Gregory of Nazianzus — Commentary on Scripture

Mark 1:5

Let us here treat briefly of the different kinds of baptism. Moses baptized, but in water, in the cloud and in the sea; but this he did figuratively. John also baptized, not indeed in the rite of the Jews, not solely in water, but also for the remission of sins; yet not in an entirely spiritual manner, for he had not added: “in the spirit.” Jesus baptized, but in the Spirit; and this is perfection. There is also a fourth baptism, which is wrought by martyrdom and blood, in which Christ himself was also baptized, which is far more venerable than the others, in as much as it is not soiled by repeated contagion. There is yet a fifth, but more laborious, by tears; with which David each night bedewed his bed, washing his couch with tears.

ORATION 39, ON THE HOLY LIGHTS

Mark 1:9

As man he was baptized, but he absolved sins as God. He needed no purifying rites himself—his purpose was to hallow water.

ORATION 29, ON THE SON

Mark 2:16

When Jesus is attacked for mixing with sinners, and taking as his disciple a despised tax collector, one might ask: What could he possibly gain by doing so? Only the salvation of sinners. To blame Jesus for mingling with sinners would be like blaming a physician for stooping down over suffering and putting up with vile smells in order to heal the sick.

ORATION 45, ON HOLY EASTER 26

Mark 2:19

Can the children of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is present? Why should they keep a bodily fast who are effectively cleansed by the Word, who came in bodily form as visible Word? The time of his sojourning among us was not one of mourning, but gladness.

ORATION 30, ON THE SON 10

Mark 3:28

He is the subject, not the object, of hallowing, apportioning, participating, filling, sustaining. We share in him; he shares in nothing. He is our inheritance, he is glorified, counted together with Father and Son. He is a dire warning to us, the “finger of God.” The Spirit is, like God, a “fire.” This means that the Holy Spirit is of the same essential nature as the Father. The Spirit is the very One who created us and creates us anew through baptism and resurrection. The Spirit knows all things, teaches all things, moves where and when and as strongly as he wills. He leads, speaks, sends, and separates those who are vexed and tempted. He reveals, illumines, gives life, or better said, he is himself light and life. He makes us his temple, he sanctifies, he makes us complete. He both goes before baptism and follows after it. All that the Godhead actively performs, the Spirit performs.

ORATION 31, ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 29

Mark 4:38

He was tired—yet he is the “rest” of the weary and the burdened. He was overcome by heavy sleep—yet he goes lightly over the sea, rebukes the winds, and relieves the drowning Peter. Oration , On the Son

Mark 5:7

Yes, he is recognized by demons, drives out demons, drowns deep a legion of spirits and sees the prince of demons falling like lightning. He is stoned, yet not hit; he prays yet he hears prayer. He weeps, yet he puts an end to weeping. He asks where Lazarus is—he was man; yet he raises Lazarus—he was God.

ORATION 29, ON THE SON 20

Mark 6:5

One meaning of “could not” is simply the limits of some human will. Take, for example, the point that Christ “could not” fulfill any signs in Nazareth was due to disbelief on their part. Something essential for healing is required on both sides—faith on the part of the patients, power on that of the healer. So one side without its counterpart “could not,” so to speak, perform them. As this can be seen in medical care, it can also be seen in moral transformation. Similarly involving the limits of the will are the texts: “The world cannot not hate you” and “How can you speak good, being evil?” The metaphor of “impossibility” here must mean free refusal by the will. The same idea applies to those passages which say that what is impossible for humanity is possible for God. Note also those passages that say that a person “cannot” (in one sense) be born a second time and a needle's eye “cannot” let a camel through. What would stop these events happening if God willed them directly? Besides all these there is, as in the case we are presently considering, a “cannot” in the sense of that whic…

One meaning of “could not” is simply the limits of some human will. Take, for example, the point that Christ “could not” fulfill any signs in Nazareth was due to disbelief on their part. Something essential for healing is required on both sides—faith on the part of the patients, power on that of the healer. So one side without its counterpart “could not,” so to speak, perform them. As this can be seen in medical care, it can also be seen in moral transformation. Similarly involving the limits of the will are the texts: “The world cannot not hate you” and “How can you speak good, being evil?” The metaphor of “impossibility” here must mean free refusal by the will. The same idea applies to those passages which say that what is impossible for humanity is possible for God. Note also those passages that say that a person “cannot” (in one sense) be born a second time and a needle's eye “cannot” let a camel through. What would stop these events happening if God willed them directly? Besides all these there is, as in the case we are presently considering, a “cannot” in the sense of that which is totally inconceivable. We cannot conceive that God can be evil or fail to exist. It is inconceivable that reality cannot exist or two times two is fourteen. So here it cannot be the case that the Son would do anything which the Father would not do.

ORATION 30, ON THE SON 10-11

Mark 6:37

As man he was put to the test, but as God he came through victorious—yes, he bids us be of good cheer, because he has conquered the world. He hungered—yet he fed thousands. He is indeed “living, heavenly bread.” He thirsted—yet he exclaimed: “Whoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” Indeed he promised that believers would become fountains.

ORATION 29, ON THE SON 20

Mark 10:18

The words, “None is good” are a reply to the young ruler who was testing him and had borne witness to his goodness as a human being. Consummate goodness, he meant, belongs to God alone, though the word “good” can be derivatively applied to human beings.

