Gregory of Nyssa — Commentary on Scripture

1 Timothy 1:6

What is this vain juggling with words? Is he aware that it is God of whom he speaks, Who was in the beginning and is in the Father, nor was there any time when he was not? He knows not what he says nor what he affirms, but he endeavors, as though he were constructing the pedigree of a mere man, to apply to the Lord of all creation the language which properly belongs to our nature here below.

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.9

1 Timothy 1:17

We know that of all the names by which Deity is indicated some are expressive of the Divine majesty, employed and understood absolutely, and some are assigned with reference to the operations over us and all creation. When the apostle says, “Now to the immortal, invisible, only wise God,” and the like, by these titles he suggests conceptions which represent to us the transcendent power. In other cases, however, God is spoken of in the Scriptures as gracious, merciful, full of pity, true, good, Lord, Physician, Shepherd, Way, Bread, Fountain, King, Creator, Artificer, Protector, Who is over all and through all, Who is all in all; these and similar titles contain the declaration of the operations of the Divine loving kindness in the creation.

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.11

1 Timothy 2:4

To those who with simplicity of heart receive the preaching of the cross and the resurrection, the same grace should be a cause of equal thankfulness to the Son and to the Father. Now, moreover, that the Son has accomplished the Father’s will (and this, in the language of the apostle, is “that all men should be saved”), they ought for this gift to honor the Father and the Son alike. This is because our salvation would not have been accomplished had not the good will of the Father proceeded to actual operation for us through his own power. And we have learned from Scripture that the Son is the power of the Father.

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 12.3

1 Timothy 2:5

By the distinction implied in the word mediator he reveals to us the whole aim of the mystery of godliness. Now the aim is this. Humanity once revolted through the malice of the enemy, and, brought into bondage to sin, was also alienated from the true Life. After this the Lord of the creature calls back to him his own creature and becomes Man while still remaining God, being both God and man in the entirety of the two separate natures. Thus humanity was indissolubly united to God, the man that is in Christ conducting the work of mediation, to whom, by the firstfruits assumed for us, all the lump is potentially united.

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.12

1 Timothy 2:14

And the fact too that this grace was revealed by means of a woman agrees with the interpretation that we have given. For since, as the apostle tells us, “the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression,” and was by her disobedience foremost in the revolt from God, for this reason she is the first witness of the resurrection. This is so that she might retrieve by her faith in the resurrection the overthrow caused by her disobedience. Indeed, by making herself at the beginning a minister and advocate to her husband of the counsels of the serpent, she brought into human life the beginning of evil and its train of consequences. Therefore, by ministering to his disciples the words of him who slew the rebel dragon, she might become to men the guide of faith, whereby with good reason the first proclamation of death is annulled.

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 12.1

1 Timothy 2:15

Therefore, just as the power which destroys what is born is begotten along with physical birth, so it is clear that the Spirit bestows a life-giving power upon those born through it. What, then, can be deduced from what we have said? That separating ourselves from life in the flesh, which death normally follows upon, we may seek a kind of life which does not have death as its consequence. This is the spiritual significance of the life of virginity. That this is true will be clearer if we explain a little further. Everyone knows that the function of bodily union is the creation of mortal bodies. But life and incorruptibility are born to those who remain united in their participation in the Spirit. It is not having children as such that is important but this spiritual regeneration. Excellent is the apostolic saying about this, that the mother blessed with such children “will be saved by childbearing,” just as the psalmist utters in the divine hymns, “He establishes in her home the barren wife as the joyful mother of children.”

ON VIRGINITY 14

1 Timothy 3:2

When making a vessel of iron, we entrust the task not to those who know nothing about the matter but to those who are acquainted with the art of the smith. Ought we not, therefore, to entrust souls to him who is well-skilled to soften them by the fervent heat of the Holy Spirit and who by the impress of rational implements may fashion each one of you to be a chosen and useful vessel? It is thus that the inspired apostle bids us to take thought, in his epistle to Timothy, laying injunction upon all who hear, when he says that a bishop must be without reproach. Is this all that the apostle cares for, that he who is advanced to the priesthood should be irreproachable? And what is so great an advantage as that all possible qualifications should be included in one? But he knows full well that the subject is molded by the character of his superior and that the upright walk of the guide becomes that of his followers too. For what the Master is, such does he make the disciple to be.

