness of our nature does not remain fixed even in evil. For what is always moving, if its progress is toward the good, will never cease from its forward course because what it travels through is without limit; for it will find no end of what it seeks, by grasping which it might at some time stop its motion. But if it should incline to the opposite, when it has finished the course of vice and reached the extreme measure of evil, then the ever-moving character of its impulse, finding no natural stopping place, when it has run through the extent of vice, necessarily turns its motion toward the good. For since vice does not advance without limit but is held within necessary bounds, the succession of the good accordingly takes over at the limit of vice. And so, as has been said, the ever-moving character of our nature runs back at last to the good way, made prudent by the memory of its former misfortunes not to be caught again in the same things. Our course, then, will again be among good things, because the nature of vice is confined within necessary limits. For as those skilled in astronomy say that the whole world is full of light, and that darkness is produced by being shaded by the interposition of the body of the earth (but that this is enclosed in the shape of a cone behind the sun’s ray, according to the shape of the spherical body, while the sun, exceeding the earth many times in size and enfolding it all around on every side with its rays, joins the meetings of the light at the end of the cone; so that, by hypothesis, if anyone had the power to pass the measure to which the shadow extends, he would certainly be in light not interrupted by darkness), so I think we must think about ourselves too: that when we have passed the limit of vice and are at the extremity of the shadow of sin, we shall live again in light, since the nature of good things exceeds the measure of vice infinitely. Paradise, then, again; again that tree, which is indeed the tree of life; again the grace of the image and the dignity of rule. It does not seem to me that our hope is any of those things which are now subjected by God to men for the needs of life, but the hope is of another kingdom, the account of which remains among things unspoken.

Rev 2:7 (echo, medium confidence) · 2 Cor 12:4 (echo, medium confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: Because evil has a limit while the good is infinite, the ever-moving human nature, having run through evil, must turn back to the good; so the restoration of paradise and the image is to be expected.

  • The chapter heading is partly garbled in the scan and translated by sense. This chapter states Gregory’s view that evil is limited and that human nature, having reached its limit, will turn back to the good; it is often read as part of his teaching on the final restoration of all (ἀποκατάστασις). Translated exactly as written. The astronomy (the earth’s cone-shaped shadow within a sunlit universe) follows ancient science. “Paradise again … the tree of life” echoes Rev 2:7; “things unspoken” echoes 2 Cor 12:4.

Topics: Eschatology

Cite (SBL): Gregory of Nyssa, Hom. opif. 21 (PG 44:201a–204a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/gregory-nyssa-hominis-opificio/18/#p-21). (abbreviation not yet checked)

BibTeX · RIS (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-gregory-nyssa-hominis-opificio-21) · Report an error

Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Migne's Patrologia Graeca (scan OCR, corrections logged; lines lost in the scan marked …), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of NPNF² 5 (Moore and Wilson, 1893); differences checked against the Greek.

