1Answering Bishop Theodosius, Gregory rejects the view that the medium of Endor really brought up Samuel's soul, since the gospel's chasm cannot be crossed between the righteous and the wicked, and explains divination of every kind as the deceit of demons.
2The "gods" the woman saw were demons, and the "Samuel" was a demon imitating the prophet, as its words "Tomorrow you will be with me" betray; Scripture often names what seems for what is, as with Balaam's "god"; Gregory then answers Theodosius's other questions briefly (Elijah at the brook and the ravens, Moses' veil, the sacrifices, the fallen archangel) and postpones the question of the Spirit before baptism.
Honoured by the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions. Honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant.
Date
ca. 380–394 (approximate) · Not securely dated.
Written at
Cappadocia (disputed)
Addressed to
Theodosius
Language
Greek
Genre
letter
Reference system
Migne prints no chapter numbers: parts are consecutive stretches of about 450 words, broken at the end of a sentence, numbered in order (provisional; replace by a standard division if one is adopted).
SBL abbreviation
Pyth.Not yet checked
Clavis
CPG (number not yet checked)
Text from
J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, Series Graeca 45 (Paris: Migne, 1863), cols. 107–114 (Printed edition in the public domain; Greek text from the Internet Archive OCR of a library scan (Greek lines only; Migne's Latin translation not used))
Critical editions
Gregorii Nysseni Opera (Leiden: Brill) (cited only; not reproduced; volume to be checked) (cited, not reproduced)