LETTERS 13

1 Timothy 3:16

We hold it necessary to honor, even as the Father is honored, the God who was manifested by the cross. They [the Eunomians] find the passion a hindrance to glorifying the Only-Begotten God equally with the Father that begat him.… Eunomius makes the suffering of the cross to be a sign of divergence in essence, in the sense of inferiority, considering, I know not how, the surpassing act of power, by which he was able to perform this, to be an evidence of weakness. He fails to perceive the fact that, while nothing which moves according to its own nature is looked upon as surprisingly wonderful, all things that overpass the limitations of their own nature become especially the objects of admiration. Indeed, to them every ear is turned, every mind is attentive, in wonder at the marvel. And hence it is that all who preach the word point out the wonderful character of the mystery in this respect—that “God was manifested in the flesh,” that “the light shined in the darkness,” “the Life tasted death”—and all such declarations which the heralds of the faith are prone to make. By these is incre…

We hold it necessary to honor, even as the Father is honored, the God who was manifested by the cross. They [the Eunomians] find the passion a hindrance to glorifying the Only-Begotten God equally with the Father that begat him.… Eunomius makes the suffering of the cross to be a sign of divergence in essence, in the sense of inferiority, considering, I know not how, the surpassing act of power, by which he was able to perform this, to be an evidence of weakness. He fails to perceive the fact that, while nothing which moves according to its own nature is looked upon as surprisingly wonderful, all things that overpass the limitations of their own nature become especially the objects of admiration. Indeed, to them every ear is turned, every mind is attentive, in wonder at the marvel. And hence it is that all who preach the word point out the wonderful character of the mystery in this respect—that “God was manifested in the flesh,” that “the light shined in the darkness,” “the Life tasted death”—and all such declarations which the heralds of the faith are prone to make. By these is increased the marvelous character of him who manifested the superabundance of his power by means external to his own nature.

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 5.3

1 Timothy 4:3

Let no one think … we are disregarding the institution of marriage. We are not ignorant of the fact that this also is not deprived of God’s blessing. But since there is sufficient support for it and since the common nature of man, bestowed on all who come to birth through marriage, automatically inclines in this direction—whereas virginity somehow goes against nature—it would be superfluous to go to the trouble of writing a plea for marriage or a eulogy of it. It is pointless to emphasize its indisputable inducement, I mean pleasure, unless there should be need of such words because of some people who tamper with the teachings of the church on marriage, whom the apostle calls “those having their conscience branded.”

ON VIRGINITY 7

1 Timothy 4:4-5

The whole of creation is in inward harmony, since the bond of concord is nowhere broken by the natural opposition. In the same way the divine wisdom also provides a blending and admixture of the sensible with the intelligible nature, so that all things equally participate in the good and no existing thing is deprived of a share in the higher nature. Now the sphere corresponding to the intelligible nature is a subtle and mobile essence, which by virtue of its special nature and its transcending the world has a great affinity with the intelligible. Yet, for the reason given, a superior wisdom provides a mingling of the intelligible with the sensible creation. In that way, as the apostle says, “no part of creation is to be rejected,” and no part fails to share in the divine fellowship. On this account the divine nature produces in man a blending of the intelligible and the sensible, just as the account of creation teaches.

ADDRESS ON RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 6

1 Timothy 4:4-5

Let it be observed that there is no such thing in the world as evil irrespective of a will. Evil is not discoverable in a substance apart from willing. Every creature of God is good, and nothing of his “to be rejected.” All that God made was “very good.” But the habit of sinning entered as we have described, and with fatal quickness, into the life of man. From that small beginning spread into this infinitude of evil. Then that godly beauty of the soul which was an imitation of the Archetypal Beauty, like fine steel blackened with vicious rust, preserved no longer the glory of its familiar essence but was disfigured with the ugliness of sin.

ON VIRGINITY 12

1 Timothy 4:10

The Savior of all, especially of believers, is spoken of by the apostle as one. Yet no one argues from this expression that the Son does not save believers or that those who share in salvation receive it apart from the Spirit. But God who is over all is the Savior of all, while the Son brings salvation to effect by the grace of the Spirit. Yet on this account Scripture does not call them three Saviors, although salvation is recognized to come from the holy Trinity.

AN ANSWER TO ABLABIUS: THAT WE SHOULD NOT THINK OF SAYING THERE ARE THREE GODS

1 Timothy 6:10

The tree, then, from which comes this fruit of mixed knowledge is among those things which are forbidden. Its fruit is combined of opposite qualities, and therefore for this reason perhaps has the serpent to commend it. For the evil is not exposed in its nakedness, thereby appearing in its own proper nature; for wickedness would surely fail of its effect were it not decked with some fair color to entice to the desire of it him whom it deceives. But now the nature of evil is in a manner mixed and thus keeps destruction like some snare concealed in its depths and displays some phantom of good in the deceitfulness of its exterior. The beauty of the substance seems good to those who love money.

ON THE MAKING OF MAN 20.2

1 Timothy 6:16

But we, even when we are told that God “only has immortality,” we understand by “immortality” the Son. For life is immortality, and the Lord is that life, who said, “I am the Life.” And if he is said to dwell “in the light that no man can approach,” again we make no difficulty in understanding that the true Light, unapproachable by falsehood, is the Only-begotten, in whom we learn from the Truth itself that the Father is. Are we to think of the Only-begotten in a manner worthy of the Godhead, or to call him, as heresy prescribes, perishable and temporary?

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.4