Chapter 22

22PG 44:204a–209a

Πρὸς τοὺς λέγοντας, εί καλόν τι καί ἀγαθὸν ἡ ἀνάστασιςΡ τί οὐχὶγῆδη γέγονεν, ἀλλὰ χρόνων τισι περιόδοις ἐλπίζετας. κ Ἀλλά τῆς ἀκολουθίας τῶν ἑξητασμένων ἐχώμεθα. Ἴσως γάρ τις πρὸς τὸ γλυκὺ τῆς ἐλπίδος πτερωθεὶς τὴν διάνοιαν, ἄχθος ἡγεῖται καὶ ζημίαν τὸ μὴ θᾶττον έν τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἐκείνοις γενέσθαι, ἃ ὑπὲρ αίσθησίν τε καὶ γνῶσιν ἀνθρωπίνην ἐστὶ, καὶ δεινὴν ποιεῖται τὴν διά μέσου πρὸς τὸ ποθούμενον τοῦ χρόνου παρὰ· ’ τασιν. Ἀλλά μὴ στενοχωρείσθω, καθάπερ τις τῶν νηπίων, τὴν πρὸς ὀλίγον ἀναβολὴν τῶν καθʼ ἡδονὴν δυσχεραίνων. Ἐπειδὴ γάρ ὑπὸ λόγου καί σοφίας τά πάντα οἰκονομεῖται, ἀνάγκη πᾶσα μηδὲν ἄμοιρον ἡγεῖσθαι τῶν γινομένων αὑτοῦ τε τοῦ λόγου, καὶ τῆς ὲν αὐτῷ σοφίας. Ἐρεῖς οὖν ο Τίς οὗτος 6 λόγος ἐστὶ. καθʼ ὃν οὐκ εὐθὺς ἐπὶ τὸ ποθούμενον ἡ τοῦ λυπηροῦ βίου μετάστασις γίνεται, ἀλλʼ εἰς χρόνους τινὰς ὡρισμένους ή βαρεῖα καὶ σωματώδης αὕτη παραταθεῖσα ζωὴ, ἀναμένει τὸ πέρας τῆς τοῦ παντὸς συμπληρώσεως, ἵνα τὸ τηνικαῦτα καθάπερ χαλινοῦ τινος ἔλευθερωθεῖσα ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη ζωὴ, πάλιν ἀνετός τε καὶ ἐλευθέρα πρὸς τὸν μακάριον καὶ ἀπαθῆ βίον ἐπαναδράμοι; Ἀλλʼ εί μὲν ἐγγίζει τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τῶν ζητουο μένων 6 λόγος, αὑτὴ ἂν εἰδείη σαφῶς ἡ Ἀλήθειας Ὃ δʼ οὖν ἐπὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν ἦλθε διάνοιαν, τοιοῦτον ἐστί. Λέγω δὴ τὸν πρῶτον πάλιν ὲπαναλαὸὼν λόγον· Ποιήσωμεν, ι φησὶν 6 Θεὸς, t ἄνθρωπον κατʼ εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμετέραν. Καὶ ἐποίησεν 6 Θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωmw κατʼ είκόνα Θεοῦ ἐποίησεν αὐτόν. ι Ἦ μὲν οὖν εἰκὼν τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἡ ἐν πάσῃ τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει θεωρουμένη, τὸ τέλος ἔσχεν. ’0 δὲ Ἀδὰμ οὔπω ἐγένετο · τὸ γὰρ γήῖνον πλάσμα κατά τινα ὲτυμολογικὴν ὀνομασίαν λέγεται Ἀδὰμ, καθώς φασιν οἱ τῆς Ἑβραίων φωνῆς ἐπιίστορες. Διὸ καὶ 6 Ἀπόστολος διαφερόντως τὴν πάτριον τῶν Ἰσραηλιτῶν πεπαιδευμένος φωνὴν, τὸν ὲκ γῆς ἄνθρωπον χοῖκὸν ὀνομάζει, οἱονεὶ μεταβαλὼν τὴν τοῦ ’Δδάμ κλῆσιν είς τὴν Ἐλλάδα φωνήν. Γέγονεν οὖν κατʼ εἰκόνα 6 ἅνθρωπος, ὴ καθόλου φύσις, τὸ θεοείκελον χρῆμα. Γέγονε δὲ τῇ παντοδυνάμῳ σοφία οὐχὶ μέρος τοῦ ὅλου, ἀλλʼ ἅπαν ἀθρόως τὸ τῆς φύσεως πλήρωμα. Εἷδεν 6 πάντων τῶν περάτων περ ριδεδραγμένος, καθώς φησιν ἡ Γραφὴ, ἡ λέγουσα, ι Ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ τά