Gregory of Nazianzus — Commentary on Scripture

Isaiah 42:8

The same thing applies to the word Lord, which is also used as a name of God. “I am the Lord your God,” he says. “This is my name,” and “The Lord is his name.” But we are making deeper enquiries into a nature that has absolute existence, independent of anything else. The actual, personal being of God in its fullness is neither limited nor cut short by any prior or any subsequent reality—so it was, and so it will be.

ON THE SON, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 4(30).18

Isaiah 45:3

Who is the person whose heart has never been made to burn, as the Scriptures have been opened, with the pure words of God that have been tried in a furnace;16 who has not, by a triple inscription of them on the breadth of his heart, attained the mind of Christ, or been admitted to the treasures that to most people remain hidden, secret and dark, to gaze on the riches therein and become able to enrich others, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

IN DEFENSE OF HIS FLIGHT TO PONTUS, ORATION 2:96

Isaiah 47:15

For I know a cleansing fire that Christ came to send on the earth, and he himself is anagogically called a fire. This Fire takes away whatever is material and of evil habit. This [Christ] desires to kindle with all speed, for he longs for speed in doing us good, since he gives us even coals of fire to help us.

ON HOLY BAPTISM, ORATION 40:36

Isaiah 48:4

Perchance he will say to me, who am not reformed even by blows, “I know that you are obstinate and your neck is an iron sinew, the heedless is heedless, and the lawless person acts lawlessly, and for nothing comes correction from heaven and the scourges.” The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed, as I once reprimanded you by the mouth of Jeremiah: “The founder melted the silver in vain; your wickednesses are not melted away.” … May it not be that I should ever, among other chastisements, be thus approached by him who is good, and yet by my own contrariness continue to walk against his goodness. This causes God to walk against me in fury.

ON HIS FATHER’S SILENCE, ORATION 16:11-12

Isaiah 49:6

He is called Servant and serves many well. And his being given the grand title “Child of God” agrees with this. For in truth he was subject as a servant to flesh and to birth and to the conditions of our life with a view toward our liberation. He was subject to all that he saved, held captive as we were in sin.

ON THE SON, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 4(30).3

Isaiah 50:11

One light alone let us shun: that which is the offspring of the terrible fire. Let us not walk in the light of our own fire and in the very flame we have kindled. For I know of a cleansing fire that Christ came to send on the earth, and that he himself is anagogically called a fire. This Fire takes away whatever is material and of evil habit. This he desires to kindle with all speed, for he longs for speed in doing us good, since he gives us even coals of fire to help us. I know also a fire that is not cleansing but avenging; either that fire of Sodom, which he pours down on all sinners, mingled with brimstone and storms, or that which is prepared for the devil and his angels.

ON HOLY BAPTISM, ORATION 40:36

Isaiah 51:17

Anger, which is called “the cup in the hand of the Lord” and “the cup of falling that is drained,” is in proportion to transgressions, even though he abates to all some of what is their due and dilutes with compassion the unmixed draught of his wrath. For he inclines from severity to indulgence toward those who accept chastisement with fear, and who after a slight affliction conceive and are in pain with conversion and bring forth the perfect spirit of salvation. But he nevertheless reserves the dregs, the last drop of his anger, that he may pour it out entire on those who, instead of being healed by his kindness, grow obdurate, like the hardhearted Pharaoh.

ON HIS FATHER’S SILENCE, ORATION 16:4

Isaiah 53:2

For he whom you now treat with contempt was once above you. He who is now man was once the uncompounded. What he was he continued to be; what he was not he took to himself. In the beginning he was uncaused; for what is the cause of God? But afterwards for a cause he was born. And that cause was that you might be saved, who insult him and despise his godhead, because of this, that he took on him your denser nature, having converse with flesh by means of mind. While his inferior nature, the humanity, became God, because it was united to God and became one person because the higher nature prevailed, [this happened] in order that I too might be made God so far as he is made man. He was born—but he had been begotten. He was born of a woman—but she was a virgin. The first is human, the second divine. In his human nature he had no father, but also in his divine nature [he had] no mother. Both these belong to godhead. He dwelled in the womb—but he was recognized by the prophet [John the Baptist], himself still in the womb, leaping before the Word, for whose sake he came into being. He was wr…

For he whom you now treat with contempt was once above you. He who is now man was once the uncompounded. What he was he continued to be; what he was not he took to himself. In the beginning he was uncaused; for what is the cause of God? But afterwards for a cause he was born. And that cause was that you might be saved, who insult him and despise his godhead, because of this, that he took on him your denser nature, having converse with flesh by means of mind. While his inferior nature, the humanity, became God, because it was united to God and became one person because the higher nature prevailed, [this happened] in order that I too might be made God so far as he is made man. He was born—but he had been begotten. He was born of a woman—but she was a virgin. The first is human, the second divine. In his human nature he had no father, but also in his divine nature [he had] no mother. Both these belong to godhead. He dwelled in the womb—but he was recognized by the prophet [John the Baptist], himself still in the womb, leaping before the Word, for whose sake he came into being. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes—but he took off the swathing bands of the grave by his rising again. He was laid in a manger—but he was glorified by angels, and proclaimed by a star and worshiped by the magi. Why are you offended by what is presented to your sight, because you will not look at what is presented to your mind? He was driven into exile into Egypt—but he drove away the Egyptian idols. He had no form or comeliness in the eyes of the Jews—but to David he is fairer than the children of humankind. And on the mountain he was bright as the lightning and became more luminous than the sun, initiating us into the mystery of the future.

ON THE SON, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 3(29).19

Isaiah 53:4

“He was made flesh” seems to be equivalent to that in which it is said that he was made sin or a curse for us, not that the Lord was transmuted into either of these—for how could he? But because by taking them on him he “took away our iniquities and bore our infirmities.”

LETTER 51(101)

Isaiah 53:7

He prays, but he hears prayer. He weeps, but he causes tears to cease. He asks where Lazarus was laid, for he was man; but he raises Lazarus, for he was God. He is sold, and very cheap, for it is only for thirty pieces of silver, but he redeems the world, and that at a great price, for the price was his own blood. As a sheep he is led to the slaughter, but he is the shepherd of Israel, and now of the whole world also. As a lamb he is silent, yet he is the Word and is proclaimed by the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He is bruised and wounded, but he heals every disease and every infirmity. He is lifted up and nailed to the tree, but by the tree of life he restores us, yes, he saves even the robber crucified with him. … He dies, but he gives life, and by his death, he destroys death. He is buried, but he rises again; he goes down into hell, but he brings up the souls; he ascends to heaven and shall come again to judge the living and the dead.

ON THE SON, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 3(29).20

Isaiah 53:12

If you are a Simon of Cyrene, take up the cross and follow. If you are crucified with him as a robber, acknowledge God as a penitent robber. If even he was numbered among the transgressors for you and your sin, do you become law-abiding for his sake. Worship him who was hanged for you, even if you yourself are hanging; make some gain even from your wickedness; purchase salvation by your death; enter with Jesus into paradise, so that you may learn from what you have fallen.

ON HOLY EASTER, ORATION 45:24

Isaiah 54:7-8

I seem, indeed, to hear that voice from him who gathers together those who are broken and welcomes the oppressed.… The measure of his kindness exceeds the measure of his discipline. The former things were owing to our wickedness, the present things to the adorable Trinity, the former for our cleansing, the present for my Glory.

THE LAST FAREWELL, ORATION 42:7

Isaiah 58:10

[My father] actually treated his own property as if it were another’s, of which he was but the steward, relieving poverty as far as he could and expending not only his superfluities but his necessities—a manifest proof of love for the poor, giving a portion not only to seven, according to the injunction of Solomon, but if an eighth came forward, not even in his case being stingy but more pleased to dispose of his wealth than we know others are to acquire it.… This is what most people do: they give indeed, but without that readiness that is a greater and more perfect thing than the mere offering. For he thought it much better to be generous even to the undeserving for the sake of the deserving than from fear of the undeserving to deprive those who were deserving. And this seems to be the duty of casting our bread on the waters, since it will not be swept away or perish in the eyes of the just Investigator but will arrive yonder where all that is ours is laid up and will meet with us in due time, even though we think it not. But what is best and greatest of all, [my father’s] magnanimi…

[My father] actually treated his own property as if it were another’s, of which he was but the steward, relieving poverty as far as he could and expending not only his superfluities but his necessities—a manifest proof of love for the poor, giving a portion not only to seven, according to the injunction of Solomon, but if an eighth came forward, not even in his case being stingy but more pleased to dispose of his wealth than we know others are to acquire it.… This is what most people do: they give indeed, but without that readiness that is a greater and more perfect thing than the mere offering. For he thought it much better to be generous even to the undeserving for the sake of the deserving than from fear of the undeserving to deprive those who were deserving. And this seems to be the duty of casting our bread on the waters, since it will not be swept away or perish in the eyes of the just Investigator but will arrive yonder where all that is ours is laid up and will meet with us in due time, even though we think it not. But what is best and greatest of all, [my father’s] magnanimity was accompanied by freedom from ambition.

ON THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER, ORATION 18:20-21

Isaiah 63:3

And, if they marvel and say, as in Isaiah’s drama, “Who is this that comes from Edom and from the things of the earth?” or “How are the garments red when he is without blood or body, as of one that treads in the full winepress?”—if they say this, then set forth the beauty of the array of the body that suffered, adorned by the passion and made splendid by the Godhead. Nothing can be lovelier or more beautiful than that.… Will you think little of him because he humbled himself for your sake?… Do you conceive of him as less because he girds himself with a towel and washes his disciples and shows that humiliation is the best road to exaltation?

ON HOLY EASTER, ORATION 45:25-26