ORATION 30, ON THE SON 13

Mark 10:45

He is our sanctification, as himself being purity, that the pure may be encompassed by his purity. He is our redemption, because he sets us free who were held captive under sin, giving himself as a ransom for us, the sacrifice to make expiation for the world. He is our resurrection, because he raises up, and brings to life again, those who were slain by sin.

ORATION 30, ON THE SON 20

Mark 12:37

What is lofty you are to apply to the Godhead, and to that nature in him which is superior to sufferings and incorporeal; but all that is lowly to the composite condition of him who for your sakes made himself of no reputation and was incarnate.

ORATION 29, ON THE SON 18

Mark 13:32

The last day and hour no one knows, not even the Son himself, but the Father. Yet how can the source of wisdom be ignorant of anything—that is, wisdom who made the world, who perfects all, who remodels all, who is the limit of all things that were made, who knows the things of God and the spirit of a person, knowing the things that lie deep within? For what can be more perfect than this knowledge? How then can you say that all things before that hour he knows accurately, and all things that are to happen about the time of the end, but of the hour itself he is ignorant? For such a thing would be like a riddle. It is as if one were to say that he knew accurately all that was in front of the wall, but did not know the wall itself. Or that, knowing the end of the day, he did not know the beginning of the night. Yet knowledge of the one necessarily implies the other. Thus everyone must see that the Son knows as God, and knows not as man (if we may for the purposes of argument distinguish that which is discerned by sight from that which is discerned by thought alone). For the absolute and…

The last day and hour no one knows, not even the Son himself, but the Father. Yet how can the source of wisdom be ignorant of anything—that is, wisdom who made the world, who perfects all, who remodels all, who is the limit of all things that were made, who knows the things of God and the spirit of a person, knowing the things that lie deep within? For what can be more perfect than this knowledge? How then can you say that all things before that hour he knows accurately, and all things that are to happen about the time of the end, but of the hour itself he is ignorant? For such a thing would be like a riddle. It is as if one were to say that he knew accurately all that was in front of the wall, but did not know the wall itself. Or that, knowing the end of the day, he did not know the beginning of the night. Yet knowledge of the one necessarily implies the other. Thus everyone must see that the Son knows as God, and knows not as man (if we may for the purposes of argument distinguish that which is discerned by sight from that which is discerned by thought alone). For the absolute and unconditioned use of the name “the Son” in this passage, without the addition of whose Son, leads us to conclude: We are to understand the ignorance in the most reverent sense, by attributing it to his human nature, and not to the Godhead.

ORATION 30, ON THE SON, SECOND ORATION 15

Mark 14:11

He is sold, and cheap was the price—thirty pieces of silver; yet he buys back the world at the mighty cost of his own blood. A sheep, he is led to the slaughter—yet he shepherds Israel and now the whole world as well.

ORATION 29, ON THE SON 20

Mark 15:4

A lamb, he is silent—yet he is “word,” proclaimed by “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” He is weakened, wounded—yet he cures every disease and every weakness. He is brought up to the tree and nailed to it—yet by the tree of life he restores us.

ORATION 29, ON THE SON 20

Mark 15:23

He is given vinegar to drink and gall to eat—and who is he? Why, One who turned water into wine, who took away the taste of bitterness, who is all sweetness and desire. Oration , On the Son

Mark 15:38

He surrenders his life, yet he has power to take it again. Yes, the veil is torn, for things of heaven are being revealed, rocks split, and dead men have an earlier awakening.

ORATION 29, ON THE SON 20

Mark 15:39

Many indeed are the wondrous happenings of that time: God hanging from a cross, the sun made dark and again flaming out; for it was fitting that creation should mourn with its creator. The temple veil rent, blood and water flowing from his side: the one as from a man, the other as from what was above man; the earth shaken, the rocks shattered because of the rock; the dead risen to bear witness to the final and universal resurrection of the dead. The happenings at the sepulcher and after the sepulcher, who can fittingly recount them? Yet no one of them can be compared to the miracle of my salvation. A few drops of blood renew the whole world, and do for all men what the rennet does for the milk: joining us and binding us together.

ON THE HOLY PASCH, ORATION 45.1

Mark 15:42

Yesterday the lamb was slain, and the door posts sprinkled with his blood, while Egypt mourned for her firstborn. But the destroying angel and his sacrificial knife, fearful and terrifying, passed over us, for we were protected by the precious blood. This day we have wholly departed from Egypt, and from Pharaoh, its cruel tyrant, and his oppressive overseers. We are freed from laboring with bricks and straw, and no one forbids us celebrate the festival of our passing over, our pasch, and to celebrate not with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. … Yesterday I was crucified with Christ; today I am glorified with him. Yesterday I died with him; today I am given life with him. Yesterday I was buried with him; today I rise again with him.

ON THE HOLY PASCH AND HIS OWN RELUCTANCE

Mark 16:19

He dies, but he makes alive and by death destroys death. He is buried, yet he rises again. He goes down to Hades, yet he leads souls up, ascends to heaven, and will come to judge the living and the dead, and to probe discussions like these.

ORATION 29, ON THE SON 20