πέρατα τῆς γῆς · ι εἶδεν 6 εἰδὼς τὰ πάντα καὶ πρὶν γενέσεως αὐτῶν, ἐμπεριλαῦὼν τῇ γνώσει ὅσον κατʼ ἀριμθὺν ἐν τοῖς καθʼ ἕκαστον ἔσται τὸ ἀνθρώπινον. Ἐπεὶ δέ κατενόησεν ἐν τῷ πλάσματι ἡ μῶν τὴν πρὸς τὺ χεῖρον ῥοπὴν, καὶ ὅτι τῆς πρὸς τοὺς ἀγγέλους ὁμοτιμίας ἑκουσίως ἁποῤρυὲν, τὴν πρὸς τὺ ταπεινὸν κοινωνίαν προσοικειώσεται· διὰ ταῦτα κατέμιξε τι καὶ τοῦ ἀλόγου τῇ ἰδίᾳ εἰκόνι. Οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ὲν τῇ θείᾳ τε καὶ μακαρίᾳ φύσει ὴ κατὰ τὸ ἄρρεν καὶ θῆλυ διαφορά · ἀλλὰ τῆς ἀλόγου κατασκευῆς ἐπὶ τὸν ἄνθρωποι. μετενεγκὼν τὸ ἰδίωμα, οὐ κατὰ τὸ ὑψηλὸν τῆς κτίσεως ἡμῶν τὸν πλεονασμὸν τῷ γένει χαρίζεται. Οὺ γὰρ ὅτε τὸ κατʼ εἰκόνα ἐποίησε, τότε τὴν τοῦ αὐξάνεσθαι καὶ πληθύνεσθαι δύναμιν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ προσέθηκεν, ἀλλʼ ὅτε διέκρινε τῇ κατὰ τὸ ᾱρρεν καὶ θῆλυ διαφορᾷ, τότε φησίν* ι Αὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληθύνεσθε, καὶ πληρώσατε τὴν γῆν. ι Τὸ γὰρ τοιοῦτον οὐ τῆς θείας φύσεως ἴδιον, ἀλλὰ τῆς ἀλόγου ἐστὶ, καθὼς ἡ ἱστορία παρασημαίνεται πρόά τερον ἐπὶ τῶν ἀλόγων εἰρῆσθαι ταῦτα παρὰ. τοῦ Θεοῦ διηγησαμένη, ὡς ετ γε πρὸ τοῦ ἐπιβαλεῖν τῇ φύσει τὴν κατὰ τὸ ἄρρεν καὶ θῆλυ διαφορὰν, τὴν διὰ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης δύναμιν εἰς τὸ αὐξάνεσθαι τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ προσέθηκεν, οὐκ ἂν τοῦ τοιούτου τῆς γεννήσεως εἴδους προσεδεήθημεν, διʼ οὗ γεννᾶται τὰ ἄλογα. τοῦ χρόνου καὶ ἀδιάστατον πέρας · ὡς μηκέτι δυνατὸν εἶναι τῷ κατά τὸ ἔσχατόν τε καὶ ἀκρότατον τῆς ἀκμῆς ἐπιβάντι τοῦ χρόνου, διὰ τὸ μηδὲν ὑπολείπεσθαι τῇ ἀκρότητι μέρος, τὴν περιοδικὴν ταύτην διᾶ θανάτου μεταόολὴν κτήσασθαι, ἀλλʼ εί μόνον ἰςχῆσειεν ἡ τῆς ἀναστάσεως σάλπιγξ,ἡ τὸ τεθνηκὸς ἀφυπνίζουσα, καὶ τοὺς ἐν τῇ ζωῇ καταλειφθέντας καθʼ ὁμοιότητα τῶν ἐξ ἀναστάσεως ἀλλοιου μένων πρὸς ἀφθαρσίαν ἀθρόως μεταβάλλουσα,ὠς μηκέτι τὸ βάρος τῆς σαρκὰς ἐπὶ τὸ κάτω βρίθειν, καὶ τῇ γῇ παρακατέχειν τὸν δγκον· ἀλλὰ μετάρσιον διʼ ἀέρος φοιτᾷν. ι Ἀρπαγησόμεθα γάρ, φησὶν, ἐν νεφέλαις είς ἀπάνο τησιν τοῦ Κυρίου εἰς ἀέρα, καί οὕτως πάντοτε σὺν Κυρίῳ ἐσόμεθα. ι Οὐκοῦν ἀναμεινάτω τὸν χρόνον τὸν ἀναγκαίως τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ αὐξήσει συμπαρατείνοντα. Καὶ γάρ ol περὶ τόν Ἀβραάμ πατριάρχαι, τοῦ μὲν ίδεῖν τά ἀγαθά τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ἔσχον, καὶ οὐκ ἀνῆκαν ἐπιζητοῦντες τὴν ἐπουράνιον πατρίδα. καθώς φησιν ό Ἀπόστολοςʼ ἀλλʼ ὅμως ἐν τῷ ἐλπίζειν ἐτι τὴν χάριν εἱσι, τοῦ Θεοῦ κρεῖττόν τι περ) ἡμῶν προι βλεψαμένου, κατά τὴν τοῦ Παύλου φωνήν· ι Ἵνα μὴ,ι φησὶ, «χωρὶς ή μῶν τελειωθῶσιν. ο Εί οὖν ἐκεῖνοι φέρουσι τὴν ἀναβολὴν οε πόρρωθεν, διὰ μόνης πίστεως καὶ τῆς ἐλπίδος ἰδόντες τὰ ἀγαθὰ, καὶ ἀσπασάμενοι, καθὼς μαρτυρεϊὸ Ἀπόστολος, τό ἀσφαλὲς τῆς τῶν ἐλπισθέντων ἀπολαύσεως ἐν τῷ πιστὸν ἡγήσασθαι τὸν ἐπαγγειλάμενον θέμενοι· τί χρῆ πράττειν τοὺς πολλοὺς ἡμᾶς, οἷς τυχὸν οὐδέ ἡ πρὸς td κρεῖττον ἐλπὶς ἐκ τῶν βεβιωμένων tat-iv; Ἐξέλιπε διʼ ἐπιθυμίας καὶὴ τοῦ Προφήτου ψυχὴ, καὶ ὁμολογεῖ διὰ τῆς ψαλμῳδίας τδ ἐρωτικὸν τοῦτο πάθος, ἐπιποο θεῖν λέγων καὶ ἐκλείπειν αὐτοῦ τὴν ψυχὴν, ἐν ταῖς αὐλαῖς τοῦ Κυρίου γενέσθαι, κᾶν ἐν τοῖς ἐσχάτοις δέτι παραρῤιπτεῖσθαι, ὡς μεῖζον ὃν καὶ προτιμότερον τὺ ἐν ἐκείνοις ἔσχατον εἶναι, τοῦ πρωτεύειν ἐν τοῖς ἁμαρτωλοῖς τοῦ βίου σκηνώμασιν. Ἀλλʼ ὅμως ἠνείχετο τῆς άιαόολῆς, μακαρίζων μέν τὴν ἐκεῖ διαγωγὴν, καὶ τὴν ἐν βραχεῖ μετουσίαν χιλιάδων χρόνου προτιμοτέραν ποιούμενος· ι Κρεῖσσον,› φησιν, ι ἡμέρα μία ἐν ταῖς αὐλαῖς σου ὐπέρ χιλιάδας· ι ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐδυσχέο ραινε τῇ ἀναγκαίᾳ περὶ τῶν ὄντων οἰκονομίᾳ. ἱκανόν τε εἰς μακαρισμὸν ᾣετο τοῖς ἀνθρώποις καὶ τὸ διʼ ἐλπίδος ἐχειν τά ἀγαθά. Διό φησιν ἐπὶ τέλει τῆς ψαλμῳδίας ’ ι Κύριε ό Θεὸς τῶν δυνάμεων, μακάριος ἄνθρωπος ό ἐλπίζων ἐπὶ σέ. ι Οὐ τοίνυν οὐδὲ ἡμᾶς στενοχωρεῖσθαι χρὴ περὶ τῆς ἐν βραχεῖ τῶν ἐλπιζομένων ἀναὸολῆς, ἀλλʼ ὅπως ἂν μὴ ἀπόβλητοι τῶν ἐλπιζομένων γενοίμεθα, τὴν σπουδὴν ἔχειν. Ὠσπερ γὰρ εί τις προείποι τινὶ τῶν ἀπειροτέρων, ὅτι κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν τοῦ θέρουςὴ τῶν καρπῶν γενήσεται συλλογὴ, καὶ πλήρεις μὲν at ἀποθῆκαι, μεστὴ δὲ τῶν ἐδωδίμων ή τράπεζα τῷ τῆς εὐθηνίας ἔσται καιρῷ μάταιος ἂν εἴη ὁ ἐπισπεύδων τοῦ καιροῦ τὴν παρουτίαν, δέον σπέρματα καταβάλλειν καὶ διʼ ἐπιμελείας ἑαυτῷ τοὺς καρποὺς ἑτοιμάζεσθαι. '0 μὲν γάρ καιρδς καὶ βουλομένου, καὶ μὴ, πάντως κατά τὸν τευ ταγμένον ἐπιστήσεται χρόνον. Οὐχ ὁμοίως δὲ αὐτὸν ὄψονται, ὃ τε προετοιμάσας ἑαυτῷ τὴν τῶν καρπῶν ἀφθονίαν, καὶ 6 πάσης παρασκευῆς ἕρημος καταο λειφθεὶς ὑπὸ τῆς ὥρας. Οὕτως οἶμαι δεῖν, προδήλου πᾶσι διὰ τοῦ θείου-κηρύγματος ὄντος, ὅτι ἐνστήσεται τῆς ὲναλλαγῆς 6 καιρὸς, μὴ χρόνους πολυπραγμονεῖν (οὐδὲ γὰρ ήμῶν εἶπεν εἶναι τὸ καιροὺς γνῶναι καὶ χρόνους), μηδὲ λογισμούς τινας ἀναζητεῖν, διʼ ὧν σαθρώσει τις τὴν ψυχήν περὶ τήν ἐλπίδα τῆς ἀναστάσεως · ἀλλὰ τῇ πίστει τῶν προσδοκωμένων ἑπερειδόμενον, διὰ τῆς ἀγαθῆς πολιτείας τήν μέλλουσαν χάριν προεμπορεύε σθαι.

Pros tous legontas, ei kalon ti kai agathon hē anastasisR ti ouchigēdē gegonen, alla chronōn tisi periodois elpizetas. k Alla tēs akolouthias tōn hexētasmenōn echōmetha. Isōs gar tis pros to glyky tēs elpidos pterōtheis tēn dianoian, achthos hēgeitai kai zēmian to mē thatton en tois agathois ekeinois genesthai, ha hyper aisthēsin te kai gnōsin anthrōpinēn esti, kai deinēn poieitai tēn dia mesou pros to pothoumenon tou chronou para; ’ tasin. Alla mē stenochōreisthō, kathaper tis tōn nēpiōn, tēn pros oligon anabolēn tōn kathʼ hēdonēn dyscherainōn. Epeidē gar hypo logou kai sophias ta panta oikonomeitai, anankē pasa mēden amoiron hēgeisthai tōn ginomenōn hautou te tou logou, kai tēs en autǭ sophias. Ereis oun o Tis houtos 6 logos esti. kathʼ hon ouk euthys epi to pothoumenon hē tou lypērou biou metastasis ginetai, allʼ eis chronous tinas hōrismenous ē bareia kai sōmatōdēs hautē paratatheisa zōē, anamenei to peras tēs tou pantos symplērōseōs, hina to tēnikauta kathaper chalinou tinos eleutherōtheisa hē anthrōpinē zōē, palin anetos te kai eleuthera pros ton makarion kai apathē bion epanadramoi? Allʼ ei men engizei tę̄ alētheią tōn zētouo menōn 6 logos, hautē an eideiē saphōs hē Alētheias Ho dʼ oun epi tēn hēmeteran ēlthe dianoian, toiouton esti. Legō dē ton prōton palin epanalaoōn logon; Poiēsōmen, i phēsin 6 Theos, t anthrōpon katʼ eikona kai homoiōsin hēmeteran. Kai epoiēsen 6 Theos ton anthrōmw katʼ eikona Theou epoiēsen auton. i Ē men oun eikōn tou Theou, hē en pasę̄ tę̄ anthrōpinę̄ physei theōroumenē, to telos eschen. ’0 de Adam oupō egeneto ; to gar gēinon plasma kata tina etymologikēn onomasian legetai Adam, kathōs phasin hoi tēs Hebraiōn phōnēs epiistores. Dio kai 6 Apostolos diapherontōs tēn patrion tōn Israēlitōn pepaideumenos phōnēn, ton ek gēs anthrōpon choikon onomazei, hoionei metabalōn tēn tou ’Ddam klēsin eis tēn Ellada phōnēn. Gegonen oun katʼ eikona 6 hanthrōpos, ē katholou physis, to theoeikelon chrēma. Gegone de tę̄ pantodynamǭ sophia ouchi meros tou holou, allʼ hapan athroōs to tēs physeōs plērōma. Heiden 6 pantōn tōn peratōn per ridedragmenos, kathōs phēsin hē Graphē, hē legousa, i En tę̄ cheiri autou ta perata tēs gēs ; i eiden 6 eidōs ta panta kai prin geneseōs autōn, emperilauōn tę̄ gnōsei hoson katʼ arimthyn en tois kathʼ hekaston estai to anthrōpinon. Epei de katenoēsen en tǭ plasmati hē mōn tēn pros ty cheiron rhopēn, kai hoti tēs pros tous angelous homotimias hekousiōs haporryen, tēn pros ty tapeinon koinōnian prosoikeiōsetai; dia tauta katemixe ti kai tou alogou tę̄ idią eikoni. Ou gar estin en tę̄ theią te kai makarią physei ē kata to arren kai thēly diaphora ; alla tēs alogou kataskeuēs epi ton anthrōpoi. metenenkōn to idiōma, ou kata to hypsēlon tēs ktiseōs hēmōn ton pleonasmon tǭ genei charizetai. Ou gar hote to katʼ eikona epoiēse, tote tēn tou auxanesthai kai plēthynesthai dynamin tǭ anthrōpǭ prosethēken, allʼ hote diekrine tę̄ kata to arren kai thēly diaphorą, tote phēsin* i Auxanesthe kai plēthynesthe, kai plērōsate tēn gēn. i To gar toiouton ou tēs theias physeōs idion, alla tēs alogou esti, kathōs hē historia parasēmainetai proa teron epi tōn alogōn eirēsthai tauta para. tou Theou diēgēsamenē, hōs et ge pro tou epibalein tę̄ physei tēn kata to arren kai thēly diaphoran, tēn dia tēs phōnēs tautēs dynamin eis to auxanesthai tǭ anthrōpǭ prosethēken, ouk an tou toioutou tēs gennēseōs eidous prosedeēthēmen, diʼ hou gennatai ta aloga. tou chronou kai adiastaton peras ; hōs mēketi dynaton einai tǭ kata to eschaton te kai akrotaton tēs akmēs epibanti tou chronou, dia to mēden hypoleipesthai tę̄ akrotēti meros, tēn periodikēn tautēn dia thanatou metaoolēn ktēsasthai, allʼ ei monon ischēseien hē tēs anastaseōs salpinx,hē to tethnēkos aphypnizousa, kai tous en tę̄ zōę̄ kataleiphthentas kathʼ homoiotēta tōn ex anastaseōs alloiou menōn pros aphtharsian athroōs metaballousa,ōs mēketi to baros tēs sarkas epi to katō brithein, kai tę̄ gę̄ parakatechein ton dnkon; alla metarsion diʼ aeros phoitąn. i Arpagēsometha gar, phēsin, en nephelais eis apano tēsin tou Kyriou eis aera, kai houtōs pantote syn Kyriǭ esometha. i Oukoun anameinatō ton chronon ton anankaiōs tę̄ anthrōpinę̄ auxēsei symparateinonta. Kai gar ol peri ton Abraam patriarchai, tou men idein ta agatha tēn epithymian eschon, kai ouk anēkan epizētountes tēn epouranion patrida. kathōs phēsin o Apostolosʼ allʼ homōs en tǭ elpizein eti tēn charin heisi, tou Theou kreitton ti per) hēmōn proi blepsamenou, kata tēn tou Paulou phōnēn; i Hina mē,i phēsi, «chōris ē mōn teleiōthōsin. o Ei oun ekeinoi pherousi tēn anabolēn oe porrōthen, dia monēs pisteōs kai tēs elpidos idontes ta agatha, kai aspasamenoi, kathōs martyreïo Apostolos, to asphales tēs tōn elpisthentōn apolauseōs en tǭ piston hēgēsasthai ton epangeilamenon themenoi; ti chrē prattein tous pollous hēmas, hois tychon oude hē pros td kreitton elpis ek tōn bebiōmenōn tat-iv? Exelipe diʼ epithymias kaiē tou Prophētou psychē, kai homologei dia tēs psalmǭdias td erōtikon touto pathos, epipoo thein legōn kai ekleipein autou tēn psychēn, en tais aulais tou Kyriou genesthai, kan en tois eschatois deti pararripteisthai, hōs meizon hon kai protimoteron ty en ekeinois eschaton einai, tou prōteuein en tois hamartōlois tou biou skēnōmasin. Allʼ homōs ēneicheto tēs aiaoolēs, makarizōn men tēn ekei diagōgēn, kai tēn en brachei metousian chiliadōn chronou protimoteran poioumenos; i Kreisson,› phēsin, i hēmera mia en tais aulais sou yper chiliadas; i allʼ ouk edyscheo raine tę̄ anankaią peri tōn ontōn oikonomią. hikanon te eis makarismon hǭeto tois anthrōpois kai to diʼ elpidos echein ta agatha. Dio phēsin epi telei tēs psalmǭdias ’ i Kyrie o Theos tōn dynameōn, makarios anthrōpos o elpizōn epi se. i Ou toinyn oude hēmas stenochōreisthai chrē peri tēs en brachei tōn elpizomenōn anaoolēs, allʼ hopōs an mē apoblētoi tōn elpizomenōn genoimetha, tēn spoudēn echein. Ōsper gar ei tis proeipoi tini tōn apeiroterōn, hoti kata ton kairon tou therousē tōn karpōn genēsetai syllogē, kai plēreis men at apothēkai, mestē de tōn edōdimōn ē trapeza tǭ tēs euthēnias estai kairǭ mataios an eiē ho epispeudōn tou kairou tēn paroutian, deon spermata kataballein kai diʼ epimeleias heautǭ tous karpous hetoimazesthai. '0 men gar kairds kai boulomenou, kai mē, pantōs kata ton teu tagmenon epistēsetai chronon. Ouch homoiōs de auton opsontai, ho te proetoimasas heautǭ tēn tōn karpōn aphthonian, kai 6 pasēs paraskeuēs herēmos katao leiphtheis hypo tēs hōras. Houtōs oimai dein, prodēlou pasi dia tou theiou-kērygmatos ontos, hoti enstēsetai tēs enallagēs 6 kairos, mē chronous polypragmonein (oude gar ēmōn eipen einai to kairous gnōnai kai chronous), mēde logismous tinas anazētein, diʼ hōn sathrōsei tis tēn psychēn peri tēn elpida tēs anastaseōs ; alla tę̄ pistei tōn prosdokōmenōn hepereidomenon, dia tēs agathēs politeias tēn mellousan charin proemporeue sthai.

To those who say: if the resurrection is something beautiful and good, why has it not happened already, but is hoped for after certain periods of time? But let us keep to the sequence of what we have examined. For perhaps someone, his mind winged by the sweetness of hope, thinks it a burden and a loss not to come sooner to those good things which are beyond human sense and knowledge, and finds hard the stretch of time between him and what he longs for. But let him not be distressed, like a child impatient at a short delay of its pleasures. For since all things are governed by reason and wisdom, it is entirely necessary to think that nothing that happens is without a share in reason itself and the wisdom in it. You will ask, then, what this reason is, by which the change from this painful life to what we long for does not happen at once, but this heavy and bodily life, extended to certain fixed times, waits for the end of the completion of all, so that then human life, freed as from a bridle, may run back unrestrained and free to the blessed and passionless life. Whether the account comes near the truth of what is sought, the Truth itself would know clearly; but what came into our mind is this. I resume, then, our first statement. “Let us make man,” says God, “according to our image and likeness. And God made man; according to the image of God he made him.” The image of God, then, which is seen in all human nature, had its completion; but Adam had not yet come to be. For the earthy formation is called Adam by a name drawn from its derivation, as those versed in the Hebrew tongue say. That is why the Apostle too, who was specially trained in the ancestral tongue of the Israelites, calls the man from the earth “earthy,” as if translating the name of Adam into Greek. Man, then, came to be according to the image: the universal nature, the godlike thing. And it came to be by the all-powerful wisdom, not as a part of the whole, but the whole fullness of the nature at once. He saw it, who holds all the limits of things in his grasp, as the Scripture says: “In his hand are the ends of the earth”; he saw it, who knows all things even before their genesis, embracing in his knowledge how great humanity will be in number in its individuals. And since he perceived in our formation the inclination toward the worse, and that, having of its own will fallen away from equality of honour with the angels, it would take to itself fellowship with what is lowly, for these reasons he mixed something of the irrational with his own image. For the difference of male and female is not in the divine and blessed nature; but, transferring the property of the irrational constitution to man, he grants the race its increase not in accordance with the loftiness of our creation. For it was not when he made what is according to the image that he added to man the power to grow and multiply, but when he divided him by the difference of male and female, then he says, “Grow and multiply, and fill the earth.” For this is not proper to the divine nature but to the irrational, as the history indicates when it relates that these words were spoken by God first to the irrational creatures. So, if he had added to man the power to grow by this word before putting the difference of male and female on the nature, we would not have needed this form of generation by which the irrational creatures are born. … the end of time, without interval; so that it is no longer possible for one who has reached the last and highest point of time’s fullness, since no part is left over beyond that extremity, to undergo this periodic change through death. Rather, the trumpet of the resurrection needs only to sound, awakening the dead and changing those left in life, like those altered by the resurrection, all at once to incorruption, so that the weight of the flesh no longer presses downward or holds its bulk to the earth, but it travels aloft through the air. “For we shall be caught up,” he says, “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” Let him wait, then, for the time that necessarily extends along with human increase. For the patriarchs with Abraham too had the desire to see the good things, and did not cease seeking the heavenly country, as the Apostle says; yet they are still in the hope of the grace, since God foresaw something better for us, in Paul’s words, “so that,” he says, “they should not be made perfect apart from us.” If, then, they bear the delay, having seen the good things from afar by faith and hope alone and greeted them, as the Apostle testifies, placing the certainty of the enjoyment of what they hoped for in considering faithful the one who promised, what must the many of us do, for whom perhaps there is not even a hope of better things from the lives we have lived? Even the Prophet’s soul fainted with desire, and he confesses this lover’s passion in his psalm, saying that his soul longs and faints to be in the courts of the Lord, even if he were to be cast aside among the last, since it is greater and more honourable to be last there than to be first in the tents of sinners in this life. Yet he bore the delay, calling the life there blessed and counting a short share in it more honourable than thousands of years: “Better,” he says, “is one day in your courts than thousands.” But he was not impatient with the necessary ordering of things, and thought it enough for human blessedness to have the good things through hope. That is why he says at the end of the psalm, “O Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes in you.” Neither, then, should we be distressed at the short delay of what we hope for, but be earnest that we may not be cast out from what we hope for. For if someone told one of the less experienced beforehand that at the season of summer the harvest of fruits will take place, and the granaries will be full and the table loaded with food at the time of plenty, it would be foolish to hurry the coming of the season, when he ought to be sowing seed and preparing the fruits for himself by diligence. For the season will certainly come at the appointed time, whether he wishes it or not; but the one who has prepared an abundance of fruits for himself and the one who is overtaken by the hour bare of all preparation will not see it alike. So, I think, since it is plain to all through the divine proclamation that the time of the change will come, we should not busy ourselves about times (for he said it is not for us to know times and seasons), nor search out calculations by which one may weaken the soul’s hope of the resurrection, but, relying on faith in what is expected, purchase the coming grace beforehand by good conduct.

Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.

Gen 1:26 (quotation, high confidence) · Gen 1:27 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Cor 15:47 (allusion, high confidence) · Ps 95:4 (94:4 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Gen 1:28 (quotation, high confidence) · Gen 1:22 (allusion, high confidence) · 1 Cor 15:52 (allusion, high confidence) · 1 Thess 4:17 (quotation, high confidence) · Heb 11:13 (allusion, high confidence) · Heb 11:16 (allusion, high confidence) · Heb 11:40 (quotation, high confidence) · Ps 84:2 (83:3 LXX) (allusion, high confidence) · Ps 84:10 (83:11 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Ps 84:12 (83:13 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Acts 1:7 (allusion, high confidence)

Notes and citation

Summary: The resurrection waits until the full number of humanity, foreseen by God, has been born; then time will end and all will be changed at once; meanwhile we should prepare by good living, not calculate times.

  • The opening sentence is the chapter’s heading as printed in the edition. A passage is lost in the scan after “by which the irrational creatures are born” (marked …) and is not supplied. Quotations and references: Gen 1:26–27; 1 Cor 15:47 (“earthy”); Ps 95:4 (94:4 LXX); Sus 42 (“knows all things before their genesis”); Gen 1:28 and 1:22; 1 Cor 15:52; 1 Thess 4:17; Heb 11:13–16, 39–40; Ps 84:2, 10, 12 (83:3, 11, 13 LXX); Acts 1:7. The derivation of Adam from the Hebrew word for earth is Gregory’s report of Hebrew scholars.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (OCR debris): (Doti; σωμεν → Ποιήσωμεν.

Extrabiblical texts: Sus 42 (Susanna [in RC, EO, ETH canons]; allusion)

Topics: Eschatology

Cite (SBL): Gregory of Nyssa, Hom. opif. 22 (PG 44:204a–209a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/gregory-nyssa-hominis-opificio/18/#p-22). (abbreviation not yet checked)

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Migne's Patrologia Graeca (scan OCR, corrections logged; lines lost in the scan marked …), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of NPNF² 5 (Moore and Wilson, 1893); differences checked against the Greek.